Chapter Three

  A group of people fell asleep thinking about their homes at night, and they had to get up at 6 o'clock the next morning. Xiao Xiao slept very restlessly, she dreamed of her father riding a motorcycle forward, and she was chasing after him. She kept crying and crying, but her father ignored her. She also dreamed of Lin Qi, when someone beat her, Lin Qi stood by and watched her.

  It was just a dream, Xiao Xiao let out a sigh of relief, her chest still feeling stuffy, probably because she had cried too much in the dream.

  School life is always the same, day after day. What changes is people.

  It was an English class, and the teacher taught them the 26 letters of the alphabet. Lin Qi, Lu Jun Cheng, Qin Zhen and several others were listening attentively. It was their first time coming into contact with something foreign, and they all looked excited.

  Xiao Xiao shook the high-calcium milk on the table, took a sip forward, and held a pen to write, arranging abc crookedly on the paper, like tadpoles.

  After class, Xiao Xiao went to eat with Lin Qi and several others. The people in the dormitory were also gradually getting used to not seeing Xiao Xiao in the dormitory at lunch and dinner time.

  It's Friday, Xiao Xiao is very happy because she can go home after the evening gathering. Everyone packed up their things and waited for the meeting to end before leaving.

  Xiao Xiao's heart had long been flying towards home, and she didn't even notice what the principal was saying on stage. A week later, Xiao Xiao asked herself what she had learned, but in the end, she couldn't think of anything, and she didn't even bother to try.

  "Brother, see you next week!" Xiaoxiao called out to Lin Qi. Lin Qi waved his hand, "See you later!"

  "Sister, bring us some delicious food..." Lu Jun Cheng said.

  "Ah, I'll bring it to you, goodbye Lao Ge!" Her hair was still flying backwards, Xiao Xiao was like a butterfly, flying towards the sunlight of this afternoon. She wanted to go home, she had to go home! It seemed that nothing could stop her footsteps from going home. A week felt like a month, and had already worn out the patience of someone who had left home for the first time.

  At the entrance of the internet cafe, Xiaoxiao quickly recognized her family's somewhat damaged motorcycle. Her father was waving at her there, and when he smiled with his mouth open, you could still see those few teeth that had been yellowed by smoke, and his eyes seemed to be shining. Xiaoxiao's nose felt sour again...

  "Xiao ah, how's school? Is it good or not?" The wind blew strongly, carrying the voice far away.

  "It's okay, the people in my dorm are pretty nice to me, and the school is not bad either. It's just that the food is too terrible." Xiaoxiao thought to herself, without mentioning the fact that she was beaten on the first day, or that she had recognized three brothers.

  She sat in the back and couldn't see the satisfied expression on her father's face. With such an obedient daughter, how could Xiaoxiao's dad not be content? This was before, our Xiaoxiao had not yet entered the rebellious period of adolescence. Nor had so many things happened yet.

  Finally able to eat something with some oil, Xiao Xiao held her rice bowl and ate big mouthfuls. As for household chores, Xiao Xiao's dad never let her do them, seeing how frail she was, he couldn't bear it, after all, this was his only daughter living with him. No matter what, he couldn't let his only daughter suffer. And so, this also contributed to our Xiao Xiao's frail physique...

  This is not all the reasons, Xiaoxiao's other reason for being thin and weak is that Xiaoxiao is a picky eater. Let's put this aside for now.

  "Xiao Xiao, shall Daddy find you another Mummy?" asked Xiao Xiao's father.

  Xiao Xiao doesn't chew her food again, should I find a stepmother for her? I heard that children without mothers are like weeds, and their own fathers have to act as both mother and father, it's exhausting.

  Xiao Xiao used to hear people singing a song, the lyrics of which she has mostly forgotten. It was roughly about a stepmother bringing her own son, and the stepmother's son eating meat while Xiao Xiao herself drank soup, all saying how bad the stepmother was. Xiao Xiao didn't want a stepmother.

  "Hmm... Dad, do as you please." Xiaoxiao replied with her mouth full of food. Who knows if Xiaoxiao's answer was good or bad? Anyway, I couldn't say whether it was good or bad, the road is always walked by oneself. Heaven has its own arrangement in the dark.

  Time passed neither quickly nor slowly, and half a semester had gone by at school.

  Brother, do you have a red pen? My pen is out of ink. Lend me one. Xiao Xiao. The note was passed through 6 people before it reached Lin Qi's position. Xiao Xiao saw Lin Qi carefully open the note, find a red pen for her, write something on the note and pass it back.

  What was Xiao Xiao thinking in her heart at this time? She was thinking about what Lin Qi had written to her. Looking at a small note, she felt like reading a love letter, and Xiao Xiao's heart fluttered with excitement.

  Give me back the pen that is no longer in use, leave it for you to use.

  Ten words, together with punctuation marks, a total of thirteen characters, Xiao Xiao carefully tucked the note into the dictionary.

  This is the girl. If Lin Qi were to write a love letter to Xiao Xiao, I bet she would get excited and blush again.

  Xiao Xiao secretly counted the slips of paper in her dictionary, there were five in total. Two were written when borrowing a pen, and the other three were some idle chatter, such as "I won't eat lunch today, you don't have to wait for me." Xiao Xiao couldn't remember when she started collecting these slips of paper. "Xiao Xiao, what are you doing?" asked Yang Hui, her deskmate.

  Xiao Xiao hastily closed the dictionary and looked at Yang Hui with a confused expression, "What's wrong?"

  The teacher told us to write an essay with the title "My Best Friend".

  "Oh, when is the handover?" Xiaoxiao was driving a small car in language class and didn't want to listen to the teacher's boring explanation. Xiaoxiao didn't like language class and wasn't good at writing compositions. Since elementary school, she had never received excellent grades for her compositions. Writing an essay was a difficult task for her.

  Wednesday night.

  "Uh-huh, got it." Xiao Xiao replied.

  Who is Xiao's best friend? Xiao doesn't know. Does Lin Qi count? Is Lin Qi her brother or friend? Xiao listed out all the names of people she knows. The 11 girls in her dorm, and three guys she knows, on the list of 14 names, Xiao crossed them off one by one. Except for necessary interactions, Xiao didn't communicate much with the people in her dorm. Everyone has their own life, and besides, Xiao doesn't often eat with them. When talking about past lives or family situations, Xiao is always silent.

  Xiao Xiao eliminated 11 of them and there are still 3 left: Yang Hui, Lin Qi, Lu Jun Cheng.

  Even with fewer people, Xiao Xiao was still entangled in a problem, whether or not her brother counted as a friend.

  This problem has been haunting Xiao Xiao even in her dreams.

  After thinking about it, Xiaoxiao finally wrote to Lin Qi.

  Thursday noon, the classroom was empty, everyone went to have lunch. Xiao Xiao didn't eat again today, she knew last night that Lin Qi had finished writing his composition. Xiao Xiao wanted to know if Lin Qi's best friend was herself. She sneaked over to Lin Qi's desk.

  Xiao Xiao held Lin Qi's red pen in her palm, planning to say it was hers if someone came. She had a thief-like feeling in her heart, although she wasn't stealing anything, her heart was racing with fear that someone might suddenly return...

  Saw Lin Qi's language textbook, and it seemed like the composition was sandwiched inside the language textbook...