Chapter 78
Chapter 78
After the sports meet, Shu Yao's voice became hoarse.
After coughing a few times and taking a few sips of mineral water, Shu Yao remembered that the head teacher seemed to have bought some throat lozenges.
She walked down from the podium and ran straight to the headquarters of Class 5, searching in the white plastic bag on the table.
Suddenly, someone patted her shoulder from behind.
Shu Yao turned around and saw Chen Ye with a medal hanging around his neck and a stuffed puppy in his hand, which should be a commemorative prize from the sports meeting.
The puppy was stuffed into Shu Yao's arms, and he instinctively held it: "What are you doing for me?"
"I don't want this thing." Shen Ye said as a matter of course.
"Neither do I."
Shen Ye held the puppy's ears: "Then I'll throw it away."
"Oh." Shu Yao grabbed its legs with both hands, feeling it was a bit of a waste.
Shen Ye probably realized her compromise, smiled, withdrew his hand, took off the medal and put it around her neck.
Before Shu Yao could say anything, Xu Zhaoli called out to Chen Ye from a distance.
Shen Ye rubbed her head, turned around and ran towards Xu Zhaoli.
He came and went in a hurry. His seemingly natural actions were like dropping a stone, disturbing the calm surface of Shu Yao's heart.
Shu Yao looked at the puppy in his hand and the medal around his neck, and suddenly remembered a puppy he had raised when he was a child.
The puppy likes to run outside when she has nothing to do. Every time she comes back, she has to bring something to her. Sometimes it is flowers picked up on the road, and sometimes it is sausages that the neighbor has hung out to dry.
It probably thought she liked it, so it wanted to bring back everything it thought she liked to her.
Although it doesn't seem very appropriate, but Shen Ye...
This was the feeling she felt at the moment.
She tightened her left hand around the puppy.
"Woof woof!"
The puppy suddenly made a sound, which scared her. She was stunned for a moment and pressed the puppy's belly.
"Woof woof!"
Shu Yao finally realized that this sound was not a mechanical dog barking, but more like... Chen Ye's voice.
She held the puppy up to her ear and listened again.
Finally confirmed that this is what Shen Ye recorded.
Childish or not.
Even Shu Yao herself didn't realize that the corners of her lips were slightly curled up at this moment. Instead, Zhao Tiantian beside her seemed to have discovered a new world and came over to gossip, "Chen Ye is really pursuing you?"
Shu Yao came back to his senses and was not surprised by her question. If those boys knew, then Zhao Tiantian might also know.
She hummed softly.
Zhao Tiantian hesitated, "You've just transferred in, so you might not know. If you two get together, you have to keep a low profile... Our class teacher, Mr. Wang, is the strictest on premature dating in the entire school! No couple can escape his strict control."
"We won't be together." Shu Yao said affirmatively.
"Ah? Why?" Zhao Tiantian was surprised. "You don't even like someone like him?"
Shu Yao pursed her lips and silently changed her words.
"We won't be together now."
The lively aftermath of the sports meet quickly disappeared with the arrival of the midterm exam.
When the test results came out, some were happy while others were sad.
The classroom was in chaos.
Shen Ye was lying on the table trying to catch up on his sleep, but was awakened by a heart-wrenching cry.
"Holy crap!! Brother Hao is awesome! Number one in the whole school!!! I'll treat you!"
Shen Ye frowned slightly, straightened his upper body and leaned against the wall, kicking Xu Zhaoli's chair.
Xu Zhaoli was carefully writing down on a piece of draft paper the reasons why he ranked last in the exam, in case he couldn't answer when he was interrogated when he got home.
The chair shook and he looked up: "What's wrong?"
Shen Ye asked: "Liu Hao is first?"
"Yeah, didn't you hear Li Xingyang's loud voice? Every passing ant would have to listen to him bragging about his deskmate getting first place in the grade, as if he had done it himself."
Shen Ye turned the pen in his hand and stopped again: "What about Shu Yao?"
"Shu Yao?" Xu Zhaoli thought for a moment before remembering the name. "Ah, the one from Class 5?"
Xu Zhaoli raised an eyebrow at him, put down his pen and stood up: "You wait!"
In order to protect students' privacy, the test results of No. 3 Middle School will not be posted on a big-character poster. Students can only view them by entering their student ID and password and entering the Academic Affairs Office system.
But the class teacher has the student grades and ranking list of each class.
Xu Zhaoli came back after a while, but his face looked a little solemn.
He pulled out a chair and sat down, sighing, "Shu Yao ranked eighth."
Eighth place?
Chen Ye's expression turned much colder. He clearly remembered that more than a month ago, in the first monthly exam of the senior year, Shu Yao was still ranked first.
It was because she got the first place in the exam as soon as she transferred here that her reputation in the school soared.
"Are you sure you're seeing right?"
"You don't even need to look. He's being educated in the office. I just ran to the office door when I heard Lao Wang say seriously—" Xu Zhaoli cleared his throat, pointed a finger at Chen Ye, and imitated Lao Wang's tone, "Shu Yao, eighth place is already good for others, but for you, you think it's worth being happy..."
Before Xu Zhaoli could finish his words, a chair made a harsh sound as it slid across the tile floor.
He turned around and saw the back door hit the wall with a bang and bounced open, and there was no sign of Shen Ye.
The door of the office on the first floor was closed, but the windows on the side were large enough for Shen Ye to see what was going on inside.
Shu Yao stood in the aisle, head lowered, silent.
The head teacher across from me, Lao Wang, took a sip of tea, sighed, and continued, "Have you encountered any difficulties recently? If so, you can tell me."
Shu Yao shook his head expressionlessly: "Teacher, I didn't encounter any difficulties."
Lao Wang's tone sounded amiable, yet it was difficult to conceal his strength. "But why did the teacher hear that you've been getting close to Shen Ye from Class 8 recently?"
Shu Yao explained gently: "We are just friends."
"Are they really just friends?" Lao Wang's tone was full of disbelief. After all, he had been a teacher for so many years, and almost all the young couples he caught said they were just friends.
He put down the cup and said gently, "Shu Yao, you may not understand Chen Ye's family background. For a child like him, even if he fails the college entrance examination, his family is enough to pave countless other paths for him to choose from. But you are different. For you, and of course for most students in the class, the college entrance examination is your best way out."
Shu Yao nodded: "I understand."
"I don't know if your regression this time is related to Chen Ye, but the teacher hopes that you can cut off contact with him before graduation. Otherwise, the teacher can only talk to your parents."
"Okay." Shu Yao answered without hesitation, "I won't contact him again."
Shen Ye's right hand hung at his side, clenching and unclenching his fist.
He took a step back and leaned against the wall by the window, with Shu Yao's pale profile just now in his mind.
I heard the head teacher's satisfactory reply.
"That's fine, go back and review, and do your best for the next monthly exam."
"Okay, thank you, teacher." Shu Yao bowed politely and left the office.
After she opened the door, she walked along the corridor and up the stairs. She did not see Shen Ye outside the window on the other side, but Shen Ye could clearly see her still straight back.
To her, he was just a pursuer.
If he really was causing her trouble and causing her grades to decline, so she wanted to cut off contact, he could totally accept that. But he couldn't just believe everything after hearing a few words and automatically disappear from her life.
In any case, I still have to meet and ask clearly.
He originally wanted to go directly to Class 5 to find her, but then he thought that at this time, if Lao Wang found out, it would be another round of crime. Anyway, tomorrow is Saturday, so he decided to go to the milk tea shop and talk about it.
But what Shen Ye didn't expect was that when he arrived at the milk tea shop in the morning, the owner was the only one in the shop.
Seeing him walk in with the dog, the boss was surprised for a moment: "Hey? Didn't Yaoyao tell you that she resigned?"
"Resign?" Shen Ye frowned slightly, "When?"
"He sent me a message last night."
A morning in the milk tea shop is the only chance for the two of them to be alone each week.
Shen Ye's heart sank, he took out his phone from his pocket and sent her a message: [Resigned? ]
However, the message fell on deaf ears and received no reply until evening.
In the quiet room, the only sound was the fast-paced sound of the mechanical keyboard.
Xu Zhaoli and Li Xingyang sat arm in arm on the sofa in the corner, eating melon seeds, their eyes fixed tacitly on the back of the man with headphones.
"What's wrong with Brother Chen? I've never seen him like playing games so much?" Li Xingyang asked curiously.
Xu Zhaoli pointed to the broken walnut shell on the table and said, "Look, is this shell broken?"
"Broken, what's wrong?"
Xu Zhaoli sighed softly and shook his head: "Not as heartbroken as my brother."
"..." Li Xingyang lowered his voice and asked again, "Did you break up?"
Xu Zhaoli thought for a moment and said, "I can't say I'm heartbroken. After all, I've never been in love before."
"Fuck, why did you call me here?"
"Nonsense, I'm here alone, I'm not scared?"
Li Xingyang: “…”
"Do you two think I'm deaf?"
A low, emotionless reminder interrupted the two people's whispers.
Shen Ye didn't look back, and even his left hand didn't pause as he pressed the keyboard.
“Brother Chen…” Xu Zhaoli was about to say a few words of comfort when Chen Ye’s phone suddenly lit up on the computer desk.
Shen Ye glanced around, and his left hand suddenly stopped.
He pulled off his headphones and threw them on the table. As he ran out, he only said, "Help me play a game."
downstairs.
Little Biscuit was nestling in his little nest, getting ready for sleep, when he was suddenly grabbed and snatched up.
It opened its eyes in a daze and found that it was its master, so it closed its eyes again and snuggled into Chen Ye's arms.
Shen Ye got in the car, patted Xiaobing's back soothingly with his left hand, held the phone in his right hand, and his eyes fell on a message sent from an unfamiliar number.
1xxxx3482: [Can I go see Biscuit? Shu Yao.]
Chen Ye: [Where are you? ]
The other party sent an address, which was a convenience store.
Shen Ye didn’t know whose phone number this was, but Xiao Biscuit was a secret between the two of them, and no one knew about it yet, so he didn’t doubt the authenticity of the news.
The car sped all the way to the agreed convenience store.
The night was dark, but the convenience store was filled with a cold white light. Before Chen Ye got out of the car, he saw Shu Yao's figure through the glass.
She sat alone, holding a bottle of milk but not drinking a sip, her eyes fixed unfocused on the window, her small face looking a little pale.
Shen Ye pushed the door and got out of the car.
Little Biscuit was woken up by his noise. When he opened his eyes and saw Shu Yao, he wagged his tail wildly in anxiety.
Shen Ye patted his head, signaling it to be quiet, pushed the door open, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to her.
“Here are—” Shu Yao thought it was another customer, and when he turned his head and saw Chen Ye, his eyes suddenly lit up.
She took the biscuit and rubbed her forehead against its little head.
Little Biscuit seemed to sense that she was in a bad mood, and he kept rubbing his head against her chest, acting like a clingy person.
"Whose phone is it?" Shen Ye asked.
Shu Yao pointed to the cashier not far away: "That lady's."
"Where's your own phone?"
"I..." Shu Yao paused and sighed silently, "My mom received my midterm exam report card and thought my grades dropped because I played with my phone too much, so she asked my uncle to take my phone away."
Shen Ye suddenly realized, no wonder she didn't reply to the message she sent.
“So—” Chen Ye’s Adam’s apple rolled, and he lowered his voice, making it seem even deeper, “You don’t want to cut off contact with me?”
"Break contact?" Shu Yao paused stroking Xiaobing's back with his right hand, a puzzled expression on his face. "Why should I break contact with you?"
Suddenly realizing that his boredom all night was entirely his own fault, Shen Ye coughed awkwardly, turned his eyes away, and stared out the window: "Yesterday, I accidentally heard what you said to your class teacher."
A hint of surprise flashed across Shu Yao's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and said frankly, "I was just being perfunctory and didn't mean to take it seriously. My poor performance on the exam this time has nothing to do with you."
In almost everyone's impression, Shu Yao is completely a "good student" in the traditional sense, with good grades, a gentle personality, and taking the teacher's words as his guiding principle.
Chen Ye had also been wavering, until this moment, he was truly sure that she was not, her rebellious nature was well hidden, but it did not mean that it did not exist.
Recalling her resignation, Shen Ye had the answer in his heart.
"So you think you did poorly on the test because of your part-time job?"
"Yeah." Shu Yao clenched the now-cold bottle of milk in his right hand. "Although I've always convinced myself that as long as I'm efficient, I can compress the content that originally took a day to review into half a day, but in reality, it's still difficult."
Little Biscuit poked its head out from her arms and rubbed its chin against his arm. Shen Ye scratched its chin and asked, "Why do you want to make money?"
Although the two had never talked about each other's family situation, judging from her daily food, clothing and other expenses, although it could not be called luxurious, she did not seem to be living in poverty either.
Shu Yao hesitated for a moment and took out a flyer from the schoolbag next to him.
Chen Ye looked down and saw a flyer for a filigree inlay training class. It had a very large lineup and was held once a year. The tuition for one class was 18,000.
"My mom doesn't treat me badly materially, but she doesn't support me either. My New Year's money is all with her. Even the living expenses she gives me are carefully calculated. Basically, I don't have much left every month. If I want to apply for university after getting admitted next year, I have to work hard to save 18,000 yuan this year." Shu Yao raised his eyes and asked seriously, "Do you think I'm unrealistic? This dream sounds lofty, but in fact, I may not be able to support myself in the future."
Shen Ye chuckled: "If a dream doesn't have this kind of uncertainty, then it's called a plan, not a dream."
Shu Yao's heart skipped a beat, and the words he wanted to say were stuck in his mouth, but complex emotions gushed out of his heart.
In the past two days, her teacher's advice, her mother's education, her uncle and aunt's support... everyone told her that she should be more realistic. Her family background meant that she did not have so much trial and error costs. Only Chen Ye told her that dreams are inherently uncertain, and all she had to do was to work hard to turn this uncertainty into certainty.
Seeing that she didn’t speak, Shen Ye tapped the milk bottle in her hand with his left index finger: “It’s cold, don’t you want to drink it?”
Shu Yao was depressed for two days.
When her head teacher asked her to cut off contact with him, she did not feel wronged.
She didn't feel wronged when her mother asked her uncle to confiscate her cell phone.
She didn't feel wronged when she sat here alone, trying hard to open the bottle cap but couldn't.
But Shu Yao felt wronged by his simple question.
Her nose was sour, and she gently pushed the milk bottle towards him: "I can't unscrew it."
Chen Ye held the bottle, stood up and went to the cashier, asking the cashier to help heat up the milk.
He unscrewed the cap of the bottle easily and handed her the warm milk.
Shu Yao took a sip, and the warmth spread from his mouth to his stomach. The depressed mood all over his body seemed to be dispelled in an instant.
She drank attentively and quietly until she heard Chen Ye ask again: "How will I save money if I quit my job at the milk tea shop?"
Shu Yao shook his head: "I haven't thought about it yet."
"I have an idea."
Shu Yao turned her head to look over, with a little milk stain on the corner of her mouth. Chen Ye took a tissue from the side, put his index finger on it, and rubbed the corner of her mouth.
It was clearly the first time, but it felt natural and smooth, as if it had been done countless times before.
Shu Yao felt an inexplicable itch at the corner of her mouth. She pursed her lips and heard him say, "My Chinese tutor resigned not long ago, and I haven't found a new one yet. If you're willing, I'll pay you according to the industry average, so you can also serve as a reviewer."
Shu Yao hesitated for a long time and said softly, "I'm not really willing."
Shen Ye: "Are you afraid that the teacher will find out?"
"No." Shu Yao said frankly, "As for soul poisoning, I think it's too difficult."
Shen Ye: "...?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
