Chapter 100 (Second update combined)
That rainy night, the bet with Liang Mei was like a thin, resilient rubber band that had been wrapped around her forehead when she was playing around as a child. Whenever she achieved some success in Beijing and became complacent, just thinking of Liang Mei would make that rubber band unconsciously tap her forehead, tightening the skin and reminding her in a roundabout way that it was still far from enough.
Unlike Sun Wukong's headband, which would make the Great Sage Sun writhe in pain, she would rather experience the pain completely.
It just stood there quietly, the rubber band stretching further and further with the years. Every time she almost forgot about it, it would suddenly snap back with a "snap," hitting her right on the spot. There were always moments when it would make her gasp in pain.
She felt that everyone had this unresolved rubber band hanging over their forehead.
The psychiatrist said she was sick, but she didn't understand and didn't take it seriously. All she knew was that she had difficulty concentrating during that time, and sometimes she would start crying inexplicably while taking a shower. She thought she was just experiencing a rapid decline in her aging process.
Even Lilith, a workaholic, once told her, "Joe, you really should take a break."
But she couldn't stop. Ever since she was officially recruited into Zhang Zongxie's inner circle, she knew her chance had come, and how could she possibly stop so easily?
Li Yingqiao's strong will, which was ingrained in her bones, was often seen by Zhang Zongxie as a gender rebellion against the trends of the times, and he thought it was her innate rebellious nature.
What they considered to be rebellious was simply the backbone of most people in Xiaohua City.
She thought no one would remember the stubbornness she had in her youth that she couldn't express.
However, someone has always remembered for her.
The group returned to the late-night food stall, and the owner, who had been worried, breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly handed them menus.
Zhu Xiaoliang and Liang Mei exchanged a glance, waved their hands and said no need, they ate a bowl of noodles at the station.
As easy to deal with as ever, she could eat a bowl of noodles for a lifetime without getting tired of it. Li Yingqiao once asked Zhu Xiaoliang curiously, "Does Liang Mei really like eating noodles?"
Zhu Xiaoliang said she didn't actually like it, but eating noodles was convenient, and the time saved could be used to correct a lot of homework and write a lot of lesson plans.
In 1997, they smashed open the kitchen window of Tam Sau-kwan with stones. It wasn't to celebrate Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, but because they saw a bowl of leftover noodles on the windowsill. They were starving and wanted to steal the cold noodles, but Tam Sau-kwan cooked a new bowl of noodles for each of them.
For a long time, Liang Mei didn't eat noodles much because she resented Tan Xiuyun's mouth.
It wasn't until Tan Xiuyun passed away that she began to recall those days and nights when Tan Xiuyun would stay up late at her desk and simply eat a bowl of plain noodles.
Later, this habit also spread to Liang Mei.
After a long-awaited exchange of pleasantries after eight years, Zhu Xiaoliang remarked with emotion, "Fengtan Station has changed a lot. Your teacher Liang and I wandered around inside for a long time and almost couldn't find the exit."
Yu Jinyang said last night he would pick them up, but Liang Mei absolutely refused. She could accept them tutoring, doing homework, eating, and joking around like friends at her home during their student days, but she couldn't get used to maintaining daily contact with students who were now adults and working. This is why she never takes the initiative to contact any of them. If the outcome changes, will anyone still believe her original intention of not wanting anything in return?
It was only many years later that Liang Mei finally understood why Tan Xiuyun always told them not to visit her when she was on her deathbed, and why she always seemed so aloof and indifferent.
However, she didn't expect that Li Yingqiao would be even more stubborn than she had been back then.
Liang Mei and Zhu Xiaoliang were both wearing simple windbreakers under their down jackets. When Li Yingqiao was supervising the Rainbow Youli project in Y Province, her closet was full of windbreakers, one of which was the same style as the one Liang Mei was wearing now, except that Liang Mei's was reddish-brown and hers was dark green.
Even though it was dark at night, she could still see the fine lines around Liang Mei's eyes.
Eight years had passed since I last saw Liang Mei. She had lost a lot of weight and her skin had darkened. Like Zhu Xiaoliang, her cheekbones had become higher. In fact, she had become quite thin and unrecognizable.
She couldn't help but look away, her gaze sweeping aimlessly around, but still finding no place to settle. Then she looked at Liang Mei.
She knew that Gao Dian actually wanted to say that the teachers had all lost weight, but he couldn't bring himself to say something so sentimental.
However, Liang Mei spoke up. From the moment before, Liang Mei's gaze lingered on her for a moment, and before Li Yingqiao could speak, she looked at her intently and said in a low voice, "Li Yingqiao, you've lost weight too."
Li Yingqiao is the least sentimental person. Unless she is pushed to a certain point, she rarely opens her heart. Even in the most difficult times, she just laughs it off. For example, when Miaojia came back, she said, "Toast to this messed-up world." Only Li Yingqiao smiled and said, "Toast to this beautiful world." But did she really feel the beauty?
So even though tears were already welling up in her eyes, Li Yingqiao was afraid the atmosphere would suddenly turn sour, so she subconsciously turned to Yu Jinyang, who hadn't said a word, and asked, "Meow, did I?"
Yu Jinyang knew, of course, that she just didn't want Liang Mei to see her tears. In her most helpless moment, she turned her gaze to him, and at that moment, Yu Jinyang finally understood what he had been waiting for all these years. It seemed that he had been waiting for this moment—her subconscious gaze, her subconscious and unreserved trust.
He simply raised his hand to rub the back of her head and pulled her into his arms. Only he could feel Li Yingqiao's shoulders trembling slightly as she suppressed her emotions in front of everyone.
This scene had a great impact on the two teachers. After all, they had watched these children grow up. Yu Jinyang was cold and composed, while Li Yingqiao was competitive. The two of them were always bickering and arguing. Zhu Xiaoliang initially thought that the two of them were like him and Liang Mei, with a pure and close friendship. He never expected that they would still end up together after all the twists and turns.
"So, which one of you pursued whom?" Zhu Xiaoliang plopped down in a beach chair at the barbecue stall, casually picked up a peanut from the table, popped it into his mouth with a crunching sound, and, with the air of a third-instance interrogation, glanced at Liang Mei beside him as if to begin her severe interrogation, "Yu Jinyang, tell me honestly, when did this happen? When did you start having wicked thoughts about our Comrade Li Yingqiao?"
Yu Jinyang was not used to being interrogated in front of everyone about the details of his relationship with Li Yingqiao. He felt uncomfortable being put on the spot, especially since there were too many details between him and Li Yingqiao that were difficult to tell his friends.
After regaining her composure, Li Yingqiao leaned back comfortably, turning her head to see a familiar blush quickly spreading across his neck. She smiled knowingly, as if watching a good show: "Meow, you've really dug yourself a big hole."
Back in the dorm, he said he couldn't continue this "friendship" because he found that he didn't know how to look at her when there were many people around.
Now, being interrogated by his mentor and surrounded by friends demanding that he reveal his true feelings, he, with his reserved nature, is actually finding it very difficult to cope.
But she was also curious about what he would say.
However, before Yu Jinyang could speak, someone next to him suddenly turned around, facing everyone directly—
"It doesn't matter, they're breaking up soon," Gao Dian said, seizing the opportunity.
Huh? Everyone was stunned and looked at each other in bewilderment.
Yu Jinyang kicked Gao Dian hard from under the table.
Li Yingqiao, almost simultaneously and without hesitation, added a kick.
With the two of them exerting their strength together, Gao Dian, along with the stool, was almost slid out of the room with a blank expression.
Gaodian: "…………"
Zhu Xiaoliang: "Why would a small pastry shop go so far?"
Liang Mei glanced down and said, "His stool looks like it has wheels."
Someone chuckled quietly.
"That can't be," Sun Taihe said, only then remembering the shocking revelation, "Yu Jinyang was just whispering about writing love letters to each other a couple of days ago..."
The next second, Sun Taihe also went out.
It was all because of Yu Jinyang's kick.
However, while others might not know, Zhu Xiaoliang did; otherwise, why would they have come tonight?
Last night, Yu Jinyang called him and mentioned that Qian Dongchang had finally been arrested. She then said that Li Yingqiao was about to return to Beijing and that she wanted to propose to her again before she left. She asked if he and Teacher Liang could come back for a visit if possible.
Zhu Xiaoliang was worried that Liang Mei wouldn't agree, so he spent a long time reciting his childhood stories one by one. He said he really didn't expect Yu Jinyang and Li Yingqiao to be together. These two kids finally got to where they are today. He chattered on and on, but Liang Mei didn't even wait for him to finish before she stood up and started packing her luggage silently.
Liang Mei and Tan Xiuyun had been at odds with each other their whole lives, so how could they not know that the marriage proposal was just an excuse, a way for Yu Jinyang to give her and Li Yingqiao a way out?
Yu Jinyang wasn't the type to make a big fuss. He'd rather ask her privately again and again if she was willing to marry him, even if she rejected him each time. He wouldn't put pressure on Li Yingqiao in front of their friends; he simply wanted her to see Liang Mei once before returning to Beijing.
So, apart from Zhu Xiaoliang and Liang Mei, of course no one else here knew about the marriage proposal.
But Gao Dian... Zhu Xiaoliang couldn't help but feel sorry for Xiao Gaodian. How come this child has always been unable to keep up with the group since he was a child?
Zhu Xiaoliang sighed, looking at the group of mature men and women who had shed their youthful naiveté, interspersed with a few handsome or beautiful new faces. As a teacher, he and his colleague had each person introduce themselves: Zhao Pingnan was Li Yingqiao's friend from Qingyi Tea Mountain. She was beautiful and generous, with a straightforward personality, and seemed to hit it off with Li Yingqiao immediately.
The mature man named Zhong Su has a similar temperament to Yu Jinyang from high school. He is aloof and doesn't talk much. When he does say something, it's always very serious and rigid. It turns out that he was Yu Jinyang's roommate when he was studying in Chicago, and now he is Zheng Miaojia's boyfriend.
Miao Jia has truly become a little artist, boasting two million followers on social media. She enthusiastically showed Zhu Xiaoliang many of her paintings that garnered over a million likes. Her latest masterpiece, "The Domineering CEO Falls in Love with Me: The Appliance Alliance," became an instant internet sensation. The refrigerator in the painting was actually modeled after Yu Jinyang, and the tank was undoubtedly modeled after Li Yingqiao.
He laughed heartily at these ingenious ideas, but fell silent when he saw a math fanatic.
This math fanatic held up an electric griddle and shouted, "Doesn't the pancake the teacher drew smell delicious?!"
None of the appliances responded except for the XX brand rice cooker, which, for the sake of its product placement budget, reflexively roared, "It smells delicious! Just as delicious as the rice I cook!"
"Okay, refrigerator, please use your double doors to take away a certain area of the pancake. Rice cooker, now it's your turn to calculate the remaining area."
Rice cooker and Zhu Xiaoliang: "…………"
Miao Jia chuckled: "Xiao Liang, now you can understand a little bit from this perspective why we looked at you like you were an idiot back then, right?"
...Of course, everyone else gasped in astonishment.
Zhong Su: "So that's how Teacher Zhu helped you improve step by step. No wonder we all said Yu Jinyang's mathematical thinking was a bit extraordinary back in college."
Zhu Xiaoliang corrected, "Yu Jinyang can only be said to have a solid foundation from elementary school. He can spend an afternoon thoroughly studying even the most boring theorems. Li Yingqiao is more suited to this divergent teaching method because her attention is easily drawn elsewhere. We need to increase the fun of teaching, so I designed a lot of games like this. The pizza game is actually for junior high school; high school is where she really shines. I always told Liang Mei that Li Yingqiao has never let me down; she got the highest score in the city for mathematics in the college entrance examination."
Sun Taihe said with a look of frustration, "If I had met Teacher Zhu back then, would I not have to resort to such borderline tactics now?"
Zhu Xiaoliang exclaimed in surprise, only then realizing that Sun Taihe was a streamer with hundreds of thousands of fans. Like Yu Jinyang, he was a b-boy who danced breaking from the bottom of his heart, but now he mostly danced borderline dances.
So he was so anxious that he clasped his hands together and begged everyone not to reveal his ID, especially in front of his two mentors. He had never been well-liked by teachers since childhood, and he was eager to make a good impression on them, having finally managed to get to know two respected teachers through his friends.
But the straightforward Zhao Pingnan, as his girlfriend, had no intention of letting him keep up the act. She immediately found his latest suggestive video and publicly executed him: "Sun Taihe, there's no need for that. Teacher Liang and Teacher Xiao Liang have seen all kinds of students. Stop pretending, let's be open and honest!"
The two teachers, who had just come from the mountains, said, "We've never seen anything like it before."
Zhao Pingnan patted Sun Taihe on the shoulder: "You're amazing, Sun Taihe! You've broadened the horizons of these two teachers!"
Sun Taihe gritted his teeth: "Zhao, Ping, Nan!"
At this moment, Gao Dian silently finished his skewers and said, "You two should break up too."
"Gao Dian, you're going to break up as many couples as you can tonight, aren't you?" Yu Jinyang leaned back in his chair and laughed helplessly.
Following that, laughter broke out again. The number of pedestrians on the road gradually decreased, and the river breeze finally dissipated in the few words exchanged. This corner of the riverbank was unusually quiet and peaceful.
As life goes on, the norm becomes one trial after another, one difficulty after another.
But that still couldn't stop the fact that there were plenty of people—
With a gentle breeze and slanting rain on a small building, one can quietly converse about the ordinary joys of life.
**
After Yu Jinyang paid the bill and returned, Liang Mei and Li Yingqiao walked to the railing and chatted for a while. He didn't see who took the first step.
Zhu Xiaoliang was adjusting his glasses while seriously studying Zheng Miaojia's comic book special. He was looking for which appliance Liang Mei belonged to. Zhong Su, Sun Taihe, and the others also chimed in, guessing all at once.
Gao Dian was still rolling her eyes at him, looking like she didn't really want to eat the meal the scumbag was treating her to.
Yu Jinyang sighed helplessly, raised his eyebrows slightly, and casually gestured with his chin toward the side, indicating that he should say a few words.
Gao Dian walked over reluctantly, while Yu Jinyang had one hand in his pocket and the other holding a bottle of cola that Li Yingqiao had only half-finished.
She stopped drinking and, without caring whether he drank or not, simply shoved the drink into his hand without a word.
After observing them all night, Gao Dian found that they were no different from before. Li Yingqiao always treated Yu Jinyang as her garbage dump without any hesitation. In the past, when her homework was full and her pen broke and she couldn't write anymore, she would habitually shove it all to Yu Jinyang. Even though the garbage can was right next to her, she would find it too tiring to walk even one more step and insisted that Yu Jinyang do it for her.
He always indulged Li Yingqiao without making a sound.
"Can you two even distinguish between friendship and love?" Gao Dian scoffed. "Don't look back and find out that what you call 'honey' wasn't love. You and Qiaoqiao won't even be able to be friends anymore, and that would be really awkward for me! Whose side would I be on then!"
Yu Jinyang stood silently with one hand in his pocket, a slight smirk on his lips. He didn't look at him, just took a sip of his cola, and said nothing more. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand."
Gao Dian's mindset has been like this since he was a child. In his eyes, Li Yingqiao saved his life, so he had to repay the favor and be loyal. However, he would not delve into the subtle emotions that arose in this relationship because he knew he was not worthy of her. But Yu Jinyang saw it all. Gao Dian actually liked Li Yingqiao at first, but later found that Li Yingqiao was too strong and he could not keep up. He also briefly liked Miao Jia. Miao Jia was quiet and reserved, but she had just as many tricks up her sleeve as Li Yingqiao.
Gao Dian had a crush on every girl who was kind to him, and Yu Jinyang never confronted him about it, pretending not to know anything. He knew Gao Dian had always been insecure, and unrequited love is easily crushed by insecurity.
He himself had once been lost in it, how could he bear to do such a thing?
"Gao Dian, you just said that if it weren't for the help I gave you during those years in Shenzhen, you wouldn't have had this late-night snack with me tonight, right?"
"right."
His tone was unreadable, but his eyes seemed deeper than the river: "So you're choosing Li Yingqiao unconditionally. What are you pretending to be in a difficult position for? We've been brothers for nothing."
Gao Dian was taken aback. "No, I'm a reasonable person who talks about evidence. If it were Qiaoqiao who cheated on me, I would have done the same..."
"The same as what?" Yu Jinyang glanced at him with a mocking look, "Why aren't you saying anything now?"
Gao Dian fell silent. He found himself thinking he might try to persuade Miao to forgive her, after all, she was Li Yingqiao, whom he had known since childhood.
Yu Jinyang almost burst out laughing, because he could almost see Gao Dian giving him that "secret Marseille" emoji—
He pulled his hand out of his pocket, hooked his arm around Gao Dian's shoulder, finished the last sip of his cola, and crumpled the can, saying, "Gao Dian, no matter what happens between us in the future, even if we have a huge fight, you have to unconditionally stand by her side. In Fengtan, we almost only have mutual friends like you. If even you feel awkward about it, I'll feel sorry for her when I argue with her, since she saved you. Can't you tell which is more important, lending you money or saving your life? So there's no need to remember our past relationship. You just need to unconditionally stand by Li Yingqiao. I really can't guarantee that we won't argue in the future. You know she can be really infuriating sometimes; I sometimes feel like strangling her."
Yu Jinyang's few words seemed to have suddenly unlocked a treasure chest hidden deep in his heart, a chest he had never been able to find a way to open.
Gao Dian was stunned, opened his mouth in bewilderment, and then suddenly realized that this seemed to be love.
However, the person who was threatening to strangle the other person just a second ago is now kissing passionately by the riverbank railing.
Zhu Xiaoliang and the others were still enthusiastically guessing which appliance Liang Mei was, but even Liang Mei herself couldn't guess correctly. Zheng Miaojia smiled mysteriously, as if to say, "You'd never guess!" No one noticed the intimacy hidden among the crowd. Only Gao Dian, standing below the embankment, saw Yu Jinyang trap her between the railing and his chest, and, taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he lowered his head and kissed her deeply.
Li Yingqiao started to pull away after a short kiss, and before she could catch her breath, Yu Jinyang turned his head and pressed his lips against hers again. He rarely showed such an irresistible force and intimacy in public. He lowered his head and lightly pecked her lips twice more, then whispered something in her ear. Suddenly, they both laughed.
The smile vanished quickly, not lasting long. Li Yingqiao then rested her forehead on his shoulder until her own shoulder twitched uncontrollably. Only then did Gao Dian realize that she wasn't laughing, but crying. She was crying blankly, sobbing aimlessly, revealing this touching and vulnerable moment in front of someone who needed her.
No wonder, he was just trying to coax her.
“I just asked Liang Mei if she would still help my mother and me get our wages back if she could see the ending in advance. She said, Li Yingqiao, if we could see the ending of many things in advance, there would be a lot less courage in this world. She said that such a hypothesis is meaningless, because it is precisely because people cannot see the future that they can stand in the future.”
"But I believe that even if Liang Mei knew the outcome, she would still help you and Mom get your wages back. Do you believe Liang Mei's words, or do you believe me?"
Tears welled in Li Yingqiao's eyes as she tilted her head back and laughed, her gaze meeting the man's long and gentle eyes. Then, stubbornly and defiantly, she shook her head and said, word by word, "I don't believe it."
Yu Jinyang: ?
"You just said you love me the most."
“Thirty seconds have passed since then, bang—” She leaned lazily against the railing, giving herself a serious voiceover, her voice no longer choked with sobs, but full of laughter, “The world has been changing dramatically without you even realizing it, every minute is a huge change! You have to cherish every minute, who knows what will happen to me in the next second.”
Some people were amused and annoyed: "Fine, fine, I loved a comment, and it disappeared in just thirty seconds."
Li Yingqiao laughed with her head tilted back, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Gao Dian standing there blankly, Miao Jia seemingly lost in meditation, and Liang Mei and Zhu Xiaoliang sitting at a nearby stall scratching their heads, trying to decipher the Da Vinci Code. It was just like the time when they used to argue heatedly at Liang Mei's house over their differing teaching philosophies, one radical and the other conservative.
She was suddenly stunned, as if she were seeing the past—
I heard the lonely and desolate chirping of cicadas on the balcony, and I could almost smell the burnt porridge that Liang Mei had cooked.
That afternoon, Yu Jinyang, who said that she made vows as casually as making wishes, that she was a smooth talker like a seasoned lover, that if her vows came true, even Jay Chou wouldn't have been able to write "Sunny Day," and that he was determined to break off all ties with her, had just slipped a ring onto her ring finger five minutes earlier.
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