Chapter 4 The Ugly Duckling Turns Into a Swan_4

"Hey, you walk as slow as a turtle," even though they had left the classroom at roughly the same time, he had to wait a full fifteen minutes for her. To Pei Shangxuan, who was an impatient person, those fifteen minutes felt longer than fifteen centuries.

Li Li silently rolled her eyes, inwardly complaining non-stop: Isn't it just because you're worried about other students noticing and making things difficult for you? You really don't recognize a good heart! And why on earth does this guy insist on accompanying me to pick up my glasses?

The shop assistant took the finished glasses out of the paper bag, opened the frames, and asked her to try them on. Li Li reached out to put them on, and the thin metal frames hooked behind her ears, immediately adding a slight pressure on the bridge of her nose.

"I feel dizzy," she followed the shop assistant's instructions to look at the floor and instantly felt the room spin.

"No way, could the prescription be inaccurate?" Pei Shangxuan turned Li Li's face to make her look directly at him. He wanted to be the first to see how she looked in glasses, and indeed, it was as he imagined—not very attractive.

The shop assistant, a slightly plump middle-aged woman, hurriedly defended when she heard Pei Shangxuan's accusation: "It's normal to feel uncomfortable when you first wear glasses."

Behind the lenses, her black pupils calmly gazed at him as Li Li said indifferently, "OK, you don't like my glasses, right? It's bizarre, it's my own business to get glasses. I'm not asking you to pay, and we're not related by blood or law, it's not your place to be picky."

Her round chin lifted slightly, her tone somewhat defiant.

Pei Shangxuan was left speechless. In terms of eloquence, he had always been unable to outtalk Li Li, who always silenced him with her arguments. As Pei Shangxuan was sulking, Zhang Yong and Deng Jianfeng noisily rushed into the store.

"Pei Shangxuan, you and Li Li are indeed on a date!"

Pei Shangxuan glared, annoyed and embarrassed, and with his good-looking thin lips slightly turned down, he said contemptuously, "I don't like freaks, that's for sure." He spoke without thinking in his anger, and just when he was misunderstood.

Pei Shangxuan's words brought out Li Li's deeply buried insecurities; she looked at him with profound eyes.

Li Li could make herself a smart girl, but she couldn't make herself beautiful. She pretended not to care, but watching those pretty girls who drew attention everywhere they went, Li Li could not help but envy from the bottom of her heart. More than once, she had thought, if wisdom could be traded for beauty, she would rather be a beautiful but dumb girl.

The store became instantly quiet, the air seemed to stand still. After shouting the hurtful words, Pei Shangxuan immediately regretted it; out of all the things he could have said, why did he choose that one?

Deng Jianfeng sensed the tension and exchanged a look with Zhang Yong, then ducked out quietly.

Pei Shangxuan moved his lips wanting to apologize to Li Li, but was intimidated into silence by her distant and cold gaze.

Li Li, appearing composed, picked up the glasses case and cloth, placed the adjusted glasses inside the case, and after thanking the shop assistant, she left. From beginning to end, her gaze never fell on Pei Shangxuan again.

Pei Shangxuan felt unhappy inside, his head downcast as he followed Li Li at a distance. Li Li continued to ignore him, walking back home on her own.

Pei Shangxuan loitered around Li Li's alley for three laps, but couldn't muster the courage to knock on her door to apologize. Why do I need to apologize? It was her who started by calling me a busybody! The fourteen-year-old boy defended his thoughtless words internally, soon feeling justified again.

"Li Li, you're still such a sore loser!" He made a face in front of the girl's door and ran off yelling and shouting.

Li Li stood in the courtyard, listening to Pei Shangxuan's shouts outside the door, her face expressionless.

Li Li wanted to know what it felt like to like someone, to wonder if she was supposed to be hurt and upset because someone belittled her. In the silence of the night, she listened to the ancient clock walking slowly through the passage of time, her mood desolate.

Li Guoqiang's liked woman was Ya Liming, and he took her and Li Li to have Shaoxing chicken with three yellow sauces. Before, her uncle would have given the chicken wings to Li Li, but now his chopsticks were directed at someone else.

Li Li chewed on her chopsticks feeling as though the taste of the chicken had changed, especially when she saw the woman who could possibly become her aunt smile so radiantly, Li Li felt even more disheartened.

After sending Ya Liming home first, Li Guoqiang held Li Li's hand, walking on Sichuan North Road in the deep autumn. Li Li looked up at her uncle's profile, her thoughts ebbing and flowing—The days of watching the World Cup at midnight just a few months ago seemed so distant now, the images beginning to blur.

"Uncle, do you really like Aunt Ya?"