Chapter 27 Part 2

“Teacher.” Chen Annan called quietly.

The Head Teacher glanced over at the sound. “Still haven’t gone home?”

Chen Annan said, “I left my schoolbag in the classroom, and the door’s locked. Could you help me open it?”

The Head Teacher sat with her legs crossed, her high heel dangling and swaying on her foot. Her hand still rested on the mouse, looking at the computer screen. “Wait until He Hanming finishes filling out the form.”

“Okay.” Chen Annan moved aside on his own, watching He Hanming shield the form with his body as if warding off a plague.

Chen Annan didn’t know what he was filling out. After finishing and handing the form to the Head Teacher, she said, “The materials have to be submitted by next Monday at the latest. If you forget and it’s late, the Academic Affairs Office won’t wait.”

Saying so, she casually slipped the form into her drawer.

Chen Annan’s gaze drifted. He hadn’t meant to look, yet he accidentally caught a line of small text on the form. Immediately after, his mind went blank with a thunderous crash.

Because the junior and senior high divisions were on the same campus, a few days later, a senior high senior sister carrying a small lunchbox actually came to the junior high to find He Hanming. He Hanming happened to be helping the teacher grade papers. Chen Annan told her she could just leave the stuff on the desk.

The girl, her long ponytail swinging, placed the lunchbox on the desk and was about to leave. But a few gossipy female classmates, hearing she was looking for He Hanming, immediately crowded around curiously, asking what her relationship with He Hanming was and why she’d come to the junior high division to deliver food personally.

“Ah, his mom asked me to bring it over.” The Senior Sister said dismissively.

Girls this age were all top-tier Mary Sues. Someone immediately got excited: “Wow, so your two families are old friends then?”

Sensing gossip brewing, Chen Annan quickly pretended he wasn’t interested and buried his head on the desk to sleep, his ears pricked towards them.

“Are you kidding me?” The Senior Sister burst out laughing. “No way, our vibes are completely different, okay? Does he tell you guys his family is rich?”

This single light sentence dropped, and everyone immediately grasped the hidden meaning. They all crowded closer to the senior sister, saying: “We all know. His family is super well-connected. Both parents are returned overseas Chinese.”

The Senior Sister shot back: “So have you seen it then?”

The girls said, “Some of us have seen him getting picked up by a car every day. And his family lives in a big villa in the Eastern Suburbs.”

“Pffft—” The Senior Sister was so amused she laughed out loud. “Oh girls, you’re way too naive. You just believe whatever anyone says? If I said my dad was the President of the United States, would you believe that too?”

Everyone shook their heads.

The Senior Sister continued, “But it’s been so long, how come he still hasn’t shaken off this bad habit.”

“What habit?”

Seeing the Senior Sister just purse her lips, unwilling to elaborate, the girls immediately caught on and crowded even closer, forming a small circle. Sweetly, they coaxed: “Big Sister, leaving a story half-told will kill us with curiosity. Come on, tell us~ Big Sister, you’re so pretty and kind. Don’t worry, we absolutely won’t tell anyone, right, Annan?”

Chen Annan was feigning sleep. Being suddenly called, he let out an “Ah?” and said, his voice muffled in his arms, “I’m sleeping.”

At this time, there weren’t many people in the classroom. Many students were walking laps around the track to digest after eating in the cafeteria. The boys were playing ball downstairs. The school broadcast was playing Tank’s “Three Kingdoms Love.” The light, cheerful melody drowned out the noise outside.

“It’s really nothing. It’s actually normal for his family to live in the Eastern Suburb Villa District,” The Senior Sister’s eyes curved up, joking. “His mom is the housekeeper my family hired. His dad is a handyman for our family. So their whole family lives at my house. The car you guys saw is also my family’s. Since we go to the same school, we’re just dropped off together.”

After saying this, she added casually, “Actually, He Hanming gets really good grades and doesn’t have any bad intentions. He’s just a little vain. He’s loved making his classmates think his family is rich since he was little. I’ve even heard his mom scold him about it many times. Can’t believe he’s still like this in junior high.”

“But you guys should still hang out and play with him. His grades are pretty good.”

Leaving these words behind, the Senior Sister got up and left, leaving a group of girls looking at each other, nudging and poking among themselves before pushing and shoving their way out.

When Chen Annan lifted his face, his skin bore several small indentations from the folds of his clothes. For some reason, he recalled that day in the teacher’s office when he’d unintentionally glimpsed the form He Hanming had been filling out.

He truly hadn’t meant to look. Just a stray glance, catching those small words precisely—【Financial Aid Application Form】.

He Hanming wasn’t a slow person. Within a few days, he could sense the countless gazes floating around him. Only Chen Annan was the same as ever, eating and drinking during breaks, sticking a straw into a whole row of AD Calcium Milk bottles and drinking them in turns. Ignoring him, not sparing him a single glance.

He Hanming vaguely felt that something had been exposed.

At this age, one could seemingly already feel a sharp sense of shame through the eyes of others. He Hanming began to consciously avoid his classmates’ gazes. He often kept his head down, sitting in his spot all day. When classmates approached him, he ignored them. He even stopped participating in group class activities.

His isolation trapped him in a kind of limbo, no longer close to anyone.

Until one time, during P.E. class, Chen Annan hadn’t finished class and ran back to the classroom to grab his water bottle. He happened to find He Hanming also sitting in the classroom. Because they were splitting into groups for long-rope jumping today, He Hanming had said he felt unwell and asked the teacher for leave.

When Chen Annan entered, he saw He Hanming holding a Chinese textbook and staring blankly. His complexion didn’t look good. Seeing Chen Annan come in, he didn’t react for a long while.

Chen Annan took out his water bottle and drank in small sips. After a moment, he suddenly heard the other’s faint voice rise: “Chen Annan, you knew all along, didn’t you?”

Chen Annan turned his head. After confirming they were the only two in the classroom, he said, “What?”

He Hanming fell silent again. The classroom windows, cleaned spotless by the students on duty, reflected the overlapping shadows of the trees outside.

Amidst the clamor from below, both fell quiet for a time. Just as Chen Annan was about to leave, he suddenly heard him speak again: “With your grades, you should be able to get in… must be a local household registration, right?”

Chen Annan’s footsteps halted. He turned back, looking at his deskmate strangely.

He Hanming sat in his seat, not looking at him, speaking to himself: “You know what? To get into this school without a local household registration, even if you test in, you still have to pay a twenty-thousand-yuan sponsorship fee.”

“Twenty-thousand yuan,” he said. “My parents only earn two thousand a month combined. They spent all their savings on my tuition. Otherwise, who’d want to live in someone else’s house?”

“…” Chen Annan didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Sometimes, the human heart was truly a contradictory and difficult thing.

Chen Annan’s sensitivity and delicacy could make many things complicated and intricate. He could, in a single moment, capture emotional details others overlooked and distance himself from those who disliked him.

But he could also, just like now, feel a tiny tug of pity and compassion stirred by a single sentence from the other person.

Standing at the classroom door, Chen Annan thought it over and finally spoke, like a little adult: “Who cares if your family has money? If you had money, would you share it with me?”

He Hanming didn’t answer.

Chen Annan continued: “You’re not RMB, why does everyone have to like you? Besides, even if you were RMB, some people would still say they don’t want a lot of money, just a lot of love.”

After speaking, he pulled the tissue packet from his pocket and tossed it onto the desk.

This time, He Hanming didn’t refuse. He pulled out a tissue and blew his nose loudly. “The third multiple-choice question on your math test paper is wrong. You should choose A. Pythagorean theorem. If you get it wrong again, the teacher will scold you.”

Every day of growing up was a new story.

This brief ten-minute exchange actually managed to ease the relationship between two people who had been ready to ignore each other forever. From this time on, He Hanming no longer blocked Chen Annan from passing, and Chen Annan no longer deliberately opened the window as wide.

He would even point at one of Chen Annan’s arithmetic problems and say, “Your equation is written wrong. It should be written like this.” Saying so, he’d take his paper and annotate it carefully beside him.

Seeing Chen Annan didn’t understand, he would patiently break it down into the simplest formulas.

And sometimes, He Hanming would also rummage through his own drawer and pull out a few packs of snacks that didn’t belong to him, like Mimi Shrimp Crackers.

Xie Xi couldn’t grasp their current relationship. Strangely, he asked, “Is he threatening you?”

Chen Annan sat side-by-side with his good friend on the sports field, basking in the sun. The sunshine this season wasn’t harsh; it felt warm and cozy on the body. Their school field was spacious, the rubber track soft. Picking any spot to sit, sometimes they could even see Brother playing basketball.

Senior year studies were busy, even more so for students at a good school. Lu Qingyuan and his peers had already started their review cycles long ago. Only occasionally, when free, would they come out to exercise.

The marks time left on youths were always bright and vivid, like pottery forged in fire—no matter how cold the exterior, the interior was scorching hot.

Lu Qingyuan stood under the clear sunlight, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing half a forearm with prominent veins. From afar, Chen Annan saw him looking in his direction. A boy beside him lazily slung an arm over his shoulder, leaning his weight onto him. The two were talking about something.

“Little Lu, what are you looking at?”

Lu Qingyuan had one hand casually tucked in his trouser pocket. There was no real smile on his face, but his tone was pleasant: “Watching a little kid.” A very cute little kid.