“Hahaha!”
The boys left pushing and shoving, looking back repeatedly, their laughter echoing through the corridor.
Young people had endless energy to expend.
Zhang Shu entered the classroom, still being teased by several boys. He brushed them off with a few words, came to his seat, pulled out his chair, and sat down, grabbing his water bottle to gulp water.
Speaking for so long had left his mouth dry.
Classmates passing his seat all looked at him with smiles, expressions either appreciative or teasing. Zhang Shu maintained his water-drinking posture, occasionally nodding in response, his gaze slowly moving to the person beside him.
His desk mate was quite calm, showing no reaction.
Shouldn’t it count as pleasant cooperation?
Sheng Xia had no attention to spare for these things.
Just now when she bent down to look for her workbook on the middle shelf, her gaze inadvertently fell on his open backpack hanging on the chair – inside was a pair of sports knee pads.
Unless he happened to buy the same model, those were the ones she gave him, and judging by the elasticity, they’d been used.
Had he opened them already?
Had he seen them?
Why didn’t he have any reaction?
Was he very angry?
Did he know they were from her?
A string of questions flashed through Sheng Xia’s mind like electricity, each question bringing a burst of mental fireworks – almost burning her eyebrows.
Sheng Xia kept her head down, her profile showing pale lips.
“Are you sick?” Zhang Shu asked.
Sheng Xia looked up at him, “Ah, no.”
Her voice sounded unnatural.
Zhang Shu put down his water bottle, reaching with the back of his hand to her forehead – cool?
But Sheng Xia suddenly stood up at his action, her lips even paler, “What, what are you doing?”
Originally the surroundings were bustling and no one had noticed them, but now even Xin Xiaohe, Yang Linyu, and Lu Youze looked over. “Xia Xia? What’s wrong?”
Xin Xiaohe looked at Zhang Shu with questioning, interrogating eyes.
Zhang Shu was also confused – he’d been too abrupt just now, his hand moving faster than his brain. But she seemed to have been trembling even before that.
Because she normally had rosy lips and fair skin, and her skin was so fine and translucent, any change in complexion was very obvious.
Just now she looked like someone who’d just come out of an ice cellar…
“What’s wrong with you?” Zhang Shu ignored Xin Xiaohe, insistently asking Sheng Xia.
His reaction to her – he probably didn’t know they were from her.
Sheng Xia finally realized her reaction was excessive. She shook her head and sat back down, “Nothing, I… have a stomach ache.”
She could only use girls’ universal excuse to brush it off.
Everyone understood – for a shy girl like Sheng Xia, this kind of reaction was normal, so they stopped crowding around to avoid embarrassing her further.
Xin Xiaohe came to her and asked: “Should I get you some hot water?”
Sheng Xia said: “No need, Xiaohe, I still have water, thank you.”
Xin Xiaohe still looked at her worriedly – wasn’t she fine just now?
“Call me if you’re not feeling well.”
“Okay.”
Then Xin Xiaohe said to Zhang Shu: “Keep your distance from her, don’t touch the fairy.”
Zhang Shu was unusually speechless: …
During the next two classes, Sheng Xia felt a kind of care called “don’t touch the fairy” from Zhang Shu.
He barely spoke to her, sat far away, and would look at her whenever she made the slightest movement. That look – as if afraid she would suddenly stand up again.
She dropped her pen and was about to bend down, but he had already reached for it, saying as he handed it to her: “You’d better not move.”
Sheng Xia: …
Not necessary.
Now she was the one feeling guilty.
She didn’t have a stomach ache – she was like a player soliciting sympathy.
Finally making it to dismissal, she had just picked up her tray at the lunch program when she saw Zhang Shu and Hou Junqi enter one after another.
With the first and second years starting school, the lunch program was also crowded.
Sheng Xia got her food and saw a table with two girls already seated. She carried her tray over and asked softly: “Classmates, is anyone sitting here?”