Chapter 118
G U MIAO WALKED QUICKLY as she came out of the classroom, even pushing aside another child who wanted to talk to her.
“Er-Miao.” Crouching down where he’d been waiting for her outside, Gu Fei reached out to stop her. “Say goodbye to that little girl.”
Gu Miao looked at him. She must’ve understood what Gu Fei was saying, though she didn’t exactly want to do anything about it.
“She wanted to talk to you, and you ignored her,” Gu Fei said. “You don’t have to like her, but you still have to be polite. You shouldn’t push people.”
Gu Miao turned and waved at the other girl who had followed her, before turning back to leave with a cold, stony face. Gu Fei sighed and walked after her.
The little munchkin was reluctant to come to these group activities now. Gu Fei had to spend ages persuading her before every visit.
It could have been because the dozen or so other kids who joined this time were all on the younger side.
Although she wasn’t on the same level as her peers in terms of intellectual development, Gu Miao was still fairly perceptive; even at her old school, she hadn’t been completely incapable of fitting in.
But here, thrown in with these five- to six-year-olds, or even younger, it was hard for her to play with them.
What to do, then?
By the time Gu Fei reached his motorcycle, Gu Miao was already standing there hugging her skateboard to her chest.
“Hungry?” Before getting onto the bike, Gu Fei tucked the scarf around her neck, pulled her hat lower, and fixed the mask over her face.
Gu Miao climbed onto the back seat and wrapped her arms around his waist.
What should I do?
Gu Fei put his helmet on and started the engine.
The best thing for Gu Miao in her current state was to participate in more group activities and increase her social interactions.
In this city, there was no point worrying about the quality of care—this was the only place where Gu Miao could get any sort of help at all.
He skipped class several times a week to bring Gu Miao here.
It wasn’t like he wanted to attend class that badly—after all these years, it was difficult for him to settle down and study the way other students did—but he’d only gotten into this school because of Jiang Cheng, and he didn’t want to waste his time the way he had before.
Moreover, bringing Gu Miao to these classes didn’t just affect his class attendance, but also took up time he could have used for photography gigs. He had no choice but to push a lot of his work to the evening.
He was struggling a little with both time and money.
He didn’t complain, though—it was no different than all the years before. He always managed somehow, and as long as they could see progress…
If only there was progress.
But there wasn’t any progress.
He’d tasted so much defeat and disappointment, it was near impossible for him to be ever-so-optimistic like Jiang Cheng.
Back at the store, Liu Li had already made dinner. Gu Fei’s mom was circling the table with her phone, snapping photos of the dishes.
Business had gotten much better since the store had been shoved off onto Liu Li. He was diligent in what he did, and, more importantly, he was much more reliable than Gu Fei’s mother when it came to cooking. At the very least, there was always food on the table at every meal.
Gu Miao was also satisfied enough with the food Liu Li made. As soon as they entered the store, she went to stand beside the table, waiting to eat.
“Er-Miao, you’re blocking the camera,” her mom said, holding the phone. When Gu Miao didn’t move away, she sighed and walked around to the opposite side of the table to snap a photo. “My little girl is certainly photogenic. She looks good in every photo.”
“Let’s eat.” Liu Li came out holding the soup. “You must be tired, Da-Fei. You should go home and rest after dinner.”
“I’m all right.” Gu Fei clapped Gu Miao on the shoulder. “Go wash your hands.”
Gu Miao walked out to the back courtyard, and Gu Fei followed behind her.
He watched as she went into the kitchen, but he didn’t go in after her, only watching from the doorway.
These days, Gu Miao was fine with both handwashing and dishwashing.
Most of the time, she no longer screamed at the sight of water.
That’s progress, isn’t it? Of course it is.
In all the time since their father’s death, this change had only appeared recently. Gu Fei was afraid to count how many years had gone by in the interim.
Hope?
Of course there was hope, but it was too far in the distance.
After dinner, when he took Gu Miao back home, he got a message from Jiang Cheng.
- have you eaten yet
It was accompanied by a selfie taken from the most baffling of angles. As usual, the photo’s success relied solely on Jiang Cheng’s good looks. Gu Fei could see the background, though; it had been taken inside the prestigious library on their campus.
Around this time every day, Jiang Cheng would go to the library to read or write notes.
Gu Fei wasn’t very clear on the specifics of what he did in the evenings he spent there.
He only knew that during that time, Jiang Cheng was as hyperfocused as he had been when he was sitting at his desk and studying for the exam.
And just like back then, he wouldn’t interrupt.
Gu Fei felt a little lonely sometimes, though.
His evenings were relatively free compared to Jiang Cheng’s; he usually spent them editing photos from various product and model shoots. To him, this was work that required no focus, just flow—so he wasn’t concerned about being interrupted.
But whenever he was free and wanted to send Jiang Cheng a message, he’d worry about disturbing him. Just a couple of days ago, Jiang Cheng had complained how annoying it was that the girl sitting nearby had her phone vibrating on the table every few minutes.
However, Jiang Cheng would always call him immediately after the library closed at ten o’clock.
“I’m exhausted today,” Jiang Cheng said, yawning. “I didn’t take a nap after lunch, so I couldn’t even keep my eyes open when I did my homework.”
“Remember to balance work and rest, Cheng-ge,” Gu Fei said.
“I do rest. I go back to my dorm at night and go right to sleep,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s not like I like toiling away, but there’s just that much to do. I do the readings, take the notes, finish the assignments, and that’s about all the time I have.”
“Sounds like you have no time for great pork belly.” Gu Fei chuckled.
“It’s there if I want it. There’s two whole barbecue restaurants on my way to tutoring.” Jiang Cheng tutted. “Ugh, no, can’t talk about it. I’ll get hungry, and there’s nothing to eat in the dorm.”
“You should go out and get something to eat.”
“Nah,” Jiang Cheng sighed. “I don’t want to gain weight. You know how they say horses can get fat just from being fed extra grass in the evening—what’ll happen to me if I eat meat all the time at night?”
Gu Fei laughed, listening quietly.
Jiang Cheng chatted for a while longer, reporting on things that had happened in his classes during the day.
Funny things, annoying things—he always told Gu Fei about all of them.
And Gu Fei liked hearing it. He pictured how Jiang Cheng was at school—how he went to lectures, the cafeteria, and the library.
He imagined the classmate he didn’t like, and thought about how he and Zhao Ke would gang up on the other two guys in their dorm who had girlfriends…
Jiang Cheng’s life was a busy one with an immense amount of pressure, but it was interesting.
The things he talked about, the people he interacted with—all of it was very different from his time in the Steelworks.
Gu Fei could sense that his mood was generally lifted, even when he complained of exhaustion.
How nice. That’s the kind of life Jiang Cheng should have.
Sometimes Jiang Cheng would ask him, How is school? How are your classmates? What classes are you taking? and he wouldn’t know what to say. Compared to Jiang Cheng’s campus life, he had no idea what he could possibly talk about.
Once, when he mentioned offhand that they had a film appreciation class, Jiang Cheng suggested a few movies to him.
Even the language he used to recommend and analyze these films was on a whole separate level from the teacher who taught Gu Fei’s class.
But Jiang Cheng never took a film appreciation class—his school sometimes held movie screenings; that was all.
Therein lies the difference, Gu Fei thought. Obviously, there were biases here of the “whatever my boyfriend says is the absolute truth” variety, but still, the sense of distance existed. It wasn’t something that could be wiped away with an excuse he found merely to comfort himself.
Gu Fei was never one to talk much; he only liked to talk when he was with Jiang Cheng.
He liked teasing Jiang Cheng, enjoyed the back-and-forth banter.
But now, as time passed day after day, there was less and less he could say to Jiang Cheng.
“Mm,” “oh,” and “haha” were his most frequently used responses.
***
“Er-Miao,” Gu Fei repeated himself.
Gu Miao was standing in her room, refusing to change so they could go out.
“We have to go now to play with the teacher,” Gu Fei said.
Gu Miao leaned against the doorway to her room and looked back at him, her face blank.
“Come on, get changed,” Gu Fei said. “There will be new games today, don’t you want to play?”
Still, Gu Miao gave him no response.
“If you don’t like to play with the other kids, you can play with the teacher,” Gu Fei said. “Last time, the teacher told me that she likes you a lot. She said you were very smart.”
Gu Miao turned her face away. She was resisting hard today. Despite understanding everything Gu Fei said, she refused to grace him with any kind of response.
“Fine, you don’t have to go,” Gu Fei said. “But can you let Gege know why? Is it because you don’t like the other kids?”
Gu Miao ignored him.