It was after nine o'clock when the evening self-study had finished. Mu Huanhuan went to pick up her bicycle with a group of noisy students. She biked back alone. There were no street lights near the old house, so she turned on the light on her phone, held the phone in one hand and the handle with the other, and swayed into the alley.
At this moment, rumors about the old house and the molested girl in the alley suddenly popped into her mind. She was trembling with fear, constantly feeling like someone was following her behind her. The alley was really narrow, and Mu Huanhuan accidentally bumped into the wall as soon as she rode in. She got off the bicycle and endured the pain in her knees to push the bicycle.
The feeling of someone following behind became stronger and stronger. Mu Huanhuan didn't dare to look back and hurried away with her bike. As a result, she lost a firm grip on her phone, and it fell to the ground. Her surroundings suddenly turned pitch black. Mu Huanhuan's body tightened, and her neck was so stiff that she couldn't move. With a little light from the phone on the ground, she slowly squatted down to pick up the phone.
There was a sudden smell of alcohol behind her, and a hand was placed on Mu Huanhuan's shoulder, "Are you still playing in the alley so late?"
Fear instantly drowned Mu Huanhuan like a flood. Mu Huanhuan paused for two seconds and suddenly let out a terrified scream, "Ahhh—!"
After she screamed, she didn't know where her strength came from, she raised the bicycle with both hands, turned around and smashed it down.
"Ahhh.. oh!"
"What!!!"
"It's me!"
"Who are you?"
"I cook for you!"
At ten o'clock in the middle of the night, in Tao Ran's room, the lights were yellow, shrouding the room in a strange atmosphere. Mu Huanhuan pushed in the door with a pot of hot water, stretched out her hand to wring out the towel, and said, "How is it? Does it still hurt?"
"What do you think?" Tao Ran said sullenly, "Why don’t you try to smash your bicycle on your head?"
Mu Huanhuan looked embarrassed but said stubbornly, "Who asked you to follow me secretly?"
"Who's following you? Who's following you? I want to go home, okay? This is the only road here. Where will I go if I don't go here?" Tao Ran said excitedly, "I just happened to be walking behind you. Is it a reason to waste my life?"
"How can you be so exaggerated?" Mu Huanhuan said weakly, "It’s just a little skin on your head..." The more she talked, the more guilty she became...
"A little bit of skin? That's because my bones are hard, or you have already smashed out my brains."
While helping Tao Ran to wipe the blood on his face, Mu Huanhuan defended in a low voice, "Who told you not to speak and drink alcohol."
"It's my own business to drink alcohol. It's not illegal for me to drink. Besides, did I really not speak?" Tao Ran said, "I saw that you are squatting on the ground and don't know what to do, so I came over to see if I can help you. Yes, you turn around, and a bicycle falls on my head."
Mu Huanhuan didn't speak at all. It was her fault. She rubbed Tao Ran's face and around the wound and said worriedly, "It's still bleeding."
"Oh." Tao Ran said, "If you didn't hit the artery, I wouldn't die in a while."
Mu Huanhuan was annoyed, "Did I say that?"
"Then what should I do? I don't have a medical kit at home. Do you have one?"
Mu Huanhuan wanted to say happily that she still had half a box of eight-treasure porridge left. She can give him eight-treasure porridge to cover the wound if he wants. Mu Huanhuan determined, "Go to the hospital."
"Will you take me there?" Tao Ran said, "Can you ride a car with people?"
Mu Huanhuan just learned to ride a bicycle not long ago. She didn't dare to carry Tao Ran at this time because he was suspected of having a concussion. What if he fell from the bicycle and died?
"Then what should we do?" Mu Huanhuan spun around in a hurry, "Even if you won’t die for a while, it's not a joke to lose too much blood."
Tao Ran leaned on the bed and said, "Go to the next door to borrow a medical kit. There is one next door."
In this case, Mu Huanhuan didn't think much about it and rushed out. As she knocked on the door, a man with a very arrogant wolf tattoo on his chest appeared. Her breathing almost stopped. ‘God, how could I forget, there is such a group of people living in this old house.’
Mu Huanhuan looked at the man stiffly. Her mind was in chaos, wondering if she should turn around and run away. The man with the wolf tattoo finally saw who was in front of him with wide eyes. Then he jumped up as if frightened and put his hands on his chest and said, "Damn, why is Sister-in-law here?"
Then Mu Huanhuan watched him slip into the room like a flower girl who saw a bad guy, and when he came out, he had put on a T-shirt. He smiled warmly and said, "What? Why are you here so late, sister-in-law?" After speaking, he looked out, "Did you not know that you knocked on my door in the middle of the night?"
Mu Huanhuan wanted to ask who his eldest brother was. She felt that this group of people might have misunderstood. But she didn't dare to explain, for fear of what they would do to her after explaining that she was not the so-called sister-in-law. So Mu Huanhuan could only say with a sullen face, "I'm here...to borrow a medical kit."
"A medicine kit?" He stretched out his hand, patted his chest and said, "It scared me to death. I thought my sister-in-law suddenly took a fancy to my beauty."
Mu Huanhuan, "..."
Mu Huanhuan took the medicine box and went back. When she was treating Tao Ran's wound, she asked, "Do you know who is the eldest brother of the group of people standing in the alley every day?"
Tao Ran's eyes flickered, and he wondered if he had been discovered. He asked, "Why are you asking?"
"I think they seem to have misunderstood." Mu Huanhuan said with a puzzled face, "They all call me sister-in-law, but I don't know their big brother. Do you think there will be an accident? If they find out that they have mistaken people, won't they do anything to me?"
Tao Ran looked at Mu Huanhuan intently and found that she was distraught, so he couldn't hold back his smile and said, "It's not your business. It’s them who recognized the wrong person."
Mu Huanhuan thought so too. After she treated Tao Ran's wound, she asked, "How is it? Do you feel better?"
"It's much better." Tao Ran said, "You've also been tired all day. So go back and rest early."
When Mu Huanhuan saw that it was almost twelve o'clock, she took her bag and said, "Then I'll go, you have a good rest."
Mu Huanhuan walked out of the room, suddenly turned around, and said, "You should return that medicine box tomorrow. It's the one with the osmanthus tree in the yard next door."
Mu Huanhuan hurried back to her small rented room, relaxed, and suddenly felt extremely tired. But no matter how tired she was, she couldn't bear to go to bed without taking a bath. Mu Huanhuan went to the bathroom, took off her clothes, and when she turned on the shower, she was suddenly chilled by cold water.
"What!!"
A shrill scream came from the bathroom, and after a while, Mu Huanhuan rushed out wrapped in clothes and began to call the landlord.
The landlord picked up the phone and scolded, "Who is it? Are you not going to sleep?"
"It's me, the one who rented a room at your old house." Mu Huan shuddered and said, "The water heater is broken, and there is no hot water."
The landlord said grumpily, "You can't fix it yourself if it's broken? The water heater was fine when I rented the house to you. If you break it, you will have to pay!"
After he finished speaking, he hung up the phone. Mu Huanhuan froze for a long time and then put down the phone. She took a deep breath, not knowing what determination she made, turned around and walked into the bathroom again.
The next day Tao Ran slept until after ten o'clock. When he woke up, he knocked on the next door with the gauze on his head. The young man opened the door and said in shock, "What's wrong with you, eldest brother? Yesterday you went out without telling us?"
"I’m returning it back to you." Tao Ran handed him the medicine box and said, "Old wolf, you have to remember that you can't know the truth about some things."
The old wolf nodded, "Will I die if I know too much?"
"It's good for you to understand." Tao Ran said, "My head hurts. You go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables for me."
"What do I need to buy? Brother, you are injured and need to rest." The old wolf said, "I'll take you to the restaurant."
"No, no, I'm not used to eating outside." Tao Ran said, "When you go shopping for food, remember to buy a heat preservation container and come back."
After class, Mu Huanhuan sneezed an unknown number of times. As she took a cold shower last night, her nose started to get stuffy this morning. She had no appetite to eat in the morning, and at noon she took out a can of eight-treasure porridge in the office. It was cold and tasteless, and she felt pain just looking at it.
But her body was the capital of the revolution. She was now living in poverty and had no money to go to the hospital. As soon as she opened the eight-treasure porridge and took a bite, Mu Huanhuan smelled a delectable fragrance. It smelled like braised pork ribs. Wow, which teacher brought the meal to the office to eat?
Mu Huanhuan opened her eyes and saw a man with gauze on his head standing in front of her holding a plate of vegetables.
"Zhong Xiao?" Mu Huanhuan said in surprise, "Why are you here?"
Tao Ran put the heat preservation container in front of Mu Huanhuan and said, "I knew you were eating this thing again, so I came here to bring you food so that you won't starve to death and no one will wash the dishes for me."
This was like sending charcoal in the snow. Mu Huanhuan looked at Tao Ran as if he saw a Bodhisattva. She cheered, took the food and started eating. Tao Ran took the cup on the table and poured water for her, "You’re living like this daily, is this still the life of a human? When will you live comfortably?"
Mu Huanhuan ate a big mouthful of food and said, "I'll be fine next month. I'll be a permanent next month, and I'm going to be the headteacher. Then I won't have to live like this again. Your ribs are so delicious. Why are you so good at cooking?"
"I am also forced by life." Tao Ran said with vicissitudes, "Do you get off work so late every night now?"
"When I become a headteacher, not anymore."
At this time, a teacher came in and saw Tao Ran sitting opposite Mu Huanhuan. Tao Ran's body hadn't passed his twentieth birthday yet, so he's not much older than the students in this school, and with his tender looks, he looked like a high school student.
Tao Ran removed the rice grains from Mu Huanhuan's face and said, "How do you eat? The rice can run off your face."
The teacher watched for a while and said, "Miss. Mu, is this your brother?"
Before Mu Huanhuan could speak, Tao Ran said, "What kind of eyes do I look like?"
The teacher smiled awkwardly and said, "That's your boyfriend?"
This kind of woman was hated in the office the most, and Tao Ran ignored her. After eating, Mu Huanhuan said, "I'm so sorry to let you come over to deliver food before the wound on your head is healed."
Tao Ran packed up the heat preservation container and said, "I won't deliver it tomorrow."
Mu Huanhuan suddenly became pitiful. Was she going to live the life of eating eight-treasure porridge again tomorrow?
"Bring your own meals tomorrow." Tao Ran said, "I'll make the meals, and you bring it yourself to school."
"Okay, good." Mu Huanhuan felt that being able to eat meals made by Tao Ran was wonderful.