Give Me Another Smile

Halfway through her noodles, Tang Yu pushed the bowl away and stared intently at the interface displayed before her. Then, she rapidly typed in strings of seemingly illogical Arabic numerals and symbols with both hands, filling the entire screen in no time.

Reflected in Tang Yu's dark pupils were the movements of the mouse cursor. The symbol representing an information transfer flickered on the screen for a few seconds. Then, a moment later, the screen returned to the initial blue screen interface.

After doing all this, Tang Yu heaved a sigh of relief. Then, she reached out to her half-eaten bowl of noodles, only to find that the noodles had already gone cold.

Tang Yu touched her somewhat empty stomach. Then, when she looked at the creative clock on the wall, her face sank a little when she saw what time it was already.

Although Tang Yu had spent much more time than she thought, the fact that she managed to get her message out put her in a good mood. After all, she had started to become busy recently because that time was arriving soon.

The authorities had finally received some clues relating to a very secretive firearms smuggling gang. According to the information the authorities acquired, a big transaction was going to take place soon. So long as the authorities set up an ambush beforehand, they would catch the smugglers red-handed.

However, Tang Yu knew that while the news of the transaction was real, the location where the transaction would take place was fake.

In reality, the smugglers had deliberately leaked news of their transaction to the police watching their every movement. This was so they could divert the police's attention to the wrong venue while the transaction occurred at a different location.

Originally, this would have been the end of the story, and the police could do nothing but call it a day. However, the deranged smugglers had planted a time bomb at the decoy location, which was also the ambush site Tang Chengyang was stationed at.

Even now, Tang Yu still couldn't bring herself to properly remember how she got by that day after learning what happened to her father. All she could remember was her mother dazedly lifting the white cloth covering her father's broken corpse.

A tear slipped from the corner of Tang Yu's eye and splashed on her pale pink pillow. After wiping away the subsequent tears that formed, Tang Yu curled up and hid under her blanket.

…

Morning the next day, Tang Yu woke up early as usual. Then, she left for school after checking that everything at home was safe.

When Tang Yu was about to reach the crossroads, she saw a familiar figure. Throughout the past three years, she would always see that familiar figure waiting for her at this crossroads whenever she went to school. It didn't matter whether it was spring, summer, fall, or winter.

"Morning, Yin Zhao-an. Waiting for your wife again?" several boys walking past Yin Zhao-an said jokingly.

Yin Zhao-an gave the boy closest to her a punch in the gut without hesitation. Then, wearing an angry smile, she threatened, "Are you guys itching for a beating?"

"No, no. Who would dare provoke our dear tyrant? Hahaha," the several boys joked as they walked away.

Yin Zhao-an sneered at the boys. Then, when she turned her head back to the crossroads, she saw Tang Yu slowly making her way over.

"Good morning, Tang-Tang," Yin Zhao-an greeted Tang Yu familiarly, her short hair, which had not changed in length for several years, fluttering in the wind.

"...Morning," Tang Yu responded in a tone as soft as a mosquito's buzzing. The average person would probably have difficulty hearing Tang Yu's voice, but Yin Zhao-an had long grown used to it. Hence, immediately after she gave her greeting to Tang Yu, she would lean forward with her ear to listen to this one-word response.

After getting her desired response, Yin Zhao-an smiled in satisfaction, behaving like a cat that had just successfully stolen a fish. Then, the two of them walked to school together.

While walking behind Tang Yu, Yin Zhao-an frowned when she thought about how her Tang-Tang was growing more and more untalkative as they grew older. Some time ago, she heard from her mother that the hospital she worked at had received a high schooler who had committed suicide. According to the police's investigation, the high schooler had been suffering from depression for a long time, and he had eventually chosen to commit suicide by overdosing on drugs.

When Yin Zhao-an learned about the high schooler's situation, she immediately thought of her Tang-Tang. With how much her Tang-Tang disliked talking and making friends, wouldn't her Tang-Tang be at risk of suffering from depression due to long-term self-isolation? In that case, she'd have to follow her Tang-Tang even more closely. She absolutely would not let anything happen to her Tang-Tang.

On their way to school, Tang Yu stopped by a stall selling breakfast and bought herself a custard bun and a cup of soy milk.

When Yin Zhao-an saw this, her expression changed a little as she asked, "Have you not had breakfast yet, Tang-Tang?"

After taking a bite out of the custard bun, Tang Yu shook her head and softly said, "Mom and Dad aren't home."

Not home? If Tang Yu's parents were absent from home, would Tang Yu have any food at home?

"It's not good for you to eat such things, Tang-Tang," Yin Zhao-an said. Then, after briefly scanning her surroundings with her eyes, she whispered to Tang Yu, "These roadside stalls aren't clean. It's easy to fall ill."

Tang Yu nearly rolled her eyes at Yin Zhao-an on the spot. However, to avoid behaving out of character, she chose to endure it!

Speaking of roadside food stalls, Yin Zhao-an was a much more avid fan of them than Tang Yu could ever be in their previous lives, her favorite being roadside barbeque. So long as she decided to have some roadside barbeque, nothing could stop her. Back then, the only thing Tang Yu could do was quietly stand watch next to Yin Zhao-an to prevent her from consuming too much alcohol and falling asleep on the roadside.

Now, though, Yin Zhao-an behaved like a little goody-two-shoes, and she cited a bunch of cancer-causing examples.

However, Tang Yu wasn't surprised that Yin Zhao-an knew about all these things. Wang Zhen, Yin Zhao-an's mother, kept an anatomical model and a bookshelf full of books on human anatomy in her study. Whenever she was cooking, she would also spit out professional terms from time to time, her behavior terrifying the people around her.

While Tang Yu was lost in her thoughts, Yin Zhao-an's eyes suddenly brightened as she asked, "Does that mean you're home alone, Tang-Tang?"

Tang Yu nodded without giving the question much thought.

"Why don't you stay at my home until your mom and dad come home, then?" Yin Zhao-an hurriedly suggested. "My bed is big enough for the both of us!"