Courir partout et jouer des rôles mineurs

Chapitre 102

Li Changsheng was shrewd and knew she was in a bad mood, so he never provoked her. He went to school, studied, ate, and slept peacefully. Sometimes she would get impatient and throw a tantrum at him, but Changsheng wouldn't get angry. He would just look at her with his eyes. His big eyes seemed to hold endless grievances, but he never complained. Every time this happened, it made her feel guilty.

What's wrong with immortality?

She was the one who was wrong.

But she always seemed unable to control her temper, frequently losing her temper. Yesterday, their monthly exam results came out, and both of them had dropped significantly, infuriating her. Today, she gave them a severe dressing down, ordering them to stay home and study. After her anger subsided, seeing the two innocent children, she felt guilty, especially unable to face Li Changsheng, who remained calm and composed in the face of her anger. That's when she slipped away, using the excuse of visiting her grandparents to avoid them.

She already had something on her mind, and Qiuqin's words of advice only intensified her worries. She recalled what Changsheng had said to her before she left: he understood her bad mood, and that they were also at fault for her declining grades, but that wasn't the main reason for her anger. He explained that they were understanding because they were family. Changsheng's calm yet chilling face seemed to reappear before her eyes.

This kid has suddenly grown up!

After talking with Qiuqin for a while, which slightly eased my depressed mood, I carried a large bag of soybeans home, planning to stir-fry the soybeans as Aunt Qin had suggested as an apology...

What Qiu Shanglin didn't know was that as soon as she stepped out the door, Qiu Xialin, who was being held down by Changsheng and looking dejected, jumped up and pointed in the direction she had left, cursing loudly—not at Qiu Shanglin, but at Ji Yunwen.

After venting her frustrations, she turned to Li Changsheng with a sullen expression: "Brother, when will this ever end! My sister is in a bad mood, and neither of us has a good day—you even deliberately told me not to study hard for the exam, and now I'm just asking for trouble!"

Chang Sheng buried himself in the test questions, not even looking up: "It'll be done soon. All that's missing is the east wind."

I thought to myself, "Do you think I had it easy? I unfortunately ended up in the same exam room as your sister during the monthly exam. To balance my grades, I deliberately didn't finish the test and dozed off during the exam. Your sister almost caught me. Do you think I had it easy?"

Shang Lin pressed on, "When is 'soon'? Are you sure I don't need to go and beat up Ji Yunwen? That kid is such a coward. Even though I find fault with him, he shouldn't have tried to drive a wedge between me and my sister! He's incredibly cowardly! By the way, how long are we going to pretend our grades are dropping? Also, my sister is already unhappy. The lower our grades are, the happier she'll be."

Chang Sheng looked up calmly: "It'll be over soon."

Qiu Shanglin's bad mood = alienates them = easily gets angry and throws tantrums = affects their mood = makes them unable to concentrate on their studies = their grades drop.

He subtly revealed the meaning behind this simple equation, and Qiu Shanglin, being quite clever, already understood. She was probably also reflecting on how her bad mood had caused chaos at home and prevented them from focusing on their studies during this crucial high school period… With a two-pronged approach, he was determined not to let her persist!

Early romance?

ha!

In his view, Qiu Shanglin's puppy love was the biggest joke.

What does Ji Yunwen know? What does Qiu Shanglin know? A pretty boy, kind-hearted and all he thinks, can guarantee a peaceful world and eternal love? If he hadn't secretly shielded Ouyang Linhao, their relationship would have been exposed at school long ago. No matter how good Shanglin's grades are, no matter how powerful his family connections are, he can't escape a disciplinary action recorded in his file!

It's just that she's been surrounded by gloomy, thoughtful, and cunning guys like Yin Yeyao and Gu Zhiyuan since she was little, so it's just that she finds it refreshing to occasionally meet a simple, sunny boy—he completely ignores the fact that Qiu Shanglin should also be considered one of the gloomy, thoughtful, and cunning guys around him.

Last year's events were dangerous, and he still felt a chill when he thought about them. He was actually quite grateful to those bad guys; if they hadn't interfered and made Shang Lin see the gap between her and Ji Yunwen, his plan wouldn't have gone smoothly.

The Cold War? There was no such thing as a Cold War.

The reason Qiu Shanglin is still dragging her feet on breaking up is simply because she feels bad for Ji Yunwen and doesn't want to be seen as heartless for dumping him.

Despite her mature and sensible demeanor, Qiu Shanglin is less mature and more like a normal high school girl when it comes to relationships!

Arguing over beans

On the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon raises its head, the granaries are full, and the small granaries overflow. Legend has it that on the second day of the second lunar month, it is the day when the Dragon King, who is in charge of clouds and rain, raises his head, and when the Dragon King raises his head, rain fills the granaries. Farmers fear many things, such as drought, flood, frost, and snow. They both fear and respect these things, and they have great reverence for the various gods who govern the lives and deaths of the people.

When the Dragon King raises his head, it can't be for nothing—is that an ordinary human head? It's a dragon head worth a fortune!

In the past, it was a grand occasion. On the second day of the second lunar month, a grand feast was held to show the Dragon King the sincerity of the people and to pray for abundant rain and healthy growth throughout the year.

Nowadays, there aren't so many rules. The Qiu family has given up farming in recent years and no longer cares about the Dragon King's expensive head.

February 2nd has become merely a folk festival.

No matter how busy they are, holidays must be celebrated. Xinglong's new factory in the southern suburbs has run into some problems. Zhang Hongwei and Qiu Jianguo have been busy there since the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and they haven't even had time for the Lantern Festival. On the second day of the second lunar month, they only made a phone call early in the morning to tell Xia Lin to go to his grandmother's house for lunch.

Xia Lin pouted and glanced towards the kitchen: "Don't worry, my sister has already prepared everything. She soaked a big pot of beans last night and is stir-frying them now. We'll eat at home for lunch. If we go to Grandma's, we'll have to listen to my aunt's nagging again—it's easier for my sister at home, she only cooks for the three of us. If we go over, she'll have to cook a whole table, and she'll have to do all the washing and cleaning. It's not a meal, it's an ordeal!"

After Zhang Hongwei said something, he nodded a few times and said, "We should go to school this afternoon. We'll take care of dinner ourselves."

After hanging up the phone, he shrugged and spread his hands at Changsheng, who was silently asking questions, and gestured to the kitchen.

Shanglin, looking disheveled, brought out a bowl of fried beans, coughing incessantly: "The range hood is broken. Xialin called someone to fix it."

Changsheng stood up: "I'll go take a look."

Shanglin feigned anger: "Don't even think about escaping—come here and eat some gold beans! And you, Qiu Xialin, come here!"

He dawdled and hesitated, then said, "I suddenly remembered I have some homework to do, it's due this afternoon..."

Shang Lin calmly responded, glancing disdainfully at the two who were trying to evade the issue with identical expressions: "You're mistaken. I've checked all the homework. If there are any problems, have your homeroom teacher come to me."

Xia Lin and Chang Sheng stared at each other—what arrogance…

I sat down dejectedly, watching the beans being distributed in Shanglin. One for you, one for me…

"I want this bowl!" He grabbed a bowl first.

Changsheng snatched the food at the last minute, glaring at him: "I'll eat it!"

Xia Lin pouted: "My brother eats more than me, he's the one who eats more!"

"You never say that when we're eating!"

The two brothers were arguing over a few small beans, which made Shang Lin laugh: "Once you've tasted them, you won't want to put them down. I'm afraid you'll fight over them!"

Xia Lin pouted, "Forget it." Reluctantly, she picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, chewing slowly. Her unhurried expression suddenly froze. Chang Sheng asked, "What's wrong? Doesn't it taste good?" He hesitated, wondering whether to put it in her mouth.

He didn't answer, but suddenly picked up several pieces and put them in his mouth, chewing them vigorously. The more he chewed, the more cheerful his expression became: "Brother doesn't like them, give them all to me!" As he spoke, he reached out to grab them.

Chang Sheng nimbly shielded her, questioning, "You're deliberately lying to me, aren't you?"

Shanglin said irritably, "Give it to me, take it or leave it."

After two days of rest, the students received refreshments from home, carrying large and small bags, and sharing the thoughtful gifts their parents had prepared.

Qiu Xialin was surrounded by many people. He said smugly, "Eat as much as you want. My sister's cooking is absolutely top-notch."

Wang Wei's mouth was stuffed full, and he quickly grabbed the spicy chicken pieces and stuffed them into his mouth as much as possible, saying vaguely, "How much did your sister make? Our class ate some, your class ate some, and there were quite a few people gathered around Brother Changsheng when I came over earlier."

Some people were unhappy that he was hogging the food: "Wang Wei, your class isn't short of food, why are you coming here to steal from us?"

The people around them joined in the commotion.

Wang Wei was familiar with them all. He swallowed the food in his mouth with difficulty and punched the other party: "Shang Lin brought a lot, but there were even more people eating it—Ji Yunwen took half for himself, which wolf cub could get the rest?"

He spoke without thinking, but Xia Lin listened intently. He smiled and watched everyone eat for a while, then quietly squeezed out of the crowd to find Chang Sheng, and pulled him along to Class One.

Class One was also noisy, everyone was sharing before evening self-study. A group of people surrounded Shanglin, and even Ouyang Linhao was chatting and eating with everyone with a smile.

Xia Lin pulled Chang Sheng and squeezed in, saying, "Make way, make way, the beggars are here."

People who knew him joked, "Qiu Xialin, your sister is such a good cook, why don't you go back and have her make it again? Why come and compete with us?"

"My sister's hands are precious; we rarely let her cook. They're the hands of an artist, hehe..."

The crowd jeered, "An artist? What artist? How come we didn't know about this?"

Shang Lin was about to stop her when Xia Lin started showing off: "Erhu, erhu, my sister is an erhu master—even the teachers at the art school say her playing is at a professional level. There's a sketch in my brother's study that depicts my sister playing the erhu; I'll take you to see it another day."

He was chatting and laughing with everyone, while Shanglin glared at him resentfully. However, Qiuxialin was thick-skinned and didn't care at all.

Ji Yunwen sat to the side, chewing on the stir-fried beans that were supposedly made with a secret recipe. She watched everyone scramble for the food she had brought, feeling quite pleased that she had her own special portion.

His expression turned gloomy the moment Li Changsheng appeared.

He remained silent throughout.

Hearing that Shang Lin could play the erhu, and that Li Changsheng's family even had a sketch of her, with a soft snap, a soybean held between her fingers broke into several pieces, falling silently to the ground, where it was trampled into dust by several feet.

Shanglin glared at his younger brother, picked up a piece of crispy fried tofu and shoved it into his mouth, saying irritably, "Just eat yours, why are you talking so much!"

Xia Lin didn't care, and even thought things weren't big enough. She turned to Ji Yunwen, who was sitting quietly, and said with a grin, "Sister, my brother and I don't have enough fried beans. Can we share half?"

Before Shang Lin could speak, he went straight to the table in front of Ji Yunwen and started rummaging around. One of the simpletons protested, "Hey, you little rascal, at least leave us some! Don't take it all!"

Goodness, that hand is big enough; it wiped out more than half of it in one swipe.

Xia Lin pouted: "You guys won't get to eat it even if you leave it, so I might as well take it and eat it in our class later!"

Ji Yunwen's expression grew increasingly grim. He sat motionless, his gaze fixed on Qiu Xialin like that of a venomous snake. Some of the more astute among them sensed something was amiss and quickly slipped away with a laugh, while the majority, less suspicious, continued eating, chatting, and joking.

When he came down from the forest, he brought a lunchbox and was filling it with golden beans. He had just filled it two or three times when a hand suddenly reached out and pressed it down, coldly saying, "That's enough."

Xia Lin shook him off, not even glancing at him: "That won't do, there's also my brother's..."