Chapter Fourteen Begins

  Those innocent and carefree childhood playtimes are the most memorable moments of our lives.

  Wang Lin's suggestion was for both sides to stop fighting and then use snowball fights to tease the girls. As soon as this suggestion came out, both sides immediately stopped fighting and turned their firepower towards the girls who were coming out of the school gate. Although Ouyang felt that doing so wasn't quite right, he still followed along with it. What Ouyang didn't expect was that the girls weren't even angry about it, but instead rushed into the fray and started playing together with the boys. That evening, Ouyang had a lot of fun.

  Many years later, when Ouyang thought back to his childhood, there were two things that he remembered as being particularly interesting: snowball fights in the winter, and water balloon fights in the summer. Those carefree days would probably never come again.

  That night, after returning home, because Ouyang's cleaning work was done very well, the smell of spray paint on his body was not discovered by his mother. The Christmas gift that his mother had prepared for Ouyang was found as soon as he entered the house.

  "Mom, where did you get this miniature Christmas tree from?" Ouyang asked, pointing to the medium-sized Christmas tree with colorful lights standing next to the piano.

  "Ask your brother, look at how many girls like him, several of them bought this together for him?" Feng Hongyan pointed to Mais who was already lying on the bed. Ouyang nodded, "Make a wish in front of the Christmas tree, son, your brother didn't make one, they say a Christmas tree can only grant one wish." Ouyang thought for a moment, closed his eyes and thought: I hope this exam goes well so mom will buy me a cell phone. Feng Hongyan seemed to see through Ouyang's thoughts and said: "Making wishes isn't just about saying it out loud, you have to put in effort too, son." Before she finished speaking, Ouyang went into his room and said: "I know." That night, Ouyang slept very soundly.

  The next day was a carnival, and Ou Yang and Wang Lin organized a snowball fight during physical education class. They had a lot of fun, but they also got into trouble. They used the shovels that other classes had left on the playground to sweep the snow as tools for ice sliding, so they were punished by their teacher Liu to stand for half a class period of self-study. During the second half of the self-study class, Teacher Liu announced the New Year's holiday notice and the final exam schedule. Ou Yang listened and heard that the New Year's holiday was seven days long, and then they would have exams after returning. That's okay, seven days should be enough for him to review.

  After school, Ouyang found Xu Yuejie and told her about his agreement with his mother. Xu Yuejie listened and smiled, saying: "I believe you will definitely achieve your goal, not just for the phone, but also for your grades." Ouyang nodded, punching his chest twice with his fist, saying: "Don't worry, I'll definitely make it happen for the phone." Xu Yuejie laughed even harder when she heard Ouyang say this, saying: "Silly, it's just for the phone." Ouyang was confused, saying: "What else would it be for?"

  As soon as this was said, Xu Yu Jie felt very embarrassed and didn't know what to say, so she changed the subject and asked for Ou Yang's QQ number, saying: "During the New Year's holiday when you have nothing to do, get on QQ and chat with me." Ou Yang said: "En, okay, but I really didn't think that our school would give us a seven-day break. Isn't it a luxurious thing to have a long vacation?" Xu Yu Jie said: "I reckon in two years we won't be so lucky."

  "Ouyang, hurry up, the bus is about to leave." Wang Lin and Li Jun outside the school gate were getting impatient, urging Ouyang on. So Ouyang hastily bid farewell to Xu Yu Jie and followed Wang Lin and others towards the direction of the commuter bus.

  Xu Yu Jie gazed at Ouyang's back, her eyes expressing an unknown emotion.

  "You wouldn't have fallen for Chen Xi, would you?" Yue Jie looked back and saw Mu Yu Hang and Xiao Yang Chen. "No, I just think people from District D are all right, they don't have any ulterior motives, so I'm just interacting with them more." Xu Yue Jie spoke without lifting her head.

  "We were in the same elementary school, I didn't know you back then. But I can tell you, I actually quite like Chen Xi." Mu Yuhan, who usually doesn't like to talk much, still speaks her mind freely in front of her best friend.

  "I think you two are going to fight over Ou Yang Chen Xi, haha, but speaking of which, that guy is really stupidly cute, do you guys think he's pretending or truly stupid?" Xiao Yang Chen said with a smile after laughing for a long time.

  "People from District D are all like that, they're all stupid." Mu Yuhan said, and then followed Xu Yuejie and Xiao Yangchen to walk out of school.

  "Silly, I don't think so. Otherwise, how could Xu Xue Mei always be in the top 10 of our class?" Xiao Yang Chen seemed to disagree with Mu Yu Hang's view.

  "Huang, let's go find Ouyang and them on New Year's Day to play." Xu Yu Jie asked. "No way, District D is too far away, and it's almost the end of the semester, my mom definitely won't let me out." Mu Yu Huang replied without thinking. "Besides, last time Ouyang and Wang Lin came to my house and sat for a while, they made such a mess, if my mom knew I went to find them, she'd scold me to death!" Xu Yu Jie nodded in agreement when hearing Mu Yu Huang's words, but actually had a hint of delight in her heart.

  Xiao Yangchen looked at his two good friends, and in his heart, he had already figured out the general situation. In fact, the three of them were from the same elementary school, and they all knew each other very well. First, there was Xu Yu Jie, a girl with a very outgoing personality, so she always had many male friends. Even back in elementary school, boys would buy her roses, but Xu Yu Jie seemed to have no good feelings towards boys who took the initiative to show their affection.

  Yu Huan, on the other hand, doesn't talk much normally, and most boys don't usually pay attention to girls who wear glasses. They think these girls only know how to study. But she knows that Yu Huan really hopes to make a few more friends. Once you've really gotten close to her, you'll realize that Yu Huan actually values her friends even more than herself.

  For Ouyang Chenxu, Xiao Yangchen thinks he is a silly boy who doesn't understand anything. Maybe this is also the biggest advantage of people from District D - their innocence. Maybe they really aren't suitable to come to the city to study. Xiao Yangchen thinks that Mu Yuhan and Chenxu can become good friends because she understands Xu Yujie too well. She is the kind of person who, once she has a new focus, Ouyang Chenxu will fade from her sight. However, as Yujie's good friend, she won't possibly tell Chenxu about Yujie's personality - everything depends on his luck now.

  Ouyang had just arrived home that evening when his mother came out of the house and said to him, "Just now one of your classmates gave you a phone call. You weren't back then, and she didn't say anything. You can ask her about it at school tomorrow."

  "Is it Xue Yu Jie?" Ouyang asked with certainty, putting down his backpack.

  "Who is Xu Yu Jie? Are you handling the female lead? Looks like you really have a way with women, not her." Feng Hong Yan said to Ouyang with a teasing tone.

  "Ah, no, who else could it be? Shouldn't be anyone else." Ouyang really couldn't think of any other girl who knew his home phone number, besides Xu Yu Jie, who else could it be?

  "Is a girl named Mu Yuhan, do you know her?" Feng Hongyan saw that Ouyang really seemed to have forgotten, so she told him.

  "Oh, it's her. I guess there's something going on at school." Ouyang only then remembered that the last time he visited Mu Yuhan's home, both he and Wang Lin had left their phone numbers with her. But what did she want from him? It wasn't Xu Yuejie's call, and Ouyang felt a little disappointed.

  Feng Hongyan seemed to have seen something and asked, "Are you very close with Xu Yuemei? Or is she your little girlfriend?" Ouyang could feel that although his mother was speaking in a teasing tone, there was still a hint of seriousness in her voice.

  "What's a girlfriend, I don't even know what that is," Ouyang said with an innocent look, but then heard Feng Hongyan say, "Let me tell you, Chenxiu, city girls aren't so easy to like, maybe they're playing tricks on you or fooling around and you wouldn't even know." Feng Hongyan was still a bit worried after hearing her son's response. "Don't worry, we're just classmates who get along well, if anything happens, I'll definitely tell you." Ouyang then told his mother about the upcoming holidays and exams, and Feng Hongyan reminded him of some things related to his studies before going back to her room to sleep. Ouyang picked up his book and headed towards the small house, as soon as he entered, he saw Mais sitting on the bed, staring at him with wide eyes, which gave Ouyang a fright "What's wrong?"

  Mais said: "Are you dating someone? You can't tell Lao Jiu, but you can tell me." Ouyang felt that Mais was very interested in this matter, so he said: "Then help me copy this homework, and I'll tell you after a nap on the bed." Mais said: "Really?" Ouyang nodded, and then Mais got down to help Ouyang with his homework. After Mais finished copying, he returned to the bed to listen to Ouyang's story, but found that Ouyang had already fallen asleep. "Damn it!" Mais didn't wake up Ouyang, turned over and went to sleep too.

  The next day, Ou Yang's commute to school was very late because of the heavy snow. When he arrived at his classroom, he found that only three people were present: himself, Wang Lin, and Xu Xue Mei. Ou Yang quickly returned to his seat to prepare for class, and his deskmate Chen Juan handed him a few tissues. He wiped his hair with them and thanked her.

  During the break, Mu Yu Heng passed Ou Yang a note that read: "Have you already made plans with Yue Jie? Or have you two started something?" Ou Yang was confused by the message and wrote back: "What do you mean by 'started something'? What did you call me about last night?"

  After passing the note, Mu Yu Heng didn't respond until lunchtime when Ou Yang was preparing to go downstairs to get food. Mu Yu Heng called out to him, saying: "Hey, are you free during the New Year's holiday? I want to visit you in District D and have dinner together. I also wanted to thank you for the greeting card."

  Ou Yang was taken aback by the sudden invitation and said: "You called me last night just to ask about this? You could have just told me directly." Mu Yu Heng replied, "Aww, why are you asking so many questions? I'm inviting you to dinner and you're not even coming. I didn't want to say it over the phone, but I was going to call you anyway."

  Ou Yang knew about Mu Yu Heng's rough personality and asked: "What did you mean by 'have you already made plans' and 'started something'?" Mu Yu Heng looked down and said after a while: "I just wanted to see if you had other plans, so I could reschedule for another day. How about the 4th? Are you free?"

  Ou Yang agreed without hesitation, thinking that he didn't have any other plans during the holiday anyway. He nodded and turned to leave the classroom to get food, vaguely hearing Mu Yu Heng say something but not paying attention.

  The snow is still very big.

  "If you haven't started, then we have a chance to start now."