Chapter 4 The person in your dreams isn't just an old flame; an honest man goes to the city...
The dormitory was originally a four-person room with bunk beds, but only Xia Zhu lived there.
She slept in the lower bunk by the window.
Xia Zhu turned on the dormitory lights and examined the leaf from every angle.
She pierced the middle of the leaf with a knife, and the golden veins woven into an eye pattern were so realistic that they looked more like a work of art, but one cannot help but be in awe of the wonders of nature.
She turned the leaf over and rubbed it with her fingertips. There was no sticky residue, yet it stuck firmly to the underside of the bed.
Then she thought for a moment, tore the leaf into pieces, and threw it out the window.
Xia Zhu's heart was pounding, but on the surface, she maintained her usual wooden and expressionless demeanor. No one knew how excited she was at that moment.
The excitement was indescribable, hidden deep within her surging blood, surprising even herself.
Two people were standing on the podium. The homeroom teacher said they were new students and was asking them to introduce themselves.
The new classmates were of different heights. The shorter one was a girl with long hair braided into two plaits. She had beautiful warm brown skin, and the sunlight made her hair appear slightly reddish. Her eyes were big and round, and her mouth was also round and cute. She was like a fragrant piece of chocolate—a beautiful girl.
Chocolate gave everyone in the audience a sweet smile and then opened her mouth to speak.
"Hello everyone, my name is Feng Feng, and this is my brother Feng Mian. I hope we can get along well and make progress together!"
A murmur arose from below the podium, along with barely suppressed laughter.
Ye Li leaned back, letting out a cold snort, and glanced sideways at Xia Zhu, who was sitting upright by the window three or four rows away.
"Another country bumpkin."
Feng Feng's older brother, Feng Mian, doesn't seem to look much like his sister. He is tall and thin with fair skin and handsome features, but he appears somewhat frail compared to his sister.
Feng Mian stood next to Feng Feng and shook his head helplessly. His self-introduction was very formal and his voice was soft.
"Alright, alright," the homeroom teacher interrupted the lively discussion. "You two can find an empty seat."
Xia Zhu sat in the back row by the window, and there was always an empty seat next to her, whether in the past or after she repeated a year of high school.
Hearing the teacher say that, Feng Feng and Feng Mian walked down from the podium. Xia Zhu sat up straight in her seat like a good student, looked up and met Feng Feng's gaze, watching her walk step by step to sit down next to her.
"Excuse me, may I sit here?" Feng Feng's voice was as sweet as she was.
Could Xia Zhu possibly say no?
She nodded, her manner friendly and polite, yet not overly enthusiastic.
Feng Mian sat behind them; there was a single seat in the last row.
This creates the main character lineup found in novels and anime.
The homeroom teacher began the lesson, and Xia Zhu lowered her head and took notes diligently. She had done these problems again and again, and had thoroughly understood them. She was never impeccable in her studies.
Of course, this excludes exams.
"Hello classmate, my name is Feng Feng, what's your name?"
A fluffy head popped out onto the table. Feng Feng blinked her big eyes, her pupils a melting toffee color in the sunlight. Her face was magnified and clear in front of him, with small freckles scattered on both sides of her nose, making her especially cute.
"My name is Xia Zhu."
"Oh, Xia Zhu." Feng Feng turned his head back.
Two minutes later.
"Xia Zhu, how old are you this year? Where do you live? How many people are in your family?" Feng Feng crossed the desk line again, her face almost touching Xia Zhu's arm.
"Ahem." Feng Mian coughed twice behind them, and Feng Feng reluctantly straightened up and sat down.
After ten minutes of silence, something seemed to be prickly on Feng Feng's chair, making her restless. She tossed and turned, finally tearing a corner from her notebook and slumping her upper body onto the table to write something.
After a while, Feng Feng took advantage of the moment when the homeroom teacher turned around, crumpled the note into a ball, threw it over his shoulder and behind him, and it landed accurately on his brother Feng Mian's desk.
"Now that's more like going to school," Xia Zhu heard her mutter to herself.
As soon as the bell rang, Feng Feng immediately went to the back of his seat and whispered to Feng Mian.
Xia Zhu walked past Feng Feng's seat, intending to leave.
"Xia Zhu, where are you going?" Feng Feng caught up with him.
"I'm going to the restroom."
"I'll go with you!" Feng Feng affectionately took Xia Zhu's hand. This feeling was quite unfamiliar, and Xia Zhu felt a little uncomfortable, but not disgusted.
She loved running wild under the sun since she was a child, with no shade in the sweltering heat of the fields, so she was actually very similar to Feng Feng. Her skin wasn't fair, but rather smooth, delicate, and naturally colored.
Perhaps she's more like chocolate than Feng Feng, the kind that's slightly bitter.
Dark skin is a good disguise for facial expressions, just like how no one could tell that her cheeks were red at this moment.
"Xia Zhu, you still haven't told me where you live?"
Is it really that important where you live? Is it necessary to give your home address at the beginning of any relationship or social interaction? She had no experience in this regard, and although she found it strange, she still answered Feng Feng truthfully.
"I'm from Dongshan."
"Oh? You've lived in Dongshan since you were little? What about Xia Zhu's family? Have they also lived here for generations?"
Xia Zhu stopped in her tracks, looked at Feng Feng who was full of curiosity, and carefully examined her.
I feel like something's missing.
Feng Feng felt a little embarrassed by Xia Zhu's gaze and secretly wondered if he had been too hasty.
"It should be, because Grandpa said our family has lived here for generations."
Then they continued walking forward.
Feng Feng nodded blankly and said, "Oh, is that so?" Then he didn't say anything more for the rest of the way, tilting his head as if deep in thought.
After they returned to the classroom from the girls' restroom, Feng Feng and Feng Mian huddled together again, their faces beaming as they gestured with their hands.
"How could the surname be Xia?"
Feng Feng raised her voice by one notch, and Xia Zhu heard her say this to Feng Mian.
Was having the surname Xia a mistake for them, or for Xia Zhu? She lowered her head, her pen drawing chaotic circles on the paper. She looked serious, as if she were solving a difficult bonus question.
All morning, Feng Feng didn't move around or come over to talk. He just lay on his desk and scribbled for a whole class period, then slept for two more classes until Feng Mian woke him up after school.
According to the plan, Xia Zhu didn't want to compete with the main group for the cafeteria, so she planned to stay in the classroom a little longer before going.
"Xia Zhu! Try the cupcakes my brother made!" Feng Feng pushed a box of pretty cupcakes onto her desk.
Delicate white cream was piped out onto the fluffy cake, layered with some purple cream, and sprinkled with a few berries, with jam meandering beneath the berries.
"Feng Mian's cake is the best in the entire universe!" Feng Feng took one from the box.
"It's not that exaggerated." Feng Mian peeked out from behind and turned to Xia Zhu. "But the taste is indeed acceptable. Xia Zhu, why don't you try it? Let's eat the cake before we go to the cafeteria."
"Us?" Xia Zhu's eyes widened slightly.
"Let's go eat together, Xia Zhu! Don't always be alone."
Xia Zhu also took out a cake. On the cake paper, there was a drawing of two little people holding hands and dancing. One was shorter and had two braids, while the other was taller and had fair skin.
"Delicious." The creamy texture melted in her mouth. It wasn't too sweet and had a hint of berry tartness, reminding her of her childhood when her grandfather would always buy her a cream cake in a pink basket every time he came back from the market.
She couldn't remember what that cake tasted like, but she figured it must be just as delicious as this one.
She had never walked side by side with anyone else before, even though she had only known this person for a morning, and this person was still chirping in her ear like a little bird, praising how amazing her brother's cooking skills were.
But Xia Zhu didn't find it annoying. She didn't speak, but just felt it carefully. The three of them walked together, and Feng Feng's warmth spread to her. The crowd was no longer just pushing and shoving her. She thought that the weight of the three people was indeed not so easy to shake.
Xia Zhu longs to have one or two friends, not too many, just someone suitable.
Whether it was due to her personality or her obvious poverty, Xia Zhu didn't want to speculate about others, but no one seemed to accept the olive branch she extended.
Indeed, she had taken the initiative before.
Ye Li and she were not only classmates in the tutoring class, but they had been classmates for almost four years in total.
She had observed that her classmates could always quickly find partners to put their arms around each other or go to the bathroom together. She seemed slow to act, and by the time she started to make friends, others were already in pairs. A certain fear made Xia Zhu unwilling to break up or join a small group.
But Ye Li was different; Xia Zhu had noticed him long ago.
Although she was academically excellent, beautiful, and had even studied violin since childhood, shining brightly in the school's New Year's Day performance, and others talked about how well-off her family was and how they would send her to horseback riding lessons, in short, she was the opposite of Xia Zhu, a favored daughter of heaven, and logically she should not lack friends.
Or, following the usual pattern, Ye Li might have a few followers who echo her golden words.
But in reality, she, like Xia Zhu, had been living alone for four years.
So Xia Zhu found her and mustered up the courage to ask Ye Li if she wanted to have dinner together.
As a result, Ye Li wrinkled her nose and said the sentence that she would always say to Xia Zhu for the next four years.
She said the smell was awful, and she also said she wouldn't eat poor people's food.
Xia Zhu, the poor girl, sighed, regretting the courage she had finally mustered. She wasn't angry at Ye Li's aggressive manner, because for her, mugwort meant a warm home and her grandfather's love.
Poverty is an objective fact; she was poor for over a decade, so there's nothing to be angry about.
She was just poor and had a particular fondness for sparkly things, so even though Ye Li ignored her friend request, she didn't blame her, perhaps because Ye Li had a glittering face.
Ye Li, as beautiful as a proud little peacock, always sat in a corner, her radiant face held high. Not far away, in another corner, sat Xia Zhu, her body marinated in mugwort. Also sitting in a corner, Xia Zhu would occasionally see Ye Li hide her beautiful face, her eyes lowered and dim. Author's Note:
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