Chapter 261: Not Mature Enough ⑥
Time was gradually approaching the Senior High School Entrance Examination, and the weather was slowly becoming warmer. There was no winter’s cold, no spring’s chill, and no summer’s heat. In May and June, the transition between spring and summer, the weather could be considered the most comfortable for people. The temperature was just right, the scenery was just right, everything was just right.
The only thing that wasn’t quite right was probably studying. Graduates from the third year of junior high and the third year of senior high school are probably all like this, especially in the last semester. Studying suddenly becomes intense, and even students who don’t study well start to become serious, as if they want to cram all the knowledge they missed into their heads at once.
As the Senior High School Entrance Examination quietly approached, Ye Haifei suddenly felt very tired. He felt like he had been doing useless work, useless hopes, useless efforts, and even this liking was useless. Because Nie Qiu wouldn’t understand, even if he always stood behind her and treated her well, Nie Qiu wouldn’t turn around to look. Because in Nie Qiu’s eyes, he was just a thug, a boy who didn’t do his job properly. But… who could he blame? He could only blame himself. From the beginning, he didn’t want to be as diligent and studious as Ai Si Yuan, nor was he like Li Kai, who had an advantage from the start.
Ye Lian saw her younger brother lost in thought at her desk. She was stunned. Looking at the workbook under Ye Haifei’s elbow, she remembered seeing Ye Haifei doing his homework before and was surprised. Yes, she had been very surprised all semester. Her younger brother went to class punctually every day, without being late or leaving early. Except for the fight last time, he hadn’t fought again. And he diligently did the homework assigned by the teacher every day. The first time she saw her younger brother doing his homework, her feeling was not just surprise, but terror!
She knew her younger brother better than anyone. At two years old, he climbed mountains and dug holes. At three, he climbed onto the roof and pulled off tiles. At five, he was already forming gangs in kindergarten. From elementary school to junior high school, he never let the family worry. Excluding parent-teacher meetings, she couldn’t even count the number of times she had been called to school with all her fingers and toes.
But seeing her brother like this, she still felt relieved. He finally knew how to study well. If he couldn’t get into high school, he would either enter society or find connections to get into an ordinary high school. If he got in, that would naturally be the best.
She put down the medicine box in her hand, took off the coat from her clothes, and while changing into her white coat, she smiled at Ye Haifei, “What’s wrong? What are you spacing out about? Hurry up and do your homework! After you finish, we’ll go home to eat.”
“Sis…” Ye Haifei snapped back to attention and looked up at Ye Lian. His eyes were a little lost, “Mom said she wants me to go abroad… is that true?”
Ye Lian was stunned. The smile on her face gradually disappeared. She buttoned up her white coat and unconsciously tidied the medicine cabinet, then said to Ye Haifei, “Of course it’s true!”
She really hoped Ye Haifei could get into a good high school and a good university through his own abilities, but… she was not Ye Haifei’s guardian after all. The only one who could make decisions for Ye Haifei was that woman.
She and Ye Haifei were half-siblings. She was ten years older than Ye Haifei. When she was thirteen and Ye Haifei was three, Ye Haifei’s mother divorced her father. Her guardian was her father, and Ye Haifei’s guardian was his mother.
When Ye Haifei was five years old, that woman went abroad and left Ye Haifei alone at home, to be taken care of by a nanny. When Ye Haifei was in the first grade of elementary school, because someone called him an orphan, he got into a bloody fight with another boy and ended up in the hospital. The teacher couldn’t reach the nanny, so they contacted her father.
When she saw the boy in the hospital, his lips were always curved in a defiant smile. At seven years old, he was unusually mature and unusually rebellious. This was not the first time she had seen this young man. At that time, she was seventeen. She watched that defiant smile on the young man’s lips, a smile that had lasted for more than a decade.
From that day on, her father brought him to live with them. That woman would send living expenses to her brother every month.
When she was eighteen, her father left. Yes, he left, not died and went to another world, but left to escape debt. It was very dramatic, like something out of a TV series, a father who left to escape debt. Because he had guaranteed a friend, but that friend ran away, and the creditors came knocking.
That day, she had just received her vocational school graduation certificate and trembled as she looked at the menacing group of people. Her eight-year-old brother came out of the kitchen with a kitchen knife and wildly slashed at someone. Even after the knife was taken away, his eyes were sharp, like a wounded lion, or like a wounded puppy.
Then, her current boyfriend appeared.
It wasn’t dramatic. Her boyfriend was just a tenant living upstairs from them, a young man more than ten years older than her, a chef at a large hotel. He used all his savings to pay off her debt and helped her take her fainted brother to the hospital.
Perhaps because there were many people coming to collect money, and they left with money and blood, rumors spread throughout the residential area that her boyfriend was a member of the underworld. As for these rumors, she never explained anything. She just held the little man who had protected her with a kitchen knife in her arms, and then regarded him as her dearest person.
They depended on each other. When he registered for school, her name was always listed as the emergency contact. He was her family, and she was his only family.
It wasn’t until she received that phone call a few days ago that she suddenly realized that Ye Haifei was still a minor, he still had his mother, and he still had his guardian.
Go abroad?
Ye Haifei fell silent. Of course, he knew he didn’t have to go abroad. As long as he didn’t want to, no one could force him or say anything to him. But… why should he stay in the country? Look at himself now, surrounded by a group of men and women, all after his wallet. Pursue Nie Qiu? Nie Qiu wouldn’t like him like this either. He gave a bitter smile. He knew that as long as he stayed in the country, he wouldn’t change his ways. People would still come to him, and he would still go all out for so-called brothers. Going abroad might be good. If he went abroad, perhaps after a few years, everyone would forget him when he returned, and he would forget everyone. In that case… he could start all over again, right?
It’s just… he’s not reconciled, still not reconciled… When he sees Nie Qiu, his heart beats uncontrollably, as if it’s going to explode with joy. When he sees Li Kai, his heart feels unbearably uncomfortable, especially when Li Kai deliberately holds Nie Qiu’s hand in front of him, making him even more uncomfortable.
