As the teacher began the class, she stealthily turned her head to see that the boy was also unabashedly looking over, as if observing her.
Her emotional reaction just now must have seemed a bit strange.
With lips pursed, she pulled a pack of adhesive bandages out of her school bag.
Knowing that Shen Mo often got into fights and frequently sustained minor injuries, she had specially bought a pack of bandages from a convenience store on her way home last night using the money she earned from painting.
In her previous life, she was so timid that she hardly dared to proactively be kind to others, fearing that her good intentions would be rejected. This psychological burden made her more withdrawn as she grew older.
This time around, she decided to change her fate and life, and also wanted to revive her silent high school crush.
She didn’t ask for much—just to enjoy her youth, silently giving like a girl chasing after a celebrity, getting along well without any regrets. That would be quite nice.
She was indeed romantic.
She originally intended to give Shen Mo the whole pack of bandages, but after some thought, she took out just one.
From now on, whenever he needed one, she would hand him a bandage, increasing their interactions. Perhaps it might even cultivate a habit in him of thinking of her whenever he got hurt.
Holding onto the cunning typical of an unrequited love, she placed a bandage on his desk, gesturing that the back of his hand was injured and still bleeding.
Then, without waiting for his reaction, she immediately turned her head back and focused intently on the blackboard.
“…” Shen Mo picked up the bandage and looked at the back of his hand, only then realizing he was injured.
His clothes and pants were stained with blood. He frowned and fidgeted with the bandage for a while before his gaze returned to the side profile of his desk-mate, Little Potato.
The sunlight turned her black hair a light brown, her skin was clear, and her neck was slender, making her look especially petite and fragile.
Easy to bully, he thought.
…
Before school let out in the evening, Shen Mo casually tossed his notebook onto Hua Jie’s desk and said indifferently:
“Help me with this.”
Hua Jie gave him a strange look, opened her mouth then closed it again, ultimately saying nothing and obediently stuffing his notebook into her school bag.
Shen Mo smirked inwardly: As expected, very easy to bully.
But… what did that look in her eyes mean earlier?
It felt weird…
Until the next morning, when the homeroom teacher handed out the entrance exam papers of all subjects to all students except him, Shen Mo saw the glaringly small red numbers on Hua Jie’s papers and finally began to have a bad feeling.
On Thursday night’s self-study, this ominous premonition was confirmed.
Hua Jie did take her task of doing his homework seriously, but the glaring red crosses were still all over the notebook.
The homework for all subjects was mostly wrong, barely anything right!
“…” Shen Mo finally understood what that strange look in her eyes meant when he asked her to do his homework.
The teachers must think he, Shen Mo, is also a poor student.
Damn!
…
…
“This is middle school second-year math knowledge!”
“This is middle school third-year second semester math knowledge!” During the two self-study periods on Thursday night, Shen Mo, facing his desk-mate’s watery, pitiful puppy dog eyes, wordlessly began his teaching career.
“You used the wrong formula for this problem! Use this one, do you know why?” he questioned.
Hua Jie shook her head innocently.
“…” Taking a deep breath, he rattled off an explanation, “Do you understand now?”
Hua Jie hesitated, then repeated her understanding of it.
“That’s not right!” Shen Mo felt like hitting someone, his fists nearly beyond his control.
After taking a couple of deep breaths, he tried explaining it again in a different way.
Finally, Hua Jie’s expression cleared, and Shen Mo sighed with relief, realizing he had broken out in a sweat.
After two periods, with her pleading for help, he taught her chemistry, then physics, and then math, leaving him dizzy and irritable.
He suffered prematurely what parents endure when disciplining their children’s studies.
Parents are done with their kids, and Shen Mo was done with his desk-mate too!!!
At the end of school, Hua Jie looked at his homework notebook with gratitude:
“Shall I… do it for you?”
She had taken up his two self-study periods, causing him to run out of time to do his own homework, and now he had to make up for it at home…
Shen Mo protected his homework notebook, giving her a fierce glare, and lightly slapped her bob-cut short hair as if with force but actually quite gently.
Then he swung his school bag over his shoulder, leaped from in front of her to the aisle by the desks, and walked away without looking back.
Hua Jie watched his retreating figure, suddenly wanting to laugh but quickly suppressed it.
After she also packed her bag and left the classroom, the girls sitting in the back row couldn’t help but whisper:
“See! Hua Jie really got beaten.”
“Sitting next to the school hunk isn’t all that great.”
“Exactly!”
The air was thick with jealousy.
…
…
Walking out of the school gate shoulder to shoulder with Bian Hong, Hua Jie bribed him with a packet of chips, then they rode her little two-wheeler towards the second street to their home, making a detour to stop at a privately owned recycling station.
She asked Bian Hong to eat the chips and wait for her while she dashed into the yard, heading straight for the neatly arranged waste paper area.
She explained her purpose to the owner and began to search earnestly.
Middle school textbooks from all three years, some relatively new question banks, and supplementary books were all her targets.
She also didn’t pass up on any decent blank notebooks she found.
Although the few brick houses in the yard weren’t very new, they were well-kept. The recycling station owner’s little daughter sat under the lamp by the wall, holding a notebook, sketching a still life of a small dog sleeping at her feet.
Hua Jie, treasure hunting her way to the little girl, saw that the few-years-old child’s drawing, although crooked and hardly resembling a dog, was filled with a charming childishness.
After the girl finished drawing the dog and was puzzled over what to add in the blank area of the paper, Hua Jie seemed to understand her dilemma and suggested with a smile, pointing to a large blank area at the bottom of the page:
“You could draw a lawn here, or add other things you see around the yard.”
Children’s drawing exercises sometimes are about developing observation and pen control skills, arranging everything seen around them on paper in an orderly fashion—some items in the front, some in the back, some side by side, and some stacked above or below, all reflecting a child’s thinking and imagination.
After hearing this, the little girl gave Hua Jie a shy smile, tilted her head to think for a moment, and then began to move her brush across the paper again—
She drew her little red shoes on the paper and picked some items from the yard’s pile of ‘junk’ that she liked.
Soon, the simple drawing of the little dog became enriched, the paper now depicting various things she saw in her daily life.
Her father’s bicycle, which she rode every day, originally had two super big wheels, and within the wheels, there were many metal bars.
The handle of the water cup was originally not semi-circular but triangular and much smaller than the body of the cup.
Only when one starts to draw something does one realize how little they actually knew about it.
By doing so, the little girl deepened her observation of the things around her, and it also increased her boldness in filling the page.
Hua Jie stood watching for a while, seeing the little girl draw the tiny cup as big as the dog, yet the large bicycle was drawn smaller than the dog’s head…
In the lively and quirky drawing, she experienced the joy of painting freely and unrestrainedly.
With a smile, she stroked the little girl’s head before turning back to continue her search for the books she needed.
While Hua Jie admired the little girl’s painting, Bian Hong was quietly observing Hua Jie.
The yellow light in the yard illuminated the contours of the young girl, who stood among the piles of assorted items in the yard, appearing light and cute.
He watched her for a while, then couldn’t help but shyly avert his eyes.
Yet after a moment, he found himself involuntarily looking at her again.
…
Finally, after scouring through thick stacks and bargaining with the owner for a long time, Hua Jie bought these ‘treasures’ for a low price of a dozen yuan—
She would rely on these books for her future lessons.
The notebooks suitable for drawing and writing were an unexpected delight.
She saved a lot of money, patting the books joyfully.
It was all purchased with the money she earned from painting, and she felt truly accomplished.
Hua Jie felt she could even get rich from her painting.
At such an age, earning money to buy what she needed filled her with a sense of achievement.
Even though she had spent one-sixth of the sixty or so yuan she had earned, her spirits were not dampened.
After her joy, she noticed Bian Hong’s slightly pale expression and realized that they couldn’t possibly carry all this stuff on Bian Hong’s bicycle alone.
Thus, Hua Jie took out a few more yuan and hailed a taxi on the road.
In the small town of the year 2000, taking a taxi was still considered a luxury.
Most people were still accustomed to cycling or walking, and even among wealthier families, not many learned to drive or bought cars.
A taxi with a starting fare of 4 yuan was seen by many citizens as a luxury and pointless mode of transportation.
Whether it was the few cents for a bus ride, or using bicycles or motorcycles, all were more economical and convenient than taxis.
Bian Hong, who was neighbors with Hua Jie, was not from a well-off family, and this was his first time taking a taxi.
For him, this type of sedan car was a novelty.
Basking in the light of Hua Jie’s actions, he suppressed his curiosity and excitement as he and the taxi driver loaded the books into the trunk, squeezing the bicycle in sideways.
In that era, traffic police didn’t strictly enforce how securely a taxi’s trunk was closed.
Thus, the two kids excitedly climbed into the taxi, with Bian Hong sitting in the passenger seat, where the driver personally taught him how to fasten the seatbelt.
The old Santana sedan accelerated onto the road with a push of the throttle, the trunk wide open, Bian Hong’s bicycle awkwardly lying inside, swaying with the wind.
Bian Hong tried to get used to the sedan’s seat and the height of the view, watching vehicles and people whizzing by, feeling both nervous and thrilled.
He felt an inexplicable longing for Hua Jie, and this heart-racing ride made him vaguely feel that his rapid heartbeat wasn’t just due to the ride, but also because he was in the tight space of the car with Hua Jie, causing his heart to flutter.
A young man’s tender feelings suddenly surged.
…
After the taxi dropped them off outside a small alley, Bian Hong walked a few steps in silence before turning back to ask her:
“Where did you get the money?”
At their age, parents wouldn’t give them so much pocket money, let alone enough to freely spend on taking taxis.
The light from a neighboring house’s yard spilled out, casting Hua Jie’s features in a delicate and lovely light.
Her eyes sparkled, outshining the stars in the sky, her expression proud:
“I earned it by selling my paintings.”
Bian Hong stared at her for a while.
When the girl was confident, her eyes shone brightly, seemingly more dazzling than a freely expressive female movie star on stage.
“That’s really impressive,” he said sincerely, his voice not very loud, but filled with genuine admiration.
Carrying books as heavy as mountains, the two walked side by side down the alley. Fortunately, the first house at the head of the alley was her home; otherwise, the weight of these books would really have been too much for both of them.
Delivering the books inside was Bian Hong’s first time entering her home.
He also stepped into her small study bedroom.
He left hurriedly, his face slightly red, not saying much.
He couldn’t even properly respond to her breathless thanks.
Entering a girl’s room was just too embarrassing; he wasn’t mentally prepared and it felt quite sudden.
It wasn’t until he left her house and the evening breeze cooled his flushed cheeks that his heartbeat finally slowed.
Looking back, he saw that she had turned on all the lights in her house, illuminating the small courtyard with a warm glow.
As he turned to walk to his own house next door, he didn’t realize that his lips had curved into a soft smile.