We planned to go to the ice cream parlor to eat ice cream on the weekend but we didn’t get to do so.
Lin Weixia was lying on the bed playing with her phone when she saw Liu Sijia's expression of kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped together. She couldn't help but laugh out loud. She typed in the dialog box with her fingertips and clicked send:
[Don't worry.]
As usual, she helped her aunt at the fruit shop on weekends, and Lin Weixia spent the rest of her time doing homework. On Sunday night, Lin Weixia washed her hair, opened the window, and wiped her hair with a towel while lying on the bed to continue watching "Little Women" which she had not finished last time. A burst of astringent scent of green lemon wafted in.
Water drops dripped down her half-dried hair onto her cotton nightgown, soaking a small area of her back. Lin Weixia saw Joe saying to the male protagonist Laurie:
"Look at me, I'm plain-looking, clumsy and weird."
"But I love you, Joe."
Just as Lin Weixia was about to see the heroine's reaction, the phone next to her started buzzing. She clicked on it and saw that it was a message from Fang Mo:
[Weixia, have you checked the campus forum? It's already in an uproar.]
Lin Weixia replied: [Ah, what’s wrong? ]
Fang Mo: [Ban Sheng and Liu Sijia! My God, don’t you go online on weekends? ]
Fang Mo then sent a Weibo link. Lin Weixia did not have a Weibo account, so she logged in as a visitor. She posted a photo with the ID "Colorful Black" with the text: Today.
It was a photo of a blue swimming pool, with the view extending to the apple-green courtyard outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and water bubbling out of a white watering pipe.
The photo shows the boy's broad and smooth shoulder line, the cold white spines on the back of his neck are obvious, and he looks relaxed. The boy is underwater, with his back pressed against the edge of the swimming pool, resting.
A ray of sunlight just happened to shine through, revealing a hazy sense of ruffian desire.
Lin Weixia didn’t recognize most of the IDs in the comments, so she pressed her thumb down on the screen:
A: [This is Ban Sheng’s house, right? My house happens to be in that area.]
B: [Ah, Scarlett, you went to Benson's house. ]
C: [Awesome, Liu Sijia, I remember Benson never let anyone enter his swimming pool.]
D: [Get together soon, no one can be more suitable than you two. ]
…
The phone vibrated again, and Fang Mo sent a series of [excited][excited][excited] emojis and added a comment:
[From this perspective, Bansheng is so handsome. Finally I see him swimming again. I thought he couldn't do that before—]
At a certain moment, people will have an innate intuition. Lin Weixia's eyelids jumped heavily and asked: [What before? ]
After the message was sent, the dialog box showed that the other party was typing. Lin Weixia's throat tightened and she stared at the screen intently. Finally, she sent a [banging head] expression:
[Nothing, I just remembered it wrong orz]
The next day, Monday, the heat dropped from the previous week.
As soon as Lin Weixia arrived in the classroom and sat down, Liu Sijia came over with her hands behind her back and sat opposite her. Her eyes were brighter than ever.
"Sorry, you know, I—" Liu Sijia couldn't help but raise the corners of her lips, paused, and tried to speak in a steady tone, "But I have a gift for you, okay, open it and take a look."
Lin Weixia took it and opened the box. It turned out to be a school bag, a black Japanese soft leather school bag with exquisite workmanship. It can be carried by hand or on the backpack. The style is retro and playful.
There is a classic logo in the center of the backpack. Most of the A students from wealthy families in the school carry it. It is expensive and this style is very popular in Shenzhen High School.
"This is too expensive. I can't accept it." Lin Weixia pushed it away.
Liu Sijia tilted her head back, her ponytail hanging down, doing her jaw tightening exercise, and stretched out a finger to push back:
"No, this is my apology for standing you up this weekend. Besides, I bought one for myself too, so I wanted to use the couple's version with you. If you don't want it, it would be embarrassing for me to use it alone."
High school students are very open about their friendship. In school, girls who are close to each other will wear the same clothes, carry the same schoolbag, and use the same pencil case. This is a tradition among girls.
Using the same thing means that two people are good friends.
Lin Weixia's eyelashes moved, and she said seriously: "Thank you, I will use it well."
"By the way, Weixia, I went to Bansheng's house on the weekend, and we became more familiar with each other." Liu Sijia raised the corners of her eyes, revealing a little excitement.
Lin Weixia opened her exercise book and was checking the answers. Without even looking up, she said in a serious tone, "It looks like Cupid has hit you."
"Okay, even you are starting to laugh at me—"
As if she had anticipated Liu Sijia's next move, Lin Weixia left the stool and hurriedly backed away, still holding a red pen in her hand, but Liu Sijia had already reached out and scratched her waist.
Lin Weixia was very ticklish and giggled uncontrollably. Faced with Liu Sijia's approaching steps, she started to run, but turned around and bumped into someone's arms. The other person took a step back, afraid that she would fall, and grabbed Lin Weixia's arm.
The first thing I smelled was a faint smell of tobacco mixed with ebony. My head bumped into the other's broad chest. The boy's bones were in the growth and development stage, growing wildly and a little bit painful.
What came into view was a uniform made of crisp fabric. On the left side of her sight, there was a nameplate with the word "Ban" engraved on it. Lin Weixia was startled, her heart skipped a beat, and she immediately stepped back.
Ban Sheng looked at her and let go at the same time.
As the distance between them widened, Lin Weixia saw a red pattern on the chest of Ban Sheng's school uniform, which was the work of the red fountain pen in her hand.
"Sorry." Lin Weixia said.
Liu Sijia happened to catch up, and when she saw Ban Sheng, she smiled brightly: "Good morning."
"Weixia didn't mean it." She put her whole body in front of Lin Weixia, blocking Ban Sheng's view.
Seeing this, Lin Weixia stepped back. Not knowing what Liu Sijia said, the two of them went out and stood in the corridor. Students came into the classroom one after another with breakfast in their hands. There was still some time before morning reading. Lin Weixia took out a white headset and put it on her left ear while doing her homework.
In fact, there is no sound in the headphones at all. She only wears them when she doesn't want to be disturbed.
Fang Mo suddenly turned around and patted Lin Weixia, who took off her headphones and opened her amber eyes to express doubt.
Her skin was very white, and her black hair fell softly behind her. Fang Mo felt that Lin Weixia looked like a cat, quiet and pretty.
"What's wrong?" Lin Weixia asked.
Fang Mo came back to her senses and motioned for her to look out the window. She said enviously, "The two of them are like they're in an idol drama."
Looking through a piece of checkered glass, Liu Sijia was wearing her school uniform, with her hands behind her back, looking up and speaking to Ban Sheng in a bold and flamboyant manner. The boy was wearing a simple school uniform, carrying a black school bag on one shoulder, his Adam's apple sliding up and down, leaning casually against the wall.
It's really pleasing to the eyes.
However, some girls in the class looked at the two of them with resentment in their eyes, and their gazes almost pierced through Liu Sijia.
Soon, the two walked back to the classroom, one after the other. The discussion in the class became louder, and they all cast ambiguous glances at them. Liu Sijia's attitude towards this was the same as the comments under the Weibo post at the weekend. She ignored them and did not reply. She let them spread their thoughts, and the rumors about the two of them being together became more and more intense.
Rumors are the least true.
But if you grasp the excitement of people's nerves, they will believe what they want to believe in their hearts.
Ban Sheng didn't come out and say a word.
He never cared about what others thought.
During the break, the classroom was noisy again, with people doing all kinds of things. Lin Weixia sat on a chair, and the sound of people chatting beside her reached her ears.
"Fuck, what's that on your school uniform, Mr. Ban? Who would be so brave as to draw a heart on you?" Qiu Minghua looked shocked.
Ban Sheng sank into his chair. He glanced lazily at the words. There were a few scribbled strokes of ink on his clothes. It really looked like a scribbled love heart. He snorted and laughed, as if he meant something:
"Probably some heartless wild cat."
Lin Weixia's heart tightened and the page of the book that she was holding with her fingers was almost torn into pieces. Then she walked out and planned to go to the office to get her homework.
The school uniform pen incident was just a minor incident. Ban Sheng and Lin Weixia never crossed paths again, and Lin Weixia would take the initiative to avoid him. Her intuition was that Ban Sheng was a dangerous person, so she would avoid him if possible.
But I don’t know if Ban Sheng did it on purpose. As long as she was with Liu Sijia, he would let Liu Sijia go and leave her alone.
After all, as long as he stands there and raises his hand slightly, even someone as arrogant as Liu Sijia would run over willingly.
At first, Lin Weixia thought it was a coincidence, but after it happened many times, she felt that Ban Sheng did it on purpose.
On Wednesday evening, the two had to go to the basketball club for practice, so they planned to stay in school for dinner. At the cold drink shop on campus, Lin Weixia, wearing a school skirt that revealed a section of her white and tender calves, stood at the window and ordered: "Boss, two glasses of salty lemon seven."
Liu Sijia stood under the tung tree to avoid the sun, fanning the wind with one hand.
The heat in Nanjiang was so hot that even the air was scalding. After waiting for a long time, the Salty Lemon Seven was ready. Lin Weixia raised two cups of Salty Lemon Seven and turned around subconsciously to look for Liu Sijia with her eyes curved.
As a result, she saw Ban Sheng standing there with his hands in his pockets, slightly lowering his neck to talk to her.
Liu Sijia stood in the distance and met her gaze with an apologetic look in her eyes.
This meal can't be eaten.
There was no way she didn't feel lost in her heart, so Lin Weixia suppressed the feeling and smiled gently at her. She turned and walked towards the school gate, planning to eat wontons.
Lin Weixia took out a white earphone from her pocket and put it on her left ear. She took a sip of Salty Lemon Tea, and the refreshing feeling filled her lips and teeth. As she was walking, a long arm stretched out and touched the long, smooth black hair beside her ear, and directly took away her earphone.
Lin Weixia turned her head and saw that it was her deskmate Ning Chao.
Ning Chao listened for less than three seconds and found that there was no music in the headphones. He returned the headphones to her expressionlessly and gave her a thumbs up:
“Awesome.”
Lin Weixia was amused by his frightened expression. She found that Ning Chao always wore school uniform or pink T-shirts, and he never wore the same ones twice.
She suspected Ning Chao had a closet full of pink T-shirts.
"Do you like pink very much?" Lin Weixia asked.
Ning Chao hummed in agreement and added, "Of course, that's your deskmate's lucky color."
As he was talking, he noticed that Lin Weixia was holding a glass of Salty Lemon Wine in her right hand and a packaged iced drink in her left hand, so he leaned over to grab the Salty Lemon Wine from her hand.
Ning Chao didn't want to drink, he just wanted to tease her. He felt that this girl always looked calm and gentle, and he wanted to see other expressions on her face.
Her emotions were too restrained.
Lin Weixia subconsciously stood on tiptoe to grab the cold drink that Ning Chao was holding high in his hand, but he switched to his left hand and then to his right hand, and the two soon started to quarrel.
From Ban Sheng's perspective, the two of them were in a somewhat intimate posture. Ning Chao was a head taller than her, and his arm touched her shoulder from time to time. Lin Weixia was completely unaware of it, and in the end she was so angry that she laughed at Ning Chao's action of putting Xian Ningqi on the wall.
The warm setting sun lengthened the two people's shadows, revealing a beauty that could not be disturbed.
Ban Sheng's eyes darkened in an instant, and he chewed the candy in his mouth with a "crunch" sound, then swallowed it directly, leaving behind a sentence:
"I remembered something, I'm leaving first."
The situation took a turn for the worse. Liu Sijia didn't know why Ban Sheng's mood suddenly dropped. He left without saying a word.
What is she in this situation? She felt sad.
But it’s the beginning.
Within just one week, people in the school spread the rumor that Ban Sheng had broken up with Liu Sijia over the weekend. The rumor spread more and more, saying that Liu Sijia had been dumped and that Ban Sheng had a new crush on someone, a senior schoolmate.
What confirmed the rumor was that Liu Sijia did not come to school for a week and had been on leave.
Lin Weixia called, but no one answered. She also asked the class teacher for Liu Sijia's address and went to visit her after school, but she refused to see her.
Lin Weixia was very worried, afraid that something might happen to her.
Liu Sijia is such a strong-willed person, and the only one who could make her become like this and destroy her self-esteem is probably Ban Sheng.
Lin Weixia decided to look for Ban Sheng. It would be too conspicuous to look for him in class. She knew that Ban Sheng would not appear in the basketball club. She heard that he never played basketball with people he didn't know well, but basically twice a week he would play basketball with Li Shengran's brother in the No. 4 basketball hall.
Fang Mo saw this while on duty at the gymnasium.
In the evening, Lin Weixia went to Basketball Hall No. 4 and heard the sound of a basketball hitting the floor from afar. Ban Sheng was dribbling the ball in a red jersey. The loose clothes made the boy's shoulders look broader and stronger, and his tight arms had smooth lines.
Ban Sheng stood outside the three-pointer, his bony fingers firmly grasping the ball, and he jumped up to shoot, his elbow straight, and the ball made a parabolic motion and fell into the basket.
Li Yiran was lying on the steps in front of the audience, looking like he had no bones, with an empty beer can next to him. He slumped there, exuding the smell of decadence, and he didn't forget to comment on Ban Sheng's ball skills:
"Not bad, how about I teach you a couple of moves?"
Ban Sheng arrogantly gave him a middle finger.
Lin Weixia stood there. She had heard of Li Yiran. He was a senior in high school, one year older than them. He was Li Shengran's half-brother. Although he was a senior in high school, he had always lived up to his reputation as a drunkard. At the same time, he was famous for his mental arithmetic.
People have an unusual tolerance for genius.
The teachers in the school can only turn a blind eye.
Lin Weixia said, "Ban Sheng, I have something to talk to you about."
Ban Sheng turned around. He had a headband tied on his forehead, which made his eyes look even darker and sharper. Sweat dripped down his sharp jaw to his collarbone. He quickly glanced over her and replied:
“No time.”
Before he turned his back again, Lin Weixia's breathing quickened slightly and she emphasized, "Five minutes."
Ban Sheng glanced at the lying Li Yiran, who had kept his eyes closed until then, and slowly opened them. He struggled to get up from the ground, picked up a beer can beside him and threw it into the trash can, deliberately doing something naughty:
"Ah Sheng, among all the girls who came to see you, this one is the prettiest."
Ban Sheng raised his eyelids and looked at him, exerting silent pressure, and the latter shrugged and walked away.
There were only two of them left on the field. Ban Sheng looked at her, suddenly threw the ball in his hand into Lin Weixia's arms, and said slowly:
"If you pass me one ball, you win."
Lin Weixia subconsciously caught the ball, thought for a moment and nodded. She didn't know how to play basketball, and Liu Sijia dragged her into the basketball club just to make up the numbers. Her athletic ability was average, but now she had no choice but to bite the bullet and join.
Lin Weixia patted the basketball and started dribbling, with Ban Sheng standing in front of her. Lin Weixia took the ball and shot it, and Ban Sheng didn't even need to jump up. He took advantage of his height advantage of being a head taller than her and stretched out his long arms to easily intercept her ball.
She tried a different tactic—a fake shot, holding the basketball in front of him and pretending to throw it in the opposite direction when he was off guard. However, Ban Sheng ignored her move and blocked Lin Weixia's ball again.
No matter how Lin Weixia tried to throw the ball, Ban Sheng could predict her next move. But he was a very casual person, with an attitude of "I'm here to play with you, so you can do whatever you want."
After more than ten minutes, a thin layer of sweat appeared on Lin Weixia's forehead, and her fair cheeks turned slightly red, perhaps because of anger or exercise.
Ban Sheng raised his eyebrows, lowered his neck and slowly turned the wrist guard in his hand.
A pair of amber eyes rolled gently.
The basketball hit the floor again, and Lin Weixia grabbed the ball and rushed directly in front of him without any expectation. Ban Sheng just lowered his head, and his innocent face collided with his dark pupils.
Lin Weixia was almost in front of him, looking at him with her eyelashes raised. From Ban Sheng's perspective, her skin was very white, her pupils were clear and bright, and her black eyelashes were trembling slightly.
Her eyes were fan-shaped, very beautiful almond-shaped eyes.
The distance between the two people was infinitely shortened, their breathing was alternately fast and slow, lingering around each other.
Ban Sheng smelled a sweet fruity scent on her body, his Adam's apple slid up and down, and he felt a momentary itch.
Lin Weixia opened her eyes and looked at him, so focused that it seemed as if he was the only one in her eyes. She spoke slowly but seriously: "So you have a mole under your eye."
It was one, not two. The mole on Ban Sheng's face was located under his left eye, close to the bridge of his nose. It was very small, adding a touch of lust to his originally cold features. It was like a small shadow, making him even more bewitching.
Usually no one notices it.
But she found out.
Ban Sheng was stunned for a moment.
Lin Weixia took the opportunity to turn sideways, held the ball and threw it hard. The basketball slowly spun along the basket and finally fell down.
After a sigh of relief, Lin Weixia's eyes became clear again and she stepped back to put some distance between them.
In the aisle by the pool at the back of the playground, a slender hand was clasped on the faucet, with the knuckles bent, the light blue veins more obvious. The faucet was turned on, and a white stream of water rushed to the bottom of the sink, smashing out one flower after another.
Ban Sheng was hunched over, lowering his head, and was rubbing his face with cold water, with water droplets splashing. Lin Weixia stood aside and said:
"Why are you playing tricks on Scarlett? You promised and then broke your promise."
It gives people hope and expectations, and then throws them to the bottom.
This is Bansheng.
The sound of water stopped abruptly. Ban Sheng looked up. His hair was wet, and there were water drops on his high brow bones. His straight gaze pinned her to the spot, unable to move. He spoke slowly:
"That's a question for you."