Chapter Twenty-Three Tacit Consent

  After returning home, Feng Hongyan saw that Ouyang had won a big prize and was very happy. At noon, she made a delicious meal, and the three of them ate lunch at Ouyang's house. After lunch, Xiaodong returned to his own home, and Ouyang and Ma Si began to sort out the things they had won in the lottery, which were mostly drinks, towels, and daily necessities, except for a VCD player. Ouyang was still very happy and assembled the VCD player in the living room, but since there were no discs, he suggested going out to buy some. However, Feng Qinglian said that shops would be closed during the New Year's holiday, so they should wait a few days before going. Ouyang and Ma Si thought this made sense, so they started playing computer games at home instead.

  On the first day of the new year, the sound of firecrackers was endless. Ou Yang went out to buy lottery tickets and came back to find that the ground was covered with red firecracker paper. His mother, Feng Hongyan, always said that this would cause pollution, and Ou Yang also noticed a strong smell of gunpowder in the air. However, Mai Si seemed to enjoy this lively atmosphere.

  In the afternoon, Feng Qinglian and Feng Hongyan were able to rest for a while and took a nap. Ou Yang and Mai Si were in the small house discussing where to spend their lucky money. Ou Yang wanted to buy equipment in a game, but Mai Si thought of buying good food and clothes for himself.

  Xu Yuejie kept sending text messages to Ou Yang, who didn't know what to do, so he told Mai Si about it. Mai Si laughed after hearing the story and said: "You really have no emotional intelligence at all! Why didn't you agree with Mu Yuhan back then? You messed up their relationship."

  Ou Yang replied: "How was I supposed to know what's going on between them? What should I do now?" Mai Si pushed Ou Yang and asked: "Are you happy when you're with Xu Yuejie?" Ou Yang thought for a moment and nodded. Mai Si hummed and said: "Then that's it! You're happy, she's happy, so just go along with what she says. She didn't explicitly say she wanted to be your girlfriend, so just pretend to be her boyfriend for now. City kids are like this, they all like to play around. As long as you don't lose anything, it's fine."

  Ou Yang thought about it and felt that Mai Si was more professional in this aspect, so he said: "Okay, I'll buy you a game console later." Mai Si waved his hand and said: "Forget it, keep your money to buy things for your good friends. Don't worry, I won't tell your mom."

  After saying that, Mai Si continued playing games on the computer. Ou Yang sat there for a long time before sending a text message back to Xu Yuejie: "Although I don't understand what you mean, I'll just do as you say." After sending the message, Ou Yang fell asleep and slept soundly until it was time for dinner. When he woke up, he saw that Xu Yuejie had replied to his message.

  "So you're agreeing to this, I know it may take time to get used to. How about this, let's try it out next semester, and by the time we're in 7th grade, if you think it's okay, you can officially be with me. What do you think?"

  After Ou Yang responded with a grunt, he went to the bathroom and only then did he realize that there were many more people at home. Except for his second uncle's family who hadn't arrived yet, everyone else was already there. Today's dishes weren't much different from those served on New Year's Eve, also very sumptuous. However, Ou Yang, Xiao Dong, and Mai Si simply ate a few things before leaving the table. The three of them were preparing to go watch the fireworks display. Every year in District D, Feng Hongyan's unit would host a fireworks display. He remembered when he was young, his father had taken him to watch it once. Other times, it was always his mother who took Mai Si and Ou Yang together to watch. Sometimes Ou Yang thought about when he could go watch the fireworks with his father again. But going this year with his two brothers was also a good choice.

  This time, the fireworks display was no longer at the D District Club, but at a newly built leisure square. The crowd was still as large as in previous years, and three children squeezed for half a day but couldn't get to the front row position. Because fireworks are hazardous, the interior of the square is prohibited from entering, so the outer fence became a gathering place for watching fireworks. However, when Ou Yang and his friends arrived, it was already crowded, and they could only stand on the opposite street to watch from afar. Mais felt a bit unenthusiastic, the fireworks had been going on for about half an hour, and Ou Yang recorded a video with his phone, preparing to send it to Xu Yu Jie. On the way home, the smell of gunpowder was even more pungent. Xiao Dong went straight to his own home. Ou Yang was just thinking of going home when Mais pulled him towards the original Feng family's place, saying he wanted to see their new house.

  They're basically all built already, Ouyang could tell that this new neighborhood was all high-rise buildings, which was a bit different from where he was about to move. The specifications were similar to those of his new house in the neighborhood, but Ouyang always felt like something was off, so he asked Mais: "Isn't District D still without high-rise residences? You're really following the trend." Mais smiled and said: "Not yet, but I think all the ordinary buildings in District D will be replaced with high-rises in the future. It's a trend. Oh, and it seems like we'll be drawing lots for floor assignments after a while. How about I draw the highest floor?" Ouyang thought for a moment and said: "Sounds good, I've never lived in a high-rise before." The two of them chatted and laughed as they walked back home from the new building.

  On New Year's Day, what were others doing? Thinking of this, Ouyang sent out a group text. The replies she received were either about eating or chatting with family members while watching TV. People from District D basically all went to watch the fireworks display. However, Mu Yuhan said that there would also be fireworks displays in the city area, but they just got tired of watching them and didn't want to go anymore. Seeing this, Ouyang gave up on the idea of sending the video to Xu Yuejie. On New Year's Eve, Ouyang's family went to bed very early.

  Here is the translation:

  In the second and third year of junior high, there were still lottery tickets, but Ou Yang and his friends didn't win any big prizes. After the third day of the New Year, the festive atmosphere was no longer as strong as before. Feng Hongyan had arranged for Ou Yang to attend an extracurricular class starting from the fourth day, so Ou Yang made good use of these three days to rest and have some fun. Of course, Maisi also signed up for an extracurricular class to improve his grades, but Ou Yang was taking English while Maisi was taking math.

  Ou Yang didn't sign up for that extracurricular class he had been attending since elementary school. He remembered that in elementary school, every Sunday he would attend the extracurricular class from 1 pm to 3 pm to study English, and then switch classrooms from 3:30 pm to 6 pm to study math. It was so exhausting that Ou Yang would often fall asleep during class, and later on, he would sit in the back row to sleep, but because his snoring was too loud, the teacher caught him and made him move to the front row to listen attentively.

  Actually, Ou Yang also knew that his mother had arranged for these extracurricular classes to help him improve his grades. Otherwise, Ou Yang wouldn't have won a third prize in a math competition during elementary school, which was a rare achievement for someone who wasn't good at math. He remembered that he received a notebook as a reward and was overjoyed.

  Ouyang chose a small English tutoring class this time, and according to Feng Hongyan, Xu Xue Mei was also studying English there. As far as Ouyang knew, Xu Xue Mei's mother had a good relationship with Feng Hongyan and would often discuss matters related to tutoring classes or schools with her. Later, he heard from his mother that she and Xu Xue Mei's mother were classmates.

  On the first day of the summer break, Ouyang started his supplementary lessons trip. Fortunately, he only had to attend one English supplementary lesson this time, because he did well on his final exams, so he and his mother decided to cancel his math supplementary lessons. Mais was in a tougher spot, having to go to three supplementary lessons, although one of them was an art supplementary lesson.

  The number of people in this English class was very small, except for Ouyang and Xu Xue Mei, there were only two girls, and Ouyang surprisingly found that the two girls were students from Fongmao Middle School's private junior high school. After finishing this lesson, Ouyang felt that this teacher was not like a normal teacher, this English teacher directly started with grammar, teaching some dry things, directly pouring hard knowledge into Ouyang's brain, unlike previous cram schools, following the old routine of just doing exercises.

  After class, Xu Xue Mei's home was not far from Ouyang's, so she followed Ouyang back together. On the way, it started snowing, and Xu Xue Mei suddenly asked Ouyang: "Are you particularly close to Xu Yue Jie and them?" Ouyang looked up at the sky and said: "What's wrong? Aren't we all classmates?" Xu Xue Mei didn't speak, Ouyang continued: "It's better if you don't make yourself stand out from everyone else, it won't do you any good."

  Xu Xue Mei glanced to the side, then used her hand to catch a few snowflakes, looked at them carefully for a while, and said: "I'm just reminding you, people in the city aren't that simple, like who would deliberately get close to you must have their own purpose." Ouyang thought for a moment and said: "I feel like you're particularly disgusted with city people, not just C district, but also A and B districts, what did they do to wrong you?" Xu Xue Mei shook her head and said: "Anyway, I've been taken advantage of, you should be more careful."

  Ouyang nodded after listening, the snow got bigger, the ground became wet, and most of it was black solid after being crushed by cars, Ouyang asked: "Will they use melting agents to clear the snow this year?" Xu Xue Mei nodded and said: "Yeah, I think except for D district, no one else uses melting agents. Using melting agents might make the snow clear faster, but the roads will be very slippery and dirty. But if you don't use melting agents, the roads will freeze, and it'll be hard to drive."

  Ouyang had an epiphany and said: "Will using melting agents pollute the environment? Is that why this city doesn't use it? Isn't this discriminating against our D district?" Xu Xue Mei frowned when she heard the word "discriminate", then said: "D district still has its advantages, you forgot about the big flood in '98. The places by the river were all flooded, what shopping malls, supermarkets, movie theaters, B and C districts also suffered a lot of losses. But D district was fine because it's at a high elevation, even if there's an earthquake, our D district will be fine."

  Ouyang laughed after hearing this and said: "I really didn't realize that our place is actually a blessed land." When he said this, both people laughed.

  Maybe many years later we will miss a certain year, a certain day with a certain person appearing in a certain place, having spent a very happy day.