Chapter 14

Zhao Shiyu and Li Xueting were both such nuisances. The two of them kept bickering in the group chat, and Yu Min couldn’t take a joke at all. Even through the phone screen, her face burned with embarrassment; her ears turned bright red, and she was more worked up than the two little firecrackers on the other side of the screen.

There was nothing going on. They were just too annoying, making things up and dragging it out over and over.

Wen Yun came out to stop them, @-ing Zhao Shiyu: -Stop.

Zhao Shiyu immediately went quiet and didn’t dare act up anymore; she sent a cat salute sticker: -Yes, boss.

Li Xueting chimed in: -Wen Yun, you’re here.

Li Xueting: -I thought you hadn’t checked your phone. What do we do? Minmin is going to ditch us and not want us anymore.

Wen Yun was blunt: -You’re too noisy.

Li Xueting followed her lead and @-ed Zhao Shiyu: -Exactly, Shiyu, you’re too noisy.

Zhao Shiyu: -?

Zhao Shiyu: -That’s an unfair accusation!

Wen Yun: -You’re noisy.

Zhao Shiyu rolled around and protested her innocence, and soon her attention was no longer on Yu Min; she turned to pestering Wen Yun and causing trouble instead.

At sixteen or seventeen, having an early relationship wasn’t rare. Yizhong was strict about it; if they were caught, they’d get a disciplinary record. Yu Min was the kind of student who followed school rules and regulations to the letter. Dating... that would be way too outrageous. She didn’t even dare think about it.

Li Xueting messaged Yu Min privately. She had heard a little about the Yu family’s situation, and when she talked with Yu Min one-on-one, she was much more serious; she asked worriedly whether Yu Min was running into trouble and whether she needed help.

Yu Min hesitated for a long while, then explained everything honestly. Li Xueting knew Lin Baixin; Yu Min had mentioned her in passing a few times before. After that, Li Xueting understood and tried a roundabout kind of concern: -My family has an extra room. If you get bored, you can come find me and hang out. You still remember my address, right? If you can’t find it, I can come pick you up.

Yu Min replied: -Mm, okay. I remember.

Li Xueting was cheerful: -When I have time another day, I can go find you too.

Yu Min: -Okay.

The floor heating was warm and cozy. After she put down her phone, Yu Min flopped onto the bed and buried her face in the blanket. Lin Baixin passed by her bedroom door and glanced in. Seeing her looking like she was trying to smother herself unconscious, she couldn’t help stopping.

Not noticing anyone at the door, Yu Min didn’t move at all until Lin Baixin walked away again and footsteps sounded; then Yu Min suddenly sat up, clutching the blanket. Her face was still burning, and she couldn’t calm down.

The first-semester final exam results in Grade 10 came out quickly; by the first day of spring, everything was already released. However, for the moment, only class rankings could be checked; the school-wide rankings wouldn’t be announced until the term started.

For the second semester of Grade 10, classes would be reshuffled again based on the combined rankings from the first semester’s midterm and final exams, as well as the humanities/science track. Only students in the top thirty school-wide could stay in the small class. Yu Min wasn’t worried about that. She had stayed firmly in the top two in her class for both exams, so there was a hundred percent chance she’d remain in the small class.

The exam report card needed a parent’s signature. Yu Min asked Lin Baixin to sign for her; Lin Baixin cooperated and wrote Zheng Qing’s name.

“Are you having a parent-teacher meeting?” Lin Baixin asked carefully, covering every detail.

Yu Min said, “No. The teacher didn’t say anything.”

“We had to have one back then,” Lin Baixin said casually. “The signature also had to be done by a parent in person.”

Yu Min didn’t really know. Anyway, whether the school held a parent-teacher meeting or not, Zheng Qing and the others usually didn’t show up. In other families, even if the parents couldn’t make it, the grandparents would go. Her family didn’t care about these things. As Yu Shengyu put it, it was just a meaningless formality and a waste of time. The adults were already too busy with work; where would they have time for that?

“Take a look and see if it’ll pass.” After signing, Lin Baixin handed the report card back.

As long as the handwriting was different, it was fine. The teacher wouldn’t know what Zheng Qing’s handwriting looked like anyway.

Lin Baixin’s handwriting was very pretty; it had strength and sharp edges. She was used to writing in semi-cursive, but for the teacher’s sake, she switched to standard running script.

Yu Min’s handwriting was much more regular and proper, neat and rigid, the textbook handwriting of a student preparing for exams. Yu Min actually liked Lin Baixin’s handwriting more; unfortunately, she couldn’t write like that normally. It wasn’t allowed on exams and wouldn’t help her get a high score.

The exam report card didn’t need to be turned in as a paper copy to the school; submitting a photo was enough.

When Teacher Qi received the photo, she played along and praised it: -The handwriting is very distinctive.

Yu Min passed that on to Lin Baixin, repeating Teacher Qi’s exact words. Lin Baixin looked up and asked her, “Then what do you think?”

Yu Min made a soft “ah” sound and was caught off guard.

She couldn’t bring herself to say anything too flattering; at least, she couldn’t say it in front of the person herself. That would be too embarrassing.

Lin Baixin had done it on purpose. Yu Min was too honest; watching a wooden block get stumped was very amusing.

“I have some copybooks too. Do you want to take one and practice?” Lin Baixin’s brows and eyes curved slightly, the corners of her beautiful lips lifting.

Yu Min couldn’t figure out the teasing in those words. She was muddle-headed, and after that she went out holding a brand-new copybook.

Since Lin Baixin told her to practice writing, Yu Min practiced. She gritted her teeth and started from zero with semi-cursive, but Lin Baixin was helpless; halfway through, she changed it to standard script instead. The child was too obedient, treating Lin Baixin’s words like an important mission.

“You...” Lin Baixin seemed to want to say something but stopped, not knowing what else to say. Looking at Yu Min’s obedient face, since she couldn’t get the words out, she simply dropped it and instead asked gently how Yu Min wanted to spend Little New Year.

In Siping County, the old Little New Year customs were to worship the Kitchen God and eat rice cakes, but nowadays worshipping had fallen out of fashion. Usually, the family would just get together and eat a lavish meal. Lin Baixin was used to being alone; in previous years she hadn’t celebrated Little New Year at all. But this time Yu Min was here, so she asked for Yu Min’s opinion.

Yu Min wasn’t picky. “Up to you—” She thought about it, then realized Lin Baixin was asking her to make the decision herself, so she seriously considered it for two seconds and changed her answer. “How about hot pot outside?”

Lin Baixin agreed. “Which place?”

“The Shuyan Pot across from the front gate of our school is pretty good, or the one by the tower at the wetland park.”

“Then let’s go to the one across from your school.”

She spent Little New Year out shopping with Lin Baixin. They had hot pot at night and went to Jincheng by car during the day to shop, half following Yu Min’s wishes and half following Lin Baixin’s original plan.

New year, new clothes. Lin Baixin really took the child along; just like other adults who bought clothes for their kids at the New Year, she took Yu Min to shop too. Whatever she picked out, Yu Min tried on; if it looked good, she bought it.

Yu Min had grown taller without noticing; she had already shot up quite a bit and was almost 170 cm tall. She was used to wearing her school uniform at school and didn’t care much about appearances. She hadn’t even bought herself a pair of shoes in half a year of classes; she was still wearing her old ones.

“Pick a couple more sets. Last time we bought...” Lin Baixin said, then stopped midway and didn’t say exactly how last time had gone.

Yu Min was dazzled by the choices. She rarely picked out her own clothes, and everything she grabbed was a basic black, white, or gray piece. After trying them on, she couldn’t tell whether they looked good or not, so she could only let Lin Baixin look.

The collar wasn’t adjusted right; it was wrinkled.

Lin Baixin reached out and said softly, “Come a little closer.”

Yu Min stepped forward half a pace. Though she didn’t understand, she still listened.

Lin Baixin smoothed her collar; her movements were light and unhurried. Along the way, she also brushed the loose strands of hair beside Yu Min’s face aside and tucked them behind her ear.

Her fingertips seemed to graze her skin by accident; the touch was faint and itchy.

Yu Min froze and lifted her eyelids a little, instinctively wanting to dodge. But when she met Lin Baixin’s eyes, she held back, tensing her waist and shoulders like a stone statue.

Anything she liked could be bought. Lin Baixin didn’t interfere. Later, when they passed a phone store, Lin Baixin picked out a new model and bought it for her; this time she didn’t ask Yu Min’s opinion.

“A New Year gift,” Lin Baixin said, replacing Yu Min’s old phone.

Yu Min accepted it, a little awkwardly. She had spent Lin Baixin’s money all day; she had money of her own, but every time she tried to pay, she was stopped.

“You’re treating me to hot pot.” Seeing what she was thinking, Lin Baixin suddenly said, “You can pay for dinner tonight.”

Only then did Yu Min relax a little and nod.

“And the movie too; can you treat me?” Lin Baixin said bluntly. “The new movie out recently seems pretty good. I haven’t seen it yet, and I want to go.”

A hot pot meal cost far less than clothes and a phone; Yu Min knew that. Adding a movie would be a stretch too, but something was better than nothing.

“Which movie?” Yu Min hadn’t really paid attention to the newly released films, so she wasn’t sure what was showing.

Lin Baixin said, “We can choose when we get to the theater. I’m fine with anything; you pick one.”

Shuyan Pot was delicious, but because it was a holiday, the line was long. They waited more than an hour just to get a number and a table.

Yu Min chose the movie. They watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Yu Min was a bit silly; she had never watched any of the Star Wars films at all. She just felt like Star Wars sounded famous, so she picked this one. As a result, once they got inside, she ended up nodding off. The plot wasn’t to her taste at all. Lin Baixin, on the other hand, thought the movie was all right; compared with those terrible domestic romance films, it was more suitable for students.

The streets on Little New Year’s Eve were bustling and lively; the crowd was packed thick as soup, and the road outside the mall was completely jammed. They pushed through layer after layer of people and made their way out with difficulty.

Afraid of getting separated, Lin Baixin reached for Yu Min halfway through and held her hand. Once they were outside, they let go.

Yu Min was the one who pulled her hand back first. It wasn’t even anything serious, but she still felt a little stiff. She didn’t show it in front of Lin Baixin; only when the other wasn’t looking did her fingertips tremble unconsciously.

She was too tightly wound, never able to relax.

When they passed a shop, Lin Baixin bought a skewer of candied hawthorn and stuffed it into her hand. She patted Yu Min’s head and rubbed it twice, clearly amused. “Don’t always be so serious, kid...”