Chapter 78: Girls Change a Lot as They Grow Up
“Are you talking about this?” Shen Jiamei said as she played with the ends of her hair, wrapping them around her finger.
“How is it? It looks good, right?” Shen Jiamei suddenly moved her face close to Li Nuo's and looked at him with a bright smile.
Startled by her sudden movement, Li Nuo quickly turned his head away and stammered,
“Y-yeah... it looks good.”
“Then do you like it?” Shen Jiamei asked.
“Uh... well...” Being asked that so directly, Li Nuo did not know how to answer.
“You don't like it?” Shen Jiamei's expression suddenly became gloomy.
“No, no. I... I think it suits you very well,” Li Nuo quickly explained while waving his hands nervously.
“So that means you like it?”
“Uh... I guess so.” Li Nuo scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“Yay! As long as Nuonuo likes it, that's enough.”
As she spoke, she suddenly stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Li Nuo's neck, and pulled him into a hug.
Shen Jiamei was 172 centimeters tall. Being held in her arms, Li Nuo could clearly feel the pressure from her soft chest.
From his rough judgment, her chest was even larger than An Ran'er's. If An Ran'er was a B cup, then Shen Jiamei was at least a C cup.
He was shocked.
Back in middle school, her chest had been as flat as a washboard. Yet after only two years, it had grown this much. What had she been eating?
Still, surprise was only part of it. In the past, Li Nuo had always seen Shen Jiamei as a big brother figure. Now that this "big brother" had turned into such a beautiful girl, it was hard for him to accept.
“Y-you shouldn't do this. P-please let go. I... I can't breathe...” Li Nuo said with difficulty.
“Ah, sorry!”
Only then did Shen Jiamei quickly let go. Thinking about how forward she had been just now, a faint blush appeared on her face.
After being released, Li Nuo took several deep breaths of fresh air before asking,
“But why did you grow your hair long? Didn't you say before that you didn't like long hair?”
“My mom insisted on it. She said I would look more like a girl this way. Honestly, I don't really like it myself.”
Shen Jiamei muttered casually like a tomboy, placing both hands behind her head.
“That makes sense.” Li Nuo nodded seriously. “I completely agree with your mother's opinion.”
“Hmph. Compared to me, Nuonuo, you're the one who looks more like a girl, right? Hehe.”
As she spoke, she rubbed his short brown hair.
“Don't touch my head! It'll stop me from growing taller!” Li Nuo quickly covered his head with both hands.
“Well, your current height is enough. You're cute like this.”
“D-don't say that. I'm going to become a strong and reliable man.”
His voice became quieter and quieter toward the end because even he felt guilty saying it.
After all, what kind of strong and reliable man wore girls' clothes and performed as a girl-group idol?
Seeing his reaction, Shen Jiamei stopped teasing him and changed the subject.
“Nuonuo, I remember you said you're studying at Nanqin High School now, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Nanqin High School is in the city, right? Let me tell you something, I also study at a high school in the city.”
“Huh? Really? Which school?”
“A private school.”
“Is it Winston?”
There were not many private schools in S City, but for some reason, Li Nuo felt that she might be attending that one.
“How did you know?” Shen Jiamei looked at him in surprise.
“So it really is Winston...” Though he felt a little jealous, he calmly asked, “Isn't that school very hard to get into? How did you get accepted?”
“Do you remember when I suddenly transferred schools in my second year of middle school?”
“Yeah.” Li Nuo nodded.
“The reason I transferred wasn't just because my family moved. There was another reason, I received an admission invitation from Winston.”
“An admission invitation?”
“That's right. You remember that I practiced taekwondo, don't you?”
“Yeah.”
“And that's exactly why they invited me.”
“I see... By the way, Jiamei, are you really that good at taekwondo? Good enough for Winston to send you an invitation?”
“I'm currently a fifth-degree black belt. What do you think?”
“Is that impressive?”
Li Nuo knew almost nothing about taekwondo.
“Want to find out for yourself?”
She immediately made a fighting pose.
“Uh... that's really not necessary.”
Li Nuo hurriedly waved his hands. Then he remembered something.
“Oh right, I didn't know you could play the harmonica.”
“A friend I met at Winston taught me.”
As she spoke, Shen Jiamei took out the harmonica from her pocket.
“She also gave me this harmonica as a birthday gift.”
Then she suddenly thought of something.
“Oh, right! I remember you're a very good singer, Nuonuo.”
“Uh, I guess so. Why?”
“How about this? I'll play the harmonica as accompaniment, and you sing a song for me.”
“Sure.”
It was such a simple request that he could not refuse.
“What song?”
“Let me think... Hmm... let's do Sunny Day by Jay Chou.”
“A Jay Chou song? Then I won't even need the lyrics.”
Whether in the past or now, Li Nuo had always loved Jay Chou's songs. Back when he uploaded videos online, he often covered them as well.
“Then let's begin!”
“Wait. Let me warm up my voice first.”
After softly humming a few notes, Li Nuo signaled that she could start.
Shen Jiamei raised the harmonica to her lips and began playing the introduction to Sunny Day.
Li Nuo closed his eyes and quietly hummed along.
After the long thirty-second introduction, he finally began to sing:
♪ "The little yellow flower in the story" ♪
♪ "Has been drifting since the year we were born" ♪
♪ "The swing from childhood" ♪
♪ "Still sways in my memories even now" ♪
……………………
The gentle and beautiful harmonica blended together with the clear and bright singing voice.
At that moment, they created music that touched the heart.
A soft breeze passed over the green grass.
The calm water, smooth as a mirror, seemed to respond to the music, forming gentle ripples across its surface.
Several minutes later, both the singing and the harmonica finally stopped.
Carefully putting away the harmonica, Shen Jiamei looked at Li Nuo with shining eyes and said excitedly,
“Wow... Why does your singing sound even better than before?”
“Really...? Haha.”
“Yeah. I think your voice sounds much more confident now.”
“Confident...”
Li Nuo knew very well that there was one person who had changed him and helped him become like this.
“But I feel like I've heard your singing somewhere before. I just can't remember where.”
Shen Jiamei looked puzzled.
Li Nuo immediately thought, This is bad.
He remembered something An Ran'er had warned him about after the concert.
He could no longer casually sing in front of other people as Li Nuo.
Otherwise, people might notice that his singing voice sounded exactly the same as the lead singer of The Girls.
Even if they did not realize they were the same person, it could still cause unnecessary trouble.
Fortunately, Shen Jiamei probably did not listen to The Girls very often.
So he quickly tried to fool her.
“That's definitely your imagination. Yep, definitely.”
“Really?”
Shen Jiamei thought for a moment.
“Forget it. I won't think about it anymore.”
Afterward, the two of them walked together until they reached Shen Jiamei's ancestral home, where they finally said goodbye.
Before leaving, Shen Jiamei asked one more question:
“Oh right, Nuonuo, where are you staying now?”
“Me? I'm staying at my grandparents' house for now.”
“Then after the ancestor worship ceremony is over, can I come find you so we can hang out together?”
“Uh... sure, I guess.”
It was a simple request, and Li Nuo had no intention of refusing.
Besides, during the New Year holiday, he did not want to stay at home playing on his phone all day.
On the way back, thinking about how Shen Jiamei looked now and comparing it with how she had looked in middle school, Li Nuo could not help sighing.
“Girls really can change a lot as they grow up...”
Although, technically, she had not turned eighteen yet.