Chapter 9 He didn't even glance at her during the sweltering summer.

After a week of unpredictable weather in Suzhou, the first-year high school students officially began their week-long military training.

Wearing green camouflage uniforms and standing at attention under the scorching sun, students from every class groaned in pain. The only thing that gave them any hope was probably the cultural performance after the military training.

Each class had to put on a performance, and Luo Yiqiu, as the class monitor, was extremely busy with this every day. In contrast, Shen Qingli was much more relaxed. She didn't have any special skills to perform on stage, so she planned to sit in the audience and watch.

-

On the last day of military training, all training ended before noon.

The students in the first year of high school breathed a sigh of relief. Shen Qingli was dragged to eat in the cafeteria by Luo Yiqiu again. Chen Chaoxi was also there, but ever since she found out that she was Shen Qingyun's sister, she had been taking good care of her.

After they got to know each other better, Chen Chao's tendency to take off her clothes became obvious. Ever since she learned that Luo Yiqiu was in charge of the school's arts and culture gala, she had been asking her about the stage performance that afternoon.

"How about it? Give me a sneak peek if there's any exciting performance. If not, I'm off."

"Where are you going again?" Luo Yiqiu took a sip of her drink, looked up and asked her, "What have you been up to lately? You disappear as soon as it's your break time, and sometimes I can't even find you."

"Huh? Me?" Chen Chaoxi smiled sheepishly when this was mentioned.

Having known her for a long time, Luo Yiqiu could tell her true nature at a glance and almost instantly guessed: "Who have you set your sights on this time?"

"Again?" Upon hearing this word, she couldn't help but look up, also somewhat curious.

As if noticing her questioning gaze, Luo Yiqiu smiled and explained to her, "Qingli, you don't know, our classmate Chen Chaoxi is a well-known master of unrequited love. In just one semester, she can have a crush on several people just by looking at them."

"Hey! It's not as exaggerated as you say!"

Chen Chaoxi saw Shen Qingli looking at her with surprise and became somewhat embarrassed and angry.

Luo Yiqiu laughed at her for being so impatient, but since they were at the age where gossip was all the rage, she jokingly asked, "Alright, I won't tease you anymore. Tell me, who have you taken a fancy to this time?"

"Oh, really not this time. I've been visiting my cousin in the senior year these past few days."

"Okay..." Seeing that she couldn't get any gossip, she looked disappointed, but her attention was quickly diverted: "Do you have a cousin who goes to school here? I've never heard you mention her before?"

"I just found out that my mom recently got in touch with my cousin's mom, who is also my aunt, and that my cousin and I are in the same school and are in our senior year of high school." Chen Chaoxi explained, "My mom had something to give to my aunt, so she asked me to give it to my cousin."

Luo Yiqiu said "Oh", then seemed to remember something and continued to joke, "Hey, didn't you say before that our English teacher is your relative? You have too many relatives and connections in our school."

"Are you related to Teacher Zhao?" Zhao Yufang was their class's English teacher. Shen Qingli was unaware of this and was quite shocked to hear this.

"Yeah, but I feel like if I talk about this kind of thing, it's easy for people to spread bad rumors, so not many people know about it."

Hearing her words, Shen Qingli nodded thoughtfully.

The two people in front of her were an aunt who was her class teacher and a father who was her school principal.

And... Lin Xiaqing.

As she thought about this, she suddenly felt that compared to the people she knew, she seemed to be the person with the least connection to Suzhou No. 1 Middle School. If she had to have one connection, it would probably be the title of Shen Qingyun's sister.

As a prominent figure at Suzhou No. 1 High School, Shen Qingyun also attracts a lot of attention and discussion from time to time.

-

After finishing their meal, Luo Yiqiu needed to talk to Zhao Yixiao, so she had to part ways with them.

But Chen Chaoxi, who would normally refuse to run upstairs with Luo Yiqiu, was uncharacteristically cheerful and coaxed her, "Take me with you, okay?"

Upon hearing this, Luo Yiqiu immediately looked up at her with a suspicious gaze.

Feeling guilty under her gaze, Chen Chaoxi finally couldn't withstand her scrutiny and told the truth.

"Okay, actually it's because when I went to see my cousin a few days ago, I saw Lu Jidong in the senior class." She glanced at Luo Yiqiu's expression as she mentioned the name and explained hesitantly.

"Lu Jidong?! What's he doing here?" Luo Yiqiu's brows furrowed at the mention of the name, her voice sharpening. "Did you greet him?"

"No..." When asked this, Chen Chaoxi seemed to remember something and stammered, "Oh, don't ask anymore, you go upstairs, we'll go back to the classroom first."

Seemingly afraid that Luo Yiqiu would continue to ask questions, she called out to Shen Qingli and left before the person in front of her could answer.

She looked at the two of them, puzzled, and said something to Luo Yiqiu before following Chen Chaoxi back to the classroom.

In the hallway, she noticed the person next to her sighing several times and sensed that she was in a bad mood, so she took the initiative to say, "If you want to go upstairs, I can go with you."

"No, he doesn't remember me anyway, I'm not going!" She seemed to have been touched on some painful secret by Luo Yiqiu's question, and she became listless, speaking in a defiant tone.

Shen Qingli was puzzled by her expression, but since it seemed to be Chen Chaoxi's private matter, she didn't want to ask too many questions directly.

...

At 3 p.m., rehearsals for the cultural performance began, and the first-year high school classes were arranged by their teachers to enter the venue early.

The students of Class 2, Grade 1 sat in the fourth row facing back, while the students of Class 1, Grade 1 sat in the front row.

Shen Qingli found a seat and glanced at Chen Chaoxi, who seemed distracted, and asked, "Where's Luo Yiqiu?"

"Oh, it seems the teacher arranged for her to host on stage," Chen Chaoxi said.

Hearing this, she nodded. Luo Yiqiu had always been a good student in the eyes of the teachers at the school, so it was not unreasonable for her to be assigned to that position.

After thinking it over, she looked at the students sitting in front of her and carefully looked ahead. Almost everyone in Class 1 had arrived, but she couldn't see Lin Xiaqing.

But before she could think about it, all the students around her had taken their seats, and the opening announcement came from the microphone on the stage.

Shen Qingli looked up and saw the host walking forward from backstage. She first saw Luo Yiqiu walking at the front. Chen Chaoxi was staring at the stage and whispered to her, "Yiqiu is coming out."

She responded, but her gaze faltered when she saw the person walking behind Luo Yiqiu.

Lin Xiaqing and Luo Yiqiu walked to the center of the stage. Unlike the students in camouflage military training uniforms below the stage, Luo Yiqiu appeared in a warm white dress with rhinestones adorning the hem, which shone brightly under the lights.

Holding the opening remarks for the gala in her hand, she looked at the huge crowd below the stage, smiling naturally and calmly, showing no signs of stage fright.

From the moment she appeared, the audience cheered "Wow!" Lin Xiaqing stood beside her, wearing a black suit. The dark clothes seemed to fit him perfectly, highlighting his tall figure and a temperament completely different from his usual self.

He raised his cold, stern eyes, and held a card in his fair, well-defined hands, just like the one Luo Yiqiu had.

Before the audience could react, all the lights in the room went out in an instant, and the next second, a beam of moon-white light shone down on the stage, landing squarely on the two people.

As if receiving a command, the two exchanged a glance, then picked up the microphones and began to speak together: "Dear teachers and students, good afternoon. We are the hosts of the graduation gala for the first-year high school military training."

"I am Luo Yiqiu."

"I am Lin Xiaqing."

They introduced themselves, and as soon as they finished speaking, loud applause erupted from the audience.

Shen Qingli sat in the crowd, stunned for a second, before clapping along with the people around her. During the pause in the clapping, some people below were talking loudly.

"What a handsome man and beautiful woman! Who are they? They look so well-matched!"

"How come you don't even recognize them? The boy is the top scorer in the high school entrance exam from Class 1, and the girl is from Class 2, our principal's favorite daughter."

"I heard their two families are old friends. Isn't this just like the plot of a romance novel?"

...

The uncontrollable chatter around her reached her ears, but for a moment, Shen Qingli felt as if all the noise around her had disappeared, leaving her alone in the empty performance hall. She looked up and stared intently at the two people on the stage, a bittersweet feeling spreading through her chest, neither rising nor falling.

Because she had to admit that the two on stage worked together very well, and they looked particularly pleasing to the eye standing together. It seemed as if they were people from the same world and on the same path, while she was just an observer.

Thinking of this, she lowered her eyes, blinked her dry eyes, and dared not look up again. The person whose every move affected her emotions never once looked up at her.

This is just her own internal monologue; no one else will know.

...

The enthusiastic applause around her forced her to come to her senses. Even though Shen Qingli was unwilling to admit to the strange flutter in her heart later, the momentary daze and helplessness she felt in that hall at that time were the most undeniable feelings in her heart.

After announcing their first program on stage, the two prepared to retreat backstage. Shen Qingli stared at Lin Xiaqing's tall and slender back. For the first time, she realized with absolute clarity that she did not understand this person in the distance. From the beginning of the semester until now, he had given her a very strange feeling. She couldn't explain it, but she could feel that the distance between them was growing further and further apart.

She thought she would never become as poised and confident as Luo Yiqiu, nor would she become someone in this school who was the focus of countless people's attention. Unlike them, too many eyes would only make her feel uncomfortable and uneasy.

The stage curtain behind them was slowly drawn back, and the music for the performance began. Chen Chaoxi finally became a little interested. She chatted with Shen Qingli while watching, feeling bored: "Hey, isn't Yi Qiu's performance next?"

She asked the person next to her, but when she didn't respond, she called her name a few more times: "Qingli? Qingli?"

"Huh?" Hearing someone call her name, Shen Qingli snapped out of her daze and turned to look at Chen Chaoxi, asking, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I called you several times but you didn't hear me." Chen Chaoxi also keenly noticed that something was wrong with her and asked with concern.

"It's nothing." She forced a smile and changed the subject: "Next up is Yi Qiu and Senior Zhao's piano performance, right?"

As expected, Chen Chaoxi's attention was quickly drawn to this. She nodded, her tone filled with excitement: "Yes, I wonder what piece they're going to play. No matter how I ask her since rehearsals began, she won't say. I want to see what she's hiding so well."

Seeing that she didn't press her further about her unusual behavior earlier, Shen Qingli secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

For this year's first-year high school arts performance, Luo Yiqiu specially asked the teacher to ask Zhao Yixiao for help. She heard from Chen Chaoxi that the two of them often performed together in junior high school and had won many awards. Thinking of this, she tried her best to suppress her uncomfortable feelings and peeked out to wait with Chen Chaoxi.

Just before the first performance on stage ended, she was suddenly patted on the shoulder by a classmate in the back row.

Shen Qingli turned her head and saw the unfamiliar girl whisper to her, "Excuse me, your sister is at the door. She asked me to call you."

As soon as she finished speaking, she looked in the direction the girl was pointing and, sure enough, saw Shen Qingyun standing by the door.

Seeing this, she spoke to Chen Chaoxi beside her, then bent down and crouched down to run out. Using the dim light in the room, she walked to Shen Qingyun's side, somewhat surprised by her arrival: "Sister, why did you come here?"

A note from the author:

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The bittersweet feeling of unrequited love TvT

Sorry for the wait TT, Chen Zhaoxi and Lu Jidong have both appeared! Don't worry, they won't have much screen time here.

Note: "He never looked up at her even once from beginning to end." This is a modified version of a popular online comment.

On a side note: Hey, does everyone really think that "I don't know" appears so many times? [scared]

Also, we can't reveal any questions about Xia Qing and Li Zi that everyone is curious about yet—because this is the plot point of this book, right? (question).

I won't tell you until the story is completely over, okay? ^^