Once Jing Can entered the courtyard gate, He Pingyi twisted the handlebars of his moped and slowly inched forward across a small segment of the road. He didn’t know how the ivy on the iron railing grew, but somehow it happened to leave a hole. He Pingyi shrank his neck and lowered his head. Through the hole, he saw that the inside of the house was brightly lit.
Originally, when He Pingyi was working on his homework problems, he was already so sleepy that he couldn’t even open his eyes, but after he brought Jing Can home, he suddenly wasn’t sleepy anymore. He Pingyi didn’t rush to leave, rather he leaned over, rested his upper body on the handlebars of his moped, and stared blankly at the window that shone with yellow light.
It seemed that, from the first time they met each other, Jing Can had always made him brim with curiosity. First was curiosity about who the hell he was, second was curiosity about why he was always silent, and last was curiosity about what kind of person he was. Obviously, he had a very youthful face, but Jing Can gave He Pingyi a feeling that was like he had already spent more than a decade full of worries.
A figure suddenly appeared behind the window. He Pingyi was distracted from his thoughts.
It was Jing Can.
He stood there motionless, since he was too far away from the window and backlit, He Pingyi couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he thought that Jing Can must be looking at himself. Thus, He Pingyi took a deep breath, turned on his headlights, and waved goodbye to the person standing inside.
After He Pingyi left, Jing Can stood in front of the window for a very long time. He stood until his legs began to ache, then he turned off the lights and sat down on the chair beside the table.
When he got home, He Pingyi looked at his watch. From Jing Can’s home to his own home, he had to ride his electric moped for 11 minutes. He stretched his head towards the inside of the house to look at a room further in and saw that the light in his mother’s bedroom was already turned off. He used his hands to grope around in the dark and went into the bathroom. He placed his hands and feet down lightly, hurriedly finished washing his face and rinsing his mouth, and returned to his room.
Lying in bed, he didn’t know why, but his head was full of Jing Can’s appearance when he told him that he had gotten the line wrong just a little while ago. He Pingyi opened his eyes, overlapped his hands, pillowed his head on his hands, and looked at the ceiling to reflect on it. This scene was repeated before his eyes again. He suddenly turned over, sat up, got up from his bed, and turned on his computer.
The next day, He Pingyi set out 20 minutes earlier than usual. For the entire solo leg of his journey, he had one hand in his pocket and was humming a popular song. He Pingyi stopped in front of the door of Jing Can’s house, whistled leisurely, and breathed a long relaxed breath.
Unexpectedly, just after he whistled, the door of Jing Can’s house opened. The person standing inside had messy hair, and a pair of big eyes gazed at him through fogged up eyeglass lenses.
“So early?” He Pingyi smiled. Seeing Jing Can standing motionless, he used one hand to motion towards him. “Get on, ah.”
This time, He Pingyi didn’t speak. As soon as Jing Can walked to his side, he directly took the schoolbag that was in his hand when he came over.
“Did you keep studying after you got home last night? You even brought your schoolbag back.”
Compared to last night, Jing Can had already become more proficient in riding. He would grab He Pingyi’s clothes in advance when they were about to turn a corner, and then take the initiative to release them when they were stable again.
“No, I just…”
Jing Can thought for a moment and answered honestly, “I’m just not used to taking nothing.”
He Pingyi listened, slightly tilted his head, and tried his best to understand how this habit was cultivated.
After he finished saying these words, Jing Can actually somewhat regretted it. He was afraid that He Pingyi would sense something and think that his behavior was really strange. However, when he raised his head and looked at the back of He Pingyi’s head, Jing Can opened his mouth, but couldn’t say anything to remedy it, so he could only lightly bite his lip and turn his head to look at the road they had just passed.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He had been in this city for almost a month, but as he passed through it today, there were still many strange and unfamiliar stores on the road he had walked down many times. Jing Can’s gaze was locked on a family owned chicken cutlet shop. The electric moped had already swept past the family shop, but he still turned his head to look back at it.
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Seeing his obviously panic-stricken appearance, He Pingyi couldn’t endure it and smiled, “What’s up, do you want to eat fried chicken cutlets ah?”
Jing Can felt that his face was burning hot and he denied in a low voice: “No.”
He was stared at by He Pingyi and turned his head to the other side, but he heard He Pingyi speak again, “Have you ever driven a car?”
Driven a car?
Jing Can was stunned and looked back again at He Pingyi: “You have to be eighteen to take the driver’s license test.”
“I know,” He Pingyi said with a smile. “What about a go kart? Have you ever driven one? If not, then have you ever played a racing game?”
Jing Can cast his eyes aside and frowned slightly. He stared at a crack on the ground and shook his head gently.
“No.”
Because he kept his head lowered, He Pingyi could only see the hair whorl on the top of his head. He raised one hand, and before he could react, it was already almost touching the top of Jing Can’s head.
The traffic light changed to green, and traffic passed them on the side.
He Pingyi’s hand stopped in mid-air. He came to his senses, and he was a little surprised at his own behavior.
“Then, let’s go play together next time ah.” Turning around as if nothing had happened, He Pingyi said this in a relaxed tone before starting the electric moped.
At the school gate, each and every one of the sleepy, bleary eyed learning machines rushed into the school. He Pingyi and Jing Can went to the vehicle shelter to park their moped. Afterwards, when they had just reached the stairs, Jing Can suddenly took the initiative to call He Pingyi.
It seemed that it was the first time He Pingyi heard Jing Can call him.
“Huh?” He Pingyi stopped spinning the key in his hand and turned his head to look at Jing Can.
Jing Can walked very slowly, and every step he took on the stairs, his head followed immediately afterwards, so it looked like he was slightly nodding. He didn’t give He Pingyi a response until they made it up to the top of the stairs and turned to their respective classes. Then he abruptly said, “Can you really drive a racecar?”
He Pingyi even thought that he had been holding back something extremely serious for quite a while. As soon as Jing Can said this, he knew that he had overestimated Jing Can’s social skills.
“Is there a reason I can’t?”
After listening to He Pingyi’s words, Jing Can tightened the hand holding his schoolbag. He bowed his head and used the tip of his foot to lightly step on the decorative pattern on the floor. He Pingyi saw the corners of his mouth slowly hooking up, which accidentally exposed a smile that had been deliberately hidden.
There was a continuous flow of students coming up the stairs, and Jing Can heard the sound of other people talking. His originally delighted face became very unnatural. He nodded and said, “I’ll go first.”
“Ok, wait for me when we have breakfast later,” He Pingyi finished speaking and raised his chin. “Go ahead.”
There were two self-study classes in the morning for senior Grade 3 of No. 7 High School. The first self-study class was from 7:00 to 7:30, followed by 20 minutes of breakfast, then the second self-study class started at 7:50. Afterwards, there was a five minute break, and the first class started at 8:30.
In order to prevent everyone from getting sleepy during the first self-study class, the school set this time as the morning reading period. Jing Can took out an English newspaper, spread it out, scanned the teacher’s required recitation content a few times, and then began to try to make his hair stay down.
He didn’t sleep much last night. In fact, ever since he came to Huihe he couldn’t sleep well. In retrospect, when he asked Song Yinan if he could come here to study, Song Yinan’s face was full of grandeur. After a brief silence, she smiled gently and promised him that she would discuss it with Jing Zaixing. Jing Can didn’t know how Song Yinan persuaded Jing Zaixing, but the day he left home, Song Yinan was the one who saw him off. Song Yinan said that Jing Zaixing’s company was busy with something and he couldn’t see him off, but Jing Can knew that his father was actually in the study.
Jing Can didn’t know that he had tightened his hand into a fist until a short fingernail dug into his palm, and with the onset of the pain, he stopped recalling these memories. It was like staying in a sealed off room for a very long time. Right after Jing Can’s vision re-presented the contents of the English newspaper, he suddenly gasped and began to pant frantically.
Jing Can looked up at his chaotic surroundings and found that, unbeknownst to him, the class had already ended at some point.
He Pingyi.
He became clear-headed in an instant, and in a flurry he used his arm to prop himself up on his desk, trying to stand up. At the same time, the window beside him was suddenly pushed open by someone on the outside, accompanied by a burst of ear-piercing noise generated by friction.
“Studying so hard?” He Pingyi poked his head in and gave a vaguely concerned and helpless smile. “Why don’t you eat ah?”
“Eat!” One word rushed out of his mouth, and then Jing Can realized how urgent his tone was. He swallowed his saliva, settled his frenetic heart, and resumed his usual tone of speech quickly: “I will come out now.”
When in a hurry, mistakes will occur. One of Jing Can’s legs knocked over his seat-mate’s chair and it made a loud noise, which made several of his classmates, who were resting their upper bodies on their desks to make up for lost sleep, look up at him simultaneously.
He Pingyi looked at Jing Can’s face and with his naked eye he could clearly see the speed at which it was turning red. He crouched down and righted the overturned seat, then comforted Jing Can in a low voice, “It’s okay. Don’t worry.”
Pulled all the way to the vehicle shelter, Jing Can doubtfully looked at He Pingyi’s unlocking action, and finally asked very slowly: “Not going to class?”
“Get on ah,” He Pingyi threw the lock that was on the rear wheel into the basket. “Let’s eat first.”
Jing Can was inexplicably carried away from the school and they went along the road they used when they came that morning. It wasn’t until he smelled a familiar fragrance that Jing Can realized what He Pingyi was doing.
He Pingyi ordered two chicken cutlets. When the boss handed them the first perfectly deep-fried cutlet, He Pingyi immediately stuffed it into Jing Can’s hand and said, “Eat quickly.”
Jing Can bowed his head and saw the cut up pieces of chicken cutlet. They were a lustrous golden yellow.
The chicken cutlet was only stored in a paper bag. After holding it for a long time, it burned his fingertips until they ached. Jing Can sucked in his breath and quickly moved his fingers away.
“Is it hot?” He Pingyi smiled in amusement because of his actions. In passing, he raised his hand and ruffled Jing Can’s hair, “Silly.”
After being touched on his head, Jing Can suddenly lifted his head and slightly widened his eyes.
Realizing he didn’t control his hand, He Pingyi felt a little embarrassed being looked at by Jing Can. He coughed softly and urged him: “Eat quickly.”
He turned his head and looked around, pretending to wait for his chicken cutlet, but his hand in his pants pocket quaked nervously. He Pingyi pinched his eyebrows and clenched his hand, thinking that it was over. He scared the child.
Jing Can blinked his eyes and attentively stared at him again for a while, until at last, the fragrance of the chicken cutlet enticed him to lower his head and pick up the bamboo skewer.
He Pingyi surreptitiously glanced to the side and saw that Jing Can was seriously immersed in eating, like a little mouse.
When the second chicken cutlet was finished frying, they walked out of the chicken cutlet shop side by side. After walking a few steps, He Pingyi suddenly stopped and called Jing Can. Jing Can was chewing on his chicken cutlet and raised his head to look up at him.
“Let’s talk.” He Pingyi approached Jing Can and lowered his voice. “I bought you a chicken cutlet. Can you answer my question?”
Jing Can paused and continued to chew. After swallowing the two or three pieces in his mouth, he asked somewhat strangely, “What’s the question?”
“Why are you always in your own world ah?”
Jing Can listened, but didn’t speak. He stared blankly at He Pingyi.
“Of course, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” He Pingyi explained, “I just saw that you seem as if you quite like being in your own world, so I was curious.”
After weighing his words for a few seconds, Jing Can lowered his head again and quickly forked up a piece of chicken cutlet, then looked at He Pingyi’s eyes and muttered, “It’s not okay to be in your own world ah?”
Although He Pingyi suspected that he was self-indulgent, Jing Can’s tone when he said this was really different from that of the timid boy before. At this time, Jing Can was obviously much more lively, so much so that his sentence just now had a slight sense of mischievousness.
He was a little surprised to watch Jing Can minding his own business. Jing Can walked in the direction of the electric moped, and he stuffed a piece of chicken cutlet into his mouth as he walked. After stopping, Jing Can turned to him and said, “If we don’t go, we’ll be late.”
Hey…
He Pingyi turned a corner in his mind and sighed emotionally. Others drink alcohol to gain courage, and this person eats chicken cutlets to gain courage?
He smiled and shook his head twice. He walked over and thought to himself that, if he had known earlier that chicken cutlets were so useful, the second time he met him, he would’ve bought a big chicken cutlet. Then he could’ve presented it to Jing Can and said, “Do you want to be friends?“
They are both so adorable …uwu.
Thank you for this chapter.