25. Let’s hide here

After Su Xiaoshan and Xu Wenqiang exchanged a few balls, they both became serious and only had their eyes on the jumping little white ball on the blue table.

The few players around here, seeing the heated match, all looked over. Whether it was Su Xiaoshan or Xu Wenqiang, as long as they hit a good shot, they would shout "good shot" without hesitation.

Su Xiaoshan served the last ball. The score was now 11 to 10, with Xu Wenqiang winning by one point.

Su Xiaoshan had intended to serve a long ball, hoping that if Xu Wenqiang's return wasn't of high quality, he could pull her back. However, he hesitated, and the ball, which landed on the table, lost its threat. Xu Wenqiang easily swung it over. He swung it again, and the ball flew high again. Xu Wenqiang unceremoniously slammed it, sending it flying off the table.

"pretty!"

"nice shot!"

There were a few more cheers from all around.

"You win." Su Xiaoshan admitted defeat.

"You hesitated on the last ball," Xu Wenqiang said.

"I was distracted." Su Xiaoshan said.

"Are you coming again?"

"Next time."

Seeing that they had no intention of continuing the fight, the people around them dispersed.

As Xiao Cheng approached the ping-pong table, he heard a series of cheers, just like the day on the playground of Qingshi Junior High School. But this time, beside Xu Wenqiang was Su Xiaoshan.

"Xu Wenqiang, everyone in the class has been talking about you recently," Su Xiaoshan said.

"I know." Xu Wenqiang walked over and handed the racket to Su Xiaoshan.

"Have you heard anything?" Su Xiaoshan asked.

"I don't have many acquaintances in the class, and they have been trying to hide the truth, so I have no idea what's going on," said Xu Wenqiang.

Su Xiaoshan put the racket into the ball bag and looked at Xu Wenqiang.

"Go ahead." Xu Wenqiang said.

Su Xiaoshan looked towards the playground, where there was laughter and joy.

"They said you have a strange smell," said Su Xiaoshan.

"Strange smell? What smell?" Xu Wenqiang raised her arm and sniffed the odor on her body.

"Fishy smell, stinky smell, rotten fish and shrimp smell... there are all kinds of smells."

Xu Wenqiang stopped what she was doing, and the way those people were hiding things flashed through her mind. It turned out that they disliked her smell.

"You look down on us because we sell seafood!"

"It's not that simple. Aren't you the math class representative?" Su Xiaoshan said.

Xu Wenqiang scoffed after hearing this. "The math class representative's job is just to run errands for the math teacher. Handing out and collecting homework, what's so great about that?"

Su Xiaoshan's eyes darkened. "You think it's nothing special, but in the eyes of others, it's something they can only dream of. People's hearts are complicated, and their desires are even more varied. Who says that just because I don't like you, it has to be a deep hatred?"

"And don't forget, your grades in the class are the worst." Su Xiaoshan finally hit her soft spot.

Xu Wenqiang looked at the playground filled with laughter and held back a bunch of curse words.

"You don't have to be angry," Su Xiaoshan said. "That market is dark and gloomy anyway. There are all kinds of people and things, so naturally there are rotten, smelly things, and all kinds of smells. My family also sells vegetables at the farmers' market. Like you, I grew up there, so naturally I have the same smell as that farmers' market. They only criticize you and not me because I got better grades."

Xu Wenqiang looked at Su Xiaoshan's profile, and a wave of sadness welled up in her heart. This sadness was not for herself, but for Su Xiaoshan in front of her. She had always known that Su Xiaoshan hated this farmers' market, but she had never expected that he even hated her.

"Su Xiaoshan, the farmers' market is the farmers' market, and we are us. The farmers' market is dead, and we are living people. Don't tie the market to yourself."

"It's not binding, it's infiltration." Su Xiaoshan turned around and looked at Xu Wenqiang. "The smell of the farmers' market has long since seeped into our hair, skin, blood, and bones. The stink we carry is the stench of seafood, the stench of rotting vegetables, the bad breath of people, the stench of sweat... it's the stink of the entire farmers' market."

Xu Wenqiang shuddered. On this playground, bathed in the scorching sun and filled with laughter and joy, she saw Su Xiaoshan being pinned to the pillar of shame at the farmers' market.

"According to you, do we still have to shave our hair, peel off our skin, extract our marrow and get a blood transfusion before we can be reborn as humans?" Xu Wenqiang asked.

"Reincarnation is too troublesome. You'd better study hard and stop living in a muddle," Su Xiaoshan said. "Knowledge changes destiny. It makes sense after all. The most realistic example is that I, like you, came from a farmers' market. Isn't it just because I have better grades that no one says I have any strange smell, whether I'm on the class committee or the class representative?"

Xu Wenqiang lowered her head, kicked a weed on the ground, and said nothing.

"Su Xiaoshan, come and play football!" someone shouted from a distance.

"Think about it carefully first." After saying this, Su Xiaoshan left Xu Wenqiang and ran to the football field.

Xu Wenqiang simply squatted down, staring at the weed in front of him and sulking.

She admitted that the last-place student shouldn't be the math class representative, but they had mixed it up with her selling seafood at the farmers' market, using it as an excuse to say she smelled bad, and she didn't want to admit it.

She didn't smell the stench from the farmers' market that Su Xiaoshan mentioned.

But she remembered Su Xiaoshan's words, "Knowledge changes destiny", which was so down-to-earth and true.

Xiao Cheng watched Xu Wenqiang and Su Xiaoshan from a distance, seeing them standing side by side, talking non-stop. Just when he thought they would continue talking, Su Xiaoshan ran to the football field alone, leaving Xu Wenqiang squatting on the ground.

It's rare to see Xu Wenqiang looking so listless, like a flower hit by frost, except that the petals are black.

Xiao Cheng walked over, picked up the ping-pong ball on the ground, squatted in front of Xu Wenqiang and asked, "Why, did you offend Su Xiaoshan too?"

Xu Wenqiang looked up, not understanding why Xiao Cheng was squatting in front of her. She looked at the ping-pong ball in Xiao Cheng's hand and remembered that after she spiked Su Xiaoshan's last ball, they forgot to pick up the ball.

"That's none of your business." Xu Wenqiang was in a bad mood and reached out to take the ball from Xiao Cheng's hand, but Xiao Cheng threw the ball up and had no intention of returning it.

"Can you still play table tennis?" Xiao Cheng stood up, picked up the tennis bag on the table, and took out the racket.

"I don't know how to play ball. Are you here to bask in the sun? Give the ball back to me." Xu Wenqiang also stood up.

"Since you are not here to bask in the sun, then come and play ball." Xiao Cheng walked to the other side of the table.

Xu Wenqiang said lazily: "But, I'm tired."

"Are you afraid of losing to me?"

"That's not the case. It's not shameful to lose to anyone."

Seeing Xu Wenqiang was unmoved, Xiao Cheng sighed and used his trump card: "Last time I heard Su Xiaoshan say that Chen Yang from Class 12 has turned his love for you into hatred. This matter -"

"Xiao Cheng, let's play ball." Xu Wenqiang quickly picked up her racket and interrupted Xiao Cheng. "Youth is such a precious time, but we can't just bask in the sun."

After saying that, he gritted his teeth and complained to Su Xiaoshan. Why did he make up any excuse when there were so many reasons, but he had to make up such a bloody story and send it to his door, making people laugh at him.

"Then I'll serve."

"bring it on."

When Xu Wenqiang was ready to catch the ball, her eyes changed.

Xiao Cheng was holding the racket. When he saw Xu Wenqiang's focused and calm eyes, his heart became confused and he sent the ball out randomly.

Xu Wenqiang looked at the flying ball and reflexively smashed it with a forehand, while Xiao Cheng stood there without any reaction.

"Good shot!" Xiao Cheng came back to his senses and cheered for Xu Wenqiang, then turned around to pick up the ball.

When Xiao Cheng came back with the ball, Xu Wenqiang asked, "Can you play table tennis?"

"Of course I will." Xiao Cheng said.

"How can you serve such a bad ball?" Just as Xu Wenqiang finished speaking, raindrops as big as beans suddenly appeared on the table.

No one expected that it would suddenly rain, and there was a sudden burst of shouting and howling on the playground.

"This is awful weather." Xu Wenqiang shielded herself from the rain with her racket and said to Xiao Cheng, "There's no shelter here. Let's go back to the classroom."

She was about to run, but Xiao Cheng stopped her: "You'll get wet when you run back to the classroom."

"What should we do then?"

"We'll hide here."

Xiao Cheng pulled Xu Wenqiang under the ping-pong table.