Ying Yunsheng turned his head back and saw a faint curve at the corner of the other person's mouth.
Unlike him, Ji Li actually smiles quite often, but most of the time it's just to please others by raising his emotional threshold. He'll show even the slightest emotional fluctuation as if it were a full ten, because nobody wants the people around them to have a cold, funeral-like face all the time.
From the day the other student suddenly arrived at Tingfeng Lane as a transfer student, Ying Yunsheng knew that this person had two faces. At only six or seven years old, someone who could effortlessly fabricate such a lie about summer homework was far more sophisticated than other children his age. This was also why Ying Yunsheng was initially reluctant to get to know his new deskmate better; he knew he couldn't hide his true situation from the other student. At that age, most students had outgrown the age of begging for candy and preferred to act like adults to gain the envy of those around them. Out of self-protection, he would subconsciously try to hide all his embarrassing moments.
Unfortunately, in the end, the other party saw through it.
The first time he was taken to the other person's home, the first time he was given snacks by the other person, the first time he was supervised by the other person to study and do his homework, the first time he was taken to the hospital when he was sick, and when he watched the other person register, make medicine and cook with ease, and seriously tell him to study hard, he often had the illusion that the other person had really become his parent.
Only when the other person brings up his age and he gets so angry that he jumps up to argue back does he realize that the other person is only four months older than him.
They remained independent and reserved, as if there were a four-year gap between them.
At first, he used that reason to retort, and he had thought about peeling back the mask of maturity to see what the other person was really like inside. Unfortunately, every time, the other person easily changed the subject and brushed it off, with a teasing expression as if watching a small animal that dared to strip its owner's clothes. He shrank to the side, feeling lost and disoriented, and the other person would even reach out and rub the fur on his head.
The time spent together becomes blank, and then the reunion is a magical moment.
Ying Yunsheng suddenly asked, "Are you really happy right now?"
Ji Li blinked in confusion: "What?"
Ying Yunsheng paused for a few seconds: "Do you know when I realized I liked you?"
The topic abruptly shifted from the equator to the Arctic Ocean, catching Ji Li off guard. After a moment's thought, she asked, "The day of the stage play?"
Ying Yunsheng shook his head: "Ahead."
"The day of the roses?"
He shook his head again: "It's still ahead."
Ji Li reminded him, "We hadn't even recognized each other before that."
It's impossible that they fell in love back when they were still in Tingfeng Lane, right? Back then, they hadn't even graduated from elementary school yet. Even ordinary people often don't understand the concept of liking someone, let alone them, who were in a special situation.
Ji Li doesn't consider himself lacking in imagination, but he simply can't imagine a boy in his early teens having the concept of dating another boy.
This isn't precocious puberty; it's a genetic mutation.
“At that time, I never thought about it in that direction, because in my experience, boys were supposed to be with girls,” Ying Yunsheng said. “So what I just asked was ‘when did you realize it,’ not ‘when did it start.’”
He replied, "I realized it on October 15th last year."
Ji Li thought for a moment but couldn't remember anything special: "Was there anything special about that day?"
"When you got first place in the grade in your first monthly exam in your first year of high school, and you gave a speech on the flagpole," Ying Yunsheng added, "that was also when I recognized you."
It was love at first sight.
For some reason, Ji Li suddenly remembered what the other person had said when they were rehearsing the stage play: "The reason why Snow White would like Aurora is because Aurora has what she has longed for and pursued all her life."
“I read a sentence in a book you lent me before: ‘The reason why geniuses are so extraordinary is not because they are born with superior talent, but because they have made continuous efforts. Ten thousand hours of practice is a necessary condition for anyone to go from ordinary to world-class master.’” Ying Yunsheng looked at him. “But I feel it’s fake, because from the day I realized it until now, I’ve liked you for ten thousand hours, but I still don’t know how to handle liking you.”
Ji Li stood there blankly for a while: "You've suddenly become so good at sweet talk, I'm starting to suspect you've been possessed."
Ying Yunsheng asked instinctively, "What are you wearing?"
"Uh..." The atmosphere instantly froze.
Ji Li himself didn't know what he was laughing at, but he couldn't help but smile: "Alright, why are you suddenly telling me all this? Don't tell me it's just a whim."
Ying Yunsheng pulled him to a stop at the crossroads: "You've rarely been truly happy before."
"Well……"
"But when you laughed after I said those things, you were genuinely happy."
"Uh..." There was silence all around for a long time.
“You don’t need 10,000 hours,” Ji Li said. “You’re already very good at it.”
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Egg noodles
That day's events ended there, like a challenging problem that was almost solved, just one sentence away from being finished: "In conclusion." But the person who solved the problem threw down their pen, stubbornly insisting on waiting for the final exam bell before adding that last bit of credit.
Just to accompany that "slacker" who was in the same exam room as him but was still struggling with the exam paper and refused to leave.
Ji Li came up with this metaphor when she hung the bag of pastries on the doorknob of Ying Yunsheng's room, and then took a pen and scribbled a few strokes on the lid of the box.
The graffiti is a mark, indicating that it was placed there by him, and that it is not something of unknown origin, so it is safe to eat.
Ying Yunsheng's attitude towards breakfast has always been indifferent, a fact that Ji Li discovered on the day he was supposed to have his stitches removed.
Having agreed to go to the hospital, Ying Yunsheng didn't sleep in on the weekend and got up at the same time as usual for class. However, he didn't expect that as soon as he opened the curtains, someone knocked on the dormitory door.
He opened the door, a little stunned: "Didn't you say you weren't staying overnight this weekend?"
"I just came from the neighborhood," Ji Li asked. "May I come in?"
Ying Yunsheng made way.
No one else stayed at the dormitory on weekends except him, so he was all alone on Sunday mornings, making it feel quite empty.
But now, with just one more person, even the sunlight seems a bit too intense.
Ji Li placed the plastic bag she was carrying on his desk, looked up at his drooping hair, and reached out to smooth it: "Didn't you sleep well?"
Ying Yunsheng was still wearing his pajamas: "I went to bed at two o'clock last night."
Ji Li closed the drafty window: "It's cold outside, go put on some clothes."
After getting dressed and washing up, Ying Yunsheng came out and asked, "What's this?"
"Breakfast." Ji Li opened each box one by one. "Eat first, then we'll go to the hospital."
Ji Li brought three or four boxes, which contained steamed buns, fried dumplings, porridge, and fresh soy milk. They were still warm when she brought them in from outside.
Ying Yunsheng stared blankly at the table full of steaming food: "So much?"
Ji Li opened a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to him: "The boxes look like a lot, but the actual contents are not much."
Ying Yunsheng: "It doesn't need to be so lavish."
Ji Li: "So what do you usually eat?"
He asked this question simply to get a reference for the other person's recipe so he could learn from their experience next time, but he didn't expect the other person to answer: "Cookies".
Ji Li waited a moment: "Anything else?"
"Steamed bun."
Where did you buy it?
"The cafeteria sells them in the morning." They offer the best value for money.
Where are the cookies?
"Oatmeal cookies from the supermarket." One pack lasts for two days.
Ying Yunsheng ate a fried dumpling: "Aren't you going to eat one?"
Ji Li shook his head: "I ate on the way here."
As Ying Yunsheng lowered his head to drink his porridge, Ji Li stood beside him, watching his seat. His gaze swept over the textbooks on the bookshelf and finally landed on the classic book in the center of the table.
He had given it to the other person, determined to increase their reading volume. He would give them one book every week, and the other person would return it to him immediately after Monday. But he never asked whether the other person had finished reading it or had any thoughts afterward. After all, increasing reading volume only required reading, not writing book reports.
Ji Li picked it up and flipped through it: "Have you finished reading the book?"
Ying Yunsheng took a bite of the steamed bun: "Mmm."
Ji Li: "I think I just gave you this book yesterday."
"Well……"
"You didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. last night just to do this?"
"Uh..." Ying Yunsheng choked on a mouthful of soy milk.
Ji Li patted him on the back: "Is this book really that good?"
Ying Yunsheng, catching his breath, replied, "So-so."
"Why are you staying up so late?"
"Because it was given to me by you."
After saying that, Ji Li remained silent for a long time.
Just as Ying Yunsheng couldn't help but look up, Ji Li reached out and touched his cheek: "You're blushing."
"Uh..." It was the second day after Ying Yunsheng got up and pushed open the dormitory door, and he could see a bag of hot scallion pancakes hanging on the doorknob.
Every day after that, when Ying Yunsheng went out, he would see breakfast hanging on the doorknob. Sometimes it was steamed buns, sometimes fried food, and sometimes even noodles. But there was never a cup of warm drink and chocolate tucked under the bag.
.
It's rained again these past two days.
Because of the cold weather, the water pipes in the school dormitory area froze and burst. There was no time to repair them, so the homeroom teacher announced that the hot water would be shut off for the day.
Ji Li carried her homework out of the dormitory, but out of the corner of her eye she saw the door of the next dormitory being pushed open, and Ying Yunsheng walking out.
He saw the basin of water in the other person's hand: "Going to wash clothes?"
Ying Yunsheng nodded.
Ji Li looked at him: "Cold water?"
"Um."
"You're not going to use cold water when you take a shower later, are you?"
In this kind of weather, not washing every other day isn't a big deal. Most people would probably just tough it out, but Ying Yunsheng doesn't follow the usual path: "I'm quick."
Is taking a cold shower in the dead of winter really a matter of how fast you move?