(1)
In the noisy classroom, many voices intertwined.
Cold winter rain beat against the windows, drop after drop.
An Jing sat in her seat, shrinking her neck, and suddenly felt unusually cold.
“Quick, quick, Zhou Chao, lend me your math to copy!”
“Take it!”
“Damn it, what kind of handwriting is this? It’s all twisted together!”
“Then don’t copy it!”
“Damn it, I’ll just make do with copying!”
“Students, please be quiet. Today is English morning reading. Please take out your English books and turn to the vocabulary list at the back…………………”
“Sun Wei—! Aren’t you cleaning today?!”
“I’ll do it later, damn it!”
“You have to go sweep now!”
“Damn it, let me copy my homework first!”
“You don’t even do your homework, and you still have the nerve?”
“Hiss……………… Headache.”
An Jing rubbed her temples, but a cold wind blowing from somewhere made her retract her small hands back into her sleeves.
Her small hands were icy cold, even a little numb.
It was as if the blood vessels here weren’t participating in blood circulation.
She could still feel her body bleeding, but it wasn’t as violent as it was at the beginning.
Thinking back to the situation in the restroom not long ago, An Jing’s small face couldn’t help but blush.
Although Zhu Ying didn’t actually help her hands-on, she still guided her from outside the door for a long time.
An Jing was flustered inside, it took a lot of effort just to tear the paper, and she almost forgot to take out the panty liner before sticking the sanitary pad onto her boy shorts…
Her small face was unnaturally hot, and her head felt dizzy, as if she had a fever.
“Woo—”
Zhu Ying slightly turned her small face, her eyes with long eyelashes blinking gently, as if asking her what was wrong.
“Are you very cold?”
“Yes, especially my hands and when the wind blows, my head hurts,” An Jing mumbled, trying to sit up straight again, but then she sneezed twice.
She felt someone gently poke her back and grumbled with a hint of impatience, “Who is it? What do you want?”
“An Jing… You, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
Wang Xinru’s timid voice came from behind her.
“Uh… My hands are cold.”
“Your hands are cold?”
She sniffed, stood up from her seat, and carefully placed a fluffy object into An Jing’s arms.
“A hand warmer, it has hot water from this morning inside. You use it, okay?”
“Uh”
An Jing turned her head slightly with some difficulty, saw the concerned expression on that bitter gourd-like face, and for some reason, her mood suddenly became tense.
“Ah, No, no need…If you’re cold, you use it yourself.”
“No, no problem I didn’t, didn’t have that, that today, so you use it I’m not, not cold yet.”
After she finished speaking, she hurriedly sat back down in her seat.
An Jing touched the fluffy hot water bottle cover in her arms, her expression a little dazed…
Wang Xinru’s concern at this moment made her feel uneasy with guilt…
“You can put the hand warmer on your stomach, it’ll be more comfortable that way.”
Zhu Ying didn’t seem to mind that another girl was so concerned about An Jing, her tone still sounded relaxed.
“Uh Okay.”
An Jing tremblingly put her hands into the pockets on both sides of the hand warmer, then pressed it tightly against her lower abdomen.
It was like returning to a warm room from an ice cave; her pale little face immediately regained some color.
“Feeling much better?”
“Yes. When you have your period is it like this too?”
“Me? Hmm……………… I don’t, actually.”
Zhu Ying propped her chin with her small hand and said with a smile, “I’m pretty much the same as usual~”
“Oh…………… I can’t tell, your body is actually so good?”
“Yes, and my time is usually very short, it ends in about three days.”
“Ah—Is everyone different?”
“If it’s long, it can be five or six days, or even seven or eight days.”
“Ah I hope I can be like you.”
Zhu Ying smiled and blinked, “Keep it up.”
“I wish I could keep it up.” An Jing mumbled, glancing at the pendant hidden in her clothes,
“Stone, oh stone, can’t you make me a little warmer………………”
“The guys carrying food today, follow me!!”
As soon as the fourth period ended, Fang Qiang, as usual, stood on the podium and shouted with full vigor.
“Quiet, quiet, let’s go!”
Sun Wei jumped around, shouting.
The cold of winter didn’t seem to restrict his movements, and this guy didn’t seem to be afraid of the cold at all.
“Pe…”
An Jing, lying on the desk, slowly raised his head, and mumbled weakly, “Coming…”
“What’s wrong with An Jing? Does he have a fever?”
Zhou Chao frowned.
“He doesn’t look so good, does he?”
“This kid gets a fever? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sick…”
Fang Qiang scratched his head in confusion and quickly walked up to her.
It seemed colder around An Jing than elsewhere.
There was an indescribable scent in the air, but it wasn’t unpleasant for Fang Qiang.
Today, he looked unusually feminine, completely unlike a ‘boy’.
Fang Qiang felt a strong sense of incongruity, which made him confusingly pat his own head, “An Jing, how are you, kid? Do you really have a fever?”
“No… I’m fine.”
An Jing struggled to sit upright, and Fang Qiang’s rough, hairy hand landed on her forehead.
“Seems a bit hot?”
“It’s fine…”
An Jing laughed and swatted away Fang Qiang’s hand.
“What could possibly be wrong with me? Let’s go, let’s go…”
“If you really can’t do it, let’s switch. Don’t try to be tough, kid.”
“I said I’m fine!”
Zhu Ying blinked at the two of them, then suddenly raised her hand and asked, “Can girls carry it?”
“Huh?”
“I want to try~”
“No, it’s raining today. You need to hold an umbrella with one hand and carry it with the other. Do you have enough strength?”
“Want to try?”
“I’ll just call other boys.”
“Let me try! Don’t look down on girls!”
“It’s not looking down, it’s… Never mind. If you insist on trying, then come.”
Fang Qiang turned his head and coughed forcefully.
“You’ll carry it with me later. If you can’t carry it, I’ll do it, and you can just hold the umbrella for me.”
“Okay~” “No, I’ll do it. I can do it…”
“You should rest, kid. If you really can’t, go to the infirmary. Don’t push yourself. It’s easy to catch a cold on rainy days.”
Fang Qiang patted her shoulder hard.
With each pat, her body sagged a bit, until she finally just lay back down on the desk.
“See, your situation is a bit serious. Should we get some medicine later?”
“No—need—”
An Jing shouted weakly.
“Alright… I’ll rest today. You… don’t bully Zhu Ying…”
“Damn, I’m not some kind of violent maniac. Why would I bully her for no reason?”
“Mm-hmm…”
An Jing was too weak to joke with Fang Qiang, and lowered her head, burying it in her arms.
***
(2)
An Jing, who would never waste food normally, only ate a couple bites of her meal today and couldn’t eat anymore.
Looking at the preserved vegetable and braised pork, which she usually loved, she felt an inexplicable nausea and revulsion.
She covered her left eye, took several deep breaths, but still couldn’t force it into her mouth.
“…Did A-Qiang bully you?”
“No, I held the umbrella later, and he carried it back by himself.”
“You held it… An Jing couldn’t help but laugh. “
“It was a little difficult, wasn’t it?… He’s so tall.”
“Yeah…”
An Jing thought about playing with Fang Qiang in the past and couldn’t help but laugh.
“That kid, he must be 1.8 meters now, right? There aren’t many in the whole school taller than him.”
“Will he grow to 1.9 meters in high school?”
“Very likely…”
“So tall.”
“Sigh, I should have grown to 1.75 meters or even 1.8 meters in high school…”
An Jing sighed.
“You’re still very cute now.”
“Not manly at all…”
She pouted, “I can’t eat anymore… Do you want it? I barely touched it.”
“No thanks…”
Zhu Ying stared at the preserved vegetable and braised pork in her lunchbox, “I don’t like eating this.”
“You’re a picky eater.”
“Pretty girls are all picky eaters, of course,” she said with a natural smile.
***
(3)
“An Jing? Has your hand warmer gotten cold? I’ll go change the hot water for you.”
“Ah… Wang Xinru, thank you… No, it’s fine. You can use it…”
“No, it’s okay… I don’t need it today.”
“Thank you.”
“You never used to say thank you to me before?”
“Before, I was more… I felt… uh… it was taken for granted, I guess.”
“No, it’s because you didn’t see me as just anyone else before…”
Wang Xinru lowered her voice, which sounded a little wronged.
She bit her lip and hesitated for a long time, but still didn’t say the rest of her sentence.
She just pulled herself together, forced a smile uglier than a cry, “I’ll go change the hot water.”
An Jing rubbed her temples and sighed, a bit troubled.
She simply couldn’t refuse others’ kindness towards her.
But if she kept passively accepting it, what then?
If she told them she had a girlfriend now, would they stop caring for her like this?
The classroom was a bit quiet.
Although it was raining outside, the students didn’t seem to like staying inside.
They either went to the indoor stadium or leaned on the corridor railings to enjoy the breeze.
Only a few chose to do homework or take a nap.
Xiaocheng No. 2 Middle School wasn’t a particularly good junior high school.
Half of its students failed to get into high school every year, perhaps because they were too lazy and didn’t work hard enough.
But putting aside the enrollment rate, the atmosphere at Xiaocheng No. 2 Middle School was indeed very relaxed.
Although there were still fights, compared to other schools, bullying was…
In the entire small city, the worst bullying occurred in the best junior high school.
“Bang!”
An Jing, who was deep in thought, suddenly felt a hand smack her head.
Annoyed, she looked up and saw Zhang Qiqi walking by, hitting every boy on the head.
“Damn it!”
“You crazy psycho!”
“What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“I’m smacking your heads to wake you up. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”
“You f***er!”
“Damn it, looking for a beating?”
“Come on, if you’ve got the guts?”
“Vicious woman…”
An Jing twitched the corner of her mouth.
If it weren’t for her being somewhat attractive, probably very few boys in the class would tolerate her.
But precisely because she was somewhat good-looking, some people actually quite enjoyed being bullied by her…
Boys, sometimes they’re truly pathetic.