34 Chapter 34
◎I really didn't mean to molest you.◎
The lingering heat of late summer dissipated after several rain showers.
With the sudden drop in temperature, many students in the class caught the flu, and for several days the classroom was filled with the sound of coughing.
Fortunately, the flu came and went quickly, and everyone recovered in a few days. Only Xie Wanzhi was in a worse situation. She coughed for a few days without taking any medicine, and when she went to the hospital again, she was diagnosed with a mild lung infection and was taken home to recuperate.
Once this flu outbreak subsided and temperatures rose briefly, autumn outings began.
The autumn outing was scheduled for Wednesday. Although it was only a short day, it was a precious time for these high school students who had been cooped up in a cage for so long to get some fresh air. So, starting the day before, the students in the class couldn't sit still and were making a ruckus that couldn't be suppressed.
The teachers knew that the students had been exhausted for too long and needed an outlet, so they let them be.
That evening after class, it was unusual that only Zhan Wei came to pick up Zhan Xinyue. When she got home, she saw Pang Yun busily making rice balls in the kitchen.
"These are for you to take on your autumn outing tomorrow," Pang Yun said, opening the oven door. "I also baked a lot of cookies, all kinds of flavors. I'll make some sandwiches tomorrow morning, otherwise they won't be as fresh after a night."
Zhan Xinyue exclaimed, "You don't need to make so much food, I can't finish it all, and the school will prepare lunch for us at noon."
"It's not for you to eat alone. Take it with you and share it with your classmates. They all live on campus, so it's inconvenient for them to take it with them."
Zhan Xinyue said "Oh," and added, "But this is too much."
Zhan Wei also strolled in to see Pang Yun's work and said, "What's so great about this? Not at all. When we were kids, we would bring a big bag of snacks for spring and autumn outings. We would share them along the way. Just thinking about it makes me happy."
"Yes, food tastes best when everyone is eating together. I was worried that what I made wasn't enough."
Zhan Xinyue could only say, "Okay, thank you, Mom."
Pang Yun added, "I baked a lot of cookies, so you can share them with everyone. But I only made enough rice balls for three people, as it's inconvenient to make too many to carry."
"For three people?" Zhan Xinyue asked curiously. "Who are the three people?"
Pang Yun glanced at her: "Yours, Wanwan's, and your deskmate's."
"My deskmate?"
Zhan Wei added: "When he was little, his name was Shi Ziqian, right?"
Zhan Xinyue nodded hesitantly. She could understand why Pang Yun did Xie Wanzhi's part, since her parents had always known that the two of them got along well. But why did Shi Ziqian's part also come up?
Perhaps the surprise on her face was too obvious, Pang Yun asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Aren't you two sitting at the same table anymore?"
“No, it’s still my deskmate,” Zhan Xinyue said. “Mom, you’re so thoughtful. You even prepared a portion for my deskmate.”
Pang Yun laughed, "Didn't I make one for the three of you during the spring outing in the first half of the year? You even asked me to make one for you."
"Oh..." Zhan Xinyue had no recollection of this. She touched her nose, walked away guiltily, and then suddenly remembered something, "I forgot to tell you, Xie Wanzhi has a cold and went home and hasn't returned to school yet, so she won't be participating in this autumn outing."
"It's alright, since it's already done, just give her portion to someone else."
Zhan Wei asked her from the side, "By the way, I forgot to ask you on the way back. Didn't anyone ask you to bring back snacks this time? The convenience store downstairs is still open. If you want to buy some, let's go over now."
Zhan Xinyue did have some recollection of this. As the only day student in her class, she was always asked to bring things from outside the school. She remembered bringing snacks for people before spring and autumn outings and sports meets.
However, in these situations, Xie Wanzhi usually comes to bother her first, and the other classmates follow suit and ask her for help. Perhaps because Xie Wanzhi wasn't there this time and no one made the first move, no one actually approached her.
Zhan Xinyue shook her head: "Nobody said."
“Why are you being so polite, my classmates? But it’s alright, I baked a lot of cookies, enough to share,” Pang Yun said.
Under Zhan Xinyue's repeated insistence, she finally gave up the idea of making her sandwiches again, but reminded her before leaving: "Remember to divide the rice balls out and eat them as soon as possible, they won't be good if left for too long."
The new moon should appear.
The destination for this autumn outing was a botanical garden in the suburbs. As soon as it was light, more than a dozen cars were already parked neatly on campus.
Zhan Xinyue arrived rather late. By the time she found the tenth bus and hadn't even boarded it, she could hear a cacophony of noise emanating from inside.
She boarded the train, and almost everyone had arrived. Standing at the front, she looked around the packed carriage, somewhat perplexed.
Everyone has their own regular partners, especially when going out, they've already paired up in advance. Since Xie Wanzhi wasn't here today, she suddenly didn't know where to sit.
Turning her head, she saw Shi Ziqian sitting alone by the window in the front seat, looking out the window.
She touched her schoolbag and remembered the box of rice balls that Pang Yun had specially made. After a slight hesitation, she sat down next to him.
Shi Ziqian sensed the movement and looked over. Their eyes met in mid-air. Zhan Xinyue nodded to him, and he nodded back.
Everyone arrived quickly, and as the school bus drove out of the campus, everyone became even more excited, and the whole bus was bustling with noise, except for the two of them who remained quiet.
She was used to sitting with him, but the experience on the bus was quite different from that in the classroom.
The school bus wasn't big, and the seats were a bit cramped; when two people sat together, their shoulders almost touched. She placed her hand on the armrest, and the sleeve of her school uniform brushed against Shi Ziqian's sleeve.
She noticed that Shi Ziqian's fingers curled slightly, so she quietly withdrew her hand and placed it on her lap.
Shi Ziqian glanced at her hand, then turned his gaze back to the window.
As the class monitor, Dai Yun took on the responsibility of taking photos for everyone today, snapping away non-stop with her camera from the moment they boarded the bus. When her lens was pointed at her, Zhan Xinyue smiled and gave a peace sign to the camera.
"You have a beautiful smile." Dai Yun held out the camera screen for her to see.
In the video, she is wearing a school uniform, her long hair falls to her chest, and her face is filled with a bright smile, which is exactly the youth she misses most.
Zhan Xinyue's eyes crinkled into a smile as she thanked Dai Yun, her mood brightening considerably.
Dai Yun then took photos of the cars in the back row, and suddenly saw several people with their windows rolled down a bit and their hands on the windowsills to enjoy the breeze. She quickly dissuaded them, saying, "Don't stick your hands out of the window, it's dangerous."
The other party wasn't buying it: "I only stuck it out a little bit, what's there to be afraid of? Besides, there aren't many cars on the road right now."
"Didn't you hear that story when you were little? There was a bus where a kid in the back row stuck his head out of the window, and nobody paid any attention to him. When the bus stopped at its stop, the driver noticed he hadn't gotten off. He went over to check and found that the kid's head was gone, only his body was left!"
A scream immediately came from the back row: "Class monitor! Why are you suddenly telling this ghost story!"
Dai Yun explained earnestly, "It's not a ghost story, it actually happened, my dad told me about it."
Everyone laughed. "Class monitor, how could you believe that? Your dad probably made it up to scare you." But at least they all withdrew their hands.
Zhan Xinyue was secretly shocked. In fact, she had heard this story before and had never doubted its authenticity over the years...
The noise in the car lasted for a while, and since Lao Zhou had something to do in the morning and would be late to come, he didn't come with the car. Everyone became even more unruly, and many people in the back row gathered together to play cards, bursting into laughter every now and then. At first, it sounded quite lively, but after a while, it became so noisy that she got a headache.
Zhan Xinyue rummaged through her bag and pulled out her MP3 player, taking out her earphones to listen to some music.
As she held the earphones, preparing to put them on, her gaze slid to Shi Ziqian to the side, and she paused slightly.
When two people sit together, it is undoubtedly impolite for one of them to wear headphones, as it seems to show a strong desire to isolate oneself from the other person.
She thought for a moment, then opened her palm to reveal one earphone, politely tilting her head to ask, "Want to listen together?"
Unexpectedly, Shi Ziqian responded softly with "Okay," then reached out and took the earphone, putting it on.
Zhan Xinyue glanced at him a few more times, pressed the play button, then leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes to rest.
The music flowed quietly from my headphones, even though the sound quality wasn't very good.
She found this MP3 player under her pillow last night. The songs were all downloaded by her when she was a teenager, her favorite songs from high school. Listening to them now felt both distant and familiar.
The botanical garden is quite a distance away, requiring nearly two hours' drive. After driving for a while, the noise inside the car gradually subsided, and many people fell asleep.
Perhaps infected by the drowsy feeling, Zhan Xinyue listened to music and unconsciously began to close her eyes. The school bus seat back was too upright, and her head rested against the hard partition in front of her. She unconsciously changed positions a few times before finally finding a slightly more comfortable spot and falling asleep.
When I was woken up by a small bump, the car was quiet, no one was talking, and there was even a faint snoring sound coming from the back seat.
Her earphones had slipped off at some point and landed on Shi Ziqian's school uniform. She reached out to pick them up, her gaze following the fabric of his uniform, then lingered for a moment.
The school bus had clearly reached the suburbs and was traveling on a wide, flat road lined with dense roadside trees on both sides. The sun had already risen, and sunlight shimmered through the thick branches.
In the play of light and shadow, Shi Ziqian leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, very close to her. In the quiet carriage, she could almost hear his soft breathing.
His head was tilted slightly back, his nose was high and straight, and his jawline was taut in a beautiful arc. The contours of his face were gilded with a soft gold by the sunlight.
Zhan Xinyue was still half asleep. She squinted at him for a while, then looked away and saw that one of his hands was resting on the partition in front of her.
Shi Ziqian's hands, like him, were very beautiful, with long, slender fingers and distinct knuckles, like hands that play the piano. However, at this moment, there was a red mark on the back of his hand, which stood out starkly against his pale skin.
She stared at the red mark in confusion for a while, then suddenly realized: no wonder the forehead she was pressing against in her dream didn't feel so hard anymore, it turned out... she had accidentally pressed down on someone's hand.
She didn't know how long she had been asleep, only that the red marks on Shi Ziqian's hand were very deep, indicating that she had pressed down on it for a long time.
That day, Zhan Xinyue couldn't understand for a long time why she had acted that way. Perhaps it was because she had just woken up and her mind was still sluggish; perhaps the quiet of the carriage gave her the illusion that she was the only awake person in the world; perhaps it was because she felt guilty and wanted to destroy the evidence immediately. Of course, it's also possible that at that moment, his jade-like hand, with its alluring red hue, was so beautiful it almost dazzled her…
In short, she stared at the abrupt red mark, and subconsciously reached out and rubbed it twice on the back of his hand, as if trying to rub the red mark off.
The red marks did not dissipate in the slightest because of her movements. When she felt the temperature of her fingertips, she suddenly woke up completely, her mind went blank, and she withdrew her hand as if she had been burned, and sat up straight.
What am I doing?
After a two-second pause, Zhan Xinyue glanced furtively toward the other side of the aisle.
The two people on that side were sleeping haphazardly, their heads close together, and the people behind them were too. Once she was sure no one had noticed what was happening, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, everyone was still asleep, including Shi Ziqian... She turned her head and suddenly realized that Shi Ziqian's eyes had been open at some point and he was staring at her intently.
She was startled and stared at him, speechless. She could only feel the heat rush to her face, making her whole face burn.
Stared at so intently by her, Shi Ziqian's Adam's apple bobbed, but he remained silent for a long time. He withdrew the hand that had been resting in front of her, then suddenly lowered his eyes and closed them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
