Chapter 21: CH 21

On the TV in the living room, there was a popular TV show playing.

There was a burst of joyful laughter.

Jing Miao, who reached the age of when his voice was maturing , still had a slightly hoarse voice, and faced Jing’s father and acted like a baby: “Dad, that’s the phone used by the male lead! I want that! You have to buy it for me!”

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Jing Fu’s voice was soft and he angrily said: “What kind of phone to buy, be obedient, you are now at a critical stage, and you have to study more.”

“Buy it, buy it,” Jing Miao held Jing Fu’s arm and kept shaking him: “Dad, you can buy it for me, okay? My classmates have it. I promise not to delay studying, okay? “

Father Jing coughed, but he couldn’t resist his son’s request: “Okay, I’ll buy it for you! But you can’t afford to let it affect your studies, have you heard?”

Jing Miao cheered: “Dad, you are so kind!”

Jing Ci stood barefoot on the chilly floor, and lowered his eyes slightly as he listened to the laughter outside.

After a while, he picked up the phone.

In the box of 1982, Zheng Que finished singing a song, put down the microphone, drank saliva to moisturize his throat, and turned to look at He Zhou next to him: “What’s the f*cking time? Why isn’t Brother Jiao here yet?”

Zheng Que will have his birthday next Tuesday, just in time for school. His group of friends discussed it privately, and simply opened a box in 1982 to celebrate Zheng Que’s birthday, and take a break at the end of the month.

Zheng Que is usually well-known. In the evening, their group came to book a room, and as soon as they entered the room they started to cry like ghosts.

“I don’t know what he’s up to,” He Zhou said while eating fruit, “I told him to come with us, but he didn’t. He said he was going home to take a bath and change clothes. But what is he doing right now?”

Peng Chengcheng poured two bottles of beer. He was already a little bit drunk at the moment. Hearing his words, his expressionless face said: “The burden of an idol.”

(T/n: not sure if this is correct…)

He Zhou rolled his eyes and said, “I helped him.” After a pause, he said, “Not necessarily. Maybe he went home to get a gift for Old Zheng, and he used it as an excuse deliberately.”

When Zheng Que heard this, he was eager: “If you said that he hasn’t thought about what to give me yet, what do you think I should expect?”

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As they were talking, the door of the box was pushed open, and Ying Jiao walked in from outside wearing black casual clothes.

“I’m going.” He rubbed his ears while listening to the song that was not in the tune, frowning: “Are you howling to the moon?”

(T/n: lmao I thought he was talking about a song but it turns out he is just insulting their singing)

“Don’t talk about those things!” Zheng Que jumped up to him and stretched out his hand at him: “Where is my gift?”

Ying Jiao licked his lips and looked at him: “What gift? Aren’t I the biggest gift for coming?”

Zheng Que: “…”

He Zhou looked at him with a single word: “Brother Jiao, we are celebrating Old Zheng’s birthday in advance today, so stay longer.”

Ying Jiao hummed a laugh, took out a gift box from his pocket and threw it to Zheng Que: “Take it and play.”

He bypassed Zheng Que and sat on the sofa, opened a bottle of drink, plugged in a straw, and drank while looking at his mobile phone.

There are a lot of new news, but none of them are from Jing Ci.

Ying Jiao grinds his teeth lightly, he didn’t reply to his news, right, this little unscrupulous…

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“Wow!!!” Zheng Que unpacked the gift box with hands and feet, and suddenly yelled in surprise: “LP’s earphones! I wanted it for a long time!” He scrambled and ran in front of Ying Jiao, salivating from his mouth: “Dad! What else do you need? Do you want fruit? Do you want beer? I’ll get it for you!”

He Zhou didn’t even look at his dogleg look: “Old Zheng, calm down, it’s just a pair of headphones.”

“What do you know?!” Zheng Que raised his head like a cockfight, and retorted loudly, “Is this a normal headset?! This is an LP headset! One pair is more than 3,000!!!”

“Good, good,” He Zhou didn’t argue with him: “It’s good if you are happy.”

Zheng Que looked at Ying Jiao with bright eyes: “Dad!”

“Go ahead,” Ying Jiao pressed the screen on his phone and pushed him away impatiently: “Don’t bother me.”

“Okay! I’ll get out of here!” Zheng Que held the earphones and leaned away.

He Zhou sat down beside Ying Jiao and wondered: “Brother Jiao, what are you doing? Why do you always look at your phone?” He leaned over to take a look, and when Ying Jiao raised his hand, He Zhou only saw a WeChat chat interface.

“Is there a problem?”

Ying Jiao was in a bad mood at the moment, and was too lazy to pay attention to him. He tapped on the screen. Just as he was about to enter something, a new message suddenly popped out——

[Jing]: No, I have already eaten, thank you.

After a few seconds, another one came—

[Jing]: Have you eaten yet?

A smile finally appeared in Ying Jiao’s eyes. He raised his phone, took a photo at the coffee table, and lowered his head to edit the message.

[Jiao]: Not yet, I’m celebrating Zheng Que’s birthday. Not good food, but a bunch of messy things [picture]

[Jiao]: A group of idiots are howling and my head hurts, so annoying, what are you doing?

The phone buzzed, and finally there was a sound in the quiet room. Compared with the lively living room, it no longer seemed lonely and deserted.

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Jing Ci put down his pen, and when he responded to the message, the corners of his lips unconsciously curved into a smile–

[Jing]: Write homework.

[Jing]: Have you finished memorizing “Pipa Xing”?

In the box, Ying Jiao was drinking a drink. When he saw the new news, he choked.

He took out the tissue and wiped his mouth, while replying to Jing Ci, he typed more than half of a sentence, after thinking about it, he deleted it and edited it again——

[Jiao]: What rewards do I get if I recite it?

Jing Ci frowned slightly and replied seriously——

[Jing]: Learning for yourself.

[Jiao]: This can’t work, little classmate, why don’t you give me some motivation?

[Jing]: What do you want?

[Jiao]: Give me another squeeze?

Jing Ci pursed his lips, remembering the scene when Ying Jiao pinched his face that day, his cheeks were a little hot. He put down the screen of the phone, picked up the pen and continued to write the paper, without paying attention to Ying Jiao.

Ying Jiao didn’t get too entangled with this, but from time to time he sent Jing Ci some pictures of them playing, or told him something interesting.

In this way, Jing Ci looked at the news from Ying Jiao while doing his homework, and occasionally replied to one or two sentences, never thinking about the living room again.

Jing Ci had already formed his biological clock and woke up before six o’clock the next morning. He didn’t go back to sleep again, got up and went to the bathroom to wash.

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The Jing’s house is more than 100 square meters, with a total of three bedrooms and one living room, with only one bathroom.

Halfway through Jing Ci’s washing, Jing Miao suddenly came in cursingly: “You are crazy! Waking up so early on the weekend! How could you let others sleep?!”

Jing Ci’s washing sound was not loud. He even closed the bathroom door deliberately. Even if there was movement, it would not affect Jing Miao, who was the furthest away from the bathroom in the room.

He wiped the water drops on his face and looked at Jing Miao indifferently: “Is there a rule at home that I can’t get up at six?”

“You!” Jing Miao choked, raised his chin and looked at Jing Ci, and said confidently, “Anyway, you can’t affect my sleep!”

Jing Ci glanced at him, ignored him, and walked past him blankly.

His ignorant attitude irritated Jing Miao, Jing Miao stepped forward to stop him, “Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me talking to you?!”

“Get out of the way,” Jing Ci looked down at him, his tone calm and no ups and downs: “You’re in the way.”

Jing Miao didn’t know what was going on. Seeing that he was looking at him like this, he suddenly felt a little frustrated.

Although Jing Ci used to have an arrogant attitude and always liked to yell, he was never afraid of him, only treating him as a paper tiger. Today, however, Jing Ci stopped screaming and didn’t say harsh words anymore, he was scared.

Jing Miao unconsciously gave way to the side, Jing Ci didn’t even look at him, and went straight back to his room.

He plans to go out soon and find a place to do his homework. When the school is open in the afternoon, he can go back to school directly. The day after tomorrow, he will study in the classroom.

This home makes him feel uncomfortable everywhere.

When Jing Ci packed up and was about to go out, Jing’s father also got up. Seeing his neat appearance, his brows frowned. He wanted to say something, and he closed his mouth after thinking that Jing Ci was leaving.

He took out his mobile phone and looked at Jing Ci with a faint expression: “I will transfer you the cost of living this month. You save some money, and don’t come back if you don’t have enough. I won’t be used by you anymore.”

After a pause, he added: “That’s all, don’t come back, and just stay at school.”

His phone shook, and Jing Ci glanced down at the transfer information.

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Jing Fu transferred him a thousand yuan in total.

“I see.” Jing Ci nodded, bent over to change his shoes, and left home without looking back.

Father Jing shook his head in the back: “The older you are, the more hopeless you are, and you don’t even say goodbye when you leave…”

It was during the month-end holidays, most of the shops around the school had a few people. Jing Ci found a dessert shop, ordered a cup of green milk with sea salt, and wrote papers while drinking.

Yesterday he finished most of his homework in one go, and there were only three or two questions left on the papers that he hadn’t answered yet. After Jing Ci finished writing the rest of his homework, he went to the bookstore to find a few books that he was interested in, and read when he had free time.

At noon, Jing Ci ate dinner in the nearby restaurant, and then went to the bookstore.

He glanced up at the signs on the bookshelf and walked to the science knowledge area. He chose a few Olympiad books, and then a book of “History of Mathematics” and a book of “Geometric Elements”. After checking out together, he carried the plastic bag out of the bookstore.

The school didn’t open until 2:30 in the afternoon. Jing Ci was thinking about where to stay for an hour when his phone in his pocket suddenly shook. He carried the plastic bag in his left hand, and reached into his pocket with his right hand.

[Jiao]: What are you doing?

Jing Ci pursed his lower lip, and simply replied–

[Jing]: Writing homework.

[Jiao]: At home?

[Jing]: Yes.

[Jiao]: Look behind you.

Jing Ci was stunned for a moment, but did not move, another message popped up.

[Jiao]: Look behind.

Jing Ci held his phone and turned around slowly.

Ying Jiao was standing behind him. Seeing him turning back, he smiled and said, “Caught a little student who lied.”