Let go of the past

In March, the city of S is still bitingly cold, and there is still a trace of warmth under the sun. Once the sun goes west, the cold air is like a dormant beast.

Su Mei and Xie Jiaqi walked up the steps of the cafeteria arm in arm among the dining crowd, opened the thick cotton curtains to block the wind, and the aroma of the food wrapped in hot air rushed over.

"Come back to life." Su Mei took off the scarf, turned her head and asked Xie Jiaqi, "What are you eating?"

Xie Jiaqi said with a smile: "Let's go to the small cafeteria on the third floor to eat today."

The small canteen on the third floor, also known as the Noble Canteen, is a clean place with individual tables and seats. The dishes should be delicate and rich, and the price is naturally worthy of its name.At first, it was only for the teaching staff to eat. Later, the canteen was contracted out. In order to expand the operating profit, the boss would sometimes have students wanting to try something new, but he would not refuse. So gradually, some couples and small groups of students came to visit occasionally while avoiding the teachers.

"Isn't it too extravagant?" Su Meimo counted the balance in the meal card, thinking about how to save money this week if she went there for a meal, so that she could stick to the food expenses next week.

"I invite you." Xie Jiaqi took her arm and smiled sweetly: "Let's go."

"Wow, really?" Su Mei walked up the stairs with Xie Jiaqi on her arms, excited about the upcoming gluttonous feast: "Then I want to eat the cumin short ribs and crab meat lion head."

After the two finished cooking, they found a secluded corner and sat down. Su Mei's eyes lit up and she was gearing up, looking like she hadn't had enough food for 800 years.

Xie Jiaqi sat across from her, picked up a few mouthfuls of vegetables, put down her chopsticks, stared at Su Mei who was eating hard for a while, and said suddenly: "Su Mei, I want to ask you something."

Su Mei threw the stripped bones on the table, took a nap, and asked quite contentedly, "What's the matter?"

A complex look flashed across Xie Jiaqi's eyes as she looked at Su Mei and hesitated to speak.

Su Mei took out a few napkins to wipe the oil on her fingers, and handed a wet tissue in front of her eyes, Xie Jiaqi said softly, "Use this to wipe it off."

Su Mei giggled twice, took the tissue, blew a kiss to Xie Jiaqi across the table, blinked and asked her: "What's the matter?"

Xie Jiaqi looked at her, girlish shyness appeared in her eyes, her lips moved, and she said slowly: "I like Li Ziqing, you have a good relationship with him, can you send him a letter for me?"

Su Mei's smile froze on her face for a moment, and it slowed down for more than half a minute. When she opened her mouth, her voice trembled unnaturally: "You you you... What did you say?"

"I'm sorry, Su Mei." Xie Jiaqi reached out and covered the back of Su Mei's hand on the table, but her eyes were firm, "I know you like him too, but I want to compete fairly with you, is that okay?"

Su Mei stared at her blankly, her face was pale, and after a while, she dodged and lowered her head, and stammered, "I... "And Li Ziqing rejected me several times, I gave up a long time ago..."

Xie Jiaqi looked at Su Mei, who was downcast, with a vague and indifferent expression, but the words on her mouth were begging: "Then can you help me and send him a letter?"

"Okay." Su Mei lowered her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, then raised her head again and her smile was bright and sincere again, "Do you believe what you are carrying now? When will you send it?"

Li Ziqing closed the math workbook, looked up at Ji Bing who was wearing earphones to do the TOEFL listening test, reached out and took off the earphone from the other side's ear, and said with a smile to Ji Bing's eyes that looked at him last time: " time to eat."

Ji Bing looked at the time on his watch, and pretended to be surprised: "Students are already over."

"You forget me too much." Li Ziqing stood up and put away the notebook, "I have finished a set of questions."

"So powerful?" Ji Bing said with a smile, "I'll check it for you later."

Li Ziqing raised the book in Yang's hand, "I have the answer."

"What about the problem-solving process?" Ji Bing said leisurely, "Don't you need to listen to different ways of solving the problem?"

"You are too arrogant." Li Ziqing couldn't help complaining.

The two walked out of the small room on the top floor of the clock tower. The air conditioner inside was warm and pleasant, which set off the cold and windy outside.

Li Ziqing put his hand into his coat pocket, put the book under his armpits, and followed the sound of them going downstairs, the voice-activated lights were turned on all the way to the next one. In the silent bell tower, only the orderly and regular footsteps of the two were heard, as well as Ji Bing reminded Li Ziqing from time to time: "Slow down and watch the road."

The small room on the top floor of the clock tower was originally the school's broadcasting room, and later the broadcasting room was moved to the library building. The place was vacant, but the infrastructure was readily available, so it was used by Ji Bing as a private study room.After all, compared with the freezing classroom, this place where you can use the air conditioner can be said to be heaven.

The last class on Wednesday afternoon was PE class as usual. The physical education teacher only took 5 minutes to greet everyone to gather and line up.Ji Bing and Li Ziqing hid here and buried themselves in the questions. Before they knew it, they almost missed the meal. The two went down the bell tower, and trotted towards the cafeteria against the troops that had already eaten.

"Believe me, I didn't bring it." Xie Jiaqi bit her lower lip, showing a rare shy expression on her face, and said to Su Mei hesitantly: "You can go to my classroom with me later to get it. As for when to give it, Just these two days, but you have to wait for me to tell you the exact time, I don't want to be seen by too many people."

"Oh." Su Mei replied, the sudden shock to her heart made her not think about why she was afraid of being seen by others when she asked her to deliver the letter. "Then let's go back." Su Mei stood up, picked up the scarf on the chair beside her, "I'll go get the letter with you first."

"En." Xie Jiaqi stood up, walked to Su Mei, reached out to help her tie the scarf, looked at her sincerely and gratefully and said, "Thank you, Su Mei, you are my best friend."

Su Mei was taken aback by her sudden expression of affection, she recovered and quickly waved her hands: "Oh, I'm embarrassed to say that, you often give me things and invite me to dinner, I will help you this time , It’s not enough to pay back, don’t say that, I’m blushing.”

"You don't have to worry about these between friends." Xie Jiaqi smiled at her: "And what you helped me this time was not a trivial matter."

"Yeah," Su Mei was picked up by her so warmly and passionately, she nodded and said, "I think Li Ziqing should like you, he doesn't like me who is too lively, you are so generous and quiet, he must like you But it's really strange, when I first fell in love with Ji Bing, I still regarded you as a rival in love, who knew that you and Ji Bing were not boyfriend and girlfriend at all."

Xie Jiaqi let Su Mei hold her arm affectionately, and the two walked towards the stairs, and she heard her slowly say: "Yes, Ji Bing and I are just a normal relationship that we have played together since childhood."

"Wow, Ji Bing should be sad if he knows. You see, two such excellent girls have both abandoned him and fell in love with Li Ziqing. He lost this game very badly..."

Xie Jiaqi just smiled and didn't answer, but when she was halfway up the last flight of stairs, she suddenly stopped and looked somewhere in front of her, and didn't continue to go down.

Su Mei was led by her gaze to look in that direction, the next moment she excitedly stretched out her forearm and shouted: "Li Ziqing!"

Xie Jiaqi grabbed her sleeves abruptly, and said urgently in a low voice, "Don't talk about it yet."

"I know." Su Mei turned her head and gave her a reassured look, then dragged her down the stairs, walking towards the two people who were eating at the end of the long table on the first floor not far away.

"Why did you come to eat?" Su Mei approached, looked at the plate where the two had just eaten a few bites, and asked in surprise.

"The teacher is delaying the class." Ji Bing replied casually, relying on Su Mei's classmate from another class, he played around as much as he wanted.

"Oh." Su Mei glanced at Li Ziqing's dinner plate again, and couldn't stop talking: "Li Ziqing, you eat too vegetarian, don't boys like to eat meat?"

Li Ziqing's chopsticks stopped halfway, and he answered casually, "I've lost weight recently."

"You're funny." Su Mei gave him an annoyed look: "As a boy, his waist is actually thinner than mine. Why lose weight? Hurry up and eat more."

Ji Bing graciously put a piece of fried chicken cutlet on Li Ziqing's plate, and echoed, "Isn't it? Eat more."

"Ji Bing," Xie Jiaqi interrupted suddenly, and said with a faint smile, "Have you started eating in the cafeteria recently?"

"Yeah." Ji Bing didn't look up, his eyes were on the dishes on the plate, and his tone was quite disapproving.

"After that, can we have dinner together?" Xie Jiaqi then asked.

Li Ziqing glanced at Ji Bing silently, Ji Bing put down his chopsticks, and Su Mei quietly looked back and forth at Xie Jiaqi and Li Ziqing.

Everyone has something on their minds, and everyone has their own ambiguities.

"No need." Ji Bing turned to look at Xie Jiaqi, and smiled lightly: "Let everyone see it, and think we are in a relationship."

"That, that," Su Mei panicked and felt guilty, and rushed to save the scene, "We're going back to the classroom first, you two eat slowly."

Su Mei took Xie Jiaqi's arm, turned around and walked out in small steps, her back disappeared outside the thick curtain of the cafeteria.

Ji Bing looked away, looked at Li Ziqing who had put down his chopsticks, and asked him, "Why don't you eat?"

"full."

Ji Bing couldn't help laughing, and even wanted to reach out and rub his head: "Are you jealous again? Why are you still a little jealous?"

"I'm not jealous."

Ji Bing tapped the edge of his plate lightly with his chopsticks: "Then eat some meat."

"I don't like fried food."

Ji Bing raised his eyebrows: "Are you still a noble young master?"

"That's it, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing," Ji Bing raised the corners of his mouth, "Then I'll pamper you."