The place where Yan Jingxing and his uncle lived was a three-story courtyard. This place used to be the home of grandparents. After the two elderly people passed away, it was left to their two sons to take care of it. In addition to the main building, there is also a room outside the door for parking and storing debris.
There are two tall orange trees planted in the yard. The branches are luxuriant, the shade is dense, and the base of the tree is a good place to enjoy the shade.
Whenever the wind blows through the canopy of the tree, the layers of leaves collide and rub against each other, creating a "sand" echo like waves lapping at the coast.
My uncle said that by autumn, the oranges will be ripe. The fruit from these two trees could fill three full baskets, so much that they couldn't finish it until their teeth ached, and they divided it among their neighbors.
He also said that when he was a child, the thing he looked forward to most throughout the year was the fruiting of the orange trees in his yard. That sweet taste still makes him salivate when he thinks about it.
These uncle's words were mixed with his own childhood memories, and they were told vividly, which gave Yan Jingxing a lot of hope.
However, the first thing the uncle and nephew had to do was clean the house.
The two brothers of the Yan family went to the city early to make a living. This house has been neglected since the death of the old man. It has almost become an abandoned empty house. It was not reused until today, so the corners of the house are piled up. A lot of dust.
First, remove all the unused debris from the living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms that are most commonly used, sweep the floor, mop to remove dirt, and then wipe the remaining areas with a bucket rag;
Then take out the old bed sheets, quilt covers and damp furniture to bask in the sun, and throw away all those that have become moldy. Make a list of things that need to be repurchased and go to the only supermarket in town to buy them;
Finally, pack your luggage, place daily necessities, and put new quilts and pillows on the bed...
The uncle and nephew worked together and worked hard for two days and one night. They spent the first night back in a hotel in the town. It was not until the second night that they finally settled in their new home.
After Yan Jingxing took a shower and changed clothes, he staggered and fell on the bed from exhaustion. At this time he heard his uncle shouting outside the door:
"By the way, I almost forgot to tell you that you have to report to school tomorrow."
"tomorrow?!"
Yan Jingxing complained loudly.
"Didn't I just finish sorting things? Can't I take a two-day break?"
"Tomorrow is Monday. You are a transfer student and you come in the middle of the semester. You have to catch up with the course rhythm as soon as possible."
"I don't want to go to school..."
"Okay, I've set the alarm clock in the living room. Remember to get up early and don't let me rush you every time."
well……
The boy buried his face deeply into the pillow, not wanting to face reality.
…
The next day, his uncle drove him to school.
Yan Jingxing was listless when he was in the car. When he got out of the car, he immediately cheered up and adjusted his expression.
Dissatisfaction was dissatisfaction, but he still listened to his uncle's words "to leave a good impression in front of new classmates and new teachers."
If nothing else, the adolescent boy's self-esteem alone is enough to drive him to face his first time seriously.
Yan Yongzhi looked at his nephew with a stern face and felt a little funny. He patted Yan Jingxing's shoulder.
"I'll go to the Academic Affairs Office first. Can you find the office by yourself?"
"……certainly."
The uncle simply took out the key and left. Carrying his schoolbag, he looked at the signboard of "Baiyue Town Experimental Middle School" in front of the school gate, feeling uneasy.
While cheering himself up, he followed the instructions of the doorman and walked along the stairs to find the second grade office.
"Is Teacher Gao here?"
"Oh, here we come. Are you Yan Jingxing?"
A middle-aged female teacher stood up from her seat. There was fatigue on her face, and the dark circles under her eyes were heavy, as if she hadn't rested for a long time.
"Um."
"After the flag-raising ceremony, I will take you to Class 1 to get to know the classmates. Is that okay?"
"good."
Yan Jingxing grabbed the strap of his schoolbag and nodded.
*
It seems that every city will have such a school called Experimental Middle School, and some places will also be divided into one, two, three, four and five, but in a small place like Baiyue Town, there is naturally only one.
During the short break between the end of the flag-raising ceremony and the beginning of the first class, the classroom teacher had not yet arrived, and every class in the corridor was noisy. People chatting and laughing at the front and back tables, joking with each other at the same table, or simply leaving their seats to chat with friends.
The hot sunlight made the window glass transparent and white, and the wet marble floor that had just been mopped by the student on duty shone brightly.
In front of the teaching building stood two tall magnolias. Their green branches and leaves swayed gently in the gentle wind. The shadows of the leaves cast in the corners of the wall covered the corner of the blackboard with little figures drawn in chalk. There was a warm feeling floating in the air. Warm atmosphere.
Until the bell rang, the head teacher walked to the door of the classroom. She put on an expression that was familiar to her classmates, and called everyone back to their seats.
"I can hear your voices from Class 5, it's almost noisy!"
After the students were all seated, the head teacher stepped onto the podium. She did not ask everyone to take out their Chinese textbooks immediately, but looked outside the classroom, as if waiting for someone to come in.
The students in the seats were curious. Then, a boy they had never seen before walked in.
"Introduce yourself."
"Hello everyone, my name is Yan Jingxing. I just moved here from Jinjiang City recently. Yan is the swallow of swallows, and Jingxing is the saying in the Book of Songs that 'the mountains look up, and the scenery stops'..."
Yan Jingxing picked up the chalk and wrote his name on the blackboard. When he turned around, he saw all the students in the class for the first time.
Of course, it was the first time they met each other, and everyone's face was unfamiliar, so his eyes only glanced at them in general, and it was impossible to remember them all in one go. until--
"...!"
Yan Jingxing's eyes widened in surprise.
Just in the last row, he saw a familiar figure.
She occupied a table alone, her long hair covering most of her face.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen it wrong.
——It was the girl wearing a swimsuit that I met near the rest stop that day.
At that time, she jumped into the sea and disappeared. Yan Jingxing thought that he would never see this person again, and felt regretful.
It turns out that she is not a mermaid, but a junior high school student like me...
No, isn't that of course? Yan Jingxing complained to himself in his heart. He just didn't expect that the two of them would meet again so soon, and they would actually happen to be studying in the same school and class.
The girl sitting in the back row seemed to notice him at the same time. She first raised her head and looked at the podium with an expression of surprise and bewilderment, and then immediately lowered her head.
"Jing Xing, what's wrong with you?"
"Ah, nothing..."
Yan Jingxing, whose thoughts were disturbed by the unexpected reunion, had no intention of saying more. After casually speaking a few words, he left amid the applause of his classmates.
"You can sit next to Yu Heyue. Heyue, remember to lend your textbooks to your new classmates during class later."
"Hey, good teacher."
Yan Jingxing sat down next to the smiling girl.
…
The first class after that was math.
Half of Yan Jingxing's mind was on the course, and the other half was on the girl in the last row.
After he confirmed that he could keep up with the courses here, he breathed a sigh of relief and focused all the rest of his attention on the girl.
His deskmate was quite interested in him and kept asking him quietly where he was from and about life in the city. Yan Jingxing made a few casual remarks and waited until the bell rang. He immediately got up and walked to the back.
...Doesn’t it seem a little too impatient?
But it didn't matter, after all, he was really curious about her and had many questions to ask.
But what Yan Jingxing didn’t expect was——
The long, slightly curly bangs blocked the girl's face, making his expression unclear. The moment she noticed Yan Jingxing approaching, she jumped up like a frightened rabbit and ran away to another place.
"Hey, wait..."
Before he could call the other party, the girl's back had disappeared from the back door of the classroom, leaving him with a confused look on his face.
…
How should I put it, it’s a little different from my own impression.
Yan Jingxing returned to his seat, crossed his arms and began to think deeply.
Although I have only met him once, the youthful vitality of the other person is really impressive and is definitely not fake.
However, in school, she gave people a feeling of being taciturn...
Besides, why are you avoiding me?
Some students noticed the little embarrassment that just happened and asked with a smile:
"Are you here to see Ji Chunzao? Have you known her before?"
Ji Chunzao... It turned out that her name was this. Yan Jingxing silently remembered it and nodded.
"I saw her on the road here. I met her once, but I don't count her as acquaintance. But was she avoiding me just now?"
"How should I put it, don't worry about it. She is rather...how should I put it, a little weird."
After hearing the name "Ji Chunzao", people at the same table and those at the front and back tables also came to join in the fun.
"Other people think she is mentally disturbed."
"It's not that exaggerated, right? She usually takes classes and exams well."
"That's because you haven't had any contact with Ji Chunzao before. She was quite enthusiastic at first, but every day I heard her talk about 'water monsters', 'aliens', 'UFOs' and so on. Later, everyone got bored and started talking to her. Keep your distance and stop talking to her, so she gradually becomes less talkative."
Yan Jingxing listened to the students' chatting with interest and realized that Ji Chunzao seemed to be a person who was kept at a distance among the class of Grade 2.
Even Yan Jingxing, who was not familiar with her, could detect a unique temperament in the girl; however, this also made her the focus of attention in a sense, so she seemed to be a bit of a loser. When "Ji Chun Zao" begins, everyone has something to say.
As they talked, everyone began to care about the new classmates again, and Yan Jingxing was obviously not a maverick. He responded to the questions with a smile and wrote down their names one by one.
After joining a new group, if you want to truly integrate into it, you often need an opportunity, and that is now.
However, when he was chatting animatedly with others, Yan Jingxing could still occasionally glance at the empty seat.
*
Baiquan Town Experimental Middle School has two main buildings. One is the teaching building where class classrooms and teaching offices are located, which is noisy during recess; the other is offices for other functions, as well as laboratories and libraries, which is usually quiet. .
The stairs leading to the rooftop in this building are often unlocked. After Ji Chunzao ran out of the classroom, he walked all the way to the top of the building.
When passing by the office building, the girl was still walking a little sneakily; but when she arrived at the destination, she had straightened her chest and raised her head, raised the corners of her mouth slightly, and walked around in a familiar way until she came to the back of the water tower.
There, there is a three-sided "wall" specially built with bricks. Inside the wall are mats made of corrugated paper, plastic bags specially used for garbage, stacked discarded newspapers, as well as umbrellas and raincoats.
The most eye-catching thing is a stack of magazines and books neatly arranged. Looking at the titles above, they are all about UFOs, aliens, the Loch Ness Monster, Shennongjia Savages, etc., as well as various versions. "The Unsolved Mysteries of the World".
In this unnoticed corner of the campus, Ji Chunzao built a small, temporary "secret base" that belonged only to her.
The long-haired girl sat down by the wall, picked up a copy of "UFO Exploration" and started to read.
At this moment, in this place where she was alone, Ji Chunzao seemed to relax, and her posture and expression became lazy.
The golden sunshine is like light feathers, passing through the gaps between the stainless steel bars next to the water tower, falling on the blue and white middle school uniforms, on the sneakers that have been washed a little white, and on the yellowed pages of the book...
When it fell quietly on the bright face of the fourteen-year-old girl, the snowy skin glowed with a radiant luster as if it were transparent.
The magazine in Ji Chunzao's hand looked like it had been flipped through countless times, and the title page was peeling off, but she still read it with gusto.
"Ah, this UFO...! It's very similar to the one I saw in my dream..."
She looked at it and suddenly pointed at an illustration and exclaimed, as if she had discovered details that she had not noticed before, and said something to herself that no one could understand.
Unfortunately, everything in the dream was in black and white, and it was impossible to distinguish colors, the girl thought with a little regret.
The school bell rang, but Ji Chunzao didn't get up.
She knew that the next class was an activity class and it didn't matter that she didn't have to go back to the classroom.
Anyway, even if she continues to stay in the classroom, she has nothing to do. She is just sitting in a corner alone in a daze, watching others laughing and joking...
"Hey, isn't this "UFO Exploration"?"
A voice suddenly sounded from behind her.
"Wow!"
This sudden conversation frightened Ji Chunzao to the point of flying out of his wits, and he froze there.
It wasn't until she realized that the footsteps were approaching that she turned her neck around like a robot.
What caught his eye was the face of the transfer student.
