After rebirth, I gave up Bai Yueguang

After National Day, the three of them received a new wave of intense attention from the school, especially Xu Meijuan, who played the leading role. Her beautiful legs became the dream of all the boys in the school. The number of love letters she received in her desk every day more than doubled.

However, she wasn't particularly happy, because the person she'd hoped would pay attention to her was becoming even more distant than before. She'd been to Jiang Yi's class several times, and every time, he'd either been buying food for Su Jing, or staying by her side, sleeping on the desk, or helping her memorize homework assignments... In short, he and Su Jing spent even more time together than before. She'd sensed an unusual atmosphere between the two siblings, but she didn't think much of it; she simply felt that her cousin doted on his sister too much.

Song Xueba hadn't come to No. 9 Middle School to see Su Jing since the start of the new semester, and the four of them had returned to their early days, when they didn't bother each other. The life of a high school senior was repetitive every day: wake up, go to school, do homework, take exams... an endless, infinite cycle.

Jiang Yi kept his word. Every day when Su Jing woke up, he'd already been making breakfast. After two weeks, Su Jing trusted him and woke up twenty minutes later every morning. Jiang Yi also found a lot of folk remedies, and he made her a different breakfast every day. He also personally decided on the dinner dishes for her and had her make a small pot of soup every day, like black-bone chicken with red dates, pigeon with goji berries...

Every day, after Su Jing finished her homework, he would wake her up from the desk and push her out the door. He would then go to the kitchen to get her some soup and wait until she finished drinking it before returning to his room.

Sometimes Su Jing didn’t know what kind of relationship she had with Jiang Yi now. His care and concern for her was a bit... well... like taking care of her during confinement.

After the midterm exam, Jiang Yi's grades improved from only excelling in English to passing in all other subjects. Su Jing felt that he was either truly intelligent and could memorize the material simply by listening to her recite and copying her homework. Or, he was secretly reviewing and was simply too embarrassed to admit it.

Boys, this kind of self-esteem is both cute and ridiculous!

After noticing his improved grades, Su Jing subtly increased the time and content he had to recite for her. Sometimes he even deliberately made mistakes and asked Jiang Yi to remind him. And every time, his lazy recitation was completely correct.

Because of his good midterm results, Jiang Junfeng rewarded him with another 5,000 yuan. Jiang Yi said it was too little, but Jiang Junfeng offered to give him 20,000 yuan if he improved his grades by ten points in each subject by the end of the semester. Jiang Yi refused. He was quietly working hard, but the groundwork he had previously lost was difficult to catch up, and he had little confidence in himself.

With 5,000 yuan in his pocket, Jiang Yi went to New City Plaza after sending Su Jing to her art teacher's house on the weekend. He bought a Sony Walkman, the latest CD player. He also went to a foreign language bookstore while it was still early and bought a few English CDs that he needed.

Because he had lent all his tens of thousands of yuan to Su Jing to buy him a birthday present, he had no money left, so he planned to wait until the Chinese New Year to receive the lucky money before giving it to her. Now he got a bonus unexpectedly, just before Su Jing's birthday, which made him very happy.

She had given herself birthday presents ten years earlier, but this was the first time he had formally given her a gift. Jiang Yi bought some beautiful wrapping paper and greeting cards at a boutique, and prepared to take them home, write on them, and wrap them himself.

On the 27th, the two returned home as usual, but Wu Wanqiu did not come back. After dinner, Su Jing went back to her room to do homework, but Jiang Yi did not follow her in after clearing the table as usual.

Su Jing didn't pay any attention. The young master always had some excuse to slack off, probably thinking he'd finish a section so he could come in and copy. But before he'd even finished a paper, the lights in the house suddenly went out. It was November, and it got dark early. Without the lights, it was impossible to do homework.

Sigh... Su Jing sighed, rubbed her eyes, stretched, and walked to the living room. The living room was very quiet. Jiang Yi was not watching TV, and she did not hear his voice.

Hey, where's this guy?

Confused, Su Jing called out, "Xiao Yi." No one answered. She searched the cabinet for a long time but couldn't find any candles. Well, she had to go out and buy them herself.

Thinking of this, Su Jing walked back to her room to get her coat. But as soon as she entered the room, she was grabbed from behind by a hand, her waist grasped, and another hand covered her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat, her body stiffened, and her elbow reflexively jerked back.

"Ouch!" The person behind groaned in pain.

"Okay, it's Jiang Yi." He cried out, loosening his grip on her waist. The hand covering his eyes loosened slightly but didn't remove it.

Su Jing didn't struggle anymore, she just said, "Are you stupid? Why don't you let go? Do you want another blow?"

"Why did you attack me without saying anything?" Jiang Yi felt aggrieved, and his voice was filled with the weakness of being beaten.

"I didn't even know it was you. What if someone came to kidnap you and mistook me for you? If I don't make the first move, I'm just going to get hurt." Su Jing said, "Why don't you let go?"

"Tsk, who would kidnap me?" Jiang Yi was speechless. "You've been watching too much Qiong Yao novels all day long, haven't you? Your brain must be damaged." He said, still not letting go of her hand, and pushed Su Jing to sit at the desk, then continued: "I wanted to give you a surprise, damn, you almost murdered your own family..."

"Murder of what..." Su Jing asked slowly.

"Murdering my...brother..." Jiang Yi immediately changed the word.

"Haha, okay, can you let go now?" Su Jing asked as coldly as possible.

This man had just hugged her from behind, and the moment her elbow twisted out, she recognized it was Jiang Yi. But her body's reflexes were much faster than her brain, and she couldn't immediately retract her hand, so she still gave him a heavy blow.

And now, Jiang Yi covered her eyes with one hand, half bent over, and whispered in her ear. The boy's hot and humid breath, the smell of shampoo on his body and hair, and the ends of his hair hanging down between her eyebrows, all made her feel numb.

Su Jing's body stiffened slightly. The scent of Jiang Yi seeped into her body through her nose, slowly flowing through her blood vessels like an anesthetic, making her unable to move. Fortunately, Jiang Yi never let go of her eyes, so she pretended that she didn't move because he didn't let her.

After trying hard to calm herself down, Su Jing finally spoke: "What on earth are you doing? I'm going downstairs to buy some candles."

"Happy birthday!" Jiang Yi seemed to be doing this on purpose, whispering in a low voice beside Su Jing's ear. The hot air from his mouth sprayed into her ear, causing her already stiff body to soften. His lips also touched her earlobe, which made her body tremble as if it had been electrocuted. Her scalp was numb.

After a moment, Jiang Yi slowly released the hand that was covering her eyes.

Su Jing blinked and slowly opened her eyes. The room still had no electricity, but in the dim light she could still see a round object on the table in front of her. She was about to speak when she heard the sound of a lighter being struck, and then a flame lit up before her eyes.

Jiang Yi lit the lighter in his hand, and Su Jing's eyes suddenly lit up. A cake covered in white roses appeared before her, with a candle with the number 18 on it, and the lighter was placed on the candle to light it.

"Ah? Today is the 27th?" Su Jing widened her eyes and turned to look at the person who was lighting the candles seriously.

"Yes, today is the 27th, your 18th birthday." Jiang Yi put away the lighter, put his hand on her shoulder, and slowly squatted beside Su Jing. He raised his head slightly and smiled very gently at her who looked surprised. "You are so stupid that you can't even remember your own birthday."

"You're the fool. I'm just focused on my studies." Su Jing looked at the pure white cake in front of her. On it were nine creamy white roses. Why nine? A question flashed through her mind. But it was only a fleeting thought, immediately overwhelmed by surprise and emotion.

Su Jing didn't know what to say. This was something she hadn't even dreamed of in her previous life. Yet another regret from her past life had come true, without warning. The boy she'd always liked actually celebrated her birthday. After she'd given up hope on this relationship, he gave her the surprise she'd been waiting for two lifetimes.

Tears welled up in her eyes, her nose aching. Su Jing looked at the dancing flame with mixed feelings. Things in this world are really so strange. When you chase after something, you can never touch it. But when you admit defeat and give up, you realize that it has always been right beside you.

After staring at the cake for a while, she couldn't hold back her tears and started to fall one by one. She covered her mouth, not knowing whether she was laughing or crying. She didn't dare to turn her head to look at Jiang Yi, because if she did, she might fall again.

Why did he do that? He had finally managed to adjust his mindset, to build a firewall in his heart, only to let this tiny candle flame reignite so easily? No, no.

Jiang Yi remained half-crouched, watching her tears fill her eyes before finally spilling out; watching her expression change from surprise to a hint of embarrassment. Jiang Yi's heart suddenly tightened. He didn't know what Su Jing would say next, but no matter what she had to say, he didn't want to hear it now. He didn't want to confess his feelings today; he simply wanted to give her a birthday surprise.

It's not the time to confess my feelings yet. My mother said that she is an excellent and ambitious girl. If I can't conquer her with something other than her looks, I can't confess my feelings to her.

"Ahem, do you want to know what birthday present I have prepared for you?" Jiang Yi quickly interrupted Su Jing's daze and asked her.