Chapter 56 The Shadows of the Past: Her Friendships, Her Hidden Love...
After parking their car in a nearby parking lot, Zhu Liushuang and Tian Xingyu put on parasols and walked along the pedestrian path outside Gucheng No.1 Middle School.
Because school has not officially started yet, many shops along the street are closed, with only a few grocery stores still open.
As they passed a jewelry store called "A Dazzling Display," Zhu Liushuang tugged at Tian Xingyu's arm and said, "I didn't expect this store to still be open. I wonder if the owner has changed?"
"No, I didn't change it. I passed by a while ago and chatted with the owner for a bit. She even gave me some candy," Tian Xingyu said with a smile.
"Ah Yu, do you still remember that incident?" Zhu Liushuang's gaze towards her friend suddenly became more emotional.
In her twenty-odd years of life, she had very few close friends. Tian Xingyu was one of the most important.
That incident was nothing more than a trivial matter to Tian Xingyu.
She paused for a moment, then asked in a deliberately light tone, "What is it? You used to come to this store with me every week when we were in school. So many things happened, but I don't remember which one it was?"
Zhu Liushuang knew perfectly well that Tian Xingyu was deliberately trying to fool her; after that incident, the two of them went from being classmates to friends.
"Ah Yu, thank you." She sincerely thanked her friend.
"Oh, that's so cheesy! You thanked me a hundred and eighty times back then!" Tian Xingyu made an expression of disbelief. "It's just ten yuan I lent you, it's no big deal."
Zhu Liushuang smiled: "You clearly remember."
That's true, how could I possibly forget?
She clearly remembers that it was the third day after the end of the first semester's midterm exams in her first year of high school.
As school was about to let out in the evening, the teacher announced the grades and rankings. She did well, ranking fifth in the class.
To treat herself, Zhu Liushuang decided to go to "Linlang Manmu" and buy the pearl hair clip she had been longing for for half a semester.
The school has lax management of boarding students, who can freely enter and leave the campus before evening self-study. After having dinner in the cafeteria, Zhu Liushuang, carrying her wallet, walked out of the school gate alone to "Linlang Manmu".
The jewelry store was bustling with activity; girls from two nearby middle schools were regular customers.
Unlike Zhu Liushuang, who came alone, they came in groups of three or five.
Squeezing through the crowd, she walked towards the glass display case at the far end of the shop, where exquisitely designed hair clips were displayed. Her yellowed canvas shoes stopped in front of the display case, and she immediately spotted the one she wanted.
Fortunately, it hasn't been bought yet.
Zhu Liushuang bent down and pushed open the cabinet door, carefully taking out the hair clip decorated with daisy patterns. She held it in her palm as if it were a rare treasure.
The line to pay at the front desk wasn't long, but the two girls from her dorm were right in front of her.
"Zhu Liushuang? You're here to buy things too?" Liu Linyue asked curiously, giving Wei Xuan a strange look.
Zhu Liushuang lowered her head in silence, ignoring him. She knew that the subtext of Liu Linyue's question was nothing more than mocking her poverty.
Soon, it was her turn to pay.
"Auntie, how much is the hair clip?" She placed the hair clip in her hand on the checkout counter.
When she looked up, she noticed that Liu Linyue and Wei Xuan hadn't left, but were standing a few steps away from the checkout counter, looking in her direction.
Were they curious about what she had bought? Zhu Liushuang glanced at them silently before turning away.
Therefore, she did not notice the disdainful looks on the two people's faces.
"45 yuan," the proprietress said, cracking sunflower seeds. "Young lady, you have good taste. My daughter likes this hair clip too."
"4...45?" Zhu Liushuang suddenly stammered, her hand involuntarily tightening its grip on her wallet in her school trouser pocket. "Isn't the price tag 35?"
She only had 35 yuan in her wallet, and in order to save that little bit of money, she hadn't ordered any meat dishes at meals for a week.
The proprietress stopped eating sunflower seeds and said, "45. That's the price we've always sold them for. I even sold one a few days ago."
“But…but there are sticky notes over there at the glass counter.” Zhu Liushuang clearly remembered that the price tag for this hair clip was 35 yuan.
"Oh... the note over there might not match," the shopkeeper said with a smile. "You look very familiar, young lady. I've seen you come to my shop several times, always looking at it over there by the glass counter. If you really like it, buy it. 45 is a bit pricey, but it's made of pearls. It's worth it—"
She desperately wanted to buy the hair clip, but she didn't have enough money. Zhu Liushuang lowered her head in frustration, her grip on her purse loosening. She figured she'd have to scrimp and save for another week.
"Pfft—" Two untimely laughs rang out.
"What are you haggling over for a broken hair clip..." Liu Linyue said to Wei Xuan as if no one else was around, "Xuanxuan, I remember you also have a pearl hair clip. Is someone copying you?"
“That hair clip of mine was brought back from abroad…” Wei Xuan glanced at Liu Linyue, “How can it compare to those in small shops?”
Zhu Liushuang bit her lip tightly, feeling bitter. Because she wasn't one of them, she was ostracized in the dormitory, and now she was being ridiculed in public at the jewelry store.
But what could she do? She simply didn't have enough money.
Zhu Liushuang raised her head and stared indifferently at her roommates until the two of them looked away uncomfortably.
"So, are you going to buy a hair clip? There are still many people queuing up behind you!" Although the proprietress was smiling, her hand, which was picking up the melon seeds again, revealed a hint of impatience.
Zhu Liushuang was about to say, "Come again in a few days," when she heard a bright female voice behind her: "Auntie, we bought it."
She turned around in surprise and saw Tian Xingyu from the next dormitory room.
They hardly spoke.
"Liu Shuang, why didn't you wait for me? You promised I'd pay this time!" Tian Xingyu affectionately linked arms with her.
Zhu Liushuang was completely confused.
Why did she try to get herself out of that predicament?
But the people waiting to pay at the back of the line were in a hurry, so she quickly accepted Tian Xingyu's offer. She let her pay and then pulled her arm out of the jewelry store.
"So, you helped me back then because you couldn't stand Liu Linyue and Wei Xuan?" Zhu Liushuang asked, putting her arm around Tian Xingyu's.
"Yes...no." Tian Xingyu reached out and pinched Zhu Liushuang's cheek. "You were so cute back then, so tiny, and you didn't like to talk much. I actually noticed you a long time ago. Hehe, perfect for being a hero and saving the damsel in distress!"
"If it weren't for you, I might have stayed in that dorm room for three years..." Zhu Liushuang said in a low voice, "Speaking of which, what they did to me back then, wasn't that considered school bullying?"
"Of course! If I hadn't dragged you to find the old teacher to change dorms, who knows how badly they would have bullied you!" Tian Xingyu got angry when she said this.
Zhu Liushuang shook her head: "No, I'm very fierce!" Memories flashed before her eyes. She wasn't a pushover; after she officially fell out with Liu Linyue and the others, they stopped teasing and mocking her.
They treated her like she didn't exist.
"Don't think about these unpleasant things!" Tian Xingyu pinched Zhu Liushuang's cheek again. "If you run into them on campus today, I'll stand up for you again."
"So many years have passed... I don't care anymore." Zhu Liushuang shrugged, pretending to be relaxed.
But how could I not care?
Her sensitive and insecure teenage years became even more gloomy due to the malicious exclusion by some people.
Fortunately, during those gloomy times, someone reached out a kind hand to her, giving her warmth and courage.
Her friendships and her secret crushes were incredibly precious to her.
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The entrance of Gucheng No.1 Middle School was filled with brightly colored flowers, and countless flower pots were pieced together to form the four characters "Welcome Home".
Zhu Liushuang couldn't help but feel excited. For many years after graduation, she had not set foot on the campus of No. 1 High School, nor had she participated in any class reunions.
Firstly, she didn't get along well with several girls in her class, and they were always the ones who organized the class reunions. Secondly, her college entrance exam score wasn't ideal; she didn't perform as well as she usually did, and she felt ashamed to face the teachers who had taught her.
"Senior Ye said there's an alumni autograph wall and a photo spot next to the gymnasium." After reading the WeChat message, Zhu Liushuang turned to Tian Xingyu beside her and said.
Tian Xingyu disagreed, saying, "No rush, I want to go to the classroom first."
"That's fine then. I'll send a message to Senior Ye and tell him not to wait in vain." Zhu Liushuang said, looking at Tian Xingyu's face and enunciating each word clearly.
They walked along the long corridor, passing the senior high school building before reaching the first-year building. As they passed a stairwell, Tian Xingyu suddenly covered her mouth and laughed: "Shuangshuang, I remember! In the second semester of first year, weren't you hiding at the stairwell one day trying to scare me?"
"Turns out... I scared the wrong person!" As she spoke, Tian Xingyu's expression became ambiguous. "No wonder you ran so fast, your face was all red. Turns out you scared your sweetheart!"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Liushuang's face immediately turned red, and she scolded playfully, "Ayu—"
"I won't make fun of you... It turns out everything was traceable!" Tian Xingyu muttered to herself, "It's all my fault for being so dense back then; I didn't see through your little scheme at all."
Perhaps it's because she hid it too well.
Zhu Liushuang glanced at the corner of the stairs with a complicated expression, suppressing the urge to step into Class 20 of Senior Three.
The two of them walked all over the entire first-year high school building, taking many photos in their own classroom. The classroom's interior was now much better than before; the projector had been replaced with a Seewo whiteboard, and the empty back wall had been fitted with lockable lockers for backpacks. The student chairs had been replaced with multi-functional chairs that could be used for lying down or sitting. Even the class size had decreased from over fifty students to around thirty…
Everything felt so familiar, yet so strange. This place, where countless young men and women still toiled and strived for their youth, was no longer theirs.
The moment she stepped out of the classroom, she felt a strange pang of sadness. Zhu Liushuang rubbed her sore eyes and answered Ye Xingzhi's WeChat call: "Hey, Senior Ye. We just finished touring the classrooms and are heading to the gymnasium now."
"Perfect timing! I just picked up He Ming at the school gate. Let's meet at the autograph wall in front of the gymnasium in a bit!" Ye Xingzhi said as he walked, and in the receiver, besides the noisy voices, there were also the sounds of footsteps.
"Hey? Liu Shuang, can you hear me? Is it because there are too many people and the signal is bad?" Ye Xingzhi asked again.
"I...I heard it." Zhu Liushuang came back to her senses, the strong, pounding of her heart clearly audible. "Thump—thump—" It was as if someone was drumming in her chest, each beat filled with tension and anticipation.
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The author says: Love is not everything in life; there is also family and friendship.
To make the story more complete, I will describe some things besides love.
[Three-colored cat head] I'm almost fully recovered, I need to get back to writing.
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