Chapter 34: A grand group crime.
As soon as the music festival started, the venue was filled with cheers. Passionate students in the audience held glow sticks to cheer for the people on stage and even joined in the singing.
“You can push me off a cliff and I can learn to fly.
Never listen to anyone's orders,
Very independent, use ears to listen to one's own heart.
Keep walking in the rain, if you are a gem you should shine.
Everyone should have a dream, and if you have a dream, don't be afraid of pain.
…[1]”
In addition to the individual singing, the school also invited a band to perform.
That was their most exhilarating collective carnival, cheering for the graduating seniors and also cheering for their only youth.
Pink clouds covered the sky, like a palette of paint accidentally splashed across a vast canvas, spreading out layer by layer. It looked like the most gorgeous backdrop for the grand closing ceremony of the senior year of high school.
Gradually the sky darkened, and when dusk completely fell, the glow sticks in everyone's hands formed stars, shining in unison with the lights on the stage.
Bo Xia leaned on Wen Xin's shoulder and enjoyed herself wholeheartedly.
Sometimes she stood up and shook her glow stick vigorously, joining in the grand carnival with everyone.
The mood reached its climax as the performance began, and fireworks were set off in the sky. Before Bo Xia could appreciate the sudden coolness on the tip of his nose, raindrops fell unexpectedly, but no one left the scene, and they were still cheering and rejoicing.
Rain flowers bloom and fall along with the fireworks, soaking everyone's youth. The wet rain, the dazzling fireworks and them together constitute the hottest chapter of youth.
It was not until the rain got heavier that they began to run around the playground in a panic. All they could hear was the sound of everyone fleeing in panic, but it showed what youth is more vividly and concretely than the songs just now.
The singing on the stage continues——
"The rain soaked the out-of-print summer,
The cicada whispers softly in my ear,
Yesterday and today,
This year and next year,
How long will it take to reach our forever? "
Bo Xia and her classmates went to a roof under the stage to take shelter from the rain. The damp moisture still stained their clothes and could not dissipate. She looked into the distance and saw that there were still some classmates holding umbrellas and staying where they were, including Zhou Suiye, who was holding his clothes to keep out the rain.
Everyone looked very embarrassed, but after looking at each other, they all laughed at the same time.
She suddenly remembered the words -
Youth is a downpour. Even if you catch a cold, you still look forward to getting wet again. [2]
Wen Xin looked at Zhou Suiye's back and touched Bo Xia's arm: "Do you think Zhou Suiye is sick? There's already a lot of water in his brain. If it gets wet, it will become even more useless."
She couldn't help but laugh along.
But in the end, Bo Xia couldn't bear it anymore and asked the students around her if they had brought umbrellas. Everyone answered no. Of course, if they had, not everyone would have gotten so wet.
"Don't you think we're just unlucky today? It's raining so hard before we even finish our work?"
Another person said: "Not really. If it hadn't rained today, it wouldn't be so memorable, would it?"
Others laughed and called him crazy, but also felt that what he said made sense.
How could this closing ceremony be complete without this heavy rain?
During the conversation, Bo Xia finally borrowed an umbrella. When she walked over, she saw Jin Yunyan also walking over and handing the umbrella to Zhou Suiye. In the end, she didn't know what Zhou Suiye said. He was a little disgusted but still sat on the wet chair.
She stood not far away, stunned for a few seconds, thinking how handsome he was. His hair, wet by the rain, seemed even more tattered. A beam of light hit him from the side, and from her angle she could see his straight nose, a beauty favored by the gods.
She didn't have time to think for a moment, so she still took the extra umbrella to Zhou Suiye. In the end, for some reason, she was persuaded by him to sit next to him and listen to the performance.
In the empty playground, these fools in the eyes of others became the final spectators.
After a while, Wen Xin also came over in the rain. The person who had just laughed at Zhou Suiye for being sick actually joined the ranks of the mentally ill team, and said how could they be left out of such a thing.
What happened next?
Many years later, Bo Xia only remembered that they all came home wet, but she was not very sad after being scolded by their parents. She was completely immersed in their happiness that day.
She opened her diary and wrote:
"From now on, I will no longer say that my youth was mediocre.
If anyone had asked, I would have described it as a spectacular, group-based crime.”[3]
After the music festival, Bo Xia heard that Zhou Sui Ye had become famous.
She rarely went to the forum, and when she asked Wen Xin what was going on, she saw that among the pictures released by the school's official website, apart from the wonderful photos of the performance, the most out of place one was the photo of Zhou Suiye caught in the rain.
Wen Xin gloated: "Fortunately, they only took pictures of him and not us. Otherwise, such an embarrassing thing would have been laughed at by the seniors, juniors, and classmates for so many years. I don't know how I would have lived like this."
She walked over and patted Zhou Suiye on the shoulder: "You are famous, Brother Zhou, when will you give Zhang an autograph?"
Unfortunately, Zhou Suiye never wastes time and energy on internal conflicts. He is extremely shameless and says, "Come on, I'll sign for you, but we've agreed not to resell it."
"Your face is thicker than the city wall."
"Thanks for the compliment," Zhou Suiye admired the photo. "You know what, it's a beautiful photo. No wonder the official put me on it."
Wen Xin: Haha, it’s obvious that they let you go because they think you’re sick.
She glanced at Jin Yunyan's position and casually asked where he had gone. Zhou Suiye replied casually, "You know our Young Master Jin is a very busy man. He's been busy with exams recently. I think it's IELTS or something."
Wen Xin didn't understand any of this, so she just listened and didn't take it seriously.
Before the holiday, Bo Xia saw her report card. After a period of intensive study, her weakness in physics finally stopped holding her back. Her English grades also improved a lot. The gap between her and Jin Yunyan was getting smaller and smaller, and their rankings were getting closer and closer.
The cicadas are chirping outside the window, and the summer heat is quietly invading.
She couldn't help but wonder which university Jin Yunyan wanted to apply to, and whether she could get in with her current ranking. It seemed... there was still a little distance, but going to the same city shouldn't be a problem.
When I was young, I always had some simple, naive, and even silly ideas. Inexplicably, I became better because of someone, because I found my own direction.
So she studied day and night, always looking forward to her future life.
I always feel that one day in the future, their story will continue.
Soon the long rainy season came to an end and the southern eucalyptus trees welcomed the long summer.
The classroom was filled with hot air, and the squeaking sound of the electric fan was extremely hypnotic. When Bo Xia felt sleepy during lunch break, she would always glance at Jin Yunyan, and occasionally she would take a detour to pass by him.
After accidentally knocking his book off her shoulders, she picked it up and looked at the cover. It was a book called "Principles of Economics". As they were about to enter the review stage, he was no longer on the same page with them.
Once when she went to help collect homework, Jin Yunyan glanced at her and gently called her classmate: "I didn't do this homework. I've been busy lately."
He had the privilege of not handing in his homework, but Bo Xia's mind was full of the word "classmate" he had just said. Did he still remember her? Did he still remember their names?
They had obviously met so many times, but apart from the bond of Zhou Suiye, they seemed to be just ordinary classmates.
Sometimes she would hate his gentleness and his gentlemanliness, but she also inexplicably felt that her resentment was unreasonable.
She expressed her love so quietly, isn't it normal that he couldn't hear it?
Even if you hear it, what obligation do you have to give back?
What's more, shouldn't liking something be pure?
After summer vacation, Bo Xia had to go back to her hometown for two days for her parents' reasons. Although her personality was much more cheerful than before, she still didn't like to communicate with the elders who liked to point fingers, so she spoke less.
Especially after she returned home, there were always some relatives and neighbors who oppressed her. She was very disgusted and ignored them, which caused her mother to keep blaming her.
She wanted to escape from here, from the countryside she had always hated.
Because here, everyone, including her parents, wore a false warmth on the surface but harbored hidden calculations. Their behavior was so detached that the then-underage Bo Xia couldn't understand it. She didn't even know that this world was hypocritical and she had no way to escape.
There, people are closer than in other places, so speech becomes a powerful tool for hurting and restricting others. Everyone lives according to other people's ideas, without even knowing why they do so.
Only her cousin is a little more open-minded, so Bo Xia prefers to interact with him.
Occasionally when chatting, Bo Xia asked him if he had a girlfriend. He smiled and said, "Are you still concerned about my love life?" He said that he didn't have a girlfriend, but he had someone who liked her.
"So what do you think of that person who likes you?"
"She hangs around me every day, saying she wants to take the postgraduate entrance exam with me. If I go to work, she'll go to work too." Her brother glanced at her and said, "Do you think liking someone means losing yourself? Why can't you have your own goals? Why can't you put yourself first?"
She was stunned and speechless for a long time...
He continued, "And I don't need these self-touching things. Instead, they become a burden."
As if seeing through his thoughts, her brother asked her if she had someone she liked. She shook her head frantically, but the crimson tips of her ears betrayed her feelings.
"It's normal to fall in love for the first time. Just don't lose yourself because of someone else," he said with a laugh. "Why am I telling you all this? You're too young to understand these profound principles. Besides, it's okay to be a little love-sick when you're young. When you get older, you'll realize that love doesn't really occupy much of a place. By then, you won't be able to love someone wholeheartedly..."
Bo Xia found him very strange. Why was her brother, who was not much older than her, always talking about profound truths that only people in their forties could have, as if he were already very old?
"Brother, you're acting like an adult."
It was the first time he heard someone say, "You look more like it this way, little girl."
Dragonflies hovered low in the evening, and the heat twisted the air.
Bo Xia suddenly felt very hot, but there was no cool breeze at all when his fingertips touched it.
After returning to her home near the school, her mother was still scolding her. It seemed that her mother was always like this. Perhaps it was because she was not happy with her life, so she took out all the resentment that she could not digest on her.
Sometimes she would be criticized even if she didn't do anything wrong, so she always felt that she couldn't make mistakes and had to be careful in everything she did.
Fortunately, she still had to go to cram school, so the suffocating feeling was slightly relieved. When she returned to the bedroom to organize her books, she listened to the noises outside while trying to ignore them.
The rainy season has ended, but the humidity in the air still remains.
In such an environment, everything is rotting and moldy, and even the most exquisite things will be left with indelible stains.
The summer was really hot and humid. After class, Bo Xia rode her bike, feeling the wind blowing in her face. Wen Xin followed her: "Don't go home yet, let's go play for a while."
She was in a hurry to go home, so Wen Xin didn't force her and went with her to buy an ice cream on the way.
They are already in their senior year of high school, so it is inevitable that it is time to plan for the future.
Wen Xin asked her if she had decided which university she wanted to apply to. As if she knew what she was thinking, Wen Xin smiled ambiguously and asked, "Do you want me to ask Jin Yunyan which university he wants to apply to?"
She hesitated for a moment, the ice cream in her hand melted, and she grabbed Wen Xin's hand: "No need."
"Really?"
"Well," the girl smiled brightly, "no need."
Bo Xia rode her bicycle home. The sunlight fell on her through the gaps in the leaves. The green around her was so dense that it seemed to be burning.
To her, Jin Yunyan was a little light in her gloomy life, a beacon that guided her forward in the long night, and someone who always encouraged her to become a better person. She used to have low self-esteem and immature thoughts, thinking that she would only be chosen if she became a better person.
At that time, she didn't actually think it through completely. Her logic had always been that Jin Yunyan made her better, not that she had to become better for Jin Yunyan.
She has always had her own goals, wanting to become a better self, and Jin Yunyan just happens to be the better self she wants to be, that's all.
At the time, Bo Xia didn't understand this. She just felt that they all had their own dreams and directions, and they didn't need to go to the same place. Getting better on their own was also a kind of meeting at the top. So the answer to that question didn't seem important anymore.
She had already entered the final sprint of this long race, and all she needed to do was close her eyes and keep pushing forward. No matter if he was waiting for her in front of her or not, or if he was close to her or not, she needed to go it alone and unwaveringly to reach the future she wanted.
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