Chapter 16
When Shen Chumo heard her turn off the lights, he followed suit, leaving only the screen lit. On the screen, the pale yellow seed was visible. He had heard about the competition for the most beautiful girl on campus since he entered. His classmates said that Shen Huaixin was hostile to Su Zihan and that the two were in a competitive relationship, but in Shen Chumo's opinion, that was not the case.
His sister cares too much about Su Zihan, and this care is positive, not jealousy in the eyes of others. The reason is that the avatar of her small account is "Zi", and Su Zihan appears in almost every photo in the circle of friends, and is in the center.
Su Zihan would take away Shen Huaixin's affection for him. This was the conclusion Shen Chumo came to through observation, and he firmly believed it. Therefore, his attitude towards Su Zihan was not friendly.
"Are you asleep?"
Shen Huaixin's gentle question woke him from his thoughts. He glanced at the profile picture, which was bright enough to be a bit dazzling in the pitch-black room.
"Go to sleep," she said when he didn't answer. "I wish you a sweet dream."
"The same to you."
Shen Chumo placed his phone beside his pillow. In the quiet bedroom, the screen gradually dimmed, leaving only their steady breathing.
This gave him the illusion that they were sleeping in the same bed. A hollow seemed to gradually appear on the opposite side of the pillow, rising and falling with the rhythm of her breathing. The girl's shallow breathing penetrated the night, becoming clearer and clearer in his ears, with a kind of soothing and calming magic.
He also closed his eyes, his mind no longer filled with those disturbing scenes. He could feel the scent of sunlight coming through the quilt, which had been dried on the balcony by Shen's mother's order. It was so languid that he couldn't even lift his eyelids. He could also feel the heat in his ears, which hadn't subsided yet, and was blown by Rulan's breath, making it even hotter.
Shen Huaixin turned over and faced him. He didn't dare to breathe for a moment, closing his eyes tightly, pretending to be asleep, and even snoring rhythmically like he did on TV.
But her breathing gradually became heavier, and she had fallen asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief, touched the buttons on his phone with his fingers, turned up the volume, and fell asleep with her breath as his pillow.
A dreamless night.
On the day of the cultural performance.
Although she knew that this was just an ordinary school-level performance, Shen Huaixin still prepared early in the morning and asked a professional makeup artist to draw eyebrows and eyes, apply powder and rouge, and spent a full hour to make the makeup almost perfect.
The performance costumes were also customized according to the four people's body shapes. Backstage, the four people helped each other put on the performance costumes.
Fang Xiaozheng closed her eyes as she accepted the makeup, her palms sweating with nervousness: "Sister Xin, is it really necessary to be so formal? We are not performing on the Spring Festival Gala."
"I'm almost suffocating. Ah, my stomach hurts, what should I do..." The baby-faced man's fingers were already cold and trembling, even though there was still half an hour before the official performance.
The girl with twintails said nothing, drank some water calmly, then choked on it with a calm expression and kept coughing.
Su Zihan glanced at Shen Huaixin from a distance and paused. Even though she disliked her arrogance, she had to admit that Shen Huaixin's beauty was objective. In front of the excellent makeup artist, her appearance was completely highlighted. Although her overall makeup was pure and lovely, the touch of bright red on her eyes was bold and ostentatious, like a wild flower blooming with all its might, refreshing and sonorous.
…It was so beautiful that it even made her feel ashamed of herself.
Su Zihan looked at her performance clothes, which were prepared by the school after she submitted the program list. Naturally, they were not as exquisite and beautiful as Shen Huaixin's. At this moment, she began to regret her underestimation of the enemy. She should not have rejected Qi Yi's kindness to customize clothes for her and chose the clothes provided by the school.
She suspected that the outcome of the school beauty contest would be decided as soon as Shen Huaixin appeared. Su Zihan didn't like to sit and wait for death, but at this moment, she had no choice but to force herself to remain calm.
She was lucky, as her program was scheduled in the middle and front, which not only had the warm-up effect of the front but also did not make the audience tired. However, Shen Huaixin's program was scheduled at the end, and perhaps some classmates had left by then, and their attention was far less focused than at the front.
"Nervous?" Qi Yi wore a loose white shirt on the upper body, tight pants on the lower body, and a dark green jacket that reached his heels. His style was quite similar to that of the European Renaissance period, which made Su Zihan, who was used to seeing school uniforms, brighten her eyes.
She smiled and said, "It's others who should be nervous."
So what if they look good on the outside? She believes that their hard work in rehearsals won't lie.
Qi Yi raised the corner of his mouth, about to say something, but his gaze was already captured by Shen Huaixin. His eyes flickered slightly, and he saw the girl's beautiful long hair, which was loose like algae, yet extremely casual and chic, and her top and skirt with a unique cut and design. The vibrant vitality in her instantly reminded him of the song he had heard, which was extremely appropriate.
It was just a fleeting glimpse.
He remembered that he had searched for the song for a long time but could not find the original singer. Then, a bold idea came to his mind - could it be that Shen Huaixin was the original author?
That unlearned and trouble-making Shen Huaixin?
Qi Yi withdrew his gaze, shook his head, and rationally suppressed his dangerous thoughts.
At this moment, Shen Huaixin kept cheering up the three members of the demon team. She patted Fang Xiaozheng's back vigorously: "Xiaozheng, relax a little. If the sky falls, Sister Xin will hold it up. It won't fall on your head."
The baby-faced girl said with a sad face: "Sister Xin, I'm so afraid of getting you into trouble. I know the competition for the school beauty is very important, so..."
Fang Xiaozheng quickly corrected him: "Sister Xin is the school belle, so why would we fight for her? At worst, we can just sing softly to give Sister Xin more room to perform."
"What do you mean by singing softly? This song is all about passion." The girl with the twin ponytails jumped up and shook Fang Xiaozheng's shoulders, making her headdress jingle. "Surging passion is the essence of this song. Don't you realize that?"
"Wait," Shen Huaixin was confused, "What is the campus beauty competition?"
For a moment, the air seemed to be still. The three of them stopped arguing and looked at her, their pupils shaking.
No, the competition for the school beauty that was widely rumored and was a real thing in the school...it seems that the parties involved didn't even know about it?
After a while, the three of them looked at each other. There was silence, but they could read a series of complaints from each other's eyes, such as "outrageous" and "unbelievable". After confirming the look in their eyes, they knew they were one.
"This is a long story, let's talk about it later." Fang Xiaozheng scratched his head and laughed it off.
Shen Huaixin nodded, guessing that it was probably spread by gossipers. There were many rumors on campus, so it should have spread in a small range and was not a big deal.
After about ten minutes, some audience members started to enter.
The backstage area of the school stage was small, so she quietly passed through it, watching through the crack in the door as students gradually took their seats. Suddenly, she saw a middle-aged woman in brand new clothes. She was neatly dressed, her eyebrows downcast, and she looked a little uneasy. Her face looked older than the other parents, and the traces of time were particularly obvious.
But when she sat down, her eyes became particularly bright, and she started chatting with the parents next to her with an expectant look on her face.
Shen Huaixin felt that she looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. He thought about it over and over again but to no avail. This stuck feeling made Shen Huaixin very uncomfortable.
"Sister Xin, what are you looking at?" Fang Xiaozheng came over and curiously followed her gaze towards the audience, his face stiff for a moment.
Shen Huaixin looked at the middle-aged woman, then at Fang Xiaozheng, and suddenly it dawned on him - it turned out that it was because she looked very similar to Fang Xiaozheng!
No wonder he couldn't remember where he had seen it before, he hadn't seen it before. Shen Huaixin finally put his face blindness to rest.
“Xiao Zheng, she is…” Shen Huaixin paused, thinking of the plot in the book, and didn’t continue.
Fang Xiaozheng despises her mother, feeling that she is an embarrassment to her. When her classmates ask her about it during parent-teacher conferences, she always says that it was her nanny who came in her mother's place. In the original novel, Fang's mother didn't attend the cultural performance; it seems Fang Xiaozheng's performance had a butterfly effect.
Fang Xiaozheng hesitated, opened his mouth hesitantly, and was about to say something when the girl with twin ponytails came over and took over what Shen Huaixin said.
"Oh, she's the Zheng family's nanny. I've seen her before."
"..." Fang Xiaozheng agreed.
Shen Huaixin asked with a frown, "Really?"
"What's the matter? Are you doubting my memory?" Twintails tilted her head. "I think I'm remembering correctly, right, Xiao Zheng?"
After a long time, Fang Xiaozheng said "hmm" vaguely.
Shen Huaixin sighed and said no more. Seeing Fang Xiaozheng looked a little guilty, she felt that he was not hopeless. The vanity of youth was understandable. Besides, in her eyes, the child had made great progress. She just needed to pay attention to guiding him more in the future.
As time went by, the spacious seats were gradually filled. Shen Huaixin watched them take their seats one by one. Their young faces were both unfamiliar and familiar, but there was still one villain missing who needed to fulfill his promise.
Could it be that she missed it? After all, there were so many people and she didn't have time to look at them one by one, so it was entirely possible that she missed it. Shen Huaixin thought about it, took out her phone, sent a message to Shen Chumo with a small account, and then stared at the phone, waiting for a reply online.
One minute later, no reply; five minutes later, the host came on stage, still no reply.
Shen Huaixin began to feel a little restless. Seeing that the performers of the first show had already come on stage, Shen Chumo neither answered the phone nor replied to the message. The whole person seemed to have disappeared into thin air. He always carried his mobile phone with him and usually replied in seconds.
She checked the time. It was still a long time before she went on stage, enough time for her to go out and check the situation. She briefly explained a few words to the three of them, then found a gap and ran out, rushing to Shen Chumo's classroom.
She had seen Shen Chumo in the morning, and was almost certain that he was still in school, so the most likely place was the classroom. However, when she ran to the classroom while talking on the phone, she found that no one was there. All the classmates had gone to watch the art performance without exception.
While Shen Huaixin was catching his breath, he called home again. The housekeeper answered the phone and said that Shen Chumo had not returned.
This made Shen Huaixin even more worried, and her bad premonition became stronger. She believed that Shen Chumo kept his promise, so the only possibility was that he had encountered something.
Shen Huaixin ran from the classroom to the cafeteria, and then to the playground. When she looked at the time and was about to give up looking for him, she finally saw his figure in the alley behind the library.
To be precise, he was in a fight with several boys.
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