Chapter 11 Chapter 11
Ten minutes later, the school bus finally pulled into the campus. The crowd on the bus began to move out, and Wen Shuo picked up his backpack and got off.
Ren Li sat in his seat for more than ten minutes as if he was being punished to stand at attention, and his muscles were sore.
Fearing she would be late, she stretched her body and quickly got off the bus. When she arrived at the classroom, Ren Li discovered that although Wen Shuo had left early, he had not yet arrived.
The seat at the back door was empty. This time, Ren Li finally did not go around to the front door. She stepped over Wen Shuo's stool and sat down at her desk.
She opened her schoolbag and began a new round of organizing stationery and homework.
This is Ren Li's sense of ritual. The happy holiday is still vivid in her mind. She doesn't want to go to class, and organizing things is also a kind of procrastination.
Zhang Xintong also arrived. She said "good morning" to Ren Li while yawning, and then saw Zhou Qi walking in from the front door.
An everyday scene began to unfold. Zhang Xintong went to Zhou Qi to argue. Ren Li smiled and shook her head. Amid the noise of the students around her, she continued to tidy up the desk.
After a while, Wen Shuo also walked in as the class bell rang.
Ren Li had already placed her math homework on his desk in advance, found her English book, and started the first class.
Ren Li followed Wen Shuo's seat with the corner of her eye and saw him bend down, seem to take something from his schoolbag on the ground, and then stuff it into the hole in the table.
Strange flashes started to run through her mind again, and she finally came to a conclusion: it must be a new magazine.
So she couldn't help but sit a little further away.
English has always been Ren Li's strong point - although only relatively speaking, this class was relatively easy.
When discussing composition, Wen Shuo's essay was put on the slide as an example. Ren Li's English was good, but it was primarily exam-oriented. She could handle multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and reading comprehension, but her writing was still a little lacking.
Although the English teacher emphasized that Wen Shuo's word choice was accurate and his sentence structure was advanced, Ren Li supported her head and looked at the projection screen, but couldn't make any sense for a long time.
"Wen Shuo's composition was also well written this time. Everyone can memorize and recite it after class." The English teacher was never stingy with her praise for Wen Shuo. She turned to the next slide and said, "For the rest of this class, let's practice writing on a specific topic..."
After class, Ren Li handed in her English composition with everyone else, then sat at the table and took a short break.
Outside, there was a lot of noise in the corridor. Someone seemed to be looking for Wen Shuo, but he didn't go out.
Later, when class was about to start, those people finally left.
Ren Li was looking for Chinese review materials for the next class in her schoolbag when a paper bag was suddenly handed to her.
She looked up and heard Wen Shuo say, "You left something here with me last weekend."
Ren Li took it doubtfully, opened it, and saw the pink star inside the white bag.
The things that were about to be forgotten were suddenly mentioned again: the gym, the claw machine, Zhao Manyue, and Wen Shuo standing beside him...
Ren Li never thought that Wen Shuo would take this thing back.
"Zhao Manyue is not my girlfriend." Looking at Ren Li's surprised face, Wen Shuo suddenly spoke.
Ren Li: “Huh?”
She didn't know why Wen Shuo emphasized this specifically. Was it so that she could accept it with peace of mind and not have any psychological burden?
Seeing that Ren Li didn't move, Wen Shuo stuffed the paper bag into her schoolbag and said calmly, "It's time for class."
Ren Li came back to her senses, looked down at the things in her schoolbag, and added, "Thank you, but you don't have to give it to me."
She was polite again, with her usual distant tone. Wen Shuo looked at the person in front of him with wide eyes, still with that ignorant and naive look that couldn't stand any jokes, and suddenly he didn't know what was wrong with him.
The bell had already rung, and he suddenly stood up from his desk and walked out of the classroom in full view of everyone.
Fortunately, he will always be Wen Shuo.
After class, the Chinese teacher walked up to the podium, looked around, and his eyes only stayed on his empty seat for a moment, and there was no further follow-up on the matter.
Wen Shuo didn't come back during the entire class.
Ren Li could feel that Wen Shuo was not in a happy mood just now. After she said thank you, his mood changed 180 degrees.
But isn’t it right to accept other people’s kindness and say thank you?
After the two morning classes, there was a long break. After class, Zhang Xintong turned around and asked as usual, "Lili, do you want to go to the bathroom together?"
Ren Li put the thought aside for the moment and took Zhang Xintong's hand: "Let's go."
The break was long, and the two did not go to the bathroom immediately. Instead, they wandered around outside for a long time.
The morning sun was a bit strong, so the two of them strolled outside in the shade for a while before retreating back into the teaching building. Zhang Xintong clearly had something to say. After hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke: "Lili, when you saw Zhou Qi at the mall this weekend, did he bring a girl with him?"
Ren Li: "Girl?"
Zhang Xintong: "Yeah, I saw the photos Zhou Qi posted on WeChat Moments. There was a tall girl there that I didn't recognize."
Ren Li finally realized who Zhang Xintong was talking about: "Oh, her name is Yuan Jiani, she was my friend when we were in the Affiliated High School."
Zhang Xintong: "Didn't Zhou Qi bring her here?"
Ren Li nodded.
Zhang Xintong seemed relieved: "I thought... forget it, it's okay."
Ren Li knew what she was thinking, so she couldn't help asking, "Xintong, are you in love with Zhou Qi?"
Girls have always been more sensitive about such things. Ren Li felt that she and Zhang Xintong had become good friends who could talk about anything, so asking who she liked shouldn't be so abrupt.
Zhang Xintong heard this and quickly shook his head, his eyes a little evasive: "No, I'm just used to worrying about him since I was a child."
Ren Li didn't ask any more questions. It was just a casual chat. Since Zhang Xintong didn't want to talk more, there was no need for her to pry into other people's privacy too much.
As they were talking, they had already reached the bottom of a teaching building. Because there were not many people there, Zhang Xintong wanted to go to the bathroom, so they went up to the second floor. Ren Li was waiting for her in the corridor outside.
She held the railing and looked down. The sound insulation around her was not very good, and a few words floated into Ren Li's ears inadvertently.
"School is a place to learn, not a place where you can do whatever you want..."
The man's voice was intermittent and a little high in volume. Ren Li felt inexplicably familiar with it.
"...Ren Li is quiet and studious, and won't bother you at all. Your reason for changing seats is far-fetched. I don't agree."
Ren Li subconsciously tensed up when she heard her own name suddenly. The next second, she heard Wen Shuo's voice clearly coming from the next room:
"Then let's wait until after the monthly exam. I can't wait any longer anyway."
The door not far away was suddenly pushed open, and Wen Shuo walked out with an impatient look on his face. The moment he saw Ren Li, he was stunned.
"Let's go, Lili, I'm fine." Zhang Xintong rushed over from behind and hugged Ren Li's arms. After seeing Wen Shuo, he couldn't help but blinked in confusion: "Wen Shuo? Why are you here?"
Only then did Ren Li realize that they were standing at the door of Teacher He's office.
Ren Li has always been a person with poor directions, and she regretted that she couldn't even remember the office she had visited on the first day of school.
Wen Shuo's gaze only stayed on Ren Li for a moment before he turned around and went downstairs, leaving Ren Li standing there awkwardly.
Fortunately, Zhang Xintong didn't hear those words. She just looked at Wen Shuo's back as he left: "Oh, yes, he came to see Teacher He again. Come on, Lili, we should go to the playground too. The next class is physical education."
On the way to the playground being dragged by Zhang Xintong, Ren Li felt a strange feeling in her heart.
She thought to herself that she had been overthinking everything. In fact, Wen Shuo had always hated her.
In the physical education class, they had to practice shooting. Ren Li's athletic ability was not well developed and her limbs were particularly uncoordinated, so in today's physical education class, she successfully became the teacher's focus of attention.
The PE teacher finished teaching and everyone split up into groups for practice. Zhang Xintong practiced with Ren Li for a while before wanting to go find Zhou Qi. The sun was a bit strong, so she pulled Ren Li under the shade of a tree next to the basketball hoop.
Not far away, several boys were playing basketball. Ren Li had no intention of watching any longer, but Wen Shuo was always the focus of the audience wherever he went.
Maybe it was an illusion, but Ren Li felt that Wen Shuo on the field seemed to look at her a few times.
As the get out of class was about to end, the physical education teacher came to check everyone's learning results, and Ren Li was also picked.
Since her name was called, she was prepared for the embarrassment, stepped out of the team, and stood at the free throw line with several other classmates.
She was the first one in line to demonstrate. The physical education teacher looked around and asked the crowd, "Who has a basketball? Bring one to her."
Before Zhang Xintong could raise his hand, Wen Shuo walked out of the queue.
Wen Shuo was tall and could lift the huge basketball with one hand. He tapped the ball on the ground a few times, then reached out and passed the ball to Ren Li from a distance.
Recalling the scene in front of the office door just now, Ren Li silently took the ball from Wen Shuo's hand and hugged it to her chest. She kept her head down and didn't look at his face, nor did she say the usual thank you.
She stood back in front of the free throw line and followed the steps taught by the teacher. She bent her knees, held the ball with her left hand, and slowly raised the ball above her head. With a slight force on her wrist, the basketball slipped out of her hand and drew a not-so-graceful parabola in the air.
There were quiet laughs all around. It turned out that last-minute cramming was useless. Sadly, the basketball went off its trajectory halfway through the game and didn't even reach the backboard.
Ren Li touched the tip of her nose embarrassedly and returned to the queue.
The crowd soon returned to silence. The physical education teacher narrowed his eyes and scanned the crowd, finally fixing his gaze on Wen Shuo who was standing outside the field.
"Wen Shuo," the PE teacher called him, "Come up and demonstrate for this student again."
Normally, Wen Shuo would never agree to demonstrate to others, but she suddenly changed her mind when she remembered Ren Li's funny shooting expression.
He planned to demonstrate to Ren Li what a "standard" shot was.
He took the ball from the physical education teacher, and instead of showing off his skills, he stood in front of the free throw line and completed a standard shot.
Cheers came from the crowd. Wen Shuo rarely enjoyed this moment. He turned around, but found that Ren Li was no longer in the original position.
She didn't know when she left.
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