Chapter 10: Breath staggered

 Lu Xi’s attitude was too firm, thus Zhou Sisi no longer insisted and handed over the tableware to him for clean up.

As the preliminary English speech contest approached, her nerves were on edge.

Standing on the kitchen door, she watched him for a while to be sure he didn’t cause an accident and then went to the balcony in order to practice her speech again.

The first round is over.

“Let me borrow your phone for a moment,” Lu Xi said from the living room, “okay?”

“Well, wait a minute.” Zhou Sisi didn’t think much of it.

She went to the room to get the phone, unlocked it, and handed it to him.

It was not ideal to practice on the balcony.

“Life is a process of growing up.”

“Who can correctly say what the youth is?”

“It doesn’t feel like a rhetorical question.” his lazy comment came from behind.

She turned around and was somewhat surprised.

“I’m putting your phone on the coffee table.” He pointed at his chin. “Thanks. I’m going home.”

“Don’t worry—”

Zhou Sisi pursed her lips as she asked, “Do you have time to listen to my speech?”

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” He stuck his hands in his pocket and replied, “No.”

“You just need to sit and listen… I’m a little nervous and want to try speaking in front of others.”

“Oh. You can proceed.”

“Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen……”

“Life is a process of growing up……”

“Stop.” He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “Don’t you look at the audience when you speak?”

“Well, I will pay attention.” She nodded and started again.

From the beginning of the first note, she looked directly at him.

Her large, beautiful eyes were a bit hazy, and her expression was pure and nonchalant, yet penetrating– the stubbornness was forcing herself to look at the “audience”.

 “Also, you don’t have to keep staring.” He reddened almost invisibly, “you will have more than one audience, and you have to look around the whole place.” 

She humbly asked for advice: “How do I look around?”

 “This……” How would he know?

 He had never participated in any speech contest. Originally, she was deliberately provocative, who asked her to squeeze his spare time to memorize words and English.

Despite this, her thoughtful and sincere appearance of trust during last week unexpectedly rushed into his mind. “At first you look at the last row of the audience and talk, then look forward, or you look around.”

 A review reading experience in front of the whole school could be used as a reference, right?. Fuck, did I ever pay attention to the audience?

 Scratching his hair. “Or you can search online–I’ll search it.” He took out his mobile phone and flicked his fingers.

“The teacher had mentioned the key points of the speech.” She replied.

“Then why do you still have a problem?”

“I can’t see it myself, so I need you as an audience.”

“Oh.” He stood up while searching and said, “Take a look at this selected post.”

He even brought his cell phone closer to her. “The sight of the speech is almost the same as what I said.”

“Yeah.” She looked at it in accordance with his words.

“Besides, you need to mobilize your emotions and drive the audience’s emotions.” Picking up the key points he continued, “Body language is essential, for example—”

She turned her head towards him and raised her eyelashes.

It just happened that he bowed his head.

The pair of eyes met.

The peak of his lips and her long eyelashes were only over nine centimeters.

The soft, warm breath was like the willow by the lake in spring, a small cloud of whisk brushed on his neck.

It tickled and made his words drop dead in his throat.

The hand stopped mid-air.

Realizing that the current distance between the two was inappropriate, she stepped back and said, “I will practice again.”

“Ah, good.” He dropped his hands.

 The thumb pressed against the second joint of the index finger, making a soft “click” sound.

“You sit and listen.”

“Okay.”

 “Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen……”

….

This Sunday was the Qingming Festival, so there was no need for an English make-up class.

 In the morning, Zhou Sisi sent a WeChat to Lu Xi to set up the task of memorizing words for the next week.

In the chat log, she confirmed that the transfer was received last night from Lu Xi – probably at the time, he borrowed her phone after doing the dishes.

The amount was much higher than what it cost her to make those two breakfasts.

She initiated a transfer to him before going to bed. He had his phone confiscated up to now and hadn’t replied.

– I’ll be back in over ten minutes.

The content ended with a period.

Zhou Sisi reminded Lu Xi to collect the money, saying that she could not use that much money.

Lu Xi: No.

Zhou Sisi was a little helpless. Cooking breakfast for Lu Xi was because she worried that he would be late, and as for making dinner, she didn’t want him to always eat from takeaway. The money for cooking could not even be considered as a dime of the money he once paid for her debt.

***

After coming back from the Qingming Festival, Huang Zhou did not forget to blow his brother about his first meeting with an online friend last week.

“At that time, a girl with long curly hair walked over to the table and said, ‘Hello, are you waiting for someone?'” Huang Zhou patted his thigh. “The voice was crisp, I recognized her right away that she is Xiaosha. “

Pan De asked: “How did she look?”

“Two sweet dimples, petite, not bad.” Huang Zhou was still smiling.

“After drinking milk tea, what do you guys did in the evening?” Pan De was mildly short-sighted and often wore a pair of silver-rimmed glasses which made him look gentle. But in fact, the color of his thoughts was not much lighter than Huang Zhou.

“We are chatting and drinking milk tea until seven o’clock – shit, why are you so dirty?” Huang Zhou rolled his eyes.

“Pretend. You’re acting like you’re innocent.”

“I didn’t think about it at all!”

“I don’t understand what you are saying. I didn’t speak about ‘thing’ at all. Hey!” Pan De touched Lu Xi, who was leaning back on his chair as he continued, “Isn’t that the case?? Axi? “

Lu Xi casually replied “Ah”.

“I really didn’t do anything, this Huang Zongze is a minor, okay?” Huang Zhou said, “and Xiaosha’s tutor is very strict, she has to go home before eight o’clock. She is very obedient and a good girl.”

Lu Xi yawned, “Good girl. She lets you play games all night? Meeting online friends alone?”

“Good girl? I’m afraid Chief Huang is using the wrong adjective.” Pan De said.

 “Damn, what do you know?” Huang Zhou said anxiously, “Xiaosha is really good, and she calls me ‘brother’. You two don’t understand unless you have a girlfriend.”

Lu Xi: “Oh.”

“Isn’t it nice to play? What female netizen do you want?” Pan De placed his finger under his spectacles as he said, “It’s not like I don’t have a girl to chat with, in the real world.”

 Although he was not as handsome and sophisticated as Lu Xi, he was barely able to squeeze into the ranks of handsome guys. There must be a few female classmates who would favor him.

 “What about Lin Quiet?” Huang Zhou deliberately clogged up.

“Her name is Lin Wenjing,” Pan De said. “She texted me the day before yesterday to confess.”

Huang Zhou immediately said: “Really? Have you agreed?”

“You are more excited than the panda who had been confessed.” Lu Xi sneered.

“It’s not that I’m afraid pandas will defect to our single brother!” Huang Zhouzhao punched the panda on the shoulder. “Don’t grind, just tell me if you agreed to the girl’s confession.”

Pan De first looked around and confirmed that Lin Wenjing’s friend Xiang Yinglan was not nearby, “No.”

“Every day chatting on WeChat, isn’t it nice?” Huang Zhou winked.

“Your father is chatting every day, I just go back once in a while.” Pan De paused. “She is fine with everything. I don’t like her hair that is as rough as a broom tied to the back of her head.”

Lu Xi’s fingers curled under his lips, “You are too shallow, it’s just a hairstyle.”

“Yes, it’s very shallow.” Huang Zhou’s voice echoed.

“No, you guys don’t look at the face when you are looking for someone?” Pan De resigned, “Isn’t this what we look at our age? Face, plus figure, look at these two aspects, it seems so superficial.”

 Huang Zhou clicked his tongue. “That means if she changes her hairstyle, you’ll get along with her?”

“Maybe. But what kind of nice hairstyle can she get with that cornbread-like hair?” Pen De said.  

 “It’s too much.” Lu Xi rubbed the back of Pan De’s head. “Your hairstyle is not handsome either.”

“Your dad, let go of it! I’ve blown it.”

***

 During the class break, Zhou Sisi went to find the English teacher who was in charge of following up the English competition and asked her for advice and pointed out her speech in person. 

Finally, she found the courage to enter the office of the English Section of freshman year and was told that the teacher had not come today.

“If you have time, go and practice with the teacher, what are you afraid of? Their job is to teach students.”

 “Teachers’ advice is helpful.”

Lu Xi’s words sounded inadvertently and impatiently in her ears.

Zhou Sisi pinched her fingertips and went to find the class teacher.

When Wu Lan heard her intentions she said, “Okay, you can try it here?”

In the office, apart from Wu Lan, there were only two teachers, one was correcting homework, and the other was using a computer.

“Yeah.” Zhou Sisi exhaled softly, “I’ll start.”

A speech that had been practiced hundreds of times. Three minutes and twenty seconds from beginning to end.

Two teachers came into the office in the middle of the presentation. One teacher even asked, “Is this female student endorsing something?”; the other reminded her not to disturb.

 With the addition of an audience, Zhou Sisi was instinctively a little nervous and finished her speech staring stiffly ahead.

 “Almost, it’s all right” Wu Lan remarked, “It would be better if the eyes and posture were more confident.”

The question pointed out was similar to what Lu Xi had said.

Zhou Sisi remembered in her heart and replied, “Hmmm.”

“In places with strong emotions, you have to speak in a strong tone, add a little gesture, for example…” Wu Lan gave specific instructions.

 Seeing Zhou Sisi’s small face was serious and tight, she kindly comforted her: “Believe in yourself, don’t put too much pressure.”

A teacher who came in earlier asked, “The competition is the day after tomorrow, right?” He taught Chinese for Zhou Si’s class.

“Yes, the day after tomorrow afternoon.” Wu Lan said.

“Come on, Zhou Sisi.” The Chinese teacher encouraged her, “You are so good, you will be able to pass five levels easily.”

Zhou Sisi pursed her lips and smiled, “Thank you, teacher.”

When going downstairs, she met Lu Xi on the way.

 A black printed headband, thin white overalls coat, a small object with a buckle swaying in his hand, the teenager and his companions went upstairs while chatting.

 Zhou Sisi guessed that with his character, he probably wouldn’t want to say hello.

While she smiled faintly, she bent her eyes away from him.

“Ahem …… Zhou Sisi.”