The fireworks gift is really…so, so surprising to Jiang Yumo!!
Who could resist it?
Jiang Yumo just stared at the sky, the two of them sitting on the embankment. Duan Ye secretly glanced at her, her pupils reflecting the brilliant fireworks. It was hard to fake the emotions of liking and disliking. She likes this birthday gift, and Duan Ye also breathed a sigh of relief.
Duan Ye didn’t know that Jiang Yumo also quietly relaxed at this moment.
She followed Yan Qing’s reading list and read some novels.
There are time-traveling and rebirth stories.
In the rebirth novels, the protagonist chooses a completely different path to avoid the same outcome as their past life, not wanting to repeat the same mistakes.
Standing under the showerhead today, the thought flashed through Jiang Yumo’s mind – “Since there is no perfect ending with Duan Ye, why not just not start?”
Not starting with Duan Ye might allow her to focus more on her studies, or maybe her future will deviate from what she dreamed of.
But now, this thought has completely disappeared.
She followed the voice in her heart.
She didn’t want to say goodbye to Duan Ye.
Even if, even if after they tried hard, they would still break up and reconcile countless times in the future until they both exhausted themselves, she still wanted to start. Because it was Duan Ye. She had thought about the possibility of completely breaking up with him, but just thinking about it made her feel very sad.
She knew deep down that her attachment and feelings for Duan Ye were far less than his for her.
If she felt so sad, then how would he feel if that possibility really happened?
Jiang Yumo finally looked away and turned her head to look at Duan Ye’s profile. He had a handsome nose and a shallow scar at the corner of his eye. He didn’t smile often, even when he was really happy, there would only be a hint of a smile in his eyes, his lips slightly curled up, completely different from her.
“What are you thinking?” Duan Ye asked.
Fireworks are like that, as brilliant as they are, they eventually come to an end, and the night sky returns to peace and calm.
Jiang Yumo hugged her knees. “I’m thinking I will never forget this gift.”
Even if she received other gifts in the future, they would not be better than this one.
Duan Ye smiled, “Then I’ll just have to work harder.”
When she becomes an adult1, he’ll need to give an even more unforgettable gift.
Jiang Yumo shook her head.
No, he didn’t understand. Her implication was that even if one day they were no longer together, had their own separate lives, and she became a mature adult, she would still remember this gift and this day forever. She wasn’t being pessimistic, she just… wanted to be prepared for the possibility of the “break up and reconcile countless times” with Duan Ye.
Thinking like this, she wondered if she had other qualities?
Such as being extremely brave.
Before ten o’clock, Duan Ye sent her downstairs her house on time.
They were about to be third years in high school, so they had to start school earlier than the first and second years.
They didn’t have many relaxed days left. When Jiang Yumo returned home, she reported to her parents in their room before hurrying to wash up. When she splashed water on her face, she froze. She thought of holding hands with Duan Ye, and even though she was holding cold water in her hands, at this moment, her palms seemed to hold a transparent hot water film that gradually heated up until it boiled.
With the high summer temperatures, the bathroom quickly filled with heat.
When Jiang Yumo came out wearing her teddy bear pajamas, she felt a little cooler, but didn’t stay outside for too long, quickly slipping into her air-conditioned room.
Her room furnishings were very simple.
There was a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe.
On the desk, there was a LCD computer.
For high school students, especially for those preparing for their senior year, the computer in their room is mostly just for show. It’s not even connected to the Internet, and can’t do anything. This computer was won by her father at a company event, and he promised her that they would connect it to the Internet as soon as the college entrance exam was over.
It was already past 10:30, and Jiang Yumo couldn’t sleep. She lay in bed scrolling through her phone.
In the group chat of three people, Yan Qing and Sun Mengting were chatting excitedly:
[Yumo, are you home yet?]
[Of course she’s home, it’s already 10:30. Otherwise, her parents would have called to check on her.]
[Hey, by the way, we’re curious. What did Brother Duan give you as a gift?]
[I want to know too! Two years ago, he gave you an MP3 player, and last year he gave you perfume. Hahaha!]
[Speaking of the perfume, I just want to laugh! Does Brother Duan really not have any female friends? No one has given him any advice?]
Jiang Yumo covers her face.
Last year, Duan Ye gave her a bottle of perfume that was very expensive.
It was from the most classic series of a certain brand that was popular among young white-collar workers in their twenties and mothers in their forties.
But it’s too odd for a sixteen-year-old high school student to wear it.
What’s more important is that Mother Jiang also has a bottle of the same perfume, which was bought by Father Jiang at a specialty counter in the provincial capital on their wedding anniversary. And, it was Jiang Yumo who recommended it.
[Female friends? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any. All of Brother Duan’s friends who hang out with him are boys.]
[That’s right. But it wouldn’t be strange if one of Brother Duan’s friends had a female friend who could give advice, right?]
[Let’s forget about that. Yumo? Momo? Yu’er~ Come out, I know you’re there~]
[Brother Duan’s woman ==]2
Jiang Yumo immediately appeared and threw a bomb emoji.
Yan Qing : [Hahaha, I knew it! Come on, tell us, what is Brother Duan’s birthday gift this year!]
Sun Mengting : [My ears have been cleaned.]
Jiang Yumo rolled around in bed.
Thinking about the fireworks, she still couldn’t come back to her senses : [You might not have noticed it in the private room, but there were fireworks on the embankment today.]
Yan Qing : [?]
Sun Mengting : “Shén me3??”
Both of them exclaimed for a long time.
[Brother Duan Ge must have watched idol dramas and got inspired!]
Jiang Yumo laughed.
The third year of high school started early.
After paying the tuition fee and settling down in the new classroom, Yan Qing approached her and said with a wink, “Have you heard? Class 10 has a new transfer student who’s extremely handsome and cool!”
Jiang Yumo wasn’t interested in gossip like this.
She was busy wiping the desk.
The desks in their third year were different from those in their second year. They were all left by the previous third year students. The desks were covered in graffiti, which wasn’t a problem, but it became an issue when someone wrote “XXX, I love you”. That “XXX” was her idol’s rival.
This year’s Ningcheng Fifth High School hadn’t yet grown wealthy enough to install air conditioning in their classrooms.
The walls were mottling in the old classrooms, and only four pitiful ceiling fans were working.
Jiang Yumo was a little afraid of the ceiling fans.
She was always worried that they would fall… and become a bloody mess. Just the thought of it was terrifying!
The other girls were interested in the handsome transfer student, so they pestered Yan Qing for information.
Yan Qing was quite knowledgeable, “It seems he’s from Yanjing, he’s tall and handsome, but he doesn’t seem easy to approach. When He Fang from Class 3 accidentally bumped into him on her way to the teacher’s office, he didn’t even spare her a glance, let alone apologize.”
“Waah, so cool!” A girl rested her chin on her hands and said, “I like this type of ‘domineering’ guys!”
“What’s going on? Why didn’t this handsome guy transfer to our class? Is our class feng shui not good enough?” Another girl joined in, looking at Jiang Yumo who was still wiping off the graffiti, “Class 10? Do they produce all the cool and ‘domineering’ guys? Brother Duan is in Class 10, and so is this guy. I envy the girls in Class 10 so much! Unlike our class,” she glanced around, looking quite disdainful, “they are all crooked gourd and cracked dates4, can’t be eaten!”
Jiang Yumo’s hand paused, and she looked up at Yan Qing.
As if she was a little slow to react, she asked, “A transfer student came to Class 10?”
Yan Qing rolled her eyes, “Sister, didn’t you hear what I said?”
Jiang Yumo didn’t care about the bold graffiti on her desk anymore. She hadn’t thought about that dream or that novel for several days. This was more or less because of the ending of the novel. The story was set in a high school, with a group of high school students as the main characters. There were no absolute villains, and even if there were conflicts, they were all small and trivial. The author clearly didn’t use the misfortunes of the supporting roles to highlight the happiness of the main characters. Those characters who were not well-liked didn’t have a tragic future, and they all returned to an ordinary and mundane life.
Just like her, she couldn’t judge whether that future was good or bad, because it was just an ordinary future.
If in the novel, her fate was particularly bad, such as being disfigured or losing her family, or picking up trash on the street to survive, then she would definitely be scared to death and immersed in changing her destiny every day.
But the key thing is… she went back and tentatively asked her Mom if she became a flight attendant in the future, would her Mom be happy?
Mother Jiang naturally didn’t take this too seriously and pinched her cheek with a smile, saying, “Of course I’m happy, your Dad and I have never been on a plane in our lives!”
The parents’ generation had seen airplanes on TV, but not many had actually flown on one.
Jiang Yumo relaxed a bit, but not completely.
However, hearing her Mom say she was happy, she felt like it wasn’t a bad thing after all. At least her Mom wasn’t dissatisfied with her future career.
Because of this, Jiang Yumo hadn’t thought much about the original novel in the past few days.
It wasn’t until Yan Qing mentioned it out of the blue that she realized the transfer student in Class 10 was…the male lead, right?
Yan Qing had only heard about it and seeing several girls interested, she said, “Why don’t we go take a look?”
Everyone was excited and said, “Okay!”
A handsome guy, huh? Can’t miss it, and it doesn’t cost a thing to look~
Originally, Jiang Yumo would not participate in this kind of thing.
After all, that was Class 10, where Duan Ye was, and it was about looking at handsome guys.
When Yan Qing noticed that Jiang Yumo was also following, she was surprised and exclaimed, “You’re going too???”
Jiang Yumo nodded her head. She was just a little curious about the male lead.
But it wasn’t the kind of curiosity that girls have for boys.
It was like two years ago when a very unknown artist came to Ningcheng Sports Center to perform on stage. Although she didn’t know him and wasn’t a fan, she still went to see him with great interest.
She just wanted to see what the male lead looked like.
Yan Qing looked Jiang Yumo up and down and said as they walked, “All right.”
“I also want to see what it’s like when Brother Duan gets jealous. Has he ever been jealous?” Yan Qing became more and more excited as she thought about it. “What should I do? I’m so excited just thinking about it. Will he pin you against the wall after he gets jealous? Will he do this and that, and kiss you until your lips are swollen?”
Jiang Yumo: “…”
- refers to her eighteenth birthday ↩︎
- I’m not sure what == mean, but it seems it was supposed to be an emoji, and based on the context, I think it’s smirking emoji ↩︎
- In the raw, it was written as “what” in English, so I translated to Chinese instead to retain the nuance ↩︎
- “crooked gourd and cracked dates” is a metaphor used to describe something unsightly or unappealing ↩︎
Thanks for transllt. Yes, it’s an emoji. You can think of two cartoon eyes like salt. It is mostly used to judge someone when they say something ridiculous or to show that what they say is ridiculous.
YAN QING HAHAHHAHAHAHA AS EXPECTED OF A TRUE ROMANCE READER 💅🏻