The car stopped in the yard. Zhu Xingyao stuffed Jiang Tu's coat into her backpack and got out of the car under Lao Liu's complicated gaze. She walked into the house carrying her cello and her bag.
"Mom, I'm back."
Ding Yu came out of the kitchen with a glass of freshly squeezed juice in her hand. When she saw her, she frowned, put down the glass and walked over. "Where is your coat? You're only wearing one in such a cold day. What if you catch a cold?" As she spoke, she helped her take the cello off her shoulders.
Zhu Xingyao grabbed a handful of her hair, came close to Ding Yu, wrinkled her nose and said, "Do you smell it? The smell of duck blood vermicelli! I was accidentally bumped into by someone, and my coat was too dirty so I threw it away. Will you blame me?"
Ding Yu had someone bring that coat back from abroad, and it really cost more than three thousand yuan.
Now that I think about it, it’s a bit of a shame. Actually… if I take it back and wash it, I should be able to wear it again
"You..." Ding Yu poked her cheek with his index finger and said unhappily, "Your father is so busy making money, and he lets you buy whatever you like, but you're really squandering it, huh?"
Zhu Xingyao couldn't tell the truth, so she retorted: "You spend tens of thousands of yuan on a bag, and you buy three in a month."
Ding Yu squinted her eyes: "That's my husband's money, what's wrong with me spending a little more?"
Zhu Xingyao snorted: "I can make a lot of money from concerts in the future. If you and dad hadn't disagreed with me taking music classes and didn't allow me to take endorsements, I might have been a rich woman."
She started learning cello at the age of six, began performing on stage at the age of eight, and after she gave her first small solo concert at the age of fourteen, an agent came to her, but Zhu Yunping and Ding Yu refused. They were more traditional in some aspects. At that time, she missed the music class and wanted to have more time to practice the piano. She promised to study hard, but no matter how she made a fuss, they would not agree.
They feel that studying music will hinder their studies, and they must finish high school at all costs.
Zhu Xingyao sometimes thinks that children are just children. They cannot change the rules and regulations set by adults and can only compromise.
She hid in the bathroom and washed her hair for half an hour, and only stopped when she was sure that only the fragrance remained on her hair. After drying her hair, she suddenly remembered something and took out the black coat from her bag and sniffed it carefully. In addition to the clear and dry smell of laundry soap, the one on the back also had... the smell of duck blood vermicelli soup... which came from her hair.
In the middle of the night, Zhu Xingyao secretly put the clothes into the washing machine to wash.
Half an hour later, he carried the clothes back to his room like a thief, pulled a rope on the balcony railing, and hung the clothes on it so that his parents would not see them.
On Sunday evening, Lin Jiayu returned to the intersection of Hexi Lane after handing out flyers for a long time. She saw Jiang Tu coming out of the dry cleaners with a bag. She called out to him, "Jiang Tu!"
Jiang Tu stood on the steps and turned to look at her.
Lin Jiayu ran over and asked curiously, "Why are you going to the dry cleaners?"
Jiang Tu walked ahead calmly, "Nothing."
"Nothing, what are you holding?" Lin Jiayu chased after him. Did they have anything else that needed to be taken to the dry cleaners? That would be so expensive!
Jiang Tu was too lazy to pay attention to her. Lin Jiayu was used to it and changed the subject automatically: "Jiang Xiaolu told me this morning that he went to eat duck blood vermicelli soup with you and a goddess sister last night, and then ran into Chen Yi and the others. Is the goddess you are talking about Zhu Xingyao?"
He paused and hummed.
Lin Jiayu smiled and said, "It really is her. I find that you two are quite predestined to meet each other. You always run into each other."
Fate
Jiang Tu twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "Probably."
He seemed to be particularly lucky in running into her by chance. Since a year ago, he could always see her without having to create special encounters.
"Jiang Lu said she was very cool, and she stuffed a coat worth more than 3,000 yuan directly into the trash can!" Jiang Lu described it to her vividly, even with actions. Lin Jiayu could imagine the scene. As she was talking, she suddenly looked at the bag in Jiang Tu's hand and suddenly guessed, "Could this be Zhu Xingyao's coat?"
Jiang Tu paused again and nodded.
Lin Jiayu was so shocked that she couldn't move: "Did you pick it up from the trash can when you returned to the store last night?"
Jiang Tu did go back to the store last night, and the clothes had been picked up by the proprietress. The proprietress thought the clothes looked very beautiful on Zhu Xingyao, and when she heard that the clothes cost more than 3,500 yuan each, she picked them up and prepared to wash them for her daughter to wear.
At that time, Chen Yi and the others were still there, a group of hooligans making a lot of noise. When they saw Jiang Tu coming back to get his coat, they were so happy that they started to mock him in various ways.
If the boss hadn't stopped him, stuffed his coat into Jiang Tu's arms and pushed him out of the store, he might have been beaten.
Jiang Tu lowered his eyes and said indifferently, "Three thousand five hundred and sixty-eight."
Lin Jiayu: “…”
She was shocked. She didn't expect a coat could be so expensive!
He continued walking forward. No matter whether it was 3,568 yuan or 68 yuan, he felt that it should not be thrown away casually or picked up and worn by someone else. This was Zhu Xingyao's.
On Monday, the seats for the midterm exam were assigned. The exam will be held from Wednesday to Friday of this week.
Zhu Xingyao and Jiang Tu both had a bag in their schoolbags, which contained each other's coats. When Li Xixi asked Zhu Xingyao about what happened that day, she told her. Li Xixi was so surprised that her eyes widened: "So, the first time you wore boys' clothes, you wore Jiang Tu's?"
Zhu Xingyao was stunned. It was the first time for her to wear boys' clothes. Boys' clothes were loose and had body temperature, which was very different from the feeling of wearing her own clothes.
The next second, she suddenly remembered that she and Jiang Tu held hands, which was also the first time.
Li Xixi hugged her with a heartache, "Wow, why do I feel like my goddess is being taken advantage of?"
"Who got fucked? Huh?" Zhu Xingyao came back to his senses and rubbed her head hard, "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll rub you until you're bald."
Li Xixi: “…”
She quickly protected her head and screamed, "I was wrong, I was wrong, please forgive me... I don't want to be bald!"
Zhang Sheng, who was sitting diagonally opposite: “…”
He always felt that Zhu Xingyao and Li Xixi were talking about baldness for a long time just now. He couldn't help but cursed: "Li Xixi, can you stop talking about baldness all the time? You are sick."
Li Xixi immediately turned around and scolded: "Did I say anything about you? If you have such a strong sense of immersion, why don't you go act? Beijing Film Academy and Shanghai Theatre Academy welcome you!"
Zhang Sheng: “…”
The whole class burst into laughter.
Li Xixi is so damn talented!
Zhang Sheng turned to look at Jiang Tu and found that he also had a smile on his face. He cursed again: "Don't you fucking allow me to laugh at you!"
Ding Xiang found it strange. "It's okay for others to laugh, but you can't stand Jiang Tu laughing? What's wrong with you?"
Yes, why? It seems like it has happened several times.
Everyone also found it strange.
Jiang Tu was laughing at the aggressive look on Zhu Xingyao's face when he was playing with Li Xixi just now. Sometimes Zhang Sheng was really stupid. He knew that the other party looked down on him, and he even felt humiliated when he was laughed at by him.
He glanced at Zhang Sheng and said calmly, "Who do you think you are? Why do you care whether I laugh or not?"
Zhang Sheng stood up suddenly: "What are you talking about?"
As soon as the class bell rang, Cao Ming quickly pulled him back and said, "Hurry up and sit down. Xie Ya is here."
Sure enough, Xie Ya was already standing outside the classroom. She walked in with the lesson plan in her arms, wearing high heels, "Everyone sit down."
As soon as school was over at noon, everyone ran to eat, and only a few people were left in the classroom.
Zhu Xingyao and Li Xixi stood up and she walked to the back row carrying the bag. Jiang Tu saw the bag in her hand and knew that she was returning his clothes.
She handed the bag over and whispered, "I washed it."
Jiang Tu was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect her to help him wash clothes. He took it in his hand and said in a low voice: "Thank you."
Then, he stood up, took out a bag from under the table and handed it to her. Zhu Xingyao took it doubtfully, opened it and looked at it. It was her turn to be stunned. She looked up at him in surprise: "You..."
"It's well washed, so it should still be wearable." He stuffed his phone and keys into his pocket and looked at her. "It's okay if you don't want to wear it. Just don't throw it away next time."
"… Thanks."
Zhu Xingyao recalled how she had made a bold offer that night and then stuffed the clothes into the trash can... She must have felt a little silly. More than three thousand yuan was a large sum of money for Jiang Tu, but she had just thrown it away casually.
Jiang Tu must be thinking she was wasteful.
Another day passed and the midterm exam began.
The examination rooms were arranged in staggered order according to the monthly examination results. Jiang Tu did not take the monthly examination last time, so he was directly squeezed into an examination room with an empty seat and happened to sit behind Zhu Xingyao.
The first exam was Chinese. Zhu Xingyao finished her composition and was about to fill in the answers to the multiple-choice questions on the answer sheet. She opened her pencil case and discovered that her 2B pencil lead had somehow broken because she didn't bring a pencil sharpener.
She was silent for two seconds.
The student sitting in front of her was from another class, and she didn’t know him.
She pursed her lips, leaned over the table, turned her head and looked at the table behind her, and was unexpectedly met Jiang Tu's dark eyes.
Jiang Tu had finished his work and took off his glasses to rest. His eyes casually fell on the girl in front of him. Unexpectedly, she suddenly looked at him from across the table like a thief. They were both stunned at the same time and he narrowed his eyes.
Zhu Xingyao came back to his senses and mouthed, "Lend me a pencil."
He stared at the small mole on the tip of her delicate nose, then lowered his eyes to glance at the table. On the table were two very short 2B pencils, which he had broken into two last time. They were too short to be used.
Zhu Xingyao waited for a few seconds.
The invigilator stood up, frowned and coughed: "Sit down properly, no exchanging of answers allowed."
Jiang Tu handed the half pencil to Zhu Xingyao, who quickly took it and held up the short pencil to prove his innocence: "Teacher, I just want to borrow the pencil."