Chapter 136: Exorcism You Made Me Violate My Atheism

When Zou Hao found Zhu Yingning, she was sitting at her desk, making a study plan for her final exams. Her first reaction when she saw him approaching was to glance behind her, mistakenly assuming he was looking for someone else. After all, they hadn't spoken properly in almost a semester.

It was lunchtime, and the classroom was half empty. Zou Hao, fearing the ensuing conversation would embarrass him, asked softly, "Can you come out for a moment?"

Zhu Yingning nodded and left without saying anything.

It was late December, and Beijing had already seen its first snowfall. The weather was very cold. With her shoulders hunched, she followed Zou Hao around to a sparsely populated staircase. She saw Zou Hao touch the back of his neck with a gloved hand and said uncomfortably, "I want to apologize."

She was completely stunned, and was stunned for several seconds before asking, "Why are you apologizing to me?"

He hasn't done anything to offend her, has he?

"I apologize for being so stingy." With that first sentence, the rest seemed easier to say, and he poured out his prepared remarks. "When you first became class monitor this semester, to be honest, I was quite dissatisfied. But after observing you for so long, I've found that everyone in the class is willing to be close to you, and that's exactly what I lack. I hope we can reconcile—let's make it before the end of this semester. There are many things I can learn from you."

She listened with her mouth wide open until her teeth were chilled by the cold. Then she quickly closed her mouth and repeated uncertainly, "...Do you want to learn from me?"

"right."

"Ah..." She was still confused. "But, don't you hate this... um..." She gestured, searching her mind for a word he had used before, "A harmonious society where everyone lives in harmony?"

In her impression, Zou Hao should be sharper, more individualistic, and more selfish.

Zou Hao smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, I don't like it now either. I still don't think the ideas I follow are wrong."

"Then why..."

"Because I don't want to lose in a competition." Talking about this, he became even more uncomfortable, but he still looked down at the tip of his shoe and muttered, "The elementary and junior high schools I attended were pretty average. Our school's junior high school wasn't very good, but I could easily become the top student there. But after entering high school, trying to win over others seemed to have become a more difficult task. In terms of studying, I couldn't compete with Tan Jingjing...

"To be honest, when we were participating in the Model United Nations, although she was my teammate, I always wanted to compete with her. When she said we should go east, I insisted on showing off my opinion and suggested 'going west is also fine'. Maybe because of this, our team didn't win the group award, and only she won the individual award. I was the one who held our team back." He touched the back of his neck with his gloved hand again, and Zhu Yingning realized that this might be a habitual little movement he made when he was nervous.

"As for you, actually... well, how should I put it? I thought you'd be successful in the future, so I wanted to be around you, but I was also afraid you'd actually be better than me. It's kind of twisted, isn't it?" He smiled. "So when my worries came true and you really were better than me, I couldn't accept the psychological gap."

"I might just be that stingy. I've never had many friends since I was a kid. My parents always told me, 'You should hang out with good students and avoid those with bad character.' But I wasn't good enough, so I couldn't make friends with bad people, nor could I win the favor of good students. To be honest, after seeing you interact with your classmates, I realized that I might have some problems with interpersonal relationships."

"But I still want to fight. I'm not willing to just give up. And if I want to fight, I have to adapt. Whether I personally agree with it or not, as long as this is the way society works, I will adapt."

He extended his right hand, pretending to shake her hand, looked directly into her eyes through his glasses, and said sincerely, "If you can accept me being so stingy, please teach me how to get along with my classmates."

He thought for a moment and added, in his own unique style, "I will provide you with an equal reward."

After listening to him talk so much, the confusion on Zhu Yingning's face finally faded away and turned into understanding.

She looked at his outstretched hand, paused for a few seconds, then extended her own and shook his tightly. She smiled with her eyes curved, "Although you've mentioned many of your shortcomings...yet, your willingness to change for the sake of your next victory makes you far more capable than I am. I believe you'll achieve great things sooner or later. Zou Hao, do you remember what you said to me a long time ago? I want to return it to you."

As she spoke, white breath escaped from her lips, blurring their facial features.

But the temperature where the palms meet is clear, and it is still burning even through the gloves.

Her powerful voice came with a faint smile, and she said, "You and I have a bright future."

**

The final exams are over and winter vacation arrives hurriedly with snowflakes.

As the Spring Festival approaches, everything seems to have stopped moving - studying has stopped, even the cleaners in the school have been given a holiday; tutoring has stopped, and parents say they want to take their children on trips abroad; even the hourly workers say they want to grab tickets to go back home to reunite with their children.

Beijing is at least half empty; even half the pet cats and dogs have gone home for the Lunar New Year. Xu Sirui vowed this as he walked down the street.

Zhu Yingning noticed that he had been inexplicably anxious since the holiday. This anxiety was not obvious, and only showed up occasionally.

When she was on the phone, he'd casually walk by, then casually stretch his ear to eavesdrop. When she saw a family in the neighborhood taking a walk together and casually exclaimed, "Reunions are so nice," he'd nervously retort, "I think reunions are a Chinese cliché. There's nothing like Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival... Where are there so many reunion festivals? Don't you think it's so contrived?"

She couldn't understand his strange theory: "...No, I don't think so."

At first, she thought that the festive atmosphere had triggered his longing for Zhou Tianlan, so she deliberately sent him and Zhou Tianqing to visit Zhou Tianlan in prison. However, after returning from visiting Zhou Tianlan, Xu Sirui still looked nervous.

She called Wu Bo, who said his New Year's wish was to save enough money to buy tickets to Bigbang's concert.

“Are their tickets expensive?”

As soon as she asked this question, Xu Sirui rushed out of the room and asked nervously: "What ticket? What's so expensive? Where do you want to buy the ticket?"

Wu Bo asked on the other end of the phone what happened, and Zhu Yingning had to say it was nothing. After hanging up the phone, he touched Xu Sirui's forehead worriedly and said that he knew a kind of pomelo leaves that could ward off evil spirits.

"You made me violate my atheism." She sighed, seeming quite sad.

"?"

Xu Sirui glared at her and insisted that he was fine and was definitely not possessed by a ghost.

“People who are possessed by ghosts say they are not possessed by ghosts.”

"?"

He rolled his eyes at her and went back to his room.

It was not until the seventh day of winter vacation that Zhu Yingning suddenly realized what Xu Sirui was worried about.

Liu Guifang called her that day.