Gradually, Shi Nan also discovered that Lan Di was not just a pretty empty shell as she had thought. He had delicate nerves and a sensitive heart. He often left the folded pages of his favorite articles for Shi Nan to read. Every time Shi Nan finished reading them, while praising the articles, she also came to understand Lan Di more and more.
Shi Nan almost started to hesitate.
Those were the last three months of high school, and everyone was working themselves to the bone, their nerves were exceptionally sensitive and fragile.
Wang Fan no longer appears at the bus stop with his classmates; instead, he is picked up and dropped off by his family car.
During the break before evening class, Shi Nan and Tang Beibei returned from eating popsicles outside. Shi Nan intended to tell Lan Di that the answer to the question was C, but Lan Di wasn't in her seat.
He was so eye-catching that Shi Nan couldn't help but see him: Lan Di was sitting next to Zhao Beibei, the class beauty and class monitor, and although he was holding a workbook, both of them had smiles on their faces.
Shi Nan couldn't recall Lan Di smiling at any girl. He glanced at her and continued walking towards his seat, but suddenly felt an urge to go out and get another popsicle. Sweets could dispel unhappiness.
But Shi Nan simply returned to his seat as if nothing had happened, slumped onto the table, looking utterly helpless. His chin rested on his wrist as he stared intently at a multiple-choice question on the physics test paper, a question the teacher had described as a free point, but he couldn't write down the answer no matter how long he stared at it.
Shi Nan said to herself, "Why are you so downcast? What does this have to do with you? Let alone whether they are laughing happily or not, what does it have to do with you, Shi Nan, who he is laughing with?"
As he was cursing, he suddenly sensed a warm breath approaching his left ear. Before he could react, Lan Di's deep yet soft voice, tinged with a hint of laughter, pierced straight through Shi Nan's eardrums:
Are you angry?
Beautiful
Shi Nan doesn't seem to have any particular skill, but if he had to find one, it would be—pretending to be ignorant.
She's very good at pretending, even deceiving herself.
At that moment, she was surprised. She was wondering, "Was my frustration really that obvious? How did he notice that I came in, that I saw them, and that I was unhappy?"
But she maintained a deliberately calm expression, and even managed to tilt her head and smile as if nothing was wrong: "No, I was thinking about a problem."
Lan Di seemed not to have considered Shi Nan's answer at all. He walked around the table and sat down in the seat next to Shi Nan, put the question book next to Shi Nan's chin, propped his right elbow on the table, rested his face on his hand, and stared into Shi Nan's eyes with a frank look. "You weren't here just now, so I went to ask her."
From this angle, no one but Shi Nan can see his face.
Shi Nan was filled with hatred, hating himself for being so useless. All the resentment that had accumulated from so much frustration was dissolved by a single sentence from him.
But our Shi Nan is good at pretending, that's her specialty. Years later, even after a very proud man confesses his feelings to her, she can still act as if she didn't hear it and continue playing the good friend with him, which makes people grit their teeth in anger.
Shi Nan avoided Lan Di's gaze, looked at the exercise book, and replied with a grin, "So you didn't get the answer?"
Class monitor Zhao Beibei is a beautiful girl with excellent grades; Shi Nan thinks she's the kind of girl boys aspire to be. Now it seems Lan Di has the same taste.
However, ever since this incident, Shi Nan has been convinced that Lan Di can also be very nice to other girls.
What was initially a somewhat wavering question was completely dismissed as my own delusion.
As July approaches and the weather becomes increasingly hot and humid, the school, taking into account the emotions of the senior students, has stopped requiring them to wear thick school uniforms.
Shi Nan took out five or six tennis skirts that she used to only wear during summer vacation, some white, some light blue, and some dark blue.
Little girls always love to look pretty. Even on those tense days, Shi Nan felt a little joy because she could wear them to school. Six pairs were just enough for one change a day.
Shi Nan has slender legs, and despite the numerous scars around her knees, she knows she still looks good in short skirts. Shi Nan wants to look good.
Shi Nan was actually only thinking about Wang Fan.
Wang Fan didn't seem nervous as the date approached, and continued to make the most of every minute to play basketball.
On the one hand, Shi Nan secretly admired his composure, but on the other hand, he continued to act with the other boys and still regarded Lan Di behind him as a paradise.
During recess that day, Shi Nan and Tang Beibei were looking out the window at the playground in the corridor. The sunlight shone on their faces, and Shi Nan felt basking in its glow. A group of people came back noisily from playing ball, but they all fell silent as they passed by. Shi Nan felt something was off but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Finally, as Gao Yuan walked by, he leaned close to Shi Nan and whispered, "Little Leopard, cough... your skirt is a bit short."
Shi Nan was surprised, realizing she had never thought about this question before. Back then, Shi Nan's heart was absolutely innocent.
But the best is yet to come.
Just then, the homeroom teacher walked towards the classroom and stopped as she passed Shi Nan. "Shi Nan, although the school doesn't require uniforms anymore, that doesn't mean you can wear anything. Your skirt is too short and it's affecting everyone's studies. Change it tomorrow."
Shi Nan hummed in response, but she couldn't understand how wearing a short skirt could affect everyone's studies.
She walked into the classroom with a question on her mind, sat down, and turned around to ask, "Landy, why is it that my wearing a short skirt is affecting everyone's learning?"
Landi looked up at her, seemingly understanding the reason for her seemingly nonsensical question without even thinking. "The teacher finally talked to you."
"How do you know it was her who said it?" At that moment, Shi Nan even suspected that the homeroom teacher was actually Lan Di in disguise.
"Don't wear it tomorrow." He said this softly, then lowered his head to continue writing his problems, not wanting to explain anything to Shi Nan.
Seeing him like this, Shi Nan almost thought there was something wrong with her hearing again. Did he just speak? If not, Shi Nan clearly saw the corners of his mouth move.
So the next day, Shi changed into a black long dress that went past her knees and white canvas shoes. The teacher seemed very satisfied with her obedience, but her classmates called her a nun when they saw her.
During a group discussion in class that day, Shi Nan, his deskmate, Lan Di, and Lan Di's deskmate Zhang Hao finished their brief discussion and then started chatting idly.
Somehow, the conversation turned to birthdays, and Shi Nan asked Lan Di, "What day is yours?"
When Lan Di mentioned April 6th, Shi Nan's eyes widened. "Wow, that's about the same as me," she thought to herself. But in her heart, Lan Di didn't seem like an Aries at all. He did everything calmly and unhurriedly, even in urgent situations, he seemed indifferent, completely lacking the impulsiveness of an Aries. Sensitive and should have studied humanities, Shi Nan couldn't understand why Lan Di had chosen science. Aries is a fire sign, but he was like water, like the ocean, deep blue and boundless, calm and undisturbed.
Lan Di said, "You're number sixteen, right?" Shi Nan's eyes widened again. "How did you know?"
Lan Di sighed and helplessly took out a magazine that Shi Nan had borrowed from him last time from his desk, turned to the page "Test Your Birthday Number Energy" and let Shi Nan read it herself.
Sure enough, someone wrote their birthdate in the footer to calculate it.
Zhang Hao asked Shi Nan which school she wanted to apply to. After thinking for a moment, Shi Nan said, "Beijing Foreign Studies University or Beijing International Studies University, I'd like to study a less commonly taught language."
Lan Di suddenly added out of the blue, "Wang Fan applied to Peking University."
Shi Nan was startled and looked at him in alarm, while Lan Di met her gaze without any hesitation.
Although his gaze appeared calm, Shi Nan sensed an analytical quality in it, as if he wanted to glean some answer from her reaction.
He quickly recalled and confirmed that he had not told anyone this secret, so he should not have known it from anyone else either.
But why did he suddenly utter such a nonsensical sentence at this moment? Was it a coincidence or...? And what was that hint of revelation in his eyes?
Pretending to be ignorant, this is the moment to pretend to be ignorant, it's Shi Nan's specialty.
She immediately changed the subject and asked Lan Di, "And you? Which school did you apply to?" Lan Di didn't speak, twirling his pen in his right hand, as if he was thinking, but also as if he wasn't thinking about the question at all, determined not to answer.
He remained silent for a long time.
Before Shi Nan could even urge him, the bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class. Lan Di jumped up, left his seat, and left the classroom.
Shi Nan snorted, "Talking about where I'm going to take the exam won't stop me from going to the bathroom, will it?" Tch.
Graduation physical examination.
Since there were no classes, everyone had a rare chance to relax, and even though it was only for half a day, they were incredibly active.
When measuring height, weight, bust, and waist, boys and girls had to be separated because they had to take off their shirts. The teacher arranged for the girls to go first, and the boys to line up outside.
Shi Nan happened to be at the end of the line. The door closed behind him, and everyone started taking off their clothes until they were down to their underwear.
She secretly glanced at the breasts of several girls who usually had large breasts, then looked down at her own, sighed inwardly, and felt a little puzzled.
She sighed because everyone ate the same boxed lunches at noon, yet hers was still smaller than theirs; she wondered why this wasn't hereditary and why she hadn't inherited her mother's size.
Just as Shi Nan was completely baffled, the door was suddenly pushed open, and the school doctor rushed in, saying, "The girls here will go straight to have their vision tested after their check-ups..."
Shi Nan was momentarily deprived of oxygen and didn't even have time to signal to his hands to cover his private parts: at this moment, not only did the door open, but the thin curtain that could have served as a second screen also fluttered up, leaving Shi Nan's chest, which had just been scolded a second ago, completely exposed to the first boy outside the door.
Shi Nan could only try to swallow hard to ease the awkwardness, the veins in her neck throbbing as she stared at the boy, both of them clearly stunned.
The boy reacted quickly, grabbing the curtain the next second to prevent more boys behind him from seeing; Shi Nan's brain also started to circulate oxygen, and after grabbing the curtain, he quickly closed the door as well.
That moment felt like an eternity, but it all happened very quickly. No other boys saw it, and not even any of the girls in the room noticed it.
Shi Nan closed the door and then realized her face was burning hot.
That boy is Lan Di.
Agreement
I've always thought that Shi Nan sometimes seems to have a mental lapse. At this moment, she was actually a little relieved: thankfully, it wasn't Wang Fan who saw her.
Shi Nan thought, "I need to keep developing. If I ever really become Wang Fan's girlfriend, I'll definitely be older than I am now."
Shi Nan stepped onto the scale and heard the working woman call out, "165, 42," and then the next woman took out a soft measuring tape and measured, "79, 56, 83. This child, what does your mother feed you? You look malnourished."
Shi Nan blushed and walked away, quickly putting on her clothes. As she left, she deliberately lowered her eyes, only looking up after Lan Di's shoes had disappeared.
After that day, although neither Lan Di nor Shi Nan mentioned the unexpected incident during the physical examination again, they suddenly became less talkative.
Lan Di almost never calls Shi Nan anymore, and Shi Nan never turns around on her own initiative.
Shi Nan thought to himself, no wonder the TV said that women are pretty good, even underage boys would distance themselves from her because of this.
However, this inferiority complex did not affect Shi Nan for long.
With the college entrance examination approaching, the teacher finally handed out the application forms that day. After explaining the filling method in detail, the teacher asked everyone to go home that night, discuss it with their parents, fill it out, and hand it in the next day.
As evening self-study was about to end, Shi Nan suddenly felt fingertips touching her back and calling her name.
Shi Nan thought, "It can't be him; it might be a hallucination."
After a while, it happened again.
Shi Nan chuckled inwardly. "Hmph, little Lan Di, you couldn't take it anymore, could you? You've given up, haven't you?"
Turning his head to the left, Landi said in a low voice, "For you."
Shi Nan turned around and saw a piece of paper folded into a cross shape in his hand. Shi Nan deliberately didn't rush to take it, desperately holding back her laughter, and pretended to look at Lan Di with a confused expression, provoking his pride, just waiting for him to speak.
But Lan Di's next words both struck her hard and made her confusion real: "It wasn't me... it was Wang Fan who gave it to you."