Osmanthus fragrans
With a definite answer, the haze in Xu Zhiyi's heart was instantly swept away.
She was still guessing in her mind, but suddenly she felt that sometimes it was not so difficult to speak up.
As the day of the sports meet approaches, everyone's time is becoming increasingly tight.
It is a generally accepted arrangement that senior high school students are not allowed to participate in sports meets. During evening study time, there are always rows of students leaning on the railings in the senior high school teaching building, admiring their younger classmates who are busy training on the playground.
On the track and field, Xu Zhiyi raised his head to drink water and frowned as he said, "How is it? Did the time get shorter this time?"
Zhang Ningxia ran over holding a stopwatch, looking helpless.
"It's still that time..."
"Hey, Zhiyi, it's just a run. There's no need to win a prize. The important thing is to participate!"
Xu Zhiyi was panting with exhaustion. She stood up straight and turned to look around. Other students were practicing other items. She shook her head and said, "No, I'll go run another lap."
"Hey, Zhiyi, I have gastroptosis after eating!"
Before Zhang Ningxia finished speaking, Xu Zhiyi started walking again and slowly ran away.
Helplessly, she could only follow behind him. Xu Zhiyi was like this sometimes, a little stubborn, and as obstinate as a bull when it came to things he made up his mind to do.
However, some things cannot be changed by stubbornness. Soon Xu Zhiyi became exhausted and lay down on the playground.
"I'm telling you, don't be so stubborn, don't be so stubborn. Now you feel better, it hurts."
Zhang Ningxia pulled Xu Zhiyi up from the ground while talking, "Don't lie down, I'll walk with you, you'll be fine in a while."
"I've already told you you have gastroptosis, and you're still running. Are you trying to save your life?"
Xu Zhiyi was too tired to speak. He walked slowly and listlessly, with a painful expression on his face.
"I know you want to do well, you want to win awards, you think so much, but don't you care about your health? I'm impressed."
"Okay, I'm not going to talk about you anymore. Let me tell you something else. I recently added that boy from my freshman year of high school on QQ, and my god, guess what happened."
Xu Zhiyi shook his head, and Zhang Ningxia continued.
"His profile is full of photos with dolls. You wouldn't really tell he's like that. I thought he was pretty cool. What a shame, his grades are just average. If he were a top student, maybe I would admire him more."
Xu Zhiyi was amused by her words, "Don't you only look at the face?"
"Yes, I look at the face, but I also admire strong men. Who doesn't like someone who is handsome and has good grades?"
"So you don't like it?"
"Not really, I'm just not that obsessed anymore. Now I plan to study hard and strive to improve myself."
Xu Zhiyi looked unconvinced, "Really?"
As a result, during evening study, she saw a boy at the classroom door, coming to bring Zhang Ningxia a drink. Zhang Ningxia ran over with a smile and chatted with him enthusiastically.
She knew that this guy must have forgotten what she had said before.
However, this situation can occasionally dispel the boredom brought by studying. Otherwise, if you are always wrapped in a pile of homework and test papers, you will feel suffocated sooner or later.
The sports meet will last for two days, and Xu Dongxing informed everyone of the time in advance. The teachers have been busy teaching these days, fearing that they will not be able to keep up with the progress to prepare for the exams at the end of the month.
Xu Zhiyi gritted his teeth and lay on the desk to write the test paper. He was so sleepy that he wanted to close his eyes and sleep.
In a daze, she heard someone chatting near her, and the constant buzzing was very annoying.
She really couldn't stand it anymore, so she looked up and saw a group of people in the front row talking. She frowned and wanted to lose her temper, but she held it back.
She rubbed her eyes and yawned to wake herself up, but Zhang Ningxia pulled her out mysteriously.
"Let's go to the bathroom together."
"I'm not going..."
Although Xu Zhiyi said so, he could not resist Zhang Ningxia's invitation. On the way, Xu Zhiyi found out what everyone was discussing in the classroom.
In the past two days, for the opening ceremony of the sports meeting, many high school girls were dancing in skirts on the open space in the playground. Last night, someone secretly filmed the video of them dancing, added different moves to them, and forwarded it to many groups. Today, the girls found out about it and made a scene in the office. Later, the police came and took a boy away.
"So disgusting?"
Xu Zhiyi frowned after listening to these things, and couldn't understand why someone could be so bored as to do such things.
Zhang Ningxia complained, "They're just despicable. Some people appear to be human beings, but in reality, they're not. Oh, by the way, they were also discussing an open letter someone wrote on their social media account to all the students. It basically said, 'The camera isn't a weapon of intrusion, and the internet isn't a lawless place.' It also touched on a lot of topics about privacy and respect. Anyway, it was pretty well-written and quite touching."
"Hey, Zhiyi, who do you think would have written something like this?"
"It's probably some righteous knight. If you want to know, why don't you just ask him yourself?"
"Oh, I can't chat with you anymore. The sports meeting is coming up soon, so I want you to relax."
It was free time after dinner again. This time, Xu Zhiyi discovered that after that incident, the atmosphere of the team on the playground had indeed changed. Many people changed their skirts into trousers, and some people gathered together with serious expressions, completely different from their previous cheerfulness.
This depressed mood permeated the campus, and Xu Zhiyi could also feel that it was an extremely strong sense of grievance and anger.
They just wanted to train hard, show themselves to everyone at the opening ceremony, and win honor for their class. They were just doing what they wanted to do. Now, this simple wish has been taken away by some people with extremely despicable and bad means. Just to satisfy their own special desires, they cruelly hurt those innocent girls and shattered their bright hearts. This is a crime.
After evening self-study, the classroom was still full of discussions until Xu Dongxing came into the classroom and it became completely quiet.
"I'm sure everyone is aware of what happened recently. The school has now handed it over to the relevant departments for handling. I hope our students can face this matter squarely and first of all, refrain from spreading or discussing it."
"Secondly, we've all gone to school and taken classes on ideology and morality, so we should all understand what we absolutely must not do. Coming to school isn't just about learning knowledge; more importantly, it's about learning to think, about how to be a good person, someone with good character, someone who truly upholds the bottom line and is decent."
"Okay, that's all for today. Let's start studying."
The heavy atmosphere lingered for a long time, and most people, especially the girls in the classroom, could better understand the impact of this incident.
The next day, things started to get tricky again.
The school has launched a new round of mobile phone checks, this time to resolutely crack down on the habit of bringing mobile phones into school.
Even during some activities and training during breaks, there were teachers working overtime around them, and the girls changed into skirts again.
However, what is even more eye-catching is the senior high school teaching building, which is covered with banners. The words on them are not about sprinting for the college entrance examination, but encouraging words to encourage girls to persevere.
Suddenly, Zhang Ningxia reached out and touched Xu Zhiyi, "Look, what are Song Chengrui and the others tying?"
Following the line of sight, under the osmanthus tree in the flower bed, Song Chengrui and several other boys were bending over and tying things to the branches.
Although Xu Zhiyi was curious, she didn't dare to go over on her own initiative. It was Zhang Ningxia who pulled her over.
"What are you doing?"
Zhang Ningxia was a little curious when she saw Zheng Yan holding the ribbon.
"This, Brother Rui asked us to tie it."
Zheng Yan handed over some ribbons, on which were written blessings such as wishing good luck in the exam.
"This is……"
After Song Chengrui finished tying the body, he saw Xu Zhiyi coming over and explained.
"Well... I just ran into Xie Lin after dinner, and she asked me to help her..."
Xu Zhiyi realized that it was Xie Lin who did it.
"Hey, what is Xie Lin doing with this?"
Zhang Ningxia looked at the branches around her and saw that only two or three trees were tied together.
"She said that yesterday's incident had a negative impact on many people. The osmanthus flowers have recently bloomed, and the sports meet is about to start. She created this to provide everyone with an opportunity to communicate, to write down their wishes, and to distract them. She also heard that the seniors who didn't have the opportunity to participate in the sports meet were still cheering for the freshmen and sophomores, so she asked everyone to write down what they wanted to say to these people so that everyone can share it."
"That's... pretty good."
Xu Zhiyi and Zhang Ningxia also picked up a few ribbons.
The ribbons are soft in texture, and have some beautiful or bold handwriting on them, such as "I wish my seniors success in the college entrance examination!", "Good luck in the sports meet!" or "I hope you will be happy every day".
Zhang Ningxia immediately started choosing with great interest, muttering that she wanted to write it to the boy in the first year of high school.
Xu Zhiyi brushed her fingertips across the soft strips of cloth and felt a silent comfort.
She raised her eyes and looked at Song Chengrui who was tying the belt high up. He looked focused and his movements were careful, as if he was doing something very important.
"Shall we write a few and hang them up too?" Zhang Ningxia handed over a blank blue ribbon and a marker.
Xu Zhiyi took the pen, thought for a moment, then lowered his head and wrote: "May all efforts be worthwhile, and may all good things be safe and sound."
There is no signature, she hopes that those who see it can feel a sense of strength.
She stood on tiptoe, trying to tie the ribbon to a slightly higher branch, but her height was limited and she couldn't reach it after trying several times.
Just as she was feeling a little annoyed, a hand reached out from the side and naturally took the ribbon from her hand.
"Let me do it." Song Chengrui's voice came from above his head.
He easily tied the blue ribbon to the sunny branch of the osmanthus tree. The golden osmanthus flowers surrounded the blue, and the words were faintly visible in the breeze.
"Thank you." Xu Zhiyi said softly.
"You're welcome." Song Chengrui looked down at her with a gentle look in his eyes. "It's well written."
Seeing this, Zheng Yan, who was standing by, touched Zhang Ningxia and winked at her.
Zhang Ningxia immediately understood what he meant and pulled him over, saying, "Oh, there aren't enough trees here to hang on. Let's find another one!"
As he said this, he dragged Zheng Yan away, who was confused, leaving Xu Zhiyi and Song Chengrui standing under the tree.
The atmosphere suddenly became a little subtle, the sweet scent of osmanthus was rich, and the evening breeze was gentle.
Xu Zhiyi felt her cheeks getting hot, and she tried to find a topic to talk about: "I didn't expect Xie Lin to come up with this idea."
"Yeah," Song Chengrui nodded. "She said that words have power, but sometimes quiet actions can comfort people more. Let everyone write blessings and look at the scenery, and they will feel much better."
The two walked slowly along the flower bed side by side, watching more and more students being attracted and curiously reading, writing and hanging.
The banners on the senior high school building fluttered in the wind, and training on the playground continued as usual, but the depressing low pressure seemed to have been really dispelled by the swaying ribbons on the trees, which carried the hearts and minds.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
