Chapter 678: Chapter 678



Keith sat down on a row of chairs that was against the wall, rested his elbows on his knees and interlocked his fingers.

He said very seriously, “I’ve liked her ever since I met her. Later I have learned that she has come to the village school to be a teacher. She doesn’t get a salary, but she buys books for the children. Since then, I know she is a kind and good girl. After interacting with her, I am sure she is a very kind and loving girl.”

After mentioning that, he paused, “She is not willing to mention many things about her past. I really want to understand her. In the future, I want to become her relative, her dependent and a person who can take care of her.”

After hearing so much, Boyce became concerned about something: “You two? Are you in a relationship?”

“To be precise, I’m currently courting her. You are her friend. You expect her to be blissful, don’t you?” Keith stared at Boyce’s facial expression.

Although Keith was already very intelligent, he wasn’t able to glean information from Boyce’s facial expression.

For some reason, Boyce’s mind inexplicably calmed down when he heard that Keith was still courting Jasmine and that they were not in a relationship.

Boyce was in a good mood, but his words showed no pity for Keith: “Of course I want him to be happy. But you’re still a college student-can you support yourself, how are you going to take care of her?”

“I’ll graduate from college in a year. Then I’ll have a job…”

“You should talk about this when you’ve graduated and have a job,” Boyce ruthlessly interrupted him.

“As a friend, you shouldn’t say this. You should wish her well and approve of her finding happiness…”

By this time, Jasmine had gone through the discharge process and turned to them, “What are you two talking about?”

The corners of Boyce’s mouth twisted. He said, “It’s no big deal-can we go now?”

“Of course,” Jasmine said with a smile on her face.

Keith stood up and walked to the position next to Jasmine. He smiled and looked at Boyce, “You are our guest. We must entertain you. Come on.”

When he finished speaking, he took Jasmine by the hand and stepped in front of Boyce to lead him.

Jasmine looked at him in disbelief, “You…”.

“Shh.” Keith leaned over to Jasmine and whispered, “You already held my hand a moment ago, so now I’ll hold yours.”

Jasmine felt very uncomfortable, “I did it out of desperation…”

“No matter what situation you were in, you held my hand anyway. You must return the favor now.” Keith smiled.

Boyce stared at Keith’s hand holding Jasmine’s and felt annoyed.

He kept thinking, “Why didn’t Jasmine just push him away.

Is it possible that Jasmine is in love with him?

What is so good about that young man?

What kind of look does she have?

The more he thought about it, the more unhappy he felt. He was getting more and more annoyed.

He stepped forward quickly and pushed Jasmine’s hand away. Jasmine was surprised and looked at him, “You…”.

Boyce pretended to be calm and said, “If you both want to walk, you should both walk properly. You take up a lot of space in the aisle if the two of you are holding hands. So, how can the others walk?”.

When he finished speaking, he stepped in front of them.

Keith clasped his hands together. When Boyce did not approve of his courting Jasmine, he suspected that Boyce was in love with Jasmine. Boyce’s actions at the time indicated that he clearly had feelings for Jasmine.

He is much older than Jasmine. If I am inadequate for Jasmine, he will be even more inadequate for Jasmine. How can he lack such self-awareness?

“Come on.” Boyce realized they were not following him. He turned around and said to them.

When Jasmine blinked, her long eyelashes fluttered. She lowered her gaze, walked over to him and walked beside him.

Keith wasn’t about to be outdone and walked beside Jasmine. At first, the hallway was not wide. As they walked side by side, they took up all the space in the hallway.

When they left the hospital, Jasmine went ahead and wanted to call a cab. Since there were many cabs in front of the hospital, it was easy to hail a cab. Keith wanted to act nice in front of Jasmine, he pulled her aside and said, “I’ll go hail a cab.”

Jasmine replied, “No need.” She didn’t want to cause trouble for others.

“You are a girl. Don’t always be overbearing. Don’t always be so polite to me. We’re already very familiar with each other.” Keith smiled playfully.

He thought she would look pretentious if she refused again. She nodded, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

“It’s no trouble at all.” Keith walked to the side of the road, hailed a cab and asked for the fare. After deciding that the fare was reasonable, he called Jasmine and Boyce, politely opened the front door and said to Jasmine, “Your friend should sit in the passenger seat. He has injuries. If we sit with him, we could crash into him and, as a result, his injuries could get worse.”

Jasmine thought what he had said made sense. Just as she was about to agree with him, Boyce spoke up, “I’m not that sensitive. These little injuries don’t mean anything to me.”

When he finished speaking, he pulled Jasmine toward the back seats.

Keith said nothing.

Boyce and Jasmine were sitting in the back seats. If he sat in the back seat, he would be cramped. He could only sit in the front passenger seat.

During the ride, Keith would glance back from time to time. Boyce said nothing and just glanced out the window.

When the cab had gone about half the distance, Boyce suddenly asked, “Is this place far from B-town?”

“It’s not very far. The distance is about a hundred miles,” Jasmine replied.

Boyce nodded.

Half an hour later, the car stopped at the entrance to the town. Jasmine wanted to pay the driver, but Keith wouldn’t let her: “Let me pay.”

Jasmine refused decisively, “You don’t have much money. You’re going back to college in a few days. You’ll have to pay your expenses. I had a lot of online classes last month, so now I have extra money.” As he spoke, he paid the driver.

Boyce had nothing except a set of dirty clothes. When the two insisted on paying the driver, he could only look sideways.

He was the oldest of the three. At the moment, he was the poorest and had the least say.

“Come on,” Jasmine said to Boyce.

Boyce nodded.

There were no paved roads in the village. All the roads were dirt. Still, they were very easy to walk on if it wasn’t raining.

Jasmine pointed to a school across the road from them, “That’s the village school. I’m a teacher at the school.”

Boyce glanced in the direction pointed out by Jasmine and saw a cluster of shingle-roofed buildings. There were six or seven of them. There was even a field in the driveway.

It must have been recess time. There were a lot of students.

“Teacher Jasmine! Teacher Keith!” a quick-witted student saw them and shouted loudly. Soon, a few kids who could run fast came toward them.

Jasmine pointed to Chris and said to Boyce, “He found you that one time.”

Chris scratched his head and smiled, “I thought you were dead.”

“I’ve learned something from television. If you want to check if a person is dead, you have to touch their nose. You definitely didn’t touch his nose,” said one student.

Chris suddenly realized he should have: “That’s right. Next time, I should touch his nose first to check if he’s breathing.”

“You’re all so dumb.” Jasmine wiped their sweat, “There aren’t that many injured to have their noses touched. Go back to attending lessons.”

“We want to attend teacher Jasmine’s lessons. Are you going to give us lessons today?” Chris and two other students gave her an anxious look.

Jasmine gave it some thought, “Later. When I’m free, I’ll come here. You guys can ask Professor Keith to give you all lessons.”

Keith didn’t like the idea: If I’m going to give them lessons, isn’t Boyce going to spend time with Jasmine without me?

The man seemed to have feelings for Jasmine, but at times, he seemed very serious. That confused Keith. Keith couldn’t figure out if Boyce had feelings for Jasmine.

In his mind, he kept rejecting the idea of the two of them being together.

“Then the principal can give them lessons first. Your friend is still wearing the laundry. He’s about the same height as me. I’ll go grab a set of my clothes for him to change into.”

Jasmine nodded, “Sorry to bother you.”

She didn’t know why she had forgotten that Boyce was still wearing dirty clothes. He was definitely uncomfortable with them on.

“You go home and get the clothes. We’ll be back first,” Jasmine said.

Keith nodded.

Just then, the school bell rang. The children ran back to school.

Jasmine took Boyce to her house. There were two rooms with cement floors. In the outer room there was a gas stove. He could cook with the stove. There was also a folding table, two stools, and a bookshelf that was against the wall. Although there was only a limited variety of furniture, everything was clean and tidy.

In the inner room there was a bed. Next to the window, there was a study table and a computer. At the back of the room, there was a shower curtain hanging. Behind the curtain was a small water heater. It was the shower area.

“Although this house is simple, I lead a stable life here.” Jasmine stood by the door.

Although there were two rooms, you could see everything at a glance.

Boyce pursed his lips. The facilities were basic. If she kept studying, she would have a bright future ahead of her.

He turned and looked at Jasmine, “Jasmine, you are still very young and have a bright future ahead of you. This place should not be your place.”

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