She is in the fog

Although it is mid-September, it is the "hot autumn season" and the sun's scorching heat should not be underestimated. The scorching sun is burning the earth, waves of heat are rising on the runway, and the smell of plastic keeps entering He Xi's nose. He Xi feels depressed and not feeling well.

She looked at the figure in school uniform on the track and couldn't help but frown.
Thinking back to the time when Mingmei fainted during military training, and the sickly paleness on her face when I first met her, I guess her physical condition wasn't very good.
He Xi couldn't help but curse himself in his heart.
If she had known this, she would never have worn bright sportswear. Even if she did three frog jumps herself, it would be better than letting her take the punishment for herself.

It was not until Mingmei finished a circle and returned to the team safely, with no other accidents except for her red face and heavy breathing, that He Xi's heart was relieved.

After the physical education get out of class, He Xi hurried forward to ask Mingmei about her situation: "Are you okay?"

"It's okay!" Mingmei waved her hands proudly, "Just think of it as exercise."

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have worn your sportswear, which caused you to be punished." He Xi lowered his head, with a very depressed expression on his face.

"It's okay, it's just one lap, and besides, I voluntarily lent you my sportswear, so it's not your fault anyway, so don't blame yourself."
Mingmei took out a purple candy from her school uniform pocket, stuffed it into He Xi's hand, and continued, "Here, here's some candy for you. Don't be sad, we are friends, and friends should help each other. And I only jumped one circle. If it were you, you would have jumped three circles, and we even earned two circles."

"Friends?" He Xi hadn't heard this term for a long time, and was a little surprised. "Are we friends?"

"Yes, we are friends." Ming Mei answered without hesitation. Seeing that He Xi was still depressed, she pretended to be surprised and exclaimed: "I just noticed that you have dimples, He Xi."

He Xi was puzzled and quickly touched his face, "I don't have dimples."

"You have dimples when you smile."

He Xi understood that she was trying to make her happy in various ways. When she was about to force a smile, Ming Mei suddenly stretched out two index fingers and poked her cheeks, smiling and said: "Even if you don't have a dimple, I will poke one for you myself."

He Xi's expression eased a little, and Ming Mei withdrew her fingers and continued to say with a smile: "That's right, if you smile, all the unhappiness will disappear!"

He Xi was moved by her smiling face and couldn't help but smile. She looked at her bright eyes and always felt like there were stars in her eyes, shining.

In the shade of a tree beside a flower bed not far away, Ning Xiaoduo stared at them intently, cracking melon seeds with a grunt. She put the shell into the hands of a girl next to her, and asked with a puzzled expression: "What's the name of the girl in school uniform?"

"Mingmei, a new student in Class 5."

"So she gave He Xi the sportswear?"

"Guess so."

"Mingmei, right? She would rather be punished than give her sportswear to He Xi. What a deep sisterly love." Ning Xiaoduo curled her lips, "Since she likes to be a good person so much, we'll just have to wait and see."

Ning Xiaoduo handed the remaining melon seeds in her hand to another girl, and stood up from the flower bed. She patted the dust off her hands and yawned: "Let's go, let's eat outside, it's my treat."

"Wow, thank you Sister Ning."
"Sister Ning, I also want a cup of milk tea."

That night, He Xi returned home and found that his adoptive father He Sicheng had finally returned from his business trip.
He was wearing a shirt, with a tired look on his face, but he was smiling. He took out two exquisite gift boxes from his suitcase and shouted towards the bedroom:
"Qiqi Ruirui, come and see what gifts Daddy brought you."

Soon, He Jingrui came running over like a pony. He looked at the two gift boxes on the table and asked excitedly, "Dad, which one is mine?"

"Guess, I'll tell you if you guess right." He Sicheng said deliberately.

He Jingrui pointed to a box at random, and after opening it, he was overjoyed: "A SLR camera! I've wanted one for a long time. Thank you, Dad!"

Hearing this, Chen Quxin couldn't help but tap He Sicheng's forehead with her index finger and said coquettishly, "This should cost several thousand, aren't you afraid of wasting money? Besides, Ruirui will take the high school entrance exam next year, aren't you afraid that buying this thing for him will delay his studies?"

He Sicheng gently hugged Chen Quxin to the sofa beside him and responded, "What's the big deal? The child likes it, just think of it as a combination of work and rest."

"Dad, I just fell asleep." He Jingqi opened the bedroom door and walked out holding a stuffed toy, with a sleepy look on his face, "You woke me up."

Chen Quxin waved to her quickly: "Qiqi, come here quickly, your father brought you a gift."

He Jingqi snorted twice, then walked towards the coffee table reluctantly.

Looking at the happy family of four, although He Xi had warned himself countless times not to take it to heart, the visual and auditory shock still made him feel sad.

The adoptive father was so considerate and caring to the children brought by the stepmother, why couldn't he share some of his love with her? When the adoptive mother was alive, he was so kind and gentle to her, but why did he become like this after the adoptive mother passed away?

He Xi didn't know what went wrong.

It was not until He Jingqi and He Jingrui returned to the bedroom that He Xi trembled and walked to He Sicheng's side and whispered, "Dad, the tuition for this semester has not been paid yet."

"How much?" He Sicheng asked coldly, without any emotion. "Tuition is 460 per semester, and textbooks..."

"I asked you how much you want in total?" He Sicheng interrupted her narration impatiently.

"1800 yuan." He Xi reported a little more out of selfish motives. Fearing that he would be discovered, he buried his head deeper in the paper.

He Sicheng did not question it. He took out his wallet from his pocket, counted out 18 "red leathers" and handed them to her: "I am your legal guardian, and I have the obligation to raise you until you are 18 years old. However, after you turn 18, no matter where you go, whether you live or die, it has nothing to do with me. Do you understand?"

"Yeah." He Xi took the money and nodded slightly.
Anyway, she had long given up any hope for this father-daughter relationship.

Take a shower, go back to your room and lock the door.

She carefully put the 18 "red leather sheets" into her pencil case and then into her schoolbag. She felt relieved and no longer had to worry or be on guard against the monitor calling her name in public and asking her to pay the tuition.

She took out a piece of transparent laser candy wrapper from the small pockets on both sides of her schoolbag, straightened it, and flattened it with the thermos cup. She watched it flashing colorful light under the desk lamp, with infinite reverie in her eyes.

The next morning during self-study, He Xi had just taken out his English book when he heard Mingmei's terrified scream coming from the back row.

She turned around hurriedly and saw Mingmei had left her seat, her face pale. A pencil case and several pens were scattered on the ground, and a green caterpillar was crawling on top of them.

He Xi frowned: What happened?
Then, Wen Wan struggled to stand up from the stool with crutches and demanded angrily, "Who is so bored? Putting caterpillars in other people's pencil cases!"

Qin Yiran also slammed the table and stood up, looking around, and said angrily: "Is it fun to bully new students? Can you not be so childish? If I catch you, I will report it to Director Jiang!"

After she finished speaking, she sent her deskmate away and walked to Mingmei's position, picked up the caterpillar on the ground and threw it into the trash can, and picked up all the pens she dropped and put them in her pencil case. Then she comforted her, "Mingmei, don't take it personally. Some people just have nothing to do after eating and are looking for a sense of existence. I'll tell the class teacher and ask her to check the surveillance. I want to see who is so bored."

Mingmei was still frightened. She took the pencil case and said "thank you". Then she said, "It's okay. Don't bother me. I may have accidentally brought it on the roadside this morning."

Soon, the English teacher entered the classroom, and the students began to recite the text aloud, and the classroom returned to calm.

He Xi lowered his head and recalled an old event in his mind.

That was three days after receiving Li Xingyu’s love letter, and also during an early English self-study class.

She took out her pencil case and as soon as she unzipped it, she saw several fat maggots wriggling inside.
She threw her pencil case away and immediately got goose bumps all over her body. The disgusting scene made her want to vomit and it also left her with a huge psychological trauma. When she went to bed at night, she always felt like there were bugs crawling on her body and she hadn't had a good night's sleep for more than a month.

Isn't this a technique that Ning Xiaoduo often uses? Disgusting and boring.

He Xi's expression suddenly became very ugly. If this caterpillar was not an accident, it meant that Ning Xiaoduo and the others had taken action against Mingmei?
She didn't dare think any further and could only secretly hope that the caterpillar had accidentally fallen from the tree.

In the Chinese class a week later.

Mingmei was chosen to recite the new text - Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng".

She opened her Chinese textbook and found that the pages of "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" had been torn off by someone. When she was wondering, the Chinese teacher asked, "What's wrong? Are there any characters you don't know? Didn't I ask you to preview it?"

Mingmei held up the book and said seriously, "Teacher, I don't know who tore my book."

Hearing this, He Xi's heart trembled. Could it be that the caterpillars last time were not an accident, but were released by Ning Xiaoduo?
Putting foreign objects in school bags, damaging books...
Then they threw ink, stuck gum in their hair, forced them to kneel, beat them up, and took off their clothes to take pictures...

Each time is more excessive than the last.

And all of this was experienced by He Xi step by step.
Now, hearing that Mingmei’s Chinese textbook was torn, she couldn’t help but feel horrified, and a chill suddenly rose up on her back.

The Chinese teacher then walked down from the podium, took Mingmei's Chinese textbook and looked at it. It was obvious that the pages had been torn intentionally.
Although we know that the student has no reason to tear up his own book, we cannot rule out the possibility that he did not prepare for the lesson and was afraid of being punished for copying, so he acted out the incident.
Therefore, the Chinese teacher still had a little doubt in his expression: "It just so happens that these two pages are missing, right?"

Mingmei nodded: "Yes, I don't know what happened.

The Chinese teacher stared into her eyes and asked, "Have you prepared for the class?"
"I've prepared for it."
"really?"
"real."

Generally speaking, when preparing for the lesson in advance, the pronunciation of each word will be marked. As long as her pronunciation is not too wrong, it can be considered that she has prepared for the lesson.
So the Chinese teacher handed her her own book without phonetic notation and said, "Okay, read it."

Mingmei took great care of her books. She was already a little sad that her Chinese textbook was torn, and she felt even more wronged when she saw that her Chinese teacher didn't trust her. So she didn't take the teacher's book and said angrily, "Teacher, I can read without a textbook."

(End of this chapter)