Chapter 22 Chapter 22
The new month has begun with a bang.
A tense atmosphere permeated the campus once again. On Tuesday morning, homeroom teacher He Guang posted the new month's seating chart in the front row and asked everyone to move around during dinner.
It wasn't until she saw the seating chart that Ren Li realized Class 17 wasn't assigned seats based on grades. Specifically, everyone worked in groups, moving a certain distance toward the front right. Currently, except for Wen Shuo—who, after all, enjoyed a privileged position—his seat was in the back row, a permanent fixture.
Perhaps Teacher He, mindful of Ren Li's new arrival, had made a subtle adjustment to her seat. After a series of adjustments, Ren Li wasn't actually that far away from Wen Shuo; she'd simply moved from his left to slightly in front of him.
But the good news is that she will be sitting at the same table with Zhang Xintong.
After dinner, the classroom was in chaos for a while, everyone busy clearing desks and moving things. Ren Li also packed the things on her desk into her schoolbag. Fortunately, because of the last monthly exam, she had already moved most of the useless things home. Today, the only thing left to do was to clean up her desk.
The boys at No. 4 Middle School were always courteous when it came to changing seats. Zhang Xintong had already handed her desk over to Zhou Qi, but Ren Li, shy and used to doing things herself, declined her offer and decided to do it herself.
It's just a desk anyway, it won't sink too much.
She was waiting for the students in front of her to move their things when Wen Shuo walked in from outside.
He must have just finished playing basketball. He was wearing a white jersey and his hair was wet. When he sat down, Ren Li smelled the refreshing scent of shower gel on him.
Wen Shuo picked up the water cup on the table, tilted his head back and took a few gulps of water. Then, as if remembering something, he turned to look at Ren Li and asked, "Are we moving today?"
Ren Li was startled when she heard this, then nodded: "Yeah."
Wen Shuo: "Where are you moving to?"
Ren Li pointed: "Just in front."
Wen Shuo: "I'll help you."
Ren Li: "No need, I can handle it myself."
She refused again, and this time Wen Shuo didn't seem to be willing to listen to her opinion. He stood up, put his hands on the edge of the desk, and lifted it up with seemingly no effort. But only Ren Li knew how much stuff was hidden in her desk, and it was actually quite heavy.
Tang Xiaoyun, who was sitting in front of her, was chatting with someone when a desk suddenly fell across her, trapping her in the middle. But she couldn't blame herself for that; class was about to start, and Ren Li was already patiently waiting for her, but she still showed no sign of moving.
She looked back and found that it was Wen Shuo. She couldn't get angry, so she had to move her desk away.
Ren Li thanked her, hugged her schoolbag, and sat down in her new seat.
While packing her things, she thought of Wen Shuo's anxious look in moving his desk away, and thought, does he really want me to leave early?
She suddenly remembered what Wen Shuo had said before, that he didn't like to hear her say thank you, and she instantly felt rebellious.
So, Ren Li turned back and said to Wen Shuo, "Thank you."
Wen Shuo: ...
Just say whatever you don’t want to hear.
The bell rang, and the classroom finally calmed down. Ren Li calmed down a bit, took out the books and stationery from her bag, and placed them neatly on the table.
On the side, Zhang Xintong was still immersed in the joy of being a deskmate with Ren Li for the first time. Seeing her take out a pile of pink, yellow, red and various rainbow-colored miscellaneous things, he couldn't help but hold up his head and take a few more curious glances.
Sure enough, when it comes to having more stationery, no one in Class 17 of Senior 3 can match Ren Li.
The so-called poor students have more stationery...
That didn't seem right either. Zhang Xintong quickly shook his head, feeling that his focus had strayed somewhat, and finally decided to focus on his homework.
Ten minutes later, Ren Li finally tidied up her desk. She reached into her pencil case, trying to find the orange-shelled star pen that she had recently liked to use. However, she searched through it several times but couldn't find it.
Could it be that it fell somewhere just now? As she was thinking this, someone poked her in the back with a pen.
This method was like that of an elementary school student, extremely childish. Ren Li felt that no one had greeted her in this way since kindergarten, and she turned around with a stern face: "What's up?"
Wen Shuo handed over a pen: "Yours."
When Ren Li saw her pen, her mood immediately disappeared. After all, she felt obliged to take it from someone else, so she nodded twice and reached out to take it.
However, not long after she turned around, someone poked her in the back again.
This time, Ren Li felt like she was really getting angry. She turned around again, staring at Wen Shuo with wide eyes, trying to express her dissatisfaction with words: "What are you doing?"
The incandescent light from the evening study session poured down from above her head, and her long drooping eyelashes cast a small shadow on her eyelids. Ren Li turned around and looked at Wen Shuo. His voice was gentle, and even when he was angry, it was soft.
At that moment, Wen Shuo felt that the surroundings suddenly became quiet for a moment.
He clenched the eraser in his hand. This was something he had just found on the table, and it also belonged to Ren Li. But when the girl in front of him looked at him, for some reason, he changed his words:
"Do you have time this weekend?"
Ren Li saw Wen Shuo and didn't say anything for a long time. She was still wondering what excuse he would use to fool her this time. She didn't expect there would be this answer.
"Huh? Why?" she asked.
Wen Shuo: "You still owe me a meal. This weekend, I want to make good on it."
Ren Li: "What kind of meal?"
She forgot about it in the blink of an eye, and Wen Shuo didn't expect her to remember at all: "Tell Zhang Xintong to move Saturday's tutoring to Sunday. We'll make an appointment for Saturday."
Speaking of tutoring, Ren Li remembered that she did owe Wen Shuo a meal.
Zhang Xintong, who was in front of him, was doing his homework. He seemed to hear his name vaguely, so he sat up straight and pricked up his ears reflexively.
Ren Li quickly turned back. The scene now looked more like a burglary, as if she was secretly chatting with Wen Shuo about some unspeakable secret.
But it is better to have less trouble than more. Zhang Xintong loves to associate things. Ren Li thinks it is better not to provide her good friend with gossip material.
Fortunately, Zhang Xintong just looked at her suspiciously and continued to do his homework.
Nothing new happened this week.
Saturday arrived in the blink of an eye. On Friday night, Wen Shuo contacted Ren Li for the first time. He sent her links to several potential destinations listed on review apps. Ren Li opened them one by one and was immediately struck by the slightly exaggerated, photoshopped images of "celebrity ladies" dressed in elaborate attire. She looked down at her pink cotton pajamas and immediately decided that it would be best not to go to these places.
Fortunately, in the end, she found a slightly unpopular place among the many restaurants and attractions.
This place is near the TV tower in the city. There is a park nearby and a river running through it. In spring, there are beautiful pink cherry blossoms here. Ren Li went there once with her parents when she was a child, and she has always remembered it.
After setting the time and place, Ren Li was still thinking about how to package the matter a little bit and describe it to Lin Yuan before leaving the house the next day.
In short, it was "lying." Lin Yuan had always been very strict with her, requiring her to report any time she went out. Although Lin Yuan had always taught Ren Li to be honest and upright, she felt it best to downplay the impact of this incident.
After all, I was going out with boys, and alone.
She didn't dress up today. She wore an ordinary pink and purple cardigan, and her hair was casually tied into two low ponytails - this was Ren Li's usual outfit when she went out to meet her female friends.
Fortunately, after Ren Li had been thinking about her feelings for a long time and told Lin Yuan about it, Lin Yuan did not doubt it. He just reminded her to be careful on the road and not to come back too late.
After sneaking out of the residential complex, Ren Li's heart finally settled down. The park was a bit far away, so she followed the directions on her phone and took the bus. Unexpectedly, there was a traffic jam on the weekend, and when the agreed meeting time was almost here, she was still halfway there.
She began to regret not checking the traffic conditions before going out. If she had known earlier, she would have taken the subway. Although it was a bit of a detour, at least the subway would not be congested.
Ren Li took out her phone and sent a message to Wen Shuo, saying that she would be late. After a while, she received a reply:
W【Well, no rush】
About half an hour later, the bus finally stopped at the bus stop in front of the park.
Maybe because it was a weekend, there were a lot of people getting on and off the bus at the park platform. Ren Li also got off the bus with the crowd. At first glance, she saw Wen Shuo standing upright with his hands in his pockets in a conspicuous place at the bus stop.
He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt today, which made his skin look a little white. His black hair covered his forehead, and his eyebrows were still calm and distant. He stood there like a low-saturation and cold work of art.
However, the moment he saw Ren Li, there was finally a slight difference on his usually cold face.
Ren Li walked forward, feeling that Wen Shuo had been waiting for her tirelessly for quite some time, and was a little touched: "You've been waiting for a long time, huh?"
"One hour and three minutes late." Wen Shuo looked at his watch. "You are really slow."
Ren Li: ...
Who just said there was no rush?
The feeling of being touched disappeared, and the fact proved that Wen Shuo was still so indebted.
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