Chapter 11
◎Just throw away those annoying little notes◎
Some say that olfactory memories are always more profound and intense than visual ones. Just like now, the instant she smelled his familiar scent, she seemed to be suddenly pulled back to those countless summers when she walked side by side with him.
Many afternoons during her university years, she would hold hands with him, who had just finished playing basketball, in this atmosphere, walking together through the bustling crowds of the campus in the slanting rays of the setting sun.
As time went by, the two walked hand in hand, clearly sharing such a simple and beautiful affection.
The line moved forward slowly.
Her first encounter with him was still a long time ago, but she unexpectedly bumped into him here, so close that she didn't even have a chance to react.
Zhan Xinyue stared at Xu Shen's back, her mind blank, mechanically and stiffly moving with the group.
Finally, it was almost time to reach the cashier. Xu Shen casually placed his bottle of Scream on the counter and pressed his meal card on the card reader.
The woman skillfully entered the amount, but the "beep" sound of the card being successfully swiped didn't ring. She tried again, puzzled, and said, "Is your card demagnetized? Why isn't it beating?"
"No way, I swiped my card this morning when I got my food." Xu Shen leaned over to look, picked up his meal card and pressed it back in, repeating it several times, but the card reader still didn't beep.
"That's strange," he muttered to himself, glancing at the other side of the line. He called out, "Hey Lao Bai, can you toss me your meal card so I can swipe it first?"
In the queue on the other side, a dark-skinned, skinny guy looked up at the sound and grinned, "Brother, I can't save you. To be honest, I only have three yuan and fifty cents left in my card, and fifty cents left after buying a bottle of iced tea. Want some?"
"Surely not?" Xu Shen asked doubtfully. "Where did all the money in your card go?"
“It’s Friday, so it’s normal to run out of money!” Yu Bai said.
Zhan Xinyue listened to their back-and-forth with a blank expression. His voice rang out right in front of her, so close that it made her heart ache.
Xu Shen's preferences have never changed over the years. Every time he finishes playing basketball, he will only buy Scream drinks, and he is even so fixed on only drinking the green-packaged kind.
She never consciously remembered these little details, but they had unknowingly left a deep imprint on her heart.
"Fine..." In front of him, Xu Shen grabbed his hair again with a helpless expression and whispered to the aunt, "Then I don't want it."
His usually high-pitched voice dipped slightly, revealing a hint of dejection.
The bottle of screaming that he had been tossing around for ages was placed on the cashier's counter, and he turned and left.
The card reader suddenly beeped.
A fair hand reached out from his side, holding the meal card with a blue card sleeve, and gently swiped it against the card reader, wiping away the amount the aunt had just printed for him.
Xu Shen was taken aback and turned his head.
The first thing that catches the eye is a clean-cut face. Behind her stands a girl with a pointed chin, long hair tied in a ponytail, light-colored lips, and clear, bright eyes and brows, like a delicate landscape painting. But at this moment, her face is tense, giving her a somewhat cold look.
She didn't look at him. After swiping her card, she placed a bottle of soda on the counter and said, "Auntie, there's also this."
With another "beep," the girl swiped her card deftly once again, walked past him, and left the bottle of Scream, already paid for, still standing by the cashier.
Xu Shen then belatedly realized what was happening and quickly called out to her, "Thank you, classmate. Which class are you in? I'll pay you back next week."
The girl didn't turn her head, but waved her hand with her back to him, her long hair swaying gently at her waist: "No need."
It seemed like a trivial matter, something she didn't take to heart at all, and she didn't care about him either.
Xu Shen stared at her retreating figure for a few moments, then called out, "Thank you!"
Zhan Xinyue walked with a straight back, taking each step without hesitation. However, where Xu Shen couldn't see, the hand holding the soda water in front of her was trembling uncontrollably.
She hadn't expected to do such a thing; her mind was still blank. Her actions were purely instinctive; before her reason could make a rational judgment, her body had already instinctively saved him from the predicament. When she came to her senses, her hand was already on the firmware, and she could only grit her teeth and continue, trying her best to appear natural.
As she walked past him, her limbs were stiff; she wondered if he had noticed.
This was the second time she had seen him since her rebirth, and it was so unexpected that she was completely unprepared.
According to the usual storyline, this episode had never occurred between the two of them.
Fortunately, Xu Shen didn't know her yet, and this little incident could happen at any time on campus, so it probably wouldn't attract his special attention.
It's okay, just consider it as helping a stranger. That's the only way she could comfort herself.
Even after walking a long way, her hands were still trembling slightly.
It wasn't just because I hated him, but also because I hated myself.
She hated herself for letting her body betray her before her brain when she saw Xu Shen, the sunny, vibrant, and energetic young man she remembered.
Behind her, Yu Bai nudged Xu Shen, who was still standing there in a daze, with her shoulder and asked in confusion, "What are you looking at?"
Xu Shen, holding the bottle of Scream, gestured with his chin towards Zhan Xinyue's retreating figure in the distance and asked, "Do you know which class that girl is in?"
Yu Bai glanced at it and said speechlessly, "I didn't even see her face, how do you think I would know?"
Xu Shen regained his composure and smiled, "That's true, let's go."
Yu Bai suddenly perked up, her gossipy eyes fixed on him: "Why are you asking about other girls? You can't..."
"Stop." Xu Shen pressed down on his shoulder. "Someone bought me a bottle of water, I can't not repay that favor."
Yu Bai was greatly disappointed: "Tch, boring. It's just a few dollars, do you think people would even want it? Let's go, let's go back to class."
Xu Shen also scoffed, "A few dollars? Some people didn't even seem to be able to afford that."
"You're no different!" Xu Shen laughed and strode away amidst Yu Bai's dissatisfied shouts.
The journey back seemed endless. Zhan Xinyue felt a tightness in her chest and could hardly breathe. She simply went around to the pavilion by the playground to catch her breath, gazed at the pond outside the pavilion for a long time, and then slowly walked back to the classroom.
This was the second time she had seen him since her rebirth. Compared to the nausea she felt when she went to see him on the night of her rebirth, this sudden encounter with him caught her off guard, and her heart was filled with a painful and bitter feeling.
When we got back to the classroom, it was almost time for class to start. The restlessness from the physical education class hadn't dissipated, and everyone was sitting in their seats with their school uniforms open, fanning themselves with their hands.
Zhan Xinyue sat down, her absent-minded gaze falling on the table, where she saw a neatly folded note half-pressed under her pencil case, most of it sticking out.
Her gaze slowly shifted to Xie Wanzhi, who was sitting not far away. She was laughing so hard she was leaning back, talking to the person at the table in front of her.
Seemingly noticing this from the corner of her eye, Xie Wanzhi turned her head while laughing, blew her a kiss, and then turned back to continue laughing with the people at the table in front of her.
Zhan Xinyue withdrew her gaze expressionlessly.
There were already several such notes in her pencil case, and she didn't know when Xie Wanzhi had passed them to her. Since the first day, she hadn't opened her notes again, always stuffing them into her pencil case without even looking at them, out of sight, out of mind.
She stared at the newly appeared note for a few seconds, and suddenly felt a surge of anger.
She dumped all the notes out of her pencil case, along with the one on the table, crumpled them into a ball, and with a flick of her wrist, the ball landed easily in the trash can behind her.
Trash should stay in the trash can forever.
She didn't pay attention to what the next class was about, and only realized when the bell rang that another class had passed without her noticing.
Shi Ziqian beside me was quite different from usual. He was usually very quiet, but today he had been tidying up his things, opening and closing the books on the table, making a soft, rhythmic noise. Occasionally, he would glance over, then look away and continue tidying up.
Even when she was completely distracted, Zhan Xinyue noticed something was off.
After a long while, he finally stood up, placed his hands on the table, and paused.
Zhan Xinyue could feel his gaze on the top of her head.
She could no longer pretend to be oblivious, so she slowly tilted her head back, looked at him, and asked, "What's wrong?"
Shi Ziqian's eyes were dark and deep, like ink that couldn't be dissolved. He stared at her for a long time, then shook his head and said softly, "It's nothing."
Zhan Xinyue, unaware of what was going on, looked at him with a hint of doubt.
He pursed his lips, stopped looking at her, turned around, grabbed his backpack from the back of the chair, and walked out.
He took two steps, then hesitated and stopped, turning back and saying seemingly casually:
"See you tomorrow."
Zhan Xinyue was looking at his back with a puzzled expression when she suddenly saw him turn around again. She smiled subconsciously and replied politely, "See you tomorrow."
For some reason, upon hearing her words, Shi Ziqian seemed relieved and even smiled.
Zhan Xinyue was startled by his sudden laughter, and by the time she realized what was happening, he had already walked quite a distance.
She suddenly realized that she hadn't even had her evening class yet, so how could it be tomorrow?
After a brief moment of confusion, she belatedly realized that the classroom was almost empty, and the remaining people were packing up their things.
It's already Friday, a holiday.
Xie Wanzhi was still rummaging through the bottom cabinet with her head down when she called out to her from afar, "Xinyue, I'm leaving now. My dad is coming to pick me up today," and then she hurriedly left the classroom.
Zhan Xinyue rubbed her temples, forcing herself to cheer up.
Today, because Xu Shen's emotions fluctuated too much, her original study progress was greatly disrupted. She had to remind herself again: the monthly exam is coming soon, now is not the time to be distracted by other things, and everything else can wait until after this hurdle is overcome.
She began packing up the materials she planned to take home to study; the weekend was precious and she wanted to make good use of it.
While tidying up, she remembered the farewell Shi Ziqian had given her when he left, and suddenly something came to mind.
He probably misspoke; it wasn't "see you tomorrow," it should be "see you the day after tomorrow."
The school's usual practice is that Sunday is club activity day, but unfortunately, several experimental classes are forced to attend math and English Olympiad classes, which requires them to return to school on this day.
She took out a few exercise books from the already packed workbooks and put them back in the bottom cabinet, stuffed the rest into her schoolbag, and then picked up her schoolbag and left the classroom.
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