Back to 1988 76p1

Chapter 76 p1: Biased

The few girls walked over as they were strolling. Girls were used to walking arm in arm, and they would get together to pick out small bracelets and other things. The two pretty girls in the front were very close and seemed to be on good terms, talking and laughing.

Wang Bing whispered, “That one is called Jiang Yuan. She’s my deskmate and also our class’s study committee member, the class belle!” He was happily telling Mi Yang, and then he looked Mi Yang up and down warily and reminded him, “Let’s get this straight. You can’t compete with me for her.”

Mi Yang nodded. “I won’t.”

He was still looking in the direction of the girls. Wang Bing followed his gaze and said, “You’ve taken a liking to the one with the ponytail next to Jiang Yuan, right? It’s no use. Her name is Yang Liuqing. She’s the first in the whole school. She has good grades and is pretty. She’s very proud.”

Just as he was speaking, the few girls walked over to them. After they got closer, Wang Bing spoke first, “Hey, Jiang Yuanyuan!”

The girl with the braids was shy and said to him, “Don’t call me that.”

Wang Bing had heard her nickname once and had always liked to call her that, as if the two of them were particularly close. He had his own little thoughts, and he felt that calling her by a repetitive nickname made his heart feel sweet.

The few girls beside them came over and whispered, and after a while of laughing and joking, Jiang Yuan chased and hit them a couple of times, her face red. “What nonsense are you talking about? I don’t like him at all!”

Wang Bing only heard the last few words and asked, “What? Who likes who?”

Jiang Yuan said, “Anyone is fine, just not you.”

Wang Bing was thick-skinned and had already squeezed over without a care. He walked with Jiang Yuan and the other girls, protecting them on one hand and asking, “Hey, what are you buying today? I saw there are new song tapes over there. Didn’t you say you wanted to listen to songs last time? I’ll take you there.”

Jiang Yuan said, “Mm, is there any by Richie Jen? I like him the most.”

Wang Bing said, “Are you kidding me? Richie Jen is so ugly!!”

Jiang Yuan said angrily, “You’re the ugly one! Don’t you dare insult my idol!”

Wang Bing said, “Alright then. Actually, I also think Richie Jen is alright. I’ve even learned one of his songs. I’ll sing it for you! I want you to be with me, watching the sea turtles swim in the water~”

“It’s terrible. Don’t you dare sing Xiao Qi’s song!”

“Slowly crawling on the beach, counting the waves one by one~~”

…

Jiang Yuan was quite nice to this deskmate. Mi Yang, listening from the side, heard her asking Wang Bing how much homework he had done and if he had finished the test paper.

Wang Bing would get a headache whenever he talked about studying, but now he was actually listening seriously. He didn’t need his mom to twist his ear to study. He even recited an English essay for Jiang Yuan.

Mi Yang was amazed. The power of love was truly great.

The other few girls, seeing Mi Yang walking with them all the way and being a new face, were very curious about him. Yang Liuqing was walking beside Jiang Yuan. The two of them had originally been walking arm in arm. When Wang Bing came over, he had squeezed to the other side to be next to Jiang Yuan, so she and Mi Yang were walking side by side.

She looked at Mi Yang with some curiosity and asked him, “Are you also a student at our school? A transfer student?”

Mi Yang shook his head. “No, my grandma’s house is here. I’m here for the summer vacation.”

Yang Liuqing nodded and then chatted with him for a few more sentences, introducing themselves to each other. Seeing that Mi Yang was always looking at her, she couldn’t help but say, “Do you also think my name is very strange?”

Mi Yang said, “Hmm?”

Yang Liuqing sighed. “It’s really not deliberately poetic. It’s because my dad works at the Yangliuqing woodblock new year painting place in Tianjin, and his surname happens to be Yang, so he gave me this name.”

The same frankness, the same down-to-earthness as before. Mi Yang couldn’t help but laugh.

The first time he and Yang Liuqing had met, they had also said these few words. But at that time, they were classmates, and their relationship was better. The young lady Yang had said it to him with a roll of her eyes, not a single word wrong, complaining about her dad the whole time, saying that the name didn’t match her personality at all. Her personality and temper had also not changed at all over the years. She was a little clever and also very fiery and spicy.

Mi Yang remembered that she had gone to the city for high school and her grades were still very good. It was just that she had made a mistake that a little girl was most likely to make. She had fallen for a boy and had even written him a reserved love letter, without a signature, just a heart drawn on it. But she had personally handed it to the boy she liked, solemnly giving away her first little love. But that boy was not a good person. He had taken the letter out to show off, and it had been passed from the boys’ dormitory all the way to the teacher’s hands. The school had held a general assembly to criticize puppy love and had read the letter in front of all the teachers and students, saying in a sarcastic tone, “Would this ‘heart’ classmate please come to the dean’s office to receive a demerit? You’ve completely disgraced the school!”

Yang Liuqing was sitting in the classroom, the color drained from her beautiful face. She also felt that she had been completely disgraced.

The boy, afraid of being punished, had written a self-criticism in the dormitory, trying to shift all the responsibility.

Mi Yang couldn’t stand it. He stopped him and stood up, saying that he had written it.

The truth was no longer important. The school just wanted to set a rule and have someone come out and admit their mistake.

Mi Yang had taken the blame for her.

Yang Liuqing couldn’t be expelled. Her family’s situation was actually not good. She and her father lived alone. She was also very proud. Such an incident could completely crush a teenage girl. The public opinion alone would have made it impossible for her to stay at the school.

Mi Yang had many female cousins and had always been taught by his elders to cherish girls. He felt that all girls should be respected, so he had stood up and helped her.

The result was that he had gotten a minor demerit and had to write a five-thousand-word self-criticism. The dean’s office had asked him for the girl’s name, but Mi Yang had refused to say. When they asked him how long they had been dating, Mi Yang had just scratched his chin and said vaguely, “A week, I guess?”

Although he hadn’t said it, many people knew that it was related to Yang Liuqing. This “boyfriend of a week” naturally could not continue to be in the same class with her. Mi Yang was transferred to another class. And it was in that class that he had met Bai Luochuan.

The young master Bai had just transferred over at that time and had only been in high school in Shanhai Town for a little over a year. He had stayed here because Old Bai’s health was not good, and he had specially come to be with the old man.

The moment Mi Yang was transferred to that class, he was targeted by Bai Luochuan.

…

Thinking of this, Mi Yang looked at Yang Liuqing with a complicated expression. He had some good feelings for this smart and beautiful girl, but only as a classmate. Mi Yang had taken the blame and been her “boyfriend” for a short week. She had even half-jokingly said at her high school graduation that if she was still not married at 30, she would just make do with Mi Yang.

Mi Yang had just smiled at the time. That kind of sad literature was popular for a while in those years, and many little girls said such things. He hadn’t taken it to heart at all.

After he graduated, he had returned to Lu City. One time, when Yang Liuqing had come home to visit her family, they had run into each other. The two of them had had a simple cup of coffee, chatted about their recent situations, and then gone their separate ways.

The next time they met was at Bai Luochuan’s “engagement” party.

Mi Yang felt a little uneasy in his heart.

When Yang Liuqing was talking to him, he had no interest in answering and just nodded vaguely a few times, then said to Wang Bing, “I don’t see any books here. I’ll be going back first.”

Wang Bing didn’t get his meaning and still held onto him. “Let’s go together. There’s strength in numbers. We’ll help you find them.”

As Wang Bing said this, he went to chat with Jiang Yuan again, his eyebrows dancing as he even learned to sing a Cantonese song. His voice was a complete duck’s quack during puberty, which made Jiang Yuan and the other girls laugh.

The silly things boys of this age could do were just to get a girl’s attention.

Zhao Haisheng, after watching the juggling, had bought something and squeezed over. Seeing Wang Bing being a clown and trying to please her, he said in a muffled voice, “Poor, poor showing off.”

Mi Yang: “Hmm?”

Zhao Haisheng was a little stutterer and tried his best to say, “He’s, he’s taken a liking to the school belle. He wants to chase, chase chase her but can’t.” He concluded, “He’ll do anything stupid, like a monkey.”

Zhao Haisheng walked behind him with him and said with sympathy, “It’s better to be, be direct.”

Mi Yang looked at Wang Bing, who was one moment smiling and the next raising his eyebrows in anger. Something flashed in his mind, but it was too fast, and he couldn’t catch it.

At this moment, the sound of a car horn came from the main street in front. It was short, just a reminder. It was mixed with the muffled vibration of a car engine. Just from the sound, you could tell that the car was stuck in the street and couldn’t move.

Wang Bing said, “Which idiot…” He was glanced at by Jiang Yuan and carefully changed his words halfway, “silly person drove their car over today. It’s very crowded here. The main street is wide, but there are also a lot of people. It’ll take half an hour to get out.”

Mi Yang looked up and saw a familiar black Mercedes-Benz slowly moving like a turtle. From a distance, he could imagine the young master Bai’s furrowed brow. He was probably on the verge of losing his temper.

Mi Yang wanted to go over, but then he looked at the curious Yang Liuqing in front of him and stopped.

Mi Yang stood there and suddenly thought of a question—was she the one Bai Luochuan liked?

After all, the young master Bai had been engaged to her.

Mi Yang stopped and stood there, not moving.

Since he wasn’t moving, Zhao Haisheng, beside him, almost bumped into him. He let out an “aiyo” and asked, “What, what’s wrong?”

Wang Bing heard him and also turned back, putting his arm around Mi Yang’s shoulder like a good buddy. He had probably managed to talk to Jiang Yuan, and his mood had improved. He said with a grin, “Hey, what are you looking at? You haven’t moved for a long time. Let me have a look too.”