Chapter 30

Wu Yue closed the notebook: "High risk, high return. As long as I’m careful, 'roaming operations'... roaming reporting, no one will be able to find me. I’ve watched at least four hundred episodes of Detective Conan."

"There’s also reporting drugs, the reward is even higher. If that kind of production and processing place is destroyed, it caps at one hundred thousand! But the risk is too high. I’ve been catching up on 'Kindaichi' and 'Sherlock Holmes' lately, and I’m planning to talk about it in two years."

Zhai Da patted Wu Yue on the shoulder: "From the perspective of reason and justice, what you’re doing is a good thing... but from a practical point of view, you’d better hope your brain is okay. If you get hung up and beaten in the future, I won't save you."

Wu Yue patted his chest: "Don't worry, I’m smart!"

"I suggest you think about it seriously again; think thrice before you act."

"Yeah, of course! I discovered that my dad also goes to that row of red houses, so I have to wait a bit."

Zhai Da: ...

This is like a small knife cutting a butt, opening a big eye!

This light of the righteous path is shining straight down; the ancestral grave must be smoking with blue smoke!

"I advise you to think more; this is clearly not a reliable 'career.' There are still two and a half months until the college entrance exam. If you want to fight for it, you can study with me."

Wu Yue clearly didn't take it seriously.

This is equivalent to "Bao'erba" patting "Baba'erben" on the shoulder and saying: Let’s work together to get rid of Tang Monk and his disciples!

Study with you? Wouldn't that be studying into a ditch?

Their combined total scores barely reach the undergraduate line...

Zhai Da was about to say something else when he suddenly saw a familiar figure in the familiar alley, which was a bit unexpected.

He patted Wu Yue on the shoulder: "Disappear quickly."

Wu Yue: "Yes, sir!"

——

"Eight fifty."

The shop owner was still staring intently at the TV, which was playing the latest episode of "X-Change." The rural child was taken by a "city mom" to a five-star hotel to eat a buffet and was lied to that the food here was free.

After the child finished eating, the program team told him that the meal cost 1000 yuan.

The rural child lay on the table and cried.

Lu Wei was still in the same outfit: washed-out pencil jeans, a simple white T-shirt, and a slightly rustic cloth bag slung over her shoulder.

She was so clean it made one’s heart ache.

Turning her head and seeing the boy who had stopped, she subconsciously hid the Dove chocolate in her hand.

Zhai Da: "Looking for me?"

Lu Wei shook her head, and the long, straight ponytail behind her swayed along with it.

The ponytail was too long, her waist too thin, and her hair swaying back and forth behind her added a bit of cuteness.

"Are you rich now? Not eating your meals properly, eating chocolate?"

Lu Wei could only take the chocolate from behind her back and hand it to Zhai Da.

"Bought it for you..."

Because Zhai Da had given her a Snickers bar last time.

The boy didn't take it, but shook his head instead, which made Lu Wei’s heart tighten.

"Go find the owner and exchange it for a white one; this one doesn't taste good."

Lu Wei immediately did as she was told.

Zhai Da munched on the white chocolate, walking side by side with Lu Wei:

"I gave you the phone, you should have said something earlier, and I would have brought the money. The first reward was 5000 in total; I take eight, you take two, so you have 1000 yuan with me."

Lu Wei explained: "I didn't come to get the money. I don't want it. I was just running an errand for the factory and happened to pass by here... just happened to run into you."

Passing by four kilometers away.

A coincidence of waiting for an hour.

This shouldn't count as a lie, Lu Wei thought to herself.

"Why are you always running errands? Is this the secret to your thin legs?"

"Because I am... a new employee?"

"Don't have this kind of 'beast of burden' mindset..."

Lu Wei fell into silence...

After a long while, she suddenly said very seriously: "Do you like thin legs..."

Zhai Da’s action of munching on chocolate paused, and he opened his mouth:

"You should be able to tell that what I just said was just humor, right?"

Lu Wei quickly lowered her head: "Sorry... I didn't hear it..."

"Know it now?"

"Know it..."

"Yeah, that’s good. I like thin legs."

Zhai Da felt that this girl... had an incredibly dull sense of emotion...

Not just toward others, it seemed her own expression had some problems too.

"Are you eating your meals properly?"

"Yes, three meals a day."

"That’s good, eat a bit more... um, that last sentence was humor, it doesn't mean I like fat ones."

"..."

As they walked, Zhai Da saw a bus stop, and the sign clearly had the three words "Sunmazhuang."

"Sunmazhuang? Isn't that where you can go back?"

Lu Wei looked up; it was indeed one of the only two bus lines to Sunmazhuang.

Originally, the two could have walked together for about three intersections, but it was cut short by the bus stop.

Zhai Da suggested waiting for the bus here; the evening self-study ended at nearly nine o'clock, and if she missed the last bus, Lu Wei would have to take a taxi back.

He knew Lu Wei was strong-willed and poor; waiting for the bus was the best way.

For a moment, there was no sound again.

Zhai Da looked at Lu Wei’s back; there were a few fine, soft hairs on the back of her neck that couldn't be managed, and they had a golden edge under the streetlights.

Like little wings.

He suddenly thought of the "Streetlight and Wine" he had written.

The inspiration came from the night walk he took with Lu Wei.

It’s just that in the story, was he the one holding the light wine, or was he the streetlight?

He suddenly realized a problem: he didn't seem to have seen Lu Wei smile...

Zhai Da asked a question he had been curious about for a long time.

"By the way, a while ago... I saw your photo at the school gate."

He tried to use a relaxed tone.

"Nervous about the college entrance exam?"

He brought up this topic to ask if she had any plans to study and retake the exam.

Wu Yue had the demolition money as a base, so maybe there was no need to pull him up, but Lu Wei was different.

Lu Wei looked up at the streetlight.

She shook her head.

"The admission ticket was hidden by my dad."

Zhai Da choked.

Before his distracting thoughts could be cleared, the bus had already arrived. The usually slow No. 32 bus was so fast today that it was unromantic.

Lu Wei boarded the bus and swiped her bus card.

Zhai Da looked at Lu Wei through the bus door. Because there were no lights inside the bus, Lu Wei, wearing a white T-shirt, stood in the shadows and became a smudge of dark color.

Cyan-blue, deep and enduring.

A sentence suddenly flashed through Zhai Da’s mind.

If the spring breeze has pity for the flowers, may it allow her to smile again...

"Go back, remember to send a message to say you’re safe."

Lu Wei nodded; before she could sort out her feelings, the bus door closed impatiently.

She could only watch Zhai Da retreat to the right and then quickly disappear.

The last bus was empty, and Lu Wei sat in the second-to-last row.

A corner of her forehead rested against the cool bus window, watching the streetlights appear one by one and then all leave.

A coincidence that took several hours, only to walk together for ten minutes...

Something, before it could be fully released, had come to an abrupt end, turning into a deeper expectation for the next time.

Lu Wei gathered her courage and took out the Nokia 3310 from her pocket.

In the address book, there was only one contact.

"Weekend, do you have time..."

Backspace, backspace, backspace...

After a long while, she pulled out a "Mathematical Olympiad Small Series" book from her small bag and read it in the dim bus, borrowing the intermittent streetlights.

The shadow of the bus window was like a torrent, washing away the palpitations.

The book was densely packed with notes.