The summer in Ningcheng is scorching hot and long.
Throughout the year, Jiang Yumo’s favorite season is summer, because she can openly close the door to her bedroom.
Jiang Yumo is the only child in the family and enjoys all the love her parents give her, but also has to endure all the attention. Fortunately, since first grade of elementary school, she has proven to her parents in all aspects that she is not cut out for studying, so they no longer have the expectation that she will become a top scorer. In a few days, she will enter the third year of high school. Although there is no tense atmosphere of preparing war1 at home, as a student, she still has to pretend to be serious. Her mother does not know that at this moment, she is happily reading a novel borrowed from a friend under the Chinese test paper, and there is a slider phone in her drawer.
The phone vibrated a few times.
Jiang Yumo cautiously looked back and confirmed that her mother would not make a surprise attack before sneakily taking out the phone.
It was a new message.
[Sender: DY
Want to hang out? I’ll come pick you up.]
Jiang Yumo hesitated.
As school was about to start, she had to stay home honestly. Tomorrow is her seventeenth birthday, and she has already told her parents in advance that she would celebrate with her classmates and friends. If she goes out tonight, her mom might object, and she might not be allowed to go out tomorrow.
She hesitated for a while, then quickly replied with her fingers: [No, I want to behave well in these two days, for my birthday tomorrow. My mom didn’t go out to play cards, she is at home watching TV dramas in the living room.]
The phone quickly received another text message: [Okay.]
Jiang Yumo set the phone to silent and focused on reading the novel.
The old houses were situated close to each other, and her room faced Aunt Liu’s small balcony. Aunt Liu was hanging out clothes when she saw Jiang Yumo reading at her desk. After watching her for a while, Aunt Liu returned to the living room and scolded her son, who was playing games, in a frustrated tone: “Look at Yumo. Even during the holidays, she reads books. What about you? All you do is play games every day. I can’t even see you during the day. Do you think I don’t know that you go to the internet cafes?”
Aunt Liu shouted again, “Liu Ming, are you even listening to me?!”
Only then did Liu Ming raise his head.
He is like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water2 and just responded with an “Oh”.
Aunt Liu was quite shrewd and thought of Jiang Yumo. Instead of talking about her son again, she pretended to casually ask, “Why are you drifting apart from Yumo?”
Most parents viewed puppy love as a ferocious beast and warned their children about it incessantly.
Of course, there were also a few parents who were more “enlightened,” and Liu Fang was one of them. She knew her son’s strengths and weaknesses. As for his academic performance, he was at the bottom of the class, and attending a vocational college would already be good. Moreover, her son was not particularly handsome and just an ordinary person. With his qualifications, he could only find someone ordinary in the future.
Jiang Yumo’s academic performance was known to be not outstanding, but it was better than her son’s, and Jiang Yumo was expected to be able to attend a university, unless there would be any unexpected occurrences.
There is definitely a difference between a bachelor’s degree and a junior college diploma.
Moreover, Jiang Yumo herself has good conditions. Not to mention her good looks, she is also the only daughter in the family. In the future, won’t the family’s house and savings belong to her? Her parents both have retirement pensions and will definitely support their only daughter. Right now, children may not be able to see it, but when they reach their twenties, someone like Jiang Yumo, it’s likely that not even Aunt Liu’s son could compare to her under the spotlight.
As they say, the one who is close to the water gets the moon first3.
Aunt Liu rolled her eyes and said, “Mingming, you grew up with Yumo since you were young, you can’t let things come between you two now.”
Of course, Liu Ming understood his mother’s implication and stiffly turned his head to stare at her, “Are you crazy?”
She must be really crazy.
His mother actually encouraged him to pursue Jiang Yumo??
Don’t all parents forbid their children from dating?
And it’s Jiang Yumo!
Liu Ming shook his head and thought of something, said shiveringly, “Mom, please spare me, I still want to see the sun tomorrow.”
After finishing speaking, he put away his phone, sneaked back to his own room, still with lingering fear.
At Fifth High Shool, everyone knows that Duan Ye from Class 10 has a crush on Jiang Yumo.
Who is Duan Ye? Since middle school, he has been using his fists to make other boys obediently call him “Brother Duan.” He is the flag bearer of Fifth High, and it’s said that even the small-time hooligans in society are afraid of him. It’s unknown whether Duan Ye has successfully pursued Jiang Yumo, but if he were to try, he would definitely be beaten so badly that even his parents wouldn’t recognize him. So many people at school secretly adore Jiang Yumo, but not a single person has the courage to openly pursue her. They are all afraid of Duan Ye’s fists, after all.
Jiang Yumo knew nothing about Aunt Liu’s thoughts and Liu Ming’s trembling heart. After she finished reading the novel that made her blush and her heart race, she climbed into bed and went to sleep.
Seventeen-year-old Jiang Yumao hardly has any worries.
Her parents are loving, her family is happy, she has a few close friends, and… Duan Ye.
Perhaps this is what it’s like for a teenager who doesn’t yet understand the taste of sorrow.
But today is a little strange. On the day she turned seventeen, she had a dream. A very long, clear, and vivid dream.
It turns out that she was living in a campus love novel.
She’s neither the female lead nor the supporting role. Throughout the entire novel, she only appeared briefly in other people’s conversations. She was the first love of the male lead’s deadly rival, or more accurately, the control group.
The male lead was “exiled” by his family and sent to this small southern town. He acted arrogantly and was indifferent to others, like a piece of ice. By chance, he had an encounter with the intelligent and rational female protagonist. From curiosity to liking, their relationship progressed naturally. Both of them had been deeply wounded by their families, but they healed each other. He was encouraged by the female lead, so the male lead stopped being decadent, regained his confidence, reconciled with his family, and inherited the family business. They separated due to a misunderstanding, but when they reunited, they still loved each other. Finally, they resolved the misunderstanding and wrote a beautiful and pure love story.
The romance between the male and female lead is beautiful and touching. If it didn’t involve Jiang Yumo, she would ship this relationship of a tough and ruthless academic underachiever and a gentle and intelligent academic overachiever.
However, the key point is that Jiang Yumo and Duan Ye is almost the control group of the male and female lead.
There was no grudge between Duan Ye and the male lead. They didn’t bother each other at school. They were both good at fighting and had a group of followers. The difference was that Duan Ye didn’t turn over a new leaf, inherit the family business, and achieve success in both career and love. He was a typical academic underachiever in real life. His family wasn’t wealthy, and his academic performance was terrible. He didn’t even bother to attend vocational or technical school and went straight to work in society. He became an apprentice at a car repair shop and eventually became an owner of one.
Ningcheng was just a fourth-tier city with a small population. The car repair shop’s business couldn’t compare to those in big cities. He barely made a living and had nothing to do with wealth or status.
Many readers were sighing that the male lead was the protagonist in the novel, while Duan Ye was the character in real life. They speculated that the author created such a character, who was on par with the male lead in school, to remind young readers to study hard and not be attracted to bad boys. Because they would eventually become ordinary people, struggling for livelihood like everyone else on the streets.
Duan Ye was not only the male lead’s contrasting character in terms of future career and family background, but also in love.
He was deeply in love with his first girlfriend, Jiang Yumo. Unfortunately, they were just ordinary people without any special halo. They were defeated by reality and would most likely become a pair of resentful lovers after going through countless breakups and reconciliations.
During their school days, they were full of vigor and confidence, but their future seems bleak.
Duan Ye and his first love are just negative examples.
Jiang Yumo : “….”
After waking up, she stared blankly at the ceiling with a tired look in her eyes.
How could this happen?
She wished it was just a dream, but a voice inside her head told her it was real and would definitely happen, or was already happening.
She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there.
Then her mother opened the door and turned off the air conditioning as usual, then complained, “I’ve told you so many times that staying in an air-conditioned room all day will make you sick. Sweating is good for your body! The electricity bill will be over budget this month. Your father and I turn off the air conditioning at midnight!”
In the past, Jiang Yumo would argue with her mother.
She would say that they bought the air conditioning to use it, and she only use it during the summer anyway…
For example, if she got heatstroke and had to be hospitalized, the money spent on the hospital fee would be enough to run the air conditioner for a long time…
But today, she was unexpectedly silent.
Mother Jiang also sensed that something was wrong. She sat by the bed, reached out her hand and touched her forehead, murmuring, “You don’t have a fever.”
Jiang Yumo’s throat felt like it was filled with lead. She wanted to speak, but couldn’t.
“Seventeen years old,” Mother Jiang’s tone suddenly became much gentler. “You’re not a child anymore, Yumo, happy birthday. Dad and Mom hope you will be happy every day.”
She didn’t know if it was because of this same blessing every year that had touched Jiang Yumo in some way, but she suddenly took a deep breath and couldn’t hold back the sour feeling, wailing and crying loudly.
She was only seventeen years old, but she suddenly dreamed of her future.
Apart from confusion, there was fear.
Mother Jiang was startled by her, and comforted her for a long time before Jiang Yumo finally calmed down, though her eyes were still red.
In the end, Jiang Yumo only said that she had a nightmare, and Mother Jiang believed her.
The morning was spent in a daze.
Mother Jiang was busy in the kitchen, and Jiang Yumo would occasionally go over to take a look.
Her steps were light and floating, as if she was a wandering soul.
It wasn’t until her phone vibrated several times that she was brought back to reality.
It was a new message.
[Sender: DY
Come out, I’m downstairs at your building.]
Jiang Yumo descended the stairs absent-mindedly. It wasn’t until the scorching sun beat down on her body that she came back to her senses.
After taking a few steps, she saw Duan Ye lazily leaning against the red brick wall.
Duan Ye was very tall, already reaching 1.85 meters before he turned 18.
He was wearing a black T-shirt and his skin wasn’t exactly white, but it wasn’t dark either. His whole person seemed to exude an endless power.
His hair was cut very short, in a neat crew cut.
When he saw her coming, he stood up straight and walked towards her with large steps.
Jiang Yumo was still in a daze.
Before she could recover, she heard Duan Ye say, “I was afraid it would melt, so I brought it to you first.”
Only then did she notice that he was carrying a stainless steel thermos that didn’t match his fierce image at all.
He unscrewed the lid, and the cold air rushed out impatiently. When she looked inside, she saw that it was filled with ice cubes, and the ice cubes were wrapped around an ice cream.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to eat Häagen-Dazs?”
He said casually.
He didn’t mention at all the difficulty he had gone through to get up early in the morning, take a car to the neighboring city to buy ice cream, and bring it all the way back.
Jiang Yumo just remembered that Yan Qing mentioned a few words some time ago. It was an advertising slogan, ‘If you love her, take her to eat Häagen-Dazs.’
Ningcheng is very small and there is no Häagen-Dazs. Duan Ye searched through all the stores that sell wholesale ice cream, but still couldn’t find it.
Jiang Yumo stared at him in a daze.
If everything she dreamed of was real, then Duan Ye really didn’t lie.
He had said before that he would like her for a very, very long time.
He really did love her for many years.
rokumi’s note : Another novel that I picked up! It’s from the same author of The Landlady and The Amnesiac, but this one is more focused on romance. It’s very sweet… (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)
Starting the next chapter, this novel will be updated every Friday~
- for third year high school students in China, they have to take the college entrance examination at the end of the academic year. To the Chinese, the results of college entrance examination is very important and the preparation for it is very intense so it could be likened to the preparation of a war. ↩︎
- “死猪不怕开水烫” (sǐ zhū bù pà kāi shuǐ tàng) is a Chinese idiom, which is often used to describe a person who remains calm and unaffected in the face of danger or adversity. In this context, it means Liu Ming was immune to his mother’s criticism ↩︎
- this idiom means that being in an advantageous position or having connections can give one an advantage in achieving success. ↩︎
fk same author as lady and the amnesiaccccccccccc
so cute im in love