Chapter 8 A Change for the Better

  It turned out that Director Lai was Zhang Li's mother!

  Xia Meng Li Han and Chen Yu Meng had no appetite at all, sitting in front of the dinner table feeling anxious.

  "Are you Xia Meng?" Director Lai asked, pointing at Xia Meng. Xia Meng stood up nervously and replied, "Yes, Director Lai!"

  "Hello, Director. I'm Li Han, Zhang Li's deskmate! This is Chen Yu Meng! We went hiking and had a barbecue today but encountered heavy rain, so we're really sorry to disturb you all so late at night!" Li Han stood up and replied politely.

  "Haha, don't be so formal! If I and the kids' dad stand here, it would probably affect your meal! We'll go upstairs first, you guys enjoy yourselves!" Director Lai smiled and led Zhang Shan and Zhang Li's dad upstairs.

  Xia Meng looked at Zhang Li, her face red with embarrassment, and said: "Zhang Li, I'm sorry, I really didn't know..." Li Han Yu couldn't help but laugh at Zhang Li's reaction, Xia Meng felt even more flustered.

  "Zhang Li, after dinner you're in charge of sending Yu Meng back to school. My home and Xia Meng's are on the same street, Xia Meng's dad and mom have returned, let her go home immediately, I locked my bike under the tree this morning, take it and give her a ride home!"

  Zhang Li Yu Meng hadn't even had time to respond when Li Han picked up Xia Meng and left, "Zhang Li, thank your dad, mom, and sister for me!"

  "When did Mom and Dad come back? How didn't I know?!"

  "Whether your dad and mom are back or not is not important, what's important is that you have to go home with me! Help me disinfect and bandage my injured right elbow, I got hurt because of you." Li Han carried Xia Meng to the bicycle under the tree at the intersection, "Get on!"

  Xia Meng sat in the back seat. Downhill, Li Han didn't slow down at all, but instead accelerated, Xia Meng was frightened and screamed, tightly hugging Li Han's waist, burying her face in his back and not daring to open her eyes. The wind whizzed past her ears! Li Han laughed loudly, startling a watchdog from someone's house, barking non-stop.

  Back at the entrance of Li Han's home in the deep alley, Li Han carried Xia Meng into the house and took out a first-aid kit. With gentle movements, he carefully wiped Xia Meng's injured foot with antiseptic water, applied ointment, and bandaged it with gauze. Xia Meng thought to herself: I probably won't be able to play basketball for one or two weeks.

  Looking at Li Han kneeling at her feet, carefully bandaging her wound, Xia Meng felt very moved and wanted to say thank you, but the words got stuck in her throat and instead came out as: "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

  Li Han smiled and stroked her long hair, "Tonight you sleep in the room next to mine, if you need anything just give me a call!"

  Li Han carried Xia Meng to the next room, which was similarly decorated to Li Han's room, except that the bedspread was pink and there were a pair of kissing couple dolls on the headboard. The most eye-catching thing in the room was the bookcase against the wall, which was filled with books. When Xia Meng pushed open the window, she could touch the leaves of the orchid tree.

  "Sleep, I'll wake you up tomorrow morning!" Xia Meng was indeed disgusted with Li Han, but she trusted him completely because they had spent too much time together, even longer than the time she spent with her family.

  Li Han lay in bed, unable to fall asleep, so he pulled out a book of Hegel's philosophy, hoping that the profound and abstruse words could calm his restless thoughts.

  He was, after all, just a 16-year-old boy, and his emotions could easily overpower his rationality. He recalled the feeling of Xia Meng's "little apricot" lightly rubbing against his back on the mountain road, and how his "old second" would swell up uncontrollably, becoming unbearably hard.

  "Are you asleep?" Li Han sent a text message to Xia Meng, but there was no response. Li Han felt a bit worried and got up to knock on Xia Meng's door: "Niu Niu, are you asleep?"

  There was no response in the room, Li Han pushed open the door and found Xia Meng curled up on the bed. He touched Xia Meng's forehead with his hand, "So hot, not good, fever!"

  He hastily took out cold medicine from the medicine box, held her on his lap, pried open her mouth and fed it to her along with water.

  In the summer dream, I slept drowsily, feeling as if I was lying on a huge fireball, my whole body being roasted by flames, feeling unbearably hot, but sometimes also shivering with cold. Even in my sleep, I vaguely sensed that I had caught a cold.

  She felt someone pick her up, feed her something and water, the taste was bitter, she opened her mouth to spit it out, but her mouth was blocked by a scalding hot thing, like a hand. She wanted to open her eyes to take a look, but her eyelids were too heavy, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't open them. She fell asleep again.

  Xia Meng woke up in the middle of the night to find Li Han embracing her and sleeping beside her. She kicked him away with one foot. "Bai Dan, how did you end up here?!" Li Han rubbed his sleepy eyes and said: "You had a fever, luckily I was prepared with some cold medicine. After feeding it to you, you started sweating profusely and the fever finally broke!"

  "I have a fever?" Xia Meng touched her own forehead, "Not hot at all!"

  "Didn't I just give you medicine for your cold!" Li Han said resentfully, "You just kicked my injured right elbow!"

  Xia Meng cleared her throat and said, "I want to drink iced tea!"

  Li Han hurriedly got up and went to the refrigerator to take out iced tea, desserts, and fruit.

  "This is the stock in the refrigerator."

  "You're a guy, how can you be so gluttonous? Your home is full of food." Xia Meng wasn't hungry, but looking at the things in front of her, she still ate some. "Bai Dan, I found that you're different from before, not as annoying as before!"

  Li Han burst out laughing.

  "Li Han, how come I've never seen your parents? In the past when we had parent-teacher conferences, I only saw your grandma!" Xia Meng asked.

  Li Han seriously looked at her for a while, considering whether to tell her the truth before they started dating. However, seeing her innocent and pure eyes, he couldn't bear to deceive her. Anyway, no matter what, she would eventually be his own, no matter what means he used, Xia Meng could only belong to Li Han alone. If he continued to hide it from her, she might resist him in the future.

  "Niu Niu, my dad and mom are both in America."

  Li Han bowed his head and searched for words in his mind, unsure of how to describe it. Xia Meng laughed and patted him on the back: "Li Han, what's wrong? Speak up!"

  Li Han thought that the timing was not yet ripe, he couldn't confess at this time and scare her. "Uh, my dad has a company in the US, doing network security and big data business, I plan to go out after high school graduation, then..."

  Xia Meng was startled, "Are you going out to take your father's shift?"

  Li Han nodded unnaturally, "My parents only have one child." Li Han stared into Xia Meng's eyes, and he sadly discovered that Xia Meng didn't show a hint of sadness or regret. Instead, after a brief moment of confusion, she said with excitement: "If you're going to take over your dad's business, do you need to choose science? I was thinking of choosing science too!"

  Li Han swallowed back his confession and said lightly: "Yeah, we can still hang out together!"

  Xia Mengle burst out laughing and said, "When we were young, why were you so annoying? I still remember, you sat behind me, your shoes smelled terrible, and to make matters worse, you would stretch your feet under my chair, making it impossible for me to focus in class!"

  "Haha, that's because grandma is old and doesn't have the energy to help me with all the washing and scrubbing. By the way, compared to today's messy pants, your first period..."

  Xia Meng's face suddenly turned red like a tomato, and she pounded Li Han, not letting him continue speaking.

  On June 1st, Xia Meng wore a white pants that her father had just bought and given to her as a gift when he returned from a business trip. She felt great wearing it to school. However, as soon as she left the house, she felt severe stomach pain, especially in her lower abdomen, which was swollen and painful. She had to walk to school with difficulty, thinking that maybe the milk she drank that morning was causing her diarrhea.

  On the road, he met Li Han riding a bike. He stopped his bike and stood on tiptoes, exclaiming: "Class leader, why is your pants all bloody!"

  Xia Meng was so frightened that she didn't know what to do, and hastily used her school bag to block: "I accidentally sat on watermelon juice this morning."

  Li Han suddenly understood something, laughed out tears, took off his school uniform and tied it around Xia Meng's waist, smiling and saying: "Xia Meng, congratulations!" He turned around and ran to the small shop next door, grabbed a pack of sanitary napkins and stuffed them into Xia Meng's hands. "Let's go, I'll send you home, change your pants!"

  －－－－－

  "Go out, I want to sleep. Tomorrow we still need to get up early for class!" Xia Meng urged Li Han, who had a mischievous grin on his face, to hurry back to his room and sleep.