The school beauty is aloof? Whatever, she has a younger sister.

Chapter 145 Returning to China
The following afternoon, at the airport waiting area.

Zhang Muchen was looking down at his phone, with his backpack at his feet.

He had several vacuum-sealed salted ducks stuffed in his schoolbag, which were considered local specialties he brought home from Nanjing.

I must say, the ducks in Nanjing are really delicious.

I'll come back to Nanjing to be a male prostitute again.

Bah, eating duck.

He leaned back in his seat, his gaze inadvertently sweeping to the side.

Chu Jiuli, Wang Shishi, and several other girls sat together chatting and laughing.

Wang Shishi's expression remained unchanged, a playful smile playing on her lips as always. Only occasionally would her gaze stealthily drift in his direction, as if confirming something, or perhaps hesitating.

What happened last night is still on the girl's mind.

When she came out of the bathroom, Zhang Muchen was already asleep and didn't react at all.

Wang Shishi initially thought her good friend hadn't seen anything. But this assumption only made her more anxious.

Did he not see it clearly, or was he pretending not to see it?
woo woo woo woo……

She was determined to figure it out, but didn't know how to bring it up.

Just as she was slightly lost in thought, Zhang Muchen suddenly stood up and walked towards them.

Wang Shishi's heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously lowered her head.

"What are you talking about?" Zhang Muchen asked.

Chu Jiuli raised her eyes and replied, "Shishi said she wanted to go to Sanya for the Chinese New Year."

"Sanya?" Zhang Muchen raised an eyebrow. "Bro, how about taking us to Sanya for Chinese New Year?"

Wang Shishi slowly raised her head, her big eyes looking at him.

"What? Don't you want to take me?"

Seeing the girl's hesitant expression, Zhang Muchen casually tapped her on the head.

"Woo..."

Wang Shishi covered her head, sobbing softly. But her eyes curved into a smile.

My buddy was still acting all nonchalant, tapping my head just like before.

whee.

If he's not embarrassed, why should I be?

Wang Shishi suddenly understood, and the awkwardness and gloom in her heart vanished.

"Hehe. Let's all go to Sanya for Chinese New Year, it's my treat."

"Bro, it has to be you again."

Zhang Muchen smiled and found a seat next to Wang Shishi.

The girl glanced at him quietly, blinked, and felt a softening in her heart.

I don't know if he saw it yesterday or not...

Forget it, take care of him.

It's enough that my buddy is sitting here, smiling and talking to me.

Her eyes lit up again, and a smile quietly spread from the bottom of her heart.

……

Four hours later, Zhang Muchen returned home.

He pushed open the door; the room was quiet except for the ticking of the clock on the wall.

The weekend has started, and my parents are working the night shift again. It's almost 8:30 pm now, and the whole house is empty.

Zhang Muchen took off his clothes and changed his shoes. He was quite tired after sitting on public transport for almost four hours.

He lazily walked into the room and collapsed onto the bed. The mattress sank gently, making a creaking sound.

"The bed at home is still the most comfortable."

Zhang Muchen muttered to himself, tilting his head lazily to one side, his gaze falling on the black guitar case in the corner of the bedside table.

"Tsk, a guitar worth 60,000 yuan is given away like that."

His lips twitched slightly.

Bro, just how much wealth does her family have...?

That day in Wang Rulong's car, although the latter did not show any hostility towards me throughout the entire time, I could not hide my superior attitude.

There were no sarcastic remarks, but a hint of the natural superiority of the wealthy emanated from him. Given his current circumstances, he didn't even qualify to marry into the family.

Zhang Muchen sighed softly, sat up straight, and reached out to touch the back of his neck.

"Make money, make money, only when you have money can you have everything."

He nodded to himself, cheering himself on, and grabbed his guitar case, intending to play two songs that would ignite his fighting spirit.

But just as he unfastened the guitar case, his gaze suddenly froze.

In the corner of the bedside table, a dusty framed photo rests quietly.

Zhang Muchen paused for a moment, his finger hovering in mid-air, before slowly reaching out and picking it up.

The edges of the picture frame were rough, and the glass was covered with a thin layer of dust. He gently wiped it with his fingertip, the dust dispersed, and the outline of the photo emerged.

That was a group photo.

Parents, myself as a child, and a little girl with braids.

Xu Ranxi, my childhood sweetheart.

Zhang Muchen stared at the photo for a while, feeling a gentle touch on her heart.

"I think I first met Xu Ranxi when he was in first grade."

Zhang Muchen recalled.

He remembered that Aunt Xu Qing had just moved next door at that time, and there was a little girl named Xu Ranxi who took her surname.

The moment they met, the girl held her head high with an arrogant air, her eyes saying, "Who are you? I don't know you."

Not only that, she also spoke a long string of English words to herself.

That was elementary school; I hadn't even mastered phonetics yet.

Xu Ranxi, that little brat, spoke fluent English from the start, in a sarcastic tone and at an incredibly fast pace. She had an expression that said, "You don't understand, do you? You don't understand, do you?"

Damn it, how can I, the leader of Experimental Primary School, put up with this?
From that day on, I vowed to improve my English so badly that I could make Xu Ranxi cry. To that end, I pestered my mother to enroll me in an English class.

During the first month, I spoke haltingly.

Six months later, he could barely understand the nonsense Xu Ranxi was spouting.

A year later, one summer, he scolded Xu Ranxi until she cried.

Finally, the boy stood facing the summer sun—

I got a severe beating from my mom.

Although we won, we still lost.

At that time, I was trying to awaken my father's love and get him to save the day.

Who knew that her usually easygoing father would kick her twice after he found out she had made Xu Ranxi cry.

"Sigh, when a girl cries, everything is always the boy's fault."

Zhang Muchen couldn't help but click his tongue, but the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

Thinking back on those childhood memories now is really fun.

"I wonder how you're doing abroad."

Zhang Muchen put down the photo frame and leaned gently against the headboard. Suddenly, an old photo that she had accidentally found while helping Liu Wuyang pack her things flashed through her mind.

"Aunt Xu Qing is actually the sponsor of Sister Yang's American laboratory."

Is Aunt Xu Qing that rich?
That's not right. If she was really rich, why would she have lived in this run-down neighborhood with her family back then?
"And as far as I remember, her family didn't have anything valuable; the furniture was all old-fashioned, and the decorations were very simple."

Zhang Muchen touched his chin, and a blurry fragment suddenly flashed through his mind.

Her family has many antique vases, which she didn't think were worth much when she was a child.

I accidentally bumped into a vase and broke it. My mom turned green with anger and almost hung me up and beat me on the spot.

But Aunt Xu Qing wasn't angry at all. Instead, she smiled and said, "It's okay, there are several more at home. If one falls, it falls."

Zhang Muchen touched his face and couldn't help but mutter softly, "That vase must be very valuable, right?"

He looked up at the window; the night was deep, and the neon lights cast a faint shadow on the glass.

My phone suddenly vibrated, and a WeChat message popped up.

"Aunt Xu Qing?"

[Mu Chen, are you asleep? I'm going back to China next Wednesday. Can you pick me up at the airport? I don't know the way.]

He paused for a second, then the corners of his mouth slowly turned up.

"Aunt Xu Qing's terrible sense of direction is still the same as before."

(End of this chapter)