Chapter 02
The lights in the canteen were already out at this point. Lou Jia asked the aunt for the key and went to the kitchen to cook a bowl of egg noodles with vegetables.
Just as the noodles were done, Jiang Siwei had finished her shower and came looking for her.
Lou Jia put the noodles into a large bowl, told Jiang Siwei to take them away, and then cleaned the pot, put some water in it, and put it on the gas stove.
She slammed two pieces of ginger into the pot, then found some brown sugar in the cupboard and poured two spoons into the pot. When she turned around, she saw Jiang Siwei standing behind her with a bowl of noodles. She suddenly smiled and said, “Do you remember…”
“Yes,” Jiang Siwei guessed what she was going to say before she finished speaking. “The first time I saw you, you also made noodles for me, and after I finished eating, you made ginger soup for me.”
“Yes, you were only this tall at the time,” Lou Jia gestured and said, “You didn’t say much that day, and Jane Rongrong made you call her sister like it was the end of the world. Who knew I could buy you over with a bowl of noodles.”
Jiang Siwei laughed, and the familiar scene and the warmth of the bowl of noodles in his palm made him involuntarily think of that summer.
At the time, Jane and Jiang had just gotten married. He was a bit sensitive and always felt out of place in this family, and Jane Rongrong, who was arrogant and proud, didn’t like this sudden younger brother either.
The two of them didn’t like each other, often quarreling and going to school separately.
That day, Jiang Siwei had to get up early to go back to school to make up for his homework. He was in a hurry and forgot to bring an umbrella. Jian Rongrong’s father got up early to see that the weather was bad, so he asked Jian Rongrong to bring an umbrella for him to take a look.
However, Jian Rongrong was reluctant to give it to him, and Jiang Siwei was also unwilling to accept it. They didn’t get along well, and Jian Rongrong just threw the umbrella away.
Jiang Siwei was also a hot-tempered person. Even though it was raining heavily outside after school, he was still in a bad mood and didn’t go to pick up the umbrella. He just walked home in the rain.
Both the Jians were workaholics, and the house was often only occupied by the maid and the two siblings. But at that time, the maid had just taken leave to return to her hometown.
Jiang Siwei didn’t see the shoes that Jian Rongrong had taken off at the door, and a feeling of grievance welled up in his heart. He was about to cry when someone suddenly came out of the kitchen.
“Siwei?“ The girl was thin and tall, with a friendly smile on her face. ‘Hello, I’m Lou Jia.’
Jiang Siwei had seen Lou Jia’s photo in this house before, but she wasn’t too scared by her. She just wanted to cry, but couldn’t, and her eyes were red from holding back her tears. ‘Hello…’
”Why did you come home in the rain?” Lou Jia walked up to her. ”Do you want to take a shower first? I’ve made some noodles. I’ll serve them to you later?”
“Okay.“ Jiang Siwei sniffed and felt that this was the sister he wanted. ‘Thank you, sister.’
”You’re welcome. Go take a bath quickly. Be careful not to catch a cold.“ Lou Jia asked again, ‘Do you want some ginger soup? Can I make some for you?’
”Okay.” Jiang Siwei was so moved that he was about to cry. Even the grievances that had long been rejected by Jian Rongrong disappeared easily because of this bowl of noodles and a bowl of ginger soup.
In those years, Jiang Siwei always followed Lou Jia around, and their relationship was so good that it made Jian Rongrong, the rightful sister, angry and jealous.
When he was not yet very sensible, Jiang Siwei even thought about letting the Lou family adopt him, so that Lou Jia would be his real sister.
Later, this wish was written in his diary and was seen by his mother, and it was mentioned as a joke at a family dinner.
At that time, Lou Jia was in the second year of high school, and Jiang Siwei was still in junior high school. Uncle Lou joked that he would arrange a marriage between the two of them, so that they would really be a family in the future.
Lou Jia also laughed, and jokingly asked him to eat more, otherwise he would not be as tall as her when they took their wedding photos in the future.
Jiang Siwei blushed. He knew that no one took Uncle Lou’s words seriously, but somehow, that night he actually dreamed of marrying Lou Jia.
When he woke up, Jiang Siwei was shocked by the boldness of himself in the dream. After he came to his senses, he realized that something was wrong between his legs and his face turned white.
He felt like a pervert.
Jiang Siwei secretly washed off his underwear and didn’t dare to sleep again. Whenever he closed his eyes, the situation in the dream always flashed in front of him, so much so that when he met Lou Jia during the day, he also hid.
Lou Jia didn’t take it too seriously, thinking that he was just going through a rebellious phase.
When he entered the third year of junior high school, Jiang Siwei no longer followed Lou Jia around, and Lou Jia was busy preparing for the college entrance exam. Even though they were in the same school, they didn’t see each other for half a month if they didn’t make a special effort to meet.
That summer, after the college entrance exam, Jiang Siwei went to Jibei to spend the summer vacation after filling out his college application.
The two families had dinner together again.
Lou Jia asked Jiang Siwei what was going on, and she was always so unresponsive to her messages.
Jiang Siwei looked at her sparkling eyes and said vaguely that she didn’t.
“Siwei has grown up,” Lou Jia said with a sense of melancholy, “she doesn’t tell her sister about her worries.”
Jiang Siwei didn’t know what to say, so she just lowered her head and said no.
Lou Jia rubbed his head and wanted to say something else, but when he noticed that Jiang Siwei’s body stiffened, he withdrew his hand and turned to talk to Jian Rongrong.
Jiang Siwei’s heart was in a mess. She had a lot to say, but she didn’t know how to say it. She was afraid of making mistakes if she got too close, so she could only keep her distance.
In the first year that Lou Jia and Jian Rongrong went to college, because both of their schools were very close to home, they often came home on weekends.
Jiang Siwei applied for accommodation, but she rarely saw them.
The only time they met was on New Year’s Day that year. Jian Rongrong’s father scolded her for looking so depressed after breaking up with Jian Rongrong, and Jian Rongrong was annoyed and left the table.
Jiang Siwei sighed and got up to follow her out.
In the past six months, Jian Rongrong had been very concerned about Jiang Siwei, and the two had become closer. Jian Rongrong wanted Jiang Siwei to accompany her to the bar to drink.
“I’m not an adult,” Jiang Siwei said.
Rongrong: “…”
In the end, Rongrong couldn’t stand the cold anymore, and didn’t want to go home to see her father’s face, so she dragged Jiang Siwei to the convenience store at the entrance of the community and bought several cans of beer.
Jiang Siwei didn’t expect that she was a one-cup drinker. She had not finished drinking one can of beer, and she was already drunk.
She poured out her heart to Jiang Siwei about how much she loved her ex-boyfriend, how painful and heartbreaking it was to break up with him, but Jian Fu didn’t understand at all.
She grabbed Jiang Siwei’s arm and kept saying, “Siwei… do you understand? You don’t understand either. I’m so sad… you don’t understand…”
Jiang Siwei was sweating profusely from Jian Rongrong’s ranting, and was at a loss as to what to do when suddenly, a voice came from the side: “Siwei?”
He looked up in a hurry and saw Lou Jia standing not far away with the boy she was holding hands with.
Jiang Siwei froze for two seconds, and then was pulled down by Jian Rongrong again. When she looked at her being trapped in love and accused no one of understanding her, he really wanted to retort loudly.
He understands!
How can he not understand!
His heart is very broken right now!