"Oh, beauty, oh my, beauty..."
"Shredded pork, hehe, shredded pork, hehe..."
Ah Heng's lips twitched. When he looked up again, he saw the girl standing in front of him, with a bright and dazzling rose-colored silk scarf tied around her neck in a bow, drooping slightly over her shoulder.
"May I sit here?" Rosemary smiled, her lips curving into a vibrant red.
Ah Heng nodded, staring blankly at her.
This girl is really tall...
Aheng estimated that the girl was about 1.8 meters tall, with straight and long legs, a standard model figure.
Mary sat gracefully in her seat and spoke, her voice slightly hoarse and low, but... very pleasant to hear—"Your name?"
"Wen Heng." Aheng smiled slightly.
"Gentle and forever?" Mary's eyes sparkled, exuding an irresistible charm.
Gentleness and eternity?
Ah Heng was stunned.
"The radical for 'double person' is not the same as the radical for 'heart'." Heng is not Heng.
Mary frowned and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, my spoken Chinese is okay, but my handwriting is not."
Ah Heng nodded.
She lowered her head and carefully wrote the character "衡" on the desk with her finger, each stroke clear and neat.
“It’s difficult.” Mary shook her head, her eyes wide with confusion.
"It's alright, learn slowly." Ah Heng smiled gently, looking at the girl with kindness.
Yan hope chuckled to himself, "Wen Heng, how long will it take you to learn your Beijing accent?"
"I'm not a turtle, I won't crawl!" Ah Heng sniffed.
Meanwhile, Xin Dayi stroked her hair and smugly approached—"Mary, hello, I'm Xin Dayi, and I also have an English name, Eve."
Yan Xi and Aheng both broke out in a cold sweat—"When did you get an English name?"
"I just got this name, is it not good enough?" Xin Dayi smiled obsequiously at Chen Juan. "I was born on New Year's Eve, so I'm called EVE."
Ah Heng shivered.
"You shameless bastard, you're so shameless!" Yan hope punched Xin Dayi hard, laughing and scolding at the same time, "If a Japanese girl comes tomorrow, are you planning to give her a Japanese name—Auntie?"
Chen Juan smiled broadly—"Eve, what a very interesting name."
"Hehe." Xin Dayi blushed instantly, shyly hiding behind Yan hope, only revealing her dark, hard head.
"Who are you?" Chen Juan looked at Yan hope, his expression somewhat uncertain.
"Yan hope".
"Yan hope?"
"Yan as in Yanxi, Xi as in Yanxi." Yanxi raised an eyebrow, his voice clear and crisp.
He was Yan hope, so he wouldn't write his name lightly on the table like Wen Heng did, hoping others would remember it. When fate brings people together, they will remember if they are meant to, and if they don't, so be it.
It's just a name.
"Are you a woman?" Chen Juan asked, quite frankly.
Yan hope's expression turned indifferent, and A Heng replied gently, "Yan hope, a boy."
With a serious and determined expression, she seemed to be stating the most profound truth in the world.
The boy, whose face had turned somewhat cold, warmed up slightly. He ignored Mary's glance back and changed the subject with Xin Dayi.
Mary's expression became subtle, a hint of anger flickering in her eyes. But in an instant, it transformed into the delicate, frank beauty of a rose glistening with dew.
Ah Heng frowned, rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things.
After school, she walked home with Yan Xida, but on the way they ran into Siwan and... Mary.
"Siwan, do you know Mary?" Xin Dayi called out.
"Huh?... Ah." Siwan seemed a little off. After seeing the three of them, she had been carefully watching Yan hope's expression and hadn't noticed Xin Dayi's question, so she gave a perfunctory answer.
Yan hope lowered her eyes slightly, her black hair falling down and just enough to cover her bright eyes.
Siwan felt a little relieved. Yan hope was usually lost in thought and didn't pay attention to the changes around him.
"Really? Really?" Xin Dayi exclaimed excitedly.
“Really.” Mary smiled. “I met Wen Siwan online. We got along very well and started chatting. I happened to be back in China for school, so I met Siwan in person. It turned out we were seniors at the same school. What a coincidence.”
Xin Dayi slapped his thigh hard, laughing so hard his mouth almost twisted into a crook.
What a fucking coincidence, what a perfect coincidence!
“Siwan is my childhood friend, and we’re very close.” Xin Dayi flew over to Siwan on his Wind Fire Wheels, put his arm around her shoulder, and looked at her with an expression that said, “Look how inseparable we are.”
Siwan shuddered, but still smiled at Mary – “Yes, Ashidai, we all grew up in the same courtyard.”
Mary slightly lifted the corner of her eye with her finger, revealing lines as delicate as phoenix feathers—"I initially mistook Yan hope for a girl, and I feel very bad about it."
Yan hope raised his head and said nonchalantly, "I don't need you."
Mary laughed – “It’s a good thing you’re not a girl.”
"Don't be like that. If Yan Xi becomes a woman, she'll never get married. The rest of her life will fall on me and Si Wan. Even if we tighten our belts, it won't be enough for this little girl to cause trouble!" Xin Dayi felt that this scenario was a terrifying nightmare.
Siwan nodded, deeply agreeing.
Yan hope sneered, "If I were a woman, you all would take a look at yourselves and see if you're even worthy of me!"
Before Siwan Dayi could react, Aheng blushed first.
Siwan Dayi is so beautiful, yet she's not good enough for Yan hope. So, someone like her has a very worrying future...
"Yan hope, can you stop being so narcissistic?" Xin Dayi reacted, provoked—"Who's ugly? I'm a genuine idol!"
"An African idol?" Yan hope scoffed.
“You’re a racist!” Sindayi shouted angrily.
“Yanxi, the Lord says that all His children are angels, regardless of skin color.” Siwan’s pretty little face was very sincere.
Yan hope's eyes were dark and bright, sparkling with tears—"Siwan, did your Lord tell you that he had an angel child who was born without wings?"
"I haven't heard of it." Siwan was taken aback—"Why?"
Yan Xi's fair fingers lightly hooked Xin Dayi's chin, a wicked smile on his face—"You're so damn fair-skinned, I can't even tell where your wings are!"
Xin Dayi was stunned, and after a long while, she gritted her teeth and said, tremblingly, "Yan hope, you can't be so ruthless!"
Yan hope laughed heartily, with childlike innocence—"Our aunt is so fair-skinned! Oh my, look at that face, it's as white as if it's been smeared with dumpling dough. How come she's from Africa? I misspoke just now, sorry brother."
"Yan Xi, I'll fight you to the death!" Xin Dayi cried, tears streaming down his face. His bronze face, with its sharp, angular features and no trace of white, turned red and purple. He rolled up his sleeves, raised his head, and charged towards Yan hope.
"Mary, I'm sorry you had to see this. My childhood friend is a bit clueless, I'm really sorry." Yan hope glanced at the boy who had dived over and said coolly, emphasizing the word "childhood friend".
Xin Dayi slammed on the brakes, looked up and saw Mary, and grinned at her with a twisted expression—"Yeah, yeah, we childhood friends have a really good relationship, we never fight."
"Hey, Eve, what's wrong, kid? You're laughing like you're crying." Yan hope blinked, patted the boy's shoulder, and was extremely concerned.
Aheng stood aside, feeling sorry for Dayi, thinking to herself that Yanxi was really too wicked, but she was struggling to suppress her laughter.
Mary laughed so hard she bent over, completely candid, showing none of the restraint one would expect when interacting with someone she didn't know well.
Hearing Mary laugh, Xin Dayi, with tears welling up in her eyes, stared intently at Yan hope with eyes as bright as Pikachu's 100,000-volt light bulb.
Yan hope walked forward with her schoolbag on her back in a good mood, as if nothing had happened.
Siwan deliberately moved closer to Aheng and asked her softly, in a voice only the two of them could hear, "How did Yanxi and Mary get along today?"
Ah Heng was a little confused—"He praised her, calling her a beauty, but they hadn't even exchanged two words."
Siwan breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's wrong?" Ah Heng asked curiously.
Siwan hesitated for a moment, then said, “You don’t know, Yanxi has had a problem since he was a child. He can’t stand other people being better looking than him. I’m afraid he will make things difficult for Chen Juan.”
Ah Heng looked at Si Wan gently, pursed her thin lips, smiled, and remained silent.
Mary lives near the school in a residential building constructed last year with foreign investment. Her parents did not return to China with her, so she lives alone in the apartment. The space is quite spacious, so she invited Siwan and the others to her home. However, they are not very familiar with each other, and after exchanging a few polite words, they parted ways.
"Yan hope, can you give me some face in front of Chen Juan next time?" After taking a few steps, Da Yi couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up in Yan hope's direction.
Yan hope stopped, turned around, and looked at Xin Dayi with a puzzled expression—"When have I ever failed to give you face?"
"You just made me sound terrible in front of Mary, how am I supposed to face her now?" Xin Dayi said, somewhat embarrassed.
"I don't understand what you mean by 'behave yourself in front of her'? What, did you stop being a decent person before she was around?" Yan hope said calmly.
"Yan hope, stop joking with me. You're not stupid. You know what I mean, right?" Xin Dayi said impatiently.
Aheng was surprised. She rarely saw Xin Dayi take Yan hope so seriously. This young man was usually carefree and never took Yan hope's sarcastic remarks to heart, so it was unusual to see him like this today.
Yan hope chuckled, sighed, and waved his hand—"Okay, okay, I know. You just want to chase after a girl, what a pathetic guy you are!"
Siwan listened back and forth for a long time before finally understanding the gist of the conversation, and blurted out, "No way!"
"What's wrong with it?" Yan hope tilted his head.
“Da Yi Mary won’t do!” Si Wan frowned.
Xin Dayi was dumbfounded—"Why do you say it's no good? Yan hope has already agreed!"
"It just won't work!" Siwan said, her heart filled with frustration.
"Do you like Mary too?" Xin Dayi rubbed his head.
He fell in love with Chen Juan at first sight. It was a strange feeling, but the moment he saw her, he felt full of energy, as if he had just finished eating two large bowls of rice, and something indescribable filled his heart.
Growing up, the neighborhood was mostly filled with boys. Apart from Er'er and the girls in his class, he had never been in contact with any other girls. He treated those girls like brothers, and Si'er like a younger sister. This sudden, intense attraction, like a radish falling in love in the dead of winter, was something he had never experienced before in his life.
However, it is inexplicably strange if one's own brother falls in love with the woman one falls for at first sight.
"Of course not!" Clearly, that wasn't the case. Siwan answered with exceptional fluency and excitement.
"Why is that?" Yan hope was stunned, looking at Si Wan calmly.