After that, Jiang Hongshao often appeared at the bulletin board cultural wall in the evening, sometimes she would say "Hey!" and hand over a bag with a few bottles of water. Sometimes she would bring in three ice creams, and Yu Xiao and Cheng Ran would not care about their dirty hands and eat them with the wooden handles.
The two of them couldn't help but feel that being with Jiang Hongshao, they couldn't help being fed by her, but how to get along with her was mostly related to food, and at the beginning they stole the loquats from her house, a big bag of fruit she gave them. But their mentality was different, and they felt so humiliated when they stole the loquats, but they felt much more at ease the next few times.
Sometimes she would feel like painting and pick up a paintbrush to help color or raise some composition issues. Cheng Ran would make changes if he thought they were constructive, otherwise he would insist on his own opinion and the two would argue. She could also often be seen holding a pen, one hand folded across her chest, the other hand resting on her chin, observing Cheng Ran's painting skills from the side.
That profile makes people feel itchy.
The boy and girl enjoyed the rare tranquility, talking about the comet they were going to paint. The comet was in the sky above their heads. On a clear night, they could see it by looking up, whether they lived in the same neighborhood or not. It seemed as if a common secret was fermenting in their hearts.
In Cheng Ran's memory, Comet Hale-Bopp was not very vivid. He just knew it happened. Because of his family's misfortune in 1997, the comet also dimmed in his memory.
And now, above their heads, Cheng Ran found that it was so bright and easy to identify, because it surpassed the brightness of all stars in the summer night.
Sometimes Jiang Hongshao would not show up, leaving only the two of them in the bulletin board area, and Yu Xiao felt like he was living a year in a day. Cheng Ran was fine, after all, he was the editor-in-chief of the bulletin board, so he had something to do, although he also admitted that when Jiang Hongshao was present, the atmosphere was more lively, and he could smell the pleasant scent of soap in the air.
Just like the ink on the test papers in the classroom and the rustling of the trees on a hot playground, these are memories that can make people feel happy when they recall them many years later.
"The best solution to question 11... Should the ratio of the areas of △ADE and quadrilateral BCED be like this..." The lower right corner of the blackboard became a temporary venue for Yu Xiao to ask Cheng Ran about math, physics and chemistry questions. Normally, he would write on it with chalk and then erase it before moving on to the next question.
"Please verify it again and recalculate the value of AD to BE in the third step..."
"Oh, it really is... This is wrong, let me calculate again..."
Yu Xiao was almost used to Cheng Ran's recent performance. The most unbelievable thing was that Cheng Ran asked him to do his homework here every day, and he would explain it to him if he didn't understand something. Yu Xiao sneered at first, thinking, "How can you teach me with your level?" He ignored him and worked on the difficult problem. As a result, when he got stuck in the middle of the problem, Cheng Ran took the chalk and solved it in a snap.
After several times, Yu Xiao was abused to the point of losing her temper. However, she still had a bottom line and would never give in to Cheng Ran unless it was absolutely necessary.
What is certain is that this method is indeed helpful to Yu Xiao, and his review efficiency is also improving.
When we were alone, I would occasionally turn the topic to Jiang Hongshao, and guess what her family was like and what her parents did living in the government compound. A person's upbringing largely comes from family factors, so her family should be a scholarly family.
Yu Xiao also asked about Jiang Hongshao. It would have been fine if she hadn't asked, but after asking, she found out that there were a lot of boys in her grade who had a crush on her. It was said that when she was in the second grade of junior high school, a famous figure from high school heard about it and confessed his love to her at the school gate. But she rebuked him at that time. He was a senior high school student and had a group of friends to help him, but he was hit back by Jiang Hongshao. She talked about everything from the principles of life to the future and destiny. The senior high school student struggled for a long time and wanted to convince her, but he was helpless because he was far from being her opponent in terms of logic. In the end, the bouquet of flowers in his hand drooped down, and when he walked away in shame, he threw the flowers into the public blue shell trash can on the side of the road.
After this incident, most boys were afraid to get too close to her, so don’t underestimate her because she is low-key. This low-keyness is based on absolute strength.
"I just found out that Lu Tao from the basketball team, Min Hai from Class 7... and Zhang Keqi, you didn't know, they all like Hong Shao! It is said that they even wrote love letters, and the opening line was "You are as brilliant as the stars..." It was so sour, no wonder no one responded to it, how could an old man like him respond! Damn, if we hadn't asked the most gossipy Zhao Mingming, we wouldn't have known these things. Look at that guy, he is usually a serious academic tyrant, and he is also the team leader. The most annoying thing is that my mother pointed at him as a role model for me at the time, saying, "Zhang Keqi won the first place in the school science and technology competition, why don't you learn from him? Look at how many places Zhang Keqi ranked in this exam, and how many places you ranked..." What's the matter, he still secretly wrote love letters to her, hypocritical!"
Sometimes Yu Xiao would suddenly ask in a mysterious voice with some deeper desire to explore, "What do you think of... a girl like Jiang Hongshao?"
Cheng Ran hesitated for a moment before continuing, "He has a very good personality, is open-minded, and very smart... He is generous and doesn't bear grudges. He couldn't be better!"
Yu Xiao was stunned. What the hell was going on? This was totally not what he wanted to know from the tone of voice just now...
But after a slight surprise, Yu Xiao slapped his thigh and said, "I have to give it my all. As the saying goes, 'We are young students, full of vigor and vitality, full of scholarly spirit, and full of ambition!' Lao Jiang's demeanor can be fully described by these lines of poetry..."
Then a lazy voice came from behind the construction board, "Oh, you learned your lesson this time..."
A slender figure walked in. "Really? When did you find out I was outside..."
The days passed like this, and the final art performance of junior high school... arrived unknowingly.
Whenever there were sports meets, art performances, basketball games... in the young man's memory, the air seemed to be sweet, and Cheng Ran remembered that he was often so excited that he couldn't sleep the day before, but he was full of energy the next day.
Cheng Ran walked out of the corridor towards the first rays of morning light, sniffing the fresh air without the smog of later generations. He had a good sleep last night and even cancelled his morning run today.
He passed by Yu Xiao's apartment building and saw that he had not yet left the house. He knew that this kid was probably just like him in his previous life, having trouble sleeping at night, and would definitely get up late today.
Anyway, we arrived at the Shanhai Guild Hall at nine o'clock. The Shanhai Guild Hall was located on Kuixing Street. It was a large guild hall and ceremony hall. In this era, many schools and large organizations in Shanhai City rented it as the venue for their activities.
Cheng Ran thought he got up early, and also took into account that basically all the students of the junior high school of No. 1 Middle School would gather there from all directions today, so he got up early. As a result, at this time, the bus was packed. He had never seen these students so active in class.
The train stopped at the platform of Kuixing Street, and people got off the train. Cheng Ran stood under the auditorium. The auditorium was square in shape, and it still retained the architectural style of the 1980s. The surface was a layer of real stone paint with colored sand, and the grains were rough to the touch, but it was the trend of buildings at that time.
This old guild hall, which carried many memories, was demolished in later generations. What Cheng Ran remembered were the yellowed exterior walls, the water stains from years of baptism, and the graduation ceremonies and cultural performances he had seen in this auditorium many times since he was a child, and those shadow play-like figures that were imprinted in his memory.
The guild hall now looks clean and tidy, as if the yellow film in memory has been torn off, revealing a newer skin.
The hall is several steps higher than the road, and there is a small square below. A fence is built along the sidewalk. Normally, if there is a stage play or a movie, tickets are sold in a ticket office next to the fence. Today, the iron gate is naturally opened to both sides. All grades and classes gathered in the small square and were led into the venue by the head teacher. After more than ten minutes, people arrived one after another. When there were almost enough people, they moved into the venue. This was mainly to facilitate the maintenance of order. Each class had a designated area in advance, so those who arrived late could find their class smoothly.
There was suddenly some restlessness in the crowd. It turned out that a group of girls with makeup on got off the bus and walked straight in. At this time, many people spontaneously made way for them.
Those who had put on makeup, or came to touch up their makeup, and those who were holding their performance costumes, all went backstage.
At this time, Yu Xiao also came. A girl named Su Qian in the class came over. She had just changed into a national costume for performance, and said to Yu Xiao, "Yu Xiao, you promised... Go and help!"
Needless to say, Yu Xiao had promised the girl something, so Cheng Ran was not surprised. But he grabbed her sleeve and said, "Let's go... Let's go backstage..."
Coming backstage with Yu Xiao, from Cheng Ran's perspective, the stage that seemed so grand in his memory now actually seemed a bit shabby. There was a big red curtain as the background, with the theme of the Chinese cultural performance written on colored paper. The props were just tables and benches, and various backgrounds made of foam cardboard. But the stage was big enough to accommodate a choir of a hundred people, and it still had some momentum.
In fact, the quality of most performance costumes is not very good. They are just for the pursuit of stage effects. As for makeup, it still depends on the original appearance. If you are not good-looking, it will still be unsightly after putting on stage makeup. On the other hand, if you are born with good looks, it will always look good regardless of heavy or light makeup.
However, when standing on the stage with the lights and music playing, all the flaws are covered up by the light and shadow.
Because it was a performance for the entire junior high school, there were still many people backstage. There were 18 programs, from 9 am to 11:30 am, which was two and a half hours. Cheng Ran saw the "Moon Lake" team led by Yang Xia from their class preparing for the front positions. A group of girls were excited and nervous, and Yang Xia, in a white dress, stood out like a swan.
When Cheng Ran turned around, he happened to meet Jiang Hongshao, who was wearing a red performance costume. Her hair hung down softly. She was wearing a red gauze skirt with an ancient style. No matter in which era, even the most avant-garde and fashionable clothes will become outdated. However, such Han and Tang Dynasty costumes, even if they were just simple right-lapel ones without any patterns, were indescribably elegant.
Jiang Hongshao obviously didn't expect to run into Cheng Ran backstage, and for some reason, when they were working on the bulletin board cultural wall together, she never revealed that she would be performing in the art performance.
Now that Cheng Ran saw her in such an outfit that fully displayed her femininity, her face seemed to turn slightly red, probably because of the color of the clothes.
Cheng Ran asked, "Do you have a performance?"
Jiang Hongshao nodded, "Well, you..."
Cheng Ran pointed to the backstage and said, "I'm here to help."
Jiang Hongshao clenched her sleeves and said, "Okay."
It's just such a simple conversation, why is it not like the usual style...
Cheng Ran waved his hand, "Come on, I'm cheering you on!"
"good."
Watching Jiang Hongshao pass him and walk forward, Cheng Ran smacked his lips slightly, wondering if she was a little shy just now
This side of old ginger...
Really, very cute...