Ch 29

Ding Xuerun picked up the package at the community’s delivery office. He bought all of these educational toys for the children at the Sunflower Home.

He also brought his own candies with him. “The children miss you,” said the dean, who was overjoyed to see him. Ding Xuerun is the most consistent among the many enthusiastic volunteers who come to help at home. The dean is most surprised by the child’s ability to read lip language and use sign language. He is very capable and considerate.

The disability center as a whole has about 40 or 50 people, with more than half of them being young children and the majority of the rest being elderly people. Sitting outside, facing the window, without saying anything.

The nursing workers in their homes, on the other hand, are all middle-aged women, and there aren’t many people, so they have to be busy making drinks and food for the 40 or 50 people. The only educated person in the home is the dean, who teaches the children Pinyin.

Ding Xuerun showed them how to paper-cut by hand with the safest paper-cutting scissors. Time flies by quickly.

Around 7 p.m in the evening, he went out from the Sunflower Home.

Lou Cheng waited outside the community for him. He sat astride the motorcycle, leaning over and playing with his phone. The streetlights were dim, and the light and shadow on his face were mottled.

On the Internet, he looked for the home of the disabled on Qingquan Road. There is such a place, but it is very old, and no much information about it is available on the Internet.

Lou Cheng was bored as he waited for Ding Xuerun. When he turned his head, he notices him approaching.

He immediately sat upright and took a helmet for him: “I brought it specifically for you when it cooled down at night. There are gloves here. Your gloves appear to be quite worn. Is it still keeping you warm?”

Ding Xuerun put on the helmet first. After hesitated, he took off the gloves and put them in the compartment of the schoolbag. He said, “Yeah, I have worn them for so many years. My mother knits them for me.”

It is difficult for his mother to find work. Ding Zhaowen was hesitant to let her go to work, but she insisted, believing that she needed to integrate into society. It so happened that a restaurant in their city was willing to hire deaf employees. As a result, not long after working, they got into trouble due to an overly attractive face.

After she had to quit her job, Ding Xuerun’s mother stayed at home, knitting sweaters and gloves for him.

After his mother passed away, he grew taller. His clothes were small and old, but he still wore them. His gloves were old and tight, but he still wore them. He didn’t even change his umbrella.

He hopped on the motorcycle, and the two of them clung tightly to each other. Lou Cheng said uncomfortably: “Hold my waist, don’t let go, and don’t fall asleep. It’s dangerous to fall asleep.”

“I won’t.” Ding Xuerun wrapped his arm around him after he finished speaking. He was wearing Lou Cheng’s gloves, which completely covered his hand. Ding Xuerun’s two arms wrapped around his waist from behind and buckled in front of him as if he were embracing Lou Cheng in his arms.

He also asked: “Is this tight enough?”

Lou Cheng was stiff all over, he made a hesitant “um” and quickly started the motorcycle. He calmed down after a few minutes of riding in the cold breeze, and his voice came into Ding Xuerun’s ears intermittently with the wind: “Runrun, what do you want to eat at tonight?”

Ding Xuerun also said loudly, “Go back to school and eat.”

Lou Cheng thought for a while and said yes.

He rode wildly in the racetrack. He couldn’t control his speed on the way home. His motorcycle’s engine was blaring, whistling past the bus stop and swept up the long hair of girls on the side of the road.

In half an hour, they arrived at the school gate.

Ding Xuerun often eats at Shaxian snacks, but today he is joined by Lou Cheng. Lou Cheng prefers restaurants that have private rooms. Outside the school, there are several good restaurants. He already tasted them all. The one he often eats is the one he thinks tastes the best.

Ding Xuerun noticed Lou Cheng walking a little limp when he got on the elevator, which was different from when he arrived.

He stared at him a few more times after exiting the elevator, then followed up and asked, “Lou Cheng, what’s wrong with your legs?”

“…Nothing.” He thought he was walking normally.

After entering the private room, Lou Cheng’s first thing was to ask the waiter for disposable chopsticks and hot water.

Ding Xuerun glanced at him, and then asked: “You fell while riding a motorcycle?”

“You order first.” 

The waiter took the menu and went out. Ding Xuerun sat next to him from the opposite side of Lou Cheng: “Did you hurt your legs while riding a motorcycle?”

Lou Cheng stopped his chopsticks and said helplessly: “It’s nothing big, a professional racer like me, how can I not fall? It’s normal.”

He handed Ding Xuerun a pair of clean chopsticks  with a hippy smile and said: “Is Runrun worried about his brother?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Ding Xuerun was expressionless, “Wait until we get to your house, I’ll take a look.”

“What’s there to see…” Lou Cheng whispered.

Ding Xuerun glanced at him.

Lou Cheng: “… Okay, you can see.” 

Ding Xuerun noticed another strange movement while eating. Today, Lou Cheng ate with his left hand. The strange thing is not that he uses his left hand very well, but he usually uses his right hand to play with his mobile phone.

“You hurt your hand too?”

“…How did you know it again?”

“Next time you get hurt, don’t ride the motorcycle.”

“I…” When Lou Cheng still wanted to argue, Ding Xuerun turned around and glared at him, so much that he dared not do it any longer and humbly said, “Okay, no more.”

He rides his motorcycle on a 2.2-kilometer track with 14 turns. Today he’s not paying attention. He always remembered Ding Xuerun sitting behind him and holding his waist when he rode his motorcycle. The sense of dependence seems to linger on his body, causing him to trip on a turn.

The motorcycle turned too much, and he almost slid against the ground. He was good at this drift, but he got distracted today. The right shoulder and leg side rubbed on the ground for a meter or two.

his teammates helped him in treating his shoulder injury, which was a flesh scrape. Good thing he was wearing protective gear.

Lou Cheng was embarrassed to let someone help him deal with the injury on his leg, and planned to go home and get it by himself.

He didn’t consider it a big deal, and he didn’t care, so he rode Ding Xuerun home.

After eating, Ding Xuerun helped him walk back to the community by pushing the motorcycle, saying: “You can use your left hand very well.”

“I was left-handed when I was a child and then I learned to use my right hand. Now I can use both hands.”

“Left-handed people are generally smart.”

Lou Cheng is embarrassed: “Don’t praise me like that. I’m not good at my study, Runrun, you’re smarter.”

Ding Xuerun took off his coat, let him sit on the sofa, and asked him: “Where’s your medical kit?”

Lou Cheng told him the location. Although he didn’t have many medicines, Lou Cheng was frequently injured while riding a motorcycle. He had everything he needed to deal with the wounds.

He carried the medical kit and walked back to the sofa. Lou Cheng had already taken off his shirt, revealing the simple bandaged wound on his shoulder: “Look, I have taken care of it, nothing is going to happen.” 

The gauze clung to the wound and it did seem to be fine.

“What about your legs?”

Lou Cheng immediately shook his head: “Don’t look at it.”

“It’s okay, take off your pants and let me see.” Ding Xuerun’s tone couldn’t contain his beak.

Lou Cheng was embarrassed: “It’s fine… Don’t look, Runrun.”

Ding Xuerun frowned as he watched him tugging at the waist of his pants, “Are you wearing pink underwear? I saw it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“No… I don’t wear pink underwear, don’t talk nonsense…”

“Lou Cheng, let me take a look at the injury on your leg.”

However, Lou Cheng dropped his head deeply and pulled off his pants. Ding Xuerun looked at the pink long trousers he was wearing and fell silent.

Lou Cheng flushed even more: “My mother bought me the long trousers and insisted that I wear them. I-I am not afraid of the cold at all!”

“Look for yourself, the blood has leaked out.”

Lou Cheng looked down. It is true, but it is not so exaggerated, just a little bit of blood.

Lou Cheng’s pink long trousers fell to his ankles, tilted slightly, and exposed the scratches on the side of his right leg to Ding Xuerun, who squatted halfway next to the sofa.

Ding Xuerun kept a cold face, applied for medicine, and bandaged him skillfully. After that burst of shame, Lou Huan was not so shy and asked him jokingly: “Runrun you are very skillful. You used to fight a lot?”

He still remembers the injuries on Ding Xuerun’s face and hands when he first arrived at the school. Lou Cheng could tell from a glance that even if Ding Xuerun had been beaten, he had to have beaten others hard, or the knuckles would not be that way.

Ding Xuerun did not answer, and Lou Cheng was not annoyed. He turned his head on his stomach and asked, “Are you fighting fiercely? I can’t tell.”

“Do you want to try?” He raised his head and looked at Lou Cheng.

“No way, my brother doesn’t bully, you are so well behaved. It hurts, Runrun, please take it easy..”

“Sorry.” Ding Xuerun couldn’t stop himself. His hands were too powerful, and he was pressing Lou Cheng’s wound.

He asked Lou Cheng to raise his leg and wrapped medical gauze around his leg’s wound.  Lou Cheng could feel his fingertips rubbing against his skin from time to time. That kind of itchy feeling, like itchy wounds being healed, and like little ants crawling around in his heart.

Because of such minor injuries, Ding Xuerun supervised him and did not let him ride a motorcycle. Lou Cheng was very aggrieved and said that he had some motorcycle racing competitions to participate in, and he needed more training. Ding Xuerun only coldly threw two words to him: “Not allowed.”

Lou Cheng, a person who has never been obedient, doesn’t know how to respond. Ding Xuerun said what he said, he couldn’t help but be obedient. As if not listening to him was the same as doing something wrong.

Within two days, school started.

Last semester’s final exam and placement results came out. More than a dozen liberal arts students joined the class, and nearly 20 new science students joined as well. These twenty are all top students with excellent grades on the most recent exam, and their eyes are usually above the top.

However, as soon as they entered this class, they began to inquire: “Which one is Ding Xuerun?”

Ding Xuerun won first place this time. He chose science, so he only took the science exam. As soon as his score came out, he scared a large number of students in Liu Zhong high school to death.

He was particularly conspicuous in the number one position, with a perfect score of 750, and he passed the exam at 742.

Both the original classmates of Class 4 and the new classmates who had just been assigned to Class 4 were in awe and believed that standing at the altar would not offend the other party.

Perhaps because of Ding Xuerun’s aura of learning God, his classmates began to look at him and were surprised to discover that the first-place holder was very fair, fair-skinned, and even had beautiful facial features. When he was studying, he had a different posture than most people. He has a long neck and is very straight.

On Monday morning, the entire school participated in radio gymnastics in the playground. The school’s Disciplinary Committee would go through each student’s hairstyle one by one. Those with disheveled hair were tied their hair up right away. Those who wore earrings and jewelry removed them immediately. Those with dyed hair could only be caught out and marked.

After a holiday, such a large check will undoubtedly catch some people off guard, and every class has a few hits.

When they got to Class 4, Chen Zhibang’s hat was checked out.

“Student, take off your hat.” It was to check whether his hairstyle fits the standard or not.

Chen Zhibang’s face was white, trembling, just motionless.

The Commission for Discipline Inspection repeated it again, and Chen Zhibang took off his hat with a bitter expression, and then lowered his head, and had no face to see people.

The Commission for Discipline Inspection stared at a crooked and bald circle in the middle of his hair, brightly reflecting the light as if it was a substandard and particularly funny Mediterranean hairstyle. He couldn’t hold back for a moment and laughed out loud.

A girl who followed the examination screamed.

Chen Zhibang was eager to get into the ground, and asked quietly, “Is my hairstyle…qualified?”

“…qualified.” The length is within the required range, so it is naturally qualified.

Chen Zhibang came to school last night to study on the first evening of the semester. He was caught on the spot by the big bald head who came to Lou Cheng but couldn’t find anyone. He dragged him into the toilet to get a haircut.

He almost cried while looking in the mirror.

The big bald head avenged his revenge, patted his face with the hair fader, and smiled coldly: “Our brother Cheng said to let you go for the time being. He wants you to stay away from Ding Xuerun and don’t disturb other people. If you bother him again, I’ll beat you up!”

However, Ding Xuerun’s math competition has reached the final round, and he will continue to compete, so meeting with the academic committee is unavoidable.

When eating in the cafeteria at noon, Ding Xuerun was surprised to find that the price of the cafeteria had been significantly reduced. He used to get only two vegetarian dishes for ten yuan, but now he can get one more meat dish.

The taste has also become better.

The students were full of praise.

The cafeteria is still staffed by an old employee. Upon inquiring, it seems that the contractor has been changed. The new contractor not only adjusted the price of the canteen’s food but also raised the wages of the employees.

The competition’s semi-finals concluded on Friday, and the results were released quickly. Several student teams from Liu Zhong High School took first place in the provincial competition.

But it’s not over yet. The Association will select students from the provincial first rank to enter the provincial team to compete for the national first prize.

The level of competition in Liu Zhong high school is not particularly high in the country, because the teacher does not recommend that students continue to participate in the later stages of the competition. If they do not make the national training team in the end, the provincial first prize guarantee policy is canceled. It’s a complete waste of time.

However, this year Ding Xuerun appeared in their class. Teacher Dou knew that he had signed up for the other four subject competitions, but he didn’t know whether to persuade or encourage him.

After a long silence, he said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” He said concisely.

Because of the five subject competitions, Ding Xuerun became busier, and Lou Cheng remained the same. On the second Saturday of school, Lou Cheng saw Ding Xuerun’s birth date on his ID card.

Lou Cheng never attends classes on Saturdays, he goes to the racing as soon as he gets better. He went home early on Saturday. He stepped on the pedal, and drive out, whistling at the school gate and waiting for Ding Xuerun to come out.

“Did you change the car?” Ding Xuerun saw him leaning on the front cover of the car, tall with long legs and handsome like a supermodel.

“Land Rover was in for repairs, so I changed it.”

After getting in the car, Ding Xuerun asked him: “Where are we going?”

“You’ll know when we get there.” Lou Cheng answered.

Purchasing a candy factory was a spur of the moment decision. Lou Cheng didn’t have a specific goal in mind. Maybe it was just a joke with Ding Xuerun.

This candy company is small, and the candy factory is even smaller. However, after entering, the production workshop of the assembly line still gives people mechanical dizziness. The air is thick with the aroma of chocolate, not greasy, just pure sweetness.

The roof of the factory is full of colorful hydrogen balloons, and on the roof is a new signboard.

Lou Cheng took him into the elevator and stood in a high place with his head held up and very energetic: “There are so many candies here, how about giving them to you as a birthday present?” His narrow eyes were shining, and he looked directly at Ding Xuerun.

He has always been extremely generous to his friends. He gave gifts to his brothers on their birthdays. He was thoughtful and precious, but this was the first time he was concerned. This, according to Lou Cheng, was more of a way to entice girls, and it was very special. It’s almost like a confession scene—he cares so much about Ding Xuerun that he feels abnormal.

Ding Xuerun hadn’t spoken yet, Lou Cheng said again: “Runrun, a candy can be exchanged for you to call me brother, how many calls do I get?”

“With so many calls, can you change it to husband?”

“… Lou Cheng,” Ding Xuerun finally said, with a soft voice, “Do you like me?”

The author has something to say: 

Director Lou Cheng: I have contracted the entire candy factory for you!