CH 88.3

Come Back Quickly (3)

Qin Yuan sat at his desk and opened his question book.

The minute hand of the small desk clock moved silently. The time indicated that it was late at night.

He irritably dropped his pen and looked at the exam questions scrawled in front of him.

The last few big questions were ridiculously done, using the wrong formula and drawn with messy auxiliary lines, a rarely-seen mistake on an average day.

His eyes fell on the phone at the side before he finally gritted his teeth and reached for it.

Whether it was QQ or WeChat or a short text message, they were all blank, cold, and stubborn-looking.

Qin Yuan looked at the unclaimed 10,000 yuan red envelope in a daze. The annoyance and jealousy he had felt the whole afternoon finally dissipated, and his sanity slowly returned.

If his family were poor and Ruan Qingmu had done the same thing to him, would he accept the money casually?

No, he definitely wouldn’t.

So who was he to give Ruan Qingmu such a large sum of money that anyone would consider impossible to accept?

But what exactly should he do? What exactly had Ruan Qingmu encountered that required him to go out and make money doing this sort of thing?

Was the sum of money needed large? Could it be for Xiao-Zhuang, or had something happened to his family?

His heart was anxious and confused for a moment, and boundless regret flooded his heart.

He opened the live stream again and clicked on the playback feature.

Casually swiping the progress bar, the camera showed Ruan Qingmu standing expressionlessly and lazily, occasionally raising his head with a pair of sharp and bright eyes before quickly turning away again.

Qin Yuan stared blankly at the ancient-style youth in the picture, who was both familiar and unfamiliar all at once. For some reason, he felt a strange uncomfortable feeling.

There was a vague ache in his heart as if something sharp was poking and prodding without ceasing at all times.

There was no apparent reason for this ache and it came out of nowhere in the afternoon when he saw the live broadcast and continued until now, making him anxious and annoyed, his mood gloomy.

Was it because of worry? It must be.

Besides, if something really happened, that guy would be determined to keep his mouth shut and never ask for help, right?

When he thought of that, he felt an inexplicable pain in his heart as if something had hit him hard in the chest.

Would he not ask for help even if he was dead? … It was just a tiny, every day thing, so why would there be such an alarming association?

He suddenly grabbed his phone and dialed the number directly.

… Surprisingly, it was turned off!

Ruan Qingmu sat in the small room, shaking his phone remorsefully, and pressing the button forcefully and repeatedly.

What a crappy phone. It had only been bought in the first year of high school and had only been used for a year or so, but the screen kept going black frequently and needed to be rebooted.

Now, it was still useless after rebooting. Didn’t this interfere with his daily life?

He only needed to wait for a few days until Lunar New Year’s Eve and the money received should be a thousand yuan. At that time, he would hurry up to get a new phone. Usually, a thousand yuan phone was not bad and everything he needed would be on there.

Maybe he should be brazen and ask Mu Wanli to get it in advance? No, there was no such thing as advance New Year’s Eve money.

What should be done then? What about the next few days? And what about tonight?

For a moment, he was suddenly overwhelmed with frustration.

Everything in this world was about money. He wished he could just take a knife and rob some robbers on the street!

The little mute washed his feet outside, yawned, and obediently entered the room.

Once he came in, he was stunned. When he saw Ruan Qingmu’s utterly miserable expression, he rushed over and hugged Ruan Qingmu’s thighs, shaking them anxiously.

Ruan Qingmu looked at him in a daze, wordlessly stroking the top of his head, and his heart was suddenly so sour.

“Xiao-Zhuang, am I wrong?” He softly said, “It will be the birthday of that big brother you don’t like on Lunar New Year’s Eve. Although he’s not here to celebrate it, I want to give him a birthday present, waiting for him to return before giving him a surprise.”

The little mute looked up at him, staring blankly, his big dark eyes full of confusion.

“I want him to be happy and see his surprised expression when receiving the present. But if this makes him unhappy in advance, wouldn’t it be foolish?” Ruan Qingmu’s eyes reddened slightly, and he simply felt awful inside. “He’s alone there and living with his family is just like hell. He must be lonely, isn’t he? But I’m still getting in a fight with him.”

He suddenly stood up and quickly pulled open the door to his room.

Outside, Mu Wanli was already asleep and the house was dark. He tiptoed out of the house, looked around, and ran toward the entrance of the alley.

It was late at night and all the small shops were closed, except for a 24-hour convenience store on the street outside.

He rushed to the front of the shop and took ten yuan out of his pocket. “Boss, can you lend me your phone to make a call? Just for a few minutes!”

Nobody was in the shop and the owner was napping, so he was startled by the sound of his voice.

When he looked up and saw Ruan Qingmu, he vaguely recognized him as a child from a nearby family, so the boss confusedly handed over his phone. “Okay, okay, no need to give me any money. Aiya, this kid, why are you wearing so little?

The cold winter wind was bone-chilling and Ruan Qingmu was in a hurry when he rushed out, only wearing a thick jumper, with his face pale from the cold. He didn’t even hear the boss’ words and hurriedly dialed the number he knew by heart.

When the call came through, he didn’t wait for Qin Yuan to speak, lowering his voice and speaking directly. “Qin Yuan, I will tell you if I’m short of money in the future. If you give me any, I’ll take it.”

His face burned for a moment and he gritted his teeth to say, “But I want to make money myself and buy something for you this time.”

Qin Yuan was tossing and turning in a daze over there, unable to sleep, and was instantly awakened by the late-night call. His heart was beating wildly and he was completely baffled as he listened to the flurry of words.

“What… thing?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

Ruan Qingmu helplessly gestured for the boss to hand over a packet of tissues, wiped the snot that was frozen out of his nose, and gathered all his courage to say, “If you want to know, come back quickly. I will give it to you with my own hands!”