She Is Brighter Than the Stars

Cheng Nian suddenly woke up from the dream, covered in a thin layer of cold sweat.

The old-fashioned fan in the dormitory made creaking noises, but she thought it would be great to have something that could make noise at this time.

Looking at the watch, it was already half past four in the morning.

She couldn’t fall asleep anymore, thinking that the bugle would be blown in an hour, she sat on the bed and became dazed.

Seeing the light gradually lit up outside the window, she washed her face, got dressed, and was the first to leave the dormitory door.

Standing at the designated place for their morning exercise class, Cheng Nian put her hands in her pockets, staring at the fish belly white* that would appear in the eastern sky, as if she hadn’t completely escaped from the nightmare.

[Refers to the color of the dawn sky. Fish belly white is a traditional Chinese color, between white and light pink, similar to the color of the belly of a fish.]

When the sun struggled to emerge from the horizon and nodded, some students came to the sports field one after another.

Most of them hold notebooks or books in their hands, racing against time to memorize more knowledge.

Cheng Nian once felt that these people were very stupid, they only knew how to study hard, and no one looked up at the sun.

At this moment, she felt that she was really a fool standing here with empty hands, so she had no choice but to comfort herself to soak up more sunshine first.

Li Shubai saw such a scene when he came.

The red-haired girl stood under the pale golden morning light, with her hands in her pockets, looking into the distance with an indifferent expression.

In her eyes that were always clear and stubborn, at this moment they were like two deep wells, containing thousands of incomprehensible emotions.

Not even the sun can shine.

Li Shubai looked down at the brick-colored plastic sports track in front of him, walked to a place not far in front of Cheng Nian and stood there, opened the book in his hand and began to read in a low voice.

Seeing that thin figure, Cheng Nian subconsciously turned her gaze away.

The tall, thin and straight back seemed to have thorns, and it hurt her all over at first glance.

The morning was full of science classes, and Cheng Nian knew she couldn’t understand, so she didn’t listen at all, and borrowed the notes on the front desk to write Chinese and English.

As soon as the bell rang, He Yunfei wanted to sleep on the table, but Cheng Nian pulled him up by his ear to copy the book with her.

When two people read a notebook, they inevitably get closer.

Suddenly, a stack of notebooks was placed heavily on their desks.

Saying it was placed was an understatement, the strength seemed to be smashed.

“Send it.”

He Yunfei raised his head and saw Li Shubai’s stinky face that was obviously still hurt from the last punch, his fists itched again.

Cheng Nian immediately stuffed a thick stack of notebooks into his arms, and flattered him, “Let’s go.”

He Yunfei glared at Li Shubai, then looked at Cheng Nian’s expression of shaking her head. The clenched fist was finally loosened slowly, and he gritted his teeth and sent the homework forward.

Back to his seat, He Yunfei was so angry that he wanted to hit someone, the rubber eraser in his hand was crushed into pieces by him.

After Cheng Nian came back, he was dissatisfied: “If you don’t like Li Shubai anymore, why are you still protecting him everywhere?”

Cheng Nian sighed for a long time, looked into He Yunfei’s eyes and said sincerely: “Only silence is the highest contempt, do you understand? Ignore him, don’t look at him, don’t listen to him, it’s called completely clearing the line with Li Shubai!”

He Yunfei nodded his head half-understood, still feeling very upset.

Cheng Nian promised to give him a Transformer on his birthday, and his face softened a little.

After finishing the afternoon class, it is considered a holiday.

Every holiday, the front door and the back door of the school is like driving an auto expo.

Not that the cars aren’t any good, but because they’re stuck there and won’t move.

Lao Chengtou came to pick up Cheng Nian a few times, and was really annoyed by the traffic jam, so he bought her a small eDonkey.

When others were blocked on the road, He Yunfei had already sent Cheng Nian home on the e-donkey.

Standing in front of that familiar courtyard, Cheng Nian had mixed feelings in her heart.

As soon as she took the key out of the bag, the door to the courtyard opened.

Cheng Zhiyuan was taken aback when he first saw Cheng Nian, but when he recognized her, his beautiful danfeng eyes immediately curled up.

“Yo, whose little beauty is this?”

Cheng Nian plunged into Cheng Zhiyuan’s arms, and said coquettishly, “Brother, you are laughing at me.”

Cheng Zhiyuan is Cheng Nian’s cousin. Both of his parents died when he was young, and he has been living with Cheng Nian and the others, no different from her elder brother.

He took the schoolbag on Cheng Nian’s back and mussed her hair, “Come into the house, Mom has been waiting for you all day.”

In the living room, Lao Chengtou was sitting on the sofa watching TV, while her mother, Su Huiyu, was busy cooking in the kitchen.

Cheng Nian watched this warm scene, tears welled up in her eyes.

Although it was exaggerated, Cheng Nian really wanted to kneel down and kowtow to them now.

Seeing Cheng Nian entering the room, the Lao Chengtou quickly stood up from the sofa, with a smile on his honest face, and shouted to the kitchen: “Nian Nian is back.”

Su Huiyu immediately put down the spatula in her hand and came to Cheng Nian.

Seeing her daughter’s face without colorful makeup, Su Huiyu felt strange for the first time, and then couldn’t help but held Cheng Nian’s face and kissed her.

“Little girl, how pretty you look.”

Cheng Nian touched her nose in embarrassment, she suppressed her tears and said with a smile, “It’s because I take after you.”

Lao Chengtou heard Cheng Nian boasting, and said jealously, “It’s as if I didn’t have a part to play.”

Su Huiyu rolled her eyes at him, and proudly said: “It’s miserable to look like you, wash your hands quickly, and get ready to eat.”

Cheng Nian went to the room on the second floor to change her clothes, washed her hands and helped her mother to serve the dishes.

When did the original Cheng Nian do this? her parents were taken aback.

Cheng Zhiyuan leaned against the kitchen doorway, teasingly said with a smile: “The little princess has grown up.”

Cheng Nian made a face at him, “Let’s eat.”

At the dinner table, the family chatted happily.

Things that were once taken for granted, now Cheng Nian feels extraordinarily warm.

After dinner, Cheng Zhiyuan went back to the company.

He has been very busy during this time, knowing that Cheng Nian is on vacation, so he made a special trip back.

Cheng Nian accompanied her parents to watch the 8 o’clock news, which she was not very interested in for a long time.

When going to bed at night, her mother still talked to Lao Chengtou, saying that the child had grown up.

Lying on her pink princess bed, Cheng Nian felt extremely happy.

Unfortunately, the nightmare came as promised.

In the room without the lights on, Li Shubai’s face was very clear.

He looked at her blankly, regarding her like a pet.

“Please kill me.”

The woman’s voice trembled with despair, but it didn’t affect the man who was unbuttoning his shirt at all.

Li Shubai spoke softly as if he was cursing as his slightly cool lips brushed Cheng Nian’s ears.

“Even if you die, I won’t make it easy for you.”

Struggling to wake up from the dream, Cheng Nian frantically turned on the bedside lamp.

After confirming that she was the only one in the room, she took a few sips from the water glass on the table.

It was still pitch black outside the window, and the scattered stars hung far away in the night, sending out gentle light to the world.

Cheng Nian climbed up to the bay window and sat for a while before her chaotic heartbeat gradually calmed down.

She really didn’t dare to continue to sleep, so she just sat there all night.

Seeing the sun struggling to climb out of the sky, she finally couldn’t hold on, and fell down in a daze.

When she woke up again, the sun was already high in the sky.

Lao Chengtou and his wife went fishing at the invitation of their old friends, and left breakfast for her on the table.

Cheng Nian dyed her hair black after eating, and then bought two simple skirts.

In the afternoon, Cheng Nian went to Zhang Zheng’s house with two bags of fruit.