The spring outing incident caught the attention of the school administrators. After the year 2002, the school administration forbade the teachers to take the class on spring and autumn outings alone.
After this incident, Pei Chuan became popular in the class.
He had been cold to everyone all year, and no one in the class would speak to him. However, now the boy at the back table of Pei Chuan mustered the courage to borrow an eraser from him.
"Can I borrow your eraser? I'll return it back to you when I'm done." The boy at the back table was wearing glasses. He was clearly nervous when he said this and couldn't help but fidget with his glasses.
Pei Chuan had encountered such a situation for the first time. He didn't move and indifferently looked at the boy. That boy's cold sweat was almost coming out, "Forget it, Forget it..."
Bei Yao crossed the 38-line that Pei Chuan had drawn as a child. She picked up the eraser from his pencil case, and quickly placed it on the boy's desk sitting at the back table.
The boy hastily said in a dry voice, "Thank you."
Bei Yao propped up her chin and containing a smile in her eyes she looked at Pei Chuan. Her smile was like the summer flowers blooming outside the window. Pei Chuan quietly looked at her and then turned to the boy at the back table, "You're welcome."
Her eyes grew bright, and she was secretly smiling for the whole class.
After realizing that Pei Chuan wasn’t so scary, the student wearing glasses at the back table would sometimes even ask Pei Chuan for advice.
During this time, Bei Yao would also listen to them. There were two reasons due to which she was now able to keep her grades in the top three in the class. First, by relying on the few years ahead memory, and second, by hard work. She tended to start her homework as soon as school ended.
Bei Yao found that Pei Chuan was smart, extraordinarily smart.
He could solve a math problem in many ways, and when explaining it to people, he didn't like to talk, so he would write the steps for people to see.
But the steps would always be simple and clear, making people understand it at once.
Bei Yao often marveled at his smartness!
Pei Chuan was top of his grade when he graduated from elementary school in 2002. The young teenage girls took a picture under the sycamore tree, and their elementary school lives came to an end.
The summer vacation of the sixth grade was long and leisurely.
Zhao Zhilan had spent the whole year under the provocation of Zhao Xiu, listening to words similar to “What's the use of your daughter's good grades? My daughter is slender and moving like 'Chang Xue'”.
When Zhao Zhilan returned from work, she measured Bei Yao, who still had baby fat on her cheeks, "Yao Yao, your aunt has opened a dance class, why don't I send you to the dance?"
Bei Yao shook her head, "I missed my age and can’t learn it well now."
In fact, the main reason was that Bei Yao did not like her this mean aunt. It had already been three years since the uncle’s family had borrowed money from Bei Yao’s family. They have not returned even a cent till this point, and would never return in the future.
"How can you stay at home on vacation? It’s necessary to exercise." There were only a few girls in the community. Fang Minjun was always aloof and cold so she and Bei Yao couldn't play together. Therefore Bei Yao would have to spend most of the time of her holidays at home.
"Then, you can practice dancing on the discs, okay?"
"Sure, I'll go buy two more discs tomorrow."
At that time, the internet was far less developed than in later years. Bei Yao's house had a DVD player that they could put in discs and watch videos.
Bei Yao's house was on the third floor, and Pei Chuan's house was on the fourth floor on the opposite side.
They both lived in side bedrooms and could see each other as long as they pushed open their windows. But Pei Chuan's room had a small balcony, which was partitioned off by curtains when he was nine years old, so Bei Yao couldn't see him.
At the end of July, when the sun was shining on the floor, Pei Chuan occasionally pushed open the window and saw the bluebell flowers blooming in front of the young girl's window.
They were as vibrant as a small bell.
There was only one old tower fan in Bei Yao's room, and she jumped to her feet and opened the window for air. Pei Chuan's house was on a higher floor, and he inadvertently lowered his eyes and saw Bei Yao, who was dancing across the room.
She stretched her limbs and raised her arm high with a bit of innocence and elegance of a young girl.
Because she would be uncomfortable with sweat and high temperature during the dance, Bei Yao was wearing a soft green vest.
Her dance movements caused her vest to slightly move up, thus revealing a small, lovely belly button on a dazzlingly beautiful waist. She was not slender, but her waist was soft, delicate, and even smaller than a grasp.
Pei Chuan's face color changed, and he immediately brushed the curtains shut.
For the entire summer vacation, Bei Yao never saw the curtains open again.
*
Skipping exercises did not work, and the little girl grew up at the time, similar to the original growth trajectory.
Although disappointed, Zhao Zhilan also understood that these things couldn't be forced. The junior high school in C city was farther away from home. It was a full forty minutes away and was not in the same direction as the elementary school.
However, Bei Yao was gratified that she and Pei Chuan were still in the same class.
The seventh grade in the junior high school was an experimental class.
The acquaintances in this class had suddenly diminished quite a bit, as the students in this class came in according to the results of the final exams of the sixth grade of elementary school. The two classes 7 and 8 were the experimental classes, while the rest all were regular ones.
Chen Hu gloriously entered the sixth class, and he was still firmly sitting at the bottom of the sixth class.
There were still a lot of acquaintances in the 7th Class. Fang Minjun, Hua Ting, and Li Da, who came in at the end of the class, were all classmates.
Chen Hu almost cried over this. All his peers from the whole neighborhood entered the "academically dominating class", except for him.
Chen Hu was also beaten by his father.
~
On the first day of the first year of school, the students could choose their own seats.
Hua Ting joyfully hugged Bei Yao's arm and took her to sit together. Bei Yao subconsciously looked at Pei Chuan, and she didn’t know when a short-haired, long-skirted little girl came and sat beside Pei Chuan.
Bei Yao was stunned, inevitably feeling a little listless in her heart. But then she thought that she should be happy for Pei Chuan.
She couldn't tell if Pei Chuan was willing to be at the same table with her again. However, after six years of primary school with “38 line”, she felt that Pei Chuan didn't like her much.
When Pei Chuan was in elementary school, he was in a wheelchair, and everyone knew that he had a leg disability. But now they were in a new environment, and there was no more outspoken Chen Hu, so Pei Chuan naturally had people coming close to him.
The little teenager looked refined and elegant. Putting on the prosthetics, he appeared tall and thin while his temperament was also cold, the crowd could always notice him at a glance.
Now in this class, no one knew that Pei Chuan didn’t have a leg, and he could get along with people like a normal person. Once he got a good start, he would only get better and better.
Bei Yao thought for a while, and she was truly happy for him.
The little girl sitting with Pei Chuan was called Zhuo Yingjing. She had transferred to junior high school from the next city. At this time, most of the teenage girls had their own playmates, and only a few seats were empty around them. Although Zhuo Yingjing was a little shy, she still sat down beside Pei Chuan.
"Hello, my name is Zhuo Yingjing. What's your name?"
Pei Chuan's face sank, and he looked back. He had obviously sat down in the first row in front of the window, but Bei Yao didn’t come over to sit with him.
‘Was it because you felt that you were finally able to get rid of this cripple?’
Pei Chuan was in a bad mood and didn’t want to take care of the new tablemate. Zhuo Yingjing wasn’t very pretty, but with the clean and refreshing short haircut, she won in handsomeness. As Pei Chuan didn't speak to her, she embarrassedly stopped looking for trouble.
Pei Chuan finished distributing the books. When he finished writing his name, Zhuo Yingjing only made an exclamation in a small voice, "Pei Chuan ah, you are the first in our class. I looked at your grades, and they were super impressive. You only lost one mark that was deducted from your Chinese."
The boy's side profile appeared cold. With some of the childish coldness of a teenager, he closed his book and turned to look out the window.
After a cold autumn rain, a few leaves of the bright green sycamore tree began to turn yellow.
Pei Chuan's heart was like a heavy lead stone, making him want to lose his temper. Summer hadn't completely passed yet so C city was dry. He wouldn’t have suppressed drinking water till now, but as if it had become a habit, the cup of water was prepared for Bei Yao.
At dusk, he suddenly unscrewed the glass of water, tilted his head, and drank it all in one gulp.
When school ended, Bei Yao was not with Hua Ting. She slowly moved before packing up her brand new English book and saw Pei Chuan's back disappearing from the classroom door.
"Hey? Pei Chuan..."
He used to wait for her, but today he had already gone far without looking back.
Bei Yao panicked and packed up her workbook and pencil case before, carrying her backpack to chase after him. With a flick, the little panda flung, and the pens in the pencil case also hit each other and dinged.
When Pei Chuan heard footsteps behind him, his lips pursed with a hint of displeasure and coldness, and he sulkily moved forward.
"Pei Chuan." The young girl's voice was sweet, she panted, "You wait for me."
The setting sun stretched their silhouettes, and Bei Yao finally caught up with him.
"What's wrong with you? Aren't we going home together?"
He said coldly, "You go back home with Hua Ting."
Bei Yao's almond eyes had a confused look, "Hua Ting's house is not in this direction."
He got even angrier, "Don't follow me, you're annoying."
Bei Yao was a little sad. She couldn't understand why Pei Chuan was angry. The little girl was a little aggrieved, "My house is in this direction."
Pei Chuan had only two emotions since he was a child, either indifferent or fierce.
Today he was in a fierce state. If he didn’t walk fast with his prosthetic legs, people wouldn’t be able to see any abnormality at all. But today he was walking fast because he was angry.
When he passed by Li Da and Chen Hu, Chen Hu was confused. ‘Damn, this person who was walking super fast and awkwardly was Pei Chuan?’
Pei Chuan and Bei Yao didn't get back together until the next week of school.
On Friday afternoon, the first group was on duty, and Pei Chuan's table was also one of them.
On Pei Chuan's table, the books were messed up by the students who arranged the benches. Zhuo Yingjing's eyes lit up, and she helped her cold deskmate organize his books.
There was no “Chu-Han boundary line” drawn by the cold and indifferent juvenile between them.
Pei Chuan came back with a mop, and his face turned cold, "Who told you to touch my stuff!"
His dark pupils were even darker, and he was a little scary when he wasn't smiling. Zhuo Yingjing was shocked with fear, "I'm just helping you manage..."
"No need." He said.
"Why are you like this?" Zhuo Yingjing was a little girl in the end. She was aggrieved at Pei Chuan's cold face for the past few days, "I obviously mean well and want to be good friends with you."
The classroom was quiet for a while as the students were all scrambling over brooms at the back door of the classroom.
The sycamore tree shed a few leaves, and the autumn breeze picked up.
He curled his lips, and the young man's cold face turned ironic, "Be friends? You want to be friends with a cripple with no legs?"