You looked so cute when you were angry]
It was a sunny Saturday. The cloudless sky was so blue it barely seemed real, like an oil painting hanging overhead.
Bai Qingxia looked up at the road sign above the street, then lowered her head again and raised a hand to shade her forehead.
The sun was blazing.
They had agreed on one o'clock yesterday, so she had to leave home sometime after noon.
"Happiness Road..." Bai Qingxia murmured, reading the address on the slip of paper. Once the light across the street turned green, she hurried over the crosswalk.
After walking a little farther, she spotted a beautiful artificial lake. With her schoolbag on her back, Bai Qingxia passed by and stared at it for a few moments. Only when she turned her head did she realize that the residential complex on the slip of paper was right across from the lake.
She looked up, momentarily stunned by the complex's grand, imposing entrance.
The buildings inside were very new and seemed to tower into the clouds. The landscaping was beautiful and neatly arranged, giving her the fleeting impression that she was in a park.
The complex was called Happiness Court, and it stood in an area with relatively expensive housing, probably because a bustling shopping street was right beside it.
Bai Qingxia slowly approached the entrance, at a loss for how to get inside. She had never entered a residential complex that looked so upscale.
When she saw someone swipe a card to open the small gate at the side, she quickly gripped her schoolbag straps, lowered her head, and guiltily slipped in behind them.
The guard in the security booth was watching television. Afraid of getting caught, Bai Qingxia quickened her pace.
The alarm rang, waking Lu Yuanqiu in bed. He hurriedly checked the time.
"Holy shit!"
He scrambled up, ran to the bathroom to hastily scrub his face, then quickly found a T-shirt to put on.
Just as he finished dressing, the doorbell rang.
Lu Yuanqiu went to answer the door, instinctively glancing at the living room clock. One o'clock sharp.
Talk about punctual...
He opened the door to find the girl in her school uniform standing nervously outside, a pink schoolbag on her back. She seemed a little shy. After meeting Lu Yuanqiu's eyes for just a moment, she looked down at the floor, her earlobes faintly red and both hands gripping her schoolbag straps.
This was the first time in her life she had visited a boy's home-and it was Lu Yuanqiu's home, at that.
"Why are you just standing there? Come on in."
Lu Yuanqiu smiled at her, then hurriedly grabbed two glasses and ran to the kitchen to rinse them.
Bai Qingxia stepped into the entryway with her schoolbag on her back. Looking at the floor, which was polished to a mirror shine, she asked softly, "Do... do I need to take my shoes off?"
Lu Yuanqiu returned to the living room with the glasses and headed toward the water dispenser. "Barefoot feels great," he joked.
Hearing that, Bai Qingxia glanced at Lu Yuanqiu walking around barefoot, then bent down to untie her shoelaces.
"Come on, let's go to my bedroom. It's the one with 'Do not disturb' written on the door."
Lu Yuanqiu spoke as he carried the two glasses he had filled. He looked over at Bai Qingxia, only to freeze at the sight before him.
The lovely girl stood by the entrance, her canvas shoes neatly arranged beside her, with a pair of white socks laid on top.
She blinked, quietly watching Lu Yuanqiu. Beneath her uniform trousers, her feet were bare, all ten slender, pale-pink toes pressed together.
Uh... Lu Yuanqiu was momentarily speechless.
He had been joking, not actually telling her to go barefoot. He had thought Bai Qingxia would recognize his teasing tone...
Was she really that literal?
Oh well, whatever. Barefoot it is.
Lu Yuanqiu tilted his head toward the room. "Come on. Let's go to my bedroom."
Bai Qingxia quickly walked over, looking at him shyly. "Shouldn't we say hello to your parents first? Then we can start studying."
"Uh, actually..." Lu Yuanqiu paused, then said solemnly, "Actually, nobody else is home. It's just you and me right now."
Bai Qingxia's beautiful eyes slowly widened at those words. Then she frowned seriously. "You lied to me."
Oh, she's angry.
Lu Yuanqiu sounded helpless. "I couldn't help it. There were people home this morning, but you insisted on coming in the afternoon."
"But my dad needs lunch." Bai Qingxia looked at him resentfully.
He shrugged shamelessly. "Then there's nothing we can do. If we can only study in the afternoon, nobody else will be home."
Angry as she was, Bai Qingxia did not turn around and leave. With her earlobes faintly red and her lips pressed together, she stood there sulking like a pufferfish for quite a while before finally giving in. "...Let's start."
"You're so cute when you're angry." Lu Yuanqiu pinched her cheek.
Flustered, Bai Qingxia raised her hand to swat his arm, but Lu Yuanqiu shamelessly dodged. Her hand hit nothing, making her look even more aggrieved.
When he opened the bedroom door, Bai Qingxia's expression grew noticeably strange. She surveyed the furnishings inside: a bed, a desk, a bookcase, a basketball, a guitar, building blocks, posters, figurines...
It was a mess.
Lu Yuanqiu set the glasses on the desk and turned to ask, "Does my room smell?"
Bai Qingxia shook her head against her conscience.
Lu Yuanqiu suddenly sounded indignant. "Right? You don't think it smells either. My mom and sister insist my room stinks, like someone died in here."
At that, Bai Qingxia could not help smiling with her lips pressed together.
Seeing her smile, Lu Yuanqiu smiled too and continued, "They're just being alarmist. How could my room possibly smell?"
Bai Qingxia took a few steps inside, and her pale foot bumped against the trash can. She carefully lifted her foot back. Seeing this, Lu Yuanqiu hurriedly moved it aside for her and explained, "Uh, don't get the wrong idea. The tissues in there are for blowing my nose."
"The wrong idea about what?" The girl raised her head, looking a little bewildered.
Lu Yuanqiu asked in amusement, "You don't know that joke? What are the crumpled tissues in a trash can beside a boy's bed used for?"
Bai Qingxia still looked puzzled. "You said they were for blowing your nose."
She's so innocent... Lu Yuanqiu looked at her in surprise and ultimately decided to drop the subject.
Enough chitchat. They were here to study, after all, and they did not have much time that afternoon.
They brought over two chairs and sat at the desk, looking as though they were desk mates again. But with only one desk, they sat closer together than they did at school.
Lu Yuanqiu could smell the girl's fresh fragrance and see the creamy white skin at her neckline.
For a girl who wore her school uniform all year round, she always smelled lovely. He wondered if she washed it every day, because he had never seen her uniform dirty.
Lu Yuanqiu took out his math exercises. Red crosses covered the page, all marked by him as he checked his work against the answers.
"Got them wrong-
"-so many of them. There are a few I couldn't figure out, so I circled them. Could you explain them to me? Start with this one."
"Okay."
With just one glance, Bai Qingxia quickly worked out how to solve it. Patiently, she wrote the steps beside it with a red pen while explaining in a soft voice.
Lu Yuanqiu nodded repeatedly, occasionally frowning and asking a question, which Bai Qingxia was always quick to answer.
"No wonder. So that's how it works."
"Try writing it out yourself."
"Just kidding. I didn't get it."
"..." The girl stared blankly at him with her beautiful eyes.
Lu Yuanqiu's lips twitched awkwardly. Have a little sympathy for an old man.
He picked up a glass of water from the desk. Bai Qingxia glanced over and remembered that he had taken the one on the right.
Five minutes later, Bai Qingxia asked again, "Do you understand now?"
"This time I really do."
Only then did Bai Qingxia smile. She looked at the glasses on the desk and realized that, instead of sitting side by side, they were now arranged one in front of the other...
Lu Yuanqiu was bent over his work, concentrating on the problems. Clearly, he had moved them without thinking.
Going by her memory, she picked up one of the glasses and drank.
"Like this, right?" Lu Yuanqiu held out his solution.
Holding the glass in both hands, Bai Qingxia leaned her pretty face forward and nodded. "That's right."
She uses both hands for everything, even holding a glass of water, Lu Yuanqiu thought in amusement, finding it adorable. Suddenly, though, his expression froze. "Wait, that's the one I drank from."
"Pfft!"
Bai Qingxia sprayed a mouthful of water into his face.