The time to go to Beijing for the competition was quickly confirmed. Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan set off together. The participating students went home early on Thursday to pack their luggage.
After Mi Yang returned home, Cheng Qing helped him pack his luggage and said, "Yangyang, it's cold over there. I saw the weather forecast says it's going to get colder. Bring a sweater and a down jacket too, okay?"
Mi Yang nodded and said, "Okay."
He packed two pieces of clothes, turned his head and looked to the side, feeling a little embarrassed to bring the small pillow.
It was something he had been used to using since he was a child. The pillow core had been changed several times, but the pillowcase was still clean and soft. He used it carefully and it still looked very tidy, but the fabric had been crumpled very soft.
Cheng Qing saw it, lowered his head and said to the little girl who followed him closely, "Xiaoxue, go to the living room and get the sewing box for mom, so that mom can sew another button for brother."
The little girl ran to the living room with her short legs.
Cheng Qing sent the little girl away, folded the pillowcase, and put it in the innermost part of Mi Yang's suitcase. He smiled and said, "I thought you didn't use it in the past two years."
Mi Yangjie has had this little pillow for a year or two. He has been taking it to school intermittently. Although he can fall asleep now, he always feels uneasy when it is not around, and wakes up twice a night. It was okay at school when Bai Luochuan and I were talking and distracted, but now he is out for a competition, and he is afraid that he will be delayed if he does not sleep well at night.
Cheng Qing just joked with him. Her son made her worry-free in every way. She would agree to bring three or five pillows, not to mention one. After packing the luggage, Cheng Qing gave him some money and said, "Aren't you going to Luochuan too? If you have time after the competition, go shopping. Don't just study hard and tire yourself out."
Mi Yang took the money and said, "I understand."
The little girl brought the sewing box, and Cheng Qing sewed two stitches on Mi Yang's clothes. The little girl came over and talked to her brother: "Brother, are you going to Beijing?"
Mi Yang held her on his knees and said, "Yes."
The little girl bit her finger and asked him, "Is it the one from Beijing where daddy brought some delicious snacks last time?" She paused in the middle to emphasize the point and swallowed her saliva.
Mi Yang smiled and said, "Well, I'll bring you some too. You still want the eight kinds of snacks from Beijing and the preserved crabapple fruit, right?"
The little girl was very happy. Her pigtails swayed as she nodded. She hugged Mi Yang's arm and said coquettishly, "I love my brother the most!"
Cheng Qing asked her: "Why, you don't like me the most today?"
The little girl quickly said softly: "I like mom the most, and I like dad just fine."
Yonezawa Hai just came back from get off work. When he heard this, his heart was broken. He didn't even change his shoes and walked in, grabbed the little girl and poked her with his stubble, "How come Daddy is just ordinary? No, think about it again and tell me when you've made up your mind!"
The little girl tried to hide twice but couldn't get away, so she kept giggling.
The school took this competition very seriously, especially Bai Luochuan's group, who were all provincial seeded players, and the school teachers specially led the team to participate. In comparison, Mi Yang's interest group seemed to be just there to make a cameo appearance, but they didn't compete for anything, and it was quite interesting to discuss the model together.
After boarding the plane, Bai Luochuan changed seats with others and sat next to Mi Yang. He was now 1.7 meters tall and still growing, still half a head taller than Mi Yang.
Mi Yang is popular, and the classmates in the model aircraft interest group who came with him handed him water and snacks, and also a small bottle of chewing gum.
Mi Yang ate one, then lowered his head and asked Bai Luochuan: "Chewing gum, do you want to eat it?"
Bai Luochuan shook his head, lowered the brim of his hat a little, tilted his head and leaned on Mi Yang's shoulder to sleep.
Bai Luochuan's eyes were still dark from lack of sleep. When Mrs. Bai sent him here this morning, she was still worried about him and kept telling Mi Yang that "studying is too hard". In fact, Mi Yang knew that Master Bai was sleepy from playing games last night. Because he knew that he would have to sit in the car all day and had time to catch up on sleep, he played until midnight without any scruples.
Bai Luochuan is full of energy and can be full of energy after a few hours of sleep. Mi Yang sometimes can't last longer than him. His biological clock is the same as that of middle-aged and elderly people. He lies down early every night and falls asleep after reading for a while. Bai Luochuan is completely different from him. He has been charged by the sun since he was a child. He wakes up automatically at dawn and has to use up all the power before he is willing to go to bed at night. Sometimes he doesn't get enough sleep, but he can make up for it by one or two hours during the day and he will be full of energy again.
Mi Yang was extremely envious.
When the plane was about to land, Bai Luochuan woke up. He was still half asleep. Mi Yang opened the bottle of mineral water and gave it to him. He took a sip from Mi Yang's hand.
Mi Yang asked him quietly: "Do you still want to drink? Do you want to eat?"
Bai Luochuan shook his head: "No."
He sat there for a while, still a little confused, and said to Mi Yang: "I had a dream."
Mi Yang asked him: "What did you dream about?"
Bai Luochuan said: "I went back to the border town and went on a spring outing with Tang Xiao, the squad leader, Xiao Pang and the others. It was also very noisy..."
Mi Yang also missed those kids in Class 1, Grade 3. They studied in the border town for one year, but a lot of things happened. After all, it was a friendship of "rebellion". At the beginning, the two sides still communicated with each other, but gradually after junior high school, they contacted less and less. Mi Yang also received a primary school graduation photo, which they took specially, leaving two spaces for him and Bai Luochuan, and added their names by hand when printing them on the back.
Mi Yang kept it very carefully.
Hearing Bai Luochuan mention it now, he also said with a little nostalgia: "When I have time in the future, I can go back and take a look."
Bai Luochuan said: "Yeah."
Young Master Bai slept throughout the more than two-hour journey. Now that he had had enough sleep and regained his energy, he looked like a lively and handsome young man again.
After the plane landed, everyone went to the hotel separately.
Because the competition venues were not in the same place, Bai Luochuan and Mi Yang's teams lived in different places. Mi Yang followed his classmates to a slightly remote hotel. The accommodation conditions were okay. Anyway, the competition was only for one day and would be over soon.
The classmate who lived in the same room with him was also a cheerful person, without the arrogance of the rich second generation, and was quite polite to Mi Yang. They usually met in interest groups, and there was not much to talk about except models. It was a rare opportunity for them to meet privately. He was quite curious about Mi Yang and asked him: "You are very familiar with Bai Luochuan, right? Have you participated in the Olympic Games with him before? I remember you also won a prize."
Mi Yang smiled and said, "These are all things from elementary school. I haven't participated since junior high school."
The other party said: "It's a pity."
Mi Yang didn't feel it was a pity. After he came to the school in Shanghai, he participated in many competitions. When he was in elementary school, he participated in an Olympiad with Bai Luochuan. Later, when he entered junior high school, he became self-aware and stopped participating in those competitions. He turned his attention to doing handicrafts.
He was not that passionate about mathematics, but later he saw that there was an airplane modeling team in the school. He was quite fond of this kind of delicate work, so he joined them to participate in several competitions with only one goal, to win a prize. The ranking was not important, because their school had a rule that students who won provincial awards would receive bonuses, and part of the tuition would be waived based on the comprehensive score of the year.
Mi Yang took part in the competition in the second semester of his senior year this year, for no other reason than the bonus and exemption.
The tuition fee of this school is too expensive.
Although Mi Zehai and Cheng Qing have a decent income, they have a younger sister at home. Cheng Qing recently wants to buy out the current pharmacy, and there are many places that need money, so there is no harm in saving money.
Mi Yang participated in more competitions in school, and he gained some popularity over the years, but he was still far behind Bai Luochuan, a famous person in the school. A big part of the reason why everyone remembered him was because he was "Bai Luochuan's younger brother."
Young Master Bai has grown up a few years, but he is still very protective of himself when he is outside. His territory is clearly divided, and the people in his territory are kept within the range that he can reach with his hands and feet. No one can touch them, and he is extremely protective of them.
Thanks to him, Mi Yang was never bullied until he was about to graduate from junior high school, but he didn't make many friends at school either.
After the model aircraft competition, Mi Yang's team won a second prize. Because the level of the competition was relatively high, everyone was very happy to get second place. The teacher took them out for a meal to celebrate and ordered a shabu-shabu hotpot.
Many students cannot eat spicy food, but Mi Yang likes it very much, especially the duck blood in it, which is very tender. After being blanched in the red soup for a while, you can eat it when it rolls and floats up. It is spicy, fresh and fragrant, and melts in your mouth.
Mi Yang ate half a plate himself and felt very satisfied.
The classmate next to him was stunned and said, "I thought you only liked sweet food, but I didn't expect you can eat spicy food so well?"
Mi Yang remembered the sweet party character he had shouldered for Master Bai, and smiled, "I'm not picky about food, they're all delicious."
After dinner, Mi Yang asked for leave from his teacher and went to Bai Luochuan.
Bai Luochuan's game will not end for another two days, which happens to be on Friday and Saturday. It would be just right for him to go back on Sunday so as not to delay his classes on Monday.
When Mi Yang got up to leave, a piece of news flashed on the TV hanging in the hot pot restaurant. The report of a man in white clothes and fully armed pushing an emergency patient only lasted for more than a minute and did not attract everyone's attention.
Mi Yang bent down to pick up his scarf and hat. He did not see the news. He wrapped himself in his down jacket, stood at the door of the hotel and hailed a taxi. He looked outside through the taxi window. Beijing was still very cold in early spring. The hot air he exhaled quickly condensed into a small piece of mist on the car window.
When Mi Yang got there, he called Bai Luochuan in the lobby. Master Bai came down quickly to claim him, and took him to a room. While carrying his suitcase upstairs, he asked, "Is it cold outside?"
Mi Yang still had his hands in his pockets, his scarf covering half of his face as he said, "Not bad."
Bai Luochuan glanced at him and smiled: "Why are you still so afraid of the cold? Turn on the air conditioner and it will be warm."
Bai Luochuan had deliberately chosen a room on the same floor as his own, and he had no intention of leaving. It was only after his classmates repeatedly knocked on the door and called him that he reluctantly went out. After standing at the door and whispering to both sides, he frowned and agreed, "I know, I'll be there in a moment."
He came back to get his coat and room card, and said to Mi Yang: "I will be back later. The teacher asked us to go over to discuss the questions. There will be experimental questions tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, so we need to make some more preparations."
Mi Yang said: "Okay."
Bai Luochuan walked to both sides, then turned back and said to him, "If you are tired, go to sleep first. I have asked someone to bring another quilt. You can open the door later and let him make it for you."
Mi Yang was sitting in the room wearing a thick sweater, holding a cup of hot water which had warmed him up a lot. He smiled and nodded when he heard it: "I know."