desolate

The brother who slept in the lower bunk, snoring, farting and grinding his teeth while sleeping, was indifferent to the other deep sleepers, but to Zhou Ze, it could be called torture.

The iron frame bed in the dormitory is an antique left over from the last century. The wooden boards and iron frame are so old that there is no good skin. When you turn over a little, you start to make a sharp noise from under your body.

The sky turned pale, and the dormitory just got a little brighter when Zhou Ze sat up covering his sore eyes.

As soon as he moved, Ding Yibao, who was sleeping on the opposite bed, turned over immediately, and asked vaguely, "... What time is it?"

"Five fifty."

"Why are you so early every day..."

Ding Yibao fell asleep again in a daze.

Thanks to him, after saying a few words, Zhou Ze was completely relieved of sleepiness.

Wake up, get dressed, wash up...

Although the school gave the students some time to eat breakfast after morning reading, Zhou Ze got up early and was more used to buying something in advance to take to the classroom to eat, so that he would not be affected by hunger during morning reading.

From this we can see why, in most cases, the voices of these children reciting books are always sparse—mostly because they are hungry.

On a new day, Wen Jialang walked into the classroom with coquettish steps. He seemed to have a special liking for hairspray, or maybe he regarded it as a sense of ritual. Every day, Zhou Ze could smell the hair spray from the top of his head. smell.

As soon as he was seated, Wen Jialang asked Zhou Ze for the homework of the previous day as usual, and then chatted with Xu Duozhi who came over while copying the homework.

"Did you hear about what happened yesterday?"

"What's the matter?"

"Didn't you read last night's circle of friends, Ju Haonan posted it."

"No, it seems to have been deleted."

Hearing the familiar name, Zhou Ze glanced at it naturally from the corner of his eye.I saw that Wen Jialang sent the photos he saved to Xu Dazhi.

He leaned close to the screen and carefully zoomed in to identify the photo taken from the monitor: "This figure is too blurry, even my own mother may not recognize it..."

The screen of the phone was facing Wen Jialang at this time, Zhou Ze took a cursory glance and saw the content on it.

Fortunately, it was already dark when he started, and there were no lights in the alley, and the time, place, and people were in harmony due to the old surveillance system. Even if his back was photographed, it was still difficult to recognize, not to mention the only jacket that could be used as evidence. Has been thrown by him.

He calmly withdrew his attention, but the discussion was still going on.

"Why was he beaten?"

"I usually offend too many people."

"But it's useless to send out this photo, who can recognize it?"

"No way, he's the best face, if it wasn't for Pei Ye..."

Just as I was getting excited, the second half of the sentence was suddenly cut off.

Zhou Ze raised his head in confusion, and happened to see Pei walking in front of Wen Jialang without making a sound.

"Brother Pei, why are you here so early today?" The two immediately greeted him as if nothing had happened.

Pei didn't answer their questions, but looked at Zhou Ze—to be precise, at the bread in his hand, with the right look, as if asking: Where's mine?

Zhou Ze tilted his head knowingly: "It's in your drawer."

Only then did Pei Ye look back, and shuffled towards his position.As soon as he sat down, he fumbled in the drawer, and quickly pulled out a plastic bag. He dumped the meat floss bread and pure milk on the table.

Xu Duozhi saw that Pei Ye was eating the bread leisurely, and immediately turned around to ask Zhou Ze: "Brother Pei blackmailed you?"

Wen Jialang also asked, "Did you offend him?"

In their cognition, although Pei Ye has a very bad temper and is sometimes indifferent and ruthless, in essence, he is different from a bullying gangster in principle, and he definitely cannot do anything to blackmail his classmates.

Knowing that they misunderstood, Zhou Ze explained: "No, he helped me, he should."

And strictly speaking, it should be the two of them cheating on each other!

Although Zhou Ze's explanation was a bit far-fetched, it was not unreasonable to fall on him.

Soon, the matter was forgotten by them.

Breakfast had to be finished before the head teacher came, and homework had to be copied before the head teacher came; when the people next to him finally had no time to gossip, Zhou Ze had the time to glance at the messages on his phone.

Pei Ye: [Next time I will buy meat floss, the strawberry ones are not tasty. 】

Zhou Ze: [Is there a next time? 】

Pei Ye: [I'll help you settle Ju Haonan, isn't breakfast too much for a month? 】

Zhou Ze: […]

Putting down the phone, Pei Ye could see Zhou Ze's expression as soon as he looked up - a little helpless and didn't know how to react.

One month's breakfast was just a joke on his whim, the original intention was just to amuse the other party, anyway, he didn't believe that this seemingly honest boy, who was actually smarter than a monkey, would really suffer from this clear loss.

So, just when he thought this conversation was going to end, the other party suddenly sent another message:

[Yes, but you have to do me another favor. 】

……

During the big class break, the squad leader got the order from somewhere, and called out a few students with great fanfare, saying that they had to go to the class teacher's office, and Zhou Ze's name was among them.

And when Qin Yan ran up to him, Zhou Ze had just come out of the toilet and was washing his hands when he was "caught" away.

Li Pingan was also with him. To be honest, he should be the person Zhou Ze had interacted with the most in private since he came to Pingjiang.But the main reason is their roommates, and even Li Ping'an's dormitory has gradually become Zhou Ze's "private study room".

Right in front of him was the back of Sun Tianwang's head. Zhou Ze didn't have much contact with him. What impressed him the most was the hand that he raised in every math class, and the vortex on his cheek that would sink into it when he moved his expression.

"Qin Yan, what is the boss calling us?" Sun Tianwang asked halfway through the walk.

"The English competition in the city is held every year." Qin Yan said.

The competition they are talking about is not national, and there is no policy that is beneficial to the college entrance examination. It is nominally to promote the sense of competition among colleges and universities and to showcase the educational achievements of each school. In fact, it is just a side event.

Sun Tianwang's interest suddenly dropped a lot.

"Has it already been decided that the few of us will go?"

"It should be, you don't want to go?"

Sun Tianwang seemed distressed and complained: "It's a waste of time. I have to go to the evening self-study starting next Monday, and then I have to go to the competition class, but we have already been called, so it's not good if we don't go..."

Qin Yan pursed her lips: "...then you talk to Master Wu yourself."

The door of the office was half-closed, and it was impossible to see if anyone was inside from the outside. Qin Yan opened the door first and made a report.

The homeroom teacher was correcting homework, and only raised his head when he heard the voice: "Come here, come here, stand closer, and tell you something!"

Qin Yan asked: "Master Wu, is it about the English competition?"

"Oh, do you know?"

"Then how many grades did we go to?"

Wu Guang picked out a few sheets of paper from the drawer: "There are five quotas for each grade, and two of them have been cleared. Our class has to pick out three. I will rank you according to the grades of the whole grade and call you over.", He first pointed to Zhou Ze who was standing far away, "You must go!"

Qin Yan at the side asked, "What about us?"

Wu Guang knocked on the table and said, "The three of you have similar grades, is there anyone you don't want to go?"

None of the three said a word.

"Then I'll rank them according to their grades." Wu Guang lowered his head, "I compared your grades in the three semesters comprehensively. Yan Er, your performance is relatively stable, and Li Ping'an and Sun Tianwang's grades are similar—by the way, Li Ping'an, you are in the first grade. Have you ever participated in this competition?"

Sun Tianwang also looked at him involuntarily.

Li Pingan's English scores have always been ahead of him, but Wu Guang hesitated between them because of the other party's poor oral English.

But while waiting for their answers, Sun Tianwang peeked at the competition brochure on his table—a lot of bonuses were set up for the top few, and honor certificates were given for those with lower rankings... City-level competitions, the gold content is not low, right?

He stared at Li Pingan in a strange way.

He doesn't want to let go of any opportunity to express himself.

"...Yes, but I didn't get the ranking." Li Pingan slowly raised his hand, "Teacher, I want to try again this time."

"I...!" Sun Tianwang was a little impatient and didn't say anything, "...Teacher, I want to go too."

Wu Guang looked back and forth between the two in embarrassment: "There is only one seat left, why don't you each talk about why you want to go."

Sun Tianwang said in an extremely official tone: "I hope to prove my ability through this competition. Only by realizing my own shortcomings can I make progress."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his eyelids and looked at Li Pingan.

"Me...me too." Li Pingan pursed his lips, "I want to communicate with students from other schools..."

Zhou Ze slowly raised his hand behind them: "Teacher, how about giving them my quota."

"That won't work." Wu Guang immediately denied it, "Your quota was designated by Director Yan, and you must get the ranking. It doesn't matter if they don't go, but you must go!"

Before he finished speaking, the teachers and students in the office all looked at him in unison.

Zhou Ze: "..."

If Ma Wenjing heard this sentence, she would probably scoff at it. In her words, it was a waste of time to make such a big battle in a city-level competition.

But under the eyes of others, he just smiled stiffly and lowered his head silently.

The thought of wanting to resist was pouring down like a swamp with an unpleasant smell, filled with countless achievements, expectations, rankings, etc., making him sick.

Before the class bell rang, Wu Guang said, "Well, it happens that your English teacher will take an in-class quiz in the afternoon, and you will hand in the registration form next week, and whoever gets the higher score will go."

His unquestionable attitude silenced several people.

When they walked out of the office, both Li Pingan and Sun Tianwang looked a little embarrassed.

Even Qin Yan, who was the best at dealing with people, was at a loss: "...Sun Tianwang, didn't you say you didn't want to go?"

Sun Tianwang pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose: "I just said I was busy, but I didn't say no."

Qin Yan said haha: "It's okay, Master Wu said, choose people based on their grades..."

"Well, each depends on his own ability."

Sun Tianwang walked with big strides and walked very fast. He left the three of them behind in a short while, and his back, which was as straight as a pine, slowly disappeared from their sight.

Perhaps feeling the freeze of the atmosphere, Li Pingan coughed uncomfortably: "I'm sorry, he seems to be angry."

Qin Yan said: "It's okay, he's just like that, no matter what the competition is, he likes to show off, you just get used to it."

Because most of the students were re-divided into classes after the sophomore in high school, and now they have only been together for more than a month. Qin Yan and Sun Tianwang didn't have many classmates in the first year of high school, so the relationship between most of them is actually not good. They are all in a stage of being unfamiliar.

It is often such a relationship, and contradictions are the most taboo.