Chapter 83
◎I really didn't mean to◎
When Shi Ziqian said, "Talk to me for a while," did he genuinely want her to talk to him, or did he sense that she was in a bad mood and want to spend some time with her?
Zhan Xinyue wasn't entirely sure, but at least when the two parted, she felt much calmer.
She was indeed very down all day, not only because of what her classmates said, but also because she found that she didn't feel any sense of vengeance when she did those things she had planned for a long time.
Was it because all of this was far from enough compared to what Xu Shen had done? She didn't know. All she knew was that when she watched Xu Shen walk away from the crowd and head towards his office, forcing himself to remain calm, she suddenly felt a little tired.
On the way back, it was still raining heavily. The father and daughter walked through the campus with their umbrellas. By the time they got into the car, they were already quite wet from the rain and felt very cold.
When I finally got home, the lights were off, with only the television emitting a dim glow.
As Zhan Xinyue shook the rain off her umbrella, she whispered, "It seems Mom has already fallen asleep from waiting."
As soon as he finished speaking, the lights suddenly turned on.
"Who said that?" Pang Yunyun came out of the kitchen carrying two large bowls. "I haven't even eaten my birthday cake yet, how could I be sleeping?"
Under the lights, a huge cake was already laid out on the coffee table.
Zhan Wei took off his coat and hung it up, then walked over to the coffee table: "Come on, our little birthday star. Come and cut the cake."
"Wait a minute." Pang Yun glared at him. "Here, one bowl of ginger soup each. You can only eat cake after you drink it."
This bowl of ginger soup felt like a godsend on a rainy night. Zhan Xinyue drank it down in one gulp and finally felt warm. Pang Yun sat next to her, smiling as he watched her drink, and reached out to turn on the video camera next to them.
"Alright, you can light the candles now!" The two of them helped her light the candles, and Pang Yun turned off the lights, looking at her with a smile. "It's a new year again, make a wish, Yueyue."
In the flickering candlelight, Zhan Wei pressed the remote control, and the previously paused television screen immediately started moving, with a familiar female voice coming from it.
"Come on, make a wish, Yueyue."
Zhan Xinyue's gaze shifted from the cake, and she realized that what was paused on the TV screen wasn't a movie, but a video. The camera panned a couple of times, then panned to a cake covered in candles, behind which appeared a baby babbling, being held in Zhan Wei's arms.
The little baby didn't understand what making a wish meant; she just waved her hands wildly in the air. Zhan Wei smiled and gathered her two chubby little hands together: "This year, Daddy will make one for you first. I wish that Yueyue will always be healthy and happy, okay?"
Pang Yun, shaking a small rattle-drum beside him, laughed and replied, "Okay!"
The camera then shifts, and the baby behind the candle has become a tiny little one in a walker, standing between Pang Yun and Zhan Wei. Imitating their actions, he awkwardly places his fist on his forehead as if making a wish, muttering, "Cake, cake."
Then, Zhan Xinyue's ever-growing face appeared one scene after another in the center of the screen.
"I want a toy airplane."
"My wish this year is to have a cabinet full of comic books."
...
The long years stood still in the video recorder, frozen into this short clip. As the scene changed, the babbling infant in the center of the frame gradually grew into a graceful young woman, but what remained unchanged were Pang Yun and Zhan Wei, who always sat beside her, gazing at her with smiling, loving eyes.
The final image shows Zhan Xinyue a year earlier, looking almost exactly the same as she does now. She sits on the sofa with her eyes closed, clasps her hands together for a moment, then opens them and quickly blows out the candles.
"Alright, I've made my promise," Zhan Xinyue announced. "Let's start cutting the cake!"
"How did it come true so quickly?" Zhan Wei asked in surprise, and quickly said, "You have to say your wish out loud for it to come true."
Pang Yun also said, "Yes, in previous years we would read it out loud, why did we have to perform a mystery for our parents this year?"
Zhan Xinyue shook her head: "What I did before was wrong. I recently heard from my classmate that wishes won't come true if you say them out loud. You have to silently and sincerely say them in your heart for the gods to grant your wishes."
Zhan Wei and Pang Yun exchanged a glance, and finally Zhan Wei laughed first: "The child is all grown up now, not so easy to fool anymore."
Pang Yun laughed along, then put her arm around Zhan Xinyue's shoulder: "Your parents don't know the rules for making a wish to the gods, but our family rule is that we can only grant your wish if you make it loud enough for your parents to hear it."
“That’s right.” Zhan Wei gently patted her head. “So why don’t we tell Mom and Dad what our precious Yueyue’s birthday wish is this year?”
In the video, Zhan Xinyue has her hair tied in a high ponytail, and her eyes sparkle when she smiles. She hugs Zhan Wei and Pang Yun's necks on either side and says with a smile, "Actually, my wish this year is... for the three of us to live happily together forever!"
The laughter of the family of three lingered in the video for a long time. Outside the video, Pang Yun and Zhan Wei sat beside her as always, looking at her with smiling eyes.
"In the blink of an eye, that little one has grown into a young lady," Pang Yun said. "So, Yueyue, what's your wish for this year?"
The candles in the center of the cake were almost burned out. Zhan Xinyue closed her eyes, trying to hide the sudden warmth welling up in them. Actually, she didn't have any wishes that her parents needed to fulfill, and her birthday wish had remained unchanged since that year.
She clasped her hands together and said, word by word, "My wish this year remains the same: that our family will always be happy and always together."
The flickering candlelight, filtering through her eyelids, bathed her world in a bright orange glow, and the last trace of sadness in her heart dissipated.
Because I am always loved, I am able to generate a lot of courage.
The birthday gift my parents prepared was a gold longevity lock, which is a tradition every year. It seems that they are afraid that she will not have a good life when she grows up, so they add some gold jewelry to her collection every year, saying that it can be used in case she encounters difficulties in the future.
The three of them shared the cake, but since it was late, they couldn't eat much, and most of it ended up in the fridge. Since they had school the next day and couldn't stay up too late, Zhan Xinyue took a shower after eating.
Before she finished showering and was about to go back to her bedroom in her slippers, she heard Pang Yun staring at her backpack on the sofa and saying, "Yueyue, your backpack is all wet from the rain. Let me get you a hairdryer to dry it."
"Just a little bit, it's alright," Zhan Xinyue said.
“I’ll blow on it anyway, it’ll be quick,” Pang Yun insisted. “Otherwise, the water will seep in and soak the books inside.”
She reached for her backpack and casually asked, "When did you get this charm? Did you just buy it?"
"Oh, that? It was a gift from a classmate." Zhan Xinyue glanced at it. Before leaving the classroom today, she had hung the Panpan keychain that Shi Ziqian had given her on the zipper of her schoolbag, and it matched quite well.
"Not bad, quite pretty," Pang Yun praised.
"Right?" Zhan Xinyue yawned. "I think it's pretty too, and it even has a crystal chain on it."
"Go to sleep, look how tired you are."
"Okay." Zhan Xinyue was really sleepy. Ever since she calmed down, she had been feeling sleepy. After saying goodnight, she went into her room.
Seeing the door close, Pang Yun picked up her schoolbag and glanced at the pendant again. The little dog in the pendant was carved very realistically, but not particularly exquisite, exuding the naivety characteristic of handmade items. As for the matching chain…
Is it crystal? Under the light, the plump beads look like transparent water droplets, without a single impurity, and even have a faint watery sheen, somewhat like jade.
However, if it really is jadeite, jadeite of this quality and with such good translucency would be quite expensive, not something high school students could just give as gifts. Pang Yun shook her head, quickly dismissing the idea, and went to find a hair dryer with her schoolbag.
The days without Xu Shen passed quickly. In the first few days, there was indeed a lot of discussion, but as time went by, all the voices subsided. With the mountain of the college entrance examination looming ahead, no one would be distracted by other people's affairs for too long. After a while of excitement, everyone returned to their normal lives.
Several days have passed, and few people mention Xu Shen's name anymore. The only evidence that he ever existed in Class 10 is the desk next to the podium that hasn't been moved. Every day, a stream of worksheets and test papers are scattered down, and in just a few days, a layer has been piled up messily on his desk.
Zhan Xinyue spent the last few days sorting out her emotions and seriously considering her next steps. She had also been pondering the question Shi Ziqian had asked her that day. Once these matters were resolved, she should also seriously consider her future. A brand new life without Xu Shen.
Although there were rumors circulating in the grade that Xu Shen might be expelled, they were not actually true.
To build their reputation, private schools inevitably recruit top students after the high school entrance exam. Xu Shen entered with a first-class scholarship and has consistently been among the top performers in the experimental class for several years, being groomed as a potential candidate for Tsinghua or Peking University. Now in his second year of high school, with results coming out soon, he's not going to be expelled so easily.
Sure enough, when she passed by the office that afternoon, she heard the latest news about Xu Shen: he had been given a demerit and would return to school next week to resume classes.
When she heard the news, half of the day's activity period had already passed. She stood at the office door and looked out into the distance, seeing a group of people playing basketball on the court downstairs. One group looked familiar; they were wearing Class 1 basketball uniforms. Zhan Xinyue had seen them at the school basketball tournament a while ago.
She stared at that spot for a while, then turned and went into the classroom.
The gift box that Xu Shen had given her was still lying deep in the bottom drawer. She pulled it out, picked it up, and walked out.
"Where are you going?" Shi Ziqian leaned back in his chair and glanced at the things in her hands a few more times.
"Something came up."
Zhan Xinyue quickly went downstairs. As she passed the large trash can under the teaching building, she tossed it in without thinking. Then she tidied her hair and walked towards the basketball court.
It wasn't that she wasn't curious about what Xu Shen's gift would be; Xu Shen had always been very talented at preparing surprises, and she had no doubt that this time would be no different. She didn't want to leave herself any chance to show weakness.
On the basketball court, Yu Bai was among several classmates from Class 1, dribbling the ball listlessly.
"Come on, old man, get your act together!" someone laughed at him.
Yu Bai was too lazy to argue, and wiped his sweat in annoyance. "I'm not fighting anymore, you guys fight."
Everyone knows that he and Xu Shen are the closest. Now that Xu Shen has suddenly disappeared from the court, he has been in low spirits these past few days and hasn't said much.
Yu Bai wandered over to the edge of the court and sat down. He turned on the tap, took a few sips of water, and stared listlessly at the yellowing leaves on the trees.
I hadn't been sitting down for long when a female voice suddenly came from above: "Excuse me, are you... Yu Bai?"
He casually looked up at the person who had come, and after seeing the other person's face clearly, he slowly retracted his outstretched legs.
"It's you." His tone wasn't friendly. "What is it?"
This girl is the one from Class 10 who caused Xu Shen to be suspended from school and hasn't returned since. Does Yu Bai remember her?
Zhan Xinyue did not answer, seemingly unconcerned about his wariness, and walked to his side, slowly sitting down.
Yu Bai gave him a look as if he were a madman: "What do you want to do?"
Zhan Xinyue hugged her knees with both hands, her eyes lowered, seemingly looking at something, and remained silent.
Yu Bai lost his patience and got up to leave, but then he heard Zhan Xinyue's voice. Her voice was soft and delicate, just like her: "Is Xu Shen alright?"
"I thought you wanted something else, but it turns out you just wanted to ask this." Yu Bai smiled sarcastically and looked down at her: "Don't you know whether he's a good person or not? Isn't he like this because of you? And now you're pretending to be a good person."
Zhan Xinyue didn't look up. From his angle, he could see her eyelashes tremble violently, followed by a barely audible whisper: "I'm sorry."
“What’s the use of apologizing to me? You’re apologizing to someone else, not me. You hate him so much, and now that he’s been suspended from school and can’t bother you anymore, shouldn’t you be happy? What are you trying to do by coming here and putting on this act? Are you sick?” He was about to continue when his voice suddenly stopped.
A large drop of water fell onto the rubber floor in front of her, and then another.
He suddenly realized that she was crying.
She suppressed her sobs, making not a sound; only her thin shoulders could be seen trembling slightly.
"What... are you doing? Trying to scam me?" Yu Bai took a step back. "You can't stand my harsh words? You're the one who came here looking for a beating."
"I really didn't mean to." Zhan Xinyue buried her head in her knees. "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry to him."
Yu Bai was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether to stay or leave, and stood there in place. Two girls passed by, glancing at him with suspicion, then at the girl crying with her head down, and finally at Yu Bai with disdain in their eyes.
Yu Bai took a deep breath, and after a moment his tone softened a bit. "Speak properly, why are you crying? People who don't know better will think I did something to you."
Zhan Xinyue looked up at him, her eyes red and brimming with tears: "I really didn't mean to, I was just... so scared..."
Yu Bai turned his head away uncomfortably, then slowly sat down again, supporting himself on the ground.
“My family is very strict with me. If my parents found out I even had the slightest hint of dating, they would kill me. Xu Shen likes me, and although I'm happy, I'm also very scared. You know, he's too flamboyant, so I could only push him away again and again, and say some things that I didn't mean, thinking that this would make him give up. But I didn't expect him to become more and more persistent. The things that happened later caused a stir throughout the whole grade. How could I not be scared?”
"That day he suddenly brought up the love letter incident again, and a bunch of people in the class surrounded me and teased me. Class was about to start, and the teacher was coming over soon. I was so flustered that my first instinct was to cut ties with him as soon as possible..."
“You know, not everyone has the confidence to be as reckless as Xu Shen.” She wiped away her tears. “But I never thought things would turn out like this… I’m not coming to you to gain sympathy, nor am I begging for his forgiveness. I know he must hate me now, and I know that nothing I do can make up for it. It’s okay, it’s all my fault.”
She stood up, said one last thing, "Don't tell him I came looking for you," and then quickly walked away with her head down.
Yu Bai watched her fleeing figure, his expression gradually becoming complicated.
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