16
An indescribable numb feeling twisted in his chest, followed by a faint warmth spreading through him.
It had been many years since anyone had said “you’re home” to him.
Fu Qingheng looked at her with complex emotions. Yun Li tilted her head. “Brother Fu?”
Snapping back to reality, Fu Qingheng averted his gaze from her face, his expression unnatural. He grabbed a random topic. “How’s school going?”
He remembered that today was her first day.
This was exactly what Yun Li wanted to talk about. “I met so many new friends at school! They’re all super nice to me!”
They had taken her to eat roasted sausages, potato chips, spicy gluten strips, and had given her cola…
Yun Li chattered on endlessly, wanting to tell him everything that had happened at school.
Of course, being smart, she didn’t mention falling asleep in class.
Fu Qingheng had already eaten dinner outside, but hearing that Yun Li had been waiting for him, he sat down again to keep her company while she ate.
When she mentioned that lots of boys had tried to chat her up and asked for her WeChat, Fu Qingheng frowned. “Did you give it to them?”
He had overlooked something.
Yun Li was simply too striking; attracting boys’ attention was only natural.
Yun Li shook her head. “I don’t have a phone.”
For some reason, the tension in his chest suddenly dissipated. Fu Qingheng gave a calm “Mm.” Good thing she didn’t have a phone.
Yun Li took a bite of her chicken leg, then turned her head and asked, “But what is WeChat, anyway?”
Fu Qingheng: “…”
Yun Li was now full of enthusiasm for school.
She got up early the next morning and put on her uniform.
Remembering she hadn’t said hello to her “poop scooper” yet, Yun Li ran to the next door and knocked. “Brother Fu, I’m coming in!”
Fu Qingheng had just finished showering and was changing. Hearing Yun Li’s voice, he didn’t have time to say “Don’t come in.”
The door was pushed open, and Yun Li stood at the threshold.
Fu Qingheng’s face darkened. Damn it, he had forgotten to lock the door again.
“Brother Fu, why aren’t you wearing any clothes?!”
Yun Li stared at Fu Qingheng in surprise. His upper body was completely bare, and he wore black dress pants below. If one looked closely, they’d notice the zipper on his pants wasn’t even done up.
Realizing this, Fu Qingheng quickly turned his back to Yun Li and snapped irritably, “Who said you could come in!”
Yelled at by the “poop scooper” again first thing in the morning.
Yun Li felt very wronged.
The man’s ears turned bright red. He zipped up his pants, grabbed a white shirt from the closet, and threw it on. Glancing sideways, he saw Yun Li still hadn’t left and was staring intently at him.
Did this woman have no shame?
Not only did Yun Li not leave, she stepped closer. “Brother Fu, are you angry again?”
The corner of Fu Qingheng’s mouth twitched. He glanced sideways at her. “What do you think?”
Did she not understand that men and women should have boundaries?
Although Yun Li wasn’t sure why the “poop scooper” was angry, it seemed to have something to do with her seeing him without clothes?
It wasn’t a big deal. She used to be without clothes all the time.
“Brother Fu, don’t be angry. How about I let you see me without clothes to make it even?”
Saying this, Yun Li actually started to take off her own uniform.
This was a dangerously provocative move.
Without a second thought, Fu Qingheng grabbed her hands to stop her and gritted his teeth. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!”
Yun Li nodded. “Trying to make you not angry, Brother Fu!”
Fu Qingheng closed his eyes, realizing there was no reasoning with this woman. She simply didn’t understand.
He took a deep breath to calm himself. “I’m not angry anymore.”
“Really? But you’re frowning and you haven’t smiled once.”
“…”
Lailai had clearly said her “poop scooper” was very good to her, always wanting to touch her and hug her.
Why was everything different for her?
Yun Li sighed inwardly, her dazed little eyes staring at the man in front of her. Could it be that the “poop scooper” didn’t think she was cute?
Impossible. She was the cutest little fox in her family!
Even when she walked down the street, lots of little demons wanted to touch her fox fur!
Maybe she should kiss the “poop scooper” to cheer him up?
Yun Li hesitated, looking at Fu Qingheng. She bit her lip, made a decision, grabbed his shirt, and kissed him directly.
Fu Qingheng was completely unprepared. Yun Li had crossed a line.
A soft touch like a cotton candy briefly pressed against his lips. Before he could even react, the girl quickly pulled away.
Yun Li smiled and said, “Brother Fu, you should smile more. You look much better when you smile!”
With that, she turned around and dashed away.
When he finally reacted, Fu Qingheng’s face turned even redder.
How could she just kiss him out of the blue like that?
When she got home from school, he was definitely going to have to teach her a lesson: you can’t just go around kissing people, especially men!
After kissing the “poop scooper,” Yun Li didn’t dare look at him and ran all the way downstairs.
Yang Qing saw the little girl’s flushed cheeks and asked instinctively, “Are you hot?”
Yun Li looked at her blankly, touching her own face. It was burning hot.
“Y-yeah, maybe a little.”
Yun Li dove into the car.
Yang Qing looked up at the sun, partially hidden behind dark clouds. Was it really hot today?
He thought it felt a bit chilly.
Yang Qing sighed mournfully. He really was getting old.
The car drove smoothly. Yun Li leaned against the window, letting the cool wind blow across her face.
She didn’t know why, but the heat in her face wouldn’t go down. If anything, it was getting hotter.
Even worse, her little heart seemed to be broken, thumping wildly out of control.
She used to play rough with the little bluebird, but her heart never pounded like this. Could she be sick? Was she going to die?
Yun Li started to get scared. She hadn’t eaten enough big fatty chickens, hadn’t drunk enough Happy Cola (a playful term for soda, often Coke), hadn’t eaten enough potato chips… She hadn’t seen her brothers again. She still had so much she wanted to tell her parents…
Yang Qing had no idea what was wrong with the little girl. She had been so happy during breakfast, but now she looked wilted like a tiny, droopy plant, slumped dejectedly against the car window. Had something upset her?
Yun Li’s unhappiness lasted the entire day. She didn’t listen in class. She just lay on her desk, either sleeping or thinking about her own funeral arrangements.
If she died all alone out here, her family would be so sad.
Ouyang Mengyao couldn’t stand it anymore. “Yun Li, what’s wrong with you today? Why are you so gloomy?”
Yun Li looked at her, sighed for the umpteenth time, but pressed her lips together and refused to answer.
The worst things Ouyang Mengyao could think of were that Yun Li had fought with her family or been rejected by a boy she had a crush on.
The latter was definitely impossible. She was so gorgeous; any boy who rejected her would have to be blind.
So it was probably the former.
“Don’t be sad. Don’t you still have us?”
Ouyang Mengyao had spent her whole life intimidating people, never comforting them. Faced with this delicate little beauty, she thought for a while before saying, “How about your big sister takes you out to have some fun tonight, okay?”
Fun?
The only thing that could make her happy was roast chicken.
Yun Li turned to look at her. “I want to eat roast chicken!”
“Roast chicken? Easy! Buy it! However much you want to eat, we’ll buy!” Ouyang Mengyao declared boldly.
“Then I want Happy Cola too.”
“Buy it!”
Class was so boring that Ouyang Mengyao ended up suggesting they skip school.
Yun Li didn’t like class anyway. She had skipped plenty back when she used to study, so she didn’t hesitate to nod.
For the last self-study period, they decided to just cut class entirely.
Pingcheng No.1 High School had two campuses and several gates.
Security guards strictly monitored each gate. Without an excused absence slip approved by a teacher, students couldn’t leave.
Of course, students like Ouyang Mengyao never used the front gate.
There was a spot behind the school specifically for dumping trash, with a small iron gate there. The wall next to that gate was much shorter than the others. They used to climb over it all the time to skip class.
Ouyang Mengyao led Yun Li to the base of the shorter wall. “This is it. We can get out once we climb over!”
Yun Li nodded. This wall wasn’t tall at all to her; climbing over would be a piece of cake.
Just as Zhang Zihan was telling her boyfriend to squat down so she could step on his back to climb over the wall, Yun Li stepped back a few paces, jogged lightly, and after a short run-up, leaped directly into the air, soared over in one bound, cleared the wall effortlessly, and landed softly on the other side.
Everyone else was dumbfounded. They hadn’t even had time to see the whole process clearly.
Yun Li was already waving at them from the other side of the iron gate. “Hurry up, you guys!”
Ouyang Mengyao looked at the wall, which was much taller than her, then back at Yun Li on the other side. “Holy crap, how did you get over that?”
“I just jumped over! It was easy.”
Ouyang Mengyao: … Yeah, right.
Although this wall wasn’t as high as others, it still wasn’t short. Even Zhang Zihan’s boyfriend had a pretty hard time climbing over it.
No one expected this slender, delicate-looking girl to clear it in just a few seconds.
Zhang Zihan stepped on her boyfriend’s back and finally managed to sit on top of the wall. She said to Ouyang Mengyao, “Hurry up, what are you standing there for? The security guards have been cracking down lately!”
Ouyang Mengyao stopped overthinking it. She quickly stepped on another boy’s back and climbed over the wall.
She hadn’t snuck out to skip class in a long time. She nearly fell when she jumped down, but luckily Yun Li reached out and steadied her.
Curious, Ouyang Mengyao squeezed Yun Li’s slender arm. Even though it looked thin, it was actually quite strong. “How did you do that?”
“I used to skip class a lot. The walls at my old school were way taller than this one!”
No wonder she was so good at climbing over walls. She was a seasoned pro.
After skipping class, the group happily headed to KFC.
Yun Li had never eaten KFC before. Just seeing the pictures of big, plump chicken legs and wings on the door made her mouth water with longing. Her stomach growled.
Because of her “broken heart,” Yun Li had been upset all day and hadn’t eaten much for lunch.
Ouyang Mengyao ordered a family bucket, a bucket of chicken wings, a chicken leg burger, and the cola Yun Li liked.
The smell of fried chicken filled the KFC, making Yun Li even hungrier.
As soon as she got the food, she couldn’t wait to try it, even though it was piping hot.
“Mmm, so good!”
In all her life, she had never eaten chicken legs like this.
After finishing an entire family bucket and drinking a big cup of cola, Yun Li finally felt a little better.
Everyone sat together, watching Yun Li eat at lightning speed, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster’s, as she single-handedly demolished the family bucket.
Zhang Zihan exclaimed, “Wow, Yun Li, you eat so much!”
Yun Li looked confused. “I always eat this much.”
Were these humans going to think she ate too much and look down on her for it?
**