Liang Shi: "..."
Liang Shi gritted his teeth secretly, "Yours."
Xu Qingzhu sat opposite her, picked up a piece of meat for her with serving chopsticks, and smiled at her through the rising steam: "Where is it from?"
Liang Shi: "..."
This food is really hard to swallow.
//
When I came out of the mall, it started raining again.
It was as if the brief sunny afternoon was only meant to encourage people to come out and relax, as the drizzling rain soaked the entire city.
Many people were trapped in the mall because they didn't bring an umbrella.
Many people were standing at the mall exit waiting for the rain to stop. There were even young couples hugging each other because it was too cold. Xu Qingzhu and Liang Shi were just standing close to each other, with their hands in their pockets, as if they didn't know each other.
Liang Shi glanced at the young couples around her several times, and then looked at Xu Qingzhu, who remained unmoved. She dared not make any rash moves.
As a result, someone next to them pushed Xu Qingzhu directly onto Liang Shi's side, and Liang Shi reached out to help Xu Qingzhu.
The other party apologized repeatedly, but Xu Qingzhu replied distantly that it was nothing.
Liang Shi helped her up and asked, "Are you alright?"
Xu Qingzhu stood up straight and said, "I have something to say."
Liang Shi: "?"
Xu Qingzhu put her hands into her coat pockets. "My pockets are a little cold."
A moment later, Liang Shi also put his hand back into his coat pocket, which covered her hand. Just as she said, it was too cold in her coat pocket, so her hand was also cold.
Liang Shi smiled and said, "My pockets are warm."
"Are all Alphas this warm, or is it just you?" Xu Qingzhu asked casually.
Liang Shi shook his head: "I don't know, and I've never held an Alpha's hand."
"So you've had sex with an Omega?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi: "Do you count?"
"Yes," Xu Qingzhu said definitively.
Neither of them spoke loudly, just loud enough for the other to hear; it was a casual, conversational tone.
The awkward argument that afternoon seemed like it never happened.
Just as the rain was about to stop, Liang Shi's phone rang; it was another unfamiliar number.
After taking over the original owner's unsigned phone, Liang Shi had gotten used to answering unfamiliar numbers. She answered politely, "Hello?"
All I could hear on the other end of the phone was crying; it was a woman's voice.
The voice sounded somewhat familiar. After careful listening, Liang Shi tentatively called out, "Wanwan?"
Liang Wanwan suddenly stopped and responded with an "Mmm" between sobs.
Liang Shi immediately asked, "What's wrong? Don't cry, what happened?"
Liang Wanwan paused for a moment before saying, "Sister, I...I slapped Liang Xinran."
Chapter 106
Liang Wanwan's voice was still trembling, shaking.
It was also the first time Liang Shi heard her call him "sister".
Since Liang Shi transmigrated to this world, Liang Wanwan's presence has been very low. She has only met Liang Wanwan once. She has an introverted personality, which may be related to her studying painting. She gives people a melancholy feeling.
The only memory related to Liang Wanwan was that the original owner stood up for her in high school, which caused a grudge between her and Zhou Yi'an.
Even so, this younger sister wasn't very close to the original owner of the body.
Liang Shi often forgot that he had a younger sister at home.
Liang Wanwan is currently a university student and lives on campus. Although her school is not far from the villa, she doesn't go home very often.
Every weekend, there are many school clubs and class activities, so if she doesn't want to go back, she can find many reasons.
She often goes out to collect folk songs and poems, which is the reason she most often uses for not going home.
Liang Shi had never seen her paintings, nor did he have a deep impression of her as a person.
He was stunned for a few seconds when he suddenly received her call, but when he heard her say that she had slapped Liang Xinran, Liang Shi immediately came to his senses: "You hit her? Why?"
"She washed Chen Mian's sketchbook." Liang Wanwan sobbed again after saying this, but only repeated that name, "Chen Mian..."
It sounds like someone very important to Liang Wanwan.
Liang Shi comforted her, "Don't cry, where are you now?"
“At the Yujiang Bridge,” Liang Wanwan said. “I’m looking at the scenery.”
Liang Shi: "..."
Yujiang Bridge is the bridge outside their community. Quite a few people jump into the river every year. Hearing Liang Wanwan standing there, Liang Shi didn't know for a moment whether she was telling the truth or not when she said she was looking at the scenery.
A few seconds later, Liang Shi said, "Don't be impulsive. So what if you slapped Liang Xinran? What can she do?"
As Liang Shi spoke, he gestured to Xu Qingzhu, indicating that he would go get the car first and then come to pick her up. However, Xu Qingzhu said, "You make the call, I'll go get the car."
Before Liang Shi could discuss it further, he had already taken an umbrella from a girl and left.
Liang Wanwan started speaking, so Liang Shi had to focus on talking to her first.
Liang Wanwan sniffed. The wind in the receiver was much stronger than in Liang Shi's place, since they were near the river, which made Liang Wanwan's voice sound ethereal.
"I don't know," Liang Wanwan said. "I'm afraid to go home."
Liang Shi: "..."
"Have you contacted your eldest and second eldest brothers?" Liang Shi asked.
Liang Wanwan said, "Mom asked me to sound out my eldest brother before, but he stopped answering my calls. My second brother... like my eldest brother, his phone is off."
Liang Shi: "..."
That's a really quick "cutting off the fuel supply" tactic.
But these two brought their wives and children to completely destroy the enemy's supply lines, so why did they forget to bring Liang Wanwan along?
"Don't you usually not come home?" Liang Shi then remembered, "Why did you come home today?"
“Sunday,” Liang Wanwan said. “It’s going to get colder this week, so I came home to get some clothes. No, she… she washed Chen Mian’s sketchbook.”
"Is this picture album important?" Liang Shi asked.
Liang Wanwan paused, then hiccuped as she cried, "Sister, don't you remember Chen Mian?"
Liang Shi: "..."
Who is this?!
Liang Shi tried to justify himself, saying, "I've been a bit tired lately, and my memory seems to have deteriorated. I can't remember it right now."
Only the sound of the wind could be heard on Liang Wanwan's end.
After a moment, Liang Wanwan said in a deep voice, "It's Chen Mian, the one who loves to paint."
As soon as this brief introduction came out, a figure appeared in Liang Shi's mind.
The girl wasn't particularly beautiful. She had a mole under her eye, long eyelashes, and an unnaturally pale complexion. She rarely basked in the sun, almost like a nocturnal animal. She always carried an umbrella when she went out. She often sat in her studio for hours on end, and once she picked up a paintbrush, she wouldn't put it down.
He is a very quiet person.
She possessed a melancholic air about her, much heavier than Liang Wanwan's.
Just by standing there, you'd feel that she's either a talented person who hasn't found her place or someone whose life has been filled with hardship.
The name Chen Mian is very much like her personality.
Liang Shi initially couldn't recall this person because the name was unremarkable and the person hadn't had much interaction with the original owner of the body.
And these are all very distant memories.
This was someone Liang Shi met when he was learning to paint in junior high school. They were just classmates in the art studio, studying together for two years, but they didn't exchange more than a few words.
However, Chen Mian had approached her before and only exchanged two sentences.
One sentence is: "You are Liang Shi."
Another phrase is: "Nothing special."
It looks like a provocation.
For the original owner at the time, it was naturally a matter of throwing a punch.
But to everyone's surprise, Chen Mian, who looked so sickly that she had no fighting ability, actually caught the original owner's fist with her bare hands, then curled her lips into a sneer and turned to walk away.
This was their only form of social interaction during their student years.
But Chen Mian later became famous.
Liang Wanwan really liked her painting style, so she boldly asked Liang Shi to ask Chen Mian for an autograph.
This was a rare instance of Liang Wanwan pleading with the original owner of the body.
After hearing this request, Liang Shi hesitated for a moment and asked her, "Can't I just buy it?"
"Sister, we can't buy it." Liang Wanwan said, "Chen Mian almost never signs autographs, she only draws."
The original owner, wealthy and powerful, said: "Then buy her painting."
“You can’t buy them either,” Liang Wanwan said. “Her paintings are only displayed in exhibitions and are never given to private collectors.”
Looking at Liang Wanwan's eager eyes, the original owner finally relented, "I can only ask for you, it's uncertain whether it will work out."
Even with this promise, Liang Wanwan was very happy.
The original owner hadn't contacted Chen Mian for a long time, but since her own account had a diverse list of contacts, she found Chen Mian's WeChat account from among her nearly one thousand contacts.