Chapter 65
Two rows of tall trees stand tall, and the road under their shade is not wide. There is only one path, and there are not many vehicles passing by. It is relatively remote and there are few people.
Xu Xiaxia walked slowly towards the long road with her schoolbag on her back.
He Shang followed behind, keeping a two-meter distance, and moved forward at the same speed as her.
After walking for a short while, the person in front suddenly called out: "He Shang".
He was startled, his chest tightening: "Wha...what's wrong?"
"Come here quickly." Xu Xiaxia beckoned to him, her voice low and mysterious.
He Shang swallowed hard, walked to her side, and glanced at her curled eyelashes: "What is it?"
Xu Xiaxia clicked her tongue: "Look!"
She pointed to an area not far ahead, blocked by a large tree that stretched out horizontally, and then, realizing that He Shang couldn't see it, she moved to the left and said, "Come here."
He Shang gripped his backpack tightly and moved slowly, but Xu Xiaxia pulled him away: "Slow down!"
"Hurry up!" She pinched his arm.
He Shang hissed and gritted his teeth to look at the spot she was pointing to.
"Holy crap..." His gaze froze, disbelief crossing his face. "The two of them..."
"They really have been on and off for several years now. If Qi Jing wasn't being stubborn, they should be in the same class now." Xu Xiaxia shook her head.
His gaze swept over the two people not far away.
"Let me tell you, after Jian Sheng transferred here last semester, Chen Zhoujing's attitude changed completely. He's always hanging around Jian Sheng. If it weren't for his shameless behavior, Shen Xuzheng would never have bowed down. He's like he's out of his mind, following Yu Chao around every day, and he's become just as arrogant as him."
"I don't know what he's so proud of. His grades are not as good as Chen Zhoujing's, he's always second, and he's not as successful as Yu Chao."
"Besides being able to talk, all he does is open his mouth and smile at people, I don't know what he's smiling about, and then whenever he sees Qi Jing, he starts to have a stern face, like someone owes him something, isn't that crazy?"
He Shang watched her chatter on and on, but didn't say anything and turned his head away.
Xu Xiaxia wasn't satisfied and cursed Shen Xuzheng several times for being sick before she finally stopped.
“You’re sick no matter who you insult…” he said.
Xu Xiaxia gave a puzzled "hmm": "Are you sick? What are you focusing on?"
He Shang shut his mouth, turned his head away speechlessly, and ignored her.
The two seemed to have calmed down. Xu Xiaxia saw Shen Xuzheng put down his arrogance, bend down and say something to her, then pick up the schoolbag from her arms and put it on his back.
The two then continued walking along the long path ahead.
"It's amazing... When our parents were called in before, Shen Xuzheng tried his best to protect Qi Jing. I thought the two of them had a good relationship and that this guy was quite responsible. Later I found out that it was actually Qi Jing who was making concessions all along."
"I think he's really sick in the head..."
He Shang remained silent, listening as she berated Chen Xuzheng, then Yu Chao, and then back to him, interspersed with a few words of praise for Chen Zhoujing.
He had the words stuck in his throat, listening the whole way, and only started walking home after he dropped her off downstairs.
*
After Chen Zhoujing and Shen Shuting left, they remained silent the whole way. When they reached the school gate, Shen Shuting couldn't help but speak first.
"What? Are you planning to never speak to me again?" She smirked. "I came to No. 7 Middle School because of you, and this is your attitude?"
Shen Shuting spoke lightly, but a deeper sense of amusement crept into his eyes.
Chen Zhoujing, carrying his schoolbag and with his eyes half-lowered, stepped out of the side gate and out of the sight of the teacher on duty at the gate before leisurely turning around.
He glanced down: "Is it fun?"
"Your reasons for coming to No. 7 Middle School are your own business and have nothing to do with me. If you feel wronged because of what happened in junior high, you should go to him, not me."
Chen Zhoujing's voice was devoid of warmth, so cold that Chen Shuting's upper body trembled.
She stopped laughing frivolously after a short while, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Aren't you afraid that what you've done will be exposed?"
"He's a coward, but I'm not."
Shen Shuting stepped forward, getting very close: "I heard you had a fight with your girlfriend recently?"
"Do you think your girlfriend would still be willing to stay with you if I whispered something in her ear?"
Mentioning Jian Sheng stirred a ripple in Chen Zhoujing's usually calm eyes.
He gripped the bag tightly, and said in a low voice, "You dare!"
Seeing that he was angry, Shen Shuting bent over and laughed out loud: "It's been a long time since I've seen you react so strongly."
"You hit the nail on the head?" Her delicate features held a hint of teasing.
"If Yu Wang had the resources, you would be forever stuck in your junior high school years."
After finishing speaking, Shen Shuting didn't make things difficult for her and walked towards the group of boys and girls waiting under the shade of a tree not far away.
Only after she had walked away did Chen Zhou raise his eyes slightly in surprise.
Beneath the cold gaze, there was a deathly silence.
He stood on one side of the long road, in an inconspicuous corner.
A group of students in orange and white school uniforms passed by him, making a commotion for a while, and then gradually, it got completely dark.
Only after hearing a heavy slam of the door closing from the security room did he slowly lift his foot, preparing to go back.
At exactly 6:10, Jian Sheng and Lin You slowly walked out of the door.
Lin You held her hand and quietly stayed by her side.
At the fork in the road, she frowned and said, "You're not allowed to skip dinner when you get back."
"Don't study too late at night, um... you can call me if you're unhappy."
“My phone is with me 24/7.” She raised her eyebrows after a long pause and gave Jian Sheng a forced smile.
"Go back, I'm leaving too."
Jian Sheng was actually the same as usual, with no emotional fluctuations on his face. It was only because Lin You was worried that he kept comforting him.
She smiled and waved her hand, "I'm not unhappy, I'll eat dinner."
"Bye-bye." She took a few steps toward the traffic light ahead, then turned back and said, "Be careful, Lin You."
Lin You stood still, waiting for her figure to cross the zebra crossing and wave to her from the other side of the road before walking in the opposite direction.
The two parted ways completely. Behind him, Chen Zhoujing slowly stepped out of the shadows and headed towards the fork in the road he had walked many times before.
He didn't go home until he saw Jian Sheng go upstairs in the residential area.
After that, Shen Shuting came to see Chen Zhoujing a few times, but was driven away by his cold attitude and never came up again.
His cold war with Jian Sheng thus lasted for half a month.
Chen Zhoujing endured it for almost half a month, but Jian Sheng never even looked up when he passed by.
He didn't even have a chance to speak.
The delicate relationship between the two could only be maintained by those few test papers given to them by Zhong Mei.
After the third period in the afternoon, he returned from the office and shamelessly brought back next week's test papers ahead of schedule.
He went around to the back, thought for a moment, then walked back to the front door and slowly walked to the front of the third group.
When Chen Zhoujing reached Jian Sheng's desk, she coughed first, and then placed the completed test paper with detailed steps in the upper left corner of her desk.
Without saying anything, he returned to his seat.
He watched as Jian Sheng took the test paper and breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, a sense of irritation welled up inside me.
During breaks, the classroom was noisy, and some students came up to her to ask her questions, which she answered patiently one by one.
The voice was very soft, which annoyed him.
"I'm so eager to see it," Xu Yanghe suddenly said.
Chen Zhou turned to look at him in surprise.
"Don't look at me, look at her instead." Xu Yanghe moved her chair a little. "You look quite serious when you're not smiling."
Chen Zhou turned his head away in surprise, without saying a word.
Xu Yanghe then said, "Why don't you just lower your head?"
"You started this whole mess, and you haven't even explained yourself properly, just making things worse with one conflict after another."
“Look at Shen Xuzheng, he lowered his head and waits for Qi Jing to get out of school every day, and he keeps coming up to bring her food. He doesn’t stick to Yu Chao anymore.”
"Qi Jing is the same. Before, Shen Xuzheng was a taboo word for her, and no one dared to mention it. Now that they've made up, isn't she having a great time?"
“Yeah, Chen Zhoujing.” He Shang suddenly appeared out of nowhere, patted him on the shoulder, and whispered, “You need to learn from him. Letting a girl be angry for half a month without apologizing, do you think any girl would like that?”
Chen Zhou looked up in surprise: "What are you talking about?"
He Shang choked: "Are you really stupid or just pretending?"
He stopped talking and angrily shouted, "Get out, get out! Class is starting!"
He waved his hand in mid-air.
Jian Sheng wouldn't care about him at all.
He couldn't find a way to talk to her.
He Shang shook his head, looking exasperated, and said, "You two just keep at it, you'll exhaust yourselves."
"Those involved are often blinded by their own interests. You should think about what to do about next week's parent-teacher conference." Xu Yanghe shuddered.
He Shang cursed, "Damn it, you reminded me and I just remembered."
"The midterm exams are next week, followed by the parent-teacher conference!"
Just then, the class bell rang, and Zhong Mei walked in from outside. She stood on the podium, glanced around, and said to the girl next to Jian Sheng, "Qiao Le, go back to your seat first. You can ask her after I finish speaking."
Qiao Le nodded, picked up the history paper in her hand, and returned to her seat.
Seeing that everyone was seated, Zhong Mei adjusted her glasses and said, "The midterm exams are next week, so you all need to put in some effort. I won't say anything else."
"I've already received the list of study group members. It's the same as last semester, with a few changes, but the rest remain the same."
"Then, your group leader, every time I give you the test paper, come to me after you finish it. After you've finished, I'll give a copy to each student. I won't explain the test paper; you can do it yourselves. If you don't know how, you can ask your group leader or come to me."
Zhong Mei handed the list to the first student in the first group: "After you've read it, pass it on. If there are no problems, sign it at the back."
"If you have any questions, you can talk to me privately."
The list was passed around quickly, and there were basically no problems; you just signed it and it went down the list.
When she got to Jian Sheng, she looked at it carefully.
They brought in Zheng Nian, but everything else remained the same.
She paused for a moment on the three characters "Chen Zhoujing" on the second line before finding her own name, signing it, and handing it to Qi Jing.
After the list was passed around, Zhong Mei took it with both hands, looked at it, and said with her head down, "This list was also suggested by Chen Zhoujing. Based on my observations over the past two weeks, I found it to be feasible."
"Changing the list repeatedly will definitely affect the atmosphere. If there are no major problems in the future, let's stick with this list until the college entrance examination."
"No objections, right?" she asked, raising her chin and looking down.
"No, no, I'm very satisfied with the teacher!" a boy in the back row said loudly.
Intermittent sounds of agreement came from the class.
Xu Xiu raised an eyebrow in satisfaction, turned his head to Chen Zhou and exclaimed, "Not bad, that was great!"
“I checked specifically, and I’m in the same group as her.”
Chen Zhoujing shifted his somber gaze from the back of the figure in front of him: "I didn't touch you."
Xu Xiu exclaimed "Ah!" and narrowed his eyes: "Still not admitting it? Fine, fine, I know. Doing good deeds anonymously, huh? Okay, we're brothers, I'll pretend I don't know."
He patted his chest and smiled with satisfaction.
Chen Zhou looked away, rested his chin on his hand, and closed his eyes in deep thought.
In the front row, Jian Sheng lowered his eyes, looking at the full page of papers he had written.
Last week, I ran into him when I went to the office with Lin You. It turned out he was there to talk to Zhong Mei about the study group.
Half of her body stiffened, and she felt a tightness in her chest, making it hard to breathe.
She wanted to turn around and talk to him, to ask him about that girl, but from what angle would she ask him?
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