Chapter 21

Translator: Amber.es

Editor: merahmapple 🍁

This was the second person to say something like this to Qu Zhengyan…

A few days later, Qu Zhengyan was extremely quiet. When he met Du Yongjin at school, he just bowed his head and walked away in silence, as if he didn’t see the angry and gloomy gaze of the other party at all. Even when Du Yongjin hit the fat little boy as if looking to vent his anger, leaving the boy crying, Qu Zhengyan tried hard not to intervene.

He was very clear. Once he spoke out, he could only repeatedly beg Xiao Jin to stop bullying people. It held no power to convince him at all! He could almost see Xiao Jin squinting at him triumphantly.

This time, he would not be the first to retreat! He thought so while clenching his fists.

However, he was a little scared. How could Du Yongjin, with his high self-esteem and pride built up since childhood, allow him to bow his head to Qu Zhengyan?

If this persisted onwards, wouldn’t their reconciliation become a distant future?

Qu Zhengyan gradually panicked.

On a Saturday at noon, Mrs Qu went with her young son to take a look at the new house. When they returned, they met a group of workers’ relatives chatting at the gate of the compound. Most of them were middle-aged elderly women. Their voices were quite noisy.

Among them was an excited voice. It was the First Old Lady, Du Yongjin’s grandmother. It turned out that she was talking about her grandson Xiao Jin who participated in the city piano competition and won the grand prize. He was also rated as an outstanding student at the city level 1 E/N: one of the few top scorers in the whole city . Just listening to her expressing in a joyous mood like birds chirping around with a face full of pride, the people around her complimented: This child is really worthy, he has good appearance, he did his homework well, he has many talents, and has a boundless future ahead…

Whether they were sincere or not, at least their words allowed the old lady’s heart to be ecstatic.

Mrs Qu passed by and was also dragged in to hear the good news. Seeing the old lady’s smug look, she smiled and said, “Congratulations, this child will surprise people when he grows up.” Once done, she walked away with a gloomy Qu Zhengyan behind.

The parents of the little fatty – their neighbours- were not far from the mother and son pair. They seemed to have been harassed before by the neighbors and the couple were whispering something. Entering the corridor, the sound could be heard easily and across a flight of stairs, Qu Zhengyan heard the mother of the little fatty say angrily, “That kind of child is considered an excellent student? Isn’t it because his father has a bit of power! It’s not as if he was the president of the country, right?”

The little fatty’s father comforted her. “Don’t pay attention to them. Go back and tell our baby, we have to hide. We can’t offend them.”

“Huh! With that kind of being, sooner or later, when something happens, I can’t wait to see what the so-called excellent child of their family will become!”

“Shhh…”

Mrs Qu paused and waited a little longer. When the couple went back into their unit, the mother and son continued to walk upstairs. Right after entering their home, she whispered to Qu Zhengyan, “Pretend you didn’t hear anything. When you go out, talk less.”

Qu Zhengyan nodded silently. After a while, he raised his head, “Mom, I’ve decided. I’d better report to the high school near my new home.”

Qu Zhengyan was influenced by his parents and he was also a very low-key person. He never spoke too much to outsiders. Thus, when Du Yongjin heard offhandedly from his father that Mr Qu had completed the resignation procedures and that the Qu family was about to move out of the school’s residence dormitory, it was only a few days until their family’s moving day.

Although the adults around this incident have long known about it, the children were still in another circle after all.

Because there were still high school entrance exams to deal with, Mrs Qu had an agreement with the parents of the little fatty boy downstairs to let Qu Zhengyan stay in their house for two weeks before moving over after the exams. The relationship between the two families has always been good and Little Fatty’s parents happily accepted it.

That day after school ended, Qu Zhengyan and Little Fatty naturally walked back together. Not far from the school gate, they were stopped. Little Fatty looked at the expressionless beautiful young man in front of him and then, at the handsome young man who was silent beside him. His face was so bitter as if he had eaten a pound of Huang Lian 2 E/N: a bitter herb suitable for cooling down the internal fire of the body. . The expression in his eyes to Qu Zhengyan was, “You can’t ignore it!”

Everyone knew that classmate Qu was a good friend of classmate Du – a good servant, and a powerful plaster 3 Like a very good medication to stick and cool Xiao Jin’s anger … They also knew that Little Fatty was classmate Du’s thousand-year venting bucket…

But today, Du Yongjin’s goal was not the little fatty boy. He stared straight at Qu Zhengyan.

Qu Zhengyan said to Little Fatty, “You go back first, I’ll catch up later.”

Seeing that he did not need to do anything, the boy was overjoyed. He moved his legs, hesitated a little and looked back at Qu Zhengyan.

“It’s okay. You go first.”

Little Fatty thus left.

Du Yongjin’s tense face eased a little, then he turned and walked away by himself. Qu Zhengyan followed behind automatically. Coincidentally, the direction they were heading to was the small square where Qu Zhengyan had a meeting with Wang Bailu previously, under the same sculpture and at the same location. The two stood on each side, looking in different directions and were silent for a long time.

Qu Zhengyan wanted to ask several times, “Why are you looking for me?” But he was not sure what kind of tone and expression he should use so he hesitated, practising different combinations in his mind over and over again, trying to find the best solution.

At this moment, he heard Du Yongjin say with difficulty, “I’m sorry.”

In a faint voice as soft as a mosquito.

Qu Zhengyan raised his head. He did not react for a while. It took him a moment to realize that Xiao Jin was actually…he said sorry…that is to say…he was admitting his mistake! Having never encountered such a situation before, Qu Zhengyan was stunned for a while and not knowing how to respond.

Du Yongjin lowered his head, not looking at Qu Zhengyan, face filled with forbearance. It was really too painful for him to spit out such weakness from his mouth.

Qu Zhengyan finally mumbled, “It’s nothing.” He never thought that he would be saying a word of forgiveness at all. The person Xiao Jin who should say sorry for was actually Wang Bailu. But to get Xiao Jin to go and apologize to Wang Bailu… Look at his face, you know that you don’t need to think about it. For him to bow his head for Qu Zhengyan was already commendable. Besides, Qu Zhengyan thought he had already told Wang Bailu that he was sorry. She could treat it as if Xiao Jin had said it.

But was it for appeasement? It’s just that Qu Zhengyan didn’t realize it at the time, didn’t even think about why Xiao Jin would apologize to him. He only believed that this was because Xiao Jin had realized his mistake. He was gratified that his persistence had produced results and even more happy that he could finally reconcile with Xiao Jin.

1

E/N: one of the few top scorers in the whole city 2

E/N: a bitter herb suitable for cooling down the internal fire of the body. 3

Like a very good medication to stick and cool Xiao Jin’s anger