44/Happiness
At the end of May, there were less than ten days left until the college entrance examination.
Teachers at school no longer allow students to do many practice tests. They only encourage students to review their mistakes on previous tests and maintain a good mindset. In the past, many students from Suizhong High School have had good grades but fainted or underperformed due to excessive nervousness during the exam.
Zhao Lili had told Chen Mian several times that recently her usually nagging parents had stopped talking loudly in front of her, for fear of affecting her mindset.
Chen Mian was accompanied by Shen Yu. The two senior high school students lived in the same house. There were no parents or adults around. Once the door was closed, it was like a lonely island. They did not offer the care and attention that ordinary students usually showed to each other. They got along the same way as before, with a desk, two chairs, a lamp, and a set of review materials for each of them.
Occasionally, Chen Mian would nod off in her sleep while writing, and Shen Yu would poke her face with his pen. When she opened her eyes, she would see him smiling at her under the light, holding a phone in his other hand, taking pictures of her looking sleepy. He must have countless photos in his album. He was taking pictures of her so blatantly. He jokingly threatened her in front of Chen Mian, saying, "Chen Mian, isn't this your dark history? If we put this at your wedding, won't your image collapse?"
He spoke naturally during the wedding, but Chen Mian immediately became alert; it worked better than coffee.
These memories are interspersed in daily life, like tiny stars scattered throughout the dull and tedious senior year of high school.
The red line on the calendar on my desk is crossed off day by day.
May 31st, seven days until the college entrance examination.
June 1st is a Thursday.
The homeroom teacher made a last-minute decision to change the evening self-study session into a pre-exam pep talk. He showed concern for the students' mental health and said some encouraging words that suggested everyone has a bright future. I thought that would be the end of it, but then a new program came along.
—Let the students come up on stage and share their thoughts.
These words left everyone who was lying on the table speechless. One of the boys even shouted, "Teacher, can we really say what's on our minds?"
The homeroom teacher leaned on the podium, his eyes crinkling with laughter. "You think you can just do whatever you want? Do you really think there's anything a teacher doesn't know? I usually just turn a blind eye, but now that we're graduating, I'm giving you a chance. What's that saying again? Oh, let loose. After all, it'll be hard to get together after the college entrance exam, so just treat it as relaxation."
As soon as these words were spoken, some people below immediately became restless.
Just as everyone was pushing and urging each other to hurry up, the homeroom teacher had already turned on the computer, plugged in a USB drive, and played "Those Years." As soon as the music started, someone immediately exclaimed "Wow!"
A boy was encouraged to go on stage, smiling shyly and looking down, as if he wanted to attend the same university as someone.
The moment the words were spoken, a commotion erupted.
With one person taking the lead, others also stood up and crowded onto the stage.
"Wang Jie, I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. You were still hiding under the covers with a flashlight and studying after the lights were turned off in the dorm. Did you think we didn't know? We just didn't call you out on it. You're such a jerk, you know? Other dorms get up at 7 a.m., but we get up at 6 a.m. all because of you. You're definitely the king of studying. But we also have you to thank for our improved grades. I wish you all the best in getting into your dream school. No matter if the six of us are still in the same school or can't be roommates anymore, I hope we can always be friends."
"I want to speak too!" Zhao Lili, who had been listening quietly, raised her hand. She winked at Chen Mian and whispered to Chen Mian as the teacher raised her hand to her, "Look at me!"
Then she went up to the podium.
Chen Mian straightened up, leaned back in her chair, and looked at Zhao Lili standing on the podium.
Hearing her laugh, I want to tell Chen Mian that the happiest thing in high school was being able to be friends with you. Maybe in other people's eyes you are aloof and unapproachable, but you are really a super awesome girl. We were in the same class in the first year of high school. At that time, we were not familiar with each other and didn't talk much. I just thought you were so pretty. Then we were in the same class again after the class was divided, and we even sat together. That's when we became close.
"Then I realized that you are completely different from what I imagined. You are like a seashell, hard on the outside but pearl on the inside. We spent three years of high school together, through spring, summer, autumn and winter, going to the bathroom together and going to the convenience store together. I want to say, Chen Mian, I am very happy to be your friend. It would be best if we could go to the same university! If not, I hope you will not forget me."
"What's that saying again? Time may pass, but we will never part."
Zhao Lili stepped off the stage, her eyes a little red. She looked at Chen Mian, and the two of them immediately laughed.
Zhao Lili asked softly, "Am I being too cliché? Was my last sentence particularly unconventional?"
Chen Mian nodded with a smile, "Yeah, you're so tacky, Lily."
"There's nothing I can do. I don't want everyone else to have someone confess their feelings to them, and you to be left out."
The music on repeat sang of youth, but Chen Mian wasn't interested in this kind of sentimentality. Even when watching movies with Shen Yu that were supposed to make people cry, she watched the whole thing indifferently, as if her tear ducts had stopped working. Shen Yu once commented that it seemed like even if he lost his memory and came up to her begging for food, she would probably just refuse and say, "Sir, I don't know you."
But even at this moment, she could not escape this deliberately imbued farewell ceremony.
Like everyone else around her, her eyes welled up with tears.
Zhao Lili is Chen Mian's only friend.
Before meeting Zhao Lili, Chen Mian always felt that family, friendship and love had nothing to do with her. Since elementary school, girls would go to the toilet together or to the convenience store together, but Chen Mian was mostly alone. It wasn't that no one had approached her, asked her if she wanted to be friends, or invited her to go to the amusement park together on the weekend.
But Chen Mian refused them all, until Zhao Lili appeared, took her hand, and said to her, "Chen Mian, I really want to be your friend."
The classroom fan was blowing loudly, cicadas were chirping incessantly outside the window, and the curtains were being lifted and then pulled down by the wind.
All I could hear were the unspoken thoughts and feelings of people I wouldn't normally dare to share. Some said there was just too much homework and they wished they wouldn't have to do so many tests in college! Others said the school was so strict that they weren't allowed to bring cell phones, which made them miss out on a lot of news and sports games.
Everyone says that we'll be free from now on.
In the freedom that followed, I missed the restrained high school life and told the people around me that I hoped that distance would not widen our feelings for each other in the future.
The news that the entire Arts Class 3 had been captured reached the Science Class.
The person delivering the message happened to be going to the restroom. As he passed by, he heard music and the sound of sniffling. He peeked inside and it looked like he was witnessing a cult. His friends, who he usually didn't cry when they scraped their knees while playing ball, were wiping away tears inside. He thought it was eerie.
He immediately ran back to his own class and saw a room full of top students still expressionlessly working on their test papers.
Finally, back in his seat, he turned to Shen Yu, who was sitting behind him listening to music and doing practice problems with his headphones on, and said, "Brother Shen, your girlfriend is crying."
Shen Yu took out an earphone, looked up at him, and his eyes seemed to say four words: What nonsense.
The boy immediately became anxious, "It's true, the whole class was crying their eyes out, and their homeroom teacher was even wiping away tears on the podium. It looked pretty scary. You should go see for yourself."
Chen Mian cried? And even broke down in tears?
Shen Yu put away his headphones and walked towards the liberal arts classroom, followed by a few people who had come to join the fun. When he got to the door, he saw a group of people lying inside.
The music continues: "The heavy rain we missed in those years, the love we missed in those years, I long to embrace you, to embrace the courage we missed."
As if echoing the lyrics, a boy sitting by the window sobbed, "It really rains a lot in Suizhong, but I just can't muster the courage to give her an umbrella."
His deskmate was also a boy, and neither of them noticed that people from other classes had come to watch the commotion. He even sniffed and replied, "Who isn't? I still haven't mustered the courage to go to Black Cat's office to get my confiscated comics back. My youth—"
The science students: "..."
Are the students in this liberal arts class really a bit too emotional?
The homeroom teacher of Class 3, who was standing on the podium, noticed students from other classes gathered at the back door and asked, "Why are you here in our class instead of studying?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the group of shrewd students from the science class bent down like they were playing whack-a-mole, leaving only Chen Yu standing at the back door.
Despite being called out by the teacher, Shen Yu remained calm and even had the leisure to look at the faces of the people sitting in the classroom one by one. Finally, his gaze landed on Chen Mian. From a distance, it was impossible to tell whether Chen Mian had been crying or not, but his expression seemed a little dazed, as if he were asking, "Why are you here?"
Everyone in the classroom was waiting for Chen Yu to speak, and after a long while, they heard someone click their tongue in a somewhat ambiguous way.
His gaze swept around the room, finally settling on his homeroom teacher who had been watching him intently from the podium. "Teacher, are students from other classes allowed to speak like this?"
The science students squatting outside were also taken aback by this turn of events. What was going on? They had just finished mocking the humanities students for being sentimental, and now their proud science classmates were talking. What was the difference between this and a boomerang?
They looked inside with worry, their hearts filled with the anxieties of an elderly mother.
"Could it be that Brother Chen has fallen in love and went in to confess his feelings to Chen Mian?"
"No way! You can confess anywhere, but to do it in someone else's classroom with their teacher there... that's just too much—"
"He's fucking handsome!"
That's true.
It sounded like something out of an idol drama, and even Zhao Lili thought that Shen Yu had come in to join in the fun to confess his feelings to Chen Mian.
Her eyes were still red, she clutched a crumpled tissue in her hand, and clung to Chen Mian's arm, even more nervous than the person involved, asking repeatedly, "If he were here and told you that you'd go to the same university after graduation, would you agree? Or would you ask him to be your girlfriend?"
Before Shen Yu could say a word, Zhao Lili was already imagining how sweet it was to death.
But Chen Mian knew he wouldn't do that.
It's not Shen Yu's style to openly share his innermost thoughts with everyone, and exposing his private life is even less so.
The music that had been playing on repeat was paused.
The man from Shenyu stood there, and all eyes were on him.
He once gave a speech under the national flag. Unlike the long speeches of other top students, he always kept it brief. He would start with "Hello, teachers and students," and end with "Thank you everyone." In the middle, he would just say a few short sentences from a template he found online. It was almost always the same.
Everyone thought this time would be different, but all they heard was the boy saying, as usual, "Hello, teachers and classmates."
There was a commotion below.
—Still so serious, Shen Yu.
—Who can go up and turn the music back on? I don't believe Chenyu can turn this place into a flagpole.
"The college entrance examination is in seven days. I wish everyone a successful exam and a bright future."
Seriously, very seriously.
Chen Mian rested her chin on her hand, looking at Chen Yu on the podium.
Zhao Lili, like everyone else, sighed in her ear, saying, "Why is Shen Yu so serious? He's so boring."
But then, a boy's smiling voice came from the podium and landed in the center of the classroom.
"Today happens to be Children's Day, Happy Children's Day everyone."
As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of laughter erupted from below.
They're all too old to still celebrate Children's Day.
Chen Mian seemed to sense something and looked up, her fingers clenching her fists.
Through the crowd, she could see Shen Yu's gaze fixed on her.
The music that had been paused seemed to be playing again in my ears.
The overhead fan slowly stopped spinning, but the wind outside was pattering against the windowsill.
Chen Mian heard, among all the sounds, the sound of Shen Yu falling with a smile.
He bypassed everyone else and spoke only to her.
"And Chen Mian is happy every day."
/
June 1st is Chen Mian's birthday.
To be continued in the next chapter.
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