Chapter 20: Being a pushover, is this the ice-breaking effect you want?

There were about four or five pieces of paper, each with a different shape and color. Some were folded into thousands of paper cranes, some were carefully tied with ribbons, and some were made of fragrant floral paper.

Zhu Yingning subconsciously followed Xu Sirui's instructions and opened one of the papers. It was not until she saw the first line of beautiful handwriting on the paper, which read "Classmate Xu Sirui", that she realized what it was. She took a deep breath and quickly closed the paper with a snap.

"Are you from our class?"

"From another class." Xu Sirui raised his eyebrows lazily, stretched out his tone, and said with a meaningful smile, "How's it going, squad leader? Is this the icebreaker you were looking for?"

"You..." She was frightened and embarrassed. She first glanced back at the camera crew, but seeing that they were far away and not filming this side, she lowered her voice and stammered, "You shouldn't have shown these to me."

Girls in the mountains are generally shy and timid when it comes to their first love. It took a lot of courage for Zhu Yingning to dare to give the love letter to Xu Sirui. Zhu Yingning felt that it was a mean act to rashly pry into someone else's heart. She silently repented over the stack of papers, refolded them, and wanted to return them to Xu Sirui, but he said, "You deal with it."

"Ah?" she exclaimed in surprise. "This is written for you. How can you let me handle it?"

Xu Sirui clicked his tongue, as if he found it very troublesome. He took the piece of paper, crumpled it up casually, and put it in his pocket.

This casual and nonchalant attitude set off alarm bells in Zhu Yingning's heart. Knowing that someone had written a love letter to her was already a headache for her. If she didn't handle it well, it would hurt the other person's feelings and intensify the conflict between classmates... Zhu Yingning felt it was difficult to handle just thinking about it.

She couldn't help but chase after him and ask Xu Sirui: "How are you going to deal with this?"

He didn't even turn his head and answered as he walked away: "Throw it away."

"Throw it away!?" she was shocked. "Throw it in the trash?"

"Why not throw it on the ground?" He glanced at her as if she were an idiot.

"That's not what I meant..."

"Or do you expect me to accept them?"

"Of course not! The girls here are very innocent, you must not play with their feelings!" She immediately put on a serious face.

The statement of playing with feelings made Xu Sirui very unhappy, but when he turned around and saw Zhu Yingning's expression like an old hen protecting her chicks, he found it a little funny.

The protective mother hen chirped beside him, "I'm saying... how can you just throw it away like that? After all, it's a token of everyone's love for you..."

Xu Sirui was amused by her. He simply stopped and turned to look at her: "What? Do I have to buy a few frames to frame them and hang them on the wall? I asked you to help me with it, but you didn't want to. I did it myself, but you thought it wasn't good enough. What do you want to do with Zhu Yingning?"

As soon as he stopped, the crew looked over curiously. Zhu Yingning was afraid of attracting attention, so she pushed him forward and said, "I just think you could handle it more gently and not hurt the feelings of the students."

"Be gentle?" Xu Sirui snorted. "What difference does being rejected being gentle or not make? Isn't the result the same? Does being rejected gently by the boy you like change the fact that he rejected you? Will you stop crying when you think about it later? Instead of dragging things out and giving people hope, it's better to cut the Gordian knot. A short pain is worse than a long one. That's the greatest kindness."

Zhu Yingning was stunned. She felt that Xu Sirui's statement was too inhumane, but at the same time, she felt that it made some sense.

Xu Sirui looked at her tangled and reluctant expression and couldn't help but sigh: "Tell me how to deal with this gently?"

Zhu Yingning finally came to his senses, scratched his face, and said embarrassedly: "...Actually, I don't know either."

She has never liked anyone, nor has anyone liked her. She is a complete blank in this regard.

After thinking for a while, she said, "Give me some time to think about it. I will definitely be able to come up with a solution that won't hurt their feelings."

Xu Sirui stared at her for a while, then shrugged nonchalantly: "Whatever you want."

**

Thinking about something she had never experienced before was extremely difficult for Zhu Yingning. She thought about it all night and successfully made herself anxious. When she woke up the next day, she had a blister on her mouth.

There is a kind of grass in the mountains that can treat mouth ulcers. You need to chew the leaves and apply them on your lips. It works quickly, but it is not very beautiful.

When she showed up at school with green lips, everyone who saw her would ask with a suppressed smile, "Class monitor, do you have a sore?"

She answered frankly with her green lips, "Yes."

Unfortunately, the joy brought by the green lips didn't last long. After morning reading, the atmosphere in the class suddenly became strange. Zhu Yingning stood up to collect homework. Inadvertently looking up, she happened to see Lin Kaisheng winking at Xu Sirui's chubby deskmate across a few tables.

The chubby boy's name was Zhou Tianrui. After hearing Lin Kaisheng's signal, he seemed extremely anxious and restless. He touched his neck and scratched his chin, just like a patient with ADHD. After a struggle between himself and himself, he stood up and walked straight to the teacher's office.

Zhu Yingning quickly followed with her homework book in her arms.

Zhou Tianrui walked into the office and walked around in front of Chen Bin a few times.

"What are you doing?" Chen Bin raised his head from the lesson plan.

"Teacher, I have something to tell you..." Zhou Tianrui stammered.

Chen Bin laughed, moved the lesson plan aside, and acted like he was ready to talk: "Okay, is there anything you want to share with me?"

"It's not really sharing." Zhou Tianrui smiled stiffly, swallowed his saliva, and said, "It's just a request... that is, that... um... teacher, I want to change my deskmate."

Zhu Yingning heard this the moment she entered. Not only was she surprised, but even Chen Bin showed a look of astonishment. After a pause, he asked in confusion, "Why? You and Xu Sirui don't get along?"

Zhou Tianrui nodded reluctantly: "Yes, I think he is a very difficult person to get along with."

"This..." This was also the first time Chen Bin had faced such a situation. He tried to play the role of a conciliator as a teacher should, and gently advised, "Xu Sirui is indeed slow to warm up, but he doesn't usually bother you, right? You think he's difficult to get along with, maybe because you two are not familiar with each other yet. Once you get to know each other better, then..."

"Anyway, I just can't get along with him," Zhou Tianrui quickly interrupted, accusing him of something. "Although he didn't directly disturb me, he always sleeps in class, which seriously dampens my enthusiasm for studying. I don't want him to be a bad influence on me. Teacher, I want to find a deskmate who's more studious."

Chen Bin was in a dilemma.

He wasn't completely unaware of the conflict sparked by the basketball game. Zhou Tianrui was considered the mildest-tempered boy in the class, and if Xu Sirui were moved to sit at the same table with Lin Kaisheng and the others, it would be a true world war. If Zhou Tianrui insisted on being moved, Xu Sirui would have to sit alone for the time being for the sake of class harmony.

Being forced to sit alone at a table at such a sensitive age as fourteen or fifteen is definitely not good for a student's mental health. Although Chen Bin knew Xu Sirui probably didn't mind—he had a near-indifference to everything here—as a teacher, he couldn't let this situation go unnoticed, or even fuel it.

Just as he was about to persuade Zhou Tianrui again, a clear voice interrupted him: "Teacher, I'd like to sit with Xu Sirui."

Chen Bin looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zhu Yingning standing behind Zhou Tianrui holding a stack of homework books, with his back straight.

Junior high schools are very particular about avoiding suspicion. To prevent students from falling in love early, boys sit at the same table with boys, girls sit at the same table with girls, and no boys sit at the same table with girls. Chen Bin subconsciously wanted to say no, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that apart from Zhu Yingning, there seemed to be no one else in the class who could tolerate Xu Sirui's temper.

He hesitated for a moment and asked her for confirmation: "Do you mind?"

"Every student is a member of the class. I don't mind who I sit with!" she answered loudly.

Chen Bin smiled bitterly, then looked at Zhou Tianrui and asked, "What's your opinion?"

Zhou Tianrui shifted the tip of his shoe: "...I have no objection, as long as I don't sit with Xu Sirui."

"Okay, then you guys just sit like this for now. If you're not used to it later, I'll adjust it."

"Thank you, teacher." Zhu Yingning put the homework book on the table and bowed.

Zhou Tianrui also replied weakly: "Thank you, teacher."

The two of them walked out of the office one after another. When they were about to reach the classroom door, Zhou Tianrui quickened his pace and walked forward to pull Zhu Yingning, saying, "Class monitor, come here for a moment."

Zhu Yingning understood and followed him to the corner of the stairs.

Zhou Tianrui looked around to make sure no one was around, then said with a bitter face: "Alas, squad leader, I advise you not to meddle in other people's business. Just let Xu Sirui have his own table."

Zhu Yingning said with a straight face: "I know it was Lin Kaisheng who asked you to isolate Xu Sirui."

"If you knew what was going on, why did you run into him?" Zhou Tianrui was about to cry. "You know what Lin Kaisheng's temper is like. He's just watched too many Young and Dangerous movies and thinks everyone is his brother and no one can betray him."

"It's okay, Lin Kaisheng wouldn't dare do anything to me."

"But you...ah."

Before he could finish, the preparatory bell rang. Zhu Yingning patted Zhou Tianrui on the shoulder and walked back to the classroom first.

After the preparatory bell rang, the students in the class were still a little lazy. Zhu Yingning took advantage of the chaos to simply tidy up his desk, first found the textbooks and paper and pen he would need for the first class, and planned to move everything over after the first get out of class was over.

She leaned over to her deskmate's ear and explained the situation to her, then sat down on Zhou Tianrui's chair with her textbook, paper and pen. She also put the teaching materials Zhou Tianrui would need for the next class on her desk, which made Xu Sirui give her a teasing look.

He held his chin and asked ambiguously, "Is this the solution you came up with?"

Zhu Yingning didn't understand what he meant: "What method?"

"Are you planning to pursue me alone so that other girls will give up?" He looked teasingly.

“!!!”

Zhu Yingning's jaw dropped in shock. He glanced around to make sure no one else had heard what he said before gritting his teeth and angrily yelling, "How is that possible? Are you crazy?!"

"Then why are you sitting next to me all of a sudden?"

Xu Sirui's expression was as if to say, "No way, you're not in love with me, are you?" It made Zhu Yingning's arms crawl with goose bumps. She shuddered violently, but not wanting to tell the truth and upset him, so she could only vaguely answer, "Of course I came here because... I'm the class monitor, and I have to supervise your studies."

Xu Sirui burst out laughing.

He laughed so hard that he fell backward, as if he had heard a huge joke. Zhu Yingning was frightened by his laughter and asked with embarrassment, "What's so funny? What are you laughing at?"

Xu Sirui straightened up slightly, wiped the tears from his eyes, and said, "Okay, I was just kidding."

"What?"

He put away his smile and said calmly, "You came here because the fat kid didn't want to sit at the same table with me."

Zhu Yingning hadn't expected him to be so sensitive. In panic, she stumbled over her words, "No, no, you're overthinking it."

Xu Sirui didn't comment, but just looked at her with his chin in his hand and smiled. After a long moment, he narrowed his eyes and softly commented, "...you're such a pushover."

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