Chapter 45
Mingwei Li really hated Yizhu Liu. Every day, he would only tease her for fun. She slapped the paper on him, turned around and left: "Go read more books and practice the piano more, instead of always messing with these useless things."
"Don't..."
Yizhu Liu was anxious, so he directly pulled her back from behind. Mingwei Li's body stiffened instantly and bounced up. She turned back and pushed him away, keeping a distance from him: "What are you doing!"
"No matter what I do, why don't you like it? You don't even want to talk to me when I try to have a few words with you."
Yizhu Liu told about his own helplessness, slowly walked up, and held Mingwei Li's hand: "What exactly is wrong with me that makes you dislike me so much? At least give me a chance to change."
Mingwei Li shook off his hand. Her small face wrinkled into a ball as she shook her head: "There is nothing wrong with you, we just really don't match."
"How do we not match?"
"I..." Mingwei Li was a little helpless. She turned her head to one side, not knowing how to tell him about this problem.
Seeing that she was a little embarrassed, Yizhu Liu took two steps back to let her sit on the chair. He took out the music score that she had personally written for her and placed it in front of her. He flipped to his favorite page.
Mingwei Li saw the words on it and was slightly embarrassed. Teacher Jin must have seen it when making the booklet. How could he have not picked it out for her!
She awkwardly laughed: "I just casually wrote when I was practicing writing. I just casually wrote."
Yizhu Liu chuckled lightly: "When you practice writing, are you always thinking of me?"
Mingwei Li uncomfortably turned her head away, pointing to the word after his name, and firmly said: "You can't even see the last word at all? I wasn't thinking of you, but thinking of how stupid you are."
"I've never seen anyone as stupid as you when it comes to learning the piano. So I had this feeling at that moment."
Um!
Mingwei Li nodded affirmatively. That's how it was, it must be so.
Yizhu Liu pretended to cater to her, but was secretly happy in his heart: "Oh, that's how it is. I must be really stupid then."
To be able to let you scold me over and over again, I must be stupid to the bone.
Mingwei Li couldn't stand his gaze. She quickly stood up and angrily said, "I'm going back now!"
Yizhu Liu grabbed her and drew her into his arms. He rested his chin on the top of her head and gently called out, "Mingwei~"
"Really, please give me a chance okay? If you are dissatisfied about anything, tell me, and I will try to resolve it. But don't keep rejecting me like this."
Resolve! How to resolve? Mingwei Li's mind gradually became clear. Some problems cannot be resolved. She fiercely stomped on Yizhu Liu's foot and ran away.
"Pervert! I don't want to see you again!"
Yizhu Liu yelped in pain. He tumbled and sat on the chair behind him. This little girl was quite vicious. He rubbed his aching toes, but his mouth was full of sweet smiles.
"Jerk, bastard, turtle egg!"
Mingwei Li kept cursing Yizhu Liu in her mouth as she jogged back to the Dong family.
When Chunhua Wang got up, she saw that the yard had already been swept, so she knew Mingwei Li was already awake. But there was no one in the room. She even went out and took another look around. At this moment, Mingwei Li came back, so she hurriedly went up to ask.
"You girl, didn't even say a word before going out. What were you doing so early in the morning?"
Mingwei Li mumbled, "I went to give New Year greetings to Teacher Jin. I prepared a gift for him too. I took the chance to deliver it."
Chunhua Wang looked at her, always keeping her head low, feeling strange. She stretched out her hand to lift up her head and saw that her small face was flushed red, and her breath was also a little unstable. She laughed and said, "What's the matter? You ran so fast that you're panting? Did you agitate Granny Lin's dogs and got chased? I told you not to mess with them randomly."
Mingwei Li touched her hot cheeks, feeling a bit embarrassed. She didn't agitate any dogs, but a dog pulled her close instead.
Chunhua Wang didn't think too much about it. Seeing that her eyes were also red and swollen, she felt so distressed. What Mingwei Li had told her yesterday was also considered confiding to her. She now felt even closer to her.
"Your eyes are also red. Go back to sleep for a while. Sister will cook and call you when it’s done."
"Okay."
Mingwei Li obediently returned to the room. She picked up the copper mirror and gently stroked her still slightly flushed cheeks. How annoying. If he dares to hug her again next time, she’ll have Lord Tang banish him to the north to mine as well!
When Chunhua Wang finished cooking breakfast and came over to call her, she saw that Mingwei Li was sleeping soundly, so she hesitated and didn't disturb her. Since she could still sleep, she probably wasn't too hungry either.
She returned to the table. Dong Shan handed her the freshly scooped porridge: "Where's my sister?"
"Let her sleep a little longer. I guess she didn't sleep well last night. Her eyes were so red, like a rabbit's."
"Alright, let’s eat first then."
After eating, Chunhua Wang kept Mingwei Li’s portion warm in the pot and went back to the room to pack things up. Tomorrow was the second day of the lunar new year. According to custom, she would be returning to her natal home.
Since she was only staying for one night, there weren’t many clothes to pack. She mainly needed to pack the new year gifts she had bought for her family and some other odds and ends.
Chunhua Wang hesitated, "Should we bring my sister along?"
"Let's not bring her. If you take her back, how will you explain to the villagers?" Dong Shan said, "Elder brother and sister-in-law told us earlier to just tell our family for now."
"What's so hard to explain? Just say she's my sworn sister who came along to play for a couple of days." Seeing that Dong Shan wouldn't agree, Chunhua Wang continued lobbying, "If you leave her alone at home, she wouldn't know how to cook either. Wouldn't she starve then?"
"She has money, how can she starve? There are still restaurants in town."
Chunhua Wang didn't say another word.
Dong Shan had no choice but to voice his concerns: "The snow still hasn't melted. Going to your hometown will be through mountain roads. I'll have to carry Little Lei and the gifts while you watch Little Yan. What about her? It's a two hour plus journey. Can she make it walking?"
"Minor bumps and scrapes are fine, but if her feet slip and she tumbles down the mountain, then things would go badly."
Of course Chunhua Wang knew about all these concerns he mentioned. But leaving Mingwei Li alone at home still made her feel uneasy no matter what.
Dong Shan took her hand and advised: "If you really want to take her back home to play, wait until the spring planting season when the snow has melted. I can then push the cart up and give her rides if she can't walk anymore."
"I'm not saying to take her back for fun. What is there fun to do in our village right now, other than snow?"
Chunhua Wang explained: "I'm worried about those boys—Wu Dong was captured but those other boys also know my sister still has that gold hairpin. I'm afraid they'll try something bad when they see us leaving."
The key thing was, several times earlier, she saw those boys loitering suspiciously outside their home. When she went out to check, they would immediately run away. No matter what, she just couldn't put her mind at ease about this.
"They know very well that we return home every year around this time. The only thing to fear is if my sister can't handle it alone when something unexpected happens, and ends up suffering a loss again."
Dong Shan had almost forgotten about the gold hairpin. Now that his wife mentioned it, he became worried again. That gold hairpin had so many pearls on it that looked really valuable. Those rascally boys had seen it before, so they must've kept thinking about it.