Chapter 22 Meng Yanxi dances for love

On her first day sitting next to Meng Yanxi, Jin Zhao didn't dare to say a word. In fact, if she could take care of everything, she wouldn't even need to breathe.

She didn't know why she was like this. When they were far apart, she would deliberately take a detour through the back door, pass by him, and pretend to turn around to talk to Luo Heng. She would go through mountains and rivers just to steal a glance at him. Now that he was actually sitting next to her, she didn't even dare to turn her head. Her neck was stiff, and half of her ear was burning.

At times like these, she would envy Si Tian's poise and grace.

Si Tian turned around gracefully and spoke casually to Meng Yanxi, expressing either joy or displeasure at his return. Yes, she herself was somewhat conflicted; on one hand, she felt that Meng Yanxi was cold and aloof, not as lively as Lu Jingyue, while on the other hand, she felt that Meng Yanxi was easier to get along with than Lu Jingyue.

Although Jin Zhao couldn't connect Lu Jingyue with liveliness, nor could she connect Meng Yanxi with being easy to get along with, she was even more surprised that Si Tian could describe such a mess of thoughts and feelings so clearly in just a few words.

Jin Zhao stared at her in disbelief, not knowing what to say.

Meng Yanxi was much more direct, casually twirling her pen with her fingers as she asked, "How long has this been going on? What did the doctor say?"

Si Tian: "..."

Two seconds later, she turned to Jin Zhao and complained, "Zhao Zhao, you must also be reluctant to part with Lu Jingyue, right?"

Jin Zhao looked at her innocently, wanting to say, "You're hurting each other, don't drag me into it."

Si Tian grasped her hand: "I understand! You definitely don't like Meng Yanxi either. Ever since that guy sat down here, you haven't said a word!"

These words successfully dragged Jin Zhao into the mess, and Meng Yanxi turned to look at her.

Jin Zhao: "..."

His cold gaze fell directly on her. Even if Jin Zhao were blind, she could feel it, let alone that she wasn't blind. He was all she could see out of the corner of her eye.

Jin Zhao had no choice but to turn her head and meet those beautiful peach blossom eyes.

She tried to casually say something to express her liking for her new deskmate, but unfortunately, she was tongue-tied and chose the most insincere question: "Why did you change seats?"

Upon hearing this question, Meng Yanxi suddenly pressed his thumb against the pen, bringing the spinning pen to a stop between his fingers.

His hands were beautiful, with long, slender fingers and sensual knuckles. When he twirled the pen, the tiny, deep red scar on his wrist bone resembled a cinnabar mole, twitching occasionally and making one's heart itch. The moment he pressed down on the pen, however, one felt an inexplicable chill.

Jin Zhao thought he would say something sarcastic to her, just like he did to Si Tian, ​​and she even prepared to apologize.

Meng Yanxi simply hummed in agreement and said, "I've become a little nearsighted lately, so I can't see clearly behind me."

Jin Zhao looked at his eyes with concern. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, and she would feel a little sorry if they became nearsighted.

Meng Yanxi looked down at her, the pen in her fingertips twirling again, and said, "It's false, but it can be reversed."

Jin Zhao breathed a sigh of relief.

Si Tian, ​​propping her head up with her hand, suddenly said, "Then you can switch with Zhao Zhao, there's no need to switch with Lu Jingyue."

The two men looked at her at the same time, one innocent, the other disgusted.

Meng Yanxi ignored her, turned her gaze away, and said indifferently, "Talking too much is bad for your brain. Don't always do things that make things worse."

Si Tianzhen really wanted to take back her earlier comment praising Meng Yanxi for being easy to get along with.

It must be because they had been separated for more than a semester, and distance made the heart grow fonder, to the point that she had completely forgotten how sharp Meng Yanxi's tongue could be.

Luo Heng, sitting in the back row, rarely chimed in: "Exactly! Swap with Jin Zhao! If you keep doing this, people will think Jin Zhao broke you up."

"Break up who?" Meng Yanxi's right eyelid twitched.

"Be cautious in your words and actions!"

Jin Zhao couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by 'speaking prudently and acting cautiously'?"

"You guys don't know?" Luo Heng blinked. "Yan-ge, you don't know either? You and Yue-ge, 'Jing Yan Shen Xing' is your CP name!"

Meng Yanxi: "..."

Jin Zhao: "?"

Si Tian's eyes lit up, and she slammed her hand on the table: "Wow! You already have a CP name? There wasn't one when I was a fan!"

Luo Heng: "I just got up last Saturday."

Si Tian: "Last Saturday? What happened last Saturday?"

Jin Zhao's heart skipped a beat when she recalled the scene of Meng Yanxi fighting at the school gate last Saturday.

Luo Heng: "I just happened to take a look before that post was deleted. It seemed to say that Yan Ge was fighting with a blond guy at the school gate. Many people saw it, but no one knew the specific reason. Someone posted on the forum to ask. Soon after, someone took a picture of Yan Ge and Yue Ge with their arms around each other at the school gate. It was guessed that the blond guy was harassing Yue Ge, and Yan Ge was furious for his love. The onlookers immediately gave them the CP name 'Jing Yan Shen Xing'."

Si Tian listened with great interest, and after finishing, she turned to the person involved and asked, "Brother Yan, is it true?"

Meng Yanxi looked at Jin Zhao: "It's fake."

Jin Zhao is a bit confused.

Lu Jingyue is harassed by Huang Mao, and Meng Yanxi is furious for the sake of his beloved?

And what about her? Is she just part of Jingyan Shenxing's scheme?

She couldn't help but glance at Lu Jingyue, who was already sitting in the back row. She wondered if it was because Luo Heng's words were too convincing or because Jing Yan and Shen Xing were such a good match. For a moment, Jin Zhao suspected that the person Yu Lei really wanted to pester was Lu Jingyue. As for why he came to the school to block her every day, it was just to attract Lu Jingyue's attention.

Jin Zhao was startled by his own wildly imaginative thoughts and shook his head vigorously.

Luo Heng and Si Tian were still whispering sweet nothings in her ear, shipping them as a couple.

"Smack!"

Meng Yanxi suddenly slammed the pen on the table, the pen striking the wooden surface with a soft, steady sound.

Luo Heng and Si Tian immediately shut up. Si Tian turned around and went back to her seat, pretending to do her homework. Luo Heng glanced at the blackboard, exclaimed "Huh?" and said, "Why isn't anyone erasing the blackboard?" He then got up and went to erase it.

The break ended quickly, and the bell rang for the last class of the morning. Jin Zhao bent down and took out his math test paper from under his desk.

"I don't like Lu Jingyue."

The moment the bell stopped ringing, everything was unusually quiet, as if the noisy world had suddenly paused. Jin Zhao heard the voice of the boy beside him.

She turned her head instinctively.

Meng Yanxi glanced to the side, her dark, almond-shaped eyes reflecting her quiet beauty against the backdrop of the bright sunlight streaming through the window.

Their eyes met, and Meng Yanxi lingered, unable to look away.

For a fleeting moment, a girl's inexplicable intuition told Jin Zhao that he seemed to be waiting for her to say something.

But she didn't know what to say. She couldn't very well ask in return, "So, who do you like?"

At that moment, the math teacher walked in carrying a thermos. Meng Yanxi finally turned her gaze away and whispered, "It's just a rumor, don't believe it."

Jin Zhao was a beat slow to react, and belatedly replied, "Hmm."

Why did you change seats?

Um.

—That's all she said to Meng Yanxi on their first day as deskmates.

Looking back, she realized that she was often awkward and unable to be open and honest with the person she cared about most.

She started leaving home twenty minutes earlier every day, just to sneak a bottle of goji berry and chrysanthemum tea into his desk before he arrived at school.

Traditional Chinese medicine says that goji berry and chrysanthemum tea is good for the eyes.

Meng Yanxi would naturally notice the extra bottle of water. Holding the light-colored beverage bottle in her hand, she glanced at her with a puzzled look.

His eyes were dark, and he was always unpredictable. Whenever this happened, Jin Zhao would feel a sense of unease, as if she had been caught red-handed. Her heart would pound in her throat, but she would pretend that it was none of her business.

She didn't know, she knew nothing. It must have been a girl from another class who gave it to her.

She looked back at him innocently, her acting superb.

Meng Yanxi said nothing, unscrewed the beverage bottle, and tilted her head back to drink the water.

Jin Zhao watched the boy's sharp Adam's apple bob, feeling both happy and unhappy.

But most of the time, she was happy. Meng Yanxi became her deskmate, and the little white sugar she secretly kept in her heart turned into a sweet and rich milk candy, melting from time to time, making the early summer air sweeter.

*

May 26th is the school's arts festival. The affiliated high school's arts festival is a relatively new event, held only in recent years. Participation is voluntary; individuals can participate or form teams independently, and class participation is not mandatory. —I don't know where the school gets its confidence from, but sure enough, it's getting worse every year. Without mandatory participation, fewer and fewer people are signing up, and this year they couldn't even fill the allotted time for the performance.

So, with only a week left before the arts festival, homeroom teachers received a mobilization order from the school to revert to a competition format based on classes.

Chen Shu asked the arts and literature committee member to tally the registrations, but the timing was poor; with the monthly exams approaching, no one wanted to waste time. Apart from Meng Yanxi, who had registered for calligraphy early on, not a single person from Class A had signed up.

However, Meng Yanxi's calligraphy works are only used for exhibitions, and he cannot even go on stage to make up for the time spent at the gala.

Despite having a headache, Chen Shu didn't hesitate to use up class time to patiently persuade the teacher from the podium.

"High school has flown by in the blink of an eye, students. Besides textbooks and exams, we all need moments that we can remember for a lifetime, right? The arts festival is there to give you that opportunity. It's not about how good you are at singing or dancing to get on stage. Even if you're just doing a short play, reciting a poem, or performing a skit with your classmates, these are all your shining moments. I know many of you are afraid of not performing well and wasting time, but please think about it: after you graduate and look back on these three years, will you really remember which monthly exam you missed by a few points or which question you didn't answer correctly? No. But you will remember rehearsing with your classmates, laughing heartily over a certain line, and shining on stage together. Even just once is enough for you to look back on for decades to come and smile."

As expected of a Chinese language teacher, after class, a group of people immediately gathered around Zhao Yu's seat, the art and literature representative. Even Si Tian and Luo Heng signed up to form a team to perform crosstalk.

Jin Zhao remained seated, while Meng Yanxi, sitting to her left, turned to look at her: "Aren't you going to register?"

Jin Zhao shook his head.

Meng Yanxi: "Why?"

Jin Zhao found this question a bit strange. Does one need a reason not to register? One needs a reason to register, right?

She looked at the boy beside her and asked, "And what about you? Why did you sign up?"

Her almond-shaped eyes were clear and bright, and her features were clean. Meng Yanxi suddenly remembered that day, when he hadn't yet switched seats with Lu Jingyue. He was passing by Lu Jingyue when he heard her admiringly praise Lu Jingyue: "Your handwriting is so beautiful!"

She must have never seen anything well-written.

He signed up for calligraphy as soon as he left home.

After registering, he felt rather childish. Luckily, Lu Jingyue didn't wear makeup, otherwise, if she complimented him by saying, "Your makeup is really good," would he have to learn makeup skills?

Meng Yanxi would never tell such a ridiculous history.

"I just gave a random answer," Meng Yanxi lied dismissively.

"I don't believe it." Kind people are always kind, and Jin Zhao had even thought of a reason for him: "It's because his handwriting is beautiful, right?"

After sitting at the same desk for a week, Jin Zhao had become familiar with his handwriting. It possessed both the strength and vigor of iron hooks and the lively spirit of freehand strokes. She had originally thought Lu Jingyue's handwriting was already beautiful enough, but now she felt that Meng Yanxi's was even better.

Meng Yanxi: "Yes, my calligraphy is better."

Jin Zhao: "?"

Meng Yanxi probably felt a bit coy herself, so she changed the subject: "Have you considered signing up for a dance class?"

Jin Zhao looked at him and, as if possessed, asked, "Would you dance even better? If so, I can be your backup dancer."

Anyone else would have recognized that he was being teased, but Meng Yanxi had never known the meaning of humility and nodded without hesitation: "Okay, I'll sign up."

After the two of them registered with the arts committee member, before they even returned to their seats and were still in the crowd, Meng Yanxi turned to look at her and calmly finished the second half of her sentence: "But you might need to teach me first."

Jin Zhao: "?"