dognovel Chapter 164 Keep it up!
Chapter 164 Keep it up!
After returning from the study tour, life went back to its old routine.
The alarm clock rang at 6:20. Song Huan turned it off, lay down for 30 seconds, and then got up.
When I looked in the mirror while brushing my teeth, I noticed my hair had grown long, and my bangs were almost touching my eyes.
He turned on the tap, rinsed himself briefly, dried himself with a towel, and left it hanging, not pressing it down.
When I arrived at the classroom, Xiao Yunqing was already there.
Her dad brought her to school today, so the two of them didn't come together.
She sat by the window, an English textbook open in front of her, a pen in her hand, taking notes.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on the back of her hand and making the fine veins gleam.
Her hair had grown a bit long, almost covering her ears. When she was doing her homework, she would reach out and tuck it behind her ears, but it would slip down again after a while.
Song Huan sat down and stuffed her schoolbag into the drawer.
She didn't look up, but moved half an inch in this direction.
It was very light; the chair didn't make a sound. It was just that the person tilted slightly towards him.
"Good morning," he said.
"Um."
The pen tip scratched across the paper.
The first lesson was math.
Lu Xu walked in, wrote a function problem on the blackboard with chalk, turned around, and placed his hands on the podium.
Where did we leave off in the last lesson?
No one uttered a sound.
He glanced around, his gaze finally settling on Song Huan's face.
"Song Huan, where did we leave off in the last lesson?"
Song Huan stood up. "Monotonous."
Lu Xu nodded. "Sit down. Don't daydream in class anymore."
Song Huan sat down, and Xiao Yunqing smiled beside her. The sound was very soft, leaking from the corner of her mouth, as if she couldn't help it.
During the break, Zhao Qihang strolled over from the front row, holding a bag of instant noodles in his hand. He crushed it, tore it open, and tilted his head back to pour it into his mouth.
He leaned against Song Huan's desk, chewing, and mumbled, "Playing ball this weekend?"
Song Huan closed her math textbook. "Okay."
Zhao Qihang turned to look at Chen Xu again.
Chen Xu sat in the back row, looking at a physics workbook, his brows furrowed, his pen hovering in mid-air.
"Chen Xu, want to play ball this weekend?" Chen Xu didn't even look up.
"Okay." Zhao Qihang shoved the last bite of instant noodles into his mouth, crumpled the bag, and threw it into the trash can.
"Then it's settled." He swaggered back to his seat, pausing briefly as he passed Xiao Yunqing.
"Should the class monitor go check on it?"
Xiao Yunqing looked up at him, then at Song Huan, and said, "We'll see."
Zhao Qihang chuckled twice and left.
The cafeteria was crowded at lunchtime, with queues stretching all the way to the door.
Song Huan carried the plate and looked for a seat, while Xiao Yunqing followed behind, carrying a bowl of soup. She walked very slowly, afraid of spilling it.
There was an empty table in the corner, and two people sat down.
She ordered braised pork ribs and stir-fried lettuce today, while he ordered scrambled eggs with tomatoes and braised pork.
They took turns eating. She put a piece of pork rib on his plate, and he put a piece of scrambled eggs with tomatoes on her plate. They didn't say anything. After they finished eating, they took the plates to the recycling bin.
On my way back to the classroom, I passed the playground and saw people playing soccer, their shouts echoing in the distance.
Xiao Yunqing walked beside him, her pace neither fast nor slow.
She had both hands in her school uniform pockets, as if she had been spending too much time with Song Huan and had copied him by putting her hands in her pockets.
"Group meeting this afternoon," she said.
"Um."
Are you going or not?
"I'm not a cadre," Song Huan said. "You can go."
She nodded.
When she reached the bottom of the teaching building, she quickened her pace and went up the stairs first.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, then disappeared around the corner.
The meeting room is located on the third floor of the administration building at 4:30 pm.
The door was open, and several people were already seated inside. There was a long table, black leather chairs, and a west-facing window that let in sunlight, turning the tabletop orange-red.
Xiao Yunqing found a seat by the window, opened her notebook, and placed her pen on it.
People came in one after another, the sound of chairs being pulled out and pushed in could be heard, some people were talking quietly, and others were looking at their phones.
Cell phones are no longer a rarity these days, but if you can afford one and bring it to school freely, your family must be quite well-off.
The Youth League branch secretary sat at the front, with a list spread out in front of him, and was taking attendance.
When they called out the number of students in Class 1, they paused. "Has Chu Ran arrived yet?"
Someone in the corner raised their hand.
It's very light, as if I'm afraid it might hit someone if I lift it too high.
Xiao Yunqing glanced in that direction.
A boy sat against the wall, only sitting on one side of the chair, his back slightly hunched.
The school uniform was a bit too big on him, with the collar hanging loosely.
Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell directly on his face; he turned his head slightly to avoid it.
The branch secretary continued to take attendance.
Now that we've finished ordering, let's get down to business.
Next month, during the May Fourth commendation ceremony, each class's student union leader will give a speech, describing the situation of their class.
The previous classes spoke quickly, so they stood up, read a couple of lines, and then sat down.
When it was Class One's turn, the Youth League Secretary called out "Chu Ran".
The meeting room fell silent for a moment.
There was no movement.
The class monitor frowned, raising his voice slightly, "Chu Ran!"
Chu Ran then stood up from his chair. He did so quickly, straightening up and placing his hands on the table.
The microphone was on the table. He reached for it, but when his fingers touched it, he hesitated for a moment, then reached out again and picked it up.
"I, my class..." The voice was very soft, squeezed out from the back of the throat, intermittent, as if someone was choking him.
His face turned red, from his cheeks to his neck, and the tips of his ears turned a deep purple.
He gripped the microphone tightly, his fingers digging into it.
"Our class, our Youth League, our Youth League branch..."
The chair next to them creaked, and someone laughed.
Xiao Yunqing turned her head to look.
Two seats away, a boy leaned back in his chair, grinning and revealing half of his teeth.
The person next to him laughed along, and his shoulder twitched.
The laughter wasn't loud, but it was clearly audible in the quiet conference room.
Chu Ran's voice stopped.
He stood there, microphone still held up, his mouth opened slightly, but no sound came out.
He lowered his head and stared at the table.
The sweat from my palms rubbed against the microphone, and a small reflective patch appeared on the black stand.
His shoulders were hunched, and he shrank inward, as if someone had pinched him, making him curl up into a ball, wanting to shrink or disappear.
The boy spoke again, his voice not loud, but every word was clear.
"Don't worry, Chu Ran has hearing problems and can't understand what we're saying. Besides, he also stutters."
The meeting room fell silent for a second.
Then laughter surged up from all directions; some covered their mouths, some lowered their heads, and some laughed openly.
A boy sitting in the corner chimed in, "The top science student in Class One, I never expected him to be disabled."
The laughter grew even louder.
Chu Ran stood there, microphone still held up, her hand trembling.
He lowered his head even further, his chin almost touching his chest.
My fingers rubbed against the microphone, then rubbed again, until they were covered in sweat.
Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell on his back; he leaned forward slightly to avoid it.
Xiao Yunqing sat in her seat, her fingers gripping a pen.
The chair creaked.
She stood up, her chair sliding back slightly, her voice shrill.
The laughter in the meeting room stopped.
Everyone turned to look at her.
She stood there, ponytail, school uniform, face tense.
He glanced around, his gaze sweeping over the boy's face and then over the faces of the people next to him.
"What's so funny? Is this how you group members behave?"
The voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet conference room, every word was clear.
No one spoke.
The boy's smile was still on his face, but it froze; the corners of his mouth were twitching halfway and he couldn't stop.
Xiao Yunqing ignored them.
She picked up the notebook from the table, got up from her seat, walked around the table, and went to the corner.
My steps were slow, and my shoes pattered lightly on the floor.
He walked up to Chu Ran and stopped.
He kept his head down and didn't move.
The microphone was still held up, and his hand was still shaking.
Xiao Yunqing pulled out a chair and sat down next to him.
She placed the notebook on the table, turned to a blank page, and put the pen beside it.
Then she turned around and looked at him.
"Take your time," she said. "I'm listening."
The sound was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something.
Chu Ran stopped.
He slowly raised his head and glanced at her.
It's very short, like it's been burned, and then it goes down.
He took a deep breath, his chest puffed out, then deflated.
He held the microphone to his mouth.
"Me, our class, the Youth League branch..."
He uttered each word one by one, like moving stones, one by one, from his throat.
The voice was still trembling, but it didn't stop.
Xiao Yunqing sat beside him, neither urging him nor responding, just listening quietly.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, falling between the two people and turning the tabletop orange-red.
Chu Ran's voice echoed in the conference room, intermittent, like a precarious path, but with each step forward.
He's finished speaking.
He put the microphone down on the table, pulled his hand back, and nervously gripped the pant leg above his knee.
Xiao Yunqing nodded, picked up the notebook, and wrote a few lines on it.
"I've written it down. I'll tell your homeroom teacher when I get back."
Chu Ran didn't speak.
He looked at her for two seconds and nodded.
It's very small, as if I'm afraid it will fall apart if it gets too big.
The meeting continued.
In the subsequent class presentations, some spoke at length, while others spoke very briefly.
Xiao Yunqing sat in the corner, not returning to her original spot.
The notebook lay open on the table, and the pen was placed beside it.
She listened, occasionally jotting down a couple of lines.
Chu Ran sat beside him, head down, but her back straightened a little.
When the meeting ended, some people left quickly, and some left slowly.
Xiao Yunqing closed the notebook, clipped the pen to it, and stood up.
Chu Ran also stood up.
He stood there, his hands hanging at his sides, unsure of where to put them.
"come on!"
Xiao Yunqing nodded to him and turned to walk towards the door.
Her ponytail fluttered in the wind, the hem of her school uniform billowed up, then fell back down.
She walked out of the meeting room, her footsteps fading into the distance down the corridor.
Chu Ran stood there for a long time.
Later, Chu Ran finally mustered up the courage to inquire and found out who that gentle girl, who was like an angel, was.
Class monitor of Class 4, Xiao Yunqing.