Advertisement

I Give Half of My Life to You

Chapters List

Chapter 37: Wearing Skirts

Lin Miao invited the Young Master to her house for a meal again.

Lin Miao’s parents were already accustomed to the Young Master. After all, Lin Miao had stayed for half a year with the Yu family. The Young Master was also very good with Lin Miao; he treated her as a real younger sister. He frequently visited her, taught her lessons, and bought her snacks.

Lin Miao’s mother knew that at heart so she also took the Young Master as one of her own.

She always cooked an extra meal on the first day of Lin Miao’s breaks for the Young Master.

The adults of the two families, however, didn’t have much interactions similar to before.

The Young Master wasn’t picky, at least at Lin Miao’s place. He ate whatever Lin Miao ate.

Lin Miao often picked food for him.

After the meal, the Young Master returned back to his house.

Occasionally, Lin Miao would head to the Yu family for a meal and see Dahuang, Feifei, and Jiajia.

Everyone was used to this pattern.

They had to adjust to this even if they weren’t used to it anyway, especially for the Yu family.

It was still relatively recent that the Young Master started being active again. Now that he had recovered from his sickness, he went wherever his heart desired, and he would go there alone.

Rather than him sneaking out, they let him travel to his own desire as long as the driver followed and as long as he reported back to the house.

The New Year was closer than ever, so Lin Miao’s mother had been less busy, which consequently freed some of Lin Miao’s time, too.

Her younger brother was studying hard, preparing for the math olympiads competition next year. Seeing her brother ponder at his exercise book, Lin Miao thought that she might be able to help out since she was the older sister. So, she walked over and glanced at her brother’s math problems.

After some more careful looks, she quietly walked on. Mm, she should leave her younger brother alone and undisturbed.

Since the idea of helping her younger brother didn’t unfold well, Lin Miao was now completely unoccupied. She didn’t like to watch television, and she didn’t have a phone to fiddle with. As a cause of attending a boarding school, Lin Miao didn’t have many friends back home. All her friends at school have returned to their homes in other neighbourhoods.

So, she decided to pick up a book and start to read.

During dinner, Lin Miao’s mother suddenly said to her, “Oh right, Shuishui, do you have spare time? Let’s go shopping for clothes tomorrow.”

Lin Miao’s mother always asks her like this. Lin Miao had her own timetable, unlike many others her age.

A head popped up from behind a book, “New clothes! Sure!”

She wore a uniform at school, and she doesn’t spend many days at home out of her school year, so she didn’t necessarily need new clothes.

Lin Miao also doesn’t understand fashion. She was the type who would wear whatever that was given as long as they were comfortable.

However, the New Year meant new clothing, so Lin Miao’s mother wanted to take Lin Miao and Lin Sen shopping.

(Lin Sen refers to Lin Miao’s younger brother, 林森)

At the store, there were a variety of jackets and coats in many colours fit for Lin Miao’s age group.

Lin Miao’s mother let her two children pick for themselves.

After walking around the store, she decided on a black coat. It was easy to wash and hardly looked dirty.

Lin Miao then simply chose a pair of black sweatpants. Simple and fast.

Even though she was already wearing this combination at home, she stuck to the style. This time, she had also picked a size larger so they would still fit when she grows taller next year.

They didn’t take this into account when they went shopping last year. As a result, many of her clothes from last year became too small, the sleeves becoming too short.

Looking at her daughter trying on another black coat, Lin Miao’s mother felt that she should change it up a little.

So, Lin Miao’s mother picked out two winter skirts. One was a gray pleated skirt, and the other was a yellow skirt. She also chose a warm pair of black leggings to go underneath, and two medium-length coats: one pink, one a milky white.

Lin Miao was a bit surprised and reluctant, “Let’s not buy this, I don’t even have time to wear it.”

She would have to return to her school after the New Year, she wouldn’t be able to wear them after that. It felt wasteful.

“It’s fine if you can only wear it for these few days,” Lin Miao’s mother said, “Shuishui will look so pretty in this.”

The mother then immediately went on to pay for the garments.

Since her mother had already bought it, Lin Miao enthusiastically took the bag with her clothes inside, imagining how she would look with a skirt. She wanted to try them on.

Girls always had a special affection towards skirts.

Back in their apartment, her mother washed the leggings and hung them up to dry. It would be directly on top of her skin, so of course, she couldn't let Lin Miao wear it immediately.

Thus, Lin Miao watched it dry so she could try on her new clothes and skirt.

She didn’t have many feelings when the skirt was in the store, but now she was especially interested in trying them on.

When the Young Master came to Lin Miao’s house again, he was met with a little girl wearing a pink coat and a gray skirt. She skipped towards him and elegantly spun around, the pleated skirt drawing beautiful curves in the air.

“Gege, Gege, do I look pretty in this skirt?” Lin Miao asked sweetly.

The Young Master truly felt that Lin Miao was beautiful, so he rubbed her head, “Very!”

The Yu family’s house was air-conditioned throughout the day during summer. It was a bit chilly, so Lin Miao still wore pajama pants under her nightgowns when she slept at the Young Master’s house.

Lin Miao wore her black leggings under her skirt. They were thin and long, allowing the wind to pass through them when she walked outside.

The Young Master forgot what he was going to say. Moments later, it finally returned to him that he was there to invite Lin Miao to a movie.

There was a new movie about the Olympics in the theaters. It was about the life of an Olympic athlete. He thought Lin Miao might enjoy it.

Lin Miao quickly told her mother, then headed to the movies with the Young Master.

At the cinema, they realized that everyone else was adults and they were the only children. The Young Master purchased the tickets while Lin Miao eyed and salivated at the popcorn beside the ticket booth. She had to adhere to a strict diet even outside of her badminton school.

The Young Master then looked in the same direction as Lin Miao. He bought her a little bag of popcorn, the original flavour.

It was Lin Miao’s first time in a cinema. She had noticed that most of the people around her were young couples.

Of course, many of the couples also noticed the… middle schoolers? There was also an old lady who saw them purchase the tickets.

Lin Miao and the Young Master didn’t do much else other than holding hands when they bought the popcorn. It still looked adorable, though.

The two middle schoolers waited in the corner for their showroom to open.

On the opposite side, there was a more romantic couple. The girl was sitting on her boyfriend’s thighs.

Lin Miao snuck a piece of popcorn in her mouth and started laughing dumbly at her older brother.

When she turned back, the couple were kissing each other!

Lin Miao’s eyes widened.

The Young Master immediately covered her eyes and turned her back around.

“Little children shouldn’t see this.” The Young Master said, feeding her a popcorn.

Lin Miao quietly chewed her popcorn, her cheeks red.

Soon after, their showroom opened and people began entering after the employees checked their tickets

The Young Master led Shuishui inside along with the other young couples.

The movie soon started.

Lin Miao was stunned by the enormous screen.

However, her attention was soon grabbed by the movie.

The storyline was simple. It started off with the news of the Olympic Committee accepting Manchukuo as a participating country.

Manchukuo sent Liu Changchun and Xi Weican to represent their nation in the Olympics.

Lin Miao didn’t know what Manchukuo was, but it didn’t affect her understanding of the plot.

The movie was more like a documentary. Lin Miao saw the people on the screen ignore bribes and risk their lives to represent China in the Olympics.

The athletes were wearing t-shirts with “China” and its flag printed on the chest. They didn’t make it into the second round, but Lin Miao still felt that they were incredible.

By the time the Chinese flag was shown waving in the stadium, Lin Miao was weeping.

The Young Master turned around and found the person beside him bawling and hurriedly wiped her tears.

The movie had ended by then. Lin Miao’s eyes felt a bit of sting from her tears. “Gege…”

The Young Master patted her head, “That was from a long time ago, we’re way better in the Olympics now.”

Originally, he had just wanted to watch a movie with her. The New Year movie catalog was populated with Chinese movies. Most of them were romance movies and they were a bit too old for cartoons, so he thought a sports movie would be perfect for her. Little did he think, however, that she would be so touched by it.

Concerned that Lin Miao might have trouble recovering from the emotional ending, the Young Master took her out to walk around.

Lin Miao’s head was still immersed in the movie. It took her a while to adjust back.

The Lunar New Year soon passed. Lin Miao turned thirteen by the end of the month. However, she didn’t have a birthday as she was born on the twenty-ninth of February. She only had a birthday every four years.

With the Young Master, they shared birthdays every four years.

When they returned to school, the professional badminton team went around to pick students.

Lin Miao and Tan Jing were soon notified that they have been selected.

Life in the professional team wasn’t much different, at least for Lin Miao.

However, there were still some changes. She couldn’t return weekly to see her family, and her tournaments lasted for days.

Furthermore, the intensity of her practice had also increased.

Her time after practice in her dorm mainly consisted of resting and showering.

Sometimes, she would also call the Young Master.

“When is Shuishui’s next break? Do you have any recent competitions?” The Young Master’s voice came from the phone.

Lin Miao sat on the bench in her t-shirt and shorts. She counted the remaining days, “I have to go to the National Youth Badminton Competition, I might not be able to come back…”

The Young Master could hear the exhaustion in her voice, so he concisely told her how he was doing.

He waited for a response, but none came. It was obvious that she had fallen asleep.

The Young Master didn’t hang up, instead, he quietly listened to her breathing for a while.

She must feel so drained of energy everyday. The Young Master thought.

Previous Next