Little Boy!
Even at school, she mostly used to be by herself because of the linguistic barriers, others were not good at English and she was not good at Chinese.
The school in which she was admitted in City S was the topmost school in the country. About 99% of high-class families used to send their children to study there as it offered the best faculty along with the luxuries.
The speciality of the school was that every year it used to hold its entrance examinations for the students belonging to lower class families to get scholarships there.
Zhou Jingyi had entered high school based on that scholarship. She was an orphan who had looked after herself for as long as she could remember, though she had mentioned once she was supported by a sponsor.
The way they ran into each other was how a couple meets in the cliche high school dramas, the only difference was that instead of getting a lover they had gotten each other to kill off their singleness.
"I am sorry! We ran into something unavoidable and I almost forgot about our meeting." She coughed lightly while avoiding Zhou Jingyi's eyes that were pointed sharply like a knife at her.
"But what should matter is that I am already here, right." When she found Zhou Jingyi still glaring at her, she just bit her lower lip and quickly changed the topic, "Is your shift already over or we should wait some more time?"
Zhou Jingyi sighed knowing very well there was no point continuing being angry with her, "Alright, alright. Since this is your first time, I am letting you off. But don't expect me to still be this merciful with you the next time."
Jiang Ying Yue earnestly nodded at her with an expression saying; you don't have to worry, it won't happen next time.
"And yes, my shift is already over. I ended up doing over shift, in fact." Zhou Jingyi complained with a tired face.
"Why? Isn't your shift only till 8 a.m.?" Jiang Ying Yue was curious as well because earlier they had made plans that she would pick Zhou Jingyi from her apartment later in the afternoon. But in the morning she had messaged her to meet at the mall only.
"Yes yes I was supposed to get off work in the morning but then my manager told me if I took her place, I would get a bonus for this month." Excitement was evident on her face while saying this.
Jiang Ying Yue smiled at her reason. But from inside, her heart hurt for her. Others might not know but she knew that as much as she appeared strong from the outside, she was most vulnerable from the inside.
Because she was an orphan, she had to work from a very young age and only when she was sponsored, she had stopped working for a couple of years till she completed her high school.
She had graduated from one of the best art universities in the world; majoring in painting but was currently working a part-time job in the mall during weekends to come out of her artist block since she can't afford to laze around without working.
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Qin Zihao was getting bored while walking behind the two girls who had been chattering nonstop for the past two hours.
Just when he had thought, he would get to eat in an amazing restaurant after a hectic day, he was dragged into a bustling street of a secondary market.
The secondary market, for real? The two girls who seemed to be living quite well were shopping in the secondary market. He was wondering whether it was a trend among girls to go and buy clothes from a secondary market even if they had loads of money in their wallets.
It was just like how he was dragged to one before too. He kept on yawning the whole time like he was doing now.
From going from one shop to another, all Jiang Ying Yue and Zhou Jingyi had been doing was bargaining to get an already cheap material at a more cheaper price. Walking with an embarrassment on his face, all he could do was smile whenever he noticed people throwing weird gazes at them.
Noticing a few girls silently laughing on the side at the way Zhou Jingyi was bargaining, his ears went red and he couldn't help but finally lean slightly towards Jiang Ying Yue and whisper, "Umm, Miss Jiang. Don't you think it should be enough for today? Miss Zhou has already bought a lot, why don't you convince her to stop bargai-, I mean stop shopping for today?"
"Heyy, little boy! I could hear what you are saying so no need to whisper." Zhou Jingyi raised one eyebrow at him while evincing the expression as if she was making a kid understand.
"Miss Zhou, first of all, I am not a LITTLE BOY!!!" He specifically emphasised on the little boy while gritting his teeth for the umpteenth time trying to speak as politely as he could.
"Alright, alright...I won't call you little boy anymore." Zhou Jingyi raised her both hands in surrender while tossing the piece of cloth back on the rack before linking Jiang Ying Yue's arms with her and exiting the shop.
Qin Zihao gave out an exhausted sigh. He had never thought the day which started with fun would end up getting so boring.
Jiang Ying Yue and Zhou Jingyi had ultimately stopped shopping after repeated requests from Qin Zihao but were still roaming the busy street while eating the ice cream in search of a good restaurant.
Zhou Jingyi had understood by now that Qin Zihao was not just a normally a bodyguard. The way he was behaving with them was not how a bodyguard was trained to be. Probably he was a good fighter and that was the case he was personally hired.
Thinking back at the way he had grabbed her hand, that was very lightly...yet she was able to feel the strength that he was controlling.
It was better that he was a powerful fighter, at least this way she could be rest assured regarding Jiang Ying Yue's security.
"Ah, I remember! Did I mention it before that I would be returning to City S soon?" Zhou Jingyi paused in her steps while looking with disbelief at Jiang Ying Yue who kept on walking forward.
Noticing that Zhou Jingyi was not following her anymore, she turned back and looked at the beautifully darkened red face.
An alarming bell suddenly rang in Jiang Ying Yue's head and when she was about to start running, just then she heard a pissed yelling, "JIANG YING YUE!!!!"
Zhou Jingyi started running after Jiang Ying Yue who was running fastly in a crowded street which was lively and buzzy due to the vibrance of teenagers.
Qin Zihao had no choice other then to start running behind them. Though he had a helpless expression on his face, his heart was filled with affinity looking at the rapport of two beautiful best friends.
It was probably the first time he was seeing Miss Jiang laughing so cheerfully and without any care. It felt good, he had really taken her as his sister in the past two years.
When he was approached by the boss to look after his wife, he was a bit reluctant as it meant that he needed to return from the USA. Still, he had taken it as a good opportunity to move forward in his life, not that he had any family for whom he would feel the need to stay.
Now, he was glad. Glad that he came here, he finally got a family to call after so many years...
Coming to a stop near a very beautiful lake in the middle of the park they had entered while chasing, all of them fell on the ground gasping hard and feeling tired.
All of them laid on the ground trying to catch their breath until a comfortable silence surrounded them.
Jiang Ying Yue felt the sensations moving all up her leg due to the stretching of her muscles. She was regretting not exercising all this time.
What was she even thinking while refusing Grandmother Lin's idea of exercising daily?
Stupid! Stupid!!
She was lamenting the whole time in her mind while, Zhou Jingyi fallen on the ground, besides her was bearing the biggest smile, almost like a grin.
She was feeling happy, it felt as if they had returned to high school days. She was never fond of school but Jiang Ying Yue made her fond of it because of her presence.
After a long time, she felt fresh!
Qin Zihao looked worn out, probably the other two had ran like it after a long time but he had just been running the past few months. He puffed while glancing at the two girls, he had thought it would be a refreshing outing but he never knew the girls had their own weird way of spending the day out.