Chapter 12: Old friends.

Half of Zhou Sisi’s body fell onto his arms.

The white clouds shattered in the blue sky, and the sunlight poured into the room.

The dust particles floated in the air .

Her hair brushed against his shoulder and neck, a faint scent seeped into his unguarded skin, and he unconsciously let out a little breath. His heartbeat increased.

His stiff eyes slowly cast down. Looking at the scattered hair on her forehead, her dense eyelashes, and her delicate nose. Her slightly pointed chin looked weak, and her slender white neck was covered by a thin loose shirt…

He abruptly turned his eyes away, and his cheeks were a little hot. “You ……”

In fact, from Zhou Sisi being frightened to leaning against Lu Xi to rising from his arms, the whole process took only three or four seconds.

 “I’m sorry. That’s—” she looked to the ground with lingering fear. “Duckling?”

“Hmmm, Little Cole Duck.” He forced himself to remain calm.

She cautiously placed her foot on the ground.

The puffy little duck with its head bent forward, walked around the feet of the two and stopped.

Zhou Sisi whispered: “I didn’t see it clearly just now, conditional reflex…”

“You’re timid.” Lu Xi mocked as usual.

“How old is it? When did you start raising it?” She bent over and saw the duckling’s face clearly, with small black eyes like black beans and a flat orange mouth, it look dumb and cute.

 “It’s my classmate’s duck. About twenty days old.” Lu Xi glanced sideways at her. “Feel free to touch this duck.”

She waved at the little milky duck. But it ignored her hand and walked away.

She gently rubbed her fingers against the little milky duck’s head.

With a flick of the head, it dodged her touch and twisted his butt to escape.

“Here.” Lu Xi threw something into Zhou Si Si’s lap.

She picked it up and looked at it. “A phone case? Why are you giving me this?”

“To tease the duck.” He replied.

Use this to tease the little milky duck? Zhou Sisi half-heartedly lowered the phone case, which was printed with some game characters.

A baby duckling moved its head and called out softly, “Quack quack!” Then it ran over, and the flat mouth repeatedly touched the phone case. 

 “It,” Zhou Sisi blinked as she continued, “likes this phone case?”

Lu Xi stretched out his index finger and touched the top of the little milky duck’s head to the back.” With the phone case in front of it, it can kiss it for half a day.”

 Zhou Sisi: “Does it follow this phone case?”

 “Yes,” Lu Xi replied as he raised his eyebrows slightly. “Xueba.”(Xueba-(slang) bookworm)

“I’m not a Xueba.” Zhou Sisi tapped on the little duckling’s flat mouth. “You put this here? “

 Lu Xi’s slender and beautiful hands grabbed the little milky duck. “If you think it’s annoying, just put it on the balcony.”

“Let it be here.” Zhou Sisi said.

After placing the phone case a little further away against the wall, Zhou Sisi returned to business. “Let’s continue with the dictation.”

“Hold the pen properly.”

“The second one, will, plan, want.”

Lu Xi scratched his ears. “Dictation in Chinese?”

“Write the corresponding English words according to its Chinese meaning.” Zhou Sisi said.

“…Troublesome.”

⸙⸙⸙

 “Zhou Sisi, a boy is looking for you!” Hu Guomin, who was near the front door, shouted.

After closing the pen and placing it on the desk, Zhou Sisi left the classroom through the back door.

“Hi, congratulations on entering the final.” Mo Yifan walked over.

Zhou Si Si smiled politely. “Thanks, you too.”

“Are you free after school?” Mo Yifan hurriedly said. “Qiyuan bookstore got a new batch of English materials. Do you want to check it out together?”

“No need.” The teaching aids in the class were enough, and she didn’t need to buy additional materials for the time being.

“Ah, there are also Chinese-language materials, writing materials, reading materials, and so on., as well as physics and chemistry. Today is the last day at 80% off. Do you want to buy any books?” Mo Yifan said.

Zhou Sisi shook her head, “No need.”

He struggled for a moment to think of any other way to intensify the contact.

“Is there anything else?” Zhou Sisi asked.

“Uh…” Mo Yifan held his breath. “What is your Penguin ID? Can you add friends?”

Zhou Sisi: “I don’t use Penguin very much.”

Mo Yifan hurriedly said, “You can add me on WeChat.”

Zhou Sisi: “I also don’t use WeChat much. Actually, I don’t use my cell phone very often.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t use it frequently, my lord, I want to discuss English speech contests with you and exchange learning issues.” Mo Yifan gave a valid reason.

Zhou Sisi was not too good at refusing. “Hmm.”

Mo Yifan climbed up the pole. “Then you tell the Penguin or WeChat account ID?”

Zhou Sisi gave the WeChat ID. Mo Yifan chatted for a while, but could not find a topic, for the time being, so he left.

“Is he in a liberal arts class?” Hu Guomin stopped Zhou Sisi in the aisle. “Is he your junior high school classmate?”

Zhou Sisi calmly replied, “Liberal Arts. We’re not junior high school classmates.”

“I saw him come to you and thought you were classmates.” Hu Guomin came to hold Zhou Si’s arm. “Then how did you know each other?”

 “We participated in a speech contest.” Zhou Sisi looked at the hand between her arms and felt a bit uncomfortable.

Zhou Si had an introverted personality, and she didn’t stay in the dormitory. She only cared about her studies and didn’t have any close friends in school.

Halfway through the sophomore year, the headteacher arranged for Zhou Sisi and Hu Guomin to be at the same table. Hu Guomin transferred from the ordinary class to class (1) and was unfamiliar with the former classmate. She often pulled Zhou Sisi along to do exercises with her, go to the restroom… She went everywhere with Zhou Sisi.

Hu Guomin said they were good friends.

Gradually, Hu Guomin and some of her classmates became acquainted with each other and hung out together.

After sitting at the same table for nearly a month, Hu Guomin told Zhou Sisi that she wanted to change to a new table, so as to expand the circle of friends between her and Zhou Sisi.

Hu Guomin often talked and laughed with a few girls, while Zhou Sisi read the book and did the questions by herself, and the contact between them reduced.

Zhou Sisi still regarded Hu Guomin as her only friend.

Later ……

During this period of rebirth, she had no contact with Hu Guomin.

“His grades are pretty good,” Hu Guomin said. “He looks like someone who loves to study very much.”

Zhou Sisi was silent.

Hu Guomin shook her arm. “Will you accompany me to the infirmary after class 3?”

“I’m not going.” Zhou Sisi said, “Let go, I want to go back to my seat.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Hu Guomin leaned her face closer. “It’s a little cold.”

“It’s okay.” Zhou Sisi pulled her hand out and walked around to another aisle.

***

The third period was physics class.

The penultimate big question began with a bell ringing, so the physics teacher closed the lecture notes and put them together with a book, then waved the second grade (1) class students to rest.

“A good teacher in China.” Yi Ting watched the back of the physics teacher dashing away.

“You remember the third multiple-choice question–” The male student at the front desk turned too sharply and knocked down the water cup on Yi Ting’s desk. “I’m sorry.”

“Damn it!” Yi Ting was startled.

The impact separated the cup and lid, and the male student was hurriedly rescued. Zhou Sisi held down the rolling cup lid.

The water in the cup poured out, and there was water on the table. Yi Ting’s first reaction was to look down at her phone. Fortunately, the baby phone did not suffer.

Yi Ting used a paper towel to wipe the water that seeped into the drawer and complained, “What the hell are you doing, Guo Qin?”

“It was an accident, but the cup didn’t break, right!” The male student Guo Qin defended in a weak tone.

“Water spilled on my table and almost dripped on my phone!” Yi Ting was annoyed.

“Wipe it first.” Zhou Sisi moved the same table physics book and test paper to the side. “There is water near the book stand.”

Yi Ting gave up. “Let him come and clean, Sisi, let’s go to the canteen. Guo Qin, clean up the mess carefully for me.”

Zhou Sisi was not relieved. “Your book needs to be wiped quickly…”

“Let him do it.” Yi Ting decisively pulled Zhou Sisi away. “I’ve to charge the battery and buy a corn bar.”

Cell Phones were not allowed in schools, and there were no sockets in the dormitory. Most students who lived on campus would choose to go to the canteen to charge the power bank or mobile phone.

The canteen was crowded with students. Yi Ting went to the queue to get the number, while Zhou Si Si waited outside the entrance.

“Sister!”

“Sister Si Si!”

Was it her? Zhou Sisi turned her head. A wheat-colored little boy shouted at her: “Morning, Sister Sisi.”

“…… Good morning.” Zhou Si Si couldn’t quite remember who he was or where she’d met him.

The boy pointed his thumb to the canteen. “Don’t you go in?”

“I’m waiting for someone.” Zhou Sisi replied.

The boy smiled brightly. “Ok, I’m going in, I have to get a power bank, and I have to buy lemon tea for Axi.”

“Yeah.” Zhou Sisi then remembered that he was the classmate who went to the Internet cafe with Lu Xi last time after school.

Not long after, Lu Xi’s classmate came out with a bag of things. “Sister, do you need a drink?”

” No, thank you.” Zhou Sisi smiled.

Lu Xi’s classmate: “I’m leaving now. Bye.”

Zhou Sisi replied with, “Goodbye”.

A twelfth person walked past in front of Zhou Sisi, and finally, Yi Ting came out.

“Huh…so many people are charging.”

Yi Ting bragged. “Went through the whole freezer to find the last corn on the cob.”

“I haven’t touched it. Do you want to take a bite?” Yi Ting tore open the ice cream package.

As Sisi looked at her, slashing the pieces, she smiled and said, “You can eat it yourself.” The corn cob wasn’t big.

 “It’s delicious, eh, I’m about to change seats,” Yi Ting vaguely said while eating. “Shall we continue to be at the same table?”

Zhou Sisi said softly, “It’s fine, If you want to sit with someone else, I don’t have a problem.”

Yi Ting: “No! I want to be at the same table as you. I’m afraid you’ll talk to someone, and you’ll abandon me.”

Zhou Sisi: “No.”

Yi Ting licked the ice cream: “You said more than half a month ago that maybe this time you’ll be at the same table with Hu Guomin.”

“No.” Zhou Sisi lowered her long eyelashes. “I won’t be at the same table with her in the future.”

 “Eh…” Yi Ting was taken aback.

She and the quiet Zhou Si Si got along after being at the same table. She quite admired Zhou Sisi, but their relationship was probably not as good as Zhou Sisi and Hu Guo Min.

So Yi Ting wanted to ask her why she said that, but it was not quite convenient to ask.

“Then be at the same table with me.” Yi Ting grinned with creamy lips.

 “Yeah.” Zhou Sisi took out the tissue from her pocket. “Do you want it?”

 “Yeah. I’ll wipe it after eating.”

Stepping into the classroom, Yi Ting said, “Anyway, there is no handsome guy in our class.”

The student committee member who posted something on the back blackboard just heard it, holding the glue stick, “Yi Ting, I don’t like to hear what you said!”

“I’m telling the truth, there wasn’t a particularly handsome one.” Taking the last bite of ice cream, Yi Ting threw the wooden stick into the trash can.

“Your eyes have worsened. You have a serious eye problem. It’s time to go to the ophthalmology department.” The student committee suggested with a face full of pity.

“I don’t have an eye problem, it’s you who has a cognitive impairment.” Yi Ting looked back at Sisi. “Some people feel too good about themselves, right? Sisi?”

Zhou Sisi blinked, “I…”

“I mean, we have several handsome ones in our class.” The student committee hurriedly said with a flushed face. “I didn’t say I was handsome, Yi Ting you don’t get it.” His eyes didn’t dare to look at Zhou Sisi.

Yi Ting was a little surprised. She didn’t know which word she said had touched which switch of the student committee, so why did he jump? “Just kidding.”