Chapter 4 The Ugly Duckling Turns Into a Swan_2

She told it to Pei Shangxuan as if it was a joke, laughing heartily and without a care, while Pei Shangxuan's face darkened and he remained silent.

"Are you upset?" She noticed Pei Shangxuan's abnormal reaction and stopped at the newsstand at the entrance to the alley. Pei Shangxuan ignored her, keeping his head down and continuing to walk straight ahead.

Li Li bought an evening paper, holding the newspaper as she ran to catch up with him, "Pei Shangxuan, what are you getting angry about?"

"I'm not," he defended himself guiltily, sounding less than convinced.

Most girls would usually retort loudly with "You are" to counter the other person, but Li Li stared at Pei Shangxuan for a while without blinking, then nodded her head and said, "I understand."

Li Li turned and walked towards her home. Pei Shangxuan, hands in his pockets, kicked at the gravel beneath his feet and watched her receding figure. The whole sophomore year was abuzz with the rumor that "Pei Shangxuan likes Li Li," and because of this, he had had quite a few face-offs with others. He hated being compared to her, though the reasons were not very clear.

Li Li's uncle, Li Guoqiang, had gotten a girlfriend—a slim and pretty girl. He was too busy with love to come home until late, and Li Meiqing was also seeing a divorced man, so normally only the grandmother and Li Li were at home together, in silence.

Li Li did her homework in the dimly lit kitchen, where an old radio played the high-pitched tones of Shaoxing opera—Li Li's grandmother was a fan, and under her influence, Li Li could hum a few phrases with a flavor reminiscent of the Yin Guifang school. To be fair, Li Li's singing was average, and it was fortunate that she could stay in tune. During the school-wide choir competitions, she would blend into the crowd, resentfully watching Pei Shangxuan, who was radiant under the spotlight. Unlike her, Pei Shangxuan, who barely scraped by academically, had a real gift for music and was part of the school chorus, naturally becoming the lead singer for the class.

Li Li's eyesight had been deteriorating and had reached the point where she had to squint to see the blackboard clearly. She had mentioned getting glasses to her grandmother, and her grandmother, peering over her reading glasses, paused her sewing to consider and then remarked that girls with glasses didn't look good.

"I'm already not good-looking," Li Li said, somewhat morosely, "If I don't wear glasses, I can't follow the class. It will be even worse in the future."

Her grandmother conveyed her request to Li Meiqing, who gave her the money for glasses, which Li Li found profoundly ironic, seeing the extent of their mother-daughter estrangement.

The person who accompanied her to get glasses was Pei Shangxuan, who had volunteered to help her choose frames. Li Li took this as his gesture of conciliation and apology for the way they had parted after school a few days ago.

Pei Shangxuan was very picky; one moment he said her head was too big for round frames, the next moment he said thin rims made her look more like a nerd. After much deliberation, he said moodily, "Worst case scenario, I'll just concentrate on taking notes in class and then let you copy them."

A sweet sensation rose unbidden in Li Li's heart, like eating honey, tooth-achingly sweet. Then she shivered and frowned, "Pei Shangxuan, everyone already calls you a dunce, can you take notes for me for a lifetime?"

Although Li Li had spoken in a moment of pique, a feeling of loss overwhelmed her as soon as the words left her mouth. She and Pei Shangxuan were destined to part ways, just like with Caniggia, whom she had liked before the summer vacation but could not find any information about afterward.

Without a word, Pei Shangxuan pointed at a pair of purple oval frames, signaling Li Li to try them on.

Li Li's features were ordinary, but her pale skin compensated for any shortcomings; the light silver-purple quite suited her complexion. Pei Shangxuan finally nodded in satisfaction.

The clerk asked Li Li to get her eyes tested while he waited patiently outside. By coincidence, some male classmates from the same class passed by the eyeglasses store and saw Pei Shangxuan inside, so they rushed in, shouting and hollering.

"Pei Shangxuan, what are you doing here?" The leading shouter, Zhang Yong, was in his voice-cracking period, his unpleasant duck-like voice being shamelessly loud every time he shouted at the top of his lungs.

The last thing Pei Shangxuan needed was them creating a scene! He remembered the rumors circulating in class and felt overwhelmed, "Just don't feel like going home, walking around." He was thinking of how to swiftly get this group out of the eyeglasses store, desperate not to let anyone see him with Li Li.

"How about going to the pool hall? There's a place where middle school students can go too." The speaker was a boy named Deng Jianfeng, who had the lowest grades in the class but knew all the best places to hang out.

"OK, let's all go," Pei Shangxuan agreed without much thought and charged out of the eyeglasses store ahead of everyone.