Chapter 148

Chapter 148

◎Fish, Fish, Swim Quickly◎

With both Meng Qi and Li Qingjiang blocking him, Ren Suiyi failed to send Liang Wenkai away, which made his face look even worse than when he was sick, but it seemed no one cared about his feelings.

"I'm going fishing. Are there any tools I can borrow?" After breakfast, Ren Suiyi stopped Meng Qi, who was about to go back to his room to rest, and asked with burning eyes.

Go ahead if you want, what're you so excited about? Meng Qi avoided Ren Suiyi's gaze and thought mischievously, you're getting excited too early, buddy. There aren't any proper fishing tools here. You've got a pretty high chance of coming back empty-handed, you know.

Usually, when people went fishing by the river, either they went empty-handed and relied on experience to catch fish by hand—most of the fish the teachers and students at Xiangyanghua Elementary School ate were caught barehanded by Liang Wenkai;

Or they tied a sewing needle heated over a stove fire and bent into a hook onto a bamboo pole, then dug up a couple of earthworms by the river for bait, or made a simple net from discarded mosquito netting, stuffed some breadcrumbs into it, then scattered the crumbs into the river... Whether there were fish or not was a matter of luck;

When it came to catching fish, Zhao Zheyuan was pretty skilled. He would sharpen one end of a bamboo pole and chase after fish to spear them. Before Liang Wenkai arrived, most of the fish eaten by the teachers and students at Xiangyanghua Elementary School were caught by him this way.

In summary, primitive and bloody, but that was the situation. No one thought of spending a lot of money to buy a professional fishing rod and tackle. They were living a wilderness survival scenario, not a leisurely fishing-and-chilling script.

Tilting his head and thinking for a moment, Meng Qi hesitantly walked over to the foot of the south wall, picked up both Zhao Zheyuan's sharpened bamboo pole and Elder Gu's bamboo pole with the sewing needle attached, and held them out for Ren Suiyi to choose from.

Ren Suiyi frowned almost imperceptibly and asked hesitantly, "...Is there anything else?"

Meng Qi had long anticipated Ren Suiyi's question, so as soon as Ren Suiyi finished asking, he immediately thrust his empty right hand under Ren Suiyi's nose and said with a sly smile, "There's also catching fish with your bare hands. I'll call him over, and you can kneel and become his apprentice right then—"

Before he could even say the word "master," Ren Suiyi had firmly grabbed Meng Qi's right hand. Moreover, before Meng Qi could react, Ren Suiyi led him out, saying as they walked, "This is good. We'll use this."

Meng Qi struggled and tried to step back, "Hey, hey, hey, I wasn't done talking. You've got it wrong. I'm not talking about my hand. It's..."

Ren Suiyi didn't seem to care whose hand it was. After hearing Meng Qi's explanation, not only did he not let go, but he tightened his grip on Meng Qi's hand, his steps steady and quick. "I think your hand is more useful than others'."

Nonsense! Meng Qi couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, thinking, 'I've never caught fish with my bare hands. Who knows if my hand is actually any good!' It probably wasn't, since he didn't have that kind of dexterity. After all, he had studied painting for so long and practiced silently for a long time, yet he still couldn't draw a decent set of eyes.

But Ren Suiyi's fingers were long, and since he worked out regularly, his grip was especially strong. Meng Qi was almost dragging his butt on the ground, yet he couldn't break free from Ren Suiyi's grip. Helpless, he resorted to a softer approach, "Bro, wait. I don't want to go fishing. I just want to go back and catch a few more winks."

Ren Suiyi finally slowed his pace and glanced back at Meng Qi.

This trick worked!

Meng Qi was secretly delighted and yawned at exactly the right moment, pressing on, "I'm really sleepy, bro. I'm not lying. I slept so late last night, and today I woke up early for the flag-raising ceremony. I've had barely six hours of sleep total."

Every Monday was the fixed day for raising the national flag at Xiangyanghua Elementary School, and coincidentally, today was Monday.

At first, Ren Suiyi was still skeptical, but when Meng Qi yawned again as Ren Suiyi looked over, he had no choice but to believe him.

"Come on, I'll carry you on my back."

Ren Suiyi made the decision in just one second. He crouched down in front of Meng Qi and said in a tone that brooked no argument, "First, lie on my back and get some sleep. Once I catch five fish, we'll go back. It'll be quick, and it won't delay your nap."

Meng Qi's second yawn only got halfway through before he couldn't continue.

He had overplayed his hand.

How did the result turn out differently from what he expected? Who's the one with messed-up thinking?

Besides, did he really have to set a goal of catching five fish with his bare hands? Wasn't he really, really going to end up fishing until dark?

"...Never mind, I'm not sleepy anymore." Meng Qi stopped the half-yawn and, after three seconds, realizing that Ren Suiyi wouldn't easily let him go back, walked two quick steps ahead of Ren Suiyi in frustration, increasing the distance between them.

As winter approached, the weather had already turned chilly. Living in a big city built of steel and concrete, one might not feel how cold it was due to industrial emissions, car exhaust, rooftop insulation, and other reasons. But people living in the pristine mountain area would shiver even in thick coats.

A cool breeze blew, and Meng Qi rubbed his arms as he sneezed.

Then his shoulders felt both heavy and warm. Glancing sideways, he saw an extra navy blue suit jacket carrying the warmth of another person's body.

Meng Qi felt a sense of discomfort, as if his territory had been invaded by someone else. He couldn't help shaking his shoulders, raised his hand to grab the collar of the jacket and push it back, intending to take off this jacket that didn't belong to him and return it to Ren Suiyi. The excuse he improvised fit perfectly: "I'm not cold. You'd better wear it yourself. You've just recovered from a cold; don't catch another one..."

Ren Suiyi pressed his arm on Meng Qi's shoulder, using both hands to hold down Meng Qi's hands that were pushing back the collar, and laughed, "Alright, you're not cold, but I'm hot. You can wear it for me."

Hot...

Meng Qi wanted to retort, how could it be hot? The temperature was barely above ten degrees Celsius, more than twenty degrees lower than human body temperature. Could a thin shirt really withstand that? But at this moment, his back was hot, his ears were hot, and even the tip of his nose seemed to be sweating. It was quite unconvincing...

He pulled his hands free from Ren Suiyi's grip, quickly stuffed them into the pockets of the navy blue suit jacket, and surreptitiously wiped his sweaty palms on the soft inner lining.

Ren Suiyi continued walking forward with his arm draped over Meng Qi's shoulder. Meng Qi grew hotter and hotter, and couldn't help looking down at the material of the jacket, wondering if this thing was made of high-tech solar panels.

"Good morning, Teacher Ran. Out for a stroll?" An elderly man in his sixties or seventies walked toward them, greeting Meng Qi with a smile from a distance, looking very kind and amiable.

Meng Qi abruptly stopped in his tracks, as if startled. But when Ren Suiyi turned to look at him, he shook his head with a smile and continued walking forward. Then, smiling, he waved at the old man and replied, "Good morning, Grandpa Geng. Have you eaten?"

"I have, I have. Just taking a hundred steps after a meal to help digestion," while replying to Meng Qi, Grandpa Geng's gaze kept sweeping over Ren Suiyi, his look of admiration no less than when he first saw Meng Qi. "Is this also your friend? Another golden dragon has flown into this mountain nest. Good, good."

Ren Suiyi certainly deserved the title "golden dragon." This time, unlike when the old man had praised him as a "golden dragon" and he felt flustered, Meng Qi instead smiled as he accepted the compliment on Ren Suiyi's behalf. "Grandpa Geng, this 'golden dragon' is indeed my friend. His surname is Ren. You can call him—"

After hesitating for a few seconds between "Teacher Ren" and "Young Ren," Meng Qi glanced at Ren Suiyi and stammered, "You can call him Young Ren."

Ren Suiyi was not and could never be a teacher at Xiangyanghua Elementary School, but it wouldn't be appropriate to have the old man call him Young Master Ren. After thinking it over, the form of address "Young Ren" was more suitable.

Of course, this also contained a bit of mischief on Meng Qi's part. He wondered how Ren Suiyi, the golden boy and eldest young master, who had probably never been called "Young Ren" in his life, would react. It was a rare opportunity; who wouldn't want to see that?

Grandpa Geng didn't know what Meng Qi was thinking. He stared at Ren Suiyi and exclaimed, "Young Ren must be around 1.9 meters, right? In all my years, this is the first time I've seen such a tall young man. What did you eat to grow like this?"

Mountain and sea delicacies, Meng Qi thought, then glanced at Ren Suiyi discreetly, worried that he might dislike people openly discussing his height and get angry. Meng Qi had been self-conscious about his own eyes since childhood, and due to his personality, he felt that people who were either too short or too tall probably wouldn't like others mentioning their height in front of them.

But Ren Suiyi's expression was calm, accepting Grandpa Geng's scrutiny with ease. When Grandpa Geng finished asking, he smiled and answered, "Nothing special. Probably because my parents aren't short."

"So it's good genes. Then your children won't be short either. If it's a boy, he might even surpass you. If it's a girl, she might reach over 1.7 meters. Both would be outstanding. That's good, that's good. Unlike here, where even the tallest of the short can't surpass 1.8 meters. So," Grandpa Geng suddenly turned his face to Meng Qi and said earnestly, "Teacher Ran, you didn't fancy Mengling, did you? Today, Grandpa Geng will introduce you to an even prettier girl. She's not only beautiful but also learned. She's a certified teacher at the county's No.1 High School, teaching first-year high school students. And she's tall too. If you two can make it work, you'll definitely raise our average height here by about five or six centimeters."

Caught off guard, Meng Qi's breath hitched. Here we go again, he thought. I couldn't avoid it after all... There's a much taller person standing right beside me, why are you still coming after me? Go find Young Ren! If he and that girl get together, your average height here will definitely shoot up by ten centimeters!

This Grandpa Geng wasn't introducing someone to Meng Qi for the first time. Over the past few months, on average every ten days or so, he would introduce someone excellent. Meng Qi didn't want to outright refuse and offend the old man, nor did he want to hurt any of the girls. So he had to come up with all sorts of elaborate excuses to decline. He even went so far as to bring up Xiao Yueya, making a cheesy phone call in front of Grandpa Geng, pretending to be in a long-distance relationship with her.

But Grandpa Geng, after he hung up, advised him earnestly, "Listen to Grandpa Geng, long-distance relationships never work out. Go meet the girl I'm introducing to you first."

Openly supporting him to cheat on her, wasn't he? Meng Qi was extremely speechless. He really wanted to lift his shirt to reveal his belly and ask Grandpa Geng if something like that could become a couple...

This time, Meng Qi was still racking his brains for a new reason to refuse Grandpa Geng when Ren Suiyi spoke up, helping him out of his immediate predicament.

Ren Suiyi's voice was low, inexplicably carrying a chill. "Are you introducing a girlfriend to him?"

Grandpa Geng was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled and answered Ren Suiyi, "Yes, Young Ren. Teacher Ran is so outstanding. If I don't act fast, someone else will snatch him away."

Ren Suiyi's eyes darkened, his brows tightly knitted. He stared at Grandpa Geng and said, "That won't be necessary. He already has a partner."

Meng Qi, full of question marks, looked at Ren Suiyi along with Grandpa Geng.

"I know, it's that girl named Xiao Yueya, right? She's a good girl too, but she's not by Teacher Ran's side. She's somewhere else. Teacher Ran has been here for several months, and she hasn't visited once. If you ask me, Teacher Ran needs to make plans early. Long-distance relationships can never work out..."

The more Grandpa Geng said, the darker Ren Suiyi's face became, the air pressure seemed to drop, and the temperature grew colder.

The question marks on Meng Qi's head had long since turned into beads of sweat. When the leading man got angry, could there be any good outcome for him?