Chapter 16 My Heart Is in Chaos

Luo Yi and Ye Xiaoyang looked each other over—both were wearing white shirts. The only difference was that one wore a denim skirt and the other wore jeans. Their shoes were also both white.

Standing together, it really did look a bit like couple outfits.

Luo Yi: “…”

So embarrassed she couldn’t speak.

Luo Yi’s fingers gripping the railing tightened. She quickly turned her head back, wanting to ignore this accidental coincidence.

Ye Xiaoyang didn’t mind. He changed posture and leaned slanted against the rock wall, his gaze faintly sweeping over Luo Yi’s back.

“I was just saying it casually.” Sun Yiman patted Luo Yi’s little head.

Just now two mischievous strands of hair had been blown into a wild dance on top of her head by the wind. She smoothed them down for Luo Yi and added, “Ai, you’re so easy to make shy.”

Luo Yi defended herself softly, “You people always joke about me.”

“Do we?” Sun Yiman smiled. “Who’s joking about you?”

Luo Yi thought, didn’t saying couple outfits just now count as a joke?

Of course, a certain someone also always liked making light, painless jokes with her.

“Hey, you few, come over for photos!” Tang Kunyu held a camera and waved at them.

“Coming, coming.” Sun Yiman pulled Luo Yi’s hand. “Let’s go take a group photo.”

Everyone lined up in two rows, girls in front, boys in the back.

Luo Yi very conscientiously stood at the edge. When taking photos, the tall ones usually stood in the middle and the short ones on both sides. She understood the rules well.

Boys as tall as Ye Xiaoyang should reasonably stand in the center. Yet this group of boys all stood very casually.

It must have been some special fate that made Ye Xiaoyang stand behind Luo Yi once again.

Mm, it must be like that.

Tang Kunyu entrusted the camera to a passing middle-aged uncle, then hurriedly squeezed into the group.

“Eggplant—” The uncle clicked a couple of shots and asked, “Come take a look. Is it okay?”

Tang Kunyu took the camera and looked. “Cong Shuai, you standing in the middle looks like a neat row of teeth with one knocked out!”

Cong Shuai’s height wasn’t that short—1.75 meters—but when taking the photo he happened to be sandwiched between Tang Kunyu and Wang Changze, which was a bit self-exposing of his shortcomings.

Cong Shuai awkwardly moved a little toward the side amid everyone’s teasing.

“And you, Ye Xiaoyang. You standing at the edge looks like a neat row of teeth that suddenly grew a fang!” Tang Kunyu roared across the distance.

The fang himself: “…”

I think you look the most like a fang.

Zhou Jiahang decided to extend a helping hand to salvage the precarious brotherhood between the two. He said, “It’s not a graduation photo. Why so serious?”

Ye Xiaoyang just wanted to stand next to that girl and take a photo… this secretly romantic guy!

The class monitor really didn’t understand romance.

“You still dare speak?” Tang Kunyu walked over and shoved the camera into Zhou Jiahang’s face. “Look at yourself. Your standing posture is a mess. Like a neat row of teeth with one crooked!”

Zhou Jiahang: “…”

Brother, I tried my best.

Farewell.

“I say, class monitor, with the way you describe it, can our group still be called a neat row of teeth?” Wang Changze raised a question from the soul, piercing the mystery with one sentence.

“Of course not! All of you, rearrange!” Tang Kunyu personally stepped in. A group of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old boys were pulled and dragged around like kindergarten children by the teacher until the formation was finally neat.

“Ai, our class monitor has paid too much for this class.” Zhou Jiahang patted Ye Xiaoyang’s shoulder and said to him, “Brother, don’t be sad. Later I’ll help Photoshop my face into hers.”

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

The image is too beautiful to look at.

Ye Xiaoyang: “I think you’re the Old Man of Longevity eating arsenic.”

Zhou Jiahang: “?”

Ye Xiaoyang: “You’re tired of living.”

Zhou Jiahang: “!”

This guy. He kindly helped him, yet he still wasn’t grateful?

The two stood shoulder to shoulder. Zhou Jiahang muttered, “Forget it. Now the graduation photo isn’t the only group photo the two of you have taken, and the school uniform isn’t the only couple outfit the two of you have worn. What more bicycle do you still want?”

“What’s more,” he added, “the Earth is the common home of the two of you, and our class is the common big family of the two of you. Open your mind a little.”

Ye Xiaoyang: “Shut up.”

After the group took the photo, they went down the mountain. At the bus stop outside the park, everyone returned to their own homes and sought their own mothers.

Luo Yi was taking Bus 702 back to the municipal party committee compound. According to what Ye Xiaoyang had said last night, he was also taking this route home.

As it happened, only the two of them were taking this bus.

Bus 702 arrived. Luo Yi carried her bag and boarded.

She was just about to put two coins into the coin slot when Ye Xiaoyang grabbed her wrist and said, “I’ll handle it.”

“No need. This morning you already swiped for me.” Luo Yi declined.

“Anyway the money in the card can’t be taken out.” Ye Xiaoyang spoke as if his bus card had been loaded with a hundred million.

“Even if you have money, you don’t need to do this.” Luo Yi felt embarrassed.

The two of them went back and forth politely like this. The bus driver’s gaze toward them was as if looking at two idiots.

It was only one yuan. Was it necessary? Now they were being generous while poor?

“That’s enough, you two. Hurry up and insert the coins. The people behind are still waiting to board.” The driver pressed the horn and urged them.

In the end Luo Yi, quick-eyed and quick-handed, stuffed two coins into the slot, ending this childish farce.

There weren’t many empty seats on the bus. Luo Yi found a window seat and sat down. Ye Xiaoyang naturally sat beside her.

The setting sun had restrained its radiance, its temper becoming gentle. The distant green mountains and trees were plated with a layer of gold. The fluffy barnyard grass on both sides of the road swayed their figures.

A warm breeze blew over, carrying the scent of gardenia flowers. A subtle fragrance floated, making one feel refreshed and clear-minded.

Luo Yi leaned against the back of the seat and gazed out the window in a daze.

“You live at your aunt’s place?” Ye Xiaoyang broke the quiet.

“Mm.” Luo Yi nodded.

“Your aunt is a colleague of my dad’s,” he said.

Although the two were of similar seniority, strictly speaking, Ye Rongcheng was Luo Xueqing’s direct superior—higher by more than just one or two levels.

“I know.” Luo Yi turned her head to look at him.

“Your dad works abroad?” Ye Xiaoyang only wanted to liven up the atmosphere a little, but for some reason he sounded as aggressive as someone checking household registration.

“Mm.” Luo Yi didn’t hide it. “He went to Africa to dig mines.”

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Although it was transnational labor export, it sounded… a bit miserable?

Ye Xiaoyang very tactfully didn’t ask further, afraid of making her embarrassed.

“About today’s matter,” Ye Xiaoyang started to speak then stopped. “Thank you.”

“What?” Luo Yi didn’t understand.

“That boring game.” Ye Xiaoyang gave a disdainful cold snort.

Luo Yi remembered. Was he thanking her for helping him out of the situation?

“No need to thank me,” she said. “Their questions were too excessive.”

Her tone was very calm. It seemed she hadn’t developed any prejudice against Ye Xiaoyang because of those few questions.

So today she had only been frightened by those explicit questions.

Thinking of this, Ye Xiaoyang’s depressed mood improved a lot.

Luo Yi let out a small yawn. Sleepiness arrived. At this moment the sunlight was just right—very suitable for a nap.

She hugged her backpack to her chest, closed her eyes to catch up on sleep, and soon sank into dreams.

The bus slowly drove along the road. Suddenly there was a turn ahead.

Inertia caused Luo Yi to unconsciously lean toward Ye Xiaoyang’s side. Ye Xiaoyang suddenly stiffened.

He vaguely smelled the fragrance on the girl’s body—a light honey-orange scent, mixed with a bit of milky fragrance and soap fragrance.

He lowered his eyes and carefully examined that little face so close at hand.

Luo Yi’s eyelids were very thin, tinged with a light pink. Her dense, curled eyelashes were like mimosa flowers.

The tip of her nose was round and upturned. Her thin cherry-like lips were slightly parted, revealing two small white rice-grain teeth.

Luo Yi was in a light sleep. Her body instinctively sought a harbor where it could rest.

Her head gradually leaned onto his shoulder. She lightly rubbed twice, found a comfortable posture, and continued sleeping.

Damn it.

Ye Xiaoyang closed his eyes, as if wanting to drive some improper thoughts out of his mind.

But that patch of skin pressed against hers felt as if it had caught fire, burning fiercely.

This warm and soft touch was something he couldn’t drive away, and yet was infinitely attached to.

Ye Xiaoyang sat motionless like a stone statue, afraid of disturbing her peaceful dream.

He silently recited pi in his mind.

When he was seven years old he could already recite the first three hundred decimal places of pi fluently. Sometimes when his thoughts were unsettled, he would calm himself by silently reciting pi.

“132823067—” Ye Xiaoyang furrowed his brows. Halfway through, his memory produced a deviation.

Luo Yi’s light, warm breathing scattered across his chest, an itch that scratched at the heart and lungs.

He knew he had counted wrong. This would have been impossible under normal circumstances. Memorizing these numbers had long become his instinct.

When a person’s instinct went wrong, it meant his heart was completely in chaos.

He knew a piece of his heart had collapsed inward. Nothing could fill it back up.

Except her.

Ye Xiaoyang opened his eyes and gave up struggling.

Ai, he silently sighed.

Might as well look a little longer. Once she woke up, he wouldn’t be able to look at her so unscrupulously anymore.

Just then, a rapid phone ringtone came from her backpack. Ye Xiaoyang immediately straightened his sitting posture and looked straight ahead without glancing sideways.

Luo Yi was startled awake. She lifted her head from his shoulder with a blank expression and rubbed her dazed eyes.

Had she just fallen asleep? And it seemed she had been leaning against him while sleeping?