On Friday, the tall sycamore trees on campus opened their green leaves to receive the scorching sun, and the hot air swept through every corner, but fortunately, compared to the summer in Nanjiang, the heat was bearable now.
After finishing the morning reading, Lin Weixia and Fang Mo went to the corner of the corridor to get some water. Fang Mo took Lin Weixia's arm and said affectionately, "It's great that you're here. Now I feel that being a F student is not so bad."
The two of them came to the water dispenser. Fang Mo shook the cup in her hand at her and said cheerfully, "Look at the new cup. It's a co-branded model that my dad spent a lot of time to get. It's on sale in limited quantities."
Fang Mo was holding a cat claw capsule thermos cup of a certain niche brand. It was a pink cat claw sheath thermos cup with the label still on, shining in the reflection of the sunlight.
"It looks good." Lin Weixia responded.
Fang Mo smiled, and Lin Weixia stood by her side. She pressed the blue button and got a cup of warm water. She was a little thirsty, so she stood by the water dispenser and drank the water slowly.
"Weixia, your cup is very beautiful. What brand is it?" Fang Mo asked.
Lin Weixia swallowed a mouthful of water, then held up the cup and looked around along the lines, then smiled: "It's not worth much, it's just an ordinary glass wind line cup. My family runs a fruit shop, and this is a free cup for making juice."
As the two were talking, someone touched her shoulder. Lin Weixia turned around and saw that it was Student A. These two girls were getting along very well with Li Shengran.
"It's Li Shengran's birthday this week. Her family will hold a party. You can come."
They said they were asked by Li Shengran to invite her, but Student A was always arrogant. Even though Lin Weixia was wearing the school uniform of Shenzhen High School, they could see from her schoolbag and the socks with wool sticking out from the stitched black soft leather shoes that they all looked inferior.
So the other party didn't say something like "Are you coming?" or "You are invited", but instead said condescendingly that she could come.
Lin Weixia was not angry, she said gently but directly refused: "Sorry, I have other plans for the weekend."
Although the two girls were surprised by her refusal for a moment, they shrugged and said nothing. When they left, they glanced at the cup in Lin Weixia's hand and praised, "The cup is nice."
The butterfly birthmark on Lin Weixia's face is very beautiful. With her face, the whole person exudes a unique artistic beauty, and her temperament is cold and lonely.
No one can resist beauty.
Even want to take the initiative to get closer.
Student A was holding a more expensive brand-name water cup, but he was willing to praise the ordinary glass wind-line cup. Ultimately, it’s because he is a special person.
Instead of following the crowd, one has his own individual beauty, which is appreciated by others unconsciously.
After the people left, Fang Mo almost jumped up and said, "Look! I told you your cup is beautiful."
Lin Weixia was still wondering why Li Shengran invited her again when he obviously didn't like her. When she heard Fang Mo's voice, her thoughts were pulled back and she smiled and replied:
"If you like, I'll get one for you tomorrow. There are still a lot at home."
"Oh yeah, Weixia, you're the best!" Fang Mo said happily, then changed the subject to envy, "But why don't you go to their parties? They basically don't invite F students to play with them, unless there are the rare F students who go to the parties to help. It would be great if you could go."
"The store at home is busy on weekends," Lin Weixia explained.
The two walked towards the classroom together. Fang Mo had a lot to talk about with Lin Weixia when she was together. She started talking about how she was worried that Lin Weixia and Li Shengran had become too awkward and that her life would be difficult in the future.
"But where did you pick up the nameplate?" Fang Mo asked the same question as Liu Sijia.
Lin Weixia had to explain it again. Fang Mo's eyes widened as she realized something. "Ban Sheng is like this. You may not know this, but he is very good at drawing. He has a first-class talent. He was the one who designed the uniforms for Shen Gao High School. The principal liked it very much when he saw it and wanted to buy the design."
"Guess what, he refused to sell it and said he could give it away for free, but Ban Sheng gave a condition."
"What?" Lin Weixia asked.
"He said that he has to supply the industrial chain of these school supplies." Fang Mo snapped her fingers.
According to what Liu Sijia said, Ban Sheng is indeed very smart and knows how to take advantage of someone with a prerequisite. Lin Weixia suddenly thought of something and frowned: "So it was Ban Sheng's idea to use bow ties to classify people into different levels?"
"I don't know about that. I didn't get admitted directly from Shenzhen High School. I was a quota student from another school, so I don't know." Fang Mo scratched her head.
Lin Weixia couldn't help but continue asking, "No one raised any objections? It's so blatant to divide people into different circles."
"Yes, there were F students who raised their opinions, but they were rejected. Isn't it ridiculous? Shenzhen High School is committed to democracy and openness, and has even set up a senior support department, but the department heads are all A students. Of course they disagreed, and the explanation was that this is the tradition of Shenzhen High School."
At this time, the class bell rang, Lin Weixia stopped what she wanted to say and went back to the classroom. After class, when Lin Weixia and Liu Sijia went to the school convenience store to buy cold drinks, she mentioned that Li Shengran invited her to a party.
Liu Sijia was picking out ice cream in front of the freezer and asked, "Do you agree?"
Lin Weixia took a lychee-flavored crushed ice, took a bite, and shook her head: "No, I refused."
Liu Sijia picked up a box of Baxi, took a wooden spoon from the cashier, and walked towards the classroom with Lin Weixia. Liu Sijia scooped a mouthful of ice cream and put it in her mouth, snorting coldly:
"Li Shengran also invited me. She came here to make peace."
Liu Sijia rolled her eyes and guessed, "Or, someone put pressure on her."
"So you refused too?" Lin Weixia asked.
Liu Sijia used a spoon to make a circle along the ice cream, her lips still red: "No, I agreed. He will go too, because Li Shengran's brother is a good friend of Ban Sheng."
"Weixia, please go with me."
Lin Weixia wanted to refuse, but when she met her eyes, she remembered the day when Liu Sijia defended her in front of everyone and calmly said that she was my friend.
"good."
After Fang Mo's questioning during the day, Lin Weixia remembered that she still owed Ban Sheng 12 yuan, which she had never had the chance to pay back. So when distributing Chinese homework books during evening self-study, she slipped 12 yuan into them.
After handing out the homework, Lin Weixia pulled out a stool and sat down. Ning Chao, who had just returned from playing basketball on the court, swaggered in wearing his flirty pink T-shirt, and then went to sleep.
The fiery clouds outside the window looked like a juicy fruit candy, crushing the sparkling icing and blowing the test papers on the desk in the evening breeze, making a rustling sound.
The teacher on duty was sitting at the podium grading homework. There was a little noise during the evening study session. Lin Weixia was lowering her head and doing her English homework seriously.
With a "bang", something hit her and landed on her desk. Lin Weixia put down her pen, opened the box and saw a few banknotes falling out, 12 yuan.
There was also her note, with Lin Weixia's cold and polite words "thank you" attached to it.
After "Thank you", there was another line, followed by a string of cold, clear and powerful words:
No cash accepted
Then it is followed by a string of letters and numbers.
This is Ban Sheng’s WeChat ID.
Lin Weixia held the note and looked over. Ban Sheng was sitting by the window, one seat away from her. He was studying a map leisurely, the spinous processes on the back of his tall, cold white neck rising and falling with his movements, and he pretended nothing had happened.
Shenzhen High School limits students’ use of mobile phones to outside of class, but Lin Weixia felt her fingers getting hot as she held the note, almost burning her ears.
She wanted to pay Ban Sheng back as soon as possible and resolve the matter.
Lin Weixia took out her cell phone from under the table, searched according to the instructions on the note, and clicked Add.
In less than two seconds, the addition was successful and the page displayed: The other party has passed your friend verification request and you can start chatting now.
Lin Weixia found that his profile picture was completely black, but when she clicked on it to enlarge it, she saw a small starry sky in the upper left corner. His nickname was: Ban
Is it the pinyin of his name, or the English word Ban, which means prohibition or abolition
She didn't have time to think about it and quickly transferred the money to Ban Sheng. The page showed that the other party was typing. Lin Weixia stared at the screen for a while, but didn't see him take the money.
During an evening study session, Lin Weixia looked at her phone three times, but there was no display on it. He did not send a message, but the money was not collected either.
He clearly saw her transferring the money.
After school, Lin Weixia came home and took a bath. She sat in front of the window in her nightgown. She opened the window and the cool evening breeze blew in. There were two trees planted in her yard, one was a lychee tree and the other was a lemon tree.
Green fruits are on the flourishing branches, and a burst of green fragrance is coming. Lin Weixia stared at the lemon tree in a daze. It is almost October, and she can make salted lemon seven.
The cell phone vibrated and Liu Sijia sent more than a dozen messages in a row, asking Lin Weixia to help her choose clothes to wear to Li Shengran's birthday party at the weekend.
Lin Weixia helped her pick out a black waist-hugging skirt.
The two were chatting casually when the phone page showed that there was an incoming message, so they clicked it to take a look.
Ban Sheng sent the address location, and—
Ban: Don’t take the wrong road.
Lin Weixia didn't reply in the end, and she had no interest in knowing why Ban Sheng knew that she would also go to the party.
Sunday, sunny. Lin Weixia took a few coins and ate a bowl of rice noodles at the breakfast shop downstairs. After eating, she rushed to her aunt's fruit shop to help. The business was good on weekends, mostly adults brought their children to the store, so she had not read Agatha's "The Mystery of Roger" in the drawer under the cash register.
As dusk fell, Lin Weixia held a pot of cactus and hurriedly took the bus to the corner area to attend Li Shengran's birthday party.
Lin Weixia was sitting on the bus, she took out her phone and sent a message to Liu Sijia:
[I’m leaving now.]
After sending the message and waiting for a while without receiving a reply, Lin Weixia turned off her phone.
It took nearly an hour to reach Jiaojiao Station.
Jujiao District is a well-known wealthy area in Nanjiang. The bus cannot go up there and can only stop at the foot of the mountain. There are two forked roads in front of her. Lin Weixia found that the road was not only roundabout but also a bit long. She tried to walk for a while, but somehow she ended up going back.
Lin Weixia sighed, opened her phone and sent a message to Liu Sijia:
[I reached the foot of the mountain.]
[I forgot to tell you that I have a poor sense of direction. φ(￣0￣) ]
After hesitating for half a minute, I typed and sent it out:
[Scarlett, can you come pick me up? ]
The message fell on deaf ears. As the dusk disappeared inch by inch like an ink painting washed by water and cars passed by one after another, Lin Weixia felt a little impatient and finally chose to call Liu Sijia.
The call took a long time before it was connected. There was a lot of noise coming from Liu Sijia's back, and the sound of balloons being punctured from time to time. The girl screamed in fear, and the boy laughed out loud. Liu Sijia's voice was cheerful and happy:
"Weixia, are you here?"
Lin Weixia breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Scarlett, I—" But before she could finish her words, accompanied by the sound of electricity in the receiver, Li Shengran's drawn-out voice came from the other side: "Scarlett, come here quickly!"
"Weixia, I won't talk to you anymore. I'm a little busy here."
Then the phone was hung up with a "click" sound, and then the receiver was busy. Lin Weixia put away the phone and sighed softly.
Lin Weixia stood there holding a pot of cactus for five minutes. When she was hesitating whether to go back, a black car braked suddenly and stopped.
The wheel rubbed against the stones and spun, making a sharp and piercing sound. The sound exceeded the tactile threshold and rose sharply. A burst of tinnitus came from the right ear. Lin Weixia subconsciously covered her ears. Her chest suddenly palpitated. She tried to breathe and calm herself down.
Then look over there.
The car window was lowered, and an arm was placed on the side. A black mechanical watch was buckled on the clear wrist bone, covering the light blue veins. Ben Sheng leaned lazily on the back seat, wearing a black hoodie with the hood on his head. He looked at her with dark eyes and spoke:
"Are you going to go up?"