Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Birthday Wishes on the Waibaidu Bridge

When they entered the second grade, Li Li and Pei Shangxuan's tablemate relationship was fixed because they changed to a new class teacher. Tao Haijuan did not follow the class to the second grade. Although she has many wonderful ideas for managing the class, she only adopts a "doing nothing" attitude towards the students' grades.In such a situation of laissez-faire, in class (4), except for Li Li who saved a little face by being the first in the grade, none of the other students squeezed into the top 50 in the grade.In 1990, when achievements were the only heroes, Tao Haijuan had to bear the responsibility for ineffective teaching.

Li Fengzhu, who used to teach the graduating class of the third grade, became their head teacher. He looked through the grade sheets and arranged students with good grades and poor students to be at the same table. He hoped that the top students could help improve the grades of the poor students, thereby improving the overall class score. Not wrong, but too utilitarian.Li Li commented accordingly.Pei Shangxuan smiled and tugged at her ponytail, and shouted: "Whatever it is, I don't have to change my deskmate every week after all. After three weeks, who remembers what I said at the end."

She slapped away his hands that were raging on her hair, so hard that Pei Shangxuan screamed, muttering how she would be so rude, how could she marry in the future. "I want you to meddle in your own business." Li Li rolled her eyes, picked up the new English textbook to preview the words, and didn't bother to pay attention to him. "I can't get married" these four words are often on Li Meiqing's lips, and she has a feeling of resistance. When Li Li read the book, Pei Shangxuan felt bored, so he tried every means to attract her attention and chat with him.He is an active person who can't bear his temper, and he can't be as still as her.

"Li Li, when you're thirty and you still can't get married, I'll marry you reluctantly." He moved his face closer and pushed aside the English book she was blocking in front of her eyes with his hands.For a fourteen-year-old boy, his understanding of the word "marriage" is limited to the dictionary explanation and the earth-shattering Qiong Yao drama. She raised her eyelashes and looked at Pei Shangxuan disdainfully: "If you haven't cheated a wife with your face at the age of 30, I will forcefully consider you, an idiot." After speaking, Li Li erected the textbook again. .

A joke fell into the ears of the troublemakers and turned into gossip.He is the handsome guy who ranks high in the grade, and she is the best interpretation of the four words "talented but not handsome".It's strange to say that the rumors only say that she has climbed up to Pei Shangxuan, but there is no version that thinks that Pei Shangxuan, who has the lowest grades, is so lucky that she looks at him differently. Li Li laughed it off, she didn't know when the rumors started to spread, and when she realized it, she had become the talk of the girls in every class, and even when she went to the bathroom, someone would point her out behind her back.

She told him it as a joke, and laughed heartlessly, Pei Shangxuan kept a gloomy face and said nothing. "You're upset." She noticed his abnormality and stopped in front of the newsstand at the entrance of the alley.Pei Shangxuan ignored her and walked straight forward with his head down. Li Li bought an evening paper and ran after him with the newspaper. "Pei Shangxuan, why are you losing your temper?" "I didn't." He defended guiltily, a little lacking in confidence. Ordinary girls usually say "you have" loudly to refute the other party, but Li Li stared at Pei Shangxuan for a long time, nodded and said: "I understand."

Turn around and walk in the direction of your home.With his hands in his trouser pockets, he kicked the gravel under his feet to watch her back.Throughout the second grade, it was widely rumored that "Pei Shangxuan likes Li Li", and because of this, he often turned faces with others.He hated being compared to them, for reasons that were unclear. Uncle Li Guoqiang has a girlfriend, a slender and beautiful girl.He was too busy talking about love and came back very late every day. Li Meiqing was also dating a divorced man. Usually only grandma and Li Li were relatively silent in the family.

She is doing homework in the kitchen, the light is dim, and the old-fashioned radio is playing Shaoxing opera.Grandma is a fan of the theater, and Li Li can hum a few words casually under the influence of years and years, which has the charm of Yin Guifang's school.Objectively speaking, Li Li's singing level is average, and it's lucky that she doesn't lose her tune.Every school chorus competition, she would mix in the crowd and look at Pei Shangxuan who was in high spirits under the spotlight unconvinced.Compared with her, he was quite talented in music, and he was a member of the school's chorus team, so he became the lead singer of the class as a matter of course.

Her eyesight has been declining, and it has developed to the point where her eyes are squinted into a line to see clearly the writing on the blackboard.She told her grandmother that she was going to get glasses. The grandmother wearing reading glasses stopped her needlework and looked at her, saying that girls don't look good in glasses. "I don't look good anymore." Li Li was a little depressed, "I can't listen in class without glasses, and it will be even worse in the future." Grandma conveyed her request to Li Meiqing, and took the money for glasses from her and handed it to Li Li.Li Li finds it ironic that the estrangement between mother and daughter has reached such a level.

The person who accompanied her to get her glasses fitted was Pei Shangxuan, and the young man volunteered to choose a frame for her.Li Li thought it was his gesture of reconciliation, and apologized for the bad break up after school a few days ago. Pei Shangxuan was very picky, sometimes he said that her head is too big and the round frame is not suitable, and sometimes he said that the frame with thin edge looks more like a nerd, after picking it for a long time, he said to her sullenly: "It's a big deal, I will concentrate on taking notes in class, and then I'll lend you a copy."

There was sweetness in my heart for no reason, like eating honey, it was so sweet that it hurt my teeth.Li Li shuddered, and his brows frowned into the word "Chuan". "Pei Shangxuan, just call you an idiot, can you copy notes for me for the rest of my life?" Although it was an angry remark, a sense of loss emerged spontaneously after saying it.She and Pei Shangxuan were destined to be separated, just like Kaniggia who she fell in love with before the summer vacation, and she couldn't find any news about him after that. Without saying a word, he pointed to a pair of purple oval frames and motioned Li Li to try them on. Li Li's facial features are ordinary, but fortunately her fair skin makes up for the shortcomings.The light silver-purple color matched her complexion very well, Pei Shangxuan finally nodded in satisfaction. The clerk asked Li Li to go for an optometry, and he waited patiently for her outside.There happened to be a boy from the same class passing by outside the optical shop. Seeing Pei Shangxuan in the shop, he rushed in yelling. "Pei Shangxuan, what are you doing here?" Zhang Yong, the leader, was in the period of changing his voice, and he didn't know how to restrain his ugly voice, so he shouted straight every time. Why are they here to join in the fun!Pei Shangxuan remembered the rumors circulating in the class that one head and two were older. "I don't want to go home, I want to go shopping." What he wanted in his heart was to take these guys out of the optical shop as soon as possible, so that no one would find himself with Li Li. "Then, how about going to the billiards room? There is a place where junior high school students can go." The boy named Deng Jianfeng was the bottom one in his grade, but he was a master when it came to where to play. "OK, let's go together." Pei Shangxuan agreed without thinking about it, and rushed out of the optical shop first. Li Li went to the store after the examination, but did not see Pei Shangxuan.The clerk told Li Li that the picky boy left with several male classmates, thinking of his abnormality a few days ago, she suddenly realized. For Pei Shangxuan, it turned out to be a very embarrassing thing to be friends with himself. Li Li went home alone, and what he said before echoed in his ears: "At worst, I will concentrate on taking notes in class, and then I will lend you to copy." Sure enough, this was just what Pei Shangxuan said casually, and it couldn't be taken seriously. Before getting the glasses, copying blackboard writing in class was still a difficult task for Li Li.Seeing her squinting her eyes trying to read the chalk writing on the blackboard clearly, Pei Shangxuan couldn't help but snatched her notebook to do it for her. "Let go." She raised her arm and pressed down on her notebook, "I still have to copy notes." She said in a low voice. "As far as your eyesight is concerned, I think it's better to forget it." Grabbing her arm and lifting it effortlessly, the other hand took the notebook away, Pei Shangxuan looked at what she wrote and compared it with the Chinese teacher's writing on the blackboard. Li Li bit the penholder, looking thoughtfully at the serious boy.This guy obviously cares about others misunderstanding their relationship, but sometimes he behaves intimately to create more misunderstandings, which makes her dumbfounded. Pei Shangxuan's grades in reading are not very good, but his handwriting is unexpectedly beautiful.Every teacher in the class said that he was not concentrating, if he was willing to put some effort into his studies, he would definitely be in the top ten of his grade.But he just goes in one ear and goes out the other, humbly accepting repeated admonitions. When he is idle and bored, Li Li will try to persuade him to be a student who "study hard and make progress every day" instead of thinking about eating, drinking and having fun all day long.He raised his eyebrows and ruffled her hair, saying that she sounded like his own mother. Li Li's eyes widened, she jumped up and grabbed Pei Shangxuan's neck fiercely, scolding him repeatedly. The whole class looked at them, saying that the two of them had nothing to do with each other. Even Chen Qian, the most honest girl in the class, shook her head and said she didn't believe it. It was a coincidence that we met at the entrance of the alley before, but I don't know when it became a deliberate waiting.Every day they go to school together and walk for ten minutes.If he doesn't go out to play after school, he will go home with Li Li. Young men and women in this period are sensitive, and everyone is like wearing a microscope, magnifying clues infinitely.Li Li and Pei Shangxuan are a pair that everyone can't understand. He returned the notebook to her, with an expression that was clearly taking credit. "I said I would copy the notes for you, didn't I lie?" "I can get my glasses in two days, so I don't need to bother you anymore." Li Li thanked him lightly, then turned her head and stopped talking to him. "When? I'll go with you." He felt sorry for leaving before saying goodbye that day in a hurry. "Is the degree deep?" Seeing Li Li ignoring him, he lay half of his body on the desk, forcing his face with regular features to come under her eyelids. "Are you angry?" Pei Shangxuan remembered that Li Li liked to bite his lips when he was angry, as if the bloody pain could divert the anger in his heart.He called this behavior "self-abuse" and tried repeatedly to stop her from abusing him, but failed repeatedly. Li Li is a stubborn girl who is difficult to persuade.He sometimes even thought she was deliberately uncooperative, as if to vent by hurting a part of his body. She loosened her teeth suddenly and glanced at him calmly. "I'm not angry, you have no ability to make me unhappy." She raised her head, smiling brilliantly. Pei Shangxuan instantly felt that Li Li was not a beautiful girl, and the first impression was a bit ugly, but after getting used to her facial features, he could occasionally find touching moments. Just like now, the cheerful smiling face that makes people feel restless.Many years later, Pei Shangxuan finally understood that Li Li, who was smiling like this, had only dark clouds in her heart.She is a cheerful pessimist, full of contradictions. Pei Shangxuan didn't know Li Li, even though the girl had been by his side for fifteen long years. Finally, he asked her: "Is it because I am too familiar with you that I can't read your mind?" She showed the smile he had been familiar with for fifteen years, and replied calmly, "Because you don't love me." Pei Shangxuan and Li Li left the school one after the other, and he was waiting for her at the entrance of the optical shop. "Hey, you walk like a tortoise." He walked out of the classroom at about the same time, but he waited for her for a quarter of an hour.For the impatient Pei Shangxuan, these fifteen minutes are simply longer than fifteen centuries. Li Li rolled her eyes in her heart, and couldn't help complaining: Isn't it because you are worried about being discovered by other students and embarrassing you?I really don't know good people!Having said that, why does this guy have to accompany me to pick up the glasses? The clerk took out the finished glasses from the paper bag, opened the frame and asked her to try them on.Li Li reached out to take it and put it on, the thin metal frame hooked the left and right ears, and there was a slight pressure on the bridge of the nose. "Dizziness." She followed the clerk's instructions to look at the floor, feeling dizzy. "No way, could it be that the optometry is not accurate?" Pei Shangxuan turned Li Li's face so that she was facing him.He wanted to be the first to see her wearing glasses, and it was exactly as he imagined—not very good-looking. The clerk was a fat middle-aged woman. After hearing Pei Shangxuan's accusation, she quickly explained that it was normal for her to feel uncomfortable wearing glasses at first. The black pupils behind the lenses stared at him calmly, and Li Li said calmly: "OK, you don't like my glasses, do you? I don't know why, I wear glasses on my own. First, I didn't ask you to pay for them, and second, I have nothing to do with you. It's not your family, it's not your turn to be picky." Her round chin lifted slightly, and her tone was a bit provocative. Pei Shangxuan was tongue-tied, he had always been inferior to Li Li in terms of eloquence, and every time he was refuted by her words, he was rendered speechless.Sulking, Zhang Yong and Deng Jianfeng ran into the store chattering. "Pei Shangxuan, you and Li Li are indeed dating!" He stared in embarrassment, curled his beautifully curved thin lips, and said contemptuously: "I don't like ugly people." He was angry and misunderstood, so he couldn't choose what to say. Pei Shangxuan's words aroused Li Li's deep-seated inferiority complex, she looked at him with far-reaching eyes.Li Li can make herself a smart girl, but she can't make herself beautiful.She pretended not to care, but Li Li couldn't restrain her envy when she saw those beautiful girls who could attract attention wherever they went. She thought more than once that if wisdom could be exchanged for beauty, she would rather be a beautiful stupid girl. The store was instantly quiet, and the air seemed to be stagnant.After Pei Shangxuan yelled out hurtful words, he regretted secretly. There are thousands of words, why did he choose this one sentence? Deng Jianfeng realized that the atmosphere was not right, he exchanged winks with Zhang Yong and slipped out with his head down.Pei Shangxuan moved his lips to apologize, but was frightened into silence by Li Li's distant and indifferent eyes. She picked out the mirror case and glasses cloth with a calm expression, put the glasses with adjusted frame spacing into the mirror case, thanked the shop assistant and left.From the beginning to the end, Li Li didn't even look at Pei Shangxuan. He felt uncomfortable, and followed her step by step with his head drooping.Li Li still ignored him and walked home alone. Pei Shangxuan walked around the alley of Li Li's house three times, but couldn't muster up the courage to knock on the door to apologize.Why should I apologize?It was she who scolded me for being nosy first!The fourteen-year-old boy defended his unintentional slip of the tongue in his heart, and immediately became righteous again. Li Li, you are still a cheapskate!He made a face in front of the girl's house, yelled and ran away. She stood in the courtyard, listening to Pei Shangxuan's yelling outside the door, her face expressionless. Li Li wanted to know what it was like to like someone, would she feel sad because the other person belittled herself?In the middle of the night, she listened to the ancient wall clock slowly walking through the footsteps of time, silent and desolate. The woman Li Guoqiang likes is Yan Liming, and he takes Li Li to eat the Little Shaoxing Three Yellow Chicken.In the past, the little uncle would give Li Li the chicken wings, but now the chopsticks are turned to another person. Biting her chopsticks, Li Li felt that the taste of the chicken had changed, especially when she saw the woman who was very likely to be her aunt smiling like a flower, she felt a little bit more disappointed. Li Guoqiang sent Yan Liming home first, and walked along North Sichuan Road in late autumn, holding Li Li's hand.She raised her head and looked at the side of her little uncle, remembering the days when she watched the World Cup in the middle of the night a few months ago, as if it had been a long, long time, and the image gradually blurred. "Uncle, do you like Aunt Yan very much?" "Ok." "You two, will you get married?" She was concerned, thinking why would an irrelevant woman compete with her for the favor of her little uncle? Li Guoqiang smiled, bent down and patted her on the head: "Xiao Li, are you angry because you didn't eat chicken wings?" She rolled her eyes, "I'm not as naive as a three-year-old child, why are you angry about this kind of thing?" "Xiao Li, a girl with a bad mouth, it will be difficult to marry in the future." Li Guoqiang said pretending to be worried, Li Li broke away from his hand, and asked suspiciously: "Uncle, since you were young, you have said I can't get married, what kind of girl is likable?" Li Guoqiang laughed loudly, and kept saying, "My little Li has finally grown up and wants to get married." Li Li rolled his eyes several times but didn't stop him from talking nonsense, and finally couldn't bear it and gave it to his little uncle. punch. "Little uncle, I'm not yet fourteen, you are encouraging me to fall in love early." Li Guoqiang suppressed his smile and knelt down to look at her.The playful expression faded away, and he said seriously to his niece: "Li Li, don't waste your affection and time on someone who can't possibly like you, understand?" She seemed to understand and nodded, then shook her head again. "How do I know that person can't possibly like me?" "Silly girl, when you meet her, you will naturally understand." Fifteen years later, the 29-year-old Li Li thought that her first teacher was very irresponsible, so she was defeated. December 5, 1990, Wednesday, Li Li's fourteenth birthday. Grandma specially made hard-boiled egg vermicelli soup for her breakfast, which filled a large bowl.Li Guoqiang, who was on the morning shift, handed her a birthday present before going out, which was a popular scented ballpoint pen. "Little uncle, I love you!" Almost all the girls in the class have one, and she also wants one. It smells delicious when writing homework and taking notes. "Be hypocritical, be hypocritical." Li Guoqiang squeezed her round face hard, causing her to cry out in pain. "It's so noisy!" The bleary-eyed Li Meiqing walked out of the front living room where she was sleeping, and went to wash in front of the sink.Li Guoqiang waved his hand and slipped out of the house, Li Li hurriedly lowered his head to eat breakfast, planning to make a quick decision and go to school after eating, so as not to annoy Li Meiqing. "Why are you eating so fast, rushing to reincarnate?" Li Meiqing sat down at the Eight Immortals table after washing, glanced at the boiled egg vermicelli soup in her bowl, and raised her eyebrows that slanted into her temples: "I said, Mom, After so many years of birthday, you don’t come up with something new? It’s no wonder that you don’t get tired of it after eating it for more than ten years.” Li Li raised her head happily, and quickly swallowed the half of the fan biting into her mouth. "Mom, do you remember that today is my birthday?" "How could it be possible to forget that you were born fourteen years ago, and I almost died of pain." Li Meiqing pushed the hair that covered her daughter's cheeks behind her ears, and looked carefully: "Look horizontally and vertically." , you don't look any better." Even though she was scolded for being ugly, Li Li was still very happy, it was rare for her mother to talk so much to her. Li Meiqing had already put down her hands, and started eating breakfast by herself, and said casually: "I'm getting married, and you will soon have a new father." Li Li turned to look at grandma, the old man was also surprised.She has always known that her mother is dating people, and she is also mentally prepared to have a new father, but it is inevitable to be surprised at first hearing. "Come back early after class, and I'll take you to have dinner with Uncle Liu." Li Meiqing glanced at her daughter who was still in a daze, and said in a nasty voice: "Don't make me look so stupid for dinner tonight, it's embarrassing Now." Li Li has been in a trance all day, today is her fourteenth birthday, and she is going to have a new father. As the same table, Pei Shangxuan naturally discovered her abnormality.The helpless thing is that they are in the delicate cold war period, Li Li ignores him like air, since the last time he yelled "I don't like ugly monsters" in the optical shop, she refuses to interact with him again. He waited for her at the entrance of the alley, waiting for no one to be seen.When he rushed into the classroom a minute before morning self-study, he found that Li Li had already sat in his seat.He blamed her with a playful smile for almost causing him to be late, she didn't even lift her eyelids, turned around and handed the homework book to the person behind to copy. The obvious gesture of refusal made Pei Shangxuan discouraged. Since he entered middle school, he has been a figure in the limelight. When has he ever been so neglected.So he also became stubborn, and got angry with her to see who would bow his head first. The rumors gradually subsided, Pei Shangxuan thought that he didn't have to sulk because others forced them into a couple, but his mood became even more depressed.A boy of this age is most disgusted by others saying that he likes so-and-so, and feels shameful, as if liking someone is a shameful thing.He not only disliked this, but also faintly disliked Li Li.The boy's thinking is very simple: Li Li is a good friend and a buddy, but he can't be a girlfriend. He likes pretty girls, like most people. After school, Pei Shangxuan, who was going to play billiards with Zhang Yong and the others, saw Li Li lying dead on the desk, hesitantly put down his schoolbag and asked.He was ready to be rejected, but unexpectedly got her answer. "Mom is going to take me and her marriage partner to dinner." Her face was pressed against her arms, and her voice became rough after being suppressed. "Today is my birthday." Pei Shangxuan grabbed Li Li's shoulders and made her look up, a young and beautiful face jumped into her eyes with an excited expression. "Follow me, Li Li." Pulling out her schoolbag from her desk, she frantically stuffed the pencil case and books into it, Pei Shangxuan continued to tidy up, "I'll take you to a place, I promise you can Make you feel better." She looked at the beaming boy, and automatically ignored his hurtful words earlier.It's always difficult for Li Li to get really angry with Pei Shangxuan. He took her to the Bund, stood on the world-famous Waibaidu Bridge, jumped into the dark Huangpu River and shouted: "Li Li, happy birthday!" The ferry to and from the Pujiang River docked, and the buzzing siren came from afar, which seemed to echo his blessings from afar. Li Li raised her hand to make a trumpet shape around her mouth, and shouted towards the surging river with all her strength, "Thank you, Pei Shangxuan!" At the age of fourteen, she wanted to like someone, maybe it was this feeling: she wanted to be with him very much, and she would never be separated for the rest of her life.