Chapter 112: Proud White Moonlight 5: A New Hope
Outside the classroom.
Ali was standing outside the door with a schoolbag on his back and a pile of books in his hands, ready to go in and choose a seat.
Jiang Ye looked at her from behind, and the students at the back of the team looked at the two of them and couldn't help whispering to each other.
Jiang Ye shook the schoolbag on his shoulder impatiently.
Seeing Ali walk in, he took a step forward and watched her walk straight to the window and sit in the seat that was originally by the window.
The irritation on Jiang Ye's face disappeared. When the head teacher said he could go in, he strode to the seat next to Ali and threw his schoolbag on the seat as if it was the first day of school.
He was about to sit down when he heard Ali say, "Sorry, this place is taken. Please choose another one."
Jiang Ye was neither sitting nor standing, just standing there in mid-air, staring at A Li.
Ali looked at him apologetically: "Just now, Jian He said she wanted to be my deskmate, and I already agreed."
Jiang Ye couldn't believe it at first, then he stood up expressionlessly, picked up his schoolbag again, and kicked the chair in annoyance, making a loud noise.
Ali, who had not looked at him at first, subconsciously looked at the head teacher at the door. Fortunately, the head teacher was not paying attention to this side.
Looking at Jiang Ye again, he had already walked to the seat farthest from her in the classroom and sat down. There was a huge distance between them.
Ali withdrew her gaze, took out her things and put them in order again. When she was almost done, her new deskmate Jian He also walked in.
Jian He is a short-haired girl wearing glasses. Her grades are very good, but even in the best key class of No. 3 Middle School, her grades are still not good enough. She only ranked 17th in this monthly exam.
After seeing the transcript, Jian He was depressed for a long time and made up her mind to get into the top ten in the next exam.
So when she saw Ali standing outside the classroom, she mustered up the courage to approach this seemingly difficult-to-talk-to academic genius.
When the girls were discussing Ali in private, Jian He occasionally heard a sentence or two saying that she didn't seem to have anyone she was good friends with in the class. She was the same to everyone and not particularly warm to anyone. There was also a subtle hint of arrogance in her eyes when she spoke.
She's not annoying, but it's hard to really make friends with her.
Jian He recalled the first day of school. Before she had the chance to say a few words to Ali, Jiang Ye interrupted her. She could almost say that she knew nothing about Ali.
Before talking to her today, Jian He thought about giving up several times, wondering what would happen if Ali rejected her or laughed at her. Unexpectedly, as soon as she opened her mouth, Ali agreed to her.
Jian He sat down and greeted Ali a little stiffly. Ali smiled at her, and Jian He's slightly nervous expression relaxed a little.
This bright smile was particularly dazzling in Jiang Ye's eyes.
Jiang Ye felt that his relationship with Ali had improved for a long time after the military training, but he didn't expect that she still disliked him from the bottom of her heart. She even selfishly replaced him as her deskmate without telling him in advance.
He pursed his lips. The seat next to him remained empty and no one dared to approach him because he was feeling depressed.
Fang Yuan, who ranked last in the exam this time, looked around and found that the only empty seat was next to Jiang Ye. No matter how reluctant he was, he had to walk over reluctantly.
He sat down nervously, wanting to say a few words to Jiang Ye to ease the atmosphere, but he didn't expect Jiang Ye to not even look at him from beginning to end.
Fang Yuan tactfully stopped talking and packed his things as carefully as possible, fearing that he would offend this plague god.
After evening self-study, Ali and Sun Huiyue went home together and then separated at the old place.
She walked into an old residential area alone, turned a few corners, and her figure was stretched out under the dim street lights.
Ali went up to the fourth floor. The sensor lights in the corridor gradually lit up with the sound of her footsteps. She took out her key and opened the door. She saw that the light in the living room was off and the sound of the TV could be heard faintly.
She changed her shoes, walked over quietly, squatted in front of the sofa and shook the old woman's arm: "Grandma? Grandma? Get up and go back to your room to sleep."
Wang Suqin opened her eyes and saw that it was her granddaughter. She stood up with the help of her granddaughter: "Qiuqiu is back? Oh, I fell asleep again..."
Ali sat on the sofa, took a few pillows and cushioned them behind her, and said distressedly: "I told you that high school has evening self-study until ten o'clock, and I will be home at almost eleven o'clock. You don't have to wait for me like before."
Wang Suqin rubbed her brows and said, "Grandma has brought you up since you were little. During the day, I watched you go to school, and at night, I couldn't sleep until you came back."
Ali poured her a glass of water and watched her drink it slowly: "I'm almost an adult. Besides, there are street lights along the way from school to home, so I'm not afraid."
"By the way, grandma is warming up some midnight snack for you. Are you hungry? I'll make it for you now." Wang Suqin put on her shoes, stood up, and walked towards the kitchen.
Ali put his schoolbag back in the room, changed his clothes and came out. His grandmother had already brought the hot meat wontons to the table.
She sat down and ate quietly, taking small bites.
Wang Suqin sat across from her, looking at her lovingly. "High school studies are much more tiring than junior high. Can you still keep up?"
Ali nodded: "It's okay, I've already studied all the courses that the teacher is teaching during the summer vacation, so I'll just review them now."
Wang Suqin's eyes were filled with pride when she heard this. She had been taking care of her granddaughter since she retired from university. Seeing her granddaughter growing up day by day and getting better and better, she felt indescribably gratified.
Ah Li ate obediently, her wontons bobbing in the broth. Suddenly, she asked, "Grandma, is there any news from Mom and Dad?"
Wang Suqin paused while wiping the table, her eyes flashing with guilt and helplessness: "Qiuqiu, your parents..."
"Hiss..." Ali seemed to be scalded. He blew on the wonton he scooped up, and waited until it was no longer hot before slowly taking a bite.
She chewed carefully and took another sip of the soup. The warmth of the soup flowed into her stomach, but she still felt a little cold. "I know, Grandma."
As he spoke, Ali smiled reassuringly at Wang Suqin, seemingly not caring about the answer to this question.
Neither of them spoke after that. Ali finished eating quickly and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
Wang Suqin looked at her lonely back and sighed softly.
When Ali came out of the shower, her grandmother had already gone to bed. She went to say good night to her grandmother before returning to her room.
The room is not big, but it is extremely tidy. The books on the bookshelf are arranged neatly according to subject and height. The desk is neatly arranged with stationery, and there is also an eye-protection desk lamp and an alarm clock.
She dried her hair and sat down at the table, turning on the desk lamp, and a warm yellow light slanted down.
Ali took out the exercise book and notebook from his schoolbag, glanced at the study schedule on the wall, and started to do the exercises.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the rustling of the pen tip hitting the draft paper. Occasionally, her brows furrowed, but more often, she wrote smoothly.
In a blink of an eye, the alarm clock pointed to twelve o'clock. Ali put down his pen on time, put the things on the table back into his schoolbag, and went to bed to rest.
She leaned against the head of the bed, was stunned for a while, then took out a photo frame from the bottom cabinet of the bed, held it in her hand and looked at it quietly.
The photo frame contained a family photo of three. Judging from their clothes and background, it was taken a long time ago. The little girl held in the middle by the man and woman was less than seven years old, but one could vaguely make out Ali's appearance.
At that time, her parents were still very young, full of energy and bright smiles. She had two small braids, a round face, and smiled with her mouth wide open in a very un-image-defying way.
It was a kind of noisy happiness and perfection that almost overflowed from the old photos, making her and her current home seem even more deserted.
Her fingertips lightly brushed across the young faces of her parents in the photo, and her lips moved slightly, as if she shouted something, but no sound came out.
Ali looked at it quietly for a long time, until his eyes became sore. Then he put the photo frame back to its place, buried his face in the quilt and fell asleep.
*
After the two classes in the morning, it was the 30-minute break time, and the first-year high school students were free to move around. The students walked out of the classroom one after another to get some fresh air or go to the bathroom.
Jian He and Ali stayed in their seats, looking at the notebook on the table and talking about something.
Jian He looked serious and listened carefully to what Ali said.
They had been desk mates for a week and had become much more familiar with each other. Jian He finally dared to ask Ali for help with a difficult problem that she had been accumulating for a long time.
Ali finished reading the exercises in the notebook and agreed without hesitation: "Okay, I'll explain them to you one by one. These questions are very simple."
After two minutes, Ali stopped and looked at Jian He: "Do you understand?"
Jian He was confused and shook her head: "I don't understand..."
Ali paused, took a pen, and quickly wrote a few lines of formulas on the draft paper: "Look, this is the solution."
Jian He stared at the small, neatly arranged pattern of numbers, feeling it resembled a divine book. "...Uh, why is it being demolished like this? How did you come up with the idea?"
Ali blinked, seemingly confused as to why she asked this question: "If you do this type of question many times, you'll be able to develop experience with it. If you encounter it again, you can just apply the formula based on the type."
As she spoke, she began to write something on the paper again.
Jian He tried hard to follow her steps and thoughts, but the more she looked, the more confused she became.
After Ali finished writing, she asked softly, "What is this?"
"There is another way to solve this problem, but this one has one more step. If you are short on time during the exam, it's best not to use this method," Ali said.
Then, she explained the second solution to Jian He in detail and asked, "Do you understand?"
Her tone was as gentle as always, but in this context, her words sounded like sarcasm.
Jian He was even more confused, her mind was no longer working, and she just nodded subconsciously: "I understand."
Ali was slightly puzzled. She felt that Jian He didn't seem to understand. She took a deep breath and turned to a new page of the draft. "You can't just muddle through learning, nor can you pretend to know when you don't. Let me explain it to you again in detail."
"Look, for this type of question, you need to first look for the information in the question stem..."
Jian He, who always loved studying, looked embarrassed at this moment. Seeing Ali's insistence, she could only bite the bullet and continue listening.
The two were immersed in thinking about solving the problem when their desks were suddenly knocked without any regard.
Jian He looked up and saw Jiang Ye standing in front of their table, his face expressionless: "I have something to ask you."
Jian He was surprised: "Looking for me?"
Jiang Ye shook his head and raised his chin slightly: "Find her."
Only then did Ali pause, glance at the question he was halfway through, and said to him, "Can you wait a moment? I'll finish explaining this question to Jian He."
"Come, look here."
Jian He looked over when she heard this. One of them was talking seriously, while the other was listening seriously, treating Jiang Ye as a transparent person.
Ever since he chose a new seat, every time Jiang Ye saw Ali, his eyes were not eyes and his nose was not a nose.
Ali found out and felt confused. He thought, if you ignore me, why should I care about you? So he was too lazy to talk to him.
Jiang Ye, who had been "ignored" for a long time, narrowed his eyes. He was particularly annoyed that Ali's eyes were not on him, so he deliberately messed up her neatly arranged desk.
The table was in a mess in an instant. Ali looked up in surprise. Jiang Ye took away another book in front of her and tore it up casually in his hands.
As he wished, Ali looked over, but his eyes fell on the book he was holding. Under Jiang Ye's provocative gaze, he nodded calmly.
"If you like this book, go ahead and read it. Your Chinese is so poor, you should work harder to improve it and not be so weak in one subject."
Her tone was light and gentle, but it instantly ignited the anger in Jiang Ye's heart.
He was so angry that he threw the book back: "Who wants to read it?!"
Ah Li was frightened by the noise and shrank his shoulders. Seeing that his book was already wrinkled beyond recognition, he pursed his lips unhappily and asked, "Then what are you doing here?"
Jiang Ye then remembered his purpose. He crossed his arms and said coldly, "The homeroom teacher asked me to ask you if you have collected all the ballots for yesterday's class committee election. If you have, please bring them to him in the office."
Ali exclaimed "Ah", regretting that he had forgotten about this.
She took out a small box from the hole in the table and said to Jian He, "I'll take the ballot to the office first and come back to continue explaining the problem to you."
Jiang Ye stared at Ali's every move and gritted his teeth.
How could he not know that she cared so much about and loved her deskmate?
Before, he was just cold and polite.
Seeing Ali stand up and want to go out, Jiang Ye snatched the small box from her hand and smiled sinisterly: "Squad Leader, I'll help you deliver it, so as not to disturb you two."
Ali was stunned for a moment, and seemed to think what he said was right, and actually sat down directly: "Okay, thank you."
Jiang Ye almost spit out a mouthful of blood, which got stuck in his chest.
He hit himself hard several times, leaving Ali and Jian He stunned.
"Are you... okay?" Ali seemed to be hesitant to speak, and watched his movements worriedly.
"Good, it couldn't be better." He continued to talk nonsense.
Finally, before Jiang Ye left, he took away the book that he had wrinkled.
In the afternoon, the voting results for the class committee election came out, and Zhang Chunping asked the new class committee members to go to the office for a short meeting.
When Ali came to call Jiang Ye, he was sleeping on the table. He poked him several times with a pen but he didn't respond.
She could only raise her voice: "Jiang Ye? Jiang Ye?"
The person at the table seemed to stir, and suddenly stood up and was about to get angry when he saw Ali standing in front of him: "The head teacher asked us new class committee members to go to a meeting, and you are the only one missing."
Jiang Ye's arrogance subsided, and he was completely confused: "What do you want me to do in the class committee meeting?"
"You are the physics class representative, so of course you have to go with us." Ali explained.
In Zhang Chunping's office, Ali and Jiang Ye received a notice to jointly prepare for the October Physics Knowledge Competition. This matter was fully organized and planned by the class monitor, assisted by the physics class representative.
After hearing this, Jiang Ye immediately looked at Ali beside him.
He thought that if they were no longer desk mates, he would not be able to offend her, but unexpectedly, now there is a ray of hope and he has another great opportunity.
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