On the evening of the holiday, Pu Chen had a new WeChat group. Zhao Shu added her to a small group of four people. The other two were Peng Jingyang and Qin Yu. The group name was "The Two of Us".
Pu Chen changed her nickname in the group to her real name to make it easier for others to know it was her.
And Zhao Shu changed her nickname to 'Zhao Xiaokeai'.
The group was quiet. Pu Chen waited for a long time but no one spoke. She put down her phone, took out the book she had not finished from the bookshelf and continued reading.
Ten minutes later, Zhao Shu finished eating the melon and said to everyone in the group:
When shall we have dinner together
Think about where to go? I'll make arrangements in advance. I didn't rank last in the final exam, so my dad gave me a big red envelope (grin), and we agreed that I'd treat him that day.
Qin Yu glanced at the group message, afraid that Zhao Shu would suggest going to the arcade. Pu Chen didn't have a good time the last time he went to the arcade, and he blamed himself for spending money indiscriminately. He first stated: I'm busy during the winter vacation and I don't have time to play.
Peng Jingyang got a headache whenever he saw Zhao Shu, especially when Zhao Shu made him speechless. He agreed with Qin Yu: I'm busy too. I have classes almost every day during the holidays, and I'm preparing for the competition.
Zhao Shu sighed, it seemed that the appointment could not be made.
She Pu Chen: Chenchen, what are you doing? Do you want to play games to relax
Pu Chen: I was just reading a book. I don’t know how to play games and have never played them before.
Zhao Shu thought for a while and said: Forget it, your most important task now is to study. I will teach you after the college entrance examination.
She followed Pu Chen's words and asked: Chenchen, what book are you reading, the textbook for next semester
Pu Chen: No, it’s the book that Director Sun lent me.
Zhao Shu is really bored, so after you finish reading, do you want to go to the bookstore to buy a few more books? I have nothing to do at home, if you want to go to the bookstore, I will be free to accompany you anytime. It just so happens that I will go to the bookstore to take a few photos and post them on WeChat Moments, so that my family can see how much I love studying now, and also let my dad feel that the big red envelope he gave me is worth it (dog head)
Before Pu Chen could speak, Peng Jingyang interrupted him and said, Pu Chen: You don't have to go to the bookstore to buy it. When you have finished reading it, go to my uncle's house to borrow it. You may not want to read the book you bought yourself. It is different if you borrow it.
What Peng Jingyang said was the truth, but Pu Chen didn’t want to read any more extracurricular books for the time being.
She replied to Peng Jingyang: I will borrow it after I finish the college entrance examination. I want to practice more questions during the winter vacation.
Qin Yu couldn't help laughing at her poor excuse. It would be two and a half years before the college entrance examination was over. By then, no one would remember whether she wanted to borrow books or not.
In fact, she just doesn't like reading, but she gives a very reasonable reason.
He didn't post it in the group, but chatted with her privately: Do you really not like reading
Pu Chen was not confident enough: I like it, but I just don’t have time to watch it. This was her last stubbornness.
Qin Yu: Spend 20 minutes every day reading a magazine or something, and then read Nature with me.
Pu Chen told the truth: I can't understand magazines written entirely in English.
Qin Yu said: I read it because I don’t understand it.
Pu Chen: “…”
The chat in the group was still going on. Qin Yu didn't send any more messages. She didn't know what to talk to him about, so she didn't reply to him individually. She clicked into the group to scroll down and read the messages.
Peng Jingyang and Zhao Shu were chatting about Director Sun, saying that Director Sun would be transferred next semester.
Pu Chen Peng Jingyang: Are you sure
Peng Jingyang: Confirmed, there will be a new director of studies.
He asked her: Do you want to return the book to my uncle
Pu Chen: Yes. I can finish watching all of them tonight.
Keeping such a precious book here is always a psychological burden for her, and she wants to return it as soon as possible.
Peng Jingyang: I'm going to the library reading room to look for some reference books tomorrow. I'll come to you to get them when I pass by the school gate.
Pu Chen expressed his gratitude again and again.
Group chat seemed not suitable for Zhao Shu, so she went to fight in the game.
Without her to liven up the atmosphere, the group quickly fell silent.
Pu Chen sent a private message to Peng Jingyang: I don’t know how to solve a few math problems, and I can’t find the answers online. I would like to ask you for help. Are you available now
Peng Jingyang: That’s convenient. From now on we four won’t have to be so polite to each other.
He asked: What's the question
Pu Chen took photos of a few questions and sent them to him.
Peng Jingyang stared at the message on the screen for a few seconds. Thinking about how Qin Yu had gone to great lengths to invite Pu Chen to the arcade, he thought that now was such a good opportunity, so he decided to help Qin Yu.
He said to Pu Chen: I will be in the library all day tomorrow, do you want to come over? I will tell you in person, it may be more effective.
Pu Chen was eager to study with the top students. Not only in mathematics, but also in physics and chemistry, there were some questions that she couldn't understand. In the past, she just muddled through and ignored all the questions she didn't know how to answer, never making things difficult for herself.
Now the idea is different.
She was worried again: Will it disturb your studies
Peng Jingyang: No, I will take some time out from playing games to explain the questions to you.
It was decided happily.
Peng Jingyang immediately contacted Qin Yu: Let's go to the library tomorrow, Pu Chen will go too, I'll ask her for a book, she just happened to have some questions she doesn't know how to ask me. You can't keep indulging yourself in depravity, come and discuss the competition questions with me.
He didn't make his intention too obvious. Qin Yu was not stupid. He knew that Pu Chen would definitely be more enthusiastic than anyone else when he heard that he was going there.
Qin Yu saw that it was Pu Chen who took the initiative to ask Peng Jingyang questions. If he went over, wouldn't he become a light bulb? Pu Chen probably didn't want anyone else to disturb her and Peng Jingyang's time alone.
He rejected Peng Jingyang's invitation and made up a random excuse: Teacher Lu asked me to go to his house tomorrow.
Peng Jingyang: “…”
It was really unfortunate, but he definitely couldn't stand up his class teacher. If Qin Yu didn't go, he would feel it was a bit weird for him to hang out in the library with Pu Chen. After all, Pu Chen was the girl Qin Yu liked.
But he had already made an agreement with Pu Chen, and he couldn't go back on his word.
As a last resort, Peng Jingyang gritted his teeth and sent a message to Zhao Shu, asking her to go to the library tomorrow.
Zhao Shu: Hey, are you asking me out
Peng Jingyang was furious: If Qin Yu hadn't been busy and couldn't go, I'm not very familiar with Pu Chen, do you think I want you to go? Are you going or not
Zhao Shu was not that easy to talk to: I will go if you apologize to me.
Peng Jingyang laughed: How did I provoke you
Zhao Shu reminded him: The beds in the kindergarten are so low that I couldn't hurt you even if I kicked you down. But you cried at the top of your lungs for the whole afternoon, causing me to get criticized in the kindergarten and have to reflect on my mistakes when I got home. Do you think you should apologize
It's not over yet.
But since he was under someone else's roof, Peng Jingyang could only force himself to bow his head: OK, OK, it's all my fault. I was young and ignorant at the time, and I shouldn't have bothered you, Uncle Zhao, to lift my feet. I should have rolled off the bed on my own initiative.
Zhao Shu laughed out loud, I have taken a screenshot and saved it :)
I felt happy, so I readily agreed to go to the library.
--
The next day.
Pu Chen got up early. She and Peng Jingyang agreed to meet at the school gate at 8:30. Last night, she ticked off the questions she was going to ask today and put them aside.
Pu Wanli asked his daughter: Will you come back for lunch
Pu Chen nodded: Come back, I can't keep disturbing Peng Jingyang, he has to prepare for the competition and time is precious.
Pu Wanli: Then when you come back we will go to the supermarket and buy all the New Year’s goods.
Pu Chen: Okay.
She went downstairs with her father.
As soon as she got downstairs, Peng Jingyang gave her a red envelope.
Pu Chen was confused and didn't click it, thinking that he might have not woken up yet and sent it by mistake.
Peng Jingyang's message came in soon after: Please help bring breakfast, milk and a rice ball to the alley.
He told her which shop in the alley had the best rice balls, and the money he transferred to Pu Chen was just enough to buy breakfast, no more, no less.
Pu Chen did not refuse and accepted the red envelope generously.
She told her father to go to the breakfast shop to bring breakfast to Peng Jingyang first.
Pu Wanli remembered that Peng Jingyang ranked first in the grade again in this final exam. He turned his head to look at his daughter and saw that she had become more cheerful, especially in the past month or so. She was willing to go out and play with her classmates and to go to the library to do homework with them.
During those years in junior high school, he didn't dare to ask for these things. As long as his daughter was alive and well, it was his greatest comfort and satisfaction.
Wait until your aunt comes back and we'll discuss when to invite Teacher Lu to our house for dinner. He definitely won't go if we invite him to a restaurant.
Pu Chen: That would require us to wait for Teacher Lu to come back from Beijing after the New Year. I’m afraid that by then my aunt’s vacation will be over and she will have to rush back to Shanghai, so we won’t be able to schedule together.
Pu Wanli nodded, as if it was a question.
Pu Chen: I hope my aunt can find a boyfriend like Teacher Lu. Not Teacher Lu, but someone of Teacher Lu’s type. My aunt should like him.
Pu Wanli smiled and didn't respond.
The daughter didn't know much about Wenxin's affairs. Wenxin had been married before. They had been engaged in college and got married after graduation, but Wenxin had kept it a secret from him.
It was not until last Chinese New Year that he told Wenxin during a chat that she was not young anymore and if she found someone suitable, she should find someone to fall in love with and not put all the burdens of the family on her shoulders, as she still had him at home.
Wen Xin then confessed to him that she had been in a relationship and had obtained a marriage certificate, but was divorced. She didn't hide it from him on purpose, but wanted to wait until the man's family was no longer angry before she told him.
Since they are divorced, it seems that the man’s family did not agree to their marriage in the end.
As for what the man did or where his home was, he knew nothing about it. The result was already like this, so he didn't ask his sister any more questions for fear of touching on her sad memories.
When they arrived at the breakfast shop, Pu Chen bought rice balls for Peng Jingyang.
Peng Jingyang sent a message: I will be at the school gate in about five minutes.
Pu Chen: I’m almost there too. I’m buying you rice balls.
Peng Jingyang: Don’t be in a hurry, just walk slowly, I’ll wait for you on the roadside.
Pu Chen carried the rice balls, waved to his father, and walked towards the entrance of the alley.
Looking at the towering apartment building in front of her, she inexplicably thought of Qin Yu and wondered what he was doing.
--
Qin Yu had just come out of the gym. Because he had too much free time, he became a self-disciplined person in his morning swimming exercise and arrived at the gym to punch in on time.
Peng Jingyang is going to the library with Pu Chen today. He can’t find anyone to play with and doesn’t know how to spend the long and boring day.
Thinking of encouraging Pu Chen to read more extracurricular books, he asked Lu Baisheng: Do you have any books or magazines at home? Can I bring a few back to read
Lu Bosheng: Why did you suddenly think of reading
Qin Yu: I want to be a cultured person.
Lu Bosheng: ... There is a journal called "Nature", but I'm afraid you won't understand it.
This was the first time that Qin Yu was attacked so ruthlessly by someone he knew.
Lu Bosheng: Come here, let's go to the supermarket with me this afternoon. Your parents left you to me, and I can't let you starve.
It doesn’t matter if he spends the New Year alone, as long as he has food to eat. He hadn’t planned to prepare any New Year goods before, but now there’s one more person, so he has to show some appreciation.
Qin Yu: Send me the address.
He opened the app on his phone to call a taxi. His mother assigned him a full-time driver, but he rarely used the car, so she gave the driver a day off early. Now he could only take a taxi to Lu Bosheng's house.
Coming out of the apartment building, he shivered as the cold wind blew in his face.
Qin Yu zipped up his down jacket and suddenly stopped. He saw Peng Jingyang across the road, sitting in a taxi with the window rolled down. He was waving at the entrance of the alley.
There was no need to think, Peng Jingyang was waving to Pu Chen.
Soon, that familiar figure appeared in his sight.
Pu Chen crossed the zebra crossing and arrived in front of a taxi. She handed the packing bag in her hand to Peng Jingyang in the car before getting in.
It was far away, so Qin Yu couldn't see clearly what the breakfast was. He watched the taxi slowly drive away without taking his eyes off it.
He had previously asked her to help find out which restaurant in the alley had the best breakfast. She agreed and said she would go home and ask her father to help. But many days have passed and there has been no news. I'm afraid she didn't take it to heart and had forgotten about it completely.
It was not until a taxi turned around the apartment building and the driver leaned over to ask if he had called a taxi that Qin Yu came to his senses, nodded, and strode to the back seat of the car.
After getting in the car, Qin Yu leaned back in his seat and looked out the window.
She was going to the library with Peng Jingyang today, and he knew it in advance, but he was the one who didn't want to go.
She also brought breakfast for Peng Jingyang, which was a very normal thing.
So, what is he unhappy about
Maybe, he only wanted her to be nice to him and him alone, even if it was just something as small as bringing him breakfast.