Chapter Sixteen: The Sentiment of Youth is Always Poetry

  It was already 9 pm when the police car sent him back home. Wen Qian lightly told them what had happened, positioning himself as a supporting actor who helped everyone catch the thief. This still caused Ding Mei to shout and look around to see if he was injured. On the other hand, Wen Huai Ming looked at Wen Qian with new eyes due to his previous experiences, and was overjoyed, thinking that "a tiger father doesn't have a dog son".

  The next day, under the direct intervention of the Municipal Propaganda Department, various media outlets began to strongly promote the story. First, the Qingzhou Daily, as a party newspaper, surprisingly published a large-scale report on the front page, briefly describing the background and process of the event, and then using passionate language to highly praise Xu Yao and Wen Qian for their fearless and brave fight against the thugs, calling them role models for contemporary youth and heroes nurtured by Qingzhou's land and water. The article concluded that this was a proud achievement in the construction of spiritual civilization under the leadership of the municipal party committee and government, and a concrete manifestation of Qingzhou's good social atmosphere and humanistic morality. This article was done with great skill, neither lacking in calm objectivity nor passionate enthusiasm, truly a masterpiece. However, for the sake of protecting minors, the article only mentioned Xu Yao and Wen Qian's names, stating that they had just graduated from junior high school, but did not elaborate on their family background or other personal circumstances.

  After finishing his run, Wen Ze took the newspaper from his father and read the article. He was speechless afterwards: "This is too ridiculous, I haven't even given an interview yet, but I've been 'promoted' like this?"

  Wen Huiming didn't understand the profound meaning of the word "was" at this time, and he slapped Wen Can's head with a smile, scolding: "You came back last night and told lies, how did you say that you and another little girl caught the culprit together? Good boy, this is like a man!"

  Gently rubbing his head, he whispered, "Don't let Mom hear this, and don't let her see the newspaper either. If she does, she'll worry and nag endlessly."

  "Your mom has gone out. As for this newspaper, ha! From young to old, have you ever seen your mom touch anything related to paper?"

  Wen Hehe burst out laughing, pointing at Wen Huiming and teasing: "If my mom hears this, you'll be in big trouble..." Ding Mei himself had a low level of cultural knowledge, but he was particularly mindful of others bringing it up. If he really heard these words, he wouldn't let Wen go for two or three days, that's not the end of it. Wen Huiming knew he had misspoken, subconsciously looked around, and immediately felt like he had lost his authority in front of his son. His face turned serious, and he scolded: "How dare you talk to Dad like that? Is your butt itching again?"

  Wen Qing, without intending to provoke his irritable father, shook his head and smiled as he was about to leave the house. Just as he reached the door, he suddenly heard his dad say in a gentle tone from behind him: "Wen Qing, although I agree with what you did yesterday, but if...if there's a next time, you should call the police first, got it?"

  A warmth spread across my forehead, it's been many years. Although I knew Father was disappointed in me, scolding more often than showing affection, hearing such words from the usually strict Father still moved my heart.

  He didn't turn back, just heavily hummed a response and went out the door.

  At noon, Qingzhou TV's lunchtime news and Today's Focus programs all made relevant reports, interviewing Xu Yao, Tan Xue, and some participating masses. Wen Ze let his dad politely decline the TV interview and slipped out alone. The TV station didn't mind either, their propaganda focus was consistently placed on Xu Yao, and after the evening sales of Qingzhou Evening News and the widely popular Qingzhou Broadcasting Station reported, Xu Yao had become a household name, while Wen Ze became the unnamed youth in the report who "helped Xu Yao". This actually suited his taste. After all, making such a big splash was really too boring for an uncle who had lived two lifetimes.

  After the commotion died down a bit after two or three days, Wen Rong was practicing boxing in the small playground when he suddenly saw Xu Yaowearing the same white dress she wore the first time they met walking towards him from afar. Her long black hair cascaded down her back and her slender legs were visible under the sunlight, her delicate face had a hint of smile, and her pure and shy demeanor was captivating.

  As she approached, Xu Yao didn't greet her either. She simply instructed the two people following behind her to set up a sun umbrella by the sand pool, and with a magical flourish, unfolded a foldable recliner beside it. Next to the recliner, they erected a small, delicate metal tripod, and placed a small box on top of it.

  Wen Qing ignored her and continued practicing, his left foot hooked inward as he spun around, kicking the wooden board that was hovering in mid-air into two pieces with a backward spinning kick.

  "Good job! This kick sweeping Qingzhou kindergarten is absolutely no problem, good!"

  The soft voice echoed in my ear, the more I listened to it, the less comfortable I felt. You're enjoying the cool breeze on one side and speaking cold words, isn't that too unkind? Turning around to look at the white-clothed girl lounging lazily in her chair, she smiled: "Classmate, are you happy to despise me like this?"

  "That's okay," Xǔ Yáo said with a smile, standing up, "but if despising you can make you feel less happy, I'd be very happy."

  "Hurting others won't benefit yourself - just being happy and having character!" Wen Jian stretched out his thumb, walked to Xu Yao's side, opened the box and took a look. Inside were twenty ice cream sticks emitting cold air. This little girl had gone to such great lengths, putting in so much effort, it turned out she just wanted to treat herself to something to eat.

  Hmph, true to form for Xu Yao, even her way of expressing goodwill is infuriating!

  Wen Qian smiled wryly and shook her head, pulled out an ice cream stick and started eating it. Without any politeness, she kicked at the white tender calf under Xiu Yao's skirt, "Go to one side, let me sit down and rest for a while."

  Xu Yaoliu's eyebrows rose, her bright eyes were about to spit fire, but suddenly she remembered the back of his head that day when he stood in front of her, and her heart softened. She pouted and obediently gave up her seat. Wen Chen just had a pervert uncle's momentary lapse, casually teasing a beautiful girl, but didn't think it would actually work, and for a moment felt hesitant, wondering if there was some trickery involved?

  Seeing his hesitant face, Xu Yao was about to explode with anger, her eyes suddenly widened, and she shouted: "Are you going to sit or not?"

  "Sit, of course sit, must sit especially!" Wen Xiang let out a snort and fell onto the chair, his movements even faster than when he rushed to save someone that day. His face still had an air of complacency, as if the more hateful he was, the better.

  Xu Yao used to hate it when boys were shameless, but now looking at Wen Qing, she didn't feel angry at all. She let out a snort of laughter and kicked Wen Qing's feet off the edge of the chair, then sat down with an ice cream cone in hand and started eating.

  A gentle breeze blew, the sun umbrella isolated the sunlight from the mundane world. A sweaty and dark ordinary young man, a white-clothed girl with skin as pale as jade, like an immortal fairy, on this sultry summer day, in this quiet corner of the dusty world, listening to the cicadas, gazing at the white clouds, occasionally turning their heads, their eyes met unintentionally, they exchanged a faint smile, full of warmth.

  For the next three days, Xu Ya would arrive at the small playground of Building 7 on time every afternoon with this family heirloom. Either she would jump up and down to cheer Wen Qing on, or lie on a chair saying some sarcastic words. When Wen Qing couldn't take it anymore and glared at her angrily, Xu Ya would burst out laughing triumphantly and shut up, showing that she didn't care about arguing with him. Afterwards, the two of them would sit and lie down in chairs eating ice cream, chatting about strange topics. Neither of them was a good person, and they often chatted until they almost got into a big fight, but the scene usually ended in laughter.

  Wen Cheng also invited Xu Yao to come down and fight again, but was rejected. Poor uncle didn't know the little girl's mind, before we weren't familiar with each other, everyone fought a bit, what's not decent doesn't need to be taken seriously, now wanting to fight again without regard for image, disheveled hair, that's called stupid!

  The happy times always disappear quickly like the RMB in one's pocket. On the fourth day, early in the morning, Wen Jie was informed that he had to attend the Qingzhou Top Ten Outstanding Communist Youth League Members Commendation Conference in the city. Wen Huiming specially wore a famous brand of Western-style suit, and these days his colleagues in the city would always compliment him when they saw him, which made Old Wen feel a bit proud recently. Although the external propaganda reports did not mention Xu Yao and Wen Jie's family background, Qingzhou is a small place, what can be hidden from the eyes of people in the circle? Wen Huiming even knew that those people's intention was not to praise Wen Jie, all of this, including Wen Jie being able to become one of the top ten, was just because he had been associated with someone else's young girl.

  Wen Huiming, although not talkative, was not a fool. On the second day after the incident, he had already found out everything clearly and also knew Xu Ya's identity. However, he did not explain it to Wen Chen, even pretending to be unaware of the two children fighting back and forth on the playground west of the courtyard every day.

  Children playing together is friendship, and others can't say anything about it. But if you go around with a sycophantic face, it's close to shamelessness. Wen Huaiming couldn't do that, nor would he stoop to doing so. Moreover, now that the outside world has identified him as Xu Fuyang's person, he must keep some distance in private, otherwise the reputation will be too bad if it gets out.

  Wen Jian looked at his father, Ming Guang, with a puzzled expression and said: "What's going on? I thought the top ten Communist Youth League members had already been decided. How did I get elected?" He had heard Wen Huiming mention this before, it was one of the activities for spiritual civilization construction in Qingzhou this year, and the evaluation had ended half a month ago, so why did he suddenly appear now?

  Wen Huaiming smiled and didn't say a word, it was already decided, but it can also be changed!