The weight of a name
In Tuesday's Chinese class, the teacher was explaining the appreciation of ancient poetry. Lin Weixi's attention was slightly distracted, the tip of her pen unconsciously drawing circles on the edge of her notebook. The leaves of the sycamore trees outside the window had begun to turn yellow, and occasionally one or two would swirl and fall.
"Now I would like to ask a student to appreciate the artistic conception of this poem." The Chinese teacher pushed his glasses and looked around the classroom.
Lin Weixi subconsciously lowered her head, pretending to take notes seriously. This was her habitual action, trying to avoid eye contact with the teacher in class.
"Chen Wang."
Her pen paused at the mention of the name. She looked up to see Chen Wang calmly standing up. He was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, which made him look particularly fresh.
"This poem, through its depiction of autumn scenery, expresses the poet's melancholy as a traveler," Chen Wang said in a clear and steady voice. "Especially the line 'The moon sets, the crows cry, and the sky is filled with frost.' It's very graphic and makes one feel the loneliness of late autumn."
Lin Weixi stared at his profile as he spoke, noticing that he would unconsciously raise his eyebrows slightly when analyzing. She had seen this subtle expression in many classes before.
"Very good, please take a seat." The Chinese teacher nodded with satisfaction and turned his gaze to the roster. "Then, please ask Lin Weixi to talk about your understanding of the last two sentences."
Lin Weixi suddenly came to her senses when her name was called, and stood up in a panic. Her knee accidentally hit the table leg, making a loud noise. Several classmates turned to look at her, including Chen Wang who had just sat down.
Her cheeks instantly burned.
"I...I think the last two lines, 'Outside the city of Gusu, the bell of Hanshan Temple reaches the passenger ship at midnight,' further highlight the poet's loneliness through the image of the bell." She tried her best to make her voice sound steady, but her fingertips were trembling slightly.
"Good, please sit down." The Chinese teacher nodded and turned to the blackboard to continue explaining.
When Lin Weixi sat down, she secretly glanced at Chen Wang next to her. He was concentrating on looking at the blackboard and didn't seem to care about her embarrassment. She breathed a sigh of relief, but there was also a trace of unspeakable loss.
The bell rang and the students began to pack up their books. Before leaving, the Chinese teacher said, "Chen Wang, Lin Weixi, you two did a great job on your homework. You can discuss it after class."
These words made Lin Weixi pause in packing her schoolbag. She saw Chen Wang turned his head to look at her, the sunlight falling on him through the window.
"What's your homework?" he asked in a natural tone.
"The third question is appreciation of ancient poetry." She answered, her voice a little softer than usual.
"What a coincidence, me too." Chen Wang took out his homework book from his schoolbag, "Let me see how you write."
They exchanged their exercise books. Lin Weixi carefully took his notebook, and when her fingertips touched the paper, she felt a subtle nervousness. His handwriting was free and powerful, in stark contrast to her elegant and neat handwriting.
"Your perspective is very interesting." Chen Wang pointed to a part of her homework and said, "I didn't expect it to be possible to analyze it from this angle."
"Just writing it casually." She said softly, but her heart felt sweet because of his recognition.
They stood at the desk and discussed for a moment, until the bell rang for the next class. As Chen Wang handed her the homework book, his fingers brushed the back of her hand. It was a light touch, but it made her freeze for a moment.
"Thank you." He said with a faint smile, and the dimple on one side was faintly visible.
Lin Weixi nodded, not knowing what to say for a moment. Looking at his back as he turned and left, she suddenly realized that this was the first time they had communicated about something other than studying.
In the afternoon's physical education class, the girls practiced volleyball while the boys played on the basketball court nearby. Lin Weixi absentmindedly played with the ball, her eyes always drifting towards the basketball court. Chen Wang was playing half-court with a few classmates, dribbling and breaking through with nimble movements.
"Wei Xi, watch the ball!" Shen Siyu's shout brought her back to her senses, and she narrowly caught a ball that was about to fall to the ground.
"What's wrong with you today? You're always distracted." During the break, Chen Siyu handed her a bottle of water and asked with concern.
"Maybe I didn't sleep well last night." Lin Weixi unscrewed the bottle cap and drank the water in small sips. She didn't dare tell Chen Siyu that she had been thinking about the moment when they were all called out in Chinese class, and the brief exchange after class.
After school, Lin Weixi was on duty cleaning the classroom. When she wiped Chen Wang's seat, her movements unconsciously became lighter. On the desk, there were mathematical formulas lightly written in pencil, and traces of ballpoint pen that had been accidentally scratched. These details made her feel a little closer to his world.
After finishing her duty, she was the only one left in the classroom. The setting sun shone through the window, tinting the desks a warm golden color. She took out her dark green diary and carefully unlocked it.
"In Chinese class today, the teacher called his name first, then mine." She wrote the first sentence, the pen tip sliding lightly across the paper. "For the first time, our names were read out consecutively, without anyone else's name in between."
She stopped writing and recalled the scene, every detail was as clear as yesterday.
"After class, we discussed the homework, and he said my approach to the problem was very interesting. Although I knew it was just a compliment, I couldn't help but feel happy."
Writing this, she sighed softly. This feeling of having her emotions fluctuate because of his words was both sweet and helpless.
"I accidentally got distracted while watching him play basketball during PE class, and Siyu noticed. I hope she didn't guess why I was distracted."
Closing her diary, she gazed out the window. The sky was dyed orange by the setting sun, and a few clouds drifted slowly by. She recalled the subtle throbbing she'd felt in class today when the teacher read out their names. It was as if, in that moment, their names had truly formed some special connection.
After packing her bag, she walked out of the empty classroom. Her footsteps echoed in the corridor, and the setting sun stretched her shadow very long.
When she got home, she habitually finished her homework first, then allowed herself to open her diary again and add the last few sentences of the day:
"Sometimes I wonder if the order of names really determines something. That way, every time the roll is called, our names will be next to each other."
After writing this sentence, she gently stroked the two names written side by side on the page, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously raised a slight arc. In this unknown corner, she allowed herself to keep this small, sweet delusion.
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