Every family had its difficulties.
Lin Zhexia understood and didn’t ask further.
Seeing her rummaging for so long, He Yang couldn’t help asking: “What are you looking for? Is it that difficult to grab an ice pop?”
Before his summer brother could answer, his Yao brother coolly said, “She’s looking for the cheapest one.”
He Yang: “…”
Lin Zhexia’s thoughts were immediately exposed, making her somewhat embarrassed: “…Some things don’t need to be said out loud.”
He Yang’s expression cracked: “Am I only worthy of the cheapest one???”
“It’s the middle of the day, they’re arguing, and I got kicked out. Plus, we’ve known each other for so many years, we could be called brothers who’ve shared life and death—and I only deserve the cheapest one?!”
Lin Zhexia rummaged through the bag for a while and finally found an old-style saltwater popsicle costing fifty cents at the bottom: “Here, you should be grateful you get anything at all.”
He Yang: “…Thanks.”
Lin Zhexia: “You’re welcome.”
The three of them rarely met up like this, and they squeezed together on the steps to chat for a while, just like when they were children.
He Yang: “Your mom was playing cards at my house yesterday.”
Lin Zhexia nodded: “She won quite a bit, she was very happy when she came home.”
He Yang: “Quite a bit indeed, she won all my New Year’s money.”
Lin Zhexia: “You can complain to me all you want, but don’t expect me to give it back to you. I don’t have money.”
He Yang: “…”
He Yang then turned to Chi Yao, unconsciously beginning to say: “Your mom…”
He wanted to ask if his mom was doing well lately.
However, before he could realize the inappropriateness of his words, Lin Zhexia had already elbowed him discreetly.
He Yang immediately swallowed his words.
It was Chi Yao himself who nonchalantly said, “She’s busy with business, the factory just received a batch of new parts.”
He Yang bit off the last piece of his ice pop and sighed: “Strong woman.”
They chatted for a while.
Chi Yao was still holding the cold treats, and Lin Zhexia, worried they would melt in the sun, told him to take the bag home first.
After Chi Yao left, she couldn’t sit still either. Just as she was about to tell He Yang, “I should go too, you continue sunbathing here,” before she could speak, He Yang stood up to throw away his trash. He had probably been sitting on the steps for too long, and when he stood up, his legs were numb, causing him to stagger badly.
He Yang exclaimed: “Damn!”
He swayed from side to side like a roly-poly toy, eventually leaning toward where Lin Zhexia was sitting, barely managing to stand by supporting himself with his hand on Lin Zhexia’s shoulder.
“Your brother here had his legs beaten several times with a feather duster by my mom before coming out. The reason was that my mom said I’m just like my dad, and she gets angry just looking at me,” He Yang explained as he withdrew his hand.
“That is indeed quite miserable,” Lin Zhexia said, “If I had known, I would have given you a one-yuan ice pop earlier.”
He Yang: “Just one yuan.”
Lin Zhexia: “One yuan fifty cents, not a penny more.”
When Lin Zhexia returned home after secretly buying cold treats, Wei Ping was unpacking express delivery packages.
She wanted to go over and help unpack, but Wei Ping patted her shoulder and said, “It’s fine, I’ll handle it. You go do your homework quickly.”
When Lin Zhexia returned to her room and opened her homework to start writing, she suddenly noticed a detail she hadn’t paid attention to before.
—Her shoulder.
When she was sitting on the steps, He Yang had also touched her shoulder.
And now thinking about it, she belatedly realized that it was an extremely intimate posture. He Yang had lost his balance, and they were very close.
But why did she only realize this in hindsight?
Why, at the time, did she not feel anything was wrong?
Perhaps there was a bit of awkwardness and unnaturalness, but that feeling was so minimal that it was quickly ignored.
Chen Lin’s words flashed through her mind again.
—That’s not you becoming weird.
—It’s you growing up, finally realizing that Chi Yao is a boy, a boy whose pants you can’t steal to wear anymore, understand?
…
But Chi Yao and He Yang seemed different somehow.
Lin Zhexia felt that this problem that had appeared in her seventeen-year-old life was more difficult to solve than the extra math problems in front of her.
The only thing she could understand was that the “weirdness” between her and Chi Yao wasn’t what Chen Lin had described.
But what exactly it was, she still couldn’t figure out.
A few weeks after the start of the second year of high school, the school began organizing activities.