LVLYA

Chapter 1: An Unlucky Year

The air smelled like camphor leaves stained with mud after raining.

An orange cat stepped onto Yue Zhishi after it jumped onto his bed, and he blinked open his eyes in a haze, shocked to realise he'd overslept.

He usually was never late all that often over the course of a year, but he just had to be late on the first day of school. He was so unlucky. Hearing Aunt Rong call out to him from downstairs, Yue Zhishi hurriedly responded; the cat once again stepped over his stomach before lightly jumping off the bed. He rapidly cleaned up, changed clothes and then ran out, grabbing his schoolbag.

"Your alarm didn't ring?" Lin Rong was calmly rinsing out a milk cup. "Hurry and have some breakfast, I've mixed in some rice noodles with the sauce from last night's . It's quite delicious."

Yue Zhishi had already flown over to the entrance corridor — who had the time to care about breakfast.

"I forgot to set a new alarm since there wasn't morning self-study before the school opening ceremony. Aunt Rong, where's Song Yu gege?"

The little Pomeranian at home pattered behind him, docilely sitting on the floor as it watched him change his shoes.

"Your brother left way earlier. I think he said he needed to be on duty today since it's the opening ceremony. Do high school third-year students still need to go on duty?" Lin Rong placed down the cup, turning around after wiping dry her hands. "Isn't the opening ceremony for your junior high department with the high school department..."

By the time she had turned her head around, Yue Zhishi had already opened the door. The Pomeranian was frantically clawing at his legs and refusing to let him leave.

Lin Rong anxiously called out to him, "Le Le! You can't skip breakfast!"

Yue Zhishi crouched down to rub the dog's head and then gave it a kiss. He rushed out the door, saying, "I'll buy a rice cake, bye bye Aunt Rong~"

"Don't eat just anything!"

After leaving home, Yue Zhishi biked straight towards the breakfast stalls outside their neighborhood. The granny who usually sold rice cakes wasn't there today; Yue Zhishi had heard her say before that her waist was hurting, so he guessed she was taking a rest for a few days. He would definitely need to buy a few more cakes off her next time. Fragrance was wafting out of the noodle soup stall next door — the aroma of beef offal, stewed until soft and full of flavour, could be smelled from far away.

"Le Le, have you had breakfast yet? Come have some noodles." The owner of the beef noodle soup stall pulled out a colander of rice noodles from a large pot, the hot strands of soup pouring down from the colander like white silk. He threw up the colander and lowered it back down.

"I'm about to be late, Uncle Chen, I'll have some tomorrow!" Yue Zhishi jumped off his bike and ran into the convenience store. He didn't have the time to stand around and choose, so he simply grabbed a rice bun, paid and left. The bun was one of the few snacks Yue Zhishi could buy from the convenience store.

Rain had poured all through the night yesterday. The rain in this city had never been gentle, always accompanied by lightning flashes and thunder — he hadn't been able to sleep the entire night. He remembered the first night he'd arrived at the Song family; it had stormed the same way with lightning tearing through the night sky. At the first rumble of thunder, he'd been so scared he'd started crying and had ran directly into Song Yu's room, climbing into his bed.

From that moment on, he'd instinctively started to depend on that older brother who had no blood relationship with him at all.

Yue Zhishi's father, Yue Yi, and Song Yu's father, Song Jin, had been close friends who'd grown up together.