“cough cough cough” Xu You choked on her porridge, unable to catch her breath.
“Paper, paper, give me paper.” She coughed, half-covering her mouth while fumbling for napkins on the table.
Fu Xueli heard the commotion and looked over, quickly pulling tissues from her bag and handing them over. “Here, here, here. How did you choke?”
She had been talking to Xu Xingchun earlier and hadn’t noticed what happened.
Xie Ci watched as Xu You coughed repeatedly, her fair face turning slightly red.
He lowered his head to look at her and patted her back. “Are you okay?”
Xu You waved her hand, unable to speak, only able to shake her head to indicate she was fine.
He looked at her for a few seconds. “So did you hear what I just told you?”
“No.”
“Hmm.” Xie Ci smiled. “You really think I don’t have a temper?”
Xu You stirred her porridge, not looking at him, and said softly: “That’s what you said yourself.”
Xie Ci immediately asked: “What about what I said before? Did you not hear it, or what? Your grades are so good, can’t you catch the key points?”
“Xie Ci, I want to discuss something with you.” Her expression was very serious.
“What is it?”
Xie Ci’s curiosity was piqued.
Xu You said: “I want to eat, so right now, could you not talk to me?”
“…..”
Xu You took another sip of porridge, her lowered gaze unchanged. She put down her spoon, freed her right hand to turn his face away, and added: “Also, don’t look at me.”
The unconsciously intimate gesture felt completely natural.
They both froze for a moment.
Xu You pulled her hand back quickly as if burned.
The realization hit her belatedly.
Xie Ci turned his head back to look at her again. He smiled silently and slowly.
They didn’t know when their relationship had started to become somewhat ambiguous.
A slight closeness that wavered between intimacy and distance, though it couldn’t quite be called flirting.
Xu You didn’t eat much, only drinking half a bowl of porridge.
Throughout the whole process, Xie Ci sat quietly beside her keeping her company, truly not saying another word.
Seeing this scene, everyone had different expressions – some surprised, some knowing, some smirking – clearly all in on the same secret.
The third floor of the hotel was for karaoke.
After finishing eating and drinking, the several tables of Class 9 students went upstairs to sing. Everyone was waiting to countdown to midnight together for the New Year.
There were many rich kids in their class, and they were all generous spenders, directly booking a super flagship room to hang out in.
The venue was large with flashing lights, and long leather sofas for resting were arranged on both sides. The servers brought in several cases of beer, and the carts were full of snacks.
Fruits, popcorn, sunflower seeds, drinks… everything was available.
Song Yifan was the most energetic, immediately being the first to sing, choosing “Single Love Song.”
When he reached the climax, he was particularly immersed, starting to wave his left hand, “Friends on the left, let me see you wave your hands, sing along with me?!!!”
No one paid attention to him. Song Yifan pretentiously held out the microphone in his right hand.
“Hahahahahaha oh my god.”
The group sitting there couldn’t stop laughing. Xu Xiaocheng threw a pillow at him, laughing and cursing loudly: “Give it a rest, you idiot.”
Song Yifan tilted his head to dodge the attack, then closed his eyes and shouted: “Friends on the right, the wave isn’t big enough!!! Let me feel your enthusiasm!!!”
The whole room burst into laughter.
Xu You felt very tired, and rarely came to such entertainment venues, so she could only remain an outsider as a spectator, simply watching them have fun.
Some people were gathered around the song selection station in front. She checked her phone.
9:30
It was almost ten o’clock.
Xu You thought about going home after a while, as she couldn’t stay out too late.
While she was lost in thought, not far ahead of her, a boy holding a microphone spoke. His voice was amplified several times through the speakers, “Hey, it’s boring with just us few kings of song singing, why don’t we get some of the top students to sing?”
This suggestion drew many cheers.
“Top students? Where’s the class monitor?” Someone turned to look, but couldn’t find them, instead spotting Xu You sitting on the sofa.
“Hey, that, that, Xu You!!!! Come sing one with us.”
Being singled out.
Xu You was stunned, before she could react, the boy with the microphone had already walked up to her.
“Top student, what song do you want to sing, want to duet?”
That boy held out the microphone to Xu You.
Xu You waved her hands in refusal.
She really couldn’t do it. She had no musical talent since childhood, hadn’t heard many pop songs, and only knew how to sing a few children’s songs.
The boy wouldn’t give up, insisting: “It’s okay, just sing whatever you know.”
“Come on, come on.”
“Well…..”
Xu You cleared her throat, explaining somewhat embarrassedly, “I’m sorry, I really only know children’s songs…..”
—
When Xie Ci returned from the bathroom and pushed open the door to the private room, he heard:
“A grape vine stands before the door, tender green buds just starting to sprout, a snail carries its heavy shell, step by step…..”
A somewhat childish voice, the tune lively and cheerful.
He paused, stepped back and looked up, doubting if he had gone to the wrong place.
When he went in, Xu You had her back to him, holding the microphone with both hands looking at the big screen, earnestly singing.
When she sang she didn’t move at all, just standing there, extremely serious. There was another girl singing with her.
The two of them took turns singing lines.
Beside them, Li Xiaoqiang held maracas in both hands, shaking them up and down, cheering for them, “Woohoo~~! Yao Chunbing you can do it!!!”
“Hahahahaha, Ci bro your girl is so funny.”
Song Yifan came over and put his arm around his shoulders, laughing while saying: “She’s so cute, how are there still girls like this nowadays, I can’t take it, I’m really going to die laughing, I really want to……”
Xie Ci looked at him, “What do you want?”
“I don’t dare want anything, don’t dare want anything at all, don’t even dare to think about it.” Song Yifan immediately shook his head.
“The Snail and the Oriole” was halfway through.
Xie Ci propped his head up, half lying back on the sofa. With his feet crossed, he listened for two more seconds, his lips curling up, unable to hold back his laughter.
He laughed more and more, unable to stop.
It was one thing to sing this kind of song in KTV, but damn, Xu You somehow managed to make this children’s song go completely off key to the North Pole.
That was quite an achievement for Yi Zhong High School.
Actually Xu You felt very embarrassed about her singing, because she kept losing the tune. Her voice was very small, just mixing in with Yao Chunbing beside her.
There were still quite a few people cheering them on.
Her phone was in her pocket, and when it started vibrating, she felt it immediately.
Xu You quickly put down the microphone and ran out to the hallway to answer the phone. It was from Chen Xiuyun.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Are you home yet?”
“Not yet, I’m with my classmates.”
“Haven’t finished eating?”
“We finished.” she said.
“When are you coming home? Don’t be too late, it’s almost ten o’clock, Mom’s worried.”
“Um… I should be soon..”
Xu You leaned against the wall talking on the phone. As she was speaking, someone opened the door from inside.
“Shh.” Xu You glanced over and immediately made a silent gesture to Xie Ci, indicating for him to be quiet.
Chen Xiuyun was still speaking on the other end: “It’s good to interact more with classmates, but the time…..”
The signal wasn’t good here, the voice on the other end was intermittent.
Xu You got up and paced back and forth, agreeing, “I know Mom, I’ll head back right away, I’ll message you when I get home…..”
Just as she hung up the phone, someone grabbed her arm and casually asked: “You’re leaving?”
“Yes.” Xu You put away her phone.
Xie Ci tilted his head, “Want me to take you home?”
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