Chapter 132 White latex glued together
After school, Xu Sirui went to Zhu Yingning's class to look for her. He looked around but found she wasn't there. He asked Wu Bo, who said, "She's in the teacher's office. The class monitor was just elected today. I guess our head teacher has something to tell her."
The word "class monitor" made Xu Sirui raise his eyebrows and subconsciously look towards Zou Hao. He was packing his things to go home with a gloomy face. He left without saying goodbye to anyone.
Wu Bo shrugged. "No one dares to mess with him now."
Xu Sirui snorted, "That's all you can do."
After sneering, he walked to Zhu Yingning's desk, helped her pack her things, then slung her schoolbag over one shoulder and walked to the corridor outside the classroom to wait for her.
This was the scene Zhu Yingning saw when she came out of Hong Qingyang’s office.
The corridor, the breeze, and the tall young man.
Well, it's quite pleasing to the eyes.
She walked quickly to his side and took her schoolbag from his shoulder: "Have you been waiting long?"
"Just arrived." Xu Sirui took the lead and walked downstairs.
As they walked to the school gate, one after the other, they happened to run into Zou Hao waiting for a car. He was the only child in his family, and his parents placed great emphasis on his education. They personally drove him to and from school, but as office workers, they sometimes had to work overtime and were late.
When passing by him, Zhu Yingning looked at him and wanted to say hello, but he avoided her gaze.
"Don't worry about him." Seeing that she seemed a little injured, Xu Sirui turned her in another direction with one hand and carried her forward.
Zhu Yingning sighed quietly, "I really did make things difficult for him."
Xu Sirui glanced at her and snorted coldly, "There's no need to reflect on yourself."
"Is there anyone in your class with the same situation as me?" She asked humbly, intending to learn from others.
Xu Sirui shook his head and said, "No."
“…”
"We are all the same team." He continued to add insult to injury.
Zhu Yingning couldn't help but want to sigh again, but before she could even breathe out, she heard his next words: "Having ambition isn't a bad thing. You've already endured the embarrassment of quitting your career, so he should handle his own embarrassment. It's only fair. Just focus on what you should do."
What he said was inhumane if you looked closely, but sometimes it provided her with an unexpected opening.
Zhu Yingning always felt lucky that they could meet each other. They were so different - they grew up in different environments, had different perspectives on things, and had different ways of dealing with things, but they could understand each other, give each other advice, and support each other.
He never said anything to her like "You shouldn't go for it."
What he said was that being ambitious is not a bad thing.
**
The transfer student Hong Qingyang mentioned arrived as scheduled the next morning.
When he announced during morning reading, "We have a transfer student," the class erupted in excitement. In the tedious world of school, any bit of excitement could briefly pull everyone out of the repetitive routine. The news of a transfer student's arrival was like a torpedo disturbing the waters.
The voices of boys and girls mixed together, and they said in unison: "Boy or girl?"
"A man."
As soon as the answer came out, the boys immediately erupted in thunderous boos.
"cut!"
"boring."
"A man, forget it."
A few outgoing and bold girls took the opportunity to ask, "Brother Yang, is the transfer student handsome?"
This caused the other girls to giggle, and a boy to protest loudly: "How can you be so superficial?"
Hong Qingyang glared at the people below: "You are so unruly every day. No matter if you are a man or a woman, you are here to study, not to participate in a beauty pageant. Seriously! When the new students come in later, remember to give them the warmest applause."
"I know, I know—"
Although they said this, not many people took it seriously. Those who sat close to the corridor were even leaning against the windows to look out.
Hong Qingyang walked to the front door and said to the new transfer student, "Come in and introduce yourself to everyone on the podium."
The transfer student walked in upon hearing the sound. Since his school uniform was newly bought a few days ago, it looked newer than any other student's uniform in the class. The highly saturated blue and white color was as bright as the blue sky and white clouds. However, his temperament was not as eye-catching as his clothes. He had black hair and black eyes. His hair and pupil colors were very dark, but his lips were light. His eyes were double-eyed, almost like a phoenix's, with the tails of his eyes slightly upturned. He looked a little cold, like an ink painting with ink that was sometimes thick and sometimes thin.
It's an attractive look rather than a stunning one.
He spoke in a low, cold voice, introducing himself as Zhang Jiacheng and writing his name stroke by stroke on the blackboard.
There is no trace of trained calligraphy in the characters, but they are written neatly, with straight horizontal and vertical lines.
The classmates gave the warmest applause as promised. Amid the applause, Zhu Yingning heard people around her whispering:
"You look good."
"Really? This look isn't my cup of tea."
After the applause ended, Hong Qingyang pointed to the seat next to Dai Yize and said, "You can sit there."
Dai Yize's deskmate unfortunately had a car accident before school started. He is still in the hospital and has taken a full month off.
Zhang Jiacheng walked over with his schoolbag on his back.
Dai Yize never had a good face towards newcomers. When he saw him coming over, he lay on the table motionless until Zhang Jiacheng said "Excuse me". Then he moved his chair forward so that Zhang Jiacheng could pass through the gap between his chair and the table behind him and come to his seat.
"Okay, everyone's back to their senses." Hong Qingyang clapped his hands, motioning for everyone to look over. "Who's leading the morning reading today? You can go up to the podium now. The rest of you, take out your Chinese textbooks and turn to…" He asked the student leading the morning reading before continuing, "Turn to page 12 and read some ancient poetry."
**
The transfer student's arrival filled the class with excitement for the entire day, with students from other classes even stopping by during breaks to observe the new student. However, teenagers are fickle, and by the second and third day, the excitement quickly wore off, and everyone returned to their half-hearted study routine.
Zhu Yingning followed Hong Qingyang's instructions and took good care of the transfer student. On the first day, she told him to come to her if he had any questions or needed help.
But three days passed without Zhang Jiacheng asking for her help. He was shy, or perhaps simply didn't like to talk. Aside from his self-introduction on the second day of school, none of his classmates heard his voice for the next three days. He simply sat in his seat, studying diligently, and kept to himself during breaks and lunch breaks.
Dai Yize soon couldn't stand the boredom of his new deskmate, so he summoned the spirit of his old deskmate who was lying in a plaster cast in the hospital every day, trying to use his mind power to make him recover and return.
If he said something too extreme, Zhu Yingning would step in to stop him. Of course, he would usually be very dissatisfied at such times.
"An old scholar, a dull guy, what did I do wrong?! Why is my life so miserable——"
It took Zhu Yingning a long time to realize that the old scholar was referring to her.
After his wailing, Dai Yize would go and harass Shao Yanjun, who sat in front of him. Shao Yanjun's attitude towards him depended entirely on her mood that day. If she was in a good mood, she would paint Dai Yize's nails, draw in his sketchbook, and chat with him about gossip. If she was in a bad mood, Dai Yize would be her punching bag, earning her a glare at best and a chokehold at worst.
At first, Zhang Jiacheng was a little frightened by their way of getting along, but later he got used to it and was able to remain calm when Dai Yize said, "Pink leopard print suits you very well" and "You are more suitable for more aggressive patterns than white lace."
As one week ended and the second week began, Zhu Yingning noticed a detail.
The seats in their class are changed once a week, not only between groups but also between rows. Theoretically, all students have the opportunity to sit in the front and back rows.
At the beginning of the semester, her group happened to be in Group 4, the group farthest from the corridor. Sitting in this position not only required squinting, but also often made it difficult to see the white chalk writing due to the glare from the blackboard. Therefore, after each class, students from Group 4 would go to the sides of the podium to copy down notes from the blackboard. Zhang Jiacheng was one of them.
After a week, they rotated to the middle group. The vision was much better and the blackboard was no longer reflective. Naturally, the people who took notes on both sides of the podium were replaced by a new group.
But she found that Zhang Jiacheng still went on stage to take notes.
Occasionally, when the class required four-person group discussions, she would turn around and discuss the issues with the students sitting behind her, and she would notice that he often squinted his eyes.
She guessed that he was nearsighted, but for some reason he didn't wear glasses.
When she saw him about to go to the podium to make up his notes again, Zhu Yingning handed him her notebook and said, "You can copy mine."
Zhang Jiacheng paused on his way to the podium and looked back at her with a look of surprise. After a few seconds, he reached out and took her notebook, nodding, "Thank you."
"Oh my god, this is rare." Dai Yize clapped lazily in the back seat. "This is the first time I've heard your voice since you introduced yourself. I thought you had a communication barrier. This is rare."
No one paid any attention to him. Zhang Jiacheng returned to his seat with Zhu Yingning's notebook and began copying the notes.
This act of kindness had limited effect and did not help him integrate into his new class. Except for talking to her when copying notes, he was a lone ranger the rest of the time. The conversations between Zhu Yingning and him were also very monotonous. It was either "Can you lend me your notes, thank you?" "Yes," or "Do you need notes? I can lend them to you?" "Thank you." It was so templated that she could even memorize his next response in advance.
He didn't go to physical education class today. When the physical education teacher passed by his desk, he said he wanted to ask for leave.
"I feel a little dizzy."
"To take sick leave, you need a diagnosis from the school hospital," the sports committee member said in a businesslike manner. "Before classes start, go to the school hospital and give me the note from the school doctor."
Zhang Jiacheng's usually cold face showed a look of embarrassment for the first time. He was silent for a long time, then changed the subject and said, "Then can I take a personal leave?"
"Then you have to go to Brother Yang to get a leave note." The Sports Committee said it could do nothing to help.
Hong Qingyang's office was just a few steps away from the classroom, not far away, but Zhang Jiacheng didn't know whether he hadn't thought of a reason to take a leave or what, and he just sat in his seat without moving.
The physical education teacher waited for a while, but he didn't say anything or move, so he left after saying "You can handle it yourself".
Most of the classroom was empty, and many students went downstairs for physical education class. A few who were dragging their feet also went downstairs in groups of two or three at the urging of their classmates.
Wu Bo came over to her and said, "Yingning, let's go too. We don't want to be late and be punished by the powerful King Kong to do push-ups again."
"Mighty King Kong" is the nickname of their physical education teacher because he has a strong physique and his muscles are pieced together like mosaics.
Zhu Yingning squatted down to tie her shoelaces. Just as she was about to stand up and leave with Wu Bo, she noticed something. She was slightly startled and said to Wu Bo, "You go first. I remembered that Brother Yang asked me to go to his office. I'll catch up with you later."
"Okay, then hurry up. I will try my best to cover you when the Mighty King Kong comes." Wu Bo said and left.
After she left, Zhu Yingning followed her out and went to Hong Qingyang's office as she had instructed.
But he didn't go to Hong Qingyang to discuss something, but to borrow something from him.
Not long after, she walked out of Hong Qingyang's office, holding a bottle of white latex in her hand. She gently placed it on Zhang Jiacheng's desk, and without saying anything, she trotted off to chase Wu Bo.
Zhang Jiacheng was the only one left in the classroom, staring at the white latex in front of him. He stared at it for a long, long time, so long that he felt time had stopped. The ticking sound of the wall clock gradually faded away, interweaving with the chirping of cicadas to form the background sound of midsummer. Then he slowly reached out his hand and held the white latex in his palm.
Under the desk were some unglued canvas shoes.
The canvas shoes that have been washed white not only pilling and fading, but even the soles are in danger of being damaged.
The white glue not only bonds the soles of the shoes, but also the sensitive and fragile dignity of the boy.
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