early summer
On the eve of the submission of the group assignment, the atmosphere in the WeChat group was like the Paris Peace Conference during World War I, just silent and everyone had their own thoughts.
Zhang Jusong turned on the screen of his mobile phone and looked at the WeChat message she had sent.
"Tomorrow is the DDL, let's find some time today to combine our parts, right?"
Two hours passed and no one in the small group of six responded.
The green bubble box sent by Zhang Jusong was still floating in the front, following the part of the PPT file she was responsible for.
Zhang Jusong was very familiar with this situation, which was common in makeshift study groups, the kind that were put together by teachers blindly after being left alone. As a sophomore student who was ready to serve, Zhang Jusong had long learned how to deal with it - don't rush.
Whoever is in a hurry will get the group assignment.
Under the pale incandescent light of the dormitory, Zhang Jusong flipped through a professional book for five minutes, feeling upset. She slammed the book on the table, trying to find some comfort. So the phone on the desk was picked up, and she clicked on the social media collection APP and began to review them one by one.
I didn't find any comfort, but instead got a lot of anger about some remarks that reflected the diversity of species in the world.
After checking several platforms twice, the group assignment WeChat group finally came back to life, with only a message popping up every once in a while, sporadically.
Zhang Jusong indifferently opened his laptop and put the PPTs together. The templates were unified, but due to the computer system, the fonts were very uneven, like a grain of sand on the sole of a shoe, small, harmless but uncomfortable.
She hastily adjusted it and found that there was still a part missing. She was really tired of waiting, so she simply @ed the boy who didn't change the group note in the group.
"Yours is still missing."
At the moment when the message was about to be sent, Zhang Jusong paused for a moment and changed the message to:
"You are still missing~"
Although she secretly thought that the tilde meant to hit someone with a hammer, it made her tone seem milder.
Waiting again.
When the chicken had finished eating the rice and the dog had finished licking the noodles, the boy finally performed his masterpiece.
He double-clicked to open it and took a quick look. Zhang Jusong felt that there were two more grains of sand on the soles of his shoes.
She calls herself a professional producer of academic garbage, but when faced with this document, she can only bow down in shame.
During the minute of silence, many thoughts flashed through her mind.
If you want to change, you should first argue with the boy, and then teach him how to correct it like an old lady.
trouble.
Otherwise, she could just redo it herself? But why should she pay for someone else's carelessness? There was no group grading in this course, and the whole group got the same grade. She worked hard to raise the guy's grade?
Zhang Jusong snorted coldly.
Never mind. I don't often fail this teacher's courses.
She quickly pressed the "Ctrl C" and "Ctrl V" buttons on her keyboard to end the ordeal.
The synthesized document, like a synthesized street steak, is in perfect shape and looks impressive, but that's enough. The teacher knows that the student is fooling around, so he just glances at it and gives it a grade, and everyone is happy.
Zhang Jusong sent the homework document back to the small group, and received several emoticons of "thank you for your hard work" or applause.
After a while, the boy who did not change the group note sent two voice messages, each lasting twenty to thirty seconds, which was annoying to read.
Zhang Jusong didn't want to hear his voice, so he just long-pressed the voice-to-text function. As expected, it was a bunch of criticism, a bunch of nonsense, saying this and that were not good.
The posture is like that of a professor supervising undergraduate thesis.
Zhang Jusong took a deep breath and typed: "Yes, I sent it in ppt format, not pdf, you can change it directly."
Another long voice reply.
"I think the teacher would like it more if I wrote the theory in more detail..."
Why don't you write it? It's all bullshit.
Zhang Jusong sent a cute "hmm" emoticon and did not respond.
Love whoever you want.
The homework group chat fell silent again. Ten minutes later, Zhang Jusong threw an unmodifiable PDF version of the document into the group.
"The time is almost up, so I hand it in?"
Received a row of "OK" hand gesture emoticons.
Zhang Jusong was too lazy to count whether the boy was among the replies. When he saw that more than half of the people agreed, he immediately handed in his homework.
It's done.
After closing her laptop, Zhang Jusong stood up and stretched. The dormitory was very quiet. There were only three people living in the four-person dormitory, from three different majors, with different class schedules and different work and rest times. At this time, the other two roommates were still taking evening classes, so she was able to enjoy the quietness of the room alone.
However, the peace did not last long, as the girls upstairs started doing aerobics, and the floor was making loud clacking sounds.
Zhang Jusong opened the balcony door and stepped into the night.
Thankfully, this dormitory building also comes with a small balcony.
As one of the few buildings in A University that was built after the millennium, the building she lived in was nicknamed the Princess Building by students. Its living facilities were second only to those of the International Students' Apartments. Being assigned to this dormitory was one of her few good fortunes since she started college. If she were assigned to one of those historic dormitory buildings, she would probably have to recreate the dormitory memories of A University students fifty or even a hundred years ago.
Leaning against the iron railing of the small balcony, the wind blew her messy long hair, warm, it was the summer wind. In the wind, there was a faint aroma of food, probably a gentle message from the snack stand outside the wall.
She would look a bit like the heroine of a youth campus drama now, if it weren't for the underwear drying rack above her head and the clothes huddled together on the long pole.
Unfortunately, this pile of clothes, the mop and dustpan in the corner, and the spots on the wall are enough to drive any school play director crazy. He would grab the props team and the art team and yell, "Tell me how to shoot this shot? There is no aesthetic appeal at all!"
Zhang Jusong was amused by the idea and smiled slightly.
Looking from the balcony, you can glimpse a few bright stars in the night sky and students walking together under the street lights, some are affectionate couples, and some are noisy friends.
It was very lively, but this liveliness had nothing to do with Zhang Jusong. All she had was the shadows of clothes scattered all over the balcony and silence.
She likes silence.
The feeling of being among the crowd yet not being noticed made her feel at ease, at the cost of occasional loneliness, but most of the time, she enjoyed this loneliness.
Zhang Jusong stayed quietly on the balcony for a while.
Until the sound of a key turning in the door lock broke the silence.
My roommate is back.
It was a girl named Xu Anni, tall and thin, with a neat ponytail, from the journalism department. She was a very nice person, but her lifestyle was completely opposite to Zhang Jusong's.
Zhang Jusong is an old man who is used to sleeping early and waking up early, but Annie is a typical night owl. Zhang Jusong sleeps, Annie wakes up. Zhang Jusong wakes up, Annie sleeps. They are in the beds next to each other, but they have a time difference between China and the United States.
For this purpose, Zhang Jusong prepared a drawer full of noise-canceling earplugs.
"I'm back." Zhang Jusong greeted as usual.
"Yeah. Roman hasn't come back yet?"
"She should go to the library."
Annie put her things on the table and asked politely, "I'm going to have a midnight snack with my classmates later. Do you want me to bring you anything?"
Zhang Jusong shook his head: "No need, I'll leave the light on the sink for you."
To avoid further conversation, she sat down with her phone, pretending to have received a new message and had to reply quickly.
In fact, in order to avoid being disturbed, Zhang Jusong’s mobile phone is always on silent mode. Whether he can receive calls and text messages in the first time depends entirely on fate.
Unexpectedly, there were actually two unread messages.
Could it be that the boy in the group assignment was causing trouble again? Zhang Jusong curled his lips and swiped his phone to unlock it.
Not that boy, but not much better.
The sender's note was Zhang Jun, her father.
"Your uncle Xia's son Xia Zhiheng has applied for the self-recruitment of University A. Please receive him during the interview."
"Here's his contact information."
Xia Zhiheng?
Zhang Jusong's eyes stayed on the name for two seconds. She had a vague impression of him, as if he was a neighbor's younger brother. When she was a child, he always liked to follow her around like a little tail.
Later, Zhang Jusong was in junior high school, while Xia Zhiheng was still in elementary school. Not being in the same school, the two had less and less contact. After moving, Zhang Jusong was busy reviewing for the college entrance examination, and they had little contact.
At the end of the message, Zhang Jun attached Xia Zhiheng's WeChat ID, with a black and white cartoon boy holding a bunch of sunflowers.
Only the sunflower has color, the only color.
Zhang Jusong stared at the bunch of sunflowers, wondering what excuse he could use to shirk his responsibility.
It's almost the end of the semester, there's a lot of homework, and there are exams, which are all very valid reasons.
Anyway, she didn't want to contact the people she knew before.
bother.
Before the excuse was even sent out, the bunch of sunflowers began to leap up.
"Hello, sister."
Zhang Jusong was stunned for a moment. When did she add him? There was no chat record at all?
In a panic, she sent out a comma.
Oh no, now she can't pretend not to see it.
Xia Zhiheng replied with a smiling emoticon, followed by a word "sorry".
He typed very quickly, one sentence after another.
"My dad and Uncle Zhang were having dinner today, and they accidentally talked about my going to A University for an interview. Uncle Zhang asked my sister to look after me."
"But it's almost the end of the semester, so you must be very busy, right? I'm so sorry to bother you."
"Don't worry, I can do it on my own."
He looks like a very polite brother, Zhang Jusong thought. She crossed her legs on the chair, changed to a relaxed posture, and continued chatting with Xia Zhiheng.
"Aren't Uncle Xia and the others accompanying you?"
"Well, my parents are busy with work."
No matter how busy you are, you should take time to accompany your child in the senior year of high school to participate in the self-recruitment of University A. This is no small matter. You should know that if you pass the self-recruitment exam of University A, the college entrance examination admission score can be reduced by up to 60 points. Zhang Jusong also tried it that year, but failed. In the end, he still stepped on the admission score line to adjust his major and entered University A.
Zhang Jusong pursed his lips and typed a reply: "Then I'll take you around the school then."
"Will it not disturb your review progress?"
"Will it be too much trouble?"
A series of uncertain questions made Zhang Jusong certain of his feelings.
She replied: "It's okay, we'll meet in front of the old gate of A University then."
After a few seconds, an emoticon came from the other side. It was a little golden retriever wagging its tail wildly, with the word "happy" written on it.
Such a cute emoticon, I stole it.
When he pressed the save button, there was a slight curve at the corners of Zhang Jusong's mouth.
It was a sunny day on the day of A University’s self-recruitment interview.
Because she was going to meet someone, Zhang Jusong showed the highest courtesy to the guest and washed her hair.
Coming out of the dormitory, I rode my bike all the way to the old school gate. The trees on both sides of the cement road were lush and green. I didn't know what kind of trees they were, but they were very tall. Passing by the thick green shadows of the trees, for some reason, Zhang Jusong suddenly thought of the camphor trees in his hometown.
The camphor trees in Province C emit a faint fragrance on sunny summer days.
There were many people near the old school gate, including students, high school students and their parents who came to participate in the self-recruitment interview, and tourists. With so many people, it was not easy to find Xia Zhiheng, whose appearance I could not even remember.
Zhang Jusong held the handlebars of his bicycle with one hand and made a phone call with the other.
With the summer breeze and cicadas as the background sound, a clear young voice came from the other end of the phone. His pronunciation was very special, with a slightly rising ending.
"Sister, I'm right behind you. Turn around and you'll see me."
Zhang Jusong turned around.
In the sunshine at nine o'clock in the morning, the boy waved at her, revealing a pair of small fangs.
He was wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt with a white base and a green collar, and carrying a cream-colored backpack. He looked neat and tidy, and looked very well behaved.
Strange yet familiar.
After being stunned for two seconds, Zhang Jusong imitated him and raised his hand hesitantly.
She really just waved her hand gently -
However, the next second, the boy suddenly moved, like a golden retriever that heard the call, and ran towards her against the summer sun.
Zhang Jusong subconsciously tightened his grip on the bicycle handlebars, his palms felt a little wet.
Not far away, Xia Zhiheng took a step with his long legs and ran over in three or two steps.
Within a safe social distance, he stopped and smiled slightly:
"haven't seen you for a long time."
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