Hello, Old Times Chapter 32

Chapter 32: The Snow Has Nearly Melted

Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t know what the gazes and strange silence meant. Before she had realized, she had already blurted out the words that made everyone’s expressions turn complicated.

Yu Zhou Zhou remembered her little cousin who had anxiously held that pair of scissors in her arms. Even if her relationship with Yu Ting Ting was average and had turned even more tense due to the incident last time when Yu Ting Ting had looked down on her little crush, in the moment, she still felt deep injustice for Yu Ting Ting.

Yu Zhou Zhou’s empathy always came from her deep imagination and considering others in her own place.

What if in this moment, it was Minami Asakura* who was holding up the gift she had given to Kazuya?

*[Character from the anime, Touch – she was thought to be in love with Kazuya, one of the main characters.]

She immediately boiled with rage.

Yu Zhou Zhou walked out from the bathroom and stood in front of the group.

The snow covered world was exceptionally quiet. Even the noise of the children playing and having snowball fights seemed to be separated outside by a glass cover. Later, when Yu Zhou Zhou was in second year of middle school, she found out from a physics workbook that snow had an absorption effect. During that moment, she stared at the tip of her ballpoint pen and that snowy day from fifth grade suddenly reappeared in front of her.

One of the girls shattered the silence in a timid voice, “Could it be…this gift…is yours?”

Yu Zhou Zhou originally had thought of a lot of responses in her mind but this question completely put her into confusion.

Mine?

What made her even more confused was that Lin Yang who had been watching as a bystander suddenly grabbed the gift from Ling Xiang Qian with a look of delight. In front of everyone’s surprised gazes, he tidied the ribbons on the wrapped gift. Then, with a pretentious expression, he calmly said, “Go back and play from wherever you came from. Don’t be so gossipy okay?”

These words weren’t at all like Lin Yang’s style of treating girls. He never called the girls gossipy, talkative or annoying like the other boys did. Although cold, he had always been polite, even if it was on the surface.

Hence, as soon as his words dropped, the girls around them were stunned. The expression on their faces were of astonishment and embarrassment. A few of them had already obediently left. A few of Ling Xiang Qian’s followers also hesitantly pulled her sleeves, “Qian Qian, …let’s go.”

Ling Xiang Qian didn’t move. Her breath turned heavier, and her chest puffed up and down, whether from being wronged, angry or something else was unclear. She didn’t look at Lin Yang, rather, she stared right at Yu Zhou Zhou, fiercely.

Ling Xiang Qian was very pretty, with a small face that was always blushing and a pair of phoenix eyes. After Yu Zhou Zhou entered middle school, she had come across the term, “peach blossom face”. The first person that had come to mind was Ling Xiang Qian.

She recognized this girl and she believed that the girl also recognized her. Ling Xiang Qian and Yu Zhou Zhou were both committee members from the young pioneer’s. Normally, where it be during meetings or committee activities, they would often see each other.

However, they had actually never talked before.

Yu Zhou Zhou and Lin Yang’s avoidance and aloofness to each other was deliberate but there wasn’t a reason for the inexplicable aura between Yu Zhou Zhou and Ling Xiang Qian.

Perhaps it was because she was good friends with Lin Yang so… like Jiang Chuan, she wanted to distance herself from me. Yu Zhou Zhou thought. When she remembered the  reason behind all this, although there was a momentary tinge of pain, she was still able to calmly accept it and Ling Xiang Qian’s haughty and inquisitive gaze that fell on her from time to time during meetings.

She didn’t know that she actually only guessed half of it.

Yu Zhou Zhou seemed to have long forgotten who had stuffed that calendar page* into her hands. She also forgot who led the group of concubines, court ladies and eunuchs to chase her and the emperor under the glow of the setting sun.

*[From the time Yu Zhou Zhou was left at kindergarten for a day]

Actually, there wasn’t any need to bear a grudge for too long over childhood games but clearly, Ling Xiang Qian hadn’t matured to an age where she could let go of these.

Yu Zhou Zhou never thought that the court coup from kindergarten could really change the fate of everyone.

“This isn’t yours.” Ling Xiang Qian’s voice held some viciousness.

That negative feeling Yu Zhou Zhou had just intuitively felt was climbing behind Yu Zhou Zhou’s back again. Ling Xiang Qian who led a group of people over, with the gift held high, had actually long known who the gift belonged to.

Yu Zhou Zhou turned silent.

This type of silence was an innate talent that had been polished little by little to become smooth and sharp. Whenever she experienced difficulties, she would always stay silent.

Staying silent was to give the opponent who was burning with impatience both the right to choose and the dilemma. It was being irresponsible and avoiding getting hurt.

To Lin Yang, I definitely wouldn’t say the gift is mine. To you, I definitely wouldn’t say the gift was Yu Ting Ting’s.

How would they take the silence – would they see it as guilt, tacit acceptance, shyness or impatience?

The choice was in your hands. Yu Zhou Zhou tilted her head and lightly smiled, evasively.

Shan Jie Jie had once said without thought, “Zhou Zhou, you’re a bit like my brother.”

Chen An?

Yu Zhou Zhou and Shan Jie Jie never talked about Chen An. After all, he was much older than them. He was already in second year of high school and was in a completely different world to them.

Yu Zhou Zhou smiled evasively, making Shan Jie Jie immediately jump up and point at her smile, “Look, look, it’s just like this! You’re too similar to him, he always puts on this act…”

Act? Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but inside, there was a peculiar feeling, that Shan Jie Jie had said she was similar to Chen An.

At this time, Lin Yang was frowning and waving his hand fiercely at Ling Xiang Qian, “Hurry up and go play, the snow is going to melt soon.”

The snow is going to melt… this type of excuse was the biggest insult to Ling Xiang Qian. She swallowed her saliva and adjusted her expression, trying her best to not show any resentment for the girls around to catch on to. She smiled happily and said to the girl beside her with a gossipy expression, “Let’s disperse, let’s disperse. The young couple is getting impatient, we’re being a big third wheel here!”

The girls started giggling and dispersed, whispering and turning back as they walked away.

Yu Zhou Zhou reacted calmly to the term “young couple” but it was Lin Yang, whose facial expression turned darker and darker at the girls’ dispersing backs, “What nonsense are you saying? Who is a young couple with who!?”

“You and Yu Zhou Zhou, what, are you blushing?” One of the girls shouted back laughing. She hadn’t even finished her words before being hurriedly dragged away by Ling Xiang Qian.

Finally, the surroundings turned quiet.

Lin Yang had already taken off his gloves in fear that the snow on it would make the wrapping paper wet and was hugging the box in his arms. His face was truly red and his eyes darted around. He cleared his throat several times but still wasn’t able to get past the first word.

“You…”

“The gift isn’t from me.”

Yu Zhou Zhou who had not said a word since walking out of the toilet, finally spoke.

There weren’t any fluctuations in her clear voice.

Lin Yang’s shoulders which were raised out of nervousness suddenly sank, “What?”

“The gift isn’t from me,” she repeated.

“Then what were you doing just now…” There was a trace of irritation in Lin Yang’s voice. Yu Zhou Zhou looked at him in surprise, wondering if he had taken the wrong medicine.

Perhaps, she indistinctly knew. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have mislead Lin Yang to think that gift was hers.

Perhaps she was certain that Lin Yang who originally had an indifferent attitude towards the gift would favour her because of the misunderstanding.

Subconsciously, she was so certain. So naturally certain but she never thought about the reason behind it.

Yu Zhou Zhou was suddenly frightened by her thoughts. She hurriedly suppressed that train of thought that surfaced in her mind and pretended not to have seen the truth.

“What did I do?” She avoided his gaze.

“Why did you say…” Lin Yang froze, right, Yu Zhou Zhou had never said that the gift was from her.

“I’m just the same as you, I don’t think they should randomly touch other people’s things.”

Yu Zhou Zhou had an innocent smile on her face.

Lin Yang suddenly felt extremely angry for no reason. The little box had nearly become deformed under his grip. Yu Zhou Zhou started at the box and lightly said, “Be gentler, the box is going to break.”

“Nothing to do with you!” Lin Yang gritted his teeth and said in a low voice but he still lightened his pressure.

The two stayed silent for a while. Lin Yang suddenly forced out a smile and then lowered his head and quickly opened the wrapping paper. Under Yu Zhou Zhou’s surprised gaze, he pulled out a purple apple from within the white Styrofoam.

The purple glass apple gleamed faintly against the background of the white snow and was very pretty.

What a pretty apple. Yu Zhou Zhou wanted to praise the gift but decided to still keep her mouth shut in the end. She instinctively felt that if she said anything, Lin Yang would immediate throw the apple outside.

A little card dropped from within the box. Yu Zhou Zhou bent down, picked it up and handed it ot Lin Yang. She didn’t want to peek at it but the card wasn’t folded so she saw what was written with just a glance.

There were just two lines.

“Happy Birthday

In my heart, you’ve always been the best leader.”

There was no name.

Yu Zhou Zhou suddenly felt her heart turn soft. Just like this, she had touched her little cousin’s delicate thoughts.

Lin Yang on the other hand, was surprised for a long time, “Who is this person?”

Yu Zhou Zhou smiled, “She doesn’t want you to know so you don’t have to know, isn’t that good.”

Isn’t that great.

Lin Yang’s mouth twitched, “…My birthday is in March…”

Yu Zhou Zhou was stunned, who knew that Yu Ting Ting’s intelligence report would be so unreliable?

She stammered for a bit, “This…you…you can think of it as your lunar birthday*…”

*[Based on the lunar calendar]

“My birthday is in the Spring! Is your actual and lunar birthday separated by half a year!?”

Yu Zhou Zhou laughed. Her eyes had curved into two moon crescents, just like the first time they had met in kindergarten. She used the same line Lin Yang had just used to coax Ling Xiang Qian away, “Doesn’t matter, the snow is going to melt soon.”

The anger in the air dispersed. Lin Yang lowered his head and gently looked at the card in his hands smiling. Yu Zhou Zhou raised her head and looked up at the sky which had already turned grey but no longer seemed gloomy and finally dared to speak.

“What a pretty apple,” She said with a smile.

Then, she noticed Lin Yang’s mom and dad who were quietly looking them from the back gate.

Looking at them and the apple and gift box in their hands.

Lin Yang immediately panicked.

“Long time no see, Zhou Zhou…you’re already so big,” Lin Yang’s mum said, smiling.

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