Yu Wanrou unlocked her phone and passed it over to Yin Zhao-an, saying, "Call your number and save it."
Yin Zhao-an accepted Yu Wanrou's phone and typed a string of numbers. A moment later, the phone in her pants pocket started to vibrate.
Yu Wanrou was driving, so Yin Zhao-an passed Yu Wanrou's phone over to Wang Zhen in the passenger seat. Then, she saved the number she had just received a missed call from into her contacts and pinned it to the top, putting it with her parents' phone numbers.
The streets near Chong High were clogged with pedestrians and traffic. Even though it wasn't a working hour right now, the cars on the road were barely moving. It was even possible to hear people cursing about the terrible traffic from time to time.
Yu Wanrou was similarly fed-up with the traffic. Seeing that they were only about ten minutes away from reaching Chong High on foot, she suggested to the three passengers in the car, "How about you three walk ahead first? This traffic is probably going to stay stuck for some time. I'll bring the luggage over afterward."
Wang Zhen felt that the suggestion was feasible. After putting the folder containing her daughter's enrollment papers into her bag, she took the initiative to get out of the car.
Seeing this, Yin Zhao-an and Tang Yu also got out of the car and quickly walked over to the sidewalk. The midday sun was exceptionally scorching, and they could feel their skin burning after leaving the car for only a moment.
"Isn't the sun a little too big…" Yin Zhao-an complained as she put on a baseball cap. Then, she took off her UV protection jacket and draped it over Tang Yu's shoulders.
Meanwhile, feeling the sun's rays scorching her skin, Tang Yu quickly realized her blunder. She had spent most of her summer break cooped up at home, so she failed to realize how ferocious the summer sun could be and prepare for it. But…
Tang Yu looked at her arms, then at Yin Zhao-an's. Both of them were wearing short sleeves, so their skin was exposed to the sun. Without any hesitation, Tang Yu tried to return the jacket to Yin Zhao-an. Only, Yin Zhao-an had stopped her before she could do so.
"My Tang-Tang should be milk-flavored. I can't have you becoming chocolate-flavored."
But what if I want to be chocolate-flavored? Tang Yu rolled her eyes.
"What are you two whispering about? Hurry up and follow. There are many people here, so try not to get separated," Wang Zhen shouted at the two girls from across the crowd.
In response, Yin Zhao-an reflexively held Tang Yu's hand and said, "Don't get lost."
Then, two people with their fingers interlocked joined the noisy and crowded sidewalk…
…
Despite Yin Zhao-an's best efforts to shield her, Tang Yu still bumped shoulders with a pedestrian, the collision causing her to drop the folder in her hand and a few documents to slip out of the folder.
When Yin Zhao-an saw Tang Yu trying to crouch down to collect the documents, she hurriedly stood between Tang Yu and the oncoming pedestrians, visible panic on her face. The last thing she wanted was for her Tang-Tang to become the victim of a trampling accident.
However, Yin Zhao-an naturally couldn't berate her Tang-Tang. So, she turned to the man who had bumped into Tang Yu to vent her emotions, saying, "Hey, don't you know how to apologize after bumping into others?"
The other party was a man wearing a black fedora and a knee-length black coat. The brim of the man's hat was pressed quite low, so Yin Zhao-an could only see the lower half of the man's face.
"I'm sorry, it wasn't on purpose," the man said while kneeling down on one knee to help Tang Yu collect a document that had fallen next to him. As he was about to return the document to Tang Yu, his eyes paused on the paper for a second. "Chong High?"
Tang Yu took the document out of the man's hand and curtly responded with an "Mhm." Then, she hastily stuffed the paper back into the folder. She disliked talking to strangers, and even more so strangers who took the initiative to talk to her. Right now, all she wanted to do was leave as quickly as possible.
"Not bad. You'll have a good future ahead of you," the man said, chuckling before turning around and leaving.
Yin Zhao-an half-embraced Tang Yu from the side as she looked at the man's departing figure. The other party walked with uneven steps, looking like he had a lame leg.
"Is this person a psychopath? Why is he dressed like that in this hot weather?" Yin Zhao-an said with a look of disdain. While she wasn't trying to be prejudiced against people with mental illnesses, she couldn't help but be averse to them.
Wang Zhen was a surgeon who had conducted countless surgeries. Out of the many patients that were put under her care, some were victims of psychiatric patients who lacked professional supervision. Unfortunately, nine out of ten of these victims would already be beyond saving by the time they reached the operating theater. This was because psychiatric patients did not know how to hold back. Hence, it was normal for them to attack their targets to death.
Whenever Wang Zhen failed to save these victims, she would fall into depression for many days. More than once, Yin Zhao-an had come across her mother suffering from insomnia and crying in the middle of the night. While crying, Wang Zhen would also curse the perpetrators as well as berate herself for failing to save a life.
Seeing her mother like that left a deep impression on Yin Zhao-an. Yin Zhao-an could never forget her mother's tired eyes and hoarse voice. Hence, she did not have much sympathy toward people with mental illnesses.
Unlike Yin Zhao-an, Tang Yu didn't have much of a reaction. Whether that man was mentally ill was irrelevant to her. In her eyes, he was nothing more than a stranger, and strangers were in the category of people she disliked.
Meanwhile, Wang Zhen had started to lose her patience with waiting. When she saw Yin Zhao-an finally arriving before her, she nearly gave in to the urge to scold her daughter. However, many pedestrians were on the sidewalk, and some of these pedestrians might be her daughter's future classmates. So, she eventually held back her urges to avoid embarrassing her daughter.
"Go and do the enrollment yourself if you're going to keep taking your time," Wang Zhen said in mild annoyance.
"We bumped into a psycho just now," Yin Zhao-an explained.