Chapter 39
The rabbit remained motionless, kicking its legs as it lay in the cage.
Seeing that something was wrong, Xu Qingzhou subconsciously looked around and noticed the vegetable leaves drooping by the cage and lying on the ground.
Xu Qingzhou knew exactly how many vegetable leaves were left.
She had deliberately saved some cabbage leaves when cooking last night to feed the rabbits today, but she forgot about them in her rush to school this morning.
And now, the few remaining vegetable leaves are still lying intact on the ground, dangling over the edge of the cage, indicating that the rabbit hasn't eaten anything all day...
She turned to look at Chi Jun—
He clearly said he fed the rabbits.
Xu Qingzhou wasn't stupid. Considering that Chi Jun had never really liked the rabbit, she understood what had happened. Even if Chi Jun's initial intention wasn't to let the rabbit starve to death, the fact was that he had unintentionally starved the rabbit that Zheng Yangshu had entrusted to her care to starve to death.
So, besides the initial panic when he realized the rabbit was in trouble, Xu Qingzhou's eyes gradually reddened, revealing a sense of helplessness and despair.
Chi Jun was also momentarily stunned by this sudden scene.
Coming to his senses, he stared at the rabbit and spoke with absolute certainty:
"I only let it go without food for a day, it definitely didn't—"
However, before the last word "death" could be uttered, it was too late to reveal the rabbit's feigned death.
The rabbit, which had been kicking and dying in the cage, suddenly sprang to life and stood up. So Chi Jun's explanation was merely an admission of his crime of "not feeding the rabbit."
Chi Jun: "..."
Chi Jun stared blankly at the rabbit in the cage, which was now happily munching on a large cabbage leaf.
A few seconds later, he pointed at the rabbit and said to Xu Qingzhou:
"Look, it's not dead."
Xu Qingzhou: "..."
Whether he was dead or not, the undeniable fact is that Chi Jun deliberately didn't feed the rabbit.
Xu Qingzhou gave him a deep look, but ultimately said nothing. She got up, walked to the small desk, and put her schoolbag down.
Almost at the same time, Chi Jun heard the smug, lewd laughter of the rabbit in the cage.
"..."
He paused for a moment, then picked up a leaf of vegetable and threw it at the rabbit's head.
Rabbit: Sneer.JPG
It's just an ugly fox's incompetent rage.
*
Xu Qingzhou didn't dwell on the matter or say anything to Chi Jun, but whether she was kneading dough or busy preparing fillings, her expression and actions subtly revealed that she was unhappy.
A few days ago, a new neighbor moved in across the street. On the day of the move, they brought Xu Qingzhou some dumplings.
Xu Qingzhou is the kind of person who doesn't like to owe favors, so she plans to make some dumplings tonight to give back to those people.
When she and Chi Jun weren't talking, the room was usually very quiet.
Moreover, with what happened tonight, the only sound in the room was the rolling of a rolling pin, making the small rented room feel even more suffocatingly oppressive.
Chi Jun leaned against the bed and casually flipped through a book for a while.
Afterwards, he threw the book aside and wandered around the house for a while.
Finally, he stopped at the table and coughed.
What kind of filling is it?
Xu Qingzhou glanced at him and pointed to the prepared chive, egg, and vermicelli filling in the basin.
Her hands were covered in flour, making it difficult for her to write, so she simply pointed it out to him.
But in Chi Jun's eyes, this response took on a different meaning, as if it were saying—
This bowl of filling is so big, can't you just look at it with your eyes?
Chi Jun raised an eyebrow and gave a dry "Oh".
After standing at the table for a while, I simply sat down and solemnly picked up a freshly rolled-out dough ball.
Xu Qingzhou gave him a strange look, but didn't say anything. She put the rolling pin aside for the time being, picked up the rolled-out dumpling wrappers, scooped some filling into them, and started making dumplings.
Chi Jun watched her wrap two dumplings first, then pretended to do the same, picking up a spoon and scooping a large spoonful of filling into the dumpling.
To my surprise, there was too much filling. As I was pinching the two sides of the dough together, the chives and eggs kept rolling down the back of my hand. I finally managed to pinch one side together, but the other side of the dough opened up.
After finally finishing patching up that side, another opening appeared on this side.
Seeing Chi Jun frowning and constantly pinching and kneading the dough on both sides, and finally taking another piece of dough to patch it up, Xu Qingzhou finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Chi Jun looked up.
Xu Qingzhou immediately suppressed her smile and continued making dumplings with a blank expression.
Chi Jun didn't expose her.
After trying to make two disastrously cracked dumplings, he quickly realized that he didn't have a talent for making dumplings, so he started thinking about trying something else.
So, for the next five minutes, Xu Qingzhou watched as Chi Jun sat at the table seriously and shaped a lump of poop out of dough.
"..."
Xu Qingzhou took a deep breath and used all his strength to finally suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.
They quickly took the wrapped dumplings to the corridor, deciding to cook them first and then deliver them to their neighbors.
*
The new neighbor is a woman in her fifties. She said her son works away from home, and she was bored in her hometown, so she came to this town to rent a house and find some work to do.
When Xu Qingzhou brought two plates of dumplings to the door, he could hear the aunt chatting and laughing with someone inside, even from two or three meters away.
Xu Qingzhou knew that it was inconvenient to disturb them at this time, but the dumplings were still steaming hot, and it would be even more awkward to take them back just before reaching the door.
So she gritted her teeth and went to the door anyway.
Coincidentally, the aunt's customer was also an acquaintance—Aunt Xu, who also worked in the supermarket's fresh produce section.
When Aunt Xu saw her, she was taken aback at first, then smiled and said to her neighbor:
"The young lady I mentioned earlier who also lives here is her, Xiao Xu."
"Oh my, that's quite a coincidence!"
Since being laid off from her part-time job, Xu Qingzhou hasn't focused on finding work. With midterms approaching, she's concentrated on preparing for the exams, and naturally hasn't seen Aunt Xu for a long time.
Now that they've run into each other by chance, Aunt Xu pulled her aside and asked her a bunch of questions, like why she didn't go to work at the supermarket afterward, whether she had found a new part-time job, and she even specifically told her that young girls should try not to walk alone at night.
Xu Qingzhou answered all the questions patiently and obediently agreed. But just as she was about to leave, Aunt Xu suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Xu Qingzhou was taken aback, turned his head and saw Aunt Xu pointing to a certain place outside the door, her expression serious:
Do you know that person?
Xu Qingzhou followed her gaze.
Chi Jun rested his elbows on the railing, gazing idly at the courtyard on the first floor. Perhaps he was watching some children playing. The evening breeze gently lifted the stray hairs on his forehead, revealing his three-dimensional and delicate features. With just a smile, both his appearance and his smile were extremely penetrating in the dim evening light.
—A face that is hard to forget once you've seen it.
Xu Qingzhou felt confused, but still nodded.
Just as I was about to answer, I heard the new neighbor burst into laughter:
"How could she not recognize him? That's her brother!"
Aunt Xu's expression immediately became a little strange.
She looked at Xu Qingzhou: "Is he really your brother?"
Xu Qingzhou nodded.
Sensing something was amiss, Xu Qingzhou asked, "What's wrong, Aunt Xu?"
Aunt Xu muttered something under her breath and looked up at Xu Qingzhou:
"It's nothing. It's just that I used to drive you home on my electric scooter at night, and I noticed someone was following you late at night. But now that I look at you, it seems like the person following you is your brother."
Xu Qingzhou: "?"
She turned her head to look at Chi Jun, then glanced at Aunt Xu.
Aunt Xu, are you sure it's my brother?
Aunt Xu frowned and looked Chi Jun up and down twice more: "It should be him, there's no mistake. I even glared at him back then."
Xu Qingzhou: "..."
*
Xu Qingzhou didn't even know how she got back. She only knew that her mind was in a daze, with a little joy and a bit of trepidation about not knowing the truth of the matter.
Could it be that Aunt Xu remembered it wrong?
Was Chi Jun really secretly escorting her home from get off work the whole time?
But wasn't he at his friend's house playing video games and competing during that time?
At this moment, Xu Qingzhou suddenly remembered what his friends had said to Chi Jun at Li Rui's house last time—"Xu Jun, really, you're really missing out if you don't participate in this competition!"
Perhaps, the "game competition" was just a pretext from the very beginning?
The more Xu Qingzhou thought about it, the more her various emotions amplified and deepened.
Until a question suddenly came from the other side:
"What’s wrong with you?"
Xu Qingzhou looked up and met Chi Jun's gaze. She quickly shook her head, suppressing the corners of her mouth that had inexplicably curled up at the same time.
For a moment, she really wanted to ask Chi Jun for the truth, but she was afraid that after hearing it, he would laugh at her for being delusional, just like before.
Xu Qingzhou had no choice but to keep his thoughts to himself.
However, this gratitude, which was very likely real, still warmed Xu Qingzhou's heart, and... therefore, he felt a little bit of... regret for being angry with Chi Jun tonight.
Seeing Chi Jun idly kneading dough again, Xu Qingzhou paused, then asked with a sense of compensation:
Do you want me to teach you how to make dumplings?
Chi Jun paused, then looked up at her.
"No need, I'm perfectly fine just messing around like this."
That's true...
Once you actually start making dumplings, that's when you're actually doing the work.
Xu Qingzhou stopped speaking.
Midway through, Chi Jun's throat went dry, and he coughed twice unconsciously.
He put down the dough and was about to get up to pour water when Xu Qingzhou placed the water glass in front of him first, and even explained:
【warm】
If anyone else were this attentive, Chi Jun would suspect that the water glass might have been poisoned.
But this person is Xu Qingzhou—
Chi Jun glanced at her suspiciously, but still silently picked up his water glass and drank it.
However, Xu Qingzhou's "attentive" behavior did not stop.
When it's time to eat, set out Chi Jun's chair in advance.
After the meal, she asked him if he had eaten enough. She was going out anyway, so she could bring him some fried chicken strips.
She also asked if Chi Jun was cold going out since the weather had gotten colder, and that she would buy him a coat on the weekend, asking him what kind of coat he liked.
Chi Jun didn't know why Xu Qingzhou's attitude had suddenly changed 180 degrees after he came back from his trip.
But one thing is certain: her previous anger at him, which he hadn't uttered a single word of abuse, wasn't enough to make her offer such earnest compensation.
Furthermore, although Xu Qingzhou had been quietly supporting him all along, this series of expressions of concern simultaneously revealed—
Even from this point of view, it still seems a bit strange, and Chi Jun couldn't help but suspect that Xu Qingzhou had some ulterior motive.
Thinking back to when they were skating today, Wang Shuai was talking about his twin brother who was in the same class as Xu Qingzhou. He had failed his midterm exams and was struggling with whether his parents should attend the parent-teacher conference on Sunday. Chi Jun thought for a moment and then asked directly:
"Do you want me to attend your parent-teacher conference?"
Xu Qingzhou: "?"
Seeing the little girl holding the paper card, looking hesitant to speak, Chi Jun nodded and said in a reassuring tone, "I'll open it for you."
Recalling what the male ghost had said earlier, and considering Xu Qingzhou's series of strange actions tonight, Chi Jun paused, then patted Xu Qingzhou's shoulder reassuringly:
"Don't worry, I won't laugh at your grades."
"..."
After a long silence, Xu Qingzhou nodded.
【good】
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