(1)
Class Advisor Wen Ye was wearing a light green chiffon dress, which made her look like a beautiful lotus flower.
This English class had already finished going over the test paper that needed to be explained, and the English class representative was helping to hand out the test paper that needed to be written today.
Wen Ye raised her arm and looked at the small gold watch on her wrist. “There are still six or seven minutes left. I’ll just mention one thing.”
As she spoke, she wiped the writing off the blackboard. Her high ponytail swayed slightly with her movements, and chalk dust drifted into the air.
Every time something like this happened, An Jing would cover her mouth to avoid getting all that chalk dust in her mouth.
Sitting in the front row gave you a clear view, but you also ended up swallowing a lot of chalk dust.
Sometimes when the teacher threw chalk to hit someone, the students in the front row were also the most likely to get accidentally hit.
“Cough… cough…” Wang Xinru covered her mouth and coughed, gently fanning the air.
Wen Ye turned her head and said to the students sitting by the window, “You guys, open the windows a bit, let some air in— Then, what was I going to say just now? Oh, right.”
She turned around again, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote two beautiful characters on the blackboard:
“Summer Outing.”
She had heard of spring outings and autumn outings, and even winter outings, but she rarely heard of summer outings.
It was probably because summer was too hot and not suitable for going out for walks. Even if you wanted to go out and play, it should be at a swimming pool or the seaside. The mountains were cooler, but there were also many mosquitoes and insects in summer, so it wasn’t a pleasant place to go.
“The college entrance exams… ahem, the high school entrance exams are approaching,” Wen Ye cleared her throat. “And summer is also approaching. The fifth of next month is the beginning of summer. I want to take the students out to relax. The time will be chosen for a Saturday. This is a class collective activity. Those who want to participate can raise their hands to sign up.”
“Teacher, where are we going to play?”
“Teacher Ye, can I not go? I want to sleep in at home on my day off.”
“Those who don’t want to go don’t have to. Those who want to go out and relax together can come with me. As for the location, it’s the forest and the seaside. The place we’re going to is usually not crowded, perfect for relaxing and taking a walk.” Wen Ye threw the chalk back into the chalk tray, turned around, and chuckled. “As the saying goes, ‘Sharpening the axe won’t delay the work of chopping wood.’ If you’re stretched too tight, you’re also prone to breaking. In the last month before the high school entrance exams, relax thoroughly. Then you can work hard and sprint in the next month. And the next time you’ll rest will probably be summer vacation at the earliest.”
“Do we have to pay?” someone asked quickly.
“You don’t have to pay any money. All meal and transportation expenses will be covered by me. You just need to relax and have fun.” Wen Ye put her hands on her hips, showing a confident smile. “I can still afford this little bit of money.”
“I want to go, but my parents might not agree…” “Yeah, my parents might want me to study at home.”
“I have extracurricular tutoring classes on Saturdays, ah— but I also want to go!”
“Because this isn’t a school-organized activity, all students who want to go must get their parents’ permission. Don’t worry about this. You just need to sign up. I’ll handle the communication with the parents afterwards. As long as you want to go, I’ll try my best to let you all go play together.” Wen Ye gently brushed aside the bangs blocking her vision, her gaze sweeping over the face of every student below the podium. “One more thing, we have to get up very early that day. We need to be at the school gate by six in the morning— because the journey is a bit far, so we need to set off early.”
“Are you going, Xiao Jing?” Zhu Ying lowered her voice and gently nudged An Jing’s body with her elbow.
“Some Saturday next month?” An Jing tilted her head and thought for a moment. “I shouldn’t have anything going on then.” “So you’ll participate then?”
“Hah…” An Jing yawned and nodded gently. Although she had taken a nap at noon, it was almost time for school to end now, and her sleepiness had surged up again. She wished she could go home right now, lie down on the bed immediately, and sleep straight through until tomorrow.
“Next, students who plan to participate, raise your hands—”
The students raised their hands in unison. Wen Ye tilted her head and looked for a moment, then changed her words. “So many people? Then let’s change it to, those who are not participating, raise your hands?”
At this, many people hurriedly put their hands down, leaving only a few students slowly raising their hands.
“A Qiang, you’re not going either?” An Jing looked at Fang Qiang’s hesitantly raised hand and couldn’t help but call out in a lowered voice.
Her voice didn’t carry over, but the expression on her face still conveyed her confusion quite well.
Fang Qiang scratched his head and made a gesture of carrying water.
An Jing wanted to say something more when she saw Zhou Chao, sitting in front of him, turn around. She didn’t know what he said to him, but in any case, it made the latter put his hand down.
“So it’s confirmed that only these few students aren’t going, right?” Wen Ye quickly made a few checkmarks on the roster. “Then the specific time for the summer outing will be announced later. Everyone pack up your bags, you can pretty much—”
The bell for the end of class rang at just the right time, drowning out the words “school’s out” that Wen Ye had spoken in the music.
(2)
Today, An Jing rarely walked out of the school gate with everyone. Wang Xinru waved her hand and walked off in the opposite direction, while Zhou Chao didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go home today, so he followed everyone walking in the same direction.
“What did Zhou Chao say to you that made you change your mind?” An Jing asked curiously.
“He didn’t say much. He just said that it’s also a rare activity. After all, there’s plenty of time to work part-time, but there aren’t many opportunities like this to go out and play with classmates anymore. I thought so too. After all, I don’t plan to continue studying after junior high graduation. I’m afraid I won’t be able to experience this kind of feeling then…”
“You also won’t experience the pain of doing homework in class anymore.”
“Awei, if you don’t want to continue studying, why not just come work with me?” “Damn, then I’d rather endure the pain of classes and homework!”
After all, school days were still relatively comfortable. You didn’t have to think about too many things. So many people, even if they knew they just wanted to idle away their time, still insisted on going to high school— if they couldn’t get into high school, they had to attend a vocational high school or technical school.
“What are you guys going to do today? Play games?”
“Go to the game room to play Three Kingdoms.” Sun Wei rubbed his palms together. “Haven’t played in a long time.”
“An Jing, are you coming?” Fang Qiang fished around in his pocket. “It’s good to have savings. You can play games to your heart’s content.” “I won’t go…” An Jing opened her tired eyes sleepily. “I’m almost falling asleep walking now. I’ll go back, take a shower, and go to sleep immediately.”
“Usually, taking a shower makes you less sleepy instead.” “There are times like that…” An Jing scratched her head. “But after sitting and watching anime for a bit, I get sleepy again. Anyway, I’ll just sleep early.”
Everyone chatted as they walked all the way to the entrance of Dapeng Shopping Street. Sun Wei, Zhou Chao, and Fang Qiang headed straight inside.
An Jing stopped at the intersection, waiting to say goodbye to Zhu Ying.
“I won’t walk you home today. I want to go back early… Hah— Hah…” An Jing had already yawned several times on the way, and her eyes were almost unable to stay open now.
“Wait a bit. How about going home with Xiao Jing today?” “Huh?”
“My parents aren’t home! It’s also pretty boring to be alone at home.” “But I also have to sleep very early.”
“Exactly, I also want to sleep early. Let’s get up early tomorrow morning. I want to go somewhere.” “We still have class tomorrow.” “That’s why we need to be early.”
“Um… Xiao Jing, just wait for me here. I’ll go back and get a change of clothes!”
“Huh? Ah…” Before An Jing could say anything, Zhu Ying quickly ran towards the alley, as light and nimble as a fluffy sparrow hopping on the ground.
“I’ve been so busy lately…” An Jing leaned against the street lamp and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Isn’t it a bit too fulfilling…”
(3)
The sun hadn’t come out all day today. By evening, you could only feel the light gradually dimming. Most of the cars on the road had turned on their headlights, but some hadn’t. When they suddenly rushed out in this dim twilight, it always gave An Jing a fright.
“They’re driving so fast…”
“And they haven’t turned on their headlights.”
“Yeah.”
An Jing walked forward with unsteady steps. The closer she got to home, the sleepier she seemed to become. Later, she even felt as if her whole body was floating in the sky, with no sense of actually stepping on the ground and moving forward.
Zhu Ying suddenly placed a cold little hand on her forehead. The coldness made her shiver, jolting her awake.
“Whoa! What are you doing…”
“You were almost falling asleep. I’m making you wake up, so you don’t end up walking into the fields.”
An Jing looked down and realized she was already very close to the edge of the field. If she took one more wrong step to the side, she would probably roll into the farmland.
Fortunately, both sides of the road were farmland. If it were a river, it would be even more dangerous.
The small square in front of the apartment wasn’t very lively today. Not only were there no singers or street performers, but there were also no vendors doing business.
A Santana police car was parked under a tree at the edge of the square. The red and blue lights on the roof were still flashing slowly.
“Huh, there’s a police car here too now.”
“With a police car parked, public security is much better.” Zhu Ying suddenly smiled and reached her hand into An Jing’s jacket pocket. “Xiao Jing, maybe this police car is specially here to protect you!”
“How is that possible? If they really wanted to protect me, it should be bodyguards or something— and besides, this police car was already parked here before I even got home.”
“That’s true too… Huh, look, there’s a very pretty older sister walking over to the police car. She’s carrying fruit.” “She probably knows the person in the car?” An Jing tilted her head. “They look very affectionate. Are they boyfriend and girlfriend?” “Maybe? It’s quite rare to see police officers dating.”
“It’s not that strange, right? After all, they’re also people.”
An Jing turned her little face to the other side, listening to the conversation between the two carried by the wind, her mind beginning to go blank— sleepiness seemed about to occupy the high ground of reason.
“Tian Ling, when do you get off work?”
“It’s not time for the shift change yet. At least until seven.” “So late.”
“No choice, it’s work.” “I’ll stay here and chat with you.”
“Don’t, Hu Yu… you go home and wait. I’ll come find you after I get off work.”
“So troublesome, why do you always have tasks!” “That’s how my job is…” “Then when you have a day off, go shopping with me!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll definitely go, definitely go…”