In the private room, the bet that everyone was excited about came to an abrupt end due to this little incident.
After coming out, Jiang Yumo felt waves of heat rushing towards her.
Ningcheng was really hot in August.
Standing at the doorway, Duan Ye rarely asked Jiang Yumo where she wanted to go. After knowing each other for these few years, he knew her personality well. When they went out to play, he wouldn’t let her make decisions because she wasn’t good at it. She could eat anything and do anything, and unconsciously, he became the decision maker. Jiang Yumo also didn’t need to ask him what to do because she knew he would arrange everything. At first, she thought all guys were like this, until the end of last year when Yan Qing went on a date with a senior from the third year of high school and came back extremely annoyed.
The senior asked Yan Qing everything.
He dared to ask her out without planning what to eat or where to go.
Duan Ye also had a strong-willed side to him.
As for Jiang Yumo, she didn’t want to dwell on such trivial matters and make decisions. When asked what she wanted to eat, there were too many options for her to decide.
She followed Duan Ye and walked to the right.
Many people came out for a walk at this time, and she was also worried about running into relatives and elders from her family. Duan Ye probably had thought about this, deliberately slowing down his pace and leading her through alleys. In Ningcheng that year, there were no high-rise buildings, but there were many alleys. Narrow alleys had street lights, and mosquitoes and moths swarmed around them. Neither of them spoke. The road was narrow, and Jiang Yumo fell behind slightly. She looked up at Duan Ye, who occasionally turned his head to look at her.
Everything was fine until a black domesticated dog rushed out, barking at them.
Jiang Yumo was so scared that her heart almost stopped.
Immediately after that, she broke out in a cold sweat.
Duan Ye didn’t hesitate, he reached out and took her hand. His palm was wide and dry, a bit rough.
Holding her tightly, he protected her by his side. Jiang Yumo was afraid, but Duan Ye was not afraid. He held her tightly and passed by the little dog as if nothing had happened. His heart was beating fast, not because of fear of the dog, but because of holding her hand. After walking that stretch of road, he didn’t want to let go. He felt elated.
It was too hot in the summer, and in a short time, the palms became damp.
It was unknown if it was her sweat or his.
Duan Ye didn’t let go, and Jiang Yumo still had lingering fears, so she forgot to break free. Under the streetlights in the alley, the boy held the girl’s hand. In such a quiet environment, it seemed that they could hear each other’s heartbeats.
Duan Ye suddenly said, “Don’t be afraid. When you encounter this kind of situation, don’t run. It will only make the dog bark louder.”
Jiang Yumo breathed a sigh of relief, “You are so brave. I was scared to death.”
“Mm,” Duan Ye also regretted, “Let’s not take shortcuts in the future.”
He really didn’t consider this problem.
Jiang Yumo turned her head to look at him. Her face, which had been scared white, looked much better now. “I’m afraid of being bitten. I was pecked by a rooster when I was a child, and I have a trauma.”
Duan Ye laughed and squeezed her hand. “I won’t let it happen again.”
Only then did Jiang Yumo realize it.
He was holding her hand.
It felt strange. She wanted to break free, but her hand was soft and weak, and she couldn’t exert any force.
Why is this happening?
As they walked, they got closer and closer to the riverbank. Duan Ye led her through a small alley, where they wouldn’t bump into anyone. But as they reached the riverbank, they unexpectedly ran into someone.
It was Ning Zhiyu.
Jiang Yumo’s eyesight was very good. At a glance, she recognized her as a female classmate from the class next door… and also the original female lead of the novel she saw in her dream.
The reason why she remembered Ning Zhiyu was that during a class cleaning activity, Jiang Yumo got her period, and it was Ning Zhiyu who lent her a sanitary pad. They were not very familiar with each other, and Ning Zhiyu didn’t seem to like making friends. Every time she passed by their class, Ning Zhiyu was always reading a book.
Ning Zhiyu was a true academic genius.
In fact, Ningcheng had a better high school, and with Ning Zhiyu’s scores in the high school entrance exam, she could have gone to the top high school. However, she still chose to come to Fifth High School.
Jiang Yumo had heard people say that Fifth High School also had to focus on college admission rates. After each entrance exam, the school leaders would go to the homes of those outstanding students, and Ning Zhiyu was no exception. In order to recruit these top students, Fifth High School offered very good conditions, such as waiving all tuition fees and providing a considerable scholarship every semester. It was said that Ning Zhiyu came to Fifth High School because of this.
When she saw Ning Zhiyu, Jiang Yumo broke free from Duan Ye’s hand.
Duan Ye seemed to be disappointed for a few seconds, then he looked at the girl sitting on the stone bench in front of the convenience store, and he understood.
Sure enough, Jiang Yumo’s face turned red.
Ning Zhiyu also noticed them. She was also stunned, obviously not expecting to see anyone here at this time. She was just feeling a bit annoyed and missing her family, so she came out to look at the stars. She knew these two people. Even a bookworm like her, who focused only on studying and ignored everything else, would not be unfamiliar with the name Duan Ye. She occasionally passed by the corridor of Class Ten to fetch water, and the boys would gather there to smoke after class, surrounded by smoke, but there was always one person who didn’t smoke, and that was Duan Ye.
Jiang Yumo was not unfamiliar with Ning Zhiyu.
Jiang Yumo was a very outgoing girl.
Ning Zhiyu had lent Jiang Yumo a sanitary pad before, and in return, Jiang Yumo had bought her a cup of brewed milk tea to thank her.
For Ning Zhiyu, holding that cup of milk tea in the cold winter was a warmth she hadn’t felt for a long time.
Jiang Yumo had even written “Thank U” on the cup with a colorful pen…
Ning Zhiyu had heard a few things about Jiang Yumo and Duan Ye when she was daydreaming during PE class.
The girls were all envious of Jiang Yumo, after all, who wouldn’t want to be liked by the school’s famous boss.
At that time, she just smiled and continued to listen to vocabulary words with her headphones on.
As teenagers, did anyone really understand what love was?
Jiang Yumo was naturally extroverted, so even if she was embarrassed, she pretended nothing had happened and called out to Ning Zhiyu, “Do you live around here?”
She walked towards Ning Zhiyu, while Duan Ye stayed behind, waiting for her not far away.
Ning Zhiyu stood up, looked at Jiang Yumo, and smiled, “Yeah, what a coincidence.”
Jiang Yumo blushed and replied, “We just came here for a walk.”
Ning Zhiyu smiled and looked towards Duan Ye, who was a few meters away.
With a tall and imposing figure, he was different from the other street gangsters who looked down on everyone.
“Oh,” Ning Zhiyu nodded and pretended to look at the plum blossom watch on her wrist, which looked a bit old, “it’s getting late, I’m going back.”
Jiang Yumo hesitated for a moment, then turned around and walked back to Duan Ye.
Ning Zhiyu clearly saw that the boy, who had looked indifferent a second ago, seemed to be lit up by something as he gazed at Jiang Yumo, and nothing else could catch his eye.
“Let’s go.”
Jiang Yumo waved to Ning Zhiyu, and continued to walk towards the embankment with Duan Ye.
Ning Zhiyu watched them leave, then withdrew her gaze and walked towards a row of bungalows.
But Jiang Yumo still couldn’t get Ning Zhiyu out of her mind.
The original female lead!
She didn’t know much about Ning Zhiyu, after all, they weren’t in the same class.
This area was the Linjiang district, which belonged to the oldest and poorest areas of Ningcheng. It seemed that Ning Zhiyu’s family situation wasn’t very good, which was why she had such good grades but didn’t go to a top high school and came to Fifth High instead.
But it didn’t matter. Jiang Yumo remembered from the original novel that Ning Zhiyu performed exceptionally well in the college entrance examination and was the top student in FIfth High, and went to a good university in Yanjing. Even if Ning Zhiyu didn’t meet the male lead, Ning Zhiyu’s future was still bright and much better than Jiang Yumo’s.
“What are you thinking?” Duan Ye asked when he saw her lost in thought.
Meeting Ning Zhiyu made Jiang Yumo, who had temporarily forgotten about the novel, once again worry.
She didn’t know what she was worrying about.
Was it for her grades, for the college entrance examination, for her future, or for her future with Duan Ye?
She casually said, “The one we just saw was the top student in the class next door, who studies really hard and is the top student. You should have heard the top scorer of our grade, Ning Zhiyu.”
Duan Ye furrowed his brows. “What?”
After a pause, he added, “No, I don’t know her.”
He simply didn’t pay attention to things like top scorer and didn’t know the girl they had just met.
At first, Jiang Yumo was a bit surprised, but then she thought about his attitude towards studying in junior high school and thought it was normal.
He might not even remember who the math class representative was in the third year of junior high school, so how could he care about students from other classes who did well?
Jiang Yumo sighed and clasped her hands behind her back. “She’s really amazing, with such good grades. How come she’s so smart?”
She was almost the same age as Ning Zhiyu, but why was the difference so big?
They were both human, so why was there such a big difference?
With one hand in his pocket, Duan Ye had been looking up at the round moon above, but when he heard her words, he lowered his head.
He smiled lightly, restraining his impulse to touch her hair.
He didn’t say anything and wasn’t good at responding to such topics. He couldn’t say “I think you’re the best” because he wouldn’t compare her to anyone else, and she wouldn’t want to hear such words anyway. She really admired the top scorer Ning Zhiyu.
This part of the embankment was deserted, there were not many people around. From far away, you can still see the nearby river beach.
The cool breeze was blowing, and the temperature was a bit lower than that in the city center.
Jiang Yumo stretched lazily and turned to look at Duan Ye. “Better than singing.”
Despite today being her birthday, she couldn’t compete with the karaoke enthusiasts, and even if she could, she didn’t want to sing.
Walking along the embankment and enjoying the breeze was already perfect.
Duan Ye looked around and said, “Wait here for a moment.”
Making sure there was no one around, he bent down and went under the embankment, where there was a grove of trees.
He didn’t know what birthday gift to give her and wasn’t very clear about what girls liked.
Two years ago, he gave her an MP3 player, which she thought was too expensive. In the end, they shared it. She downloaded some new songs, then gave the MP3 player to him after getting tired of listening.
He didn’t say anything and wasn’t good at responding to this kind of topic. He couldn’t say “I think you’re the best” because he wouldn’t compare her to anyone else, and she wouldn’t like to hear that kind of talk. She really admired Ning Zhiyu, the academic overachiever.
……
There weren’t many people on this stretch of embankment, so it was relatively quiet. From afar, one could still see the nearby river beach. The cool breeze was blowing, and the temperature was lower than in the city center.
Jiang Yumo stretched lazily and turned to look at Duan Ye. “Better than singing.”
Despite it being her birthday today, she couldn’t compete with those karaoke enthusiasts. Even if she could, she didn’t want to sing. Walking along the embankment and enjoying the breeze was really nice.
Duan Ye looked around and said, “Wait here for a moment.”
He only felt at ease when he confirmed that there was no one else around. He then bent down, and underneath the embankment was a forest. He hadn’t done anything else today, and he wasn’t sure what birthday gift to give her or what she liked.
Two years ago, he gave her an MP3 player, but she thought it was too expensive. Eventually, they shared it, and she gave it to him after she got bored of listening to the same songs.
Last year, he listened to Guo Shichao’s bullsh*t advice and gave her a bottle of perfume. She was particularly surprised, but later she found out that her mother also had a bottle of the same perfume.
Jiang Yumo stood alone on the embankment, but she wasn’t scared at all. She was a very timid person, but she wasn’t afraid when she thought of Duan Ye nearby.
Just as she was wondering what he was doing, there was a loud bang, and she looked up at the sky in surprise.
Wow, it was fireworks?!
She stared blankly at the night sky, still in shock, when Duan Ye came over and smiled at her. “Happy birthday.”
On her seventeenth birthday, Duan Ye gave Jiang Yumo a sky full of fireworks.
The sound of the fireworks was not small.
Ning Zhiyu heard some neighbor talking nearby and pushed open the window to look up, and saw that someone was setting off fireworks.
It was very beautiful.
She could vaguely guess who set off the fireworks.
She had a strong belief in herself that she would be able to get into her dream university, become the person she wanted to be, and have a job that she liked in the future.
She would be able to earn her own money, have a home to call her own, and maybe even meet someone suitable.
It would be peaceful, but also plain.
She seemed to understand the envy that those girls had for Jiang Yumo.
In fact, she wasn’t just envious of Jiang Yumo, but she was also envious of Duan Ye.
She envied Jiang Yumo for having Duan Ye, and envied Duan Ye for having Jiang Yumo.
It was strange, but at this moment, she was imagining that it would be nice if these two people were still together in her own plain future.