Returning to High School to Save My Wife - Chapter 4

“Is it not enough?” Liang Qi was taken aback.

Back when she lived with Jiang Yuan, this was the portion Jiang Yuan usually ate. Could it be that Jiang Yuan in high school had an even bigger appetite than as an adult?

Yet the way Jiang Yuan was looking at her made Liang Qi feel like she was being scrutinized as some kind of bizarre oddity. She even suspected that if she didn’t explain herself soon, Jiang Yuan would undoubtedly conclude that Liang Qi disliked her and was deliberately trying to provoke her.

“You usually eat this little?” Jiang Yuan asked, puzzled.

Liang Qi’s appetite was nowhere near that small. In fact, she could easily eat three times what Jiang Yuan did though, to be fair, that was just the average portion for most girls. It was Jiang Yuan who usually ate so little that the contrast seemed stark.

” I’m not feeling well today,” Liang Qi quickly explained, remembering her earlier heatstroke. “I don’t have much of an appetite. I spaced out just now and didn’t serve you enough. Sorry about that, let me get you some more.”

“Let me do it myself.” Jiang Yuan stood up, took the rice scoop from Liang Qi, and filled her own bowl to the brim. Then she took Liang Qi’s bowl and served her.

a tiny spoonful.

A laughably small spoonful barely enough to fill the gaps between teeth.

“If you don’t have an appetite, you should eat less,” Jiang Yuan said considerately as she placed the bowl back in front of Liang Qi. “Drink more soup instead.”

Liang Qi: Damn this stupid mouth of mine!

Why did she have to say she had no appetite?

This tiny spoonful. She’d be starving within an hour. It was such a rare opportunity to visit Jiang Yuan’s home and be treated by Xu Chengyu, what a waste to eat so little!

“I’ll try to eat a bit more,” Liang Qi said shamelessly, ignoring Jiang Yuan’s surprised look as she scooped two more spoonfuls of rice for herself, turning the pitiful dent into a small mountain.

“Eating more will give you strength,” Xu Chengyu said with a smile, picking up some dishes for her. “Here, try some of these too.”

“Thank you, Auntie!” Liang Qi, eager to win over her future mother-in-law, accepted the food enthusiastically.

Perhaps because she was hungry, the first bite immediately satisfied her taste buds, making her wish she could devour everything on the table.

“Auntie, your cooking is amazing!”

“I’m glad you like it, Xiao Liang,” Xu Chengyu replied cheerfully. “Our family prefers lighter flavors some of Yuan Yuan’s friends don’t quite take to it.”

“I love lighter flavors,” Liang Qi said, sneaking a glance at Jiang Yuan, who was quietly eating. The lighter, the better, just like Jiang Yuan.

“By the way, Xiao Liang, where do you live?” Xu Chengyu asked. “Once you’re feeling better, Yuan Yuan can take you home.”

“Fenghuali, No. 22,” Liang Qi answered.

Fenghuali was a well-known upscale neighborhood in the area, with property prices four times higher than older communities like Chengnan New Village. It boasted beautiful surroundings, excellent amenities, and was conveniently close to the school.

“Fenghuali? That’s a nice place.”

Jiang Yuan’s chopsticks paused, her tone unreadable. “You live in Fenghuali?”

“Yeah,” Liang Qi replied, sensing a shift in her expression. “Why?”

“Nothing.” Though Jiang Yuan said this, her voice had cooled noticeably.

She kept her head down, finishing her meal without another word to Liang Qi.

After lunch, Liang Qi lingered at Jiang Yuan’s place for a while longer. It wasn’t until Jiang Yuan finished washing the dishes and left the kitchen that she finally came to fetch her.

“Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”

Jiang Yuan draped her school uniform jacket over her shoulders, but she hadn’t expected to bump into a boy holding a basketball as soon as she stepped out of the neighborhood. He was tall and lean, dressed in a casual T-shirt, with a string of Buddhist beads around his left wrist. He didn’t look very old, exuding an aura of youthful energy and sunshine.

When the boy saw Jiang Yuan, a faint smile appeared on his face. “Sis, you’re heading out?”

Liang Qi was startled by the address and took a closer look at the boy, realizing this must be Jiang Yuan’s younger brother, Jiang Mu.

The two of them looked strikingly alike. Jiang Yuan was a cool, gentle beauty, and her brother was equally handsome his delicate, soft features carried no sharpness, like the pristine campus heartthrob immortalized in countless girls’ diaries and sketches beneath the plane trees.

“I’m seeing a classmate home,” Jiang Yuan said. “Mom left food for you. If it’s cold, just heat it up in the microwave.”

“Got it!” Jiang Mu replied cheerfully before suddenly noticing Liang Qi beside her. “Huh, I don’t recognize this girl.”

Facing Jiang Yuan’s family, Liang Qi naturally wanted to make a good impression. She cleared her throat, about to introduce herself, but Jiang Yuan spoke first: “She’s just a classmate from school. She got heatstroke today and came over to rest for a bit. I’m taking her home now.”

It was clear that, in Jiang Yuan’s eyes, Liang Qi was merely a passing stranger. Unlike how she had introduced Liu Jiayao and Mu Zhizhi in the past, she didn’t bother introducing Liang Qi to Jiang Mu.

“Alright, sis, I’ll head back too!” Jiang Mu tossed the basketball in his hand, letting it bounce off the wall before catching it effortlessly.

“Stop fooling around,” Jiang Yuan chided with a slight frown, but Jiang Mu just grinned at her before heading into the apartment building with his ball.

Liang Qi’s home was at No. 22 Fenghuali, about a twenty-minute walk from Chengnan New Village.

Jiang Yuan knew the way and escorted Liang Qi all the way to the gate of the neighborhood.

She stopped outside the iron fence and turned to Liang Qi. “We’re here. You can go in now.”

Liang Qi waved her phone at her. “Thanks for walking me back. Let’s exchange contact info.”

“No need,” Jiang Yuan declined politely. “We just happened to cross paths.”

On her way home, Liang Qi kept mulling over Jiang Yuan’s words.

For some reason, she felt Jiang Yuan’s attitude toward her had turned noticeably colder after learning she lived in Fenghuali.

And that line of hers.

Just a passing encounter, so she wouldn’t even share her contact info?

Well, that wasn’t up to her.

As long as they were still at the same school, Liang Qi refused to believe they wouldn’t meet again.

Before she knew it, Liang Qi had arrived at her doorstep.

Her home had an electronic keypad lock. She entered the correct code, and soon, with a click, the door opened.

“Finally decided to come back?” Ms. Tao Huijuan was sitting on the sofa, cracking sunflower seeds without even glancing at her, her eyes fixed on the currently trending drama playing on the TV.

“Oh, how could I ever forget our esteemed Teacher Tao?” Liang Qi stuck out her tongue playfully. “It’s just that coming home a little late made me miss you so much it felt like three autumns apart!”

Tao Huijuan shot her an exasperated look. “That mouth of yours is getting sharper by the day.”

“Hehe, isn’t that thanks to you?” Liang Qi’s mother, Tao Huijuan, was an off-campus art teacher who ran her own studio in collaboration with the school. She had raised Liang Qi with a hands-off approach since childhood, and the atmosphere between mother and daughter was as relaxed and casual as between friends.

“Quit the nonsense. Have you eaten yet?”

“Yeah, I ate at a classmate’s place.”

“Which classmate? Qiao Shuxue?”

Qiao Shuxue was Liang Qi’s childhood best friend, living right across the street. Their families had known each other since they were kids. Qiao Shuxue’s father was the director of Shengjiang First People’s Hospital, and her mother was a Chinese language teacher at Shengjiang No. 1 High School longtime colleagues with Tao Huijuan.

The two had always been close, maintaining their friendship even after graduation.

“Yeah, I ate at Sister Qiao’s place.” Liang Qi didn’t know how to explain her heatstroke and visit to Jiang Yuan’s house to Tao Huijuan, so she simply lied and said she’d eaten at Qiao Shuxue’s.

“I knew it had to be A-Xue. You two have been inseparable all summer, who else would it be?”

“Hehe, Teacher Tao is so wise!”

After sweet-talking Tao Huijuan for a bit, Liang Qi smoothly brushed off her absence at lunch and retreated to her room to call Qiao Shuxue.

“Sister Qiao, are you there?”

“Hello? Qiqi? What’s up?” A pleasant voice came through the phone.

“I need to ask you about someone.”

“Who do you want to know about?”

“Jiang Yuan, do you know her?”

“Ah, she’s the top student who’s aiming for the Rocket Class next semester. Why are you asking about her?”

“Don’t worry about that. What did you mean by Rocket Class? Top student? What’s the deal?”

“She’s in the liberal arts experimental class for first-years, ranking at the top of the school. With the class placement exams next month, it’s practically a given she’ll make it into the Rocket Class.”

“That impressive, huh!” Liang Qi was surprised. She remembered Jiang Yuan had graduated from an ordinary university. Had she really been that good in high school?

“Yeah, her grades are stellar. Why? Do you need something from her? From what I’ve heard from friends, she’s not very approachable she might not be willing to.”

Liang Qi didn’t register another word Qiao Shuxue said after that. At that moment, staring at the calendar on her desk, she suddenly felt as though her once-aimless high school life had been thrust into a grand plan. Even the rest of her life now had a clear direction and purpose, no more drifting, no more recklessness.

The Rocket Class. That was the best experimental class at Shengjiang No. 1 High.

Though she had her weak subjects and her current class wasn’t as strong as Jiang Yuan’s, it didn’t matter. Three years of studying abroad had given Liang Qi confidence in her self-study abilities.

She believed that since fate had granted her a second chance, their connection couldn’t possibly be so fleeting.

“Qiqi? Are you okay? You still there?” Qiao Shuxue had been talking for a while without a response and thought Liang Qi had hung up.

Snapping back to reality, Liang Qi quickly said, “Sister Qiao, I’ve got things to do. I’ll hang up now.”

“Qiqi? You!”

Before Qiao Shuxue could finish, Liang Qi had already ended the call.

For the remaining half of summer break, Liang Qi spent nearly every moment in intense study so much so that even Tao Huijuan was astonished by her daughter’s sudden discipline.

By the time the new semester began and the second-year placement exams rolled around, Liang Qi had secured the seventh spot in her class, barely squeezing onto the last seat in the Rocket Class.

Liang Qi’s original class at Shengjiang No. 1 High School was only considered slightly above average. With her particularly uneven academic performance, her overall grades had always hovered in the middle range. This time, her entry into the elite “Rocket Class” genuinely shocked her former homeroom teacher and all her old friends.

Qiao Shuxue immediately called her, asking if she had been burying herself in studies for the past two weeks, which was why she had missed every gathering with friends.

Liang Qi chuckled over the phone. “Shouldn’t the summer before sophomore year be the time to buckle down and push yourself?”

“Qiqi,” Qiao Shuxue hesitated, recalling their phone call earlier in the summer, ” is there some special reason behind this?”

Liang Qi didn’t answer. She stopped at the school gate, her gaze drifting toward the slender girl standing under the shade of a tree, arms full of books.

The girl’s glossy black hair was tied into a ponytail, her snow-white skin shimmering under the sunlight with an icy radiance, like a pristine snow lotus.

Amid the scorching summer heat and the relentless buzz of cicadas, countless students fretted or rejoiced over their grades. Yet Liang Qi’s thoughts drifted back to the heavy rain on the day they first met.

That day, she and Jiang Yuan had crossed paths by chance. All her curiosity and fondness had been fleeting whims, never imagining how deeply their lives would later intertwine.

And this time, disregarding any offense, she was forcing her way into Jiang Yuan’s world determined to bind their fates together from this very moment, entangled inextricably, until death parted them.

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