Lin ChuSui hated the light summer rains in Nancheng.
On days like this, the obstinate old sun still insisted on peeking through the rainclouds to peer down at the human world.
With both rain and sunshine, only dampness and heat remained in this world.
In the reflecting glass of the roadside shops, Lin ChuSui wore a white blouse with a dark pleated skirt. Her straight, slender legs had been bitten by three mosquitoes.
These tiny mosquitoes were a Southern specialty. Though only the size of a dot, their bites swelled up, big and itchy.
When Lin ChuSui was little, she'd been bitten by mosquitoes until big welts formed, and she cried as she went to Mr Lin. Mr Lin would always poke a cross into her big mosquito bites with his fingernail, then laugh heartily.
Chewing gum, Lin ChuSui walked into a convenience store to buy mosquito repellent.
A sleek, black Mercedes-Benz coupe was parked at the convenience store entrance. Washed by the rain, its body shone brightly, extremely eye-catching.
Stepping inside, the dry, cool breeze of the air conditioner greeted her. She felt her head clear up quite a bit.
She headed straight for the daily necessities shelf, grabbed a bottle of cooling oil, then sauntered over to the drinks for her favorite lemon soda.
Amidst the quiet convenience store, a man's very fluent English conversation rang out, in a clear, slightly lilting voice.
A true British accent.
Walking past the shelves, Lin ChuSui then saw the youth across from her.
He wore a loose, casual sports shirt. His eyes were very dark, bangs quite long.
He was handsome in a clean-cut way, like the shallow sunshine of a summer dawn.
He chatted on the phone in English, lazily reaching out to grab a lemon soda.
There was only one lemon soda left on the shelf.
Lin ChuSui reacted swiftly. Like a rabbit, she nimbly grabbed the soda right before his fingertips touched the bottle.
The youth's gaze lightly brushed over her retreating back.
She gave a low whistle and swaggered away.
Behind her, she clearly heard the youth mutter something in English. It was probably swearing.
The person he was chatting with asked what happened. Xu Jianing replied in Chinese, "Some people here have poor manners. Don't worry about it."
At the cash register, Lin ChuSui also bought a pack of Marlboros. She murmured under her breath:
"Fake foreign devil."
Leaving the convenience store, she casually stuck the gum onto the Mercedes' window.
...
The villa was enormous yet empty. Even with many smart home appliances and furnishings, Lin ChuSui still felt it was empty, an emptiness that made her heart uneasy.
Mr Lin's memorial tablet in the living room had already been put away by her mom, leaving a large empty space on the white wall.
Lin ChuSui went upstairs to her dad's room and took out a framed photo from the second drawer of the bedside table.
The black-and-white photo showed a sunny, handsome man with bright, playful eyes and a youthful spirit.
For as long as Lin ChuSui could remember, he had always looked this way, never aging.
Mr Lin was a firefighter who had died in the line of duty rescuing others.
He was hailed as a hero by the public, yet to Lin ChuSui, he was an unbearable heartache.
In the two years since Mr Lin's passing, the clingy daddy's girl Lin ChuSui had turned into a rebellious delinquent.
Lin ChuSui rehung Mr Lin's memorial photo on the wall, adjusting it straight, then took out a math test paper with a score of 90 from her schoolbag.
She placed the test paper in front of the photo of the man, the corner of her mouth quirking up in a rebellious smile.
"Math test. Satisfied?"
"Not satisfied? Then come back and hit me."
"Teacher Qin said my score could revive the dead."
Lin ChuSui held out her palm to the memorial photo, hoping that like when she was little, she'd get a slap on the hand for a bad score.
After a few minutes, she withdrew her hand with a disdainful twist of her lips.
"Liar."
Soon, her mom called: "The young master from the Xu family will move in today. He goes to your school and gets good grades. If you need help with studies, you can ask him."
Lying on the sofa playing games, Lin ChuSui responded carelessly, "Oh."
"His room is already prepared, the biggest one on the second floor with a study. Be polite to him. Your mom and Uncle Xu will be back in half a month."
"Okay."
"Is there anything you want Mom to bring back for you? Skincare, bags..."
"No."
As Lin ChuSui cast a skill and killed her opponent in-game, she also viciously kicked the corpse.
On the overseas call, Mrs. Fang sighed.
Lin ChuSui hung up the long-distance call and stared up at the ceiling, spacing out.
When Mr Lin passed away, Mrs. Fang had also been depressed for a long time.
But she soon pulled herself together. This year, her brand FangNing had gone public on the NYSE, growing increasingly successful with great momentum. FangNing had become a trendy brand coveted by teens worldwide.
Lin ChuSui had also gone from an ordinary rich kid to a privileged one.
Not long ago, Mrs. Fang had remarried Uncle Xu. They were business partners who had fallen in love through their cooperation, a true power couple.
Since both were on their second marriages, they simply registered and went abroad for their honeymoon without any big wedding reception. They had quietly handled the matter.
Lin ChuSui didn't really mind her mom remarrying. Her only annoyance was that Mrs. Fang kept wanting to take down Mr Lin's memorial tablet and hide it away in the cabinet.
Mr Lin was afraid of the dark, especially of being alone.
So Lin ChuSui had simply printed out several black-and-white photos of Mr Lin and hung them all over the living room, dining room, bedroom...
The huge, empty house was now full of Mr Lin's bright, playful eyes, even in the bathroom...
Mrs. Fang had blown up at her several times, grabbing her collar and scolding, "Your dad is gone! When he went to save others, he didn't think of your mom and me. He abandoned us and will never come back! Face reality - the living must go on with life!"
Lin ChuSui had stubbornly gritted her teeth, eyes slightly red, and enunciated in a low voice, "He will come back."
Mrs. Fang wrestled with her daughter like this for half a year, but the girl was as stubborn as an ox.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Fang was overwhelmed running her business, too busy to bother anymore.
A middle-aged widow burdened with responsibilities didn't have the right to cling to memories like her daughter did.
Looking at Mr Lin's bright, beaming smile in the photos, Lin ChuSui sulked, "Your woman ran off with someone!"
The black-and-white portrait of the man continued smiling magnanimously, silent.
...
Soon, a loud honk came from outside.
Lin ChuSui ignored it and kept gaming. More honks followed.
This was a high-end villa district. Who would be so crass?
She lazily went to the floor-to-ceiling windows and happened to see the black Mercedes from before, now gleaming under the clear post-rain sunlight as it brazenly parked at her home's entrance.
Her first thought was that the "fake foreign devil" had come to settle scores over the gum.
That couldn't be. It was just a piece of gum!
The youth in the car calmly exited, long legs even more striking reflected in the rain-washed ground.
Glancing sideways, Xu Jianing's gaze lazily fell upon Lin ChuSui by the door.
The two looked at each other for three seconds, both cursing internally at the same time.
...
The "fake foreign devil" had transferred back from Britain. After staying at his own home for half a month, he was moving into Lin ChuSui's place. His belongings filled up three large suitcases.
Mrs. Fang had prepared the biggest room on the second floor for this "stepbrother" of convenience, even adding a small study.
Leaning against the doorframe, Lin ChuSui expressionlessly watched him unpack.
Though he had a lot of stuff, everything was packed tidily like tofu cubes.
Unlike her, tossing clothes and dresses every which way when packing.
"Uncle Xu's son?"
"Mm."
"Have an ID?"
Xu Jianing paused, then took out his passport from between his schoolbag's pages and handed it to her.
Like a responsible landlord, she scrutinized Xu Jianing's passport closely.
The photo showed a still quite boyish Xu Jianing, dressed properly like a British gentleman. He was clearly someone raised with good manners...a "fake foreign devil."
Though the two found each other annoying, they pretended polite courtesy as housemates.
Xu Jianing said, "Your mom wants me to tutor you since your grades are poor."
Chewing gum provocatively, Lin ChuSui retorted, "My grades are fine."
Xu Jianing's gaze calmly landed on her 90-point math test paper on the desk.
"They're good all right." His tone clearly held disdain.
Lin ChuSui asked again, "I hear your grades are pretty good. Confident you'll rank first for the high school entrance exam that's out soon?"
"It won't deviate far from a perfect score." Xu Jianing's tone carried innate arrogance.
She gave a disdainful twist of her lips, blowing a bubble with the gum.
"Oh."
Aren't you impressive.
"Where's the bathroom?" Xu Jianing asked.
"End of the hall outside."
Lin ChuSui moved aside to let him pass. As he walked by, she even caught a whiff of his light masculine cologne.
She muttered under her breath, "Fake foreign devil pretty boy."
Perhaps overhearing her, Xu Jianing slammed the bathroom door forcefully as he entered, venting his emotions.
Never one to back down either, Lin ChuSui went to the door and yelled, "If you break anything in this house, you'll pay full price as compensation!"
Still so cocky in someone else's home.
After a long pause, Xu Jianing's low, suppressed voice came: "Why is there a photo of a man in the bathroom?"
"That's my dad."
"Why did you put your dad's photo...in the bathroom?"
"None of your business." Lin ChuSui grumbled as she left, "Use it or get out. Public restrooms are out the door and left around the block."
...
Lin ChuSui locked herself in her room, lying on the bed playing iPad. Right then, her class WeChat group became lively.
The rankings for their high school entrance exam had just been announced in the group, spurring heated discussion:
"That new transfer Xu Jianing is so awesome!"
"Full marks in English? What the heck! The only perfect score in the whole school!"
"Math is just 5 points off either. He's unreal."
Lin ChuSui repeatedly confirmed they were discussing that "Xu Jianing" currently constipated in her bathroom staring at her dad's memorial...the "fake foreign devil."
She rolled her eyes, but also saw classmates say:
"First place, Xu Jianing has reserved it."
"No, he's second place."
"What! Even though it's like this, he's second place? Then who's first place?"
"Xiao Yan."
When this name came out, the whole group was quiet for ten seconds.
Lin ChuSui felt this name was a little familiar, but didn't have any special impression.
Perhaps it was just a top student in their grade who was well-known, so it's natural to feel familiar.
...
The next day, Lin ChuSui had just arrived at school when she and several classmates who ranked near the bottom were called to the class teacher's office.
Teacher Qin wore black-framed glasses, a dark short-sleeved plaid shirt tucked into his trousers. His belt was very shiny, and his leather shoes were also very shiny and clean.
Teacher Qin was a senior teacher transferred from the Provincial National Key Middle School last semester. He had extremely high requirements for students and was also very strict.
"Rotten mud cannot support the wall!"
"With grades like these, you still want to take the college entrance exam? You might as well roast yourselves!"
He held the student ranking list and mercilessly poked the heads of the students in front of him one by one.
Lin ChuSui was the only girl, so he skipped over her, glaring fiercely at her: "Lin ChuSui, it's quite impressive that you got this score in math."
"Right?"
"9 points." Teacher Qin angrily shook the test paper: "Even if I closed my eyes and wrote with my feet, I'd get more than 9 points!"
Lin ChuSui shrugged: "I should have actually gotten 27 points. Mainly the last big question, the math teacher directly deducted me to negative points."
"It's possible to deduct to negative points?"
Her classmate Lu Chi next to her said with a laugh: "For the last big question she didn't know how to do, she wrote a poem praising the teacher instead."
Teacher Qin was so angry his hair was about to stand up: "You wrote a poem on the math test paper?"
Lu Chi was amused by the situation and added more fuel to the fire: "It was even a flattering poem singing praises!"
"Lin ChuSui, bring your parents to school tomorrow!"
Lin ChuSui said helplessly: "My mom went to the Scandinavian Peninsula for a honeymoon with my stepdad."
Teacher Qin had a bad temper. Seeing her unconcerned attitude, as if she's fearless, he blurted out: "Your mom's on her honeymoon, so your dad is dead?"
As soon as these words came out, the few boys around them fell silent at the same time, and the air froze for several seconds.
The temple on Lin ChuSui's forehead pulsed as her face gradually darkened.
Teacher Qin had only taken over their class for less than half a year and didn't know about Lin ChuSui's circumstances. He kept chattering: "Bring your dad over in the afternoon!"
Finally a classmate couldn't stand to listen anymore, and said in a low voice: "Teacher Qin, Lin ChuSui's father has already..."
Just then, there was a knock on the office door. A teenager wearing a black T-shirt walked in.
When Xiao Yan entered, the morning sun happened to shine through the window and landed on his fair, clean skin.
The sunlight shone into his deep, dark eyes, making them clear and pure.
"Teacher, you were looking for me?"
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