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Not two days after Shang Ming left, the strawberry that Shang Jin had carefully nurtured finally began to bud.
It was a sunny day when Shang Jin opened his eyes. Coming down from bed, he walked over to the windowsill while squeezing out his toothpaste. He effortlessly moved the wide leaf at the top and several small flower buds that had been hidden in the shadows peeked their heads out. A joy coursed through Shang Jin’s heart. He set the toothbrush aside and looked under each leaf. Unfortunately, this strawberry plant only had these several flower buds.
Shang Jin walked quickly to the sink and finished washing quickly. He took the mobile phone and shot the first buds that the strawberry seedling had sprouted.
“What are you doing?” Ye Zhou appeared behind him. His pot of strawberry seedling had leaves so large that it almost completely covered the ten-centimeter pot. “I say, I seemed to have forgotten something these two days. It should be to change its pot.”
“I have an extra pot. I put it under the table, and there’s still soil inside.” On the day Shang Jin had transplanted his strawberry plant, he’d wanted to change Ye Zhou’s strawberry seeding together, but thought that when Ye Zhou had given him the strawberry, he’d said it was a competition. It wouldn’t be good to intervene. However, when he’d bought a pot, he’d also bought one more for Ye Zhou. Worried that Ye Zhou would feel burdened, Shang Jin said, “Buy one get one free, don’t waste it.”
Ye Zhou chuckled and didn’t expose him. “Then that’s one thing off my plate.”
“My strawberry grew flower buds.”
“What?” Ye Zhou half-squatted by the windowsill and looked at Shang Jin’s strawberry seedling. Sure enough, there were several small flower buds under the leaves. After looking, Ye Zhou hurriedly flipped through his own pot, but beside the plump leaves, he wasn’t able to see any signs of flower buds growing. Ye Zhou began to self-reflect. Indeed, his concern for the strawberry seedling was too low. Although the strawberry seedling was growing vigorously, what was the use of merely growing leaves? He was growing strawberries and not buying a pot of foliage plant. It was a step slower in flowering, so the result was that he’d fallen behind Shang Jin. In the end, he was too careless. Obviously, he’d proposed the competition, and in the end, it was Shang Jin who had put his heart into it.
Even if Ye Zhou had a setback, he wouldn’t dawdle. He took out Shang Jin’s extra pot, laid out a newspaper on the ground and carefully transplanted the strawberry seedling. Pruning the aging leaves, the strawberry seedling was a lot neater.
Shang Jin calculated the time. After it blossomed, bearing fruit would be right around the corner.
Growing strawberries in the dorm, moreover on the fourth floor, there were very few bees and butterflies. To grow the fruits well, it still depended on artificial pollination. Shang Jin found an artificial pollination method in the book, and specifically went to buy a wool brush. The soft wool wouldn’t harm the fragile flowers when pollinating them.
Zhou Wendao dropped by once and was dumbstruck when he saw the series of tools Shang Jin had bought for this strawberry plant. Behind his back, he secretly told Ye Zhou, “Shang Jin is good enough to the gift you gave him. With what he spent on this pile of tools, I don’t know how many strawberries he can buy.”
This also indirectly showed the level of intention of the other party. Ye Zhou was comfortable and happy, so said disdainfully, “I’ve said that the most important thing about a gift is intention. How can such a layman as you understand?”
Shang Jin didn’t know their comments behind his back. He flipped through the calendar and estimated that in one month, it should be able to produce strawberries.
And a month later…just as Ye Zhou had remembered Shang Jin’s birthday when they’d checked in, Shang Jin also remembered Ye Zhou’s. At that time, he didn’t deliberately remember it; it was just that when that series of numbers crossed his mind, it vaguely left an impression. And then at a special moment, he suddenly thought of it.
Shang Jin had set his tentative plan well, but the plan couldn’t keep pace with the changes.
In the middle of May, Qin Fei’s belly was already large enough to go into labor at any time.
This matter originally wasn’t related too much to Shang Jin. As soon as it was inconvenient for Qin Fei to move around, the family not only requested an extra nanny, but even Qin Fei’s mother also came over to take care of Qin Fei. Even if Qin Fei really had a baby, he’d still eat and drink as usual. At most, he’d go look at the newborn baby after the birth. The rest didn’t need him to worry about at all.
Shang Youyou, who acted spoiled but had always been obedient, don’t know why, became “rebellious”. Qin Fei was too busy to even take care of herself, and in addition, she had to go to the hospital for the check-ups this Saturday. With Shang Youyou’s recent sensitivity, she didn’t trust giving her to the nanny, so she soon beseeched Shang Jin to come back to take care of Shang Youyou.
While the rest of the dorm was still asleep in the early morning, Shang Jin opened his eyes and softly and quietly got out of bed. After washing up, he walked up to the windowsill and a white color appeared under the emerald green leaves.
He pushed aside the leaves and the white flower quietly bloomed under the sun.
Taking care of it for a such a long time, he’d spent a lot of energy on this strawberry plant. Seeing the moment of flowering, he felt that previous hard work was worth it.
This may be the sense of satisfaction that Ye Zhou spoke about…
“Got up so early.” Ye Zhou’s voice was hoarse from just waking up. He squinted his eyes and looked at Shang Jin in front of the windowsill. The sun bathed Shang Jin’s body with a layer of soft light, and Shang Jin turned his head, chuckled and said, “It blossomed.”
At this moment, Ye Zhou’s heart jumped with a thump thump, feeling that not only Shang Jin’s strawberry had blossomed, but even the air was blooming with flowers. He lightly coughed, slowing down his unsteady heartbeat. He forcibly pretended to be unperturbed and came down from the bed, walking over to Shang Jin’s side to look at the small white flower. Not daring to look directly into Shang Jin’s eyes, he touched the petals and sighed, “Really good-looking.”
It’s just that whether this sentence was praising the flower as good-looking or the person as good-looking, was unknown.
Shang Jin simply packed and hurried home.
Qin Fei and her mother were changing shoes at the entrance, and Shang Youyou was sitting on the sofa with a spherical doll, her mood not too high.
Qin Fei forced a smile and said, “Shang Jin, I’m handing Youyou over to you.”
Shang Jin nodded and said, “Rest assured.”
After Qin Fei left, Shang Jin changed his shoes and sat down next to Shang Youyou. Shang Youyou called “big brother”, but was still unhappy. In the past, Shang Youyou had taken the initiative to cling to him. This time, it was Shang Jin who initiated, but he didn’t know how to start the topic.
It’d be good if Ye Zhou were here at this time. He must be able to joke with a kind smile, “What made the cute little princess unhappy? Can you you tell big brother?”
But he wasn’t Ye Zhou and he couldn’t say these words.
“Youyou.”
Shang Youyou poked the mouth of the ball doll and pretended to be serious, ignoring Shang Jin.
Seemingly unreasonable, but all this unusualness was only to gain attention.
Shang Jin hmphed. This was obviously the parents’ negligence. Since the family wanted to add a new family member, they actually didn’t do a good job preparing Shang Youyou mentally. The previous month when it was still small, Shang Youyou didn’t feel it. When Qin Fei’s belly grew bigger and bigger, the attention on Shang Youyou grew less and less. Before, Qin Fei had instructed Shang Youyou at home to be patient and accommodating with her big brother. Now, it was very possible that she’d told her to be patient and accommodating with her little brother or little sister. After all was said, Shang Youyou was only an over three-year-old little child. The uneasiness and grievances buried in her heart had finally broken out before Qin Fei gave birth.
Shang Youyou trembled for a moment, thinking that Shang Jin’s impatient sound just now was for her and her eyes filled with tears. She covered her mouth and without making a sound, slowly fit her body snuggly against Shang Jin.
Looking at this reaction, he feared that during this period, Qin Fei and them had reprimanded Shang Youyou a lot.
Shang Jin held Shang Youyou on his lap and felt her tears drip on his wrists. “Youyou, don’t cry.”
After this sentence, Shang Youyou cried even harder. She choked on her sobs in a low voice and kept wiping her tears with her sleeve. She clutched at Shang Jin’s clothes tightly with her empty hand for fear that if she let go, Shang Jin would also leave her.
Shang Jin touched Shang Youyou’s small head and said softly, “Don’t cry, isn’t big brother here?”
Shang Youyou finally couldn’t help but hold his neck and burst into tears, “Dad isn’t home. Mom ignores me. Grandma said to me that big brother isn’t here too…” Because of her young age, she couldn’t tell specific things, and back and forth, only had these few words.
Waiting until Shang Youyou had cried enough, Shang Jin gently patted her back and comforted, “Brother is here.”
Shang Jin couldn’t really comfort people. Fortunately, Shang Youyou also didn’t need much comforting. She soon fell asleep after crying. He took Shang Youyou upstairs and sat at her little bedside, looking at his laptop.
At noon, Shang Youyou woke up. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw Shang Jin beside her and poked the back of Shang Jin’s hand with her finger. Shang Jin held her hand and shook it. Shang Youyou squinted her eyes in a smile.
Shang Jin stayed at home for two days and went back to school by car on Sunday night.
‘Is your family’s little princess alright?” Ye Zhou understood Shang Jin’s family situation for the most part. Such an obedient child, how much grievances she must have in her heart before she’d use this way to give vent to her feelings? Thinking about it made him distressed in his heart.
Shang Jin simply said, “Cried, but quickly got well.”
“Next time, you tell baby Youyou that I learned a way to tie hair online, and I’ll tie her hair next time.”
Shang Jin mocked, “Look at videos? How did you practice?”
“None of your business…” Actually, he’d played in the school drama club last time and saw a student sister who was doing modeling flexibly moved her fingers and quickly pulled out a simple and beautiful hairstyle. He’d cheekily looked for the stylist sister to learn a trick and practiced on the members of the drama club. Because of this, he’d been teased for a good spell by the drama club members.
After spending two days with Shang Youyou, although he didn’t do any hard work, but he also spent a lot of energy. Shang Jin returned to the dorm, took a bath and lay down in bed to sleep.
When he woke up the next morning, Shang Jin suddenly remembered that he hadn’t seen the strawberry seedling for two days and didn’t know if the other flowers had opened or not.
Shang Jin got out of bed and walked up to the windowsill. Waiting for him wasn’t a flowery event, but the rather miserable situation of flowers and leaves falling broken and in disorder in the flowerpot.
The uppermost leaf was missing a big mouthful, and the broken leaf fell on the soil. The white flower was separated from the leaf, and lay quietly next to the broken leaves. Ye Zhou’s strawberry seedling beside it also wasn’t spared.
Shang Jin unconsciously clenched his fists. Originally, it was already late enough when this strawberry plant bloomed, and it was still actually plundered. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.