Chapter 42
The classroom was very warm, but with the door opening and closing, I couldn't help but shiver.
In the blink of an eye, two evening self-study sessions passed quickly. Guan Nan felt that her efficiency was pretty good. She did a class of practice questions, previewed the content of several subjects, organized a collection of wrong questions, and reviewed her knowledge and thinking.
As she was about to leave after school with her schoolbag on her back, she heard Ouyang Mei call out to her.
Guan Nan was confused.
"Guan Nan," Ouyang Mei pulled her aside and asked softly behind the classroom door, "What do you think of our class's choir performance?"
Guan Nan: "A large chorus?"
“Yes, Banban said we could form a group. I asked a few students with special talents. Their dance club has a group performance, and the students who study bel canto have gone on stage with their teacher. There are only a few physical education students left. They said they wanted them to go, so they can only go on stage to perform running, playing basketball and throwing.”
"......"
This was clearly said in anger.
“Even Liu Yang said he wants to join the street dance club.” Ouyang Mei was so angry she almost vomited blood.
Guan Nan comforted her, saying, "He was just joking."
After much deliberation, Ouyang Mei said that the idea of turning the group into a class-wide chorus was suggested by Chen Aimei, who said that they had done the same thing at Fuwai before, where classes that didn't want to perform on stage alone would all perform together.
Hearing her say that, Guan Nan didn't say anything more, only saying that she didn't know.
The original intention was to question all the class officers, and Ouyang Mei didn't press her further, so she let her go.
As soon as Guan Nan went downstairs, she saw the person standing in front of the bulletin board.
He was wearing a down jacket, and even though his figure was partially hidden by the stair railing, his tall stature was still undeniable.
From above, the viewpoint only vaguely shows his silhouette, which is shrouded in darkness. He stands with his head down, looking languid, and idly fiddling with his phone screen.
Guan Nan recognized the person at a glance.
She went down two more steps, and the motion-sensor lights that had been off came on as she approached Jiang Li.
The light went out again.
After leaving Mingde Tower, the two walked slowly along Huangjue Road, one in front of the other.
Jiang Li turned his head, raised an eyebrow slightly, and asked lazily, "Haven't you made up your mind yet?"
"Just kidding." Guan Nan put her hands in her pockets and chuckled softly.
Jiang Li dragged out his words: "Are you sure you're lying to me?"
"......"
What's the meaning?
Guan Nan didn't understand.
"Weren't you trying to surprise me?" Jiang Li asked casually, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Guan Nan's eyelids twitched, and she was genuinely impressed by his narcissism. Then she shook her head: "...No."
"Oh," Jiang Li smiled casually, then asked, "Why didn't you say anything yesterday when I asked you?"
Upon hearing this, Guan Nan immediately deflated, all her thoughts of making excuses vanished, and she said listlessly, "I forgot."
Jiang Li said understandingly, "After all, he was drunk yesterday, so it's forgivable."
Upon hearing this, Guan Nan glanced at him but didn't dare to reply.
But he didn't say anything, and then mumbled an "uh-huh" as a response.
When they reached the end of Huangjue Road, Jiang Li took his hand out of his pocket, made a fist and faced her, "From now on, we'll study together in the evenings."
“Let’s go to evening self-study together.” Mimicking him, Guan Nan made fists and bumped them together.
He remained silent for a long time until he walked out of the school gate.
He suppressed his smile, his expression was blank, and he didn't say much.
The two didn't say anything more, got on the bus together, and said goodbye together at Hecangyuan.
As the bus drove away, Jiang Li, who was sitting by the window, looked at her below the bus with a forced smile.
Guan Nan didn't know what was wrong with him; he was behaving very strangely, unlike his usual self.
Back home, Guan Nan gathered her clothes and prepared to take a shower, her mind racing as she replayed the source of Jiang Li's unusual behavior in her mind.
When she was blow-drying her hair, she noticed something different, seemingly after someone signed her up for a performance.
But why is that?
Wasn't he just going on stage normally off-campus?
Unable to come to a conclusion, Guan Nan spread out the test paper that Qi Yang had given her on the coffee table, lay down on the coffee table and did another set, while listening to downloaded videos on her borrowed MP4 player to improve her listening skills.
Fuzhong High School claims that the senior year students are catching up on the review of the first two years of high school. In reality, all the teachers are rushing to catch up on the schedule, wishing they could digest all the knowledge content as soon as possible and then enter the sprint state of senior year exam preparation.
To be precise, they wished they could give exams every day and explain the wrong questions every day.
The next day, before morning self-study, Ouyang Mei announced that the whole class would sing together on stage for the New Year's Day performance, giving everyone a chance to shine.
"You're in your second year of high school, not kindergarten. Why are you singing in the choir? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Should I go up and sing 'Our motherland is a garden, the flowers in the garden are so bright, wahaha, wahaha'...?"
Some people objected: "Isn't Liu Yang good at martial arts? Let him go up and show off. It's just a New Year's Eve party, why should we waste so many of our time?"
Ouyang Mei couldn't stand his words, seeing no sense of collective honor whatsoever. She immediately glared at him and said, "Then you go. The class monitor said we should respect individual wishes, but he just doesn't want to. If you don't want to go yourself, why are you telling others to go?"
She slammed her hand on the podium and said angrily, "The whole class will sing it together, there's no going back."
After he finished speaking, Jiang Li's expression, which had been expressionless, finally showed a subtle change, and he looked up at the podium.
Guan Nan was looking up when she noticed his movement and glanced at him again.
The others leaned against Yu Shu's desk, looking somewhat impatient.
At this point, Guan Nan still didn't understand why he was unwilling to go on stage.
"Since nobody knows what to sing, let's just sing 'Left Hand Right Hand'." At this point, Ouyang Mei simply gave up and couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
The boy with glasses pushed up his glasses and said, "Why don't we sing the national anthem? It's solemn without being childish, and it's full of youthful vigor."
Guo Yuhang said with a grin, "Four-eyes, you sing the national anthem yourself. You can go up as a representative, and we'll all support you."
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said the girl surnamed Kuang. “Why sing the national anthem at the New Year’s Eve party? You could go up there and do a solo fast-paced storytelling routine, that would be better than this.”
"How about singing 'Wish'? That one, Jiang Li, do you know how to sing it?" Liu Yang suggested, then asked again.
Jiang Li replied expressionlessly, "No."
“Luo Haoyu knows it, I only remember it’s dalalalalalala,” Liu Yang hummed a tune. Seeing that no one recognized it, he called on Luo Haoyu to demonstrate a bit for everyone, “You sing it.”
At that moment, everyone looked at Luo Haoyu's position, waiting for his demonstration.
"'The lake is your gaze, dreams are as numerous as the stars, my mood is a legend, an unchanging wait, growth is a door of leaves, childhood has a group of dear people...'" Luo Haoyu put down his pen, glanced at the classroom, and sang without any inhibitions.
Seeing that he showed no sign of stopping, Yu Shu quickly interrupted with a smile: "That's enough, that's enough. Why are you so straightforward? Are you planning to finish singing?"
Guan Nan smiled at Yu Shu's words.
Following this, he also mentioned that Fuyang Foreign Language School used to be like this too; even classes where no one wanted to go on stage would have the whole class go on stage. Upon hearing this, several people who knew him well became curious about what songs they used to sing together.
“In the past, it was always Jiang—” Yu Shu paused, then said with a smile, “Our class used to have performances, but we never did a chorus.”
Immediately, everyone remembered that they came from outside Fuling, so they must have been in a group.
Then, his eyes darted around and he set his sights on Jiang Li.
Someone called out Jiang Li's name and said, "Could you recommend a song that would be suitable for a duet?"
Jiang Li initially wanted to refuse, but upon meeting Guan Nan's equally expectant gaze, he remained silent. He hesitated for a moment, then lifted his eyelids to look at the podium: "Yang Pei-an's 'I Believe'."
"This song is indeed a very good choice," Guan Nan nodded silently.
"Okay, it's decided then." Liu Yang slammed his hand on the table and stood up.
The song for the choir was decided, and it wasn't unfamiliar to anyone; it was played on the school radio every day. When the song was submitted, Class Monitor Ouyang, as the arts and culture representative, was chosen to lead the class in singing.
For several evening study sessions in a row, I listened to and sang this song over and over again until everyone felt like throwing up whenever they heard it.
The girls were still discussing what kind of amazing moves they wanted to design.
As a result, the boy rejected it on the spot.
"It's embarrassing enough, but can't we stop making things more embarrassing? I'm being watched from the audience, where am I supposed to put my face?" The boy was part of a group that was dating early, and his pride was paramount; he absolutely wouldn't allow this to happen.
With this statement, the posing was abolished.
That afternoon, everyone gathered at the entrance of the auditorium, waiting in line to enter.
The north wind was giving everyone a headache. Because they had to go on stage, everyone only wore a jacket over their summer short-sleeved school uniforms. When asked why, the arts and culture committee member said that "autumn and winter school uniforms are not aesthetically pleasing on stage."
Guan Nan's cotton-padded coat had clumped up, making its insulation performance really worrying. Standing in the opening, it felt like the wind was blowing through her body, and it stung her bones.
Jiang Li, who was sitting next to her, tugged at her and took off his coat, saying, "It's a bit hot."
He handed it to me; he was only wearing a thin fleece jacket, which didn't look very warm.
"You wear it yourself." It was too cold, and Guan Nan was worried that he would catch a cold, so she refused his coat.
Jiang Li took out his phone, opened the notes app, and typed a line of text.
"Give me your clothes."
After reading it, Guan Nan shook her head, still refusing.
He took it back, typed another line, and handed it over.
"It will be very dark inside."
Guan Nan: "??"
“So,” the line ahead started moving, and Jiang Li walked alongside her, whispering in her ear, “no one will notice.”
No one will find out.
What did you find?
I noticed she had changed her coat.
Guan Nan understood his meaning in a second, and while she was still hesitating, she heard him say again:
"Don't worry, I can withstand the cold."
Guan Nan immediately looked embarrassed and silently handed him the clothes, saying, "Thank you."
She glanced at the trademark; it was a brand name she had never seen before and didn't recognize.
But once the clothes were on, they warmed me up immediately, whether from Jiang Li's lingering warmth or from the clothes themselves heating up too quickly. The surrounding area was completely covered in warmth, with not a single draft leaking in.
This dress is perfect in every way, except it's too big for her; the sleeves are too long and her hands are hidden inside.
Guan Nan once again caught that faint scent of sea salt.
She felt her face was hot and itchy, so she rolled up her sleeves and scratched her face.
As Guan Nan sat in the auditorium, someone walked up to her and whispered "Wow!"
As soon as she looked up, Guan Nan recognized Lin Rui. He was hunching over and squeezing next to Jiang Li, and she gave an awkward smile.
He seemed oblivious to the person's embarrassment and asked suspiciously, "Isn't this Jiang Li's clothing?"
"Ah..." Guan Nan was speechless, and almost wanted to take it off on the spot.
The next second, Jiang Li pulled the person who had stopped over, and as soon as they sat down, he asked again, "What happened to your clothes—"
Jiang Li released his hand and said in a calm tone, "No."
"Really?" Lin Rui leaned forward, squinting as he examined it again.
Jiang Li remained silent: "..."
Lin Rui was about to bring up the clothes again: "I'm not stupid, you—"
"It's none of your business," Jiang Li said, annoyed.
Yu Shu, who was behind him, saw that his acquaintance had changed seats and was now hooking his arm around Lin Rui's neck. He said with delight, "Lin Gou, you're here to help? Our class is doing a choir performance later, you should go on stage."
He was too rough, gripping the person tightly and making them uncomfortable. Lin Rui pried his hands off and coughed twice: "Screw you, I have a show to do later."
"Tsk," Yu Shu pushed him away in disgust, "I thought you'd finally had a change of heart."
"What the hell did you find? Even if you did find something, it wouldn't be in your class. One of you is an arts student, and the other is a science student. What are you thinking about all day long?" Lin Rui complained, propping himself up on his hands.
Jiang Li ignored their banter and turned to look at Guan Nan.
He reached into his pocket and realized that the keys, school ID card, and change he found were not his own. He belatedly realized that these were not his clothes.
He calmly put it back, leaned back in his chair, and casually stretched his long legs forward.
The fixed seats weren't very wide, and after a few twists and turns, my long legs looked quite uncomfortable, so I had to stretch them out to the left and right.
Guan Nan watched him shift his legs for a while before finally finding a comfortable position. She couldn't help but sigh, thinking that having long legs wasn't all good; there were still some troubles.
“There’s candy in the left pocket,” Guan Nan whispered. “You can have some.”
Jiang Li hadn't taken them out yet, but now he felt around and indeed there were a few candies—the entire Alpenliebe series. After taking them out, he held them out in his palm and handed them to her: "Take some yourself."
"I bought this for you." Guan Nan pushed his hand away.
Jiang Li turned his head to look at her.
His gaze was so intense that Guan Nan nervously pursed her lips, seemingly at a loss for words. When she looked up and met his eyes, she awkwardly offered a dry explanation: "I mainly... I was afraid you'd get bored, since the party will last a long time."
"Let me buy it next time," Jiang Li said, her eyelashes fluttering. She glanced at the bag, stuffed the rest into her pocket, and said as she tore open the package, "Girls shouldn't spend money on others so easily."
Guan Nan frowned and muttered, "You're not just anyone."
Jiang Li handed her the torn candy: "That won't do either. I don't spend girls' money."
“…But,” Guan Nan stared at the candy in his hand, somewhat speechless, “didn’t you say we’re friends? Isn’t that what friendship is all about? It’s not like it’s a lot of money, why are you so fussy?”
"I said no, and that's final." Jiang Li grabbed her wrist and placed the candy in her hand. "Why should girls spend money on others? Your money should be spent on yourselves, understand?"
He spoke with unusual firmness.
Guan Nan clenched the candy in her palm. "What if other people spend money on me too?"
“That was his own choice, what’s it to you?” Jiang Li lowered his voice and leaned closer. “Whether it’s a man or a woman, if they’re spending money on you or being nice to you, it must be for your own benefit. Otherwise, they wouldn’t do these pointless things.”
"When you accept these things, try to feel a little more at ease, otherwise the girl will suffer."
Guan Nan hesitated for a moment, then pursed her lips. "And what about you?"
Others' kindness is based on conditions that are profitable.
And what about you, Jiang Li?
Why are you so good to me?
I have nothing.
"What about me?" Jiang Li realized what he meant after he finished speaking, a casual smile playing on his lips. "I'm the exception. You can accept my kindness to you unconditionally."
Guan Nan stared at him, her eyes unblinking: "Why?"
"because......"
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