Pu Chen pretended to look at his English test paper, his eyes not focused.
She has almost forgotten what she sounded like when she was able to speak, and sometimes she can't remember her own voice even if she tries hard. There are many videos of her participating in the children's choir on her home computer, but she never dares to open them to watch them.
When she was a child, my aunt loved to listen to her speaking in dialect. She said: When our little Chenbao speaks in the soft Wu dialect, it can melt people's hearts.
"Knock knock." When Lu Baisheng passed by her, he knocked twice lightly on her desk to remind her to pay attention.
Lu Baisheng didn't stop and continued walking to the back of the classroom.
Pu Chen sat up straight, came to his senses and corrected the test paper carefully.
Qin Yu also didn't listen to the lecture.
After half an English class, Qin Yu didn't hear a word of what Lu Bosheng said, or what knowledge points the students who came to the podium to explain the test paper summarized.
For the first time ever, he did not read any extracurricular books in this English class. He was playing with the gel pen he had just bought from the canteen with his fingertips. From time to time, he glanced at Pu Chen who was sitting next to the podium. She was very serious and was correcting the test paper with a red pen.
At the podium, a classmate was talking about the reading comprehension section.
Soon it was Qin Yu's turn to explain the question, which was also a reading comprehension question.
Cheng Qiang, the deskmate, gave his test paper to Qin Yu and whispered, "You won't have time to read the article when you get to the podium, so just follow my translation."
He simply wrote the gist of the reading comprehension above and summarized the test points involved. As long as Qin Yu spoke according to what he wrote, he would not make any mistakes.
Qin Yu then looked at Cheng Qiang's score, 131 points.
"Thanks."
Cheng Qiang: "You're welcome. If you take the test seriously, you will definitely score higher than me."
Qin Yu can read English original works without any problem, and his English is not too bad. However, during the English test yesterday, Qin Yu was distracted while looking at the test paper, and then when it was almost time to hand in the paper, Qin Yu filled in the options randomly, and the entire test paper was just guessed.
Of course, another possibility cannot be ruled out. Qin Yu really doesn't know how to do it, and the original English version is just a pretense.
But the probability of this happening is very small.
Soon, Lu Baisheng called Qin Yu to go up.
Then countless eyes were focused on him. I heard that he had ranked last in the class. I didn't know what to say later.
Lu Baisheng stood in front of the blackboard at the back of the classroom with his hands in his pockets.
He knew Qin Yu's character. 49 points should be the answer he filled in blindly with squinting eyes. Qin Yu definitely didn't know what the article was about.
Lu Baisheng gestured to him: "Read this article thoroughly."
No matter how frivolous Qin Yu was, he would not be insensitive to the situation. This was in the classroom, so he did whatever Lu Baisheng said.
As soon as he started reading, everyone except Lu Baisheng was shocked. It felt like they were listening to the original soundtrack of a movie, and this kind of pronunciation could not be mastered overnight.
If they hadn't seen Qin Yu reading it with their own eyes, they would definitely not believe that this was the pronunciation of Qin Yu, who scored 49 points in the exam.
Listening to him reading an article is an auditory enjoyment. Even Zhao Shu, who doesn't like to learn and doesn't understand anything, hopes that Qin Yu will keep reading.
Pu Chen kept her head down looking at her test paper. In her peripheral vision, she only saw his school uniform. Then she covered her forehead with her hand and didn't even want to look at his school uniform.
Soon, the short article was finished.
Qin Yu repeated the contents summarized on the test paper, and Lu Baisheng paced back and forth in the classroom, supplementing the knowledge points and test-taking tips that Qin Yu had not mentioned.
All the test papers have been reviewed and there are three minutes left before the get out of class ends.
Lu Bosheng was always easy to talk to: "You guys should clean up the table, and we can rush to the cafeteria when the bell rings. We may not be the top student in our class, but we can't fall behind in eating."
There was laughter in the classroom.
Lu Baisheng said to Qin Yu: "Come out for a moment."
Zhao Shu gave him a sympathetic look. In the past, she was mostly the person Lu Baisheng would talk to. Now that Qin Yu was here, she was completely liberated.
She improved one place in the English test this time, from the second to last place, and she hurriedly sent a message to her father to tell him the good news.
Outside the classroom, Lu Baisheng closed the back door and whispered, "Your mother sat in my office for a while this morning."
Qin was silent, as if it had nothing to do with him.
"How long do you plan to stop? Tell me the truth." In the quiet corridor, there was no questioning in Lu Baisheng's voice. He was talking to him calmly.
"Qin Yu, respect is mutual. If you tell me, Mr. Lu, that I still don't want to do anything in the next two months, don't bother me. I will definitely not care about you, and I respect your ideas, because everyone needs an outlet, but venting does not mean you can do whatever you want."
Seeing Lu Bosheng's current attitude, Qin Yu also said a few words from his heart: "It's not broken."
"I can't get excited for the moment."
"I don't want to do anything."
"It's quite boring."
He spoke intermittently.
"Let's not talk about me." Qin Yu looked at Lu Baisheng and said, "Now I finally understand why you can remember every question Pu Chen got wrong."
Lu Baisheng paused for a moment, then said calmly, "Well, why do you think that is?"
Qin Yu: "I just found out today that her vocal cords are damaged."
The last word coincided with the bell for the end of get out of class.
"Let's go eat." Lu Baisheng left first.
Qin Yu leaned against the guardrail and waited until most people in the classroom had left before preparing to go to the cafeteria.
Zhao Shu came out of the classroom whistling a cheerful tune and carrying a mop bucket.
Qin Yu looked at her and asked, "Why are you mopping the floor at noon?"
Zhao Shu smiled: "I'm happy."
She stood in front of Qin Yu and shook the bucket in her hand: "You don't need to mop the floor today. I'll take care of all your work. It's a bit inhumane for me, who ranked second to last in the exam, to ask you, who ranked last in the exam, to mop the floor. You study hard and leave the duty work to me."
Qin Yu: "..."
"Oh, right." Zhao Shu walked a few steps and turned back: "Now that you know Chenchen can't talk, don't tease her about her flaws in the future, otherwise you will bear the consequences. You can ask around, the whole first grade knows that Chenchen is under my protection."
Qin Yu was speechless, took his phone and went downstairs to find Peng Jingyang for dinner.
--
In the long line at the cafeteria window, Pu Chen was in the middle.
She typed on her phone what dishes she wanted to have for lunch today, deleting and reducing them, still undecided. She was a bit picky about food because of her father's pampering.
When it was her turn, the cafeteria auntie asked with a smile: "Chenchen, what do you want to eat for lunch today?"
Pu Chen queues at this window every day. The aunt knew her, so she handed her cell phone to her.
After ordering the food, Pu Chen took the tray and went to find a seat. At this time, there was a lot of commotion around him. Many girls looked in the direction of the cafeteria entrance as if they had made an appointment.
Qin Yu and Peng Jingyang appeared in the cafeteria together, attracting many girls' attention. They were so good-looking that they talked about them in whispers.
Pu Chen saw Peng Jingyang first, then looked beside him, and unexpectedly met Qin Yu's eyes. She turned her head away suddenly and walked towards the empty table at the edge.
Qin Yu didn't look away and kept looking at her.
He didn't feel it before in the classroom, but now in the busy cafeteria, with her sitting alone in a corner, he felt even more guilty about the careless words he had said that morning.
He didn't have a meal card, so Peng Jingyang asked him what he wanted to eat.
Qin Yu: "I don't eat fish and shrimp, everything else is fine."
During the meal, Qin Yu looked in Pu Chen's direction several times.
Peng Jingyang also noticed his absent-mindedness: "What are you looking at?"
Qin Yu: "Looking at Pu Chen, I didn't know she couldn't speak before."
He asked Peng Jingyang: "She always eats alone?"
"Yeah." Peng Jingyang added a few more words: "Pu Chen has no friends. There is a classmate in our class who went to the same elementary school as Pu Chen. She said that when Pu Chen was in fifth and sixth grade, she was teased by naughty classmates. Many boys often played pranks on her, imitating her inability to speak, and imitating her father's walking and gestures. She didn't want to go to school for a while."
Now that she is in high school, maybe because she is a few years older, no one teases her anymore.
Maybe she has some psychological trauma, or maybe she is afraid that it will be boring for others to play with her.
Over time, she got used to being alone.
Qin Yu asked: "What happened to her father?"
Peng Jingyang: "Her father is deaf-mute and runs a car repair shop in the alley below your apartment building. Her mother died in a car accident a few years ago, and her father's leg was also injured in the car accident. Anyway, Pu Chen has had a hard time."
Qin Yu suddenly lost his appetite.
After returning from the cafeteria, Qin Yu was looking at his phone in the corridor outside the classroom. Twenty minutes later, Pu Chen finally arrived.
She put her hands in her school uniform pockets and sucked them from time to time as if she was eating.
Pu Chen saw Qin Yu as he turned up the stairs. It was such a cold day and he was the only one standing in the corridor blowing in the cold wind.
"Pu Chen."
When her hand was about to touch the door handle of the front door of the classroom, Qin Yu called her.
Pu Chen looked over.
Qin Yu motioned to her: "Come here, I want to talk to you. I'm sorry about what happened this morning."
After hesitating for a moment, Pu Chen walked over.
"I didn't mean it. I saw you talking to Teacher Lu last night, and I thought you..." Qin Yu paused and apologized to her, "I'm sorry, please don't be angry, okay?"
Pu Chen shook his head and typed for him: It’s okay, just make it clear, you don’t have to take it to heart, I’m not angry, I know you didn’t mean it.
Qin Yu asked her: "Are you really not angry at all?"
Pu Chen blinked. She was not used to lying, so she told him the truth: she was only angry for a class, and she was gone after dinner.
Qin Yu was amused by her. It turned out that lunch saved him.
Pu Chen: I’m not angry, but I feel that there must be a misunderstanding.
The two were close to each other, and she had a faint sweet smell of fruit candy on her body. Qin Yu was very sure that she was eating.
He had been waiting for her here for nearly twenty minutes. However, the journey from the cafeteria to the teaching building took only five or six minutes at most. It seemed that she had gone to the school canteen in the middle.
He asked, “What are you eating?”
Pu Chen: “…”
She told him: Paper crane candy.
It turned out that he went to the canteen to buy candy. Qin Yu didn't know what kind of candy it was, so he said patiently, "Let me see what this candy looks like."
Pu Chen took out a few from his pocket and showed them to him.
Small and colorful.
Before Qin Yu could see clearly, Pu Chen put the candy back into his pocket.
Qin Yu was sure that she was no longer angry, so he asked her, "Class representative, can I add you on WeChat? I didn't listen in class and I can't do my homework. When you finish your homework, take a photo and send it to me."
This was the first time he took the initiative to ask someone for contact information.
Pu Chen was still eating candy, enjoying it very much. He suddenly wanted to tease her: "If you don't copy my homework, I will tell Teacher Lu that you ate candy in class."
Pu Chen: “…”
Her eyes widened in surprise.
Qin Yu looked at her amused expression and laughed to himself.
He clicked on his QR code and handed the phone screen to her, his voice unconsciously becoming gentler as he spoke: "Add me, okay?"