Su Jinning was amused to see that he was too busy to pay attention to anyone, but she knew Shen Moyu's personality. When he was focused on something, he hated being disturbed. Besides, the city-wide joint exam was coming up soon, and everyone was studying like their lives depended on it.
Su Jinning moved her neck a couple of times as if she were doing warm-up exercises before studying, then grabbed a steamed bun, stuffed it into her mouth, and buried herself in writing.
After finishing organizing his physics notes, Shen Moyu opened his schoolbag and suddenly found the two English workbooks that Jin Shuoshuo had given him a couple of days ago, saying that the questions in them were good and all of them were key points for the college entrance examination.
Jin Shuoshuo originally only gave one copy, but he asked for an extra one, saying he wanted to give it to Su Jinning.
"Here." Shen Moyu handed another workbook to Su Jinning, while his other hand kept searching for pen refills.
"What's this?" Su Jinning took it and flipped through a couple of pages at random.
"Sister Jin gave it to me. She said it's full of important questions for the college entrance exam, and the question types are pretty good." He put in his pen refills, shook them, and opened another book.
Su Jinning raised an eyebrow with interest, then looked at the book in his hand: "There's even one for me?" Although he had worked hard to advance from 800th to 18th in his grade, he knew Jin Shuoshuo's personality. Only the top few lucky students would get such rare practice questions.
"No, it wasn't originally." Shen Moyu wrote down the answer to the first question, chuckling to herself, "Your boyfriend was shameless with Sister Jin this time."
Su Jinning then understood what she meant, leaned over and chuckled softly, then looked around and pecked Shen Moyu on the cheek: "Thank you, boyfriend."
"Oh, me..."
Chen Hang's disgusted voice came from behind. Su Jinning squinted and looked over. Chen Hang had a half-eaten instant noodle in his mouth, with crumbs all around his mouth. He said with disdain, "You two, watch yourselves, this is a classroom."
Su Jinning rolled her eyes and gestured with her chin towards the other students: "Who's like you, eating instant noodles instead of studying during morning self-study?" He scoffed: "And watching others kiss."
After saying that, he felt relieved and went back to doing his homework.
"Damn it." Chen Hang felt severely humiliated.
He wiped the crumbs from his mouth, but found he couldn't get them all off. Unconvinced, he turned and brought his mouth, still covered in instant noodle crumbs, close to Chen Yuanyuan's face: "Wife, mwah."
"What the hell!" Chen Yuanyuan slapped him, and all the crumbs in Chen Hang's mouth fell out.
"The sports committee just moved up ten places in this exam, and you dropped ten places! What a load of rubbish! I'll strangle you!"
"I was wrong! Don't pull my ear! Don't pull my ear!"
For the first time since starting my senior year of high school, I left school with the first and second-year students. The reason was that the school's power switch needed to be repaired, so we couldn't attend evening self-study sessions recently. To make matters worse, the dormitory had no water or electricity.
Chen Hang, however, was overjoyed and eagerly said he wanted to go out for some barbecue. The rest of the group, on the other hand, were not really in the mood. Although they were no longer having evening self-study sessions, they still had more homework than usual, and they would still have to work until 11 or 12 o'clock when they got back.
They finally understood that they should never believe the school's talk of "holidays" and "rest"—it was just a way to do homework in a different place.
Su Jinning shivered in the cold wind: "It's so cold, and I have so much homework, what the hell are you doing eating skewers? Why are you skewering yourself like that?"
"How can you guys be so unromantic? We finally get to relax." Chen Hang rolled his eyes.
"Whoever wants to go can go. I'm not going; I have too much homework." Shen Moyu smoothed her hair, but the next second it was disheveled in the wind, her eyes full of exhaustion.
"I'm not going either," Chen Yuanyuan said, her head drooping. He Qing and Song Wenmiao agreed.
Chen Hang stood awkwardly to one side, feeling like the only young person in the retirement home. Looking at the others, looking disheveled and exhausted from studying, he suddenly remembered skipping classes to go to internet cafes in his first and second years of high school.
"Sigh, yeah, no time to spare." Chen Hang lowered his head, but his eyes lit up again when his gaze shifted to the low wall behind the teaching building. "Hey, remember? Back in our first and second years of high school, the school wasn't so strict, and we used to skip classes all the time. Hahaha, hey, that low wall, we used to climb over it to get takeout! Remember that!"
"Oh right, I remember once Chen Yuanyuan couldn't flip over and fell and cried, hahaha!" Song Wenmiao laughed from the side.
"You're getting shot even though I'm lying down!" Chen Yuanyuan yanked the book off and slammed it hard against Song Wenmiao.
"Also, Ning-ge sprained his ankle while picking up takeout, right?" Chen Hang suddenly became excited for some reason.
"Oh right, I carried him to the infirmary." Shen Moyu chuckled twice. "He was limping."
"Damn, that's not how you finish off a enemy." Su Jinning pouted, looking aggrieved.
"Ah, my first and second years of high school were so great." Chen Hang looked up at the azure sky, as if reminiscing: "Back then, it felt like we had endless time, we could do whatever we wanted, and I felt free to do whatever I wanted. Although what we did seems pretty childish now, but... I just really miss it."
"Yes." Shen Moyu also raised her head, and at that moment, the wind seemed no longer biting: "In the blink of an eye, we'll be graduating."
"How long has it been since we've gone crazy?" Su Jinning squeezed the book in her hand.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
Yes, it's been a long time. Since the intense studies of their senior year, they seem to live a life of going back and forth between three points every day. In the past, they would go out to relax during holidays, but now, in order to have more time to review, they don't even leave the campus on weekends, sitting in their dorm rooms with their books all day long.
I don't know when it started, but all they could see when they opened and closed their eyes were tedious and boring exercises. Friends spent their time discussing their homework and complaining about how tiring senior year was; even joking with the person next to them had become a form of entertainment.
They no longer care which internet cafe has raised its prices, nor do they care about which game has released a new skin, and they have no time to browse the social media apps they used to spend all day scrolling through.
At the same time, there was no time to look at the blue sky outside.
What they once hated and couldn't get used to became their daily experience.
They were so busy that they forgot their former craziness and recklessness. They believed that this was how it should be, and that they should study until they died.
When they reminisce about those wild and mischievous days, they might even say that they were just immature back then. But now that they're more mature, their former sharpness has long been dulled and worn down by the monotony of life.
Time waits for no one; it only urges us on. It urges us to run, to become sensible, and to grow up.
From being unruly to being unconcerned with details, they have indeed grown up and do indeed have the qualities that young people of the new era should have.
While striving to become better, they seem to have forgotten another formula for youth: the passion and fearlessness that belong to teenagers.
"Let's go." Su Jinning waved and ran towards the low wall.
"Hey Ning, where are you going?" Chen Hang asked, puzzled.
Skipping class!
"Why are you skipping evening self-study? And why are you climbing over the wall when the gate is open?!"
Su Jinning leaped to her feet: "I'll make you all young again!"
"Hold!"
The school's low walls are too low; they can't contain the dreams of teenagers, nor can they contain their youthful exuberance.
——