Chapter 29
On the day the school organized a trip to Xihuaishan, the sky was clear blue and the wind was strong, so morning self-study was canceled. Students waited for the bus in front of the school's main gate in groups of classes.
Class 20 was located at the back of the classroom. During the morning self-study period, the classroom was bustling with activity, and everyone was in high spirits, chatting away.
Seeing figures moving in the corridor outside the window, Song Qiuxuan boldly grabbed a thermos and slipped out of the classroom.
As Song Qiuxuan bent over to pass the desk behind her, Cheng Xun stretched out his hand to stop her. Cheng Xun's eyes held a playful smile: "Sneaking out of the classroom during class time?"
Song Qiuxuan gently slapped his hand away and argued, "Morning self-study has been canceled, so it doesn't count as class time."
Cheng Xun smiled faintly and withdrew her hand, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. She reached into the desk to take something out, but Song Qiuxuan walked out of the classroom first.
A few minutes later, Song Qiuxuan returned with a cup of warm water. Noticing that Cheng Xun's gaze was following her, she put the thermos in the table and turned to look at him from the side.
Cheng Xun, who had been leaning back with the chair leg raised and looking quite relaxed, immediately moved closer when he saw her turn around, causing the chair leg to hit the ground with a dull thud.
Cheng Xun said, "I heard from your friend a few days ago that you get carsick, so I stopped by the pharmacy outside the neighborhood today and bought you some motion sickness medicine."
He spoke casually and lightly, but he touched his high nose with a guilty conscience, his eyes darting around. Was he just passing by or did he go out of his way to buy it?
Song Qiuxuan's mind went blank for a moment. She watched Cheng Xun put the medicine on the table, then cross his chair legs, lean back, and speak casually, as if he thought such concern was only natural.
In fact, Song Qiuxuan had already prepared the medicine, but if she told Cheng Xun, it would be a bit of a betrayal of his good intentions, so Song Qiuxuan thanked him gratefully.
Not long after, there was a commotion in the next class. The whole class came out and went down to the first floor. At this time, Liu Zhanyan came to Class 20 and told the students that they could go down.
To make the bus start faster, Liu Zhanyan requested that everyone sit according to their class seats to avoid taking too long to choose seats. As a result, Song Qiuxuan and Cheng Xun sat together.
"Song Qiuxuan, are you feeling unwell?" Cheng Xun sat in the seat near the aisle. He didn't get carsick, thinking that people who did would have a strong reaction and feel dizzy, nauseous, and want to vomit as soon as they got on the bus.
Song Qiuxuan lifted the curtain and looked out the window. Hearing this, she shook her head: "I'm fine now, and I've taken my medicine, so I shouldn't feel unwell."
Students were allowed to bring their phones to the event. Hearing this, Cheng Xun felt relieved and took out his phone to start a game.
Including traffic time, the journey took forty minutes. Song Qiuxuan closed her eyes to rest, but unexpectedly fell asleep.
The phone showed that he had won the game and the round was over. Cheng Xun felt bored. He locked his phone, leaned back in his chair, and turned his head to the left. He saw Song Qiuxuan lying on her side with her head against the window, sleeping. Her brows were slightly furrowed, and she seemed to be uncomfortable.
If the car hadn't been full of classmates, Cheng Xun would probably have simply held her head and let her lean on his shoulder.
Cheng Xun glanced to the side; no one was paying attention to what was happening here. Cheng Xun leaned over and drew the curtains tightly shut, then straightened Song Qiuxuan's head.
The journey was long, and Cheng Xun kept her head tilted to the left, quietly watching Song Qiuxuan.
*
Hiking is a fun activity for students with good physical strength, but for someone like Song Qiuxuan who is exhausted before even reaching the halfway point, it is simply torture.
He Zhimian was also physically weak, and she and Song Qiuxuan lagged behind the class, moving forward slowly.
The initial plan was for the class monitor to lead the entire class to the summit, but later they split up and the classes became mixed up on Xihuai Mountain.
He Zhimian, hands on her hips, said, "I'm so tired."
"Me too." A thin layer of sweat appeared on Song Qiuxuan's forehead, which she wiped with the back of her hand.
He Zhimian saw some people striding forward with ease and couldn't help but feel envious. She glanced behind her and saw that Cheng Xun, a classmate, was lagging behind the two girls in the group. He didn't look like he was too tired to climb. He was very relaxed, with his backpack on one shoulder and wearing only a white long-sleeved shirt. Under the blue sky and white clouds, his skin was so white that it was dazzling. He was a particularly noticeable presence in the crowd.
Because she had heard him fearlessly refute several girls when she went to the water room last time, He Zhimian's impression of him deepened. She looked at him with a strange admiration and probably wanted to be as bold and fearless as him.
"Cheng Xun." Song Qiuxuan followed He Zhimian's gaze and waved to Cheng Xun after seeing him.
Cheng Xun strode after him.
Song Qiuxuan asked in surprise, "Why are you behind me? I thought you had reached the top of the mountain."
"I lingered for a while after getting off the bus to buy water at the store." Cheng Xun unzipped his backpack and took out a supermarket plastic bag containing three bottles of sports drinks.
He handed a bottle to Song Qiuxuan and He Zhimian, one of whom was originally intended to be bought for Liang Shizhe, but they didn't meet. So now he was giving one to each of them.
"Thank you." He Zhimian hadn't expected to get a share and held the drink somewhat awkwardly.
Song Qiuxuan noticed He Zhimian's helplessness and embarrassment, and said gently, "It's okay, Cheng Xun is very generous."
Cheng Xun's eyes held a hint of teasing as he half-jokingly said, "You really know me well."
Song Qiuxuan smiled and said, "That's right."
He Zhimian watched their skillful interaction and a smile naturally appeared on her lips.
When they reached the top of the mountain, the crowd was sparse, and there were only a few students outside the temple. The three of them went into the temple to worship Buddha, and after they came out, they went to buy wishing plaques.
Song Qiuxuan and He Zhimian carefully considered what wishes to write. Since they were not senior high school students, the college entrance examination was a bit far away for them, so they did not write wishes such as performing exceptionally well in the college entrance examination.
While they were still hesitating, Cheng Xun quickly finished writing.
Song Qiuxuan couldn't resist taking a sneak peek, and when she was noticed, Cheng Xun chuckled softly and simply placed the wishing plaque in front of her.
The wishing plaque reads "May everything go smoothly" and has the signature in the lower right corner.
There were only four words, but Song Qiuxuan stared at them quietly for a full minute. Cheng Xun was very patient and didn't urge her to read them faster.
He Zhimian stood aside, watching Cheng Xun hold up the wishing plaque for Song Qiuxuan to see. His gaze remained fixed on her the whole time. The sunlight that finally peeked out shone down, flowing between his eyebrows and eyes, revealing a rare gentleness and tenderness.
As they spent more time together, He Zhimian discovered that Cheng Xun treated Song Qiuxuan very differently, even the emotions in his eyes were different, as if in his eyes, Song Qiuxuan was the most special one.
Song Qiuxuan stroked the wishing plaque with her fingers, then looked at Cheng Xun and asked, "Did you only write 'smooth sailing'?"
Cheng Xun nodded slightly: "Yes, that's already a very big wish."
In Cheng Xun's mind, life is full of thorns and obstacles. It seems that one cannot grow up successfully without experiencing sadness and being tempered. It is so difficult to have a smooth journey. Therefore, he thinks that wishing himself a smooth life is a huge and difficult wish to achieve. However, he still hopes that life can become relatively smoother.
Song Qiuxuan nodded knowingly, then lowered her head and began to write down her wishes carefully. She wrote peace and joy, health and success, and academic progress, wishing herself, as well as her family and friends.
On the way back, Song Qiuxuan took motion sickness medicine again, and perhaps because of this, she fell asleep in the car again.
Cheng Xun's head was still turned to the side, and he didn't even realize that he had been looking at Song Qiuxuan. The bus jolted, and he suddenly turned his head as if he had just woken up.
Before Cheng Xun reached into his bag to take something out, he suddenly felt uneasy and nervous. He knew exactly where the envelope was; no one knew how carefully he had placed it there, but it took him ten minutes to finally pull it out.
Cheng Xun stuffed the bag into Song Qiuxuan's bag with extremely light and slow movements, as if afraid of disturbing something or being unable to hide his panic.
*
Song Qiuxuan discovered the love letter that Cheng Xun had secretly slipped into her schoolbag that evening when she was about to put the newly bought pen refills into her bag.
Song Qiuxuan held the light blue envelope in her fingers. After opening it, she looked at the name Cheng Xun written in a bold and unrestrained handwriting. Her face was full of disbelief. She stood blankly in front of the desk, her heart beating faster than ever before.
She stared at the signature in the lower right corner for a long, long time, until her focus began to blur. Then, she snapped out of it and carefully read each word.
"Song Qiuxuan, before this, I never imagined that one day I would pick up a pen and write a love letter. I guess you were also surprised when you saw it."
As for me, there are some things I like that I can't easily say out loud. I don't understand why the word "like" becomes so heavy when it comes to my lips. Perhaps liking someone is a serious matter that deserves repeated consideration. So even writing this love letter took me a long time to think about, and I even thought about giving up.
However, at a friend's birthday party, I couldn't understand why some people insist on writing love letters, or why they would entrust their feelings to letters, hoping that the other person would receive all their emotions through letters. All my misunderstandings disappeared that night.
After saying all that, I just want to express that the purpose of writing this letter is to confirm my feelings for you. Song Qiuxuan, I like you. I can't recall exactly when it happened, but you can probably sense my feelings in our daily interactions, although this is just my one-sided guess.
Now that I've revealed my unspoken feelings to you, I'm not afraid to let you know me better. My personality isn't as cheerful, optimistic, and positive as yours; it's probably even the opposite extreme. Many people have said I have a bad temper. Perhaps it's true that different personalities attract, and I was drawn to you.
Song Qiuxuan, you are the most patient person among all the people who have explained problems to me. To be honest, I was really stupid when I was a child. I would always get a tap on the head if I didn't understand the problem.
For sixteen years, I've received so little kindness, goodwill, or love from those around me that I wanted to hold onto it tightly. Song Qiuxuan, you are that exceptionally wonderful person who appeared in my life. You guided me, you always patiently explained problems to me, you printed out my photo and gave it to me, and you went to the trouble of digging out calligraphy practice books from home just so I could improve my handwriting. I remember these things very clearly, and I will cherish them in my memory forever.
I need to be honest with you. I'm a petty person, not very likable, and sometimes I'm cowardly and evasive. But, if someone is good to me, I'll repay them tenfold. If you're good to me, I'll be even better to you. You can believe me on that point.
I'm only talking about my personality and temper because I'm worried that once you truly understand me, you might find it hard to accept the change. After all, the relatively good image I've projected to you lately has been something I've deliberately maintained. But I will try my best to change, to get rid of my bad personality traits and habits.
Actually, I never used to admit my shortcomings and vulnerabilities to others. This is the first time, and it's to someone I like.
I can't promise too much, but I can do my best to be there for you and be someone you can confide in. Whenever you want, I can play badminton with you, go to the library to study, or do anything you want to do. Just tell me, and I'll be there for you.
The sole purpose of this love letter, as I mentioned earlier, is to express my feelings and let you know how I feel. Therefore, I hope it doesn't place too much psychological burden on you. If you find it too sudden or can't accept it immediately, then just pretend you didn't see it, and we can still maintain our usual relationship.
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