Zhou Lin's tattling led to her dominating the scene, and she...
After finishing his homework that evening, Lin Shiren charged the cell phone he had found, closed his bedroom door, turned down the volume on his phone, and finally made a call.
She was already in bed when she heard the dial tone.
On the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, the cold wind howled and pounded against the windows; the winter in Huaicheng was bitterly cold.
The bedtime phone call was something Zhou Lin insisted on making.
Lin Shih-jen initially refused. She had to do her homework at night and went to bed very late. Besides, the two of them had plenty of time to meet during the day, so there was no need to take up his sleep time.
But Zhou Lin said that's what being a boyfriend is like.
I'm available 24/7. You can talk to him about your worries and emotions. If you encounter a problem you don't know how to solve, you should wake him up anytime, otherwise you'll turn him into a jerk.
I don't know where he learned this trick; he's like a low-level green tea b*tch.
The call connected, and amidst the faint static, the boy's voice had a pleasant, magnetic quality: "Hello."
Lin Shih-ren, clutching a plush toy, followed after him, asking, "Are you asleep?"
"I didn't dare to sleep because I didn't receive your call."
He made himself sound like he was some kind of domineering person, which displeased Lin Shiren, who pouted and complained, "Am I that fierce?"
Her fingers unconsciously picked at the head of the plush toy, her tone carrying a coquettishness she herself was unaware of.
A hearty laugh came through the receiver. Zhou Lin said, "Lin Qiaoqiao, you're too vengeful."
The two chatted and joked for a while, then Lin Shiren seemed to remember something and said, "It's been almost ten days, why hasn't she contacted me yet?"
The found phone is becoming a source of great anxiety for her.
Fearing the owner wouldn't be able to contact her, Lin Shiren carried her phone to school every day and dared not turn it off. But apart from a few spam text messages, the phone remained completely silent. She even went to the gymnasium to ask the administrator, who said he hadn't seen anyone come looking for it.
That's really strange.
Unless he was in jail, she couldn't think of any other place where a person could go so long without using a phone.
Zhou Lin had already thought of every possible reason, but he still patiently analyzed it for her: "Could it be that they were abducted by aliens?"
Lin Shiren rolled his eyes silently: "Then why don't the aliens capture you?"
"Maybe I'm not very tasty."
She pressed on, asking, "Why doesn't it taste good? Shouldn't you reflect on that?"
Zhou Lin: "High school students have it so tough, what can I do?"
Lin Shiren: "?"
Telling lame jokes in the dead of winter, who are you trying to freeze to death?
*
The monthly exams in December were scheduled for the Christmas period. The school decided to hold a mental health lecture for all students before the exams, which was scheduled for the second and third periods on Friday afternoon.
At the sleepiest time of day, accompanied by hypnotic broadcasts, a large number of students slumped over in the classroom, while the others, who were sitting with their chins propped up, were mostly doing problems.
Lin Shih-ren had gone to bed late last night. He yawned, rubbing his forehead, his eyes filled with a thin layer of mist, and the dark circles under his eyes were obvious.
Zhou Lin closed the book on the table for her, patted her back, and whispered soothingly, "Go to sleep."
She said in a tired voice, "But I still have an English test paper to finish."
"You won't be efficient if you do it now. Your brain will be numb. How can you do reading comprehension? You might as well rest up before you start writing."
Already lacking in willpower, and upon hearing such reasonable words, Lin Shiren quickly fell asleep on the table.
The school counselor's voice came over the loudspeaker: High academic pressure, complex interpersonal relationships, and uncertainty about the future are common psychological problems among high school students…
She didn't know how long she had slept. When she woke up, she didn't check the time, but noticed that the seat next to her was empty. She mumbled sleepily, "Where's Zhou Lin?"
Shao Xiaxuan gently nudged her chair and whispered, "Zhou Lin was called away by Teacher Chen."
Only then did I belatedly realize how embarrassed I was.
The air was filled with the pleasant scent of orange peel. Lin Shiren noticed peeled oranges on the table, with the pith already removed. She unscrewed the lid of her thermos and took a sip of water, her brow furrowing as she noticed a small, bitter chrysanthemum had been stuffed inside.
At that moment, she suddenly realized that Zhou Lin seemed to be very serious about dating her, and her heart felt like it was soaking in a hot spring, giving her a very happy feeling.
Someone patted her arm, and Lin Shiren turned around.
Li Pengfei clicked his tongue: "Lin Shiren, tell me how outrageous Zhou Lin is. You were sleeping just now, and I coughed twice, and he glared at me. Am I being wronged? Can you really hold back a cough?"
oO!
Okay, let's pause our happiness for now.
For the next three minutes, he vividly recreated that three-part indifference and four-part nonchalance in his eyes. Lin Shiren was so sleepy listening that she wished she had never woken up at all. She looked at Shao Xiaxuan for help, hoping she could end this farce, but unexpectedly...
Shao Xiaxuan: "Zhou Lin wouldn't even let me comb your hair. I only gently combed the ends of your hair, and he confiscated my comb."
Lin Shiren's head throbbed even more. She blinked and forced a smile that looked more like a grimace: "I'm sorry, I'll talk to him when he gets back."
Zhou Lin carried the entire game.
She apologized to the entire audience.
While he was calming down the two people who had reported him, his desk suddenly started to shake, startling Lin Shiren.
My phone was turned off before I entered the classroom...
Something flashed through her mind in a flash, and she pulled out the cell phone she had found from a hidden compartment in her bag. Sure enough, a string of numbers appeared on the screen.
Perhaps too eager to pass on this hot potato, Lin Shiren covered his mouth and pressed the call button: "Hello."
"..."
"I found it. What class are you in? I'll bring it to you after class."
"..."
"Are you in such a hurry?"
After hesitating for a few seconds, Lin Shiren quickly relented: "Okay, you wait for me there."
Huiwen High School was the top high school in Huaicheng. It is said that the school building alone cost 200 million yuan in funding. However, such a high-end school building has many design flaws.
For example, the glass dome designed for natural lighting perfectly achieves the function of being cold in winter and hot in summer; the enclosed piano in the central lobby fully illustrates what luxurious waste is; and the four-story spiral staircase with its perfect structure, ingenious curves, and the huge absurdity that no matter how many people are queuing, it can only accommodate one person at a time.
You asked what to do if you encounter someone going downhill halfway through your journey?
Sorry, rock-paper-scissors is the ultimate way to resolve differences.
So the staircase was closed off by the school not long after it was put into use, and students were not allowed to use it. Lin Shih-ren was a little surprised when the person who lost his phone said he would meet him there.
The teaching building was still filled with the atmosphere of a lecture, and there were very few students in the corridor. She walked past six classrooms before finally seeing someone at the end of the west corridor.
The girl was sitting on the top step of the spiral staircase, in a blind spot between the corridor and the classroom opposite. When you looked over, she was staring blankly at the staircase.
Lin Shih-jen softly greeted, "Hello."
The girl turned around. She had short hair that reached her ears, was very thin, and had delicate features, but her eyes looked somewhat lifeless.
My heart skipped a beat; it was Yu Xuehui.
He bumped into her on the first day of school and didn't apologize.
She was also Cai Shichen's secret crush; he targeted her because of Yu Xuehui.
Lin Shiren tried to keep her expression natural as she handed over her phone: "Here you go."
By then, I had given up hope of deleting the video and had a preconceived notion that she was hostile towards me.
Unexpectedly, Yu Xuehui thanked her politely and even asked her to send over the QR code, saying she wanted to treat her to milk tea.
Lin Shih-ren waved his hand repeatedly: "No need, it's just a small favor."
Yu Xuehui's gaze drifted to her, with a hint of stubbornness: "You should take it. My money is useless to me."
? ? ?
Money is useless?
This was the first time Lin Shih-jen had heard this argument, but he politely declined, saying, "I didn't bring my phone. Maybe there will be another opportunity."
"All right."
The scene was very dry and forced; the two socially awkward people had used up all the polite phrases they had ever used in their lives.
Lin Shiren pointed in the direction of his classroom and chuckled dryly, "Then I'll go back to the classroom."
Yu Jiahui smiled and said, "Goodbye."
Lin Shih-ren turned around and slowly walked to the other side of the corridor. Looking down from this angle, the spiral staircase looked like a huge vortex, almost sucking people in. At that moment, he suddenly had a very bad feeling.
After walking five or six steps, Lin Shiren stopped. A voice in her head told her that Yu Xuehui was not in a good state.
Her heart was pounding, and her chest was heaving more and more. She turned to look at that lonely figure.
Yu Xuehui was still sitting there, her fingers gripping her phone so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.
A few seconds later, Lin Shih-ren turned around and walked back towards the spiral staircase. He squatted down a meter away from her and looked her straight in the eye: "Why aren't you going back to the classroom to listen to the lecture?"
Yu Xuehui slowly raised her eyes, the corners of her mouth curling up in a smile that was both mocking and sarcastic: "I've done one-on-one psychological counseling many times."
Lin Shih-jen deliberately started a conversation: "I accidentally recorded a video on your phone last time, could you help me delete it?"
Yu Xuehui didn't say anything, unlocked the phone with her facial recognition, and then handed it to her.
She seemed completely unconcerned about others looking at her phone. Lin Shiren opened the photo album while secretly observing her expression. Her gaze remained fixed on the ground floor, lost in thought.
"It's deleted."
Lin Shiren handed the phone back to her, and casually grabbed her arm as if to help her up, saying seemingly unintentionally, "Let's go back to the classroom. I heard that Abbess Miejue will be doing spot checks in each grade this afternoon."
Yu Xuehui seemed to have taken her words to heart, and slowly stood up. But after regaining her balance, she gently withdrew her arm, and Lin Shiren's hand fell into emptiness.
She said calmly, "Go back to the classroom. I don't want to scare you."
This sentence sounded like a manifesto before a major decision. Lin Shiren felt inexplicably panicked. She could hear herself asking the question, which was accompanied by heavy breathing.
Why did you scare me?
The answer is obvious.
Yu Xuehui didn't look at her again. She took a step forward and leaped over the railing, her body hanging outside the stairs, her expression sorrowful.
She said, "I'm going to leave this world."
-----------------------
The author's note: This plot is very sad. When I was empathizing with Xuehui, I cried my eyes out on the bus. The darkest night will eventually give way to dawn.
I can't wait to capture my little sister's highlight moments.
50 red envelopes~
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