When Chen Jiahao came knocking, Yu Huan was sitting in the living room eating the strawberries Yu Hezhang had washed for her.
She held the remote in one hand, casually switching between channels.
Hearing the knock, she stayed sprawled on the sofa without even turning her head.
“Mom, someone’s at the door.”
“Okay, don’t move. I’ll get it.”
Zhang Ya had been watering the plants on the balcony. Hearing her daughter, she put down the watering can and hurried over.
“Coming!”
She opened the door and found a young woman standing outside. Her face looked vaguely familiar, but Zhang Ya couldn’t immediately place her.
“Excuse me, you are…?”
The woman smiled politely.
“Auntie Zhang, it’s me, Jiahao. I used to live next door to you.”
The moment she said that, Zhang Ya remembered.
She was the eldest daughter of the Chen family downstairs. She seemed to be two or three years older than Fufu and rarely came home.
Even when she did, she hardly ever went out, so Zhang Ya was lucky if she saw her once a year.
“Oh, it’s Jiahao! It’s been so long. You’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman. They really weren’t joking when they said girls change so much as they grow up. I didn’t even recognize you.”
Zhang Ya smiled warmly.
“It’s hot outside. Come in quickly.”
After welcoming her inside, Zhang Ya asked,
“By the way, what brings you here today?”
The Chen family and the Yu family had never exactly shared the same views.
The Chens believed that a family should have a son to carry on the family line. They had strongly disapproved when Zhang Ya decided not to have another child after giving birth to Yu Huan.
They often gossiped behind her back, saying that the Yu family would regret it someday.
Zhang Ya had had a fiery temper when she was younger. She couldn’t stand hearing things like that, especially when they called Yu Huan a “money-losing daughter.”
She had gotten into several arguments with the Chen family together with Yu Hezhang, so the two families weren’t particularly close.
Later, after the relocation, the Chen family moved into the two floors below the Yu family’s apartment. Their work schedules were also different, so they rarely crossed paths.
Naturally, they had even less contact.
Still, Zhang Ya had always believed that whatever happened between adults shouldn’t affect the children.
She had never minded Yu Huan playing with Chen Jiahao when they were young.
But perhaps because Chen Jiahao had been influenced by her parents, she stopped playing with Yu Huan after entering middle school.
In the past, whenever Chen Jiahao came to their house, Zhang Ya would immediately know she was there to see her daughter.
But after the two girls had gone so many years without spending time together, Zhang Ya genuinely couldn’t figure out why Chen Jiahao had suddenly come over.
Chen Jiahao smiled and looked toward Yu Huan, who was watching them curiously.
“Auntie Zhang, I’m here to see Xiaohuan.”
“I thought that since I’m finally free and Xiaohuan is home too, we could go out together and catch up.”
“Oh, I see. That’s not something I can decide for her. You’ll have to ask her yourself.”
Zhang Ya smiled.
“Fufu, do you remember her? This is your sister Jiahao. You two used to play together all the time when you were little.”
Yu Huan stared at Chen Jiahao for quite a while.
She struggled to match the woman in front of her with the blurry image of Chen Jiahao in her childhood memories.
Eventually, she nodded.
Then she suddenly asked,
“Didn’t you used to wear glasses?”
Back then, very few people wore glasses.
Chen Jiahao had been the first child in their neighborhood to wear them, so she had left a particularly strong impression.
Yu Huan still remembered how she had thrown a fit and begged her mother to get her a pair too.
In the end, Zhang Ya couldn’t calm her down and bought her sunglasses instead.
To protect her eyes, she had chosen a high-end pair.
Yu Huan had loved colorful things when she was young, so she hated the dull gray color of those sunglasses.
She never wore them even once.
“Yeah. I had my nearsightedness corrected with surgery after I entered university, so I stopped wearing glasses.”
Chen Jiahao nodded, then asked,
“Xiaohuan, do you want to go out together?”
As she asked, Chen Jiahao had already prepared herself for Yu Huan to reject her.
She had invited Yu Huan several times through WeChat, but Yu Huan had refused every time.
Even coming directly to her home probably wouldn’t change anything.
Yu Huan looked at her several times.
She stared for so long that Chen Jiahao began to feel uncomfortable.
Just as Chen Jiahao was about to say, “If you don’t want to go, forget it,” Yu Huan nodded.
She agreed.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a new café near the neighborhood. I’ve heard the drinks are pretty good. We can go there.”
Yu Huan’s expression remained indifferent. Her overly delicate face revealed almost nothing.
Was she unhappy with the place Chen Jiahao had chosen?
Chen Jiahao quickly added,
“If you don’t want coffee, there’s also a milk tea shop next door. It’s pretty good too.”
“Anything is fine.”
Yu Huan ate the last strawberry from her bowl, pulled out a tissue to wipe her hands, and stood up.
“Fufu, bring an umbrella.”
Zhang Ya took out a sun umbrella.
“The sun is really strong. It’s not good for your skin.”
Yu Huan hooked her slender finger around the strap of the umbrella.
Then she left the house with Chen Jiahao.
The residential building wasn’t very tall, and since it had been built a long time ago, there was no elevator.
Yu Huan walked slowly, taking several minutes just to reach the first floor.
Chen Jiahao thought this would be a good opportunity to reminisce about their childhood.
“Back when we used to play downstairs, there was a boy from the neighboring building who really liked you. He was always coming over to tease you.”
“I still remember one time when he made you cry. Zhou Muyang brought a bunch of people and beat him up badly. After that, he didn’t dare come near you for a long time.”
“He deserved it.”
Yu Huan’s expression darkened.
Her large eyes were filled with disgust.
“If I ever see him again, I’ll beat him up myself.”
If there were two kinds of things Yu Huan remembered best, they were:
Things she liked or was interested in.
And people who had wronged her and earned her grudge.
Clearly, the boy Chen Jiahao was talking about belonged to the second category.
Yu Huan remembered how the boy had always looked at her with lecherous eyes.
And as if that weren’t disgusting enough, he’d actually used his filthy hands to tug on her freshly washed, fragrant hair.
He had pulled so hard that he knocked her straight to the ground.
Yu Huan had never been mistreated before, so she froze for a moment.
Once she realized what had happened, she burst into tears and yelled for Zhou Muyang to stop him.
With tears still streaming down her face, she didn’t care whether his hair was dirty anymore.
She grabbed his hair and yanked it viciously.
After pulling hard enough to make him cry too, Yu Huan still wasn’t satisfied.
Through her tears, she threatened him,
“If you show up again, I’ll have Zhou Muyang and the others block your way again. And then I’ll pull your hair again.”
“If you don’t want to end up bald, you’d better make sure I never see you again.”
The boy covered his head and ran away.
After that, Yu Huan never saw him downstairs again.
Just mentioning him brought back the memory of those few strands of hair he’d pulled out.
“Don’t talk about him. Just thinking about him makes me sick.”
Chen Jiahao gave an awkward smile and stopped bringing up the past.
She was afraid that if she annoyed Yu Huan too much, Yu Huan would simply refuse to go.
The café wasn’t very crowded.
Most of the customers were young women, and there was only one employee working behind the counter.
A popular sentimental song was playing through the speakers.
The two chose a table by the window.
Yu Huan wasn’t particularly fond of coffee.
After looking through the menu for quite a while, she finally chose a mocha.
Chen Jiahao ordered the cold brew that the café recommended as its specialty.
Their drinks were prepared quickly and brought over.
Chen Jiahao took a sip.
Finally, she revealed the real reason she had invited Yu Huan out.