After the first ten students stood on the podium, the homeroom teacher looked them over for a while.
“Ma Lele, you and Zhang Yuan are in the same group, stand over there. Song Zhenqi, you and Liu Feng are in the second group, go over there. Chen Bing, you and…” When finding another group member for Chen Bing, the homeroom teacher hesitated for a moment. She originally wanted to put Shang Yunmiao, who was close to Chen Bing, in the same group as usual, but after looking at the two children’s pretty appearances, she hesitated again.
After a brief pause, she thought about it and decided against it. There wasn't much of a romantic relationship in elementary school anyway, and the school didn't check. They'd been deskmates for so long; separating them didn't seem like a good idea.
So the homeroom teacher continued, "You'll stay in the same group as Shang Yunmiao, and your seats will remain the same."
After assigning the remaining two group leaders, she read out everyone's group assignments to the class and then led them to their respective groups to collect their bags. The two class monitors assisted her throughout the process.
Because Chen Bing and Shang Yunmiao's positions remained unchanged, they stayed by the podium, waiting for everyone else to move out.
"Chen Bing, you wrote a very good essay this time. I gave you full marks. Keep it up next time."
Seeing that the seating arrangement in the class was proceeding smoothly, the homeroom teacher was able to take a break and chat with Chen Bing.
"Thank you, teacher. I will continue to do so."
After nodding with satisfaction, the homeroom teacher continued, "I saw in your essay that your best friend is the neighbor's 'little brother,' the one who goes to school with you every day. Is he from our class?"
One point to clarify beforehand is that the "younger brother" here is in quotation marks, only for the purpose of elevating the friendship between the two later in the text.
“It’s Shang Yunmiao. I go to and from school with her every day.”
"You two are neighbors?" The homeroom teacher was slightly surprised. Although she knew that the two people's parents knew each other and had a good relationship in private, this was the first time she had learned that the two people were neighbors.
"Childhood sweethearts..." She was a little surprised and unconsciously uttered a less-than-ideal word, but she quickly realized it and changed the subject.
"Do you two often do your homework together after school?"
Before answering the question, Chen Bing glanced at Shang Yunmiao. Because he was too lazy to do such simple questions himself, he often gave his homework to Shang Yunmiao to do, since she was happy to do it twice to reinforce her knowledge. Of course, he himself wasn't idle either, so he stayed by Shang's side and did his own homework.
Since that's the truth, he couldn't just use any words. So, he wanted to get some inspiration from Shang Yunmiao's expression, or rather, he wanted to ask her for the right to lie, since his homework was done by Shang Yunmiao.
When Shang Yunmiao saw Chen Bing turn to look at her, she misunderstood what Chen Bing meant and thought that Chen Bing wanted her to speak.
However, just as Shang Yunmiao was about to speak, she noticed a curious classmate running to the podium to eavesdrop on the three's conversation. Coincidentally, in Shang Yunmiao's memory, this classmate was the most active one in teasing Ma Lele about the love letter incident.
So, the "Yes, we often do our homework together" that was on the tip of her tongue turned into "No, we usually do our own homework separately."
Just like how one's brain occasionally malfunctions, leaving an unforgettable dark history in one's memory, and then feeling extremely ashamed whenever recalling the scene in the days and nights that follow, Shang Yunmiao would feel so ashamed and indignant whenever she recalled what she said back then that she wanted to smash her head against a block of tofu and die.
Coincidentally, Chen Bing, the other protagonist of the incident, often helped her recall what she had said at the time and used it to tease her. As a result, this thing that was something that only happened when she was at an age of tantrums remained fresh in Shang Yunmiao's memory from beginning to end.
Let's go back to how things unfolded at that time.
After Shang Yunmiao finished speaking, she didn't notice the teacher's response, nor did she notice Chen Bing's reaction after hearing her words. At that moment, the girl's mind was filled with thoughts of having said the wrong thing, and that if Chen Bing got angry because of it, she wouldn't be friends with her anymore.
However, she was also afraid of being teased by others and being surrounded by a group of people laughing at her.
These complex thoughts manifest outwardly as the little girl appearing dazed, silly, and somewhat adorable.
"Okay, teacher, I will help Shang Yunmiao with her homework when I get home."
After finishing her conversation with the teacher, Chen Bing took Shang Yunmiao's hand and led her back to their seats.
When Shang Yunmiao realized that she was being led by Chen Bing, she felt both happy and scared.
On one hand, she was happy that Chen Bing wasn't angry about what she had just said, and even took her hand. On the other hand, she was worried about what would happen if someone noticed them holding hands in the classroom.
Amidst her inner turmoil, Shang Yunmiao had already taken her seat. She breathed a slight sigh of relief; once she sat down, no one should see her.
"Okay, I'll hand out the Chinese test papers. Those who score 90 or above should correct their mistakes on the test paper. Those who score 80 or above should copy the mistakes once. Those who score 60 or above should copy the mistakes twice. Those who score below 60 should copy them three times. Also, you need to have your parents sign the test paper. You need to hand it in when you get back."
After giving instructions and distributing the test papers, the homeroom teacher sat on the podium and started supervising the self-study session.
During the remaining two periods today, the math and English teachers handed out the exam papers and specifically praised Chen Bing. During the break, as expected, Chen Bing was surrounded by a group of classmates looking at her exam paper. Chen Bing nonchalantly took her paper out.
Seeing his nonchalant demeanor, Shang Yunmiao felt a little resentful. Reflecting on her entire day, she realized she had done so many bad things and said so many things that could damage their friendship, so why was Chen Bing so indifferent?
Filled with resentment, Shang Yunmiao and Chen Bing went to the school's bicycle shed and picked up their bicycles.
"Oh, I forgot my bike key. Let's ride yours together," Chen Bing said to Shang Yunmiao after checking her bike herself.
"Huh?" Xiao Shang hesitated for a moment, because riding bicycles together seemed so ambiguous, just like a scene from an idol drama. However, she had done too many bad things today, and she couldn't refuse Chen Bing's request now, so the girl could only nod and sit on the back of the bicycle.
Perhaps because he was carrying her on the back, Chen Bing rode very slowly today, and kept stopping to greet other classmates. His actions made Shang Yunmiao too shy to speak; she just kept her head down, not wanting anyone to notice her.
Her idea was destined to fail, because Chen Bing once again parked the car on the side of the road and started chatting with a female classmate she had run into.
Before the two could exchange more than a few words, the girl looked at Shang Yunmiao, who was sitting with her head down in the back seat, and asked, "Brother Bing, are you going home with Shang Yunmiao?"
Oh no, I've been recognized.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com