It was nine o'clock in the morning when Jiang Qiaoxi walked out of the gate of the Foreign Languages High School. The last class of the exchange class was over, and Jiang Qiaoxi had to go back to the laboratory to continue his class.
A car was parked at the school gate, across the street, near the post office. Jiang Qiaoxi crossed the traffic alone and walked slowly forward. He heard a student from the competition class behind him shouting, "Jiang Xueshen, goodbye! See you at the winter camp!"
Jiang Qiaoxi stood outside the car and couldn't help but take a breath of fresh air. He reached out and opened the car door.
Then he lowered his head and got into the car, resigned to his fate.
Jiang Zheng's driver was wearing gloves and steering the car. Liang Hongfei was sitting in the front passenger seat. Through the rearview mirror, she saw Jiang Qiaoxi sitting in the back seat with no expression on his face. This child was still the same as usual, with no enthusiasm for anything except studying mathematics.
"Let's go." She said with satisfaction.
The car was slowly pushed out.
"Qiaoxi, how is it living on campus these days?"
"Well enough."
"Is the teacher teaching well here?"
"good."
"I called you yesterday, but you didn't answer."
"… "
"You even hung up the phone. What were you doing?" Liang Hongfei said as he sat in the front.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "I'm looking at the questions in the bathroom."
Liang Hongfei said: "Do I need a mobile phone to look at the questions?"
Jiang Qiaoxi took a deep breath for a while.
"Lights out at ten," he said.
The driver next to me said honestly, "The management of boarding at the Foreign Language School is quite strict!"
Liang Hongfei said: "I should have brought a flashlight earlier."
There was no radio in the car, not even any music. The car was new, and it was a replacement car that the Power Construction Group had just replaced for the group's top leaders. Jiang Qiaoxi sat in the back, turned his head, and looked out the window in the closed silence, but could not see any color.
Liang Hongfei was chatting with the driver in the front, and mentioned that Jiang Qiaoxi didn't like riding in a car since he was a child. He was prone to motion sickness and vomiting, and he also didn't like riding in a train.
"Qiaoxi, has the school decided to go to winter camp?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Not yet."
"Time is so tight," Liang Hongfei said, "If the provincial team and the laboratory don't need to go together, I'll book your tickets in advance."
"Okay." Jiang Qiaoxi responded.
He took out a handout from his bag and lowered his head to do the math.
Liang Hongfei didn't speak to him anymore.
"Read the handouts more during the next few days at school." When the car arrived at the gate of Experimental High School, Liang Hongfei opened the door and got out and said, "These are the last few days. Qiaoxi, you have to do it for your brother—"
The driver advised from the side: "Sister-in-law, don't say anything more, Qiaoxi is such a sensible child!"
Jiang Qiaoxi got off the car, pulled up his schoolbag, put it on his back, and walked towards the gate of the experimental school without looking back.
When he turned into the teaching building, he suddenly took a deep breath and felt much more comfortable.
It was during the break, and the morning exercises had just ended. Jiang Qiaoxi went upstairs. On the stairs and in the corridor, he could hear the laughter and noise of high school students everywhere. They were clearly his peers, but Jiang Qiaoxi seemed to be living in a different time and space from them.
"Jiang Qiaoxi, is your communication class over?"
It was Felinger, who was standing at the door of Class 18, looking at him with surprise.
Jiang Qiaoxi nodded, brushed past him and walked into the classroom.
He walked across the stage.
"That's impossible! Did Yu Jin really admit it?"
He heard Lin Yingtao's laughter, and together with Yu Qiao and the others, Lin Yingtao asked excitedly: "What did he say exactly?"
Cai Fangyuan sat at the same table as Yu Qiao and frowned, "Yu Jin is just a little old, he knows nothing."
Lin Yingtao smiled and said, "Yu Jin is in fifth grade now, but I always feel that he is still just a little bit—"
Lin Yingtao stretched her hand into the air and gestured to Yu Jin's short height.
Suddenly, her hand was grabbed by Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Yingtao was stunned and turned around to see him in surprise.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood beside Huang Zhanjie's desk with his schoolbag on his back and said with his head down, "Come out with me."
The class was full of students who had just returned from their physical exercises during the break. They all raised their heads and watched Jiang Qiaoxi drag Lin Qile out of his seat, across the podium in front, and out the door.
Felinger was in the corridor, staring at the scene in amazement: "Jiang... Jiang Qiaoxi?"
Lin Yingtao was confused about the situation. Jiang Qiaoxi dragged her past Class 17, and then to the door of Class 16. The corridor was full of students, some chatting, some getting water, and they all turned to look at them.
"Why are you pulling me?" Lin Yingtao said fearfully, her wrist tightly held by Jiang Qiaoxi, "Don't pull me, I can walk by myself!"
Jiang Qiaoxi dragged Lin Yingtao all the way to the stairs. He looked down at Lin Yingtao and let go of her hand.
"Come on, downstairs," he said.
Lin Yingtao was confused. There were people all around them, classmates looking at them. Lin Yingtao felt panicky.
Jiang Qiaoxi walked behind silently. Lin Yingtao went downstairs in front of him.
Coming out of the teaching building, passing the outdoor basketball court and crossing the physics and chemistry laboratory building, there is a small path hidden in the shade of trees, leading directly to the back door of the small white building.
As soon as Lin Yingtao went astray, Jiang Qiaoxi pulled her back to the right path.
The Little White Building was not open at this time, so the door was locked. Jiang Qiaoxi stood tall in front of the door, took the key from his schoolbag, opened the door, and dragged Lin Yingtao in.
Lin Yingtao had never been to this place before, so she looked up and around.
Jiang Qiaoxi walked through the corridor and casually pushed open the door of a study room on the first floor. There was no one inside. He pulled Lin Yingtao in and closed the door.
"What did you mean yesterday?" he asked as soon as he entered the door.
Lin Yingtao stood in the study room. She stared around with her big eyes, then looked back at him.
"What?" she asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi came up to her.
He looked down at her, silent at first, then suddenly raised his head and his Adam's apple rolled.
Lin Yingtao understood.
"You said, that..." She realized it belatedly.
"Why are you asking?" she said.
Yesterday on the phone, Lin Yingtao thought she had made it clear enough and explained it clearly enough, but Jiang Qiaoxi kept asking, so she had to repeat it over and over again.
Jiang Qiaoxi put down his schoolbag, pulled a chair over from the side, and sat on it.
It seemed like he had no intention of attending the next class. He raised his head and wanted to listen to what Lin Yingtao had to explain.
Lin Yingtao stood in front of him, wearing the same school uniform as him, and was only slightly taller than him when she was sitting.
"Jiang Qiaoxi," Lin Yingtao said, "I... I don't want to be angry with you anymore."
Jiang Qiaoxi raised his eyes: "Why?"
Lin Yingtao said to him: "I was too young before, I didn't know what I was doing."
Jiang Qiaoxi narrowed his eyes in confusion.
Lin Yingtao said: "So don't take what happened in the past seriously. I know some of your friends think I was clinging to you and pestering you, but that's really not the case. I was just—"
"I never felt that way," said Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Yingtao looked at him.
"But everyone thinks so." She lowered her head.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Lin Yingtao."
Lin Yingtao was stunned: "Hey."
Jiang Qiaoxi said, "Do you know what those old men and women, uncles and aunts said about you and me behind our backs when we were at the construction site in the mountains?"
Lin Yingtao didn't understand: "How, how do you say that?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said calmly: "They said you are my 'little girlfriend'."
Lin Yingtao blinked.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't say anything either, just looked at her.
Lin Yingtao muttered, "What... How old was I when we were in the mountains? You, you are the same age as me, the same age as Yu Jin is now..."
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't want to refute her.
"Who told you that?" Lin Yingtao asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Go back and ask your parents."
Lin Yingtao hesitated and shut her mouth.
The two of them, one standing and one sitting, were facing each other in the empty study room. It was only two days ago that they met and didn't say a word.
"Then what does this have to do with...what does this have to do with what your friend said about me..." Lin Yingtao said.
"They know nothing and understand nothing." Jiang Qiaoxi said.
Lin Yingtao said in injustice: "Aren't they your friends?"
"Yu Qiao is also your friend," Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly said, "Have you told him about you and me?"
Lin Yingtao suddenly pouted.
"What do you and I have to do with each other?" she said. "It's nothing."
Jiang Qiaoxi glared at her in front of him.
Lin Yingtao lowered her head, then turned her head away after a while.
"Your friends..." She suddenly sounded aggrieved, "They said that what I said was so rude. I just came to school, I didn't come to do anything bad, and I didn't offend them..."
It seemed that without them noticing, the two people talking were no longer Lin Qile and Jiang Qiaoxi from Class 18, Grade 2 of the Provincial Experimental High School.
They stayed in a small closed room, and even the adults took a nap behind a large wardrobe.
No one could hear what was being said except the evergreen by the window.
"I'm not writing to them..." Lin Yingtao took a deep breath and curled her lips. As she spoke, she suddenly squatted on the ground.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood up suddenly, pulled out a chair, and squatted in front of Lin Yingtao.
"Cherries," he said.
He saw Lin Yingtao's shoulders trembling, and she buried her face deeply in her knees. "Why are they laughing at me..." Lin Yingtao said in a suppressed voice, crying in grievance.
Lin Qile was absent from the third math class in the morning. During the break, she ran back from outside with red eyes and bumped into the math teacher walking out the door.
The teacher saw the well-behaved student with two swollen eyes and asked: "What's wrong with you?"
Lin Qile pursed his lips and said aggrievedly: "Teacher, I... I have a stomachache..."
She quickly covered her stomach with her hands.
The teacher lowered his head and bent over to look: "Are you covering your liver?"
Lin Qile quickly moved her hand down; she was too nervous.
Jiang Qiaoxi came from far behind, still carrying his schoolbag, as if he had just come back. When the math teacher saw him, he asked, "Jiang Qiaoxi, have you finished your foreign language class?"
"Hello, teacher." Jiang Qiaoxi walked closer, lowered his head and said politely.
Lin Qile was standing next to him, holding his stomach, feeling very anxious.
The math teacher asked kindly, "How do you feel now? Are you confident about the winter camp?"
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly laughed, and even the math teacher was stunned, as it was rare to see this student laugh.
"Teacher, I just saw this student coming out of the school hospital," Jiang Qiaoxi said. He pointed at Lin Qile and said to the teacher, "She doesn't seem to be feeling well."
The math teacher was stunned and turned around quickly.
"Really?" The teacher quickly supported Lin Qile, "Then hurry up, go in!"
Lin Qile walked to Huang Zhanjie and sat back in her seat. Her eyes were big to begin with, and after crying, they looked even more pitiful. Many classmates were looking at her. They all knew that Lin Qile was dragged out by Jiang Qiaoxi during the break today, and the two of them didn't come back for the whole class. This was too interesting.
Lin Qile turned her head in her seat and looked back. She saw Jiang Qiaoxi coming in from the back door, but he didn't sit down. Jiang Qiaoxi stood by the wall and lowered his head to say a few words to Feilinger.
As Jiang Qiaoxi was talking, he suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Lin Qile.