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Twenty-Seventh Period (1)
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Because of this entirely made up ‘first place’ title, her mom’s first impression of Zhou Yanli was very good.
Even though it already wasn’t their first time meeting.
Her mom held the chopsticks, lost in thought, “I keep feeling this child is very friendly and looks quite likeable.”
Likable?
Jiang Huihui recalled Zhou Yanli’s appearance. The lines and contours of his face were all relatively sharp, which made him look very intimidating.
Perhaps because his hair had grown a little lately, no longer a buzz cut, at the same time possessing a strong youthful air, it also covered up his sharp brows.
Jiang Man was still crying and making a fuss to the side, “He’s the guy that came to our house last time and hit me!!”
Her mom was skeptical and looked towards Jiang Huihui.
Jiang Huihui hurriedly shook her head. She, who was not good at lying, for the sake of covering for Zhou Yanli, also began to learn how to lie, “He has never been to our house before. Xiao Man probably remembered wrong.”
Her mom frowned, picking up a piece of rib and throwing it into Jiang Man’s bowl, “Eat your food. All day long, never properly studying, just randomly thinking about nonsense.”
Jiang Man anxiously ran around the place. Fear compelled him to want to move away from here immediately. In the end, he decided to throw a tantrum on the floor, “I want to go to uncle’s place! I want to go to uncle’s place!”
Right at this time, someone knocked on the door outside. Jiang Huihui put down the chopsticks and went over to open the door.
It was Zhou Yanli standing outside the door.
She was surprised, “What’s wrong?”
Zhou Yanli politely asked, “Do you have any vinegar at home? I want to cook, but forgot to buy vinegar.”
Him? Cook?
Jiang Huihui looked at him in disbelief.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Her mom hurriedly got up and warmly invited him in, “We just happen to be eating right now, come join us.”
She ordered Jiang Man to go move another chair over. Seeing that face of his, Jiang Man instantly froze in fear, his complexion deathly pale.
In a place hidden from her mom’s sight, Zhou Yanli put away that polite smile on his face and shot him a fierce, warning glare, entirely exuding a thug-like air.
Jiang Man directly wet himself in fear and quietly went back to his room to move a chair over.
“Tsk, tsk.” Zhou Yanli patted his shoulder, pretending to show concern, “How come you peed your pants? Drink too much water?”
When her mom saw, she immediately let out an ‘aiyoo’, pushing him back to his room, “Quickly go change your pants. How old are you, to still be wetting your pants? It seems you’ve only grown in age but didn’t grow any brains!”
This while, there were just the two of them left in the living room.
Jiang Huihui hesitated to speak, her eyes constantly showing her wariness of him.
Who knows when his temper will suddenly go off.
“How come you’re here?”
After sitting down, he leaned back and crossed his legs, boldly stating, “Returning to my maternal grandmother’s place to eat, isn’t that normal? It’s not like I know how to cook.”
Jiang Huihui hesitated to speak, “But…”
Zhou Yanli lifted his chin, telling her to not worry. Those elders of his in his family, not a single one didn’t like him.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have spoiled him into this unruly wastrel.
In the next half hour, Jiang Huihui gained a deep understanding of what those words meant.
She had never seen her mom show such a doting and affectionate expression to anyone before.
Not even Jiang Man. This was probably the so-called cross-generational affection.
“This child, sigh, you probably haven’t been eating well these days. Look at how skinny you’ve become.” Her mom squeezed Zhou Yanli’s arm with concern, “Eat more, if it’s not enough, there’s still more in the pot.”
Jiang Huihui glanced at Zhou Yanli’s broad shoulders that could hardly be covered up by his sweatshirt, as well as his muscular arms under his half-rolled up sleeves.
Skinny….?
Jiang Man was still hiding in his room, too scared to come out. Her mom had separately set aside food for him.
She asked Jiang Huihui where she’ll be going later. If she doesn’t have anything to do, then go help Aunt Fang look after her store. There’ll be pay by the hour, ten yuan an hour.
Jiang Huihui took a sip of water, “I already made plans to study with a classmate.”
Her mom nodded, “Fine then, I’ll go help you tell her later.”
When it comes to studying, her mom generally would always support her.
Hearing her say that she was going to study with a classmate, Zhou Yanli’s memory got stirred, asking her, “That Ye-something-Ting?”
“En.” She originally had turned him down, but Zhou Yanli kept trying to persuade her to go, saying that she should go expand her social circle.
She carefully contemplated it, feeling that it indeed made a bit of sense.
Just……Ye Shuting…..
A friend?
She also wasn’t sure.
She finished the food in her bowl and got up, preparing to do the dishes.”
Zhou Yanli beat her to it, “Let me do it.”
When her mom saw, the affection in the bottom of her eyes couldn’t be concealed, “What a good kid. Don’t worry, leave it, you two go do your thing. I’ll clean up here.”
Because she’d arranged to meet up with Ye Shuting at ten, Jiang Huihui quickly tidied up and then put on her backpack, preparing to go out.
Zhou Yanli was waiting for her outside the door, wearing a sweatshirt underneath his black windbreaker. He had a basketball in hand, currently spinning it on his finger in boredom.
Clearly he’d already waited for her for a long time.
After Jiang Huihui saw him, she blanked for a moment, “Waiting….for me?”
“Who else would I be waiting for?” He stopped spinning the ball, tossing it from his left hand to his right hand, then from his right hand to his left hand.
His hands were very big, his palms wide, his fingers also long. They were indeed very suited for playing basketball. With a simple grip, he was able to firmly hold the basketball.
“I’m going to go play basketball for a while in the nearby ball court. What time will you be done? I’ll go pick you up.”
Jiang Huihui walked downstairs with him side by side, “No need, the library is very close by.”
“Even if it’s very close, I still have to go pick you up.” He reached out to take her backpack, slinging it over his own shoulder.
Jiang Huihui couldn’t win against him, so gave him an approximate time, “Then come find me at four.”
Zhou Yanli frowned, “Need to study for that long?”
Jiang Huihui suddenly recalled something, “How about you come with me? It’s almost the final exams. I’ll tutor you too while I’m at it.”
He shrugged his shoulders in surrender, “Spare me, I get a headache as soon as I open a book.”
Jiang Huihui said in a heartfelt tone, “There’s only a month left until the final exams.”
“There’s just a month left, so it’s useless to learn now.”
Jiang Huihui was left speechless by his words.
……Forget it, she wasn’t able to force him anyways.
They rode the bus to the library. Zhou Yanli had her backpack handed to her, “Call me if something comes up, the basketball court is right out back. If you get bored from studying, you can also come find me and look at handsome guys for a while to relieve your tired eyes.”
“Handsome guys?”
Zhou Yanli narcissistically said, “This one in front of you. What? Not handsome enough?”
“Tch, shameless.” She hugged her backpack, softly grumbling.
–
Ye Shu Ting had arrived a lot earlier than the agreed on time. He was currently sitting there with two cups of milk tea on the table.
Seeing Jiang Huihui, he waved at her.
The library here wasn’t that strict, like no food or no talking.
There were even people inside using the free wi-fi to play games.
The two of them were classmates in school, but they weren’t really that familiar. He was a student athlete and frequently needed to participate in training camps, so he doesn’t spend a lot of time at school.
After Jiang Huihui sat down, she politely greeted him, “Hello.”
Ye Shuting’s face instantly turned red. He stammered, “That…umm, I…I don’t know what you like to drink, s-so just ran-randomly…..ordered something for you, hope you d-don’t….don’t mind.”
Jiang Huihui pondered for a moment, “Are you….feeling unwell?”
The moment their eyes met, even his neck turned bright red. He hurriedly lowered his head, “N-n-no.”
Jiang Huihui pursed her lips and didn’t ask further.
Today, they were going to discuss the quiz from last time. Because he’d been away for training during the quiz, he wasn’t able to take it.
The teacher had them separately take the test again. Jiang Huihui looked at the score on there.
23 points.
Alright, at least it was higher than Zhou Yanli’s.
She didn’t waste any time on small talk, directly getting to main topic and going through all the incorrect answers with him, explaining it patiently and thoroughly.
Her voice was soft and gentle, just like her temperament, not have any sharp edges. She was like gentle warm water, able to encompass all things in the world.
She wrote out the calculations on the scratch paper, explaining all the different ways to solve it.
But she could sense that Ye Shuting’s eyes were full of confusion.
“Still….don’t understand?” She softly asked him.
He snapped out of his daze, “I can understand, but……”
He scratched his head with a troubled look on his face, “But when all put together, it becomes a bit hard to understand.”
He originally thought that she would have a disdainful look, but she just silently flipped over the scratch paper.
“Which problem do you not understand?”
“All….all of them.”
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