Chapter 23
“It’s getting dark faster and faster lately.” Liang Shizhe jumped up with lingering enthusiasm, shot a basketball into the air, and then suddenly sighed dramatically after landing.
Liang Si lifted his shirt to wipe his sweat, still a little out of breath after playing basketball: "Isn't this normal? It gets really fast in winter, it's completely dark by six o'clock."
The teaching building has three staircases. Liang Shizhe, Liang Si, and Zhao Tonghong were about to go up the staircase closest to the basketball court.
Cheng Xun usually goes to the other side, from where he has to walk through a long corridor to get back to the classroom. At this time, there are quite a few students chatting by the corridor railing, and he doesn't like being watched all the way back to the classroom.
This time, however, Zhao Tonghong put his arm around Cheng Xun's shoulder and dragged him toward the stairwell. Cheng Xun was not without the strength to break free. Just as he raised his hand, Zhao Tonghong said, "Come this way, I have something to say."
Hearing him say that, Cheng Xun relented and asked, "What is it?"
Zhao Tonghong looked at the other two with anticipation, raising his eyebrows wildly: "I won't even mention Cheng Xun's memory, but you two should remember, right?"
"Huh?" Liang Shizhe and Liang Si both had big question marks on their foreheads.
Zhao Tonghong reminded him: "It's Friday."
Liang Shizhe scratched his head: "Did you say what you were going to do on Friday? You probably said it in your dream."
"What kind of brothers are you?" Zhao Tonghong was extremely disappointed, his tone furious: "It's my birthday on Friday, and none of you three remembered. Last year's cake was worse than feeding it to a dog. At least a dog would wag its tail at me. What can you guys do?"
"So you prefer watching a dog wag its tail to receiving gifts."
Cheng Xun suddenly spoke up; back in junior high, when the four of them played together, he would sometimes make a sarcastic remark.
Liang Si immediately chimed in, "That's right, we were so forgetful we forgot your birthday, but we didn't skimp on the gifts."
Zhao Tonghong was speechless for a moment. He stammered for a while, then, feeling a little guilty, he had no choice but to change the subject: "If you forgot, you forgot. Just remember to come to my birthday party on Friday."
*
When Cheng Xun arrived at the floor where Class 20 was located, he felt parched after exercising and suddenly regretted not going to the convenience store to buy a drink.
The water room has disposable cups, which the school requires each class to buy specifically for teachers. However, because they are purchased with class funds, there are always complaints from many students. Later, it was changed so that both students and teachers could use them.
The staircase he had just taken happened to be close to the water room. As he reached the corner of the staircase, Cheng Xun looked up and saw a slender figure hurrying past.
It was Song Qiuxuan. She didn't see him. He was heading towards the restroom. Cheng Xun didn't follow him. He walked to the door of the water dispenser.
A burst of laughter and playful chatter filled the room. He raised his indifferent gaze and glanced around. There were several girls who looked familiar but whose names he couldn't recall. Only one of them, wearing thin silver-rimmed glasses, had been sitting next to him before he changed seats. Cheng Xun remembered that her name was Xia Yingjia.
Cheng Xun took a step back and leaned against the wall by the door, intending to wait for them to come out before going in.
After laughing enough, a few seconds of silence followed.
"Don't you guys think Song Qiuxuan is a bit pretentious and disgusting?" The topic had just been moved on, but Xia Yingjia brought it up again.
Xia Yingjia's family is somewhat wealthy, and the other girls are somewhat obsequious to her. They know full well that Xia Yingjia is arrogant and will see anyone she dislikes as a thorn in her side.
This wasn't the first time they'd heard Xia Yingjia talking about Song Qiuxuan. Although the girls didn't know why she disliked her—perhaps some people just don't need a reason to hate someone—they would still agree with her regardless.
The girl opened a packet of milk tea and poured it into a cup, steam rising from it. A hint of disgust flashed in her eyes: "Yeah, she usually acts all innocent, but she's actually very scheming. She deliberately only gets close to boys. Before we changed seats, she was surrounded by boys in front and behind her, which made her very happy. She would say something to the boy in front of her and chat with the boy behind her, trying to hook up with two boys at the same time."
"A cunning woman dressed as an innocent girl—isn't that what guys fall for?"
After he said that, someone let out a disdainful sneer.
Xia Yingjia crossed her arms and raised her eyes, "That's right. Anyone with eyes can see that she's sucking up to boys, especially Cheng Xun. As soon as get out of class is over, she turns around and goes to find Cheng Xun, using the excuse of explaining a problem to seduce him. I've never seen such a slutty girl."
As soon as Xia Yingjia finished speaking, she caught a glimpse of a tall figure in the washroom. Some words slipped out of her mouth without thinking, and she belatedly realized that they were filthy and unacceptable. When she saw Cheng Xun's cold gaze, her pupils suddenly contracted.
Cheng Xun was quite tall for his age, and his build wasn't overly thin like a bamboo pole. He stood blocking the doorway, the lights on the corridor ceiling behind him were obscured, and his face looked rather unpleasant.
"What are you doing?" Cheng Xun asked casually, a slight smile playing on his lips.
With a sinister smile, Xia Yingjia wasn't sure if he hadn't heard the previous discussion or if it was just the calm before the storm. Her lips moved stiffly: "Of course, we come to the water room to fetch water."
Several girls said awkwardly and guiltily, "Yes."
"Is that so?" Cheng Xun took a step inside, frowned, and swept his sharp gaze over the girls.
They had a deep impression of Cheng Xun, mainly because he was good-looking. In the flag-raising ceremony on Mondays and on the basketball court during PE class, his figure was the most eye-catching and dazzling. He spoke very little in class, sat in the corner, and seemed to have a low presence. Many girls called him a male god with a sense of distance, silent, aloof and cold.
In fact, none of them had ever truly interacted with him.
Cheng Xun nodded with his brows furrowed, indicating that he understood, "Gossiping while fetching water."
Xia Yingjia was taken aback, looked up at Cheng Xun, and couldn't guess what he was going to say next.
One girl gripped her water bottle tightly to bolster her courage, and sneered, "So what if it is? It's not like she made it up out of thin air."
Cheng Xun scoffed: "Making a big deal out of a small matter, and maliciously speculating about other people's thoughts without any basis, what's the difference between that and fabrication?"
"you……"
Cheng Xun deftly turned her head away, her profile sharp, and didn't look at her anymore, as if she had no desire to argue with her any further.
The water dispenser on the far left of the water room is broken. It has been reported to the higher authorities, but no one has been able to repair it. A small stream of water is flowing out of the outlet, making a dripping sound as it hits the ground.
Cheng Xun looked down at Xia Yingjia, taking a step closer. His expression was cold and gloomy, but his tone was calm, as if he were merely offering a friendly reminder: "Classmate, you can't just say things that are offensive. I was the one who took the initiative to ask Song Qiuxuan a question, and I was the one who initiated the conversation with her. These are common occurrences among classmates, and I really can't understand why you misunderstood them. If you're really unhappy, you can come at me, since I was the one who initiated it. But you're turning around and speculating about her, saying she seduced you. Is that a suitable word to describe someone of this age? I hope you'll be careful with your words in the future. If someone overhears you, it could really cause some misunderstanding."
What is this? Is this a lesson for her? Is it really necessary to say such a few words? Xia Yingjia's hands, hanging at her sides, unconsciously clenched into fists, her shoulders slumped slightly, and her face became even more unpleasant than the person in front of her.
The other girls exchanged bewildered glances. This was the first time they had heard Cheng Xun speak such a long speech, all to defend someone.
Cheng Xun shifted his gaze to the dripping water dispenser. "At school, you can freely criticize others without suffering any harm. But once you enter society, there will always be someone superior to you, and it's hard to predict what schemes you might face."
"A slap will be delivered to a dirty mouth."
Cheng Xun slowly filled a paper cup with water, and before leaving the water room, he left with the final words: "This should be the last time you use vulgar language to comment on her."
The air seemed to freeze. After about two or three minutes, students from other classes came to the water room to get water. When they looked up, they saw several girls standing in a row inside without saying a word. They glanced at them strangely and then walked past them sideways.
"Make way, don't block the way now that you've filled the water tank," the man muttered. "The water room isn't very spacious to begin with."
"So much trouble." Xia Yingjia was angry, embarrassed, and indignant, and gritted her teeth as she retorted to the person.
The man frowned, wanting to retort, but the girl walked away angrily.
As soon as she left, the rest of the people followed her out, looking dazed, like flowers wilted by a heavy rain.
Well, they don't know which sentence struck a chord with them, perhaps it was the saying "If you speak recklessly, you'll be taken advantage of in society." They know that society is cruel, and they are just ordinary people without a wealthy family to support them, so their mood unconsciously became depressed.
They didn't publicize the incident afterward, because if they talked about it as gossip, or if they discussed the harshness in Cheng Xun's words, they would first have to admit that they had spoken ill of Song Qiuxuan, and admitting that was embarrassing.
For a long time afterward, they would sometimes hear Xia Yingjia express her dissatisfaction with Song Qiuxuan over some trivial matters, but nothing too serious. She would just say a few insignificant things, complaining that Song Qiuxuan was an incompetent propaganda committee member, disliking her tone of voice, and complaining that she didn't clean the blackboard properly when she was on duty.
These words are nothing; after all, everyone gets criticized during their student days.
*
He Zhimian absentmindedly carried her thermos back to the classroom.
After changing seats, she ended up at a two-person table, and her deskmate noticed that He Zhimian spent an unusually long time in the water room this time.
"Did you go to the restroom on your way?" my deskmate asked.
He Zhimian shook her head and muttered to herself, "I've just watched a good show."
Her deskmate knew she was quiet and had few interests. Usually, when the boys joked around, the whole class would burst into laughter, but she wouldn't. So when she heard her say she had seen a good show, her deskmate assumed it must be something big and excitedly asked, "What? Was there a fight?"
Her deskmate even stood up and tried to run out, but He Zhimian grabbed her arm and shook her head again: "No."
Her deskmate sat down with a puzzled look, feeling that something about He Zhimian was strange. She noticed a faint smile on He Zhimian's lips, which seemed like mockery or smugness.
He Zhimian didn't notice her deskmate's gaze. Her thermos was empty. She had just witnessed Cheng Xun confronting a girl in the class.
She knew that those girls had said a lot about her personality, calling her strange and withdrawn, and she was initially upset, but she eventually got used to it after hearing it so many times.
He Zhimian thought she didn't care anymore, but today she realized that she had simply chosen not to care, so that the pain she was enduring would be lessened.
Now she felt a sinister pleasure. Outside the washroom, she leaned against the wall, holding her breath, secretly hoping that Cheng Xun's words would be harsher and more ruthless, and that he would teach them a lesson. The bad words he spoke should suffer double the backlash.
He Zhimian held her pen, looking at the blurred question in front of her. Time was almost up. She turned her head to look out the window, and her vision became clear. She looked with satisfaction at the few girls who returned looking dejected.
Her smile deepened.
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