Chapter 19 As December arrives, everyone...
As December arrives, everyone is both lamenting the cold weather and looking forward to the Christmas and New Year holidays. They are both feeling the fleeting nature of time and are also nervously preparing for final exams.
This is a busy yet contradictory month, just as Fang Minzhou felt about it.
For children, growing up is something to look forward to, and the New Year is something to look forward to. But now, Fang Minzhou, who is about to turn seventeen, is no longer so carefree. Although she has a strange resistance in her heart and no longer needs to write weekly journals, she has developed the habit of writing annual summaries.
Or perhaps this isn't a personal habit; everyone reflects on the past year's events at the end of the year.
The real way to summarize the gains and losses of this year was during the final exams in January, before the new year even arrived. This loophole was discovered. Fang Minzhou, who was born in December, had three birthday wishes, one of which was to have good exam results in the new year. The other two were world peace and everyone's safety and well-being.
So she always spent her birthdays in a state of anxiety; the birthday hat on her head felt like a bowl on her head, and she had to be careful not to let it fall off.
Kids who have their birthdays at the end of the year are just so unlucky. If Fang Minzhou had to choose, she would say that having a birthday in the spring is the best, because it is a season when everything truly comes back to life and there is a lot of hope. Summer is also good, but autumn is not so good.
In short, Fang Minzhou's birthday falls on a Sunday this year. Yuan Yue and Ouyang Qian, who knew it was her birthday, gave her a gift in advance. Her parents cooked a table full of her favorite dishes, and her birthday present was the latest model mobile phone.
Fang Minzhou was stunned.
She got her phone when she first started high school. Although she envied some classmates who changed phones frequently, some classmates were still using old-fashioned phones or didn't have phones at all. She felt that she was already pretty good. But this phone was even better than her parents' own.
Her mother actually had a strong objection to this, but her father believed that parents like them were afraid that their children would play on their phones, computers, and watch TV instead of studying. "But if someone really wants to study, even if you put a phone in front of them, they won't look at it. So, when your mother said she wanted to move the computer out of your room, I said no. And this phone is necessary for looking up information and browsing the internet. You're a high school student now, you need to use some new things."
Sometimes Fang Minzhou felt that her father's words were a bit of a downer, always putting a heavy burden on things that should be happy. But she was so happy now that her excitement washed away the slight sadness of growing a year older. She nodded repeatedly, indicating that she understood her father's good intentions very well.
She knew very well that she absolutely couldn't fail her final exams, which was a sweet burden.
"Sigh~" she wrote in her diary, with a long wavy line, ending with a word of encouragement.
The next day, after getting up and washing up, Fang Minzhou looked at herself in the mirror for a while. She didn't have a single wrinkle or a single gray hair. She was still wearing her school uniform and carrying her schoolbag, ready to go to school.
On her first day of being seventeen, she was still herself.
The new week started, and there wasn't much going on at school. If I had to say, Yin Mengran was organizing auditions for the programs to be performed at the welcome party.
Every year at the end of the year, No. 1 Middle School holds a New Year's Eve party in the auditorium. The world hasn't changed, and these cultural and recreational activities still have nothing to do with Fang Minzhou.
Zheng Yanhang and Wu Cheng urged Wang Kan to sign up, but Wang Kan shook her head, saying she didn't have time while doing practice questions. Only then did they realize something was wrong and teased Wang Kan, saying, "Are you on your way to becoming a top student?"
"Yeah, don't come crying to me later and begging to let you copy my homework."
"No way." Zheng Yan hooked his arm around Wang Kan's neck, glanced at Fang Minzhou who was also doing her homework, and said meaningfully, "But you really can't go. Even though you're not good at exams, you sing well. Didn't you even start a band last year?"
Ouyang Qian remembered this and looked at Wang Kan with some surprise: "You're here?"
"Yeah, yeah, he's the lead singer."
Wang Kan pushed Zheng Yanhang aside.
Although he formed a temporary band with his classmates last year and thought he looked cool at the time, it's now an embarrassing black history almost a year later. Plus, Zheng Yanhang said he didn't do well on the exam, "Are you cursing me or insulting me?"
Zheng Yanhang lowered his voice, "People should play to their strengths. Do you understand what I'm saying, brother?"
Wang Kan was silent for a few seconds. He understood, but what use was it if some people "didn't understand"? Lu Su looked at Lü Meng with new respect because Lü Meng had read more books; if Lü Meng sang, it would be like casting pearls before swine.
The final program their class submitted was a play adapted from "Cinderella": the prince's ball was turned into a talent selection exam, and the stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsisters used all sorts of tricks to affect Cinderella's studies and prevent her from taking the exam. In the end, the clever and hardworking Cinderella still achieved good results through her hard work and talent.
Yin Mengran came to find Wang Kan, who was somewhat embarrassed.
These days, who wants to play a prince? It's too cliché, especially since he's just a substitute. Even though the prince is so insignificant in this rewritten script that he's merely a passing character.
Wang Kan felt she was overthinking things, and it was all Fang Minzhou's fault; she must have caught it from her.
“…It’s okay,” Yin Mengran noticed Wang Kan’s hesitation, “The class monitor should be able to coordinate a time.”
"No way!" Zheng Yanhang, always eager for drama, said, "Let Wang Kan play the prince! He's surnamed Wang!"
“Lin Sinian and Wang Kan…” Ouyang Qian stroked her chin while looking Wang Kan up and down, clearly comparing the two in her mind. “It feels like one is a prince charming and the other is a dark prince. Minzhou, what do you think?”
Fang Minzhou, who was doing her homework, was caught off guard when her name was called. She looked up and said "Ah" in confusion. Wu Cheng, who was secretly playing a mobile game in the row behind her, chuckled, but it was unclear what he was laughing at.
“Okay,” Wang Kan suddenly agreed, “I’ll act.”
Ouyang Qian exclaimed in surprise, "Oh?"
Wang Kan glanced at Fang Minzhou.
The others noticed and followed Wang Kan's gaze to Fang Minzhou.
Fang Minzhou: "..."
"Alright then." Yin Mengran smiled slightly. "Speaking of which, there's another role, Min Zhou. Are you interested?"
Before Yin Mengran could introduce her, Fang Minzhou quickly declined, saying, "No need, I can't do it, but I can do logistics if you need me."
After saying that, she glared at Wang Kan.
“Okay.” Yin Mengran didn’t force them. She said to Wang Kan and Ouyang Qian, “I’ll let you know the rehearsal schedule later.”
"Mmm." Ouyang Qian gracefully got up to get some water.
After Yin Mengran left, Zheng Yanhang went over to watch Wu Cheng play games. Once everyone had left, Fang Minzhou's face fell, and she wanted to scold Wang Kan.
Whether he participates or not is none of her business. Why should she care?
Wang Kan, completely unaware of the error, took the problem to her and asked her about it. It was a geometry problem asking for the range of absolute values. He calculated it to be [2, √10], but the answer was [√2, √10]. He confidently questioned, "Is the answer wrong?"
Fang Minzhou: "..."
She remained silent for so long that Wang Kan looked up at her curiously. He probably finally noticed her pale face and blinked, "You don't know either?"
"...The answer is correct. P1 is to the right of point N, with a vertex angle of 120 degrees." Fang Minzhou picked up his pen, after all, there was no point in arguing with Wang Kan any further. "Using the cosine theorem, -xy becomes xy, so the minimum value of the formula should be 8."
"Oh..." Wang Kan understood, and while revising his answer, he asked her, "Then why do you look so unhappy?"
"I don't."
"Fine, if you say no, then no."
Fang Minzhou almost slammed her hand on the table, her anger clearly visible this time. Wang Kan, on the other hand, laughed and asked, "Want some chocolate?"
As he spoke, he reached into the drawer and touched it. When he let go, the small round balls wrapped in gold foil bounced and landed on Fang Minzhou's table.
"Do you want it?" Fang Minzhou was about to give it to her when Wang Kan quickly grabbed a new handful and gave it to Ouyang Qian.
Ouyang Qian burst into laughter, "You two deskmates are so generous, handing out wedding candy."
After saying that, they realized they had said the wrong thing. One of them blushed and glared at her, while the other coughed with a burning sensation in her ears. Ouyang Qian grinned and chuckled dryly as she tore off two chocolates and stuffed them into her mouth. "Just kidding, haha."
That evening, Wang Kan didn't ask Fang Minzhou any more questions, and Fang Minzhou didn't eat the chocolate he gave her.
Fang Minzhou was not slow-witted.
She reads books and watches movies, covering countless love stories from ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign; when she was in the first year of junior high, some of her classmates were secretly dating, and she was also rumored to be involved; recently, she has been having meals with Yuan Yue, and Yuan Yue sometimes shares some of her girlish thoughts with her...
She knows what liking and being in love are, but she has never experienced them firsthand. And because she has never experienced them firsthand, she has a somewhat detached and indifferent attitude.
Objectively speaking, many of their feelings at this age are indeed products of superficiality, recklessness, and curiosity. Because of excessive contact, close proximity, and the encouragement of others, they cannot withstand scrutiny and can be attributed to the so-called effects of adolescent hormones.
So Ouyang Qian's words were just a joke, and the occasional subtle awkwardness between her and Wang Kan was nothing. Fang Minzhou told herself that it was just human nature. If they really changed seats, they might not even exchange a few words even if they were in the same class.
The only thing she regretted was that their class's play passed the audition, and because of a promise she made unintentionally, she was actually pulled into the logistics department.
However, Fang Minzhou then learned that the screenwriter of this textbook drama was actually Sun Tong.
Although the script's theme is to encourage diligent study, the overall effect is anything but rigid; instead, it's quite humorous, weaving their everyday study habits into the scenarios. For example, the stepsister starts peeling and eating an orange after studying for less than ten minutes. Seeing Cinderella still focused on studying, she gets annoyed and orders Cinderella to peel one for her. Unexpectedly, Cinderella manages to review her English while peeling the orange: "The English word for orange is 'orange,' and peeling an orange is 'peel an orange.' Fixed collocations for 'peel' include 'peel off,' 'peel away,' and 'peel back'..."
Fang Minzhou was really surprised that Sun Tong had such a creative idea. Even though they might have had more contact, her general impression of Sun Tong was actually similar to that of her other classmates: serious and focused on studying. Sun Tong was quiet and direct, even a bit aloof, not at all like the interesting script she wrote.
Fang Minzhou later heard from Ouyang Qian that when the class committee members saw the script in advance, they were also surprised. To be more precise, they were surprised when Sun Tong agreed to help write the script. "We didn't plan to revise the script ourselves. We heard that it was easier to be selected if the script was more original, so we asked Lin Sinian to ask and see. After all, Sun Tong is the best in Chinese in our class. If it doesn't work out, so be it. But we didn't expect this."
During self-study time, they went to an empty classroom to rehearse. Fang Minzhou was mainly responsible for organizing and taking stock of the props. She saw Sun Tong discussing something with Lin Sinian and Yin Mengran. She was thin and plain-looking, and apart from occasionally raising her glasses, she didn't make any other movements.
"That's cool," said Ouyang Qian, who was next to her.
Fang Minzhou nodded in agreement.
"Who's cool?" Wang Kan asked, leaning closer.
He was fiddling with a gentleman's hat prop in his hand, probably thinking they were praising him for being cool.
How is that possible?
Fang Minzhou ignored him, and Ouyang Qian raised an eyebrow, happy to add fuel to the fire: "Anyway, it wasn't you they were talking about."
Wang Kan shrugged, but then suddenly put the hat on Fang Minzhou's head.
Fang Minzhou was startled. Wang Kan laughed and immediately took the hat back. His hand then slipped behind Fang Minzhou's ear, pulled out a one-yuan coin, and waved it smugly in front of Fang Minzhou. He then said to Ouyang Qian, "Hey, isn't that cool?"
Ouyang Qian clapped and cheered, "Wow, that's amazing! I didn't know you could do magic tricks."
"There's nothing I can't do," Wang Kan boasted.
After saying that, he looked back and handed the coin to Fang Minzhou.
But Fang Minzhou ignored her. His ship, with its sails billowing, suddenly crashed into an iceberg. Seeing this, Ouyang Qian silently walked away, like milk being poured into chocolate, smoothly joining the group chat of others, leaving Fang Minzhou and Wang Kan speechless for a moment.
The word "moment" means in the blink of an eye, or about a second. A second is so short, but it is enough to highlight how deliberate Wang Kan's playfulness was just now.
The next second, Wang Kan put away the coin and said in the same forcedly relaxed tone, "Do you know how to do that magic trick? I'll teach you."
Seeing his preconceived notion, Fang Minzhou bluntly contradicted him, "No need, I know."
"Huh?" Wang Kan had already set up the teaching demonstration. "You know how?"
Although this is indeed a beginner-level magic trick, there aren't many people in reality who can actually do it. One trick is all you need to succeed at. Wang Kan has amazed many people with this trick. How come Fang Minzhou can even do this?
In fact, Fang Minzhou didn't know how. She only knew that the principle of magic was "speed." Coupled with Wang Kan's actions just now, she vaguely but calmly said, "It's just about hiding the coin in your palm beforehand. As long as you're fast enough, it's fine."
Wang Kan looked at her suspiciously, then opened his palm again. "Then you do it."
Fang Minzhou glanced down at the silver coin in Wang Kan's palm, her fingertips twitching slightly, but she didn't react impulsively or fall for the trick. "Keep it for yourself to buy candy."
Wang Kan laughed, "You're the one who likes sweets, not me."
"Why would I like sweets?" Fang Minzhou retorted stubbornly.
"Then you..." Wang Kan paused, "...like what?"
The sun and the earth are rotating, and suddenly a beam of winter's egg-white sunlight appears in the room.
Fang Minzhou's heart skipped a beat, but her tone remained firm, "What business is it of yours what I like? Give me the hat."
She took the hat back and put it away very slowly with her head down.
"Let me help you," Wang Kan said, trying to start a conversation.
"What can you do for me?" Fang Minzhou retorted. She was already being kind enough by not causing her any trouble.
Before Wang Kan could say anything more, Lin Sinian walked over like a madman, asking Fang Minzhou if there was anything else he could help with.
The same problem occurred when Fang Minzhou treated Lin Sinian very well.
At this moment, Wang Kan couldn't comfort himself with the excuse that it was special treatment. In fact, he had used this excuse to comfort himself many times, and he had become somewhat immune to the special medicine after taking it so many times.
Yin Mengran asked everyone to prepare for the final formalities, so Wang Kan had no choice but to go over.
While he was waiting on the sidelines, Fang Minzhou's gaze would sometimes sweep over him as if unintentionally.
His hand was in his pocket, repeatedly stroking the coin, just like his restless heart. Sometimes he let it beat wildly, but when he was too indulgent or a little sad, he would put it away and let it calm down.
His slight resentment softened like a blade of grass in the unnoticed gaze of this person. He recalled that when the coin was presented to Fang Minzhou, her surprised expression must have contained some element of delight.
How rare! Wang Kan, having found a reason for herself, managed to cheer herself up.
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