The night before, Jiang Mu felt quite embarrassed about the whole thing. At her age, she was still holding onto a childhood promise, keeping that pen and eagerly waiting for Jin Chao to come find her. It was one thing to keep this little secret to herself, but having the person in question discover it was simply mortifying.
Fortunately, after a night’s sleep, that feeling had mostly faded. Last night’s awkwardness was pushed to the back of Jiang Mu’s mind, replaced by a single thought: exhaustion.
Though tired, when the alarm rang for the second time, she struggled to crawl out of bed. After finishing her morning routine, she noticed that Jin Chao had tidied up all the practice papers and stationery scattered across the table from last night. She figured Jin Chao must have felt somewhat guilty, and well, she had to admit that improved her mood a tiny bit.
Seeing Jin Chao’s busy figure in the repair shop, she took the initiative to greet him: “Morning! Do you always get up this early?”
Jin Chao looked up at her, noting she was acting as if nothing had happened, and replied, “I’m not a baozi vendor, you know.”
Since starting his own business, Jin Chao’s schedule has become quite flexible. There were no meetings to attend, no employees to manage, and he could open at ten without anyone caring. He didn’t need to manage others, and nobody managed him. But since Jiang Mu arrived, he suddenly felt like he was back to having a regular job schedule.
What should have been a peaceful and harmonious morning took an unexpected turn when Jiang Mu, before leaving, reached into the plastic bag on the bedside table to grab another sanitary pad. Suddenly, a small square box slipped out and fell to the ground.
For several seconds, Jiang Mu froze. She stared at the small box, then crouched down and picked it up with two fingers in shock. She quickly tossed the box of condoms back into the bedside drawer and slammed it shut her heart racing. She couldn’t understand why Jin Chao would give her a box of condoms.
Though the situation was incredibly strange and she had no clue what was going on, she couldn’t bring herself to ask Jin Chao about it. This incident left her feeling awkward all morning.
When she left the repair shop with her backpack, she cast a furtive glance at Jin Chao, who was smoking by the garage entrance, before hurrying across the street. San Lai, seeing her rush, called out: “Leaving early today? Want some noodles?”
Jiang Mu waved her hand vigorously and headed straight to the bus stop without looking back. Unfortunately, the No. 6 bus was hard to catch, and she ended up waiting for quite a while. Across the street, Jin Chao watched her casually while smoking, making Jiang Mu extremely uncomfortable. Her eyes darted around as she slowly inched behind the bus stop sign. The sign was just a thin pole that couldn’t hide her, and she couldn’t help but feel Jin Chao’s gaze on her through her peripheral vision, causing her to turn her back completely.
While most people waiting for the bus would face the direction the bus would come from, she stood with her back to the road. Her awkward behavior puzzled Jin Chao, who, seeing it was getting late, put out his cigarette and was about to ask if she could still make it on time.
Before he could take a step, the No. 6 bus came roaring from the distance. When Jiang Mu turned and saw Jin Chao about to approach, she rushed onto the bus before it had even fully stopped, as if being chased by a ghost.
Only after the bus disappeared at the end of the street did Jin Chao look away, muttering, “Girls that age are truly mysterious creatures.”
Just yesterday morning she had insisted on him giving her a ride, and this morning she was suddenly avoiding him.
San Lai turned to look at Jin Chao, finding it curious. His friend’s mind was usually occupied with many things, but none of them had ever involved women. Even during their hormone-driven teenage years, he had never shown much interest in girls. Yet here he was, contemplating the nature of women.
San Lai smiled teasingly and asked, “What did you do to her?”
Jin Chao let out a cold laugh and turned his head: “What could I possibly do to her?”
San Lai wore a mysterious expression and leaned in closer: “Don’t try to guess what’s going on in a girl’s mind. It’s always the same story – first love, secret crushes, unspoken feelings. Don’t you know what you look like? How many girls your age wanted to date you back in school? I just don’t get it. You with your attitude of not caring about women, not being gentle or romantic – how did so many girls fall for you? The more I think about it, the more unfair it seems. Back then, I was graceful, humorous, and stylish – how was I not as popular as you? I’m telling you, those girls must have been blind. From any angle, three-dimensional perspective, I was a candidate for school heartthrob…”
Then San Lai continued rambling about being the school heartthrob for another five minutes. He had been harping on about this to Jin Chao for eight years, and it was a mystery how he could remain so fixated on this title.
Jin Chao cut him off, annoyed: “I’m heading home for a bit, then going to Quan County. Might not be back tonight. If you’re free, pick up Mu Mu from school, Mr. Heartthrob.”
San Lai’s expression suddenly turned serious: “You’ve decided?”
“Yeah.” San Lai knew there was no point trying to persuade him otherwise.
After a while, he asked Jin Chao, who was busy working: “If, and I’m just saying if, little Miss Jiang Mu developed feelings for you, would you reject her as coldly as you did the others?”
Jin Chao first paused, then slowly raised his eyes to look at San Lai before cursing: “Get lost.”
Throughout the journey, Jiang Mu’s mind was in turmoil. She had been puzzling over why Jin Chao would give her a box of condoms, but by the time she reached school, she finally figured it out. She concluded that they must have been his own, accidentally placed in the plastic bag meant for her. Now the question was: should she return them to him?
While it was normal for someone Jin Chao’s age to have an intimate life, the thought of him being with another woman made Jiang Mu feel oddly unsettled. Who was this woman? Was it Little Green Snake? From San Lai’s reaction yesterday, it didn’t seem so. Could there be someone else?
Who could this other person be? Though Jiang Mu didn’t know, just the thought of such a person existing left her feeling disoriented.
That night after leaving the hospital, she had felt quite desperate. Her mood had improved slightly these past couple of days because at least she had a temporary shelter at Jin Chao’s place, preventing her from feeling completely alone in this unfamiliar city.
But if Jin Chao had a woman in his life, her presence would become extremely awkward. It would be inappropriate to keep disturbing his life – even a real sister would be unsuitable, let alone her position as a pseudo-sister who hadn’t been in contact for years.
So before the school mock exam, while everyone else was busy with last-minute preparation, she suddenly appeared in Teacher Ma’s office asking about transfer procedures.
Teacher Ma was quite surprised and explained that a parent would need to bring the household registration book to submit an application, which the school would then review before reporting to the education department for approval. Parents would need to contact the receiving school’s education bureau to handle procedures according to local policies, which would also require waiting for verification from the prospective school and local education bureau.
Teacher Ma, knowing something about Jin Qiang’s family situation, asked with concern if Jiang Mu wasn’t getting along well with her father’s family and if he should talk to Jin Qiang. Jiang Mu firmly declined and told Teacher Ma to forget she had ever come.
Leaving Teacher Ma’s office, Jiang Mu felt dejected. Transferring back to Suzhou would be impossible without going through Jin Qiang and Jiang Yinghan. But involving them would create a host of problems, and the approval process could take who knows how long. At this point, it seemed meaningless to go through all that trouble – she might as well just endure until the college entrance exam.
When she entered the exam room with her stationery, Pan Kai excitedly waved at her, but Jiang Mu was too preoccupied to notice.
Pan Kai hadn’t expected to be assigned to the same exam room as Jiang Mu. Although they were separated by several seats, he still wanted to try helping her, but throughout the entire exam, Jiang Mu never once raised her head, giving Pan Kai no chance to play the hero.
As soon as the exam finished, Pan Kai rushed to Jiang Mu’s side and whispered excitedly: “Was that guy yesterday really Head Seven? How do you know him? He’s quite handsome, though his gaze is too sharp – I couldn’t even look at him…”
As Pan Kai continued chattering about Jin Chao, Jiang Mu rubbed her temples and called out: “Pan Kai.”
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
“Right away.”
That evening after school, San Lai waited in his white Honda at the school gate. Unlike Jin Chao’s low-key style, San Lai was exceptionally flashy upon returning to his alma mater. With his little ponytail, printed jacket, and large sunglasses perched on his head even at nine at night, he looked like he was headed to a party rather than picking someone up. He chatted familiarly with the security guard about the school’s recent teaching reforms and future development plans.
His conspicuous presence made Jiang Mu almost too embarrassed to get into his car under everyone’s watchful eyes. After buckling her seatbelt, she couldn’t help but ask, “Brother San Lai, were you popular at school back then?”
San Lai told her very proudly: “Back in my days at the affiliated high school, so many girls would come to watch me. With my flowing bangs, I was the Brad Pitt of Tonggang, the Tom Cruise of the affiliated school, the Leonardo DiCaprio of Class 7, Grade 1.”
“…” That’s a bit of an exaggeration.
He got more excited as he continued: “For all three years of high school, I was the most handsome member of the music club, just one position away from being the most handsome in the whole school.”
Jiang Mu asked, puzzled: “What do you mean by ‘one position’?”
San Lai recalled with annoyance: “What else could it mean? On the first day of freshman year, a guy showed up after me and stole all my thunder. He was taller than even the seniors, and he’d look down at people like the air was fresher up there – that kind of superior attitude. All these shallow female classmates spread the word, and everyone went to see him. That guy was your damned You Jiu.”
Although Jiang Mu wasn’t from their era, she could imagine the commotion. At her previous school, there was an underclassman who wasn’t even as handsome as Jin Chao, yet many girls would go crazy over him.
Speaking of which, San Lai remembered something and smiled: “Let me tell you something interesting. Back then, many boys hadn’t hit their growth spurt yet, but You Jiu was already over 180cm tall. During their class cleaning time, they always assigned him to clean the windows. While others needed to stand on chairs, he could reach the top of the windows just by stretching his arm. So he ended up being responsible for all the windows in their class. Sometimes even neighboring classes would come to borrow him. Every time he cleaned windows, many girls would stand in the corridor watching him. At first, I didn’t know what they were looking at, but later I found out they were waiting for You Jiu to stretch his arms so his school uniform would ride up and they could see his waist.”
Jiang Mu was confused: “What’s so interesting about a waist?”
“How would I know about you girls’ weird interests?”
Then San Lai mentioned casually: “By the way, You Jiu won’t be back tonight.”
Jiang Mu turned her head and asked: “Where did he go?”
San Lai answered vaguely: “Business trip out of town.”
“…” Since when did car repair require business trips?
Jiang Mu felt this excuse was a bit forced. After staying quiet for a while, she asked: “Does Jin Chao… have a woman?”
San Lai, who had been lazily holding the steering wheel, first paused upon hearing this, then burst into exaggerated laughter, leaving Jiang Mu bewildered.
When he finally stopped laughing, he curved his lips and glanced at Jiang Mu: “You Jiu hasn’t confirmed anything like that, so as his brother, I shouldn’t say too much.”
Jiang Mu remained silent and looked out the window, feeling that her guess was probably right – there was such a woman.
Then San Lai continued slowly: “Several years ago, I took You Jiu to an arcade to play some games. When we came out, there was a night market. I dragged him around to look, though he was quite impatient. In the end, I didn’t buy anything, but he found a keychain he liked. After paying for it, he always carried it with him. As for your question, well, the answer lies in that keychain. He used to have a motorcycle, and the keychain was attached to the motorcycle key. As far as I know, that keychain should now be on a spare key for the garage roller door. He doesn’t usually use it but often carries it with him in case he needs to give the main keys to Xiao Yang and the others. If you get a chance to find that key, you’ll have your answer.”
Jiang Mu furrowed her brows and looked at San Lai in confusion, but San Lai just smiled and wouldn’t say another word.