Dou Sheng came back from outside when the break was almost over. He placed a hand-painted paper cup with a hint of cool air on Xie Lan's desk. "Your afternoon tea has arrived. Please check it."
Xie Lan said thank you, glanced at the sticky note stuck on the big white notebook, and calmly stood up to let him in.
Che Ziming stared at the two cups of milk tea for a while, subconsciously looked at his desk, then turned back to look at Wang Gou, and then stretched his neck to look at Dai You.
"Don't we?"
Dou Sheng glanced at him and said, "The one next door is slow to produce. They don't have time to make six cups."
Che Ziming sighed in disappointment, "That's right."
Xie Lan just picked up the paper cup and took a sip of milk tea. The cool feeling slid down his throat into his stomach, instantly soothing the depression of writing the self-criticism.
He sighed softly in comfort.
"Fuck, I'm so greedy." Che Ziming pushed Yu Fei, "Let's order some milk tea takeout and have it delivered during PE class. Do you want some?"
Yu Fei struggled to get up from the table, "Then let me have some."
"Alright, I'll order some taro balls, and a latte for Dai You. Where's Gou Zi?"
Wang Gou felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. "Forget it. I can quench my thirst by drinking water. Isn't milk tea too greasy?"
"No." Yu Fei yawned and said, "It's my treat, please give me some face."
Wang Gou was stunned. "A treat?"
Yu Fei raised his head and relaxed for a while, "To celebrate Che Ming not bothering me during breaks recently, peace is priceless... I'll order you this signature sweet-scented osmanthus wine with some black glutinous rice."
"Then... OK." Wang Gou's face turned red again, and after a pause he said, "I haven't had milk tea yet, thank you."
"You're welcome. I should thank you." Yu Fei leaned against the wall and placed an order. "I'll take care of the milk tea for the entire semester. Please continue to help me share the burden of Che Ming."
Che Ziming immediately pushed his buttocks against him and yelled, "Dog, don't be polite to a stinky fish! Kill him!"
There were shouts of fighting and killing all around, and Xie Lan drank milk tea and watched the fight between tigers.
On the surface, you are observing a tiger, but in reality you are observing beans.
After Dou Sheng came back, he began to empty his mind. Every afternoon during the break, when the weather was clear and the breeze was gentle, Dou Sheng would stop what he was doing and look out the window to empty his mind for a while.
But today, he had a cup of milk tea in his hand, the same as Xie Lan's.
Xie Lan glanced at the notebook under his arm again and asked casually, "What about the next video?"
Dou Sheng came back to his senses and said, "I haven't thought about it yet. I'll think about it slowly."
As he spoke, he casually flipped through the plan book, then suddenly stopped.
Xie Lan had already put down his tea very naturally and continued writing his self-review. With his left hand, he gestured to the first-person self-review in front of him, and with his right hand, he changed the perspective. He wrote smoothly and practiced his grammar at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.
After a while, Xie Lan heard Dou Sheng clear his throat.
He put down his pen and glanced to the side, and saw Dou Sheng holding up the cup and looking out the window with a dazed look on his face.
I guess he was stunned by the criticism that came out of nowhere.
Xie Lan placed the pencil case between the two of them expressionlessly, turned on the video on his phone and placed it on the pencil case, with the camera facing Dou Sheng and the screen facing himself.
From this angle, no one can be photographed, only the table and hands. Dou Sheng held the pink sticky note, stroking the paper with his slender fingers, seeming to be at a loss.
After a long time, the hand in the camera gently folded the pink sticky note, put it into the pencil case, and then zipped up the pencil case which had been half open for a thousand years.
"cough."
Dou Sheng cleared his throat and asked, "Did anyone come over here just now?"
Xie Lan hesitated.
It doesn't seem right to say it was Feng Miao directly. Although it was indeed Feng Miao who complained about Dou Sheng, after all, he had modified the sentence and made it quite straightforward.
He paused before saying, "A lot of people came here. What's wrong?"
"nothing."
Dou Sheng put the cup of milk tea down, picked it up again, took a sip, and put it down again.
Then he opened his pencil case and rummaged through the pile of identical ballpoint pens.
In the camera, the pink sticky note poked its head out of the pencil case. Dou Sheng's handsome fingers quickly unfolded the folded sticky note, paused for a moment, folded it back, and zipped it up again.
"Well." Dou Sheng said, "How's your calligraphy practice going lately?"
He asked calmly, and Xie Lan's heart skipped a beat.
It was exposed so quickly
He raised his hand and brushed across the screen of his phone, calmly pressed the video to stop recording, and asked, "Just make do with it, why are you asking this?"
Dou Sheng's brows were slightly furrowed, and his eyes, distinctly black and white, were calm yet a little puzzled and inquiring.
The two were very close, so close that they could see the amplitude of each other's hair trembling slightly in the air.
After a long while, Dou Sheng shook his head and said, "It's okay."
The third class in the afternoon was physics. The moment the bell rang, the sound of Hu Xiujie's high heels also rang out from the back door. The class fell silent instantly. Xie Lan quickly put away his phone and took out his physics notes.
In his peripheral vision, Dou Sheng also slowly tidied up the desk, smoothed out the notebooks and papers, casually spread out a physics textbook and put it under his arm, his left hand still gently holding the sticky note through the pencil case.
Hu Xiujie stood on the podium with a stern face. "I have seen the homework papers for the weekend. There are people sitting in this classroom who lost points on the comprehensive questions about electromagnetic balance. We will cover four examples in this class. If you make mistakes again next time, come to my office to have an explanation in person."
The audience was as silent as a mouse, and everyone was so cautious that they even opened their notes and did not dare to make a sound.
Xie Lan had no problem with the electromagnetic balance. He glanced at Hu Xiujie, who was writing on the blackboard with his back to the crowd, and silently took out his self-criticism. Dou Sheng was also normal, and he lowered his head and wrote something with him.
Xie Lan thought he was also writing a self-criticism, but unexpectedly, after a while, Dou Sheng tore off the piece of paper he had just written on, folded it twice, and threw it to him.
-You were the one who changed the words, right? Where is the original note
Xie Lan was stunned by this sentence.
Just as he was hesitating, Dou Sheng reached out and took the paper back, wrote on it for a long time, and threw it back to him again.
- I feel like I have seen it somewhere before. The original sentence is "You didn't mean to be a draught, but you were so arrogant that you caused a flood." Did you misunderstand? It's not a complaint about other people's words, it's a confession.
-Did you write it yourself, or did someone else write it and you modified it
-Confess and you will be rewarded with leniency. Confess as soon as possible.
The eight characters after the character "" seemed like they were added at the last minute. The handwriting was very sloppy, and the stroke after the character "来" was very long.
Xie Lan didn't have time to think about it and was stunned by the word "confession".
Confession
He subconsciously raised his eyes to look at Feng Miao - it was hot in the afternoon, and Feng Miao took off her school uniform jacket. Her refreshing short-sleeved shirt fluttered gently in the breeze, and her high ponytail swayed up and down as she took notes.
He suddenly remembered her reserved and conflicted look just now, and was suddenly struck by lightning.
Dou Sheng didn't wait for an answer, and seemed anxious, pinching his fingers unconsciously.
Xie Lan subconsciously turned her head to look at him, only to find that Dou Sheng was staring at her. Their eyes met, and Dou Sheng immediately withdrew his gaze, leaned against the windowsill, and yawned.
He tore off another piece of paper and wrote again: Who left this note
Xie Lan frowned unconsciously at the note.
Although he didn't understand Chinese love poems and made a fool of himself, he was not mentally ill. He could still understand this obvious expression of suppressing anxiety. Generally, this kind of reaction can only mean one thing - Dou Sheng has an expected person in his mind who may confess to him. Although that person may not be Feng Miao, there must be such a person.
Xie Lan suddenly felt a little irritated. He couldn't tell whether he was annoyed by the misunderstanding he had caused, or something else.
He picked up the milk tea, took a sip, and frowned.
The milk tea doesn't smell good anymore.
Dou Sheng seemed very anxious. He pushed the note towards him again and gave him a questioning look.
Feng Miao actually did not sign her name, and she also told Xie Lan not to tell Dou Sheng that she had been there.
After Xie Lan was silent for a moment, he simply reached into the desk and pulled out the original sticky note, and whispered: "I don't know who it was. I thought it was originally complaining about you, sorry."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that Dou Sheng's mood seemed to drop instantly. After a long while, Dou Sheng lifted the paper and took a look at it, then rolled it up and threw it into the garbage bag hanging beside the table.
Xie Lan turned around to glance at him, only to see him glance indifferently in Feng Miao's direction, then look away, his expression as calm as before, even more indifferent than usual.
Xie Lan couldn't help but ask, "How do you know it's her?"
"Xie Lan, get up."
Hu Xiujie's cold voice suddenly sounded.
Xie Lan's heart skipped a beat, and he stood up silently under the sympathetic gazes of all the owls.
Hu Xiujie put down the lecture notes and said coldly: "I think you are becoming more and more unruly. How dare you talk to someone beside you during my physics class?"
There was a dead silence all around, even the chirping birds outside the window stopped chirping. Xie Lan took a deep breath silently, lowered his eyes and said, "I'm sorry, teacher."
"Don't say sorry to me! The teacher usually tolerates you because you are smart and hardworking, and also feels sorry for you having difficulty with schoolwork after returning to China, but this is how you study? You don't go back to the dormitory, and you talk in class." Hu Xiujie said sternly: "Get out! Come to my office for a talk after class."
Che Ziming risked his life to lean back and hummed in a mosquito-like voice: "Admit it, hurry up."
Yu Fei also said softly, "She is tough on you but soft on you, so admit your mistake quickly."
Xie Lan said nothing, his eyes fixed on the self-review which he still had a few hundred words to finish. Suddenly he felt that the room was very hot, so hot that his mouth was dry.
The milk tea is still there, but it has lost its appeal.
Annoyed, inexplicably annoyed.
He whispered, "Sorry, teacher, I shouldn't disturb the class. I'm leaving."
As he said this, he came out from his seat, thought for a moment, folded up the self-criticisms, and took them away, also taking a pen.
When Xie Lan reached the podium, he heard the sound of tables and chairs being dragged in the back row. When he turned around, he found that Dou Sheng had also followed him out.
Hu Xiujie sneered, "One penalty and one free?"
Dou Sheng didn't stop, "Sorry, teacher, I'll pass the note first."
Hu Xiujie: “…”
Suddenly someone laughed in the suffocating class. Xie Lan walked out the door and heard Hu Xiujie scolding, "Laughing. One of them got full marks in physics and the other got first place in math. Just laugh along with them."
Then the classroom fell into silence again.
The door was closed, isolating the aura in the room from the outside. Xie Lan walked to the window in the corridor and took a deep breath.
Dou Sheng walked up to him with his hands in his pockets, leaned lazily against the windowsill, and sighed softly, "I really admire you. Just come out when you are allowed to. Do you have to be so obedient? How many classes have you stood in a day?"
As he spoke, he glanced at the piece of paper in Xie Lan's hand, his expression becoming even more complicated, "You really never forget to write your self-criticism wherever you go."
Xie Lan didn't know what to say. He was inexplicably depressed and irritated and was a little reluctant to speak, so he leaned on the balcony to continue writing his self-criticism, and only whispered, "Why did you have to follow me out? It's none of your business."
Dou Sheng's voice also revealed his unhappy mood: "I'm upset. I came out to get some fresh air."
Xie Lan paused for a moment.
Dou Sheng threw the paper ball away and said he was upset. Maybe Feng Miao was not the person he was expecting
After a long while, Xie Lan resumed writing normally and asked casually, "How do you know it's her?"
"Feng Miao." Dou Sheng leaned on the windowsill and jumped up to sit down, just blocking the dazzling sunlight that was glaring at Xie Lan. "Her handwriting is quite recognizable. She copied the homework assigned by Lao Hu on the blackboard every day, so she is familiar with it."
Xie Lan said, "I'm sorry. I thought I could add some video footage. I should have known better than to make a joke."
Dou Sheng smiled silently, "Material for a prank?"
"Um."
"That can't be done this way." Dou Sheng sighed with a smile, "Looks like I still have to set an example for you."
"Proofing?" Xie Lan was stunned. "What are you going to do?"
"Don't worry about it. You should be prepared to be scolded by Hu Xiujie." Dou Sheng said, "You are really brave. You dare to talk in physics class. Even I dare not to do that. I can only write a note."
The mention of Xie Lan made him even more depressed.
He usually wouldn't do anything bad in Hu Xiujie's class, today was just a special case. Although he couldn't explain why it was special, it was just a small mistake, and he could just tear off the sticky note, but he just felt unwell, with a feeling of anxiety from head to toe, and he couldn't tell why.
"Write your self-criticism." Dou Sheng suddenly said calmly, "I'm going to the playground to take a walk."
"Ah?" Xie Lan was surprised and asked, "Aren't you afraid that the teacher will come out?"
Dou Sheng was already walking out with his hands in his pockets. "She told the students to get out. It doesn't matter where they go. Be prepared to get scolded. I'll go get some ice cream."
Xie Lan hesitated, "Then I'll go with you..."
Dou Sheng immediately refused, "Goodbye. I'm in a bad mood, so I'll go for a walk. I'll come back after I've adjusted my mood and teach you how to play a trick on someone."
Bad mood
Xie Lan shrank back again. After a long while, when Dou Sheng’s figure was almost disappearing at the end of the corridor, he uttered a low “oh”.
Writing a review is very boring.
Xie Lan wrote mechanically until he turned the page and realized that he had finished writing on the several pages he had prepared. He probably reached the word count. He had no idea what he was going to write next, and he was too lazy to review it, so he just ended it casually.
Xie Lan folded the self-review, sighed, and took out his cell phone.
He browsed around Bilibili and felt numb after seeing the crazy increase in the background data, so he simply closed it and opened Twitter.
As luck would have it, the qzfxr dialog box automatically jumped to the top the moment he clicked on the private message list.
-qzfxr:/disappointment.
An expression with one corner of the mouth turned down.
Xie Lan was a little surprised and typed a reply: What's wrong
-qzfxr: I feel like I'm on a roller coaster
-silentwaves: why
-qzfxr: It was just a false joy, and the joy only lasted for five seconds.
-qzfxr: It’s all my fault for being too smart and straightforward, otherwise I would be happier.
-qzfxr: Alas, but one really should not think too much, or one will feel lost.
-qzfxr: It’s just that people are greedy. When God gives them a gift, they will hope that the gift will be bigger and bigger, so big that it is unique in the whole world and no one is worthy of it except themselves.
After hearing a series of words, Xie Lan was confused. He didn't understand what "straight ball" meant. He subconsciously wanted to look it up, but gave up after clicking on Baidu.
I am not in the mood to comfort netizens.
The bell for the end of get out of class suddenly rang, and the sound of tables and chairs being pushed and pulled could be heard in the room. Xie Lan immediately put his phone back into his pocket.
Sure enough, Hu Xiujie soon pushed the door open, glanced at Xie Lan's lonely figure in the corridor, and snorted without surprise.
"Come with me."
Xie Lan sighed silently, put the self-review in his pocket and followed her to the office.
Just like Dou Sheng said, Hu Xiujie was merciless. Xie Lan's self-review was thrown on the table by her. First, she criticized him for the word count and the last three pages were basically a copy of the first three pages. She also reprimanded him for learning all the bad habits in just half a semester after entering school. If he continued to be left alone, he would not be able to graduate from elementary school tomorrow, let alone the math competition. He would be finished in a minute.
Hu Xiujie's scolding speed was astonishingly fast, and every word was like a machine gun firing at people's heads. In the end, Xie Lan's mind was blank and she couldn't even hear what she said.
Hu Xiujie choked on his breath, "Are you listening?"
Xie Lan looked at the table and was silent for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry, teacher. Can you scold me a little slower? I can't keep up."
"… "
There was dead silence in the office for a few seconds, and then Hu Xiujie was actually amused by him.
She sighed, and her tone finally softened as she said, "I watched the video of you and Dou Sheng at noon. You did a good job, and you even organized other students to play together. Now that you are not in the third year of high school, the teacher is not completely against you having extracurricular activities. But you have to be moderate, and concentrate on studying after the activities. Students should know what their main job is and make progress. They should not be disturbed by crooked ways and messy things. Do you understand?"
"Yeah." Xie Lan nodded confusedly, "I understand. I understand your thoughts."
In fact, after repeated thinking, he felt that the source of his anxiety was similar to Hu Xiujie's.
Hu Xiujie didn't want him to violate discipline because he was afraid that he would not study hard and neglect his main job. Just like in his heart, he didn't want Dou Sheng to be involved in complicated interpersonal relationships. He was already very busy studying and making videos at the same time, and he probably feared that Dou Sheng's career would be hindered.
Xie Lan thought about it for a long time before saying, "Teacher, don't worry. I will take good care of the students around me and let them focus on their work."
Hu Xiujie was stunned and said in shock: "Oh my God, do you understand what I said? Take care of yourself first!"
Xie Lan nodded repeatedly, "I understand. Do you have anything else to do? I want to go back and revise this self-review, and try to write it to your satisfaction."
Hu Xiujie's expression was numb. "No need. Go away quickly. Go back and finish the test paper carefully. I'll see how you perform later."
"Okay, teacher." Xie Lan immediately bowed to her. "Then I'll take the review back first. It's not easy to write an essay, so keeping it can also serve as material for your essay."
Hu Xiujie: “…”
Xie Lan went back alone. The corridor of Class 4 was empty. The next class was physical education, so the owls should have gone out.
He was about to put the self-criticism back on its seat and then send a text message to ask where Dou Sheng was.
When Xie Lan reached the classroom door, she hadn't entered yet when her peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar skirt.
Feng Miao.
He paused on his toes and subconsciously retracted them.
There were not only Feng Miao but also Dou Sheng in the classroom. There were only the two of them. Feng Miao was standing on the podium counting the physics homework to be distributed, while Dou Sheng was standing next to the blackboard.
After a long while, Dou Sheng said calmly, "You must have written the note."
Xie Lan choked.
He seemed to have suddenly mastered the word that qzfxr just said - "straight ball".
How can it be like that? I asked after every class after receiving the confession.
Xie Lan felt his heart hanging in his throat, an indescribable nervousness. He instinctively felt that eavesdropping was impolite, but for some reason, he was very curious and wanted to hear what would happen next.
After a long while, Feng Miao finally hummed softly, "I wrote it."
"I'm sorry." Dou Sheng said immediately, "Thank you, but I think I should focus my attention on other things for a while."
The classroom was bright and empty in the afternoon, and Dou Sheng's voice was the same as usual, low and light. I don't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed a little more distant than usual.
Feng Miao didn't say anything, and Dou Sheng sighed again, "I'm really sorry, but don't write me notes in the future. Oh, it's not Xie Lan who said that, I guessed it based on the handwriting."
After he finished speaking, he didn't seem to plan to ask the girl to reply to him. He put his hands in his pockets and turned to his seat. Just as he sat down and took out his pen, Feng Miao suddenly asked softly, "Why did you refuse so straightforwardly? Is it because you are afraid of delaying your studies, or because-"
"I have someone I like." Dou Sheng said lightly.
Xie Lan outside the door was startled.
That suffocating feeling came back again, and he frowned unconsciously.
"Oh..." Feng Miao paused, "Well, okay, then let's forget about what happened this afternoon, and we can still be normal classmates from now on."
"Um."
Feng Miao took the water cup for physical education class and asked again, "Sorry, I still want to know, are you already with her?"
"No. She may not be attracted to me." Dou Sheng lowered his head to write, paused and replied calmly: "She is not a girl from our school, I guess... I met her a few times in junior high school. I like her unilaterally."
The silence in the room seemed unreal.
Xie Lan peeked in from the doorway, and his view was just enough to see the last row. Dou Sheng put down his pen and casually pulled at the pendant hanging from the zipper of his schoolbag on the windowsill, lost in thought.
It was a sycamore leaf-shaped pendant. Xie Lan had noticed it at the airport on the first day of his return. At that time, the "scalp massager" that Che Ming had hung on Dou Sheng's schoolbag hooked his schoolbag strap. When Dou Sheng took off the rag, he touched the small pendant as if to comfort him.
Feng Miao was stunned for a long time and then sighed: "You don't need to be so humble, right? Oh, forget it, I didn't hear anything, I'm going to physical education class."
Dou Sheng didn't say anything else. He casually turned his schoolbag over and began to stare out the window again.
Xie Lan hid temporarily, and Feng Miao left. After a while, Dou Sheng also went out.
Class A next door had already started, and Class 4's classroom was completely empty, leaving him alone in the corridor.
He couldn't tell how he felt, as he suddenly discovered the secret that Dou Sheng had hidden in his heart. As a good friend, he should show some concern or give him some guidance, but he just didn't want to mention it and wanted to pretend that he didn't hear anything.
There is always an indescribable sense of loss.
He sighed softly, decided to put the self-review away and go out to class.
However, when he walked to his seat, he accidentally moved the notes on the table and his fingertips paused.
There was a pink sticky note stuck on my physics notebook. Not only was it pink, it was also in the shape of a heart.
On it is Dou Sheng's clear handwriting:
It’s time for Douzi’s prank class:
Do you smell something burning in the air? That's my heart burning for you.
Don't complain, just hug me.
Xie Lan: “?”