Chapter 15 Part 2

Lin Zhexia closed her eyes and pulled away from the memory. At the same time, she heard some rustling on the side. It was Chi Yao lying down.

The two were very near each other. The sofa wasn’t a tall one. She can touch Chi Yao’s hair if she lowered her hand and leaned a little more to the side.

She stretched out her hand and pulled the blanket up a little, over the tip of her nose, and said in a small voice, “Chi Yao Chi Yao, are you asleep?”

“No.”

“I can’t sleep.”

“Do you know how to story tell?” Lin Zhexia said again. “Maybe I’ll fall asleep faster if I listen to a story.”

Chi Yao asked back, “How old are you?”

Lin Zhexia, “I’m three this year.”

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Rd vbl eyaj, vbl zkhkdt assx oyp iwklv qsa y obkzl, yde vbld vblal nyxl y pzktbv dskpl. Nkd Hblmky pyo y zkvvzl zktbv nsxkdt qasx vbl csvvsx sq vbl psqy, Ubk Zys wdzsnjle bkp rbsdl okvb y pokrl.

“Ebyv es usw oydv vs blya?”

“Gduvbkdt osajp. Rv’zz cl clpv kq kv’p psxlvbkdt pwkvyczl qsa tkazp.”

Gqvla y zsdt vkxl, Ubk Zys cltyd okvbswv qllzkdt, “Xdnl wrsd y vkxl, vblal oyp y taswr sq okze csyap.”

Lin Zhexia huddled in her blanket, feeling a little suffocated, “Don’t you think you have some mis! under! standings! about girls!?”

After another while.

Chi Yao spent a long time on his phone and finally found one, “There was a group of rabbits in the forest… tsk, rabbits should be fine right.”

This one seems okay.

Stories related to rabbits will never have any bizarre unfoldings.

Lin Zhexia stopped talking for him to read on.

When Chi Yao told the story, he had no feelings. Even his words vaguely revealed a personal attitude of “what kind of retarded story is this?”. However, because his voice was much lower and it was a nighttime setting, Lin Zhexia somehow felt that the voice next to her ears was even a little gentle.

“The little rabbits are going out to pick carrots, little rabbit Rabbitty,” In the middle of it, he paused to roast, “The hell is this name?”

Lin Zhexia, “Can you not improvise, it will spoil the atmosphere of the story.”

Chi Yao, “It’s already a rabbit, is it necessary to name it Rabbitty?”

Lin Zhexia, “…Leave it alone.”

Chi Yao, “It’s me who’s telling the story, I find it awkward to say.”

Lin Zhexia huddled in her blanket, too lazy to argue with him, so she said casually, “Then just change its name.”

Chi Yao’s voice paused for a moment, and then continued to read without expression, “Little rabbit Xiaxia came out with her basket and her beloved lotus leaf umbrella.”

“Even if the name needs to be changed,” Lin Zhexia felt a deep sense of shame, “Don’t! change! it! to! mine!”

This boring story about picking carrots was very long.

In the middle, the little rabbit met the black bear and the cunning fox. Her umbrella was also swindled by the fox. Finally, the weather changed and it rained.

Lin Zhexia was already feeling sleepy when she heard the second half of the story. Before the end, she closed her eyes and asked drowsily, “…what happened in the end?”

Chi Yao turned the page.

During these few seconds of pause, he heard Lin Zhexia’s quiet breathing.

She fell asleep before she got to hear the ending.

Chi Yao’s eyes behind his bangs were lit by the screen. He propped up his hand and half sat up to look at the person on the sofa.

The girl’s hair was very messy, scattered in a disorderly manner. She slept sideways with one hand pressed against her face and the other hand hanging on the edge of the sofa. Her thin wrist almost touched his hair.

Chi Yao stared for a while.

The Lin Zhexia in front of him gradually overlapped with the one who huddled on his sofa many years ago.

Other than that thunderstorm, he also remembered another scene.

It was a few years ago, the night before junior high school.

Lin He suggested that Lin Zhexia should go to a girls’ school because she was too wild in their community.

“You are a girl,” Lin He said angrily， “do you think chasing and beating up He Yang all day is proper?”

At that time, Lin Zhexia straightened up her neck and said, “He deserves a whacking.”

Lin He, “You still dare to talk back–?”

Lin He was carrying a broom and wanted to smack her, but Lin Zhexia could always run away. As a result, the two often played a mother-daughter confrontation scene in the community.

Lin Zhexia, “He bullied Chi Yao first.”

Lin He, “Then you can reason with him. Why must you use your hands?”

Lin Zhexia said coldly, “In the world of men, we solve problems with fists.”

Lin He let out a laugh of anger, she shouted as she chased, “…Get over here, stop running! Right now I’m also going to solve our problems with my fists! Stop right there!”

Lin Zhexia didn’t think there was any problem with going to a girls’ school at the start. It’s still attending school anyway. It was until the start of school approached, she realized that other people in the community all went to the same school, which meant they could go to school together, finish school together, or even go to the concession stand to buy food together.

Only her, she will be all alone by herself, in another school.

The night before school, she finally broke down and cried in front of him for a long time, “I don’t want to go to school alone. I want to go with you guys. I won’t hit He Yang anymore, I will reason with him, is it still no good if I reason?”

She cried and even let out a hiccup.

That night, Lin Zhexia talked a lot. One thing she said was, “…Chi Yao, can you become a girl and go to school with me?”

It was also one of the few times that she showed her vulnerability in front of him.

Just like being afraid of thunder, she is very timid. She’s afraid of differences between people and is always insecure.

The scene in memory switched again.

It flashed to his junior high school. After he wrote his school choices, the teacher asked him to go to the office. The 40-year-old director spoke carefully, “Did you accidentally write No. 2 High School when you meant to write No. 1?”

“No,” He heard himself say at that time, “I wrote No. 2 High School.”

…

Chi Yao retracted his eyes and looked at his phone.

He noticed that the story about little rabbits picking carrots ended with a simple line: When the rain stopped, they finally picked carrots and returned home happily.

“It was sunny after the rain,” Chi Yao said quietly. “And the little rabbit saw a rainbow. Good night, scaredy cat.”