When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?

Chen Jin, who had just stopped, shivered and mechanically swallowed his saliva, his resentful gaze drifting towards He Qingzhou.

"Weren't you uninterested, bro? You've screwed me over."

He Qingzhou shrugged innocently; he was also puzzled, this was the first time he hadn't guessed Brother Yan's thoughts correctly.

Just as Chen Jin was regretting his actions and about to raise his hand to swear to the heavens that he wouldn't harbor any crooked thoughts towards Little Fairy, Brother Yan spoke up.

"Old He, straighten up your clothes. The umbrella, you go give it to her."

Uh.

Chen Jin shamelessly asked, "Why not me?"

"That mop of yellow hair on you would scare her off."

Chen Jin pressed on, "Then... why doesn't the boss go himself?"

Pei Yan's indifferent gaze shot over, "Keep yapping, I dare you."

"..."

Fine, then.

In the end, the task of delivering the umbrella was given to He Qingzhou, who, in comparison to Chen Jin's yellow hair, looked fairly presentable.

He Qingzhou briskly hopped off the motorcycle, took the umbrella out of Pei Yan's trunk, and went solo to bring some warmth to Little Fairy.

With unfounded confidence in his heart, in just a few minutes, He Qingzhou approached the girl.

Jiang Shuyao had thought the boy was coming to wait for the bus, only to be surprised when he handed her an umbrella right off the bat.

"Classmate, I'm lending you this umbrella. I'm already soaked, so it's no use for me to keep it."

The boy smiled with a kind and gentle face, wearing black-rimmed glasses that made him look somewhat scholarly.

Jiang Shuyao noticed the school badge hanging around his neck, from Yunchi Middle School, Senior Year (2) class.

So he was a schoolmate from the same grade.

The girl let down her guard, but still politely declined his kindness, "No need, thank you. The bus goes straight to the community I live in, and someone from home will pick me up when I get there."

Her father was out of town surveying data, and her mother had surgery that evening; there was truly no one at home to pick her up.

However, Jiang Shuyao had an innate pride; unless she fully trusted someone, she rarely accepted help from the opposite sex.

Heh, the little girl is quite vigilant; Brother Yan was spot-on with his guess.

He Qingzhou wiped the rainwater off his face and thickened his skin to say, "That's how it is, classmate. Actually, this umbrella is from our boss. He's already lacking in self-confidence. If you don't accept his kindness, he'll feel even more inferior, and inferiority can be lethal, you know."

Jiang Shuyao listened, completely confused, unable to see the connection to feeling inferior.

But she really didn't need it.

Anticipating another rejection, the boy quickly added, "Just take the umbrella. Later, you can return it to our boss in class two. It's not a gift, there's nothing to feel embarrassed about. My buddies are waiting for me, so I gotta go, take it, take it."

The boy rattled off a stream of words quickly like popping beans.

Before Jiang Shuyao could argue, the hefty umbrella had been firmly stuffed into her hands.

The next second, bus 505 arrived at the stop.

Jiang Shuyao glanced at the boy's silhouette, which was gradually disappearing into the curtain of rain, and with no other choice, reluctantly boarded the bus with the umbrella in hand.

She usually rode her bike to school, seldom taking the bus.

After transferring to Yunchi, the school was much farther from home than before, and biking there wasn't realistic anymore; she would have to rely on the bus from now on.

Jiang Shuyao took out two yuan coins from her backpack and dropped them in, then found a spot next to a handrail to stand.

When the bus started, a sudden, ear-shattering roar came from outside the window. A gang of helmeted youths zipping by on motorcycles drew the attention of everyone on the bus.

The driver sighed and shook his head, "Kids these days, they're bolder and bolder, really giving people heartaches."

It was well-known that nearby Yunchi Middle School was a top-tier school in Rong City, but the polarization there was also severe.

Being a private institution, the school admitted many rich families' children every year, and these rich second-generation kids often skipped classes and engaged in street racing, not taking their studies seriously and causing trouble.

The group of students who had just whizzed by belonged to that type for sure.

However, to ensure high college entrance rates, Yunchi invested heavily in teaching staff and educational facilities.

Any student capable of getting into Yunchi, regardless of their family background, just had to focus on their studies, and those who ranked at the top each semester had the chance to receive generous scholarships.

How generous?

For example, the top student of the entire senior year received a cash reward of eighty thousand yuan, handed out in actual cash, and directly to the student.

This was an unprecedented move, yet Yunchi had the audacity and capacity to do it.

Thus, Yunchi Middle School was like a yin-yang cauldron of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), clearly separating black from white, a magical place where both rich second-generation troublemakers and top-notch student scholars coexisted.

The roar gradually faded away, and the bus continued its steady journey, starting and stopping along the way.

The rain outside slowly lightened, and the bus began to fill with more passengers.

Whether it was Jiang Shuyao's imagination or not, in that cramped space, as the temperature slowly rose, she could swear she smelled a faint scent of cypress.

It was a very subtle fragrance.

Had her sense of smell not been naturally sharp, ordinary people might not have noticed it at all.

Almost subconsciously, the girl's gaze fell upon the black umbrella in her hand.

The handle, with a frosted texture, had a small logo printed at the edge.

Jiang Shuyao's eyes flickered slightly; it was the exclusive corporate logo of Zhizhen Group.

This umbrella...