You hidden in my heart - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The third-grade high school students’ classes started at 6.30 a.m., so Li Xining got up at 5:45 every morning. The housekeeping aunt didn’t come until eight o’clock, so her usual breakfast was simple and quick food like milk and bread.

But when Yu Wenyin was at home, she would prepare breakfast for her daughter, her father-in-law, and her mother-in-law.

All four members of the family gathered in the dining room at 5:55 a.m.

While eating, Grandma suddenly asked, “Xiaoyao came back last night and said that the bicycle had broken down. Why did it break down? Did you fall?”

Li Xining’s nickname was “Xiaoyao”.

Yu Wenyin quickly answered them before her daughter because she was afraid that Li Xining would tell the whole story and it would frighten the two elders: “It’s just a fall; it’s not serious.”

But Grandpa still became nervous. “If it was not serious, then why was her bicycle broken?”

“Don’t worry, Dad. Everything is alright. Her bicycle is old, and it can easily break. Think about it, she has been riding it for more than two years.” Yu Wenyin said this with a sad smile.

The old couple felt relieved and continued to eat. Yu Wenyin glared at Li Xining: ‘See if you dare to be careless when crossing the road in the future!’

Li Xining got the message that her mother’s eyes said, didn’t dare to speak, and just kept her while eating.

After a while, the old lady said again, “Xiaoyao, eat quickly and let your mother drive you to school after eating, so you will not be late.”

But the grandfather had another thought. “You should eat slowly; you will choke if you eat too fast,” he said while glaring at his wife.

“Then the child will be punished for being late?” The grandmother didn’t intend to listen to her old man.

Seeing that the old couple was about to quarrel over such a trivial matter, Yu Wenyin quickly persuaded them, “You don’t need to worry so much about that. Someone will pick her up and take her to the school.”

Li Xining looked at her mother with a frown. ‘Mom, did you sell me out just like that?’

The attention of the old couple was successfully diverted. “Who?”

“Who else can it be, a handsome guy,”  Yu Wenyin said with a smile.

Li Xining: “…” ‘Ms. Yu Wenyin, you are not honest at all!’

Just when Li Xining felt that her grandparents should give her some ideological education on the topic of “puppy love”, her grandfather said to her grandma very arrogantly, “You still said that our little girl has no relationship with the opposite sex. How is it possible? Our little girl is so beautiful. How can there be no young man to show his affection?”

Li Xining: “…” ‘I really didn’t realise that you old couple are still gossiping in private.’

The grandma replied, “Young girl, let’s not fall in love early. It’s not good to fall in love early, and it will delay your study.”

Li Xining blushed. “I know, I didn’t fall in love early, don’t listen to my mother’s nonsense.” After finishing speaking, she glared at her mother angrily.

Yu Wenyin was looking at them happily and then clarified for her daughter a few minutes later. “Mom, it’s not puppy love, just a classmate. After she fell down yesterday, the young man sent her home. I guess he will come to pick her up this morning.”

“Maybe he is chasing our little girl,” Grandmother said with a frown.

The old man retorted. “Look at your thoughts; why do you have such cruel thoughts? He was kind enough to send Xiaoyao home, but you have to say that he has other thoughts.”

The old lady became angry. “Do you think everything I say is wrong?”

The old man said, “I didn’t; I just corrected your mistakes.”

The old lady: “An annoying old thing!”

The old man said, “An old woman with a bad temper!”

Both Li Xining and Yu Wenyin were amused by this cute old couple. The two old people had been arguing for a lifetime, and the relationship got better and better. Moreover, the older they were, the more they were like children. No one obeyed the other one. They fought every day.

After eating, Li Xining put on her schoolbag and got ready to go to school. Yu Wenyin took the car keys to see her off, and the old couple went downstairs with the mother and daughter.

Usually, whether Yu Wenyin was at home or not, the old couple would walk their granddaughter downstairs every morning. After Li Xining went to school, they strolled in the nearby park before returning home.

The four family members went downstairs, and Grandfather Li asked while looking here and there, “Will that young man really come to pick up our little one?”

Li Xining was shy. “Grandpa!”

The old man said, “I just want to see what he looks like.”

The grandma took her granddaughter’s hand and said angrily, “Don’t pay attention to him, annoying old thing!”

The old man waved his hand indifferently. “Okay, let’s not look at him!”

Hearing her grandparents’ words, Li Xining blushed and gave her mother a look that said, ‘Look, who did a good job!’

Yu Wenyin pretended not to see it and just said leisurely, “Hey, the weather is pretty good today…”

………

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Lu Yuling had arrived at the gate of the community at six o’clock in the morning and had been waiting for nearly twenty minutes now. His bicycle can only carry one person, so he went to find his cousin Lu Ye last night and borrowed a bicycle that could carry more people.

He thought countless times about what he should do to appear as though he were simply passing by rather than waiting here for her chance encounter throughout the twenty minutes of waiting. And when she saw him, she would definitely be surprised and would ask, “You… why are you here?”

At this time, he would pretend to be calm and would reply, “Oh, it just happened to be on the way; by the way, how do you go to school? How about I take you?”

………

Yu Wenyin usually parked her car in a spot outside the old community because there weren’t many parking spots there. She noticed Lu Yuling sharply just before she left the neighbourhood. She was initially drawn to this youngster because of his wild yellow hair, of course. She swiftly pulled at her mother-in-law’s sleeve and yelled, “Mom! Mom! Look at that kid on the bicycle at the entrance. He is that boy!”

The old lady and the old man quickly opened their eyes widely and looked towards the gate of the community.

Li Xining didn’t see Lu Yuling at first, but after hearing her mother’s words, she realised that he had really come. Her cheeks turned red instantly, and her heartbeat became a little fast. She quickly hid the smile that came to her lips, afraid of being seen by her mother because she would definitely tease her when she came home.

The old lady frowned when she saw Lu Yuling clearly and asked, “What kind of hair is this? The hair is dyed like a chicken coop.”

This time, the old man stopped arguing with the old lady and followed his wife’s words. “Yes, just look at it. It’s not a good thing, the hair is dyed like a weasel. He looked like a troublemaker!”

“Hey, don’t just look at his hair. Look at his face. Don’t you think that he is very handsome?” Yu Wenyin joined the family discussion group.

Without waiting for the old couple to answer, Li Xining directly interrupted the conversation between the three of them, saying, “Okay, you three, don’t talk for now. He will hear you.”

As the granddaughter spoke, the two old people didn’t dare to continue talking, and Yu Wenyin didn’t talk anymore. When they walked to the gate of the community, Yu Wenyin especially thanked Lu Yuling, saying, “Thank you for taking Xining home last night.”

As Yu Wenyin talked suddenly, Lu Yuling’s mind went blank, his whole body became as hard as wood, and he replied, “No, aunty… Aunty, it’s okay…”

Yu Wenyin was amused by his stammering and then said to her daughter in a natural tone, “You two Go to school, I’ll go to the park with my grandparents.”

Li Xining stared at her mother, dumbfounded. – You’re pretty easy!

Yu Wenyin pretended not to see her and left with the two old people.

The old couple and Yu Wenyin walked about 50 meters when suddenly the old lady turned her head and stared at Lu Yuling’s back thoughtfully for a while, and a familiar figure appeared in her mind. She thought for a while but couldn’t remember who he was.

At this time, the old man also started talking. “Old lady, do you think that young man is very similar to the eldest son of the old Zhao family when he was young?”

The old lady suddenly realised who he was and said in surprise, “Yes, yes! That’s why that boy’s face looked so familiar!”

Yu Wenyin became curious and asked them, “The eldest son of the old Zhao family?”

The old lady explained, “Yes, Zhao Hailan. Our two families were neighbours.”

Yu Wenyin: “Oh, the boss of Zhengxing Group, he had a good relationship with Xining’s father back then.

Zhengxing Entertainment, under the Zhengxin Group, was very famous in the entertainment field. It was not only an artist management company but also a record and film production company with outstanding resources and strong strengths. It had many well-known artists and occupied almost half of the entertainment circle. As the boss, Zhao Hailan could be condensed as a leading figure in the entertainment circle.

Mrs. Li continued. “Don’t look at that Zhao kid, who is very promising now. He was very rebellious when he was a child. He smoked, coloured his hair, and wore bell-bottom pants. He knew how to fight every day without going to school. He wore sunglasses wherever he went. It didn’t matter if he did those things alone; he took our Zhang’er with him. Hmph, he really was not a good person!”

Zhang’er was Li Zhang, Li Xining’s father.

Yu Wenyin hadn’t heard about this past, so she asked with a smile, “What happened later?”

The old lady said, “Our Zhang’er studied well and got into a good university. After he graduated from university, his father and I sent him to study abroad for graduate school. Unexpectedly, Zhao Hailan, who didn’t study well, was also selected for the university, and after graduating, he didn’t study further and started a business with his father.”

The old man added, “The night before Zhang’er went abroad, Zhao Hailan came to see him, saying that he was seeing him off, and took two bottles of wine in a decent manner. They hugged each other and cried, and they said that good brothers would go together for a lifetime.”

The old lady also laughed when she heard that. “They even had an arrangement at that time to make a baby kiss, but they both gave birth to daughters, and no one mentioned the baby kiss anymore.”

Yu Wenyin continued: “Fortunately, we all have daughters. His wife doesn’t know how to teach the children. Look at his daughter. She always bullied our Xining. When our Xining was young, that girl beat our girl, and when Xining beat her back, she cried and complained to her mother, saying our Xining beat her first. Luckily, Mr.Zhao’s wife didn’t give birth to a boy.”

Hearing about Zhao Hailan’s wife, the old lady sighed. “That woman… ah, she was very cunning and got what she deserved. Zhao Hailan didn’t want to marry her at the beginning, so she got him drunk, conceived a child, and finally married into the Zhao family, but Zhao Hailan never loved her, and she didn’t get Zhao Hailan’s heart until she died. She had lived a miserable and useless life all her life.”

Yu Wenyin knew that Zhao Hailan’s wife died early because of breast cancer, but she didn’t know that there was such a past between her and Zhao Hailan.

The old man said, “Hey, don’t mention this matter. People have been gone for many years.”

The old lady was not convinced. “Did I mention this first? Didn’t you first say that kid looks like Zhao Hailan?”

The old man said, “That is indeed similar; it is exactly the same as when Zhao Hailan was young. By the way, what is the boy’s name?”

Yu Wenyin replied, “Lu Yuling.”

The old man pondered for a moment and said, “Oh, the surname is Lu.”

………

After her mother left with her grandparents, Li Xining asked Lu Yuling with a frown, “Why are you here?” When she asked this question, her heart beat inexplicably faster, and it seemed that she had returned to the scene of last night. That strange state—Princess Lu was a stove and felt warm when she got close to him

The lines that had been rehearsed thousands of times in his head just came in handy, and Lu Yuling replied calmly without showing any anxiety. “It just happens to be on the way.” Before Li Xining could answer, Lu Yuling quickly threw out the second line. “By the way, how do you go to school? How about I take you?”

Li Xining had already found out that Lu Yuling had changed the bicycle so that it could carry two people, but she didn’t expose him; instead, she nodded slightly.

Lu Yuling’s heart exploded, but he concealed it very well; his expression was still calm, and he rode on the bicycle calmly, holding the handlebars with both hands. He looked sideways at Li Xining, pretending to be relaxed, and said, “Come on.”

Sitting on the back seat of his bicycle, Li Xining was in a dilemma because she didn’t know where to put her hands. After thinking about it, she finally grabbed the corner of his clothes.

At this time, the sun was rising, and Lu Yuling stepped on the pedal. The person in the back seat was very light. The morning breeze was blowing at the corners of Lu Yuling’s eyes and brows. Li Xining raised her head slightly, looked at Lu Yuling’s tall back, and suddenly said, “Lu Yuling, are you free at noon?” Her tone was very soft.

Lu Yuling froze. – ‘Is she asking me out? Do I agree or not? Isn’t it too immodest to agree right away? But if I don’t agree, the opportunity will be missed, and there will be no second chance!’

Lu Yuling instantly forgot about the basketball appointment with the third class at noon and said casually, “Free.”

Li Xining was very satisfied with this answer. “Alright, I’ll wait for you in the classroom after lunch. I’ll make up your physics homework for you.”

Lu Yuling: ‘I’m so excited; why did you just mention this to me?’

End of chapter 6

Have a nice day!