At this moment, in the Pei family home, Pei Zhi hung up the phone and inexplicably felt that the house was empty.
Although he and Pei Xi usually stayed in their own rooms, even if they didn't see each other or talk, he knew in his mind that there was someone in the next room.
This is completely different from the feeling of being alone.
Pei Zhi sat up in bed, played video games for a while, but then found it boring, so he called Shi Chen and asked him to come out and play ball.
Shi Chen scolded him for acting crazy in the middle of the night and slammed the phone down.
Pei Zhi sighed at his ruthlessness and heartlessness, and sat down at his desk, choosing to numb himself with studying.
The thought of his "bet" with Jiang Cheng energized Pei Zhi, and he immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge.
After swimming in the ocean for two days, school finally started.
During PE class, Pei Zhi, holding a basketball, walked down the corridor with Shi Chen, their arms around each other's shoulders.
He hooked his arm around Shi Chen's neck and asked, "Want to play basketball together after school this afternoon? The inter-school basketball tournament is coming up next month, it's time for our school team to stretch our muscles. I'll go find Qin Yufan later and ask him to invite Tong Kai and Zhang Xinghua."
The people Pei Zhi mentioned were all key players on the school team. Besides them, there were a few substitute players, but their skills were all average.
Although many people love playing basketball, most of them can only dribble a few times, and very few can meet Pei Zhi's selection standards.
Qin Yufan and the others were all handpicked by Pei Zhi. They've been playing together since their first year of high school, and their teamwork and coordination have been fully established. They are virtually invincible among all the high school basketball teams in Yushi.
The annual inter-school basketball tournament is about to begin, and there is less than a month to prepare.
Shi Chen nodded upon hearing this, and then asked, "What about Pei Xi? Aren't you going with her?"
Pei Zhi gently tossed the basketball up and down, catching it steadily in his palm.
He shook his head and said, "Pei Xi is not at school today."
Shi Chen was a little surprised, "Where did she go?"
"He went to Yishi to participate in a competition," Pei Zhi said.
He held the basketball in his hand, glanced at his watch, and pondered for a moment, "He should be taking an exam right now, and won't be back until tomorrow."
"She went too?"
Shi Chen raised an eyebrow.
Pei Zhi was puzzled and asked while playing with the ball, "What does 'also' mean?"
"you do not know?"
Shi Chen looked at him with a strange expression in his eyes.
He asked, "Didn't you notice Jiang Cheng isn't here today?"
"..." Pei Zhi froze, his hand holding the basketball stiffened for a moment, and the air remained silent for several seconds.
He retrieved the ball, held it between his waist and arm, and murmured with a complicated expression, "...Pei Xi didn't tell me?"
"What did she tell you?" Shi Chen asked curiously, barely able to contain his laughter.
“She said she knew some of them, but wasn’t close to them.” Pei Zhi finished speaking, paused for a few seconds, and then said, “...it doesn’t seem like she was wrong.”
After saying that, he frowned deeply, looking as if facing a formidable enemy. "No, I have to ask after school."
Shi Chen knew he would react this way, and he was too lazy to talk to him about those nonsense things like "your sister has grown up." Anyway, it wouldn't do any good. He patted Pei Zhi on the shoulder and said, "You go find someone else to fight for a while. I'll excuse myself."
Pei Zhi was taken aback and asked him, "Where are you going?"
Shi Chen took a step forward, turned around to look at him, and smiled, "There's a preliminary selection for the school anniversary program this afternoon, didn't you know?"
"When did you become so fond of joining in the fun?" Pei Zhi asked, frowning.
After asking the question, he suddenly thought of something, clicked his tongue, and looked at Shi Chen with a disdainful look.
"You have a new girlfriend? When did you two get together? No wonder you said you didn't have time when I asked you to go play basketball with me this weekend!"
"You're overthinking it." Shi Chen glanced at him, waved his hand coldly, left with just that one sentence, offered no explanation, and walked away without looking back.
The preliminary selection was held in the small auditorium. If you walk out of the teaching building and around the playground for half a circle, you will reach the building where the small auditorium is located.
As you walk into the building, even before you reach the entrance of the small auditorium, you can hear singing coming from inside.
It seems that the selection process is currently underway for a singing competition.
Shi Chen unconsciously quickened his pace.
Most students were in class at that time, so there weren't many people coming to watch; only a few people were sitting sparsely in the seats.
People were coming and going from the entrance from time to time; they looked like students who had come to participate in the preliminary selection.
Shi Chen stood at the door and glanced casually at the stage. After the previous person finished singing, a chubby boy came up. He didn't know which contestant number he was.
The boy was a little nervous; his voice trembled when he sang the first line of the lyrics, and his performance was just so-so.
Shi Chen leaned lazily against the door, not stepping inside. Listening to the boy inside singing a broken song with his voice trembling, he suddenly felt that his behavior was a bit inexplicable.
He shook his head and chuckled, finding it amusing. He lifted his foot to leave when he suddenly heard two girls talking nearby.
"That girl from Class Two, she's so fat, and she dares to participate in the audition? It's hilarious," a slightly high-pitched female voice said.
Another slightly gruff female voice replied, "That's right, knowing that Yufei would participate, they still came here to humiliate themselves."
Shi Chen paused for a moment, then looked into the doorway and saw two girls, one tall and one short, standing by the wall, smiling smugly.
"What was that girl's name again? What was it?" The girl with the high-pitched voice chuckled, arms crossed. "I've disliked her before. She always walks with Pei Xi from their class. Standing next to Pei Xi, she looks like a short, stout little gourd."
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