Hello, Old Times Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Big Liar

The shovel hit the back of the snowman’s head fiercely. When the snowman crumbled apart and fell on the ground, everyone burst into cheers and laughter. Xu Di wiped his nose and smiled happily. He then pretended to be a gentleman and bowed to everyone with his left hand on his stomach, causing everyone to burst into laughter and curses.

Yu Zhou Zhou felt Zhan Yan Fei trembling through her thick globes. It seemed like what was crushed wasn’t the snowman but her.

When the group dispersed, Shan Jie JIe looked at Yu Zhou Zhou, not knowing what to say. Yu Zhou Zhou smiled at her, “Go and play with them first.”

Hence, Shan Jie Jie ran off while still turning back every few steps. Yu Zhou Zhou took Zhan Yan Fei over to climb on the horizontal bar but no matter what, Zhan Yan Fei couldn’t climb up.

“How do you sit up there?” Zhan Yan Fei gave up trying and helplessly looked at Yu Zhou Zhou who was dangling her legs high above.

“Is it really hard to climb up?” Yu Zhou Zhou widened her eyes.

Zhan Yan Fei lowered her head, “Maybe I’m too fat.”

Yu Zhou Zhou froze for a moment, feeling upset. She knew that a lot of people were laughing at Yan Zhan Fei – she had started growing pimples, she grew fat, the television station didn’t want her…

“I wore a lot too,” Yu Zhou Zhou patted her heavy coat and chubby tummy, “Actually, you just haven’t mastered the technique. This time, I’ll support you from below!”

“No need,” Zhan Yan Fei shook her head then curiously looked at Yu Zhou Zhou, “How are you able to climb up the horizontal bar like Xiao Long Nu*.”
*[Xiao Long Nu is the female protagonist of The Return of the Condor Heroes]

“Who is Xiao Long Nu? Does she like to climb up bars too?” Yu Zhou Zhou jumped down from the horizontal bar like a bear.

“Xiao Long Nu sleeps on a rope. When I was younger, I would always cry while filming the program at the provincial television station. There was a director sister who told me the story of Xiao Long Nu, she said that she was the prettiest woman in the world. Right, it was made into a television show, haven’t you seen it before? It’s called ‘Return of the Condor Heroes’. Oh yeah, Xiao Long Nu also knows Guo Jing and Huang Rong but she is much younger than them, plus she likes Yang Kang’s son.”

“Yang Kang’s son? But Yang Kang is a bad person,” Yu Zhou Zhou was astonished.

Although, she did really liked the good looking actor who played the young prince, Yang Kang in 1983 version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Zhan Yan Fei shrugged, “The bad person’s son might not necessarily be a bad person.”

Yu Zhou Zhou was stupefied, she suddenly thought of herself and of how when others cursed at her mum for being a vixen, they also said that she’ll also be one when she grew up. When she was little, she was very angry and thought it was very unfair but in fact, a lot of the times, her thoughts were the same as these people and she would subconsciously make some arbitrary and stubborn yet hurtful deductions.

“Then, is his son a good person?” She probed.

“Yang Kang’s son is a hero. He is extremely handsome, his martial art skills are very strong and he is a man of justice. Plus, he also raised an eagle.” Zhan Yan Fei said with certainty.

Yu Zhou Zhou didn’t know what was so impressive about raising an eagle but a hero raising an eagle must have his own reasons. Even if a hero held a chicken in each hand, they would still look impressive.

However, it is very embarrassing if a female heroine is unable to do Maths Olympiad.

This diabolic society with gender inequality.

Yu Zhou Zhou and Zhan Yan Fei both fell into silence as the sky began to snow again. Yu Zhou Zhou reached out a hand wanting to try and pick up a piece of snowflake when she suddenly heard Zhan Yan Fei quietly say, “Thank you.”

The female heroine Yu Zhou Zhou who roared at the sight of injustice blushed.

“It’s…It’s nothing,” She shook her head, “They were too much.”

Zhan Yan Fei smiled.

“Actually, that footprint was done by me.”

……

Yu Zhou Zhou solidified for a few seconds before turning her head with difficulty to look at the smiling Little Sparrow.

“You…want to… get me killed…right?”

“I don’t know why either, I just wanted to step on it.” Zhan Yan Fei bowed her head but her lips were still curved in a smile. Yu Zhou Zhou felt that this type of Zhan Yan Fei was somewhat scary.

“When I was going to school this morning, my mum scolded me. Recently, she keeps scolding me and also calls the people at the broadcasting station snobbish and ungrateful. This morning when I was washing my hair, I didn’t hear her tell me to keep the hot water. Once I was done, I poured the water all down the toilet so she became angry and even slapped me.”

Yu Zhou Zhou covered her mouth in shock. Zhan Yan Fei patted her face to comfort her, “Don’t worry, I dodged so it didn’t hurt at all. See, there’s no handprint otherwise I definitely wouldn’t have dared to come to school today.”

“Plus,” She continued, “Someone mentioned that interview about me that was published in the Young Pioneers journal two years ago. Indeed, I didn’t do well in the exam but the content those reporters wrote were all made up by themselves. Those uncles and aunties already have a pattern set for interviewing little child stars like us, they don’t need to interview us at all to be able to write out the interview. They said that I didn’t go to class for a semester but was still able to get a double one hundred in the end of semester exams. Actually, it was all made up and not what I said. At the time, everyone said that they admired me but now, Xu Yan Yan and the others raised this article again and said that I was bragging, that my maths results were so low but I still dared to say that I got double hundreds…”

Yu Zhou Zhou never knew what to say in this kind of situation. She still remembered when she was younger, how Ben Ben would tell her that he had been hit tragically by his dad. She would always mention a situation about herself that was even worse to make him feel that he wasn’t alone nor the most unlucky and tragic one.

However, what should she say to Zhan Yan Fei? Zhan Yan Fei wasn’t Ben Ben. Even if she was, the Yu Zhou Zhou now couldn’t guarantee that she could tell the fact that she didn’t have a dad with ease like when she was younger.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Zhan Yan Fei.

It was just that Ben Ben and her carefree younger self were all things in the past.

“My mum hits me too,” Yu Zhou Zhou started talking nonsense, “Plus it really hurts. When I don’t practice, she would hit me. Plus, my Maths Olympiad results are really bad. I might not be able to get into the Normal University Affiliated Middle School. If I don’t get in, perhaps I’ll go to a really bad middle school and become really dumb and be unable to keep up with the progress then not be able to get into high school… do you understand?”

After she finished talking, she was also taken aback. At first, she was lying but as she talked, the truth slipped out.

Back when she comforted Ben Ben, she would need to rack her brains to find sad stories to make up the numbers so “not having a dad” and “mum being despised by others” would often be taken out. However, after so many years, Yu Zhou Zhou was shocked to see that she already had so much that can be used to comfort the sadness of others.

So much.

She could randomly pick one and talk for a long, long time.

However, the first two things were still the most wounding. She didn’t understand before but now, these two matters made her the most afraid so she deeply buried them and didn’t mention them again.

She didn’t expect that Zhan Yan Fei would smile at her and say, “Me too,”

“What?”

“When I was younger, I was specially recruited to the Normal University Affiliated Elementary School. My household registration isn’t in this area so when I move to middle school, I’ll have to go back to the west of the city, plus,” Zhan Yan Fei continued to smile, “I guess that the Normal University Affiliated Middle School wouldn’t want to specially recruit me this time.”

Yu Zhou Zhou tightly clenched the iron pipe of the horizontal bar but didn’t know how to reply to ‘similarly afflicted people pitying each other’.

“I remember that the adults in the broadcasting station used to always praise me, saying that I was smart and beautiful and that I’ll become a big star in the future.”

“They are all big liars.”

Zhan Yan Fei smiled as she talked. Yu Zhou Zhou suddenly snapped her head up.

“Adults are all big liars.”

Little Sparrow leaned on the horizontal bar with her head bowed. She was still smiling.

Yu Zhou Zhou took off her gloves and poked the dimple on her left cheek. “It’s better if you stop smiling,” Yu Zhou Zhou sighed.

The heavy snow was filled with unresolved sadness.

The class bell rang, Yu Zhou Zhou and Zhan Yan Fei were still leaning on the horizontal bar in a daze. Lin Yang ran past them, turning his head incessantly. Finally, he still walked over awkwardly.

“It’s class time, your classmates have all gone back to class.”

Yu Zhou Zhou looked at Lin Yang, “Go back to class.”

“Then why aren’t you guys leaving?”

Yu Zhou Zhou raised her head to look at the sky then cast her gaze at Zhan Yan Fei and suddenly curved the corner of her lips in a mischievous smile.

“Hey, let’s skip class.”

Zhan Yan Fei’s face was filled of horror, “How can we?”

“Why can’t we?” Yu Zhou Zhou flipped her body and sat steadily on the horizontal bar and said with a commanding tone from up high, “If the teacher asks, we’ll say that we were called over by the Brigade Leader. If the Brigade Leader says that she didn’t look for us, we’ll say that someone told us this. If she asks who exactly that ‘someone’ is, we’ll just say that we don’t know them, it might’ve been a prank. But in conclusion, it’s not our fault!”

Lin Yang opened his mouth in amazement, “Yu Zhou Zhou, you can really lie.”

A type of unscrupulous arrogance started spreading from the bottom of Yu Zhou Zhou’s heart.

Since it was like this then what was the point of being agreeable and pleasing to the eye?

There was no way to please this world anyway.

She smiled and pointed at Lin Yang.

“Right now, we have to kill the witness.”