Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

An Jiuyou unilaterally went into a cold war with Shi Tuo.

Specifically, when he waited downstairs for her to go to school together in the morning, she would give up her bicycle in front of him and choose to take the bus, walking an extra ten minutes to school. In the evening after self-study, when he waited for her at the bus stop, she would find a shared bike by the roadside and ride home.

She also stopped going to the secret base.

When Shi Tuo sent her messages, she read them but didn’t reply.

Of course, she knew how hard Shi Tuo had it. She also knew that he made this choice because there were no other options at the moment, but she was still upset.

She was upset that Shi Tuo only told her the result after he had made up his mind. She was upset that they only had this option. She was upset about many things.

She was always like this, unable to reconcile with herself. As a child, she knew that eating candy was bad for her teeth but couldn’t resist sneaking a piece of that sweet treat. Now, she knew that maintaining her figure meant avoiding junk food, but she still couldn’t help but snack at night.

Rationality and emotions are two different things.

When her rationality was online, her emotions would still run away.

She always couldn’t help but wonder, what would she do if Shi Tuo wasn’t by her side?

Shi Tuo had never not been by her side. Except for the New Year when he followed Wang Shanshan back to that small fishing village for New Year’s greetings, their physical radius had never exceeded three kilometers — about the distance from their neighborhood to the school.

She was too used to Shi Tuo. He was a part of her life, whether she had failed a test, ran out of money, craved a midnight snack, lost a game rank, or even wanted to go shopping for clothes.

She had no other friends; she only had Shi Tuo, someone with whom she could talk about everything. When she first got her period, it was at school. At that time, it was Shi Tuo who went and bought her sanitary pads, buying various brands and tossing them through the window of the girls' bathroom on the first floor of the school. The first time Shi Tuo washed his shorts in the morning, it was she who discovered it. Because at that time, Shi Tuo was going through his voice-change period, a sensitive and vulnerable phase, so An Jiuyou had researched a lot of information for him.

They were closer than family.

But Shi Tuo still left without warning.

She found it hard to stay calm, so she chose the cold war, which Shi Tuo hated the most.

At night, when she went to bed, she would take out her phone and look at the messages that Shi Tuo had sent her.

At first, Shi Tuo wanted to reason with her. He listed many things, showed her Zhang Rou's medical records, explained the medical resources in Singapore, and told her that as an only child, there were some responsibilities he had to shoulder.

An Jiuyou ignored him, not replying to a single word.

So he started to talk to her about the future. He said that the internet speed in Singapore wasn’t slow, and there was no time difference with China, so they could contact each other anytime and anywhere. He said that some things were easier to write out than to say. He told her that after graduating from university, his mother should be in better condition, and then he could come back to China. He said he would definitely come back, and he could be her lawyer because now celebrities needed lawyers.

He spoke in the tone of someone comforting a child, so An Jiuyou replied with a period.

In the end, Shi Tuo said, "I’m sorry."

He said he knew that if he had discussed this with her, the outcome wouldn’t change, but the process would be harder to bear.

So, he made the decision first.

So, he was sorry.

An Jiuyou stared at the message for a long time, then clicked on Shi Tuo’s default profile picture and blocked him.

She used this way to tell him that if he went to Singapore, and she blocked him, he would never be able to find her again.

He understood.

So, after that day, even when An Jiuyou unblocked Shi Tuo from the blacklist, he never spoke again.She still waited for him outside her house as usual, and after evening self-study, he would also wait in the hallway outside her classroom. Although she had no friends in class, she wasn't unpopular. Every day, when someone made a fuss, she would know—it meant Shi Tuo had arrived.

They spent four awkward days like this. That Monday, when An Jiuyou finished her evening self-study, she didn’t hear the usual teasing from her classmates at the door, nor did she see Shi Tuo’s figure in the hallway. She paused and glanced toward Class 2, where Shi Tuo was—already dismissed. The last person to leave was closing windows and turning off the lights.

An Jiuyou felt uneasy. On the way home, she kept turning back every few steps, checking her phone every few more.

Finally, it was Wang Shanshan who called her. Wang Shanshan said she had gone to visit Aunt Zhang Rou at the hospital that day. Since it was late and both her brother and son were men, it wasn’t convenient, so she was going to stay the night as a companion.

“How’s Aunt Zhang?” An Jiuyou’s throat tightened, and some repressed emotion started to leak out through the cracks of her self-control.

“Just a small issue.” Wang Shanshan clearly didn’t want to discuss adult matters with a child, brushing it off lightly. “I told Shi Tuo to go home first. He should be home by now. Buy him a bowl of that fried tofu skin noodles from the corner shop—he didn’t even have time for dinner.”

“Add a pork chop. That kid is way too considerate—keeps everything to himself. I’m scared he’ll get sick from bottling things up,” Wang Shanshan added before hanging up. “You’re his friend, talk to him. Singapore’s got better conditions than Wangcheng in every way. Tell him to stop hesitating. If it weren’t for his uncle Zhang Chenglin being single and childless, there’s no way he’d be able to take both mother and son.”

She lowered her voice, “Really, Jiuyou, talk to Shi Tuo. For someone like Aunt Zhang Rou, leaving Wangcheng is her only way out. Understand?”

An Jiuyou didn’t know how to respond. She mumbled a vague reply and hung up.

Shi Tuo didn’t like fried tofu skin noodles. In fact, he wasn’t fond of noodles, rice noodles, or dumplings. His taste was more traditional—he preferred stir-fries and plain rice. Adults didn’t know this, since noodles were more convenient to make, and Shi Tuo often went with convenience.

So An Jiuyou deliberately detoured to the Wangcheng night market and bought him fried rice, added a pork chop, and extra stir-fried mung bean sprouts.

When she reached the building below Shi Tuo’s apartment, she hesitated. She wasn’t sure if he had gotten home yet, and she was also still torn about whether their cold war was still on.

She was still mad, even though she completely understood all of Shi Tuo’s hardships.

If it were just any ordinary friend, she would’ve already kicked his butt and sent him off to Singapore. But Shi Tuo wasn’t just any friend. She knew her frustration was purely selfish.

But selfishness was an instinctive kind of desire, and she wasn’t yet at the age where she could completely suppress that.

She held the lunch box and stared up at the darkened windows of the fourth floor. Then she decided to call him.

Shi Tuo’s ringtone was one she had changed—it was a song by a boy group she liked lately. Shi Tuo had commented that the lead singer looked like a bear, but since she had changed it, he never bothered to switch it back. Though every time he answered the phone, he’d complain about her musical taste.

Just as she made the call, she heard the familiar ringtone ring out behind her.

An Jiuyou turned around.

Building 86 of Shi Tuo’s complex was in the far corner, and at the entrance of the stairwell was a nearly 500-meter-long greenbelt that bordered the canal outside. In summer, people would sit there to cool off. It was usually lively.

Shi Tuo emerged from the darkest end of that lively greenbelt, holding a cigarette that hadn’t been extinguished and a phone that had been flashing for a while.

Their eyes met.

Shi Tuo looked away, brushed past her, and muttered, “Let’s talk upstairs.”

His voice was hoarse.

An Jiuyou had known him for years. When they were kids, they used to cry together in kindergarten, hand in hand, calling for their moms. Later, when eleven- or twelve-year-old Shi Tuo had to beg Shi Dingbang for allowance, his pride took such a hit that he’d cried, squatting in an alley, hugging his knees and wiping his tears.

Shi Tuo, who always acted calm and collected, had cried before and after emotional breakdowns—and An Jiuyou had seen nearly every time. So, naturally, she realized right away: Shi Tuo had just been hiding in the shadows, smoking and crying.

An Jiuyou: “……”

She was momentarily speechless. Her heart felt like it was stuffed full of cotton—thick and heavy—because of Shi Tuo’s reddened eyes and hoarse voice.

He walked quickly, clearly not intending to wait for her. Without even looking back, he entered the building. The door to his unit shut behind him without a pause.

An Jiuyou knew the code to Shi Tuo’s door. She followed him upstairs to the fourth floor. He had already opened the door and gone inside, but he didn’t close it.

At the entrance sat a pair of her slippers.An Jiuyou stared at the pair of slippers. She had bought them as part of a "buy two, get two free" offer, with both their mothers buying one pair. The two pairs she had received as gifts were the ones she used, as they were pink and had little cat faces on them. She had even added starry-eyed fabric patches on the cat faces.

Her shopping cart still had more of the same "buy two, get two free" deal. Wang Shanshan had a bit of a cleanliness obsession, and after wearing house slippers for a year, she would want to change them because of the lingering smell. So, this task had always been left to An Jiuyou, who would buy a new pair every year, and once she bought this year’s, she would already add next year’s to the shopping cart.

But now, it seemed, there was no need for that anymore.

She entered the house, and only the sensor light in the hallway was on. The room was pitch black, and she couldn’t see Shi Tuo’s position.

An Jiuyou closed the door and turned on the living room lights. “My mom asked me to bring you dinner.”

Her tone was still a little awkward, and she lowered her head as she spoke. After saying that, she just stood there, not moving.

Shi Tuo didn’t enter the room. He turned on the light but stayed standing in the hallway, waiting for An Jiuyou to close the door. As soon as she did, he took a step forward. Under the bright light, the tear stains in his eyes hadn't fully faded.

An Jiuyou looked up, wanting to say something. It was so awkward. She had started the cold war by herself, and now, she was the one to end it. Their arguments rarely had this kind of outcome. Most of the time, it was Shi Tuo who would coax her.

When they were young, she used to call herself Shi Tuo’s boss, and he would have to listen to her.

When they grew up, she would say that Shi Tuo was born a few hours earlier than her, so naturally, the older one had to make way for the younger one.

But now, the person she used to vent her bad emotions to, knowing that the other person would always tolerate her, was about to leave.

“Egg fried rice, pork chop, and stir-fried mung bean sprouts,” she heard herself begin listing the dishes, her tone dry.

Shi Tuo lightly sniffed and reached out to pull An Jiuyou, who was standing awkwardly in the hallway, into his arms.

He said, “I’m sorry. Let me cry for a while.”