Chapter 6: The Sudden Appearance
Just as Ning Yanzhao was reminiscing while looking at the sunlight, the protagonist in her memories also "descended from the sky" so naturally. Is this some kind of legendary law?
Memories overlap with reality. Although it's not the same time or season, and An Nianyu may not even remember the first time the two of them truly met at school, An Nianyu still appears in the sunlight from this angle, and Ning Yanzhao's heart races at that moment.
"I...I'm cleaning the hallway. Are you coming downstairs?"
"Um."
"Come down, I've almost finished cleaning."
Watching An Nianyu's departing figure as he went downstairs, Ning Yanzhao suddenly felt the urge to make some changes, so she called out his name for the first time at school, "An Nianyu."
The girl on the stairs and the boy below the stairs, in a sense, gaze at each other for the first time under the sunlight, so dazzling that it makes one's heart flutter.
"What's wrong?" Although An Nianyu pretended to be calm, he was actually a little nervous because the scene just now was also unforgettable in his memory, but Ning Yanzhao might not know it.
Rather than asking why An Nianyu was suddenly here when Class One should be in class right now, Ning Yanzhao wanted to ask another question: "Why did you go to my house last time? It's such a remote place."
"Just passing by."
Just passing through? There's nothing there to study or have any entertainment. Are you really just passing through?
"I don't recall seeing anything worth visiting there. Are you sure you're not in the wrong place...?"
An Nianyu seemed unwilling to discuss this issue further, so he changed the subject: "By the way, is the kebab ready yet?"
Unexpectedly, An Nianyu still remembered the injury of the kebab, and Ning Yanzhao was easily distracted by him: "Well, it's almost healed, and it's been able to hop around everywhere again recently. Our family has also started to 'strictly' manage it, and we won't let it wander around on the street."
"That's good, then I'll be going now."
"Do you want to come and see it this weekend?" Before An Nianyu turned to leave again, Ning Yanzhao asked this question as if possessed. Even if she was acting out of selfishness, before this dream disappeared, she hoped that she could be brave and do something that she wouldn't regret.
In the brief silence, Ning Yanzhao initially thought An Nianyu was thinking about how to refuse, but in the end, she only heard him say, "When?"
It is said that the eyes are the most expressive part of a person's emotions, but perhaps the sunlight was too bright today, and Ning Yanzhao couldn't see clearly what kind of emotions An Nianyu's eyes were showing. But no matter what, it was enough.
"How about Friday afternoon or Saturday?"
"Then let's do it Friday afternoon," An Nianyu said, then turned and went downstairs.
"Okay, then I'll wait for you at the school gate on Friday afternoon."
"What a beautiful day today," Ning Yanzhao murmured to herself, leaning on the mop and looking at the sky after An Nianyu left.
Time flies. In the past few days, besides frantically learning all sorts of knowledge about "Nuwa patching up the sky," Ning Yanzhao has also been closely observing Xu Yongqing's affairs.
In the past few days, just like Ning Yanzhao's previous memories, Xu Yongqing also signed up for the essay competition. All the classmates in the class were people she remembered participating in before. The only variable was her.
And now it's the last class of Friday afternoon.
"Alright, the reason we've gathered everyone here today is for the essay competition that will be held in a month. Now, let me briefly introduce the theme of this essay competition..."
Because the essay competition is approaching, the Chinese teacher, who is also the head of the grade's Chinese group, arranged for the students who will be participating in the essay competition to have extra tutoring in their writing during the last period of the grade's general self-study class on Friday afternoon.
However, plans often go awry. Although Ning Yanzhao had prepared for the essay competition long ago, she hadn't expected the essay tutoring classes to start this week. She couldn't remember which week it usually started, since she hadn't participated in her first one. With the tutoring classes beginning and the competition drawing ever closer, naturally, that other thing also happened…
Besides, Ning Yanzhao didn't expect that participating in the essay competition would bring another unexpected surprise: in addition to Xu Yongqing, An Nianyu was also among them, something she hadn't known before.
However, it wasn't too surprising, because Ning Yanzhao had always known that he was the regular top student in Chinese language in the grade, and he believed that the Chinese teacher would definitely not let him off the hook.
Not only that, Ning Yanzhao and Xu Yongqing were also grouped with An Nianyu and another boy from the same class. She remembered that the boy was very close to An Nianyu, and his name seemed to be Ye Fanghuai. He was also the one who called An Nianyu under the overpass that day.
Now that she has traveled back nine years, Ning Yanzhao has made a decision she didn't make back then: to sign up for the essay competition. She will definitely take it seriously. She also hopes to get to know more about Xu Yongqing so that she can find out why Xu Yongqing chose to run away from home that weekend and hopefully prevent her from being found dead in a car accident on the street.
Ning Yanzhao felt that it wasn't just a simple matter of her phone being discovered and her being beaten; this was something she needed to understand at this stage.
With almost a month to go before the weekend of Xu Yongqing's accident, Ning Yanzhao believed she still had time to salvage the situation.
There was a pleasant surprise today, but Ning Yanzhao had made plans to go to a barbecue restaurant with An Nianyu just two days ago. What should we do?
"Alright, that's about the theme for this essay competition. You can use this weekend to think about how to write it. That's all for today's class. Have a great weekend, everyone."
The forty-minute class time flew by. Since today was the first tutoring session, the Chinese teacher only briefly explained the general content of the essay competition and did not require everyone to create an essay in class, nor did she assign any new homework for this class.
If it were the old Ning Yanzhao, she might have been a little afraid of writing essays, because she always felt that she couldn't grasp the essence of those essay formulas. Every time, she would just follow a template and apply a few famous examples. Anyone who had read a few of her essays knew that she was following a formula.
However, the fact that the formula is the same does not mean that Ning Yanzhao does not suffer when writing, because the essay topics are always different, so it is still a bit difficult to fit several repeated classic characters into different essay topics each time.
But things are different now. After four years of training in humanities courses that required writing assignments, and with her job in copywriting, Ning Yanzhao is now fearless when it comes to writing. She can easily handle several essays, although winning an award is still not guaranteed.
"Thank you, teacher. Have a nice weekend, teacher. Goodbye, teacher." All the students in the classroom said goodbye to the teacher.
Since this was the last self-study period on Friday, most of the students attending the writing tutoring class had already packed up their things from their classrooms. They didn't need to go back to the classroom after the writing class and could go straight home.
Because of the seating arrangement, Ning Yanzhao and Xu Yongqing are now in front.
Ning Yanzhao hadn't found a chance to talk to Xu Yongqing these past few days. After weighing her previous agreement with An Nianyu, she finally decided to talk to Xu Yongqing first.
"Oh, finally it's the weekend! I'm exhausted. Nianyu, do you want to play games together this weekend?" Ye Fanghuai, who was never serious when not under the teacher's watchful eye, was now talking non-stop with one arm around An Nianyu's shoulder, completely disregarding the person's wishes.
"I'm not going."
Why not go?
"study."
"What should we study?"
"biology."
Hearing An Nianyu say that she was going to study over the weekend, and that it was biology, Ning Yanzhao suddenly felt a pang of guilt for some reason, and her steps faltered briefly. However, she quickly convinced herself that, judging from the puppy's health, how could it not be studying biology? But she had more important things to do right now.
"Huh? It's one thing to study during the holidays, but you actually have to study biology? Isn't biology your forte? I think physics is more worth studying than biology."
"It's my time; I can learn whatever I want."
"Wait, you're really not going?"
"I'm really not going."
"Okay, okay."
Actually, Ning Yanzhao wasn't very familiar with Xu Yongqing before, but since she had decided to do this, she was determined to do it. She needed to mentally prepare herself before she had to muster the courage to speak to Xu Yongqing, who was usually aloof.
Ning Yanzhao clearly studies in the same classroom as Xu Yongqing every day, but this week she hasn't found a single opportunity to chat with Xu Yongqing about family matters. Finally, she can sit with Xu Yongqing in Friday afternoon's composition class, so of course she wants to seize this opportunity.
An Nianyu's transfer to another school will take a while, so Ning Yanzhao decided to put it aside for now and find another opportunity to apologize to him properly.
"Xu Yongqing, how are you going to get home later?"
Xu Yongqing seemed uncomfortable with a "strange" classmate asking such a "private" question. She frowned before even glancing at Ning Yanzhao, and then said somewhat indifferently, "The bus."
"Me too, let's go together then."
"casual."
As they talked, the two walked faster and faster until they went downstairs and were out of sight of those behind them.
"Nianyu, what are you looking at?" By this time, Ning Yanzhao and Xu Yongqing had already walked far away, and Ye Fanghuai didn't recognize the two girls either. So when Ye Fanghuai looked in the direction An Nianyu was looking, there was nothing there anymore, so he asked in confusion.
An Nianyu watched Ning Yanzhao's steps the whole time, knowing she had clearly overheard his conversation with Ye Fanghuai, but...
"It's nothing, let's go."
"oh."
An Nianyu thought about Ning Yanzhao's conversation with another girl earlier, but ultimately said nothing.
Meanwhile, while talking to Xu Yongqing, Ning Yanzhao sent a friend request message to An Nianyu's QQ account: "I'm sorry, this is Ning Yanzhao. I have an urgent matter to attend to today and have to leave with my classmates first. I will definitely apologize to you in person next time I come to school. You can just go home today. I'm really sorry."
Since it's Friday, day students are allowed to bring their phones, and boarding students can also pick them up from their homeroom teacher.
"By the way, Xu Yongqing, if you're taking the bus home, which direction does your house face? This way or across from the school?"
"there."
"Oh, this is the way. We're going in the same direction, so let's go this way together from now on."
"Whatever you want."
"I heard you write very well. Could I borrow your essay sometime to take a look?"
"Whatever you want."
"Thank you so much. I'll come back to borrow it when I get to school in a couple of days."
"Whatever you want."
After the two boarded the bus, Ning Yanzhao tried to talk to Xu Yongqing many times, but Xu Yongqing would only answer one sentence after she asked a question. The sentence she said most often was "Whatever."
The initial conversations were mostly about things Ning Yanzhao already knew, yet she still had to make small talk, which was really difficult for her; she had never been so talkative before.
Furthermore, because Ning Yanzhao only knew the general outline of the cause and effect of what happened back then, but not the process in between, she ultimately didn't get any useful information. Instead, she seemed to be interfering in other people's privacy.
Although it was awkward, time passed quickly, and soon they arrived at the bus stop near Xu Yongqing's home.
"I've arrived, I'll be going now." For some reason, Ning Yanzhao sensed a hint of relief in Xu Yongqing's words. Was she really too out of touch with reality?
Because the event was fast approaching, Ning Yanzhao was indeed being a bit too hasty, and she wasn't even sure if her efforts would ultimately be able to change Xu Yongqing's fate of dying in a car accident.
Another very important point is that Ning Yanzhao is currently very confused about why she is here and when she will return to real life.
"Okay, see you at school during evening self-study on Sunday night. Have a great weekend."
"Yeah, have a nice weekend too."
In fact, Xu Yongqing's emotions did change significantly. Ning Yanzhao's feeling was correct. It wasn't because of Ning Yanzhao's strange questions earlier, but because of the predicament she was about to face.
Xu Yongqing wasn't relieved just now; rather, she was preparing to take a deep breath.
After getting off the bus, Xu Yongqing felt as if the whole world was separate from her. She looked at the small silhouette of her home in the distance, and with each step she took closer to home, her heart sank a little, but she had no choice but to keep going.
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