In summer, the garden outside the window was filled with the lingering scent of flowers, grass, and trees, and the cicadas endlessly chirped on the trees: Zhi lia... Zhi lia...
Ning Youguang lay on the bed with the air conditioner on, reading a book, her back leaning against two pink silk pillows.
The phone beside her rang, and she picked it up.
"Sister." A young, hoarse voice came from the other end.
"How did you do on the exam?"
Today was the day the middle school exam results were released.
"680, not very good." The boy’s voice contained a hint of dejection.
"..."
Out of a total of 700, young man, are you humblebragging in Versailles or what?!
"How much did you score, sister?" Shi Wangyue asked after hearing silence on the phone for a while, slightly anxious.
"678." You Guang sighed.
"..." The boy fell silent, and after a while, he finally spoke up, "That’s already very good, sister."
"Not very good." The girl pretended to sigh, "You got 680, which isn’t very good. Where do I find the face to say 678 is good?" Yet, in the eyes that the boy couldn’t see, there was an overflowing smile.
"Then I’m okay too, I guess."
"Not just okay, it’s very, very good."
The girl’s soft laughter rang out, and the boy’s heart eased a little.
After talking to the boy on the phone, You Guang couldn’t focus on her reading and got up to go downstairs. The living room downstairs was filled with cheerful laughter.
Her aunt had brought Fang Han and Fang Huai over for a visit.
"Grandma, do you think Fang Huai is funny? He actually likes using a pink phone case."
"This is Sakura!" Fang Huai explained, exasperated.
"Even if it’s Sakura, it’s still pink." Fang Han teased with a chuckle.
"Boys shouldn’t use pink, indeed." Gu Xihuo scrutinized her grandson’s phone case for a moment, frowned, and said, "Why don’t you change the phone case, Huaihuai?"
"No way, Sakura is supposed to be pink!" Fang Huai pouted, feeling his sister and grandmother didn’t understand him at all.
Did he like the pink phone case?
He liked Sakura!
"Sister Youyou." Turning around, he saw the person leisurely walking down the stairs, and his face immediately brightened with joy.
"Huaihuai." You Guang chuckled softly.
The moment she smiled, she brightened the entire room.
Stunningly beautiful.
Over the past year, the girl’s height had grown rapidly like a bamboo shoot, her milky white cheeks had shed the baby fat of youth, and she blossomed fully just like the pear blossoms on the early spring branches after a gust of spring breeze.
A pristine and graceful beauty that no one had ever imagined, her delicate features like those carved in jade, long slender legs, a soft and slender waist, and an ethereal and transcendent aura, so elegant and otherworldly.
Additionally, she loved wearing simple colors without excessive embellishments, exuding a sense of light, airy elegance that left a lasting impression.
Upon seeing her, Fang Han’s heart skipped a beat, unable to control the flicker of jealousy that stirred within, causing her, for the first time at her grandmother’s house, to not proclaim her presence actively but instead quietly lower her head.
She’s always known that she’s good-looking, praised for her beauty from childhood among schoolmates and relatives alike.
She’s always taken pride in it.
With her family background and good looks, fourteen-year-old Fang Han has always been surrounded by adoration and developed a haughty disposition, rarely finding someone worthy of comparison.
Yet, seeing her cousin whom she hadn’t seen for a long time today, she had to admit, some people are so beautiful that ’good-looking’ isn’t enough to describe their extraordinary allure.
Ning Xian stared at her niece in a daze for a moment, her face soon filled with a look of concern, "Youyou, why have you become so thin? Have you not been eating properly lately?"
"I have, three meals a day, never missing one." The stunning girl sat down beside her cousin.
Fang Huai was also growing taller, but he still looked like a big kid. He gazed at his long-unseen cousin, smiling with crescent eyes, "Sister Youyou has grown so much taller!"
"Grew quite a bit last year." The girl’s voice was also lovely, light and soft like a gentle whispering wind.
"Ah, when can I grow as tall as sister Youyou?" Fang Huai was full of envy, "I’d love to be as tall as sister Youyou in the future."
"If you grow up as tall as Youyou, your parents might start worrying." Gu Xihuo laughed uncontrollably at her silly grandson nearby.
Fang Han snapped out of it to tease her brother, "You’re such a fool."
"Little Huai is still young, how could he understand so much?" Gu Xihuo defended her grandson.
"Not little, only two years younger than me." Fang Han said disdainfully, casting a scornful glance at her silly brother who was affectionately cozying up with their cousin.