Chapter 5 We were both late for the sweltering summer.
It was already past six o'clock in the evening when I came out of the library.
Shen Qingli followed Shen Qingyun home with the books she had found. She seemed preoccupied the whole way. Shen Qingyun noticed her low spirits and asked with concern, "What's wrong? Did something happen at the library? You've been looking downcast ever since you came out."
"No." She shook her head as she walked, and said softly, "I just ran into a... friend."
"Friend? Is it a classmate? Or someone you knew from previous school?"
“None of them…” she denied them one by one, but her tone grew weaker and weaker: “Maybe, they can’t even be considered friends.”
"What?" Shen Qingyun didn't hear what she said after that, so she turned around and asked her. But seeing that she didn't speak, she became even more puzzled: "Shouldn't you be happy to meet friends? Did you say hello?"
No.
There was nothing there.
She clicked her tongue inwardly, not wanting to answer the question anymore, so she just nodded casually and skipped the topic.
"However... I think I just saw a classmate from the class next to ours."
"Lin Xiaqing?"
Shen Qingli was wondering how to bring him up naturally without seeming deliberate, but unexpectedly, Shen Qingyun directly mentioned the man's name.
"Yes, that's right. You know him too, sis?" She was a little surprised, but continued talking.
"Well, we don't really know each other, but a friend of mine mentioned that my friend's family and his family have some connection."
"Origin?" Upon hearing this word, Shen Qingli frowned, looking puzzled.
Shen Qingyun nodded at her and explained, "Lin Xiaqing's family and my friend's family seem to be old friends, but the things inside their family seem to be very complicated, so I don't know much about it."
"Oh, is that so..."
What kind of family are they? She wondered silently to herself.
Sensing the disappointment in her voice, Shen Qingyun stopped and asked in a slightly teasing tone, "But why are you so curious about him?"
"Ah... no, no... I was just asking casually." Shen Qingli didn't expect her to ask this, and she immediately felt a little awkward, stammering as she spoke.
Fortunately, Shen Qingyun only mentioned it casually and did not really intend to pry. Seeing her strong reaction, she joked, "Oh, is that so? I thought the friend you were talking about was Lin Xiaqing."
"...How could that be?"
-
The next morning, Shen Qingli woke up from the heat. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and hurriedly got up. She quickly washed up and walked out of the bedroom. She was taken aback to see that Shen Qingyun's room was still dark. She called out to the people inside the room a few times, but there was no response.
Shen Qingyun usually gets up earlier than her. Realizing something was wrong, she quickly went in and turned on the light. She saw her lying on the bed with her eyes closed, curled up in discomfort, her head covered in sweat, and her face frighteningly pale.
Shen Qingli was terrified by her appearance. She quickly ran to Shen Qingyun's side, shouting her name loudly, "Sister! Wake up! Shen Qingyun!!!"
No matter how she called out, there was no response. She was so anxious that she didn't know what to do. She reached out and touched Shen Qingyun's forehead, only to find that her temperature was frighteningly high.
Seeing that no matter how she called her, it was no use, she disregarded the fact that she was about to be late for school and ran downstairs in a panic to call her father, who had already gone to work, using the phone in the living room.
"Hey! Dad, my sister has a high fever at home. She's not responding when I call her."
Hearing her anxious voice on the phone, Mr. Shen immediately took leave and rushed home with Ms. Shen, who was also at work.
The couple rushed into Shen Qingyun's room and panicked when they saw their eldest daughter's pale face.
"Mom and Dad..." Shen Qingli heard the noise, put down the wet towel in her hand, and turned to call out to them.
At this moment, Shen Fu didn't care about her. He rushed to the bedside, picked up Shen Qingyun, and called to his mother, "Take some things with you, let's go to the hospital."
"Okay!" Mother Shen nodded repeatedly, her eyes reddening with anxiety. In her haste, she pushed aside Shen Qingli, who was still standing to the side, and said urgently, "I need to get clothes for your sister. Don't get in the way!"
"..."
Caught off guard by the sudden outburst, she had never seen Mother Chen so angry since she moved in. She was momentarily stunned and pushed aside unprepared, her arm accidentally hitting the cabinet next to her. She looked down and cried out in pain.
Chen's mother, however, was completely oblivious to her unease. She continued searching for something while scolding her, "Your sister has been perfectly fine these past few years, she's never been like this before. What were you doing when you came back last night? Did you take your sister to do something?"
"I didn't..." She didn't expect to be misunderstood by her mother like this. She subconsciously wanted to explain, but found that her mother didn't listen to her at all.
She continued to mutter complaints: "I told you not to bring you here. Your grandfather even said you could take care of Xiaoyun. What can you take care of? You've only caused trouble for our family..."
"..." The complaints continued, each word piercing her heart. Shen Qingli felt that her whole body was in pain, but she couldn't tell if it was her arm or somewhere else. Helpless, she tightly covered her numb arm with her hand and looked up to see her mother's back as she walked away.
She blinked hard, bit her lip tightly, and kept telling herself that now was not the time for her to be sentimental; Shen Qingyun's matter was the important thing.
But perhaps the pain in her arm was too intense, because her eyes still stung with tears.
But now is not the time to be sad; the alarm clock on the table is a warning that she is about to be late.
She haphazardly touched her face with her uninjured hand, endured the pain, grabbed her schoolbag from her bedroom, and ran outside.
-
But no matter how fast she ran, she still couldn't get to school on time.
When she finally reached the school gate, panting, she heard the last bell ringing and the bell had already rung out. She sighed in despair, resigning herself to being stopped at the gate.
Today was going to be even more unlucky, because the person checking for students who were late was her homeroom teacher, Chen Wei.
Chen Wei had obviously seen her too. Shen Qingli quickly noticed his helpless gaze and lowered her head in shame.
The sun was shining directly on her head, and she felt her face burning. There was no one around, only her standing there. All the emotions she had felt that morning—worry about Shen Qingyun's illness, being blamed for no reason, the pain in her arm, and now being late—were mixed together, making her feel even more ashamed.
Chen Wei walked up to her, sighed, and was about to say something when suddenly footsteps came from afar.
The next second, a tall, thin figure stood in front of her. He was much taller than her, and his shadow fell on her, blocking the sunlight from her face.
Before Shen Qingli could even turn her head to see who it was, she heard a clear, cold voice: "Teacher, I'm late."
Then came Chen Wei's speechless voice: "Lin Xiaqing, you..."
Upon hearing the name, she turned around abruptly and found Lin Xiaqing standing next to her. He still had a cold face, but at this moment he was obediently bowing his head and accepting the scolding, which looked strangely comical.
She thought to herself that her anxiety had eased a little because of Lin Xiaqing's arrival; at least for now, someone was there with her, "making a mistake."
Although this feeling wasn't good, she suddenly felt that she wasn't "alone and helpless" anymore.
Lin Xiaqing's arrival drew most of Chen Wei's attention to him, but before Chen Wei could finish his rant, another commotion erupted behind them.
At that moment, Shen Qingli secretly turned around and saw Luo Yiqiu holding a steaming hot jianbing guozi in her hand. Zhao Yixiao anxiously pulled her forward and urged her to hurry up.
The two walked to the school gate, pulling and tugging at each other. When Luo Yiqiu saw Chen Wei standing at the gate, she finally put away the jianbing guozi in her hand.
It's obvious from the current scene that the four of them are late.
Chen Wei was already angry enough when he saw Lin Xiaqing and Shen Qingli were late, but he didn't expect two more to appear. What's worse, two of the four latecomers were students from his class.
Chen Wei felt like he had just fainted. He angrily made the four of them stand at the school gate as punishment and made them sweep the open space on the playground for a week.
Upon hearing the punishment, Luo Yiqiu couldn't help but let out an "Ah!"
"What? Still not willing?" Chen Wei heard her voice, turned around sharply, glared at them, and walked up to them with a look of exasperation, saying, "You, Luo Yiqiu, and you, Lin Xiaqing! As the class monitors of Class 1 and Class 2 respectively, you don't set a good example, and you openly arrive late on the third day of school, right? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to rebel!"
“Teacher Chen, we’re not…” Zhao Yixiao nudged Luo Yiqiu with his elbow, telling her to stop talking so as not to make Chen Wei even angrier.
Upon hearing his voice, Chen Wei immediately changed the subject: "Zhao Yixiao, I didn't say you were, did I? You're a high school sophomore, and you've been at No. 1 High School for over a year. Instead of setting a good example for your juniors, you're also late!"
Zhao Yixiao: "..." Well, now he had no choice but to shut up.
Chen Wei pointed at them one by one and lectured them, getting angrier and angrier. When it was Shen Qingli's turn, she kept her head down and didn't dare to make a sound.
"And you, Shen Qingli, you..."
"Teacher Chen, we know we were wrong. We'll go clean the playground later."
Before Chen Wei could finish speaking, Lin Xiaqing apologized first, and the expected barrage of words didn't even come out. Shen Qingli glanced at him in surprise, and he seemed to notice her gaze as well, and immediately turned his head away.
Seeing that Lin Xiaqing had said so, Luo Yiqiu quickly echoed, "That's right, Teacher Chen, we really know we were wrong, and we will never do it again!"
“Yes!” Zhao Yixiao also said.
Seeing that they had all spoken, Shen Qingli nodded along with them.
Seeing that they seemed to have a good attitude in admitting their mistakes, Chen Wei didn't say anything more in the end.
The four of them stood obediently outside the security guard's room as punishment. The sun overhead was so bright that they couldn't open their eyes.
Lin Xiaqing and Luo Yiqiu stood on either side of Shen Qingli. Chen Wei had to go to the morning self-study session after catching the late students, so he couldn't keep an eye on them all the time. While Chen Wei was in the classroom, Luo Yiqiu poked her with her hand and winked at her.
Shen Qingli didn't understand what she was going to do, and then she saw the other person stand back a little, hide behind her, take out her own jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe), and start eating it.
Shen Qingli: "?"
She was deeply shocked by what she saw, because before this, she had always thought that Luo Yiqiu was the kind of obedient and well-behaved student who listened to the teacher.
In contrast, Zhao Yixiao's reaction was much calmer. As if noticing her complicated expression, he chuckled and said, "You'll get used to it. She's been like this since junior high."
Hearing his affectionate tone, Shen Qingli was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help but smile.
Only after Luo Yiqiu finished eating did she finally stand back in her original spot and chat with her quietly.
"Qingli, have you ever tried their Jianbing Guozi? It's the one right at the entrance of He'an Community, it's super delicious! I've been buying it from them since I was a kid."
"No, I don't live over there," she answered truthfully, but couldn't help being curious: "But did you really get late because of this breakfast?"
"Yes, that old lady is hard of hearing. She had to close her stall, and I had to chase her all the way down the street to get my food."
Hearing her smug tone as she caught up with the pancake stall owner, Shen Qingli couldn't help but smile, and the embarrassment of being late earlier eased a little.
Lin Xiaqing stood beside them without saying a word, as if nothing concerned him.
His gaze lingered on Shen Qingli's face, but when he saw her smiling, he slowly looked away.
A note from the author:
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Actually, one of my male classmates is completely cold on the outside but warm on the inside, lol.
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