129 Camping plans
“Then, what do I do?” An Xiulan asked troubled.
“You figure out your life,” Lu Xuan said with a shrug. “It can’t revolve around mom all the time. Stop being a careless brat. Your careless attitude towards your health makes her paranoid. And find the purpose of life that is not mom and let her move on. She is in her late thirties. If she gets old, no man will like her. You don’t want a man with a pot belly and bald head as a stepfather, do you?”
“My beautiful mom should have a beautiful man,” An Xiulan pouted.
“Men are handsome, not beautiful,” Lu Xuan corrected her.
“But mom is handsome,” An Xiulan replied.
Lu Xuan thought for a moment and then nodded his head. “You are right.”
It was true that their mom was the most handsome woman they had ever seen.
When the children reached home, they found An Qinyan chatting with Gu Yanxi and Gu Shangyan. While An Xiulan forgot the heavy conversation that she had as soon as she saw Gu Shangyan, Lu Xuan was staring at Gu Yanxi.
“Shangyan Ge!” An Xiulan grinned and Gu Shangyan’s usual cold face softened.
Who wouldn’t like having such a cute sister?
If someone did not want her, he could have her and pamper her to death!
“You love falling sick, don’t you?” Gu Shangyan asked as he stood up to pat her head.
“Hehehe,” An Xiulan grinned.
“Call him by name! What Ge! Don’t call him that.” Lu Xuan was annoyed. He wanted to beat someone right now.
“But he is older than you and me by a few months.” An Xiulan looked at her twin and said innocently.
“She is right,” Gu Shangyan agreed.
“Shut up both of you. Don’t annoy me!” Lu Xuan gave them a look and left from there.
“Children, don’t annoy my son!” An Qinyan feigned to glare at him while the two culprits just shrugged their shoulders.
It wasn’t their fault that someone was too easy to be annoyed.
Han Zixin was doing homework when he felt someone throwing pebbles at his bedroom window. He sighed and stood up to open the window and as he did so, he found a girl waving at him. She was standing down with her bicycle.
“Cheat prince! Let’s go on a ride,” An Xiulan shouted. The pale moon was high in the sky but under the street lights, they could drive their bicycles.
“Wait for me there,” Han Zixin closed his books and quickly went downstairs and met her out of his gate with his bicycle. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“Whoever reaches the end of the street wins,” An Xiulan shouted as she drove faster before he could reach her.
Han Zixin smiled and drove at a fast speed but not enough to pass her. In the end, she reached the end of the street first. Since she won the race, she wasn’t very interested in continuing their race. Seeing how she wasn’t entertained, he thought of an idea.
“Follow me!” Han Zixin said and she quietly followed him with any question asked. He took several routes and then they reached a road that was built by the bank of the river and at this time of the evening, they could see city lights from far glistening on the water.
They decided to sit on the embankment putting their bicycles on the stand.
“Isn’t this pretty?” Han Zixin asked.
An Xiulan nodded her head. The world she was from didn’t have a view like that. Sure, she would watch the moon and stars glistening on the lake water (the same lake she drowned in) but this view had its own beauty. She was sure that the modern man wouldn’t agree with her. They would talk about how the ancient time was very beautiful when the cities were populated and polluted. While appreciating the beauty of the past, they forgot to appreciate what they had.
“This is surreal,” An Xiulan said after a while.
“We will be having summer vacation soon,” Han Zixin suddenly said. “The class representative was talking about a camping activity. Do you want to join?”
“What camping activity?” An Xiulan asked. She didn’t know what they were talking about. Also, she hadn’t checked the messages of the school group.
“You don’t know about it?” Han Zixin asked.
An Xiulan shook her head. “What would we do there?”
“We will go on a camp for a week. I don’t know how to explain it to you but you can ask the teachers,” Han Zixin explained.
“Are you going?” An Xiulan asked him.
“Only if you will,” Han Zixin shrugged. “There are many activities aside from camping. Students from all the class Ten sections had to give their names for one activity. It can be anything. Like swimming, surfing, or even painting. I think we should choose camping. It’s thrilling and adventurous. Most of all, fewer students will participate as we will be exploring the wilderness.”
“Interesting,” An Xiulan mumbled. Seemed like she had to persuade her twin to agree with her. If Lu Xuan agreed to join the camping activity, her mom would let her attend too. Or else her mom would believe that camping was too difficult for someone like her.
They returned home after a while.
“Don’t even think about it!” Lu Xuan replied, curtly. He was not going to spend an entire week in the wilderness!
“Here,” An Xiulan handed him the new gaming console that he had been eyeing but was too broke to afford and too proud to ask mom about it.
Lu Xuan eyed the shining gadget from the corner of his eyes while playing indifferent.
Ahem…he didn’t want to sound desperate…
But he wanted this!
“Where did you get this from?” Lu Xuan asked her.
“Han Zixin’s grandpa got this for him but I asked him to lend me this for a while,” An Xiulan said. “This is brand new. He hadn’t even touched it. If you agree to come with me, you can have this gaming console for an entire month.”
“Make it three months,” Lu Xuan said, cocking his brow.
“Deal!” An Xiulan grinned.