STT – Chapter 7

Huaixi, don’t be too good to me.

Lu Zizheng hurriedly arrived at the hotel entrance. As soon as she stepped outside, she saw Jiang Huaixi.

Jiang Huaixi was wearing a white knit hat, draped in a black long woolen coat, leaning against the car body, gently rubbing her hands together in front of her chest. Her usually pale face now had a hint of redness from the cold.

Seeing Lu Zizheng walking towards her, Jiang Huaixi put down her hands, with a faint smile, watching Lu Zizheng come closer step by step, and finally, stand in front of her.

She smiled at Lu Zizheng, somewhat proudly: “Are you surprised?”

Lu Zizheng slightly raised her head to look at her, not answering but asking instead: “How come you are here?”

Jiang Huaixi opened the car door for her, pulling her into the car, then closed the door, saying while driving: “Get in the car, I’ll take you somewhere. Hey, don’t be too touched, I’m here for business, just happened to be on the way to help you celebrate your birthday…”

Lu Zizheng gave a light hum, indicating she understood, then asked: “Have you eaten?”

Jiang Huaixi raised her eyebrows and answered: “If I don’t eat, would you be so touched to cook for me yourself? I don’t think you’re that nice.”

Lu Zizheng gave Jiang Huaixi a cold glance. If she hadn’t said that, she really would have considered taking her to eat, but now she coldly snorted: “I am indeed touched, I didn’t expect you to know me so well.”

Jiang Huaixi glanced at her, with a bit of a smile: “However, I came in a hurry and really haven’t eaten.”

Lu Zizheng furrowed her brows, half-believing and half-doubting, scrutinizing Jiang Huaixi, trying to discern the truth from her expression. Seeing that Jiang Huaixi didn’t seem to be lying, she bit her lip and said: “Then turn around, let’s go eat first. I know there’s a buffet kitchen next to the hotel where I’m staying.”

Jiang Huaixi’s lips curved upwards, smiling: “It looks like I still don’t know you well enough, you’re not that bad.” She paused, glanced at Lu Zizheng, seeing that Lu Zizheng had a bit of a smile on her lips, blinked, and added: “Just worse than I imagined. I came all the way here to see you, and you actually want to cook personally, making me come and never return.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Zizheng extended her hand, tore off a sticky note from her bag, and with a “pop,” accurately stuck it on Jiang Huaixi’s just-closed lips, making her shut up.

Jiang Huaixi quieted down, because she was too surprised, there was a moment of dumbfoundedness, her beautiful eyes opened wide. Then, she furrowed her brows, squinted her eyes, and turned her head to glare angrily at Lu Zizheng.

Lu Zizheng looked at Jiang Huaixi’s angry face with the sticky note, only feeling inexplicably funny and adorable, both silly and cute, couldn’t help but bend her eyes and laugh. She extended her hand and lightly helped Jiang Huaixi tear off the sticky note, then stuck the sticky note on the car window, looking at it, pursing her lips, and couldn’t stop laughing.

Jiang Huaixi wiped her lips, seeing Lu Zizheng’s expression so joyful, all her displeasure crumbled in an instant, so she only said in a cold voice: “For the sake of today being the birthday person’s biggest day, I, a great person, will not hold grudges against a petty person. This will not happen again.”

Lu Zizheng took out a pen, drew a cute angry face on the sticky note, tore it off from the car window, and stuck it in the middle of Jiang Huaixi’s steering wheel as a response.

Jiang Huaixi sighed.

The car drove for a good half an hour before Jiang Huaixi finally parked the car and let Lu Zizheng follow her out.

Lu Zizheng, under the streetlamp, looked around, and Jiang Huaixi surprisingly parked the car on Huanhai Road, where Lian Xuan had brought her before.

Jiang Huaixi stood beside her, pointing to a distant flashing point on the beach below, and said: “Do you see that flashing point at the very front? There, your birthday present is right there. You go down, walk from here, pick up all the glowing shells on the beach and open them, then, walk to the flashing point, and you can piece together your complete birthday present.”

Before Lu Zizheng could react, Jiang Huaixi got back in the car, rolled down the window, and said: “I’ll wait for you there, hurry up, it’s cold, don’t make me wait too long…” After saying that, she drove away…

Lu Zizheng could only complain while blowing the cold wind, “What is this, being all mysterious,” and with a sense of expectation, headed towards the beach.

Sure enough, she didn’t walk far before she saw the first glowing shell on the beach. She bent down, picked it up, and gently opened it, and a note fell out.

Under the streetlamp, she clearly saw the note read: Lu Zizheng is obviously poor as hell, yet still proud as hell, not knowing where she gets the capital to dare to act so high and mighty.

At that moment, Lu Zizheng’s heart trembled a bit. She put the paper back into the shell, closed it, hesitated for a while, and continued walking forward.

Then, she picked up the second shell and saw that the note read: Lu Zizheng must be a failure as a person, otherwise, look at why she is always alone, with no one paying attention to her.

She bit her lip, closed the shell, and continued walking forward.

In the third shell, the note read: Last time, I saw Lu Zizheng getting out of a luxury car, and the driver seemed to be an old man. Now when I see her, I just feel she is hypocritical and dirty.

Lu Zizheng stopped walking, looked up and took a deep breath of cold air, then had the courage to continue walking forward.

The fourth shell, the note read: Is Zheng Han’s grade worse than hers? Why did she get the National Scholarship spot? hehe, who doesn’t know that before the list was announced, she went into the counselor’s office alone and specially closed the door for more than half an hour.

Lu Zizheng felt that the wind here was so strong, it made her face hurt, and her eyes hurt as well…

She finally picked up the fifth shell, it read: Lu Zizheng, hahaha, isn’t her biggest asset just her face? I don’t know if all the boys are blind.

Lu Zizheng’s face was already pale as paper, until she saw the sixth one, she almost lost all the courage to keep walking forward.

The sixth note read: Come with me, the price is up to you, whatever you want, I can afford. Your reputation has long been known to everyone, why now pretend to be reserved with me.

At that moment, tears blurred Lu Zizheng’s eyes. She bit her lip and looked at Jiang Huaixi waiting at the finish line, only wanting to turn around and leave. She was so unwilling to believe that after six years of twists and turns with Jiang Huaixi, she was still standing at the starting point. Did Jiang Huaixi travel thousands of miles to give her such a birthday gift of humiliation?

However, in the next moment, she saw Jiang Huaixi turn around and, on the huge board behind her, write word by word with a fluorescent pen: Believe me, walk forward.

Lu Zizheng looked at those few words for a long time, looked at Jiang Huaixi’s upright figure, and finally, wiped away her tears and lifted her heavy steps.

She bent down to pick up the seventh shell, carefully opened it, and inside was a childish crayon drawing. It showed many children playing games around a long-haired woman, signed by Class 2, Grade 3. On the back of the drawing, it read: Teacher Lu, we love you, we miss you very much, you are the best and most beautiful teacher we have ever seen.

At that moment, Lu Zizheng could hardly believe it, Class 2, Grade 3, that was the class she had volunteered to teach during her freshman summer vacation.

Then, inside the eighth shell was a photo. In the photo, she was slightly bending over, carefully combing an old woman’s hair, and the old woman was smiling happily. Lu Zizheng turned over the photo, and on the back, it was written: You are the best child grandma has ever met; always remember to be happy.

This was the elderly woman she had taken care of at a nursing home she visited as a youth volunteer that year. After going once, she insisted on visiting the elderly woman every week until, unfortunately, the woman passed away six months later. And this photo, this message, when were they left behind? She had no idea.

Lu Zizheng began to change from her previous dejection, carrying some anticipation and anxiety as she walked forward. She opened the ninth shell, inside was a piece of gauze. On the gauze, written with a black pen: I will always remember the suffocating guilt I felt in my heart when you carried me to the hospital. You are the cleanest, kindest, and most self-sacrificing person I have ever seen. The signature was from Zhang Suoyin.

In her third year of university, during a class-themed group day, they organized to clean up the stubborn posters and advertisements around the school. Zhang Suoyin accidentally fell into the roadside ditch during the cleaning process, getting covered in mud, and with the help of her classmates, she climbed out, unable to stand up straight from the pain. The hospital was nearby, but the small team consisted only of girls, and when it came to carrying Zhang Suoyin to the hospital, everyone fell silent. Lu Zizheng was wearing a white coat that day, but without a word, she squatted down and carried her to the hospital. Yet, it was Zhang Suoyin who was one of those who loved to gossip about her the most in private.

Inside the tenth shell was a frequently seen certificate from Lu Zizheng’s university. The certificate had no award, only a passage: Zizheng, in my more than ten years of teaching, a good child like you, I have only seen one. Follow your own path and let others talk; all rumors and slanders will eventually collapse on their own over time. I believe your path will become steadier and smoother. Do come back to visit the teachers when you have time; we all miss you. It was the handwriting of her familiar advisor.

The distance to Jiang Huaixi is already not far, on the road, there are still two glowing shells.

Lu Zizheng opened the eleventh shell, it was an internship evaluation form, on which the unit’s evaluation simply wrote: I admire you, I want my daughter take you as an example. The signature was Ji Lan, her supervisor during her internship.

Finally, only the last shell was left. Lu Zizheng cast her gaze towards Jiang Huaixi, but Jiang Huaixi smiled and loudly complained: “Hurry up and move forward, why so slow, I’m cold…”

Lu Zizheng glared at her, really one sentence, ruined all the atmosphere.

She picked up the twelfth shell, opened it, and it was again a simple note, she slowly unfolded it, seeing the familiar handwriting on it, clear and elegant: In the future, if it is not what you said, if it is not what you told me, I won’t believe it. Jiang Huaixi.

At that moment, Lu Zizheng looked at Jiang Huaixi, tears once again blurred her vision.

Jiang Huaixi took a few steps forward, stood in front of Lu Zizheng, her brows slightly furrowed, and said seriously: “Zizheng, I know, along the way, you have suffered many baseless misunderstandings and criticisms from others. But, you have to know, there are more people who have seen your goodness and kept it in their hearts. Just like the beach you just walked on, the footprints you left, the tears you shed, all disappear after the wind blows. The past hurts, just like those, bury them all in the sand tonight, and from now on, forget them all…”

Lu Zizheng, with tears in her eyes, looked at Jiang Huaixi for a long time. Her tall and thin figure appeared so small and frail under the vast night sky, but Lu Zizheng knew, her slender shoulders were slowly supporting and rebuilding the world that collapsed in her early years.

For the first time in front of Jiang Huaixi, she did not hide any of her emotions, and she took the initiative to embrace Jiang Huaixi, teasing her with a smile in her ear: “Such pretentious things, only you would do.”

Jiang Huaixi softly and gently laughed in response: “Who makes you, Lu Zizheng, such a pretentious person, I’m just catering to your preferences. These pretentious words, do you find them pleasing?” As she spoke, Lu Zizheng suddenly felt that Jiang Huaixi seemed to sway a bit, standing somewhat unsteadily.

Her mind shifted, she quickly let go of Jiang Huaixi, went to grab her hand, and found it cold to the bone. Reaching out to feel her forehead, she found it burning hot, and couldn’t help but lose her smile, asking anxiously: “Are you having a fever?”

Jiang Huaixi, however, smiled and said indifferently: “Oh, I didn’t know, maybe, the wind here is quite strong, a bit cold.”

Lu Zizheng couldn’t care about anything else, hurriedly trying to take off her clothes to drape over Jiang Huaixi. Jiang Huaixi, however, firmly clutched her hand, stopping her actions. Lu Zizheng glared at her, but she just smiled without saying anything.

Lu Zizheng looked at her pale smile, helpless, she silently turned around, pulling Jiang Huaixi’s hand, heading towards the car.

Yet, Jiang Huaixi was still recklessly dissatisfied: “Let’s take a photo for memory, actually, I also arranged for someone to prepare a fireworks show, it hasn’t been set off yet.”

Lu Zizheng just whispered angrily at her: “So noisy, shut up, come back to the hotel with me.”

She didn’t know, Jiang Huaixi followed behind her, looking at her anxious and hurried steps, her eyes full of tenderness.

Back at the hotel, Jiang Huaixi insisted on going to the bathroom, washed up before getting on the bed, took the fever medicine, and drowsily fell asleep. Her long body only occupied a thin, long small part of the big bed. Lu Zizheng, for the first time, found so clearly that Jiang Huaixi was so thin, thin to the point of making one’s heart ache…

Her hands trembling, she gently touched Jiang Huaixi’s pale yet flushed cheek, cursing her softly: “Fool, Jiang Huaixi, you big fool…”

She looked at Jiang Huaixi’s calm sleeping face, hesitated for a long time, but still couldn’t help bending down to gently kiss Jiang Huaixi’s burning forehead, murmuring: “Huaixi, don’t be too good to me…”

LP: Re-translated on July 01, 2024