Chapter 43 "Close your eyes."
Who would speak in this tone like an ordinary classmate?
But if you say they are in love, it doesn’t seem like it.
Xu Jiqing didn't even glance at He Miao the entire time. He stared at Su Xia expressionlessly as he lowered his trouser legs and handed the chicken over. "Go back and say you caught it."
"...Is this okay?" Su Xia was confused and surprised, not even blinking. "Then what are you going to do?"
Xu Jiqing simply replied, "And more."
The city kids had never touched live poultry, and even if they caught one, they wouldn't know how to tie it up. The boys fell over several times and were so nervous trying to carry it back that they were sweating.
Xu Jiqing was obviously much more professional. He tied the chicken feet tightly and used a hemp rope to make a double knot, which looked like a handy handle.
Su Xia followed suit, holding the chicken upside down with both hands grasping the ropes, feeling excited but also a little scared.
The wings were not tied, and every time the little rooster flapped its wings, she shook with it. Her limp arms were almost perpendicular to her torso as she held the rooster farther and farther away.
Halfway through the journey, Su Xia's arms were about to fly away from home, but the chicken was still struggling, and its cries were even getting more and more shrill.
Su Xia was so scared that her palms were sweating. She looked up at him with her watery almond eyes, her lips parted in confusion, "What should I do, Xu Jiqing? It seems like it's going to fly away."
"I can't fly."
The rain in the afternoon soaked the boy all over.
There were no streetlights in the fields. In the afterglow of the sunset, Xu Jiqing's hair was wet and black, his eyebrows and eyes were cold, and he had a kind of elegant and handsome appearance that was out of touch with his background.
He looked at Su Xia for a while and said, "Close your eyes."
"Okay." Su Xia believed him and stood still, with his arms raised straight up and his eyelids trembling closed.
The evening breeze was gentle, bringing the scent of laundry soap from the young man, mixed with the wet fishy smell of rain.
Just a second or two.
Xu Jiqing put her hand over, and there was a faint cracking sound like a dislocated joint, and the chicken in her hand stopped moving.
Su Xia didn't know what he had done. She tentatively opened her eyes and saw that the little rooster, which had been struggling hard just now, had closed its eyes and its neck was limp and tilted.
She was confused and tucked her arms back in, not daring to lift them up to look. "...Is it dead?"
"Not dead," Xu Jiqing looked down at her, his expression unchanged, "He fell asleep."
-
Before dinner, we counted the spoils in the small kitchen. We handed in a lot of small fish and shrimps, but only caught three chickens in total.
The girls didn't have much hope at first, hoping to get a chicken carcass from the boys and have a bowl of noodle soup. The moment Su Xia appeared covered in mud and holding a chicken, all eyes were focused on her, and they were almost shocked.
The ridges of the fields were wet and slippery, so they gave up and didn't look again. Seeing that Su Xia and He Miao hadn't returned, they thought that the princess had gone somewhere with her followers to slack off and show off their courtesy.
Anyway, Su Xia has done this kind of thing many times before.
Pretend to be sick during physical examination and pretend to be on duty when being late.
Fu, who has the ability to hold money, became a class committee member. He signed in for the sports meeting and then left. He followed Zhou Zhiyan wherever his project was, took photos, gave him water, and waved small flags to cheer him on.
Not long after the division into arts and sciences, the girls in Class 4 didn't know much about Su Xia, but they had heard a lot of rumors from Class 10.
Girls are not bad by nature.
After more than a month of contact, coupled with the chicken in Su Xia's hand, they couldn't help but start to doubt the authenticity of those rumors -
Could it be that besides having poor grades, Su Xia is also a love-obsessed young lady...
Is she actually a very easy-going girl?
It was the first time that Su Xia was stared at by the whole class, and with such kind of shocked eyes. She felt a little embarrassed and quickly wiped her face with her sleeve. She was shocked to find that she was dirty, so she quickly rolled up her short sleeve to cover it.
The old lady who was cooking was completely attracted by the dangling chicken neck. She glanced at Su Xia's innocent black eyes, then looked at her delicate little arms. She couldn't tell whether she was shocked or admired, and muttered something in dialect.
Su Xia didn't understand and her ears turned red. She just thought that he was saying something nice about her and didn't dare to respond.
After all, it was the credit she got by currying favor with someone powerful, so she had to be as low-key as possible.
We used a wood stove to cook at night, and the waiting time was quite long.
The students changed into their own clean clothes and sat in the temporary study room converted from the main hall, where they wrote environmental research reports under the supervision of Teacher Ding.
The mountains should be cooler than the city, but they came from the south, so they didn't get any advantage.
The main room was brightly lit with white lights, and it became hotter as you went further in. An old fan was humming, but it couldn't dispel the damp and stuffy air in the room.
Children of this age tend to follow the crowd. At first, no one complained about being hot, and everyone just wiped their sweat silently and endured it.
Later, someone whispered, "I really want to eat ice cream," and instantly everyone responded.
Teacher Ding couldn't hold back any longer and walked to the door to ask the guide, "Brother Li, is there a refrigerator in our village store? I want to find a few boys to buy some."
"The store is far away and hard to get to."
The middle-aged man scratched his head and said, "There is a melon shed halfway up the mountain. I'll call the locals and ask them to freeze a few good ones with well water in advance."
Teacher Ding asked, "How long will it take to get to the melon shed?"
"It's not far, about 40 minutes round trip. You guys eat first and don't wait for me. I'll carry it back soon and give it to the children as after-dinner fruit."
It is the busy farming season.
The guide took them rafting in the afternoon, and they had to go to their own rice fields to help early in the morning. Teacher Ding didn't feel comfortable bothering others, so he quickly stopped them and turned to look at a few tall boys, ready to grab a few strong men to help.
"Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, can't you walk this short distance? Whoever first said he wanted to eat ice cream, go with your Uncle Li."
Teacher Ding's gaze was like the wind blowing weeds, whichever way it blew, they fell.
That’s a forty-minute mountain road.
It's not an asphalt road and there are not even many street lights.
They have all seen the road conditions in the village after the rain. After finally coming back and changing into clean shoes and clothes, who would be willing to wade through the mud?
The girls were on the other side, filling out their report books with their heads down and gossiping among themselves.
"Where can we get watermelons in October? They're out of season, right?"
"I didn't really listen to the afternoon tour guide. He said the village's organic seedless melons are a specialty agricultural product, very expensive, and are mainly exported."
"Wow, that's awesome, so we made a profit, didn't we?"
"It's all in the one thousand dollars you paid, little sister."
…
He Miao nudged Su Xia's shoulder and asked, "Do you want to eat?"
During the afternoon hike, Su Xia's mind was full of the fight between Xu Jiqing and Li Rui. She dragged He Miao to the back of the group, didn't hear a word of the tour guide, and made up the research form at random.
Finally, there was some information to fill in. Su Xia buried his head and wrote quickly, fearing that he would forget it later.
She made up another half paragraph before looking up and asking, "What do you want to eat?"
"Watermelon, maybe it's extra sweet."
Su Xia nodded obediently and whispered back to her, "A little bit."
Who can resist watermelon in summer?
She has loved sweet and cool things since she was a child.
I didn’t care about my weight before middle school. Every summer vacation, I would hold half a cold watermelon and watch cartoons, and then run to the bathroom all day.
The boys are still in a stalemate.
The guide declined again, and Teacher Ding felt embarrassed, so he prepared to pick two people at random and let them go if they didn't want to go.
Xu Jiqing in the last row raised his hand and stood up.
"I'll go."
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