ATLAS TRANSLATES

Chapter 62: She’s a Girl

Xu Si looked at the question mark and chuckled. [Xu Si]: Didn’t you send YSK the answers this morning?

Yuan Yuan scratched at Xu Si’s pant leg. Xu Si put his phone in his pocket and looked at it: “I know, I’m going now.”

Xu Si took his things to the cashier to pay.

Upstairs, Xu Si opened the door, put the food on the table, and stuffed the vegetables in the fridge. He held up the bag of fish and told it: “For dinner.”

Yuan Yuan mewed disapprovingly, scratching at his pant leg.

Man and cat remained at a standoff for a while, until Xu Si finally compromised: “I’ll feed you after I eat.”

He unlocked his phone to see Jiang Qiao’s message. [Little Heartless One]: ?

Jiang Qiao finished eating and returned to the bookstore. Looking at his message with the abbreviated name, she stared at it for a long time, unable to figure out who he meant.

[Xu Si]: Yang Shikun.

Seeing the name he sent, Jiang Qiao finally understood he meant Yang Shikun.

[Little Heartless One]: Oh oh. [Little Heartless One]: I woke up at 6-7.

[Xu Si]: So early. [Xu Si]: Still studying?

[Little Heartless One]: No, at the bookstore outside.

Xu Si took a bite of food, then replied. [Xu Si]: Go home early.

Seeing her obedient “okay” reply, Xu Si could imagine her docile expression.

After finishing his meal, he took out a fish from the fridge that had already been prepared and just needed cooking.

Yuan Yuan jumped onto Xu Si’s shoulder, watching him flip the fish in the pan with the spatula.

Xu Si felt the weight on his shoulder and turned his head to meet a black face. He reached up to pat its head.

He put the cooked fish in Yuan Yuan’s bowl: “Such a greedy cat.”

When Jiang Qiao got home, it was already evening.

Aunt Liu came out of the kitchen wiping her hands: “Qiao Qiao, have you eaten? There’s still soup simmering on the stove, want some?”

Jiang Qiao smelled the fish soup but had already eaten: “I’ve eaten, thank you Aunt Liu.”

She took her bag to her room but noticed something wrong the moment she opened the door. The things on her desk were arranged differently than when she left.

She put her bag on the table and opened the cabinet beside her bed – things inside were also disturbed.

She checked the bottom cabinet – fortunately it was locked, her diary still safely inside. But the notes that Jiang Zhixu had written her, stored in the bottom drawer, seemed to have been gone through.

Jiang Qiao crouched on the ground, her fingertips turning white from gripping too tight. Although Jiang Zhixu’s notes weren’t particularly private, having someone else go through and read them left her feeling a tightness in her chest, making it hard to breathe.

She crouched there, silently collecting the notes.

Before she could go find Cui Shumei, Cui Shumei came in.

Seeing her collecting the notes, Cui Shumei started berating her: “Truly shameless, keeping notes from some boy? Always saying ‘little one’ and ‘darling’ – did your parents send you to school to fool around with boys?”

Jiang Qiao finished gathering the notes, put them in a metal box, and stood up.

Cui Shumei slapped the box from her hands: “I’m talking to you, can’t you hear? Are you deaf? Whose notes are these from, which wild boy?”

The box hit the ground with a clear sound. The notes scattered across the floor.

Jiang Qiao looked at the scattered notes, biting her lower lip. She raised her head, anger in her eyes: “First, these are my private belongings, what right do you have to go through them? Second, please stop entering my room and going through my things. Third, she’s a girl.”

After speaking, Jiang Qiao crouched down to collect the notes again, putting them in a bag.

“What ambiguous things are two girls writing? And they call you a good student, passing notes happily in school.”

Jiang Qiao hugged the box, looking straight at her: “How is that any of your business?”

With that, she took the box and walked out, closing the front door behind her.

“Qiao Qiao, where are you going?” Aunt Liu anxiously came out from the kitchen, only to see the door closing.

Tian Ling and Jiang Zhien had been arguing but came out of their room hearing the noise.

Aunt Liu said: “Qiao Qiao left.”

Cui Shumei cursed: “Let her go, ungrateful wretch.”

Jiang Zhien got angry hearing this: “Mom, how can you talk like that? Qiao Qiao is your own granddaughter, how can you say such things? That’s too harsh!”

“I’m speaking harshly? You all just can’t stand me, can’t stand this old person. You think I’m old, my words aren’t pleasant to hear, I’m useless, you’re all disgusted by me.”

Tian Ling was both helpless and worried: “Mom, no one is disgusted by you. Why did Qiao Qiao leave?”

Although Tian Ling wasn’t home often, in her eyes Jiang Qiao was a very, very well-behaved child. This was the first time she’d ever just left like this.

Cui Shumei gave an exaggerated version of events.

Jiang Zhien listened with furrowed brows, catching the key point: “So Mom, you went into Qiao Qiao’s room and went through her things?”

“I just went to her room to look around, help her tidy up. They’re just some scraps of paper, what’s wrong with me looking? Acting like some precious treasure, getting upset at a few words of criticism, running away from home – better if she never comes back, better if she dies out there.”

Jiang Zhien was unhappy hearing this: “No matter what, as an elder you shouldn’t randomly go through someone’s private things. Mom, Qiao Qiao is still in her teenage years, how could you look through her things? And that last thing you said was way too much! What do you mean ‘die out there’?”

Hearing this, Cui Shumei started wiping tears, pulling Tian Ling’s hand and complaining: “Look how he talks to me, speaking to me like this over a junior. No wonder she’s so stubborn, turns out she has you as a father backing her up.”

“We haven’t been home for so many years, we’ve already failed Qiao Qiao. She’s so sensible it breaks my heart. We can’t spoil her enough, how can you say we’re indulging her?”

“Fine, you all don’t like me, you all hate me. Then I’ll leave. I’ll pack my things and leave right now.”

Jiang Zhien got angry too: “If you want to leave then leave!”

Hearing him say this, Tian Ling became angry: “How can you talk to Mom like that? What Mom did was wrong, but you can’t tell her to leave. It’s late at night, where would an elderly person go?”

Jiang Zhien couldn’t help retorting: “Why aren’t you asking where an underage child like Qiao Qiao could go at this hour?”