Chapter 24
Duan Jiaxu bent down, eye level with her: “You’re giving it to me?”
Hearing his words, Sang Zhi suddenly felt that using the word “give” might not be quite appropriate. She thought for a moment and quickly changed her phrasing, her voice soft: “Return it to you.”
When Duan Jiaxu was about to say something, he lifted his gaze and suddenly noticed Sang Yan’s expression. His eyebrows raised slightly, and he instantly shifted his attention, offering a faint smile: “Alright.”
Afterwards, Duan Jiaxu took the money and said leisurely, “Thanks, little sister, for giving money to this brother.”
On the side.
”Hey, Sang Yan, why do I feel like she is more like Lao Xu’s sis…” Before Chen Junwen could finish his sentence, he suddenly sensed Sang Yan’s mood and immediately held back his words, patting his shoulder, “Never mind, forget I said anything.”
”…”
-
Back at the entrance of Nanwu University, the four of them split into pairs.
Sang Zhi bit into the last strawberry, her gaze unintentionally following Duan Jiaxu’s figure. Not long after, her eyes shifted, and she suddenly met an unfriendly look from Sang Yan.
Feeling inexplicably guilty, she quickly pretended to be looking at the scenery: “…What?”
Sang Yan ignored her and emotionlessly flagged down a taxi by the roadside.
Fearing he might notice something amiss, Sang Zhi felt her heart racing like a drum. She forced herself to appear composed, even pulled the corners of her lips into a neutral expression, and opened the car door to get in first.
The siblings sat, one on the left and one on the right.
Silence fell.
The driver was a middle-aged man who glanced at the two through the rearview mirror and cheerfully asked, “Are you two siblings having an argument?”
Sang Zhi was taken aback, “No.”
She glanced at Sang Yan’s face, blinked, and couldn’t help but say, “Well, it kind of seems like it.”
”…”
”Uncle, earlier—” Sang Zhi muttered, “My brother asked me to treat him to a skewer of strawberry candies. I gave him money to buy it himself. But he didn’t buy it, so I asked him to give me back the money, and then he got angry.”
The driver listened but didn’t quite agree, “Ah? Young man, you’re in the wrong here.”
Sang Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard. He took out his headphones from his pocket and put them on.
”…”
Watching his actions, Sang Zhi was somewhat puzzled.
Was it worth all this fuss over five yuan?
Did their parents not give him any money recently?
After hesitating, Sang Zhi didn’t really want to keep up the cold war with him. After all, she’d be bored to death during the ride. She took out the five yuan reluctantly and stuffed it into his hand, “There, take it.”
Sang Yan took off his headphones and clicked his tongue. “Do you think I care about your few yuan?”
”Oh.” Sang Zhi stared at him for a couple of seconds, then silently put the money back into her own pocket.
”Little Devil, think for yourself.” Sang Yan smirked, half jokingly, half seriously, trying to get her to come back to his side before her arm turned all twisted. “Did you ever give money to your real brother to spend?”
Sang Zhi shook her head earnestly. “But didn’t you take it all for yourself?”
Sang Yan: “…”
”The game controller you bought last winter break,” Sang Zhi’s speech was slow and deliberate, “Wasn’t it still two hundred yuan short, and then you took it from my red envelope?”
”Your red envelope was so thick,” Sang Yan wasn’t particularly remorseful, “You could even tell that I took it?”
”I would even know if you took just one yuan from me.”
”…”
”I just didn’t bother arguing with you.”
”…” Sang Yan inquired, “Why did you give twenty yuan to Duan Jiaxu just now?”
”That was the twenty yuan Brother Jiaxu gave me yesterday. He saw that I got robbed of twenty yuan, so he secretly gave me twenty yuan,” Sang Zhi said calmly, “Unlike you, who just sneakily takes my money.”
Sang Yan: “…”
-
The incident where Sang Zhi was extorted by students from the neighboring Class Three was communicated to by Li Ping to Chen Mingxu. In addition, a parent from Class Three, Yin Zhenru’s, also contacted the school on the same day, reporting a similar situation.
The school then took this matter seriously.
Various class teachers inquired about the incident in their respective classes, only to discover that there were quite a number of students facing the same situation. However, most of them had gone to a nearby black internet café after school, and due to threats, didn’t dare to be honest with their parents.
The black web café was reported and quickly shut down.
As for the specific resolution of the matter, Sang Zhi wasn’t well-informed and didn’t pay much attention to it.
In the following period, Yin Zhenru came to apologize to Sang Zhi multiple times. But not long after, she was forced to withdraw due to Sang Zhi’s coldness. Sang Zhi’s foot injury gradually healed, and Sang Yan continued to pick her up every afternoon as usual.
When he was unavailable, others would come instead.
Sometimes it was Qian Fei, sometimes it was Chen Junwen, but more often than not—
It was Duan Jiaxu.
There were opportunities for them to meet without her needing to initiate them.
Sang Zhi noticed that Duan Jiaxu’s attitude towards her was somewhat similar to Sang Yan’s. He liked to playfully tease her, yet he was much gentler, taking care of her emotions from various angles.
When he noticed her unusual behaviors, he didn’t have too many thoughts about it; he simply found them interesting.
His attitude remained as before, but it seemed that he was becoming somewhat familiar with her.
Before this.
Sang Zhi had always felt like she was at a disadvantage due to her age. All those things she didn’t dare to do were because of her young age, and she couldn’t take that step.
However, over time, Sang Zhi’s thoughts started to change inexplicably.
It seemed that she was actually taking advantage of her age.
Adults believed that there were things she wouldn’t understand at her age.
But she had already started to understand.
And she could also pretend not to understand anything.
-
Sang Zhi’s final exam scores weren’t good, and she fell out of the top ten ranks in her grade.
Part of the reason was that she had an additional subject, physics, in her second year; another major reason was that she had absolutely no interest in physics and hadn’t paid attention in class.
Her grades plummeted.
After discussing with Li Ping and Sang Rong and consulting Sang Zhi’s opinion, they decided to have Sang Yan give her some extra tutoring. After all, if she didn’t understand the initial content, the upcoming courses were likely to be quite challenging.
But this tutoring session lasted less than half an hour before it ended.
Both sides had issues.
Sang Zhi unilaterally thought that everything Sang Yan said was wrong; he would say something, and she would contradict him. On the other hand, Sang Yan’s patience was lacking, as he considered the content to be very basic. If she didn’t understand after one explanation, he didn’t want to repeat it for the second time.
Li Ping was at a loss, so she decided to hire a private tutor.
However, the winter vacation was already quite short, and with the additional time spent celebrating the Lunar New Year with relatives, Sang Zhi had no interest in studying at all. But her grades did decline, and she didn’t have the face to refuse.
Sang Zhi was conflicted for a while and eventually spent an entire evening trying to figure out how to scare the tutor away.
She couldn’t come up with any ideas.
All she could think of was an avoidance tactic.
She planned to spend the whole day outside playing before the tutor arrived the next day. In this way, the tutor would probably understand her intentions and back off, disappearing forever from her world.
Li Ping had informed her in advance that the tutor would arrive at nine o’clock today. However, due to the late-night brainstorming, Sang Zhi woke up at ten o’clock the next morning.
When she saw the time, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.
At this time, Li Ping and Sang Rong were both at work, leaving only Sang Yan and her at home. Sang Zhi resigned herself to the situation and walked out of her room, glancing at the living room. Surprisingly, she didn’t see anyone. She blinked and then looked towards Sang Yan’s room; it was still closed, indicating he hadn’t woken up yet.
It seems like the tutor didn’t even come?
Sang Zhi’s tense emotions completely relaxed, and she entered the bathroom to freshen up. Midway through brushing her teeth, she heard the sound of Sang Yan’s room door opening.
Peek-Aboo 
Leave a comment