On the weekend after the third week of school, Song Yinan came to Huihe. When she entered the house, Jing Can was sitting up straight on a small wooden bench, fighting with a pile of dirty clothes. Song Yinan opened the door and went in. She called twice in the living room, but no one answered. Then she followed the faint sound of indistinct movement and found Jing Can who was just going to the bathroom to wash his laundry. Seeing his appearance, Song Yinan immediately leaned against the door frame and smiled gently.
“How did you manage to accomplish this?” Song Yinan reached out her hand and touched his wet forehead. “Why didn’t you use the washing machine?”
He didn’t anticipate that this sorry figure of his would be seen by Song Yinan. Jing Can held a white jacket in his hands. He lifted it up and flattened a piece of the cloth to show Song Yinan. He wrinkled his brows and said in a somewhat lost and frustrated tone, “There’s an oil spot on here, and the washing machine can’t wash it off.”
“Hmm…” Song Yinan bent down and leaned closer to look. When she bent down, a strand of her long hair hung down next to her ear, and she very quickly used one finger to pick it up and pin it behind her head. She took the clothes from Jing Can’s hands and patted him on the shoulder: “I see. I’ll wash it for you. Go wash your forehead first. You’ve got laundry detergent on it. Don’t let it get into your eyes.”
After a moment of hesitation, Jing Can nodded and stood up.
“Change that shirt of yours and wash it too.” Seeing that a small part of his clothes was also splashed with water, Song Yinan suddenly raised her finger and pointed. “It’s wet.”
Jing Can bowed his head to glance at his shirt and nodded again, then went back to his room and rummaged around to find a clean short sleeve shirt. The temperature rose again in the last few days, and the air was also severely dry. Jing Can wasn’t careful and he accidentally hit his nose when he was taking off his shirt. He felt something warm flowing out. His shirt was still covering his head, so he quickly pulled it away from his cheeks and tugged it down. When he looked in the mirror again, as expected, the nosebleed had already almost flowed to the edge of his mouth.
Jing Can and the boy in the mirror looked at each other for a while, and only when the boy in the mirror pursed his brows uncomfortably did he raise his hand and rub it against his nosebleed.
Song Yinan saw that he was blocking his nostrils with tissues and was slightly surprised: “Nosebleed?”
“En.” Jing Can answered with a thick nasal sound.
“The weather is too dry,” Song Yinan thought for a moment and said, “Let’s take a break later and go to the supermarket to buy you some fruit. In the future, remember to eat some fruit every day.”
Jing Can didn’t raise any objections and nodded. At first, he had turned around to leave, but he caught a glimpse of Song Yinan bending her waist and lowering her head to wash clothes, pursing her lips all the while. He moved a small wooden bench from the side, put it diagonally across from Song Yinan, and sat down. Song Yinan raised her head and looked up at him with a smile, then asked, “How are you? Are you still getting used to things at school?”
“En, it’s OK.” Jing Can folded his arms together and put them on his knees. Because he was leaning forward, his shoulders became slightly raised, and the edge of his light blue shirt lifted up. His eyes became quiet, and he thought of He Pingyi again.
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.
“Gb sbe ufa jibcu kfii klat sbeg mijrrwjafr?”
Xfa jibcu klat…
Alcu Jjc atbeuta bo atf ylu mtlmxfc meaifa jcv tlv tlr wbeat lc tlr jgw.
Rbalcu atf mtjcuf lc Alcu Jjc’r fsfr, Vbcu Tlcjc rabqqfv kjrtlcu atf mibatfr. Vtf ifjcfv obgkjgv jcv delfais ibbxfv ja Alcu Jjc klat j rwlif.
“Hmm?” Jing Can returned from his mind wandering and reacted. His hands left his knees unconsciously. He couldn’t find a new posture for a moment, and finally he was a little flustered and hurriedly supported himself on both sides, leaning on the small wooden bench. He tried hard to control his expression, lowered his head, and quickly raised it up again: “They’re very good, all my classmates are very good.”
Song Yinan watched his series of movements and vaguely guessed something. But Jing Can avoided her eyes, so she smiled and didn’t ask for more details.
Jing Can took a clothes hanger and Song Yinan hung up his clothes. Suddenly, she asked Jing Can, “Have you ever been to the rooftop?”
Song Yinan’s family home was a single family home, it wasn’t big, but the design was very excellent. The two bedrooms upstairs, both facing south, were quite spacious, and each had a balcony. There was also a bedroom on the first floor that was used as a study. Jing Can had never entered that room. He guessed that it should’ve belonged to Song Yinan’s father.
When he decided that he would study in Huihe, Song Yinan tidied up his room for him to live in and also told him that her father had designed the house. When the house was built, the family didn’t have much money. With limited funds available due to their circumstances, her father made great efforts and designed the house from top to bottom, striving his hardest to achieve the best results.
And the rooftop that Song Yinan mentioned, Jing Can actually had noticed it, but it was just that he didn’t have Song Yinan’s guidance, so he hadn’t tried to open that door.
Song Yinan pushed the door open and walked along the slightly narrow small stairs, leading Jing Can to the rooftop. Jing Can looked around and found a line for drying clothes.
The sun was blazing. Song Yinan squinted and put the basin she was carrying on the ground. Jing Can then went over to help Song Yinan wring out the clothes and hang them on the clothes drying line.
“I like it here.”
Song Yinan carefully stretched out Jing Can’s clothes on the drying line so that they were flat and also made sure to straighten the collar. She was just about to call out to Jing Can to say that he could leave when she suddenly heard him say something like this.
“Hmm?” She turned back, slightly surprised. It was the first time she heard Jing Can express his thoughts directly like this.
Jing Can’s gaze remained somewhere far away from beginning to end, but just like a child would jump up in excitement when he especially liked something, he moved his feet, slowly turned in a circle, and then said again: “This rooftop is really wonderful.”
The behavior was similar, but the degree was different. Although he said such a compliment, Jing Can’s tone was still restrained and calm.
She didn’t know whether it was because of the sunshine or happiness, but Jing Can’s face was slightly flushed, which made the light in his eyes appear even brighter. Such a Jing Can was already the greatest relief to Song Yinan.
The two stood on the roof again for a while. Jing Can didn’t want to leave, but Song Yinan saw that it was getting late, so she discussed with Jing Can about going to eat a meal soon. Jing Can immediately agreed to come down. After turning around, he saw two small pools of water on the ground, which were formed from the water dripping from the clothes that had just been hung in the air. The wet spots reflected the sunshine, it was very bright.
Jing Can walked a few more steps, carefully examined the two wet spots, and then raised his head to look up at the dazzling sun. A thought surfaced in his mind, which he once again quickly suppressed.
“What’s the matter?” Song Yinan asked behind her.
Jing Can looked at the ground again, and finally shook his head gently. Song Yinan swept a glance at the ground and then left with Jing Can.
The two ate dinner and then went to the supermarket. Song Yinan picked and chose, and bought one bag of kiwis and one bag of apples.
“Do you want mangoes?”
Jing Can picked one up, gently squeezed it, and then put it down again.
“No, this mango is too ripe, it won’t keep.”
Song Yinan looked at the pile of golden and dazzling mangoes, and then looked at Jing Can’s departing back. She picked up three and put them in a bag.
It was very strange, the two children at home obviously didn’t have the same mother, but they both liked to eat mangoes the most. Song Yinan asked Jing Zaixing if he liked mangoes and the two children followed him. But Jing Zaixing told her that he was allergic to mangoes. So sometimes Song Yinan felt that the reason why their family finally became a family was because of predestination.
After paying for the groceries, Song Yinan took two steps towards the supermarket door, turned her head suddenly, and saw that Jing Can had disappeared. She stretched out her head and looked around everywhere to try to find him. She saw that Jing Can was still at the cash register, frozen in place. When she saw him, Song Yinan suspected that something was wrong with her eyes, because Jing Can’s face clearly looked happy – his jaw was lifted, his mouth was slightly open, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. Song Yinan followed his gaze and saw a row of refrigerators. As she walked towards Jing Can, she looked in that direction again a few times. She felt somewhat strange, why didn’t she see a beautiful girl?
“Did you see a friend?” she walked to Jing Can’s side and asked.
“En…” Jing Can turned his head, saw her, and responded.
Originally, when she said this word, Jing Can’s face was still relaxed, but for some reason, when Jing Can looked at the refrigerators again, he suddenly tightly pursed his lips and lowered his eyes. He was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he smiled at Song Yinan and said, “I thought I did, but I was mistaken.”
Song Yinan stayed overnight with Jing Can in Huihe City. Early the next morning, Jing Can sent her to the train station and saw her off. Before leaving, Song Yinan took her bag from Jing Can’s hand and suddenly said with a smile, “If you want to do something with that rooftop, you can do whatever you want.”
Jing Can was very clearly stunned. He didn’t expect that Song Yinan would suddenly say this.
“Xiao Can, as I said before, this is the place where I grew up and now it’s also your home, so you can do anything you want, OK?”
Song Yinan knew very well that Jing Can liked to shut himself off from everything. He didn’t like to make requests, and he never took the initiative to ask for anything. He had been like that since he was a child. Even the fact that he liked to eat mangoes, which was a very small preference, Song Yinan was in his home for a very long time before she observed that fact. At that time, she had just recently become Jing Can’s mother, and she was very careful in her words and actions. When he was a child, Jing Can was not naughty at all. He never threw tantrums like other children, he didn’t make any noise. So much so that every time they were out on the street, and Song Yinan asked him what he wanted to eat, Jing Can wouldn’t answer. Even when they were standing in front of the fruit stall, and Song Yinan asked him to pick a fruit he wanted to eat, Jing Can never picked one. At first, Song Yinan thought that he couldn’t choose because he wasn’t familiar with himself, therefore he wasn’t able to choose. Later, she found that Jing Can was just like that. In his small world, it seemed that the two words “I want” didn’t exist. If he liked something very much, at most he would stare at it a lot. Song Yinan had been soft and caring since childhood, and naturally she also truly loved Jing Can dearly. She felt that Jing Can was so quiet and uncommunicative because he was brought up by Jing Zaixing by himself. She always tried to guide Jing Can and told him that if he liked something, he could tell his mother. She didn’t know whether such guidance was effective. Later, Jing Can slowly grew up. Although he still didn’t take the initiative to tell her what he liked or didn’t like, when she let him choose, he would choose what he liked.
She couldn’t fully understand what Jing Can was thinking yesterday, but from the behavior that he displayed, Song Yinan thought that Jing Can should have made a request that he didn’t say out loud.
TN: Hello again! Sorry for the break in updates. For anyone who isn’t in the CG discord I just wanted to let y’all know that I will be posting daily updates for the next two weeks to make up for the break, so including the two posted today there will be a total of 15 chapters posted! I hope you enjoy ❤️
U said you’ll be posting daily but ur not I got really excited
But thank youu forgot to thank 💕💕
Thank you for this chapter. I hope the posting will resume soon.