After registering and receiving the school uniform, everything was fine. The two of them found a nearby bus stop to take a bus home. As soon as Feng Ning appeared at the entrance of Yujiang Alley, a large yellow dog rushed out and entangled her legs.
Shuang Yao turned around and jumped up the stairs in fear, her face flushed and she screamed, "Quick, get your dog away from me!"
"Oh, my dear baby, my little sweetheart." Feng Ning squatted down and snored loudly, "Let's go home."
The big yellow dog jumped on its hind legs happily and tried to pounce on her.
Feng Ning quickly stood up and used his feet to pull Bei Bei away, "Hey, stop it, you've made my clothes dirty."
"Shuangyao, Sister Xiaoning—"
They both looked up. The walls were covered with black electric wires. The dried radishes and cabbages hung on the clothesline fluttered in the wind. Zhao Weichen looked down from the second-floor balcony. "Have you signed up?"
Feng Ning shouted to him from a distance, "Yes, school starts tomorrow. Is my birthday gift to you decent?"
"Yes, thank you Sister Xiao Ning!"
"You're so stupid." Shuang Yao squatted down and whispered teasingly, "If Xiao Zhao knew that you picked up the clothes for free..."
"Shh! Don't do that." Feng Ning made a gesture to silence him, "What if this unfortunate kid closes his eyes and jumps down from the second floor?"
They both laughed at the same time.
The three of them all lived in Yujiang Lane and grew up together. Zhao Weichen admired Feng Ning very much. According to him, Feng Ning was the most special girl he had ever seen in his life. If you were to ask what was special about her, he couldn't tell you exactly, but his eyes sparkled and he was very arrogant: "You will know if you stay with her for a long time, my little sister Ning is a wonderful woman!"
Shuangyao told Fengning the story, and the strange woman laughed non-stop.
It was almost noon. The aroma of shredded pork with green peppers wafted from somewhere in the alley, and the loud voice of an old lady from the neighborhood committee came from the courtyard gate.
Shuang Yao turned around and asked, "By the way, are you still selling wine at cousin Xiao Zhao's place? School has already started, so just quit."
Feng Ning didn't care at all. "Just do it for a few more months. It's just on weekends anyway. It's quite relaxing and it won't affect my studies."
"You are so young, but you are obsessed with money? You are Grandet's biological daughter, right? I will kill you with my money."
"I have to save more money to support my mother." Feng Ning avoided her serious expression, "My health has been poor to begin with, and my previous illness might come back again."
Shuang Yao was slightly startled. Feng Ning had been precocious since childhood, not innocent, not romantic, and was more self-centered most of the time, but he was the most sensible and ambitious one among them.
When I looked up again, she had already run to the front with the big yellow dog, bouncing and waving at me, "Let's go to school together at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning!"
When I got home, Aunt Li, who was helping with cooking at the mahjong parlor, was washing fish in the yard. She saw Feng Ning and greeted her, "Ning Ning, you're back. Today, Aunt Li will make you fish head and tofu soup. It's fresh wild fish!"
"Okay, where's my mom?"
“Making dumplings.”
Gently kicking away the big dog circling around his feet, Feng Ning threw away his schoolbag and walked into the kitchen leisurely, "Ms. Qi, why do you want to cook today?"
Qi Lan stopped what she was doing and sighed slightly, "My daughter is going to school tomorrow, and I'll be the only one left at home."
"I don't know how happy they are." Feng Ning rolled up her hair, put her hands under the sink to rinse, picked up the rolling pin beside her and started to roll out the dough. "Shuangyao's mother, Xiao Zhao's aunt, and the women from the next street, don't they come to you at a fixed time every day to report?"
The water on the stove was bubbling. Qi Lan looked at her sadly, "If you don't have enough money, remember to call me. Don't cause trouble at school. Be nice to the teacher. Wash your underwear every day. Also, when are you going to move your luggage?"
The TV outside was playing Chibi Maruko-chan. The short-haired Maruko kept saying, "I thought it was still early for summer." Feng Ning watched it with great interest, and hummed twice, "I'm not a child anymore. I can take care of myself. Brother Mo and the others will help me move my luggage this afternoon."
"What?!" Qi Lan turned around and glared at her. In a rage, she yelled at the top of her voice, "Do you want me to stop hanging out with those people from East Street and ignore my words?"
Feng Ning quickly took a small step aside, fearing that she would get stuck in a rut again, "I didn't hang out with them, I just played with Brother Mo, Meng Hanmo, didn't you watch him grow up?"
"Don't think I don't know anything." Qi Lan scolded her daughter and couldn't help but feel sad again, "Mom didn't have time to take care of you before. Fortunately, you were obedient and didn't learn bad things from anyone. Otherwise, you wouldn't have an explanation when you die and see your dad."
"Mom, please don't say such things. It makes me feel uncomfortable."
Although Feng Ning sometimes behaves in a bad way, she is always a good child in front of her mother.
Aunt Li brought in a pot of shrimps and smiled at the situation. "What's wrong? Are you arguing again?"
Qi Lan shook her head repeatedly.
Feng Ning racked his brains to coax Qi Lan for a long time, and finally she almost calmed down.
Seeing that his mother was still in a bad mood, Feng Ning put down the rolling pin and raised three fingers seriously, "I swear, I will study hard in school, get into the best university in three years, and bring honor to our Feng family."
Qide is a boarding school that stands out among the colleges in the south city and is a well-deserved top school. Because the number of new students admitted each year is limited, most of the students here are directly admitted from the junior high school of the school. However, in order to attract the best students and ensure the enrollment rate, the school will waive tuition fees for a very small number of quota students every year.
Feng Ning is one of them.
The day before school started, a long line of shiny luxury cars were parked in front of the school gate, most of them were there to help the children check in.
Feng Ning was wearing a cartoon T-shirt and black denim shorts that she bought from a street stall. She was carrying things up and down the dormitory building by herself. When she got tired, she would stop on the steps and pat her waist. Chibi Maruko-chan was smiling innocently on her clothes.
The teenage boys and girls who were pampered and living a life of luxury passing by were all dressed in designer clothes from head to toe, surrounded by a group of people. In any case, she felt like a Filipino maid who accidentally got into high society.
There were four people in one dormitory, and two of them hadn't arrived yet. Meng Hanmo and the others were still waiting, so she packed up casually, slammed the suitcase shut, and pushed it to the corner. Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, a weak voice suddenly rang out, "Hello."
Feng Ning looked up and saw a thin, white little girl standing awkwardly by the door with two cups of milk tea in her hands.
"Hello, what's up?"
The girl observed for a while, stepped in, and said tentatively, "I live here. Are you also from Class 9?"
"Yes, from Class 9." Feng Ning saw that the girl was quite shy. She stood up with sweat on her face and extended her hand. "My name is Feng Ning, your roommate."
"My name is Meng Taoyu." She was even more at a loss. She handed her a cup of milk tea in her hand and said, "Do you want this? I just bought it."
Feng Ning took it and took a sip, revealing his signature smile, "Yes, yes, I'm thirsty. But I have something to do and need to leave. Thank you for the milk tea, I'll bring you a bottle of AD calcium milk tomorrow."
Feng Ning went downstairs and saw a group of people from afar. The boy standing in the front was about 1.8 meters tall, with the cuffs of his black short-sleeved shirt rolled up above his shoulders and a baseball cap covering his face.
She trotted over and called out "Brother" with a smile.
"Ningzai is pretty quick." A man put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Let's go eat. What do you want to eat? Brother will treat you."
Feng Ning shook his shoulders and dodged, "I only have one brother, don't recognize any other sister."
A group of people walked out of the school arm in arm. They were all ruffians who had been hanging around in East Street for a long time. When they got together, they looked like gangsters on patrol, and they attracted a lot of attention on the street.
Feng Ning snatched Meng Hanmo's hat and put it on his head to cover his eyes.
Meng Hanmo had neat short hair, slightly deeper facial features than others, clear contours, and faint new and old scars near the bridge of his nose. He looked at her impatiently and said in a low voice, "What are you doing?"
"You are too social." Feng Ning buried his head, "For the sake of my image, I have to keep a low profile."
They all came on motorcycles and parked in a nearby alley. As soon as they turned in, a dazzling sports car was parked across the alley.
"Who the hell parked the car? How wicked!" The crew cut was furious and was about to kick the tire, but someone next to him hurriedly stopped him and said, "Kick it if you can see what kind of car it is."
"Fuck, Ferrari is amazing?"
Having said that, when he saw the shiny prancing horse logo on the front of the car, he gave it the middle finger angrily, but didn't dare to kick it any further.
This is a dead end with only one exit, which is blocked. A group of people squeezed in with great effort, and now they can only stare at each other and wait for the owner of the car to come.
"Calm down, come here." Feng Ning took out the Bao Lan Lou and distributed them to them one by one.
Everyone was getting bored waiting, and someone suddenly remembered something and asked Feng Ning to sing a song for them, "Ning, they all said that the love song you sang in the bar a few days ago was pretty amazing, show us your skills."
Feng Ning was annoyed, "You wishful thinking, do you think everyone is worthy of listening to my love songs?"
The fat man asked, "What should we match?"
"Children's song! Listen carefully." She put her hand on Meng Hanmo's shoulder and cleared her throat. "A duck swam by under the bridge in front of the door. Two, four, six, seven, eight. Quack, quack, quack."
Meng Hanmo lowered his head, biting his cigarette and sneering, "People are just a bunch of ducks."
Feng Ning was stubborn, "What do you care? I only saw one."
"So are you counting its hairs two, four, six, seven, and eight?"
The two of them were arguing, and several people followed suit and laughed. Amidst the laughter, the fiery red taillights of the Lafa suddenly lit up. There were two beeps, and they stopped laughing and all looked up.
Jiang Yuyun poked her head out and took a quick look at the situation. She opened the car door and said to them, "I'm sorry, everyone. There's no parking space left. I'll move right away."
Looking at such a gorgeous beauty, the short-haired man had lost his temper and waved his hand, "It's okay, hurry up."
Jiang Wen had already sat in the passenger seat. In front of him were cars coming and going. His dark eyes swept towards the rearview mirror and he unexpectedly saw that person.
He had only seen her twice, but he recognized her at first sight. She was finally not wearing strange clothes, one leg was casually bent on the car, the straw of milk tea was in her mouth, and she was very close to other boys.
She was concentrating on her speech and didn't even look over here. The four or five people around her didn't look like students. Some were standing or sitting, leaning against each other and smoking.
In the narrow alley, there were dark brick walls, motorcycles scattered all over the place, and dirty white sneakers. The ponytail that fell on her shoulders was folded in half and held up by a rubber band. Her wrists were thin, wrapped with a red rope, and hung delicately on her knees.
He watched coldly.
As soon as the button on the center console lit up, the roof automatically retracted from the front to the back, all the car windows were lowered, and the outside air mixed with the smell of cigarettes and sweat rushed in from all directions.
The noise was quite loud and attracted the attention of the people behind.
Jiang Yuyun was shifting gears and preparing to reverse. She looked at him for a few seconds, feeling both strange and amused. "Don't you hate the smell of cigarettes?"
Jiang Wen said nothing, and slowly leaned back. He stared at the clematis climbing up the alley outside the car window, and suddenly a surge of annoyance welled up in his heart.