Chapter 01 Chapter 1
Proof of Heartbeat
Love Fairy Tale Part 1
Text/Hua Xingruo
2023.04.23
Published on
-
It's summer again.
Cicadas were chirping tirelessly in the trees. The campus of No. 4 Middle School was the same as usual. The big words "Welcome New Students" were lined up on the red banner, along with the restless atmosphere and inexplicable tension, all captured the eyes of Ren Li who turned her head to look out the window.
The air conditioner in the office was turned up quite high. Ren Li turned around silently, then unconsciously lowered her head to stare at the floor tiles under her feet, and tightly gripped the pink backpack strap in front of her.
A man's voice fell into Ren Li's ears, neither loud nor soft: "...The girl has good grades and is a serious person. She's very good."
The person who spoke was He Guang, who taught mathematics at No. 4 Middle School and was also the head teacher of Class 17 of Grade 12, where Ren Li was about to attend.
Lin Yuan sat opposite him on the sofa, listening to him speak while holding Ren Li's hand, with a smile in her eyes, and occasionally agreeing with him.
He Guang took a sip of water, paused, and continued, "But the Affiliated High School is, after all, a school in another district, so the exams are of varying difficulty levels. Ren Li's results aren't very good compared to those of No. 4 High School. But we are, after all, a key class in No. 4 High School, and our teaching is the strongest in the school. There's no doubt that Ren Li will be able to get into a good university in the future."
"Ah, thank you Teacher He for your care in the future." Lin Yuan finally smiled with satisfaction, holding Ren Li's hand and standing up. "Her father and I are busy on weekdays, so we are relieved to leave her to the teacher."
"As I should." He Guang picked up the report card from the table and handed it back to Lin Yuan, then looked up at the wall clock. Class was about to start, and it was time to end the small talk.
"It's getting late. You go ahead and do your thing. I'll take Ren Li there first." He Guang said.
"Okay, let's not delay the children's class." Lin Yuan unconsciously raised his hand to check his watch. "Let's go together. Thank you so much, Teacher He."
Ren Li knew how busy Lin Yuan was. She had received two calls on the way here just now. After sending Ren Li off, she had to rush back to the meeting.
Pushing the door open, the heat enveloped her once again. Lin Yuan walked downstairs and headed for the school gate. Ren Li said goodbye to her, watching her mother disappear into the distance. She finally regained her composure and focused on the current situation.
New school, new environment, new classmates.
My mood was a little complicated for a while.
Although she had spent the entire vacation preparing herself mentally, she began to feel inexplicably nervous when she first stepped into the gate of No. 4 Middle School.
She followed Teacher He into the door of Class 3 (17) in a daze, stood on the podium, and saw the unfamiliar faces in the audience, feeling a little dazed.
Ren Li held the edge of the desk and looked at the eyes of people in the audience who were looking at her from top to bottom. Somehow, her face suddenly turned red with embarrassment.
Her skin was always very fair, and it was especially noticeable when she blushed. She was standing there at a loss as to what to do. Teacher He cleared his throat at the right moment and took the initiative to help her out:
"Come on, students, be quiet for a moment. We have a new student in our class today..."
After the somewhat formulaic opening remarks, Teacher He turned around with a gentle and encouraging look. Only then did Ren Li remember to introduce herself.
"Hello everyone, my name is Ren Li, and I used to study at the High School Affiliated to Normal University..."
Although she had memorized the introduction by heart, Ren Li stuttered as soon as she opened her mouth. Fortunately, she finally finished her speech and bowed to the audience. Later, a boy sitting in the back of the classroom, not wearing a school uniform, led the applause. Soon after, sparse applause began to spread around.
Perhaps because the target was too conspicuous, Teacher He immediately spotted the boy in the back row and couldn't help but frowned: "Zhou Qi, where is your school uniform?"
He originally just wanted to give a reminder, but when Ren Li looked down, he seemed to realize that something was wrong with him.
Well, it seems there's another person here who's not wearing a school uniform.
Actually, she did have a school uniform. After completing the transfer process, Ren Li received her summer uniform from No. 4 Middle School. However, she had been used to being casual at the Affiliated Middle School. After all, no one in school ever wore a uniform on the first day of school, so she assumed she didn't need one today.
But she overlooked one point: this was a key school in the city, and of course it was different from her previous school.
The boy named Zhou Qi was called, and although he immediately flinched, he still had a playful smile on his face: "Hey, it's in my schoolbag. I'll put it on right away."
He quickly found his school uniform from his bag and put it on. Quiet laughter echoed around him, and the bell rang. A young, fashionable female teacher appeared at the door. Seeing the person standing on the podium, she was startled at first, then tilted her head. "Teacher He?"
Teacher He wanted to say a few more words to Zhou Qi, but then he saw the Chinese teacher, Zhao Xinmei, and swallowed his words. He pointed to an empty seat in the back of the classroom and said to Ren Li, "You can sit there for now. If you want to change, you'll have to wait until next month to re-assign seats. Sit next to Wen Shuo..."
Ren Li followed He Guang's gaze and saw two empty seats in the last row of the classroom, with no one there at the moment.
Before he could finish his words, Teacher He seemed to realize something, and his voice instantly rose another octave. He turned around and called Zhou Qi's name again: "Zhou Qi, where is Wen Shuo?"
Ren Li's thoughts were still lingering on Teacher He's previous words: Wen, Wenshu? What was his name Wen?
On the other side, Zhou Qi hurriedly raised his hand: "Teacher He, Wen Shuo is out of town today and has asked for leave. He said he told you."
"Oh, it seems that's the case." Teacher He seemed to remember something, put his hands behind his back, and prepared to leave. "Well, you guys go to class, Ren Li should go sit down too."
Ren Li whispered thank you, quickly walked to the back of the classroom, picked a table and sat down.
She took off her schoolbag and was about to put it into the hole in the table when she found that there seemed to be some books or something inside.
On the first day of school, the Chinese teacher was writing on the blackboard. Ren Li had just reached out her hand when Zhou Qi, who was sitting across the corridor, leaned over and whispered, "Um, classmate, you'd better not touch these things..."
He had laid the groundwork for a long time, and Ren Li was quick and had taken the things out in the blink of an eye.
It seemed to be a magazine, heavy and substantial. Ren Li lowered her head and saw a girl in revealing clothes on the cover, suddenly appearing in her sight.
Ren Li: ...
The magazine slipped out of his hand and fell back into the hole in the table. Ren Li was still in shock, and Zhou Qi touched the tip of his nose a little embarrassedly: "You'd better sit at the table next to me, because this seat belongs to Wen Shuo."
Seeing Ren Li's face flushed, Zhou Qi quickly waved his hand and tried to make amends: "It's nothing, actually. We boys all like to watch these."
There was no point in explaining, and the situation only got worse. Thinking of the things in the hole in the desk, Ren Li didn't want to sit there for even a second. She quickly moved to the side and pulled the two desks apart.
She seemed to think that it would be better to keep a certain distance from this "new deskmate".
The Chinese class in the morning was a review of the key content that had been learned since the first year of high school. Although Teacher Zhao was relatively young, his lectures were easy to understand and profound. Although Ren Li had attended cram school in the summer before coming to No. 4 Middle School, the teachers at No. 4 Middle School were obviously more skilled than those at the cram school.
So even in the first class, Ren Li already felt the pressure from the key class in a key middle school.
After the class was over, Ren Li was still immersed in the atmosphere which she was not used to. A girl sitting in the front row who was very familiar with her came over and took the initiative to greet her.
She pointed at Ren Li's skirt and said, "It's a beautiful skirt. My name is Zhang Xintong, and your name is Ren Li, right?"
The girl in front of him had slightly curly hair and beautiful eyes. Ren Li said thank you, and Zhang Xintong smiled and continued to ask, "Can I call you Lili?"
Back in the Affiliated High School, everyone liked to call her Xiaoli. It was the first time for Ren Li to hear someone other than her parents call her by her nickname, and she felt a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then quickly nodded.
The bell rang again soon, and the next class was math.
Perhaps because she was so focused, the morning flew by. The physics teacher finished the last problem, and the bell rang. Ren Li sat at her desk, watching her classmates leave the classroom in groups of three or four. She wondered where they would eat lunch at No. 4 Middle School. As she was pondering this, Zhang Xintong, who was sitting in the front row, turned to face her.
She was holding a small mirror in her hand, and it looked like she had just finished fixing her bangs. "Lili, how are you going to eat lunch? Bring some, or go out?"
"I usually eat out," Ren Li replied, "but I'm new here and don't know where to go. Can I go have lunch with you today?"
Zhang Xintong seemed a little happy. He stood up from the table and put his arm around Ren Li's. "Okay, I was just about to ask you that. Let's do it together."
She was pulling Ren Li out when Zhou Qi stretched out his leg intentionally or unintentionally, blocking their way.
Zhang Xintong frowned and kicked Zhou Qi's foot: "Zhou Qi, the school has just started. Are you missing the days of standing guard in the office again?"
Hearing Zhang Xintong's teasing, Zhou Qi was actually quite happy: "I'm in a good mood today, I won't bother with you, let's go, I'll treat you to dinner."
Zhang Xintong: "Who said I wanted to go to dinner with you?"
Zhou Qi: "I'll treat you, come or not?"
Zhang Xintong: "Not really."
…
The two of them were arguing with each other, and although their words were sharp, they sounded like they knew each other very well, and even sounded strangely harmonious.
In the end, of course, Zhang Xintong won because she pretended to step on Zhou Qi's new white Nike sneakers, forcing Zhou Qi to withdraw his foot. The three of them finally had lunch together.
Although No. 4 Middle School was a key city school, its campus wasn't particularly large. Several teaching buildings were scattered around, with a playground in the center and a small square near the gate, along with some lab buildings and a library. It was midday, a bit hot outside. The sun filtered through the branches of the Sophora japonica trees, casting dappled shadows on the ground. Everything was new to Ren Li.
The place to eat is outside No. 4 Middle School. After you exit the school gate, there are some shops along the street across the street. If you walk north along the main road for a few hundred meters, you will find a shopping mall not far away.
As they walked, Zhang Xintong asked, "By the way, Lili, what do you want to eat today?"
What to eat every day is a big problem. Ren Li listened carefully to the class for the whole morning and was already a little dizzy. Now she was suddenly asked what to eat and she had no idea.
"Anything is fine."
It’s a catch-all phrase, but it does sound a bit perfunctory.
But Zhang Xintong didn't care. She glanced at Zhou Qi and added, "Okay, Zhou Qi's treating anyway."
Because lunch time was limited, there were a lot of people at this time, and Zhang Xintong also had decision-making disorder, so Zhou Qi made the decision in the end.
Ten minutes later, the three of them sat down in a pizza shop outside the mall and finally ordered their meals.
While waiting for her pizza, Ren Li opened her phone and saw a message from her mother, asking if she had eaten lunch yet and how her new school was going. She replied truthfully. Just as she was about to put her phone away, she received a reminder that the coffee she had ordered on the app was ready and ready for pick-up.
Ren Li stood up, making quite a noise. Zhou Qi and Zhang Xintong looked up at the same time. She quickly explained, "I'm going out for a moment. I'll be right back."
This was her usual habit. She didn't like to owe anyone anything.
By the time she returned from the nearby coffee shop with three cups of coffee, the pizza had already been served. Seeing the takeout bag in her hand, Zhou Qi exclaimed in courtesy and then grabbed an iced Americano from it. Sure enough, this kind of drink was perfect for this hot weather.
Ren Li had a small appetite, so she felt full after just two slices of pizza. She sat quietly by the side, biting on her straw, listening to Zhou Qi and Zhang Xintong talk.
"My sister's birthday is tonight. Do you want to go?" Zhou Qi asked Zhang Xintong.
Zhang Xintong rolled his eyes unconsciously when he heard this: "Brother, have you forgotten that I live on campus and I have to check on my dormitories at night?"
"Oh." Zhou Qi seemed a little regretful and turned to ask Ren Li, "Ren Li, are you going? I just called Wen Shuo, he will be going tonight too."
Wen Shuo? The name sounded familiar. Ren Li wasn't very good at remembering names, and she always had trouble matching names with new acquaintances. She had a social anxiety problem, so of course she couldn't go to such an occasion. So, she shook her head and said, "I won't go."
Zhou Qi: "Okay then. But that's fine, as long as Wen Shuo can go. I don't know what's been obsessed with my sister lately, she keeps talking about Wen Shuo all the time. She's been looking for me every day because of Wen Shuo, so I know she must be in love with Wen Shuo."
Zhang Xintong: "Hey, I have goosebumps. Puppy love, huh?"
The two of them kept mentioning a name, but only Ren Li was still confused after hearing it. However, she seemed to think that even No. 4 Middle School, a key school in the city, would have gossip.
So this Wen Shuo must be a big shot in No. 4 Middle School.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
