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Twenty-Seventh Period (3)
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!
The place he was sitting was where his mom will be buried in the future.
Every time he suffered a grievance, he would take a plane back to Pingjiang to complain to her.
He would end up sitting here all night.
The surrounding area was full of flowers, but he can have half of them ripped out overnight.
Not long after, the flowers here will get replanted. He knew, it was his dad letting someone plant them.
He had his head down pulling the grass, unwilling to speak.
Jiang Huihui thought that he was still angry. She carefully inched to his side, and this while, really started coaxing him.
She spoke softly, her tone gentle like singing him a lullaby, “Didn’t you say last time that there’s a team match today? I’ll go with you. I won’t randomly run around this time. I’ll play as the kitty and follow. I’ll hang on you and protect you.”
The champion she played was called Yuumi, who took the form of a cat, so she just directly called it kitty.
Zhou Yanli didn’t know what was wrong with him either. His anger had already faded, but he deliberately endured, ignoring her.
Jiang Huihui was still very patient, her tone becoming increasingly soft, “Next time we skip class, even if Zhou Jinwei comes, I’ll still go with you.”
Hearing this, he finally reacted.
“Then let me ask you a question. You need to answer me seriously.”
Seeing him finally willing to respond to her, Jiang Huihui relaxed a breath. She nodded, her gaze sure enough becoming serious, “Ask away.”
She thought that he was going to ask something serious.
After a moment of silence, he asked her, “If Zhou Jinwei and I both fall into the river at the same time, who will you save first?”
Huh?
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
A confused look briefly appeared in her eyes.
But she still answered him seriously, “I don’t know how to swim, so might be the first one to drown.”
Zhou Yanli laughed out loud, not expecting her to actually answer this seriously.
This time, his anger really was completely gone. Actually, he’d stopped being angry long ago. From when she started silently following behind him, he already wasn’t angry anymore.
If he really wanted to lose her, it simply would be a piece of cake.
On the way back, the two of them were both unusually quiet. As soon as they got on the bus, Zhou Yanli just fell asleep on her shoulder.
Having spent all day playing ball, and then sulking all night, no matter how good his stamina was, it would still be drained.
Jiang Huihui carefully touched his forehead. After making sure that he didn’t have a fever, she finally let go.
After going through the incident of him catching a cold and having a fever last time, she has been particularly attentive of his body temperature, scared that the flu might get to him again.
–
Because it was the weekend, they were able to sleep in the next day.
Jiang Man came back covered in dust, soundlessly wiping his tears.
Jiang Huihui had stayed up all night studying yesterday, so had only woken up now. Having just finished washing up, she came out and saw him like this, thus asked him what was wrong.
He held back his tears, unwilling to say, a look of having gotten frightened and threatened.
Jiang Huihui instantly thought of Zhou Yanli.
He most likely got beaten up by him again.
Between Jiang Man and Zhou Yanli, she unhesitatingly chose Zhou Yanli, so towards her young brother’s tears, she pretended to not see.
Because she had to tutor Ye Shuting yesterday, she’d turned down Aunt Fang. Today, she happened to have some free time, so can go down to help.
She has been saving money for a long time. If she wants to leave this place, it was impossible without money.
Even if she only has a little bit, she believed that slowly over time, it’ll be able to accumulate.
As soon as she walked out, she just heard the lively sounds downstairs.
Aunt Fang was cracking melon seeds and gossiping, saying that a handsome guy had moved in. That height and appearance was more than enough to debut as a celebrity.
She asked Jiang Huihhi, “Lives right across from your place, you should’ve seen before, right?”
Jiang Huihui nodded, “Seen before.”
Aunt Fang smiled suggestively, “Heard that he’s the same age as you and also from your school. Isn’t this the time when boys and girls of this age have their first awakening of love? Your mom better keep her guard up. What if he tries to whisk you away?”
Jiang Huihui remained silent, changing into the work uniform and stepping behind the register counter.
This was her job for the day.
“That handsome young man is very good. This morning, he even took Man boy to play basketball. As soon as he got back, he just got called away by Aunt Li upstairs to help fix her TV, saying that a top student surely will know how to fix it.”
A customer just happened to come over at this time, holding a few bags of chips to checkout.
Jiang Huihui used the scanner to scan everything, “Hello, it’s 29 total.”
The other party handed her three 10-yuan bills, letting her keep the change, while taking a 1-yuan lollipop from the counter.
Jiang Huihui straightened out the money and placed it into the cash drawer.
She listened to the aunties’ gossip outside. Zhou Yanli even knew how to fix electronics?
Just as she was being impressed with him inside, her phone that was by her hand lit up again and again.
The messages were all from Zhou Yanli.
[Do you know any repairmen nearby? The kind that fixes TVs.]
[Ran into a granny this morning saying that her TV was broken, letting me help her fix.]
[Can’t believe it was a black and white TV.]
[This thing, I’ve only ever seen in museums before.]
No wonder he’d been gone for that long.
Jiang Huihui momentarily fell silent, then said to Aunt Fang, “Aunt Fang, something suddenly came up. I might have to temporarily step away for a bit.”
She was both well-behaved and sensible, someone who the neighbors in the area watched grow up. Everyone was particularly lenient towards her, so naturally would agree to this small request, “Quickly go, don’t hold up the important matters.”
“Thank you Aunt Fang.”
She climbed upstairs to Granny Li’s place. Sure enough, she saw Zhou Yanli staring at the scattered parts on the ground with a vacant look in his eyes.
Meanwhile, Granny Li, who was slightly hunched and had a face full of wrinkles, was standing to the side with a expectant look, waiting for him to fix the TV.
The old lady lived by herself. Her children all worked away from home, only coming back for the New Year. This was her only pastime.
It’s no wonder Zhou Yanli would make such a guilty expression.
The old lady completely trusted him, yet he ended up taking apart the TV. Never mind fixing, he couldn’t even restore it.
Seeing Jiang Huihui at this time was practically like seeing a lifesaver, but seeing that there was no one behind her, “The repairman didn’t come?”
“Didn’t call one. They’re very expensive.” Just one trip would cost several hundred, else Granny Li wouldn’t have looked for Zhou Yanli.
“Then what should we do?” He felt even more guilty.
If there’s truly no other way, he’ll just go buy another TV.
“Don’t worry, let me see.”
Jiang Huihui walked over and rolled up her sleeves, revealing her slender and fair wrist and forearm.
Taking the tools from him, she roughly looked over the parts.
Zhou Yanli stood by Granny Li’s side, the two of them watching her like inspectors.
No matter what Jiang Huihui did, she was always slow. Even when fixing something, it was also the same.
It took her thirty minutes. Her hands were completely dirty, so she let Zhou Yanli plug it in to test it.
He skeptically went over to plug it in. The TV actually lit up.
“You even know how to fix this?” He turned back with a shocked look on his face.
Jiang Huihui was in the bathroom washing her hands. Zhou Yanli leaned against the doorframe, looking down at her washing her hands.
“The things at home always break. Dad is never home, so they’re all fixed by me. Slowly, I just learned how.”
“You’re full of surprises.”
She could tell he was teasing her.
She waved her just-washed hands at him, flicking the water on his face. He slightly turned his head, smiling at her, “You’ve gone bad.”
She said, “Learned from you.”
After wiping her hands dry, she walked out of the bathroom, telling Granny Li that if she needs anything fixed in the future, just look for her.
Granny Li amicably smiled, thanking them. She then took out a few packs of cookies from the drawer.
“Take this.”
Jiang Huihui didn’t refuse, “Thank you granny.”
Once outside, Zhou Yanli casually grinned, “Couldn’t tell, your mouth is even sweeter than mine.”
She corrected him, “This is called manners.”
He nodded, “Yes, yes, yes.”
Jiang Huihui headed down the stairs. He also headed down the stairs.
Jiang Huihui needed to go help out in the store, and he…..
“You’re not going home?” She finally couldn’t resist and asked him.
“Go home?” He had a helpless look, “What home? That rats’ nest?”
The first day he moved in, he hadn’t noticed that there were that many rats hidden inside. Perhaps they’d seen the strangers come and were even quite scared.
However by the second day, they’d become familiar, so started scurrying around everywhere.
When Zhou Yanli was brushing his teeth in the morning, he saw the rat scurry by his feet with his own eyes.
He wasn’t really scared, just a bit disgusted.
F%#$ing bought a home that ended up being a M*cky Mouse Clubhouse.
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