As Elder Chen had instructed, Chen Huaixiao would come to the Jiangnan small town every weekend.
During the weekends, Bai Yin would often spend time with him.
However, they didn't play together much, because Bai Yin had promised the Elder to be in the top ten of her grade before graduating from high school.
With the heavy workload and tasks at hand, she had to make up for her weaker subjects no matter what.
In the morning, Bai Yin read English vocabulary out loud in the yard.
Chen Huaixiao looked like he had just woken up, his handsome face still drowsy, his messy hair disheveled. He yawned lazily as he leaned against the door.
"Did I wake brother up?"
"What do you think?"
Chen Huaixiao's rhetorical question was spoken in an extremely standard British accent.
When Bai Yin heard him speak English, she also tried to converse with him: "Sorry."
"You can read the textbook out loud, but you don't have to enunciate each letter when reading vocabulary."
"Then what should I do?"
Chen Huaixiao walked over and sat next to her on the long bench, taking her vocabulary book: "Learn them by heart."
Bai Yin looked at his slender and fair fingertips falling on the words of the first unit, his magnetic voice softly read: "Honest: honest, upright."
Bai Yin obediently repeated after him: "Honest: honest, upright."
"Handsome: good-looking, beautiful."
Bai Yin looked at his sharp side profile up close and dazedly responded: "Good-looking, beautiful."
After reading a few words, Chen Huaixiao suddenly chuckled lightly: "Just looking at me helps you remember?"
Bai Yin quickly averted her eyes and said guiltily: "Who's looking at you."
"Memorize this unit silently for a minute, I'll go wash my face and come back to dictate."
"No way I can remember so many in just a minute!" Bai Yin objected: "At least half an hour!"
"You only have one minute to memorize quickly." Chen Huaixiao slowly walked away, looking back with a gentle smile: "Don't disappoint me."
That last sentence was etched into Bai Yin's heart like a knife. She started to concentrate on memorizing the vocabulary silently.
Well, she didn't want to disappoint him. One minute it was, she must be able to remember it!
After a while, Chen Huaixiao reentered the yard.
Bai Yin had already taken out her English dictation notebook, fully prepared: "Brother, come on!"
Chen Huaixiao picked up the textbook, looking at her solemn expression as if facing death bravely and heroically, he joked: "You look like I'm about to do something to you..."
"You want to do something to me?" The little girl's black eyes were clear and puzzled as she looked at Chen Huaixiao.
Chen Huaixiao realized such jokes were inappropriate with her. He immediately stopped and cleared his throat: "I'll read the definitions, you spell them out. First: loyal."
Bai Yin carefully spelled it out in her notebook.
Chen Huaixiao dictated all the words in the first unit to her, and when he checked at the end, he did not find a single mistake.
"Not bad, kid." He circled with a red pen: "All correct."
Bai Yin smiled proudly: "Aren't I great."
"Very great," Chen Huaixiao did not stint on words of praise: "You're so smart, if you take the arts exam route, you can get into the top art schools nationwide."
"Really?"
Bai Yin actually had little confidence, few people had praised her like this before.
"If you have any questions while self-studying, come next door and ask me."
Bai Yin called him as he was leaving: "Brother, I got them all right, don't I get a reward?"
"A reward..."
He really didn't have any gifts for the girl.
Chen Huaixiao awkwardly felt his pockets and took out his wallet: "I'll give you money to buy ice cream, okay?"
"......"
She wasn't someone to him, so what was the point of giving her money.
"I don't want money." She tactfully said, "I was joking, brother dictating to me helps improve my grades, I don't need a reward."
Chen Huaixiao returned to the Chen house, and more than ten minutes later, he came back carrying his school bag. He took off a Bugatti Chiron keychain model attached to the bag: "Here's your reward."
Bai Yin took the keychain excitedly: "Thank you, brother!"
"You just take whatever I give you, without even seeing if you like it or not."
"I do like it!"
"Do you like cars?"
"I like the car you gave me."
Chen Huaixiao hung the supercar pendant on Bai Yin's canvas schoolbag: "I plan to buy one in my junior year, I'll take you for a ride then."
"Great!"
Chen Huaixiao looked at the sweet smile on the little girl's face, with a shallow dimple in the corner of her mouth.
He knew why grandfather had him come over every weekend, and he understood he should keep his distance from her, otherwise in the future...it would likely lead to tragedy.
But Chen Huaixiao was kind at heart, it was hard for him to treat this pitiful little girl coldly.
"Little braid, from now on I'll only speak English with you, try your best to understand."
"What if I don't understand?"
"If you don't understand..." Chen Huaixiao smiled faintly: "Then you'll just have to not understand."
From then on, Bai Yin worked even harder on listening and speaking skills. She must strive to understand every sentence Chen Huaixiao said.
Not a sentence...or a word could she miss.
Indeed, her English improved very quickly, and her pronunciation became increasingly standard, having picked up his fluent British accent.
"If you're willing to learn, I can also teach you German and French."
When Bai Yin heard this, her head spun: "No way, I can barely handle English, where would I find time for so many!"
Walking on the stone path after the rain, hands in pockets, Chen Huaixiao said lightly in English: "There will always be time, as long as you're willing."
Bai Yin looked at the youth beside her: "Will I have a lot of time with brother?"
Chen Huaixiao suddenly hesitated, and after a long while, he slowly replied: "I don't know, little braid."
......
That period of time was the happiest time in Bai Yin's bumpy life of more than ten years.
When you secretly like someone, your heart will also gradually become softer. Bai Yin was no longer as sharp-edged as before. Often, she chose to ignore the taunts from Zhou Yingxuan and the others.
A sparrow knows not the ambition of a swan.
She didn't need to bother with these little sparrows.
On Friday afternoon, Bai Yin went to the entrance of the old town scenic area to set up a stand selling embroideries.
She had learned excellent skills from her grandmother, but because of the heavy schoolwork, she could only squeeze out time here and there to make embroidered cloth bundles and handkerchiefs to sell at the entrance of tourist attractions every two or three weeks.
Because the workmanship was exquisite and the prices fair, the patterns were also particularly unique, so they sold out every time.
In any case, it was good to subsidize the family expenses.
Bai Yin was also scheming to save money for her grandmother's eye surgery.
But she didn't expect Zhou Yingxuan and several others to see that Bai Yin did not go to dance class as usual after school, and figured she must have come to the scenic spot to set up a roadside stall. So they also wandered over and went through her stand.
"How much is this?"
"Thirty for the handkerchief, two hundred for the cloth bundle."
"So expensive, why don't you just go rob people."
Bai Yin lazily said, "No one's making you buy it, if you think it's expensive then scram."
"What's with your attitude?"
"This is my attitude." Seeing these people had come to make trouble, Bai Yin naturally did not have a good expression: "If you're not buying then scram, don't get in the way of my business."
Before Zhou Yingxuan could finish speaking, she suddenly felt her collar being grabbed from behind.
She was rudely pulled away from the stand, then unceremoniously pushed to the ground.
The iron grill squid also fell to the ground, staining oil spots on her new dress.
Zhou Yingxuan looked up in shock and anger, only to see a handsome young man in a red and black racing suit, taking off his goggles and arrogantly looking at her with his chin up.
His whole body exuded a sharp aura, giving the impression that he was not to be trifled with.
"Who are you!"
"Her brother."
Zhou Yingxuan glanced at Bai Yin standing behind him: "I haven't heard she has a brother."
"Now she does."
Chen Huaixiao bent down to pick up the handkerchief that was dirtied on the stand, squatted in front of Zhou Yingxuan, and grabbed her collar coldly: "If there is a next time, I will make you eat it."
His tone was calm, but extremely intimidating.
Zhou Yingxuan had only bullied others before, and had never been threatened like this. She was so frightened that tears sprang from her eyes.
Chen Huaixiao showed no chivalry towards her. He unceremoniously threw her away, and looked back at the few girls: "Understand?"
The girls were so scared that they kept nodding their heads. They hurriedly helped Zhou Yingxuan up and rushed away.
Bai Yin stared blankly at the youth in front of her.
The Chen Huaixiao she knew before was at most just cold, but gentle and modest to her.
She had never seen this sort of violent and completely unchivalrous side of him.
Chen Huaixiao patted the dust off his clothes. Seeing Bai Yin staring at him blankly, he asked, "Scared?"
Bai Yin shook her head and gave him a thumbs up: "Brother, you're so cool!"
Chen Huaixiao smiled at her teasing. Looking down at the oil-stained handkerchief, he asked, "Can detergent wash it clean?"
"Detergent would damage the silk handkerchief and make it wrinkly."
Chen Huaixiao put the handkerchief in his schoolbag, then casually threw the goggles to Bai Yin: "Get on the bike, I have a way."
"Huh?"
As he spoke, he had already sat on the motorcycle and looked back at Bai Yin who was still dumbstruck: "Get on."
Bai Yin hurried over and sat on the back of Chen Huaixiao's motorcycle with a flushed face.
Before she even got steady, the youth stepped on the throttle and drove the motorcycle away.
Bai Yin was so frightened that she grabbed Chen Huaixiao's waist: "Slow down! Slow down!"
"It's already very slow."
"No, slower!"
The corners of Chen Huaixiao's mouth tilted up slightly: "Don't shout randomly."
It was quite misleading.
.....!
