He had almost never felt such profound emotion from anyone else before.
Ying Yunsheng suddenly spoke up: "Can we change to another one?"
"What, change it?"
"Use someone else's expectations of you as your baseline for self-discipline."
Ji Li couldn't understand why this topic, which had been previously skipped, had jumped back to: "Why change?"
“Being at school is different from being in a hospital bed. The former is called living, while the latter is just existing.”
Ying Yunsheng looked at him: "Your parents' only requirement for you is to live, so what about your requirements for yourself?"
Ji Li didn't say anything.
Ying Yunsheng: "Didn't you think about that?"
Ji Li remained silent.
"Then think about it now."
"How can you think about it in such a short time?"
“If you find it difficult, I’ll set one up for you.” Before the other person could speak, Ying Yunsheng spoke again, “Live well, and live happily.”
Upon hearing this, Ji Li asked, "Do I usually look depressed?"
"Do you remember what I said to you on the playground back then?" Ying Yunsheng repeated, "'Sometimes I think you're too good to me.' But the world's resources are conserved. You're good to me, good to your friends, good to your classmates, and good to your family. Once you give too much, the rate of absorption can't keep up with the rate of consumption. Once the threshold of your tolerance is crossed, you'll wither away."
“I don’t know why your parents have such expectations of you, but you can’t always put others first in everything. Life is so long, you can’t live just for others. Besides, your parents are not the only ones in this world who care about how you live in the future.”
Ji Li heard the last sentence: "You're not trying to say that you're also involved, are you?"
"yes."
"Uh..." Ying Yunsheng asked, "Are you not eating snacks, drinking beverages, or touching anything stimulating right now because you're worried they'll put a strain on your heart?"
Ji Li was momentarily caught off guard by his rapid-fire thoughts: "What's wrong?"
Ying Yunsheng nodded, turned around and went to the vendor next to him who was leaning on a long stick. Half a minute later, he came back with a string of candied hawthorns.
"As long as you don't overdo it, you can actually eat a lot of things. For example, the vitamin C, pectin, and acids in candied hawthorn are actually not necessarily less harmful than beneficial to the body. Even medicines have some toxicity, but when people are terminally ill, they still treat them as a life-saving elixir and are afraid of not eating enough. The harmful substances in natural foods are unlikely to be more than those in medicines."
Ji Li stared at him blankly: "When did you find out about this?"
Ying Yunsheng didn't answer: "So you don't need to forcibly reject everything just because you're worried about the risks. Humans have created so many flavors of food; it would be a waste if you only ate carbohydrates your whole life." He tore open the plastic wrap and held the stick to the other person's mouth, "Try it."
Ji Li stared at the bright red ball in front of him.
“I remember you used to love sweets.” Ying Yunsheng looked at him. “No one would know if you indulged yourself once in a while.”
Ji Li: "Aren't you human?"
Ying Yunsheng: "I can erase my memories."
“Uh…” Ji Li was lost in thought for a moment, then reached out to grab the stick.
Ying Yunsheng dodged his hand, then offered it to him again: "Open your mouth."
Ji Li blinked, then lowered her head and bit off the top hawthorn from his hand.
The moment the sugar coating burst between your lips and teeth, the "crack" sound rang out perfectly in time with your heartbeat.
"Is it tasty?"
"It's so sour."
"You'll find it gets even more sour as you eat more."
"Well……"
"If you can't stand it, just spit it out."
“No,” Ji Li said. “I quite like it.”
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Black gloves
Jian Mingyuan glanced at the empty space diagonally in front of him, then poked it forward with his pen: "Where's Zhu Yi?"
Ye Ruhui turned his head: "What?"
Why didn't Zhu Yi come to evening self-study?
How would I know?
Isn't he your deskmate?
"You know that someone is your deskmate, not a GPS navigator."
Jian Mingyuan rolled his eyes.
It's not strange to take a day off occasionally, Jian Mingyuan thought, and he didn't pay much attention even though he didn't see Zhu Yi return to the dormitory all night.
The other person's seat was still empty when class started the next day, and Mao Xianzhi didn't even mention why.
This is quite intriguing.
Jian Mingyuan asked Ji Li, puzzled, "Student genius, did the teacher mention this to you?"
“He had some family trouble and took a few days off. He’ll be back once he’s taken care of it.”
Because of what happened over the weekend, Zhu Yi was directly detained by the police in a detention center. Given that the perpetrator was a minor and no serious consequences resulted, the police did not keep a criminal record or notify the school.
That night, when Zhu's father received the call to bail out the person, he had just finished packing up his stall and hadn't even had time to tidy up his things. He rushed to the police station, and bumped into Ji Li in the lobby.
Now, Zhu's father went to the office and asked Mao Xianzhi for a week's leave, citing a family emergency as the reason.
However, Jian Mingyuan was unaware of these things. When he heard that it was a family matter, he didn't ask any further questions and went back to doing his homework.
Zhu Yi returned to school a week later, just in time for the arts festival.
Finally, everyone was able to perform the entire stage play without a script and without laughing.
Before this, Ying Yunsheng had maintained a frequency of reading one extracurricular book per week. As for what he read, it depended on what he drew when Ji Li gave him the book.
When returning a book by chance, Cui Zhuoyue happened to witness this scene and knocked over the music stand. She hurriedly and clumsily picked it up and looked up to meet Jian Mingyuan's gaze.
“Sister Yue,” Jian Mingyuan couldn’t help but lower his voice, “you should at least be a little more discreet when you’re peeping at others.”
Cui Zhuoyue's heart skipped a beat.
Jian Mingyuan then added the second half of the sentence: "Otherwise, a secret crush would turn into an open crush."
"Uh..." Cui Zhuoyue pointed to herself: "Me? Who do I have a crush on?"
Jian Mingyuan: "Don't you have a crush on our class monitor?"
"How come I didn't know?"
"So that means you have a crush on Ying Yunsheng?"
“Uh…” Cui Zhuoyue couldn’t help but roll her eyes: “Stop imagining all this nonsense.”
"Otherwise, why would you keep an eye on those two all day long?"
"You have a problem with me liking candy?"
A question mark appeared above Jian Mingyuan's head: "What candy?"
Cui Zhuoyue shoved her phone screen directly at him: "Take a look at this."
Jian Mingyuan looked down and scrolled through his phone.
Cui Zhuoyue sat in the chair, watching as the other person's expression changed from solemn to confused, and then to awe-inspiring realization: "This...this..."
She smiled and put her phone away: "So? Aren't they incredibly genuine?"
Jian Mingyuan's expression was complicated for a long time before he asked, "Sister Yue, do you remember what you just said?"
"What?"
"Stop overthinking things."
"Well……".
The arts festival opening was specially scheduled for evening self-study time. Promotional videos were shown on the big screen, and the audience, organized by the student union, entered the hall one by one, gradually filling it to capacity.
There was a restroom on one side of the corridor outside the auditorium. Ying Yunsheng, dressed in a dark cloak like a witch, stepped into the restroom. A person walked out from the side door next to him, looked up and made eye contact with him.
Zhu Yi paused for a moment, quickly avoiding his gaze, and was about to walk around him when the other person suddenly spoke.
"Zhu Yi, Class 1, Grade 11 (Humanities Stream)"
Zhu Yi stopped in his tracks: "You called me?"
Ying Yunsheng stared at him silently for a few seconds: "Why are you still here?"
"What's the meaning?"
“I thought that even if you didn’t want to transfer schools, you would at least transfer to another class, or at least feel ashamed to show your face in front of him again.”
Zhu Yi still remembered that the other person was the one who suddenly appeared in the garage to stop him last time. However, most of his memories of that day were focused on the phone call he made to the police, leaving only a few impressions of Ying Yunsheng. When he spoke, his tone was not good: "What's it to you?"
Ying Yunsheng replied matter-of-factly, "After all, I am also one of the parties involved. It is thanks to you that I had the opportunity to go to the police station."
Zhu Yi suddenly looked up: "You..."
Ying Yunsheng smiled and said, "And your father. I ran into him in the police station lobby and he asked me for directions to the interrogation room. He must have learned something new this time."
He clearly didn't say a single word that was ambiguous, yet every single one of his words was barbed.
Zhu Yi had been holding a grudge about this matter, and now that someone had reminded him of it in such a sarcastic way, he couldn't suppress his temper, which was about to explode: "Where I want to stay is none of your business! It's not like I haven't paid my tuition!"
"Using your dad's money?"
"you……"