Chapter 24
The consequence of going to bed late is that you can’t open your eyes at all in class the next day.
I was still feeling groggy until the evening class.
Zhang Jusong then let his hair down, propped his chin with one hand, and held a pen with the other, pretending to be very serious, but in fact... he was making up for it.
Fortunately, it was a public class. In a classroom with nearly a hundred people, the teacher had no way of managing every single one of them, so he was able to get away with it by doing something shabby.
The bell for the end of get out of class woke her up.
The classmates around her left one after another. She sat there in a daze, and it took her a while to come to her senses.
I yawned and took out my phone. Huh? There was a new friend request notification.
"Hello Jusong, I am Zhiheng's mother Cao Xi. [Smile]"
Xia Zhiheng’s mother?
In an instant, Zhang Jusong’s sleepiness disappeared, and he was filled with panic, just like when he did something wrong as a child and thought he could hide it from everyone, but was caught by adults the next second.
After hesitating for a while, all the classmates had left. A school staff member in charge of the classroom came in and saw her still sitting in her seat. He gave her a surprised look.
"Classmate, this is the last class, please turn off the lights and lock the door."
"Oh, sorry, I'll leave now."
Zhang Jusong stood up hurriedly with his schoolbag and walked quickly into the night outside the classroom.
The gentle breeze blows on my face, and the remaining heat of the autumn is blown away by the wind.
After standing under the orange street lights for a long time, she finally accepted Xia Zhiheng's mother's friend request.
After a while, there was a response.
Cao Xi: "Hello Ju Song, long time no see, I am your Aunt Cao."
Zhang Jusong: "Hello, Auntie."
A laughing emoticon was sent from the other end: "Thank you for taking care of our Zhiheng. Thank you so much."
"I was a little worried that he might have trouble adapting to a new place and a new school by himself."
She typed the message slowly but sincerely.
"I happened to meet Zhiheng's father today, and when we talked about this, Zhiheng's father said that it was thanks to you that I knew about this because of your help in getting him familiar with the campus."
"I remember when I was a kid, you were always very kind to me. So I came here to say thank you."
Zhang Jusong bit his lip and replied, "No, no, it's just a piece of cake."
Cao Xi: "I have something to ask of you. If Zhiheng has any major problems, such as being sick and hospitalized, could you please let me know? He is always very opinionated and rarely tells us what he encounters."
Zhang Jusong replied "OK" and ended the conversation.
There were not many people in the teaching area at night, only the street lights silently extending forward, emitting a faint light.
Zhang Jusong raised his head and stared at the moonless night sky in a daze.
What Xia Zhiheng's mother said just now reminded her that from the beginning to the end, to Xia Zhiheng, she was just the neighbor's sister, right? If he realized that her thoughts were not pure, wouldn't it be very embarrassing?
I'm afraid it will be difficult.
Putting herself in his shoes, if she were Xia Zhiheng, she would probably be worried about what attitude to take towards this person whose identity she couldn't recognize. Whether she refused decisively or declined politely, it would be a worrying thing.
She...didn't want to embarrass him.
Under the street light, a soft sigh was let out.
It’s better to just be a good neighbor sister and not cause trouble to others.
She walked forward towards the dormitory building. As she passed the boys' dormitory area, she suddenly heard a commotion.
A few classmates ran by with excited faces: "Hurry up...if you're late you'll miss the confession scene."
The student who was being held back obviously didn't understand the situation: "What kind of confession? Who and who?"
"The beauty from the Art Academy confesses her love to Xia Zhiheng!"
Catching the three words "Xia Zhiheng" in the wind, Zhang Jusong stopped.
There was a small circle of people gathered downstairs of the boys' dormitory, and even the dormitory manager came out to listen to the gossip.
After all, it was a rare thing for a girl to light candles and confess her love to a boy in the boys' dormitory, especially when the girl was a famous beauty in the art department.
Zhang Jusong chose an inconspicuous corner and stood there, looking at the crowd and the candlelight.
The most beautiful student in the department was obviously dressed up carefully, with delicate makeup and gorgeous dress. She stood in the candlelight, holding a bouquet of flowers, and shouted to the upstairs: "Xia Zhiheng, I know you are here, and I just want to tell you today - I like you!"
As soon as the three words "I like you" came out, everyone clapped and cheered, as if they were witnessing a campus legend, and some even shouted the slogan "Be together! Be together!"
What a brave and passionate girl! Zhang Jusong, who was watching from afar, lowered his eyes and suppressed all his emotions.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the male protagonist of this confession finally showed up.
Xia Zhiheng put his hands in his trouser pockets, expression indifferent: "Thank you for liking me, but I won't be with you."
"What do you mean?" The most beautiful girl in the department frowned.
Xia Zhiheng's voice could even be described as cold, a tone that Zhang Jusong had never heard before.
"Isn't it moral blackmail to confess in public without the other party's knowledge? That's all I have to say."
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and went upstairs, decisively and quickly.
The beautiful classmate standing in the candlelight was stunned and started crying. Her friend rushed forward to comfort her:
"Ignore him, what kind of person is he!"
"That's right, you are so good, it's Xia Zhiheng who has no taste."
In the chaos, Zhang Jusong left silently and walked back to the original path.
Xia Zhiheng's cold voice lingered in his ears. The moment he opened his mouth to refuse, Zhang Jusong's embarrassment for others immediately flared up.
She felt like the one who was rejected was not the most beautiful classmate in the school, but herself.
If Xia Zhiheng spoke to her in this tone one day...
Zhang Jusong stopped and shook his head vigorously.
No, she definitely couldn't. She had to stay away from him and stop this slight heartbeat.
In this way, I should be able to talk to him as the sister next door.
That's great!
"Sister, shall we go eat braised chicken on Sunday night?"
When he woke up early in the morning, Zhang Jusong read the message again.
This was the message Xia Zhiheng sent her last night. She hadn't replied until this morning.
I deleted and revised the message in the dialog box on my phone several times, and finally sent a message saying "Maybe not, I have something else to do this week."
As for what else, I haven’t thought about it yet.
Putting down her phone, she sat quietly on the bed for a while, her hair draped over her shoulders in a messy, disturbing way.
Like chanting a sutra, she began to remind herself over and over again in her heart: "She is just the sister next door, just a sister..."
In order to prevent himself from paying too much attention to his mobile phone, Zhang Jusong simply left his mobile phone in the drawer when leaving the dormitory.
The weather was not very good, it was gloomy. The dark desks in the classroom were made even darker by the weather.
As usual, Zhang Jusong chose a seat in the corner at the back right side of the classroom. Classmates arrived one after another, some chatting and some playing with their phones.
She had no cell phone to play with, so she grabbed a black signing pen and started spinning it rapidly between her fingertips.
I haven't spun a pen in a long time. The last time I did this was when I was in high school and was anxiously reviewing for an exam. The first two turns of spinning the pen were not smooth, but after I got the feel for it, I spun faster and faster.
Suddenly, the bell for class rang.
She was distracted and the pen flew out and rolled twice on the ground.
The pen stopped in front of a pair of flat shoes. Zhang Jusong was about to pick up the pen while apologizing, but the owner of the pair of flat shoes picked up the pen first and handed it to him with a smile.
It was Teacher Ju who helped Zhang Jusong last semester.
"Get ready for class." She reminded with a smile.
This class is "Gender Sociology". Teacher Ju leans on the podium with both hands, her eyes shining.
"In the public's perception, there are differences between the social role requirements for men and women. Exploring the causes of this perception and studying its effects on individuals, families, and society are important aspects of this course..."
If Zhang Jusong was still in the stage of daydreaming before the class, when Teacher Ju explained the research object and significance of this course, she completely forgot about everything else and focused on listening to the class.
Time flies by when she is concentrating on the class. When the class is over, Zhang Jusong quietly packs up her notebook and pen, but she sees Teacher Ju stop in front of her and taps the table gently.
"Are you free?"
Zhang Jusong nodded.
"Come with me, I want to tell you something."
She didn’t seem to have done anything wrong, did she? I listened to the class very well just now, Zhang Jusong was worried.
Walking to the quieter corner of the stairwell, Teacher Ju said, "For the last group assignment, you wrote a case study on women's labor, right?"
"Yes," Zhang Jusong explained quickly, "This part is the cited paper. I attached the references at the end."
"Why are you so nervous?" Teacher Ju smiled and patted Zhang Jusong on the shoulder. "Your views are quite interesting, but some of them are too idealistic. Practice is the only criterion for testing truth."
She casually extended an olive branch: "This semester, I am doing research on the female workforce. If you are interested, you can try to do social surveys with the graduate students in my group."
“I’m very interested!”
Within 0.01 seconds, Zhang Jusong gave a reply, his heart beating "bang bang bang" in his chest.
At that moment she was a little surprised. It turned out that besides love, there were other things that could make people so excited.
Seeing her reaction, Teacher Ju was a little surprised: "You are so happy. But I will warn you in advance. This project is mainly aimed at female migrant workers, also known as grassroots workers. Because of the high pressure in life, you may encounter some setbacks when doing the survey."
"It's okay." Zhang Jusong said firmly, "I also want to... get closer to them."
After a moment of silence, Teacher Ju suddenly laughed out loud: "I like the way you are now. See you this weekend."
"See you this weekend."
Walking out of the teaching building, the sun shines on my body, warm and bright.
Zhang Jusong closed his eyes and savored the sunlight falling on his body.
When he opened his eyes again, the sunlight seemed to penetrate into Zhang Jusong's eyes, and the confusion he felt when he first opened his eyes was gone.
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