After getting off the bus, Lin Zhexia, to avoid the topic, kept harping on the “blocking” issue.
“I’m not just avoiding messaging you these few days, I don’t want to message you for a whole month.”
She walked ahead with her backpack: “Anyway, you want to block me.”
She knew exactly how to banter with Chi Yao, speaking more and more fluently.
“You don’t want to chat with me at all.”
“Chi Yao, you’re so heartless.”
“When I get back, I’ll shed silent tears alone, mourning our friendship.”
“…”
As they talked, the two reached the entrance of their building.
Chi Yao, who had been silently following behind her, grabbed her backpack before she could scan her access card, forcing her to turn and face him.
It was already evening, and the building entrance was quiet.
Chi Yao looked at her, his light pupils darker than usual. After a moment, he said, “When did I ever block you?”
“If I didn’t want to talk to you,” he added, “…you would’ve been blocked long ago.”
Chi Yao rarely spoke so directly.
Lin Zhexia was stunned, and before she could react, he had already let go and stepped back: “Go in.”
After Lin Zhexia returned home, her unbalanced heartbeat took a long time to calm down.
She lingered at her doorstep for a while, making sure Lin He wouldn’t notice anything unusual, before opening the door: “Mom, I’m back.”
Lin He glanced at her: “Come eat.”
Lin Zhexia put down her backpack: “Oh.”
“Where’s Uncle Wei?”
“He’s having dinner with colleagues,” Lin He said, “no need to wait for him.”
The dinner table was peaceful. Lin Zhexia talked about what happened at school, mentioning next month’s school anniversary celebration and Teacher Xu’s “Early Bird Plan.”
Lin He also shared some things about her work and neighborhood events: “Be careful when going out recently. I heard some suspicious people are wandering around our neighborhood. The auntie next door has seen them several times. Who knows what they’re up to?”
Lin Zhexia made an “Ah” sound: “Like those vocational school kids who used to wander around when I was little?”
Lin He: “I haven’t seen them myself, but probably similar. Might be some jobless wanderers.”
As she spoke, Lin He noticed another detail different from usual. While picking up food, she casually asked: “How come you haven’t mentioned Chi Yao lately? Usually, his name is always on your lips.”
Lin Zhexia’s hand paused while eating: “…”
Finally, she said, “I find him too annoying lately, don’t want to mention him,” and put down her chopsticks, returning to her room.
Back in her room, Lin Zhexia had just taken out her homework from her backpack.
She had barely written a few words when she heard voices from the living room.
“Oh, Chi Yao’s here,” Lin He said in the living room. “Zhexia is in her room. Are you here to do homework together? That’s perfect. I was worried that with senior year approaching, she might fall behind.”
“Next time, come up for dinner directly. Don’t be a stranger to Auntie.”
“…”
Lin Zhexia’s pen tip lingered on the paper, spreading an ink stain.
After Chi Yao came in, she moved her chair to make room for him: “Why are you here?”
Chi Yao put down his notebook.
He brought minimal items: a black pen and a set of problems specially selected by Old Liu.
“Doing homework,” he said.
“I know that,” Lin Zhexia felt a bit awkward. “The question is, why are you doing it at my home?”
Lin Zhexia was about to say, “Don’t you have a desk at home?”
But as if Chi Yao could guess what she was thinking, he leaned back slightly, twirling his pen: “My desk collapsed.”
“…”
Although Chi Yao’s arrival was sudden, she didn’t particularly want to face him right now.
But after all, the two had done homework together countless times since childhood, and she was used to it.
After getting through the initial awkwardness, Lin Zhexia continued to focus on her problems.
She tried to concentrate on her homework, but still felt somewhat distracted.
She spent a long time on a function problem she wasn’t good at, but couldn’t get the answer.
She was about to skip this problem and move to the next one when she heard the sound of knuckles tapping on the desk.
She looked up and found that at some point, a draft paper had appeared before her.
The draft paper had a few lines of function steps, concise and clear, with annotations pointing out where she had made errors while doing this problem.