Yang Jiabo pieced together the truth from the children’s words and the gossip of the village busybodies. It turned out that Yang Jiabo’s strategy was somewhat effective. Through his subtle brainwashing, some children mentioned his words to their parents, successfully catching the attention of some parents.
Although life had improved in this era, most people were still far from wealthy. A low-income gardener, no matter how much he liked children, he couldn't possibly spend most of his salary on candy for the children, right?
The more the parents thought about it, the more suspicious they became, so they started keeping an eye on the gardener. At first, they only suspected him of child trafficking and didn’t consider other possibilities. However, as they watched, the smart ones began to notice something was off. This person was not a child trafficker, he was a disgusting, perverted creep.
"The sun is shining, the flowers are smiling at me, the little bird says ‘morning, morning, morning,’ why are you carrying your little backpack..."
Yang Jiabo hummed the tune in his off-key, raspy voice, skipping and hopping toward the school building. Carefree and lighthearted, he felt as if he were floating. But then, out of nowhere, a blow struck him hard, crushing his heart.
"Jiajia, your singing is terrible," Wei Feng said with a look of disdain, and then didn't forget to demonstrate to Yang Jiabo the correct way to sing.
It was impossible to have a good time with him around. Yang Jiabo rolled his eyes at him but still greeted Wei Jing with a smile. "Brother, good morning!"
Wei Jing: "Morning. What did you have for breakfast?"
"Bread with strawberry jam."
"No wonder you’re so happy," Wei Jing nodded.
"My happiness has nothing to do with the bread, okay?" Yang Jiabo thought helplessly. Was his sweet-tooth image really that ingrained in everyone’s minds?
"Are you still going to eat your breakfast later?" Wei Feng widened his eyes and stared at him.
"Of course I’ll eat." He couldn’t waste the 15 yuan monthly breakfast fee.
After arriving at school, there was a 15-minute morning class, followed by morning exercises, then a 15-minute breakfast period, and only after that the day’s lessons started.
"You really can eat." Wei Feng sighed.
Yang Jiabo: “Being able to eat is a blessing.”
"Jia Jia, are you sick?" Wei Jing stared at Yang Jiabo.
"I'm fine, really." Yang Jiabo felt a mix of emotions about Wei Jing’s constant suspicion that he was ill.
"But your complexion really doesn’t look good," Wei Jing insisted, still convinced that Yang Jiabo was sick.
"Hehe…" Yang Jiabo grabbed Wei Feng and ran off. He was sick, but not in the way Wei Jing thought.
After finishing morning exercises, Yang Jiabo carried his small mug and lined up with Wei Feng to get breakfast. Today’s breakfast was his favorite, zha jiang noodles, and Yang Jiabo even asked the teacher for an extra spoonful of sauce. However, after just two bites, he felt nauseous and threw up.
"Jiajia, you’re so gross," Wei Feng said, feeling like his own noodles had lost their appeal. He completely lost his appetite.
"Shut up and get me a bowl of water," Yang Jiabo snapped, then crouched down and vomited again. He felt like he was about to throw up bile.
Teacher Li, the head teacher, walked over and asked with concern, "Yang Jiabo, what’s wrong?"
"He ate too much and overstuffed himself," Wei Feng came back with some water.
"Wei Feng." Yang Jiabo was so furious and embarrassed, he wished he could slap the stupid boy to death.
"What? I’m just telling the truth. Didn’t you eat a big piece of bread this morning?" Wei Feng blinked, completely unaware of what he had said wrong.
Teacher Li’s expression was hard to describe. She said, "I’ll go get you some medicine."
Teacher Li brought a bottle of Bao Ji Wan and had Yang Jiabo take half of it. However, Yang Jiabo vomited again, so Teacher Li told him to wait before taking more. She then asked if he needed to go home and rest. Yang Jiabo felt he had lost all face. If he went home now, wouldn’t everyone know that he had to take a leave to go home and rest because he had eaten too much? Yang Jiabo shook his head like a rattle-drum.
[保济丸 Bao Ji Wan: A traditional Chinese herbal medicine used to relieve digestive issues like nausea, vomiting, or indigestion]
Since he insisted, Teacher Li could only tell him to go home if he couldn’t hold on any longer. During breakfast, all the classmates were gathered together, and Wei Feng had a loud voice, made sure everyone knew that Yang Jiabo had overeaten.
Yang Jiabo felt like his dark history was resurfacing, his perfect life was slipping away and his image was ruined. But he thought it didn’t matter, everyone was still young, and by the time they grew up, no one would remember what happened today, probably...
Yang Jiabo thought it was impossible for him to overeat just from one piece of bread. There must be another reason. During class, the nausea subsided a bit, and Yang Jiabo started to think that perhaps he really had overeaten.
After two classes, Yang Jiabo felt drowsy. Today, the teacher’s lecture was like a lullaby, and he couldn’t help but fall asleep. Unfortunately, the teacher noticed and punished him by making him stand for the rest of the class.
"Teacher, Jiajia is sick. Please don’t punish him," Wei Feng said, looking at the listless Yang Jiabo, who seemed ready to fall asleep at any moment, with sympathy.
"What’s wrong with him?" The teacher wondered if she hadn’t been paying enough attention to her students.
"He overate and got sick from it," Wei Feng explained with a serious expression.
The teacher’s face darkened. She felt like these two students might be doing this on purpose. "Both of you, stand for the rest of the class."
Wei Feng looked aggrieved, thinking the teacher was being unreasonable. Yang Jiabo glared at Wei Feng, wishing he could pounce on him and bite him to death.
No comments:
Post a Comment