CH 29

On Christmas Day, the snow that had been off and on for a while suddenly stopped and the weather began to clear.

The long-lost blue sky and white clouds made Zhang Man feel relaxed, and she looked out the window while lying on the table.

Since that time she and Zhang Huifang talked, mother and daughter have spoken openly to each other. Zhang Huifang, under her efforts to persuade her, has not yet fully accepted the idea of having a second child if she gets married, but has also loosened up a bit.

And Uncle Xu did not disappoint her expectations either. He launched a fierce offensive and asked Zhang Huifang out several times in just over a week, and she could see that Zhang Huifang was very happy.

Uncle Xu is a reliable man, and likes Zhang Huifang so much. If in this life the two can really get together in the end and form a family, nothing could be better.

She was relaxed, but Li Wei was not.

He was annoyed.

When he came in the morning he saw several gift boxes on Zhang Man’s desk, and he casually glanced at them, all of which were Christmas gifts given to her by some boys he didn’t know.

Some of the packages even had sticky notes in the shape of hearts, with words that looked very ugly to him, along with pretentious and incoherent confessions!

His heart was in turmoil and his blood began to boil, as if there was a group of people coveting something of his, where he could not see.

It was a strange feeling for him… since he grew up with nothing but physics as a child.

–Fighting with people is a very time-consuming and laborious task, and he simply doesn’t bother to do it. So he is irrelevant to everything, let alone possessive.

But when he thought of the young girl who was usually quiet and cold to everyone else, but would smile at him, cry at him, and pamper him, he felt like his heart had collapsed a piece.

What if she sees those gifts and later smiles and cries at others like that, even hides in their arms and pampers them?

Can’t even think about it.

The thought of it makes his internal organs throb with pain, and a burning anger is rising in his head which he can hardly control himself.

Thus, the disciplined man did another unruly thing.

—He hid all the gifts and put them in his own drawer.

The youth poked the exercise book on the table with the tip of the pen again and again, and became more and more irritable. Even the rare sunlight outside the window seemed annoying and harsh to him. He didn’t understand why many things became different after he met her.

He began to have many more emotions and learned to do things that he would otherwise be very uncomfortable with.

For example, that day in the bar where he hugged her and told that lie, as well as hiding all the gifts today.

He turned his eyes again to look at the young girl beside him, but he could only see the back of her dark hair and the patch of white skin behind her ear. She was lying quietly on the table and he couldn’t see her mood.

Will she be sad that she didn’t receive a Christmas gift?

The youth took advantage of the noon school break to make a trip out of the house.

Zhang Man and Chen Feier went to the milk tea store again. It was cold recently, so the store launched a new taro ball hot drink which Chen Feier especially liked, so Zhang Man was dragged there every day.

Zhang Man was depressed in her heart. Thanks to her, her waist gained an extra ring of fat.

Chen Feier sucked up several taro balls with a large straw and chewed them joyfully: “Man Man, do you think this damn weather is really strange too? It was snowing and raining a few days ago but today it’s not snowing and it was cloudy instead. What kind of Christmas is this where there is no snow!?

“And this damn school, they don’t even know to take a holiday on Christmas!”

Zhang Man was speechless: “The way I see it, you are hoping for a holiday every day.”

Chen Feier raised her eyebrows and smiled and swallowed a mouth full of taro balls: “That’s not true. Think about it, you always go straight to Li Wei’s house every day after class for tutoring sessions. If it’s a holiday today I probably won’t be able to see you anymore. Mm…better to have 2 days of classes a week and 5 days off, I think that will work.”

—

Back in the classroom, Zhang Man went to her seat, and looked at the desk full of things, “Huh?”

A pile of various gift boxes was placed on her desk at some point.

She was a bit surprised, looking over one by one. Most of the gift boxes had the giver’s signature and some words of confession written on the outer packaging. She looked at several in a row, somewhat helpless. Several of these people whom she had clearly rejected long ago, surprisingly still tirelessly sent it over.

She was just about to put the whole pile away and return it one by one when she found a very special one among the many gifts.

There is no note or signature on this gift.

The box packaging is also very conspicuous, with a string of “Merry Christmas” printed on the red wrapping paper together with a dark green ribbon, quite festive, to be honest. 

Fascinated, Zhang Man opened the box and found a pair of thick earmuffs inside.

It was pink, and the two big round earmuffs were topped with two three-dimensional cartoon rabbits, furry and super cute.

Cute is cute, but to be honest…it actually looks a bit like what elementary school students wear. At their age, it’s a bit strange for high school students to wear such cute earmuffs outside, more or less.

Zhang Man turned over the gift box and didn’t see any signatures or cards or anything at all. She frowned and wondered who had put it there and how to return it later.

So she poked the arm of the youth next to her.

“Li Wei, did you just see who put this box here?”

The youth ignored her, pretending not to hear, and continued to read his book.

He then thought that maybe she would be happy to receive so many gifts, so he took the ones that he had hidden away and brought them back out again.

Mixed in with his own, of course.

Zhang Man saw his reaction and giggled in her heart. She was worried that he was angry, so she carefully poked and prodded him.

“Li Wei, are you angry? I…”

The youth frowned and looked over, seemingly annoyed by her disturbance, his tone was impatient: “No…don’t disturb me, I’m reading.”

Zhang Man looked at his expression and felt a little strange.

He is a man who is always elusive and difficult to really reveal his inner emotions.

However, the angrier he is, the calmer his expression is as if nothing has happened so how can he be like this now, with a face full of unnatural impatience?

She had a sudden guess in her mind at that moment.

Her heart became soft in an instant, and the pair of childish-looking earmuffs in her hand became extremely pleasing to the eye.

So Zhang Man put on the earmuffs, turned around to face him, and said while observing his expression: “Li Wei, I don’t like all the other gifts and will have to return them when the time comes. However, this is not bad, I want to keep it. Do you think these earmuffs look good on me? Does it look weird or not?”

The youth was not impatient this time, and inclined his head to give her a careful look.

The earmuffs are really thick and seem warm and soft so that her ears won’t freeze red when she walks down the road later.

—Every time he saw her red ears, he wanted to reach out and give her a hand to cover them.

Her face was really small, and it was even smaller when she put on the big earmuffs, he even suspected that her face was not as big as his hand. Her eyes are big and round, and when she smiles, you can see that there are two sharp little tiger teeth in her mouth.

The youth’s heartbeat, in that moment, suddenly went haywire.

He thought of the discussion he had heard from some of the boys in the class before, they said that although Zhang Man was the school flower and good looking, she was usually too serious and looked a bit mean.

He thought they might be blind.

–She is obviously so cute that the tip of his heart hurts.

“Not weird.”

It looks great, and I’m sure I didn’t make a mistake in choosing this color in the end!

“Okay!”

The heart’s suspicions were confirmed. Zhang Man smiled and nodded vigorously.

So when the evening came, Zhang Man put on her beloved earmuffs when she went to the cafeteria for dinner.

Although it was a sunny day, the air carried the usual coldness of winter. Her exposed hands were frozen and swollen, but her ears were well protected.

It’s really warm.

Zhang Man walked joyfully to the entrance of the building, only to suffer a good deal of ridicule from Chen Feier.

“Pfft, Man Man, what kind of vision do you have? These earmuffs are too corny, right? Pink? Bunny? Pfft…hahAHAHAHA! Oh God! My little niece looks better in them than you do!”

She pointed at her head and bent over laughing, and only after a long time did she straighten up and continue to spit relentlessly: “And this color! And this cute cartoon image! Don’t you think it doesn’t match with your whole person? I just saw you come out of class with an expressionless face and a drooping mouth so I never thought I’d see you with two rabbits on top of your head… I feel like you’re getting crazy! Hahaha!”

Zhang Man lazily ignored her, touching the furry rabbit’s head, she felt pretty good about it.

—

That night, there was a special post in the 1st high school posting board. The title of the post was called 【Ice beauty with bunny earmuffs】, inside was a stolen photo of Zhang Man.

It caused a bunch of people to go on a licking spree.

【Crap! What’s with the comfort caused by this extreme dissonance? How can our school flower be soooo cute!!! 】

【You, above me! It’s obvious that the earmuffs are so tacky! How can you say it’s so cute?! 】

【What’s wrong with wearing cute bunny earmuffs and having a face that is inexplicably cute? 】

【AAaaaaAAAAAahhhhHHH! I want to know where to buy the school flower’s earmuffs! I’m begging you! PLEASE tell me which store to buy them from! I WANT them too! 】

The response was very good.