Chapter 21

Let's watch a movie together!

Xu Shen borrowed the school doctor's phone and stood next to him to call her homeroom teacher. The hall was very quiet, and the air conditioner was on full blast, drying the sweat from her head. But because of the silence, the sharp pain in her hand became even clearer, and gradually she broke out in a cold sweat again.

Old Zhou's phone went unanswered after several attempts. Zhan Xinyue gritted her teeth, wanting to grab the phone and call her parents directly, but then hesitated, remembering how busy Zhan Wei had been at the shop lately. While she hesitated, Xu Shen suddenly said, "Wait here for me for a few minutes." Before the words were even finished, he had already run several meters away.

Zhan Xinyue didn't know what he had gone to do, so she could only sit and wait for him.

The school doctor gave her some simple emergency treatments and applied an ice pack to her.

The pain in her hand, which was so intense that she could barely think, was excruciating, especially since it was her right hand that was injured. This had a significant impact on a high school student.

Zhan Xinyue endured the pain and felt worried; those few minutes felt like an eternity.

Finally, a loudspeaker blared outside, and Xu Shen pushed open the door and entered amidst the sound.

"Let's go, I've found someone to take us to the hospital."

Zhan Xinyue subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, forced herself to get up and followed them out, where she saw a black Volkswagen parked outside the school hospital. The car window rolled down, revealing Zhang Chao's face inside.

It turned out that Xu Shen had come to find him.

She remembered that Zhang Chao should be living in the teachers' apartment, which wasn't far from there.

Seeing him suddenly, Zhan Xinyue couldn't help but recall sleeping in his class a few days ago, and a hint of embarrassment crossed her face. Fortunately, Zhang Chao didn't notice and hurriedly called out to her, "Get in the car quickly."

Xu Shen had already opened the car door for her, so she got in and greeted Zhang Chao as she did so.

Xu Shen got into the car from the other side door. After sitting down, he gently lifted her wrist, which was resting on her lap, and found a cold object under her hand. She looked down and saw it was the ice pack she had just left at the school hospital.

"How are you feeling? Does it hurt a lot?" Zhang Chao asked from the front of the car as he started the engine.

Zhan Xinyue looked away from the ice pack and looked ahead: "It's alright, it's not serious."

"I have to proctor an exam this afternoon. I just got back to my dorm and lay down when this kid dragged me out of bed." Zhang Chao glanced at the back of the car through the rearview mirror. "As soon as I saw him coming to see me in the middle of the day, I knew it couldn't be anything good."

Zhan Xinyue immediately said politely, "I'm so sorry, Teacher Zhang, for disturbing your rest. You can just drop me off at the hospital entrance later. I should still have time to get back to proctor the exam."

"Hey, I didn't mean that," Zhang Chao quickly said, seeing that she had misunderstood. "I was just complaining about this rascal, he's always causing trouble, I didn't mean to talk about you. I'll switch proctors with another teacher, it's no big deal, taking you to see a doctor is more important. To be honest, I also bear some responsibility for what happened with this kid in our class..."

Xu Shen, who is usually quite talkative, was very silent today. Suddenly, he said from the side, "Brother Chao, watch your step."

"Hey! You're bringing this up now." Zhang Chao glanced behind him again. "I haven't even asked you yet, what were you guys doing playing ball in the middle of the day when you had exams this afternoon? You even injured a girl from another class."

Xu Shen said, "It's not too late to ask when we get to the hospital. You might miss this green light."

"What's there to be afraid of? There's still the yellow light, isn't there?" Despite saying that, Zhang Chao still sat up straighter, gripped the steering wheel, and stepped on the gas.

When they arrived at the hospital, Zhang Chao went to park the car, and Xu Shen followed her inside, running around to register and queue for her, just like he did at the school hospital.

Fortunately, there weren't many people around. By the time Zhang Chao parked the car and came over, Zhan Xinyue had already finished filming.

The doctor who saw her was quite old, wearing reading glasses and looking at the X-ray films. Xu Shen and Zhang Chao stood on either side of her like guardian deities, craning their necks to look as well.

"Well..." the doctor spoke slowly, and the three of them held their breath as they awaited the verdict.

"It's nothing serious, no bone is broken, just a dislocated finger joint. I'll do a reduction and put a splint on you later, and it should be fine in about a week," the doctor said calmly.

The three of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Zhan Xinyue finally felt relieved. She didn't know if it was just psychological, but after listening to the doctor, her hand didn't seem to hurt as much.

After the splint was applied, Zhang Chao relaxed considerably, put his arm around Xu Shen's shoulder, and said thankfully, "Luckily, the consequences weren't too serious, otherwise I wonder how you would have handled it. Go back today and write a two-thousand-word self-criticism to your homeroom teacher, you hear me!"

Xu Shen didn't refute, his eyes fixed on Zhan Xinyue, "I'm so sorry about today, I caused you to get hurt and you didn't even get to take the exam..."

“This is indeed a troublesome matter.” Zhang Chao became worried again upon hearing this. “You injured your right hand. Although the doctor just said it would be healed in a week, you can’t even hold a pen this week. How are you going to study?”

Xu Shen immediately said to Zhan Xinyue, "Don't be afraid, don't worry, I will take responsibility for you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Chao raised his hand and flicked him on the forehead: "What did you say!"

Xu Shen then realized that his words sounded a bit awkward. He choked up and quickly explained, "That's not what I meant. I meant that I would take full responsibility for this matter."

“That makes more sense.” Zhang Chao looked at Zhan Xinyue. “These kinds of minor mishaps often happen in schools. As teachers, we are the last people who want to see students get into trouble. But since it has already happened, let’s try to solve the problem. Today’s incident is Xu Shen’s responsibility, but I believe he didn’t do it on purpose. I’d like to apologize to you on his behalf.”

Zhan Xinyue could naturally tell that he wanted to calm things down, so she politely shook her head: "No need, I also bear some responsibility for this."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "No matter what, this matter is inextricably linked to Xu Shen. I hope you can forgive him this time because he has shown a relatively good attitude in admitting his mistake. If you encounter any inconvenience in your life or studies this week, just tell this kid to make him atone for his sins."

It was almost four o'clock when the three of them left the hospital. Zhang Chao glanced at the time and pondered, "The math exam should be over by now, but the science exam hasn't started yet. Should we go back to school now?"

Zhan Xinyue hesitated. If she went back now, Xu Shen would still have time to take the science exam, but with her hand in this condition, going back to the exam hall wouldn't be right, and not going back wouldn't be right either.

Xu Shen glanced at Zhan Xinyue and continued, "Why go back? We've already missed the exam, so let's just stay here." He thought for a moment and then suddenly suggested, "We've finally gotten out of the house, how about we go see a movie?"

Even though Zhan Xinyue knew him very well, she was still shocked by his erratic thought process. Before she could speak, Zhang Chao glared at her: "You dare to bring that up again? I just remembered that you failed the last exam, and now you've pulled this stunt on me again. You'll see what your teacher does when you get back."

Xu Shen showed no remorse: "You can't blame me for what happened last time. I participated in the basketball league not to win honor for the school and our class."

"Don't give me that nonsense. I don't care about your honors or anything like that. I'm a math teacher, and all I care about is the average math score in our class."

"That's really unfortunate. It looks like our math average is going to be a disaster again," Xu Shen said.

Ignoring Zhang Chao's angry glare, Xu Shen hooked his arm around his neck. "Brother Chao, let's accept reality. We shouldn't bring up these sad things outside of school. You should think about what we're going to do right now."

Zhan Xinyue stood silently to the side listening. Xu Shen was always like this, acting like a brother to everyone and having no manners. She was hoping that Zhang Chao would scold him, but unexpectedly, Zhang Chao pondered for a while, and then his eyebrows lit up. "Forget it, it's already this late anyway, it's not a bad idea to go see a movie."

After saying that, he turned to look at Zhan Xinyue with a gentle gaze and a questioning expression: "How about it? Your teacher is treating you to a movie, as an apology for your sins on his behalf? It's a rare opportunity to get out, so I'll relax a bit with you two."

After he said that, Zhan Xinyue couldn't refuse even if she wanted to, and could only nod with difficulty.

Xu Shen, standing nearby, cheerfully continued to flatter, "We can have dinner before going back."

New Moon: ...

It wasn't until the three of them picked up their movie tickets that Zhan Xinyue suddenly came to her senses. She had no idea what was going on. She should have been taking a stressful exam at school today, but instead, Xu Shen accidentally injured her hand. And now, even more absurdly, she had ended up at the movie theater with Xu Shen, whom she had been avoiding since her rebirth. It was clear that life could be truly unpredictable at times.

However, her hand was still throbbing slightly, so Zhan Xinyue didn't have the mind to think too much. The three tickets were naturally linked together, and wanting to separate herself from Xu Shen, Zhan Xinyue simply grabbed his wrist and went straight to the innermost seat to sit down.

"Here, popcorn." Xu Shen, oblivious to her presence, followed her over, first placing the bucket of popcorn beside her, then sitting down directly next to her.

Zhan Xinyue ignored him, leaned to her left, and put some distance between them.

The lights in the theater were quickly turned off, and the screen lit up. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to see a movie, and there weren't any good films available, plus it was weekday. The entire theater was practically empty, with all the front-row seats gone.

The movie they chose was a domestic comedy, not bad, just a bit outdated in its humor. Zhan Xinyue watched for a while, then lost interest and popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth. Across from Xu Shen, she saw that Zhang Chao on the other end had fallen asleep with his head tilted back.

Xu Shen seemed quite engrossed in watching, resting his chin on one hand and focusing intently on what lay ahead.

The two sat next to each other, but not very close, with a clear boundary between them. This was partly due to her deliberate distance, and partly due to Xu Shen's gentlemanly politeness in not moving closer, keeping his arms crossed and his attention focused on the screen.

The two of them watched a movie together for the first time in their past life, which happened a long time later. Now, although they are sitting together again by chance, everything has changed.