39/Occasion
The calendar pages turned one after another, filled with test papers and sleep-inducing review classes.
The countdown to the college entrance examination on the blackboard is decreasing day by day.
Forty, thirty, twenty.
With nineteen days remaining, it was May 19th.
Friday.
The next day was Shen Yu's birthday.
When school ended, people were talking about how the science students were planning to have a big party that night to celebrate Shen Yu's birthday.
Some people said that it's normal for Shen Yu to celebrate his birthday.
As Chen Mian said this, she was packing her things.
Lin Lin, who was in the front row, didn't run away as soon as get out of class ended, which was rare. The pressure of the countdown to the college entrance examination seemed to have finally brought her some pressure. For several days in a row, she just sat in her seat and wrote test papers after class, and occasionally broke down and cried on the table.
Zhao Lili pouted and said, "What's the use of cramming at the last minute? You didn't study when you should have, and now you're throwing a tantrum here."
It wasn't just Lin Lin; most of the students in the class spent their days going through emotional breakdowns and rebuilding. Every time the test papers were handed out after an exam, the teachers had to do some mental preparation, telling them that a small test was just to identify and fill in the gaps in their knowledge and did not represent their college entrance exam scores.
The two words "college entrance examination," which had always seemed like a distant dream to them, are becoming increasingly real.
The rumors and gossip about Chen Mian seemed to have been put to rest here in the senior high school building, until they were restarted today, which is Chen Yu's birthday.
Lin Lin turned to look at Chen Mian with a direct gaze, which made Chen Mian look up before she smiled and asked, "Chen Mian, Chen Yin asked me to ask you if you want to come along tonight?"
This sounds a bit like someone using someone else's authority to intimidate others. Chen Mian hasn't communicated with Lin Lin for a long time, and they only occasionally interact when handing out test papers or homework.
Before Chen Mian could answer, he urged, "Go ahead, I heard Shen Yu canceled all his dinner invitations tomorrow so he could spend it with you, right? Why don't you come tonight? Doesn't Shen Yu want to have a happy birthday? Come on, come on." As he spoke, he reached out and tugged at Chen Mian's sleeve.
While packing her things, Zhao Lili kept an eye on the commotion. When she saw Lin Lin trying to pull her, she immediately pulled her wrist away and glared at her, "What do you care if she goes or not? What business is it of yours whether Mianmian goes or not? It's not your birthday, it's Shen Yu's birthday. Are you some kind of Pacific Ocean police?"
Normally, Lin Lin would have argued with Zhao Lili, but today she ignored Zhao Lili and just looked at Chen Mian, asking softly, "Are you going?"
It's like they can't live without her.
Something was definitely amiss. Zhao Lili shook her head at Chen Mian, telling her to refuse, but then she saw Chen Mian stand up with her backpack on and ask Lin Lin, "Where are you?"
*
Shen Yu had told Chen Mian about wanting to have a meal with his friends a long time ago.
When I told You Huai and the others that we wouldn't celebrate my birthday together, it was just a joke between friends. But even so, celebrating my birthday a day early still caused quite a few people to tease me.
Someone joked, "Now it's just that we don't celebrate birthdays together, but in the future, you'll prevent us from stepping into your house. Putting your girlfriend before your friends is really unacceptable, A-Yu."
"Don't make fun of your brother Chen, or you'll get a warning in the chat group," another boy from the science class immediately replied.
Then everyone on the field uttered in unison: Oh~
The sounds rose and fell, as if we had arrived at Monkey Mountain.
Some people, confused, asked, "What chat group warning?"
"You didn't know that? A while ago, some people were gossiping in some groups. This kind of thing is hard to manage. Nobody said anything at the time, so what could they do later? But Brother Chen directly asked someone to post a group announcement, telling people to say whatever they wanted to him directly."
When this story came up, some people in the group happened to have witnessed the scene.
A Suizhong chat group has at least two or three hundred people, ranging from first to third year of high school. They chat aimlessly, saying all sorts of things. They can say anything, even anonymously, like they want to run naked, as a kind of alternative way of venting.
So no one expected that Chen Mian would be spoken ill of anonymously, and Shen Yu would intervene.
Most people think that playing Shenyu is just for fun.
I didn't take it very seriously, and when the announcement was released, many people were stunned, and some people left the group immediately out of guilt.
This incident caused a stir, and it was from that time onward that the name Chen Mian gained some weight among Shen Yu's friends.
There's a certain unspoken understanding between boys and girls; they joke around without restraint, seemingly saying anything, but it all depends on the weight of the person they're teasing.
Shen Yu sat there listening to their nonsense without stopping them. He waved his phone in his hand until he mentioned Chen Mian's name, then tapped it on the table, looked up, and said, "That's enough."
The place was bustling with activity; many people came, and even the 'closed' luxury private rooms were almost full.
The microphone was left there unsung, and bottles of wine on the table were being pried open one after another. You Huai, who was sitting next to Chen Yu, chimed in, "Yeah, that's enough. Our brother Chen is already quite lonely celebrating his birthday alone with us, so let's not talk about him anymore."
"Why isn't Sister Chen here?"
You Huai chuckled, "Brother Chen said it's not that people aren't coming, it's that they don't want me to have another set of parents."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the door was opened from the outside.
It's Chen Yin.
You Huai clicked his tongue again, just about to say why you were taking so long to buy something, when he saw Chen Mian behind Chen Yin.
The music that was playing was paused by someone.
Chen Mian's first time in such an occasion was when she met Chen Yin downstairs. Since the warning on the rooftop, they hadn't spoken for a long time, but their relationship wasn't as bad as the rumors suggested. They were both nearing adulthood, unlike elementary or middle school students who would never speak to each other if they didn't like each other.
Chen Yin greeted her and shared one of her drinks with her, saying she should drink some yogurt first to fill her stomach.
As they entered the elevator, Chen Mian remained silent, while Lin Lin, a natural chatterbox, kept finding topics to talk about, seemingly afraid that Chen Yin would feel awkward. She would compliment Chen Yin's dress one moment and ask her how her recent exams went the next.
Chen Yin's reply was perfunctory, dismissing him with just a few words.
And that's it.
Seeing that the luxurious private room was almost full of people, all from Suizhong, including students from science, music, art, and even a few from humanities classes, including one or two of Chen Mian's classmates, they immediately started teasing Chen Mian, and some even whistled because of the dim lighting.
Chen Mian wasn't used to the noise. Just as she frowned, she heard Shen Yu laugh and say to her, "Come here, what are you doing standing there?"
One by one, the people next to him made room for him.
“Here, here, here.”
The scene was quite grand, like in an idol drama where the boss's woman arrives and a group of people bow and greet her as "Sister-in-law."
It also brought with it some of the chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) characteristics unique to teenagers.
It's exaggerated but not annoying.
At least most of the people looking at us had friendly smiles in their eyes.
The person sitting in the middle of the crowd looked at her under the flashing lights.
It was as if all the light emanating from him fell upon her because of the way he looked at her.
Chen Mian paused for a moment before stepping through the crowd and sitting in the empty seat that had been given up.
"Who brought you here?" Shen Yu asked her.
Chen Mian looked up, still holding the drink Chen Yin had bought, her voice drowned out by the loud music.
Shen Yu didn't hear clearly, so he bent down and leaned closer, asking again, "What did you say?"
The faint smell of alcohol emanating from him lingered at Chen Mian's nose. She stepped back slightly and raised her voice to repeat, "I promised to spend your birthday with you, I'm just keeping my promise."
This is different from what she jokingly said to You Huai, that she didn't want him to have another mother.
Shen Yu didn't actually ask Chen Mian if she wanted to come along today, because he knew Chen Mian didn't like these kinds of occasions.
Chen Mian has a bit of social anxiety, but it's hidden by her aloof appearance. She seems calm no matter where she is, but Shen Yu knows that Chen Mian doesn't like socializing with people she's not familiar with.
Now that we've come, what else could it be for?
"Fulfilling promises" sounds like nothing more than an excuse.
Since that night they kissed on the mountain, their relationship has undergone some subtle changes.
The word "subtle" means that it exists, but not much.
For example, Chen Mian no longer refuses the milk that Shen Yu gives her in the morning, and when the two of them study together in the evening, Chen Mian will directly pull out his Chinese test paper and correct his mistakes.
These are subtle changes that only the person involved can perceive, while to outsiders they appear unchanged.
This change was processed in Shen Yu's words, and whenever You Huai said that you were just a simp, Shen Yu refuted it one by one as if proving a mathematical problem.
And now the person has actually arrived.
Shen Yu thought, what's the difference between Chen Mian doing this and her pursuing him?
He put himself in Chen Mian's shoes. With only nineteen days left until the college entrance exam, he would celebrate the birthday of someone he "didn't like" just to fulfill a so-called promise, even though they had agreed to celebrate together the next day. It seemed like a clingy reaction.
Perhaps they were worried that he might have contact with other girls, since so many people came, and some of them were indeed girls brought by their friends.
Chi Shengdu said that if a girl really cares about you, she'll be jealous of anything, even if you get bitten by a female mosquito.
What else could this be but jealousy?
They even followed Chen Yin in.
—Just fulfilling a promise.
Chen Mian is just jealous.
Shen Yu thought about it more and more and felt that it made a lot of sense. He glanced at Chen Mian, who was staring intently at the screen, and then nudged You Huai, who was drinking.
"Damn it—" You Huai spilled the wine in his hand all over his pants. He was about to curse, but then remembered that the person he was about to curse was a birthday man, so he put away his national treasure and asked irritably, "What is it?"
Shen Yu leaned against the wall, pointed at Chen Mian, and said to You Huai, "Come here, son, call me Mom."
"..."
You Huai: "Do you really want me to call you a beast on your big day?"
/
The "not open" refers to the KTV mentioned earlier.
There will be another update tonight.
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