On Path of Distraction Chapter 4

Caleb Shi was unable to meet his new roommate immediately.

Because his new roommate was caught by a passing PE teacher, he had to go to the PE department to compensate for the basketball hoop that was broken at the roots.

"The new basketball stand has not been tested, so there may be a certain chance of quality problems."

Lao Wan felt a little regretful, looked out the window again, and added a voice-over to the unexpectedly ended shot: "Just like our lives, if we haven't experienced all kinds of pressure, blows and setbacks, it's hard to know how strong our resilience can be, and what kind of quantitative and qualitative changes will occur..."

Caleb Shi was not very interested in resilience and qualitative change. He perked up and thought carefully about why this thing that fell from the sky looked so familiar.

And he is not the basket, so why does he have a special feeling about the three words "a bit heavy" for some unknown reason?

I can empathize with you and say it without thinking.

Very true.

I didn't sleep well for the past few days at home, but I managed to stay awake until dawn on the first night out. My temples ached as if a wedge was driven into them.

The severely sleep-deprived mind seemed to be covered with rust. If you exert the slightest effort to turn it, it would creak and fall off.

Caleb Shi couldn't help but frowned.

His poor condition was so obvious that even Lao Wan could see it. He paused his report on "Some thoughts on the incident of the new basketball hoop being crushed" and took him out of the office with the receipt.

When they got downstairs, Lao Wan specifically pointed out the dormitories to him.

The layout of Hegao is not complicated, with several main roads running horizontally and vertically. If you keep walking straight out of the door, you can hit the back wall of the school with your eyes closed.

But Lao Wan was obviously still not reassured, and he broke down the matter of walking straight to the end and turning left, and explained it to him in detail several times, changing the method and adjusting the order.

I originally thought that people like Hayden Cheng were extremely talkative, but now it seems that they are not even at the same level.

When Caleb Shi began to doubt whether he would fall asleep in the class of the head teacher, Lao Wan finally finished the preparations and turned the topic back to him in an unusually abrupt manner: "By the way, classmate Caleb Shi, about your roommate..."

"Teacher Ethan." Caleb Shi stopped him, "I will get along well with my roommates."

"Getting along well is based on mutual understanding." Teacher Ethan waved his hand and continued to talk to him patiently, "Blake Lin has a good personality. He doesn't fight or have conflicts with his classmates. He's just a little nagging."

Teacher Ethan paused for a moment and looked at the student who seemed to have suddenly become alert: "What's wrong?"

Caleb Shi: "...It's okay."

Lao Wan felt relieved and let him go to the dormitory building by himself.

There were not many students returning to school, so the procedures were very smooth. After their identities were verified, they were given uniform dormitory supplies and an access card with a one-inch photo printed on it.

There were no classes in their second year of high school, and most students knew each other. They hadn't seen each other for a summer vacation, so they were visiting each other's dormitories and saying hello.

Caleb Shi went upstairs carrying a bunch of messy things. When he fumbled for the key and opened the door with some effort, he could still hear the noise in the corridor.

There was no one in the room. His new roommate probably hadn't finished paying for the basketball hoop yet and was not in the dormitory.

The layout of the dormitory was very spacious, with two beds placed diagonally, one on top and the other on the bottom. The other bed had been made up, with a pile of books on the shelf and a quilt at the head of the bed, neatly folded into a tofu block.

The air conditioner was never turned off and was on high setting.

Caleb Shi threw down his luggage, which probably contained a galaxy, and climbed up to the upper bunk using the ladder. He hastily spread out the mattress and sheets, and fell on his back on the bed.

His nose was hurting, so he took off his glasses and put them on the bedside.

Maybe he had been holding back his energy, and until he lay on the bed in the new dormitory, the exhaustion and tiredness of the past few days suddenly came flooding back and wrapped him up completely.

Caleb Shi bent his arms, covered his eyes and lay there for a while, finally letting out the pent-up shudder.

It can make Lao Wan feel nagging.

Before he came here, he actually thought that it was just a matter of changing schools, and there was nothing to be afraid of.

too naive.

Maybe I was really too tired. My mind was blank when I climbed up. I had no other thoughts except that I couldn't wait to find a safe place to lie down.

Caleb Shi lay down for a while before realizing that he came up a little too hastily.

Everything else is fine, but the medicine is still in the suitcase and I forgot to bring it up with me.

Caleb Shi held onto the bed rail and looked down.

Since junior high school, he has had some problems with sleeping, especially when he is in an unfamiliar environment, it is basically impossible for him to close his eyes smoothly.

Hayden Cheng felt that this wasn't working, so he tried many methods and finally managed to add a psychological counseling room where he could sleep.

It was too tiring to go down again, so Caleb Shi turned sideways, turned over to face the wall, and touched the earphone with his eyes closed.

...

When Hayden Cheng received the call, he was even a little bit incredulous: "Grandfather, you called me just for this?"

Caleb Shi actually just wanted to find someone he knew to talk to. Hearing this, he raised his hand to block the light that was a bit blinding to his eyes: "Then hang up."

"No, no, no." Hayden Cheng was finally pulled back from the blacklist and cherished it very much. "I can take a leave and buy a train ticket to your dormitory. I can help you take the medicine out of the suitcase beside your bed and send it to your upper bunk."

Caleb Shi: ...

Hayden Cheng felt that this silence conveyed a wide range of emotions from the patient, including disdain, disbelief, and not wanting to continue talking nonsense with him.

"There's nothing we can do. Psychologists are not omnipotent."

Hayden Cheng's words were still a little casual, but his tone had become serious: "Caleb Shi, I don't mean to force you. But I don't know what you have experienced in the past, and I can't give you practical and effective help now."

Hayden Cheng: "For example, in your situation, a warm and considerate roommate may be more helpful than a psychologist like me."

Caleb Shi now gets a headache when he hears the word "roommate": "Change the example."

"Ah?" Hayden Cheng finally got serious for once, but was interrupted unexpectedly. He was still a little unresponsive, "Why?"

Caleb Shi pressed his temple, but before he could explain to him, there was a sudden sound of running in the corridor.

The sound of keys came from outside the door.

The next second, the heat from the sun poured into the dormitory.

There was more than one person coming in.

They looked quite familiar. Some of them sat down on chairs, some gulped down water from the water dispenser, and some jumped onto the table to catch a little cool air from the air-conditioning vents.

It was probably the group of people who played basketball at that time.

Caleb Shi heard some of them calling the man who opened the door "Jian Ge", and also vaguely heard a few names like Nolan Wu and Dylan Li.

My brain was too sleepy to work, and the rest was too chaotic to hear clearly.

"Just say hello and tell them to be quiet?"

The noise was so loud that Hayden Cheng could hear it. He actively gave him advice through his headphones: "Isn't your new role a nerd? You can say that you want to study and give extra lessons to your new classmates. Just treat it as a rehearsal."

Caleb Shi just wanted to hang out in this place for two years, so he didn't have much desire to communicate with new classmates. He just rested his head on his arm and ignored him.

Hayden Cheng was used to his silence, so he continued to give advice: "Or be more aggressive, throw something at them and tell them to get out. It's good to be a troublemaker, because troublemakers don't get bullied..."

At the same time, close your eyes.

He didn't want to do anything and just wanted to wait for the group of people to finish chatting and go out.

The phone call was not hung up, and the headset was still talking endlessly. It was not convenient to touch the phone at this time, so I closed my eyes and continued to accumulate sleepiness bit by bit.

Hayden Cheng was talking to himself in a very exciting way, and he was looking forward to the moment when the two school bullies raised their arms and called for the final battle at Hegao. At that moment, the people on the ground finally realized that there seemed to be one more person in the dormitory.

"Don't talk." Blake Lin put down his coat, pushed down a person who was dancing on the table, and looked at the bed opposite.

Lao Wan said that he had found a new roommate for him. I couldn’t see clearly because it fell so fast, and I only caught a vague glimpse of it.

He looked frail, carrying a heavy school bag and wearing glasses.

Quite honest.

Like a nerd.

Not sure to what extent he couldn't speak, the boy who was pressed on the table by him to shut up staggered out a hand, picked up a pen and wrote on the paper: Brother Jian, I want to drink water.

Blake Lin frowned and pulled the pen over: What the hell, the person is sleeping.

In the woods: Waiting outside.

A group of people tiptoed out of the dormitory one after another, squatted outside the door obediently, and left the door ajar.

Finally, a skinny boy leaned half of his body in before the door closed, gestured to him to put his glasses back on, and tried to mouth the words: "Brother Jian, be kind, friendly, friendly---"

Blake Lin couldn't help rubbing his forehead: ...

Caleb Shi turned his back to the bed, not knowing what had happened, but he felt that things suddenly became quiet behind him.

The footsteps were more than a decibel lighter than before, and they walked out the door one after another quietly.

There was a rustling sound in the room.

The sound was quite light, and the remaining people walked back and forth twice, probably taking something.

After a while, the edge of Caleb Shi's bed was tapped gently.

Unable to pretend any longer, Caleb Shi took a deep breath, propped himself up with his arm, took off one earphone and turned around.

Blake Lin adjusted the glasses on his nose, and considerately stretched out his arm to help him hand the glasses on the bedside, and smiled.

...

For a long time afterwards, whenever Caleb Shi was annoyed by his desk mate and roommate to the point where he wanted to draw a cat on their face in the middle of the night, he asked himself about this scene countless times.

You should just pretend to be asleep.

He fell into a deep sleep and couldn't be woken up no matter how hard I shook him.

Even if the bed was knocked over by someone doing pull-ups by the railing, he wouldn't even open his eyes to look.

Wear glasses at the same time.

I'm not nearsighted at all. I just took off my glasses and threw them aside. There's still dust on the lenses that I haven't wiped off.

Light slanted into the dormitory from the window, and the low-quality plastic lens immediately cast a halo.

His rather heavy roommate was standing beside the bed.

The boy had broad shoulders and long legs, and his appearance was very convincingly friendly. His eyes, under the sun, showed a warm amber color: "Student Caleb Shi? Hello, I'm Blake Lin."