fine

Usually after school, Jiang Zhizhi would go to the bus stop with Li Rongrong and Xu Qingbo, but today, she made an excuse and let Li Rongrong and Xu Qingbo go first, while she took her schoolbag and went to the flag-raising platform in the playground.

Lu Xiye had not arrived yet, so she took out a book from her schoolbag and started reading.

About seven or eight minutes later, Lu Xiye came over slowly with his schoolbag slung over his shoulder.

"What do you want from me?"

Jiang Zhizhi had just finished reading two pages, closed the book, and put on her schoolbag. "Come with me."

"Where are you going?"

"You'll know when you get there."

After coming out of No. 1 Middle School, Jiang Zhizhi bought a three-yuan pancake at the door and gave half to Lu Xiye.

"What exactly are you going to do?" Lu Xiye was confused.

"Could you please stop asking so many questions and just follow me?"

Jiang Zhizhi said as she walked to the bus stop.

"If you don't tell me where you are going, I won't go with you." Lu Xiye paused and stopped behind Jiang Zhizhi.

Just then the bus arrived. Jiang Zhizhi glanced at him and said, "If you don't want to come, forget it."

After saying that, she got into the car directly.

Lu Xiye was furious, but he also wanted to know why Jiang Zhizhi wanted to see him, so he got into the car with a sullen look on his face.

They rode all the way to the bus terminal at the stadium and took another bus.

At around 6:20, we arrived at the library.

"Why did you bring me to the library?" Lu Xiye was stunned.

"I'll give you tutoring." Jiang Zhizhi said.

Lu Xiye's heart trembled, and he looked straight at Jiang Zhizhi, "Why are you tutoring me?"

"Tutoring is just tutoring, it's nothing more than that."

"Then why are you tutoring me?" He seemed to insist on getting an answer.

Jiang Zhizhi told him truthfully, "Your father asked me to tutor you."

This answer made Lu Xiye's eyes dim for a moment, "My dad is looking for you? So it's because of this."

"Let's go in." Jiang Zhizhi turned and walked towards the entrance of the library.

But Lu Xiye didn't follow, "You go by yourself, I don't need tutoring."

After he finished speaking, he was about to leave.

"Lu Xiye." Jiang Zhizhi called him, "Do you know why I promised your father to tutor you?"

"Why?"

"Maybe in the eyes of others, you are becoming more and more rebellious and hopeless, but I can see that Lu Xiye has changed and is growing up. Lu Xiye, are you still willing to be friends with me now?" Jiang Zhizhi stood there, looking at him sincerely.

Lu Xiye didn't expect Jiang Zhizhi to say such a thing.

Has he grown up?

He couldn't feel it at all. He even felt that he was becoming more and more depraved and further away from Jiang Zhizhi.

But now, Jiang Zhizhi actually reached out to him and wanted to be friends with him.

Lu Xiye felt like he was dreaming.

Before Lu Xiye could answer, Jiang Zhizhi walked up to him, grabbed his wrist, and smiled brightly, "Let's go in."

She pulled him into the library.

She didn't have much strength, but the little restraining force she exerted made it impossible for him to resist.

Jiang Zhizhi did not go to the private collection room of the elder, but studied with Lu Xiye at the public study table on the first floor.

The tutoring started with math. Jiang Zhizhi asked him, "Which unit of math have you studied yet?"

"It seems to be... a linear equation of one variable." His tone was very uncertain. After all, he was sleeping during class and had not heard anything the teacher said at all.

"Do you have math homework today?"

"Hmm...I don't know."

"Do you have a math test paper in your schoolbag now?"

“There seem to be two.”

"Show it to me."

Lu Xiye took out a few crumpled math papers from his schoolbag. Jiang Zhizhi took a look and found that they were from the second chapter.

"This is the math homework from half a month ago, right?"

“It seems so…”

Jiang Zhizhi didn't get angry either. She patiently sorted out the math papers and handed them to Lu Xiye. "Do these math papers first. I'll explain them to you one by one after you finish them."

After saying that, she put her schoolbag on the seat and stood up. "I'm going to look for some books over there. I'll be back soon. Please help me look after my schoolbag."

Lu Xiye blinked in confusion, "Oh..."

After Jiang Zhizhi left, he looked at the math paper in front of him as if he was reading a book written in a foreign language.

He hasn't attended a single math class since he entered junior high school.

Jiang Zhizhi went to the private collection room of the Zong Lao upstairs, greeted him, and told him the whole story. Of course, she did not tell the Zong Lao about her deal with Lu Hengshan.

"In that case, let him come here to study together." Elder Zong said with a smile.

Jiang Zhizhi felt a little embarrassed, "Teacher, am I disturbing you too much?"

"How could that be? I love being with kids like you right now!"

It was because he liked being with Jiang Zhizhi that even when he was not teaching Jiang Zhizhi, he would come over to see her.

Every time he saw Jiang Zhizhi studying seriously, he felt as if he had returned to decades ago, watching his daughter studying late into the night.

Unfortunately, he was too busy at that time and sometimes could only go home once every one or two years. The time he spent with his daughter was too short. This is his eternal regret.

Now that I'm with Jiang Zhizhi, it seems like I've made up for this regret.

Jiang Zhizhi went downstairs and asked Lu Xiye to follow her to the private collection room of the elder. While packing up, she took a look at Lu Xiye's paper. He had only done two questions in such a long time, and he got them both wrong.

"Lu Xiye, this is Grandpa Zong. He's a professor at Nanjing University and has a private collection room here. I've been studying here for a while." Jiang Zhizhi turned around and said respectfully to Grandpa Zong, "Teacher, this is my classmate, Lu Xiye."

Such a formal introduction made Lu Xiye feel a little nervous, and he quickly greeted the elder, "Hello, Grandpa Zong."

"Come in." Elder Zong said with a smile, "I remember you. You and Zhizhi both attended the primary school affiliated with the No. 1 Middle School in the city. Back then, you saved a classmate and were both featured in the newspaper, right?"

Lu Xiye nodded embarrassedly and followed Jiang Zhizhi into the house.

The room is quite large and is divided into two rooms, the outer room is a small reception room and the inner room is a study. The two rooms are separated by a hollow antique shelf, making the view very transparent.

Elder Zong went into the inner room, and Jiang Zhizhi took Lu Xiye to study on the coffee table in the reception room.

The surroundings were very quiet. Jiang Zhizhi opposite was doing her homework with a serious look on her face, and Zong Lao was also reading a book inside.

In such an atmosphere, Lu Xiye felt embarrassed to be lazy, so he had to grit his teeth and continue to do the difficult questions.

It lasted until nine o'clock, when the library closed, and then they took the bus home together.

On the way, Jiang Zhizhi assigned Lu Xiye two more recitation assignments in Chinese and politics.

"So you come back so late every day because you go to the library." On the bus, Lu Xiye made small talk.

Jiang Zhizhi said: "At first I didn't think about coming here every day, but slowly, I got used to it."

"Are you still learning Taekwondo?"

"Well, after this semester, there will be one more training session during the winter break, and that's it."

"Oh." Lu Xiye seemed to have thought of himself quitting halfway, and his tone was a little lost.

At half past nine, we arrived at the stadium.

Jiang Zhizhi then sent Lu Xiye to take the bus to No. 1 Middle School in the city.

Being accompanied by a girl while waiting, Lu Xiye felt a little embarrassed. "You go back. I can wait for the bus by myself. It's only half past nine, it's not that late."

"I'm afraid you'll fight here again." Jiang Zhizhi said lightly.

The stadium is spacious, and the surrounding alleys are dark and secluded, where middle and high school students often gather to fight.

Jiang Zhizhi had seen Lu Xiye himself twice.

Lu Xiye was speechless. There was no one he knew around him. Who was he fighting with?

After waiting for about five minutes, the bus to No. 1 Middle School in the city came out from the bus stop, and Lu Xiye hurriedly got on the bus.

"Lu Xiye." Jiang Zhizhi suddenly called him.

Lu Xiye turned back in a daze, "What's the matter?"

Jiang Zhizhi smiled at him and said, "It's good to have something to do, right?"

Under the street light, her smile seemed to carry a warm light, and was particularly warm.

Lu Xiye was in a daze for a moment, and the car door was already closed.

The bus started moving, and Jiang Zhizhi stood under the bus stop, getting farther and farther away from him.

He looked at Jiang Zhizhi's figure and then realized what she had just said.

Yeah, it’s good to have something to do.

Normally, after school, I would go home alone and not know what to do. Even playing games made me feel lonelier the more I played.

But today, he felt very warm and fulfilled.

Lu Xiye found a seat and sat down, took out his cell phone, and turned to the page in the address book that mentioned his father.

He looked at the string of numbers and hesitated for a long time. In the end, he still didn't make the call.

He didn't know what to say or how to face his father.

That's it, it's fine as long as we have nothing to do with each other.

With a "click", Lu Xiye closed his phone, leaned against the window, and closed his eyes.

The lights outside the window flashed across his face like a kaleidoscope of light, bringing with them an indescribable gentleness.

*

Watching the bus Lu Xiye was riding go away, Jiang Zhizhi turned around and went home.

When she reached the alley in front of her home, she saw a tall figure under the street light at the entrance of the alley.

It’s Xu Jiaojiao.

She leaned against the wall, looking at Jiang Zhizhi leisurely, as if she had been waiting for a long time.

"Who is that boy?" Xu Jiaojiao asked.

Jiang Zhizhi didn't hide it from her, "It's Lu Xiye."

"How did you get involved with him?" Xu Jiaojiao laughed jokingly.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Jiang Zhizhi asked.

Seeing that Jiang Zhizhi didn't answer, Xu Jiaojiao didn't ask any more questions. She walked up to her and took out a gift box from her schoolbag. "This is your birthday present. Sorry, I just remembered it today, so I'll give you another one."

She came here specifically to give Jiang Zhizhi a birthday present.

Jiang Zhizhi lowered her eyes and looked at the gift box. After hesitating for a moment, she took it and said, "Thank you."

"Open it and take a look." Xu Jiaojiao said.

Jiang Zhizhi opened it and found a cross bracelet inside.

"Isn't it beautiful? I picked it out specially." Xu Jiaojiao took out her wrist and shook it in front of Jiang Zhizhi. There was also an identical cross bracelet on it. "I bought two, one for each of us. Do you like it?"

Jiang Zhizhi has the same complicated emotions towards Xu Jiaojiao as she does towards Lu Xiye.

It is undeniable that Xu Jiaojiao had true feelings for her, but she had indeed hurt her in her previous life.

Xu Jiaojiao has a fatal flaw, which will not only hurt Xu Jiaojiao herself, but also implicate those around her.

Jiang Zhizhi wanted to stay away from her, but sometimes she couldn't bear to do it.

Human emotions are like this, never black and white, but mixed with inexplicable gray areas.

"Let me put it on you." Xu Jiaojiao picked up the cross bracelet and put it on Jiang Zhizhi's wrist. "Wow, your watch is so beautiful. Did your mother buy it for you?"

"It's a birthday present from Rongrong's mother." Jiang Zhizhi said.

Xu Jiaojiao's expression turned a little strange, and she said in a sour tone, "You and Li Rongrong are so close now?"

"Rongrong recognized my mom as her godmother, and we are almost a family now."

"Oh, that's great. You and her are family, so you'll never lack friends." Xu Jiaojiao sneered softly, "With a friend like Li Rongrong, of course you don't care about me anymore. I foolishly came here to give you a birthday present, but I'm afraid you've forgotten me a long time ago, right?"

"Xu Jiaojiao..."

"Ever since we started junior high—no, ever since you and Li Rongrong got together—you've never taken the initiative to contact me again. The other day, you even said you'd only consider me a friend if I didn't drop out of school. How ridiculous! You actually look down on me, don't you? Because you're a good student, you only hang out with good students now! I'm so stupid! That watch you're wearing looks really expensive, doesn't it? With such an expensive watch, why would you even care about this shabby bracelet of mine?"

After Xu Jiaojiao finished speaking angrily, she threw the bracelet away.

The white beads broke and rolled into the dirty gap.