Chapter 85 Who gave me the scarf?
On the way to the school hospital holding Shao Yanjun, neither of them spoke. Zhu Yingning didn't speak mainly because she was worried that speaking would release her anger and she wouldn't be able to hold her anymore. Shao Yanjun didn't speak because she was extremely shocked.
This was her first time being carried like a princess.
It was actually a girl...
And she was a country girl whom she particularly looked down upon.
Her feelings were indescribable. Besides being touched, she also felt awkward at being helped by someone she looked down upon. She felt as if ants were crawling all over her body. She would rather the useless Dai Yize dragged her to the school hospital like a corpse than have Zhu Yingning lend her a helping hand.
When we arrived at the school hospital, the bleeding had almost stopped thanks to effective measures to stop the bleeding, and the school doctor provided follow-up treatment.
Zheng Zekai caused such a big incident that he naturally could not escape punishment. He made a self-criticism in front of all the teachers and students in the school. His parents personally visited Shao Yanjun's parents with gifts.
At the same time, a photo of Zhu Yingning princess-carrying Shao Yanjun was taken by students with their cell phones and projected onto the Q|Q campus wall, with the caption "Male compatriots, be ashamed~~~ and tremble~~~".
Most of the comments below were filled with "666". A girl joked that "male compatriots said they couldn't afford it", a boy posted a period to express his speechlessness, and another boy tried to save face by saying "That's because I wasn't there. If I were there, I would definitely have one in my left hand, one in my right hand, and even one on my shoulder". The girl replied "Ugh".
Overall, it's peaceful.
However, campus gossip changes with each passing day. The power brought by this picture was soon replaced by other more explosive gossip. Some people made anonymous confessions on the campus walls, some people exchanged insults with each other, and some people spread rumors by cutting out the beginning and the end: "I heard that our school was a mass grave in the late Qing Dynasty... It was too yin, and the school was built on it because the students had too much yang energy." This showed another sense of prosperity.
Zhu Yingning hardly ever goes online, and Xu Sirui hasn't logged into QQ since something happened at home last year, for fear of seeing comments that might affect his mood.
This concern stems from his previous bold attempt to log in. Unfortunately, the latest comment on his QQ space was, "Hilarious! Have you paid your taxes yet? Mom's already in jail, be careful Dad might as well become a deadbeat/吃瓜.jpg." It was from a male elementary school classmate he hadn't spoken to in a while. As for the selfie he posted on his space, before the incident, a girl commented, "Goddess/shy.jpg." After the incident, a boy deliberately provoked a discussion by asking, "Are you still a Goddess now/狗头.jpg?" The girl replied, "Don't mention it, dark history/罩脸.jpg."
As teenagers, they were all promising students from so-called good schools. Few people hated him so much as to insult and criticize him with dirty words. But it was this kind of casual chat from a distance that made him feel the most unbearable.
The two people surfing on 2G are studying hard.
As soon as the monthly exam was over, Zhu Yingning immediately started making a study plan for the final exam. Xu Sirui tried to resist but failed. He had to sit face to face with her on both sides of the coffee table and listen to her talk endlessly about the questions he got wrong on the exam.
He listened in a disjointed manner, and only when she looked at him sternly with eyes wide open would he pick up a red pen and make a couple of scratches on the test paper in an attempt to cover up her mistake.
After she finished explaining all the wrong questions and picked up the cup to drink water, he threw away his pen and stretched: "Aren't you afraid that if you continue teaching, you will teach the apprentice badly and starve the master to death?"
"Hmm?" She still had a mouthful of water in her mouth, her cheeks puffed up. She swallowed the water in small sips and looked at him to ask what he meant.
Xu Sirui held his chin with one hand, resting his elbow on the coffee table. He narrowed his eyes and looked at her with a half-smile, teasing her, "What if I do better than you in the exam? Won't you cry again?"
Zhu Yingning nearly choked on the water in her mouth. She patted her chest, turned away, and swallowed the water before turning back to look at him. Her expression changed from embarrassment to confusion, shock to worry. What amused Xu Sirui the most was the silly look of sudden enlightenment on her face, as if she had never thought about this question before. After a long while, she mumbled, "I think so..."
He didn't expect her to be so honest, so he teased her deliberately: "Then you will teach me?"
And her teaching method is so open and honest. Basically, whatever new difficult or important points the teacher has explained during the day, she will repeat the content to him in detail when she gets home in the evening.
She picked up the pen and poked at the draft paper, making many small black dots. Then she raised her head and looked at him, with a pout on her lips, and said "hmm" in a nasal tone.
"What does 'hmm' mean?"
"It means that even if you do better than me in the exam, I will continue to teach you."
I wish you the best and also want to surpass you.
If you really beat me - although I will still be unwilling to accept it, I will still be happy for you from the bottom of my heart. Although I will still be happy for you from the bottom of my heart, I will still be unwilling to accept it.
Jealousy and concern are never mutually exclusive emotions.
It was already completely dark, and the living room lights hadn't been turned on yet. Only the desk lamp illuminated the small space around the coffee table. Her face was shrouded in the dim light, the hair on her face tinged with the color of a rice paddy. Her pupils were like a golden sea, flowing under the shadow of the light, like the setting sun melting into gold. She looked at him, her eyes calm.
Some people would habitually look away when meeting someone's gaze, perhaps because they were introverted, perhaps out of guilt, or perhaps because they felt shy. But Xu Sirui noticed that Zhu Yingning rarely did this. She seemed unafraid of meeting anyone's gaze. No matter when, or for what reason, when she looked up at him, her eyes were clear.
As if seized by some invisible force, he held his breath, gazing into her eyes. For the first time, he noticed that her eyelashes, though not quite long, were thicker than those of an average person. Like a brush, they traced a dark line across her eyelids. This line, combined with her single eyelids, resembled the simple, clean lines in a comic book, defining the shape of her eyes with unwavering clarity.
Very clean.
He reached out and touched her eyelashes with his fingertips.
It feels prickly.
It was not until she gradually opened her eyes and saw his fingers reflected in her pupils that Xu Sirui suddenly realized what he had done. His hand paused, his head buzzed, and his whole body froze in place.
In the suffocating silence, Xu Sirui calmly withdrew his fingers and lied nonchalantly, "Oh... I see there's some dirt on your eyelashes."
How could such a filthy thing come from such a good house? He couldn't believe what he said, and he wanted to kneel down and beg God to give him another chance to say it. Fortunately, Zhu Yingning didn't seem to think much of it. He also said "Oh", rubbed his eyes, and said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He accepted her thanks shamelessly and forced himself to finish the performance.
By the time Zhu Yingning lowered her head to begin her homework, his slightly accelerated heartbeat had slowly returned to normal. He took a breath, still apprehensive, and let it out slowly. His right thumb still felt the touch of her eyelashes, a tingling, itchy sensation. For a long moment, he didn't touch his pen. He simply rested his right hand on the paper, his gaze vacant, his mind lost in thought.
I could hear the rustling sound of her pen tip scraping against the pages as she wrote, and the ticking of the seconds on the living room clock.
"Xu Sirui?" Zhu Yingning tapped his paper. "What are you daydreaming about?"
He came back to his senses, looked at her, and said in a low voice: "Nothing."
**
A few days later, before morning reading, Zhu Yingning arrived in the classroom and was about to stuff her schoolbag into the desk when she felt a soft resistance. Surprised, she reached in, grabbed, and pulled out a scarf.
It is made of wool and the colors are gray and pink.
She held the towel, completely confused. She wanted to ask Shao Yanjun if she knew who the scarf belonged to, but when she turned around, she met her murderous gaze, the meaning of which was clear: keep it and shut up.
She understood, but she didn't shut up as she was told: "I can't accept it."
"..." Shao Yanjun was furious, "What can't be taken?"
"Because..." She shook the scarf in her hand, "You knitted this yourself, didn't you? It must have taken you a lot of time. I haven't done anything to deserve your gratitude."
"Who thanked you?!" Shao Yanjun became even more angry and embarrassed when the truth was pointed out. Her voice became even louder. "Who would take the time to knit something like this for you? I'm not stupid. This is..." She paused and said, "I knitted it for my ex-boyfriend. He didn't want it anymore, so I gave it to you."
"Really?" Zhu Yingning looked up and down at the scarf with scrutiny.
Thanks to Xu Sirui - most of the colors and styles of his clothes and shoes conform to the world's stereotypes of men, black, white, gray and blue, but because of his cocky personality, he likes to pretend to be cool and likes to play with his personality, so sometimes he will wear colors that deviate from the stereotype, and pink is naturally in this category - she doesn't think there is anything wrong with boys wearing pink.
"My ex-boyfriend and I broke up a long time ago, and I get annoyed by the things I gave him." Shao Yanjun added, trying to cover up the truth, "Just take it away. Don't leave it in my house as an eyesore."
After hearing her explanation, Zhu Yingning felt a lot less stressed. She looked at the scarf and said hesitantly, "So... am I really accepting it?"
"Put it away quickly, don't dilly-dally."
"If you ever figure it out, you can always ask me to take it back."
She tutted her tongue heavily and rolled her eyes fiercely: "Are you annoying?"
"Okay, I won't say anything."
Zhu Yingning then carefully folded the scarf, put it in the drawer, and sat down in her seat. After a few seconds, she said, "Ah," and asked cautiously, "I forgot to say thank you. Can I say thank you?"
“…”
"Thank you." She said seriously.
“…”
Shao Yanjun was speechless when she lowered her voice and said, "However, at our age, we should not fall in love too early... In fact, studying is what we should do at our age—"
Receiving her furious gaze, Zhu Yingning quickly swallowed the rest of his words and waved his hand, saying, "Okay, I really won't say anything more."
**
Afraid that wearing a scarf in front of Shao Yanjun would irritate her and remind her of her so-called ex-boyfriend, Zhu Yingning endured it until school was over, then happily put on the scarf and took the subway home.
Shao Yanjun has good craftsmanship. The scarf has dense stitches and is not as bulky as ordinary hand-knitted scarves. It is warm and delicate to wear.
Xu Sirui stayed home all day, interacting with only Xu Zhengkang and Zhu Yingning. It was hard not to notice the scarf around her neck. Zhu Yingning was a thrifty person, someone who would keep things forever, the kind that would last until they finally died and were honorably retired. He was quite surprised she'd even thought of buying a new scarf today.
"How much?" He asked casually, adjusting the hanging end of her scarf.
The lower half of her face was covered by the scarf, and she answered vaguely: "It's free."
"No money?" He guessed as a matter of course, "Is it a free gift from the supermarket during a promotion?"
"...No." She was a little depressed, "A classmate gave it to me."
He was stunned for a moment, then sneered, "Boring." Then he turned around and went back to his room.
What was so boring about friendly exchange of scarves between classmates? Zhu Yingning was completely baffled, and too lazy to analyze Xu Sirui's logic, so she took off her scarf, carefully put it away, grabbed her pajamas, and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
At eight o'clock in the evening, they sat across from each other at the coffee table as usual, studying. Xu Sirui seemed rather absent-minded, and after she reminded him twice, he gave her a sour look again. Zhu Yingning couldn't figure out what had happened to him. She reviewed everything she had said and done since returning home, and was absolutely certain she hadn't offended him.
Maybe Xu Sirui also has her period. PMS, she thought viciously.
After finishing the unpleasant study session, she packed her schoolbag and prepared to go back to her room to sleep.
She walked into the guest room and was about to turn off the lights when she turned around to see Xu Sirui standing behind her, leaning against the door frame with his arms folded. She almost got her heart jumping out of her throat.
Before she could ask him what he wanted, he spoke first, with a cold face and asked stiffly: "Who sent it?"
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