In April 2008, Su Qingxin came to Tongcheng.
Shu Fan held her hand with one hand and dragged a big red suitcase with the other. A thick layer of tung blossoms covered the roadside, looking like the falling white snow in winter.
Feng Qiang drove a Mercedes to pick them up. He enthusiastically helped them move their suitcases into the trunk and opened the door for them to get in.
From that moment on, Su Qingxin nominally had a new home and a new father.
Feng Qiang has a son named Feng Ruixing, who was left by his ex-wife. Xiao Su Qingxin is two years old.
Feng Ruixing doesn't like Su Qingxin, she really doesn't like her.
Feng Qiang would cut up the corners of new clothes and toys Su Qingxin bought for her and take them apart before she even touched them. He often blocked Su Qingxin's bedroom door, pointed at her and said, "This is my home, you'd better get out!"
The next second, he would run to Shu Fan again and say in a honeyed voice, "Aunt Xiaofan, Sister Su doesn't seem to like Xiaoxing and doesn't want to play with Xiaoxing at all."
Then, Shu Fan would blame Su Qingxin.
Su Qingxin was used to it, and turned a blind eye to Feng Ruixing's behavior and ignored it. But he was thick-skinned, and there were endless ways to tease Su Qingxin every day. Therefore, Su Qingxin would often lock herself in the room, or go out and not come back for the whole day.
In May, Feng Qiang completed the admission procedures for Su Qingxin, and she was going to report to the new school.
Feng Ruixing sat at the door putting on roller skates and said to Feng Qiang in the living room who reminded him to take good care of Su Qingxin, "Don't worry, I'm here, no one will bully Sister Su."
Su Qingxin sighed heavily, and without waiting for Feng Ruixing, she went to school first.
In May, Tongcheng is filled with the fragrance of tung trees, but it is not as fragrant as the tung trees in Haicheng. In Haicheng, there are not only tung flowers, but also Su Qingxin's father, the man who likes to tell her stories at night with an oil lamp.
He always said, Qingxin, Dad doesn’t need you to be excellent in the future, as long as you are happy.
But now, she is not happy.
Memories surged up in her mind, and Su Qingxin raised her hand, trying to wipe away the tears that were about to flow. Suddenly, a tung flower fell, gently brushed the back of her hand, and fell to the ground.
"Bang——" a loud noise sounded beside me.
She was startled and turned her head subconsciously. A boy in a clean blue and white school uniform was lying on the ground, with a few pieces of tung oil petals stuck in his thick short hair. He stood up shakily, shook his legs, and cursed.
Su Qingxin looked up and saw that the windows on the second floor were still shaking.
"Are you okay?" Su Qingxin asked cautiously.
The boy raised his head, frowned and asked her: "Did you see it?"
Su Qingxin took a step back, shrank her neck and shook her head.
"Don't tell anyone!" The boy raised his hand and pointed it at her, stepping back. When he was two meters away from Su Qingxin, he turned around and limped away.
As soon as the young man disappeared, a middle-aged man ran out from the corridor. He rolled up his sleeves, looked around, and then stamped his feet and cursed: "Wei Ran! You stinky boy stole my money again. I will beat you to death when you come back!"
Su Qingxin took a deep breath, quickly grabbed the strap of her schoolbag, and ran to school without daring to linger.
The people in Tongcheng are all very strange.
This was the first indelible impression this city left on her when she was fifteen.
When Su Qingxin came to the class, everyone in the class stared at her. She scanned the class and stopped at the seat in the corner by the window.
The boy who stole his father's money and jumped down from the second-floor window was supporting his head with one hand and staring at her.
Su Qingxin quickly picked up the chalk and wrote her name on the blackboard, and briefly introduced herself: "I am Su Qingxin from Haicheng, please take care of me."
There was no applause as expected, nor was there any friendliness as expected. The people sitting below laughed softly, and some whispered, "Please take care of me. Hahahaha, so old-fashioned."
The image of Feng Ruixing chewing snacks suddenly appeared in his mind. He also said this to Su Qingxin: "Su Qingxin, you are so old-fashioned. I feel embarrassed to go out with me."
Su Qingxin smiled unconsciously and didn't care.
The head teacher patted her shoulder and said, " Go sit with Wei Ran first. If you're not used to it, you can adjust later."
Su Qingxin walked straight to Wei Ran, who was still staring at her with a smirk. After Su Qingxin sat down, he knocked on the gap between the two tables and said, "38th parallel."
Then, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "One dollar for each time you exceed the limit."
Su Qingxin hugged her schoolbag tightly and ignored him.
Before the age of fifteen, Su Qingxin had forgotten how to accept warmth and praise; after the age of fifteen, she was forced to immediately accept ridicule and cold eyes.
"Su Qingxin, can you help me with the duty? It's my birthday today and I have to go to a party. Please, please."
"Su Qingxin, can you help me collect the exercise books? Thank you very much."
"Su Qingxin, I'm so hungry. Can you buy me a bag of bread? The kind with meat floss?"
They would always blink and smile at Su Qingxin, and she would never hesitate but would immediately do things that made them happy.
Perhaps it was due to her servility, or perhaps only in this way could Su Qingxin forget the loneliness of sitting alone in the classroom watching others talking and laughing.
After school, Su Qingxin waited for Feng Ruixing at the school gate. Shu Fan asked her to go home with him after school. Even though Feng Ruixing didn't like her going home with him, she didn't want to go home and be blamed by her own mother.
"Su Qingxin." Feng Ruixing called her from behind. When Su Qingxin turned around, Feng Ruixing threw the roller skates he had taken off to her and said, "You go back. I'm going to my classmate's house to review my lessons."
His classmates had their arms around his shoulders and his clothes were baggy.
"Are you really reviewing your lessons or just surfing the Internet?" Su Qingxin asked.
"Why do you care so much?" Feng Ruixing yelled impatiently, and left with his classmate arm in arm.
"I don't care." Su Qingxin muttered, and went back alone holding the roller skates in her arms.
The setting sun on the rooftops of the streets gradually dimmed. The daytime in Tongcheng was very short, so short that it disappeared before people had time to do anything.
Suddenly, there was a sound of snapping fingers in her ears. Wei Ran handed a string of candied haws to Su Qingxin and winked at her.
Su Qingxin looked at him, pointed at herself with difficulty, and asked, "Is it for me?"
"What else?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows and smiled at her.
"Thank you." Su Qingxin hesitated for a moment, thanked him softly, and reached out to take it.
Wei Ran retracted his hand immediately, jumped in front of her, patted his thigh and said with a smile: "Just eat it if I tell you to! Su Qingxin, you are so naive, no wonder everyone likes to ask you for help." After that, Wei Ran added, "Su Qingxin, you are so easy to fool."
Su Qingxin calmly looked at Wei Ran, whose smile was extremely exaggerated, and after a long pause she said, "Compared to having no intelligence, being naive should be much better, right?"
After saying that, she took a step forward and gently bumped into Wei Ran's shoulder when she passed by him.
Ten seconds later, Wei Ran caught up with him from behind and asked loudly, "Who are you saying has no IQ?"
"Why are you in such a hurry? You stole your father's money and jumped down from the second floor. You are so brave and smart. How could I say anything bad about you?" Su Qingxin smiled slightly, and then looked at the candied haws in his hand and said, "If you don't eat it now, it will melt."
After that, she turned and left, not wanting to waste her extra energy on irrelevant people, even though Wei Ran was still behind her and asked belatedly: "Su Qingxin, Su Qingxin! You are talking about me, right?"
Su Qingxin ignored Wei Ran's questioning, so she didn't know that since she contradicted him that time, she would be destined to be involved in his pranks.
Su Qingxin never believed in fate, but she had to admit the reality.
Wei Ran poked Su Qingxin's elbow with the tip of his pen for the third time. She was in so much pain that tears welled up in her eyes. However, the culprit was still standing by and said arrogantly, "Su Qingxin, you already owe me three dollars!"
When the get out of class was over, Su Qingxin moved her desk to the aisle, while Wei Ran calculated in his draft book how many times she could cross the 38th parallel on average every day and how much he could earn in a month.
"I'm going to get rich, hahaha!" Wei Ran held the draft book, buried his head in it and started daydreaming.
Su Qingxin looked at him, feeling speechless.
"Student Su Qingxin." A pleasant voice suddenly sounded above my head.
She looked over. She recognized the person standing in front of her. It was Qin Ruxi. Su Qingxin knew her, not because they had met before, but because she had a pretty face, big eyes, fair and delicate face, and deep dimples at the corners of her mouth, which made her cute and adorable. Su Qingxin was also asked by a boy from another class to put a love letter into her desk.
Qin Ruxi put her hands together in a begging gesture and asked her, "Does Wei Ran always bully you?"
Her voice was also very pleasant, clear as a bell, and even a girl like Su Qingxin felt moved when she heard it.
Su Qingxin quickly said: "It doesn't matter, he can't bully me."
Qin Ruxi smiled, reached out and held her hands, saying: "Don't protect him, I saw it all. Otherwise...you go and tell the teacher that you are not used to sitting with Wei Ran, um...I can switch with you. We are old classmates, he won't bully me."
"I..." Su Qingxin had just opened her mouth when her wrist was grabbed by Wei Ran.
Wei Ran pulled Su Qingxin's hand out of Qin Ruxi's, held it tightly, and smiled at Qin Ruxi: "I'm sorry, we get along very well, let's not change seats."
Su Qingxin saw that Qin Ruxi's expression changed slightly. She could more or less guess the reason why Qin Ruxi wanted to change seats. Su Qingxin broke away from Wei Ran's hand and said, "We don't get along well at all."
"Who said that?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, slammed Su Qingxin's desk against his desk, tapped the gap and said, "From now on, the 38th parallel no longer exists. Su Qingxin, I think you are very friendly to your classmates and study hard. I will tell the teacher that since I became your deskmate, my enthusiasm for learning has skyrocketed. The teacher will definitely thank you."
Tan Ruxi slammed her hands on the desk, changing her gentle attitude and scolding, "Wei Ran, you did this on purpose!"
"I did it on purpose." Wei Ran put his hands in his school uniform pockets, opened and closed his arms, and said in a sarcastic tone.
Qin Ruxi was so angry that she gasped and her bangs blew up. She turned her head away in anger, her long ponytail swept across Wei Ran and Su Qingxin's cheeks, and she left unconvinced.
Su Qingxin rubbed her itchy nose, feeling a little embarrassed.
Yang Ye, who was sitting in the front seat, held up a math textbook and said to Wei Ran as if nothing had happened: "This is the seventh time you've rejected our class beauty, Wei Ran. Only you can squander such a gift."
"How do you use the words?" Wei Ran swung the fist that was stuffed in his pocket towards Yang Ye, but he blocked it with a book.
Su Qingxin didn't want to get involved in what was going on between them, so she sat down silently.
Wei Ran didn't intend to let her go. He sat down and poked her arm with his elbow. Su Qingxin ignored him, so he poked her again and said, "You are not allowed to change seats with others in the future, especially Qin Ruxi. Do you understand?"
Su Qingxin didn't answer him. She took out an MP3 from her schoolbag and put the earplugs into her ears.
Su Qingxin later found out that Qin Ruxi and Wei Ran were classmates in elementary school. Qin Ruxi had liked to pester Wei Ran since she was a child, but Wei Ran was always indifferent to her and sometimes even rejected her. For a girl like Qin Ruxi who has good looks and a good family background, other boys would want to be around her every day, but only people like Wei Ran don't understand this.
Time slips away silently, just like the dim moon in the night sky, emitting lonely light in the deep night, and then silently leaving before dawn.
As spring goes and summer comes, the warm sunshine arrives with the sound of cicadas, and the hot season begins noisily.
After Su Qingxin finished her last exam, she wanted to take a walk by the lake, but was stopped by Feng Ruixing at the school gate.
"Why are you coming to school instead of staying at home?" Su Qingxin asked him while putting pencils into her backpack.
Feng Ruixing lowered her head, holding the edge of her pants with both hands, and her voice was as small as a mosquito's: "Sister... I'm in trouble..."
"Don't try that on me. I don't believe you." Su Qingxin interrupted Feng Ruixing expressionlessly and prepared to leave.
Feng Ruixing suddenly opened his hands and raised his head, tears sparkling in his eyes. He said anxiously: "I didn't, Sister Su, please help me, otherwise I will be beaten."
Su Qingxin looked at him puzzledly.
Feng Ruixing added: "I injured someone, and his brother asked me to pay for the medical expenses. I didn't dare tell my dad, because he would definitely beat me to death."
"I don't have any money either. You have to clean up the mess you made yourself." Su Qingxin didn't want to clean up the mess for him. He had nothing to do with her at all.
Feng Ruixing grabbed Su Qingxin's backpack and almost cried: "Sister, please help me think of a solution. If you don't care about me, they will definitely stop me on the roadside and beat me to death. That group of people is very fierce. Sister, even if we are not related by blood, I am still your brother after all. You can't just stand by and watch me die!"
She and he really had no blood relationship, they had no relationship at all. But facing Feng Ruixing's request, Su Qingxin couldn't help but soften her heart and agree to him.
She flipped through her wallet and turned to Feng Ruixing and said, "Take me to see them and tell me the details on the way. I'm helping you this time because everything I have now was given by your father. It has nothing to do with you."
Feng Ruixing quickly wiped the tears from her face and nodded continuously.
Su Qingxin followed Feng Ruixing through the streets and alleys and came to an abandoned alley with no one around. On one side of the alley was a moss-covered wall, and on the other side was an abandoned house with white walls that had been in disrepair for a long time.
There were four senior boys sitting on a rock not far away. When they saw Su Qingxin and Feng Ruixing, they looked at each other as if they had expected it, and said with contemptuous smiles: "You really came, stupid enough."
Su Qingxin was about to speak when Feng Ruixing's voice came from behind her: "How could you bring him here if he's not stupid?"
Su Qingxin suddenly understood that this was all a trap, a self-torture play played by Feng Ruixing. Yes, he hated her so much that even if he really encountered any danger, he would definitely not think of looking for her.
Feng Ruixing snatched Su Qingxin's backpack and threw it on the ground. Su Qingxin wanted to rush over to pick it up, but her hands were grabbed by the older boys.
"Feng Ruixing, what on earth do you want to do!" Su Qingxin shouted through gritted teeth, clenching her hands into fists with her nails digging into her flesh.
"I thought you wouldn't be angry." Feng Ruixing sneered, walked up to Su Qingxin, pointed at her nose and said, "Did you tell my dad about me surfing the Internet at my classmate's house? He got me beaten up and my pocket money was confiscated!"
Su Qingxin struggled and said, "I don't know what you are talking about!"
"You still don't admit it?" Feng Ruixing said as he took out a bottle of ink from his trouser pocket. The boy holding Su Qingxin's hand immediately pressed her head to prevent her from moving. Feng Ruixing dipped his finger in ink and drew on Su Qingxin's face while laughing: "Hahaha, I'll make you look like a clown. See if you dare to go back and complain."
Su Qingxin wanted to resist, but her hands were held tightly and her head was held down. After struggling in vain, she calmed down and let Feng Ruixing paint on her face, then swallowed all her anger.
"Feng Ruixing, your sister is quite stubborn." The boy behind her couldn't help but teased.
When Feng Ruixing heard this, he immediately retorted: "She is not my sister, she is a poor creature from Haicheng!" As he said that, he ran over and picked up Su Qingxin's backpack and turned it upside down, and all the things inside fell out.
Dad's photo slipped out from the pages of the notebook. Su Qingxin was anxious and shouted, "Feng Ruixing, don't touch my bag!"
Feng Ruixing may have seen her anxious look and knew her weakness. He picked up the photo, looked at it over and over again, then pointed at the person in the photo and asked contemptuously, "Why, is this your dad?"
Su Qingxin's eyes were red, and she gnashed her teeth and yelled, "Feng Ruixing, if you dare to touch that photo, I will never forgive you!"
"Oh, I'm so scared, they won't let me go." Feng Ruixing pretended to be scared and patted his chest. Suddenly, he raised the photo high, folded it in half, and tore it open.
"Feng Ruixing!" Su Qingxin screamed, watching with her own eyes as her father's face was split into two in his hands.
Feng Ruixing stacked up the torn photos and started tearing them up again, saying as he tore them up: "I'll let you file a complaint! I'll let you file a complaint!"
Her father once said to her: "Be careful, it is a blessing to suffer losses. Don't quarrel with others over trivial matters because it is not worth it."
Su Qingxin didn't care that Feng Ruixing bullied her because she felt it was not worth it. In order to live a quiet and happy life, Su Qingxin could be the most humble in front of him. But she couldn't tolerate him treating her father like this. He was the only relative in the world who treated her sincerely.
Su Qingxin didn't know why she had so much strength at that time. She broke away from the senior boy and rushed over to push Feng Ruixing away. The fragments of the photo in his hand fell to the ground like fine snowflakes. Su Qingxin knelt down, her hands trembling as she pieced together the broken fragments, tears falling on the back of her hands.
"How dare you push me!"
Feng Ruixing's voice came into Su Qingxin's ears.
Whether he wanted to hit her or kick her, she didn't care about it now.
Su Qingxin just wanted to carefully piece together the shattered photo in her hand; that was the only way for her to see her father.
Before Feng Ruixing finished shouting, he groaned and fell in front of Su Qingxin. At the same time, a yellow football fell to the ground.
An arrogant voice sounded behind him: "Why don't you all get out of here one by one? What, do you still want me to say hello to your teachers and parents? The one lying on the ground, your father's name is Feng Qiang, right? How about I find some time to go to your apartment complex tomorrow to have a cup of tea with your father?"
Feng Ruixing quickly got up from the ground. The people behind him whispered to each other and walked away dejectedly with Feng Ruixing.
Before leaving, Feng Ruixing did not forget to turn back and warn Su Qingxin: "Just wait for me!" But by the end of his words, his momentum had weakened by half.
Su Qingxin picked up the photo fragments one by one and held them in her palm.
Wei Ran walked up to her and picked up the football from the ground. He stretched out his white sneaker-clad feet and shook them in front of her, saying, "Are you going to thank me?"
Su Qingxin didn't answer. She put the photo fragments in her notebook, put on her backpack, turned around and left without even looking at Wei Ran.
Wei Ran yelled from behind: "Su Qingxin, I saved you, you should at least say thank you, why are you so rude?"
She didn't respond to him, but instead grabbed the strap of her backpack, gradually quickened her pace, and ran out of the alley quickly.
It was already so dark outside that it blurred her vision. Su Qingxin came to the lake alone, watching the moths circling around the pale street lights. She didn't want to go back, didn't want to see Feng Qiang's unfamiliar face, didn't want to see Shu Fan's servile appearance in front of him, and didn't want to see Feng Ruixing's hypocritical and disgusting appearance.
Su Qingxin turned on the faucet in the lakeside park, washed the ink off her face, and then sat on a bench by the lake.
The evening breeze from the lake was refreshing and pleasant, slowly blowing away the haze in her heart. In the past, when she was in Haicheng, she would run to the beach to enjoy the sea breeze when she was in a bad mood. After a while, she would no longer be unhappy.
Because the book says that the wind can go to many, many places, and it can also carry your unhappy mood to far away places.
A box of ice cream caught Su Qingxin's sight. Wei Ran held it in front of her and shook it, asking, "Do you want some?"
"No." Su Qingxin said coldly.
"It's real this time." Wei Ran handed the ice cream to her again.
Su Qing tilted his head and said, "No!"
Wei Ran stuffed the ice cream into her hand, sat down next to her, tore open the lid of the ice cream box in his hand with a "swish", and then transferred the unopened ice cream in Su Qingxin's hand to her.
Wei Ran ate big spoonfuls of ice cream, grimace from the cold, but he was still saying seriously, "Delicious, delicious, so delicious."
Su Qingxin couldn't help but purse her lips when she saw his funny look.
Wei Ran swallowed the last bite of ice cream and reached out to Su Qingxin: "Give me the bag."
"What?" she asked.
"Why are you so nagging!" Wei Ran grabbed Su Qingxin's backpack strap and took her bag off. He took out the torn photos from it. Su Qingxin was about to stop him, but she saw him take out glue and a piece of paper the size of a photo from his bag and carefully glued the torn photos together.
Su Qingxin stared at him in a daze. He lowered his head, blocking half of the already dim street light, and she could only see the angular outline of his face under his thick black hair.
"Why are you looking at me? I'm not ice cream. If you don't eat it, the ice cream will melt." Wei Ran's eyes never left the photo. His deep voice was magnetic and made people feel at ease.
Su Qingxin scooped the ice cream with a spoon, thought for a long time, and said, "Thank you."
"Forget it. Who cares if you tell me now?" Wei Ran curled his lips.
Su Qingxin smiled and said nothing more. The evening breeze blew, lifting her long hair, and the ends of her hair fell on his shoulders.
A few minutes later, Wei Ran held up the glued photo, blew on it, and handed it to Su Qingxin: "How is it? Is it as good as new?"
Su Qingxin took it, looked at it from beginning to end, gently stroked the person in the photo with her fingertips, and said with a smile: "Thank you."
Wei Ran put his arm on the back of the chair, propped up his cheek with his hand, looked at her with a smile, and asked, "How are you going to repay me?"
Su Qingxin contentedly put the photo in her notebook, put away her backpack, and said, "Try to be a good deskmate who never crosses the 38th parallel in the future."
Wei Ran rolled his eyes at her, put down his hands, sat down, and said, "Stingy."
Wei Ran was right. She was a stingy person, so much so that even after so many years, she could never forget the boy at the end of junior high school who insisted on calling the gap between the tables the 38th parallel.
He had been in her heart, and before he could rest, he was about to leave.
When she entered the first year of high school, Su Qingxin was still in the same class as Wei Ran.
Students choose their own seats, Wei Ran left the seat next to her, while Yang Ye, who liked to doze off in class, still sat in front. However, Qin Ruxi was assigned to the next class.
Wei Ran stacked his and Su Qingxin's textbooks neatly on the desk, placed a ballpoint pen on the gap between the desks, and whispered to her, "Su Qingxin, now that Qin Ruxi is gone, the 38th parallel will take effect again."
Su Qingxin practiced calligraphy silently. After a long while, she asked, "Wei Ran, why do you dislike Tan Ruxi so much? Isn't she a nice person?"
"Maybe... she's too pretty." Wei Ran put a ballpoint pen into his ear and cleaned it. "I don't like pretty people."
Wei Ran was a weird guy. Su Qingxin felt this way when she first met him. She had never heard of a boy of his age not liking pretty girls.
Yang Ye stood up from his seat holding the football and called to Wei Ran: "Xiao Ran, go play football."
Wei Ran put his hands on the desk and jumped out of his seat.
Not long after he left, Qin Ruxi quietly walked in from the back door. She stuffed a sealed gift box into Wei Ran's desk and sat down in his seat.
"Qingxin." She called Su Qingxin gently.
Su Qingxin turned her head and looked at her.
Qin Ruxi climbed onto Su Qingxin's arm with both hands, looked at her with curved eyebrows, and said, "Don't tell Wei Ran that this gift is from me, okay?"
Su Qingxin nodded and agreed.
Qin Ruxi sat a little closer and said in a negotiating tone: "Qingxin, we were classmates before and are good friends now. Can you do me a favor?"
Su Qingxin couldn't resist Tan Ruxi's honey-like attack. Her bright eyes seemed to see into people's hearts. Su Qingxin turned her head away, staring at the Chinese characters on the copybook, and asked, "What can I do for you?"
Qin Ruxi put her arm around Su Qingxin's shoulders, leaned close to her ear and said, "If any girl tries to show her affection to Wei Ran, please tell me, okay?"
Su Qingxin could understand what Qin Ruxi meant.
Su Qingxin didn't answer. Qin Ruxi thought she was hesitant and started to act like a spoiled child again. Su Qingxin shook her head and said, "I'm sorry."
Qin Ruxi's smile froze on her face. She was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's okay, but..." She pointed at Wei Ran's desk and said, "Please don't tell him about this."
Su Qingxin nodded and said, "Okay."
Qin Ruxi patted Su Qingxin on the shoulder and left the classroom.
Su Qingxin did not try to guess how much Qin Ruxi liked Wei Ran, nor did she expect that the smile on her face would be replaced by gloom after she turned her back to him and left.
Zhu Panpan, who was sitting at the front table with Yang Ye, turned around and asked Su Qingxin curiously, "Do you know Qin Ruxi?"
"We were classmates before." Su Qingxin answered truthfully.
Zhu Panpan put her palm to her lips and said carefully: "Don't deal with her. She has a temper like a little girl and will not consider the consequences of anything she does. She has her father's support."
"Is it so serious?" Su Qingxin responded to Zhu Panpan's words absent-mindedly. Their affairs were nothing to Su Qingxin, and she didn't care. But Su Qingxin knew that if she helped Qin Ruxi, she would offend many, many people.
Don't worry about unnecessary things, this is what her father taught her since she was a child. Moreover, at that time, there was no friendship between Qin Ruxi and her.
Zhu Panpan was packing up her books in front and turned back to invite Su Qingxin: "Do you want to go to the cafeteria to eat? Let's go together."
Su Qingxin looked at the time on her watch and said, "Okay."
Zhu Panpan is a flexible and enthusiastic fat girl. When Su Qingxin follows her and calls her "Panpan, Panpan", she will say in great pain: "Qingxin, you should just call me Fatty like everyone else, Pig Fatty, how cute."
She forced Su Qingxin to eat meat in the cafeteria, saying, "Su Qingxin, you don't look good if you're thin, you're too thin!" Then she gave all the meat in her bowl to Su Qingxin. She would laugh as she watched Su Qingxin eat the meat in pain.
At that time, Zhu Panpan's innocent and optimistic personality was the first ray of sunshine Su Qingxin had ever seen in Tongcheng.
After school that afternoon, Wei Ran, sweating all over, saw a gift box in his desk. He opened it and found a brand new tape inside.
Wei Ran looked at Su Qingxin in surprise, and Su Qingxin looked at him in confusion. Then, a blush appeared on Wei Ran's face.
The setting sun shone through the window, wrapping around his body, making him look hazy.
Immediately afterwards, Wei Ran picked up his schoolbag, put it on his shoulder, and ran out of the classroom holding his school uniform.
At that time, Su Qingxin didn't know why he ran so hurriedly. She didn't know that behind the haste there were the boy's unknown thoughts.
It was not until that night that Su Qingxin found out that Wei Ran thought the person who sent him the tape was her.
That day, Su Qingxin was still wandering the streets late at night. The lush trees on the roadside were her toys, and she occasionally fiddled with the leaves while listening to Jay Chou's "Sunny Day", her footsteps reflected in the warm yellow street lights behind her.
The sound of the bicycle bell pierced through Jay Chou's voice, almost piercing her eardrums. Su Qingxin stumbled and the earplugs slipped out of her ears.
A bicycle drove in front of her, with Qin Ruxi sitting on the back seat. She was riding a short-haired girl with earrings and a lollipop in her mouth.
"Su Qingxin, what a coincidence, you haven't gone home yet?" Qin Ruxi smiled innocently, with deep dimples on her cheeks.
The girl on the bicycle looked down at Su Qingxin, her eyes full of playful mockery.
Su Qingxin lowered her head, not looking at them, and prepared to leave.
Tan Ruxi grabbed her arm, jumped out of the back seat, and said, "Sister You and I are going to the bar, you can come too."
"I won't go." Su Qingxin struggled and clearly felt that Qin Ruxi was using a lot of strength.
Qin Ruxi let go of her hand, looking a little aggrieved: "You seem to hate me?"
"I didn't, and I'm not going. I want to go home now." Su Qingxin rubbed her arm that was hurt by the scratching and wanted to leave.
The girl called Sister You rode a bicycle in front of her. Sister You took out the lollipop in her mouth, raised her head and said, "Why go home? Come with me, I will take you to play."
Su Qingxin remained silent. After a while, she raised her head and said with a cold look, "Please move aside."
Not only did Sister You not give in, but she became interested. She reached out and lifted Su Qingxin's chin, and said with a smile, "Little girl, you are quite pretty. If a pure student girl like you goes to a bar, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, you will definitely be very popular."
Qin Ruxi also nudged Su Qingxin with her shoulder and said, "Let's go."
Su Qingxin shook her head, looked at Sister You who was blocking her way, and turned around to return the same way.
Sister You took advantage of Su Qingxin's inattention, grabbed the strap of her schoolbag, and pulled it hard, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground.
"Sister You, what are you doing?" Qin Ruxi scolded and helped Su Qingxin up from the ground.
Sister You's hand was still suspended in mid-air. She pretended to look at her hand and said to Su Qingxin, "I'm sorry, I didn't control the strength well."
Su Qingxin brushed the dust off her hands and glared at Qin Ruxi, who was still looking at her with an innocent expression.
"If you want to take revenge on me because I didn't help you, Qin Ruxi, this is why Wei Ran doesn't like you." Su Qingxin said every word clearly.
Qin Ruxi's face gradually turned darker, and she fell into a state of embarrassment and anger.
Sister You grabbed Su Qingxin's shoulders, and the smile on her face disappeared. She warned: "Su Qingxin, who do you think you are to say such a thing?"
"Then who do you think you are?" A football slowly rolled in front of Su Qingxin, and Wei Ran's voice sounded faintly. He walked out from the darkness, raised his hands high and rested them behind his head, smiling in a rogue way.
Qin Ruxi quickly took Su Qingxin's hand and explained, "Qingxin, I really just want to invite you to the bar, I don't have any other intentions."
"Sorry, she doesn't go to places like bars." Wei Ran came over, took away Qin Ruxi's hand with a smile, then grabbed the back of Su Qingxin's head and said, "Our Qingxin is a 'three-good student'. How could she go to a place like a bar when she is under 18 years old?"
As he spoke, he looked down at Su Qingxin, pressed her head down hard, and asked with a dagger hidden in his smile: "Isn't that right, Su Qingxin?"
Su Qingxin felt a little uncomfortable after being pressed by him.
Wei Ran loosened his grip at the right time, picked up the football, patted the dust off it, and sighed: "I almost kicked someone just now, luckily I held back."
As he spoke, he pointed at Sister You and Qin Ruxi, then at Su Qingxin: "You guys go have fun, I'll take her away first. Don't worry, Qin Ruxi, I will keep the fact that you guys went to the bar a secret." After saying that, he took Su Qingxin's hand and walked back without caring about their reactions.
Wei Ran’s palm was very big, just enough to wrap around Su Qingxin’s wrist.
Su Qingxin had seen this kind of situation in idol dramas, and she also fantasized about meeting a boy she liked one day and watching him protect her from the wind and rain.
In front of Wei Ran, Su Qingxin knew what it felt like to have a violent heartbeat. When he held her wrist, she felt a tingling sensation that went straight into her heart, like thousands of ants crawling around.
Wei Ran took Su Qingxin to a place where Qin Ruxi couldn't see him before letting go of her hand. Then he put his hands on his hips and looked her up and down, saying, "Su Qingxin, when someone bullies you, don't you fight back? Are you stupid?"
"Do you also think I should fight back?" Su Qingxin asked Wei Ran.
Wei Ran opened his arms and said, "Of course. They always asked you for help before, and now they are bullying you because you look so weak and confused. Can you stop looking down with no expression on your face?"
"Then according to what you mean..." Su Qingxin pretended to think, and said, "I should have pushed Sister You just now, and then she hit me, and then I hit her?"
Su Qingxin knew better than anyone that those insignificant disputes would only cause trouble if she took them to heart.
"Beat her?" Wei Ran snorted and said contemptuously, "Can you beat her?"
Su Qingxin shook her head, put her hands behind her back, brushed past Wei Ran, took big steps one by one, and asked, "Do you think it's childish to block someone on the side of the road and teach them a lesson without any justifiable reason?"
"Quite childish." Wei Ran followed her.
"So..." Su Qingxin stopped, turned slightly, faced Wei Ran, and said, "In the future, they will be the ones who will regret such childish behavior, not me."
Wei Ran suddenly stopped, his eyes focused, and he looked at her with unprecedented seriousness.
"Thank you for helping me out, Wei Ran." Su Qingxin stood up straight, confidently met Wei Ran's gaze, and smiled. Before Wei Ran could answer, she smiled again, "I know what is necessary and what is not. I also know what can be tolerated and what cannot be tolerated. I will protect myself well."
Wei Ran was stunned for a long time. Only when his thoughts came back to him did his eyes warm up and he smiled, "So you went crazy after that kid surnamed Feng tore up your father's photo?"
He walked over, step by step, and then bent down in front of Su Qingxin, his eyes fell into her eyes, as if he wanted to see into her heart: "It turns out that Su Qingxin, you are not confused, and you are very smart in your heart."
Wei Ran's breath hit her cheek, with a cool feeling different from that of summer, a light minty scent.
Su Qingxin blushed and turned away quickly.
The left side of her chest was beating so hard that her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. She pressed her chest tightly, and her ears felt hot.
Wei Ran coughed a few times behind him and said, "Well... Oh, by the way, Su Qingxin." He ran to Su Qingxin and asked curiously, "How did you know today is my birthday?"
"Ah?" Su Qingxin looked at him in confusion.
Wei Ran nodded several times vigorously, took out the tape that Qin Ruxi gave him from his schoolbag, and said, "Isn't this your birthday present to me? Su Qingxin, I treated you like that, but you still found a way to find out my birthday. You are so nice." As he said that, he scratched his head embarrassedly, looking rarely shy.
Su Qingxin took a long time to slowly put away her surprised expression, and said with some guilt: "Wei Ran... this is not a gift from me."
Wei Ran was still immersed in joy. When he heard Su Qingxin's words, he immediately jumped up. He shouted, "It's not you? Don't you like Jay Chou too? If it's not you, then who is it?"
"It really wasn't me." Su Qingxin said apologetically, "I didn't even know that today was your birthday. I'm sorry."
Wei Ran stood there in a daze. The streets at night suddenly seemed even more empty and quiet.
Suddenly, he waved his hand, moved the strap of his backpack that had slipped off his shoulder back to his shoulder, turned around and strode away, and every step seemed to ignite his anger.
After walking away, Wei Ran turned around and shouted to Su Qingxin in the dark night: "Su Qingxin, just pretend you didn't hear what I just said. Let's move on tonight!"
Then, Su Qingxin heard him, as if his arrogant character was greatly hurt, and he cursed: "What a shame, what a shame!"
Su Qingxin stood under the street light, covering her mouth with one hand, her shoulders shaking with laughter.
When she got home in the evening, Su Qingxin circled September 27 on the calendar. After staring at the date for a long time, she tore off the page and threw it into the trash can.
The moon outside the window was very round and bright. It was the first time that Su Qingxin saw such a bright moonlight after coming to Tongcheng half a year.