Before this summer vacation, Jiang Ran had taught countless students, many of whom, like Song Die, started following her right after learning how to push off on a slope and change edges. But once those students improved, they gradually formed their own circles and lost contact.
She had never encountered someone who was so clingy, almost wishing to cling onto her leg for the rest of his skiing career. Now, it seemed heaven had decided to bless her with not one, but two of them, regardless of whether she could handle it or not.
Jiang Ran slightly turned her face sideways, looking at the handsome face so close to hers. He stared back intently, as if seriously observing her, his eyes gleaming with mischief—as if he was certain she wouldn’t get angry at him.
She grabbed his hand from her shoulder and pulled it off, then gave him a shove. He staggered backward and lightly bumped against the wall of the basketball court behind him.
Leaning against the wall, he didn’t cry out in pain. Instead, he blinked, then sneered.
“Find that funny?” she asked expressionlessly, “Who gave you permission to talk to me like that?”
He tilted his head slightly, an action that seemed almost innocent, yet exuded an adult-like mischievousness. His smile became slightly more restrained: “What do you mean by that… Are you mad? Why would you be mad? It was just a suggestion. Don’t I look more appealing than Song Die?”
“…”
Eat?
Eat what?
Jiang Ran never imagined she would use the term “seductive fox” to describe a completely male creature in her entire life. But at this moment, Beijiao definitely gave off that vibe—
He had admitted before that he knew he was good-looking…
And now he was playing up that advantage.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
Jiang Ran’s face darkened as she gave him a once-over. Naturally, she wouldn’t be swayed by such an atmosphere. They had lived and eaten together all summer. She had touched his waist, his legs—there was nothing of his she hadn’t touched. If she couldn’t resist that, then hadn’t she wasted more than twenty years of her life?
That was indeed the logic.
Yet at this moment, as he lazily leaned there watching her, she couldn’t help but recall yesterday when she was editing a video and discovered she had so many clips of this brat on her phone—starting from the very first day he put on his ski boots…
She hadn’t deleted a single one.
In the past, she would immediately delete videos after sending them to her students.
She flipped through the videos one by one—him falling on the snow, being knocked over by others, sitting on the ground stubbornly reaching out his hand to signal her, asking to hold hands while pushing up the slope…
Jiang Ran herself didn’t know what kind of mood she was in when she finished editing that video and uploaded it online.
Vaguely, she remembered a male colleague asking: “Editing a video? Why are you smiling so much?”
…Oh, so she had smiled?
Damn!
Her mind buzzed with shock. She was deeply confused—what on earth had she been smiling about yesterday?
That shock quickly transformed into misplaced anger. She shifted from self-reflection to blaming him, thinking about how dare he joke with her like that. Had she been too lenient lately?
Her expression fluctuated, and finally, she gave up wasting time arguing with him. She turned around and started walking toward the school gate, ready to leave this troublesome place.
Seeing her leave, the boy who had been leaning against the wall behind her finally reined in his playfulness a bit. He stood upright, watching her walk away without even glancing back, three or five meters…
It seemed she was genuinely planning to abandon him.
He pursed his lips, suppressing his usual flippant attitude. Taking advantage of his long legs, he quickly caught up with her in a few steps… He followed behind her without daring to get too close, nor did he reach out to grab her like he usually would. Instead, he slightly bent his upper body toward her and softly said, “I was serious.”
Jiang Ran ignored him.
She walked faster and faster.
Beijiao didn’t care. Even when she almost started running, for him it was just a matter of lengthening his stride. His breathing remained steady, maintaining the same distance as before, continuing to talk to himself: “Think about it—what I said, was there anything wrong? Song Die isn’t right for you. He seems perfect on the surface, but actually, he’s mysterious and unpredictable. You don’t even know what his family does or what his personality really is. Can you really understand him?… People like him—who play well, study well, and are decent-looking—are always popular. Who knows how many girlfriends he had in high school.”
He continued with completely baseless gossip, like a gossipy old woman.
“He’s tainted. You can’t have him.”
After summarizing, the boy paused briefly. As he was organizing his thoughts, trying to think of another accusation that wasn’t too outrageous but still usable, the person in front suddenly stopped and turned around to glare at him.
Beijiao: “?”
Why are you glaring at me?
Jiang Ran: “Plays well, studies well, decent-looking—you’re describing yourself, aren’t you?”
Beijiaoao reflexively looked confused, but three seconds later, he realized it was indeed true. He nodded: “But I don’t have money. I wouldn’t even buy someone mineral water. No girl would like me.”
Which was complete nonsense.
He had received plenty of love notes stuffed into his drawer, which he simply collected and threw away. If someone gave him food, he would rather starve than eat it himself, always giving it to his deskmate or other classmates.
He treated all his admirers equally—never favoring anyone.
…Because of this, his reputation among the girls in high school actually improved even more.
They thought he was fair—whether they were the school beauty or just a nobody, no one could ever get him.
But none of that mattered. The point was—he had never paid attention to any of them.
“I’m clean. Pure in both body and mind.”
Beijiao added.
“…”
Jiang Ran was truly speechless.
…She had no idea what trashy, lowbrow content he had been browsing online every day.
His vocabulary was so trendy she could barely keep up.
She nodded, not knowing what to say, and seeing his proud expression, she couldn’t help but mock: “Great. Then keep it up?”
He quickly caught up with her, walking side by side with her, and couldn’t help leaning his body slightly toward hers until his deliberately tilted shoulder gently bumped into hers.
“Not really necessary, I don’t plan to become a monk—”
“Beijiao.”
She frowned.
He immediately sensed the shift in atmosphere when she frowned and used his full name. Instinctively, he raised his hand quickly, pressing gently on her forehead, trying to smooth out the crease between her brows.
She lightly slapped his hand away, “Don’t joke with me like this.” Her tone was somewhat indifferent, “It’s annoying.”
Her voice sounded genuinely annoyed.
It immediately dimmed his expression.
At this point, the two were almost out of the campus. She lowered her head, took out her car keys from her bag, unlocked the car remotely, quickened her pace, and climbed into the vehicle.
The car door “slammed” shut, leaving the boy alone outside in the bright sunlight. Through the window, he could barely see her sitting inside, still frowning.
She really seemed unhappy.
In an instant, his mood indeed became gloomy.
“I wasn’t joking.”
Through the air, knowing she couldn’t hear him anymore, he wiped all expressions from his face and said in a slightly angry tone—
“I was serious.”
…
Meanwhile.
She was restless all the way.
However, the troublemaker wasn’t done with her yet.
As soon as Jiang Ran got home, she received an overseas call from Jiang Haimin. He didn’t have any other intention, just the usual check-in asking how her “cheap little brother” was doing. Was he being raised like those two-yuan ducklings she tried to keep when she was in elementary school—only to die within three days?
Look at how eloquently he spoke. She couldn’t tell whether he wanted the kid to live or die.
“He’s doing great. I even taught him how to ski this summer. He’s so energetic, waking me up at eight every morning to go skiing. It felt like I was running a winter break kindergarten camp… He even won a small award in a competition a few days ago.”
She started off sarcastic and complaining, but by the end, her tone strangely lifted, probably not even realizing how proud she sounded, as if she had won the award herself.
“That good,” Jiang Haimin was also satisfied, “Then you should bring him to Canada during winter break. The ski resorts here are great too. We can reunite as a family.”
“Please, spare me. What blood relation or legal connection do we even have for a family reunion? Besides, plane tickets are expensive. Do you want his life?”
“Where is he now?”
“Today is September 1st. Two hours ago, he was already bouncing back to school for class.”
And he had even learned to talk nonsense after eating too much, spouting all sorts of nonsense… She added in her mind, very dissatisfied.
Holding the phone, she was half-distracted while making the call, going in and out of the dining room three times without deciding what to have for dinner.
She opened the fridge, where there were a few apples and a jug of fresh lemon honey water.
Jiang Ran took it out and poured a glass. As she did, she suddenly noticed something new—the lemons in the jug had been peeled and seeded, neatly sliced. It was clear whoever had prepared them had excellent knife skills.
She took a sip of the sweet-and-sour honey water and absentmindedly recalled that in the past, lemon water was always made with the peel on. Later, she once mentioned that she thought it tasted bitter, and Beijiao had taken the glass from her hand, taken a sip, and raised an eyebrow: “Where’s the bitterness? Could it be that your heart is bitter?”
They had argued furiously about it, even going online to look up information to prove that lemon water without peeling and removing the seeds would indeed taste bitter.
In the end, he drank the entire jug, then pursed his lips and called her high-maintenance.
“What are you wandering around for?” Jiang Haimin asked from the video call, “Like a headless fly.”
“…”
Jiang Ran snapped back to reality.
“Thinking about what to have for dinner.”
And realizing the house was suddenly empty, a bit too quiet.
“Before, Bei would either cook directly or order takeout. I just had to buy the groceries.”
In the past two months, at mealtimes, her Cinderella-like younger brother would magically produce food on the table. She only had to eat, then throw her chopsticks aside and go back to the couch to watch TV or play on her phone. Washing dishes? Not even her chopsticks.
Now, it was like Cinderella had reached midnight, the magic had vanished, and everything had reverted to how it was before.
Before that, she had lived alone—
She had lived just fine before the magic.
Then he came.
And she became useless.
Then he left,
Jiang Ran dejectedly collapsed onto the sofa, her soft, long curls covering her face. She lazily turned over, staring at the ceiling with a messy mood: Maybe she wouldn’t eat at all?
On the other end, Jiang Haimin exclaimed: “What’s going on! Is it you taking care of him or him taking care of you! I told you to look after your younger brother, and you got yourself a butler?!”
That accusation was really unfair. Jiang Ran was about to argue that she occasionally did give him money for groceries, but then she thought—well, hiring a butler would also require paying, right?
She angrily hung up the phone.
Just then, a new WeChat message popped up. She clicked to check. The twelve-o’clock-limit puppy who had just returned to school sent her a new message with a picture.
She turned over and sat up quickly.
She opened the message in a hurry. It was a photo of what he had for dinner tonight—plain lily bulb stir-fried with celery, plus two ounces of white rice.
[Beijiao: “Picture”]
[Beijiao: Clean and hygienic?]
[Whose Ranran Duck: ?]
She was just wondering how someone could have such poor Chinese skills that they couldn’t even properly use adjectives to describe a dish.
[Beijiao: Just like me.]
[Beijiao: Delicious.]
Jiang Ran: “………………………………………………”
Her previously pleasant mood instantly vanished.
[Whose Ranran Duck: Are you done yet?]
[Beijiao: No. Don’t want you to block me.]
Fine.
Now the thug is threatening her first. Impressive.
Author’s note:
Brother Bei: Let the author stop labeling me as “pure in both body and mind” in the description. I have a mouth. I can say it myself.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage