Feng Ning sipped her drink through a straw, her arm propped on the table as she focused on reading a study guide.
Her legs were stretched out into the aisle, her toes swaying left and right to the music playing in the store.
The wind chimes at the door tinkled as someone pushed it open.
Feeling a gentle kick, she looked up.
Jiang Wen sat down across from her. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, but despite being in the sun for so long, his face remained fair.
“Wow, you’re back.”
“Mm.”
Feng Ning gestured with her eyes, “Your mango coconut sago dessert drink. Put in the straw yourself.”
Jiang Wen glanced at it but didn’t move.
She continued reading her materials, humming an off-key tune like nothing was wrong.
“What are you reading?”
“Quick study guide. It has really comprehensive explanations for test points.”
Feng Ning quickly finished reading two questions, not forgetting to praise herself, “With my study attitude, being this smart and hardworking, who wouldn’t admire me? Who wouldn’t be amazed? Even the Iron Lady would cry! I can say without doubt that I deserve to be first in our grade.”
After rattling off this speech like a tongue twister, she concluded solemnly, “Yes, I deserve it.”
Jiang Wen’s expression was unusually gentle. He turned his head away and gave a faint smile.
She casually asked, “How are things with your little girlfriend?”
Jiang Wen was about to speak.
“—Wait!” Feng Ning suddenly lowered her head, spreading her fingers in front of him in a stop gesture, her eyes narrowing, “Don’t tell me, let Detective Ke Ning guess!”
Jiang Wen leaned back in his chair, finding it slightly amusing. He crossed his arms and jutted his chin, gesturing for her to continue.
“Based on her expression when she called you out earlier, you two must be breaking up?”
“Mm.”
“But you’re very calm and relaxed now. So based on your current expression, your talk just now went well.”
Jiang Wen nodded again, “It was okay.”
“Oh… I get it.”
“Get what?”
“You two made up.”
Jiang Wen’s face darkened, “No.”
Feng Ning raised an eyebrow, acting like an unconcerned outsider, “Oh, so you broke up?”
Jiang Wen said very reservedly: “I don’t like her.” After a pause, he added quietly: “I don’t like anyone anymore.”
Feng Ning could barely hold back her laughter, “What’s this, are you planning to renounce love and spend your life with Buddha?”
Jiang Wen didn’t respond.
After a while, Feng Ning belatedly realized how much attention they were drawing, sitting with the school’s famous figure in a milk tea shop.
She remembered how others would discuss how Jiang Wen looked like a male lead from a shoujo manga. His looks were indeed a bit too delicate and refined. Feng Ning put away her palm-sized study materials and waved her hand, “Let’s go.”
Jiang Wen stood up amid the furtive glances from a group of girls.
She pointed at the untouched milk tea, “You’re not drinking it?”
Jiang Wen condescended to glance at it and said irritably: “Don’t want to.”
“Take it with you,” Feng Ning ordered, “You’re more childish than Shuang Yao’s brother who’s three or four years younger than you.”
“?”
“Even though he’s young, he knows not to waste food. Whatever he wants to eat, he finishes it.” Her words carried another meaning, “Other people’s kids are so sensible, look at yourself.”
After hearing her words, Jiang Wen asked with a poker face: “How old are you?”
“15, turning 16 by the end of the year.”
“Your birthday is at the end of the year?”
“Yeah, December.”
“I’m older than you,” Jiang Wen said seriously, “I’ll become an adult before you too, I’m not a kid.”
His voice was a bit low and husky. Feng Ning seemed to realize something, “Do all men mind being called small?”
“Mm.”
Jiang Wen answered quickly, then noticed Feng Ning’s suggestive and crude expression. After processing for two seconds, he realized he’d fallen for her trap and became angry and embarrassed: “You…”
Feng Ning burst out laughing.
Having grown up in the streets, she was used to making crude jokes, mixing both clean and dirty humor, always ready with a quip.
“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I forgot you’re still young, I’ve polluted a pure boy’s innocent mind. My bad, I deserve to die, I’ll slap myself.” Feng Ning acted like a sycophantic eunuch from TV dramas, lightly patting both sides of her mouth.
As they walked outside, Jiang Wen was too angry with her. No matter how she tried to tease him along the way, he refused to say another word.
“Can you stop being angry?” Feng Ning was a bit helpless, “It was just a joke, why are you so petty?”
Without thinking, Jiang Wen said: “I don’t like you calling me small.” He paused after saying it, “I don’t mean that kind of small, I mean…”
Feng Ning made two “mm” sounds, blinking her eyes in confusion, “Oh oh oh oh, then what part of you isn’t small?”
Jiang Wen’s brain short-circuited for a moment.
She burst into laughter, laughing so hard she had to punch the wall, unable to even stand straight.
Jiang Wen was angry inside, quickening his pace forward, completely ignoring her.
Feng Ning hurried to catch up, still laughing while speaking, “You tell me, you tell me, I really won’t joke anymore, really won’t, I swear.”
Whether it was because the weather was too hot or he was really annoyed, even his neck and ears had turned red.
“Alright, don’t be angry.” Feng Ning now found Jiang Wen particularly cute when he was angry, “Come on, big sis will take you somewhere nice.”
She felt a bit emotional inside.
Some people appear proper on the surface but are actually very obedient honest people. They’re especially fun to tease.
Jiang Wen was annoyed by her nonsensical words and insisted: “I’m older than you.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Feng Ning quickly changed her words, shamelessly coaxing him, “Then I’ll take gege (big brother) somewhere.”
She walked forward, but he didn’t move.
Under the sunlight, Feng Ning curved her hand over her eyes and turned sideways: “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Wen took a few seconds to react before shuffling his feet.
He silently savored the words “gege” a couple of times, quietly tucking them away in his heart.
She led him through several twists and turns before stopping in front of a store.
Looking up, there was a small red sign that read: China Welfare Lottery
The inside was cramped and stuffy, without even air conditioning, only two broken fans whirling away. The female owner, wearing large flowery shorts, was watching a popular palace drama on her computer. Seeing two high school students enter, she gave a lazy greeting.
There wasn’t even anywhere to sit, just a narrow passage that could barely fit four or five people.
Jiang Wen scanned the surroundings with some disdain: “What are you doing?”
“Robbing.”
Jiang Wen: “……”
The owner asked: “Do you want scratch cards or double color balls? Two yuan per ticket, choose your own numbers.”
“When’s your birthday?” Feng Ning tugged at him.
“11.14.”
“Oh, Scorpio, no wonder you’re so grudge-holding.” She thought for a moment and said with a grin, “You know what? We Capricorns are the only ones who can counter you Scorpios.”
Jiang Wen neither agreed nor disagreed.
The owner typed away at the computer, entering the numbers Feng Ning called out.
After leaving the lottery store, Feng Ning held up the ticket against the sunlight, looked at it, then handed it to Jiang Wen, “This is for you!”
Jiang Wen looked at the string of numbers on it: [92459111499959]
“What does this mean?” he asked.
Feng Ning said mysteriously, “It’s more interesting if you figure it out yourself.”
“…Do you often buy lottery tickets?”
“Yeah.” Feng Ning giggled, “I buy one occasionally, just waiting, not asking for millions, just hoping for 5 million.”
Jiang Wen put away the ticket and sneered.
“What are you laughing at?” Feng Ning said seriously, “Sometimes when you buy a lottery ticket, you’re not buying the ticket itself, you’re buying hope, understand?”
They entered the classroom together.
Only about half the class had arrived, and Zhao Binlin was playing a handheld game console. Seeing them enter together, the corners of his mouth curved into a meaningful smile.
For the entire afternoon, Jiang Wen was in quite a good mood. The person sitting next to him felt it most clearly.
It’s worth noting that for about a whole week before this, Jiang Wen had been angry with someone, though no one knew who. He was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment, making even Zhao Binlin feel stressed.
In the evening, after playing basketball with the team, everyone was resting at the sidelines. Xi Gaoyuan looked around, “Hey, how come Cheng Jiajia isn’t bringing water to Jiang Wen?”
“We broke up.”
His news was outdated, so he was quite surprised, “Ah, you broke up?”
Jiang Wen made an “mm” sound.
“You broke up after just a few days? Love came too fast like a tornado, what a pity.”
“What’s a pity?”
“It’s a pity you didn’t get to properly experience the taste of love.”
“What’s so interesting about dating?” Jiang Wen snorted, taking a big gulp of water, “Boring.”
Zhao Binlin couldn’t help but say: “Tch, please stop being in denial.”
Walking out of the brightly lit basketball court, it was dark outside. As it was approaching October, the nights got cold very quickly.
Xi Gaoyuan shivered and sighed, “Lin Ru and I should keep it low-key, to avoid making you single dogs jealous.”
“Ugh, give it a rest.”
“Xi Gaoyuan is a Sagittarius man, I’m an Aries woman, our compatibility index is 100%.”
Someone laughed at her, “You believe in that stuff?”
Lin Ru pouted, “This is about astrology, it’s very accurate.”
Zhao Binlin became interested, “Then calculate for me, what zodiac sign is my true love?”
After calculating for everyone, Xi Gaoyuan pointed at Jiang Wen, “Calculate for him too, he has the rockiest love life among us.”
“What’s his zodiac sign?”
Zhao Binlin answered for him: “Scorpio.”
Lin Ru made an “ah” sound, somewhat amazed: “Scorpios have strong possessiveness and desire to conquer. Scorpio men usually appear low-key but are actually passionate inside, and they’re quite reserved. I used to be super into them.”
Xi Gaoyuan cleared his throat, “Your boyfriend is right here, watch what you say.” He suddenly smiled slyly, “By the way, isn’t the Scorpio zodiac sign supposed to have particularly strong sexual desire?”
Jiang Wen glanced at him and said indifferently: “Your mind is full of dirty thoughts.”
“Stop acting so pure and innocent.” Xi Gaoyuan elbowed him, “You… haven’t had wet dreams, haven’t had reactions?”
He had just finished playing basketball, and his hands were black with dirt. Jiang Wen dodged to the side, his eyes full of disgust, “Don’t touch me.”
Xi Gaoyuan’s face twisted with anger, complaining: “Damn it, you don’t mind when a girl pukes on you when she’s drunk, but you won’t even let a brother touch you, your germaphobia is selective, huh?”
Lin Ru was typing away on her keyboard, and after a while, she looked up, “I’ve got it.”
Zhao Binlin eagerly took her phone and read from it: “The three zodiac signs most compatible with you are… Cancer, Pisces, and Taurus.”
While others were wondering if there were any Cancer girls around, Jiang Wen suddenly asked: “What about Capricorn?”
It was quite an abrupt question, but fortunately no one paid much attention. Lin Ru replied: “Capricorn seems to only be suitable as friends with Scorpio, they have a higher familial compatibility index.”
Amid the noisy chatter, Jiang Wen coldly dropped a line, “Garbage website.”
Lin Ru was left speechless as she watched his retreating figure.
Author’s Note:
The zodiac compatibility is also made up
[“Buy one occasionally, just waiting, not asking for millions, just hoping for 5 million”] is an internet quote
The lottery numbers might not be accurate, I made them up
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