Chapter 16 Fang Minzhou walked out...
Fang Minzhou walked out of the office and closed the door behind him, only to find that Wang Kan was still there.
The office was next to the stairs, and around the corner was the classroom. He stood in the shadows with his head down against the wall, and when he saw her come out, his eyes immediately fixed on her.
Now that Fang Minzhou has calmed down, although her anger has not completely dissipated, she can't help but feel a little embarrassed.
Wang Kan opened her mouth, as if to say something, but seemed to be waiting for her to speak first.
But Fang Minzhou had nothing to say to him, and she walked past him.
Wang Kan followed up, "...What did the teacher say to you?"
Fang Minzhou ignored him.
"Did the teacher also punish you by making you copy it?" he asked again, and after the first sentence came out, he spoke fluently, "I'll write it, I can imitate your handwriting."
Fang Minzhou walked down the stairs, and Wang Kan, without thinking much, jumped down the steps and blocked her at the corner.
Fang Minzhou nearly bumped into it and couldn't help but yell angrily, "What are you doing?!"
The first self-study period hadn't ended yet. Autumn had deepened, and after several rains, the osmanthus blossoms on campus had fallen to the ground. The air was no longer filled with their sweet fragrance, the chirping of insects had weakened, and only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves could be heard, but someone might pass by at any moment.
Fang Minzhou didn't want to get entangled with Wang Kan, so she went to the left, but Wang Kan also went to the left. Fang Minzhou then went to the right, and Wang Kan also went to the right.
She was considered one of the taller girls in the class, but even at such close range, Wang Kan's height—half a head taller and with broader shoulders—made her feel threatened. Fang Minzhou could almost hear the scream of anger burning within her. She glared at him again, and he initially refused to back down, then suddenly lowered his eyes, looked back at her, and hesitantly asked, "...Are we still deskmates?"
His evasive and awkward expression left Fang Minzhou's fierce gaze momentarily unsure where to land.
“…I don’t want to change seats,” he said again.
Fang Minzhou didn't understand what he meant by those words.
She didn't want to understand.
Although they were still deskmates, she couldn't answer Wang Kan's question directly. She had made up her mind to cut ties with Wang Kan, "...Don't talk to me unless it's absolutely necessary."
Some words, once spoken, seem hurtful, but what's done is done. That oppressive feeling washed over her again, and Fang Minzhou walked around Wang Kan. Wang Kan didn't move, just like the silent, dappled wall behind him.
Fang Minzhou returned to the classroom, and some classmates peeked at her out of curiosity.
Until the end of the first evening self-study session, the seat next to Fang Minzhou was empty.
Just like when she returned from the infirmary last time, she received another wave of concern. Lin Sinian also came to ask if she was alright. She shook her head and smiled, a hint of natural embarrassment in her expression, hiding the remaining shame and embarrassment. No one knew exactly what had happened between her and Wang Kan, and she didn't want to say, keeping everything vague and evasive.
No one cared, because they assumed it was Wang Kan's fault and that she was an innocent victim.
Fang Minzhou saw the scraps of paper in the trash bag and actually... felt a little guilty.
"Then Teacher Zhan wants you to come over..." Ouyang Qian asked with concern.
"Teacher Zhan didn't say anything to me."
Ouyang Qian was surprised: "Didn't they mention Wang Kan either?"
"...The teacher made him copy ancient poems and prose as punishment."
"That's more like it. I don't understand what he's doing."
Jin Baihao, unusually, chimed in, startling the head of the teaching department when he appeared.
Zheng Yanhang touched his nose and asked, "Where is Wang Kan?"
"Oh yes, where is he?"
Fang Minzhou didn't know.
Wang Kan did not return when the second evening self-study session began. Teacher Zhan came to the classroom in the middle of the session and discovered that Wang Kan had skipped class, but did not say anything.
The bell rang for the third to last time. Fang Minzhou went to get water. When she returned, there was a white plastic bag and a red apple on her desk. Inside the plastic bag were a box of painkillers and an unopened bag of sanitary napkins.
Fang Minzhou looked at Sun Tong, whose back view was as always, almost still in contrast to the people around her who were chatting or walking.
Fang Minzhou put the things away.
Wang Kan returned during the third evening self-study session.
The chair was slowly dragged away, the sound of it scraping against the floor lingering, like a kind of hesitation. Fang Minzhou merely paused slightly at the tip of her pen, remaining seated, ignoring all the gazes directed at her and them.
After Wang Kan sat down, confirming that the table and chair were indeed his, he was still trying to figure out what was going on when he felt a pen poking him in the back. He turned around and saw Zheng Yanhang giving him a look he couldn't understand. Wu Cheng mouthed to him where he had gone, and Wang Kan shrugged.
He didn't go anywhere; he just wandered around the school.
There were many small groves near the school, where boys and girls who skipped class hid. He bumped into a few couples and finally found a quiet spot behind the basketball court. There was a lakeside path there, and he wanted to skip stones to vent his anger, but across the distant lake embankment, he could only hear a "plop" in the darkness.
He threw every stone he could find into the lake.
I seem to be in a better mood.
I don't seem so sad anymore.
Fang Minzhou's words were truly harsh and hurtful, he thought.
But what's going on now? They're not changing seats anymore?
He initially thought that since Fang Minzhou wasn't there, there was no way to replace him, but then he realized he had fallen into a trap of self-deception. He then thought that Fang Minzhou might have moved away and would eventually return, but unexpectedly, nothing happened.
What did she mean by saying that? Did she mean that we could continue to sit at the same table but that I wasn't allowed to talk to her?
He glanced at Fang Minzhou, then glanced at her again. Fang Minzhou probably noticed him. In the past, she would probably have turned her head to warn him, but now she ignored him.
His heart is like that night lake, with stones that never sink to the bottom.
Although she ruined most of the first evening self-study session, Fang Minzhou still managed to finish her homework for the day. She used the remaining time to thoroughly analyze her midterm exam paper. For some reason, she lost more points on the basic science questions, and with so many difficult questions, her score in this section was also low, which was a serious problem. Her Chinese and English scores, on the other hand, were okay.
Fang Minzhou planned to review all the previous exercises again and buy a workbook for medium to difficult problems, mainly to study the problem-solving strategies for the more challenging ones. Having finalized her study plan, the last bell for the day had already rung, and the classroom was nearly empty. She noticed Sun Tong was still studying at her seat.
Upon seeing this scene again, Fang Minzhou's mindset calmed down considerably.
From another perspective, there are indeed many different viewpoints. For example, if she acknowledges the gap between herself and Sun Tong and takes her as a role model, she would seem to feel more relaxed and at ease when facing her.
As she walked out of the classroom, she unexpectedly saw Wang Kan's back. Perhaps he heard her voice, because the moment he turned around, Fang Minzhou walked towards the stairwell.
After the weather got cold, she started taking the bus to and from school.
The bus stop she needed to take was closer to the school's side gate. From the teaching building to the side gate, she would pass through a long wisteria-covered corridor. The flowers had fallen, but the leaves remained. Fang Minzhou would always walk a little slower when passing through this green tunnel, but tonight she hurried through because she felt someone was following her.
Walking straight out of the school gate leads to a tree-lined path that connects to a bustling pedestrian street. Turning right again brings you to the bus stop. Seeing that many classmates were waiting for the bus, Fang Minzhou, fearing that Wang Kan would continue to follow her recklessly, had to stop and turn around.
Wang Kan stopped in his tracks.
They looked at each other in silence. Fang Minzhou seemed determined not to speak to him first. Wang Kan touched his neck, unable to describe his feelings—neither angry nor sad. He glanced at the bus stop not far away and asked, "Which bus are you taking?"
Fang Minzhou didn't answer, she just looked at him.
"You're not changing seats?"
Fang Minzhou looked away, and after a long while, looked back.
She wasn't going to change it, but the reason was hard to say. Faced with Wang Kan's obvious stubbornness, she suddenly became unsure if she was doing the right thing. She vaguely said, "...I won't change it for now, let's see how it goes after the exam."
Wang Kan didn't understand. Hadn't he improved in this exam? Or was it a matter of seeing if he would improve again next time? "...Then what rank do I need to get to be your deskmate?"
"...That's not what I meant."
"What does that mean?"
Fang Minzhou grew impatient again. She wondered why she was talking to Wang Kan again.
"Fang Minzhou".
Fang Minzhou paused.
This seemed to be the first time Wang Kan had called her name so seriously.
"What exactly do you hate about me? Is it my bad grades? Or..."
Fang Minzhou decisively replied, "I hate them all."
"Really?"
"..." Fang Minzhou was taken aback by Wang Kan's direct question. "Of course it's true."
He looked at her.
They were in a corner of the bustling pedestrian street, the noise seeming both near and far, like the wind, blowing by almost imperceptibly.
A sense of unease and anxiety seemed to be creeping up from the soles of Fang Minzhou's feet.
For some reason, she couldn't actually look Wang Kan in the eye for long. Perhaps it was because his features were so striking that they gave his gaze extra emotion. She had the urge to look away, but then felt guilty and forced herself to meet his gaze.
"I won't bother you with your studies anymore," Wang Kan said. "But if I have any questions, can I still ask you?"
“…What?” Fang Minzhou frowned. Wang Kan asked her this, and she said she could take on the work and suffer the consequences, but then she said she couldn’t…
“If I get into the top 100 in the grade on the final exam,” he added, “can I sit next to you?”
Fang Minzhou slowly opened her eyes wide.
She was afraid she had misunderstood, but Wang Kan looked tense and serious.
Does he know what he's saying? Fang Minzhou thought Wang Kan was crazy. She couldn't possibly answer a madman's question. She saw the bus she needed to take arrive, turned around, and walked quickly to the bus stop, joining the last person in line. She heard Wang Kan's voice behind her: "Then it'll be the first hundred, it's settled!"
His shout naturally attracted the attention of those around him. Fang Minzhou was afraid that others would realize he was shouting at her, so she squeezed onto the bus through the crowd and quickly found a window seat to sit down.
As the bus started moving, her heart pounded with its surging waves. She took out her MP3 player from her bag to listen to English. A crack in the window inexplicably reminded her of that evening at the sports meet, when she felt a different breeze and listened to different music.
Fang Minzhou couldn't remember a single word of how those songs went.
Fang Minzhou only dared to look out the window after the bus had driven some distance. The street scene outside had changed, and looking back, at an indistinct distance, it seemed that Wang Kan was still standing in the same place.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
