Chapter 21
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Wu Junzhe leaned over and whispered, “I asked my junior to record the play. Do you want to take a look?”
Sun Yutan shook his head.
Wu Junzhe chuckled, “Why are you so dedicated this time?”
Sun Yutan pulled out a concert ticket from his pocket and waved it in front of him, “There are gains and losses, do you understand?”
Wu Junzhe took a closer look and his eyes lit up, “Did Li Mingyi give it to you?”
“Yes. She said she had an extra one.” And she used it to entice her to go on stage.
“How generous of her to spend money.”
“Don’t be envious,” Sun Yutan leisurely put the ticket back in her pocket, “Li Mingyi, you know, goes to great lengths to find someone to act in her play.”
“Why didn’t she come to me?”
“Do you have hair?” Sun Yutan flicked his hair. “You don’t have that kind of charm.”
“Do you think I have a chance with Li Mingyi?”
Sun Yutan looked shocked. “Really? Do you like her?”
“Can you help me write a love letter?”
“…” Sun Yutan replied, “Do I owe you? I won’t do it.”
“The most kind-hearted and beautiful girl in the universe…”
“I’m deaf.”
Chen Rui frowned, resisting the urge to look at the two heads pressed together in front of him. However, Wu Junzhe was idle and his hand couldn’t help but fiddle with Sun Yutan’s ponytail, winding it around his fingers and then letting it go. Chen Rui’s lips were almost pursed into a line. He suspected that the teacher in charge of cracking down on early relationships in the school must be blind.
Could nobody see such open and shameless behavior?
Moreover, was Sun Yutan a wooden stake? Why was she letting others play with her hair?
When Sun Yutan finally reacted, Chen Rui’s expression became even worse.
She slapped Wu Junzhe’s hand away, but he just came at her from a different angle. She slapped him away again, and he continued to playfully tease her. Chen Rui clenched his fists, unable to tolerate it any longer, and said coldly, “Can the people in front please be quiet?”
Sun Yutan didn’t even turn his head, but Wu Junzhe glanced at him and apologized.
Finally, the two of them settled down, but Chen Rui’s mood had reached its lowest point. He thought he must have been struck by lightning to speak so sarcastically just now.
One day at noon, Yuan Zheqi suddenly sent him a picture. In the image, two girls were sitting facing each other with a table full of homework and fried chicken and cola. Sun Yutan was wearing a beige sweater, with her hair tied up in her usual ponytail, and was biting on a straw with her head down. Because it was a profile view, her curled eyelashes made her look very cute and bright. For a moment, Chen Rui’s heart was beating fast, thinking he had been caught. But how could that be possible? He sent a question mark in response.
Yuan Zheqi: One of these girls are writing you a love letter. Guess who.
Chen Rui glanced at the girl sitting opposite Sun Yutan, who was her friend. He didn’t expect anything and replied with just two words: “Boring.”
Yuan Zeqi: If you guess correctly, you can choose any anime figure you want.
Chen Rui: Blue.
Yuan Zeqi: Hahaha, you guessed wrong! The girl in the beige shirt is the one writing. But it’s okay, you may have lost the figure, but you will soon receive a love letter full of affection. Remember to take a picture and show me, I want to read the masterpiece they’ve written after struggling for so long.
Chen Rui thought he might be crazy for believing Yuan Zheqi’s nonsense. Even thinking about it these days made his heart beat faster.
He had a floating feeling of unreality until Tang Guo blocked him in an empty corridor with the love letter in her hand.
He thought Sun Yutan was just too shy to face him, so she had someone else deliver it. But the girl in front of him blushed with shyness, looking more like the sender than the messenger. He felt a foreboding as he opened the envelope and saw the signature, feeling like he had been slapped in the face.
He sneered and crumpled up the letter in front of the girl, tossing it into the trash can.
In fact, in the past when encountering this kind of thing, he never went so far. No, in the past he wouldn’t even stop for a moment. His deliberate embarrassment of others in this moment was only due to his anger and misplaced blame.
Tang Guo looked at the trash can in confusion and said “I’m sorry” in a low voice. She ran away with a pale face and wiped her eyes.
Chen Rui stood still and as he watched her leave, he finally became a little calmer. He sneered at himself and the anger and embarrassment inside him only grew stronger.
Yuan Zheqi, who was not afraid of death, dared to ask about the follow-up. Chen Rui looked at him coldly and said, “If you don’t want to give it away, just say so. Why lie?”
Yuan Zheqi paused for a moment, then understood. He raised his hand and swore, “I didn’t lie, it’s really the girl in the beige clothes who was writing. The girl in the blue clothes couldn’t write it no matter how hard she tried, so she asked the girl in beige for help. It’s just a fun game for me to guess who’s writing and who’s confessing. So, what about the love letter?”
Chen Rui’s hand holding the pen paused, “I threw it away.”
In the winter of that year, a minor accident occurred in the Sun family. Sun Yutan’s grandfather fell off the rooftop while drying clothes, with multiple fractures of his clavicle and sternum. Su Nan and Sun Ping rushed back immediately, but didn’t tell Sun Yutan the truth, who was stressed with studies, only saying that there was something going on at home that needed their attention.
Fortunately, the height of the rooftop was only a little over two meters, and Grandpa’s body was usually quite strong. After the broken bones were mended, he rested for a while before being discharged from the hospital.
When Su Nan returned to Haicheng, she told Sun Yutan about her grandfather’s accident. She was afraid that her daughter would be angry at their arbitrary decision, and reached out to hold her hand with some unease. However, Sun Yutan just smiled and took a deep breath, “It’s alright, Mom. I already guessed it. You and Dad have no talent for acting. Besides, what kind of situation would require both of you to be there? I was scared to death.”
Su Nan’s eyes turned red. “Silly Tantan. Then you are not alone in thinking a lot.”
“Yes. So don’t keep things from me.” Sun Yutan pretended to complain. Her parents didn’t tell her to make her feel at ease, but she had always been a sensitive child who could empathize with others. So she didn’t say anything to make her parents feel at ease.
And now that the storm had passed, they could naturally be more open and honest.
Somehow, the Chen family found out about this and Chen Kaisheng specially returned to Shaocheng.
After returning to Haicheng, Chen Kaisheng scolded Sun Ping severely.
It turned out that the small flat house where Grandpa fell from was built by Sun Ping, used as a warehouse and not for living. Mom used to see Grandpa go up there to dry things and had mentioned a few times about installing a guardrail, but Grandpa said it wasn’t necessary because they were going to add another level in the future, and he didn’t want the hassle of taking it down and putting it up again.
Sun Ping also didn’t think it was necessary to worry about the height, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.
As a result, an accident happened.
When Sun Ping heard the news, he was stunned. He cursed himself countless times on the way, and after seeing his weak father in the hospital bed, he felt even more regretful and guilty. He immediately took remedial measures and installed a guardrail at home.
The content of Chen Kaisheng’s scolding spread, accusing Sun Ping of being short-sighted, lazy, and not thinking about things. He didn’t show filial piety despite having an elderly person in the family, and he had a mentality of relying on luck.
He had a black face and his words were very harsh. Sun Ping was already hanging his head, and the more he listened, the more his head drooped.
He didn’t think Chen Kaisheng was being too harsh. It was indeed his fault that his father had an accident this time.
However, the other people at the table didn’t think so.
Su Nan sat next to Sun Ping with a stiff expression. She felt uncomfortable, both with Chen Kaisheng’s aggressive attitude and his disregard for the occasion, as the two young children were present. She wondered why he couldn’t discuss the matter privately.
The two nearly grown children were sitting silently, one with a blank expression and the other poking at the rice in their bowl with chopsticks.
Chen Rui was always indifferent to his father’s anger, whether it was directed at him or others.
When the argument broke out in Sun family, even their raised voices were not that loud. Sun Yutan had never seen such a scene before. She had never thought that Chen Kaisheng would be so terrifying when he got angry. Su Nan, her mother, clenched her fists tightly beside her, while her father felt ashamed and wished he could bury himself under the table. As for Chen Rui, he was naturally indifferent. He had long been accustomed to his father’s authority as a superior.
Sun Yutan let out a sigh in the atmosphere that was as oppressive as a mountain.
For the first time, she felt a sense of despondency. She thought to herself that it would have been better if they hadn’t come to Haicheng in the first place.
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