TMISIU- chapter 38

Wei Ying started his daily speaking training.

Lan Zhan would read through and record the English materials and send them to him, and he would listen to it on his cell phone while imitating Lan Zhan’s pronunciation and accent.

He got up earlier in the morning and after a quick breakfast in the cafeteria, he ran to the basketball court near the school gate to practice speaking for half an hour in the crisp December morning breeze.

Wei Ying glanced at the time and walked from the basketball court to the school gate with his English vocabulary book.

Lan Zhan should be there in a few minutes.

He stood in the corner next to the guard’s post with his head down, memorizing the words in the booklet.

When he was reciting a very complicated word, Wei Ying suddenly felt a blackness in front of his eyes, and was covered by a soft thing.

He pulled it down below his eyes to see that Lan Zhan was looking down at him with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Looking down again, there was a black cashmere scarf around his neck, which still had the temperature that belonged to Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan stretched out his hand to sort out the scarf and wrapped Wei Ying’s neck tightly.

Looking at his bright eyes, he said:

“Don’t wait for me in the morning, it’s very cold.”

Wei Ying shook his head in the soft and warm scarf: “I’m going out to practice speaking anyway. My head will be clearer if I feel colder.”

Lan Zhan took a look at Wei Ying’s frozen fingers and frowned disapprovingly, but didn’t say anything.

The two of them walked together down the Road towards the teaching building.

These days Wei Ying would prepare speaking materials every night and speak English with Lan Zhan on the way to the class in the morning.

Lan Zhan would correct his incorrect pronunciation and then randomly ask questions for him to answer on the spot.

Wei Ying racked his brain to answer Lan Zhan’s questions, and after answering, he found that Lan Zhan had already led him off the path to the school building and came to the door of the convenience store instead.

“Do you want to buy breakfast?” Wei Ying asked.

Lan Zhan didn’t say anything and went straight inside the convenience store.

Wei Ying followed him in and saw Lan Zhan take a pair of gray plush gloves and then went straight to the cashier to check out.

Lan Zhan walked outside the convenience store, unwrapped the package and handed the gloves to Wei Ying.

Wei Ying took the gloves in a daze.

These gloves were furry, and there were bears on the back of the hand, they were quite similar to the bears they caught before.

Seeing Wei Ying staring at the gloves, Lan Zhan thought he didn’t like them, so he said, “Just take it for now.”

Wei Ying raised his eyes to look at Lan Zhan, and handed him a glove. He bent his eyes and said “Let’s have one for each of us.”

Lan Zhan refused: “I don’t use it.”

Wei Ying put on both gloves, bowed his head and looked back and forth with his fingers open.

After class at noon, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan went to the cafeteria to eat together.

This was one of the things he used to yearn for, now he followed Lan Zhan to the cafeteria to eat.

He felt that the aunts in the cafeteria had become as beautiful as flowers and the hand serving food was also steady.

Today, a group of junior students came to the school to visit so the cafeteria was full.

Wei Ying carried the meal tray and went to find a seat together with Lan Zhan.

Along the way, there were a lot of people looking at the two of them quietly, mainly girls.

Wei Ying didn’t know what they were whispering, and also didn’t care.

“Zhan ge!”

Wei Ying’s heart sank when he heard these two words. He turned to look around and saw that Jiang Cheng seemed to be looking for a seat with his meal tray.

On the side was his roommate Wen Xu, looking back and forth between him and Lan Zhan. After a few glances, his face was ugly for a moment.

Jiang Cheng’s eyes fell on the black cashmere scarf that Wei Ying was wearing for two seconds.

He pursed his lips, walked up to Lan Zhan and asked with a smile, “Are you guys looking for seats too?”

Lan Zhan nodded and glanced at Wei Ying on the side.

Wei Ying’s expression did not change much, he even greeted Jiang Cheng and Wen Xu.

Wen Xu looked at Lan Zhan.

After hesitating for a while, he pointed to a table not far away and suggested to Lan Zhan: “I think those people are almost finished eating, we can sit there together.”

Wei Ying frowned imperceptibly, a wave of irritation surged in his heart.

Jiang Cheng also glanced at the table over there and said to Lan Zhan: “Why not just sit there, it’s a seat for four people.”

Lan Zhan’s tone was indifferent: “No need, we’ll find another seat.”

He paused, looked at Wei Ying and said, “Let’s go.”

Wei Ying secretly breathed a sigh of relief and followed Lan Zhan to leave. Before turning around, he saw Jiang Cheng staring at him.

After Wen Xu sat down with Jiang Cheng, he looked at Jiang Cheng’s face and said, “That person can only stay here for a year, he will go back to the ravine in his third year of high school. He will have nothing to do with you in the future.”

He knew that Jiang Cheng, like himself, did not like Wei Ying and was not used to seeing Lan Zhan and Wei Ying on good terms.

Jiang Cheng hung his eyes so that he couldn’t see his expression clearly. He only said, “He has nothing to do with us now, ah.”

Seeing the opportunity, Wen Xu agreed: “Yes, we’re not in the same world as him.”

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With the coming of several cold waves in December, the temperature in Gusu City dropped again and again.

Wei Ying changed into his winter school uniform early, and got up early every day to study.

He thought it was a fallacy that puppy love would affect his study. At least he thought he didn’t, and even learned better.

During this period, he successfully joined the Bingqiu Painting Association and was added into a WeChat group of hundreds of people.

The vice president Yeong Lee took the initiative to add him to WeChat.

Only then did he remember that this woman was the lover of Jiang Fengmian whom he met at the exhibition.

During the lunch break, Lan Zhan went to the temporary competition training class set up by the school and Wei Ying couldn’t resist clicking on Yeong Lee’s Moments.

Yeong Lee’s moments were mostly selfies, or showing off gifts, but no photos of Jiang Fengmian appeared.

There were also a few paintings that she drew.

Wei Ying took a closer look and found it to be very ordinary. Compared to Cangse Sanren, it wasn’t even at the same level.

He didn’t know how she became the vice chairman, or why Jiang Fengmian used her as Cangse Sanren’s stand-in.

Wei Ying felt bored. He quit WeChat and turned off his phone.

He took out his pen to do TOEFL reading questions, and not long after that, a boy came over and said to him:

“Wei Ying, when I went to the security post to pick up the courier, I ran into your dad and he asked you to go.”

Wei Ying squeezed the pen in his hand: “Got it, thank you.”

“It’s just that I was delayed on the way back, so maybe your dad waited a little longer. Sorry.” The boy apologized.

“It’s okay.”

Wei Ying thanked the boy again and pulled out a money roll tied with a rubber band from the middle of the school bag.

This was the money he prepared a long time ago, just waiting for Wei Zhuliu to come back to him one day.

Maybe Wei Zhuliu did find a job before, but he must have lost everything in gambling so he came to him to get the money. He knew this “father” too well.

Although he knew it could be a bottomless pit, he had to fill it, even if it was temporary. He would not allow anyone to ruin his life here with Lan Zhan, never.

Wei Ying quickly walked to the guard room with the money, but did not see Wei Zhuliu’s shadow.

The security guard who was familiar with him because he was reading English at the school gate every day, waved to him:

“Your dad did come half an hour ago, but he left again.”

Wei Ying frowned, feeling a bad premonition in his heart for some reason.

He was silent for a while and asked the security guard: “Did he say anything?”

The security guard sighed and looked at Wei Ying with a serious expression. He wanted to say something for a few seconds but finally said, “Nothing. You go back and get ready for class.”

Wei Ying’s heart was full of suspicions but he still nodded his head.

Before leaving, the security guard whispered to him: “In the future, try to ask your father to come to school less.”

Wei Ying pursed his lips, lowered his eyes and said, “I’m sorry, I’ve caused you trouble.”

He thought that Wei Zhuliu might have made a fuss in the guard room like last time, so the security guard was justifiably fed up.

The security guard waved his hand and said tactfully: “It’s okay, I don’t mean anything else, it’s just that your father seems to get emotional easily. I’m worried that your study will be affected.”

Wei Ying thanked the security guard and turned around to leave.

Seeing Wei Ying walking far, the security guard sighed at the colleague who came in to change shifts: “This kid looks like a good boy, but his father is weird.”

The colleague asked curiously: “Another fight with you?”

The security guard shook his head and said, “It’s not with me, it’s with…” He paused and sighed, “Oh, forget it, just a rural person with no culture, don’t talk about it.”

In the morning, he was on duty in the guard room and saw Wei Zhuliu come in wearing a pair of leather shoes that had fallen off.

Because of the last incident, he didn’t have a good impression of this father. Just as he was about to tell him that he could not enter the school without the permission of the head teacher, he saw Jiang Cheng come in.

He immediately smiled and asked, “Jiang Cheng, take leave and go home again?”

Before Jiang Cheng could answer, Wei Zhuliu walked up to him with a few big steps and asked loudly with an odd expression, “What’s your name? Jiang Cheng?”

At that time, Jiang Cheng seemed to be a little frightened. He glared at Wei Zhuliu and said, “Who are you?”

The security guard felt something was wrong, but before he could shield Jiang Cheng behind him, Wei Zhuliu violently grabbed Jiang Cheng’s right hand and rolled up his sleeve, revealing the red birthmark on his right wrist.

He could hardly describe Wei Zhuliu’s look at the time. He only clearly remembered that Wei Zhuliu’s face was flushed, as if drinking wine on his face, staring at the birthmark and staring at Jiang Cheng’s face, his eyes glistened and he vaguely said “my son” in his mouth.

Jiang Cheng was still struggling. He seemed to have heard what Wei Zhuliu said. His face was pale in fright, his lips were trembling, and he even forgot about the struggle.

The security guard thought this man was crazy and hurriedly stepped forward to separate the two, but Wei Zhuliu quickly let go of his hand.

He looked up and down Jiang Cheng and suddenly pointed his finger at him: “You come out with me. I have something to tell you.”

The security guard protected Jiang Cheng behind him and said angrily at Wei Zhuliu: “Didn’t you come to see your son Wei Ying? He may be on his way here. This student has nothing to do with you!”

Wei Zhuliu impatiently took out a cigarette and choked, “How do you know Laozi has nothing to do with him?”

He lit the cigarette and pointed at Jiang Cheng with his cigarette between his fingers and said threateningly, “If you don’t come out, I’ll talk to you here.”

After speaking, he walked out of the guard room, smoking a cigarette outside the door, waiting for Jiang Cheng to come out.

The security guard turned and looked at Jiang Cheng, ready to ask him whether he knew this man or not, but found that Jiang Cheng’s face was ashen, his forehead was full of cold sweat and his eyes were hollow and listless, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.

He murmured: “He came to find Wei Ying?”

The guard said with a worried gaze, “Yes, he is Wei Ying’s father, if you don’t know him, don’t go out, go back to school first and wait for your family to pick you up.”

Jiang Cheng’s face became even paler and he shook his head sluggishly. He was about to walk out, but before walking out the door, he suddenly turned to him and said, “Uncle, can this matter not be told to others?”

His eyes were black and sunken without light.

The security guard was stunned, he subconsciously nodded and said “OK”, but out of concern he still asked: “Is it really okay?”

Jiang Cheng opened his bloodless lips but then he turned around and walked out without saying anything.

The security guard watched Jiang Cheng and Wei Zhuliu walking away uncomfortably.

Jiang Cheng seemed to have been avoiding Wei Zhuliu like a snake and scorpion, but did not completely shake him off.

The two began to argue fiercely halfway through the walk.

He guessed for a long time and still didn’t get the answer. He wanted to call Mr. Jiang, but remembered that he had agreed to Jiang Cheng, so he had to give up.

When Wei Ying returned to the classroom with the money he had not given, Lan Zhan had already returned and sat in his seat.

He sorted his facial expressions, returned to his seat and asked Lan Zhan briskly: “Is the training finished so soon?”

Lan Zhan didn’t answer. Instead, he lowered his eyes to look at Wei Ying’s eyes, reaching out his hand to pinch his chin.

His thumb pressed at the corner of his mouth and lifted it upward, asking.

“Why are you unhappy?”

Wei Ying was stunned. He looked around first to make sure that no one was looking behind before he was relieved.

He avoided Lan Zhan’s hand and put the TOEFL training questions on Lan Zhan’s desk and said.

“Got a lot of reading questions wrong.”

Lan Zhan didn’t ask any more questions and started to give Wei Ying reading questions.

In addition to the lunch break, Wei Ying would also set aside a fixed amount of time to practice English during the break before night study, and Lan Zhan would usually tutor him as long as he was free.

“You seem to have a call.”

In the evening, Wei Ying knocked on Lan Zhan’s arm and he heard Lan Zhan’s cell phone vibrating.

Lan Zhan put down the pen in his hand and took out his phone to see that it was Gu Yihan’s call.

He frowned slightly and said “It’s my mother” to Wei Ying before he picked up.

Wei Ying was wondering if he should avoid it, but Lan Zhan held his hand with the other hand and pinched his fingers back and forth under the table, making his fingertips itch.

“Okay, I’ll be back soon.”

Lan Zhan frowned deeply. He thought for a while and said to Wei Ying: “There is something wrong at home. I have to ask for a leave tonight.”

Wei Ying felt pressure in his heart and asked, “Is it serious?

Lan Zhan shook his head. He held Wei Ying’s hand tightly and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry about the TOEFL test. It doesn’t matter if you can’t pass it, you can take it many times.”

Wei Ying didn’t expect that Lan Zhan still remembered what he said at noon that he was unhappy because he didn’t do well in the reading questions.

He scratched Lan Zhan’s palm and said with a smile: “I’m not nervous anymore.”

Lan Zhan got up and packed his school bag, said “See you tomorrow”, then turned around and left the classroom.

Wei Ying watched Lan Zhan’s back disappear completely before putting the money roll in his pocket back into his school bag.

Why on earth did Wei Zhuliu come to school and then go back halfway?

He did not believe that Wei Zhuliu had suddenly found his conscience.

Wei Ying thought for a while, but didn’t think of a reason.

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Author: Jiang Cheng often has nightmares that he is not a child of his parents, as mentioned earlier