In the first year of junior high school, Jiang Yuan huddled under the covers, furtively reading a romance novel. Just as she was wearing a cheesy smile on her face, the covers were suddenly yanked off, and a blinding light flooded in.
She instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes, and was greeted by her mother's angry roar.
"Jiang Yuan! How many times do I have to catch you playing on your phone instead of sleeping? You're never getting your phone back!"
Her beloved phone was confiscated, and from that day on, her mother kept a tight rein on her phone usage.
By the third year of junior high school, the times she got to play on her phone could be counted on one hand.
When she woke up the next morning, she had huge dark circles under her eyes. Feeling guilty, she wolfed down her breakfast at home, slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, and slipped out.
Downstairs, Jiang Yuan bumped into Chixu, who was waiting for the bus. It was just dawn. The young man was dressed in a black-and-white school uniform, with his schoolbag slung diagonally across his body. Black earphones were wrapped around his earlobes. He was slouching against the bus stop, looking lazy.
Hearing the footsteps approaching him, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and opened them to see Jiang Yuan.
The dark circles under her eyes stood out prominently against her fair, almost translucent cheeks.
Chixu burst out laughing without mercy. Then he raised his eyebrows and drawled, "I thought a panda was walking towards me. Turns out it's just you."
Jiang Yuan shot him a resentful look but didn't say a word.
Huh?
Chixu perked up. He sized Jiang Yuan up and down and asked, "What's wrong? Who upset our Yuanyuan so early in the morning?"
"My phone was confiscated," Jiang Yuan mumbled, her voice trailing off in the air.
Chixu was listening to English audio and didn't catch what she said. He took off his earphones, leaned in, and asked, "Sorry, I didn't hear you. Your voice is as soft as a mosquito's."
"If I speak louder, you'll just complain that I'm buzzing in your ear like a mosquito. You're always right, aren't you?"
Jiang Yuan shouted, glaring at him angrily. She didn't even call him "Big Brother Chixu" like she usually did. Her voice was laced with frustration over her confiscated phone.
Although, he was an innocent bystander.
Chixu clicked his tongue and asked with interest, "Did someone really upset you? You're like a powder keg this morning, ready to explode at any moment."
"I said, my phone was confiscated!"
Little Jiang Yuan planted her hands on her hips and stared at Chixu angrily, looking like she had suffered a great injustice. She came to him to vent her frustration.
Chixu finally understood. This girl was just using him as a punching bag. Once she got it out of her system, she'd be fine.
He didn't take it to heart. He let out a soft laugh, his eyes filled with a lazy smile. "It's not a big deal. People might think I bullied you if they didn't know."
"Your Big Brother Chixu doesn't have the guts."
"Hmm? Still glaring at me? There's no sign of your confiscated phone on my face."
Chixu let out a sigh, half in resignation and half in amusement. He tilted his head slightly and reached out to ruffle Jiang Yuan's hair. Her hair instantly became a mess.
Jiang Yuan was about to explode. Her almond eyes widened in anger, and her cheeks puffed out cutely. Chixu's heart melted at the sight.
He reached out and pinched her soft cheeks. They felt just as he had imagined, and he liked it.
Jiang Yuan completely lost her temper, like a little beast that had been provoked.
Just then, the bus pulled up to the stop. The crowd surged forward, and Jiang Yuan didn't have time to scold Chixu for his shameless behavior. She was pushed onto the bus with the others.
She found a seat on the bus and was about to look for Chixu when a lazy voice floated down from above her head, instantly calming her down.
"It's just a phone. I have an old one you can use."
Jiang Yuan was stunned. She looked up at Chixu, who was standing in front of her.
He was smiling freely. The sunlight outside the window slanted in crookedly, warm and cozy. His handsome eyebrows and eyes were perfectly shaded, and under the shadow, his school uniform was bathed in a golden glow.
The old phone of Chixu was temporarily given to Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan didn't have her own phone number. Her mother had two numbers, and she gave one of them to Jiang Yuan.
While her mother was sleeping, Jiang Yuan used facial recognition to unlock her mother's phone. Like a thief, she sent a verification code and successfully logged into the ID of Chixu's old phone.
Then she secretly clicked delete and made a hasty retreat.
This phone was hard-won, so Jiang Yuan cherished it even more. She often found various excuses to go to Chixu's house to play on the phone, under the pretext that Chixu was tutoring her in her studies.
He really was tutoring her.
Chixu insisted that she finish all her homework before she could play on the phone, and he watched her like a hawk.
Her grades didn't decline. Instead, they steadily improved. Her mother's eyes towards Chixu were filled with more kindness.
Jiang Yuan didn't dare to let her mother find out what she was up to. Every time she was at Chixu's house, she would run into his bedroom to hide and read novels, for fear that her mother would suddenly appear and catch her off guard.
Her mother would never enter Chixu's bedroom.
Jiang Yuan thought happily.
This went on for more than half a year. The desk in Chixu's bedroom had become Jiang Yuan's exclusive property, and the desktop was filled with a row of cute dolls.
Later, her secret was exposed. Jiang Yuan tearfully referred to this day as the "Phone Incident".
She was just too complacent and forgot to close the door of Chixu's bedroom. The front door was ajar, and Chixu had disappeared somewhere.
Her mother came in, and Jiang Yuan didn't hear a thing.
Just as she was about to let out an excited laugh when the male and female leads in the novel were about to kiss...
Her mother's voice came from in front of her, calm as ever.
"Jiang Yuan, what are you looking at so happily?"
"Of course it's my..." beloved male and female leads.
Halfway through her sentence, Jiang Yuan looked up suddenly and saw her mother. Her face turned as white as a sheet.
The cheesy smile finally turned into a shrill scream of terror.
Her phone was confiscated again. Her mother returned the phone to Chixu. Jiang Yuan didn't know what her mother said to Chixu, but after that, Chixu never let her use the old phone again.
After the "Phone Incident", Chixu explained, half helplessly and half amusedly, "I went downstairs to buy something. I even told you before I left that the door was unlocked. But you were so engrossed in your novel that you didn't even notice."
"If you like novels so much, why don't you just devour them?"
He was scolding her indirectly.
Jiang Yuan twitched the corner of her mouth and let out a couple of forced laughs but didn't say anything else.
It was all her fault. She was so immersed in the novel that she didn't know what was going on outside. She was doomed.
Jiang Yuan returned to her boring life without a phone.
Just like before, she would slip into Chixu's house after school. After finishing her homework, she would sweet-talk Chixu into letting her play with the old phone again.
Chixu said, "Your mouth is as sweet as honey. Aren't you afraid of getting stung by bees?"
Jiang Yuan was overjoyed, thinking she had a chance.
But then Chixu drawled, "You should be careful."
Jiang Yuan got into a fierce fight with Chixu but naturally lost. From then on, she watched pitifully as Chixu played on his phone right in front of her without a care in the world.