Chapter 6
Gu Fang pulled out a chair and was about to sit down when he saw the test paper on the table.
They were exam papers from the beginning of the semester, photocopied from a student, densely covered with handwriting. The handwriting was thin and elegant, as if it had been specially practiced in regular script.
Gu Fang recognized the handwriting at a glance.
He glanced at the name column and saw the two big characters "Lu Si" floating in the air.
The bell rang and Lu Si slowly woke up.
Gu Fang took out a pack of snow cakes from his schoolbag, pushed it across the table, and whispered, "Thank you."
His voice was clear, yet with a natural coolness, flowing across Lu Si's eardrums like melted snow, instantly waking him from his sleepiness.
After accepting the snow cake, Lu Si lowered his eyes and said calmly, "Just take a look. There are no extra test papers."
The next few classes will be about the test papers.
In math class, Lu Si's paper was the standard answer, so Mr. Yan, the math teacher, made an extra comment: "Some students, right after the test, complain that the questions were too difficult, yet some still get full marks. This is a typical example of someone who never looks for problems within themselves."
As for English, it is much worse in comparison.
As for this bleak level——
Gu Fang roughly checked the answers on the test paper, and it seemed that... he was just a few points away from passing.
When Lu Si heard the sound of flipping papers next to him, he felt inexplicably anxious.
Lu Si had long been aware that his English test would never test anything about the vegetables in his garden. But...
He ruffled his hair, yanked the test paper from Gu Fang's hand, and said coldly with a tense jawline, "I'll give you a copy of the English representative's test paper this afternoon. Don't look at this one."
Gu Fang looked at him with a puzzled look in his eyes, then he understood and slowly smiled.
"The handwriting is beautiful, why change it?"
Lu Si couldn’t explain it because the mistake was too outrageous and reading it too much would mislead the students.
He could only say "oh" and continued to turn his head with his jaw tense. His eyes slid across the pot of mint on the windowsill and suddenly he remembered something.
To change the subject, he looked up at the podium, then quickly lowered his voice and asked, "Does that pot of mint have a name?"
Gu Fang was slowly correcting the test paper in his hand. His pen tip paused slightly, and he quickly realized what he was asking.
Gu followed his appearance after school, lowered his voice, and buried his head behind the wall of books. He turned to face Lu Si, and the sunlight slanting in from the window sprinkled on his forehead. When he met the light, his eyes were a dazzling blue, clearer than the sky.
"Strawberry mint." He answered word by word.
These four simple words gave Lu Si an illusion of extreme gentleness.
This was probably the first time that Lu Si knew the exact name of his pheromone smell.
He nodded, not noticing anything else, thinking it was just a coincidence. Gu Fang had just bought a pot of mint, and it just happened to smell like his pheromones.
But... that sweet smell actually belonged to strawberries. Lu Si found it incredible. How could it smell like strawberries?
The pen spun around his fingertips, and Lu Si caught a glimpse of Gu Fang slowly drinking the cup of strawberry milk cap, and a strange feeling inexplicably rose in his heart.
He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and looked back at the English test paper in front of him, which was covered with red marks.
After school at noon, Gu Fang sent a message to the driver saying that he would not go back for lunch because it was too troublesome to go back and forth.
My uncle had suggested the same thing before. Before he could move into the house near the school, he asked Le Jiayu to take him to experience the school dormitory first.
For this purpose, Mr. Gu also gave Xiao Le a big red envelope.
Le Jiayu took the money and took him to see the dormitory.
"I'm a half-time student, like many others. I go home at night and sleep in the dormitory at noon."
No. 12 Middle School only has separate dormitories for men and women, but since you're a different gender, you definitely won't be assigned to the same dorm. There are so few Omega students, so many dormitories are underfilled.
"There were only three people in the dormitory I lived in before." Le Jiayu led him to the fourth floor and opened the door of a dormitory at the end of the corridor.
"Before?" Gu Fang entered the dormitory and found two beds empty. There were only four people in a room, with a bed above and a desk below.
"Thanks to you!" Le Jiayu said, "Mr. Gu told the school, and they immediately allocated a separate dormitory for us."
He pointed to the bed by the window inside, "This is yours. All three sets are made up. I brought this from home and it's unused."
Gu Fang thanked him sincerely.
Le Jiayu sighed, "I've accepted Mr. Gu's money, so I can't be careless."
There is actually one advantage of attending a half-commuter school. You can live on campus at noon, but still keep your school badge as a commuter student and be able to enter and leave the school freely.
Le Jiayu had long been tired of eating in the cafeteria, so she took him to a restaurant outside the school with familiarity, which seemed to have decent hygiene conditions.
"It's mainly the barbecue rice," Le Jiayu gave a thumbs up. "It's amazing! You must try it, give it a try!"
After eating the delicious barbecue rice, Gu Fang originally planned to go straight back to the dormitory, but Yue Jiayu suggested that they go to the small playground on the top of the mountain for a walk to digest the food.
I went with Le Jiayu. After walking half a circle around the playground, Le Jiayu suddenly pointed at a building and called out, "Fangfang, that's the Cultural and Sports Building. Didn't the art club say we could go there this morning? Since we have nothing to do, why don't we go take a look?"
After going around in circles, Gu Fang finally understood the real purpose of his sudden suggestion of helping digestion.
I felt a little touched and laughed a little: "Okay, let's go shopping."
The art club is on the third floor, and as soon as you enter you can smell the unique smell of pencils mixed with paint.
Several first-year high school students were graffitiing on the fruits on the table, while several second-year high school students were chatting and laughing while drinking milk tea. The atmosphere was very relaxed.
The girl who handed out flyers that morning was also there; she clearly still remembered Gu Fang. That face was truly memorable.
She waved enthusiastically at the two of them at the door: "Come in, seniors, you can look wherever you want, our club is very informal!"
No. 12 Middle School is an old school. The trees in front of the cultural and sports building are as tall as three or four stories. Outside the window, there is dense green shade and cicadas chirping constantly. If the lights are not turned on, the room will be dim in the afternoon.
Despite the informal nature of the club, Gu Fang discovered that the club was well-equipped with drawing boards, plaster, paint, and various utility knives. The walls were covered with artwork from current and former members.
Among the group of high school freshmen who were painting, there was a girl who was obviously wearing a senior high school uniform and had short hair that reached her shoulders. She was painting a playground shaded by green trees. When she dipped the paint, she accidentally met Gu Fang's sight.
"Gu Fang?" The girl with short hair was stunned and a little surprised.
The sophomore girl was also a little surprised: "You two know each other?"
Gu Fang felt that this face looked familiar, and he seemed to be from Class 2, but he couldn't remember his name. The girl smiled at the junior student and said, "He just transferred to our class. I know him, but he hasn't had time to get to know me yet."
This statement gave both parties a way out. Gu Fang curled his eyes slightly and said, "We know each other now."
The short-haired girl hummed a little embarrassedly: "My name is Shu Nanzhi, and I'm the arts committee member of our class two."
She looked at the sophomore and introduced her, "This is the vice president of our art club, Xu Jing from Class 20."
Xu Jing was a very cheerful girl, but she blushed a little when she saw Gu Fang: "Hello, hello, Senior Gu Fang!"
They were barely "acquaintances", so Shu Nanzhi put down his paintbrush and took them to continue the tour in a familiar manner.
"Xiao Jing just said that our club is very informal and there aren't any fixed activities. Basically, you reserve a spot and can come and draw whenever you have time."
Shu Nanzhi was very familiar with everything about the art club. While introducing the works of previous years, she said, "Occasionally, we hold sharing sessions on weekends, allowing everyone to discuss their creative thoughts and share their own drawings. We also hold sketching activities during the holidays, but it depends on how busy everyone's studies are. If they are busy, we won't do it."
"Yes, that's right. It's very free!" Xu Jing agreed. "Sister Nanzhi was the former president of our art club, but she left in her junior year. The current president is also a sophomore. He's not here. You'll see him when you come over this afternoon."
The other people from the art club came over to get to know Gu Fang, and they were all very enthusiastic. It made people feel sincerely that it would be too cruel to reject them.
When Gu Fang heard that they did not force the subject matter and that there was freedom of creation, he became a little shaken.
At this moment, there was a sudden burst of piano sound from upstairs, with a soothing rhythm.
The sound of music flowed downstairs like a stream, pleasant and bright. Gu Fang looked up in surprise: "Who's upstairs?"
Shu Nanzhi turned around and asked, "Is this from the band's rehearsal room?"
"I don't know why the soundproofing in their rehearsal room is broken," Xu Jing muttered somewhat dissatisfiedly. "It was okay today, I played the piano. If they do some rock music again, it'll blow my brains out!"
"Band?" Gu Fang blinked.
Shu Nanzhi looked at him and said, "It's a band formed by Lu Si and the students from Class 7. The school didn't allow it before, but last summer they won a prize at the city music festival, and then they allowed it."
Class 7 is a special class for arts and sports in the senior year.
Gu Fang's inner turmoil was completely magnified and finally overwhelmed the other end of the scale.
"I'm joining now." He subconsciously twisted his fingertips, a layer of sweat sticking to them, and asked politely, "Can you give me a registration form?"
[TS Senior Citizens Association]
-Admin 7: Attention all units! The show starts on time at the usual location tonight!
-Administrator 7: Our band will be the second to last to perform, around 10 o'clock, so don't miss it!
-receive.
-receive.
…
There are about a hundred people in the group, but all of them are highly active core music fans. As soon as the administrator sends a message, they all start to check the status of the message.
Lying on the bed in the dormitory, Gu Fang had just replied that he had received it when Administrator 7 sent him a private message.
-The group leader and I have discussed that the three of us should meet tonight, right at the entrance of the live house. What time are you free?
TS, a niche instrumental band, has been performing for two years and has amassed a fan base of a few hundred or so. But their fans are generally quite relaxed, taking the same wild path as the band, and they've only just recently managed to gather three fan leaders.
Strictly speaking, they aren't fan leaders. They're completely separate from the domestic entertainment industry, incompatible with each other. "Fans" is just another name for the core audience; they come to listen to music and leave. Fan leaders are just tools for distributing performance notices.
It is said that after listening to the performance, the group owner found that many listeners who liked TS were struggling to find more performance information of the band, so he decided to set up a special music fan group to collect performance information and notify them on time.
7 became the group administrator because the information he provided was always accurate.
The reason why Gu Fang became a group manager was much simpler.
——He single-handedly sponsored the city’s largest live house “Wanliang” and held several special performances for TS during the summer vacation.
He himself also became one of the TS fan leaders and the core financial backer of "Wanliang".
In short, stupid people with a lot of money.
Gu Fang didn't mind meeting offline and changed direction on the pillow.
-I can be there at 9:30, is that okay?
7 replied quickly.
-Okay, we’ll meet at Wanliang’s gate then. By the way, we also need to give each other a secret code, which is what TS’s alias is.
-……good.
Gu Fang turned off his phone, pulled the thin blanket, but still couldn't help laughing.
Why do I feel such an inexplicable excitement?
They even exchanged secret codes, just like underground spies meeting each other.
After evening self-study, Gu Fang asked the driver to take him to People's Square first and pick him up at 10:30.
People's Square was only a ten-minute drive from No. 12 Middle School. He got off the bus at the square and was already familiar with the distance from the pedestrian street to the live house. By the time he arrived at Wanliang's entrance, he was seven or eight minutes ahead of his planned 9:30.
Gu Fang didn't have time to change out of his school uniform, so he stood at the door in his high school uniform. Passing music fans would turn their heads to look at him from time to time.
This coat belonged to Lu Si. After entering, there was a mixed crowd. Gu Fang was a little afraid of getting stained with strange smells, so he simply took it off and draped it over his arm.
He touched the barrier patch he had just put on the back of his neck, then raised his hand and took a deep breath of the pheromones on his coat, and the irritation in his heart was suppressed.
A little girl in a junior high school uniform caught his attention.
Probably because they both had the No. 12 Middle School badge, the little girl was holding a basket of flowers and selling them to the passing fans. Gu Fang's gaze lingered on her for a while.
The little girl seemed to notice his gaze and walked over with a basket of flowers.
Her expression was a bit cool, but her voice was earnestly promoting something: "Little brother, would you like to buy some flowers? You can give them to your favorite singer or band. They also give you a free small card. You can write down your wishes for them."
Gu Fang wanted to laugh. How did this girl manage to be so cool and add "oh" at the end of her voice?
The flowers were plump, freshly watered, and juicy. He picked a small bunch of lisianthus, two white-brown and one icy blue. The little girl carefully tied a bow with a light blue ribbon and handed him a small card, asking if he wanted to write something.
In fact, before she asked, Gu Fang hadn't thought of writing anything. Even if he wrote, the other party might not be able to read it. It was only when she asked that he suddenly felt the urge to write something.
Even if the other person can't read it, when the vague idea in my heart is put down on paper, my heart seems to settle down.
You have to say something, not just to others, even if it's just to yourself.
There was a bench next to the flower bed. Gu Fang squatted down, took the pen from the little girl and thanked her.
He was thinking a lot, but he didn't write anything down yet. He thought, "I'll probably just write one sentence, saying he's his star? How corny... only a child would say that, right?"
But I couldn't find a better metaphor. How wonderful are stars, visible at night, without having to illuminate so many people like moonlight or shoulder such a heavy responsibility. Simply by quietly shining and existing, their light will touch and inspire others.
Can a star be monopolized? Thinking of the man-named asteroids in the sky, Gu Fang laughed and shook his head. He had too many redundant modifiers to describe this star, almost too many to describe, and in the end, it all came together into a long, boring sentence.
When I finished writing, I lowered my eyes and read it again, and I was so embarrassed by how corny it was.
He felt embarrassed, pursed his lips, and silently put the card in his pocket.
When returning the pen, the girl looked him over and over again, and suddenly asked, "What's TS's nickname?"
Gu Fang was startled and met her gaze. "The Shiquan Town Sweet Country Music Team?"
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