Chapter 401: Campus Memories

The house located in the old district was naturally much smaller than the courtyard in the suburbs. As soon as Ning Qing stepped through the door, she swept her eyes across the room and took in everything—

Chen Banxia yawning while hugging a cushion, Chen Shu who had come to open the door for her, the aunt rising to welcome her with a face full of smiles, and the uncle holding his Mobile Phone; the coffee table was covered with various fruits and snacks, appearing somewhat cluttered, but many of them were things she and Xiaoxiao loved to eat; there was a drop of oil on the dining table that hadn't been wiped clean—if nothing went wrong, the one who had tidied the table this morning must have been Chen Banxia, and if the aunt saw it later, she would definitely get scolded.

On the kitchen counter sat the groceries bought just this morning, not yet tidied away; through the raw ingredients, she could already roughly guess the dishes for lunch today.

Ning Qing only glanced once before withdrawing her gaze. While changing into slippers, she called out to Wei Lvshi, who had already walked up to her:

"Hello, Auntie."

"Oh my! It's been half a year, and Qingqing is getting prettier and prettier! It really wrongs you to have you dating Chen Shu."

Chen Shu:...

Ning Qing lifted her eyes to glance at him, pursed her lips, and only let out one sentence:

"It's alright."

Chen Shu:...

The corners of Ning Qing's mouth curled up slightly.

Compared to the courtyard of President Ning and Curator An, this place clearly had more of a homey feel.

After changing into slippers, Ning Qing walked to the living room, sat down beside Chen Shu very naturally, and then tossed Taozi onto the floor, letting it play however it wanted.

The little girl did not change into slippers, as she was already wearing them. After her sister moved aside from the doorway, she entered, tiptoed, and hopped in two or three steps to the bathroom to rinse her slippers clean before coming out and rubbing them on the floor mat so she wouldn't get water all over the floor.

She then sat in the corner of the sofa, quietly rolling her eyes, observing in secret—

Her sister was wearing gloves, peeling bamboo shoots to eat.

Her brother-in-law was talking nearby about going back to school to play in the afternoon; her sister's mouth was busy, so she didn't respond for the moment.

Then Wei Lvshi told them that a greenway had been built along the edge of Jinghai in the old city section, where only bicycles were allowed, and told them to go ride bikes, as if afraid they wouldn't have a good time during their time back home.

"When was it built?"

"Just this year."

"Can you ride a motorcycle?"

"You could when it was a public road, but not anymore. Now it's mainly for tourists to ride bikes."

"What about electric scooters?"

"Only bicycles."

"Are there shared bikes then?"

"Yes." Wei Lvshi paused, "There are also those four-wheeled bicycles, some with two seats and some with four. Anyone can pedal them, and there's a sunshade on top, so you don't have to worry about the sun. The four of you siblings should go play; just rent a four-seater, those are fun."

"How much does it cost?"

"Each type is different."

"How much for a four-seater?"

"I don't know about the four-seater, but the deposit is five hundred regardless. You rent it using a mini-program, and when you return the bike, it's deducted from the deposit, and any remainder is refunded."

"What about the two-seater?"

"30 an hour, I think. If it's over half an hour, they charge by the minute, fifty cents a minute."

The little girl's eyes darted around nimbly. Catching sight of her sister stopping her movements, Banxia-jiejie's eyes also darted around rapidly, and it seemed as if a smile was emerging on her face bit by bit.

"Oh my~~"

She saw her brother-in-law draw out a long tail note, glancing at Wei Lvshi and Chen Jiaoshou: "You two old folks are quite romantic at home!"

"Pfft!"

Banxia-jiejie finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. She then patted her brother-in-law's shoulder while mocking Wei Lvshi: "Haha, Wei Lvshi is usually full of vigilance in court, sharp-witted, meeting the opposing lawyer's moves with her own, but who would have thought she'd fall for her own son's trap at home? Hahahaha..."

"Hahaha..."

Her brother-in-law was laughing along with her.

Her sister continued gnawing on bamboo shoots.

Taozi sat on the TV cabinet opposite the sofa, staring at them without blinking, looking confused.

The little girl glanced at the uncle and aunt again. She saw Wei Lvshi wearing a stern face, while Chen Jiaoshou was still staring at his Mobile Phone screen as if he hadn't heard anything. She couldn't help but get up, grab a bag of potato chips from the coffee table, and tear it open to eat while watching.

"Crunch, crunch..."

She saw Banxia-jiejie speak first:

"Hey, no! Why are you staring at me? It was your son who set you up, why are you glaring at me? Do you still have the impartiality of a legal professional in your heart?"

"You guys chat, I'm going to go cook."

"Look at your brother! He comes back and cooks! Cooks every day! What have you done? What can you do?"

"This..."

"Eating and sleeping all day long..."

"Emmm..."

"Hey! Chen Banxia, you're about to be thirty years old, you know. Do you realize that in the old society, before the era of universal cultivation, a thirty-year-old was already entering middle age! If the family wasn't wealthy, their children would already be fifteen! The average life expectancy for poor families was only thirty-something!"

"Cough, cough..."

"Look at yourself, oh my, I don't even know what you're going to do when you get old!"

"Alright, alright, I'll go help him in the kitchen, is that fine?"

"You come back! Who told you to go? Qingqing is helping, what are you going to do? Disrupt the order of the kitchen?"

"..."

Chen Banxia was completely speechless.

Yet everything Wei Lvshi said was the truth; every sentence felt like a heavy blow to her chest, leaving her without the slightest thought of rebuttal.

"Crunch..."

The little girl swayed her feet slightly, continuously popping potato chips into her mouth, finding it extremely amusing.

It's just that the taste of these potato chips...

Why is it a bit strange?

The young girl picked up the package and took a look, only to see the four large characters "Yam Crisps" prominently displayed; her expression immediately turned serious—

Terrible! I've betrayed my faith!

The main dishes for lunch were sour and spicy fish, spicy beef offal, and tomato potato stewed beef, along with two stir-fried side dishes and a boiled Slippery Meat Soup. Chen Banxia tried to use the tomato potato stewed beef as a weapon, attempting to drag her younger brother into the mud with her to share the scolding by claiming he hadn't chosen between carrots, white radishes, and bamboo shoots, but unexpectedly, she was lectured by Wei Lvshi on labor law instead, saying that without labor, one has no right to demand compensation.

For Chen Banxia, today was somewhat terrible.

After lunch, the group arrived at the entrance of Qicai Men.

Which is the Bai City Seventh Talent Academy.

Except for the young girl and Taozi, the other three were all graduates of this school, though Chen Banxia happened to be four grades ahead of Chen Shu and Ning Qing; by the time Chen Shu and Ning Qing entered the Seventh Talent Academy, Chen Banxia had just gone to Yujing to attend university.

The group stood at the entrance and looked up.

A stone sign inscribed with "Seventh Talent Academy" was very conspicuous; it is said to have been personally inscribed by the first governing Prime Minister during the era of the Ming Sect Emperor.

The main gate was tightly shut, but a small side door was open.

The entire street at the entrance was occupied by snack shops, with only two stationery stores and one small supermarket squeezed in among them. However, it was summer vacation now, business was poor, and some shops had simply closed down to give themselves a summer break; others were still open, but there wasn't much of a crowd, and it was estimated that there would be more customers in the evening.

"It's still the same as before," Chen Banxia sighed, then felt a bit strange, "What's going on? I clearly live in Bai City, but why do I feel like I haven't been here once since I graduated?"

"Because whenever you have free time, you're sleeping."

"Nonsense!" Chen Banxia glared at her brother, "Then what am I doing right now?"

"Sleepwalking."

"I shouldn't have bothered with you... Do you think we can go in?"

"Let's ask."

Chen Shu walked toward the security guard at the gate to greet him first.

But he didn't expect the security guard to actually remember him.

To be precise, he remembered him and Ning Qing.

This took Chen Shu by surprise.

At the time, although he was somewhat famous in school because his grades were good, he was also cheerful and always walked with Qingqing; students of that age loved to discuss the handsome boys and beautiful girls in school. But he wasn't very close with the security guard, only greeting him occasionally when entering or leaving. Being remembered until now was likely thanks to Qingqing's good looks; perhaps in their memory, there was just an extremely beautiful girl at the time, and a young man who always went to school and came home with her, and later, one of them was specially recruited by Ling'an Academy, while the other was admitted to Yujing Academy.

Chen Shu chatted happily with the security guard for a few moments, then proposed wanting to go in for a look to reminisce about his alma mater, and the security guard agreed without much hesitation.

Thus, the group stepped into the campus.

The campus was very empty.

The group discussed as they looked around.

The playground seemed to have been renovated; it originally had some cracks. The Teaching Building hadn't changed much, only having its white walls repainted, as they had previously turned a bit yellow. Chen Banxia said that in her memory, there were a few trees missing, but those had already been cut down while Chen Shu and Ning Qing were studying there, so they didn't have a deep impression of it.

Memory likes to overlap, and the most recent impressions are the deepest.

"I used to be in that classroom!" Chen Banxia tugged on her brother's sleeve and pointed in a direction.

"Then we were next door to you."

"On the left or the right?"

"Right next to the restroom."

"Then you guys were miserable."

"Yeah, it really stank in the summer."

"Let's go! Let's go take a look!"

"Alright..."

The group walked slowly into the Teaching Building.

A flood of memories surged into Chen Shu's heart.

Memories with his classmates, with Ning Qing; it seemed as if every inch of this place was filled with memories, and no matter where his gaze touched, in a trance, scenes of having walked or run here would emerge.

Chen Shu glanced at Qingqing beside him.

It just so happened that Qingqing was also looking at him.

Their gazes met; one revealed a smile, the other had a calm expression, and their eyes quickly parted, with everything understood without a word.

The classroom was naturally locked.

Through the window, it was filled with desks and chairs, still the same set as before; except for the empty desktops and drawers, everything seemed the same as it used to be, even the bloodstain on the wall left by Chen Shu swatting a mosquito was still there.

Scenes emerged before his eyes again.

At that time, Ning Qing sat in front of him, and when he was bored, he always liked to play with her hair; every time, she would impatiently brush his hand away, but Chen Shu would shamelessly grab it a few more times, and she would eventually stop bothering with him, though she would still do the same thing next time, repeating it over and over as if she would never tire of it.

Whenever Chen Shu had something to do, he would poke her back, and she would turn around and stare at him expressionlessly.

Sometimes she would sit backward on her stool, and the two would be separated by a desk, either playing Chinese chess or Gomoku, or she would explain problems to him, or one would simply talk while the other listened.

As the saying goes, if you walk the night path too often, you're bound to encounter a ghost; if you poke a back too often, you're bound to poke the strap on the back.

That really earned a beating.