Lemon Soda Candy - 13

Over the weekend, the temperature in Nancheng city suddenly dropped back to just above ten degrees. Ms. He nagged Zhou Anran to put on thicker clothes to school on Monday morning. 

When they arrived at the teaching building, Zhou Anran and Yan Xingxi entered the back door of the classroom arm in arm as usual. 

Once inside, Zhou Anran's gaze instinctively wandered towards the sixth desk at the second row. She heard some boy in the back row greet Yan Xingxi. 

"Yan Xingxi, you're really good. That video and what you said last Friday were really too satisfying. I didn't expect you to know quite a bit about basketball."

Yan Xingxi waved her hand, "No, no, I just happened to hear about it when I accompanied my dad to watch a game the other day. I actually don't know much about it."

"The fact that you can still remember and even use it at critical times alone is pretty awesome." 

Back at her seat, Yan Xingxi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "Luckily, you anticipated that someone would bring this up and prepared my lines in advance. Otherwise, I might have slipped up my tongue."

Zhou Anran did not sit down immediately and took out a tissue from her school bag to wipe the desk.

Yan Xingxi lowered her voice, added,"The one they should be praising is actually you. You really don't need me to explain to everyone that the video was actually filmed by you and that those words were also told to me by you?"

Zhou Anran, who was wiping the desk, paused. 

She was only trying to help him last Friday and was not looking for compliments from anyone.

Besides, she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself, she felt like it would reveal the secret she carefully hidden.

"No." Zhou Anran whispered back, "Everyone will forget about it in a few days. If we explain now, it'll seem like I'm taking credit for it. It's not a big deal anyway. Please help me out again, I'm not good at handling this kind of situation. I'll treat you to some milk tea tonight."

"Sure. But I want iced lemon tea, it's really hot today."Yan Xingxi yawned, murmuring she wanted to lie down on the desk. 

Zhou Anran pulled her up, "Hold on, let me wipe it for you first."

Once she also finished wiping Yan Xingxi's desk, Zhou Anran walked to the back of the room to throw away the tissue, then went out to wash her hands.

When she came back, she saw Lou Yiqi already sitting down in her seat.

Zhou Anran took a seat. 

Lou Yiqi turned around to face their desk, seizing Yan Xingxi up with an indistinct gaze, "Yan Xingxi, have you always had such a good understanding of basketball rules?"

Yan Xingxi looked up, "Not really. I heard it by chance when I accompanied my dad to watch a game. The commentator highlighted that particular rule, and I just happened to remember it."

"I see." Lou Yiqi paused, "Did you also filmed Chen Luobai being undercut by chance too? It seems like our class is quite lucky."

Yan Xingxi: "He had the ball. Isn't it normal to film his foot movement? Am I supposed to film his face?"

Lou Yiqi placed her hand on Zhou Anran's desk, "That's true. But Zhu Ran invited you to Qingting last Friday, why didn't you go? You could have kept me company."

This topic was not within the range of lines that Zhou Anran had prepared.

However, now that basketball was no longer the focus, Yan Xingxi didn't have to worry about revealing anything. She glanced at Lou Yiqi strangely, "Aren't you with Yin Yizhen?"

Lou Yiqi fell silent.

"Then, it's just me and her. We were the only girls there, the rest were boys," Lou Yiqi brought up the topic again. "So why didn't you go?"

Yan Xingxi had a baffled expression, "Why should I go? I'm not familiar with them. Besides, my idol has a schedule that day."

"That's it?" Lou Yiqi's face showed obvious surprise.

Yan Xingxi: "What do you mean, 'that's it'? It's my idol's first activity in so long. I wouldn't miss it even if the sky is falling."

Lou Yiqi: "......"

"Oh." She responded and turned around.

Zhou Anran listened to the whole exchange from the side, sighed softly in her heart.

Yan Xingxi is not interested in Chen Luobai whatsoever, that's why she could act so natural and frank.

Had it been her just now, she doubted she could acted the same way. 

Zhou Anran took out her pen, planning to memorise words, but probably because she was a little distracted, the pen cap accidentally flew off when she removed it.

As she bent down to pick it up, she noticed that He Mingyu, whose seat was changed next to her with a passageway separating them, seemed to be looking at her.

She wondered if he had overheard something just now.

Last Friday, when the conflict broke out on the court, everyone attention were focused on Chen Luobai. She stuffed the phone into Yan Xingqian's pocket very discreetly without anyone noticing. What's more, she and Yan Xingxi had identical phone models and cases.

So, even if He Mingyu was standing nearby, he shouldn't have noticed anything. 

"What's the matter?" Zhou Anran asked.

He Mingyu shook his head, "Nothing. I was initially going to ask you something, but I suddenly figured it out on my own."

Zhou Anran didn't say anything further. She placed the pen cap back on and lowered her head to continue memorizing the words.

Yan Xingxi nudged her with her elbow, "I'm going to rewatch my idol's activities from last Friday. Ranran, help me watch out for teachers."

Zhou Anran refused, "Auntie Song asked me to make sure you memorize words this morning." 

"I'll only watch for five minutes." Yan Xingxi pleaded, pouting, "My dear Ranran, I even helped you—"

Zhou Anran interrupted her softly, "Just five minutes." 

Yan Xingxi made an 'OK' gesture to her, then lowered her head sneakily.

Zhou Anran flipped through her English book while glancing towards the back from time to time.

To see if the teacher had entered quietly through the back door. 

As well as, whether or not he had arrived.

When the five minutes were almost up, Dong Chen walked down the passageway next to Yan Xingxi and suddenly tapped on her desk from behind.

Yan Xingxi was startled, lifted her head, and saw that it was him. She then removed her earphones and said, "Dong Chen, what's your problem? Why would you tap on my desk like that? That scared me."

Dong Chen innocently replied, "To collect math homework, of course. Why are you blaming me for scaring you when you're the one not studying and sneaking around?"

Yan Xingxi glared at him angrily, "Who's sneaking around? It's still early, who collects math homework at this time?"

As she spoke, she took out a paper from her desk and slammed it on the table.

Dong Chen: "I can collect it whenever I want."

Yan Xingxi was too lazy to mind him and put her earphones back on.

Dong Chen touched his nose, "Zhou Anran, what about you?"

Zhou Anran handed him the paper, then reminded softly, "Don't keep scaring her, she can't stand it."

Dong Chen remained silent for a moment and looked away, saying, "I never."

Zhou Anran said nothing and proceeded to took off Yan Xingxi's earphones again, "Five minutes are up, go memorise the words."

Yan Xingxi: "...."

"Huhuhu, what kind of bribe did my mother offer you? I'll give you ten times as much."

"Even if you offered me a hundred times more, it wouldn't make a difference," Zhou Anran replied, pulling out Yan Xingxi's English book, "Hurry up and memorize the words. If you can't remember them during the dictation test later, don't come crying to me."

In the end, Yan Xingxi got two words wrong.

Sheng Xiaowen and Zhang Shuxian walked into the classroom together. After what happened on Friday, where they were separated from Zhou Anran and Yan Xingxi, the two stayed in touch on social media over the weekend. As they entered the classroom, they gossiped about last Friday's game. 

With the start of the self-study session approaching, Zhou Anran still hasn't heard that familiar voice.

While passing forward the homework from the back row, she turned around to look back. His seat in the sixth row was still empty. 

Why hasn't he arrived today? 

Zhou Anran took the homework from the back row, turned around slowly, and saw the person she wanted to see entering the classroom through the front door.

The boy had switched back to spring uniforms following the drop in temperature. His jacket was unzipped and loosely draped over his body. He hung his school bag on one shoulder, his figure was tall and slender.

He appeared to be holding a see-through bag in his hand, she couldn't tell what's inside.

He was looking sideways, talking to Zhu Ran, who was blocked from view by him.

Not sure what Zhu Ran said to him, but Chen Luobai suddenly turned his head and looked in her direction.

Zhou Anran hurriedly averted her gaze.

However, she could still see what he was doing out of the corner of her eye.

She saw him go through the door with Zhu Ran.

She watched as he walked into the passageway between the first and second row.

And saw him...

Stopped by their desk.

Zhou Anran's breathing seemed to stop along with them. 

She couldn't help but look up slightly, still too afraid to look directly at him, but this allowed her to see him more clearly. 

Zhou Anran saw him raise his hand, bringing the small mole on his wrist into her line of sight. She noticed that the bag he was carrying was from the school's mini-mart, and it appeared to contain a stack of snacks. 

Then she saw him place the bag of snacks on Yan Xingxi's desk.

The boy's familiar and clear voice rang out from a very close distance.

"Thanks for last Friday."

Zhu Ran added, "We bought this for you. Female Hero Yan, you were really impressive. If it wasn't for your video and what you said last Friday, we would have definitely won, but it won't be that easy."

Yan Xingxi was taken aback.

This was not within the subject that Zhou Anran had prepared for her. 

Yan Xingxi turned her head slightly, and saw that Zhou Anran had her head lowered, she blinked and could only improvise some nonsense,"Don't thank me. I just happened to know the rules and filmed it, that's all. Didn't you say you wanted to bring honour to our class? I'm sure other classmates would have done the same, so there's really no need to thank me."  

"Okay, but you should keep the snacks. There's not much there." Zhu Ran didn't push further, "Anyway, if you need help with anything in the future, just let us know."

Only after the two tall and big boys left her side did Yan Xingxi once again quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

She first took the snacks on the desk to her lap, and was about to ask Zhou Anran what she was going to do with them. However, when she turned her head, she found Zhou Anran had lied on the desk at some point.

"Ranran." Yan Xingxi hurriedly asked, "Are you alright?" 

Zhou Anran's response came out muffled, "I'm fine. I just have a slight stomach ache."

Yan Xingxi: "What's wrong? Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?" 

"No need." Zhou Anran said, "It's probably just my period starting."

Yan Xingxi was instantly relieved upon hearing this, "Then lie down and rest for a bit. I'll explain to the teacher when they arrive."

Zhou Anran responded with an 'um', her voice was so low that she could barely hear herself. 

She buried her face in her arms, feeling a gradual sourness creeping up her nose.

But what was there to be sad about? 

When she made the decision to place her phone in Yan Xingxi's uniform pocket that Friday, she should have anticipated this outcome.

She might not care about compliments and attention from others, but it was not the case when it came to him and his every action. 

She had the opportunity to receive this polite gratitude from him in person.

It was she herself who gave it up.

Perhaps, deep down in her heart she knew that the so-called shyness and fear of exposing her secrets were all excuses she made for herself.

In reality, she was just a coward who dared not take a step closer to him.

During the morning recess, Hu Kun and the others apologised to Tang Jianrui in front of the whole school.

That day, everywhere she went, Zhou Anran could hear people in school talking about the match last Friday, discussing Chen Luobai's step-back three-pointer shot and his unguarded pass.

Following the polite thank you incident this morning, Zhou Anran was feeling down for the rest of the day. Even during her nap at noon, she couldn't fully rest. 

In a half-asleep state, she heard someone talking in the front row, the voice was particularly sweet, it seemed to be Yin Yizhen.

She said, "Do you think I should ask Chen Luobai out this weekend?"

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