“I’m very scared now, but if someone gets pierced with me, I probably won’t be afraid anymore.”
Chi Yao’s eyebrow slightly arched as he looked at her.
Lin Zhexia slowly said, “…Having more people die together is quite reassuring.”
Chi Yao initially didn’t respond to her, but she started being unreasonable: “If you don’t get pierced, I’ll sit at the shop door until dawn. Even in my dying moments, I’ll remember this day—the day a certain someone with the surname Chi ruthlessly rejected me.”
Finally, Chi Yao couldn’t stand how noisy she was and negotiated: “I’ll only do one side.”
Lin Zhexia thought about it—it wasn’t very suitable for boys to pierce both ears anyway—so she nodded: “That works.”
“Also.”
He added, “What’s in it for me?”
Lin Zhexia didn’t understand: “What benefit?”
Chi Yao: “Am I some deity descending to earth to save all living beings, taking this hit for nothing?”
Lin Zhexia hesitated, reluctantly saying: “My monthly allowance is two hundred yuan.”
“…”
“I can give you one hundred and fifty, and the remaining fifty, I’ll use sparingly.”
She saw that Chi Yao didn’t seem very satisfied with this answer.
So she steeled herself and changed her offer: “Two hundred, I’ll give you all two hundred, okay?”
However, Chi Yao didn’t accept: “Who wants your measly allowance?”
“…?”
“How about this,” he said, as if deliberately torturing her, “call me ‘brother’ once, and I’ll get pierced with you.”
…
Lin Zhexia was stunned for a moment.
She immediately thought:
That’s so like you.
Chi Yao.
Hitting the most vulnerable spot.
Ruthless and merciless, putting people in deadly situations.
Lin Zhexia struggled internally for a while, but in the end, her desire to get her ears pierced won: “That will have to wait until after you get pierced, to prevent you from going back on your word.”
After agreeing to get ear piercings together, Lin Zhexia finally gathered her courage.
She called to the shop owner: “Boss, can you do ear piercings here?”
The shop owner smiled and said: “Yes, of course. Ear piercing is sixty yuan. Do you want to get one?”
Lin Zhexia pointed at Chi Yao: “Yes, but he’ll go first—he’s only doing one side.”
The shop owner rarely saw boys come here for ear piercings, so she couldn’t help but give the boy a few extra glances.
The young man was in his school uniform. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she felt that his face brightened up her shop. Now the young man was accompanying the girl, and there was an obvious height difference between them.
“One side is fine too, just pay thirty yuan,” she said.
“For boys, choose simpler earring styles. How about obsidian? Most boys like to wear that kind. Though for him, he would probably look good in anything.”
But Lin Zhexia felt that wasn’t suitable.
In the end, she picked a simple silver cross from a basket of earrings: “This one.”
She always felt that Chi Yao was the type of person who suited silver.
Proud, dignified, and cool.
Getting an ear piercing was much simpler than Lin Zhexia had imagined. The shop owner first marked the position on Chi Yao’s earlobe, then used a sterilized device, clamped the earlobe, and with a “click,” it was done.
But simple operation didn’t mean there was no visual impact.
Lin Zhexia stood beside Chi Yao, observing his entire ear-piercing process up close, and saw how that “click” went through the earlobe.
The actual scene was more terrifying than she had imagined.
Lin Zhexia’s desire to get her ears pierced completely dissipated after that “click.”
She came to her senses.
After finishing one ear, the shop owner looked at Lin Zhexia: “Young lady, you…”
Before the shop owner could finish, Lin Zhexia stepped back and decisively told the accessory shop owner, “Just him. I don’t need one.”
“…?”
The shop owner, holding the ear-piercing tool, asked: “You’re not getting one?”
Lin Zhexia: “No, I think I should listen to my mother.”
On the way back, the atmosphere was very quiet.