Anyone with a bit of social awareness knows that in most cases, phrases like “Let’s get together next time” or “Let’s talk next time” are just polite expressions under the circumstances.
Fu Shitian also didn't dare to take Shi Yi's words "I will teach you in the next class" seriously.
There were two more physical education classes on Friday afternoon. Fu Shitian resumed her normal social interaction with Shi Yi. When she saw Shi Yi and Jian Lu walking side by side before class, she smiled at Shi Yi naturally, and Shi Yi smiled back at her.
That's enough, Fu Shitian warned himself.
After two laps of jogging, everyone went to the indoor track for free practice, and the duty student went to the equipment room to borrow volleyballs. There were enough volleyballs for two people, but everyone rushed over to get a good ball. Fu Shitian stood outside the crowd and waited patiently until everyone had chosen before taking one.
Her partner Zhang Qingyu had studied volleyball in high school and was not worried about the self-padded test this semester. As soon as the physical education teacher left, she followed suit. "It's so hot, I can't stand it, only the air conditioner can save me. I'm going back first. If the teacher calls the roll, please send me a message."
Fu Shitian nodded and practiced padding on the track alone.
Self-pad is boring after all. After practicing self-pad for half a class, the students who have partners gradually changed to double pad. They opened up their distance and played back and forth. At the beginning, two people played against each other on the left track of Fu Shitian. Fu Shitian moved to the right, and then two people came to the right track and approached Fu Shitian. Fu Shitian felt that he was hindering others, so he retreated to the stairs outside the track. Unexpectedly, two people came to the stairs and started fighting soon.
Fu Shitian retreated to the corner, holding the ball, and looked to the right where the aerobics class was taking place, trying to find the next place to stay.
A shadow fell, and then, her hand lightened, and the volleyball was taken away. Fu Shitian was surprised and turned back to look at the person who came.
Shi Yi was standing one step away from her, pinching her ball, and asked seriously: "Why are you hiding here?"
Fu Shitian blinked: "Huh?"
"Didn't you say that this class will teach you how to pass the ball?"
Fu Shitian was stunned. Wasn't that just a polite remark? "I haven't had time to go find you yet." She lied with her eyes open.
Shi Yi looked her up and down and said nothing.
Fu Shitian felt embarrassed as if he had been seen through, and stammered, "I was just about to go over there."
Shi Yi curled her lips slightly and skipped the topic. She returned the soft volleyball to Fu Shitian: "This ball is not easy to hit. Practicing with it will get you twice the result with half the effort."
Fu Shitian also knew that this ball was not good. It might be that its service life was about to end. The whole ball was soft and the outer skin was wrinkled, as if it would break at any time. "Then I'll get a better one next time."
"If you are always the last one, you won't be able to get a good ball." Shi Yi said lightly.
Fu Shitian's ears suddenly felt hot, as if he had been caught by his class teacher for not doing his homework.
"Wait for me here." Shi Yi said and turned away.
Fu Shitian watched her leave and saw her go to the entrance of the runway to find Jian Luhe. They exchanged a few words, and then Jian Luhe handed the volleyball in her hand to Shi Yi and sat aside to rest.
Shi Yi came back with a brand new ball and handed it to Fu Shitian again.
This volleyball is blue, white and yellow, and obviously looks different from the orange volleyball borrowed from the equipment room.
"Did you bring it here yourself?" Fu Shitian asked.
"Well, Luhe and I bought it together with my partner."
"Then... then you bring the ball over. Is she okay?" Fu Shitian touched the solid surface of the ball with both hands, feeling a little sour and a little sweet in his heart.
"It's okay." Shi Yi answered nonchalantly. She raised her chin and gestured to Fu Shitian: "Put a ball in the air for me to see."
Fu Shitian did as she was told. She threw the ball high, clasped her hands together, and leaned forward to catch the ball. She barely caught three, and the fourth fell to the ground.
Shi Yi frowned slightly and pointed out: "You threw the ball too high, and your catching posture is wrong." She stretched out her hand and covered Fu Shitian's clasped hands, carefully helping Fu Shitian adjust his movements.
The fingertips were soft and slightly warm, and Fu Shitian's heart skipped a beat.
"Keep your arms straight. When catching the ball, don't be so stiff and don't move your body. Use your wrist to catch it." She drew circles at the junction of Fu Shitian's palm and wrist.
Fu Shitian felt itchy, and her breathing slowed down unconsciously. Before she could feel it more, Shi Yi let go of her hand and reminded her: "Watch me demonstrate it again, pay attention to the feeling of my arm and wrist movements."
Fu Shitian withdrew his thoughts and nodded obediently.
Shi Yi threw the ball up, her upper body hardly moving. She lifted her arm slightly, and the ball fell back onto her wrist as if pulled by a string. Over and over again, easily, it seemed as if it was a matter of course for the ball to fall back into her hand.
Fu Shitian's eyes involuntarily slid from Shi Yi's arm to Shi Yi's upturned face. A small bead of sweat slid down from Shi Yi's chin, wetting Shi Yi's porcelain-white and delicate swan neck.
Fu Shitian's throat moved and his breathing became slower.
After Shi Yi finished demonstrating, she handed the ball to Fu Shitian and asked Fu Shitian to practice for her. As Fu Shitian practiced, Shi Yi helped her adjust the moves, repeating the process over and over again.
When she was able to dunk eight balls in a row, Fu Shitian picked up the balls and ran back to share her joy with Shi Yi. She looked at the position where Shi Yi was standing and suddenly found that, unknowingly, she seemed to have returned to the position she had given up at the beginning.
She ran back to Shi Yi and said excitedly, "I've done eight in a row!" like a little kid asking for praise.
She didn't have a little red flower in her hand. Shi Yi laughed and only praised her verbally: "Well, keep up the good work."
The bell for the end of the first period rang, and the bell for the second period rang. During the break, Fu Shitian saw Jian Lu playing with his cell phone in the distance, and felt embarrassed.
"Thank you for practicing with me for so long. Do you want to go back and practice with your partner for a while? Will she be bored without a ball?"
Shi Yi turned his head and glanced at Jian Luhe.
Fu Shitian passed the ball to Shi Yi, who took it and asked, "Where's your partner?"
"She's pretty good at volleyball, so she doesn't need to practice. She just called her name and went home."
"Often?"
"Um."
"You can find a new partner."
A thought flashed through Fu Shitian's mind: Can I find you? But when she thought of Jian Luhe, who was inseparable from Shi Yi in every class, she knew it was impossible. She shook her head and said, "Everyone has found a partner. If we find a new one, it will break up other people's groups. Zhang Qingyu will also have to find a new partner, which is not good for them."
Shi Yi was stunned for a moment, wanting to say something, but in the end he didn't say it, "Then I'll go over first."
She turned around, paused, then turned back and said, "You can also find me in the next class."
Fu Shitian's eyes were bright and his lips curved into a sweet smile.
Shi Yi withdrew his gaze, walked for a while with an expressionless face, and suddenly felt that he was in a good mood.
With Shi Yi's permission again, Fu Shitian plucked up her courage and measured her measures to ask Shi Yi for volleyball lessons every other week. Shi Yi kept his word and taught her seriously every time. During the match, even when he ran all over the court to pick up the ball, he never showed any impatience.
A few weeks passed like this, and it was mid-November, Shi Yi's birthday.
Fu Shitian thought, Shi Yi had taught her volleyball several times, so if it was just a thank you, it wouldn't be too abrupt for her to say happy birthday to him at midnight and then buy a small cake and send a small gift the next day, right
She thought about what gift to give for a long time, and was finally attracted by the wool felt in the boutique. She picked Shi Yi's zodiac sign, bought two sets of cute puppy wool felt, stayed up for several nights, pricked several fingers, and finally made two satisfactory products.
She put key chains on the two puppies, carefully packed them, and placed them next to the pillow, ready to be given away.
Shi Yi's birthday was on Saturday. On Friday night, after the lights in the dormitory were turned off at 11 o'clock, Fu Shitian did not lie down. Instead, he sat on the bed, holding his mobile phone, and felt every second was like an year.
She was waiting for midnight, wanting to be the first person to send blessings to Shi Yi.
After finally making it to 11:55 pm, a message suddenly popped up in the class group: "Happy birthday to our goddess classmate 10ee, [scatter flowers][scatter flowers]".
Before Fu Shitian could react, the message started to spread frequently, and all the night owl classmates began to copy and send their blessings.
Fu Shitian was left with no tears to cry after failing at the last moment.
But it’s clearly not yet twelve o’clock, why are we in such a hurry
Fu Shitian hung his head, but waited until the moment his phone passed midnight, and sent a message to Shi Yi on time: "Happy birthday."
Shi Yi didn't reply to her. While waiting, Fu Shitian opened the class group and found that Shi Yi's roommate Yin Fanlu had sent a message in the group: "10ee asked me to say thank you to everyone on her behalf. We have covered her eyes with cakes and she can't type."
Below the message is a photo.
The photo was a group photo of all the people in dormitory 1315. In the photo, everyone had some cream on their face and was smiling. Shi Yi was surrounded by them, with cream all over her hair and cheeks. She squinted her eyes, looking a rare mess.
It was rare to have the opportunity to see such a goddess, so the boys took advantage of the chaos to ask Yin Fanlu to post more photos. Fu Shitian also had an idea.
But after Yin Fanlu threw down the photo, there was no movement.
Fu Shitian exited the window and entered the space to try his luck, wanting to see if any of Shi Yi’s roommates had posted any updates.
Luckily, when she refreshed her screen, the first thing that popped up was a post from another roommate of Shi Yi, Zhu Mo: Thank you, goddess Shi, for showing me the world. [Snickering]
The attached picture shows the sea, villas, green land, swimming pool, and the beautiful and lively birthday party. There are Shi Yi, the roommates that Fu Shitian knows, Jian Luhe, as well as men and women that Fu Shitian doesn’t know. There is also a multi-layer cake pushed out on a cart, and gift boxes piled up on the coffee table...
Fu Shitian curled her fingertips, and her overactive emotions suddenly calmed down. She looked at the simple wool felt beside her pillow with the weak light of her mobile phone. The screen turned off automatically, and she sat in the dark.
Shi Yi replied with a polite "thank you" at around one in the morning. Fu Shitian calmed down and put the wool felt into the deepest part of the closet.
"Happy birthday." She repeated the blessing in her mind that she had rehearsed many times.