A hallway outside a baseball stadium.
Rust clenched his fists and nodded nervously, his face flushed with excitement. For the first time, he felt that he straightened his back.
He waved his fist of justice at the bastards who bullied him in the past.
There is only one word to describe that feeling——
Cool!
But these are all due to the good friends around me.
"Thank you for what you just said! Man, from now on I will hang out with you, and I will never go the other way if you tell me the east!"
"By the way, Mona is your girlfriend, right? It's so hard for you to hide it from me!"
Dean said helplessly, "What girlfriend? I can't even remember what she looks like!"
Bob must know Mona's information, but it is unrealistic to ask him for the information, and there is no way to confront him at the moment.
"Wait, I have an idea!" Rust suddenly stopped and looked towards the end of the corridor, "I remember the art teacher asked us to sketch a portrait as our final assignment."
"You handed in your homework a long time ago and refused to let me take a look at it. If Mona is important to you..."
"You mean, I painted her?" Dean looked at him,
"There's a high probability that we can find out just by asking Teacher Bella!"
…
The two visited the art classroom of the gallery during recess.
After hearing the request, the woman with blond hair and elegant temperament happily found Dean's homework——
Without using any oil paint, it was an ordinary and cheap sketch, but it was carefully framed. The simple black lines outlined the image of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl.
She has a cowboy hat, long hair shawl, big eyes, slightly thick lips, but a bit thick eyebrows, and her facial features are very ordinary and cannot be called beautiful.
In the portrait, she grins with a hearty smile, which is like a ray of sunshine in spring, shining in the heart, making people smile and be infected.
Dean held his breath, his pupils shrank, and he turned his head unconsciously, staring out the window at the baseball field surrounded by barbed wire. A strong sense of déjà vu made him lose consciousness.
Hallucinations appeared before his eyes, and a slightly hoarse female voice came to his ears——
"Aren't you a movie fan who must go to the cinema every week? How did you get yourself into this?"
The girl wearing a cowboy hat looked up curiously at the boy hanging on the net like a kite through the barbed wire fence of the baseball field. The breeze made her thick black hair float like algae on the bottom of the sea.
"Is it the work of those nasty rich second generations?"
The boy's face was tense, showing an expression of humiliation, but he stubbornly raised his neck and remained silent.
"It seems that other people don't like you either."
The girl lowered her head and murmured in a low voice, then stretched out her hand towards him and smiled casually, "Let's get to know each other, my name is Mona."
"I..." The hung boy hesitated for a moment, looked at the sincere smile on the girl's face, and couldn't help but touch her hand with his finger, "My name is Dean..."
…
"Dean? Dean?"
"Ah! Sorry, teacher, I remembered something." Dean hurriedly looked back, hugged the painting tightly,
Bella nodded understandingly, with an expression of appreciation in her eyes, "To be honest, the technique of this work is very average, and the lines are not clean enough, but I can feel the sincere feelings contained in it. She is your girlfriend, her face is very strange. , unlike the students in our school.”
Dean took a deep breath and begged, "Teacher Bella, can I take this painting away?"
"Of course, she belongs to you, and I've decided to give you an A."
…
"What, man, did you remember anything?"
After leaving the art classroom, Rust couldn't wait to ask,
"It's a bit impressive." Dean was surprised. There was nothing unusual about other students and teachers, but this Mona gave him a memory.
This shows what?
She is absolutely crucial, she is the answer to all mysteries.
The investigation progress increased again, jumping to 60 percent.
The system reward is getting closer.
But that’s not enough, more information is needed.
…
"Do you think anyone else around here knows Mona?" Dean asked,
"Except for Bob, it's impossible. After all, even your closest comrade, myself, has little impression of her." Rust shook his head.
"The most intimate..." Dean's expression suddenly changed, and he repeated the word in a daze.
close.
close.
Dean asked nervously, "If you met a new friend and your relationship quickly became close...what would you do?"
"You are the only friend I have!" Rust blurted out, "I will invite my friends home as guests! Try Grace's flavored crepes and golden mashed potatoes!"
…
Yes, take it home!
"I want to go back and take a look. I should ask the neighbors. Maybe they know something."
"There's still one more math class before school ends! We've already skipped several classes."
"I can't wait any longer, please help me ask for leave for the teacher." The anxious expression on Dean's face suddenly softened, he patted his friend on the shoulder and warned,
"Go back tonight and develop the photos. That will be your amulet. And be safe!"
"Hello!"
In the corridor, the lonely Rust stared at the back of his friend running wildly with the painting in his arms, and shrugged with a desolate expression.
"Sure enough, whether you are a man or a boy, when you have a girlfriend, you forget about your good brothers."
…
Around five o'clock in the afternoon,
The sun hung in the western sky, emitting a warm yellow light.
Dean pedaled his bicycle furiously all the way back home.
When he saw the tall, yellow-skinned man in his yard, who was over 1.9 meters tall, holding a shotgun, and with a fierce expression like a doorman, he couldn't help but take a breath.
he is--
"Uncle Paqui?"
Dean shouted coyly on the side of the road.
"You brat, I haven't seen you for a few months and you don't even recognize your uncle anymore?!"
The ferocious expression on the big man's face instantly became extremely kind. He put the shotgun on his back, took a few menacing strides, picked up his nephew and the bicycle with his right hand, and returned to the yard to put them down easily.
A pair of bear palms like cattail fans patted his shoulders,
"Jacob told me everything that happened this morning. As long as everyone is okay! Now that I am here, if those bastards dare to come again, I will turn them all into corpses!"
Dean didn't dare to answer.
His instinct told him that his uncle was not lying. After all, in America, anyone who breaks into a house without permission deserves to die.
He decided not to mention Bob Lowe, otherwise with his uncle's temper, he might come to the door with a gun.
"What happened to the wound on your neck?"
Kuipa's tone deepened and he raised his thick eyebrows.
"Oh, that's..." Dean wanted to just throw a tantrum, but he vaguely remembered that his uncle seemed to be an unusual person, how could he not see a lame lie? He lowered his head with a look of remorse and said half-seriously,
"I-I had a fight with someone and got a little injured...but he was much worse off than me."
"Fight? Are you kidding me?!"
Paqui's eyes widened in surprise, and his body, which was as strong as a hill, circled around his nephew.
And Dean further looked at this big man. He had a black ponytail tied behind his head and no beard. His face was sharp and angular, his nose was high and his facial features were very three-dimensional. There was a strange tattoo on the back of his muscular neck - like It is a round insect catching net with three tufts of drooping feathers.
He has typical Indian features.
Because of this body and residual emotions, when seeing him, Dean felt a sense of closeness that was thicker than water.
This big man raised him selflessly and was like his second father.
No, it’s the predecessor.
"The Dean I know would never fight."
A strong arm wrapped around Dean's shoulders, and Paqui's frighteningly dark eyes stared directly into his face, extremely oppressive.
Dean shrank his neck and didn't dare to move.
There are wizards, spells, and mythical beasts in Indian legends...
Will Paquet, who has taken care of his predecessor for many years, notice something?
"You have finally grown up! My wonderful nephew!"
The big man grinned, showing a row of big white teeth, and touched his nephew's head.
Dean breathed a sigh of relief.
"Who are you if you don't get into some serious fights when you're young? Your mother and I beat up all the racists in the school when we were fifteen or sixteen."
Dean smiled shyly, feeling extremely warm in his heart.
He had heard a saying that Indians and Chinese people had the same origin.
He somewhat believes it now.
"Come here and help me!"
The bearded Jacob dragged a barbecue grill into the yard with a huff, while Grandma Tangya held a bucket of steaks.
"The house has been almost tidied up. It's a rare trip for Paquet to come back. He needs to have a good meal!"
…
…
