Chapter Thirty-Five: The Gift Shop

  Some things can't be returned, some loved ones can't be begged back.

  "It's so slow, Ouyang." Seeing Xue Yuejie pouting and saying to herself in a somewhat unhappy tone, Ouyang shook his head helplessly and said, "Don't mention it, the traffic is jammed on the road. You know that there's only one bus from District D to here."

  Standing beside Xu Yu Jie, Xiao Yang Chen said: "Alright, alright, since you're here, let's go. We'll first go find Huang Huang." Ouyang still understood that the so-called Huang Huang was probably Mu Yu Huang. The three of them arrived at Mu Yu Huang's building and Xu Yu Jie gave Mu Yu Huang a call. After a while, Mu Yu Huang came down. Today, Mu Yu Huang's outfit wasn't much different from usual, but she had changed into her favorite jeans. Several times, from afar, Ouyang thought Mu Yu Huang was a boy. This also laid the origin of Mu Yu Huang's nickname in junior high school, which is a story for later.

  "Let's go, let's take a walk around the neighborhood first." Xu Yu Jie saw Mu Yu Hang come down and then pulled Ouyang towards the outside of the residential area. Mu Yu Hang only took a slight glance at Ouyang before following in their footsteps.

  Four people walked together, Ouyang also carefully observed the surrounding environment of Xingfu Community, after all, they would be moving in soon, so it was necessary to take a look around first. It turned out that the market next to the community had been converted into a pedestrian street. Although this was what was said, there were still many cars parked around the community. The newly built shopping mall was very impressive, but many businesses had not yet moved in.

  "This mall now only has the Jia Le Fu supermarket downstairs and a few scattered shops on the first floor, so every time we come here, except for going to the supermarket, we don't usually stroll around the first floor." Xu Yu Jie said as she walked beside the mall with Ouyang.

  Ouyang nodded and asked: "I remember that the commercial building opposite was also demolished, and another business center was built. Why is there still a basement?"

  "Not only that, it's expanded too. Think about it, suddenly a small district was built, two commercial skyscrapers, the underground passage in between will definitely be very popular, and the price is likely to rise." said Xiao Yangchen on the side.

  Four people went down to the underground passage, Ouyang had walked through the best underground passage in District A when he was a kid, but his memory was also very vague, only remembering that there were more people and the things sold were very scattered, but the price was very cheap.

  Four people walked while looking at various things.

  "Ouyang, what do you think of that crystal ball?" Ouyang followed the direction of Xu Yu Jie's pointing hand and saw a gift shop. What she was pointing at was a musical crystal ball.

  "Do you like it? I quite like this kind of letter paper bottle." Ouyang's gaze, however, fell on another place where a couple had placed bottles to load each other's letters.

  "What's so good about that bottle? This crystal ball is more romantic, it can play music and even glow at night." Ouyang couldn't resist Yuemei, so he bought one and gave it to her.

  "Hehe, I knew you'd be good to me." Xu Yu Jie was very happy. Ouyang saw Xu Yu Jie's dimples again, and every time he saw her smile with those dimples, he knew she was truly happy at that moment.

  After buying things, a group of people continued to move forward, but Ouyang Shi kept looking back at the crystal bottle from time to time.

  "Wait, I'll go buy something." Mu Yuhan suddenly said this sentence, Xiao Yangchen also nodded and said: "Then you hurry up, let's go over there to buy some drinks first." After finishing speaking, he pulled Xu Yuejie and Ouyang Chaowei to the front where water was sold.

  "My stomach hurts, I'll go to the restroom first, you two go buy things." Ouyang said and walked towards the underground passage's restroom, but in fact, he wanted to see what Mu Yuhan was doing.

  He saw Mu Yuhan walk into that store before and then bought that set of bottles.

  "Boss, how much is that hair clip?" Mu Yuhan asked the shop owner while paying for a light blue butterfly-shaped hair clip.

  "Good eyes, miss! That's new stock. Fixed price of twenty, no bargaining." The boss saw that Mu Yuhan was interested in the hair clip and revealed a very cunning smile, Ouyang knew he wanted to raise the price.

  "Never mind, I'll just buy this set of bottles." Mu Yuhan shook her head. The boss obviously didn't expect the little girl to say that, and hurriedly said: "You've already bought this set of bottles, it's not worth twenty bucks, besides, this bottle must be a gift for your boyfriend, let him come and buy it, I'll sell it to him for fifteen."

  "No need, thank you boss." Mu Yuhan said, putting the bottle into his backpack and then walked out. Ouyang hid on one side without being discovered by Mu Yuhan. After Mu Yuhan walked far away, Ouyang walked into the store.

  "Boss, I bought the hair clip that girl wanted earlier." The boss heard Ouyang say this and was taken aback at first, then smiled and packaged the hair clip to give to Ouyang.

  "Hey, young man, no haggling at twenty, it's written on the door that this is a fixed price store." Ouyang only gave the boss fifteen and said: "Didn't you say if her boyfriend came, you'd give it to him for fifteen?" The boss was instantly embarrassed and couldn't speak, so he forced a smile and sold it to Ouyang.

  Ouyang put the hair clip into his pocket and then walked out.

  About the same time, Xu Yu Jie and the others didn't ask much, the four of them strolled around for a circle, then went upstairs. Xiao Yang Chen brought three people to his usual KTV place to sing songs.

  "Ouyang, you seem to have gained twenty pounds in an instant." The three girls looked at Ouyang and burst out laughing.

  Ouyang was stunned, looked at himself, and found that he had three bottles of water stuffed in the sleeves of his clothes, and some food in his pants pocket. He took out the things and put them on the table in the room, and couldn't help but laugh.

  The girls all carried bags and would put the water they bought from outside into their bags. Ouyang didn't have a bag, so she could only "sneak" in like this.

  "I can play the supporting role for you forever, laughing and suffering behind your back." Listening to Ouyang's voice, Xu Yu Jie and Xiao Yang Chen both laughed. Ouyang turned his head to look at them, that was a truly intoxicated expression, then looked at Mu Yu Huan again, only to find that Mu Yu Huan had been staring at him all along, unable to discern any expression on her face.

  Xiao Yang Chen started taking over the mic as they got tired of singing, while Ou Yang and others began chatting below.

  "What are you guys bringing to the sports meet? Although the teacher said we can bring backpacks." Ouyang asked.

  "We can't bring too much, that day we'll probably have to hold our own signs as well, if we bring too much food it might be a heavy burden." Xǔ Yuèjié said while watching the MV playing on TV.

  Mantou drank a sip of water, nodded and said: "It's best to bring an umbrella too, it might rain."

  Ouyang wasn't too worried about this, smiled and said: "It's okay, if not, we can use the sign as an umbrella, it won't fall apart."

  Xu Yu Jie also smiled and said: "You can get up so early the day after tomorrow? If you come from your house, it should be too late."

  Ouyang thought for a moment, nodded and said: "I'm also worried about this, my dad is coming back tomorrow, maybe he'll stay in the new house for two days, at most it's just a bit of the smell of newly decorated house, everything else has been renovated."

  "Is your dad coming back tomorrow? That should be fine then, don't forget to review, the mid-term exam is just around the corner." Xǔ Yuèjié said to ōuyáng.

  "Yu Jie, when are we leaving the day after tomorrow?" Xiao Yangchen, who was singing a song, seemed to have remembered something and asked.

  "Tomorrow night, I'll go shopping. The day after tomorrow, around 5 am, you can come to my house and find me." Xue Yu Jie placed her hand under her chin for a moment before saying: "Huan Huan, why don't you come with us tomorrow night too?" Mu Yu Huan nodded beside her.

  Two hours passed quickly, and the four of them went to a newly opened KFC on the first floor of the mall for a meal. Then, Yu Jie pulled Xiao Yang Chen into the mall to stroll around. Ouyang excused himself from everyone, saying that his father was coming back tomorrow and he needed to head home early. However, Ouyang didn't go far and waited at the entrance of KFC for a while. As expected, Mu Yu Huan walked out, looking surprised when she saw Ouyang. Before she could speak, Ouyang said, "For you." He then pulled out the hair clip from his pocket. Mu Yu Huan was initially shocked, then asked, "How did you know I liked this?"

  Ouyang smiled and said: "It looks good, so I bought it. It's not expensive, just 15 yuan."

  Màn Yǔ Hán heard this, smiled, and said: "Then, I'll give you this as a thank-you gift." After finishing speaking, Màn Yǔ Hán took out the pair of crystal bottles from her bag and handed them to ōu Yáng. ōu Yáng pretended to be very surprised...

  "I knew you liked it, from the moment you walked in until you left, your eyes never left that." Mu Yuhan said this with a big smile.

  "Why didn't you go out with them? I thought if you weren't coming out for a while, I'd head back home," said Ouyang as he took the bottle.

  "I said I got a call from home, asking me to go back, so I came out. Originally, I planned to give you this bottle at the last minute, but you said you wanted to leave first, so I also came out." Murong Huan's eyes had been staring at the hair clip Ouyang gave her, it was clear that she liked it very much.

  "Then go home, I'm leaving too. Don't be late the day after tomorrow." Ouyang said, and walked towards the train station, waving his hand at Mu Yuhan.

  "It seems like I said something, damn it, but I didn't see clearly." Ouyang's eyes narrowed slightly, still unable to make out Mu Yuhan's words.

  "Thank you."

  After returning home, Ouyang put the crystal bottle set on the bookshelf. His mother asked about it, and Ouyang just said it was a prize he got from playing outside today. However, Maisi still figured it out and pulled Ouyang aside to ask him what's going on.

  "Go on, little brother, you're trying to play it safe with both sides." Mais said with a sly smile.

  "I don't know what you're talking about." Ouyang's face turned slightly red as he lowered his head and avoided looking at Max.

  "Alright, stop pretending. But let me tell you, I basically understand your situation too. I'd advise you to make a choice as soon as possible, or else Xu Yuqian's temper won't be easy to deal with." Mais said seriously, and Ouyang nodded in agreement.

  "It's not the time to think about this now, my dad is coming back tomorrow, you say should I send him something?" Ouyang interrupted.

  "If I were you, going to the train station to pick him up would be the best gift." Max scratched his head and then gave this suggestion.

  "Uh, key is I'm directionally challenged." Ouyang thought for a moment and said

  "Afternoon train is fine. I'll accompany you, but let's make a deal first - lunch at the station will be on you, and then we can go play some games." Mais said with a smile.

  Ouyang sighed and said, "I knew it."

  So this deal is settled then...