Chapter 46
He went in through the back door and saw his down jacket neatly lying on his chair, waiting for him. Chen Zhou felt a warm glow in his heart.
He sat in his seat for a while, occasionally shaving his eyebrows, his gaze always fixed on Jian Sheng, who was praising someone at the table in front of him with his arched eyebrows, his smile carrying a hint of awkwardness.
The comforting moment didn't last long. Jian Sheng began reviewing the math test from the morning class, and Chen Zhoujing's gaze swept around.
He heard the sound of exam papers in his ear, stood up, lifted his eyelids, and glanced ahead a few times.
He paced back and forth in front of the table.
There were only a few students in the class, and his commotion was quite loud. When he attracted attention, he gave an apologetic smile and then sat back down.
Jian Sheng's back seemed welded to the stool, unable to move.
Chen Zhou pursed his lips, his agitation subsided, and he reached into the underside of the table. Suddenly, his fingertip was poked by something sharp.
Along with the pain came the ripping sound of plastic packaging. He lowered his eyes and tilted his head.
His pupils were filled with a variety of lollipops and cookies, all different colors and styles, including the one he often ate.
Chen Zhoujing's fingers curled slightly as he reached for the candy in the table.
Only when they lay quietly in his hands did he feel a surge of emotion in his chest.
After staring at the candy for a long time, he took one, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth.
Sweetness filled his mouth, seeping in from the surging sensation and enveloping his heart.
Chen Zhou swallowed hard, then opened another candy wrapper and chewed it.
In the front row, Jian Sheng listened to the sound of him unwrapping candy, her grip on her pen tightened, and her thoughts drifted as she looked at the test paper. Her senses seemed to be breaking free from the framework she had set for herself, endlessly drawn to the actions of the person behind her.
It's an uncontrollable urge to pay attention.
This kind of emotional pull can cause her emotions to overflow in an instant.
After dawdling for a long time, she slowly wrote out a question and began to aimlessly flip through the papers.
The sound of rummaging almost drowned out the sound of the wrapper being torn open at the back desk.
Finally, she found a problem that she could understand, a problem that she was already very familiar with.
She tried to cover up her thought process and started writing formulas back and forth on the scratch paper.
Just as we got to the second question, the chair opposite us was pulled out.
She subconsciously looked up and saw Chen Zhou raise his eyebrows at her with a broad smile, a lollipop she had given him still dangling from his mouth.
As soon as he opened his mouth, a fragrance, the scent of fructose, drifted into her nostrils through the air.
"Why are you making that face?" Candy rolled over in his mouth, and Chen Zhou asked, licking his lips in surprise.
Jian Sheng actually has no expression; it is precisely at the peak of her emotions that she appears incredibly calm and unpredictable.
She put down her pen: "What kind of expression is that?"
She didn't really want to ask; she just hadn't figured out how to respond.
Chen Zhou frowned in surprise: "Quite dull."
He wanted to observe her facial expressions, but Jian Sheng didn't give him the chance. She lowered her head and said in a soft voice, "She's started swearing again."
"Huh?" Chen Zhoujing didn't react yet, and continued, "I swear a hundred times, that's really a compliment."
After saying that, he pretended to raise three fingers, just like last time when he said he wouldn't look at her.
Jian Sheng looked up and said, "Childish."
Chen Zhou was startled. His mother said he was precocious, but she actually said he was childish. "Where am I childish? I'm seriously swearing to God that I would never scold you."
"Besides, we're such good friends, aren't we...?"
He started rambling again, and Jian Sheng could almost see four big words on his head: incessant chatter.
She stopped lowering her head and instead looked directly into his animated eyes, leaning back in her chair to listen quietly.
As Chen Zhoujing continued, he realized that she was calmly accepting his rambling behavior, her eyes even brightening with a hint of patience.
He froze for a moment, and his throat began to involuntarily swallow.
The sweetness rolled into my heart.
Seeing that he had stopped talking and waited for a while without continuing, Jian Sheng took the initiative to ask, "And then?"
Chen Zhou was stunned and got stuck, then couldn't come up with anything for a long time.
"Why aren't you playing ball anymore? Come back here." She leaned forward, placed her hands on the table, and exhaled a puff of air from her nose.
Chen Zhou was so shocked that his words turned into stammering: "Ah...ah...I...because I..."
"Because I've realized that basketball isn't really my hobby. Maybe I'm just a flash in the pan." He paused. "Now I think I like badminton more, but nobody at school plays with me."
Although he spoke in pausing mid-sentence and spoke slowly, his tone was still quite earnest.
Jian nodded: "We've been playing for over a year now, it's hardly a three-minute fad."
"Maybe it's because I feel that if you don't thoroughly understand something, you'll only have a three-minute attention span," he said with a smirk. "My thinking might seem a bit extreme."
Jian Sheng paused for a while before speaking: "Not extreme."
She actually admired him quite a bit; if she could think like that, her grades might be even better.
She listened to his story with envy in her eyes once again; his voice was the only sound she could hear in the entire classroom.
Chen Zhou was surprised to see that she had become interested, and he kept talking. You could hear him talking about badminton, then about the husky, and then about the dessert shop.
"Hey, I was just saying it was true downstairs. I need to express my gratitude for helping me put my clothes away. When are you free? I'll take you there again."
"Last time was a bit rushed, and besides, they've released new products."
Jian Sheng thought for a moment and said, "But the final exams are coming up soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Zhoujing was not discouraged. Instead, his eyes lit up: "So that means you agree?"
"Huh?" When did she agree to that?
Jian Sheng wanted to shake her head, but seeing his pleased expression, she held back.
"Then let's wait until after the final exams, I'll take you during winter break, okay?" he said with a smile.
He simply said "oh".
Hearing the agreement, Chen Zhou felt much better, and his words became lighter, like lively musical notes.
Jian Sheng really didn't expect that she would be so happy just for agreeing to go out for dessert together, and he began to look forward to it.
"Ahem." Suddenly, a teasing cough came from next to Jian Sheng.
The two turned their heads, and Qi Jing had been watching them chat for a long time, and the plot of the novel she had been talking about had become stale.
She placed the book with the blue cover on the table: "You two are getting a little arrogant."
Qi Jing remained silent, but her face beamed with joy.
Jian Sheng felt a little awkward. She was used to Chen Zhoujing coming to see her and didn't know when they started talking and kept going.
The surrounding classmates were used to it, and Qi Jing was no exception. She let out a long "Oh," and said, "Then you two continue, I'm sorry to bother you."
"No!" Jian Sheng tugged at her sleeve, his expression somewhat unpleasant.
Chen Zhou was surprised but then laughed: "Then the two of us..."
Before he could finish speaking, Jian Sheng glared at him, and he silently swallowed his words.
His lips pressed into a thin line: "Want to talk?"
"What are you talking about, Chen Gou!" Before he knew it, the classroom had become more crowded. He Shang walked up behind him and patted him on the shoulder.
Chen Zhou glanced at him sideways, and He Shang withdrew his hand, pulled over Xu Xiao's stool, and sat down next to Jian Sheng.
"Holy crap, what exactly is Yu Chao trying to do?" He touched his newly shaved head, a wicked glint in his eyes. "You just left, and he showed up again right after. I told him you went back, and he called you a coward hiding from him. He said, 'If you've got the guts, fight him! If you've got the guts, don't hide...'"
He Shang paused for a moment, and when he saw Chen Zhou's gloomy eyes, he unconsciously closed his mouth.
"And then?" Jian asked in a low voice after the silence.
“Continue,” Chen Zhoujing responded.
He Shang rolled his eyes at him: "He said you're sick and gave you a good scolding."
"Oh." Chen Zhoujing was already very used to this; hearing Yu Chao curse him was perfectly normal for him.
Jian Sheng didn't speak, nor did he ask what He Shang had said about Yu Chao being beaten.
She simply listened calmly as He Shang cursed.
On the other side, Chen Zhoujing's gaze was fixed on her listening intently, trying to find something.
He suddenly spoke up, stopping He Shang's rant: "Is he apologizing to you because of Jian Qingyao?"
He had a vague suspicion, but he didn't believe that someone like Jian Qingyao, who would let his underage sister buy cigarettes, could be a good person.
What kind of good person would let their younger sister live with their grandmother, yet make her feel like she's living under someone else's roof?
What kind of good person would someone be to send someone to the ICU with a single blow from a shovel?
......
The more Chen Zhoujing thought about it, the more he felt that Jian Sheng was being wronged every day, and the more distressed he became.
He heard a brief, confirming reply: "Yes."
Jian Sheng would not deny some of Jian Qingyao's actions, nor would he greet him kindly just because he realized something.
“He probably got beaten up,” Jian said.
Chen Zhoujing was slightly surprised and wanted to say something, but He Shang next to him spoke first: "Isn't this just a pure dog-eat-dog fight?"
After he finished speaking, Chen Zhoujing felt something was off and looked at him.
He Shang paused, then immediately reacted: "Damn, I wasn't talking about you."
"Am I a dog?" Chen Zhou's face darkened. "Change that term from now on."
"Alright, Chen Gou, oh no, Grandpa Chen." He Shang chuckled.
"Actually, I didn't expect Jian Qingyao to beat him up." He said seriously, "The two of them are best brothers who can share the same pants. If someone beats up Yu Chao, Jian Qingyao will definitely be the first to take the hit. That person will definitely feel that living in the world is very painful!"
“Back in the day…” He hadn’t finished speaking when he felt a kick to his shin. Jian Sheng, who was waiting for the next sentence, looked over and changed his words, “Back in the day, his rebelliousness was known to almost everyone in Yanjiang. After that, add Yu Chao to the mix. You wouldn’t even dare to imagine what the two of them were like in Yanjiang.”
Jian Sheng remained expressionless: "You've gone through all this build-up just to say how amazing he is?"
Caught off guard by that remark, He Shang was speechless. He dared not say more; he couldn't very well say that he had beaten someone to the point of being in the ICU with a shovel...
He shrugged: "Pretty much. He's a big shot. You'd better not associate with your cousin. He's too scary."
"Never go out with him when he asks you to, because he might be hanging out with some hooligans."
Chen Zhoujing listened for a long time without saying a word, just like Jian Sheng, only listening to He Shang rambling on and on.
He Shang clicked his tongue and continued, "It's a good thing Jian Qingyao isn't at No. 7 Middle School, otherwise none of the teachers there would be able to control him."
"Hey, how do you know he beat up Yu Chao?" he suddenly asked. "Wait a minute, he apologized to you because Jian Qingyao beat him up. That doesn't make sense. Why would Jian Qingyao beat him up..."
He suddenly realized something, looked up and caught Chen Zhou staring at him with the same look he was seeing a monkey.
Then Jian Sheng said calmly, "He took me to eat hot pot, and that's when I ran into Yu Chao."
"So...so he didn't know you knew each other, and he didn't gossip?" He Shang asked, somewhat surprised.
"Mm." Jian nodded.
"That can't be right?" He Shang's shocked pupils dropped. "No, then why did you go to eat hot pot with him? So you two didn't have any problems? Was it just Yu Chao making wild guesses?"
“I’m staying at his house,” Jian said slowly.
He Shang was at a loss for words, feeling that what he had just said was somewhat absurd.
The group had barely exchanged a few words when Zhong Mei came in and scolded them back. Chen Zhoujing sat in his seat, staring blankly at Jian Sheng's back, his mind a complete mess.
He hadn't expected Jian Qingyao to protect her, and the seed of wanting to know more about her past had already sprouted in his heart.
When he looked at her, his eyes gradually became complicated.
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