Chapter 43

The heavy snow only lasted for two days. After it receded, the city returned to its original colors, and the chill of winter quietly crept in.

At the end of December, in the depths of winter, everything is covered in a thin layer of frost, and a biting cold wind blows.

Jian Sheng put on the thermal underwear that Ye Hua had given her as her innermost layer; it was even lined with fur and very warm.

This winter, warmth came before the cold, enveloping her heart.

On Monday morning, she walked briskly at the back of the group and slowly entered the playground.

Facing the rising sun, colliding with the winter sunshine, yet not feeling cold.

The thick base layer she was wearing and the hand warmer in her pocket made her very comfortable.

Chen Zhoujing didn't take it back. He left it with her. When it got cool, he went over and reached out to her to take it back, but after a while, he gave it back to her.

It's strange, as if it knew when it would get cold.

The front row was bustling with activity, and she was at the very back of the girls' line, occasionally squeezing her hand warmer and exhaling white breath into the air.

A white mist shrouded her beautiful features, and in the morning light, her smile was hidden.

"So happy?" A voice suddenly broke in from beside me, slightly deep, with a hint of hidden emotion.

Jian turned his head in a simple voice.

Chen Zhoujing was holding his schoolbag in one hand and had the other hand in his down jacket pocket, raising his eyebrows to look at her.

The joy in her eyes deepened: "Xu Yanghe said you took leave."

"Hmm." Chen Zhoujing coughed, took a small step forward, and stood next to her: "I had a fever last night, so I asked for leave, but the fever was gone when I woke up this morning, so the leave is invalid."

"Ah," Jian Sheng said, forcing a smile. "Are you alright?"

"It's nothing. If something happened, I wouldn't be here." He raised an eyebrow. "I specifically checked my temperature, it was around 37 degrees Celsius, before I came."

Jian Sheng gave an "oh," raised her eyes slightly, and then lowered them again after a short while.

She seemed to be constantly busy, and the warm yellow light fell on her hair, enveloping her entire upper body in light.

His gaze lingered on her fluttering eyelashes for a long time, then wandered over her delicate cheek skin. Finally, he lowered his gaze, tightened his grip on his schoolbag, and moved closer to her side, to greet the sunrise with her, shining in the morning light.

Jian Sheng was pondering whether or not to say something when she felt a faint rubbing against her shoulder. She turned around and found Chen Zhoujing looking at her.

"Why are you looking at me?" Jian Sheng frowned, her lips pursed, her teeth biting a small piece of flesh on her lip.

Chen Zhou looked away from her small movements and pinched the back of his neck a few times: "No."

The dissenting voices were very faint, so faint that they blended into the surrounding noise.

Jian Sheng didn't hear clearly, so she leaned closer and asked, "What?"

Chen Zhou was so shocked that half of her body froze. Along with her came a faint floral fragrance.

His Adam's apple bobbed a few times, and his brow twitched.

Jian Sheng waited too long without hearing a response, and lost the mood to greet him. She straightened up, glared at him, and then moved to the left to line up in a straight line with the girls.

After everyone left, he realized what was happening, moved closer to her, and coughed a few times in her ear.

The sound was not deliberately lowered, causing the students in the front row to frequently turn around.

Chen Zhou bent down slightly, looked around, and finally turned his head casually to look at her profile.

When Jian Sheng isn't laughing, his expression is often unconsciously serious, sometimes even solemn.

In his eyes, seriousness equals anger, and earnestness equals cuteness, so he scratched his eyebrows and hummed, "I was wrong."

After saying that, he winked at her, waiting for a reply.

He apologized without warning, which surprised Jian Sheng. "Apologized again," she said suddenly.

"I was afraid you'd get angry..." He chuckled, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Can't I look?"

"Will you be angry?" Chen Zhou hesitated for a moment, "Then I won't watch it..."

"If you feel offended..."

“No!” Jian interrupted him, awkwardly saying, “I didn’t really mean to ask you that.”

"Ah," he said, puzzled, "Then what do you want to ask me?"

"Huh?" The sound of a microphone hitting the microphone came from the podium. After the uproar subsided, he thought he hadn't heard clearly, so he put his ear closer.

Jian Sheng was less than half a meter away from him; being so close, she felt a surge of power rising up within her.

With great effort, she managed to compose herself, lowering her gaze and speaking in a low voice: "I wanted to ask if you're feeling unwell with a fever..."

"Why aren't you lying at home..." She was a little embarrassed, and after saying that, she turned her head away, leaving behind a red ear.

Chen Zhou turned around in surprise: "Oh, so you wanted to show concern for me."

His casual tone, with a rising intonation at the end, carried a hint of smugness on his lips: "So, you were pretending to be angry because you wanted to care about me."

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is..." He laughed smugly, "My good friend actually cares about me, amazing, amazing."

"This makes me even happier than being complimented on my looks!"

Suddenly, a sentence popped into Jian Sheng's mind, reminding her of a husky, which he had shown her last time.

But that's not the point. The point is, she gritted her teeth and said, "Shameless."

"Huh? What?" He pretended to frown and be unhappy. "You were concerned about me just a second ago, and now you're saying I'm shameless... Could it be...?"

"Shamelessness is also a way of caring for me?" Chen Zhoujing was completely absorbed in his own self-amusement. "Well, if that's the case, then shamelessness... oh no, no, no, I'll give it all to you."

Jian Sheng was speechless. He was really good at making up stories, and his next sentence always caught her off guard.

"Stop talking." She pushed him.

Chen Zhoujing leaned to the right, startling Jian Sheng, who immediately pulled him back.

He stood up straight and grinned foolishly at her, only then did she realize he was doing it on purpose, and she swallowed back the shameless words she was about to say: "Shameless!"

It seemed he was really angry now. Chen Zhoujing calmed down a bit, walked side by side, took out a few round cookies from his pocket, and put them in her pocket.

"What is that?" She reached in and touched it.

"Biscuit, you didn't eat breakfast this morning." After he finished speaking, he stopped talking and pointed to a person holding a self-criticism in the lower part of the stage.

Jian Sheng took out the cookie; it was a sandwich cookie.

How did he know she hadn't eaten breakfast? She held the biscuit in her palm and actually felt a little hungry.

As she disassembled the microphone, she listened to the voice coming from it; it was quite ruthless, sounding like someone was gritting their teeth.

"I'm Qian Xiao from Class 7, Grade 11. I shouldn't have gone home after school to arrange a fight, nor should I have deliberately followed others and then turned around and accused them of trying to beat me up..."

"I shouldn't have borrowed the school uniform from the school next door and gone in to help someone beat up someone..."

The packaging had already been torn open; there were two pieces in the package. She pinched the first piece and put it in her mouth, chewed a few times, and found it sweet and delicious.

The performance continued on stage.

"I shouldn't have gotten into a fight with my classmate, almost killing him with a chair. And I shouldn't have felt unsatisfied, so when I missed the chair, I picked up a table and started smashing it on him..."

When the self-criticism reached this point, a commotion erupted, and the audience below the stage erupted in cheers, all marveling at his actions.

Some people glanced back unintentionally, and when their eyes met Jian Sheng's, they turned back around.

She looked away, took a bite of the biscuit in her mouth, and heard He Shang speak from diagonally in front of her: "What the hell is he doing, this is so arrogant, he's just showing off, you idiot."

"This kind of person only thinks what he did was cool and something to be proud of, tsk." Xu Yanghe, who was standing on tiptoe in front, added.

The crowd was noisy for a while, and it gradually quieted down after Jian Sheng finished eating the biscuit in his hand. Finally, the microphone of the person named Qian Xiao on the stage was taken back by the dean of students who had come from afar, and he was given a serious warning.

I heard that he was given a disciplinary warning and placed on probation at the school.

"Is it delicious?" Chen Zhou asked suddenly.

Jian Sheng nodded as he chewed, his movements slow and deliberate: "Delicious."

"Thank you." She smiled at him, then thought for a moment and added, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" he muttered, calling her stupid, then took a still-warm bottle of milk from his right-hand pocket and handed it to her. "Here."

"Huh?" Jian Sheng, holding the milk and swallowing the biscuit, stared wide-eyed. "How much stuff are you carrying in your pockets?"

Chen Zhou chuckled: "Want to know?"

"No," Jian Sheng resolutely refused, unscrewing the milk and starting to drink.

She no longer refuses anything Chen Zhoujing gives her; no matter how much she refuses, it will eventually end up with her anyway.

It's okay, she'll return the money at the original price.

Chen Zhoujing was used to it: "Oh, I guess you actually really want to, but you just don't want to admit it, right?"

"It's okay, I understand. If you want to know, I can tell you. Just tell me what you want."

He tapped her arm.

Jian Sheng moved away and continued shaking her head: "I don't want to."

Chen Zhoujing was amused by her and, mimicking her slow tone, softened his voice: "Oh~ you don't want to, but I want to tell you."

"Oh, then I'd like to hear it." She agreed.

Chen Zhoujing suddenly didn't want to talk anymore: "Then forget it."

"Why did you give up?"

"Forget it, you don't want to anyway..."

After much persuasion, Jian Sheng finally understood what he wanted to show: a bunch of candy and cookies in his pocket, a pen, a small handwritten vocabulary book, and a watch.

His pockets were large, and he used them mostly to carry snacks.

She only realized what it was when she saw the familiar candy in his pocket.

Previously, a lot of unfamiliar candies and cookies would mysteriously appear in my desk drawer.

From the time she fainted until now, she had always thought it was given to her by Lin You or Qi Jing...

After school in the afternoon, she didn't stay to do her homework. She packed her schoolbag early, waited for get out of class to end, and then strolled leisurely towards the mall after leaving the school gate.

The plan to buy milk for Lin You has been put on the agenda, and another item has been added.

What does Chen Zhoujing like to eat?

Last time at the film studio, he seemed to be eating a lollipop. The convenience store had a lot of candy and even more snacks, a dazzling array that she couldn't choose from.

Finally, I took some things that looked delicious and stuffed them into the bag.

After browsing around, I bought Ye Hua a bag of goji berries.

As she left, the streetlights were lit, and she prepared to walk back home along the long road.

As soon as I stepped outside, I saw Jian Qingyao and a girl at the place where I had seen Yu Chao last time.

Jian Qingyao seems to be on a long vacation. These past few days, whenever Jian Sheng comes home, he can see him lying on Ye Hua's recliner, leisurely playing on his phone, acting all high and mighty like a 285.

However, now that she no longer acts so strangely, she's happy to be free.

But why is he here?

She took a few steps, and before he noticed her, she quickly walked towards the right path.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. It was as if he had eyes in his head; he spotted her within seconds and called out to her.

It was just the right size to fit into her ear.