Chu Zhi was about to collapse from exhaustion. The walk from the teaching building back to the dormitory was quite a distance, and she was struggling to carry a large bundle of snake apples. The huge pile was almost too much to hold, and halfway through, her arms felt like they were about to break.
The people who had been selling Christmas Eve apples earlier were no longer there. Chu Zhi silently lowered her head, looking at the bundle of apples in her arms.
Thirty yuan each – how much money was that in total? Growing up under Father Chu’s influence that frugality was a virtue, young Chu Zhi felt the pain in her wallet.
As soon as she reached the dorm, Chu Zhi threw the bundle of apples on the table, pulled out a clean cloth bag, sat down in a chair, and began peeling off the layers of wrapping paper.
She took the apples out one by one and put them in the bag, mechanically repeating this action until she found herself spacing out.
She stared straight at the bag of bright red snake apples and suddenly said, “Let’s go sell these apples.”
Lin Tong: “…”
Gu Han: “…”
Xue Niannan tilted her head back, reciting Marxist philosophy: “First, the development of capitalist economy provided the economic and social historical conditions for the emergence and development of Marxism—”
Gu Han looked at her in disbelief: “I thought the pink water bottle guy giving apples to chase girls was weird enough, but you actually want to sell them?”
Chu Zhi blinked: “But there are so many, we can’t eat them all. It would be such a waste.”
Lin Tong walked over with a hot water bottle in her hands and smacked it against Chu Zhi’s forehead: “Let me tell you, Xiao Zhizi, what’s really going on between you and this Lu senior?”
Chu Zhi let out a yelp and reached up to take the hot water bottle, hugging it.
She turned to sit sideways, resting her chin on the chair back, furrowing her brows in confusion: “I don’t know either.”
Lin Tong: “Is he pursuing you?”
Gu Han: “He must be pursuing you.”
Xue Niannan: “The intensification of the proletariat’s struggle against the bourgeoisie created an urgent need for scientific theoretical guidance—”
Chu Zhi kneaded the hot water bottle in her hands, eyes downcast as she said in a small voice: “I suppose…”
Xue Niannan finally looked up and smiled: “No, he’s been accompanying you to class for a week just because he took on a final exam substitute job for the advertising department.”
Chu Zhi’s eyes widened: “Really?”
“…”
Gu Han let out a long sigh: “Why do I suddenly feel a bit sorry for this pink water bottle senior?”
Lin Tong frowned, pulling out a fruit knife from the drawer and waving it at Chu Zhi: “So what do you think? How do you feel? Do you like him or not? Accept him or not?”
Chu Zhi also frowned, casually pulling out a snake apple from the cloth bag and tossing it to her: “I don’t know either. It just feels a bit—”
She couldn’t continue, not knowing how to express it.
Chu Zhi felt that this person seemed to handle such matters effortlessly, turning three parts of genuine feeling into seven parts of sweet talk. She didn’t know which of his words to believe and which not to.
Although that night he had told her not to run too far away, and then truly maintained an appropriate distance, bringing her breakfast every day, watching her eat, not talking much, quietly sitting in the row behind her accompanying her to class, appearing so free each day that Chu Zhi began to wonder if he had been expelled from school.
But she also didn’t know if this was just a passing whim of his.
In all her years, Chu Zhi had never really liked any boy.
Even during that story with Yin Mingshuo, her “first love,” after they broke up, she barely felt anything. She even thought the campus beauty looked good, and when the two of them were kissing, it looked like a Korean drama scene – quite beautiful and well-matched. She sincerely wanted to pay tribute to their lung capacity.
So looking at it from another angle, would she have been willing to bring Yin Mingshuo home?
Probably not.
If Yin Mingshuo, or anyone else, was sick and standing at her door, would she let them stay overnight?
Probably not either.
If other people did the same things as Lu Jiaheng and said the same words as him?
Chu Zhi thought she would probably call the police.
But when that person was him, somehow everything was different.
It seemed that because it was him, anything was okay.
Before she even knew what fraction of his attention she held, he had already somehow become different in her eyes.
Thinking of this, Chu Zhi frowned, her small face looking dejected as she let out a long sigh: “So should I sell these apples or not…”
On Christmas Eve night, Lu Jiaheng returned home.
Lu Hongsheng and Jiang Ruan were both home. Before he entered, there was laughter and chatter.
When he walked in, the living room fell silent.
Only Lu Jiayi was as usual, her bright eyes watching him.
The little one couldn’t help but smile, kicking her chubby legs clumsily as she climbed down from the sofa, calling out in her soft voice: “Brother!”
Jiang Ruan chased after her: “Yi Yi! Put on your shoes!”
Lu Jiayi ignored her, running straight to Lu Jiaheng. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she turned around and pushed Jiang Ruan away: “Mommy stay away from brother, mommy don’t hit brother.”
Jiang Ruan’s expression changed slightly as she hurriedly hushed the child in a low voice: “Yi Yi! What nonsense are you saying!”
Lu Jiaheng raised an eyebrow, lifting his eyes to look at her with an ambiguous smile.
Lu Hongsheng had already heard, raising his head from the sofa with a frown: “What’s going on?”
Jiang Ruan pressed her lips together, her expression changing: “Nothing, I just misunderstood him.”
Lu Jiaheng curved his lips, changed his shoes and entered the house without saying anything.
Jiang Ruan was already stumbling through a light explanation under Lu Hongsheng’s questioning. Lu Hongsheng was the type of person who considered himself the center of the world, the head of the household. Everything had to be under his control, he had to know everything, and everyone had to listen to him. His expression was naturally not very pleasant at this moment.
Lu Jiaheng sank into the sofa, listening half-heartedly as if it had nothing to do with him. He stretched out his long legs and crossed them, his eyelashes lowered, appearing uninterested in everything.
He waited for a while, but there was no sign of things settling down. Jiang Ruan’s eyes were already slightly red, her voice rising: “I had been looking for the child all afternoon at that time! When I saw him in that condition, how worried was I? He had given Yi Yi peaches before, who knows if it was intentional! Even if he didn’t give it to her, knowing Yi Yi was allergic, why didn’t he stop it at the time!”
Her words made sense, and Lu Hongsheng was momentarily speechless.
Lu Jiaheng slightly lifted his eyelids, glancing at this family of three who seemed to be putting on a show.
Lu Jiayi was curled up in the corner, letting out a sob, her small head hanging low, teary-eyed, looking panicked and helpless.
Lu Jiaheng raised his eyes to look at the clock on the wall – not yet six o’clock.
Chu Zhi’s class ended at five o’clock, she should have been out of class for a while now.
Lu Jiaheng tapped his fingers on the sofa armrest, playing with the tassel on the cushion absent-mindedly as he spoke: “If you think your son is an idiot who would eat something that put him in the hospital again, then you can assume I did it on purpose.” He glanced sideways at the little one in the corner, “Are you an idiot?”
Lu Jiayi sniffled and shook her little head like a rattle drum: “Yi Yi won’t eat it, Yi Yi is not an idiot.”
Lu Hongsheng frowned deeply and turned to look at him sternly: “Can’t you speak properly? Who taught you to speak so sarcastically?”
“Well, you certainly never taught me,” Lu Jiaheng’s gaze remained on the clock face, growing somewhat impatient, “What do you really want?”
His tone was quite poor, and normally, Lu Hongsheng might have exploded immediately.
Today, however, he was clearly restraining himself, taking a long time before speaking, taking a deep breath and asking in an unusually calm tone: “Are you coming back to intern at the company during winter break?”
Oh, so that was it.
Lu Jiaheng licked his lips, slowly curving them into a smile: “Yes.”
“What did the old man say to you?”
Lu Jiaheng almost couldn’t hold back his laughter.
He lazily drooped his eyes and made something up: “He said you’ve disappointed him a bit.”
Sure enough, Lu Hongsheng’s expression changed slightly, but only for a moment before he returned to his previous demeanor.
Lu Jiaheng narrowed his eyes, observing silently.
He could almost see the rapid turning of gears in his father’s mind.
The old Mr. Lu was approaching seventy this year, Lu Hongsheng was an only child, and although Lu Jiaheng’s relationship with him was poor, they were still father and son no matter what.
Moreover, his eldest son was known in their circles as a notorious playboy, academically poor, failing courses every year, only knowing how to waste time with a bunch of good-for-nothing friends, probably knowing exactly which clubhouse had the most beautiful women, but likely knowing nothing about company matters.
Thinking of this, Lu Hongsheng relaxed again, his whole person easing up.
Lu Jiaheng curved his lips, finding it quite ironic.
His gaze fell back to the clock face. He tossed aside the sofa cushion in his hand and stood up: “Nothing else? If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving. I have plans with friends tonight.”
Just as Lu Jiaheng arrived at the girls’ dormitory building, he saw Chu Zhi walking out carrying a cloth bag.
The bag looked quite heavy, she was holding it with both hands, her body slightly leaning backward, her arms straight and tense. The bag would touch her feet as she walked, and she would stop after every few steps, like an awkward little penguin.
Lu Jiaheng held his phone and slightly turned to the side, hiding behind a nearby tree: “I’ll be there in a bit.” He didn’t wait for Cheng Yi to respond before hanging up and walking towards Chu Zhi.
The little penguin had just descended the steps in front of the dormitory and was wobbling forward, muttering something under her breath, her rosy lips moving slightly as she shook her head and swayed expressively.
Lu Jiaheng unconsciously curved his lips into a smile, slowing his pace as he walked up to her.
Seeing someone blocking her path, Chu Zhi looked up with a blank expression. When she saw it was him, she seemed startled and took two steps back.
Earlier, because class was about to start, they hadn’t had time to exchange more than a few words.
Their last conversation had been about him asking for this and that, and although he was the one who had spoken, Chu Zhi felt somewhat embarrassed. She kept her eyes lowered, not looking at him, and said stiffly: “Hello, senior…”
Lu Jiaheng looked down at the bag by her feet: “Are these apples?”
Chu Zhi nodded.
“The ones I gave you?”
Chu Zhi nodded again.
Lu Jiaheng raised his eyebrows slightly: “Are you planning to return them to me?”
Chu Zhi shook her head and honestly said: “I’m planning to sell them.”
Lu Jiaheng: “…”
Lu Jiaheng thought he had misheard: “What?”
Chu Zhi shrunk her shoulders and bravely repeated: “I’m planning to sell them…”
Lu Jiaheng laughed in disbelief: “You’re planning to sell the apples I gave you?”
“Then I’ll give you back the money,” her voice was soft and gentle, her head lowered, seemingly still complaining about him, “How can you be such a spendthrift? Spending so much money to buy so many, we can’t even eat them all, it’s such a waste.”
Lu Jiaheng didn’t speak.
After a while, he let out a soft sigh: “I heard them say that if you give an apple to someone you like on Christmas Eve, it will bless them with safety and happiness for the entire year.”
Chu Zhi was stunned for a moment and looked up at him.
He kept his eyes lowered, seeming to find it a bit childish himself, letting out a light laugh as his dark eyes looked at her calmly and intently: “So I wanted to give you all the ones I could buy at that time.”
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