After dragging the pine tree to a suitable position and putting it down, Naruse rubbed the bit of peeled bark on his hand and shook his arm again.
"It's quite heavy..."
"After all, it is two meters high, and the branches and leaves are completely preserved and have not been removed." Naoko looked at his hands, then looked at the vice president of the student union who was following him, "For the Christmas tree, what do you want, Sister Yoshioka?"
?"
"There are no special requirements, as long as the final product is a Christmas tree."
"Okay." Shangzi smiled, "Leave it to us."
Senior Yoshioka nodded and left quickly. Everyone in the restoration department gathered around the pine trees on the ground and began planning.
"This height should be about the same, right?"
"Hmm."
"The branches and leaves here are a little dense. Let's just cut some off and coordinate with the other side."
"Is it very dense? Well... you can't tell if you put it on the ground. Let's stand it up and take a look."
During the design and planning process, Naruse basically kept silent and was only responsible for contributing.
After lifting up the pine tree, he looked at the other side of the gymnasium. Starfish was standing next to some girls, watching them weave colorful ropes.
She came here with Hikaru Takigawa, and somehow she helped, but judging from her expression, she was quite happy with it.
"...What do you think Naruse?"
When he came back to his senses, several senior students around him looked at him.
"What?"
"Do you need to cut off some of the branches and leaves here?"
"Anything is fine." He looked at the pine tree he was holding in his hand, "If it's not too troublesome, you can actually find some more pine branches to cover it, so that the branches and leaves of the whole tree become denser and look better."
/p>
"That's a good idea... but it's hard to find pine branches, right?"
"Ask someone from the student union."
Regarding Jingao's first Christmas party, everyone held an attitude of striving for excellence and discussed it, and finally Naoko made a request to the student union.
"Pine branches? No problem, of course it's enough. But we don't have time to go there now, so we can only ask a few people from the restoration department to buy pine branches ourselves. All the expenses will be reimbursed by our student union... Ah, as long as there are not too many
."
Someone from the student union gave the address and contact information of the store where the pine trees were purchased. After discovering that it was not too far away, the two senior students decided to go and have a look in person.
The remaining people continued to surround the pine tree, planning their next move.
"Speaking of which, how are we going to stand this tree up? We can't hold it up all the time, right?"
"Just get a base."
"Pour the cement yourself?"
"Wow, that's too troublesome... I'll use wooden boards to make a frame. Then I can stuff some heavy objects like stones into it and it should be able to support it."
The Christmas tree is one of the most important decorations at the party, but it is also independent and does not affect other ongoing parts. The members of the restoration department are planning and designing leisurely, and the ideas are gradually taking shape.
"Wrap thin strings of lights around the branches, decorate them with flowers and birds cut out of glittery cardboard, and then hang some cute stuffed animals such as Santa Claus, reindeer or snowflakes. Well... and finally, on the Christmas tree
At the top, use a glowing filament to wrap around a star."
When asked by Hikaru Takigawa who was passing by, Naruse explained their design like this.
"It's so complicated, so careful."
"So the workload is not small," Naruse said.
In the plan of the members of the restoration department, even the light bulbs must be painted in different colors after they are purchased.
"They have returned to the club room to make decorations now." Naruse gestured to the pine trees on the ground, "I'm waiting for the other two seniors to come back and make some preliminary decorations. Hmm..."
"What's wrong?" Hikari Takigawa noticed that he was hesitant to speak.
"The power of light is not bad."
"Well, do you want to compare?"
"That's not what I meant...Do you have time now?"
"Nothing happens now, let's talk."
"I want you to go to the restoration department and help me get the base of this thing. Senior Ogawa's place should have almost done it. Or you can help me look at the tree here and I'll move it myself.
" Naruse said.
"I'll go." Hikari Takigawa was more willing to move around a bit and readily agreed.
Watching her leave the gymnasium, Naruse exhaled a breath of cold air, then stamped his feet and circled around the pine trees on the ground to stretch his cold body.
People were coming and going around. After the cultural festival, the gymnasium became busy again due to the celebration for the first time in a long time.
"——Is this the Christmas tree for the party?"
Naruse was startled and quickly turned around, "Yes."
"Well..."
Starfish stared at the pine tree, his eyes spinning, as if hesitating how to evaluate.
"I haven't started decorating yet, this is not the final look."
"Oh!" She seemed to be relieved.
Naruse smiled and said, "Are you looking forward to it?"
"Yeah." Haixing nodded.
He looked at the place where she stayed before, "Was Haixing helping there just now?"
"I just helped move some things...there is nothing more that needs me now."
Naruse thought for a moment, "Some pine branches will be delivered later. If Haixing is okay, help me install them."
"Eh... ok."
She immediately agreed, then lowered her head and looked at the pine trees on the ground again.
Naruse looked at her from the side and looked away before she noticed.
After Matsu Qianqiu returned to Tokyo, Haixing has not been to his house, but the communication between the two has not been interrupted. They can chat with each other normally while waiting for the bus to go to school or on the way home from school.<
/p>
After the formal reconciliation that night, the two became more and more like ordinary friends.
Starfish squatted down, touched the mottled bark, and suddenly raised his head: "How to connect the branches?"
"Just use wire and barbed wire to hang it up." Naruse said, "Fix the roots of the branches so they won't fall."
While the two were talking, Hikaru Takigawa returned to the gymnasium carrying a Christmas tree base made of spliced wooden boards.
"It's not very heavy, but Ogawa-senpai moves really fast." Reading 溂
"Senior sisters are very good at carpentry. Once they have specific ideas, they always move quickly." Naruse took the wooden base and tried it. It was indeed not too heavy.
The base is hollow, used to place heavy objects, and there is a square hole on the top that is about the same size as a pine tree trunk.
"Senior sister said that after the Christmas tree was put in, it was stuck with these two wooden boards." Hikaru Takigawa pushed a certain movable wooden board, "It's really clever."
Haixing came over, and Naruse also knelt down and took a look.
After waiting for another twenty minutes, he received a message from Shangzi asking him to go to the school gate to help bring in the pine branches.
When I arrived at the school gate, I saw that the two senior students had almost brought back most of the branches and leaves of the tree.
"It's too much."
"It doesn't cost nearly as much, so I couldn't help but ask for a little more..."
It took some time to drag Matsue back to the gymnasium. Hikaru Takigawa and Haisei, who had gone to the playground to move rocks, also came back.
Naruse lifted the Christmas tree up, inserted it into the base filled with stones, fixed it, and then began to wrap the barbed wire around the tree.
"Just put the branches into the holes of the wire mesh and hang them." He explained the method to Haixing. "If you can't hang them, use thin wire to fix them."
Haixing nodded while trying, "I know."
The two senior sisters looked at the two of them and then looked at each other.
"This is..."
"The starfish of Class E in the first year."
Naruse lowered his head and handed a thin wire to Haixing, "She used to be my stepsister, and she stopped by to help today. Naoko also knows her."