In the morning's speech, the principal announced that the spring sports meet would be held in two weeks, and called on everyone to sign up. Before the break, the class teacher rushed into the classroom and asked everyone to brainstorm creative ideas for the class entrance to the sports meet. Every class must enter in a square formation, and the square formations can have different themes, so as to showcase the class style, and finally the top few will be selected and count as extra points for the sports meet.

This has become a tradition in all school sports games. Holding signs, shouting slogans, waving flags and releasing pigeons are all old routines. In recent years, the culture of square formations has been changing with each passing day. Some classes are playing with technology and hard work, even having balance bikes and drones.

However, the teacher did not have so many requirements. There will be an exam at the end of June. He did not want the class to spend too much time on things other than studying. So his hope for this square formation creativity was to focus on a few people. The training time for most people could be less, and as for the others, everyone just had fun.

Lin Sitian didn't have the heart to think about the sports meeting. She was now focusing on how to pretend to be just a deskmate with Zhou Sheng. After the morning class, everyone packed up and prepared to go to the cafeteria for dinner. After the thirteenth time of touching and avoiding each other's eyes, Zhou Sheng finally couldn't help but speak -

"You're making me nervous."

Lin Sitian played dumb, "Who's nervous? You?"

Zhou Sheng laughed, and when he stood up he touched her head.

"See you this afternoon."

After getting ready, she arrived at school on time in the afternoon. When she heard her classmates talking about the square formation for the sports meet, Lin Sitian realized that the class had already decided on the performance program for the square formation before she arrived.

The boys performed the light stick dance, which was relatively simple, and all they had to do was to follow the same movements. The girls selected 12 people to wear COS costumes and perform the recently popular "Love Cycle" dance. To be honest, there were actually quite a few dance formations in previous years, but this dance style was quite novel, and it was very much in line with the preferences of Lin Sitian, an amateur ACG girl.

"I'm so excited when I think about you dancing with a light stick—" During the first class break, Lin Sitian lay on the table and stared at Zhou Sheng with a smile. At school, Zhou Sheng was still used to wearing the black-framed glasses. Although he looked much more clumsy than when he didn't wear them, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Lin Sitian now thinks Zhou Sheng is better looking than anyone else even if he wears glasses.

“I didn’t attend.”

"Huh?"

"I don't need to participate in the class formation." Zhou Sheng turned around and said, "I have to host the event on the rostrum that day, and the radio club is short of staff."

Lin Sitian was stunned for a moment, a little disappointed, "Oh..."

Actually, Zhou Sheng would have to go to the radio club if they had enough staff. Every year, the teacher for the school's big events liked Zhou Sheng. He was steady and had good adaptability. There was no need to worry that the preparations would affect his academic performance. In addition, Zhou Sheng's voice was also excellent. His clear and mellow baritone was much better than the others in the radio club.

We used to think that top students were just those who were particularly outstanding in academics, but the reality is, the top students you know during your school years are often those who are well-rounded in moral, intellectual and physical development. The excellent ones will only become better, leaving others far behind. These are the children of other people's families.

Lin Sitian sighed.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Sheng asked puzzledly.

"So you haven't been coming to our class rehearsals recently?"

"Well, the main thing is to prepare for the Mathematical Olympiad preliminaries next month."

"Osei?"

"The school recommended the spot for me. Let me try." After all, with Zhou Sheng's math grades, it would be a bit of a waste if he didn't take the exam.

Lin Sitian had a premonition that a large number of real test questions would soon compete for her favor, and her sense of loss became even greater.

She lay on the table, and a ray of slanting sunlight from the window in the afternoon fell on Zhou Sheng's hand that was pressing on the page of the book, making that well-proportioned and clear hand seem a little transparent.

Lin Sitian's fingertips couldn't help but crawl across the table until they got close to his hand. She stretched out her little finger and tapped him lightly.

Zhou Sheng was staring at the draft paper. The touch from his fingertips made him pause slightly. He glanced at her, pursed his lips, separated his little finger inconspicuously, and bent his knuckles to hook hers.

Lin Sitian suddenly felt that the afternoon sunshine was really warm. The warmth was transmitted to her through his fingertips and extended all the way to her heart.

The blood flows faster.

"You today..."

The more Zhou Sheng spoke, the more nervous Lin Sitian became.

"——Have you not finished the questions given to you yet?"

Lin Sitian buried her face in the table and said, "No."

I was just busy thinking about this and that.

She will write it now.

As she hurriedly flipped through the draft book, Zhou Sheng's voice reached her ears: "It's okay."

Lin Sitian looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zhou Sheng still solving the problem calmly. But for a moment, he lowered his eyes and said, "I will still help you with your studies, so you can ask me anytime you have questions. And..."

The classroom was noisy, but Lin Sitian felt it was very quiet in her ears, so quiet that only one voice could be heard.

"As long as I have time, I will take you home. I said so."

...Zhou Sheng, I'm telling you, this will make me like you more and more, which is too much.

Because in a relationship, if one person likes the other person much more than the other person, she loses.

She had lost a lot of things to him, and she really didn't want to lose her feelings to him.

——Although she was the loser in this relationship from the very beginning.

During self-study class the next day, Lin Sitian and other female classmates practiced together in the open space behind the school building.

The girls were practicing their class's home dance "Love Cycle" for the entrance to the sports meet.

Yes, unfortunately, Lin Sitian was one of the twelve girls chosen by the teacher to participate. It was not that the teacher did not care about her performance, but when Yuan Xiao introduced the dance, he said that this dance was suitable for cute girls, so the teacher added Lin Sitian without saying a word.

The choreographer was Yuan Xiao, the cultural and entertainment committee member of their class. She was good at organizing various entertainment activities. She was the one who arranged the programs for class meetings and school parties. After a long discussion, they decided that the costumes for the performance that day would be cat ears. This was a relatively good and cheap choice. After all, any COS of anime characters that was a little bit detailed could not be done by spending a lot of money on Taobao.

Lin Sitian had performed dance at several New Year's Day parties from elementary school to junior high school, so her dancing skills were actually not bad, but she didn't expect to collapse on the first day of practice.

"Lin Sitian, stand still, you are off the mark."

"Lin Sitian was a beat slow—"

"Wait a minute, Lin Sitian, can you stretch out your legs? How can anyone see it if the movement is so small?"

"Lin Sitian..."

…

…

After a self-study class, Lin Sitian felt that the number of times her name was called by Yuan Xiao was more than the number of times she failed the small tests in the previous month.

She didn't understand, was she really that bad at dancing?

When the bell rang, a group of exhausted students staggered here and there. Someone came up and patted Lin Sitian on the back: "It's okay, just practice more and you'll be fine."

"Yes, Tiantian, it's always like this at the beginning." Another girl also comforted her.

Another female classmate smiled and said, "I think Tiantian dances pretty well. Maybe you, Yuan Xiao, are asking too much of her?"

Yuan Xiao was packing up a Bluetooth speaker nearby, and without even turning his head, he said, "Since you're here to dance, just dance well. It's very obvious if someone is slacking off during this kind of group dance."

"..." Although he didn't point it out clearly, he was already pointing at her nose.

But Lin Sitian herself knew that she was not slacking off, she was really dancing seriously.

Although she likes to play around and likes to be a lazy person, she doesn't like to fall behind.

This was the case on the first day, and Lin Sitian could explain that she didn't get the hang of it. But on the second and third days, Lin Sitian's name continued to appear frequently in Yuan Xiao's mouth. In the end, she was finally unable to bear the blow and couldn't help but speak up to defend herself.

"I just want to dance this dance well. I have to take time to practice and rehearse every day when I get home. I am also very tired--" Yuan Xiao saw that her eyes were a little red, "If it is because of what I said that made you uncomfortable, I apologize to you and I won't say it again in the future."

After hearing these words, Yuan Xiao pursed his lips and said, "Let's stop here for today."

"Don't, Yuan Xiao, the self-study class isn't over yet, and we're going to dance next week, why don't you practice some more?"

"Yes, it's okay. If you didn't dance well, just tell me. It's okay. Tiantian, just practice more." Someone pulled Lin Sitian, implying that she shouldn't argue.

Lin Sitian hesitated for a long time and said, "I... didn't mean that."

The word "I'm sorry" was stuck in my throat and didn't come out.

——It just doesn’t feel right.

For several days Zhou Sheng either helped with preparations for the sports meet or attended a training camp arranged by the school with two other students who had signed up for the Olympic Games. When he returned to the classroom after class that day, the corridor of the teaching building was empty again in the evening, with only him and his shadow left.

The whistle for clearing the school has already been sounded once. The sound of basketball on the playground is slowly moving towards the school gate, accompanied by the laughter and scolding of boys. In the distance, the lights in some buildings have been lit up one after another.

Zhou Sheng approached the classroom and vaguely heard the sound of music coming from inside.

He walked to the front door of the classroom. The lights were not on yet. The huge glass window reflected the half-gold and half-pink sky outside. The wind blew, and the branches and leaves outside the third-floor window rustled.

What really caught his attention was the figure dancing to the music in the open space in front of the classroom.

There were no audience members in the classroom, but she danced very seriously. Even though Zhou Sheng didn't know how to dance, he could tell that she controlled every move and every bit of strength carefully, as seriously as if it was a performance.

Zhou Sheng couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth. He didn't disturb her, but leaned quietly against the door frame, tilting his head to admire her dancing.

It's just a bit dissonant; the music of this song is very cheerful, but she doesn't seem to be leading the cheerful atmosphere.

It wasn't until she turned sideways that he discovered where the discomfort came from...

She seems to be crying.

Her eyes were full of tears and she seemed about to cry, but she bit her lip to hold back the tears, so her crying was not obvious.

Even a little stubborn.

Zhou Sheng, who had been leaning against the door with his chest hunched, stood up straight.

She still didn't notice him, and they danced until the last beat. Then the music stopped, and she stood there with her back to him, taking deep breaths.

After a while, she turned around and picked up her cell phone, as if she wanted to dance again.

"Lin Sitian." Zhou Sheng couldn't help but speak.

She was startled, turned around and saw him, then quickly turned her head away and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I, I forgot you weren't home yet."

Zhou Sheng walked towards her, "Well, I'm sorry I didn't send you off these days."

When Lin Sitian looked at him again, the moisture in her eyes was no longer there, but the corners of her eyes were still a little red.

"It's okay, we have to compete." Lin Sitian smiled, with shallow dimples on her round face.

Zhou Sheng had already walked up to her and naturally reached out to hold her in his arms.

"...Zhou Sheng?" The voice in his arms called him muffledly.

"How long will you jump if I don't come?" he asked.

"I didn't dance for long, I left right away," Lin Sitian buried her head in his chest, "Grandma would definitely scold me if I danced at home."

He leaned on the top of her head and took a deep breath, "Can I take you home? We can finally go together today."

"Okay." Lin Sitian raised her hand and grabbed his arm.

But neither of them moved.

Feeling the shoulders of the person in his arms trembling slightly, Zhou Sheng took another deep breath and held her tighter.

"Tell me what's wrong?"

Lin Sitian's body stiffened for a moment.

"Dance rehearsal in class...I never danced well."

Zhou Sheng frowned in confusion, "I see you remember the moves very well. I don't think there's anything wrong with your dancing."

"I don't know," Lin Sitian refused to raise her head, her voice a little nasal, "Anyway, I didn't dance well."

Zhou Sheng had never seen them rehearse, so he didn't know what to say.

“I don’t know what the problem is.”

"I've tried very hard to learn, and I've kept up with the pace, but every time I'm the one being criticized, I don't know where the problem lies, and I can't change it. I feel so bad, Zhou Sheng..." She finally had a noticeable cry in her voice, "This is different from doing exercises. When doing exercises, there are answers that will tell me if I've done anything wrong and where I went wrong. But this doesn't work. I can't change this no matter how much I want to. They have to jump with me every time, and I feel like I'm the dumbest one..."

"Don't say you're stupid," Zhou Sheng said, "When you think you're stupid, you really become a fool - I never thought you couldn't do it, it's just whether you put your heart into it or not... You put your heart into the midterm exam, didn't you pass it?"

"So this time too, you are dancing seriously, right? Maybe it's just like doing a problem, you need to change your way of thinking to solve it."

Lin Sitian’s heart sank - this idea was really "very Zhou Sheng".

Just as he was thinking about it, a "gu" sounded between the two of them, breaking the atmosphere.

Zhou Sheng was stunned for a moment, and after holding it in for a few seconds, he couldn't help laughing.

"I'm still crying, okay!" Lin Sitian grabbed his school uniform tightly, not wanting him to see her blushing face.

"You'll get hungry easily if you keep dancing," Zhou Sheng smiled and patted her, "I'll treat you to oden?"

"I want fried chicken."

"That family uses gutter oil..."

"Who cares?"