English partner
Ruan Xiyan clicked into the form again, and oh, this time he and Lu Er were grouped together.
"This grouping is very important. Tonight, everyone go downstairs to the B class study room to elect your group leaders," Teacher Mina said, scanning the class. "Group leaders have a lot of responsibilities. In the series of activities to come, the group leaders will mainly lead everyone."
In the evening, in the study room.
The foreign teachers assigned seats to the seven groups in the class, with each group sitting in a circle around a table. Ruan Xiyan was in the sixth group, which had six people in total: himself, Lu Er, their partners Yan Songqi and Xu Ting, and two girls. The two girls were twins who looked very alike and even shared the same name; one was named Sun Yuanyuan, and the other Sun Yuanyuan.
"Now, let's choose our group leader." The one who spoke was a boy named Yan Songqi, an Australian exchange student with a pair of non-prescription glasses perched on his nose and a handsome appearance. "Does anyone want to volunteer?"
Lu Er lowered her head and remained silent, as did Ruan Xiyan, while Xu Ting spoke to the two twins: "Which one of you is the younger sister, and which one is the older sister?"
“Sun Yuanyuan is the older sister, and Sun Yuanyuan is the younger sister,” one of the girls said seriously.
"Oh." After a moment, Xu Ting realized she had fallen into a trap. She clutched her head and cried out, "No, your two names sound the same!"
Yan Songqi coughed twice to maintain order: "Ahem, Xu Ting. Do you want to be a group leader?"
"No. I don't want to be the deputy team leader."
"..." Where did this deputy team leader come from? Yan Songqi then turned to the remaining two, "You... uh, Sun Yuanyuan, who wants to be the team leader?"
The two girls, whose ponytails were tied on the same side, turned on Yan Songqi with wide, bright eyes and asked, "Which Sun Yuanyuan are you calling?"
"...You two Sun Yuanyuan! That's enough!"
The twins shook their heads in unison. Yan Songqi thought for a moment and said, "Since no one wants to be a winner, let's draw lots. I'll post a lottery assistant in the group. You can choose." A few minutes earlier, Yan Songqi had added all five of them to a WeChat group called "Six."
All five agreed. The results were revealed when the last person drew the prize. Yan Songqi had drawn the prize to become the group leader.
For the rest of the time, everyone started working on their respective partner's daily tasks. Lu Er sat next to Yan Songqi and opened the Xingou English app. Today's three tasks were: recite this short English passage, spell twenty words, and read the Chinese meaning of those twenty words.
What's interesting about the "Team Tasks" feature is that not only is the voice recognition accurate, but both parties also have tasks on their phones. Unlike Lu Er, Yan Songqi's task involves a ten-word chain, sentence reading, and a one-minute impromptu dialogue. This means you can't complete the task alone; both parties must use each other's phones to complete the tasks posted in the app.
As Lu Er was doing a sentence reading task on Yan Songqi's phone, a hand suddenly waved from the corner of her eye.
After she finished reciting her five sentences, Lu Er glanced over and saw Ruan Xiyan sitting opposite her, pointing to her phone on the table and muttering something, making a few lip movements that Lu Er couldn't understand. Seeing Ruan Xiyan gesturing to her phone, Lu Er picked it up.
[SlowMomo]: Did you vote in the music poll in the group? Please help me vote for the one at the very bottom.
Ruan Xiyan was referring to the poll that Teacher Mina posted in the group chat. The gist of it was that she listed some popular songs and asked the class to vote on which song would be played on the radio every night before the camp ended.
Lu Er clicked on the voting link and scrolled straight to the last one; the song title was "Lucky Symbol." She remembered; Ruan Xiyan also had this song on her playlist.
She clicked the vote and returned to her chat with Ruan Xiyan.
【11】: I voted.
【Slow Momo】: "Little Eight Offers Flowers"
Lu Er didn't reply to the message, but looking at the emoji, she thought for a while, then slowly long-pressed and clicked "add".
-
On the morning of the second day of summer camp, after class, Lu Er went to the cafeteria for lunch. On the way, she ran into two of her roommates from Class AC. The two roommates had become inseparable on campus after quickly becoming friends. Upon seeing Lu Er, they warmly invited her to join their group.
Lu Er agreed. After queuing up for food and taking their seats, a girl from Class A stared in one direction, patted the shoulder of a classmate from Class C next to her, and said in a gossipy tone, "Hey, that's our Class A's class beauty, Ye Xinyu."
The girls in Class C were focused on something else: "How long has it been, and they've already chosen the class beauty?"
“They’re in the same class, it’s easy to tell.” A urged her to turn around. “Look back, the one next to her is Ruan Xiyan from Class B, right? They’re the two who are the most eye-catching and the most talked about when they first arrived at summer camp, and they’ve already gotten together so quickly.”
C turned her head: "Wow, really? These two are so popular. People in our C class are talking about Ruan Xiyan, wondering if he has a girlfriend. I heard his family is super rich, and he's an art student. They look pretty good together. Hey, could Ruan Xiyan be dating Ye Xinyu?"
Lu Er and A were sitting in the same direction, so they could naturally see the two of them. Next to Ruan Xiyan stood a slender girl, known for her flamboyant style, also because of her striking platinum blonde hair. The beautiful woman and handsome man were like a cluster of flowers blooming in a desert, a feast for the eyes.
Not only were Lu Er and her friends looking, but the group of people walking by, including Ruan Xiyan and Ye Xinyu, were also watching. The turn-around rate was extremely high.
"Maybe so. I heard from my friend that Ye Xinyu is also an art student from Huai'an, studying dance. They're both art students, so it's not surprising that they'd date." The two were enjoying their gossip when a girl turned to Lu Er and said, "Hey Lu Er, you're in Class B too, right? You know Ruan Xiyan, right? Is he really dating Ye Xinyu?"
"..." Lu Er offered the same explanation, lowering her eyes and saying, "I'm not familiar with him."
A and C exchanged a glance: "Oh, I see."
What she said wasn't wrong at all. If it weren't for the soul swap, Lu Er might never have crossed paths with Ruan Xiyan in her entire life.
It's like two parallel lines that never intersect, existing in the same universe but having no connection whatsoever.
As she spoke, she checked the weather forecast on her phone. There hadn't been any rainy days recently, and the unchanging bright sun hung at the top of the date display. It was inexplicably a little dazzling.
In a sense, her saying this could also help Ruan Xiyan avoid some trouble.
In the afternoon, during the fun class taught by Teacher Ono, Teacher Mina told everyone two things at the same time: "Students, the school will start the English drama performance party on the ninth day of summer camp."
Therefore, after receiving the script, each group needs to prepare carefully, assigning lines and roles. To ensure fairness, the scripts will still be drawn by lot. Each group will send a group leader to draw the scripts tonight in the study room.
"Also, we're going on a picnic in the Qingmeng Mountains outside the school tomorrow. The picnic will last for two days, we'll leave tomorrow and come back the day after. So you don't need to bring too many clothes, just one or two changes of clothes. The details will be explained to everyone on the bus tomorrow. Of course, we're not just going to have fun, we also have tasks to do."
This was tantamount to dropping a torpedo into a crowd. Everyone erupted in excitement, chattering away, getting more and more animated. It took Ms. Mina a few slams on the table to finally quiet them down.
Something troublesome happened in the study room that evening. Actually, it wasn't a big deal, nor was it too much of a headache. Xu Ting had heard that Yan Songqi had returned from Australia after eight years and that his spoken English was superb, so he immediately said he wanted Yan Songqi to be his English tutor.
“I came to summer camp so that I can talk to foreigners better when I go abroad next year,” Xu Ting said matter-of-factly. “There’s a ready-made one here, so of course I want to learn from him.”
She changed it whenever she wanted. She took Lu Er's phone to do a task with Yan Songqi, leaving Lu Er and Ruan Xiyan silently watching her throw down her phone.
Helpless, Lu Er made a suggestion: "Then let's change partners. I wonder if this app allows changing partners."
“I remember the app is linked, so you can’t control it yourself,” Yan Songqi said. “Teacher Mina is on it, why don’t you go ask her? Anyway, I have no objections.”
Ruan Xiyan opened her mouth, but her eyes were fixed on Lu Er: "I'm fine with anything."
Xu Ting happily dragged Lu Er upstairs. Upon hearing their purpose, Teacher Mina's brows furrowed slightly. She glanced at Lu Er, chuckled, and whispered to the two, "Originally, changing partners wasn't allowed, but since Lu Er and I are friends, I've let you switch without permission. Don't tell anyone."
Xu Ting nodded like a chick pecking at rice. Teacher Mina adjusted the permissions on her phone and switched Lu Er and Xu Ting's English partners.
As soon as she returned to her seat, Xu Ting plopped down in the spot where Lu Er had been sitting and pushed her over there: "Go sit with Ruan Xiyan." Lu Er walked over and sat down. Ruan Xiyan, wearing a cartoon short-sleeved shirt, tilted her head and looked at her with an innocent smile: "Teacher Lu, we meet again."
"..." Lu Er took back her phone. "Let's do the task."
After completing his task for the day, Yan Songqi went to draw lots and returned. He spread out his cards for the others to see: "We drew Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night.' I'll have to go to Teacher Mina's place after evening self-study to get the script. Once I have the script, I'll read it once and then send it to you in the group chat."
"Team leader is awesome!" the twins and Xu Ting cheered.
Evening self-study only lasted one and a half sessions. After class, Lu Er hadn't finished the tasks on Ruan Xiyan's phone.
When Ruan Xiyan heard his roommate invite him to go out for a late-night snack, he was about to refuse when Lu Er spoke up for him: "You go get your snack first. I want to go back and take a shower and wash my hair. We can do the task on the playground after we're done. There's no hairdryer here, so I'll go downstairs and let it air dry for a bit after I'm done."
He spoke as if he had given it careful consideration. Ruan Xiyan was stunned for a moment, hesitated for two seconds, and then said, "Okay, remember to send me a WeChat message after you've finished showering."
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