Chapter 20
The young girl's thoughts were not open and honest; she was timid, tense, and full of complex emotions.
Walking uphill in Tangzi Lane, Guan Nan held the camera Jiang Li had given her, each step she took felt like walking on thin ice.
When Guan Nan was very young, she wasn't sensitive at all, and she had a group of friends who played and made a ruckus with her. She always had plenty of money and a generous personality, so everyone loved playing with her.
Adults often tease her, saying she has a lot of money.
But after some things happened, her former playmates, who used to fawn over her and call her "Princess Qian Duoduo" every day, suddenly changed their tune.
They all call her "Little Crazy Girl".
Gradually, no one played with her anymore, and she became all alone.
A person who has to be mindful of others' feelings wherever they go and is disliked by everyone.
As time went by, the bright and cheerful Princess Qian Duoduo transformed into a quiet and reserved young girl, gradually becoming more sensitive and sharp.
She always pays attention to the needs of others, and never makes demands when asked, always accommodating others.
However, these precautions were not well-received, and the term "little lunatic" spread far and wide.
She once mustered the courage to express herself: "I'm not a little lunatic, don't talk to me like that, I don't like it."
"Hehehe," the little boy made a face at her, "You're a little lunatic, we don't play with lunatics."
The "little lunatic" spread throughout Hecangyuan.
Guan Nan has no friends anymore.
All alone.
Her sensitivity gradually increased as a result. She would carefully analyze every word, micro-expression, or even a small gesture the other person made before daring to speak.
Qi Yang, during the period when she was isolated and ostracized, spent every single day on the stone bench.
"Guan Nan," Qi Yang would call out to her every day under the banyan tree, holding a fan, with an air of maturity beyond his years, "Time to do your homework."
So, after Jiang Li's repeated questioning, Guan Nan didn't know how to explain the weight of that "brother." From her initial reluctance to her later gratitude, she didn't know how to express it.
So much so that before they parted ways at the subway station, Jiang Li said with a slightly joking tone, "See you tomorrow, cousin."
Cheer up.
For a long time, no one has cared whether she is happy or not. Everyone keeps telling her that she has to work hard, be strong, and strive to succeed. She has to study hard, earn money, and support the family.
But they all seem to have forgotten that she is only 16 years old, an age when she should be worrying about homework and fretting about tomorrow's classes.
At that moment, Guan Nan had a strange feeling.
It seemed that he saw through her feigned happiness at a glance, but he just didn't say anything.
......
Guan Nan stood at the door, put the camera in her pocket, and rang the doorbell.
The family was having hot pot when she returned, which seemed quite inappropriate. Guan Weimin and Zhang Guilian exchanged a glance, while Lin Zhaozhao, holding chopsticks, looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Are you still going to eat?" Perhaps feeling that it wasn't appropriate for the family to be enjoying themselves while she was away, Lin Zhaozhao asked awkwardly.
Guan Nan lowered her head as she changed her shoes. "No need, thank you."
“We,” Lin Zhaozhao said, “we didn’t know you would come back.”
Guan Nan hummed in agreement.
Lin Zhaozhao wasn't good at lying, and now her speech was even more hesitant and lacked confidence. She awkwardly said, "No, we didn't know you would be here at this time... We didn't mean to..."
"Alright, if you want to eat, then eat," Guan Weimin said. "Nobody's begging you. You came back so late, do you expect the whole family to wait for you to cook? You're acting like royalty!"
Seeing this, Zhang Guilian waved to Lin Zhaozhao.
Lin Zhaozhao glanced at her, hesitated for two seconds, and then turned and went back into the restaurant.
Under the incandescent light, the family of three enjoyed a happy time together.
She alone was like a wild sparrow that had taken over a bird's nest without realizing it, completely out of place.
Guan Nan remained expressionless, took out two hundred yuan, and said, "I've already eaten. I'm working part-time providing meals today."
"This is your living expenses for half a month." Guan Weimin pushed the money to Zhang Guilian's hand, gesturing for her to put it away. "Give this money to your aunt."
"Okay." Guan Nan nodded.
Zhang Guilian asked with a smile, "Are you full? Would you like some more?"
"No need, thank you Auntie, I'm full and came back."
......
On Monday, we lined up to assemble and raise the national flag.
After the honor guard entered and the national flag was raised, the few students from class H1404 who had been fighting were dragged off the stage by the grade director, Lao Jiang. The vice principal/Party branch secretary finished speaking, and now the outstanding grade representatives of the second year of high school were standing on the stage, microphones in hand.
"Good morning, dear teachers and classmates! I am Guan Nan from Class 1401 of the second year of high school. I am honored to stand here today as a representative of the grade, and thank you for listening to my thoughts."
Yu Shu couldn't sit still and would seize any opportunity to gossip: "I didn't notice it before, but the class monitor seems so quiet, yet he doesn't show any fear when he goes on stage in front of the whole school."
Upon hearing this, Luo Haoyu scoffed, his laughter seemingly mocking his complete lack of understanding of the top student's abilities, and his eyes looking at him as if he were an idiot.
"Tsk, little glasses, what kind of attitude is that?" Before Jiang Li could answer, Yu Shu turned around with dissatisfaction and said to Luo Haoyu, who was holding a small notebook and pretending to study.
Jiang Li glanced at him, then looked back at the podium.
"Time flies, and life is like a flowing river. Gathering on this fertile land of Fuzhong, learning is the greatest blessing that brought us together, and our achievements are the greatest affirmation of our abilities."
Seeing that Luo Haoyu was ignoring everyone.
Yu Shu: "Hey, I'm talking to you."
"Teacher." Luo Haoyu ignored him and turned to call out to Lao Jiang, who was chatting with the principal.
"You're such a grown man, why are you telling on the teacher?" Yu Shu was dumbfounded: "You son of a bitch..."
Old Jiang walked over, and Yu Shu braced himself for a scolding. Then he heard Luo Haoyu say, "Teacher, can we go back to the classroom after we finish reading our self-criticisms?"
"What do you want?" Old Jiang asked.
Luo Haoyu said with a straight face, "I haven't had breakfast yet."
Miraculously, Old Jiang became exceptionally agreeable this time, immediately nodding in agreement.
Yu Shu's eyes widened in shock. He glanced at Luo Haoyu, then at the old-fashioned Jiang, his face full of disbelief.
"I hope everyone will not be discouraged. Faced with the new educational model of Fuling High School, we should, as the school motto says, 'dare to fight, dare to struggle, and dare to be pioneers.'"
—"In the new semester, I wish all students to live up to expectations and fulfill their responsibilities."
—"Thank you everyone!"
After she finished bowing, thunderous applause erupted across the playground.
Guan Nan handed the microphone to the teacher and turned to walk off the stage, just as Lao Jiang was urging a group of people to read their self-criticisms.
This time, they went on and off the stage, brushing past each other once again.
But this time was different; they didn't rush by. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Jiang Li, she said, "Keep it up."
They all rushed to read their self-criticisms, and a few troublemakers, acting like they were showing off, swaggered around and acted nonchalantly.
Guan Nan had no interest in other people's predicaments.
Following the teacher's words, "Go upstairs and review first," I returned to the classroom.
She sat in her seat. There were a few students in the classroom who had good grades. She didn't know if they hadn't gone down or had come up early. The bell that had been closed was opened again.
Jiang Li was reading her self-criticism in the classroom. They looked up at the speaker.
"I am Jiang Li from class 1401. I deeply realize that fighting is a serious mistake. School is a place for learning, and teachers have repeatedly warned against fighting, but I didn't take their words to heart. Last week, I openly fought with a classmate in the classroom, which not only brought trouble to myself but also added burden to the teacher. Afterwards, I reflected on my behavior and realized my mistake. In the future, I will definitely be a well-behaved and law-abiding student and will never fight again. Please supervise me." Jiang Li looked at the scribbles on the paper, still with that lazy and nonchalant attitude, sounding completely insincere.
The writing is perfunctory and insincere.
Chen Aimei laughed out loud in the classroom: "Mengmeng, Jiang Li didn't rehash old ideas this time!"
"Hmm." Chen Mengjie noticed it too.
Did you write it for him?
Chen Mengjie shook her head: "I told him I'd write it for him, but he didn't want it."
Before this, Jiang Li had a universal self-criticism letter, which he had revised and reused countless times; he was simply too lazy to update it. This time, the section was unusually updated, which surprised and intrigued many.
Chen Aimei also found it strange and asked Guan Nan, "Nan Nan, did Jiang Li ask you to help him write a self-criticism?"
Guan Nan stopped writing, looked up at her, and shook her head: "No."
"That's so strange?" Chen Aimei said. "Could it be that Jiang Li has changed his ways, and even the same old template has been replaced?"
The person reading the self-criticism and guarantee from the speaker was different, and Chen Mengjie didn't respond.
"No way! No way!"
Chen Aimei's voice suddenly grew louder. Guan Nan had just written a few words when she looked over with Chen Mengjie.
The next second, Chen Aimei said, "Could it really have been written by his girlfriend?"
"Who said he has a girlfriend?" Chen Mengjie went up to the podium, turned off the speakers, and the classroom quieted down.
Chen Aimei: "Lin Rui said it."
"..." Chen Mengjie got down, sat down, and glanced at Guan Nan. "You actually believe Lin Rui's words? That guy talks nonsense. Eleven out of ten of his sentences are false, and the other one is just embellished."
Hearing this, Guan Nan thought carefully about the scenes she had witnessed twice, and it seemed that there was indeed some truth to it.
"But he doesn't treat Xie Shuwan the same way."
“They were childhood sweethearts, and Yu Shu even said they were betrothed when they were little.”
Guan Nan listened for a couple more minutes, then withdrew her attention and buried herself in writing her own test paper. These newly found test papers were quite difficult, and she had to write about some of the knowledge she hadn't learned yet, which made it a bit challenging.
As Guan Nan flipped the exam paper over, a faint stinging pain shot through her lower abdomen, and she roughly guessed what was happening.
She immediately put down her pen, took out a pinkish-white sheet from inside her bag, held it in her palm, and silently got up and walked out of the classroom. But at that moment, people were coming and going in the stairwell outside the classroom behind the playground, so she carefully avoided touching them.
In the end, they couldn't defend against it and were met head-on by someone coming from around the corner.
Guan Nan instinctively raised her arm to shield her chest, but her palm lost its grip and the pinkish-white package fell to the ground in the busy stairwell.
"What's this?" someone curiously came over to take a look. "Holy crap, it's a blood pack."
Some boys teased, "The girls' sanitary napkins are flying everywhere in the dorms, and now they're even flying into the classrooms."
Guan Nan was squeezed in the middle, feeling embarrassed and awkward.
She stood frozen in place, too pale to bend down and pick it up.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Li asked lazily, still holding Sprite and strawberry milk in his hand. Noticing the commotion in the corner, he turned his head and glanced at Guan Nan, who was huddled in the corner.
Guan Nan's mind went blank, and her expression stiffened when she heard his voice.
Her behavior was unusually obvious. Jiang Li frowned, followed her gaze, and almost immediately knew what was going on. He shoved the things into Guan Nan's hands, listened to the harsh words, and coldly surveyed the surroundings: "Are you sick? Go see a doctor if you're sick."
After saying that, Jiang Li bent down to pick up the sanitary napkin from the ground, his expression unusually indifferent.
"You're shameless enough to embarrass yourself here and then expect people to talk about it," one of the boys watching the scene retorted indignantly.
"How is that shameless? Does your mother not use it? Does your sister not use it? Does your younger sister not use it? Or does your future girlfriend or wife not use it? If you don't use it, where did you come from? Did you spring from a crack in a rock? What makes you so capable?" Jiang Li's face immediately turned cold, his voice sharp as he spoke directly to the man. He held up a sanitary napkin in the crowd, each word clear and distinct, "Is it fun to publicly humiliate people? Let me give you some background information. Its scientific name is sanitary napkin, also known as a large-sized menstrual bandage. It's not only used as a sanitary product for women during menstruation, but it was also used as a disposable hemostatic bandage during wartime."
The scene was completely silent.
This was a rare moment when Jiang Li spoke a lot, aside from reciting his self-criticism.
In addition, Jiang Li was already well-known, so his words carried an inexplicable sense of intimidation and pressure.
"Also, let me give you some more information: International Menstrual Day was established on May 28, 2014," Jiang Li said coldly. "If women's periods are to be ridiculed and shamed, then I don't think you have any reason to exist."
The men's faces clearly showed their displeasure. Guan Nan tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to stop talking.
The air instantly became tense.
Fortunately, a teacher came up and shouted, causing the people who were huddled together to immediately disperse.
With the toilet right in front of her, Guan Nan was embarrassed and didn't know how to start the conversation, her face turning red.
Jiang Li took the Sprite and strawberry milk from her hand, and handed her the sanitary napkin without changing his expression: "Don't you want it?"
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