Brother! This is the adoption certificate. I don't want your sister-in-law!

With Su Wanning gone, Su Xiao doesn't need to rush home at noon.

He could have just grabbed a bite at the school's food street, but after thinking about it, he turned to look at Xu Niannian, who was packing her textbooks next to him.

"Let's go to the cafeteria together at noon."

Xu Niannian raised her head, blinked, and then shook her head.

She never goes to the cafeteria at noon.

The cafeteria was too expensive, so she took out a plastic bag from her schoolbag. Inside were two white steamed buns that she had brought from home that morning.

Su Xiao glanced at the two steamed buns, then reached out and snatched them, stuffing them into her desk drawer.

"The steamed buns are confiscated. You're coming to the cafeteria with me for lunch today."

Xu Niannian panicked and reached out to take it back, but she didn't dare to touch him, her face turning red with anxiety.

Su Xiao had already stood up and walked out, but after taking two steps, she turned back and saw that Su Xiao was still sitting in the same spot, and raised her eyebrows.

"You're not leaving? Then I'll come back and kiss you."

Xu Niannian thought of that kiss from that day and jumped up from her chair in fright.

He followed behind him obediently, head down, like a prisoner, his hands clasped together in front of him.

The cafeteria was bustling with noise.

The queue for food stretched out in several crooked lines, with the clanging of metal plates and chopsticks filling the air.

Xu Niannian stood in line, looking up at the handwritten menu and prices on the window for a long, long time.

Braised pork belly, so expensive.

Sweet and sour pork ribs, so expensive.

Even scrambled eggs are expensive.

Her gaze swept back and forth across the numbers.

Finally, I stopped at the cheapest vegetarian food counter and whispered to the lady serving the vegetables, "Bok choy and tofu."

When she swiped her meal card, the machine beeped. She stared at the balance number that popped up for several seconds, her lips pursed slightly.

It costs less than two yuan.

These two dollars were enough to make her extremely distressed.

She took the bowl and ran to the window where the soup was served for free, then used a large iron ladle to scoop the soup from the bottom of the bucket.

Only after all the long-time employees had been rounded up did he carefully carry a full bowl of soup back to his seat.

This is what Su Xiao saw when she walked over with the plate.

Xu Niannian huddled in a corner, with a plate of green vegetables, a plate of tofu, and a bowl of free soup that was almost overflowing in front of her.

She was sipping her soup slowly, her cheeks moving gently as she drank intently, as if she wanted to taste the meat in the soup.

He sat down next to her casually and put his plate on the table.

Braised pork belly, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and a plate of garlic broccoli, all glistening with oil and steaming hot.

Xu Niannian glanced at his plate, then quickly looked away and continued to drink her soup.

Su Xiao picked up a piece of braised pork with her chopsticks. It was marbled with fat and lean meat, and had a glossy, dark brown color. She placed it in her bowl.

Xu Niannian reacted as if she had been burned, quickly picking up her chopsticks to return it to him.

Aren't you going to eat?

Su Xiao stopped her chopsticks, "Then I'm leaving. Don't talk to me again."

He picked up the plate and made a gesture as if he was about to leave.

Xu Niannian was startled and quickly grabbed his sleeve.

"No, no..."

Su Xiao sat down smugly and put the meat back into her bowl.

Xu Niannian looked down at the braised pork, poked the fatty part with the tip of her chopsticks, her brows furrowed slightly, still hesitating.

Su Xiao leaned closer, lowered her voice, and said seriously, "Have you forgotten what happened last time?"

Xu Niannian blinked.

"Nutrition, breast milk, the baby," Su Xiao said, enunciating each word clearly, intending to use this matter to support her for the rest of her life.

"You...you keep your voice down."

Xu Niannian's face turned from white to red, and her ears even burned.

She quickly lowered her head, stuffed the braised pork into her mouth, and chewed it vigorously.

His cheeks puffed out roundly, and he chewed several times before swallowing.

Su Xiao watched as her throat moved slightly, and then she lowered her head again to continue sipping her soup, though the tips of her ears were still red.

She picked up the piece of meat again with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth, this time chewing it more slowly.

Actually, braised pork is quite delicious.

She stole a glance at Su Xiao, who was smugly piling food into his bowl.

She hummed softly to herself.

This bad person only knows how to bully me.

……

After lunch, Su Xiao decided not to go home.

The classroom was empty, and the curtains swayed gently in the breeze.

Sunlight streamed through the cracks, casting golden stripes on the desks.

Xu Niannian usually doesn't go home at noon. She stays alone in the classroom, sometimes reading, sometimes doing homework, and sometimes doing nothing but lying on the table in a daze.

She was used to the quiet, used to spending her noon alone.

But today is different; there's someone else next to me.

Su Xiao seems to really want to study.

He opened his chemistry notebook, pointed to the potassium chlorate balancing problem, and asked him many questions.

Some of the questions she asked were silly, and some she didn't know how to explain, so she could only say, "That's what it says in the book."

But she wasn't impatient. She explained each question one by one in a soft voice, and after finishing, she lowered her head and continued writing her own questions.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Su Xiao yawned and threw down her pen.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm sleepy."

He slumped onto the table, resting his face on his arm, and within seconds his breathing became heavy.

Xu Niannian continued writing her homework beside her.

The scratching sound of the pen gliding across the paper mingled with his even breathing, and occasionally a few birds chirped outside the window.

She wrote down a problem and glanced up at him.

I wrote another problem and glanced at him again.

I glance at him when I can't write anything.

When I get tired of writing, I glance at him.

I glanced at him after I finished writing.

Suddenly, the clouds in the sky were blown away by the wind.

A ray of sunlight shone directly in from the window and landed right on Su Xiao's face.

He frowned, his eyelashes fluttered, and he mumbled something indistinctly, as if he were in some discomfort.

Xu Niannian quickly reached out and shielded his face.

My hands are too small to block it.

She added another hand, but still couldn't block it.

Sunlight filtered through his fingers, casting several fine streaks of light on his face.

His brows furrowed even more; he was about to wake up.

Xu Niannian looked around nervously, picked up the chemistry notebook on the table, held it up with both hands, and carefully placed it next to his face.

The shadow of the notebook fell right onto his eyes.

His brows slowly relaxed, and his breathing became deep again.

Xu Niannian kept holding the notebook, looking down at him as he slept.

His breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling, and he lay on the table like a large cat lying flat.

She suddenly found that this bad guy was actually quite cute when he was asleep.

She never imagined that someone like that would enter her life.

From elementary school to junior high school, she was always alone.

A person sits in the last row of the classroom and pretends to be asleep on the desk during breaks.

Actually, I wasn't asleep.

She was afraid that when she opened her eyes, she wouldn't know who to talk to, and she was afraid of seeing others chatting in twos and threes while she sat there alone.

Back then, what she feared most was the break between classes. The liveliness of others always highlighted her sense of alienation and loneliness.

Later, when I went to high school, I met Su Xiao.

He was a big bad guy back then, fierce and intimidating, and no one in the class dared to approach him, including myself.

I'm always careful when I talk to him, afraid he'll yell at me.

But it was only him.

She would fight back for him when other boys bullied her.

He shielded her from the laughter of the whole class.

Only he would put hot buns on her desk, stuff milk into her desk drawer, tell her nonsensical jokes, and force her to eat meat with the twisted logic that "a child has no milk to drink."

She didn't know what kind of person Su Xiao was to others.

But in her heart, he was definitely not a bad boy.

Ah!

Xu Niannian silently told herself this.

Su Xiao is a good boy!