Summer in Your Name - 21
School Beauty
On Sunday afternoon, Sheng Xia was taking a break when she got a call from Brother Li. He said that with Teachers' Day approaching, Sheng Mingfeng had prepared gifts for her teachers and asked when it would be convenient to deliver them.
Sheng Xia had no patience for these social niceties. She refused. "No need. The class is giving teachers gifts together."
She rarely turned down Sheng Mingfeng's arrangements. This reply caught Li Xu off guard.
Not long after she hung up, Sheng Mingfeng called.
"Don’t you think that your teachers have worked hard? How about we arrange a dinner and invite all your subject teachers?”
Sheng Xia sighed silently. "The teachers are all great. But we're really pressed for time. They probably don't have time for dinner."
"Oh…" Sheng Mingfeng considered. "Alright, then focus on your studies. Leave the rest to Dad.”
"Actually..." No need to do these things.
"What is it?" Sheng Mingfeng interrupted. "If there's a problem, speak up. There's a lot you kids don't understand."
"Nothing."
"Really nothing?"
"Yeah."
"Alright then. I heard you have monthly exams soon. You just transferred. It's normal if you're not adjusted yet. Grades aren’t everything, don’t listen to your mom and stress yourself out, okay?”
"Mm."
After hanging up, Sheng Xia turned off her phone and put it in her drawer. She packed her bag, changed into her uniform, and headed back to school early to study.
She didn't know when it started, but sitting at her desk in her own room, she couldn't focus anymore.
At school. At Yifang Bookstore. In public spaces that didn't belong to her. That's where she could concentrate.
She rode around aimlessly for a while. The weather was too hot, she stopped wandering and turned into campus through the South Gate.
Passing the auditorium, she noticed the usually quiet building was bustling. The exterior was all mirrors. Now, crowds of people were rehearsing in front of them.
Every year, Affiliated High held a Teacher’s Day gala, which doubled as a welcome event for new students. The main performers were first years, with a few acts from second years and seniors.
Among the crowd, Sheng Xia spotted a familiar figure. Which was strange, his black t-shirt was so plain, so unremarkable, but she still spotted him.
Zhang Shu sat on the ground, hands propped behind him. Probably hot, he'd rollef his jeans up slightly. His sneakers swung lazily back and forth. His face was still, focused on the girl in the center of the crowd.
The girl was dancing in front of the mirror. Her t-shirt tied high to reveal a slender waist. Denim shorts showed off long, dazzlingly white legs. Chestnut curls flipped with every move, she kept pushing her hair back as she danced.
Sheng Xia couldn’t see her face clearly but knew she was a beauty.
A stunning beauty.
This should be the school beauty from the love triangle story Xin Xiaohe had mentioned.
Sheng Xia twisted the throttle and sped past the auditorium.
---
Chen Mengyao, panting and drenched in sweat, called out. "Ten minute break. We'll start again from the second section." She dismissed everyone and walked to the side to rest. Stopping in front of Zhang Shu, looking at him with annoyance and resignation.
He’d come to watch her rehearse empty-handed. She didn't expect milk tea or juice or soda. But not even a bottle of water?
An underclassman offered her a bottle of Mizone. "Mengyao, want some water?"
Chen Mengyao took it and handed it to Zhang Shu.
He was still sitting on the ground. She towered over him. From this angle, her legs looked even longer. She'd done camera training, she knew this well.
But Zhang Shu wasn't looking at her legs.
He was looking at the trees by the road. He looked once, looked away, then looked again.
Chen Mengyao followed his gaze. All she saw was the green avenue of camphor trees. The road was bleached white by the sun. Empty. No one there.
"What are you looking at? Something better looking than me?"
Zhang Shu looked up, dusted off his hands and stood. Eyeing doubtfully at the Mizone she was holding out. "I don't drink that."
Chen Mengyao wanted to roll her eyes. Someone come take this monk destined to be alone away. I don't care if he's as handsome as Pan An. "Open! It! For! Me!"
Zhang Shu chuckled. He took it and opened it easily, still running his mouth. "You looked pretty energetic when you were dancing just now."
Chen Mengyao wanted to pour the Mizone over his head!
"Can you just not talk?"
Zhang Shu didn't take the bait. He handed the bottle back and pulled out his phone to check the time. "I'm going."
Chen Mengyao stopped him. "We haven't even gotten to the singing part yet. If you leave, who's going to direct?"
"You. The all-rounder superstar."
"Ugh. You might as well not have come." Sometimes Chen Mengyao really couldn't figure Zhang Shu out. He played the hot and cold game too well. Isn't this enough already?
"A-Shu," she called out again. "In a couple days, at the performance. You'll give me flowers, right?"
For some reason, she was losing her cool.
Over the past two years, she'd had many performances. Received many flowers. But the ranunculus Zhang Shu gave her at their first year welcome gala two years ago remained the brightest in her memory.
Back then, military training had just ended. Zhang Shu had only shown his face during the drill competition, but he'd already attracted a lot of attention. His popularity was no less than it was now, and girls’ dorms buzzed with talk about him.
And she, in front of everyone, had received flowers from him.
Chen Mengyao could still remember that moment. Her taking the flowers. His focused gaze. Her own pounding heart. The whistling and cheering from the crowd.
Her vanity was satisfied. For a long time afterward, she'd thought that was all it was. Just vanity.
Zhang Shu's departing stride didn't slow. Like the night of his birthday, he didn't look back. Just waved. "I'm broke."
There were underclassmen watching. Chen Mengyao drank her Mizone. It tasted bland.
---
Sunday afternoon, and there were actually quite a few people in the classroom. Sheng Xia still couldn't match all the names to faces, but she recognized a few: Yang Linyu and his roommate Qi Xiulei. Qi Xiulei was the physics rep, so she remembered him.
Day students rarely came to school during breaks. Yang Linyu asked, "Sheng Xia, what are you doing here?"
Sheng Xia said, "Nothing much at home, so I came."
"Bad timing." Yang Linyu's smile showed all his white teeth. "Xin Xiaohe just went back to the dorm."
"Oh."
"She'll probably be back soon."
This guy and his "Xiaohe" this and "Xiaohe" that…
Sheng Xia pulled out her exercise book. "You guys don't go home during break?"
Qi Xiulei: "My home's too far. Three hours round trip."
"There's nothing to do at home anyway," Yang Linyu added. "We're seniors now. What breaks? Not everyone is Zhang Shu."
Sheng Xia nodded in agreement. "Yeah."
Not every senior could have the mood to watch girls dance and still get first place.
She glanced at the schedule. Tonight was math study. Perfect time to do a practice test, then ask the teacher questions later.
She was about to start timing herself when she heard Yang Linyu and Qi Xiulei discussing a physics problem. One she'd gotten stuck on at home. She changed her mind, grabbed her physics exercise book, and went over to listen.
Qi Xiulei had just written out a formula when Yang Linyu slapped his forehead in sudden enlightenment. "Ah, I get it! Damn, how did I miss that? Wujibayu, it's so simple!"
What exactly is wujibayu?
Sheng Xia had heard Zhang Shu "scold" her with that before.
Yang Linyu went back to his seat to work on it himself, leaving Sheng Xia bewildered. He understood it right away. Does that make her look useless?
Feeling a bit embarrassed, she turned to Qi Xiulei. “I still don’t understand. Can you explain it to me?”
"Of course. From the beginning?"
Sheng Xia moved to the seat in front of Qi Xiulei, turned around, and spread out her scratch paper. “Yeah.”
Qi Xiulei explained in detail. Derived the formulas from scratch. Showing her the best way to memorize them.
As her brain spun, Sheng Xia couldn't help thinking: The top students here are all willing to share. And they're good at it. Maybe that's one reason they're so excellent. Even if she understood a problem, she wouldn’t know how to explain it. When will she be good enough to explain things to others?
"I'll try solving it myself now." She understood, but she was afraid she'd forget if she didn't put it to practice.
Qi Xiulei was patient. "Okay, I'll cover the answers."
Their heads bent over Sheng Xia’s scratch paper. After a while, a shadow fell over them.
Sheng Xia was focused on the problem and didn't notice. Qi Xiulei looked up and collided with a chin coming down. He yelped, holding his head. "A-Shu, what the hell? You scared me!"
Sheng Xia's pen stopped. She looked up too.
Zhang Shu straightened, one hand rubbing his chin, the other ruffling, or more accurately, mauled Qi Xiulei's head. "There, there, don't cry. Come here, Dad will blow it better."
Qi Xiulei's hair stood on end. "…Grandson. Get lost!"
The game of calling each other dad and grandpa was universal, no matter the school. Sheng Xia had heard it plenty at No. 2 High. She never understood the appeal.
She shook her head and went back to her problem.
Yang Linyu turned around. "A-Shu, what are you doing here too?"
Qi Xiulei said, "That 'too' is doing some heavy lifting there."
Zhang Shu: "Just passing by."
"Oh, you went to watch the rehearsal?" Yang Linyu understood. "How’s this year’s show? Any cute underclassmen?"
Zhang Shu: "Didn't notice."
Yang Linyu: "So you went to watch nothing?"
Zhang Shu didn't deny it. "Had nothing better to do."
Yang Linyu: "You could come explain problems to us."
"Oh." Zhang Shu pulled over a chair and sat down in the middle of the aisle, blocking the way. "Anyone need help?"
His expression was of a king bestowing a favor.
Sheng Xia kept her head down, pressing her lips together.
"Ha. Bad luck. Actually, no," Qi Xiulei said. "Sheng Xia has some. But you two are deskmates. Can't she ask you anytime?"
Zhang Shu's mouth twitched. Ha. Bad luck indeed. She's never asked, prefers going the long way around.
"Which problem?" Zhang Shu leaned in to look at her scratch paper.
But Sheng Xia snapped it shut and stood up. "I solved it. I'm going to check the answer."
Zhang Shu was sitting in the aisle, blocking her way. So she went around through the other seats and returned to her own.
Zhang Shu: ...?
Did he have some kind of plague? Was she that afraid of him?
Qi Xiulei and Yang Linyu's eyes darted between them.
Qi Xiulei: "Did you bully her?"
Yang Linyu: "Xin Xiaohe won't let you get away with it."
Zhang Shu stood up, too, and put the chair back. "Boring. I'm out."
---
Sheng Xia spent the whole day buried in math. Her head was spinning.
Unexpectedly, during evening study, the math teacher handed out another self-made practice test. Giving them one hour before checking answers. Then they'd go over it Monday morning.
The problems were all the difficult multiple choice ones. Sheng Xia got seven wrong out of fifteen. Barely half right. She glanced at Xin Xiaohe on her left: Four wrong. Lu Youze diagonally behind her: Four wrong. Hou Junqi in front of her: Didn't finish, six wrong.
Was she on the same level as Hou Junqi?
And Zhang Shu on her right…
No need to check. Probably all correct. His red pen hadn't touched the paper at all. Sheng Xia knew he only marked the ones he got wrong. He didn't check off the correct answers like she did.
"Wastes of ink," he'd said before.
Since lecturing wasn't allowed, the teacher just wrote the answers on the whiteboard. They were supposed to try if they could figure it out on their own.
Sheng Xia bit her lip while thinking. Now, it was almost white.
Suddenly, a crumpled piece of paper landed on her desk. From the right.
She looked at Zhang Shu. He motioned for her to open it.
The teacher had her back to them, writing on the board. Sheng Xia sighed silently and opened it. It was a corner of scratch paper, torn off carelessly.
On it was a line: [Need any help?]
Sheng Xia wrote underneath: [?]
Then, without folding it, she passed it back to him.
Soon, he threw it over again. This time, he'd actually refolded it. Sheng Xia opened it again: [You can ask me.]
Sheng Xia wrote: [No.]
Zhang Shu replied: [You understand it all?]
What did that mean? Can't she understand it?
Sheng Xia wrote: [Is that not allowed?]
Seeing those words, Zhang Shu let out a short, quiet laugh. Read in her voice, it was still gentle. But it really sounded like she was arguing. That was rare.
Sheng Xia frowned at him.
With that "arguing" impression, her expression looked to him like a glare. But he wasn't annoyed, if anything, he found her glare oddly amusing. He lowered his head and wrote under her gaze.
She saw the smirk at the corner of his mouth as he wrote: [Allowed. Of course it's allowed. You're the best.]
It was so perfunctory, not a shred of sincerity. Sheng Xia was speechless. [= =]
Zhang Shu wrote again: [If you don't understand, ask me. Don't go embarrassing yourself out there.]
Sheng Xia had no comment on this "generosity." [Oh.]
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