Make-up classes
The bell for the afternoon's final study session rang against the classroom wall, and the noise surged through the spaces between desks like a tide. But Li Huaizhou remained motionless, clutching his pen. The quadratic function formula on the scratch paper was scribbled crookedly, the tip of his pen repeatedly rubbing against the letters "b-4ac"—until a gentle tap on the corner of his desk, bringing a faint chill, jolted him back to reality.
Xie Mo stood opposite, with a light grey shoulder bag draped over his arm. The collar of his white school uniform was buttoned tightly, and even the wrinkles on the cuffs were smoothed out. "We agreed to have make-up lessons. Will they start now?" His voice was very soft, like chalk dust falling on the windowsill, not startling anyone. Without waiting for Li Huaizhou to respond, he had already pulled out a chair and sat down. His schoolbag rested lightly on the edge of the table, and half of a notebook was exposed from the zipper slit. The traces of red pen circles were faintly visible on the off-white paper, which was so clean that it formed a glaring contrast with Li Huaizhou's curled and ink-stained exercise book.
Li Huaizhou opened his mouth, wanting to say, "Let's go to the bar tonight," but the words turned into a vague "hmm." He watched Xie Mo pull out pens from his bag—a red pen, a blue pen, a ballpoint pen—and placed them on the corner of the desk. Finally, he took out a lollipop, its light yellow wrapper printed with a delicate pattern, and gently placed it between their desks, like a tacit sign.
"First, look at the questions you got wrong last time." Xie Mo opened the exercise book and pointed his fingertips at a geometry problem. His nails were neatly trimmed and rounded, with a faint pink hue. Li Huaizhou's eyes did not fall on the question, but only stared at the fingers hanging above the page - whiter than his hands that had been worn out by years of holding microphones and wiping wine glasses, and even the knuckles had a clean arc. It was not until Xie Mo looked up at him with a little doubt in his eyes that he hurriedly looked away and pretended to study the isosceles triangle in the question.
"The auxiliary line is drawn wrong." Xie Mo said, picking up the mechanical pencil and gently touching the tip of the pencil to the paper. He leaned forward slightly, and the collar of his school uniform rubbed against the table, bringing with it a faint smell of lemon detergent, mixed with the smell of chalk dust wafting from the back of the classroom, gently enveloping Li Huaizhou. Li Huaizhou subconsciously shrank back, but his back hit the wall. He had no way to retreat and could only watch Xie Mo's hand move on the paper. The pencil line was drawn straight and light, as if he was afraid of hurting the paper. "It should be drawn vertically downwards from point A, not from point B to AC." Xie Mo's voice was closer than before, and his breath fell on Li Huaizhou's wrist, with a slightly warm touch. Li Huaizhou's hand trembled violently, and the pen in his hand fell to the ground with a "click", rolling to Xie Mo's feet. They both lowered their heads at the same time. Xie Mo bent down to pick it up, and Li Huaizhuo also reached out. The moment his fingertips touched the pen, they happened to touch the back of Xie Mo's hand - it was cold, like a milk carton just taken out of the refrigerator, but it made Li Huaizhuo's fingertips instantly hot.
Xie Mo handed him the pen, and gently rubbed his fingertips against his fingertips without saying a word, but the tip of his ear turned red. Li Huaizhou took the pen, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He lowered his head and pretended to write, but he couldn't even remember the numbers in the question. Xie Mo leaned over to take a look, and gently rested his shoulder on his arm, so lightly, like a feather landing on it: "You copied it wrong." He reached out and took Li Huaizhou's draft paper, and gently drew a circle on the paper with a red pen. The tip of the pen didn't touch the paper, just hovering, for fear of rubbing against his writing.
Li Huaizhou stared at the red circle, his heart beating like a drum. He could feel Xie Mo's shoulder still pressed against his arm, and could smell the increasingly distinct scent of detergent on him. He suddenly remembered that after school yesterday, Xie Mo helped him all the way home when he was drunk. He felt ashamed when he hugged Xie Mo and cried for so long yesterday. Thinking of this, his earlobes couldn't help but turn red.
"Try again." Xie Mo pushed the draft paper back, his fingers accidentally brushing against Li Huaizhou's pen. He quickly retracted his fingers, placing them on his lap and gently gripping them. Li Huaizhou took a deep breath, suppressed his inner confusion, and started drawing again. This time, he didn't draw it wrong, but he had miscalculated the Pythagorean theorem—given vectors a=(2,3,4) and b=(1,-2,3), try to find a vector c such that a, b, and c form a vector basis. Then he handed him the pen: "Calculate it again, take your time, don't rush."
Li Huaizhou held the pen, the tip of the pen pausing on the paper. He suddenly looked up at Xie Mo. He was staring at his draft paper with his eyes downcast. His long eyelashes cast a small, light shadow under his eyelids, like a butterfly resting there. "Why are you giving me extra lessons?" he asked, his voice a little dry. "There are so many people in the class, you don't have to..."
"Because I want to," Xie Mo interrupted him, his eyes shining brightly when he looked up, like stars immersed in water, "You only got 26 points in math in the last monthly exam. If you continue like this, you will be held back." He did not mention the "like" he said in the toilet that day, but stated the reason so bluntly that Li Huaizhuo felt like he was hit by something in his heart, feeling sour and soft.
For the next half hour or so, Xie Mo did not explain any new questions, but just accompanied Li Huaizhou to correct the wrong questions one by one. Li Huaizhou would still be distracted and make mistakes, but Xie Mo never said he was stupid, but waited patiently until he realized what was happening, and then gently gave him some advice. Once, Li Huaizhou was getting impatient while doing a calculation, and he threw his pen on the table. The pen cap bounced up and rolled to the corner of the table. Xie Mo did not say anything, but bent down to pick it up, gently twisted it on the pen, and then took out a lollipop from his schoolbag and handed it to him, saying, "Reward, take a break before you do the calculations."
Li Huaizhou held it in his hand, the lines of the wrapping paper rubbing against his fingertips. He put the lollipop into his mouth, and the taste of snow pears rushed out, accompanied by the rich aroma of milk. Xie Mo watched him eat it, but did not move himself. He just picked up the ballpoint pen and turned it gently in his hand. The pink wrapper shimmered in the sunlight.
"You use it." Xie Mo suddenly said, pushing the ballpoint pen in front of Li Huaizhou, "Isn't yours out of ink?" Li Huaizhou looked at the half-finished ballpoint pen on the corner of his desk, and didn't take it. He just shook his head and said, "No, I'll take a pencil."
Xie Mo didn't persuade him anymore, but just pushed the pen towards him again, stopping between them, like an unspoken agreement. He picked up the exercise book again, and pointed his finger at a question, but didn't speak immediately. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Are you free this weekend? I brought a set of practice questions."
Li Huaizhou paused with his hand holding the lollipop stick, remembering that the boss said that there would be many customers on the weekend and asked him to go early to help. But looking at Xie Mo's red ears and the slightly wrinkled cover of the exercise book in his hand, he didn't say "I'm busy", but just said "hmm" vaguely. Xie Mo's eyes relaxed instantly, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly, like a flower blown open by the wind, and even his fingertips relaxed, no longer tightly clenched.
The sky outside the classroom gradually darkened, and the students in the back row left one after another, leaving only the two of them. When Xie Mo was packing up, his shoulder bag accidentally rubbed against Li Huaizhou's arm. He quickly retreated, but took out the notebook inside and dropped it on the ground. Li Huaizhou bent down to pick it up. On the page he opened, in addition to neat mathematical formulas, there were also key points marked with various colorful pens.
Xie Mo quickly snatched the notebook and stuffed it into his bag, zipping it up quickly, his ears red as if blood was dripping out. "I should go now," he said, standing up and slinging his canvas bag over his shoulder. He watched Xie Mo's back disappear at the classroom door. His white school uniform was like a light slowly drifting away in the dim corridor.
He pinched the lollipop, the yellow wrapper rubbing against his fingertips, making his palm slowly warm. He hadn't finished correcting the wrong questions on the draft paper, but Li Huaizhou didn't write anymore. He just stared at the eraser, thinking of the warmth of Xie Mo's arm, the touch of his breath on his wrist, and the unspoken "like". His heart seemed to be filled with something warm.
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