Wen Xishu's guess was not wrong. In a desk heavily vandalized with clown red noses, he found a paper note.
The note was tucked inside a book discussing healthy physiological knowledge and had been cut into the shape of a key.
There were some words written on it, possibly expressing affection for a certain girl. But the girl's name was nowhere to be seen.
However, Wen Xishu guessed it wasn't Anya. He always felt that Anya would appear later.
"Damn it, how did you know there would be this?" Huohua was very surprised.
Wen Xishu said:
"As long as people grow up normally, at a certain age, they will develop a fondness for the opposite sex."
"We passed by the school gate and saw many torn and illegible love letters."
"The campus is where all tender emotions sprout, yet simultaneously, it is the slaughterhouse of all these tender emotions."
"Shame education actually leads kids to think some things are shameful, but often what suppresses this sense of shame is the admiration for the opposite sex."
Huohua didn't understand completely, only felt it kind of made sense.
Wen Xishu guessed this might be Charlie's desk.
Charlie once liked a girl and confessed to her. But then, something unpleasant happened.
Wen Xishu held the paper-key tucked in the book, and as he approached the physiological poster on the blackboard, he noticed the red X by the heart slowly fading.
Gradually... that locked heart started to open slowly.
At the same moment, Wen Xishu and Huohua heard the sound of a door opening.
Like a heavy stone door slowly opening.
And that heart actually fell out from the poster.
Wen Xishu held that red heart, and in that instant, many memories rushed in.
That was before biology class started, before the class commences, the envelope hidden in Charlie's desk caught people's attention.
"This is Charlie's love letter, let's read it aloud together!"
"My God, Charlie, how can you have the nerve to write such lewd sentences!"
"Tsk tsk, look at this sentence, this sentence, you actually want to bite Hillvy's earlobe! Oh, Charlie, I can't believe you're such a pervert."
"Do you also want to smear your filthy saliva all over her body! Hahahahaha."
The classroom was full of laughter, the girl named Hillvy blushing, seemingly out of anger.
Charlie kept explaining:
"No, no, it's not like that!"
Indeed it wasn't, he didn't write those sentences, he simply wrote: Hillvy... I want to be friends with you, if not, it's okay, I wish you can always be happy.
But under the classmates' prank, it was exaggerated.
Soon, the teacher came, the biology teacher quickly discovered the kids' prank, but merely said:
"Charlie, I'm disappointed in you. How can you have this kind of thought! How can you act like an animal?"
His words were like a public execution, seemingly confirming something.
Coincidentally, the course content discussed gender differences, in this moment the teacher mixed what should symbolize pure and naive emotions with pure physiological desires.
During this class, people occasionally glanced at Charlie.
Charlie was in despair, he even wondered... if he truly was disgraceful?
Why did he think of writing a little note?
Even though he knew perfectly well, the content of the note was actually very normal.
The bell after class rang, Charlie tried to apologize and explain to the girl.
But Hillvy merely blushed and ran away.
Soon after, Charlie's parents were summoned, his father still as cold as ever, slapped Charlie across the face, leaving the sentence: You really embarrass me.
From then on, Charlie gained a nickname, Ear-biting Charlie.
Later on, one day at the hallway near the school gate, Hillvy suddenly called out to Charlie, asking if he liked her.
If so, she hoped Charlie could say it out loud.
Charlie didn't do so, he merely looked at Hillvy sadly.
Unlike in many youth dramas where Charlie shouts his confession loudly, followed by Hillvy's sudden ridicule, and people around joining in mockery.
Charlie indeed liked Hillvy, but he easily saw the group of people hiding not far away, waiting to laugh at him.
He sadly explained:
"Hillvy, that day I didn't write that way, I'm sorry."
"But I think... it already doesn't matter to you anymore."
A chorus of boos followed, everyone felt it wasn't interesting. The plot didn't unfold as they imagined.
But Charlie quietly ran to a corner where no one was, silently shedding tears.
He wasn't stupid, he realized Hillvy and the boy bullying him wanted to trick him, assuming after he indeed says loudly I like you... Hillvy wouldn't accept his love, she'd just laugh at him with those hiding people.
Facing such matters, Charlie could only feel sadness, so deep that he lacked even energy for anger.
He silently thought, no one would like him, if he hadn't written that note, his father wouldn't be disappointed, at least Hillvy wouldn't hate him like this.
Don't believe anyone will be nice to you for no reason, nor lightly... express your longing to be nice to someone.
All of that would cause hurt.
The memory ended here, for the time being.
In Wen Xishu's past life, there was a phrase online, saying one episode of extroversion leads to a lifetime of introversion.
Charlie probably felt that way back then.