Chapter 2 — Light Age 17

My family started to get rich from the year I was born. In 1998, when news of commercial housing reform was revealed in a corner of the newspaper, he quickly set his sights on the old abandoned food warehouse in town. In 2005, when I was in middle school, the city began to develop a new urban area, and he invested heavily again. Then, when the Internet wave emerged, he understood nothing about technology, but knew how to invest capital. My family has not been rich for a long time. Compared to the Bui family who has accumulated for many generations, we are truly "rich" as netizens often say. But being rich also has its advantages - at least my father gives me his bank cards, card by card, without even blinking an eye. I could even buy the KTV that Giang Tu is working on, but I don't. I hung around Giang Tu for several days before finding out where he worked as a KTV part-timer. Giang Tu looks a bit different at night than during the day, his clothes are more casual, even his hair is a bit messy. I secretly followed you here, so when Giang Tu saw me, his eyebrows immediately furrowed. “Who let you come to this place?” He pulled me into the stairs, his voice serious: "Who let you go to KTV?" Now that's a lot to say. I took out a sandwich from my bag and stuffed it into his hand. Giang Tu froze, his hand stopped in midair. “Eat it.” I gently pushed towards him, "Ah... I bought too much. The boss said if I leave it overnight it will expire. I can't eat it all. It's a waste. Please help me deal with it." I did some research — every day after school, Giang Tu still has to do at least three jobs. First, he distributed flyers on the street, then helped sell them at the fried noodle shop, and then cleaned up before going to the KTV to continue working. {Read the full story at Van Ha Tuong Tu's page} A serving of fried noodles sold for seven yuan, and he never had the heart to eat it. Either make do with the dumplings brought from the morning, or wait for guests at the KTV to eat leftover snacks. These past few days, I've gotten to know everyone in class. Many people specifically reminded me not to be too close to Giang Tu. They said he had a strange personality, was gloomy all day, and other than keeping his head down to do homework, he didn't interact with anyone. He also said that his family not only has a mother with end-stage kidney disease, but also has a disabled younger sister. It's strange, why is the Bui family's mother so seriously ill? But I don't want to ask Giang Tu because I'm afraid of making him sad. "Why?" Giang Tu held the sandwich and looked down at me. I waved my hand, slightly rolling my eyes: "Why do there have to be so many reasons? You're my deskmate, and today you even helped me solve the problem." I nodded resolutely: "Yes! My father said that if I didn't get into a good university, he would break my leg. Giang Tu, this is me bribing you, you know? This sandwich is not free, you have to continue lecturing me tomorrow." Today I happened to glance over, oh my, this guy can get 149 points in Math. He pursed his lips: "Don't you think I'm dirty?" I widened my eyes: "How could that be?" I bent down, circled around him, sniffed and exaggerated: "You don't know how clean your mother is when washing your clothes. Today I sat next to you, the wind kept blowing the scent of soapberry from you to me. And you look at my shirt..." I held out my dirty arm: "It's much dirtier than you, do you think I'm dirty?" In the darkness, Giang Tu suddenly raised his head to look at me, his eyes sparkling Like stars, he held the sandwich and shook his head slightly. I arrogantly raised my head: "That's right, I'm the one calling..." The corner of my mouth curled slightly to the right, promptly swallowing the rest of the sentence. Giang Tu finished work ten minutes early, insisted on taking me home, and conveniently stuffed a notebook he made in my bag. Before I came here, my father had already bought a house in the Thanh Da villa area. Since my mother passed away, he regarded me as the apple of his eye. This time, he initially wanted to quit his job to follow me, but I tactfully refused. Finally, he carefully chose a maid to accompany me to take care of me while I went to school. About to reach the villa area, I immediately turned and led Giang Tu straight to another street, where there were cheaper houses. Your family has gone bankrupt, if you see a row of villas close together, I'm afraid it's hard to avoid feeling sad. “My house is here!” I casually pointed to one house, then urged him: "You also go home quickly." Giang Tu raised his head to look, suddenly reached out and gently rubbed the top of my head. “See you tomorrow, tablemate.” If any of your classmates were here at this time, you would definitely recognize that Giang Tu in front of you is like a paper character suddenly brought to life. Less gloomy and lifeless, as if tomorrow was not so good, he had a little more hope. After Giang Tu left, I immediately ran straight to the villa area. I ran very fast, just about to turn into my building when I almost bumped into someone coming from the opposite direction. But the other person reacted very quickly, immediately reaching out to block, promptly holding me back. Looking up, before my eyes was a delicate, handsome young man's face. EH? I frowned in surprise, it felt very familiar... that's right, it looked a bit like Giang Tu. Just… why is he standing there frozen? 4 I raised my hand and gently waved it in front of his face: "Hey, I'm okay, you can let go." He was stunned for a moment, then immediately released his hand: "Sorry." I didn't pay attention, nodded and continued walking. Behind me, that person suddenly called out to me: "You also study Nhat Trung..." Just, the moment he opened his mouth, my little dog suddenly rushed out to greet him. I happily ran towards it, immediately forgetting about the other person, leaving him behind. Bui Chau just stood there, looking at the girl holding the dog, happily turning a corner and disappearing. By the time he regained consciousness and wanted to chase after him, there was no longer a trace. He opened the group chat: "Is there a girl in our school with long hair, tall figure, big round eyes, and a small mole on the bridge of her nose? Has anyone ever met her?" Someone replied: "What's going on? Did you meet a new girl somewhere? Love at first sight?" "Wow, Chau's aesthetic sense is so great, the beauty queen can't even get through, how can you fall in love as soon as you meet her?" Bui Chau put her feet on the tea table and stared at the four words "love at first sight" for a long time. "Stop talking nonsense, answer if you see it or not." “Eh… we've seen long hair, we've seen big eyes, we've seen tall bodies, but we've never seen this combination before.” "Or let my brothers go around for you tomorrow. As long as you study at Nhat Trung, you'll find it no matter what." Bui Chau lazily said: "Done, big reward." The Bui family has a distinguished family background, and he himself is handsome, so he has innate confidence - as long as it's the person he likes, there has never been anyone he has failed to pursue. 5 That day, after school, Giang Tu bent down and received it Take the broom in my hand. “You sit down.” The sunset dyed the classroom window a shiny honey color. Giang Tu tightly grasped the smoothed broom handle and skillfully swept. “Are you usually on duty?” I sat on Giang Tu's desk, swinging my legs. He nodded and explained: "Someone paid, ten yuan at a time." Having finished speaking, he glanced at me a little awkwardly: "I didn't mean it like that—" I jumped down from the table, grabbed the mop next to me, and said angrily: "It's really exploitative, cleaning such a big classroom for only ten yuan, even more stingy than my dad!" The cicadas outside the window suddenly became noisier, Giang Tu lowered his head to look at the floor, suddenly feeling that this boring daily routine was not so unpleasant. After cleaning up, Giang Tu planned to go towards Luong Kieu gate. He turned around and said: "Today's solution, I've written it all down on the back. You can look at it again tonight. If you still don't understand, I'll explain it to you tomorrow." I didn't pay much attention, raised my head and asked: "Can I follow you to sell?" Giang Tu paused and tactfully refused: "Everyone takes advantage of the evening to review, otherwise they will easily fall behind." To the end, he still refused to let me go with him. You looked like you were so afraid that my dad would really break my leg. When I found myself at Giang Tu's stall, I saw him wearing an apron, bending over to stir-fry noodles for customers. Seeing me, his hand holding the shovel to stir the noodles paused for half a second: "Why are you here?" “Are you studying?” At this moment, a gentle voice rang out next to him: "Are you Tieu Tu's friend?" I followed the voice and saw Giang Tu's mother. Perhaps because of the torment of illness, her cheekbones were thin, but one could still recognize her once beautiful eyebrows and eyes. "Hello aunt, I'm Giang Tu's tablemate." I smiled and greeted. She looked very happy, her slightly silver hair was illuminated by the warm yellow light: "Little girl, do you eat noodles? Auntie... Auntie Tieu Tu's house usually doesn't often have classmates coming to visit. I'll make you a bowl of noodles, try it?" Giang Tu gently pressed her shoulder and glanced at me: "Mom, sit down and rest, let me do it." I curled my eyes and smiled at him, my eyes seemed to urge: Hurry up, I'm hungry! Giang Tu said nothing, turned around and rummaged through the foam box for ingredients. First, two chicken eggs, tapped into a pan of hot oil, a "sizzling" aroma rises; Next, he added a ladle full of shredded meat, a few slices of round sausage, then added fresh shrimp and secret meat sauce. When the big fire passed, the fragrance spread everywhere. Waiting for the green vegetables and bean sprouts to cook, he added the noodles and continued to stir-fry. His wrist rotated very quickly, the noodles in the cast iron pan rolled evenly, iridescent with the color of soy sauce; sprinkled with a little green onion, a bowl of red and green noodles is presented alternately, looking extremely delicious. I glanced at the price list hanging next to me and discovered that Giang Tu made the "premium" type for me, and a portion sold for up to 21 yuan. Sitting at the small table, Giang Tu brought noodles, I rubbed my disposable chopsticks. He bowed slightly and looked at me, with a bit of tension in his eyes: "Try it."