Extra six
As Yu Jinyang entered the gua sha clinic, the first person he saw was Meng Yidong, the short-haired, tattooed girl with a deep voice. The night he reunited with Li Yingqiao, he had mistaken her voice for that of a boy. She was currently sitting behind the counter, engrossed in playing a match-3 game. When she caught sight of him, she lazily raised her chin and pointed towards the stairwell, reminding him, "The owner is upstairs tidying up, and Teacher Liang is there too."
Yu Jinyang thanked her and turned to go upstairs. Before he even reached the door, he heard Liang Mei's voice coming from a room on the second floor: "So that's why you never had any expectations for Li Yingqiao since he was little?"
“I dare not. I met her father when I was running a transport business. It was an impulsive decision,” Li Shuli said, seemingly with a cigarette still dangling from her lips. She took a deep breath and remained silent for a moment before continuing, “I didn’t know anything about his background. When I found out I was pregnant, I considered abortion. At that time, I was still taking bipolar medication and was worried that the child wouldn’t be healthy. I had a prenatal checkup, but nothing was found. I’ve been divorced twice and didn’t plan to remarry. I thought it would be nice to have a child of my own. Qiaoqiao wasn’t actually called that before; her name was Li Yan. I hoped she would be like a flame, burning brightly and never dying out.”
“Then why not just call him Li Huomiao?” Liang Mei said matter-of-factly.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Li Shuli probably rolled her eyes, or maybe she slowly exhaled a smoke ring: "And you call yourself a Chinese teacher?"
"Try to smoke less." After a while, Liang Mei's voice rose again, "How did you find out about Qiaoqiao's problem?"
“After giving birth, I went back to driving long distances, so I left Qiaoqiao with my parents. I would go back to visit them regularly. Then one time, I went back and found that Qiaoqiao always had injuries on her body.” Li Shuli choked up a little. “My dad said that she fell down by herself. Qiaoqiao has always been very active since she was little. At that time, her physical signs were not very obvious. The doctor in the countryside also said that there was nothing wrong. It is normal for children to bump and bruise. But at that time, Qiaoqiao had long marks on her arms and shoulders. Once, I pretended that I hadn’t left and hid at the door to look. That’s when I found out that my dad thought she was too active. In order to play cards in peace, he tied her to the chair with a rope.”
"How shameless!" Liang Mei rarely used such harsh language, showing no regard for the other person's kinship.
Yu Jinyang stopped at the door, his hands unconsciously clenching.
Li Shuli's voice was devoid of emotion: "Later, I separated from them and moved my household registration out. It wasn't until my father passed away that I allowed Qiaoqiao to go back to see her maternal grandmother. Back then, conditions in the countryside were poor. The doctors at the clinic always said it was normal for children to be active, but talking to Qiaoqiao was really difficult. She couldn't concentrate. Often, you would talk about one thing, and she would look at another. One second she would be putting on socks, not even having gotten one sock on, and the next second she would grab a hat from somewhere, mimicking the cartoon's line, 'Big head, big head, no worries in the rain.' Sometimes she would repeat the same thing all day. Later, I took her to the city for a checkup. When she was four, the doctor gave a preliminary diagnosis, but she wasn't officially diagnosed until she was six: ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)."
Yu Jinyang thought of high school. Many times, she would get distracted while doing her homework, and she would even get distracted while watching Detective Conan. She once told him that she envied Miao Jia's concentration when she was drawing, being able to sit quietly for an entire afternoon without moving.
At the time, he thought she was just playful and not focused, but he never thought that Li Yingqiao's hyperactivity was actually rare among those around her.
“She herself didn’t even know,” Li Shuli continued. “Even after she grew up, she still remembered this incident. She would ask me what medicine she took when she was little, and I would vehemently deny it. I didn’t want her to feel different from others, and I was also afraid that others would isolate her again as an outsider. I used to be quite annoyed with you. I know about Qiaoqiao’s situation. To get into Tanzhong High School and then into university, she had to put in several times more effort than normal people, let alone compared to Yu Jin and Yang Miaojia, because even with intervention, her concentration couldn’t compare to that of normal people. Actually, she suffered a lot during those three years of high school. She asked me many times about what happened when she was little. But I was afraid of disappointing you, so I kept quiet in the end because that salary made you lose your job, and she always felt that we owed you.”
Liang Mei choked up, her voice filled with rare surprise: "Then why didn't you explain it to me clearly back then? You even spent money to buy her a place in Tanzhong. I thought you knew that studying was important."
“I have a thousand reasons to stop her, and one reason not to,” Li Shuli said. “That is, as long as Qiaoqiao is happy, she is happier with you than when she lived with me at the farmers’ market. Her personality is a little different from mine. She likes excitement and needs friends. In the past, when she was in the nursery in the countryside, the understanding of ADHD was not comprehensive. When people heard that it was a congenital developmental disorder of the mental system, they treated her as mentally ill. So she was isolated by the teachers in the nursery. I had to pick her up half an hour early, otherwise when other parents came and found Qiaoqiao in the classroom, they would keep complaining until we changed nurseries.”
Yu Jinyang leaned against the wall, unable to resist tilting his head back and closing his eyes. His eyelashes trembled slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably. In the quiet corridor, only the sound of his suppressed breathing could be heard. He felt a dull ache in his chest, unable to catch his breath.
He couldn't imagine how Li Yingqiao got through those high school years. She had to work very hard to overcome the defects in her genes in order to sit down and finish a test paper, but she finished all the test papers stacked up to be taller than her, all under his and Liang Mei's supervision, which was more strict than that of others, without their knowledge.
He instinctively reached for his phone, only to find a series of notifications on the chat interface saying "The other party has retracted a message," and her last message was a cute little cat emoji that she had sent, looking like she didn't want to cause trouble.
“Anan…” Inside the room, Liang Mei suddenly said a name that had never appeared in their social circle before.
Yu Jinyang put his phone in his pocket and continued listening, but Li Shuli quickly interrupted, saying, "Don't talk about him anymore. Let's ask Qiaoqiao when she gets back. If she wants to know, I'll have her contact you."
Liang Mei nodded, "Okay, I'll be going now."
Yu Jinyang hadn't expected Liang Mei to leave so abruptly, and her footsteps were so silent, just as eerie as when she was a homeroom teacher at school. The moment he finished speaking, the door was pulled open—
Yu Jinyang didn't have time to dodge. He hurriedly turned his face away and wiped his face in surprise. His eyes were red and unusually hoarse, clearly indicating that he had just been crying.
"...Teacher Liang."
Liang Mei was well aware of Yu Jinyang's feelings for Li Yingqiao; she was heartbroken, and Yu Jinyang was certainly in no better shape. She didn't speak, just nodded slightly, and walked straight past him. As for the rest, Li Shuli could say what she wanted to say, or she couldn't say a word more.
The rooms on the second floor are VIP massage rooms.
Li Shuli was tidying up the massage bed that Liang Mei had just sat on. Hearing the brief silence from the corridor, she guessed Yu Jinyang had overheard something, so she continued tidying without turning around, saying, "Qiaoqiao's father was Teacher Tan's student. Liang Mei only found out this time she came back. Years ago, a pension was issued to Teacher Tan, and they contacted Hu Zheng, only to find out that Teacher Tan had passed away. Hu Zheng also learned that one of Teacher Tan's students had gone undercover. I met them at the Martyrs' Cemetery yesterday, and they also found out that this person was Qiaoqiao's father. Liang Mei just brought me a photo for confirmation."
In fact, when Hu Zheng and Liang Mei received Xiao Bo's call, they were not sure who he was. There were too many people in the orphanage at the time, and they had many friends and acquaintances. Tan Xiujun, in particular, had many students.
Liang Mei and Hu Zheng had always assumed that something so righteous yet so sinister couldn't possibly be related to the people around them.
If Tan Xiuyun hadn't forcefully guided them onto the right path, they would most likely have all become reserve prisoners for labor reform.
Therefore, they speculated that the undercover police officer who sacrificed his life was probably a top student who was taught by Teacher Tan at the Experimental Middle School before his retirement.
They never expected that this person was Zhou Zhinan, the little Anan who was always bullied in the orphanage but never uttered a sound; who always huddled in a corner and couldn't even speak properly.
The next day, the sky was clear, and a sun shower was falling. The rain connected the sky and the earth, making the world seem inseparable.
Liang Mei and the other two went to Tan Xiujun's grave. She climbed the steps and found the tombstone by memory. The woman's face in the photo on the stone was still serious, with the calmness of a lake. However, the photo seemed to have faded a bit due to years of wind and sun.
Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. It seems that Tan Xiuyun is gradually fading from her mind along with this faded photo, and even her face is becoming blurry.
Is Tan Xiuyun single-eyelid or double-eyelid? Liang Mei forgot.
She asked Zhu Xiaoliang, "Do you think Tan Xiuyun's photos have faded?"
Zhu Xiaoliang looked at it carefully: "No."
Look, Tan Xiuyun, I'm really starting to forget you.
Liang Mei stared at the photo for a long, long time, as if trying to etch her face firmly into her mind once again.
After a long while, in the cold wind, she pulled at her dry, chapped lips and said, "Tan Xiujun, Anan was an undercover cop and sacrificed his life. No one would believe it if you told them, but that little Anan who always hid behind you before daring to speak loudly was actually a narcotics officer. Hu Zheng saw online that many narcotics officers' bones couldn't be put back together when they died... Anan's bones couldn't be put back together, otherwise he wouldn't have been thrown into an orphanage."
07
It wasn't raining in Beijing, just a bit overcast.
Li Yingqiao arrived at the company early in the morning. Xu Quyu called her into his office and got straight to the point, proposing a new plan for her father's memorial service. Xu Quyu always worked at a fast pace, and Li Yingqiao couldn't afford to be distracted for even a moment: "Go ahead."
Xu Quyu said, "I have decided to hold a memorial service for my father and the victims of Rainbow Youli together, and take this opportunity to apologize and make amends for this incident once again."
Li Yingqiao understood; Xu Quyu was merely informing her, not discussing the matter.
She was in the execution phase. "Okay, I understand."
Xu Quyu was taken aback by her unexpectedly straightforward response: "Michael was very vocal about this on the phone last night, but he ultimately reserved his opinion. I assumed you shared his stance. I know what Michael meant; he sees this as a challenge for the brand department. Did he underestimate your abilities, or did I overestimate his emotional control?"
Li Yingqiao chuckled, "It's alright, I'll make the arrangements. If Xu Junfei had proposed this, I would have reserved my opinion. But since it's your idea, I believe you're genuinely trying to make amends. I don't object to trying to salvage the brand's influence beyond that. As long as the goal is right, the outcome will justify the means. Anyway, there are no good people at Convey these days. No matter how well you do, people will still think your motives are impure."
In Xu Quyu's carefully considered plan, the only one truly sacrificed was her father.
Xu Quyu said, "Making Convey grand and brilliant is his lifelong dream. I am doing what he believes is right, and I believe he will understand. After all, I have been through the same thing."
Li Yingqiao was slightly taken aback when her phone rang. "Ms. Li, your takeout is in the delivery locker. Please come downstairs to pick it up."
The breakfast she ordered arrived. She hung up the phone and said to Xu Quyu, "Okay. I understand. I'll go back and work on a contingency plan, and send it to you later."
Xu Quyu looked up at her and glanced at the ring on her hand: "You've been in good spirits lately. You manage your emotions better than Michael. Michael seems to have had very poor emotional control since he came back. He was swearing on the phone last night. What did he go through in Fengtan?"
Li Yingqiao said without blinking, "I was gored by a wild boar in my office."
Xu Quyu was shocked: "Why is there a wild boar in your office?"
Li Yingqiao said, "In the countryside, they might have messed up the talent recruitment process."
Xu Quyu didn't understand, but quickly judged that it must be a work injury: "I understand, let him apply for work injury compensation."
When Li Yingqiao went downstairs to get breakfast, Zhang Zongxie happened to pass by her. The finance department stopped him and handed him a form. "Michael, fill out this 'Wildlife Collision Accident Insurance' application form. President Xu said it will be approved today."
Zhang Zongxie: "..."
Are you kidding me? This is some kind of fringe law? They're going to send him to Africa.
Damn! Xu Quyu!
Li Yingqiao was in a great mood after doing a good deed. Going downstairs to get breakfast was easier than usual. Everything had gone exceptionally smoothly since she woke up this morning, as if everything was preparing her for meeting someone in the evening. Even the hazy Beijing sky outside the building seemed unusually clear.
When she first came to Beijing, everything was unfamiliar. Back then, driven by sheer grit and curiosity about the world, she didn't care about anything else. She studied whenever she could and went to work whenever she could, pushing herself forward with all her might. She rarely had the leisure to look at the scenery around her. But strangely enough, even without looking, over the years, she has become intimately familiar with her surroundings and could find her way around with her eyes closed.
She thought that she felt the same way about Yu Jinyang. Through their unknowing companionship, she had grown familiar with him and gotten used to his presence. For some reason, things that required her to concentrate were always easy to distract her. On the contrary, Yu Jinyang's quiet, gentle companionship always seemed to be waiting for her whenever she looked at him.
When Li Yingqiao was getting tutoring at Liang Mei's house during high school, their eyes would always meet unexpectedly, and they would pretend nothing had happened and look away. Sometimes he would coldly remind her, "Li Yingqiao, concentrate."
Li Yingqiao snorted indignantly and said: "You're not concentrating either, why are you always looking at me?"
Zhu Xiaoliang, with his mathematical mind, would speak up for Yu Jinyang at this moment: "Don't be fooled by his gaze; he's actually doing math problems in his mind."
Li Yingqiao responded with an "oh," sounding somewhat disappointed.
Much later, she realized that the dull, heavy feeling of loss in her heart was actually called liking someone.
Li Yingqiao entered the pickup code, took her breakfast from the delivery locker, and suddenly heard a burst of applause and screams from the plaza next door. Across from the company building was a small park, near a children's palace, its dense foliage providing shade. Every day at this time, a group of teenagers would practice dancing there, in various styles. She occasionally noticed a few b-boys practicing breaking; they were all very young. Nearby, a group of children of similar age would skateboard on the railings, filming short videos; they were all dressed very fashionably.
She glanced over casually at the sound and saw a figure who should have appeared in Beijing after seven o'clock. In the clear sunlight, every smile and frown was unusually radiant, like a fresh college student, with clean and refreshing features.
Right now, he's battling with a seven or eight-year-old boy. The boy isn't giving up, and he's rolling around on the ground like a little cannonball, kicking up fallen leaves.
"Come on!" the boy challenged.
Yu Jinyang was wearing only a black hoodie, his down jacket was casually tossed on his suitcase, and he was slumped on the ground without any regard for his image, as if he had come to Beijing to perform for money.
He was half-paralyzed on the ground, barely able to bend one leg, his arm lazily draped over his knee. He laughed and laughed, clearly exhausted. His voice was hoarse from not having slept all night: "I give up, okay?"
The child gestured to him, saying, "Brother, you're so weak."
Yu Jinyang caught sight of someone coming from across the street, carrying a KFC takeout bag. He stood up abruptly, staring directly at the familiar face in the crowd. Without even using his hands for support, he said in his usual cold voice, "I have something to do. I'm leaving. If you want to learn that move, come find me at the WG base."
"Damn, you're a professional!!!" the child roared.
That evening, the apartment door was suddenly pushed open.
Before the door was even fully open, their eyes met, their bodies pressed together, and they passionately kissed and pushed each other as they entered the house.
If Li Yingqiao had known he was coming today, she wouldn't have provoked him last night. After all, she'd known since childhood that those who could read tens were exceptional talents.
The first time was on the sofa, because it was Yu Jinyang's apartment, which You Xiaofan had rented for him in the contract.
The two of them, naked from the waist down, wandered around like headless flies, unable to find the bedroom—
The entire wall is made up of seamlessly embedded hidden doors.
“I reasonably suspect that You Xiaofan is retaliating against you.” Li Yingqiao laughed until she was almost exhausted.
Yu Jinyang didn't care at all, and only whispered, "You're distracted again. Look up at me and count from the beginning, twelve."
In fact, he discovered that in the countless moments when they looked at each other, Li Yingqiao was rarely distracted and would instinctively respond to him. For example, when he said to hold him tight, even if she was unwilling, she would still obediently hold him tight.
At that moment, he said to look up at me and count, and Li Yingqiao really did stare at him intently as he slowly counted, even though she wanted to kick him.
Her instincts seemed to love him more than she did.
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