Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
roses
Ji Li hadn't expected to hear this kind of reason, and after a long pause, she asked, "So you're just going to leave it like this?"
Ying Yunsheng said, "I bring my own medicine to my dormitory."
"Aren't the dorm rooms closed during class time?"
"It will start after class."
Ji Li stared at him for a few seconds, then pointed to the chair next to him: "Sit."
Ying Yunsheng hesitated for a moment, then sat down in the chair with his hands in front of him.
Ji Li took the medicine bottle and uncapped the hydrogen peroxide: "Raise your hand."
The other person extended their right hand.
Ji Li dipped a cotton swab in iodine and wiped away the winding trail of blood: "Don't clench your fist."
The other person responded by opening their hand.
The school doctor watched helplessly as a student who had just refused to be bandaged suddenly became a shrew, looking at this person and then that person, before finally leaving with a head full of question marks.
Ji Li put on a disposable glove on one hand, his fingertip dabbing with medicine: "It will hurt a little, just bear with it."
Ying Yunsheng pursed his lips, his long eyelashes trembling.
Ji Li assumed he was in pain, so she applied the medicine and blew on it twice.
Ying Yunsheng's breath hitched slightly, and he quickly looked away, trying to make conversation: "When did you learn to do this?"
"You'll learn these things if you study in the infirmary for a year."
After Ji Li finished bandaging him, she tidied up the tools she had used, threw the trash into the bin, and went to the next room.
When he came out again, Ying Yunsheng was still sitting in the same spot, looking up at him and asking, "How much?"
Ji Li shook his head: "No need."
Ying Yunsheng asked again, "How much? I'll pay you back."
"Really, it's not necessary." Ji Li carefully put the bottles away. "No medicine was prescribed, no stitches were needed. Did your classmate pay for it?"
Ying Yunsheng fell silent.
It's always like this.
It leaves people with no reason to repay.
Meng Xing and his group came over just to disinfect the area. They only used two cotton swabs and a spoonful of iodine from start to finish, without even using a single band-aid. Of course, it wasn't to the point of needing to pay medical bills.
But his situation is clearly different.
There was a small section of the gauze left from the previous roll, so Ji Li casually tore it off, deftly folded it a few times with her fingertips, and directly folded it into a rose, which she then handed to him.
Ying Yunsheng, feeling resentful, asked, "What are you doing?"
Ji Li said, "I'm just trying to coax you."
Ying Yunsheng instantly deflated like a punctured balloon, unable to utter another word.
"The doctor didn't prescribe any medicine for you when he heard you had it with you, and I was supposed to cover the medical expenses, so I'm giving you a free treatment." Ji Li stuffed the roses into his hand. "I've never seen you so easily upset before."
.
Ying Yunsheng looked at the white roses on the table.
Ji Li has a habit of origami, something he discovered back in Tingfeng Lane. He mostly does it when he's reading or thinking and his hands are free; exam papers, sticky notes, and draft paper—none of them escape his ravaging.
I never expected that even gauze could be used.
Just like he never expected the other party to say those kinds of things.
The bell rang just as the other person finished speaking, and Ying Yunsheng was sent back to class before he could even ask any questions.
"In the past" is a word that can easily make people cowardly.
Back in Tingfeng Lane, it was Ji Li who approached him first. Later, Ji Li suddenly transferred schools and disappeared. During that time, Ying Yunsheng was always the passive party. It wasn't until the other party left that he realized he didn't know anything about Ji Li's past, and he had no direction even if he wanted to find her.
Unlike Ji Li, who hadn't heard his name at school for the past year, Ying Yunsheng's long-awaited reunion was something he knew about much earlier than Ji Li, as early as after the first monthly exam in the first year of high school, when the host announced the outstanding student representative standing under the red flag to give a speech.
Four years have passed, and I've already completed a round of middle school and attended two graduation ceremonies. If a chance encounter with a childhood friend happened in a fairy tale, the script would usually be that they would recognize each other on the spot, feel a deep sense of kinship, and regret not having met sooner, and then naturally become close. But in reality, very few people can still maintain the innocence of childhood friendship.
It's not just the blank space between the two people that time has forcibly erased, but more so the kind of "strangeness" that has sprung up in that blank space.
He recognized him, but what about Ji Li?
If the other person doesn't remember him, should he still try to reunite with them?
If I were to ask that question, wouldn't the other person think I was trying to get close to them?
Honestly, does he have anything that would remain etched in the other person's mind and memory after they leave, something they can't forget?
He couldn't help but be indifferent, so he couldn't help but be careful, afraid that the other party wouldn't remember, and even more afraid that the other party would overthink it and suspect that he had ulterior motives.
Ying Yunsheng didn't know if his feelings could be described as "feeling apprehensive about returning home".
And now...
Ying Yunsheng recalled Ji Li's gentle words, "Why haven't I seen you so easily aggrieved before?"
He held the pen, and a blot of black ink spread across the draft paper.
.
With the monthly exams approaching after September, the atmosphere in the class gradually became tense.
For the first major exam after the class division, the homeroom teacher gave a long speech a week in advance. He started by saying, "You all entered this class with the best grades. Everyone's eyes are on you. It would be so embarrassing if you fell behind." He continued, "You have put in the time, but the students in other classes may not have put in any less effort. Hard work is just a normal part of being a high school student." Finally, he said, "You earned this position yourselves. Take good care of your crown. All the students in the school will praise you for the miracle you created as writers." As a result of this speech, everyone's homework speed collectively increased by two degrees during the evening self-study session that day.
Of course, it only lasted for one evening self-study session. After the bell rang, everyone's excited minds basically calmed down.
So when Cui Zhuoyue, who was also the class representative for Chinese, came over the next day to collect the missing homework, she saw the two clear dark circles under Jian Mingyuan's eyes and couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you sleep last night?"
Jian Mingyuan yawned as he looked for his homework: "I guess so."
"Did Brother Xiao Sa successfully brainwash you?"
“No.” Jian Mingyuan shook his head. “Do you know who lives in my dorm?”
A question mark appeared above Cui Zhuoyue's head.
"The academic genius, Lao Ye, and Zhu Yi." Jian Mingyuan asked himself, answering his own question as if he had lost his soul, and the person sitting there was just an empty shell. "Do you know what their nightlife is like?"
He should have been mentally prepared, after all, he had seen Ji Li holding a vocabulary book outside the dormitory the night before the class assignment.
However, an extra evening study session was added in the second year of high school, and the get out of class ended after 11 p.m. For the past half month, his three roommates would go to bed on time after lights out and would hardly wander around. He really thought that his three roommates with excellent grades were advocates of healthy living, practitioners of early to bed and early to rise, and pioneers against involution.
He didn't realize he was wrong until last night.
That's ridiculously wrong.
The dormitory supervisor had just finished checking the number of students and left when the room lights came on the next second.
They still come from three directions.
The other three roommates, as if by prior arrangement, all stepped over the railing and got off the bed, turning on the lights, pulling up chairs, grabbing pens, and flipping through books in one smooth motion.
“They all waited for the dorm supervisor to leave so they could study.” Jian Mingyuan’s voice was trembling. “I was planning to go to sleep, but as soon as I thought about how those guys with better grades than me were still awake, I just couldn’t fall asleep.”
Cui Zhuoyue tried to hold back for two seconds, but couldn't help it and burst out laughing: "Pfft, hahaha..."
Jian Mingyuan finally pulled out his notebook and stared at her resentfully: "Sister Yue, you don't understand."
"I don't understand," Cui Zhuoyue said sincerely. "After all, I was the top student in our dorm."
"Uh..." Cui Zhuoyue, holding her homework, peeked out again before leaving: "By the way, class monitor, Xiao Sa Ge told you to remember to hand in your work log to the political education office."
.
Ji Li took the things and went upstairs.
He doesn't actually have a habit of staying up late. Back in his first year of high school, he would usually stay out past 11:30 pm after lights out. During exams, he might stay a little longer, but it wouldn't extend into the early hours of the next day. Whether it was a holiday or during the school term, he never indulged in staying up all night and then overslept the next day. His sleep schedule is more regular than many adults.
However, the advantage of changing dorms is that he doesn't have to worry about disturbing his roommates by keeping the lights on at night. Therefore, he doesn't need to go to the corridor to borrow light. Every night after the lights are turned off, the actions of the group are as if they have agreed beforehand. They can even discuss a problem on several sheets of draft paper in the middle of the night.
He happened to pass by the science classroom building on his way, and someone came down from there and bumped into him.
The other person didn't speak, but he was taken aback for a moment, and then greeted him very naturally: "Ying Yunsheng".
The two hadn't seen each other for almost a week since that day at the infirmary. Ying Yunsheng had been thinking about it for several days but couldn't figure it out. Every time get out of class ended, he would stand at the corner of the corridor and look out at the first floor, observing the students coming and going in the classroom two floors below.
However, due to the increasing workload caused by the approaching exams, Ji Li rarely left the school gate except for regular after-school hours. Even when she was occasionally called out by the teacher, her activity range remained fixed downstairs, making it difficult to meet.
Ying Yunsheng watched for a week, and finally today, the other party came to the third floor.
The two were locked in a standoff when Ji Li spoke first: "Do you still live in Tingfeng Lane?"
Ying Yunsheng, who had been organizing his thoughts for a while, was thrown off balance by the other party's sudden revelation. He paused for a moment before replying, "Hmm."
He said, "The house is still there."
"You got into this high school?"
"Um."
"Why didn't you look for me before?"
"Uh..." A sudden silence.
“I didn’t really recognize you until I heard someone call your name, after all, you look quite different now than when you were a child,” Ji Li asked. “And you?”
Ying Yunsheng finally dared to meet the eyes of the person in front of him: "I thought you didn't remember."
Ji Li was taken aback, then chuckled: "I used to be the one who made you memorize texts every day, so how come your memory is so bad in your eyes?"
Ying Yunsheng's initial nervousness suddenly dissipated.
Ji Li then asked, "Is your injury healed?"
Ying Yunsheng nodded.