Chapter 22 "...Hmm." Wang...

"……Um."

Wang Kan heard Fang Minzhou say.

Her response was gentle, like snowflakes falling on his burning ears, and Wang Kan's heart pounded so hard he couldn't utter another word. His heart, burning like magma, inhaled the cold air, and a trickle of cold air flowed out.

He didn't ask for much; he just wanted Fang Minzhou to know his feelings, to know that he simply liked her.

Then one day, you can give him a hug.

Wang Kan looked down at the ground.

Fang Minzhou hugged the teddy bear in her arms tightly.

This night of the first snowfall felt a bit like that speech contest in junior high school.

When Fang Minzhou got home, she said that the doll was a New Year's gift from a classmate. This wasn't a lie, but her mother still took the teddy bear away.

Mom said I need to wash it.

The teddy bear, freshly sun-dried, sat on her bedside table. It was soft, fragrant, and felt wonderful to hold while sleeping. Fang Minzhou hugged it, but couldn't fall asleep, tossing and turning. She got up, turned on the light, and put the bear in the closet. After a while, she took it out again.

On New Year's Eve, as fireworks went off outside the window, Fang Minzhou received a New Year's greeting from Wang Kan: Happy New Year, Fang Minzhou.

The wind outside rattled against the window. Fang Minzhou recalled the snowflakes that night, tinged with yellow by the streetlights like magnolia petals, and Wang Kan's expression later, as if he wanted to laugh but was too nervous to do so. The chaotic, hot singing in the backstage of the auditorium lingered in her ears. The lyrics she had initially thought were nonsense suddenly seemed so straightforward, leaving her at a loss. She forced herself to stay composed, not wanting him to see through her act.

The details unfolded like a piece of paper being opened, so concrete and meticulous that she didn't know where to post them.

She understood, but then Wang Kan didn't say anything.

She replied: Thank you, Happy New Year.

QQ showed the music Wang Kan was listening to. After a while, he sent a Tuski wavy-hand emoji, making Fang Minzhou laugh, but she couldn't find a suitable reply. Just then, her mother knocked on the door to remind her to go to bed early. Fang Minzhou answered, feeling a little guilty, and simply logged off.

She took out her new diary, her mind a jumbled mess. On a whim, she opened her music player and searched for the song Wang Kan had just been listening to. She'd also searched for the one he'd sung backstage earlier, based on her memory; the original was much better, but… she couldn't listen to it too much. This one was a Cantonese song, and a love song at that.

Wearing headphones, she listened to lyrics she couldn't understand and wrote down her plans for the new year.

This year includes the second semester of her junior year and the first semester of her senior year. First and foremost, she needs to study hard and maintain her position in the top five of her class in this final exam. She should strive to stay in the top three by the end of her senior year. Secondly, she needs to keep reading and finish memorizing the vocabulary in her notebook during the winter break...

Aside from that... she doesn't seem to have any other goals. Traveling or learning to drive are things to do after the college entrance exam. To be honest, for the next year and a half, she only has the college entrance exam as her goal.

Fang Minzhou always followed the rules and regulations, but that didn't stop her from being aware of the existence of unspoken rules. In this stage where grades were paramount, the boundaries of behavior were positively correlated with academic performance.

The songs on the playlist were playing randomly, and Fang Minzhou took off her headphones, closed her notebook, turned off the light, and went to bed.

Unlike the usual post-holiday slump, everyone quickly got back into study mode after returning to school this time, and Wang Kan's performance in this regard satisfied Fang Minzhou.

After a slight awkwardness at first, they continued to interact as before the holiday, as if nothing had happened. However, Wang Kan's questions often became so numerous that Fang Minzhou found them a bit annoying. Unable to determine the extent of his deliberate questioning, Fang Minzhou simply limited the number of times he would ask her questions each day.

Wang Kan was puzzled and dissatisfied, "Why didn't you make any rules for the others?"

"Other people don't have as many problems as you."

"Where isn't it? Don't you and Jin Baihao discuss it every day?"

"Let's talk about it when you reach Jin Baihao's level."

These words slipped out of Fang Minzhou's mouth; she didn't mean to mock or belittle Wang Kan, she was simply stating the facts. But seeing the slight change in his expression, Fang Minzhou knew that her words had gone a bit too far. Before she could explain, Wang Kan said defiantly, "Fine, just you wait and see in the final exams."

Finally, Fang Minzhou's birthday wish and first small goal of the new year came true; she ranked fourth in the class. However, Wang Kan did not keep his bet.

Class 19, Grade 106.

This result is actually quite good, especially compared to his performance at the beginning of the semester, but not reaching the goal is still not enough.

After the results came out, Fang Minzhou sensed that Wang Kan was avoiding her, and he was also distracted when the teacher explained the test paper.

Fang Minzhou knew that Wang Kan was somewhat arrogant, or rather, which of the students who got into the top high school wasn't proud? He was probably the kind of person who didn't study much normally, but would do well on tests if he put his mind to it, like in the high school entrance exam or the placement test in the first year of high school. This time, however, his final exam results were not satisfactory, which inevitably dealt him a blow.

But... although he did study hard, who among those who did better than him didn't study hard too?

Fang Minzhou wanted to find an opportunity to talk to Wang Kan, but Wang Kan always evaded the question, which made Fang Minzhou wonder if he was meddling in other people's business.

I heard that the winter break for senior high school students is only ten days, but junior high school students still have a normal break of almost a month.

On the day they left school, they were dismissed 3 p.m. early. Wang Kan and Zheng Yanhang played a game of basketball one last time.

The afternoon sun was warm and intense. Wang Kan was playing so hard that he ended up wearing only a short-sleeved shirt. While resting, Zheng Yanhang tossed his school uniform jacket onto him, saying, "You'll catch a cold if you're careful."

Wang Kan looked dejected, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, with a sour expression as if someone owed him money.

"That's enough, you've already reached 100 points, are you still not satisfied?" Zheng Yanhang said while spinning the basketball. Suddenly, his index finger lost its balance, and the basketball fell onto Wang Kan's head, then bounced off his head and onto the ground.

Wang Kan: "..."

Zheng Yanhang: "Sorry, bro."

He picked up the basketball, sat down next to Wang Kan, and, no longer being sarcastic, asked curiously, "What's going on between you and our Sister Fang?"

"What do you mean, yours or mine?"

"Seriously, does she expect you to get a certain score before you can..." Zheng Yanhang's facial features were all over the place.

Wang Kan choked, "Don't talk nonsense like that."

"Hey, my grandpa wasn't talking nonsense, it was Zheng Yanhang who was talking nonsense, okay?"

They had all witnessed the entanglement between Wang Kan and Fang Minzhou this semester, especially during the final exams. It was as if their intentions were as clear as day, and they were determined to prove their loyalty to the organization. Unexpectedly, Wang Kan was a tight-lipped person, and they couldn't find out anything about him in private. When asked, he would say that he had retired from his life of crime and reformed his ways, and instead advised them to study hard.

"I'm serious, I think your attitude is good enough. Even Master Zhan praised you. Fang Minzhou isn't a heartless person. Do you know what's most important when pursuing a girl? It's attitude, let me tell you..."

Wang Kan took the basketball back from Zheng Yanhang's arms. "You're rambling on and on. What do you know? I'm doing this for my own learning."

"Come on, you."

The second half of the game ended hastily, and there were hardly any people left in the school. Zheng Yanhang and Wang Kan went to the bike shed to get their bikes. When they reached the school gate, he nudged Wang Kan with his elbow, "Look!"

"what?"

"Look, look!"

Wang Kan looked ahead impatiently. There were still a few students waiting for their parents to pick them up at the school gate. Fang Minzhou and Yuan Yue were standing nearby. Before they could reach the school gate, the car that was supposed to pick up Yuan Yue arrived. Yuan Yue probably wanted to see Fang Minzhou off, but Fang Minzhou waved her hand.

Fang Minzhou felt relieved after seeing her off to the car, as she thought she had done well on her final exams in January. Then she heard Zheng Yanhang's voice, "Sister Fang, you're still here?"

Fang Minzhou didn't know why Zheng Yanhang and the others had suddenly started calling her "Sister Fang." Although she didn't like it, the title didn't offend her, so she didn't correct it. She greeted Zheng Yanhang, didn't linger her gaze on Wang Kan beside her, and walked towards the station.

Wang Kan remained silent. Zheng Yanhang was about to point out his lack of understanding of how to act according to circumstances when he saw Wang Kan already following behind Fang Minzhou as if lost in thought.

Zheng Yanhang: "..."

In winter, the sun sets early. Around four or five in the afternoon, the sky is still bright, but it already feels like the sun is setting. There are few pedestrians on the street. A girl with a backpack walks in front, and a boy pushes his bicycle about three meters behind her.

There were no more students from the same school waiting for the train at the station. Fang Minzhou looked at the old-fashioned pastry shop across the street. The owner took out a plate of freshly baked sponge cakes from the oven, and the aroma could be smelled from across the street.

She glanced at Wang Kan, who had followed her, and asked him, "...Would you like some chicken cake? It's on me."

Wang Kan, looking down at her toes, hadn't even reacted when Fang Minzhou had already reached the zebra crossing. He watched as she jogged across the zebra crossing before the red light, walked to the pastry shop, paid, took a bag of bright yellow cakes from the owner, and quickly ran back.

During this time, a No. 126 bus passed by, and the next bus would take at least ten minutes to arrive.

He still didn't like desserts, Fang Minzhou definitely knew that, but since she ate one, he ate one too.

"Are you going to your relative's house today too?" Fang Minzhou asked him.

Wang Kan: "...Hmm."

Fang Minzhou didn't expose his lie. She unzipped her backpack, took out a book, and handed it to him, saying, "Here's your gift back."

Wang Kan's heart skipped a beat. She took it and saw that it was an English workbook.

He hadn't even swallowed the cake in his mouth yet, and now it tasted even worse.

"Your final exams this time were actually...not bad, mainly in politics and English. If you don't want to memorize politics since it's not on the college entrance exam anyway, at least improve your English score," Fang Minzhou said. She had looked at Wang Kan's paper, and the English multiple-choice questions were a complete mess. He relied half on his intuition for English, and without that intuition and a solid foundation, he suffered such a setback. "And then there's your Chinese and chemistry. I suggest you..."

"I understand," Wang Kan interrupted her.

Fang Min was taken aback and noticed that he was a little unhappy. She understood, but she also felt that he was being childish. "I think you should analyze your test paper carefully. Although you did work very hard, you only worked hard for a month, right? Others work hard for a whole semester or even longer, so it's normal that they didn't pass. You also said yourself that you should relax and not be too demanding of yourself all at once."

These were the words Wang Kan had used to comfort her, but Wang Kan's face was as dark as the sky on the horizon. "I said, I understand."

Fang Minzhou looked at him, her tone turning cold and hard, "It's good that you know."

"Are you done talking?"

"That's all."

After saying that, he got on his bike and rode away, leaving Fang Minzhou alone at the station.

Shame was like oil poured on the anger in her heart. She gritted her teeth until a new No. 126 bus stopped in front of her. She picked up the English workbook and stuffed it into her bag.

She's really just bored and has nothing better to do.