Chapter 86: For Whom Did He Plant the Apple Tree?
After Lu Ziyi ate breakfast, he disappeared. Zhao Congrui and Lin Houchun went off to play their own games, while Ye Chuxiao stayed alone in her room, feeling very bored.
She looked left and right, searching for something to pass the time.
This room must have been used as Lu Ziyi’s study room before. Against the east wall, a bookshelf and a desk facing south were still preserved.
Ye Chuxiao walked over and saw a bamboo-jointed pen holder on the desk’s surface, holding several dark green drafting pencils and two single-sided blades.
At the corner of the desk sat a sketchbook with a kraft paper cover. Ye Chuxiao casually flipped through it; it contained architectural sketches drawn by Lu Ziyi.
Ye Chuxiao looked through them carefully. Senior Student Ziyi’s sketches were very well done. Imagining him diligently drawing, Ye Chuxiao’s rosy lips couldn’t help but purse into a faint smile.
It was just a pity that there weren’t many drawings, and she finished admiring them quickly.
Bored, Ye Chuxiao looked at the bookshelf and browsed through the rows. Ye Chuxiao chuckled in amusement. Senior Student Ziyi seemed to be someone with an unusual childhood. Besides related professional books, she couldn’t find any books for leisure.
However, perhaps for Senior Student Ziyi, reading professional books was also a form of leisure.
Ye Chuxiao looked at the bottom row of the leftmost column and found a book titled “Appreciation of Ancient Castle Sketches.” Although the book was kept flat, it was quite old.
Ancient castle sketches appreciation? Perhaps only this book could be flipped through to pass the time. Looking at castles from various places around the world and imagining the happy lives of princes and princesses wouldn’t be bad.
Ye Chuxiao took out the book and was about to flip through it when she suddenly heard a “knock, knock” at the door. It was Aunt Leng Yanfei calling, “Xiaoxiao!”
Ye Chuxiao responded with an “Ahem,” and the book in her hand slipped down.
She felt a flustered sense of being caught looking at someone else’s things. Only now did she remember that she hadn’t asked Senior Student Ziyi’s permission before flipping through his books.
As the book fell to the floor, several sheets of white paper and an envelope that were tucked inside scattered everywhere.
Ye Chuxiao quickly crouched down, gathered the white paper and the envelope, and tucked them back into the book.
Outside the door, Leng Yanfei called again, “Xiaoxiao?”
“Please wait a moment!” Ye Chuxiao put the book back in the cabinet and hurried to open the door.
“I’m sorry…” Ye Chuxiao said apologetically.
Leng Yanfei asked kindly, “Did Auntie disturb Xiaoxiao?”
“No, I… I don’t have anything to do either.”
“Ziyi is really something, I don’t know what he’s busy with.” Leng Yanfei invited, “Xiaoxiao, would you like to go for a walk in the garden with Auntie?”
“Uh…” Ye Chuxiao’s heart felt inexplicably strange.
The garden? Was it the garden where Senior Student Ziyi planted an apple tree? Could it be that he really planted it for a girl from his childhood? When the apple tree grew big and bore a tree full of fruit, they would also grow up, and he would propose to her?
Ye Chuxiao felt she was being inexplicable. Why did she have a feeling of dejection? Her heart felt a little sour, it was truly inexplicable!
“What’s wrong, Xiaoxiao?” Leng Yanfei asked with concern. “Or does Xiaoxiao want to see the town’s historical sites?”
“No… no, it’s not that,” Ye Chuxiao said softly. “I want to see the garden.”
Actually, she also wanted to see the apple tree that Senior Student Ziyi planted when he was a child, even if it was a bit… heart-wrenching.
More than ten years have passed, how big has the apple tree grown? In this season, would it already be bearing small green apples?
