“Huanhuan,” Li Jinyuan knocked and walked inside. His cellphone still clutched in one of his hands.
He stopped at the door and looked at the gift boxes scattered across the floor, and then he looked at Huo Chengming and Zhong Yuhuan and asked, “Are we unwrapping presents?”
Huo Chengming finally let go of Zhong Yuhuan and said, “Mmm.”
Zhong Yuhuan struggled to get out of his chest. When she looked at the box again, it was already empty.
Li Jinyuan smiled and said, “Perfect.”
He then turned, walked back into his own room, and returned with a large bag of gifts in each hand, “I received a lot of gifts as well. We will unwrap them together.”
Having said that, Li Jinyuan casually gave Zhong Yuhuan a look and said, “Where are all your gifts, Huanhuan?”
“Oh, there’s not that many. They are all inside my backpack.”
Li Jinyuan pushed all of his in front of her and said, “Why don’t you unwrap mine and I will unwrap yours. How does that sound?”
Zhong Yuhuan blinked and said, “Isn’t that wrong?”
“What’s so wrong about it?” rebutted Li Jinyuan. He looked kind and pure, as though his only thought was just to help her out in unwrapping her gifts.
“Alright. My backpack is still on the couch. You want to go and get it?” Zhong Yuhuan was too lazy to get up from the floor.
“Okay,” said Li Jinyuan as he walked away.
They started out unwrapping Huo Chengming’s gifts, and now it had turned into unwrapping Zhong Yuhuan’s gifts.
Huo Chengming let out a sigh of relief. At least Zhong Yuhuan had been distracted, and she wouldn’t ask what was in the box earlier.
Zhong Yuhuan didn’t have a lot of gifts with her as most of them she had left in her dorm room instead of bringing them with her. The gifts in her backpack were from those who gave them to her on her way out of the campus. She had shoved them into her backpack as she received them.
By now, Zhong Yuhuan had already forgotten the constituents of those who’d be the ones to hand her gifts specifically when school was already out.
Li Jinyuan casually opened up a Christmas card and saw the blatant and straightforward words on it.
“…. Darling. I look forward to the next time we can enjoy some personal time together.” As he was reading it out loud, Li Jinyuan’s tone changed and he couldn’t keep his tender look any longer.
“Who is this?” His voice was slightly cold as he read the signature line, “Your Maria.”
Zhong Yuhuan had just popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth. She looked up and met the two young men’s eyes staring intently at her.
Zhong Yuhuan quickly said, “Oh, there wasn’t that much of personal time. I joined the drama club not too long ago, and she was a star in the club. I didn’t know much, so she’d spend time coaching me one-on-one. And, by the way, Maria is a girl.”
Having said that, Zhong Yuhuan pulled out her cellphone and flip to a picture.
“See? Here’s us together.”
Huo Chengming and Li Jinyuan looked over almost at the same time.
The other girl in the picture was quite tall, probably around 1.7 ~ 1.8 meter. Her blonde hair tied up into a ponytail behind her head. Her blue eyes were smiling. She had on an outfit for horseback riding and a riding crop in her hand. She has very standard European look, pretty with prominent features.
Zhong Yuhuan, on the other hand, had on an 18th century style princess costume. Her waist was slender and the bodice was white. The bottom of the dress, propped up by the bustle, was blue. On her head, there was a crooked hat covered in flowers and next to her ears, two curly strands of hair. The brim of her hat covered her entire forehead. All that could be seen was her pointy nose and her lips that was pretty like flowers. Her face seemed even more petite that it was.
Maria, using her height as her advantage, passionately had Zhong Yuhuan in her arms.
Her head, too, was tilted in the direction of Zhong Yuhuan, making them look very close to each other.
“This was the photo taken together after the close of the play,” said Zhong Yuhuan. She flipped through her photo album and said, “Oh, there’s a few more. But there are others in them as well.”