Yun Mi was a little worried about Chen Yiyang and asked, "Are you okay?"
Chen Yiyang's throat felt hoarse. "I'm fine."
Yun Mi habitually complained, "The rain outside is super heavy; it's even flooded the curb. My sneakers are practically soaked. Aunt Qin said she'd drive me, but she has rheumatism, and I was afraid her legs would hurt in the rain..."
As Chen Yiyang closed the door, he glanced at Wen Liangyu, who was still arguing, and then looked at Yun Mi, interrupting, "You shouldn't have come in such heavy rain."
The words she wanted to say stuck in her throat.
Yun Mi even wondered if she'd heard wrong. Her heart seemed to drop, aching and bitter. She stood in the corner of the stairwell, her soaked white cotton socks clinging unpleasantly, her whole body feeling like it was submerged in a huge, damp petri dish.
What did Chen Yiyang say?
Chen Yiyang saw Yun Mi's pale lips, almost bloodless, her soft hair hanging over her thin shoulders.
He asked, "Are you cold?"
Yun Mi let out an "Ah."
Chen Yiyang said, "Go back now."
His tone was flat, without any emotion.
Yun Mi frowned, her eyes burning. She looked up at Chen Yiyang.
She didn't know what was wrong with him. The boy's dark eyes were very close, standing in the dim light, his tall, upright figure, his smooth jawline, his thin lips pressed together without a trace of a curve.
She knew Chen Yiyang wasn't happy, but she hadn't expected him to chase her away the moment she arrived.
Yun Mi's heart felt bitter. She lowered her head, handed him the good umbrella, and said, "Here."
Her words were very soft.
Yun Mi took a deep breath and turned to leave without looking back.
-
Yun Mi sent Ding Yuan a message: Yuan Yuan, I hate Chen Yiyang.
Ding Yuan was reviewing for finals, which were imminent. They had agreed to get into Class One together.
These days, they studied together, memorized together, and occasionally when they got distracted, they'd curse each other out and then encourage each other.
Ding Yuan thought Yun Mi was upset about Chen Yiyang standing up for her.
Now, too many people in the grade were saying Chen Yiyang was arrogant, that he hit people whenever he wanted and then paid his way out.
The most common sentence in the grade group chat was "What, so money makes you righteous?"
Ding Yuan said: It'll blow over in a while.
Yun Mi remembered Chen Yiyang's distant attitude, and her eyelashes drooped.
He stood up for her, bought her a bike, explained problems to her.
But he didn't wait for her.
He didn't like her.
Yun Mi knew Chen Yiyang only saw her as a sister.
Her phone screen was a mess of green and white chat bubbles. Yun Mi hugged her knees, not wanting to look at the pile of exercises.
She replied: Yuan Yuan, it won't blow over.
Yun Mi did her homework until the early hours. Aunt Qin, afraid Yun Mi would get hungry from staying up, made some pear soup.
When Chen Yiyang came home, the house was warm and bright, a stark contrast to the cold, sudden darkness of the storm outside.
Chen Yiyang looked up and said, "I'll take it up, Aunt Qin. It's late, you should get some rest."
Aunt Qin held the warm yellow tea cup with a cloth and said, "It's a bit hot."
The lights on the third floor were all off.
Yun Mi's bedroom door wasn't closed. The girl had changed into a nightgown and was fast asleep, slumped over her desk.
Chen Yiyang knocked, but she didn't wake up.
The girl's thin shoulders were bare with spaghetti straps, and around her neck hung a round peace pendant on a red string.
Chen Yiyang pushed the door open and placed the midnight snack beside her desk.
Her math work was organized according to his method, using a dedicated draft notebook, categorizing by question type and noting the source of each problem.
For example: Conic sections—Type II trajectory issues that Yun Mi often got wrong.
Type 1: Trajectory method (easy)
Type 2: Definition method (easy)
Type 3: Related point method (Aaaaah!!! Chen Yiyang scolds me for this again. Please remember the following questions)
(1) Question 17, third subquestion from the 2021 Shancheng Three-City Mock Exam [Core of the core, Chen Yiyang's selection]
(2) Question 17 from the 2017 Jiangsu Volume [Missed four times; combines multiple knowledge points like line perpendicularity, intersection solving, and point on ellipse; huge calculation. Pay extra attention.]
...