Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Fang Minzhou regretted stepping aside...
Fang Minzhou regretted opening the window halfway, because it created a narrow channel effect, and she felt the wind blowing directly on her. She zipped up her school uniform. The sound of the zipper catching Wang Kan's attention caught his eye. He turned to look at her, and Fang Minzhou rolled her eyes at him irritably.
Although the wind was a bit chilly, it was still within Fang Minzhou's tolerance range, and she could faintly smell the lingering fragrance of osmanthus blossoms outside the window. She composed herself, reassuring herself that the breeze would help clear her mind; it wasn't entirely without benefit. Even great men could study in the bustling city; what was she to worry about?
Focusing on the math problem at hand, Fang Minzhou remembered that she had done similar model problems before for this probability problem...
"ah!"
Wang Kan was startled by Fang Minzhou's low cry. Before he could see what was happening, he saw her frantically leaning towards him, almost falling off the chair. He quickly reached out to support her, but Fang Minzhou braced herself against his thigh to steady herself.
Wang Kan was stunned.
Fang Minzhou was also stunned. Through the fabric of the school trousers, the solid and warm touch of his palm was extremely unfamiliar, like holding a hot stone.
She didn't know what she had bumped into. She was so afraid of the praying mantis flying over that she lost her balance when she tried to dodge to the side, causing the other side of the chair to tilt up.
Fang Minzhou spared a glance, cautiously looking back to confirm that she had indeed pressed her hand on Wang Kan's leg. The pressure immediately dissipated like steam from a pot, released through the lifted lid. She awkwardly withdrew her hand, gripping the edge of her chair tightly, still afraid of being attacked, and dared not move too much, her heart still pounding.
"Wow, it's a praying mantis."
Well, if you were scared by this thing, that's understandable.
These were all students who grew up in towns, and at most had caught dragonflies as children. They had no idea that they could see praying mantises this season. They didn't know praying mantises looked like this; unlike cockroaches, they weren't disgusting, but they still looked fierce. The group was tense and curious. Where did it come from? From the window, their classroom was on the third floor—could a praying mantis jump that high?
Jin Baihao stopped doing his homework, spreading his notebook out in front of him protectively. "...Won't it fly over here, will it?"
Ouyang Qian patted his shoulder, telling him to open the window wider. Jin Baihao nervously pushed it open, and Ouyang Qian exclaimed, "Oh dear, open the window on Minzhou's side, not yours."
"Oh, oh, oh." Jin Baihao frantically tried to pry open the window again. Just then, the mantis suddenly moved its scythe, and Zheng Yanhang gasped dramatically.
During evening self-study, the commotion they made in the three rows in front and behind attracted the attention of the surrounding students. After catching her breath, Fang Minzhou calmed down a bit, and not wanting to appear timid in front of others, she mustered her courage and picked up a thin notebook from Wang Kan's pile of books.
It's just a praying mantis, nothing to be afraid of.
"Let me do it," Wang Kan said softly, reaching for the notebook in her hand.
Fang Minzhou shook her head, pushed Wang Kan aside, and just as she raised her arm to drive him away, the mantis suddenly raised its two scythes and pounced straight at her!
Fang Minzhou was unable to make a sound this time.
She was shielded and her head was pressed down, her voice suppressed into her pounding chest. Bending down, she saw Wang Kan's face, even closer than before, like two fish lurking below the table's surface.
The underwater world is silent and dark, with little oxygen.
Fang Minzhou suddenly looked up, but the praying mantis was gone. Its leap had startled everyone, and Zheng Yanhang patted his chest, exclaiming, "That scared me to death! That scared me to death!"
The windows were wide open, casting long shadows of the trees, and the senior high school building across the street was brightly lit.
They come and go without a trace, like a dream.
The daily evening self-study sessions were too boring. The mantis invasion was something to be excited about and reminisce about, but class hadn't ended yet, so Lin Sinian had to stand up to maintain order and keep everyone quiet while studying. Fang Minzhou pushed the window closed and glanced at Wang Kan. This time, Wang Kan smiled in agreement, indicating that he had no objections.
Fang Minzhou straightened her chair and continued to look at the probability problem, but after only a few minutes, she could no longer understand the draft she had started on the paper, so she simply turned to a new page and recalculated.
She surfaced, but still struggled to breathe. Her mind was as clear as a screen, replaying frame after frame Wang Kan's eyes. Like the dark, gleaming light of the deep sea, they lingered in her thoughts.
She stared intently at the small patch of ground in front of her desk, her gaze fixed. For some reason, she felt a strange urge to see what Wang Kan was doing, but she knew she couldn't; she knew that if she looked at him, she would be discovered.
Fang Minzhou heard her own irregular heartbeat.
Zheng Yanhang's voice came from the back row. He said to Wu Cheng, "Did you watch 'Black Cat Detective' when you were a kid? There's an episode where the female praying mantis eats the male praying mantis..."
Fang Minzhou turned her head and glared at Zheng Yanhang, who then shut up.
The uninvited insect didn't affect Fang Minzhou for long. She gradually got into a study mode and finished her math homework before the end of the first evening self-study session. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, straightened her back, stretched her shoulders and neck, and looked out the window to relax her eyes.
The classroom was reflected in the glass window, with layers of translucent gray figures overlapping each other. Each person's shadow was frozen, like the motionless light tubes above their heads, including Wang Kan, who was lying on his side on the table, also looking out the window.
Their eyes met in the window; more accurately, Fang Minzhou inadvertently stumbled upon Wang Kan's gaze in the glass mirror, just as she turned a corner and bumped into a telephone pole that was already standing there.
Fang Minzhou was a little stunned by the impact. She didn't turn around or move. She just stared blankly at Wang Kan's face and clearly saw the fleeting panic on her face.
He seemed unaware of what he was staring at through the glass. Suddenly realizing what he was doing, he got up from the desk, picked up his pen, and before he could write more than a few words, the bell rang. He stood up again at the sound and casually beckoned Zheng Yanhang and Wu Cheng to come outside the classroom.
Fang Minzhou only turned his stiff neck back after Wang Kan had stepped out of the area reflected in the window.
As usual, Jin Baihao went back to Fang Minzhou to check the answers, while Ouyang Qian chatted with Fang Minzhou. Both of them mentioned the praying mantis from earlier, still feeling lingering fear. But in the end, Ouyang Qian asked her, "Minzhou, why is your face so red?"
"Huh?" Fang Minzhou said, "Maybe it was blown by the wind."
Ouyang Qian didn't understand, "You have a fever?"
"No, it's nothing."
Ouyang Qian glanced at the closed window and didn't dwell on her strange answer.
When the bell rang again, Wang Kan returned. Fang Minzhou was doing her homework and didn't dare to look around anymore.
After that day, the silence between her and Wang Kan continued, but it was different from before. It was no longer a fit of pique or disgust, but a tacit understanding that was slightly awkward.
Once, Fang Minzhou and Wang Kan went to receive the test paper from Ouyang Qian in the front row at the same time. Underneath the test paper, someone's hand touched the other's first. Wang Kan jumped up as if she had been bitten, and the top of her hand was cut by the page. This startled Fang Minzhou and Ouyang Qian.
Realizing she had overreacted, Wang Kan secretly regretted it and pulled out two tissues to press against her wound.
Ouyang Qian asked Fang Minzhou with her eyes, "What's going on?" Fang Minzhou shook his head with an innocent look on the surface, but in reality, his heart was churning. He couldn't help but complain about Wang Kan. Others could keep their emotions hidden, but he was like a projection screen, showing all his inner thoughts.
Even though nothing had happened, she still felt guilty.
She took a band-aid out of her bag and handed it to Wang Kan.
Wang Kan was stunned for a moment, "...You have all of these?"
Fang Minzhou didn't argue with him when he asked the inexplicable question; instead, she placed the band-aid on his desk.
After a while, Wang Kan threw the torn outer packaging into the trash bag between the two tables. Fang Minzhou sat back against the wall, leaving only one hook available.
Wang Kan's deliberate or unintentional avoidance of suspicion emboldened Fang Minzhou, who felt that she had nothing to hide and acted coyly, making it seem as if there was something between them.
When Wang Kan didn't want to exchange papers with her while her deskmate was grading each other's work, she simply took Wang Kan's paper. The two inevitably had a verbal argument, but by sheer coincidence, she cured Wang Kan's awkwardness.
The tiny wound on the tiger's mouth had long since healed, and Wang Kan, now back to normal, was puzzled as to what had been bothering her for the past few days.
To prove his innocence, when Fang Minzhou was about to go for a long run on the playground but her MP3 player wouldn't turn on, Wang Kan generously offered to lend her his.
Fang Minzhou initially ignored it, focusing on fiddling with the black-screened MP3 player in her hand, trying to figure out what the problem was. It couldn't be out of power, she had just charged it not long ago, but if it was broken, it had been working perfectly fine last night.
When Wang Kan saw Fang Minzhou like this, he knew she had fallen into a rut again, doubting this and blaming that. He felt that such a thing should not have happened, but life is unpredictable, so why bother with it?
He held his MP3 player up to Fang Minzhou's eyes and waved it around.
Their MP3 players are the same model; his is silver, and hers is... blue.
Fang Minzhou didn't want Wang Kan's things, but she planned to run five laps later, and it would be hard to stay awake without listening to music. Besides, he had already offered to lend them to her, and it would seem petty to refuse. After hesitating for two seconds, Fang Minzhou picked up the small electronic device.
Her fingertips brushed against Wang Kan's palm, causing a slight tickle that also tingled the nerves in her ears. Wang Kan withdrew her hand and asked again, "Headphones, do you want some?"
“No need, I have some.” Fang Minzhou said, then added, “…Thank you.”
"You're welcome," Wang Kan grinned.
When they arrived at the playground, Fang Minzhou realized something was wrong.
Ouyang Qian, who was standing next to her, saw her take off her headphones while running and asked, "What's wrong?"
Fang Minzhou said it was nothing, put the MP3 player and earphones away in her pocket, and a gentle breeze brushed past her ears, blowing away those melodies of love and romance.
The music might have been played on her MP3 player and the radio station, but listening to it on Wang Kan's MP3 player gave me a strange feeling that he was breathing on her ear, which was very uncomfortable.
Fang Minzhou was covered in sweat from running. After the wind cooled her down, she and Ouyang Qian strolled back to the classroom. Wang Kan, who had returned before her, stood up and let her in.
Fang Minzhou returned the MP3 player to him. Thinking of the "decadent music" in his playlist, she wanted to advise him to listen to less of it, but she had no right to do so. In the end, she pointed to his pile of books and reminded him, "Remember to return the books."
"What book?" Wang Kan had forgotten. He found it in the pile of books and looked at Fang Minzhou. She was drinking water with her head tilted back. She noticed his gaze and looked over. Their eyes met, and then she looked away gently.
She drank her water slowly, holding it in her mouth until her flushed cheeks puffed out slightly before swallowing. Then she brushed aside a few damp strands of hair clinging to the back of her neck and looked over, her brows furrowed with anger: "...What?"
Wang Kan heard her own calm voice: "How long can I borrow books from the school?"
"...one month."
“Oh, then my term hasn’t expired yet.” He replied smoothly.
Fang Minzhou remained silent, then took out the test paper. Wang Kan asked her again what she thought of his playlist, seemingly boasting of his good taste. Fang Minzhou deliberately replied, "So-so."
She thought Wang Kan would be furious, but he seemed to accept it calmly, lowering his head to play with the MP3 player in his hand. She was a little surprised when Wang Kan sat up straight again and put on his headphones.
Fang Minzhou: "..."
Is he angry or not?
Her breathing and heartbeat, still lingering from exercise, hadn't fully calmed down, clouding her judgment.
The bell rang, but she ignored it and started studying.
A note from the author:
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Double update for the festival! Happy Qixi Festival everyone! [rose emoji]
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