He says, “You really cannot remember me…?’
She has no clue……..
He sighs……”I am Jiang Mo Xiu…..Boston….”
Xia Bao Bei hesitated, pondered….”Ahhhh…..Mo Xiu ge-ge….”
He moves fast, he acts even faster. He has waited so long, patience is not one of his virtues.
Mo Xiu : Do you have a boyfriend?
Bao Bei (shakes her head…?)
Mo Xiu : Do you have anyone whom you like in mind?
Bao Bei (shakes her head again….?)
Mo Xiu : Then I return home just right…..
Bao Bei (what business is it of yours whether I have a boyfriend or not…!!!)
Mo Xiu : Consider it….be my girlfriend….what do you think..???
After all was said and done, what kind of girl was Xia Baobei?
Ba: Xia Baobei is my precious baby egg!
Ma: Xia Baobei is my baby sweetheart!
Jiejie: Baobei is a lucky child.
Didi: Baobei is an idiot.
Boy Student A: Xia Baobei is the person who protects our whole cla.s.s!
Boy Student B: Xia Baobei is a person like an enigmatic wind.
Girl Student A: Xia Baobei is hilarious!
Girl Student B: This is a monster.
Finally, Mr. Jiang, who coughs into a fisted hand and says: This person is a stupid piece of goods.
Xia Baobei was born in Boston, while her mother was studying at Harvard and her father was a lecturer there.
Xia Baobei always wondered why two such hard-working people who came to another country to work had two children born in the span of two years.
Xia Baobei was the jie, Xia Tian was the didi.
Then one Christmas, Mum got drunk and the siblings found out their “birth secret”.
Mum said: Put all the blame on your ba ah! Saying that he needs to save the face of Chinese people, and buying the XXL size cover.* As if he had anything like that!
So, as it turns out, Xia Baobei and Xia Tian were “fish that escaped the net”.
Before Baobei and Tian, Xia Ba and Xia Ma had already had an older daughter: Xia Xu. She had lived with her grandparents while her parents remained in Boston, to care for the newly born babies.
The Xia household was famed as a scholarly household, and ran a famous private school. Thus they were obviously quite well of. Thus while the small Xia family stayed in Boston, while they couldn’t be said to be living in the lap of luxury, nevertheless ate and drank well.
They lived in an ordinary 3 floor house, the kind which can be seen anywhere in America.
In the neighbouring house lived a pair of brothers, surnamed Xiu. The older brother was 8, called Moxiu, the younger 1, called Mojie. They had already lived together with their paternal grandparents for quite a while.
When the Xia family came to Boston, the Jiang family immediately bonded with them as fellow Chinese. At that time, he saw the whole process of the Xia Ma being pregnant, giving birth and then raising Xia Baobei.
Thus, since childhood, intentionally or unintentionally, Comrade Jiang began his “wife husbandry project”.
For lack of a better choice, he was Mojie and Xia Tian’s idol, even though Xia Baobei wasn’t particularly warm towards him.
These circ.u.mstances always maintained that sooner or later, Baobei would be going back home.
Before she left, one evening, 14-year-old Little Mr. Jiang lead along 6-year-old Baobei for a walk to the community park’s playground. Little Mr. Jiang carried Baobei to the slide, and after she was done, to the swins, and after she was done, to the baseball diamond.
Perhaps Baobei had already forgotten. She sat on the swings, legs pointing every so often at the sky as she flashed past. Then she turned to Little Comrade Jiang, and said one short sentence: “Mo Xiu gege, after I return home, I don’t know whether or not I will meet a person like you, always taking me out to play. I will really miss you.”
Baobei was a person who rarely looked well. Little Comrade Jiang always marked these moments deep in his heart.
That day, Baobei played a lot until she was tired, and finally, she let Little Comrade Jiang piggyback her back home. It was indicative of the trust she had that the small girl leaning on the little brother’s back slept soundly, lightly snoring, drooling slightly on his back. Even though his footsteps were quite slow, but Jiang Moxiu still felt like the time was too short.
However, when Baobei was 6 years old, she spoke as a child, and would soon forget her words.
Later, Xia Baobei came back home. Domestic life was also quite wonderful, and thus the Moxiu gege who was on the other sh.o.r.e across the huge ocean was soon relegated to the depths of her memory, to be recalled occasionally, and very vaguely.
Xia Baobei was considered gifted, and so it was only natural that she studied quite hard, but on the outside she always seemed happy and laughing, and she never seemed stressed or stretched taut, so other people never seemed to have the impression that she was very diligent.
In high school it was only natural for her to go to her own family’s school, surnamed Xia. And when she had things like unfettered access to the Princ.i.p.al’s office and a younger brother with a fanclub numbering in the ten thousands, Baobei’s life blossomed.
Baobei did very well in her exams, and even in the eyes of the most nitpicky people, she was acknowledged as good.
Her mum helped her apply directly to Columbia, but this girl did not want to go abroad. And when Xia Ma took a look at the papers, she saw that the test was the hardest yet, and the markers the strictest.
Thus, Xia Ma, who was very knowledgeable about the academic world, applied to Tsinghua University as a backup. Then she was called by one of the exam trustees to come see Baobei’s college entrance exam.
She took one look, swooned, and almost fainted.
The answers were marked deliberately incorrectly, fully confirming Mr. Jiang’s opinion of Baobei.
For example on the literature and language section of the exam, one of the questions was: The mountain said to the ocean: You are so vast! So boundless! So pa.s.sionate! So surging! The sea said to the mountain: _____________________________ (insert answer into blank)
Student Xia had written in the blank: Thank you for the praise~
Afterwards, this examination paper was read and pa.s.sed on until it finally reached Baobei’s literature teacher’s hand. Teacher was seen with tears streaming down their cheeks.
Our story begins with Xia Baobei’s university era.
Leaving her parents and moving to the North, Xia Baobei ran off wild and completely crazy. Fortunately, the Xia household had a representative as Xia Xu had married and moved to Beijing, so she could control Xia Baobei, as Baobei normally listened to her Jie’s words.