Forest Memories

Chapter 8 Progress

Jack really liked to eat braised chicken feet, and Anna secretly counted them for him. He ate a total of 13.

As he was about to put down his chopsticks, Anna cheered him on.

"Don't stop, keep going, we already said you're gonna eat twenty."

Perhaps because he became particularly sensitive to certain words as an adult, Jack always unconsciously complicated things. Simple and common words could always be associated with other words, such as "don't stop" or "continue".

When he heard these two words, he was eating konjac tofu. The hot and spicy food had just entered his mouth when he was suddenly choked by the words of tigers and wolves and the delicate voice of a girl.

"Cough, cough, cough."

"Oh, slow down. Why are you in such a hurry?"

"...... cough ~" Jack coughed harder, he shook his hand at Anna, "please, please don't say anything, cough......"

“......”

If you don't say it, don't say it. If you don't eat it, you save her!

Anna continued to eat freely, occasionally taking a bite of mung bean ice, delicious!

In fact, her stomach was almost full, and she couldn't eat any more after a few bites. She knocked on Jack.

"Don't stop, keep going!" He said it by accident, and then smiled.

"?" Anna stared at him with confusion.

"Can't eat it?"

"Um," Anna nodded.

"fine."

Jack was about to get up and collect the full plate of chopsticks.

In the end, it turned out that Anna did not invite the spicy hot pot, she did not wash the chopsticks, and even her school bag was not carried by herself.

The two of them habitually walked to school, and halfway through they remembered that they had taken a month off. At this moment, they should not be returning to school, but going home.

Anna's home is in a small village in Canglang County. She needs to take a minibus to the station, which is in the same direction as the school, and she has to walk past the school.

"How come you didn't walk?" Jack asked.

Anna paused and continued on.

"Do you know it's a holiday today?"

"Know that."

"Why are you walking to school?"

"Are you not going to the East Station?" Jack asked.

"Yes! But didn't the Canglang bus stop go this way?"

"Yes, but there are several bus stations in Canglang, not just in this direction."

"Oh, is that so? Maybe I don't know enough, but I only know about the West Station."

"Oh! You're going to the East Station too?"

"No, I don't. My house is near the school."

"softly chant ~"

After several rounds of back and forth, they finally reached the school. Unbeknownst to them, four people had followed them less than five meters away.

Jiang Gong: "Isn't that Brother Xi?"

Li Heng: "Yes."

Zhang Xiaojing: "Who's next to him?"

Fang Zixing: "His desk mate, Anna."

Zhang Xiaojing: "How could they be together?"

Li Heng and Jiang Gong looked at each other.

Fang Zixing: "I heard it was to celebrate. Xi is not someone who is helped by others, so it's normal for him to eat with someone who has made progress in the monthly exam."

Zhang Xiaojing: "Yes?"

Jiang Gong: "Yes, yes, definitely. Before he was willing to lend me the magic sound that he treasured so much, I thought he was special to that fat girl. Now he's accepting the invitation to celebrate her success. Tsk tsk."

Zhang Xiaojing: "So what? In the end, the magic voice was withdrawn. Besides, it was just a snack, his hobby."

Jiang Gong: "Is Brother Xi the kind of person who casually accepts invitations to eat?"

No one said a word when he spoke.

“Jack。”

Zhang Xiaojing shouted at the backs of the two men.

The quiet street was a good place for sound to travel.

Jack turned around at the sound, and Anna turned sideways.

"Have you not come home?" He did not surprise them at their sudden appearance, but asked it lightly.

"I'm too lazy to go back for a day and a half. I'll just have fun in the city and come back after the National Day holiday." Zhang Xiaojing said.

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

The Five Mountain Sword School arrived. Anna felt that she had no common language with them, so she thought of a reason to slip away.

But someone was afraid she would be ignored, so they called her name loudly.

Jiang Gong: "Anna, what a coincidence that you are here. Are you with Brother Xi?"

Anna, who had not felt anything, heard Jiang Gong's sinister voice and felt like she was caught in the act. She coldly replied, "Watch your words. What does it mean to be together?"

"Oh! You have made progress in Chinese. You can read and write."

Anna snorted, "Do you have a problem with my progress?"

"No, no, I'll just say it. If you make progress, the average score of our class will go up, hahaha......"

"Jiang Gong!"

Anna and Jack said the same thing.

Jiang Gong immediately shut up.

"We just had spicy hot pot together," Jack explained to them.

Jiang Gong: "If there is something delicious, don't call the brothers together. It's not honest."

Zhang Xiaojing: "Yes, yes."

For some reason, Anna always felt that these people were noisy when they got together.

She turned to Jack and said, "Brother Song, I'm going home first. Thank you for today. If I really make progress, I'll repay you."

Jack nodded. "All right, go on. No more."

Anna was in such a hurry to leave that she forgot her bag was still on Jack's shoulder. She looked back and saw the five people walking away from her.

Forget it, let him carry it away. Jack is embarrassed to be recognized anyway.

But the cash is in the schoolbag pocket!

The school forbids mobile phones and cash is the only way to pay. Anna doesn't like to put money in her pockets so she puts it in her bag.

Now we can't stop chasing.

Anna hurried after them, but they had already turned a corner at the fork in the road and could not be heard.

Anna had no choice but to run after him.

After a hard run to the intersection, she didn't see Jack and his friends. She breathed wildly in place and looked around at the street in front of her.

The street is long and shouldn't be far away, and there are plenty of snacks on the street, so Anna plans to check each one.

Just as she was about to leave, she heard a few familiar voices from the milk tea shop next door, through the PVC transparent soft curtain.

"I'll say it again, I have no friendship with Dongfang Bubai, it's just a relationship of mutual assistance. If anyone else tries to make things up, I'll let him lick Dongfang Bubai."

"......" Four people shut up and drink milk tea.

"Xige, look who that is?" Li Heng said suddenly as he sat facing the door.

Jack looked in the direction of Li Heng.

“……”

Anna smiled and lifted the soft curtain, standing in front of Jack. "Jack, am I the Oriental Bubai you mentioned?"

“……”

Jack wants to forget words.

"I've been wondering for a long time why you call me Dongfang Bubai behind my back. Can you tell me why?"

Can you just say that to her? Of course not.

Jack admitted defeat and fell silent.

Anna knew he wouldn't say anything, so she didn't bother with him. She bent down and picked up her bag from his side, took out his chopsticks and put the cash she had planned to use for a spicy hot pot into his bowl.

"Go beg for alms! Yue Buqun."

Anna stormed out.

Jack：“……”

Fang, Zhang, Jiang and Li: "Hahaha......"

Jack shot at him with a glance.

Jiang Gong: "Brother Xi, the bag is not yours. I said how can you carry such a low bag."

Zhang Xiaojing: "But, what are you doing with the bowls you brought out of the canteen?"

"What do you do?" Fang Liang asked.

Jack: "... Eat spicy hot pot. Refuse disposable tableware, environmental protection."

“……”

——

The only way to solve worries is to reflect on yourself.

Anna reflected all the way. She shouldn't have agreed to come out and celebrate when she met those demons.

She has learned that things come together, and she will definitely draw a line with them in the future.

The anger was only temporary, and Anna went home laughing.

The holiday seems to be one and a half days, but in fact it is only twenty or so hours. The next day, I have to go to school for evening study.

After saying goodbye to her father, grandfather and grandmother, Anna set off for school again.

The evening study session was very, very much anticipated because the monthly exam results were due. Anna pounded her fists against each other as she waited for the report card to come down.