Chen Nian opened the door of the toilet cubicle, and a puff of smoke came across her face. She turned her head and coughed a few times, and the smoke cleared, revealing Wei Lai's arrogant and domineering face.
Makeup was left unwashed and left on her youthful face. Weird and deliberate sophistication.
Chen Nian also wanted to grow old overnight and escape this Colosseum of the weak.
The youth that can't escape is always faltering.
Chen Nian took a step out, and was pushed back by Wei Lai rudely and hit the compartment door. Chen Nian hopes that this push is only temporary and improvised, not a clarion call for war.
Wei Lai pressed the cigarette in her hand and slowly brushed it across Chen Nian's stiff cheek, and finally pressed it out on the door panel. She approached Chen Nian and said, "What did Uncle Jingcha ask you?"
Chen Nian was quiet: "Still... Still asking... It's the same as before."
"Still still," Wei Lai imitated her stuttering, disgusted, "Your mouth is so stupid, why can't you speak? Just like you, if you tell the truth, the police will think you are lying."
Chen Nian shook his head.
"Chen Nian, you said, where was I when Hu Xiaodie fell from the building?"
The sun shone on Chen Nian's face, so white and transparent; she raised her eyes to look at her, trying her best to finish in one breath: "In school..." Wei Lai stared at her fiercely, and was about to slap her in the face, Chen Nian spat out the last One word, "… outside."
On the way home that day, Chen Nian saw Wei Lai and the others blocking a middle school girl and coercing him to ask for money.
Wei Lai said with a cold face, "That's what you told Jingcha?"
Chen Nian lowered his eyes and saw her hands were twitching, and quickly shook his head and said, "Write it."
But the slap still came.
Chen Nian tilted his head and threw his black hair to the front, blocking her red and white cheeks to cover her shame.
"You won't talk nonsense even if I measure it." Wei Lai spit out a sentence. When the class bell rang, the girl at the door, Xu Miao, urged, "Wei Lai, go."
Wei Lai approached Chen Nian, pulled out a few strands from her neatly tied tresses, wrapped them around her fingers, and slowly pulled until they broke: "Chen Nian, you better not talk nonsense to me."
…
Each class is a small society, there are flamboyant, mediocre, quiet and introverted; there are mavericks, ordinary ones, and invisible ones.
Chen Nian belongs to the latter.
Chen Nian rushed back to the classroom when the class bell ended. She glanced at the busy teachers and classmates, but no one looked at her. She went back to her seat and sat down.
Hu Xiaodie committed suicide, she said to herself.
It was a little distracting at first, and the slapped cheek was still aching.
Gradually settle down.
She lowered her head to calculate the formula on the scratch paper, her pencil rustling.
The math teacher passed by her, glanced at her problem-solving process, nodded, took a few steps and called her name: "Chen Nian."
Chen Nian raised his head.
"Tell me the answer to this question."
α+3β is written on the paper. Chen Nian slowly put down his pen, stood up, and replied in a low voice, "A... A... Alpha plus three,"
"Ah... ah... ah..." Wei Lai panted imitating Chen Nian's stutter.
The classmates thought it was funny, so they burst into laughter.
This makes the class interesting, and it doesn't matter if it is malicious or not.
Chen Nian didn't respond, she grew up with the laughter and was used to it.
The ridicule and rejection began in kindergarten. Who said that people are inherently good at the beginning, and who said that "they are just children"? The classification of children, forming gangs, and suppressing dissidents are the most primitive and cruel.
They are not as hypocritical as adults, so they look down on someone or hate someone, and they show it openly, bullying him, laughing at him, isolating him, and attacking him.
"Quiet!" The math teacher knocked on the podium angrily. "Now that you're laughing so happily, I think a few of you can laugh until after the college entrance examination." The teacher's power is limited to mocking the future.
"Wei Lai, go outside and take a penalty stand!"
"Wow" the chair rang, proud and provocative. Wei Lai stood up lazily, chewing gum, and went out in a hurry, looking back at Chen Nian.
Chen Nian sat down. My friend at the table, Xiaomi, held the back of her hand and looked at her sadly. Chen Nian shook his head and said it was okay.
As the college entrance examination approached, everyone was under the pressure of further studies. Sadness and joy flashed by, but in the blink of an eye, people buried their heads in the sea of books.
Physical education class does not have to be well attended, it is a free activity.
Those who want to read stay in the classroom to study; those who want to relax, or who have long given up, go to the playground for activities.
The basketball, volleyball, and badminton in the bamboo basket were snatched away, and Chen Nian picked up the skipping rope at the bottom of the basket.
"Chen Nian, do you want to play badminton together?" Li Xiang, the tallest boy in the class, was speaking. He was a sports student. He broke the provincial record in 100 meters, and the culture class was not bad, so he was recommended to go to a good university.
Chen Nian shook his head, and the long ponytail behind him shook slightly.
"Chen Nian, you really don't like to talk." Li Xiang looked down at her with a smile.
Chen Nian looked up, he was really tall.
Most of the students wear glasses, but Li Xiang has good eyesight and piercing eyes. The arrows off the string can describe not only his starting speed, but also his bright eyes.
"No... nothing to say... say." The throat was naturally knotted. Too bad she has such a nice voice.
Chen Nian was very handsome, with light eyebrows, black and long eyelashes, and a small mouth. Li Xiang looked at her and thought of the "Cherry Mouth" written in the book. No wonder there are few words.
Li Xiang said: "Chen Nian, there are some boring people in the class, don't pay attention to them. Study hard, work hard, and when the exam is over, you can leave here forever."
The boy's comfort was careful and inspirational, with the hope of self-comfort, Chen Nian nodded.
"Are we going to play badminton together?"
Chen Nian shook his head.
Li wanted to laugh, and found himself to go down the stairs: "Next time."
he's gone.
Chen Nian saw Wei Lai, sat in the stand and squinted at her, coldly, no, she was looking behind her.
Chen Nian looked back, saw Li Xiangzheng talking to Zeng Hao, handed her the racket, and the two went to play together.
Chen Nian took the skipping rope to stay away from the crowd, walked to the corner of the playground and jumped, jumping and jumping, jumping into the shadow of the mulberry tree from the noon sun.
The cicada called above her head: I know... I know...
"Hey." The low male voice showed no emotion.
Chen Nian stopped abruptly, his heart pounding, and he looked around, but no one was there. The students are active on the playground in the distance.
The young man snorted: "Here." There was a three-point silence and seven-point sneer in his tone.
Chen Nian turned his head to look in the opposite direction. It was the boy in the white T-shirt that night, standing under the sun across the school railing. Today, he is still wearing a white T-shirt, school uniform pants, and a jacket tied around his waist. I don't know if it is from a technical secondary school or a technical school.
He held an unlit cigarette in his hand and flicked the body of the cigarette with his fingers.
The sound of cicadas tore the sky,
Chen Nian's nose was oozing with thin sweat, and her fair cheeks and neck were a healthy and bright red; Xu was jumping rope, her heart was still shaking violently, she inadvertently pursed her lips and took a step back.
The fence has sunlight on one side and shadow on the other.
His eyes crossed the boundary between light and darkness, bright and compelling: "How much did they take from you?"
"Seven..." Chen Nian took a breath, "Ten yuan."
He felt in the pocket of his school uniform, took out two brand new fiftys, reached into the gap between the railings and handed them to her.
Chen Nian didn't answer and shook his head: "No zero..."
He waited for a second, seeing that she was speechless, and said indifferently: "If you don't have change, you don't need to look for it."
Chen Nian was stunned, closed his mouth, swallowed the "money" on the tip of his tongue, and finally shook his head.
With his hands still hanging, he squinted at her for a moment, then sneered: "Will you take it?"
Chen Nian held the skipping rope and turned around to leave, but he closed his hand and took a few steps back.
Chen Nian was surprised when he saw him suddenly speeding up and rushing towards the iron fence with his hands and feet in two or three steps. He jumped and jumped onto the lawn in front of her.
He lowered his head and clapped the dust on his hands.
Chen Nian's heart bulged into his throat, and he couldn't utter a word, staring at him.
His face was clean and pale, with a bruise on his brow bone. Standing in the shade of a tree, his eyes were darker and cooler, and the evil spirit came up again. He walked in front of her, he was a little taller than her, and his momentum was pressed down from the top of her head. Chen Nian grabbed the skipping rope and refused to pick it up, so he shoved the banknotes through the cracks in her fists.
The new money is hard, and Chen Nian's hand hurts badly.
He turned to leave, she looked at his back, a thin, neat boy.
After taking a few steps, he turned around.
Still looking at her with those unidentified eyes, she looked at her through the broken hair on her forehead and asked, "What's your name?"
Chen Nian hesitated for a moment: "Chen... Chen Nian."
He was puzzled: "It's old?" Southerners don't distinguish between front and rear nasal sounds. This name sounds like old wine, old-fashioned.
Chen Nian didn't nod or shake his head, thinking that it was a default, and he could leave.
But his eyes judged something and didn't leave. He picked up a branch and walked back to her. He tapped the branch, handed it to her again, and instructed: "Write it out."
Chen Nian squatted down and wrote his name on the sand.
"Chen Nian." He read it again and asked, "What does Nian mean?"
Faith, nostalgia, study
Chen Nian explained: "Jin..." She used a lot of strength, but the words she said were as soft as ever, "...Jin Xin."
He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, and understood what happened to the "old age".
Knowing that she was found, she looked at him calmly and waited for him to laugh, but he didn't have the slightest emotion.
Someone outside the school yard wall shouted a name.
The white T-shirt walked to the side of the courtyard wall and stepped on the cement pier. He was tall, raised his hand and grabbed the arrow at the top of the iron fence. With a little force, his thin body jumped up against gravity.
Chen Nian thought that the arrow would scratch him, but it didn't, not even the school uniform around his waist. He landed on the concrete outside the school as lightly as a swallow.
He left, this time without looking back.
Chen Nian stepped out of the shade to take a look. A group of boys stood across the road, some with sticks in their hands.
Chen Nian put the crumpled banknotes in his hand back into his sportswear pocket.
She took up the skipping rope and decided to go back to the classroom to review.
Not long ago, Li Xiang said what was in her heart: "Study hard, work hard, and when the exam is over, you can leave here forever."
The so-called hard work, the so-called struggle, to put it bluntly, is just to escape the current predicament.