“Jiang Xiao Li, it hasn’t even been half a year since I went abroad, have you almost forgotten me?” Tong Yi’s voice sounded particularly aggrieved, and Jiang Li knew right away that he was pretending. Feigning surprise, she retorted, “Could it be that you’ve been influenced because you often browse my grandpa’s posts?”
“What do you mean?” Tong Yi didn’t understand.
Jiang Li laughed and said, “Haven’t you noticed that my grandpa likes to post on Moments with a similar tone?”
Tong Yi raised his eyebrows suspiciously: “Really? I haven’t noticed. Grandpa Feng doesn’t post very often.”
“Oh, maybe it’s because you don’t check them often.” Jiang Li remarked.
“Hold on, let me send you a screenshot.” Tong Yi ended the call.
Ten seconds later, Jiang Li received the screenshots from Tong Yi. Looking at those screenshots and comparing them to the Moments she had seen, Jiang Li fell silent.
Grandpa’s Moments could generally be divided into two types of posts. The first type was his occasional lamentations, mentioning how his children hadn’t visited him for so long, probably forgetting about this left-behind old man at home. Under such posts, almost no one would like or comment, and whenever Jiang Li saw these, she couldn’t help but privately message her grandpa.
The second type was Grandpa often showcasing gifts on social media, most of which were given by her, occasionally including special products or collectibles sent by her eldest brother from abroad. When showcasing gifts, Grandpa would also add complaints to his posts, casually grumbling about how his grandchildren just liked to send things randomly, and his room was almost unable to accommodate more. This type of post would have many more comments and likes.
During the previous summer break, a group of old men who were good friends with her grandfather often visited their house, and she also exchanged social media contacts with them, adding each other as friends. Thus, she could see how these people would often be active under her grandpa’s second type of posts, expressing their envy and jealousy.
Aside from these two types, Grandpa would occasionally post other things, like when they celebrated her third uncle’s birthday, he still added a bit of grumbling in his posts.
Jiang Li used to find it strange why Grandpa’s friends never commented or even liked the posts where he complained about being forgotten by his kids and grandkids. Logically, they should have jumped out, bragging and boasting!
Now, the mystery was finally solved: the Moments Grandpa posted were visible only to a selected group!
At this moment, Jiang Li felt that her grandpa was truly just a slightly awkward old child, clearly wanting the attention of his family but too proud to say it outright. Instead, he subtly hinted using selectively visible social media posts, suggesting it was time for the family to visit home.
Jiang Li picked up her phone and sent Tong Yi two words: [Thank you.]
Less than ten seconds later, Tong Yi called back. As soon as the call connected, he asked, “Jiang Xiao Li, could it be Grandpa Feng blocked me when he posted the Moments?”
“You caught on pretty quick!” Jiang Li complimented him.
Tong Yi sighed, “What’s the use of being quick? For someone with a low sense of presence, being quick won’t make people remember me.”
Jiang Li said with a laugh, “Send me your address, and I’ll mail you a gift.”
Tong Yi’s symptoms were similar to Grandpa’s. Basically, they both lacked attention from others.
Jiang Li had become proficient in dealing with such a case: in order to appease her big nephew, she decided to send him a gift.
Sure enough, Tong Yi’s interest was instantly piqued, “What gift?”
Jiang Li glanced at the roll of yarn left on her desk and teased, “I won’t tell you yet. I’ll give you a surprise when the time comes.”
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Li picked up the knitting needles and yarn on her desk and quickly got to work. Recently, the temperature in Minjiang City has plummeted, and most students have started wearing sweaters or thermal clothes under their school uniforms. Shen Mian has commented more than once that the fabric of their high school uniform was too poor in quality, not as warm as the down-filled uniforms she had been accustomed to in Minjiang International School.
When Jiang Li first arrived in Minjiang, it was already summer. She had not tried Minjiang International School’s winter uniforms, so she couldn’t tell the difference, but she knew that when the temperature cooled down, she needed to wear more layers. Wearing a scarf during winter months was especially comfortable.
A few days ago, Jiang Li saw Zhang Qingqing busy knitting scarves. She knitted enough scarves that the finished products not only covered everyone in the dormitory but also all male friends she had made in the class, giving them away as winter gifts. Seeing everyone wearing Zhang Qingqing’s handmade scarves, Jiang Li immediately thought of her grandpa and decided on the spot to gift him a Jiang Xiao Li brand scarf. This way, Grandpa wouldn’t feel treated differently about her personally making a birthday cake for Third Uncle.
Jiang Li was very self-aware. Since she was a beginner, she bought several rolls of yarn, and they were all the thickest kind because she heard from Zhang Qingqing that such yarn doesn’t require much effort to knit and doesn’t demand high technical skills.
With Zhang Qingqing’s hands-on guidance, Jiang Li quickly got the hang of it. To not waste time, she usually knitted while listening to audio lessons. After the twenty-minute audio lesson finished, she immediately stopped her work, quickly wrote down the answers, and then checked them against the key answers.
The first time her roommates saw Jiang Li multitasking, they were utterly astonished. They all put down what they were doing, eager to see Jiang Li’s accuracy rate. When the results came out, everyone was shocked again. Wang Simin couldn’t believe it and asked, “How on earth did you do that?”
Jiang Li raised an eyebrow: “Is it that hard?”
Her roommates: …
‘Is it that hard,’ she says… the concept of difficulty is quite subjective, as it turns out.
Zhang Qingqing burst into laughter: “For you, scoring full marks on a listening test is indeed not hard, but you missed two stitches, Jiang Li. You’re not omnipotent, haha!”
Shen Mian immediately chimed in: “If you were the one multitasking, how many stitches would you miss?”
Zhang Qingqing’s laughter stopped abruptly. She couldn’t tell how many stitches she would miss, but she was sure she wouldn’t get many listening questions right!
Looking at the missed stitches, Jiang Li couldn’t help but frown, ready to unravel a few rows and redo them.
Zhang Qingqing immediately stopped her, “Don’t! It can be fixed easily; I’ll teach you.”
Under Zhang Qingqing’s hands-on teaching, Jiang Li’s first handmade scarf was quickly completed. Although it looked a bit skewed, she was very satisfied. She believed her grandfather would also like it, after all, it was her heartfelt effort!
For the remaining yarn, Jiang Li originally planned to give it to Zhang Qingqing, but then she received a call from Tong Yi demanding a thank-you gift, so she decided to reuse the waste and knit a scarf for Tong Yi as well.
Practice makes perfect. Once Jiang Li got the hang of it, the second scarf took much less time to make and looked much better than the first. She thought for a moment and decided to keep the second scarf for her grandfather and send the first one to Tong Yi. After all, that guy probably wouldn’t wear it anyway!
If that big nephew dared to complain about her knitting being poor, hmph, she would never send him gifts again!
On the weekend when the school was off, Jiang Li went home, and Old Master Feng received his beloved granddaughter’s handmade scarf immediately. His eyes widened in surprise, “This couldn’t possibly have been knitted by you, could it?”
Jiang Li nodded, “Yes, I did it. Grandpa, do you like it?”
Old Master Feng nodded, “Of course I like it! But making this must have taken up your study time, right?”
Jiang Li laughed, “It doesn’t take up time. I can study and knit at the same time, and even if I occasionally miss stitches, I can just fix them.”
Old Master Feng cherished the Jiang Xiao Li brand scarf, but he still grumbled out of habit, “In a while, you’ll have to go to the winter camp, won’t you? It’s better to spend time studying. If you really wanted to give me a scarf, buying one would have been fine.”
“But I think one I knit myself is more meaningful!” Jiang Li clung to her grandfather’s arm, acting like a sweet child, completely melting Old Master Feng’s heart.
The old man sighed, his voice a bit low: “When your grandmother was still alive, she always loved doing handicrafts like this. I told her many times that crafting is bad for the eyes, but she never listened. Later on, she had to wear reading glasses. You mustn’t follow in her footsteps. Promise me you won’t do this kind of thing again, okay?”
Jiang Li well-behavedly nodded, “I’ll listen to Grandpa.”
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