Chapter 4
Outside the school's small garden stands a willow tree, said to have existed since the school's founding. It's now more than two feet thick. Inspired by the poem "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road," it symbolizes "breaking willow branches to bid farewell," and every graduating class takes a farewell photo beneath the tree.
It is sunset now, and the orange sunlight shines through the branches of the willow trees, illuminating the nine-layer purple on the flower stand, which is quite artistic.
An Huainan had already stepped under the nine-layered purple vine trellis and plopped down on a stone chair. A ray of sunlight shone right on his face, his sharply defined features, straight nose, and cool demeanor shrouding him in a sacred, inviolable aura.
As far as I can remember, their 'little garden agreement' was never fulfilled.
This is entirely thanks to An Huainan's unreliable fellow townsman, Wang Yazhou, who was also Fang Zhao's high school classmate.
Wangshan Middle School is a boarding school. Every two weeks, students go home to pick up out-of-season clothes and food expenses for the second half of the month. The rest of the time, everyone lives on campus, making it easier to manage the school. Of course, there are some day students, but most of them live close to the school.
In order to enhance everyone's physical fitness, Wangshan Middle School stipulates that there will be a concentrated running session during the breaks at 6:30 and 9:15 in the morning. The first and second grade students will run in the playground, while the third grade students will gather alone under the big willow tree and run two laps around all the teaching buildings.
Fang Zhao's class was the "front row" of the senior year, and they always took the lead in the race. So after the race, they had to wait for all the classes to finish their rest, and then they would receive some "instructions" from the dean of studies, and then they would be dispersed and continue with their morning self-study or the next class.
Once, when Fang Zhao was catching his breath after running, Wang Yazhou suddenly turned around with a sly look on his face and said, "Fang Zhao, last time An Huainan asked you to wait for him in the small garden tonight."
"Last time? When?"
"Several days ago. I forgot to tell you that day."
Wang Yazhou scratched his head innocently, and Fang Zhao was speechless. The people around him booed.
At that time, everything between her and An Huainan was innocent, but because the two of them appeared together too often, everyone thought there was something going on between them.
This kind of thing happened many times later. For example, after lunch, she took a break in the classroom. Wang Yazhou came back from outside and looked at her. Suddenly, he remembered what An Huainan had told him a few days ago.
"Wang Yazhou, what is your head made of?"
There were several times when she wanted to pry open his head and take a look. At that time, Wang Yazhou was thin and small, fair and tender, with an innocent face, and he acted cute to her casually, so she couldn't get angry.
Therefore, until the end of senior year, none of An Huainan’s invitations were successful.
Fang Zhao was silent for a moment, thinking it was a way to make up for his regrets. He then quietly sat down next to An Huainan.
As soon as they sat down, they saw Wen Bo walking past them with an expressionless face, holding a notebook wrapped in plastic paper.
Fang Zhao only had one comment on the relationship between himself and Wen Bo: "I don't know where the feelings came from", but not "deeply devoted".
I must have been crazy back then, how could I have fallen for such a 'bad boy'? He accepted all of Fang Zhao's kindness to him and never explicitly rejected him. Whenever Fang Zhao confessed his feelings to him, he would casually change the subject and never give a clear response.
Baozi targeted Fang Zhao for a long time because Fang Zhao liked Wen Bo, but Wen Bo didn't say anything in return. He even accepted all of Baozi's kindness towards him.
Of course, Fang Zhao only found out about these things later. But it didn't matter. Who hasn't been cheated by a few "scumbags" when they were young?
"Why, you like him so much?"
An Huainan's sudden voice interrupted Fang Zhao's recollection. Fang Zhao then realized that since Wen Bo appeared, his eyes had never left him.
"No, how could it be possible?"
Fang Zhao rolled his eyes. "I don't want this kind of scumbag even if you force him on me."
Fang Zhao suddenly realized that at the beginning of his senior year in high school, he seemed to have written a letter to An Huainan telling him that he liked Wen Bo.
"Well, I mean, I was blinded by his appearance before, but now I see his true face as a scumbag, so I don't like him anymore."
An Huainan hummed, turned his head and said nothing. But Fang Zhao felt that his face seemed less stiff than before. Was it his own illusion?
**
As soon as I sat down in the classroom, Bao Jing's voice came from next to me.
"Wen Bo, can I ask you about this question?"
How come I didn't notice before? Baozi consulted Wenbo quite often. At least during the entire math evening study session, she asked him for help more than three times. So, is Baozi really that bad at math?
After Wen Bo finished explaining the question, he turned around and saw Fang Zhao looking at him with an inquiring look.
Wen Bo smiled at her, and then saw Fang Zhao with a look of astonishment on his face, turning back to his tree at an extremely fast speed.
He touched his face, wondering if there was something on it.
Just kidding, the first flower that bloomed from my iron tree that hadn't bloomed in a thousand years was this Wen Bo. Because of this flower, Fang Zhao lost her appetite, became restless, and her grades kept dropping. The head teacher went to talk to Fang Zhao's mother and told her to find time to take her to the hospital to see if there was anything wrong.
If I could do it again, I couldn’t let the same person do it again.
"Zhaozi, have you finished all the questions?" Cui Xiaoqian saw Fang Zhao twisting and turning in her seat and tapped her back with her hand.
Fang Zhao turned around with a confused look on his face. "What question?"
"Didn't the teacher say that we should finish the after-class exercises? How do you do this big question? Have you finished it?" Cui Xiaoqian looked up and forward as she spoke, but to her surprise, this guy hadn't even opened the exercise book.
"Ding-ling-ling" the bell for the end of get out of class rang, and cheers came from the corridor. Everyone ran to the dormitory happily.
"No way, what have you been doing in this class?"
After seeing the math teacher leave, Cui Xiaoqian stood up, grabbed Fang Zhao's exercise book and opened it. It was blank, without a single word written on it.
"Uh, I forgot." Fang Zhao felt guilty.
"Qian'er, let's go."
Cui Xiaoqian's academic idol, Liu Xuefeng, ran over from the second row to wait for her. The seats were arranged according to academic performance, with Fang Zhao already in the fourth row, while Cui Xiaoqian was in the fifth row.
"I haven't finished my homework yet." Cui Xiaoqian said in a coquettish tone, spreading the exercise book on the table. "How do I answer this question?"
Fang Zhao glanced at the time. There was still half an hour until the lights-out bell rang. He could take a hot shower in the space while everyone else was asleep, so he wouldn't have to fight with them for a spot in the bathroom. So he just sat down and listened to Liu Xuefeng's lecture.
"Why aren't you leaving yet?"
A familiar voice suddenly sounded above his head. Fang Zhao looked up and saw Fang Huainan's handsome chin.
Cui Xiaoqian curled her eyes and pointed at An Huainan with her chin, "I'm here to pick you up, why don't you leave?"
Fang Zhao was a bit stunned. She only remembered that Fang Huainan often came to see her during her senior year of high school, but it wasn't to the extent of going home together after school at night, right? Why did this seem like a couple secretly dating?
"Go ahead. I want to listen to Liu Xuefeng finish explaining this problem before I leave. I don't know how to do it."
"Go, go, go. I'll teach you later." Cui Xiaoqian drove him out in disappointment. She had a good impression of An Huainan, at least much better than her impression of Wen Bo.
"Then I'll take it back to the dormitory and write it. The math teacher is not easy to deal with."
Fang Zhao picked up the exercise book and walked out with An Huainan.
"I'm hungry. Can I go get something to eat at the back door?"
"Okay." Fang Zhao was a little hungry because he hadn't had dinner.
The two walked to the back door, where several stalls were lit in the dark night, working busily. These stalls were specifically waiting for these growing teenagers to finish school and provide them with midnight snacks. The steaming hot appearance of each stall really gave it a lively and lively atmosphere.
The two of them walked to a burrito stall in tacit understanding.
"Egg sandwich for five, egg and sausage for six, which one do you want?"
"Two sausages with eggs."
As An Huainan spoke, he took money out of his trouser pocket.
Seeing this, Fang Zhao quickly took out her phone, searched for a long time, and found her pockets were empty, with only a few wads of toilet paper. Uh, she forgot, she was in her third year of high school, and not only was she not allowed to bring her phone, but she also didn't have smartphones or WeChat payment methods.
"I don't have any money." Fang Zhao felt a little guilty.
"It's okay, I'll treat you." An Huainan said as if it was a matter of course.
"How can I let you treat me? Auntie is still——"
At this point, Fang Zhao paused, almost blurting out what was in his heart. He secretly glanced at An Huainan, who seemed not to have heard him. He took a large red note from a roll of money and handed it to the cashier next to him.
"Such a large amount of money." The boss checked under the light and gave him change from his waist bag.
Fang Zhao stared at the stack of Mao Zedong's portraits in An Huainan's hand, somewhat shocked.
Didn't they say that when An Huainan was in his first year of high school, his father died in a car accident, and his mother became seriously ill and was hospitalized. All the family money was used to treat his mother's illness. Didn't An Huainan's schooling money come from kind-hearted alumni?
Of course, An Huainan had never told her about these things. It was only after the college entrance examination that she was bored and searched the words "Wangshan Middle School" on the Internet. She happened to see an interview with An Huainan by a reporter and found out about it.
When did he become so rich?
"The burritos for both of you are packed separately." The voice of the proprietress came, handing each of them a burrito.
Fang Zhao hurried to take it. When her left hand touched the other burrito, she suddenly felt the warmth of An Huainan's palm. She was so scared that she immediately pulled her hand back, her face flushing. She looked around and luckily there were no school officials around to investigate premature love affairs.
She remembered that when she was in her third year of high school, An Huainan always liked to come to her during dinner. At that time, she was still fully focused on Wen Bo, so she always took this opportunity to go out and complain to An Huainan.
Once, just as the bell for evening study was about to ring, she was downstairs complaining enthusiastically when she heard An Huainan say, "Hello, teacher." Turning around, she saw her head teacher, with his bald head, smiling at them. At that moment, she felt goose bumps on her arms.
An Huainan is the school's key training target. Almost all teachers know him, so naturally no one will make things difficult for him.
"Aren't you going to class yet?" The head teacher was kind to An Huainan, almost flatteringly.
"I'll be there right away. Goodbye, teacher." An Huainan nodded, glanced at Fang Zhao again, and turned away. Fang Zhao was left alone to face the 'evil' head teacher.
"If you really like each other, you can wait until you go to college to have a relationship. Look at how An Huainan's grades have remained stable and unaffected during this period, but what about your own grades?"
Fang Zhao was a little surprised that the head teacher, who was always known for his strictness, could actually say such heartfelt words to her. She was so moved that she almost burst into tears and nodded continuously.
"Hurry back to class. Focus on your studies and try to get into the same city as An Huainan."
Fang Zhao was still a little uneasy when she returned to her seat. As expected, good students always have privileges. If it were her and Wen Bo who were caught today, their parents would probably be called in by now.
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