In the dusk, the bright moon was only seven-tenths as bright.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Jiang Fuli came back to his senses. He pressed down his eyes and introduced himself to Bailian, “Hello, Bai Lian classmate. I’m Jiang He’s brother, Jiang Fuli.”
As he got out of the car carrying a bit of frost, his slightly lowered voice was inherently cold.
Bailian looked up and inadvertently bumped into a pair of light-colored eyes. Those eyes were like a cold pond reflecting no light at all.
So deep and cold.
She glanced at Jiang Fuli. The other party was wearing a black shirt. That face was cold and unique. His slightly shallow hair blended with the light.
At first glance, it was perhaps another glance.
It was clearly quiet and lonely.
But it was also deafening.
After a long while, Bailian slowly opened her mouth: “Give me a reason not to beat you up.”
Jiang Fuli rarely showed his true emotions in front of others. This was the first time he was stunned in front of someone.
Jiang He looked up with contempt: “Sister Bai is called Bailian.”
Jiang Fuli: “…”
First of all, do you want to take a look at what you saved her name as?
“Sorry,” realizing what had happened, Jiang Fuli chuckled very lightly. The usual shallow and cold phoenix eyes contained some laughter: “Jiang He is sensitive to numbers, but he never went to kindergarten, so…”
He paused briefly and simply commented: “He’s semi-illiterate.”
Bailian swept a cold gaze towards Jiang He.
Jiang He with autism spectrum disorder and only gifted in mathematics: “…”
He expressionlessly retracted his gaze and flowed smoothly to cover his watch.
“From a fan?” Jiang Fuli’s other hand was still holding a book, rolled into a tube shape. He squatted down beside Bailian and casually took over her motor. He lowered his eyes to take a serious look: “It should be a capacitance problem. Check which wire has no resistance with a multimeter and fix it.”
It was a hand as exquisite as a work of art, a translucent white, long joints, harmoniously and smoothly turning between lines. It had a faint chilling aroma.
“Multimeter?” Bailian withdrew her deadly gaze on Jiang He. She rested her chin on her leg and lazily tilted her head, “I thought about buying one before, but my grandpa wouldn’t let me take things apart at home. I stole this from his room.”
She didn’t show any other emotions on her face. Her black pupils reflected the light from the street lamp above her head. Lazy and pretty.
She just wanted to secretly take apart the electric fan motor.
One could imagine her cutely stealing her elder’s things, and the elder would have to turn a blind eye and helplessly watch her steal.
“I have one. I’ll bring it to you in a couple of days,” just thinking about that scene, Jiang Fuli felt like a big lazy cat scratched him lightly, “I have a physics lab with all kinds of experimental equipment, very convenient for doing experiments.”
Jiang He rarely had anyone close to him, and there were times he didn’t say a word for seven days.
Bailian was a very special existence to Jiang He.
Until now, seeing it with his own eyes, he felt he might understand a little why Jiang He wanted to go home with her.
Bailian’s eyes blinked.
A very large laboratory, it should have a particle collider…
More and more people were looking over. Jiang Fuli casually picked up Jiang He by the collar and stood up, “Get in the car first, I’ll take you home.”
There were few streetlights on that street in Qingshui Street.
Bailian let Jiang Fuli stop the car at the intersection.
“This is the book you wanted,” Jiang Fuli got out of the car with her and handed her the book. Under the dusk, the eyes and brows that seemed to be soaked in a light layer of frost appeared slightly softer. “Physics is not difficult and very interesting. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.”
“Thank you.” Bailian took the book.
This was a book she couldn’t get even for a thousand degrees.
“I should thank you,” Jiang Fuli looked at Jiang He and said softly, “Jiang He always feels that he is an alien and wants to return to his own planet. You are his first human friend.”
But Bailian commented, “He’s cute.”
Jiang Fuli tilted his head and looked at her for a while, with a faint laugh, “Hmm.”
Bailian waved goodbye to him and left.
Jiang Fuli watched her go into a small shop. Not far away there were still patrolling policemen.
The slightly frowning brows relaxed slightly as he got back in the car.
“How is this place not demolished yet?” Ming Donghua was sitting in the driver’s seat, looking at rows of low and somewhat dated buildings. He seemed surprised, “It’s right across from Heishui Street. My master is there.”
That was a place Ming Donghua went to often, Heishui Street, a street across the border between the two countries.
He just didn’t expect Heishui Street and Qingshui Street to be only one kilometer apart, facing each other across the river.
Jiang Fuli looked at the few lonely street lights. He slowly rolled up the car window, “Let’s go back.”
Ming Donghua drove the car away. Jiang He lay by the car window watching Bailian.
Jiang Fuli lightly tapped the screen with his fingertips. His brows seemed to be soaked in a light layer of frost in the dark night. After a while, he lit up the screen to send a message–
?Go to the storeroom and find my physics notes for me.?
**
Small shop.
Two patrolling policemen came to buy two bottles of water, and chatted with the boss as if catching up.
The boss answered in bewilderment.
Bailian was biting a lollipop, lowering her beautiful eyes, and walking into the alley innocently.
Just as she walked to the entrance of the alley, she saw the old man waiting there.
It was Ji Heng.
Bailian was surprised for a moment and quickened her pace.
Ji Heng was holding a flashlight and saw her. He only turned it on to light up the pitch-black alley to take her back, “Learning should not be rushed. Take it slow.”
Qingshui Street had street lights, but the alleys inside didn’t.
Only occasionally there was the yellowish light from residents’ homes.
“I won’t.” Bailian took out her earphones, ready to listen to English vocabulary, and rejected the suggestion.
Ji Heng: “…”
Seeing Bailian staring at his flashlight again, he said warily: “…You can’t take this apart.”
Bailian’s eyes wandered a bit: “What kind of person do you think I am.”
“But I saw the corpse of my electric fan when I got up this morning.” Ji Heng mercilessly exposed her lie.
“Then you looked at the wrong time. If you don’t believe me, take another look after a couple days.” Bailian shamelessly insisted.
**
At the same time.
Xiangcheng’s only Western-style housing district, Ren mansion.
Ren Qian asked about Ren Xiaowan’s schoolwork as usual, and explained Gao Jianchen’s matter: “Dr. Gao hasn’t replied yet. You have to strive for it on your school’s side.”
Ren Xiaowan nodded. If it were normal days, she would have left by now.
But today she hesitated a little.
“What’s wrong?” Ren Qian was surprised.
“It’s just some things about my dad’s family…” Ren Xiaowan told Ren Qian about Bailian.
After listening to the end, Ren Qian put down the documents in his hand. “Switched from liberal arts to science?”
Ren Xiaowan didn’t care much. She just remembered the other party only had 85 points in science and shook her head: “85 points in science. I don’t know why she wants to study science. My dad even asked me to teach her.”
“Don’t listen to him. He’s more confused these past two years and doesn’t know what’s important,” Ren Qian’s expression turned cold. He valued Ren Xiaowan’s studies and naturally knew she scored full marks of 300 points in science this time, “Does he know how important your studies are?”
This Bailian, he hadn’t even seen her yet, but already had a bad impression.
Being steady and down-to-earth was important for young people.
Ren Xiaowan quickly massaged Ren Qian’s shoulders, “Don’t get angry, my dad didn’t mean anything. You know him. All he thinks about is research. He doesn’t even remember how old I am.”
It was true the Ji family hadn’t relied on the Ren family to make troubles in all these years.
It was just Ren Qian didn’t care about the Ji family’s affairs. After calming down a bit, he urged Ren Xiaowan, “Forget it. Don’t worry about the Ji family affairs. Your dad’s mind isn’t clear. You have to be clear about what’s most important. The college entrance exam is coming next year. Don’t get distracted by other things.”
After Ren Xiaowan left, the Secretary-General spoke, “Next year’s college entrance exam, it should be Xiangcheng’s turn to produce the champion right? Miss Xiaowan has a good chance.”
“The competition is too great for her year. Just in Xiangcheng, it will be very difficult for her to compete with the Chen boy,” Ren Qian knew some inside information and shook his head. “Let’s not say the champion of Beicheng. Getting Xiangcheng’s is good enough.”
In their eyes, the biggest goal was only the champion of Beicheng.
As for the national champion, no one had thought about it. Which year’s national champion didn’t come from Jiangjing? How could it possibly come from other places.
“This is the list of auction items a week later at Baihu Auction House,” the Secretary-General remembered official business. He said, “There is a genuine calligraphy of Liang Zewen.”
Upon hearing this, Ren Qian quickly reached out to take it. “Liang Zewen’s genuine work?”
Liang style was the most popular font. Not only was it loved by ordinary people, famous families and great writers were also very fond of it. So Ren Qian had let Ren Xiaowan learn Liang style since she was little.
Obviously Ren Xiaowan had succeeded very well in this. From childhood to adulthood, she had gained a lot of affection from others because of this Liang style.
Genuine works of Liang Zewen were rare. A known genuine work was in the Jiangjing Chen’s private museum.
Once this genuine work came out, it was likely that many people would rush over from all parts of the country. No one would doubt it was fake. After all, that was the largest auction house in Asia, and no one dared make trouble at the auction house opened in Heishui Street.
“Find a way to get an invitation to the auction house.” Ren Qian said.
**
The next day.
Bailian didn’t stay long in the library because Jiang Fuli had the multimeter sent to her.
She was going to go home and let her grandfather witness what “looking at the wrong time” meant.
Bus No. 12 stopped at Qingshui Street. When Bailian got off carrying a black backpack, she saw a circle of people gathered near the small shop at Qingshui Street.
Bailian walked over. The man in a white vest watching the commotion shivered and a cigarette fell from his hand.
“Captain Zhang, ask them if I broke the law or not,” said the middle-aged man wearing black. He gently exhaled a wisp of smoke, pointing at a liangfen (cold starch jelly) vendor with the cigarette, “Do you dare say I broke the law?”
The liangfen vendor shook his head in horror, “No no! I knocked it over myself!”
“Oh? Then do you dare?” The middle-aged man walked two more steps and pointed at the carved handicraft vendor.
That man was sitting on the ground, only frantically waving his hands.
He stepped on an embroidered shoe, and finally stopped in front of Ji Heng again, “What about you? Do you dare say it?”
Ji Heng looked at the stall that had fallen to the ground and shook his head.
“You see,” the middle-aged man finally looked casually at Captain Zhang, and said arrogantly, “I’ve been saying I didn’t. Captain Zhang, you can’t be arresting innocent people right?”
“You…” Captain Zhang was about to make a move but was hugged fiercely by his companion, “Forget it, forget it Captain Zhang!”
His companion whispered in Zhang’s ear, “He…he should be that Scorpion…”
Captain Zhang calmed down.
Scorpion.
One of the top ten on their internal wanted list. He often wandered internationally with the bar at Heishui Street. It was said the FBI couldn’t do anything about him.
The forces behind him were huge.
Scorpion had long anticipated this situation.
He contemptuously glanced at Captain Zhang, and in front of him, flicked the cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it, “It seems Captain Zhang will have to find another way to arrest me.”
No one at the scene dared to speak.
Scorpion shamelessly took all the cigarettes from the small shop again, and swaggered away from Qingshui Street.
After the person left, Captain Zhang silently helped the surrounding vendors tidy up their stalls. He said in a low voice to these people, “Sorry.”
The people from the Heishui Street bar were classified under the international border covenant. Without evidence, he really couldn’t do anything.
If the Xiangcheng Chen family was here today, they would also suffer this silent treatment.
Bailian stood not far away, looking at this scene calmly.
White Vest felt goosebumps on his back from her gaze. He shivered and hurriedly bit his cigarette to help those vendors pack things.
It was obvious White Vest was also one of the “Covenant people” not to be provoked. Seeing him help, Captain Zhang inevitably glanced at him again, then at the shop owner nearby.
As people gradually dispersed, this kind of thing was not uncommon in Qingshui Street.
“Ah Lian?” After tidying things up, Ji Heng saw Bailian standing on the street.
The neighbors liked the little gadgets Ji Heng made. He would set up a stall every few days. Bailian studied at the library very late every day. This was the first time she saw him set up a stall.
“Hmm.” Bailian calmly hmm-ed and took Ji Heng’s things from him.
“It’s alright. I’m used to it. Breaking money to drive away misfortune,” Ji Heng said, holding his pipe. He obviously talked a lot more today, “It doesn’t happen often. He is from the other side and doesn’t come here often. Be more careful when you go out in the future. We common people should try our best not to provoke them.”
He comforted Bailian.
Bailian obediently hmm-ed again. But her eyes grew colder at the black pupils.
Ji Heng was very assured of her.
11 pm at night.
The light in Ji Heng’s room went out. In Bailian’s room, she twisted the last screw back onto the electric fan.
Then she took her phone and gently closed the door to go out.
Crossing the bridge at the end of Qingshui Street, a street stretched out before her eyes. Magnificent and golden bright. Although it was 10 pm at night, it was as bright as daylight. The entrance was written in two languages–
Heishui Street.
White Vest was already waiting here. At a glance, he saw the girl in white dress that didn’t match this street at all.
“Sis.” White Vest went up and handed Bailian a cigarette, took the chance to light it for her.
Bailian held the slender cigarette between her fingers, seemingly nonchalant. The cigarette was lit, smoke rising lightly. She lazily tilted her head, “Where is he?”
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