Zhuang Nuo’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You trick money out of your sister?”
She said nothing, but her expression had already given her away.
Su Li laughed. “I didn’t trick her. She gave it to me herself.”
Zhuang Nuo glanced at the research institute. She wanted to persuade him otherwise, but didn’t know how.
Su Li swung one long leg over the bicycle. “Get on. There’s one more place we have to go.”
He rode very slowly. “Isn’t my sister amazing?” Su Li asked Zhuang Nuo. “She’s the youngest aircraft design engineer in the entire research institute.”
Zhuang Nuo lightly tapped her fingertips against his back.
Su Li laughed. “She’s not only smart and beautiful, she can also play the violin, drive, swim, and ski. Basically, there’s hardly anything she can’t do.”
The corners of Zhuang Nuo’s lips lifted unconsciously. She could tell that Su Li and his sister had a very close relationship.
Su Li suddenly asked, “Can you guess whether she has any close friends?”
Zhuang Nuo’s first thought was that someone as outstanding as her must have lots of friends.
But remembering her own experiences, she hesitated.
Being excellent didn’t necessarily attract friends. It could also invite hostility.
“This question is really that hard?” Su Li said. “Of course she has friends. And her friends are just as impressive as she is. They work at the research institute too, just in a different department.”
Zhuang Nuo let out a breath, surprisingly relieved.
Su Li began showing off his knowledge. “Mr. Lu Xun once said, ‘Beasts of prey always walk alone, while cattle and sheep gather in herds.’ Someone like my sister is a beast of prey, so she’s destined not to have many friends.”
Zhuang Nuo grew wary. She had a feeling he was about to turn the subject toward her.
Sure enough, the next second, Su Li called out loudly, “Take you, for example. You don’t have a single friend. That must mean you’re too fierce. Maybe you’re the reincarnation of some ancient ferocious beast! Hahahaha!”
Zhuang Nuo angrily pounded him once on the back.
Su Li laughed uproariously. Then he added, “But it doesn’t matter. I’ll be your friend. I’m pretty fierce too!”
At that moment, Su Li didn’t see Zhuang Nuo biting her lip behind him, clutching his clothes, and silently shedding a single tear.
Su Li took her to Yan Yuan’s company to deliver lunch, then “scrounged” another hundred yuan in pocket money from his brother-in-law.
He was quite pleased with himself. Holding up the two red banknotes, he waved them proudly in front of Zhuang Nuo. “If my brother and sister-in-law were in the capital right now, I could’ve gotten four hundred yuan today.”
He seemed a little “bad,” Zhuang Nuo thought.
But there was no way to dislike him.
Zhuang Nuo was a well-behaved girl, the darling daughter of her parents and the apple of her grandparents’ eyes.
But she hadn’t been spoiled, nor did she have the temper of a pampered young lady. Instead, she had been raised to be considerate and thoughtful.
Many people praised her for being obedient and sensible.
But the other side of being obedient and sensible was the high standards she held herself to, her strict self-control, and her lack of freedom.
Over the years, Zhuang Nuo had heard bits and pieces about Su Li from the adults around her.
For example, how he had suddenly started applying himself and improved his grades, or how he had entered various competitions and won awards.
Zhuang Nuo had assumed he was a good boy too.
But the moment she saw him, she knew that wasn’t quite the case.
It wasn’t that Su Li was a bad person. He was simply too free.
It was as though nothing that happened could truly trouble him.
Su Li took her out for roast duck and deliberately ordered the most expensive kind: premium specialty duck, thirty-five yuan each, plus a ten percent service charge.
As he ate the so-called premium specialty duck, Su Li turned toward Zhuang Nuo and complained, “Why do I feel like it tastes exactly the same? What are we paying extra for?”
Zhuang Nuo glanced at the chef who was still slicing the duck. “Keep your voice down.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll just swallow the loss,” Su Li said resignedly.
“Thank you,” Zhuang Nuo said.
Zhuang Nuo had a pair of bright, beautiful eyes. Her pupils were deep and clear, and whenever she focused on someone, it seemed as though she was relying on them with all her heart.
Su Li’s heart skipped a beat. He wrapped a piece of duck in a thin pancake and stuffed it into her mouth. “Just eat.”
When they left the roast duck restaurant, Su Li looked at the money they had left. “What should we do? We haven’t spent it all. Is there anything you want?”
Zhuang Nuo shook her head.
She didn’t lack anything.
Su Li folded up the remaining money and stuffed it into her pocket.
Zhuang Nuo realized what he had done and looked at him in confusion with her wide eyes.
“I’m leaving it with you. Buy yourself some candy,” Su Li said, raising his brows. “No need to thank me.”
Zhuang Nuo often had nightmares, watching her past experiences from the perspective of an outsider.
She would dream of being in the classroom with her clothes torn open, sitting helplessly on the floor.
The other students would form a circle around her, looking down at her from their lofty positions.
They would pour dirty mop water over her head, then toy with her like cats playing with a mouse, watching her in her miserable state.
She wouldn’t cry or beg for mercy. But that reaction only infuriated them further, and they would become even more vicious.
Zhuang Nuo would wonder: Why?
Why did they bully her?
Oh, was it because the teacher had spoken to her a few more times that day and praised her a few times? Because she had smiled in class?
Or was it because she had nearly fallen while cleaning the windows, and her scream had startled her classmates?
Zhuang Nuo had once reported them to the teacher. They apologized, only to become even more excessive afterward, even acting as though they were the righteous ones.
Because no one liked a “tattletale.”
Oh. It was because she was a tattletale.
But Zhuang Nuo didn’t have a nightmare that night. Her mind was occupied almost entirely by Su Li, leaving no room for her sadness.
She struggled out from under the covers, her young and beautiful face flushed crimson.
Su Li had given her the more than one hundred yuan left over from their roast duck meal.
Zhuang Nuo pressed the money beneath her pillow and slept through the night without a single dream.
It was now the summer after Su Li’s college entrance exams. He didn’t have to attend classes or do homework, and he had plenty of free time.
In fact, he had already made plans for his summer vacation beforehand.
Even with Zhuang Nuo’s situation, he had no intention of changing those plans. He simply had one more person accompanying him now.
Su Li took her to climb the Great Wall, to the amusement park to ride the Ferris wheel and roller coasters, to the reservoir to go fishing, and to the bathhouse to soak.
He even took Zhuang Nuo to a nightclub in Jin’yu Hutong to dance one night.
Zhuang Nuo had never spent such a full and eventful summer vacation.
As long as their daughter was happy, Meng Lan and Zhuang Yi were satisfied, and they allowed Zhuang Nuo to go wherever she wanted with Su Li.
Yan Yuan sent cars to pick them up and drop them off. Yan Yuan paid for most of the tickets and other expenses.
Su Li accepted the money, then turned around and handed it all to Zhuang Nuo, asking her to save it for him.
“Zhuang Nuo, school’s starting soon. Do you want to go back?” Su Li asked.
