Lemon Soda Candy

Seating arrangements will be rearranged at the start of the semester. 

The weather in Nancheng still has yet to warm up even after the lantern festival¹. 

There was no morning self-study on the first day of school, Zhou Anran had already climbed out of her warm blanket so she could go to school early, but because Yan Xingxi didn't manage to get up early, they didn't arrive at the classroom until half past seven. 

As they walked to the door, Yan Xingxi held her hand, chattering about seat change, "Remember what my mom said about you helping me with my math and physics? She actually did give lao Gao a call, our seats will probably stay the same, I wonder where Xiaowen and He Mingyu will move to." 

Zhou Anran replied with a smile, “You don't care about Dong Chen?”

Yan Xingxi snorted lightly, "Why should I care about him, the farther away he is from me, the better." 

Along with these words, Zhou Anran stepped through the back door, forgetting for a moment that his seat might also have changed, her eyes instinctively went over to the table sixth on the second row.

In the next seconds, her footsteps stopped abruptly.

Chen Luobai was still sitting in his usual seat. Over the winter break, his hair had been cut shorter, giving him a fresh and attractive appearance.

But Zhou Anran's attention was drawn to someone else.

Next to Chen Luobai, not sure if the seat still belonged to Zhu Ran, sat one unfamiliar girl. 

The girl had her hair tied up in a high ponytail and exuded a bright and radiant aura. 

She was facing Chen Luobai, although Zhou Anran couldn't hear their conversation, the girl's eyes were beaming with a bright smile.

The boy is also sitting sideways, with his back turned towards the back door.

Zhou Anran couldn't see his expression, even though his voice wasn't loud and was mixed in among the noisy classroom, her ears were somehow able to pick it up easily. 

"Really?" Lazily, with a hint of smiles. 

A cold wind blew in from outside, Zhou Anran suddenly felt a shiver run through her body.

Yan Xingxi, who was walking behind her, also witnessed the scene as soon as she entered the room and let out a suppressed 'whoa'. 

She gossiped to Zhou Anran's ear in a low voice, "No girl has ever sat on the seat next to Chen Luobai before, don't tell me our school grass got himself a girlfriend during the winter vacation?" 

Zhou Anran did not dare to guess the possibility, it would just hit the nail on the head. 

An astringent feeling suddenly welled up in her heart, she retracted her gaze, couldn't bear to look any further,"Let's find our seat first."

Zhou Anran has no recollection of the seat change that happened that day. 

All she remembered was that while changing seats she would inadvertently and perhaps uncontrollably glanced over to that side, where she would see him smiling and chatting with that pretty girl.

Zhou Anran only noticed that Lou Yiqi and Zhang Shuxian were sitting in front of them when the seat change was already completed. 

Zhang Shuxian arrived after they had changed seats, prior to that Lou Yiqi had had her head lowered while writing something.

Zhou Anran didn't sit down right away. 

The desk and chair in the classroom hadn't been used in over a month and were covered in dust. She was in the middle of wiping the desk with wet tissues when Zhang Shuxian came over. 

At such close distance, even if Zhang Shuxian slightly lowered her voice, the conversation in front still inevitably reached her. 

"What's happening?" Zhang Shuxian had the same gossipy tone as Yan Xingxi just now,"Chen Luobai has a girlfriend?" 

Zhou Anran accidentally applied too much force while wiping the table, the wet tissue slid down towards the edge of the table, bumping against her hand, a sharp pain washed over her. 

"Don't talk nonsense."Lou Yiqi sounded a bit stiff, "That's not his girlfriend. " 

Zhang Shuxian was intrigued, "How do you know she's not his girlfriend? Just one look and you can tell she's not from our school. She's so beautiful there's no way I didn't notice her before, she must have been brought by Chen Luobai. What else could she be if she's not his girlfriend?" 

Lou Yiqi still didn't look up,"He's not the one who brought her." 

Unsatisfied, Zhang Shuxian demanded, "What's going on, hurry up and tell me what you know, just get straight to the point." 

Lou Yiqi finally stopped writing and seemed to glancing back, said expressionlessly, "She is Zong Kai's childhood friend, a transfer student, in the same class as Zong Kai. When I arrived, Zong Kai and Zhu Ran were sitting in the back row, chatting among the four of them. But later the girl whined that she wanted ice cream like a baby, Zong Kai then went to buy it for her, Zhu Ran also wanted to buy something and followed along."

Zhang Shuxian,"I see, I thought lots of the girls in our school is going to get their hearts broken this time."

She didn't know if it was because of the energy she exerted while wiping the desk, or was it because of the conversation in front, Zhou Anran felt her hands and feet begin to warm up slowly.

As if to confirm what Lou Yiqi said, Zhou Anran had just finished wiping the desk when she heard Zhu Ran's voice ring out from the back.

"AhLuo, catch it." 

Under the guise of wiping her chair, Zhou Anran turned around and saw Zhu Ran standing by the back door, tossing a bottle of Coke to Chen Luobai.

The boy reached out and caught it firmly in his hand, he leaned back in his chair, looked at the doorway and scolded through his smile, "What is wrong with you, would it kill you to pass it properly?"

Zhu Ran carried a bag and wobbled himself in,"Don't you think it's more attractive this way?" 

Chen Luobai casually put the coke on the desk, "Not if you injure someone and have to pay for their medical bills." 

"Why don't you open it, I don't have much pocket money left after paying you back, but I didn't forget to buy an extra bottle for you, this friendship is too touching." said Zhu Ran as he admired himself, "How about I open it for you?" 

Chen Luobai laughed and stretched his feet out to kick him, "I'm not fucking stupid."

Zhu Ran quickly jumped to avoid the kick.

Zong Kai shook his head at the back, ignoring the two people, and simply walked to the seat beside Chen Luobai, handing over the ice cream to the girl.

The girl accepted it with a smile and seemed to glance to the side, asking, "Why did you only buy one?"

Zong Kai gently ruffled her hair, "You think all of us are like you, craving ice cream in the middle of winter."

The girl frowned at him, "Ice cream tastes delicious even in winter." 

Zong Kai raised his hand and looked at his watch, "It's almost time for class, we have to go back."

The girl responded with an 'oh' , slowly opened the ice cream lid, and glanced to the side, "Then….see you again, Chen Luobai."

Zhu Ran, who was standing behind her, complained, "That's it? Just say goodbye to Chen Luobai? Can't you see someone as big as me standing here?" 

The girl ate a mouthful of ice cream, feeling her hand frozen, she gave the cup back to Zong Kai, "You're too noisy, let's not see each other again." 

Zhu Ran: "Like I care!" 

Zhou Anran wiped her chair over and over again, waiting for the girl to leave after Zong Kai before turning around and stuffing the dirty wet tissues into a small rubbish bag and taking it with her to throw away.

Nonetheless, she still felt somewhat unhappy in her heart. 

For some reason, Chen Luobai and Zhu Ran didn't change seats this time, they were still sitting in the last seat in the second row.

She and Yan Xingxi also moved to the second row, and sat in the third desk. There were four seats before her from the inside, and he was three seats away from the door². 

The distance between Zhou Anran and his seat is much closer than before, but it made it much more inconvenient for her to look back at him. 

The first day of school was always a rowdy one. 

But Class 2, after all, was an experimental class, and under the guidance of Lao Gao and the teachers of various subjects, they quickly settled down and fully engrossed themselves into a learning state the next day. 

All the students began to work hard, just as they had done in the previous semester. 

But something was clearly different for Zhou Anran.

She could no longer see him as conveniently as she did last semester when she turned her head; his circle had changed from the usual three people to four people, with the addition of one girl. 

School is one of the fastest places for all kinds of information to circulate.

In a matter of days, Zhou Anran learned that Zong Kai's childhood friend's name was Yin Yizhen, that she apparently came from a wealthy family, that the small hairpin she wore casually was worth tens of thousands, and that she had won a prestigious award for her piano skills. 

It seemed that Yin Yizhen had become the new goddess for many boys at No. 2 High School.

She wasn't sure if she was just imagining things, but she had the impression that Yin Yizhen seemed to pay more attention to Chen Luobai than to Zong Kai, the childhood friend she grew up with. 

During break, when the four of them were about to go out to eat together, Zhou Anran noticed that though she always stood next to Zong Kai, her gaze often gravitated more towards Chen Luobai. 

Whenever Zong Kai came to look for Chen Luobai in their class, Yin Yizhen almost always followed along. 

She and Zhu Ran were at odds with each other, she either stood behind Chen Luobai or sat in the seat of a male student in front of Chen Luobai, resting her pale elegant hand with the exquisite bracelet on top of his messy pile of books.

Fortunately, Chen Luobai never interacted alone with her and never took the initiative to go to see her in class 3. 

Thus, among those messy rumors regarding Chen Luobai and that girl, there was nothing ambiguous at the moment. 

The first week of school goes by fast. 

By the second week of the semester, the weather in Nancheng had become much warmer, and the temperature, which had been hovering at freezing degrees, suddenly rose by over twenty degrees. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Zhou Anran accompanied Yan Xingxi to eat at the rice noodle store outside the east gate. 

After eating, on the way back to the classroom, Yan Xingxi unzipped her school uniform and used her hand to fan herself,"Ranran, I think I'm going to get heatstroke. Almost everyone in our class has changed to summer uniform, but my mom told me something about warm in spring and cool in autumn³. She only allows me to just change into spring uniform and insists that I wear thermal underpants. This won't do, I have to go to the toilet to take them off, are you coming with me?"

Zhou Anran, who was afraid of the cold, didn't dare to immediately switch to her summer uniform and instead wore a spring uniform like Yan Xingxi.

Luckily, Ms. He didn't force her to wear thermal underpants.

Her fear of the cold hadn't reached that level yet.  

Zhou Anran held out her hand and helped to fan Yan Xingxi, suggesting, "The temperature will drop in the evening, don't change and just bear with it for now. It's easy to catch cold when the weather changes drastically. The temperature will rise more tomorrow, don't wear it then." 

Yan Xingxi pointed at herself, "No, look at me." 

Zhou Anran turned her head and noticed that Yan Xingxi was drenched in sweat. She couldn't help but feel sorry for her, "I'll treat you to some soda. If you still can't bear it after that, you can change." 

Yan Xingxi, who had just complained about the heat, was now cloyingly pulling her hand,"Those are your words then, let's go to the shop." 

The two of them went to the small shop inside the school. 

As they passed the basketball court, Yan Xingxi suddenly halted her steps, "Hey, Ranran, wait. What's going on over there? Did someone get into a fight?" 

Just now, before they arrived at the basketball court, Zhou Anran had took a glimpse at it several times.

Once she confirmed that Chen Luobai was not on the court, she stopped paying attention. 

Wondering if the bad luck of seating rearrangement at the first day of school still followed her till now.

Her chances of meeting him outside the classroom have dropped greatly since the start of this semester.

Just like their seats, their paths seemed to be like two parallel lines that would have no chance to intersect.

Yan Xingxi loves to join in on the fun, and right now she doesn't have time to worry about the thermal underpants or the soda, dragging her to run to the basketball court.

From a distance, Zhou Anran saw what appeared to be a fight between groups of people. However, as she got closer, she realized that it was actually a group of people surrounding a male student. 

She recognized the boy being surrounded in the middle, it was the sports committee member from their class, Tang Jianrui.

Yan Xingxi also seemed to recognise him, her complexion changed as she asked, "Isn't that Tang Jianrui in the middle?"  

Zhou Anran nodded and was about to suggest that they inform a teacher when she saw Zhu Ran running past her and rushing into the court like a small cannonball.

"Fuck! What's fucking wrong with you!"

Zhou Anran's heart leapt as she instinctively looked back. 

Sure enough, she saw Chen Luobai standing not far behind her.

The boy had also changed into his summer school uniform this week. She didn't know if it was because of the hot weather or because they rushed over hurriedly, his exposed arms were covered in fine beads of sweat. 

He usually always had a smile on his face, Zhou Anran had never seen him look so angry and cold.

Chen Luobai still didn't give her any glance, walked past her towards the court, his voice sounded cold.

"Zhu Ran, stop."

On the court, Zhu Ran had already grabbed one of the boys from the opposite side by the collar, not listening to him. 

And instead, the group of boys who were surrounding Tang Jianrui, not sure which class they were from, backed off a little.

Chen Luobai once again called out in a deep voice. 

"Zhu Ran."

Zhu Ran finally released his grip and turned to face Chen Luobai, "Why are you stopping me? Are you just going to let them bully our classmates like that?" 

Chen Luobai didn't respond immediately. He bent down, picked up the basketball from the ground, and walked to the center of the crowd, shielding both Zhu Ran and Tang Jianrui behind him.

Zhou Anran only learned about the cause of the incident from other classmates when she returned to the classroom that day.

That afternoon, while waiting for Chen Luobai and others to join him at the third court in the first row, Tang Jianrui went to pick up the ball. As the weather got warmer and sunnier, the other courts were occupied by people, a few people from Class 10 took advantage of Tang Jianrui picking up the ball to take over the court without saying a word. 

Tang Jianrui went to ask for an explanation from them and a confrontation broke out.

At this moment, Zong Kai was standing by the side of the court protecting Yin Yizhen in his arms and did not go over.

Chen Luobai stood alone in front of Zhu Ran and Tang Jianrui, facing seven to eight boys from class 10 all by himself, yet he didn't seem to lose out.

Zhou Anran, who was standing nearby, saw him looking back at Tang Jianrui and Zhu Ran.

"Of course, I won't let our class be bullied for nothing." Chen Luobai spun the orange basketball in his hand and slowly turned around again, said coldly,"But since the conflict happens on the court, let's talk with the ball. "

Under the setting sun, the handsome face of the tall boy in the blue-white uniform looked cold, raised his chin lightly at the leader of class 6, "Play a round?"

_______

¹: Night of the 15th of the first lunar month. 

²:I'm not 100% sure but I think this is what it looks like. Here

³:Means it’s wise to wear more clothes in spring when it’s getting hotter and not to wear too much clothes in autumn when it’s getting colder.