ATLAS TRANSLATES

When Wang Zhezi turned his head, Tao Zhi hadn’t yet come back to her senses.

The test papers spread on the windowsill rustled in the wind, the lively sound seeming to mock her mercilessly.

With a light tap, Wang Zhezi knocked on her head again.

Tao Zhi hissed, coming back to reality. She lifted her head, narrowing her eyes as her temper started to rise.

Wang Zhezi said, “What’s wrong? Not happy that I won’t let you chat while doing homework? Want to hit me?”

“…No,” Tao Zhi lowered her head again and said dryly.

“Alright, go back to class for now,” Wang Zhezi said while picking up two books from the desk. “Since it’s the first day of school and this is your first offense, I’ll let you off. But next time I catch you copying homework, I’ll really make you stay here and write until you finish.”

Tao Zhi responded with a sound, thinking to herself that not copying was impossible — she just had to make sure she didn’t get caught.

Wang Zhezi said, “Take your time to finish it during breaks, but you still need to submit it. I’ll give you a deadline — this week.”

Tao Zhi lifted her head and drawled, “Ahh—?”

Wang Zhezi: “What, you don’t want to submit it now?”

“No, no, I promise to complete the task.” Tao Zhi collected the papers from the windowsill with a dejected face and fled back to the classroom, clutching several stacks of test papers.

By now, early morning self-study was almost over. She dawdled back to her seat, where a small girl sat next to her, reading an English book.

The last row also had someone now — the inner seat was empty, but a boy sat in the outer seat.

Tao Zhi casually glanced over and froze.

The boy also lifted his head.

Tao Zhi narrowed her eyes, her expression not particularly pleased, her gaze already showing signs of battle.

Jiang Qi Huai looked at her coldly and indifferently, pausing for two seconds.

Then he lowered his gaze expressionlessly.

Tao Zhi almost couldn’t resist throwing all the test papers at his head.

She didn’t understand how this person could remain so casually composed when just five minutes ago he had been playing her for a fool in the office.

But before she could make any move, Wang Zhezi had already entered through the front door. Tao Zhi had no choice but to sit down first, suppressing her anger. She slammed the test papers on her desk with a “bang.”

Her small deskmate jumped at the sound, timidly glancing at her.

Tao Zhi realized what she’d done and apologized: “Sorry.”

“It’s… it’s okay…” The small girl shrank her shoulders, stealing another glance at her before hesitantly saying in a soft voice, “Um, they handed out this semester’s books while you were gone, so I got them for you.”

Look at this!

Why could the difference between people be so great?

Tao Zhi looked at the neat stack of textbooks piled in the upper left corner of her desk and felt her agitated mood being somewhat soothed.

She turned her head to look at her small deskmate. The girl was very thin, with a clean and docile appearance, sporting a bob haircut — the type that looked like a good student.

The name written on the English textbook in front of her read Fu Xi Ling.

Tao Zhi thanked her. On the platform, Wang Zhezi had already started giving the new semester motivation speech, telling everyone to get familiar with each other these few days, and that they would vote for subject representatives and class monitor during Friday’s evening self-study.

Tao Zhi propped up her head, listening halfheartedly to a few sentences before lying down on her desk, planning to take a nap and “have a discussion” with the person sitting behind her after class.

“Those of you from Class 3 already know that I’m quite strict,” Wang Zhezi’s voice boomed. “Those little bad habits you’ve developed before, you’d better correct them when you’re with me. Fix what you can fix quickly, and I’ll help you fix what you can’t. Look at those pathetic scores you got — how dare you not take this seriously?”

Tao Zhi found him noisy and covered her ears, turning to face the other way.

Wang Zhezi continued: “In last semester’s three-school mock exam, how many decent scores were there? I took a look at our class, and only Li Shuang Jiang did okay. The Affiliated High School had three students score above 140 in math alone. What about our school? How can we compete with them? And in physics, I even set that last big question myself — what an embarrassment!”

In the front row, Li Shuang Jiang was whispering with his deskmate: “The Affiliated High School only has one left now. One of the girls transferred to the south.”

“Still one left?” his deskmate whispered back.

“Yeah, got a perfect score. Sitting right back there,” Li Shuang Jiang said. “Turn around, see? Right behind your back.”

“I see him. Damn, he’s a study god?”

“Top student at Affiliated High,” Li Shuang Jiang confirmed. “I heard Old Wang talking about it in the office today.”

“And he’s handsome too. Much respect, brother.”

Tao Zhi: “…”

What kind of people were these?

Tao Zhi couldn’t listen anymore and lifted her head.

Li Shuang Jiang and his deskmate were still twisted halfway around, admiring the handsome genius’s appearance.

Tao Zhi: “Your voices are a bit loud.”

“…”

“I estimate everyone within two rows could hear you,” Tao Zhi said expressionlessly, typically lacking manners when she was annoyed. “Including that handsome genius behind me who made your crotch salute.”

Her small deskmate’s shoulders trembled again right on cue.

The two people in front instinctively looked past her to glance back again.

The study god wasn’t sitting properly like an elementary school student as they had imagined. He was propping his chin with one hand, flipping through his book casually. Noticing their gazes, he lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced over.

“…”

Li Shuang Jiang shivered from that single glance, his whole body feeling chilly. He grabbed his deskmate’s head and turned back around.

Physics class was Tao Zhi’s self-proclaimed best class for sleeping, without exception. Being the first class on Monday morning when people were most tired, Tao Zhi slept through it completely.

Even Wang Zhezi’s resonant voice couldn’t wake her up.

When she was finally awakened by the bell and opened her eyes, the entire morning had passed and it was lunch break. Tao Zhi sat up groggily, lifting her hand to pat her eyes that felt heavy from deep sleep, trying to clear her head.

The classroom was mostly empty, with only a few people remaining. Tao Zhi turned her head and saw that Fu Xi Ling was still sitting inside.

“Why haven’t you gone to eat?” Tao Zhi asked her.

The small girl looked somewhat troubled: “You were sleeping.”

It took Tao Zhi a moment to understand her meaning.

She sat on the outside, and her small deskmate would need her to make way to get out.

“I was in too deep a sleep, sorry,” Tao Zhi mumbled while making way for her. Just as she stood up, she remembered something else. “Did you not go to the bathroom all morning?”

The small girl’s face turned red immediately: “No… I didn’t need to…”

Tao Zhi blinked, about to say something when someone called her from the back door of the classroom.

She stretched lazily as she walked over. Song Jiang was hanging onto the back door frame, craning his neck to look inside.

Tao Zhi grabbed his school uniform collar and pulled him back: “Let’s go, Timely Rain. What are you looking at?”

“Checking if there are any pretty girls in your class. Who was that you were just talking to? She’s pretty. Does she have a boyfriend? Can you let her take a look at me?” Song Jiang was being dragged forward by her, his school uniform jacket unzipped, and with her pulling like this, it came half off. “Stop pulling, stop pulling, ancestor! The clothes are falling off, falling off, falling off! What are you doing in the hallway, all this pulling and tugging, what kind of behavior is this?”

“Hungry,” Having just woken up, the most exciting part was eating. Tao Zhi’s mood had finally improved a little bit. She hopped forward a couple of times while urging him, “Hurry up, hurry up, let’s go eat.”

Song Jiang took two steps at once down the stairs: “I heard you got called to the office by your homeroom teacher during early self-study?”

Tao Zhi: “…Don’t bring up things that shouldn’t be brought up.”

“I’m just congratulating you on your grand opening,” Song Jiang laughed. “How does it feel to be called to the office on the first day of the new semester? That Old Wang in your Class 1 is fierce, your days ahead might not be as easy as before.”

Tao Zhi was completely deflated and couldn’t be bothered to respond to him. The two of them left the teaching building and then the school gates, sitting down in a noodle shop next to the school.

The shop wasn’t big and was already full. They walked to the last table where three people were waiting, including a girl who waved cheerfully at her: “Zhizhi!”

The noodles had already been served. Tao Zhi sat down next to her, took the chopsticks, reached for the vinegar bottle nearby, and started pouring it generously into her noodle bowl.

After finishing with the vinegar, she started scooping up chili sauce.

“Sour for boys, spicy for girls,” Song Jiang couldn’t resist making a comment from the side. “Complete with both son and daughter.”

Tao Zhi put down the chili jar and smacked him on the head.

Song Jiang covered his head with an “ouch”: “I was just joking, why are you in such a bad mood today?”

“Met an annoying person.” Tao Zhi said unhappily while picking out green onions. After a pause, she looked up again: “Jiang Qi Huai, heard of him?”

“No,” Song Jiang said while eating his noodles. “Where’s he from?”

Tao Zhi looked at him speechlessly: “The study god from Affiliated High.”

“…Why would I know a study god from Affiliated High?” Song Jiang looked even more speechless. “Why would someone who scores 300 on tests know a study god from Affiliated High? If you asked me about their school bully, I might be able to help you inquire.”

Tao Zhi stared at him for five seconds with puffed cheeks.

Song Jiang felt uneasy under her stare: “What? Who is this person? Which ignorant son of a gun dared to offend our Experimental High’s ancestor? Let me take care of him for you right away.”

“Shut up,” Tao Zhi sighed, lowering her head to continue eating her noodles. “Forget it, it’s nothing.”

After finishing their meal, Song Jiang and the others were heading to the supermarket up front. Tao Zhi said goodbye and returned to school first.

Class 1 was on the third floor. She meandered back to the classroom slowly, encountering her small deskmate at the classroom door.

Fu Xi Ling was standing against the wall, head lowered, while a male student in a third-year uniform was talking to her.

They were some distance away, so Tao Zhi couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying. The boy was smiling and leaning in closer, causing the small girl to shrink back like a frightened animal before shaking her head.

She was clearly unwilling.

The boy reached out to grab her.

Hey hey, how could he get physical with a small girl?

Tao Zhi pinched her earlobe and walked over, quietly intercepting his hand. She turned to Fu Xi Ling: “I’m heading back in, are you coming? I don’t want to have to make way for you again later.”

Fu Xi Ling quickly nodded and hurried back into the classroom with her head down.

Tao Zhi treated the person standing in the hallway like air and followed her into the classroom, casually slamming the back door shut.

There weren’t many people in the classroom. That annoying person from early self-study had already returned and was sitting in his seat working on test papers.

Fu Xi Ling returned to her seat. Her books were spread open, her head hung low, her bob cut sliding down to hide her profile.

Tao Zhi wasn’t one to pry into others’ business, especially with someone she’d just met today.

In the early autumn noon, sunlight poured in abundantly through the light blue curtains. Having eaten her fill, she felt lazy. She leaned back in her chair, reclining slightly, and pulled out her phone from her desk drawer, slouching as she played with it.

The classroom was completely quiet except for the slight sound of paper rustling from the princess behind her turning test paper pages.

Listening to that sound, Tao Zhi suddenly stopped pressing buttons on her phone.

She put her phone back in the desk drawer, lifted her foot to step on the desk rail, and applied slight pressure. The front legs of her chair left the ground as she tilted back, only the back two legs touching the floor.

The chair back lightly bumped the desk behind her with a soft sound.

Tao Zhi could even hear the scratching sound of the glass princess’s writing pause for a moment.

She curled her lips somewhat maliciously and started rocking her chair. Like sitting in a rocking chair, swaying back and forth.

Back and forth.

Each sway produced a light impact sound. After swaying for quite a while, she finally heard the person behind her, seemingly unable to endure anymore, “clatter” — throwing their pen onto the desk.

Tao Zhi silently counted two seconds in her heart—

“Do you need something?”

Jiang Qi Huai’s voice was somewhat low and pressed, his tone icy, like rain pouring down suddenly in a cold night.

Bingo.

Tao Zhi felt like she hadn’t been this happy in a long time.

She felt that actually there wasn’t much to it. Initially it was just her mistake — he wasn’t there to make up homework at all. If he had simply said “I don’t do homework” at that time, the matter would have ended right there in the office.

But this person deliberately went along with everything she said.

And even said he would be responsible for biology.

But it turned out he was just playing with her?

Wasn’t that going a bit too far?

She had the kind of personality where if she didn’t speak out about something, it would make her whole body uncomfortable. She was used to being straightforward, and usually did whatever she wanted with everyone indulging her. It had been a long time since she’d suffered this kind of frustration.

So thinking about it, she couldn’t let it go. Tao Zhi lifted her chair forward a bit, turned her body around, stretched out her long legs, and straddled the chair backwards.

She rested her arms on his desk, leaned forward slightly, moved in closer, and asked him back: “What do you think?”

The young girl stared at him, her pupils pitch black, eyes narrowed into elongated shapes, her straight nose and thin lips showing a somewhat aggressive beauty.

Like a game of chess, neither of them moved their gaze away.

After staring at each other for a few seconds, Jiang Qi Huai suddenly spoke: “I’m sorry.”

Tao Zhi was completely stunned by this unexpected development: “What?”

Jiang Qi Huai stretched his long legs forward, leaned back slightly, his whole body relaxing as he said indifferently: “About what happened during early self-study. My bad.”

Tao Zhi: “…?”

Tao Zhi never imagined that Jiang Qi Huai would pull this move — if I apologize fast enough, I can choke my opponent to death.

She suddenly found herself immersed in a state of confusion and frustration with nowhere to vent her anger, momentarily unable to say a single word.

Tao Zhi looked at him in shock.

Jiang Qi Huai said emotionlessly: “It was my fault, I’m sorry.”

Tao Zhi: “…”