SFS Chapter 66 Who Made the Wish?
Chapter 66 Who Made the Wish?
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the sun hung on the top of the teaching building, turning the whole building orange-red.
Most of the people on the playground had left, leaving only a few students on duty carrying trash cans toward the garbage station.
Song Huan took a broom and started sweeping from the back of the classroom. The chairs were flipped up and placed on the tables. There were scraps of paper, pen caps, and a wad of draft paper that no one knew who had thrown it on the floor.
He swept very slowly, one row at a time, and the scraps of paper were swept together and piled up into a small heap.
Xiao Yunqing stood on the podium, holding a blackboard eraser and wiping the blackboard.
She's not short, she's 165cm.
But the blackboard is too high, and the top row is out of reach.
She stood on tiptoe, stretched out her arm, and rubbed the blackboard eraser on the blackboard twice, but it wasn't clean enough. She rubbed it twice more, but still couldn't reach it.
She stopped, glanced at the white patch above her head, and frowned.
Then she jumped, the blackboard eraser made a mark on the blackboard, and when she landed she didn't stand firmly and wobbled.
Hearing the noise, Song Huan looked up and saw her standing on the podium, tiptoeing, her hands raised high, her ponytail hanging over her shoulders, looking like a giraffe that couldn't reach the leaves.
He couldn't help but smile, put down the broom, and walked over.
"Give me."
He took the blackboard eraser from her hand, and Xiao Yunqing was stunned for a moment, looking at him.
He stood on the podium, raised his hand, and the blackboard eraser swept across the blackboard, erasing the top row of chalk writing.
The movement is very easy; you don't even need to fully straighten your arms.
Xiao Yunqing stood beside him, watching him, her lips slowly pouting.
She stretched out her hand and compared the heights of the two people.
The palm moved horizontally from the top of his head and landed on Song Huan's chin.
Too short.
It's not just a little bit shorter, it's almost half a head shorter.
One is 170, and the other is 165.
She remembered that when she was in the first year of junior high school, she was a few centimeters taller than him.
Back then, she brought this up every day, constantly calling him "shorty, shorty."
Now look what's happened, he just jumped up there without anyone knowing when.
"I'm clearly taller than you..." she muttered softly, her voice muffled.
Song Huan put the blackboard eraser back in the slot, patted the dust off her hands, and looked back at her.
Xiao Yunqing stood there, pouting, her eyebrows furrowed, looking defiant.
He smiled, stretched out his hand, palm down, and placed it over her head, pressing it against his chest.
"Anyone can accelerate on a straight line," he said smugly, "but speed on curves is what really matters."
Xiao Yunqing was stunned for a second.
Then she realized what was happening and angrily kicked him.
Song Huan dodged away, laughing even more heartily.
Xiao Yunqing chased after him and kicked him again. This time he hit him, not hard, but the sound was quite crisp.
"Say it again!"
"I say that speed on curves is true speed."
"you!"
She kicked again, and Song Huan dodged again. The two chased each other around the classroom, knocking chairs askew and leaving brooms lying on the ground unattended.
When Xiao Yunqing caught up to the third row, her foot slipped and she fell forward.
Song Huan quickly reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her.
The two people stood facing each other, half a step apart.
Xiao Yunqing's face was flushed, whether from chasing or from anger, it was hard to tell.
She stared at him for two seconds, then burst out laughing.
"When did you grow so tall?"
Song Huan thought for a moment, "It might be from drinking milk."
Xiao Yunqing snorted, "Then I won't bring you any more. I'll drink it myself. I'm sure I can catch up with you."
Song Huan looked at her serious expression and didn't say anything.
He heard her heartfelt words, soft and gentle, like cotton candy melting on his tongue.
Even if you can't catch up, you have to keep chasing.
……
After finishing their duties, the two of them came out of the teaching building.
The air above the playground was empty except for the national flag on the flagpole, which fluttered in the wind.
Xiao Yunqing walked ahead, her steps slow, her ponytail swaying back and forth.
Song Huan followed behind, hands in his pockets.
The two walked slowly along the track, past the basketball court, past the sandpit, and past the crooked camphor tree.
When Xiao Yunqing reached the front of the podium, she stopped and looked back at the teaching building.
The four-story building had all the windows dark, except for the corridor lights on the first floor.
"Song Huan," she suddenly spoke.
"Um?"
"Do you think we were like this in our past lives?"
Song Huan paused for a moment.
Xiao Yunqing didn't notice; she turned around and continued walking forward, her steps still so slow.
"It's just... some people and things seem like they were predetermined."
She tilted her head and thought for a moment, "Like the two of us, we've known each other since kindergarten, we were together in elementary school, and we were together in junior high. Sometimes when I think about it, it feels pretty amazing."
She stopped and turned to look at him.
The setting sun shone on her face, making her eyes bright.
"It feels like we made a promise in our past lives that we were destined to meet in this one."
After she finished speaking, she laughed first.
"Oh dear, it's all Tian Tian's fault. She's let me read too many novels. My brain isn't working properly anymore."
She waved her hand, turned around, and continued walking forward.
Her ponytail swung and swayed in the sunset.
Song Huan stood there, watching her walk away.
Was it in a past life?
In our past life, we were separated.
He recalled his past life, when he was in his thirties, sitting alone in a rented room eating takeout.
My phone screen lit up; it was a message from my high school classmates' group chat, someone was posting old photos.
He clicked on it and glanced at it; it was a graduation photo.
The thumbnail was too small to see the face clearly, so he zoomed in and swiped from left to right.
I scrolled to the last row and saw myself. I was hunched over, my bangs covering half my face, and my eyes were unfocused.
He scanned it again and found Xiao Yunqing in the second row.
She stood there, her ponytail tied high, the corners of her mouth turned up, and her eyes bright.
But her gaze wasn't on the camera; it was turned slightly to the side.
It was slightly off-center from where he was standing.
He stared at the photo for a long time, then locked the screen and threw his phone on the bed.
He never opened that photo again.
Now, Xiao Yunqing walked ahead, her ponytail swaying back and forth, the setting sun shining on her and casting her shadow on the ground.
He looked at her and suddenly felt a tightness in his throat.
"Xiao Yunqing".
She stopped and turned around.
"what?"
Song Huan walked over, very slowly, stepping on her own shadow with each step.
Walk up to her and stop.
He said softly, "We shouldn't be separated in this lifetime."
Xiao Yunqing was stunned for a moment.
She looked at him for several seconds.
Then her face turned red, from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
"You're making it sound so real. Who...who wants to go with you?" She lowered her head, her voice muffled.
But she reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling it very tightly.
Song Huan glanced down at it but didn't say anything.
The two of them stood there, the setting sun casting long shadows of them on the playground, leaning against each other.
In the distance, someone is playing basketball; the sound of the ball hitting the backboard is dull and muffled.
The wind blew, making the national flag flutter loudly.
Xiao Yunqing pulled him forward, walking very slowly.
"Let's go take a look over there." She pointed to the row of horizontal bars in the corner of the playground.
"What are you looking at?"
"Just take a look."
The two walked on, their shadows trailing behind them, growing longer and longer until they disappeared at the end of the track.
Walking to the bottom of the horizontal bar, Xiao Yunqing loosened his sleeve and looked up.
"Do you remember when you were in the first year of junior high, you would do pull-ups here every day, saying you wanted to grow taller?"
Song Huan nodded. "Of course I remember."
"You were so short back then," she laughed, her eyes crinkling into crescents, "two centimeters shorter than me."
"I'm taller than you now."
"Hmph." She turned her head away, refusing to look at him.
But the corners of his mouth were turned up, turned up high.
Song Huan leaned against the horizontal bar, hands in her pockets, looking into the distance.
The setting sun hung on the roof of the teaching building, turning the entire building orange-red.
The only sounds on the playground were the wind, the national flag, and the intermittent sounds of basketballs in the distance.
Xiao Yunqing stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder.
The two of them just stood there, neither of them saying a word.
After a long while, Xiao Yunqing spoke, her voice very soft.
"Song Huan".
"Um?"
"Will we still be together after graduation?"
Song Huan turned to look at her.
She looked into the distance, not at him, her face flushed red in the setting sun.
"Yes," he said.
Xiao Yunqing didn't speak, but the corner of her mouth curled up slightly.
The wind blew again, blowing her hair onto her face.
She reached out and gently pushed it aside.
In the distance, the last ray of sunlight slid down from the top of the teaching building, turning the sky a fiery orange-red.
"Then it's settled."
She stretched out her hand, her little finger sticking up.
"Pinky promise."
Song Huan looked at her little finger and smiled.
Reach out and hook your hand.
Their tiny fingers were hooked together, tightly.
"Pinky promise, a hundred years from now."
After Xiao Yunqing finished reading, he nodded in satisfaction.
He let go of her hand and turned to walk towards the school gate.
Her steps were as light as a cat that had just stolen a fish.
Song Huan followed behind, hands in his pockets, strolling slowly.
The sun has set, and the streetlights have come on.
The dim light shone on the two people, casting long shadows.
One was in front, and the other was behind.
They were very close, and Song Huan jumped forward, landing right on her shadow.
He wanted to know...
Who made a wish for our meeting?
What seemed like a first meeting was actually a reunion.
Every encounter is a reunion after a long separation.