When the evening self-study get out of class was over, it was already dark.
When Bai Lu came back from the bathroom, Jiang Ru was still lying on the table, surrounded by girls.
Someone took her place, and Bai Lu sat in the back and waited.
The conversation of a group of people next to him came to his ears.
"Don't cry, Ruru, school is over."
"Okay, don't be sad."
"There are still a few days until the exam, so we can't delay the results."
"Yes, it's the exam that matters."
"..."
Bai Lu found time to take off her schoolbag hanging on the outside of the table, and zipped it up. When she just picked it up, her shoulders slumped down hard, and Bai Lu shook her body slightly, adapting to the weight of the schoolbag.
She came to stand beside the group of girls.
Among this group of people, she is the most inconspicuous, not tall, with small facial features, and a pair of big glasses.
Bai Lu's hair is light in color, especially in the sun. It is a faint golden color. Many times in physical education class, the dean asked her out of the queue and asked her if she had dyed her hair.
In fact, she was only slightly malnourished.
The group of girls hasn't dispersed yet, chattering and chatting.
It's a pity that these female high school students of science and engineering are not very good at comforting others, and they talked softly for a long time, but it was nothing more than cheering up and working hard so as not to affect the exam.
Didn't get to the point, more than half an hour has passed.
"Hey? What else are you doing?" Teacher Liu, the class teacher next door, poked his head in. "It's so late, why don't we have a symposium?" He waved his hand, "Hurry up, let's go, if you have anything to say, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
The teacher came to chase them away, and the girls packed their bags one after another.
"Then let's go." A girl turned her head, only to find Bai Lu who was sitting beside her waiting.
"Oh, Bai Lu." The other girls also turned around, looked at Bai Lu, and instructed each other.
"Later, please try to persuade Ruru more."
"Yes, you are in the same dormitory."
A girl leaned down and whispered in Bai Lu's ear, "Don't let her be sad, that boy is so bad, he's not worth it at all."
Bai Lu: "..."
If there is no need to do so, which pot will not be opened and which pot will be lifted.
Sure enough, the crying on the side was even worse.
The girls wanted to persuade her again, when the bell rang, it was the last bell of the day, Bai Lu glanced at the clock on the wall, it was already nine forty.
Bai Lu: "Go home, it's too late." After a pause, she added, "I will persuade her."
Everyone left, only Bai Lu and Jiang Ru remained.
Bai Lu touched Jiang Ru's arm and whispered, "Let's go too."
The girl was still sobbing, maybe it was because the classroom was empty, her crying became more obvious.
Bai Lu sat for a while, and when it was almost ten o'clock, she said, "If you don't leave, the gate will be locked."
Jiang Ru didn't move, Bai Lu said again: "If you ask Auntie to open the door, it will be recorded, if—"
"Then you go!" Jiang Ru jumped up suddenly, looked up at Bai Lu from the desk.
Bai Lu felt that she should actually be staring at herself, but because she cried too many times recently, her eyes were swollen like peaches, and staring would be a line.
Bai Lu didn't speak, and within a few seconds, Jiang Ru's momentum disappeared. She grabbed Bai Lu's school uniform cuff and breathed in like a wounded animal.
"Bai Lu, I'm sorry..." She swallowed every word, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have hurt you..."
Bai Lu sighed, "Why are you apologizing to me?"
Jiang Ru is like a dummy who has lost her soul, with messy hair. Bai Lu took her hand, "Come on, get up."
Jiang Ru didn't move, and Bai Lu said, "Let's go back to the dormitory and talk slowly."
Bai Lu is small, and her voice is also small. Her delicate tone played a soothing role, and Jiang Ru was pulled up by her.
"Go." Bai Lu said.
The provincial key high school of the Sixth Middle School has gathered nearly 2,000 outstanding high school students from the whole province.
Because not all the students are local, No. 6 Middle School has a dormitory building for students. The cheap one is 800 yuan a semester for four people, and the expensive one is 1,200 yuan for double rooms.
Bai Lu and Jiang Ru are roommates in a double room.
When walking towards the dormitory building, Jiang Ru kept her head down, Bai Lu led her and walked in front to prevent her from bumping directly into the street light.
After walking a few steps, Jiang Ru stopped.
Bai Lu turned her head.
Jiang Ru is slightly taller than her, but also very thin, with a long and slender neck, making her head look a bit big. Jiang Ru was assigned from the liberal arts teacher's class when she was in the second class of high school.
Bai Lu still remembers the first time she met Jiang Ru, she was the least conspicuous among the seven or eight students, with her ponytail tied behind her big head, big eyes, and bright forehead.
When the teacher called her name, she also said, looking at her like this, she must be a smart child.
Jiang Ru smiled embarrassedly, and for some reason, Bai Lu also laughed when she sat down.
Jiang Ru looked at the ground, and the dim street lights in the campus cast her shadow for a long time.
"I want to get out..." she whispered.
Bai Lu: "Where are you going?"
Jiang Ru: "I want to go out..."
In the dead of night, only the canteen in the distance is still lit. Now it is actually during the summer vacation, and the high schools in the city are catching up with the progress, and the college entrance examination candidates will start classes in August.
Because it was too late after school, the school had to provide supper for the boarding students, and the canteen was usually open until 10:30.
Bai Lu said, "How about going to eat something first, I'll treat you."
Jiang Ru let go of her hand and shook her head, "No, I want to go out, you can go back by yourself."
"It's so late, I can't come back when I go out, what should I do if I check my bed at night."
Jiang Ru has made up her mind and refuses to go back to the dormitory no matter what.
The person had already turned her head and walked outside, Bai Lu looked at her back, dumbfounded.
As Jiang Ru walked, she felt that there was another person beside her. She turned her head and saw the little Bai Lu holding her schoolbag with both hands, walking in a muffled voice.
Jiang Ru said, "Are you coming with me?"
Bai Lu nodded without saying a word.
On a summer night, restless and peaceful, Jiang Ru smiled at her and reached out to hold her.
"Bai Lu, you are so kind."
Bai Lu pulled the corner of her mouth.
Coming out of the campus, there were not many vehicles on Huanghai Street at the entrance. Bai Lu finally turned her head and looked at the dormitory building, thinking that tomorrow must be bad.
Jiang Ru didn't have so many thoughts. When she came out of school, she was more energetic than before, and she talked more.
"Let's go to his school." Jiang Ru said, "You say I'll call him and ask him to come out, okay?"
Bai Lu had heard Jiang Ru's "he" many times, and had seen photos on Jiang Ru's phone, but she had never seen him in person.
Jiang Ru started chatting with Bai Lu about him more than two months ago.
On the day of the chat, she ate at the wonton shop in front of the school next door. She forgot to bring money, and her mobile phone was out of battery. She was so embarrassed that she didn't know what to do. A boy who also had dinner in the shop helped her.
He is Xu Hui, a technical secondary school student at a vocational technical college two streets adjacent to No. 6 Middle School.
At that time, every time she mentioned him, she couldn't help laughing.
She said that he likes his relatives very much and likes to hold her hand.
Jiang Ru has dimples, and women with dimples have a particularly sweet smile.
They have been together for two months, and in the last week, Jiang Ru's smile disappeared.
Bai Lu asked her what happened, and Jiang Ru said that a woman snatched Xu Hui away.
That woman was Xu Hui's classmate, and Jiang Ru gritted her teeth every time she mentioned it.
"Shameless! Steal someone else's boyfriend!"
Bai Lu said softly, "Is he that good?"
Jiang Ru fell silent again, and hummed for a while, "It's that good."
Bai Lu had seen Xu Hui's photo, he was indeed very handsome.
There is only one photo of Jiang Ru and Xu Hui, which was taken by Jiang Ru holding Xu Hui. In the photo, the boy did not show a smile, and was wearing a blue and white school uniform with his arms open, and his hair was slightly messed up.
It's not difficult for Bai Lu to understand that Jiang Ru was fascinated by him. In Xu Hui's body, there was an aura that didn't quite look like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old young man—whether it was pretending or real.
While walking with her head down, Bai Lu suddenly felt Jiang Ru reach out her hand.
She turned her head and saw Jiang Ru with her mouth slightly open, helping her adjust the collar of her school uniform.
"Why is your collar always collapsed?" Jiang Ru said softly, "I saw it many times when I was doing lunch exercises."
Bai Lu lowered her eyes, "I don't know either."
Jiang Ru smiled, "You are too thin, this is a school uniform of size S, and you are still big in it."
Bai Lu also smiled, "You're not skinny too."
Jiang Ru's smile faded a little, and she sighed softly, "I think I'm still fat..."
"how?"
Jiang Ru: "You don't know that the girls in his school are all good at dressing up."
Bai Lu said lightly, "Really."
Jiang Ru: "I used to think that it is enough to study well, and girls are more important on the inside. But..." Jiang Ru said, the corners of her eyes were a little red again, "Now I think girls should look better..."
Bai Lu didn't speak, Jiang Ru said to herself, "Even if you don't look good, you have to be able to take care of yourself."
Bai Lu looked up and saw Jiang Ru's braided hair.
Jiang Ru used to only wear ponytails, but recently began to study various braids.
She has enviable long hair, black and straight, which looks much more beautiful compared to Bai Lu's malnourished light-colored curly hair.
Even the beauty of the science girls in the sixth middle school is academic. Every day, Jiang Ru will find out the hairstyle she likes from the magazine, and then compare the length, color, and hardness of the model's hair with her own. Bai Lu sits next to her and looks at her. Counting back and forth with a serious face.
Bai Lu: "Don't be sad." She persuaded Jiang Ru sincerely, "You have to go through both falling in love and breaking up, you..." She thought about the words in her heart, and then said, "Be careful now, wait until later When recalling later, it’s best to be able to laugh.”
Jiang Ru pursed her lips, and said in a low voice for a long time, "I don't want to break up. His birthday will be in two months... September 6th, I originally wanted to celebrate his birthday."
"There's still about a month left." Bai Lu said.
After crossing the road, they walked through an old-fashioned neighborhood, which was faster than walking outside.
The neighborhood is very quiet, much darker than the road.
Bai Lu took Jiang Ru's hand and walked forward in silence.
She gradually smelled a fragrance, in the quiet summer night, remote and dim.
Jiang Ru seemed to have a feeling, and suddenly said: "Flowers."
Bai Lu turned her head, and Jiang Ru looked into the darkness.
Before Bai Lu could ask, Jiang Ru had already pulled her over.
The aroma is getting stronger.
Jiang Ru led her to the side of the road. There are residents on both sides of the path. Because it is an old-fashioned community, they don't pay attention to it. All the houses have flower gardens around their entrances.
The flowers are very small, moon white, light yellow, sandwiched together, hidden in the dense bushes.
Maybe it's good work, maybe it's light fragrance, people here have a convention to plant the same kind of flower on the outermost side.
"It smells good." Jiang Ru said, "It smells good."
Bai Lu said, "Do you know this kind of flower?"
"Of course I do." Jiang Ru bent down, picked up a small stick from the ground, and blew on it. She had a sweet face, "He told me that."
There are two flowers in one plant, one white and one yellow, Jiang Ru separated the two small flowers, put the white one in Bai Lu's hair, and kept the yellow one for herself.
After inserting it, she took half a step back to appreciate it, and Bai Lu said, "What kind of flower is that?"
"Honeysuckle."
As she spoke, she burst out laughing, Jiang Ru: "Bai Lu, you look so dumb."
Bai Lu looked at her without speaking.
Jiang Ru patted the back of her hand and said softly, "It's really boring."
Bai Lu slowly smiled too, just like the first time she saw Jiang Ru, smiling inexplicably.