The two people were silent all the way, and the mont Qingran opened the door, Li Qing Mo's muffled voice ca from behind.
"Now are you and Xie Ying'an desk mates?"
Today Qingran's seat was right beside Xie Ying'an, having both her childhood friend and her younger sister in the sa class, Li Qing Mo was as familiar with them as visiting his own mother's house.
"Um."
Li Qing Mo was even more sullen: "Xie Ying'an dislikes being desk mates with others the most, why would he want to be desk mates with you?"
During their elentary school years, he distinctly rembers that each school year start he would pester relentlessly to be Xie Ying'an's desk mate, and each ti Xie Ying'an's face would darken for two months.
Later, when Xie Ying'an moved to his grandpa's house and changed schools, Li Qing Mo found out that in the years he wasn't badgering him, Xie Ying'an never had any desk mates.
Qingran took out the lemonade prepared by the maid from the fridge, sipping it while responding to the persistent Li Qing Mo: "The teacher always assigns him a desk mate, you know his temperant, probably finds it annoying, so he chose since we are familiar compared to other classmates."
Li Qing Mo agreed with her explanation. He felt a tingling jealousy as he looked at the lemonade in Qingran's hand and casually took a Coke from the fridge, drank a big gulp, then asked, "What about you? Didn't you always feel Xie Ying'an and I were too high-profile at school and didn't want to get too involved with us? Why did you agree to be his desk mate?"
Qingran shot him a look, her voice filled with grievance: "Think about what a good deed you and Luo Xi did last sumr vacation?"
Li Qing Mo: "..."
He and Luo Xi's matter could not be brought up, ntioning it was like recalling an unbearable past.
The two had been competitively sizing each other up since they were young, during childhood Luo Xi was chubby and therefore considered cute by adults; as they grew older Luo Xi's grace and standing, although her grades weren't as sky-high as Li Qingran's, still made her soone others would compare their children to.
As for him, because of Xie Ying'an's outstanding presence, much of his sense of honor was diminished. In the compound, Xie Ying'an and Li Qingran were considered the exemplary 'children of soone else's family'.
Li Qingran was one thing, a sweet and pretty girl— which elder wouldn't like her?
But what did Xie Ying'an have that made him better than him? Li Qing Mo couldn't figure out, except for being five centiters taller, Xie Ying'an was cold and distant all year round, his greetings to elders were not as sweet as his, and he only nodded towards peers, hardly mingling, as if separated by an uncrossable trench.
The only thing that made Li Qing Mo grind his teeth in irritation was the damn charm Xie Ying'an had with girls. Realizing this, Li Qing Mo looked at Qingran who was washing a cup, swung the Coke can in hand and said straightforwardly: "Those people are surrounding you because they are jealous you're Xie Ying'an's desk mate."
"That's probably it."
Li Qing Mo's eyes dimd, his grip involuntarily tightened, crushing the can with a 'crunch' sound.
Twins often understood each other's thoughts, Qingran noticing his dark mood instantly guessed his thoughts: "Brother, don't ss around, dealing with them is effortless for . It's rather about that matter from last year still not being offset for you, don't act impulsively again."
Hearing her ntion the past, Li Qing Mo's ears turned red with embarrassnt, and he awkwardly changed the topic, asking a question he knew the answer to: "Did you sign up for the physics competition this ti?"
As expected, Qingran shook her head.
Li Qing Mo 'oh'ed, forgetting to dispose of the severely deford can, hurried out of the kitchen.
Qingran watched his figure disappearing at the staircase, her lips curling into a smile.
Last year, because of the brawl Li Qing Mo was penalized by the school, although the school eventually anded the major penalty to a minor one after investigating the reason, Li Qing Mo still read the self-criticism in front of the entire school as per school rules.
The day before he had to recite a self-criticism in front of all the teachers and students, he sent Qingran off to her grandparents' house in the countryside to find so peace.
After reciting the self-criticism, this school bully stiffened his neck, grabbed the microphone and threatened, "If anyone dares to spread this or secretly discuss it, I'll beat them until they call Grandpa."
After the threat, under the principal's livid face, he took out a second self-criticism he had prepared beforehand and flamboyantly read thousands of words.
This outright threat by the school bully naturally deterred any students from ntioning it again; so teachers wanted to use Li Qingmo's incident as a negative example to discipline the students, but rembering his fearless deanor, good grades, and wealthy background, they reluctantly set the idea aside.
This situation was perfect, as long as he could get on Xie Ying'an's good side. No matter how hard it would be, the news of Li Qingmo reciting a self-criticism in front of all the teachers and students wouldn't reach Qingran's ears, and thus his image in his sister's eyes would remain grand and beautiful, irreplaceable by anyone but their father.
But Li Qingmo overlooked a fatal gossip presence—Ruan Ruan.
Who is Ruan Ruan?
That's the guy who knows all the school's insider gossip, can discuss any forum, and can recite the school forum faithfully.
His once personal motto was: What is a person without gossip?
With such a deskmate, Qingran was kept in the loop about everything at school. The school bully's threat was sowhat scary to her, but she argued, isn't the school bully's own sister not considered an outsider?
The urgent doorbell interrupted Qingran's thoughts, she turned her head and called out "Brother" toward the living room but got no response from Li Qingmo.
The doorbell rang more urgently, so she had to put down the half-washed greens, wipe her hands, and quickly walk over to open the door.
Reflected in the peephole was Xie Ying'an.
Qingran hurriedly opened the door; outside, Xie Ying'an was panting heavily, sweating profusely despite the cold winter, his face anxious and gloomy. After scanning Qingran, his heavily furrowed brow finally relaxed slightly.
As Qingran stepped aside to let him in, she asked, "What happened?"
Xie Ying'an shook his head, caught his breath a few tis, then turned and left without saying a word.
Watching his tall, thin figure gradually disappear into the distance, she withdrew her gaze and casually closed the door.
She wasn't the overly spoiled and sowhat naive Qingran from the books; on the contrary, she was sharp-minded from a young age. Xie Ying'an rushing over was simply because he heard about the issues she faced with Huang Qianyu.
Regardless, she and Xie Ying'an were childhood friends, and even their relationship hadn't reached the awkward stage depicted in the books because of her fondness for Xie Ying'an. If he didn't co to check on her after hearing about it, that really wouldn't be right of him.
The cook had inford them early on that she would be taking a day off; the refrigerator, however, was stocked with so als. All Qingran had to do was heat them up, and just as she served the food, Li Qingmo ca downstairs, his wet hair clinging to his forehead, holding a phone.
"Bro, don't look at your phone while walking down the stairs!"
Qingran, with a mother's concern, let her gaze linger on his wet, short hair for two seconds, handing him a fresh spare towel, "Also, you must dry your hair in this weather, or you'll catch a cold."
"Got it," Li Qingmo took the towel, rubbed his hair with one hand while putting his phone to his ear with the other. Monts later, he asked the person on the other end of the call, "I just went to wash my hair, didn't hear it. Calling so many tis, is there an ergency?"
Not knowing what was said on the other line, he raised an eyebrow and muttered "Bizarre," and casually placed the phone on the table.
After dinner, Li Qingmo was responsible for washing the dishes.
He saw Qingran grabbing two big bags of cat food, knowing she was going to feed the stray cats outside their ho, only comnted, "Co back early," and swiftly carried the dishes into the kitchen.
Reviews
All reviews (0)