Chapter 39
flash
When Ji Li woke up, it was already dark outside.
Ying Yunsheng had finished his homework long ago. He was standing by the window, reading by the moonlight: "Awake?"
Ji Li's vision was still blurry: "What time is it?"
Ying Yunsheng closed the book: "A little after seven."
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Ji Li took out his phone and glanced at it. It was already 7:40. Their last class ended at 6:10, so he had slept for more than an hour. He looked at the dark classroom again. "Aren't you going to turn on the lights?"
Ying Yunsheng said, "I'm afraid you'll wake up."
"Why don't you go to another classroom to watch?" Ji Li asked while packing his things. "And you're staying at school on weekends to attend evening self-study sessions, right?"
Ying Yunsheng shook his head: "I've already asked the teacher on duty for leave."
Ji Li didn't ask any more questions, packed her things and left the classroom: "I'll bring you your clothes tomorrow."
Ying Yunsheng: "I can go get it."
"No need." Ji Li locked the door with the key. "It's too much trouble to go back and forth. I'll just bring it over."
Ying Yunsheng remained silent.
Ji Li gently poked his cheek with the rounded end of the key: "You really want to come to my house?"
It was clearly just a metal key, but the spot on Ying Yunsheng's face where he had been poked felt inexplicably hot, and he didn't know whether he should admit it or not.
Ji Li asked, "Will you go back to Tingfeng Lane during winter break?"
Ying Yunsheng nodded: "Students are not allowed to stay on campus during the winter break."
It's not that someone at home is waiting for him to spend the Chinese New Year, but that the school doesn't allow him to live on campus.
Ke Jili still remembered that before he transferred schools, the other party was clearly being taken care of by Grandma Ying.
"If you think it's too far to go back to Tingfeng Lane during winter break, you can stay at my place temporarily."
Ying Yunsheng was taken aback for a moment, then answered in a low voice, "Okay."
It's so easy to like someone like Ji Li. He's clearly incredibly meticulous, yet he never displays any sense of superiority or superiority when interacting with others, always maintaining a level of propriety and distance that can easily make people's hearts flutter.
.
The final exams passed uneventfully.
After the exams, they should have had a normal holiday, but unfortunately, they were both students in the experimental class, so they still had to go to school to study during the winter break, until the eve of the Lunar New Year.
Seriously speaking, their winter vacation is less than half a month long.
Ying Yunsheng didn't actually stay at Ji Li's house. There was no one home at his house, but Ji Li was going to the capital to spend the New Year with his family. He couldn't bring himself to occupy someone else's house when the owner wasn't there; it was like cuckoo in someone else's nest.
In recent years, Tingfeng Lane has also been paved with asphalt. The shops on both sides are one after another. When one closes down, another immediately takes its place. Only the vendors have been setting up their stalls on time day after day for decades.
Ying Yunsheng found a winter break job in town, leaving early and returning late every day. He had just gotten home from get off work when he saw an extra figure outside his door.
He stopped in his tracks: "Auntie."
The woman standing by the door was the owner of the Cantonese restaurant he had taken Ji Li to before, and she called out to him, "Yun Sheng."
Ying Yunsheng approached and asked, "What is it?"
The proprietress: "May I come in and have a seat?"
Ying Yunsheng gave an irrelevant answer: "The old man downstairs still has his car lights on. Aren't you afraid he'll have to wait too long?"
The proprietress's husband came with her. They had only been there a short time, but only the proprietress came up. Her husband felt that this place was ominous, and even the children who grew up here were ominous.
The proprietress knew that Ying Yunsheng didn't like them, so she put down what she was carrying and said, "Okay, then your aunt won't go in. I'll just come and bring you some food. You have to take good care of yourself."
She left after she finished speaking.
Ying Yunsheng glanced at the bag on the ground, ignored it, and took out his key to open the door.
"Bang--"
The door was closed.
He had just changed his shoes when there was a knock on the door.
Ying Yunsheng opened the door impatiently: "Why are you doing this again..."
The rest of the sentence got stuck in his throat before he could finish it.
Ji Li blinked: "What happened to me again?"
For a full ten seconds, Ying Yunsheng wondered if he was still trapped in a dream from some day and hadn't woken up.
The person from my dream suddenly appeared before my eyes, as if a celestial being had been summoned to descend to earth to fulfill my wish. More than surprise, I felt disbelief.
“You,” he stammered, “you, how…”
"I just went upstairs to take a look. The house has been unoccupied for too long and hasn't been cleaned. Now I'm homeless." Ji Li looked at him. "Can I stay at your place for a while?"
"Yes!" Ying Yunsheng answered, then quickly added, "I'll get your things for you."
He then took the suitcase from the other person's hand and carried it through the gate with one hand.
Ji Li stood on the doormat: "Do you have slippers?"
Ying Yunsheng stared blankly and said, "Ah: You don't need to change your shoes, just come in. I'll mop the floor later."
Ji Li walked to the sofa, took off his hat and scarf, and remained calm and composed throughout, appearing more like the owner of the place than Ying Yunsheng.
Ying Yunsheng stood awkwardly to the side for a long time, only managing to ask one question: "Have you had dinner?"
Ji Li said, "Not yet."
Ying Yunsheng seemed to have finally found a reason to catch his breath, and after saying "I'm going to cook," he dashed off to the kitchen.
Ji Li couldn't help but smile slightly as he looked down and answered the phone.
"My goodness!" Lin Chengshuang wailed on the other end of the line, "I just heard from my mom that you've already left the capital? How come you haven't reached Chongliu yet? You're a grown man, how could you get lost?"
Ji Li hummed in agreement: "I'm lost."
Lin Chengshuang was shocked: "No way? Where are you right now? Is there anyone around? You can't read a map and you can't ask for help?"
“We’ve already asked for help,” Ji Li said. “He’s been taken in by someone now.”
Lin Chengshuang: "What the hell?"
Ji Li's trip here was actually on the way.
Tingfeng Lane is located between Chongliu City and the capital. He took the high-speed train two stops less and then took a bus, which took him about the same amount of time as his normal commute back to his neighborhood.
No sooner had I hung up the phone than Ying Yunsheng came out of the kitchen.
"There's not much food in the kitchen," Ying Yunsheng said. "I'll take you out to eat. What would you like to eat?"
Knowing how frugal the other person usually was, Ji Li shook his head: "Anything will do."
Ying Yunsheng himself wasn't picky about food, but he couldn't bear to see the other person eat casually: "Then I'll go buy groceries now."
When Ji Li came over, she passed by the vegetable market. At this time, the vendors had already closed up shop, so if she wanted to buy something, she would have to go to the supermarket. In the end, she relented and agreed to go out to eat: "I saw a new mala tang restaurant that opened on Jinlan Street."
The tenement building is surrounded by a wall, with two entrances at the front and back.
Ji Li originally wanted to go directly to the nearest main gate, but unexpectedly, Ying Yunsheng pulled him to the wall as soon as he stepped out of the house.
"Do you really have to walk through the wall and not the main gate?"
“It’s too far to get to Jinlan Street from the main gate, but you can get there directly by climbing over this wall.”
Jinlan Street is located right between the front and back gates. The walls of the residential area are covered with cement and are much higher than the red brick walls they had climbed over when school started.
However, Ying Yunsheng's movements were no less sluggish than before; his movements were still sharp and beautiful without any fancy moves.
He straddled the wall, one leg dangling casually, and waved his hand at the person below: "I'll pull you up."
Ji Li looked at him: "Do you think I can't get up there?"
Ying Yunsheng: "Yes."
"Well……"
"This wall is about half a meter higher than the school wall. It's not something you can force your way up with just pull-ups. No one is qualified to cross it alone unless they have experience climbing over it hundreds of times."
"Uh..." What are you so proud of, someone who has climbed over the wall hundreds of times?
Ji Li didn't say this aloud; he was indebted to the other party, after all, he had relied on their help to get up there.
I was prepared to make contact with the ground when I went down, but I didn't expect to land directly in the outstretched arms of the person below, making a muffled sound when we collided.
The two were dressed thickly for winter, so the collision didn't hurt. However, Ying Yunsheng was thrown back several meters by the inertia and almost stepped into the middle of the road.
Ji Li was held tightly in his arms, and only after his feet touched the ground did he ask, "Why did you suddenly reach out your hand?"
Ying Yunsheng was a little annoyed after letting go: "I thought I could catch you."
Ji Li couldn't help but tap him on the head: "Do you think I'm a grown man whose belly is full of cotton? Don't you even consider the quality?"
Ying Yunsheng subconsciously replied, "I'll improve next time."
Ji Li: "You want a next time?"
Ying Yunsheng then realized what he had said and silently lowered his head.
Ji Li noticed that this person had been a bit silly ever since he entered the room, or perhaps he hadn't recovered from the shock yet. He didn't seem to think much before he spoke or acted. Suddenly, he reached out to take his hand, which counted as one of the tasks, and said that he would count it as one of the tasks next time.
Ying Yunsheng suddenly called out to him: "Ji Li".
Ji Li looked up: "Hmm?"
Did you come here specifically for this purpose?
"Um."
Ying Yunsheng fell silent again.
Actually, he had a lot of questions to ask, such as how the other person got here, why they came all the way, and whether they were tired on the way.
But he didn't get a single question out.