CH 11

She wondered if Li Wei would remain at home and wait for her with a hungry stomach, he shouldn’t be, right? He wouldn’t be so stupid, right?

But when she thought of his mental state, she couldn’t relax at all.

Zhang Man frowned at the needle stuck in her left hand and said anxiously, “Mom, I really have something to do, I agreed with my classmate to go to his house today for extra lessons.”

Zhang Huifang stared at her disapprovingly, “Go back and lie down! What can’t we talk about tomorrow? It’s already 11:30 in the evening, and that classmate of yours should have gone to bed long ago.”

It’s already so late? She thought it was only seven or eight o’clock at night.

Zhang Man took a glance at the dark night outside the window and slumped back to the bedside to sit down. She flipped open her cell phone, but reluctantly remembered that she hadn’t saved Li Wei’s home phone number.

Zhang Huifang took a look at the back of her hand and sucked in a breath: “I let you fool around, now you’re bleeding again. I gave you a day off for tomorrow’s daytime class. You were so sick this time that your fever didn’t go down completely. The doc recommends staying another day.”

She said, hanging the I.V. bottle a little higher.

The back of her hand was a little swollen, but Zhang Man didn’t have the heart to care, and only shook her head, “No, I have to go to class tomorrow, I’m already much better.”

She was afraid that Zhang Huifang wouldn’t let her, so she added, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to catch up if I take the day off right after school starts, and the next physics and math classes will be difficult.”

Zhang Huifang thought about it and thought she was quite reasonable, so she nodded, “Then go home after you finish this bottle and we will come back tomorrow night.” .

…….

That night, Zhang Man thought about Li Wei and had a hard time sleeping, and kept tossing and turning until dawn.

The next day, with two black circles under her eyes, she arrived at school early.

The rain of the last two days had completely disappeared, and the air was hot and humid again, the whole classroom was like a closed steamer, and it was stifling.

Before it was time for the morning class, the students came one after another, and sat down to discuss what had happened over the weekend. Zhang Man heard them discussing Li Wei, talking about “sticky post” and “horrible” and so on.

She didn’t care, but stared restlessly at the classroom door, waiting nervously for Li Wei to come.

Zhang Man’s mood at the moment was apprehensive and anxious. It was clear that the relationship between the two finally made some progress on Saturday, but yesterday she stood him up for the day.

At 6:55 a.m., the teenager stepped on the bell of the morning class and arrived at the classroom. Some students around saw him come in, and the whispers came to an abrupt halt.

Zhang Man’s eyes lit up and immediately stood up to let him in, carefully observing his appearance.

“Li Wei, you’ve come?”

Who knows that the teenager didn’t even look at her, sat down expressionlessly and took out the textbook on his own, spreading it out. There was no trace of any emotion in those dark eyes.

There was no blame, no questioning, and no anger, as if he had completely forgotten that she had stood him up yesterday when she said she would cook for him.

When Zhang Man saw his reaction, she bit her lower lip and gripped the edge of the wooden chair with both hands, not knowing what to say.

Her heart hit rock bottom, and she felt so bad.

He must have been disappointed in her.

Or rather, he had no hope for anyone, and she was now one of the many people he had listed as irrelevant.

His lack of concern meant that their relationship had gone straight to the freezing point.

For a long time, she lowered her head and carefully tugged on his sleeve: “…… Li Wei, I was sick yesterday, so I didn’t make it, you …… don’t be angry.”

The young man made his way to the window, avoiding her touch, and nodded without speaking, as if he didn’t want to know why she hadn’t come.

He has always preferred cleanliness, but in order to avoid her he rubbed the sleeves of his school uniform against the white wall next to him.

When Zhang Man’s hands were empty, her heart felt even worse, and she blamed herself for her own indiscretion.

Yesterday, would he have been home alone for a long time waiting for her? …… And then, when she didn’t come, did he get restless? She promised to cook for him, did he stay up late and not eat?

Or did he imagine his mother coming back to cook for him again?

At this time, the young man spoke in a hoarse voice: “I can understand all of this, you don’t have to come in the future. Keep the book of exercises I gave you, there are many summaries I wrote on it, it’s still somewhat useful.”

He spoke very softly, without any rise or fall in his tone. He didn’t even look at her during the whole process, and after that, simply read a book on his own.

Zhang Man listened to him, a little confused about what he meant by that.

He said that he fully understood what was going on.

Her mind suddenly reflected on the other students who had just been exchanging words and looked at Li Wei in a bad light, she was shocked, and her confused and jumbled thoughts were straightened out.

It turned out that he had misunderstood her …… misunderstood that she, like everyone else, had heard those rumors and would not dare to approach him again in deference to him.

He thought her saying she was sick was an excuse to just go along with it in order to stay away from him.

How much unfair treatment does one have to suffer to develop such a response?

He is used to it, used to people’s alienation and loneliness.

Zhang Man’s heart was pumping, and she cursed herself a few times in her heart. She wished that time could go back to yesterday morning. If she knew he would be so misunderstood, she would have gone to tell him even if the fever grew worse.

She anxiously approached him and simply extended her left hand directly in front of him: “It’s not like that, Li Wei, you see, I didn’t lie to you, I was really sick yesterday, and the needle’s mark is still on my hand.”

The young man was quiet for a moment at the words, then lowered his eyes and looked at the white hand of the girl in front of him.

Her hands were small and slender, and her nails were cleanly clipped. The skin on the back of the hand was so white that it was almost transparent, so much so that the veins on it were obvious, like a winding, twisting, green vine.

On one of the veins, a purplish-red needle mark was scabbed over, with a ring of bruises next to it, which looked alarming.

She sounded anxious, aggrieved and desperate. It seemed that if he didn’t believe her, she was going to keep arguing until he did.

It was as if his belief was so important to her.

Li Wei suddenly remembered the tears she shed at his house that day.

It’s really strange. Usually she is such a quiet and calm person, but sometimes she gets so frustrated.

He silently pushed the girl’s hand away, still didn’t say anything, but a certain emotion that had been going on since yesterday morning until now and was about to come out in a manic state, seemed to have suddenly calmed down at this moment.

–It was like a violent thunderstorm that eventually failed to produce a downpour.

The young man turned his head and looked out the window. He raised his hand and pressed the place where his heart was beating, and the strange feeling of soreness and tension faded away.

Zhang Man couldn’t see any change in his expression, saw him pushing himself away, thought he still didn’t believe, and became even more anxious, with a little cry in her voice, “You still don’t believe me? Li Wei, I don’t have any …… for you.”

Her words were interrupted.

— “Next Saturday you’ll have three extra hours to catch up on yesterday’s class.”

Zhang Man was stunned and only reacted after a while, busily smiling and saying yes as her heavy heart from last night to now instantly relaxed a lot.

It’s good that he is still willing to believe me.

He was willing to trust me….

But Zhang Man’s good mood did not last long.

When she went to the cafeteria at the end of the hallway to get water for Li Wei, she ran into Dai Xi and another girl, Zhou Xiaoqi, who was the representative of the English class.

Zhou Xiaoqi had been the representative of the English class in her class two days ago, and also came to talk to Li Wei.

Zhou Xiaoqi was behind her in the line, and when she saw her holding a cup for Li Wei, she asked curiously, “Zhang Man, I think you and Li Wei are quite good friends. Do you two know each other before?”

Zhang Man turned on the faucet, took half a glass of cold water first, and shook her head: “I don’t know him. I was his seatmate when he got hurt in the accident, so I just did what I could.”

Zhou Xiaoqi nodded her head, but Dai Xi just snapped, obviously not believing it, and shook the cup in her hand: “I understand your point of view, it’s because Li Wei is so handsome and intelligent, right? If it wasn’t because of his ……, I might have pursued him too. By the way, didn’t you see our school’s posting? You don’t know, Li Wei has too much stuff on him, I heard that he is also …”

Zhang Man took another half cup of water and rudely interrupted her: “I’m done, I’m going in first.”

After saying that she didn’t wait for them, she immediately turned around and left.

She knew that everyone’s attitude towards Li Wei would make a drastic change, but she still felt uncomfortable when she heard it firsthand.

Better to be out of sight than out of mind.

When she got back to class, she put the cup in the corner of the teenager’s desk and sat down quietly beside him.

She felt bad about their behavior, but she couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t grab everyone and tell them that Li Wei wasn’t scary and wouldn’t hurt them, could she?

People have a strange fear of things they don’t understand, not to mention the already dreaded “schizophrenia”.

This is true for adults, not to mention for children aged 16-17.

On this day, the attitudes of the students really changed dramatically from before, the students on duty subconsciously avoided Li Wei’s seat, and even the group leaders didn’t take the initiative to collect his assignments from various subjects.

They naturally isolated him from the class, and although there was no direct verbal or physical abuse, such cold violence is often more devastating than anything else.

Zhang Man’s heart was sore from watching it, but Li Wei didn’t care at all, he still read and wrote on his own, and occasionally looked at the lawn outside the window when he was tired, quietly, just like before.

Because it was expected, he did not get disappointed.