Chapter 132: Little Older Brother?!
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
It was half an hour before the match.
On the campus road, a white figure was riding a bike speedily. Darkness had fallen, and the streetlights spread weak illumination on the street.
It was Xie Yujia.
It took her some time to help the Administrative Office to organize some stuff. Afraid of missing the match, she skipped dinner and hurried toward the stadium.
“Ugh?”
Abruptly, she stopped paddling and looked ahead at the figures of two middle-aged men not far from her.
“Dad?!” staring at their backs, she braked slightly and called out tentatively when she got closer.
The two middle-aged men turned their heads simultaneously.
“Dad!” with her dad’s ident.i.ty confirmed, Xie Yujia was pleasantly surprised.
However, when her gaze turned to the man standing beside Xie Ming, her expression froze, and she almost fell from the seat of her bike.
“Academician Hao?” her eyes widened as she called out in disbelief.
“Is this your daughter Yujia? She’s very pretty,” Hao Zhonghua said with a chuckle. Suddenly, he found that something was not right, and his face turned weird too.
“Isn’t she the girl who dragged Ren to line up for signatures?” he thought.
During that signing session, Yu Yang had winked at him. When she got home, she kept saying that Hao Ren had finally attracted a girl, and that girl looked so pretty and elegant; that was why he had a deep impression of Xie Yujia.
Hao Zhonghua and Xie Yujia looked at each other with weird expressions on their faces.
Seeing that they were in a daze, Xie Ming was confused as well. He told Xie Yujia, “He is your Little Older Brother’s dad, Hao Zhonghua. He used to be called Hao Hua and is my old cla.s.smate. You should call him Uncle.”
“Little Older Brother’s dad!” Xie Yujia’s hands holding the handles of the bike shook as she thought.
“Un…Uncle!” she gathered her thoughts and greeted Hao Zhonghua.
Meanwhile, Hao Zhonghua was still confused. He wondered what the relations.h.i.+p was between the pretty Xie Yujia and Hao Ren.
“Had they known each other or… ” he thought.
Xie Yujia’s eyes looked distracted, but her mind was turning furiously fast. “Hao Zhonghua is Dad’s old cla.s.smate and Little Older Brother’s dad? Little Older Brother is the son of Hao Zhonghua and Yue Yang, two influential international scientists!”
“Dad called to ask me if Little Older Brother has visited me or not, which means he has known about me. Maybe he didn’t show up because he is so excellent that he thinks I, the childhood playmate, am not worthy of a reunion.”
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?” Xie Ming patted his daughter’s cheek.
“Oh, nothing. Why are you here?” Xie Yujia shook her head and regained her composure before asking.
“I’m here to visit you and the school with my old cla.s.smate,” Xie Ming said. He asked again, “Did your Little Older Brother come to see you?”
“No.” Xie Yujia shook her head.
She looked at Xie Zhonghua with complicated feelings.
“Time is almost up. Let’s go to the stadium,” Hao Zhonghua checked his watch and said. He was a bit confused, but he decided to wait until he called Hao Ren and questioned him before saying anything.
With a blank mind, Xie Yujia got off her bike and walked with them toward the stadium. As smart as she was, she was so confused right now that she didn’t think to ask them why they wanted to go to the stadium.
Hao Zhonghua was her most admired scientist, and her Little Older Brother was his son.
But for some reason, she didn’t feel happy about it. Although she always thought that her Little Older Brother would be excellent, it was still a shocker for her to suddenly found that he was so far above her……
“As the son of world-famous scientists, he must have a girlfriend who is also excellent…”
The three of them entered the stadium and looked for Yue Yang and Grandma in the stands.
The match was about to begin shortly, and the stands were now full of students; t was difficult for the three to find them.
Hao Zhonghua had no choice but to take out his cell phone and call Yue Yang.
After receiving the call, Yue Yang immediately took Grandma to look for Hao Zhonghua. Grandma had wanted to keep Zhao Yanzi company, but she followed Yue Yang since she wanted to meet Little Carrot whom she had not seen for so long.
When they met, Xie Yujia was less surprised than Yue Yang who froze on the spot.
Xie Ming didn’t know why the couple and Xie Yujia reacted so weirdly when seeing each other.
However, Xie Yujia recovered quickly and greeted them, “Auntie! Grandma!”
Grandma was very pleased with Xie Yujia who was both pretty and considerate. She held Xie Yujia’s smooth and soft hand and said, “I can’t believe you’ve grown so much! Little Carrot! Grandma has never forgotten you…”
In her faint childhood memories, except for the ever stronger image of her beloved Little Older Brother, the other distinct impression was Little Older Brother’s grandma who had been very good to her. Whenever she went to their home, Grandma would take out her precious snacks……
Somehow, Xie Yujia was struck with a sudden sense of sadness. While she looked at Grandma who almost hadn’t changed, tears rushed into her eyes. “Grandma…”
“Well, kid. Why are you crying?” Grandma’s heart ached when she saw that Little Carrot was about to cry. She took her into arms and patted her back to comfort her.
At this moment, Xie Yujia’s tears dropped like pearls falling from a broken string.
Yue Yang and Hao Zhonghua exchanged a look, knowing that something was wrong. They thought for a moment and reached the same conclusion, “Hao Ren, the despicable boy, must have dumped her after making her his girlfriend.”
Grandma was not troubled by these thoughts. She thought Little Carrot cried because she was too excited after about a dozen years of separation. She quickly found Xie Yujia a seat, thinking that Little Carrot was still p.r.o.ne to crying just like when she was little.
In the past, she used to cry when Little Older Brother ‘bullied’ her, but now it seemed like no one would do that.
“Well, well. Don’t cry. You should be happy about our reunion today.” Grandma consoled Xie Yujia.
When Xie Yujia was little, Grandma treated Xie Yujia as her own granddaughter. Although she was grown up now, Grandma’s affection toward her remained the same.
Xie Yujia sniffed, trying to calm down. She knew she had been in a mess recently with her feelings divided between Hao Ren and Little Older Brother.
She dried her tears and forced out a smile, which looked like a blooming magnolia and brightened Grandma’s mood.
“Good girl! Good girl!”
Standing beside them, Hao Zhonghua and Yue Yang exchanged a look uneasily, thinking that Hao Ren must have something to do with Xie Yujia’s tears.
“Grandma, how come you are here to watch the basketball match?” Xie Yujia calmed herself down before asking.
“Yeah, I’m here to watch Ren play the match. Oh, Ren is your Little Older Brother when you were little, and we used to call him Maomao as a nickname.” Grandma nodded before asking abruptly, “Well, hasn’t Ren met you yet?”
“Ren? Hao Zhonghua?”
Xie Yujia’s slightly numb brain suddenly made a connection between those two names.
Baffled, she glanced at the amiable Grandma who was holding her before turning her gaze toward the court.