Chapter 37 Chapter 37
The weather forecast was always accurate; after the first basketball game, it snowed. And Ren Li also faced her monthly exam for the umpteenth time since she started at No. 4 Middle School.
Because of the monthly exam, the basketball game was postponed, and Wen Shuo and Lin Jiacheng's self-reflection was temporarily postponed until after the exam. Ren Li had been concentrating on exam preparation these days, oblivious to the troubling voices. Campus gossip is always like that: it comes and goes quickly. Fortunately, Wen Shuo's foot injury wasn't serious; when Ren Li saw him on the school bus on Monday, he was already walking normally.
For this exam, Ren Li was assigned to Class Three.
When she and Wen Shuo parted ways on the floor of the examination room, Ren Li was wondering when she could experience the feeling of being in the same examination room with Wen Shuo.
Maybe one day. But on the bright side, at least now she can take the exam on the same floor as Wen Shuo—that's a big improvement.
The exam bell rang, and the campus fell unusually quiet. Ren Li calmly completed one exam after another. Although she felt she had become indifferent to the results, the thought of the results announcement still made her feel inexplicably nervous.
In a blink of an eye, the two and a half days of exams were all over.
This monthly exam was different from previous ones. Ren Li had encountered questions she'd already encountered before, and so she inexplicably felt a surge of confidence. Looking back over the past few months, she felt she'd been stuck in this same ranking for far too long, and she longed for further improvement.
After class, Zhang Xintong didn't eat with her because he was in a hurry to go to the radio station.
Without her friends, Ren Li lost interest in finishing her meal. Zhang Xintong offered to play her a song to make up for his absence, but Ren Li just smiled and said it was okay.
She was genuinely happy that her good friend had found something she loved.
It's been getting dark earlier and earlier lately. Because of the snow, few people stayed in the classroom before evening self-study; most went outside to play in the snow.
Ren Li was afraid of the cold, so she chose to stay here. Fortunately, there was a rice ball in her schoolbag from lunch, so she ate it while doing her homework for tonight.
"Boss, let's eat at the same restaurant as yesterday tonight." Zhou Qi asked Wen Shuo at the back of the classroom.
"Anything is fine." Wen Shuo put on his coat, looked up, and his eyes unconsciously fell on Ren Li's back in front of him.
He has been staring at Ren Li quite frequently recently, sometimes even staring at her for most of the class for no apparent reason, so much so that Zhou Qi saw all of this and was completely confused.
Zhou Qi felt that if he liked a girl, he would have confessed his feelings publicly long ago, but Wen Shuo remained silent. Although Lu Rendong always teased him about his "girlfriend," Wen Shuo neither admitted nor denied it, remaining calm and composed.
But it’s just as well this way, because Ren Li and Zhang Xintong are too close. If Ren Li were to be with Wen Shuo, he would be the one who would be most troubled.
Wen Shuo retracted his gaze and asked Zhou Qi, "Are you still going to eat?"
Zhou Qi quickly collected his thoughts and said, "Okay, let's go."
The noise behind him disappeared, and Ren Li put down his pen and prepared to take a break.
After a while, it seemed like someone else walked in from the back door. Ren Li thought Wen Shuo had dropped something, so she turned around unconsciously and saw a girl.
She had delicate makeup, a good figure, and her hair was curled into big waves. At this moment, she was bending down quietly and placing a bulging paper bag under Wen Shuo's desk.
Noticing the sight in front of her, the girl stood up. After recognizing Ren Li, she smiled sweetly: "I remember you, you are the girl who was with Wen Shuo last time."
Ren Li didn't react for a moment to who she was: "Huh?"
"If I remember correctly, your name is Ren Li. We last met at a convenience store, and you were with Wen Shuo at that time."
Ren Li finally realized who she was. Her name was easy to remember: Ji Nian.
"Hello." Ren Li nodded to her politely.
Ji Nian had put her things away, but she did not leave immediately. Instead, she walked towards Ren Li.
She stood in front of Ren Li's desk, bent down with interest, stared at her for a long time, and suddenly smiled and narrowed her eyes: "By the way, you are very familiar with Wen Shuo, right?"
"Not bad." Ren Li said.
"Oh, I see. I just called him but he didn't answer. How about when he comes back, you tell him that I brought the things on the table. My name is Ji Nian."
Her eyes are curved when she smiles, and it is undeniable that she is really beautiful.
Ren Li was in a strange mood. She took out a notepad from the table and handed it to her with a pen. "I'm not sure if Wen Shuo will come back tonight, but you can leave a note for him."
"Oh, good idea." After saying that, Jinian took the note and wrote something on the table. Then he turned and walked to Wen Shuo's desk and put the note on it.
"Anyway, thank you." She patted the paper bag gently, then went out the back door with satisfaction.
In the restaurant outside the school gate, Zhou Qi was having dinner with Wen Shuo when his cell phone rang.
He picked up the phone and a girl's voice came from the receiver, "Zhou Qi, is Wen Shuo with you?"
Zhou Qi couldn't remember who it was and held the phone away. He saw an unfamiliar number. But he still handed the phone to Wen Shuo, "It's a woman. I can't recognize her voice. I think she's looking for you."
Wen Shuo pressed the speaker button. "Master Wen, this is Ji Nian. Can you hear me? Hey, I finally found you. It wasn't easy. I asked around..."
Wen Shuo: "Is there something wrong? If so, please tell me quickly."
Jinian quickly said, "Hey, hold on, something's really going on. Are you coming to the party at Workers' Stadium tonight?"
Wen Shuo: "Not interested, going to evening study."
Ji Nian: "Come on, when did you become so interested in evening self-study? I didn't ask you out, it was Group A. He just flew back from abroad this afternoon and will be flying to Shanghai tomorrow. He said he really wanted to see you and sent you a message, but you didn't see it, so he asked who among us could contact you."
Wen Shuo: "Let's talk about it later."
Jinian: "No, it's not easy for you to come here, and you asked me to find you to tell you something. I've conveyed the message, so please give me some face."
Wen Shuo: "Yeah, hung up."
"No, there's something else." Ji Nian said, "I just went to your class and left something on your seat as a birthday present. I'm saying you're really low-key. If I hadn't heard God A mention this, I would have thought you never celebrated your birthday."
Wen Shuo: "Is there anything else?"
Jinian: "Yes, there are so many things I want to talk to you about. Let's talk about it when we meet. I've sent you the address in the group, remember to check your phone. Anyway, it's up to you whoever you want to bring."
After hanging up the phone, Zhou Qi listened to the general idea from the side. He was a person who liked to join in the fun and really wanted to go at this moment.
Wen Shuo didn't say whether he wanted to go or not, but called Ren Li first.
Although I'm not sure whether Ren Li had the phone with her at that time, the other party answered it.
"Hello——" Ren Li's voice was a little low, "Why are you calling me now? What's the matter?"
Wen Shuo: "There's an event tonight, do you want to go?"
After he finished speaking, he realized that his question was a bit redundant. Ren Li was never late for evening study, so how could she possibly go with him?
As expected, Ren Li on the other end of the phone flatly refused: "No, I'm not going. The monthly exam papers will be distributed tonight, and I need to correct the wrong questions."
Wen Shuo didn't insist any more: "Okay. I have to leave early and won't take the school bus tonight, so you don't have to wait for me."
Ren Li: "Oh, okay. By the way, a girl came to see you just now, put some things on your desk and left. She said her name was Ji Nian."
Wen Shuo: "Yeah, I know, some unimportant gifts."
Ren Li: "Gift? Birthday present? You're having a birthday?!"
Wen Shuo wanted to say that his birthday had already passed, but when he heard the surprise in Ren Li's voice, he suddenly changed his mind: "Well, it's my birthday tomorrow, what are you going to give me?"
This was the first time Ren Li had ever encountered someone asking for a gift so openly: "Why should I give it to you?"
Wen Shuo: "I taught you basketball before, but you ran away from my house that day and haven't thanked me yet."
After all, one should be grateful for what one has received. Ren Li thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll go to the convenience store tomorrow and buy you a small cake as a birthday present."
Wen Shuo: "Anything is fine, whatever you want."
-
After hanging up the phone, Ren Li was stumped.
What gift should she get Wen Shuo tomorrow? Of course, she wouldn't just give him something she bought at the convenience store; that would seem insincere. But she had so little time to prepare at this point, and waiting until after school to find a gift shop that was still open wasn't practical either.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in her mind. Maybe she could make a small cake for Wen Shuo.
Ren Li was actually quite good at baking. During the summer vacation of her freshman year in high school, she even took a baking class to fulfill her dream of eating dessert for free. Baking a cake wasn't a difficult task.
After planning everything, evening self-study began, and it was time for the stressful result announcement after the monthly exam.
There are three test papers distributed tonight, including mathematics, English and biology.
The test paper passed around the classroom, and Ren Li waited eagerly. She had been full of confidence since the test, thinking she would perform better than herself this time. However, when she received her test paper and saw the bright red Xs on it, she was stunned.
It turns out that the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
The miracle did not happen, and this time she got the worst score ever.
"Lili, Lili, look! This is incredible! I actually got the best grades I've gotten in my senior year of high school!" Zhang Xintong couldn't hide her joy and shook Ren Li's arm repeatedly, wanting to share her joy. "Sure enough, the recent cram school was not in vain!"
Ren Li finally recovered from her disappointment, tried hard to hide her inner sadness, and forced a smile: "Congratulations. Xintong, I knew you could do it."
"Yeah, I'm even memorizing English in my dreams now. If I don't do well on the English test, it will be unacceptable. Lili, I seem to have suddenly become smart about English recently. In this English reading comprehension test, I filled in several questions based on my intuition, and I got them all right!"
Ren Li silently put her English test paper under her arm.
The reading comprehension passage Zhang Xintong mentioned had extremely outrageous mistakes.
She silently struggled with herself, not understanding why she had done so poorly on the test this time.
In fact, she knew it, but she just didn't dare to admit it.
Lately, I'm no longer as focused and giving my all as I used to be.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com