Chapter 35
Life always brings new changes unexpectedly.
Lin Mian never expected that a new transfer student would suddenly arrive when the semester was almost over.
The boy on the stage introduced himself with a cocky look on his face, and then pointed to Zhong Yuqi's seat to the teacher. He wanted to sit there and become Lin Mian's deskmate.
Zhong Yuqi was so angry that she slammed the table and refused to give up her seat no matter what.
Chen Xin also looked embarrassed. The He family had donated so many things to the school, but Zhong Yuqi could also be considered a "connected family". In this physical exchange, wouldn't she be the one who got hurt because she was caught in the middle?
Although she was in tears, Chen Xin still spoke to He Xintong in a gentle tone and let He Xintong sit behind Lin Mian.
He Xintong reluctantly agreed. After he sat down, he stretched out his index finger and poked Lin Mian's back.
Annoyed by the provocation, Lin Mian raised her hand to knock He Xintong's hand away. He looked at her with starry eyes, as if he was about to cry, as if he had suffered a great injustice.
But Lin Mian just couldn't do anything about others showing weakness. She inherited her father's character and would only respond to soft words and not to harsh ones.
Whenever I see an expression like this, even the hardest heart will soften.
"What do you want to do?"
"I just want to know, do you know my name? Do you know?"
"Your name is He Xintong."
He Xintong stopped pestering the issue only after getting a satisfactory answer.
This kind of He Xintong made Lin Mian feel more concerned.
He is a person whose every thought is written on his face, so he is very easy to understand.
Lin Mian hadn't seen such a person for a long time, and he made her inexplicably concerned.
But after class, before Lin Mian could say anything, he was pulled away by Zhong Yuqi.
"He's the youngest son of the He family, spoiled by his family. He has a lot of annoying tempers. I'm a little scared that he'll insist on switching seats with me. It's just a small matter, but the kid will complain to his dad, and I might really have to separate from you, but I really don't want that."
"ah?"
Lin Mian was stunned. She didn't expect that Zhong Yuqi, who was always fearless except for her cousin, still had something to worry about.
When Zhong Yuqi received Lin Mian's gaze, she knew what she was thinking.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? I don't want you to stay with that spoiled brat. I won't be the one who suffers anyway."
This is indeed Zhong Yuqi. She speaks as if she is holding bullets, but everyone can understand what she means.
"I know it's Yuqi who's worried about me. For me, it doesn't matter who's my deskmate, but that doesn't mean everyone is my friend. I'm super super lucky to be friends with Yuqi."
The blush spread to her ears. Zhong Yuqi pushed Lin Mian's face away and said, "You only know how to say nice things to coax me."
Just as Zhong Yuqi thought, He Xintong was transferred to sit next to Lin Mian the next day. When they changed positions, He Xintong deliberately made a strange expression to her to provoke her.
Zhong Yuqi clenched the strap of her schoolbag tightly. It would be a lie to say that she didn't care. She cared a lot.
But Lin Mian was right, being deskmates doesn’t mean you can become friends.
They became deskmates because they were good friends.
The nature is different.
What's more, there are so many people who want to get close to Lin Mian, so who is He Xintong?
Zhong Yuqi rolled her eyes coldly at He Xintong and ignored him.
He Xintong got what he wanted and no longer cared so much about Zhong Yuqi.
Now that he was the winner, he didn't have to worry about the losers.
After sitting next to Lin Mian, He Xintong realized that there really are people who love studying so much.
In his eyes, Lin Mian was either listening to the class attentively or doing exercises. Her eyes were so focused, as if she was the kind of obedient student who would follow the saying "Books are the golden house".
She really deserves to be the one he wants to treat as his sister. She is really different and so cute when she studies hard.
He Xintong, whose eyes were full of Lin Mian, didn't know that Lin Mian was not like this usually. She did this simply because she didn't want to give He Xintong the chance to bother her.
The little bit of care she had for him disappeared after He Xintong's behavior.
But she was helpless in the face of his weakness, so she could only choose to control herself and not look into his eyes.
When Shi Luyi came to discuss with Lin Mian, He Xintong pricked up his ears to listen.
"The teacher just said that the top student at the end of the semester will be the student representative who will speak at the end-of-year meeting. Are you interested, Xiao Mian?"
Shi Luyi's expression was filled with anticipation. Even though he had never scored higher than Lin Mian in an exam, he still had an idea when he heard that the first place student at the end of the semester would be the student representative to speak on stage.
Although he became friends with Lin Mian, Shi Luyi also wanted to see a long-lost smile on his mother's face after she had been disappointed for a long time. He had not received that kind of natural love for him for a long time.
His meaning was so obvious that Lin Mian subconsciously clenched the pages.
As expected, she encountered a situation that she wanted to escape from again. Would he keep looking at her like that?
Will the friendly and admiring gaze turn into jealous and disgusted gaze?
What should she do?
Should I say I'm not interested in order to preserve this friendship?
Even though Lin Mian didn't like Shi Luyi at first, after spending so much time together, she had already regarded him as a friend.
And what should she do now?
"Why are you asking? Are you trying to get Xiao Mian to give in to you? How can you be so shameless? You're doing this just because Xiao Mian is so easy to talk to. How shameless!"
Shi Luyi blushed, and Lin Mian looked at He Xintong in surprise. She didn't even care that the other party called her "Xiao Mian".
He Xintong stood between them. He was about the same height as Shi Luyi, and he blocked Lin Mian completely.
"What are you looking at? Do you want Xiao Mian to use the same softness on you that she has for her friends? Dream on, you annoying bastard."
He Xintong didn't care about Shi Luyi's distorted hatred.
Such hatred was simply because he had exposed Shi Luyi's purpose and torn off the fig leaf called friendship.
He Xintong has seen many people like this. Aren’t his mother’s family members like this?
When my mother was around, he kept taking advantage of the He family under the pretext of doing it for her own good.
Even though his mother was gone, he still wanted to send someone to his father's place under the pretext of doing it for the good of his two children, fearing that he would not be able to take advantage of the He family.
He Xintong is no longer the easy-to-appease child he used to be. He will directly confront this kind of people.
Shi Luyi had not yet developed a thick skin, and when he saw that He Xintong had spoken out his worries, he was too embarrassed to stay.
Zhong Yuqi patted Lin Mian's arm and said, "This guy has some good points too."
She had been unhappy with Shi Luyi for a long time and he was pretending to be so. If Lin Mian hadn't wanted to take him out to play, Zhong Yuqi would have started to scold him a long time ago.
In the days that followed, Lin Mian no longer rejected He Xintong. He was always arrogant to others, but he was good to her.
He always claimed to be her brother, although Lin Mian never agreed.
He always subconsciously took care of Lin Mian because he had never taken care of anyone else before, and this was also a new experience for him.
Logically speaking, people who live in such a selfish way will not take care of others.
In response to this, He Xintong wanted to say: Haven’t you eaten pork but seen a pig run?
There is always enough chocolate in his pocket, and when Lin Mian gets tired of doing homework, he always finds the right opportunity to give her some candy.
Privately, he asked Li Fang to find a wig, and he wanted a very curly medium-short hair. He slowly learned how to tie it up and make it look good.
Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. He Xintong hopes that one day when Lin Mian needs him, he can serve her.
All this happened just because when Lin Mian was chatting with Zhong Yuqi, he heard Lin Mian say that she didn't know how to tie her hair.
It was hard for him to see what Lin Mian couldn't do, so since she couldn't do it, he would learn it.
Lin Mian didn't notice the change in He Xintong. She frowned and looked at the activity room, which she had applied for from the school.
Beishi Middle School does have interest clubs, but most of them are calligraphy, reading, and art clubs. Lin Mian was the first to apply for a band, but he applied in a similar way to a music club.
It turns out that this small activity room can accommodate 5 people, and even in the cold winter it will become warm because of the many people.
But there are only 4 people now.
"Shi Luyi is so willful. He doesn't come if he doesn't want to."
Jin Zixuan plucked the strings casually. She knew why Shi Luyi didn't come.
There are only two reasons: he was embarrassed after his inner thoughts were revealed and he was jealous of Lin Mian for not meeting his wishes.
Jin Zixuan didn't understand why it was called jealousy instead of male disease and male household?
In this world, are women really the most jealous?
"Don't bother with him," Wu Bingxia breathed out. "I'm going to learn drums. There's no reason why we can't continue without him."
"Yes, this isn't a difficult problem. We can all stop and study now. After Bingxia learns to play the drums during the summer vacation, we'll start again next semester. New Storm won't just be Shi Luyi's New Storm, but the New Storm for all of us."
Zhong Yuqi stood up to comfort everyone, and she was always paying attention to Lin Mian in her peripheral vision.
She looked like nothing was wrong, but Zhong Yuqi saw Lin Mian's hands tugging at the hem of her plaid skirt uncomfortably.
She would do this subconsciously when she was panicking or lying.
She was not as calm as she appeared.
When today's practice was over, Zhong Yuqi secretly called the driver and asked him to go back first.
"My driver is busy today, can I take your car back?"
Although her tone was questioning, Zhong Yuqi was very sure about what she said. She knew that Lin Mian would not refuse her, and Lin Mian really did not care about these trivial matters.
In the car, Lin Mian was also unusually silent.
Zhong Yuqi knew that she was probably worried about Shi Luyi, but she didn't understand why she was worried.
Who is Shi Luyi to be worthy of Lin Mian's emotions because of him?
"Are you okay? Are you sad about Shi Luyi's situation, or about the band's future?"
These are two different things. Zhong Yuqi hopes that Lin Mian is distressed because the band cannot practice smoothly temporarily, rather than being distressed because of one person's departure.
"I'm fine. Sorry to have made you worry, Yuqi."
Lin Mian smiled at Zhong Yuqi, but that smile didn't quite reflect his true meaning.
What is she thinking about?
I wondered if there was something wrong with my lack of humility, if I would become that lonely one day, and why she always had to escape.
"Am I a little too evasive?"
Finally, Lin Mian asked, she didn't want to hide it from Zhong Yuqi.
"You are definitely different now than you were before, Xiao Mian. What are you afraid of? I always feel like you're hesitant now, but you used to be so determined. In your world, one is one, and two is two."
Because this world is not one is one and two is two.
Lin Mian, standing on the stage, was looking at the pairs of eyes below. There were people he knew and people he didn't know. Almost everyone in Beishi Middle School was there.
As the first place in the final exam of the first grade of junior high school, Lin Mian is a well-deserved student representative.
The eyes in the audience showed disregard, contempt, jealousy and hatred, but also expectation, yearning and love.
What should she do?
Fear?
No, this time Lin Mian didn't want to escape again.
Why did she run away?
Didn't she get first place based on her own strength?
Why would she stop for the sake of other people's attention?
Whether it was Shi Luyi or anyone else, the only person in this world who could make Lin Mian give in was Lin Mian who would be at the top the next moment.
She can sympathize with the weak, but why should she give in for the weak?
She has her way to go. Only by becoming a stronger person can she help the weak, rather than assimilate into the weak.
Why did Lin Mian suddenly change so much?
It all started with the last time I took the same car home with Zhong Yuqi.
Zhong Yuqi didn't get an answer, but she didn't give up.
She found Lin Mei and told her everything that had happened to Lin Mian recently.
It has been a year since Lin Mei came to Beicheng, but her heart has become bigger.
She had had new ideas a long time ago, but out of friendship, Lin Mei chose to stabilize the direction for Zhong Yulan first. At the same time, she took advantage of her spare time to continuously improve herself and chose to continue her studies. If she wanted to get more, she had to pay more.
But in front of her daughter, Lin Mei can choose to stop all this. In her life, besides herself, the most important person is Lin Mian.
What's more, she regards Lin Mian as important as herself.
She calmed down and observed Lin Mian carefully.
Since the child doesn't want to say it, he must be worried that she will worry too after knowing it.
But the child didn't say anything, not knowing that this would make his mother even more heartbroken.
After this observation, Lin Mei realized that Lin Mian had become too precocious without her knowing it.
Her mind began to grow heavy.
In other words, they began to avoid the spotlight.
She still looks cheerful and does things openly, but she is not as free-spirited as before.
Lin Mei looked at Lin Mian’s report card for the year on the table.
Except for the first time which was very close to full marks, the subsequent scores were not much different from the second place, giving people the illusion that the second place might surpass her at any time.
It seemed that she scored so high the first time out of trial. After she found out that this school was not as good as she had imagined, she started to control her scores so that she could be the first but not get such a terrible score.
It's as if she was just an ordinary number one.
There are so many talented people in North City, and geniuses are as numerous as crucian carp crossing the river. Her light seems to have become dim among them.
Lin Mei thought that after they settled down, when she wanted to sign Lin Mian up for some interest classes, she refused without hesitation. At that time, Lin Mei also felt that since the child came to a new environment, she should let him be happy. Anyway, she would give the child the best environment, and he didn't have to work so hard, so she didn't say anything more.
Now it seems that Lin Mian did it on purpose.
She is suppressing herself.
Why suppress yourself?
Lin Mei leaned weakly on the chair, looking at the bright white ceiling. Her eyes seemed to be burned by the light of the spotlight and tears flowed down her face.
She is not a qualified mother.
She figured out why Lin Mian suppressed her.
She didn't want Lin Mei to focus too much on her and spend more time on herself. At the same time, she didn't want Lin Mei to put too much hope on her. She didn't want Lin Mei to become like Tu Chenglin, because if she put her hopes on her, if she did something that didn't meet her expectations, she would be like Tu Chenglin, with a look of disappointment, which would hurt her more than being hit.
Her Guoer has always been a girl with high self-esteem and kindness.
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