Summer Green Apples

Ji Xiwen was having a serious chat with Zhang Qingyan and Luo Wenjing. A new Korean drama had recently come out and had captured the hearts of all three of them.

The three of them were having a great time chatting, and she didn't notice Ji Feiran at all.

Ji Feiran stood there by himself for half a minute, then went back, feeling dejected.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon, on the way back to the village.

Ji Xiwen, Ji Mingli, and Ji Mingqiang were sitting in the same car, with Ji Feiran in the passenger seat.

Mingying originally wanted to pull him to sit in the other car, but Ji Feiran insisted on sitting in this one, so Mingying didn't force him anymore.

Ji Feiran's thinking was very simple.

He assumed that since he and his sister were in the same car, it was only natural for her to sit with him and take care of him.

In this way, he would have a private space to communicate with Ji Xiwen.

He never expected that Ji Xiwen would sit with her cousin.

He was feeling very upset, sitting in the passenger seat with a somber face, his fingers tightly gripping the seatbelt.

Whenever he makes that expression, his parents will comfort him.

This time, even though the car was already halfway there, none of the three people in the back seat noticed that he was unhappy.

Ji Xiwen's attention was entirely focused on Ji Mingqiang.

Ji Mingqiang's weight loss has been very effective. Today, he specially wore a white shirt and used hairspray to fix his hair. From a distance, he really looks like a campus heartthrob.

The campus heartthrob ate so much that his belly bulged and almost ripped his white shirt. He only avoided disaster by unbuttoning the bottom two buttons.

Ji Mingli stood between her and Ji Mingqiang.

Ji Mingli looked disgusted. "I feel like your weight will go back to what it was before after this summer vacation."

Ji Mingqiang was quite confident: "Impossible. Today is an all-you-can-eat meal. Tomorrow I'll eat boiled vegetables all day."

Ji Mingli: "You'd better be."

Ji Xiwen was curious about another point: "...You used to control your eating, but you ate so much today, doesn't your stomach feel bloated?"

"I'm so full, but I want to eat more. My mouth is watering."

Ji Mingqiang looked up at the car roof at a 45-degree angle, his expression both bright and melancholic. "I only feel so sad that I can't eat when Can Can ignores me."

Ji Xiwen: "..."

Ji Mingli: "Doesn't Can Can already have a new boyfriend?"

"Yes," Ji Mingqiang sighed, "that's why I'm waiting."

Ji Xiwen: "Waiting for what?"

"Wait until she breaks up with her boyfriend." Ji Mingqiang thought Ji Xiwen was inflexible. "Aren't you in a relationship? How come you still don't understand anything?"

"Our Xixi is in a serious relationship. She likes him, and he likes her too. It's mutual!"

Ji Mingli patted Ji Mingqiang on the shoulder, "She has no idea what kind of ideas you, as a backup option, have in mind."

Ji Mingqiang: "..."

He gritted his teeth. "So what if I'm a backup option? I'm proud, I'm happy, I'm joyful."

"It's nothing, I fully support you." Ji Mingli gave a thumbs up. "Keep it up!"

Ji Mingqiang sighed again, "I only love Cancan, I will only be with Cancan, even if it is a little difficult and sad now, I still only want Cancan."

Ji Xiwen raised her hand and tugged at her earlobe, symbolically praising, "How affectionate."

Ji Mingqiang: "Thank you."

Ji Mingli: "………………"

She quietly took out her phone and tapped it.

Ji Xiwen vaguely felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and took it out to look at it.

Ji Mingli: [He's gone completely mad.]

She smiled and looked out the car window for a while, a smile curving her lips.

It was a very busy day. She kept following behind Ji Zifeng and Mingying, greeting people. This was the first time Ji Xiwen had ever known that she had so many relatives.

She was so tired that she went straight to her room to sleep after getting off the bus.

She had just closed the door and was about to lie down when there was another knock on the door.

She opened the door, expecting it to be Mingying, but instead it was Ji Feiran.

He tilted his head back, pursed his lips, and said, "There's something I want to tell you."

"you say."

"You...you're the person next to you, are you close to him?" Ji Feiran asked.

"The person next to me?" Ji Xiwen asked, puzzled. "You mean the person we were eating just now?"

"Yes," Ji Feiran thought for a moment and said, "It's the boy next to you."

"I'm fine, what's wrong?" Ji Xiwen leaned down and asked.

"I……"

Ji Feiran hesitated for a moment, remembering what her mother had said last night.

This is the person closest to him in the world.

He mustered his courage and said, "I don't like him. He's bad. Sister, can you please stop playing with him?"

Ji Xiwen was taken aback.

"cannot."

Ji Feiran was taken aback; he hadn't expected this answer.

"...Why?" He looked incredulous.

Without much thought, Ji Xiwen replied directly, "Because he is a very good person, and I like him very much, so I cannot grant your request."

"He's not good, he's very..." Ji Feiran was bad at studying and his Chinese was terrible. Right now, he couldn't find a word to describe Chi Sui.

He almost burst into tears, "He's such a bad person! I don't like him. Mom said you're my sister, the closest person in the world to me. Why are you helping an outsider?"

"Because to me, he's not an outsider," Ji Xiwen said calmly. "Although we are siblings, that doesn't change the fact that we are independent individuals."

Ji Feiran pursed her lips. "I don't understand."

Ji Xiwen: "...So if I told you that your older sister Xiao Chu is a bad person and that you shouldn't play with her anymore, would you agree?"

"They're different."

Ji Feiran stubbornly said, "Sister Xiao Chu is a very nice person, unlike him."

"Ji Feiran".

Ji Xiwen's expression calmed down. She stared into Ji Feiran's eyes and said, "That's your feeling, your evaluation, not mine."

Ji Feiran clenched her fists. "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, but everyone has different opinions about others," Ji Xiwen said. "What you think is your business, but you have no right to tell me what to do."

Ji Feiran's eyelashes trembled slightly.

He took a step back.

He had never seen his older sister with such a cold expression before. He was afraid, but there was also a hint of barely perceptible grievance and anger in his heart.

After all, in his little world, he was the undisputed king.

His parents will always indulge him.

Ji Xiwen said softly, "You can have any opinions or comments about him. You can tell me the good ones, but don't tell me the bad ones, okay?"

Ji Feiran is spoiled.

He didn't like Ji Xiwen's attitude, so he said loudly, "Why? I don't like him, so I'm going to say it."

"Because I don't like hearing people speak ill of him, no one can. If you insist on doing that, then I will hate you too."

Ji Xiwen felt that her tone was quite good.

But as soon as she said those words, Ji Feiran burst into tears.

He sobbed as he said, "Then I hate you too."

Ji Xiwen: "Whatever."

-

The next day, Ji Xiwen took a bus to the county town to have a meal with Luo Wenjing and Zhang Qingyan, and finally saw them off on the bus to the city airport.

"Then we're leaving." Luo Wenjing hugged Ji Xiwen reluctantly and said, "We'll have to wait until winter break to see each other again."

"Okay." Ji Xiwen patted her back.

Zhang Qingyan asked, "When are you going to Beijing?"

Ji Xiwen: "I'm leaving the day after tomorrow."

Mingying had proposed taking Ji Xiwen back to Beijing long ago, and the plane tickets were already booked. She was determined to take her back to make up for the past few years.

"Okay, you go and scout ahead first," Zhang Qingyan said with a smile.

"Okay, I'll go see what fun things there are, and I'll take you there later." Ji Xiwen readily agreed.

On her way back, she heard the roar of airplanes and looked up at the sky.

The airplane looked like a white bird with its wings spread wide as it glided into the sky.

The cicadas chirped loudly, and a watermelon vendor was enthusiastically hawking his wares under the shade of a tree. The dappled light of dusk fell on the cracked cement ground.

The clouds drift and disperse; it's the end of summer once again.