LRTH - 5

In the month since she started, there had been a small quiz every week. Fang Nanzhi’s grades were among the best in her class back in her small town, but here, with some lessons missed, her first two scores weren’t very good.

But she wasn’t discouraged because she knew where the problems were and believed that if she slowly caught up, she would definitely be able to keep up.

It was noon, during lunch break.

Today, Zhao Liyun and Fang Ji were not home because of work. She also didn’t want the family’s helper to make a meal just for her, so she told them she wouldn’t be coming home for lunch and would eat at school.

After eating, Fang Nanzhi sat in the classroom for a while.

There were only two or three students in the classroom, all sleeping with their heads on their desks. Fang Nanzhi couldn’t sleep, and she was afraid that fidgeting with her things would disturb others, so she got up and left.

When the class monitor first showed her around, she learned that there was an art studio specifically for students to use. She had never been there before, but now that she had some free time, she took her sketching pencil and paper and decided to go check it out.

She walked through the long hallway to another building, went up two more floors, and finally arrived at the art studio she had been thinking about.

She looked inside through the window. There were several stone sculptures on the podium, and the walls were covered with random drawings and framed paintings.

There were many easels on the floor. Some were clean, while others had paints and other tools next to them, clearly in use.

The paints and tools were not cheap, but they were just left there. No one at Junhua would worry about these things being stolen.

The back of the classroom was more cluttered than the front, with easels packed together and desks and chairs stacked up.

Fang Nanzhi didn’t pay attention to the back. She carefully opened the front door, found a clean spot, and sat down.

It was much quieter here, which made her want to draw. She quickly set up the paper on the easel and focused on the tip of her pencil.

About half an hour later, her phone rang. It was a voice message from Zhao Liyun, telling her to rest in the classroom after lunch and not to be so driven with her studies.

Fang Nanzhi was afraid that if she told her she was drawing instead of resting, it would worry her. So she replied in a low voice, “I know, Mom. I’ll take a nap in the classroom. The other students are on their lunch break, so I’ll be quiet.”

She ended the voice message, turned off her phone, and put it back in her pocket.

Just then, there was a sudden sound from the back of the classroom—the sound of paper being grabbed and then released.

Fang Nanzhi was startled and quickly turned her head.

She saw a person suddenly sitting up behind the rows of easels and desks in the back.

The studio curtains weren’t drawn. The warm sunlight shone in from outside, falling on the person’s back and head like a thin layer of gold dust... He looked a little lazy and tired. He had probably been lying on a chair and sleeping. The piece of paper he was holding had clear creases, possibly from him using it to cover his face.

Fang Nanzhi froze. The pencil in her hand dropped to the floor with a clatter, and its tip broke.

But at that moment, she didn’t have the presence of mind to notice the only pencil she had brought. Her gaze was fixed on the person in the back of the studio, filled with a mix of nervousness and something else.

In any case, she forgot to react, standing frozen in place, just like the plaster sculptures on the podium.

The person in the chair looked over at the sound of the pencil breaking. He wasn’t far away, and Fang Nanzhi could clearly see his thick eyelashes and, beneath them, deep and clear eyes that reflected the sunlight.

“Are you an art student?”

He squinted slightly to avoid the sun and also got a clear look at the person sitting in front of the easel.

He recognized her.

Even though they lived in the same complex and went to the same school, this was the first time Fang Nanzhi had run into him in a month.

She said a little awkwardly, “No, I just... came here to draw for fun. Our class monitor said this studio is open to everyone, so that’s why I came... I’m sorry, I didn’t realize someone was here. I—”

“It’s open to everyone,” Li Yizhou looked at her flustered expression, feeling a little apologetic. He smiled. “You don’t have to apologize. I was covering myself so well that no one would notice I was here.”

Fang Nanzhi nodded subconsciously, then quickly shook her head. “That’s not it...”

Li Yizhou stood up from his seat. Because he had just been sleeping, a tuft of his hair was sticking up, making him look a little messy and lazy.

Fang Nanzhi saw him walking over. Her hands, which were hanging at her sides, lightly gripped the hem of her shirt. She lowered her head and didn’t look at him, whispering, “Are you still sleeping? I’ll leave right now.”

In her line of sight, he stopped in front of her. The next second, she saw a pair of hands pick up the pencil she had just dropped.

His hands were very beautiful, long and fair. The pale blue veins beneath the skin were slightly raised, his knuckles were defined, and his nails were neat and clean.

When he picked up the sketching pencil, the lines and curves were like the hands of the models she had once copied.

“It’s broken. There’s a pencil sharpener on the podium you can use,” he straightened up. His voice, still a little husky from waking up, came from above her.

The pencil was placed on the easel.

Fang Nanzhi: “...Thank you.”

“Did you draw this?”

Fang Nanzhi, who had been in a daze, had forgotten that the drawing she had just been working on was still on the easel. When he suddenly mentioned it, her face turned red.

Once in elementary school, her sketchbook had fallen and was snatched by some classmates to play with, and she was mocked for a while.

So she had always just drawn for herself, never showing it to anyone.

She pulled the paper off the easel. “Yes... I just drew it for fun.”

“Is it near the activity area in Fenglan?”

“Hmm?”

“The perspective is well done.”

Their residential complex, Fenglan Yun-di, had a special activity area for residents. One time, Zhao Liyun took her for a walk there after dinner. The buildings there were particularly beautiful at sunset, and she had taken a photo.

Today, on a whim, she had taken out the photo and was drawing from it, trying to capture that scene.

She had only been drawing for half an hour and it was just a rough sketch, but he had recognized it.

Fang Nanzhi had never expected her drawing to be praised. She sat there stiffly, her heart thumping. By the time she finally came to her senses and looked up, the person who had been next to her was already gone.

The studio door wasn’t closed tightly. It was gently making a knocking sound as the wind blew, like a dream.

But he had really been there.

________________________________________

During class in the afternoon, Fang Nanzhi’s mind wandered for a rare moment.

She was thinking that Li Yizhou had been sleeping in there all through lunch. So, was it when she sent the voice message to Zhao Liyun that she had woken him up? She had lied to Zhao Liyun, saying that she might disturb her classmates on their lunch break, and she had actually ended up disturbing someone.

But why was he sleeping there? Was he an art student?

“Hey, what are you spacing out for? Go get your test paper,” Xu Tingyou next to her nudged her with her elbow.

Fang Nanzhi snapped back to attention and looked up at the podium, where the math teacher was holding her test paper and saying, “Fang Nanzhi did really well this time, 142 points! Her progress is amazing. Everyone should learn from her.”

The paper in the teacher’s hand was from the math quiz yesterday afternoon. Fang Nanzhi’s score of 142 put her in third place in the class, while just two weeks ago, her score on the math quiz was only in the middle of the class.

Everyone else in the class was surprised.

The math teacher praised the top students first before distributing the rest of the papers.

Xu Tingyou also got her paper, 89 points, which was a failing grade.

“...”

After distributing the papers, the math teacher had a worried look on his face. There were some good students in the class, but there were also many struggling students.

He couldn’t help but get angry and then immediately established mutual aid groups, pairing up good students with struggling ones.

Since Xu Tingyou and Fang Nanzhi were deskmates, the teacher naturally paired them up.

Xu Tingyou looked awkward after hearing the result and said, “We don’t need to listen to him and form any teams. I don’t need your help,” and dismissed the matter.

Fang Nanzhi didn’t force the issue. She knew that Xu Tingyou didn’t like her very much.

However, during evening self-study, after seeing Xu Tingyou frown at the last few math problems for the third time, she still mustered up the courage to tap her arm with her finger.

“How about I explain it to you?”

Xu Tingyou was very lazy when it came to studying. She often secretly read novels during class, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care about her scores. In the past, she needed to use her scores to get what she wanted from her parents at the end of every semester.

High school content was much harder than elementary and middle school. In the past, she could be lazy and still get high scores, but that wasn’t the case in high school.

She thought that if this continued, she would definitely do poorly on her first final exam in high school, and then she wouldn’t be able to get her parents to buy her the things she liked.

She looked at Fang Nanzhi, pondered a bit, acting proud, then asked dryly, “...Did you finish your homework?”

Fang Nanzhi: “Pretty much.”

“Oh.”

Fang Nanzhi could tell she wasn’t refusing, so she tentatively reached out and pulled her test paper to the space between them.

When Xu Tingyou didn’t say anything, she whispered, “Should we start with this problem?”

For the next half of the evening self-study session, Fang Nanzhi was explaining problems to Xu Tingyou. Xu Tingyou went from an awkward “impatient” look to a focused and serious expression, and finally, a relieved look of “oh, so that’s how it works.”

When she took the test paper back, it was filled with the equations that Fang Nanzhi had written down while explaining the problems.

“Hey, thanks.”

Fang Nanzhi paused, then shook her head.

Xu Tingyou cleared her throat. “This time, you helped me. How about this, I’ll treat you to dinner. I’ll cover your dinners for the next month.”

Fang Nanzhi quickly said, “You don’t have to. Didn’t the teacher say it’s a mutual aid group?”

“This isn’t mutual aid, it’s one-sided help. Anyway, I don’t like owing people. I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow night.”

“You really don’t have to...”

“What, are you looking down on me?”

Fang Nanzhi shook her head even more vigorously.

Xu Tingyou let out a little huff. “Then it’s settled.”

The rich girl’s word was law.

The next day after class, Xu Tingyou closed her book and turned to ask her, “What do you want to eat?”

“Hmm?”

Xu Tingyou said, “I said yesterday that I’d treat you to dinner. You can eat whatever you want. Tell me.”

Fang Nanzhi knew that she was definitely going to treat her to this meal, so she didn’t refuse again. She thought for a moment and said, “I don’t know what’s good...”

“How about hot pot then.”

When you don’t know what to eat, hot pot is the best choice.

Fang Nanzhi didn’t object and nodded. “That’s fine too.”

“Let’s go then.”

The two of them walked out of the classroom together.

But Fang Nanzhi hadn’t expected to run into Li Yizhou and the others as they were getting close to the school gate.

There were three of them: Xu Yuanhe and the tall, dark-skinned boy.

Xu Tingyou also saw them. She walked up and said, “Brother, where are you going?”

Xu Yuanhe said, “To get dinner.”

“What are you eating?”

Zhao Ke came closer and said, “We were just talking about getting hot pot. What about you, little sister?”

Xu Tingyou pointed to Fang Nanzhi next to her. “What a coincidence, I was just about to treat her to hot pot.”

Fang Nanzhi stood to the side, wanting to just exist quietly, but unexpectedly, the three people’s gazes followed Xu Tingyou’s finger and all turned to her.

She restrained herself from taking a step back.

When Xu Yuanhe saw Fang Nanzhi, he looked confused. It was clear that after a month, he had forgotten about this extra person. It took him a few seconds to realize that this person was the neighbor.

Li Yizhou’s expression, however, didn’t change. When his eyes met hers, he gave a slight nod, as a greeting.

Fang Nanzhi was slightly stunned. Before she could react, Xu Tingyou pulled her over and said, “Perfect. Let’s all eat together tonight. My treat.”

Then, she looked at Fang Nanzhi. “With more people, we can order more hot pot. Is that okay?”

In that moment, Fang Nanzhi’s social anxiety was about to flare up. She felt that she didn’t have the courage to eat with this group of people.

But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Li Yizhou’s gaze—

And so, she didn’t know what came over her, but she didn’t say anything to refuse.