Lemon Soda Candy - 15

This was the first time Zhou Anran had seen him so visibly upset.

She couldn't help but worry, even though she had no real right to be concerned about him. She just couldn't help it.

But her current seat made it inconvenient to look at him.

There was still a little time before morning self-study started. Zhou Anran thought for a moment, then simply drank all the remaining soy milk in her cup. This way, she could legitimately pass by him to wash her cup and get water, exiting through the back door.

But after turning around with her empty cup, she found he seemed to have already slumped onto his desk.

The classroom was a bit noisy, but as she passed him, Zhou Anran lightened her footsteps. She caught a glimpse of a few unruly strands of his black hair sticking up, but she couldn't see his face.

Naturally, she couldn't analyze his mood any further.

But she seemed to recall overhearing Zhu Ran mention once that he got grumpy when he didn't sleep well, and his mood and temper would worsen during those times.

Could that be the reason?

When Zhou Anran returned after getting water, the boy was still head down on his desk sleeping.

When homework was being passed forward from the back row, Zhou Anran took the opportunity to sneak another glance back. He was still asleep.

She didn't see him lift his head again until after morning self-study ended, when she used a trip to the restroom as an excuse to go out the back door again.

The boy's head was tilted slightly, his profile clean and defined. She didn't know what Zhu Ran had said to him, but his eyebrow lifted slightly.

He looked much like his usual self.

No sign of unhappiness was visible.

When she passed by him again on her way back to her seat, he was already looking down at a book. His expression was neutral, but the corners of his mouth weren't pressed into a tight line like before.

Later, Zhou Anran found a few more opportunities to secretly observe him and didn't see any further signs of displeasure, so she gradually relaxed.

Yet, a small part of her heart still felt suspended by invisible threads.

Just because Yin Yizhen hadn't asked him out alone this week didn't mean she never would.

Regardless, Yin Yizhen was currently the girl closest to him.

But perhaps the severe public reprimand of the two seniors during Monday's flag-raising ceremony had intimidated everyone, because the following month passed with unusual peace.

No one was heard confessing to Chen Luobai by intercepting him.

Even the number of love letters and gifts secretly stuffed into his desk seemed to have decreased.

Zhang Shuxian was still enthusiastic about gathering all sorts of school gossip, but none of it was related to him recently.

No rumors of any ambiguity between Yin Yizhen and him had emerged.

Yan Xingxi, however, had put in tremendous effort this month. Her "Operation: Save My Idol" plan was being executed flawlessly, and she didn't even need much supervision from Zhou Anran.

The day before the midterm exams, Yan Xingxi was still struggling with math, the bangs on her forehead tousled from her frustration.

"Ah! Why do humans have to learn such inhuman things?" Yan Xingxi pushed the book on her desk toward Zhou Anran. "Ranran, can you explain this problem to me again?"

Dong Chen happened to be passing by her side. He stopped, his tone seemingly casual. "What problem? Why don't you ask me?"

Yan Xingxi looked up, puzzled. "Why would I ask you?"

Dong Chen averted his gaze, his tone flattening. "Suit yourself."

"How baffling." Yan Xingxi gave him a strange look and lowered her head again. "Ranran, explain it to me, quick."

Zhou Anran: "..."

The exchange had been too brief and lacked any relevant keywords, so it didn't attract anyone else's attention.

But Zhou Anran clearly remembered how, last semester, because of a certain someone, the school had experienced a brief trend of using "asking about a math problem" as a way to confess.

Although over a semester had passed and the hype had long cooled down, the ambiguous connotations associated with it couldn't be erased.

Seeing that Yan Xingxi seemed completely clueless, Zhou Anran felt like reminding her, but she was afraid she might be misreading the situation and end up causing trouble for both Yan Xingxi and Dong Chen.

In the end, she didn't say anything, just took the pen from Yan Xingxi's hand and started explaining the problem.

The midterm exams were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The next day was Saturday, and Zhou Anran went with her parents to visit her cousin who lived in the same city; it was her cousin's daughter's third birthday.

As soon as they entered, before Zhou Anran could even greet everyone, a small, soft bundle came rushing toward her.

Her cousin's daughter's nickname was Tuan Tuan. The little girl hugged her leg, tilted her head back, and spoke in a milky, childish voice, though her pronunciation wasn't entirely clear yet.

"Auntie, present."

"You haven't even let Auntie come in and sit down, and you're already blocking her way asking for a present. Aren't you ashamed?" Her cousin came over, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She first pinched her daughter's little cheek, then smiled at Zhou Anran. "Last time you promised her you'd take her to the mall to pick a present for her birthday. She's been looking forward to it ever since. She's been asking all morning why Auntie hasn't arrived yet."

The cousin was the daughter of Zhou Anran's eldest aunt and was very close to their family.

Zhou Anran often visited and felt completely at ease. She took Tuan Tuan's hand. "Then I won't bother changing shoes. I'll take Tuan Tuan to the mall first. Cousin, do you need me to buy anything?"

Her cousin shook her head, crouched down to change her daughter's shoes, and casually instructed, "Be good and listen to Auntie. You can only pick one present, no asking for more, understand?"

Tuan Tuan, still holding Zhou Anran's hand, said, "I know!"

There was a large shopping mall right outside the residential complex. Zhou Anran had always been well-behaved, so the adults always trusted her. No one followed them. Just as they were leaving, He Jiayi asked quietly, "Do you have enough money?"

Zhou Anran nodded.

He Jiayi patted her. "Okay. I'll reimburse you when we get home."

Zhou Anran took Tuan Tuan to the mall.

After picking out a present on the first floor, the little girl pulled her in another direction. "Auntie,supemaket."

"It's supermarket," Zhou Anran corrected her pronunciation.

Tuan Tuan tried to mimic: "Supemaket."

Zhou Anran couldn't help but smile.

The little girl could barely read yet, but she remembered the exact location of the candy aisle in the supermarket. As soon as they entered, she directly pulled Zhou Anran to that shelf and pointed with her little hand.

"Candy."

Zhou Anran bought her several different types of candy from the shelf she pointed to.

As soon as they left the supermarket, Tuan Tuan urged her to open them.

Zhou Anran opened one of the bags and handed it to her. "You can only have two pieces this morning, no more, understand?"

Tuan Tuan obediently took only two candies from the bag. She tilted her head, thought for a moment, then offered one to Zhou Anran. "For you."

Zhou Anran thought she wanted help opening it. She unwrapped the candy, half-crouched down, and fed it to her, reminding her, "Don't swallow it whole, okay?"

Tuan Tuan nodded her head, then offered the other candy in her hand. "Auntie eat too."

Zhou Anran wasn't particularly interested in candy, but under the little girl's eager gaze, she unwrapped it and ate it.

The taste was unexpectedly good.

It was like lemon soda.

Tiny bubbles popped in her mouth, and the slight tartness of the lemon balanced the sweetness of the candy.

Thinking Yan Xingxi would probably like this flavor too, she took Tuan Tuan back into the supermarket and bought two more bags of the same candy.

The next day, both He Jiayi and Zhou Xianhong had to work overtime.

At noon, when Zhou Anran went to Yan Xingxi's house for lunch, she brought along the two bags of candy she had bought the previous day.

After lunch, Yan Xingxi invited her to stay and watch a movie.

Since the midterms had just ended, Song Qiu didn't restrict them too much.

However, before one movie was over, the two bags of candy Zhou Anran had brought were finished by Yan Xingxi.

As the movie neared its end, Yan Xingxi reached into the bag and found it empty. "It's gone already? Where did you buy these?"

Zhou Anran: "Near my cousin's place."

"Let's go look for them at a supermarket nearby later." Yan Xingxi clung to her arm.

Zhou Anran nodded.

After the movie, they went out to check the nearby supermarket but couldn't find the candy with the same bubbly design on the packaging.

"I remember the packaging had Japanese writing on it, right? Did you notice the brand name when you bought it?" Yan Xingxi asked.

That candy had been placed in a very prominent position in the supermarket near her cousin's.

Zhou Anran shook her head. "I didn't pay attention."

Yan Xingxi's face fell slightly. "I shouldn't have thrown the wrapper in the trash. We might have been able to find it online."

"It's okay." Zhou Anran comforted her. "I'll be going to my cousin's again during the Labor Day holiday. I'll bring you more then."

The midterm exam results came out on Tuesday. Zhou Anran's performance remained stable, and her ranking improved by one place. Yan Xingxi, perhaps because her potential had been fully tapped, advanced six places in the class ranking after a month of hard work.

Zhou Anran breathed a huge sigh of relief for her.

With such significant improvement, Auntie Song should be satisfied.

Perhaps because the parent-teacher meeting was scheduled for the following Monday, no one dared to cause any extra trouble this week. It passed uneventfully.

On Friday morning, as Zhou Anran was finishing breakfast at home, He Jiayi seemed to remember something. "Oh, right, when I was doing laundry last Saturday, I found a few candies in your jacket pocket. I put them in that soda can where you keep your candy wrapper flowers."

"Candy?" Zhou Anran looked up, puzzled. "What candy?"

He Jiayi found it amusing. "You're asking me about something from your own pocket?"

Zhou Anran put down her chopsticks. "I'll go check."

Back in her bedroom, Zhou Anran carefully removed the candy wrapper flowers, turned the empty soda can upside down, and its contents fell onto the desk.

It was four pieces of the soda candy.

But she was sure she had taken the unopened bags directly to Yan Xingxi's house last time.

He Jiayi pushed the door open from outside. "Did you find them?"

"Found them." Zhou Anran remembered how Tuan Tuan had clung to her after they returned to her cousin's house last Saturday and couldn't help smiling. "Tuan Tuan must have slipped them in."

He Jiayi glanced at her desk and also smiled. "It's hard for anyone else to get a single piece of candy from Tuan Tuan. She's certainly generous with you."

Zhou Anran picked up the four candies, stuffed them into her pocket, and shouldered her backpack. "Mom, I'm off to school now."

After meeting up with Yan Xingxi downstairs, Zhou Anran took two candies from her pocket and offered them to her. Only when she opened her palm did she see she had casually grabbed a grape-flavored one and an orange-flavored one.

That meant the two remaining in her pocket were both lemon-flavored.

Yan Xingxi accepted them with pleasant surprise. "Where did these come from?"

Zhou Anran couldn't help but smile again, her small dimples faintly visible. "My little niece secretly put them in my pocket."

All the way to school, Yan Xingxi was eating the candy, her speech muffled.

In the classroom, Zhou Anran, as usual, first wiped her desk and chair. After throwing away the tissue at the back, she intended to go out the back door to wash her hands when she saw Chen Luobai reach the doorway.

His backpack was slung over his right shoulder. The line of his jaw was even tighter than last time, his deep-set eyes filled with obvious unhappiness.

Zhou Anran hadn't expected him to arrive so early today. Her gaze at him was probably more noticeable than usual, but he seemed completely unaware.

When they passed each other at the back door, it was as if he didn't even notice there was another person there.

It was a rare moment of such proximity, yet Zhou Anran's heart didn't race as it usually did. Her mind was occupied solely by that one question again—

What's wrong with him?

Did he not sleep well again?

But when she returned from washing her hands and entered the classroom from the back, she didn't see him catching up on sleep like last time. Instead, he was bent over his desk as if doing homework.

The half of his jawline facing her was still tightly clenched.

Zhou Anran secretly observed him throughout the day and could almost confirm he was truly in a bad mood today.

Even the usually extremely talkative Zhu Ran was unusually quiet today, as if not daring to disturb him.

It was Zhou Anran's turn to clean that day. After class, she went to the storage room at the back of the classroom to get a broom and saw Chen Luobai being cornered at the back door by Gao Guohua, who had somehow come to their class.

"Are your parents definitely not coming on Monday?" Gao Guohua asked.

Chen Luobai leaned lazily against the doorframe, eyes lowered, his emotion hard to discern. "No."

Gao Guohua continued, "Then will you stay and help me host the other parents on Monday?"

"What would I stay for? To make the other parents jealous?"

Zhou Anran dared a glance toward the back door and正好 saw the boy lift his eyes slightly and smile at Gao Guohua.

But for some reason, Zhou Anran for some reason felt that even though he was smiling, the smile didn't reach his eyes at all. He seemed even more unhappy than when he had entered the classroom in the morning.

Gao Guohua was probably amused by his somewhat arrogant remark and didn't notice his expression. "If you want to slack off, just say so. Don't make up excuses."

"I'm leaving." Chen Luobai straightened up. "Teacher Gao."

Gao Guohua waved a hand as if to shoo him away. "Go, go, hurry up and go."

Chen Luobai waved at him, turned, and strode down the stairs.

Gao Guohua shook his head with a laugh. "That kid."

Zhu Ran, grabbing his backpack, ran out the back door, his voice loud. "Chen Luobai, why are you walking so fast? Wait for me!"

"Some classes aren't dismissed yet!" Old Gao scolded him exasperatedly from behind. "Zhu Ran, why are you shouting so loudly?"

"Sorry, Teacher Gao! See you next week!" Zhu Ran's perfunctory voice drifted back from afar.

Students left one after another, and the classroom quickly quieted down.

Zhou Anran swept the floor absentmindedly, still unconsciously pondering why he was so upset today.

Was it because his parents couldn't attend the parent-teacher meeting?

But his parents hadn't come to last semester's meeting either, and he hadn't seemed the least bit unhappy that day.

Yet, when the homeroom teacher mentioned the parent-teacher meeting earlier, his mood did seem worse than at any other time today.

By the time Yan Xingxi had finished cleaning, Zhou Anran still hadn't figured it out and knew she likely never would.

"Ranran, aren't you done yet? Do you need help?" Yan Xingxi called out to her.

Zhou Anran snapped out of her thoughts. "No need, I'm almost done."

She focused and quickly finished cleaning the remaining small area.

After taking out the trash, the two returned to the classroom to pack their bags.

Yan Xingxi pointed ahead. "I'll lock the front door, you lock the back?"

Zhou Anran nodded.

As she walked past his desk in the sixth row, Zhou Anran couldn't help but recall his smile that didn't reach his eyes.

She let out a soft sigh.

Not knowing why he was upset meant she couldn't help him. But even if she knew the reason, given their near-stranger relationship, she probably still wouldn't be able to do anything for him.

Thinking this, Zhou Anran's hand, which had been gripping her backpack strap, dropped to her side. When it inadvertently brushed against her uniform pants pocket, she heard a faint rustling sound.

It was the two lemon soda candies.

She had been so worried about him all day that she had completely forgotten to eat them.

Zhou Anran slipped her hand into her pocket. When her fingertips touched the candy wrappers, her heart gave a slight flutter.

He usually drank soda; I wonder if he would like this candy?

In that instant, Zhou Anran didn't know what she was thinking, or rather, she didn't know where she found the courage.

A sound came from the front door; Yan Xingxi was probably locking it. Zhou Anran glanced out of the windows on both sides.

Confirming there was absolutely no one else outside, she clutched the two candies and quickly slipped them into his desk.

Although the action took less than a second, Zhou Anran had never done anything like this before. When she withdrew her hand, her palm was damp with fine sweat. In her fluster, she even bumped her wrist against the corner of his desk.

Her heart felt like it was lodged in her throat, and she seemed to hold her breath for several beats.

"Ranran—" Yan Xingxi suddenly called her name.

Zhou Anran's heart, already in her throat, nearly leaped out. She turned her head and saw Yan Xingxi standing outside the window, looking at her.

"Why aren't you out yet?"

She probably didn't see, right?

With Yan Xingxi's personality, if she had seen, she'd probably be asking about it already.

"My shoelace came undone." Zhou Anran's throat felt tight. "Coming right out."

Before leaving, Zhou Anran glanced once more at his desk.

The books on it were somewhat messy, just like usual.

But her still wildly beating heart reminded her that she had, inexplicably, slipped two candies inside.

She knew girls often slipped love letters or carefully prepared small gifts into his desk.

She heard that the ones with names signed were returned privately by Zhu Ran and the others on his behalf. The unsigned ones were supposedly all locked away in a cabinet at his home.

Her reason for giving him these two candies certainly wasn't to confess her feelings, nor was it to seek any response from him.

She just hoped that if he really was upset because his parents couldn't attend the parent-teacher meeting, and if there was a one-in-a-million chance that he happened to open and eat these candies on Monday and also happened to like the flavor, maybe he would feel a little bit better then.

Zhou Anran withdrew her gaze and stepped out the back door.

While locking the door, Yan Xingxi asked her curiously, "You looked really pale just now. Why did you seem so startled?"

The pain from where she had bumped her wrist arrived belatedly. She wondered if it would bruise.

She kept her eyes downcast as she replied, "The classroom was too quiet, and you called my name so suddenly."

Yan Xingxi laughed. "You're such a scaredy-cat."

Zhou Anran didn't dare continue this topic. She locked the door with her still slightly sweaty hand and turned around. "Let's go."

"Let's go, let's go." Yan Xingxi linked arms with her.

The two chatted as they slowly walked out of the school.

Zhou Anran's heartbeat gradually calmed down bit by bit.

But what she didn't know was that not long after she and Yan Xingxi boarded the bus, Chen Luobai and Zhu Ran returned to the school together.

---

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