On the first day of the new semester, Shen Zhuo, a prominent figure in Jialin No. 1 Middle School, blocked the transfer student Ji Xingmian in the corridor.
Everyone thought she was going to repeat her old tricks - just like she did to the first three transfer students, forcing them back with fists and taunts. But Shen Zhuo just tilted his head and looked at him for a while, then suddenly smiled: "You're just pretending."
Ji Xingmian pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and asked warmly, "What are you pretending to be?"
"Pretend to be good." Shen Zhuo leaned close to his ear and spoke in a very low voice, "The kick you gave to the table leg was frighteningly precise with force and angle. Ji Xingmian, what are you afraid of?"
From that day on, all the teachers and students in the school noticed that Shen Zhuo had changed. She stopped skipping classes and fighting, started showing up in class on time, and even participated in the competitive class selection for the first time. And Ji Xingmian always followed her not far or near, like a silent shadow.
No one knew that they shared the same pair of headphones on the rooftop, no one saw what kind of old injuries were hidden under the new bandage on Shen Zhuo's wrist, and no one noticed the stack of yellowing medical records from a certain withdrawal center in the mezzanine of Ji Xingmian's schoolbag.
They are like two weeds growing in the cracks, their roots twisting downwards, but their branches and leaves desperately stretching towards the light. Just when everyone thought Shen Zhuo had finally been influenced by a "good student", the monthly exam results were announced - Ji Xingmian dropped from the first place in grade to outside the top 200, and Shen Zhuo's name suddenly appeared at the top of the red list.
"Are you satisfied?" Ji Xingmian crumpled the transcript into a ball, and the gentleness in his eyes finally shattered, "Shen Zhuo, you ruined everything I worked so hard for."
Shen Zhuo flattened the crumpled paper, folded it into a paper airplane and threw it out the window: "No, I just helped you tear off the mask."
Intention: Study hard and make progress every day