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After reuniting with Prunus Almond at noon, Bombardment Scorch was a little absent-minded during the afternoon class.
This reaction was natural — because he never thought that he would actually meet Prunus again, and the location was Xiong Ying, a prestigious high school that specialized in training heroes.
In fact, she had even become his junior now.
Hong Jiao Leng rested her chin on her hand and tapped her ballpoint pen on the textbook for the hero course on the table. On the surface, she pretended to be listening attentively to AsiaZe's words, but in reality, she was thinking about her own matters.
He remembered that he and she had known each other since kindergarten.
When he was three years old, he enrolled in a kindergarten that was some distance away from his home. It was an aristocratic kindergarten, and the students who enrolled were either rich or noble. Prunus' family was no exception — both her parents were professional heroes, and they were not well-known in the media or in the hero world. Her parents had even worked with her father's law firm several times.
At that time, she was the same as now. She had a light apricot shoulder-length bob, and a pair of round, clear eyes on her pink and fair face. She always liked to wear a white wool jacket on top of her school uniform jacket. It could be said that she was dressed exactly the same as she was in the cafeteria just now.
But of course, such ordinary things were not enough to make him pay attention to her.
What really made him remember her was her extremely slow and muddle-headed personality. At that time, he always thought that Bai Jian was a perfect contrast to her heroic parents. Her father was a hero who could control water, and her mother was a hero who could turn her body into smoke. They could quickly save the people who were in trouble at the scene of a disaster. They were famous in the industry for their speed and coordination.
But Prunus was different. She was very confused, and her learning could never catch up with everyone else's progress. Everyone could recite the English alphabet fluently at the age of three, but she could still pronounce it wrongly at the age of six. She even wrote b as d, p as q, and Q as O — because of this, the kindergarten teacher even pulled her out of the crowd several times and forced her to recite the order of the English alphabet in front of the class … But no matter how many times she recited it, she still had the talent to get the answers wrong.
In Prunus, she only learned how to write her own name at the age of five. Naturally, she could only write Chinese characters after she was six years old.
Normally, kindergarten students would be able to use hiragana to write a diary when they were six years old. However, when she was six years old, she could still write Japanese characters in reverse. No one could understand her diary, and even when the kindergarten teacher asked her to read it aloud … she would still mispronounce what she had written.
Everyone could read picture books by themselves at the age of five, but she could only sit next to her friends and let them read it to her. If she had a picture book, she had to point at it with her fingers and read it one by one, otherwise she would not be able to read it.
But her behavior was particularly impressive — Bombardment Scorch remembered that at the age of three, their kindergarten had physical education classes for everyone to exercise in order to cultivate their individuality. But whether it was running, throwing balloons, or walking, Prunus still had the ability to stumble and walk sideways. She even tripped over the obstacles set by the teacher.
As for the individuality that everyone awakened at the age of three to four, she had never awakened it.
To put it simply, when he could easily hold a fire in his left hand and a piece of ice in his right hand, Prunus was still learning how to write her own name. She would stick her innocent face on the exercise book and carefully and persistently copy her own name over and over again, silently memorizing the way to write her own name.
Thanks to this, she was gradually ostracized by the other children in the class who had awakened their individuality. They directly called her 'idiot', 'slow' … As for those who were more mature and self-centered, they would even knock her head from time to time and ask her in a mocking tone, "Have you learned how to write your own name today?"
In response, she would always be angry and puff up her mouth, "I'm trying to learn!"
… Well, he knew that she was indeed trying to learn, because every time he looked in her direction, she would be holding her little exercise book or pestering her friends to read her picture books.
But in the eyes of Bombardment Scorch, it was useless. Because he knew that no matter how much she copied that day, she would still forget half of it the next day.
She did not make any progress in her studies, and even became nearsighted because of this study habit. She had to wear thick glasses at a young age, and was laughed at by her classmates for a while.
"… Little Bombardment Scorch, you have such a strong personality!"
He remembered that at that time, she would occasionally say such things to him, who was the center of the class.
In response, Bombardment Scorch did not respond to her, but in his heart, he complained without any malice, "Why don't you say that you are too far behind me?"
…
But even so, Prunus had always been clamoring to become a hero like her parents.
… In fact, he had to admit that when Prunus Almond expressed her wish of "I want to be a hero like my parents" to her classmates at the kindergarten graduation ceremony, everyone in the class laughed, including him. He remembered that he had a very skeptical expression at that time.
Until the age of six, she had not awakened her personality, and she could even fall down when throwing a ball. Was it really possible for her to become a hero?
At least, he could not imagine such a future.
In the class, the children with excellent personalities, and the children with excellent reflexes who did not have excellent personalities, he saw that they would all become heroes in the future. But when the spotlight fell on Prunus, he could not find any possibility of her shining.
But it was also on that day that he had a new impression of Prunus Almond.
On that day, Bombardment Scorch would never forget the scene on the graduation stage.
He happened to be standing next to her that day. After she expressed her wish, he heard the mocking laughter of her classmates, the sympathetic remarks of the parents, and the helpless sighs of the tutor. Not to mention the girl next to him. She was just an idiot who did not know how to read and write, but she was not deaf. The adults said "pitiful", and the classmates said "impossible" … She definitely understood.
After that, he did not know how much time had passed, and how many people had expressed their wishes for the future. After the public opinion about her gradually dissipated, the young Bombardment Scorch dared to carefully look at the girl next to him, who was under the spotlight. Then, he was surprised by the expression on her face.
At that moment, her eyes were red, and tears were swirling behind her thick glasses. But even so, she clenched her fists hard, bit her lower lip, and forced herself to smile at the parents and classmates who were attending the graduation ceremony.
Bombardment Scorch thought that on this stage where the spotlight was focused on, no one would be able to see the unwilling tears hidden behind the thick glasses of the girl. And she did not want everyone to see her unwillingness, so she clenched her fists so hard that they were trembling.
Then he thought about it again. It seemed that during the three years he had been in this kindergarten, he had never seen this girl cry. Whether it was when she was asked by the teacher to recite the English alphabet, when she fell on the basketball court, or when she was poked in the forehead by her classmates … She did not show any signs of crying. Instead, she smiled softly.
Yes, if he thought about it carefully, perhaps when all these things happened to him, he would have cried in front of everyone. But Prunus endured it for so long.
How could she not be unwilling?
How could she not feel hurt?
It was just that she had hidden those feelings — and he was the one who happened to see the truth.
"You, you're really a powerful fellow —"
Noticing this, the young Hong Jiao Leng had already forgotten that she was on the graduation platform. She directly expressed her thoughts to the white apricot tree in front of the entire school.
"Eh?"
His sudden outburst startled Prunus. Her tears were instantly scared back by his abruptness. She blinked her wet eyes and looked at him innocently. "What did you just say?"
"… Ah?
No, nothing! "
Bombardment Scorch's face was embarrassed, and his ears suddenly turned red. What did he do just now?
Why did he suddenly talk to this person?
They had been in the same class for three years, and he had never taken the initiative to say a word to her.
When he went back, he must not let his mother play the commemorative video of the graduation ceremony. Otherwise, he would definitely see how he talked to her in front of everyone. But in fact, what made him even more depressed was that the moment when Prunus turned around happened to be the moment when they took a group photo.
In short, the moment when the two of them separated from the formation and looked at each other, the school pressed the shutter and took this moment into the school's official graduation photo. It became a commemorative photo that every graduate had at home.
"Oh, Bombardment Scorch, why didn't you look at the camera at that time?"
He vaguely remembered the expression on his mother's face when she received the photo a month later. At that time, Bombardment Scorch anxiously snatched the photo and stared blankly at that embarrassing moment.
There was probably nothing worse than a moment of regret being taken forever and then sent to everyone's home.
Bombardment Scorch, who was only six years old at that time, painfully covered his cheek. He did not expect that his important graduation photo would be destroyed by Prunus.
After that, his childhood playmate called him with the photo and laughed at him, and his mother framed the photo despite his objections. He did not want to talk about it.
More importantly, in that season of cherry blossoms, he became a new student at a famous elementary school in the district.
And that slow-tempered classmate actually became his deskmate.
Bombardment Scorch: … Hello.
Prunus Almond did not know why, but she smiled a little awkwardly: … Little Bombardment Scorch, we haven't seen each other for a holiday.
Bombardment Scorch looked a little tired: … Ah, yes.
…