Tao Zhi didn't stay with Jiang Qihuai for too long.
After she learned about those things, she just wanted to see him, look at him, and tell him that she would always be here.
When people saw him, Tao Zhi hesitated for a moment, thinking that there was no need to tell him these things, she didn't want to bring any unnecessary and useless pressure to Jiang Qihuai.
She just pretended she didn't know anything.
And Tao Xiuping's reaction was within the range she could understand.
Tao Zhi has great confidence that he can persuade Tao Xiuping. After all, no matter what the matter is, Tao Xiuping will almost always follow her thoughts and acquiesce in any decision she makes.
She went home wearing Jiang Qihuai's coat, and as soon as she got out of the car, she saw Ji Fan jumping back and forth at the gate of the community, jumping around.
She closed the car door, just as Ji Fan raised his head.
The boy frowned and looked impatient: "I've been waiting for you for a long time, why are you so slow."
Tao Zhi glanced at him: "Why did you come out?"
"Dad asked me to come out to find you. He originally wanted to come out by himself, but he didn't want to quarrel with you because of this matter today," Ji Fan glanced back and forth at the coat that obviously didn't belong to her, raised his eyebrows, "Sneak in on the secret?"
Tao Zhi also raised his eyebrows: "Why didn't you follow me because you were so afraid of my informant?"
Ji Fan waved his hand and walked into the community: "I'm not that interested in making light bulbs, although I probably know where his home is, but it's near the place where you suddenly got off the car at the last sports meeting?"
Tao Zhi paused: "Does Dad know too?"
"...Old Tao is not a fool," Ji Fan sighed, "He just took out Jiang Qihuai's old bottom, and the details are like resumes and his life. How can he not know such little things, and that The house seems to be rented, and his family has no money to buy a house in the imperial capital."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at Tao Zhi.
The girl looked indifferent, and Ji Fan continued: "Anyway, you think, as long as our family has the money to buy it."
"It's just that we may have to fight a protracted war with old man Tao," Tao Zhi said, suddenly hooked Ji Fan's neck and pulled him down, and asked worriedly: "Ji Xiaofan, just in case, I'd better ask , are you on my side?"
Ji Fan was pulled down by her and bowed down, and said frankly: "To be honest, I plan to stand on Dad's side."
Tao Zhi grinned and strangled his neck: "Say it again! Say it again!"
Ji Fan coughed twice, and tried his best to drill down: "I'm telling the truth! Although I don't get along well with Jiang Qihuai for some reason, but to be fair and objective, he is indeed good. If his family just If you are poorer, then I don’t think it’s okay for you to talk to him, it’s forced to work like this, and the conditions will not be bad in the future.”
"But after reading those things today, I actually don't really support them anymore," Ji Fan broke free from her clutches, looked at Tao Zhi and said, "Although Lao Tao's thoughts are a little cruel. I'm a little selfish, but there are reasons for it. To put it bluntly, how capable is our family? It's just an ordinary family with relatively better conditions. You said Jiang Qihuai, the scumbag father who suffered a thousand knives, Can Lao Tao get people into trouble again or let him disappear without a sound? It’s impossible. It’s not acting in a TV series, let him disappear from this world within ten numbers? It’s impossible.”
Tao Zhi lowered his eyes and said nothing, Ji Fan continued: "So the only thing Lao Tao can do now is to protect you as much as possible and keep you away from such uncertain factors. Jiang Qihuai is innocent and a victim , but everyone's first consideration will not be other people's children, but only their own relatives, this is human nature."
"The child I love and love grows up to like the son of a gnawing murderer. If you think about it, would you support it? He just respects your ideas no matter how selfless he is. No parent can accept it."
"Also, Lao Tao is a rationalist, don't you know after all these years?"
Ji Fan's voice suddenly dropped: "He likes his mother so much. At that time, his mother and career, didn't he choose a career in the end? Perhaps for him, love is not a necessity of life. You expect the protagonist to be replaced by Without you, can he suddenly change his mind?"
impossible.
Tao Zhi couldn't think of a single rebuttal.
What Ji Fan said is the truth, Tao Zhi has a subversive personality, and will rush forward regardless of what he believes in. This character is completely inherited from Tao Xiuping. Ji Jin used to jokingly say that the boys in the family are not like their father, but the girls are.
It doesn't matter if he is firm or stubborn, but since he has made a decision, even if there is a mountain in front of him, Tao Zhi insists on digging a path through the mountain.
Tao Zhi had already decided to argue with Tao Xiuping for reason, and he had drafted three thousand times in his mind, but Tao Xiuping didn't come to her to talk about this matter again.
What should he do as if nothing happened, Tao Zhi felt a little uneasy.
No matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't figure out what kind of tricks the old agent was planning.
She simply put this matter aside temporarily and put all her energy on the exam.
At the beginning of January, the exam results came out.
The test paper this time is generally a little more difficult than the last time. Tao Zhi's total score remained unchanged at 580, but his ranking in the school year was slightly raised by a dozen.
Before the exam, she was obviously very anxious, as if every exam was a battlefield, and every battle she had to rush to prove something, but now, Tao Zhi suddenly calmed down again.
Compared with some things, grades are really the simplest and most honest thing.
How much you give, it will give back to you, fair and calm, different from everything else.
You work so hard in this world, but you still can't see any rewards and there are so many bright things.
But Jiang Qihuai has been struggling with this fact day after day without faith in his fate.
Tao Zhi's nose suddenly felt sore, she turned her head and looked at the young man sitting at the back table.
Noticing her turning around, Jiang Qihuai raised his head.
Tao Zhi propped his head and looked at him quietly, not knowing what he was thinking about, a little distracted.
Jiang Qihuai closed the test paper.
A slight sound brought Tao Zhi back to her senses, and after a brief moment of daze, she showed a smiling face, lowered her body, and lay lazily on his desk, looking at him.
Jiang Qihuai was stared at by her for a while before asking: "What are you looking at?"
"Look at my handsome first-grade boyfriend." Tao Zhi said generously.
"..."
Ji Fan couldn't bear this kind of blatant show of affection, he rolled his eyes, made a knife in his hand, hung it on his neck, and made a gesture of wiping his neck.
Tao Zhi completely pretended that he didn't exist, she stretched her hand under the table, sneakily, and tapped lightly on his knee with her fingertips in a concealed manner.
Jiang Qihuai also stretched out his hand.
Everyone in the classroom was discussing the grades that had just come out. Li Shuangjiang was running in the aisle between the two rows of desks, roaring with remorse because he sloppily painted two wrong answers on the answer sheet. people pay attention.
Tao Zhi groped, and slowly grabbed his fingers.
She squeezed his fingertips lightly, then winked at him.
Jiang Qihuai pursed his lips.
During this period of time, although Tao Zhi tried his best to make himself look the same as usual, the girl was obviously much quieter than before.
Gone is the noisy and tossing look before, and more often, she just looks at him in a daze for a while.
The uneasiness in Jiang Qihuai's heart spread little by little.
He is actually a very selfish person, probably because of his nature or instinct. Since he was a child, he doesn't seem to have the quality of "kindness". No matter what the situation is, as long as he and Jiang Qinghe are not involved, he can stand on the sidelines.
As for Tao Zhi, even though he knew it was wrong, even though she had seen the scene, he still didn't dare to tell her anything.
Jiang Qinghe is his relative, a family member, and a bond of blood, but Tao Zhi is not.
Since she can approach, she can also choose to leave.
A little bit of sin and dark psychology is at work, Jiang Qihuai doesn't have that confidence, Tao Zhi knows everything, after knowing him and the blood-related mess behind him, is he still willing to be like this again? , smiling at him.
He has very few things, so even if there is a slight possibility, he doesn't want to take the risk.
He wanted to be a little selfish one last time, desperate to hold on to that light that squeezed in through the crack.
Tao Xiuping not only pretended not to intervene on the surface, after that night, not only did he not mention it again, he even did not restrict Tao Zhi in action, except for the night access control.
Tao Zhi wanted to tell him about it several times, but he couldn't get it right.
If you talk about it, there is a high probability that you will be opposed.
But if we don’t talk about it, it’s buried there like a bomb. I don’t know if it will explode someday if the lead is pulled.
On Saturday night, when the tutor was out of class, she sent Jiang Qihuai a message in advance.
He also had tutoring on Saturday, and it was going to be very late when he returned home. Tao Xiuping was not at home that night, and Ji Fan also ate and played with friends from the former high school. No one was watching, and Tao Zhi couldn't stay idle anymore. She was going to Jiang Qihuai's house to have dinner with Grandpa Jiang.
The old man stays at home alone during the day, and Jiang Qihuai has that kind of boring personality, and he is bored when he has no one to chat with.
She said hello to Aunt Zhang, picked out a bright coat and went out, and took a taxi there.
It was after five o'clock in the evening when we got off the car. Grandpa Jiang probably hadn't started cooking at this point. Tao Zhi ran to the small supermarket nearby to buy some beef and fruit, and turned into the small alley with the bag.
The scenery around Jiang Qihuai's house is completely different from that of Tao Zhi's house. The buildings are not high, five or six stories high, and there are long small alleys for two people every few shops on the street. .
There are crystal icicles hanging on the wall, and the discarded old bicycles and cardboard boxes piled up in high piles are covered with thick snow and buried below.
Tao Zhi walked through the long alley and walked downstairs in the community, and heard a little rustling in front of him.
She walked around the bicycle shed and saw two figures in front of her.
The gray-haired old man fell and lay curled up on the snow, and another person beside him was squatting in front of him.
At first glance, Tao Zhi thought someone had fallen and another was helping, until she recognized the old man as Grandpa Jiang.
And the other squatting next to him was the man from before, wearing a black down jacket. The man was cursing and swearing, and his frozen hands kept searching inside and out of the old man.
Tao Zhi almost subconsciously took a half step back.
The soles of the shoes made a slight "creak" sound when they stepped on the fluffy snow, and the man turned his head instantly, his eyes under the streetlight were cold and gloomy.
It was different from the usual fights in school, and completely different from those small fights that caused trouble. Tao Zhi realized this in an instant.
In front of him is an adult criminal, in his eyes, Tao Zhi can't even feel any human nature, only crazy and paranoid desires.
Her whole body seemed to be frozen in place, her blood was coagulated, and her teeth were trembling uncontrollably.
She put her hands in her pockets calmly, her fingers trembling so much that she could hardly touch the phone in her pockets.
Jiang Zhi looked at her with great interest, and after a few seconds, he recognized her: "Are you the little girl from last time?"
Tao Zhi bit his lips, trying to make his voice sound calmer: "I have already called the police, and the police are coming, you should leave now."
"Oh," Jiang Zhi sneered, and said coldly, "I'm scared to death."
"You can just say what you want," she tried to delay as long as possible, "there's no need to hurt people."
"What does it matter to you that I handle housework? Little girl, don't look for trouble to be a hero."
In the snow, Jiang Qinghe uttered an extremely weak, painful moan. He tried to stand up while supporting the ground, struggling very weakly.
Jiang Zhi turned his head back again, he put his knee against the old man's arm to restrict his movement, covered his mouth with his hand, and said hoarsely, "You old man, if you are honest, hurry up and die!"
Jiang Qinghe bit his hand.
The man uttered a painful scream: "Ah—"
In the dim environment, Tao Zhi couldn't see his movements clearly, and could only hear the muffled sound of the down jacket colliding with his body.
Jiang Qinghe turned his head with great effort, and the moment his eyes met hers, Tao Zhi saw his eyes clearly.
he is crying.
The gentle and kind Grandpa Jiang can cook delicious chicken wings for her to eat, laugh when she listens to her talk, likes to read books, and also likes to play chess.
He is the most precious person in Jiang Qihuai's life.
Tao Zhi gritted her teeth firmly, and didn't care about delaying time, she ran over almost without thinking about it.
The two bags in her hand were thrown on the ground, she rushed straight over, kicked the man away with all her strength, then ran to the old man, struggling to help him to move forward.
Unprepared, Jiang Zhi was kicked to the ground by her kick, and he fell into the snowdrift, struggling to stand up with a series of obscenities in his mouth. Tao Zhi couldn't bear the weight of two people alone, so she fell to the ground and looked at the man who was approaching step by step.
He looked at her condescendingly: "I'm only looking for this old man alone. I don't want to cause trouble, and you don't want to trouble me either. Get out of the way."
Tao Zhi hugged Jiang Qinghe tightly, threw himself on him, protected him, and stared at him motionless.
Jiang Zhi let out a "tsk", he seemed to suddenly become irritable, and his whole body began to lose control, he raised his foot and said viciously: "Why do you have the same eyes as that dead child—"
Tao Zhi closed his eyes.
"Exactly the same—"
The sharp and heavy pain hit the back and the back of the head with the scolding, and her arm was pulled, but she didn't let go, like a solid wall, stubbornly blocking the old man.
All the fruits in the bag were spilled, large and bright strawberries were crushed, and the juice mixed with it seeped into the snow, and the snow was dyed into small patches of light red.
The sweet taste of blood spread in his mouth like rust, Tao Zhi gritted his teeth, counting the time every minute.
At a certain moment, she vaguely heard the sound of chaotic footsteps coming from the entrance of the alley, and the sound of police sirens coming from far and near. The man's lost sanity seemed to come back suddenly. He took two steps back, and then ran out in a hurry.
Shouts, struggles, police sirens and footsteps, all mixed together, Tao Zhi raised his head with difficulty, and saw a figure running towards her.
The man moved lightly, picked her up carefully, enveloped by the familiar aura, Tao Zhi sniffed, tightly clenched his sleeve with his fingers, and said anxiously: "Grandpa, grandpa..."
"Grandpa is fine," the young man's voice was hoarse and his breathing was a little short. His warm palm was pressed against her face, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably, "Zhi Zhi is fine."
Tao Zhi felt relieved, let out a long breath, smiled, pulled the corners of her mouth, and even the roots of her ears were numb with pain: "It's agreed, I will protect you."
She said softly and softly, "I will protect Ah Huai and the people who are important to Ah Huai."