Zhang Ling looked at this text message and was stunned for a while.
She could clearly feel his caution, which was almost the same as the one wearing the star-filled mask in her dream.
They are always concerned about her feelings. Taking care of her is like taking care of a Phalaenopsis. They are always worried about its roots rotting in a warm environment.
Is she really that fragile?
She always thought she was strong.
When I was a child, I did not have the care of my mother like other children, nor did I have the love of my grandparents, nor did I have the love of my brothers and sisters.
During the time when I should be in love, I finally met a first love who knew how to care and love, but he disappeared without any warning.
She, Zhang Ling, has grown so strong even without having these.
She had long thought that having her only closest relative, her father, was enough.
She lowered her head and looked at the text message from Li Xiang again, snorted in disgust, then locked the screen and threw her phone aside and lay down.
Perhaps because Li Xiang's text message made her feel calmer.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw the soft morning sunlight shining into the bedroom.
She saw Yan Yuan rarely getting up early, standing alone at the window looking outside, and asked curiously:
"What are you doing where you're standing?"
Yan Yuan said without looking back: "Early in the morning, there is a man downstairs at your house holding a bouquet of flowers as if he is waiting for someone to propose."
"You are really free! What's there to see?" Zhang Ling said as she got up, washed and prepared to go to work.
A question suddenly flashed through her mind:
Will Li Xiang go to work as scheduled today?
After all, burying grandma is a big deal.
Presumably it can't end overnight.
"Good-looking! Although I didn't see the man's face, but judging from the man's clothes and figure, the man holding the flower downstairs must be a handsome guy." Yan Yuan said and turned around to Zhang Ling's side, "I can't help it anymore, the more I look at it, the more handsome I look.
I think he is my type. What do you think I should do?"
Zhang Ling glanced at her sideways and said:
"Then go down immediately and use your Yan's charm method to get him."
Yan Yuan showed a provocative smile and said:
"Really! Then if the person holding the bouquet downstairs was Li Xiang, would you support me like this?"
"It's him?"
Zhang Ling looked in disbelief, stopped, quickly turned around and walked towards the window.
As soon as I took two steps, I heard Yan Yuan’s uproarious laughter:
"It's really interesting to see Zhang Ling that you can be so cute in my lifetime!"
"Yan Yuan, are you lying to me?" Zhang Ling stopped and looked back at Yan Yuan and said.
Yan Yuan explained proudly:
"No, don't talk nonsense. Please pay attention to my wording. I said if. I think someone is so deeply in love that he can't help himself."
"Yan Yuan, stop here! Let me see if I don't tear your stinky mouth apart today."
Zhang Ling quickly chased after him.
"Help! Uncle, your daughter is crazy. Come and save me..."
Yan Yuan shouted and ran away.
My father heard the two girls fighting early in the morning, holding a stainless steel spoon in his hand and yelling:
"Stop making trouble! Breakfast is almost ready. You should hurry up and wash up and come over for dinner."
In this family, my father's words are still the most intimidating.
The two sisters stopped laughing and stopped fighting, saying in unison:
"good!"
When they sat quietly at the dinner table, Zhang Ling looked at Yan Yuan beside her and suddenly realized that besides her father, she also had a friendship that was better than that of her own sisters.
But what does Li Xiang have?
My only close relative, my grandma, passed away last night.
The so-called good friend Chen Jian couldn't open his heart either.
In the end, she, thinking about him all the time, made him become another person.
Just to satisfy her obsession with the unfulfilled first love.
Father saw the difference between Zhang Ling and the past, put down the bowl and chopsticks in his hand, looked at her and said:
"Lingling, I have told you so many times that if you have something on your mind, just say it and don't hide it in your heart. Eating like this will affect your digestion."
"Ah!" Have you been seen through?
Yan Yuan smiled and touched Zhang Ling with her elbow and said:
"Uncle, don't you see? Your daughter is thinking about getting married, and she doesn't know how to tell you at the moment. You don't have to worry about her, just let her figure it out on her own."
"Oh, is that so?" After hearing this, my father didn't think much about it. He picked up his chopsticks and was about to continue eating. Suddenly a light flashed in his mind. He looked at Yan Yuan and said, "No, Yan Yuan, what do you mean by what you just said?"
Yan Yuan was startled by the sound of her father putting down chopsticks violently and said:
"That...is just what it means! Uncle, what's wrong?"
Before her father could explode, Zhang Ling regained her composure, raised her hand and slapped Yan Yuan hard on the shoulder, so frightened that she almost dropped the bowl in her hand.
"Yan Yuan, do you think you haven't caused enough trouble recently? So you plan to continue dancing your death-defying ballet on the edge of the cliff!"
Seeing Zhang Ling's normal reaction, her father did not continue to struggle with Yan Yuan's words.
After all, everyone knows that Yan Yuan is a person who is not bad in nature and has a heart that is afraid of chaos in the world.
"Uncle!" Yan Yuan strongly felt the danger coming from Zhang Ling and called for help.
The father shouted: "Wait a minute!"
Yan Yuan thought she was saved. She quickly got up and hid behind her father, feeling proud. But her father's next behavior was puzzling to her.
At this time, the father looked nervous as he picked up the bowl, took out a fried dough stick, pushed the chair back more than a meter, then motioned to them with a smile and said:
"You can continue. However, remember to pay for what you need to pay after the fight, and you must replace it with a new one."
"Ah!" Yan Yuan was a little desperate.
Both of them were taught their skills by their father.
When I was learning boxing, I knew that Zhang Ling was more talented than Yan Yuan.
Zhang Ling usually never takes action. As long as she is serious, even if two or three Yan Yuan get together, they are no match.
If this really happens, it will be absolutely unilaterally crushed.
Speaking of which, Zhang Ling and Yan Yuan are both capable people, but when Zhang Ling and Yan Yuan had tea after the blind date, they were blackmailed by Wang Hai. Why were they so frightened that they ran away?
the reason is simple.
That is, regardless of whether you win or lose, the cost of fighting is very high.
The two of them are not really afraid of Wang Hai, but they are afraid of fearlessly spending their time and money.
The two of them are people with a certain social status. If this matter is maliciously created by the unscrupulous media, it will affect the work they rely on for a living and damage their reputations, which is even more unworthy.
Seeing Zhang Ling loosening her muscles and joints in front of her, making a crackling sound, Yan Yuan's heart started to tremble, and her body began to move backwards unconsciously.
"Um...Zhang Ling, we are all civilized people in the new era. If you have anything to say, please talk it over. There is no need to use hands or feet."
Zhang Ling didn't speak, maybe because she had too many negative emotions recently and needed an opportunity to release them.
Maybe today is her best opportunity.
Yan Yuan watched her approaching like a demon step by step, looking at the situation as if it was an inescapable disaster.
If you can't escape and you're outmatched, you have to fight hard. You can't just take a beating.
Yan Yuan had been forced to the wall and had no choice but to get into a duel stance.
"Well, not bad, not bad! Yan Yuan, you take the beating very well." After his father finished speaking, he took a bite of the dough stick and chewed it.
Yan Yuan knew in her heart that she was destined to be beaten, but being told so ruthlessly made her face look dull.
"Uncle, is there anyone like you? When you see your own daughter fighting, you don't even stop her." Yan Yuan almost roared.
My father took another bite of fried dough sticks and felt his mouth was a little dry. He took a sip of porridge and swallowed it before saying with a smile:
"What are you trying to stop? My daughter doesn't look like she's at a disadvantage. There's no need to stop her."
If Yan Yuan didn't understand his uncle's character, he would definitely be furious at these lethal words.
Zhang Ling stopped less than two meters away from her, as if she had predicted in advance that someone was coming. She glanced at the door and asked:
"Did you hear someone knocking on the door?"
The clever Yan Yuan, regardless of whether she heard it or not, seemed to have finally seen the light after being in darkness for a long time and echoed:
"Yes! Why don't you hurry up and open the door?"
My father's addiction to watching live martial arts scenes has just been aroused.
It's really frustrating to end up like this without any illness.
He was about to expose Yan Yuan's lies when he suddenly heard a real knock on the door.
"Who is it? It's really a bad time to come." My father complained towards the door.
At the same time, Yan Yuan felt relaxed and proud.
Opening the door, Aunt Li said with a bit of worry in her smile:
"Just in time! Zhang Ling, your boyfriend has been waiting for you downstairs for a long time."
"Little flea!" Zhang Ling was a little surprised.
Li Xiang had already finished handling grandma's funeral affairs last night? It felt like it shouldn't be that fast.
Aunt Li further explained: "What little flea? There are fleas in your house!"
"No!"
Aunt Li looked at Zhang Ling's answer and thought that Zhang Ling was not telling the truth. She felt that there must be fleas in her house. So she took a step back and continued:
"I'm talking about the handsome guy who stayed with you on the day when your house was full of snail noodles!"
Zhang Ling hesitated and said: "I know."
The strange dream from last night suddenly came to her mind.
Aunt Li may be the incarnation of grandma.
Aunt Li saw Zhang Ling not moving and said with a somewhat anxious expression:
"Are you having a conflict? I said you were at home and advised him to come up to you on his own. He just didn't come up. I looked really pitiful. You'd better go down and have a look."
Zhang Ling pretended to be calm and said with a smile:
"No. Aunt Zhang, you haven't eaten yet. Why don't you come in first and eat together."
Aunt Zhang saw that Zhang Ling looked strange today. But for a moment she couldn't tell what was strange. She thought it might be because of fleas.
"No, no need. My old man is still waiting for me to go back for dinner." Aunt Zhang said with some fear and left in a hurry.
When his father heard that Li Xiang was downstairs, he quickly got up and walked to the window to confirm. When he turned around, he found Zhang Ling standing motionless at the door alone.
With many years of experience, the father felt that something had happened between his daughter and Li Xiang.
He looked at Yan Yuan with cold eyes and asked:
"How is this going?"
Yan Yuan explained innocently:
"I don't know! Zhang Ling felt strange when she came back last night. I asked, but she didn't tell me."
"Okay, I'll settle your issue with you later." After his father said that, he walked towards Zhang Ling.
Yan Yuan is aggrieved, what does it have to do with her?
However, as they are both women, Yan Yuan understands Zhang Ling best and must not want anyone to disturb her at this moment.
He quickly walked a few steps, took his father's arm and said:
"Uncle, what are you doing?"
The father said anxiously:
"Li Xiang is my favorite son-in-law. That's my daughter. I have to go over and ask what happened to them? Let go..."
"Uncle!" Yan Yuan interrupted his father's words aggressively, "If you force Zhang Ling out again, don't blame me for not warning you."
Because of Yan Yuan's words, my father suddenly remembered a few years ago.
He accidentally read an article related to the "manifestations of puppy love" proposed by so-called experts.
The article introduces if your child has the following symptoms:
1. Emotions fluctuate greatly, sometimes excited, sometimes distracted, sometimes irritable;
2. Suddenly become fond of dressing up and pay special attention to one's appearance;
3. Like to read romance novels and love-related movies;
4. Academic performance suddenly dropped, and the learning status was not active;
5. Always making phone calls behind parents’ back, unwilling to tell the reason for going out or coming home late.
The article describes puppy love as the biggest obstacle in a child's life. It even makes it a scourge in the eyes of all parents and teachers.
What's even worse is that after watching these performances, my father felt that Zhang Ling had been tricked at that time.
Considering that the child is about to take the college entrance examination, the father does not want his daughter's future to be ruined in the hands of this unscrupulous kid whom he has never met.
He did not expose this matter directly in front of Zhang Ling.
Instead, he secretly transformed into Sherlock Holmes and followed and investigated for several days, finally identifying a boy who was very close to Zhang Ling.
The boy looks pretty good, comes from a family of stone carvers, and is known as a naughty element in school.
My father caught up with "Liu Bei visited the thatched cottage three times" and found the boy himself and his parents to discuss how to deal with this matter.
Fortunately, his parents had planned to send the boy abroad for further study. Seeing that his father worked tirelessly for Zhang Ling, they had no choice but to advance the original plan.
Her father originally thought that what he did was the greatest protection for Zhang Ling.
What his father didn't expect was that when Zhang Ling learned that the boy suddenly dropped out of school and disappeared, she would frantically search for him all over the world.
Despite his objections, they kept searching for him for more than a month. They gave up only when they learned that the boy's family had moved abroad.
The father was very sad to see his daughter no longer interested in studying. There were times when he felt soft and almost told the truth.
It was then that he realized that the expert who coined the term "puppy love" was an asshole. Forcibly combining the word "puppy love" with derogatory terms such as bad conduct, uneducated and unskilled was even more asshole-like.
As everyone knows, love is human instinct. After entering adolescence, with the physical development and mental growth, boys and girls are attracted to each other and fall in love for the first time. It is a beautiful thing to develop love without violating the rules.
Her father realized that he had prematurely labeled Zhang Ling as a "puppy love".
His biggest worry is not about falling in love, but that early love will make his children bad and may also affect his studies and exams.
He carefully recalled that during the time when his daughter was getting along with that boy, there was not much difference in her academic performance.
But when he interfered improperly due to his self-righteousness, Zhang Ling, who originally had excellent grades, almost failed the college entrance examination.
Only then did the father truly realize that since it was a perfectly normal relationship, he should not have tried to block it directly at the beginning, but should have correctly guided his children on how to fall in love without breaking the rules?
Thinking of this, my father's impulsive heart finally calmed down.
Looking at Yan Yuan next to him, he always felt that he was being looked down upon by his juniors.
So, my father thought for a while and said:
"When young people are in love, it's normal for them to have minor conflicts. There's no need for the whole world to worry about them. Yan Yuan, don't worry about them. Come on, let's continue eating."
This can be regarded as his father finding a step for himself, and it can also be regarded as an indirect reminder to Zhang Ling not to hide when trouble arises.
Zhang Ling suddenly sobered up after hearing her father's words. While packing, she shouted:
"Dad, I'm full. There's something going on at the company, so I'll leave first."
Yan Yuan suddenly remembered an important matter and wanted to discuss it with Zhang Ling on the road. He stood up at an inappropriate time and said: "I will eat too..."
Before he finished speaking, his father pulled him back to his seat and winked:
"No leftovers allowed! Eat it before you leave."
Yan Yuan could only watch helplessly as Zhang Ling hurried out of the door first.