When Shi Ci got home, it was already a quarter past nine. The car that Tang Zuo was riding in also arrived at its destination. Shi Ci curled his lips, paid the bill, and walked into the living room.
There was no one in the living room. The bag she had casually placed there was still in the corner of the sofa. She went over to pick it up and prepared to go upstairs to her room. There was only a dim light on in the corridor, and there was a figure standing there. Shi Ci walked over.
"Aunt Ma?" Shi Ci greeted softly.
Ms. Ma Lanyin smiled at her and gestured to the side hall with her eyes. Then Ms. Ding's voice came from the side hall.
"I know you didn't mean it, but think about it, the book I recommended to you before - The Great Gatsby? Do you remember what his father said at the beginning of the book?"
From the angle of the glass door, you can see Lu Mixue pouting her lips. Obviously she remembered it, but she didn't want to talk about it.
"Whenever you want to criticize anyone, you have to remember that not everyone in this world has the same advantages as you do." Ms. Ding said calmly, looking into her eyes. "No matter what, you can't say that about Xiao Tang today. You said she's poor? That's very uncultured."
"You all stand on her side, Mom, Auntie, and Shi Hai!" Lu Mixue said unwillingly.
"No, we stand by you." Ms. Ding said in a serious tone, "Do we watch you become an uncultured, bad-mouthed child without warning you and even praise you for doing a good job? This is standing by you? Your mother and I are not such elders."
Lu Michelle was silent.
Hearing this, Shi Ci's eyes darkened. Ms. Ma lowered her eyes and sighed slightly. Shi Ci didn't listen to Ms. Ding's lecture anymore. She nodded to Ms. Ma, turned around and went upstairs.
Lu Mixue suppressed her voice, "I don't like Shi Hai paying so much attention to her. I can feel that Shi Hai treats her differently. I, okay, I admit that I am jealous of her."
Seeing that she admitted it, Ms. Ding's tone became a little more relaxed. "Liking someone doesn't mean you have to belittle another person. Besides, if you do this, it will only make Xiaohai more dissatisfied with you."
"We all know that if Xiao Hai wasn't there, you wouldn't say such things to Xiao Tang. Your mother and I know your character, but since you've said it, shouldn't we have the courage to admit that we were wrong?"
After a while, Lu Mixue came out. She pouted and looked at Ms. Ma. Ms. Ma touched her head. Lu Mixue hugged her before leaving.
Ms. Ma walked in, Ms. Ding patted the sofa, and she walked over to her and sat down.
The two sat in silence for a few seconds.
"Being a parent is so hard." Ms. Ma sighed first.
"Isn't it?" Ms. Ding echoed, "You can't hit me, you can't scold me."
"It can't be taken lightly, nor can it be taken seriously."
"Annoying and loving."
"The more I love you, the more annoying I become."
"Hahaha." Both of them laughed.
"What exactly happened?" Ms. Ding looked at her old friend and asked.
"Mike and I have agreed to divorce," Ms. Ma said calmly.
Ms. Ding said calmly, "Is it irreparable?"
"We haven't had anything to say to each other for a long time, especially this year. Both sides have a tacit understanding that we should not see each other if we can. We can't pretend even for Michelle, and Michelle knows it. So she is deliberately making us angry a lot of the time."
Ms. Ding said, “What can I do to help you?”
Ms. Ma smiled gently and gratefully, "Thank you, I don't need to trouble you, but I have to undergo a minor surgery recently..." Before she finished speaking, Ms. Ding interrupted her, "What surgery?"
"It's a phyllodes tumor of the breast," said Ms. Ma. "It's not serious, it's benign. But I may not be able to take care of Michelle for a while. Mike doesn't know about it. His business is in Australia, and his mother is not in good health and needs him recently."
Ms. Ding didn't wait for her to finish and said, "Please leave Michelle with me. Is it too late to transfer her to another school now?"
"There's no need to transfer schools. I've talked to her class teacher and found her a full-time tutoring institution. She's preparing to apply to the school and can go back after taking the mock exam," said Ms. Ma.
"That's it. Don't worry."
"Thanks a lot."
Ms. Ding patted Ms. Ma's hand, and everything was said without words.
At breakfast the next day, Ms. Ding announced in front of everyone that Michelle Lu would live at home from now on.
Shi Hai was about to explode when he heard this, "What?"
Lu Mixue was also a little surprised, but she knew something beforehand, and now that the news was confirmed, she smiled happily, "I know, Aunt Ding, I will be good."
Shi Ci just raised her eyebrows, without any extra expression, and drank her coffee.
Shi Hai looked at Lu Michelle, then at Ms. Ding, and then at Ms. Ma. He knew that the matter was done and there was no room for negotiation. He had no choice but to sit down and mutter, "At worst, I won't come back!"
"Can I come to see you? You are free today, can you take me to see Ruda?"
"No." Shi Hai refused expressionlessly.
"Xiao Hai, just take Michelle to have a look." Ms. Ding advised.
"I'm busy." Shi Hai said impatiently.
"Then I'll stay home with you?"
"Then I'll go back to school."
…
Ms. Ding broke the deadlock, "Okay, okay, since Michelle wants to visit NDU, why don't you take her there, Shi Ci? You have to go back to school today anyway."
Shi Ci did not respond immediately, but glanced at Lu Mixue with the corner of his eye. Lu Mixue sat up straight suddenly, revealing an unnaturally obedient look, "Don't bother me, sister. It's so hot, and I don't want to go out."
Shi Ci smiled slightly, but still said nothing. As soon as other topics were interrupted at the dinner table, the matter was over.
Lu Michelle ate breakfast, occasionally playing with Shi Hai, and occasionally secretly glancing at Shi Ci. The Shi family was actually very close to hers, and she felt very comfortable in this family, but there was one person she absolutely did not dare to provoke, and that was the eldest daughter of the family, the eldest sister—Shi Ci.
When Lu Michelle was a child, she often stayed at Shi's house. At that time, Shi Ci had gone abroad, so they had no chance to meet. Until one day, Shi Ci went home for vacation. It happened that Shi Hai was bullied by her during that time and often had nightmares. Shi Ci knew about this. One day, when they were alone at home, Lu Michelle grabbed her collar and hung her high before she could show her cuteness to her, and walked to the backyard.
At that time, there was a large water tank in the backyard, which was filled with water and housed a large turtle. When she was little, Michelle Lu had not yet learned how to swim and was afraid of turtles.
Shi Ci ignored her screams and hung her in the air. She watched the water rising up her legs inch by inch. The big turtle swam up and tried to bite her feet.
"Will you dare to bully Shi Hai again?"
"Woo woo woo, I dare not dare."
"Do what you say, you know what I mean?"
“Woohoo, woohoo, I get it.”
Shi Ci held her with one hand, her face facing his terrified face, but she didn't look guilty at all. Instead, she had a faint smile on her face, and her tone was not fierce at all, but gentle like the wind.
When Lu Michelle grew up, she was not afraid of any horror movies. Shi Ci had played a big role in that. So she dared to mess around with anyone in the Shi family, but she would always behave herself in front of Shi Ci. She and Shi Ci had only met a few times in these years, and they had never had any conflicts. They were considered to be at peace, except for last night. After chatting with Aunt Ding, she returned to her room. She thought about it and felt a little sorry. She didn't want Shi Hai to have a bad impression of her. She wanted to go and talk to Shi Hai, but he refused to open the door.
It was Shi Ci who opened the door in the other room. Shi Ci leaned against the door and smiled at her, "Want to chat?" Lu Mixue felt the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stand up uncontrollably.
The chat last night was actually one-sided on Shi Ci's part. She said, "Tang Zhuo is Shi Hai's friend. To be more precise, he is also a very important friend of mine. Do you understand what I mean?"
Michelle touched the back of her neck and glanced at Shi Ci secretly. She was now curious. What charm did Tang Zuo have that could make him an important friend of Shi Ci
In early September, the arrival of White Dew took away a lot of the summer heat, and the mornings and evenings began to turn cooler. On the way to class in the morning, you need to add a thin knitted cardigan on your shoulders.
Tang Zhuo likes to get up early and go to the lakeside of the school to read, listen to listening, practice speaking, and accumulate language. She has passed the three written and three oral exams of CATTI in the first half of the year. In any case, this is really a happy thing. Zhang Zinan is as happy as if she had passed.
Tang Zhuo was also very happy. She hesitated for a while, and finally sent a message to Shi Ci. After she called, she felt a little regretful. Shi Ci was such an amazing person, what was her little achievement in front of her? But she just wanted to share it with her.
Tang Zhuo realized that Shi Ci's position in her heart was becoming more and more important. She regarded her as a friend, a teacher, and secretly regarded her as a sister in her heart. This was her secret that she had not told anyone else.
Shi Ci was very busy at the beginning of the semester. She seemed to be attending some kind of international symposium on operations research and its applications. Tang Zhuo looked it up and found out the full name of the conference, which was held in Wancheng. She was so busy that she naturally had no time to supervise Shi Hai's studies. However, at the beginning of the new semester, she and Shi Hai had another person, Lu Mixue, tutoring them.
Tang Zuo was surprised that Lu Michelle sincerely apologized to her the second time they met. Tang Zuo accepted it and would show her the questions during tutoring. Lu Michelle was very measured and serious in class. During breaks, Shi Hai couldn't talk to her at all. It was hard for him to deal with Lu Michelle.
"Very impressive. Take a picture and show it to me. It will really open my eyes." Shi Ci replied on WeChat after a while.
Tang Zhuo pursed his lips and smiled. He glanced at the time. It was nine o'clock. He then selected a screenshot of his grades that he had taken earlier from his photo album and sent it over, adding, "It's nothing."
"I don't know much about this, but your comprehensive and practical scores for the three-level Chinese language test were both over 80, and your comprehensive and practical scores for the three-level oral exam were both over 70. I checked, and this is amazing!" The sentence ended with an emoji expression of a person covering his face in surprise.
Tang Zhuo couldn't stand her compliment. She thought for a moment and changed the subject, "Are you in a meeting?"
"Just entered, not started yet, all day long is meetings."
"Thank you for your hard work. Do you want to speak?"
"Um."
The conversation stopped here and Tang Zuo felt embarrassed to continue.
She wanted to take a break first, so she switched her mp3 player from language data to music. She opened the song that had been on repeat for the past few days, "Autumn would be wonderful. If you were still here, the autumn wind would be beautiful even if it was chilly..."
There is fresh water vapor in the morning by the lake, a bit of the freshness of early autumn, and the lake water and the sky above are the same blue.
It's a beautiful morning.
The author has something to say: You can say that I write slowly, but you can't say that my rhythm is slow. The character is here, and it is important to get the rhythm right.
Most of this chapter was written on the high-speed train, and tomorrow's chapter will probably be written late as well.
Oh, I almost forgot to say that the rhetoric style used by younger people is a bit rough and should not be learned.
Also, the CATTI exams in the first half of the year are usually registered in April and the exams are held in May. The results will be released about two months after the exams, but it will take a long time to get the certificate (sometimes it will take a year). The time for the results to be released has been delayed for the sake of the plot.
I will continue tomorrow, muah. Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angel who cast [deepwater torpedo]: baymoo5 1;
Thanks to the little angel who threw the [shallow water bomb]: abc 3;
Thanks to the little angels who cast [bazooka]: g, Wei Huang'er, I want to drink oolong milk tea today, Suzie the cutie, a small dried fish, lc, Yiyi, Fu Ermosi, Lin Xiaozong, Linghan, Smile without words, Jixia Academy, sixty, Yi Yong1;
Thanks to the little angels who threw the [grenade]: Bubble Teapot, 33582420, Yuanxing Jingxiong, Junior Sister, Su Ye. , 35695028, Student Shen Runfu, Vickrys, Patrick and SpongeBob, Gu Jijij, Fox's Window, Fuqiangjun, kenq, Muxiao, 50-1, 1 Supreme Treasure;
Thanks to the little angels who cast [mines]: 20 purple lights; 6 old Wu; 35695028, 4 five-meter vectors; 3 a moment; 2 also Ansheng, the immortal chasing dreams, and 2 clouds deep and knowing places; 1uckyyy, devil., pink salmon, only one bowl of rice for dinner, one house, two children, three meals, four seasons, blue cat, kiwi fruit is not strange, Boston biscuits, lime soda, snail Tongtong, boss ten beef skewers, love to read, dawn-captai, 25506137, black mouth dog, 36274737, ya:, the sun shines in the sky, Ji Xi, walking in the sun, vermouth-nymph, Mu Linda, fysfleurir, x, north, 36303886, r omeo, Scorpio tail ring, passers-by are just passing by, raising lambs, Susie the cutie, lonely forest hermit, carmen, cho, small barrel, sin768584, nico, Mo Dao Wuxin, 20345209, Mu Xiao, old flower seller, what does the polar bear drink, oha, can't name, an inflated cat, Feihua Lage Qingli, Wang, joycewu510, squid shreds, a salted fish mink that can chirp, veggieg, name r, yo yo yo yo, 1 wood student;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
Squid Shreds 122 bottles; Jiang Han 77 bottles; Feihua Lage Qingli 72 bottles; 35265824 66 bottles; kk3. 62 bottles; Yingjunzhu, Eryuan 60 bottles; Jiusan Society 50 bottles; Lala La 48 bottles; I Want to Drink Oolong Milk Tea Today 46 bottles; Lion 45 bottles; Purple Fantasy Dream Shadow 44 bottles; Lonely Forest Monk 42 bottles; Universe Peace Card 36 bottles; It's Me 34 bottles; The Pianist on the Sea 0107, Chen Jieyi, Hua Qizhuo 32 bottles; Cangyan, September's Early Autumn, All Kinds 28 bottles; Asahi Sky 25 bottles; I'm Tired and Go to Bed, Baymoo5, Hello World! Goodbye World! 22 bottles; The Vast World 1, Whiskey, 17642645, The Little Eunuch of the East Factory, Sterol, Loki, Wen Qiu, Little Garbage, LX, Tian Nai, Your Sister My Second Room, Yuan Yi Baichuan, JR, Midorikawa Yuki, Kenq, WW, Fish, Fu Qiang Jun, This Time, The Second Ring Road Speeding Young Master, Jat, They Said, Tooyunii, Rainy Night Cangmin, Hee Hee, 20 bottles; Blindness, The Emoji Is Also Desperate 18 bottles; Please Call Me 3+2 Jun 15 bottles; Nini, Ulala, On the Road, Peach Little Milk Candy, Only Eat One Bowl of Rice for Dinner, Little Flower Sister, YA:, Dawn of the Blue Sky, October_Z., What Are You Looking At 12 bottles; Fan Zai, Carmen, Jixia Academy, Cheng Hong, TS, General Social Animal, Mumu, Baibaibaibai, Etoh, 23666077, Rice. , googor, Wuyan, Keyu, Xiaonaofu?, 18340821108, foehn, 24818707, I don't care about humans tonight, Si Si, Peng Zisi, Ye Zang, dozing off in boredom, guess what, Ju Ze, ethereal, dae, Daquan 10 bottles; Qingyou 9 bottles; Milk Shop, Lu Cong Jinye Bai, Rongyin Yingying 8 bottles; Fu Sheng Ruo Meng, woc, 21, jessie 7 bottles; 30793770, 11608911, Leng Fei 6 bottles; Yun, Sanqian, echo, Lily is a lie of Kyoto Animation, rekcus, I heard it will rain tomorrow, Clouds turn into rain in the empty mountain, Cen Zixi, Fraudster, That's all, bearl, 6, wowllivander, From water to wood, 24968751, The night is cool as water, Lanlan just wants to shake her head,嶺, Flying fish, Yu Chumo 5 bottles; Hahaha 4 bottles; Qinglin 3 bottles; Oh, Judy, Never forget anyone, Gao Yihan, Love to read texts, Yunling of the ten thousand year general attack, A small shrimp, 31729411 2 bottles; Wang, Seventeen, Occasionally make a bubble, Yimo, Smooth sailing 213, g, Walking in the sun, 34843831, A grain of popcorn, Suye. , Milk Salt Xiaobai, Mr. Neurotic, Junior Sister, Yoyoyoyoyoyo, The Beginning of Light, 22126250, Twenty-Seven, baaboo, 19873991, 35925261 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!