(1)
This was the edge of the small city. Behind them was the wilderness, and beyond that were the farmlands.
Before them was a forest. An Jing had been here a few times. She knew that crossing this forest would lead to a deserted seaside.
“Ah—so it really is near Wen’s house.” The chatting along the way had made An Jing and Wen Ye exceptionally familiar. “I’ve been here myself a few times.”
“There’s an abandoned lumberyard inside the forest. Over the past few months, I arranged for people to renovate it into a guesthouse.” Wen Ye placed one hand on the car door and handed each of them an exquisitely wrapped lollipop. “You’re the first guests to stay there.”
“Lollipops… we’re not kids,” An Jing said, twitching the corner of her mouth.
“To me, you are kids.”
“Teacher Wen, you didn’t specifically renovate the lumberyard for us, did you?”
“Pfft… I thought normal people wouldn’t guess in such an exaggerated direction. But yes, it really was renovated for you. Though it can be used again later, so it’s not a waste.”
“After all, my dad also deals with some rich people…” Zhu Ying muttered quietly. “Rich people’s thinking often doesn’t dwell on money issues…”
“They still have to consider expenses, no matter how rich they are…”
“That depends on how much the expense is. Compared to that, they value the emotional gain more, right, Teacher Wen!”
“That’s right~ It’s a pity I took over halfway. I haven’t even gotten familiar with the class students yet, and we’re already graduating.” Wen Ye shook her head regretfully. “You few are the ones I’m closer with. You must come find me to play often in the future!”
An Jing really wanted to say that becoming especially familiar and close only happened this morning. But the words got stuck in her throat for a long time and ultimately weren’t spoken.
Anyway, Wen Ye was a good teacher. At the very least, she was much better than the previous homeroom teacher.
“Huh… such a pretty lollipop…” Wang Xinru widened her eyes slightly in surprise, gently pinching the plastic stick of the lollipop and slowly turning it. “Is this Mars?”
“Yes, my Shui Shui made it herself. Planet lollipops.”
“Shui Shui?”
“That’s the big sister who introduced herself as the housekeeper last time you saw her.”
“Oh, oh, she made it…”
“Xiao Jing, what’s yours?” Zhu Ying eagerly unwrapped hers. “Mine is the Moon.”
“Let me see… uh… mine is blue. What is this?”
“It’s Neptune.” Wen Ye glanced at it. “This blue is my favorite color.”
“So beautiful…” Wang Xinru whispered. “I feel like I can’t bear to eat it…”
“Eat it, eat it. It was made to be eaten. Making it look good is just to make eating it more enjoyable.” Wen Ye took the last lollipop from her own pocket and slowly peeled off the wrapper. “Look, mine is Venus.”
“Wow~! So golden and shiny!”
“Is there a Sun one?” An Jing was curious.
“There should be. There’s a big box of them at home. I remember I ate one last time… yes! I ate a Saturn one.”
“How do you make Saturn?” Zhu Ying blinked and gestured. “It has a Saturn ring. Can that be made?”
“Of course. For example, say this is Saturn. The ring close to the sphere is transparent, and the outside is a ring. At first glance, it gives the feeling that the Saturn ring is floating.”
“Such a clever method. I wish I could be that skilled someday.”
“Just try more. Things like this are about interest. If you’re interested, you can do it well. If you’re not interested—like me, I find doing this kind of thing particularly troublesome. It takes so long to make, but you finish eating it in a moment.”
“Yeah, making it so beautiful only for it to be eaten in an instant gives a feeling of both happiness and unwillingness.”
Wang Xinru finally couldn’t resist gently licking the lollipop in her hand. Her tongue was exceptionally nimble at this moment, lightly teasing, slowly licking, and then suddenly taking it into her mouth, making a ‘dulu dulu’ sound. When the lollipop was pulled from her mouth, it made a soft ‘pop’ sound.
An Jing couldn’t help but stare at her, momentarily stunned.
“Huh? An’an…!” When Wang Xinru looked up and met An Jing’s gaze, her little face instantly flushed bright red. “Th-this is apple flavored…”
“Pop!”
Zhu Ying imitated Wang Xinru, putting the lollipop in her mouth and taking it out, but it looked clumsy, completely lacking that agile and elegant feeling.
“Xiao Jing, mine is milk flavored! Do you want to try it?”
“Huh? You want me to eat a lollipop you’ve already eaten?” An Jing was dumbfounded.
“What’s wrong! Am I poisonous or something?!”
“No, it’s just… a lollipop goes in your mouth. If you… if you want me to taste it, isn’t that like… uh… eek—”
“Eek what, eek!” Zhu Ying’s face flushed slightly. “Then I want to taste Xiao Jing’s!”
“Mine’s already been licked…”
“I don’t care!”
“Wow, hey! It’s covered in your saliva now!”
“Hehe~” Zhu Ying looked triumphant. “Xiao Jing’s is cola flavored! Hmm—and it’s Pepsi.”
“Damn it, how am I supposed to eat this now.”
“If you have the guts, don’t eat it.”
“Tch, then I want to taste yours too!” An Jing leaned her head over and took Zhu Ying’s lollipop into her mouth with one bite, deliberately coating it with more saliva.
For some reason, Zhu Ying’s face instantly turned red all the way to the tips of her ears.
“Seems like chocolate milk flavor…”
“Ying Ying, do you want to try mine…?” Wang Xinru’s face was looking at An Jing, but her words were directed at Zhu Ying.
“Hmm—then I’ll try?”
“How is it…?”
“Apple flavor, such a strong apple flavor! Xiao Jing, you try too?”
“Huh?”
“Try it!” Zhu Ying directly grabbed Wang Xinru’s hand and brought the lollipop to An Jing’s mouth.
“Oh, oh…” This time, An Jing just stuck out her tongue and gave it a light lick, then smacked her lips a few times. “Feels more like candied hawthorn?”
“Hmm, a bit.”
“How enviable, blooming youth~”
“If Teacher Wen doesn’t mind, let me taste it too?”
“Of course, no problem.”
“C-can I too?”
“Sure.”
“What about me?”
“Boys, no—”
“Now you’re treating me as a boy again…” An Jing pouted.
(2)
Wen Ye’s car had been parked at the forest entrance for a full half hour before Qiu Yi’s double-decker minibus finally arrived belatedly.
The two vehicles were parked on the weedy ground beside the forest. From here on, everyone had to walk.
It wasn’t that there was no road to drive through the forest. It was that to get to the lumberyard turned guesthouse, you had to take a small path, and that path couldn’t be driven on.
If they parked the car directly on the asphalt road that cut through the forest, then any cars coming in later wouldn’t be able to pass—though generally, no one would drive here anyway.
Many students had raised their hands to participate, but today, only a little over twenty actually came.
Quite a few had family matters—after all, it was the rare Labor Day holiday. Parents wanted to take their kids back to their hometowns or had their own travel plans.
Some felt studying at home was more important—even though the kids probably wouldn’t be in the mood to study at home either.
“It’s not like the old days now. You can’t just chop down trees in the forest, otherwise we’d have built a road drivable to the old lumberyard.”
“Speaking of which, how did the lumberyard transport timber back then?” An Jing asked curiously.
“There was a road back then. It’s just that the lumberyard has been shut down for over ten… hmm—should be over twenty years. When it stopped operations, they planted new saplings. After all these years, they’ve grown into big trees, and that dirt road that cars could use naturally became impassable.”
“I see…”
“Haa—so sleepy.”
“A Qiang didn’t sleep well yesterday?” An Jing turned to look at Fang Qiang, who had walked to the front from the crowd, and asked with a smile.
“Bought a VHS tape. Watched it until two in the morning yesterday, then got up early today. So tired.”
“What were you watching that was so engrossing?”
“Stephen Chow’s.”
“Is there any you haven’t seen?”
“Even if I’ve seen it, it’s still good to watch again. Is that kid Zhou Chao in the back?”
“Zhou Chao?” Fang Qiang scratched his head. “Who’s Zhou Chao?”
An Jing slapped her forehead, finally realizing Zhou Chao wasn’t here at all today.
That’s right. The one who came was Zhou Zhao.
That guy had another intense battle with his girlfriend last night, with the result being that halfway through, he turned into a girl.
Though, the girlfriend was still the girlfriend. It’s just that the relationship had become微妙而奇怪.
The specifics hadn’t been explained by Zhou Zhao to An Jing this morning, as by the time she arrived, there were already many people, and such a topic wasn’t convenient to expand on.
“Tch.” Zhu Ying pursed her lips, looking at Zhou Zhao, who was like a social butterfly in the crowd. She lowered her voice and muttered into An Jing’s ear, “After turning into a girl, she’s completely a fox spirit.”
“Ahem… although she does give off that feeling a bit, but even as a boy, she got along well with everyone, right?”
“At the very least, boys wouldn’t look at her with that kind of gaze.”
“Probably because she’s a girl now. It’s likely not her intention.” An Jing scratched her head. “Feels like you’re really prejudiced, Xiao Ying.”
“Hmph, she was dangerous as a boy, let alone as a girl now!”
“What are you two whispering about?”
“A Qiang, ahem, it’s none of your business.” An Jing scratched her head. “By the way, after I logged off yesterday, were you guys still playing?”
“Played. Damn it, didn’t win a single one.”
“Still playing Desert Dust?”
“Yeah.”
“Got taunted the whole time?”
“Yeah, damn it. Just wanted to win one round, but got crushed. Damn it, didn’t win a single sub-round.”
“Your aim is too terrible… when I was there, we at least won a few sub-rounds.”
“I fucking suspect the other side was hacking…”
“I think so too. Accuracy aside, mainly, they found us with pinpoint precision every time.” Sun Wei leaned over. “So disgusting. I reported him. If he gets banned, he’s definitely a hacker.”
“Give it up. How many CF hackers actually get banned…”
“There are quite a few false bans, though.”
“Yeah.”
The topic suddenly veered off to games again. Zhu Ying, puffed up with anger, pinched An Jing’s cheek. “Oh, so you said you were going to sleep yesterday, but you actually went to play another game, huh?”
“Ah, I, that… I was dragged over against my will!”
“Bullshit. An Jing wanted to come herself.”
“Damn it, A Wei, are you even human?!”
“Not playing games with me, but playing with others. You awful Xiao Jing!”
“That… that’s not… no, ahhh, stop rubbing my face!”
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