In the early morning, reading voices echoed through the second-year teaching building hallway. Li Si Jia stood at the podium, leading everyone in reading English vocabulary.
Some students in the class were lying down, some were eating breakfast, and the vocabulary reading was scattered and sparse. Li Si Jia was good-natured and didn’t say anything. The class representative stood up after listening and said: “Everyone please read properly, be careful in case Teacher Wang comes and finds you slacking off.”
Hearing this, Zhao Ming Qi quickly stuffed his unfinished bun into a paper bag and into his desk drawer, then picked up his English book and pretended to read.
Li Shuang Jiang held up his book to cover his face, turned around to look at the empty desk behind him and asked: “Boss still hasn’t come?”
Fu Xi Ling shook her head: “Sent her a message, no reply.”
She turned her head to look — Ji Fan wasn’t here either.
Li Shuang Jiang sighed.
Yesterday when the grades were posted, the whole class was shocked. Li Shuang Jiang jumped up at the front and shouted “Holy shit!” He looked haughtily at Wu Nan and Li Si Jia, pride and satisfaction written all over his face: “See that? Our class monitor can improve by 21 points in a month, ranked third in the grade! When was the last time you improved by 21 points?”
Wu Nan’s expression was somewhat stiff. Li Si Jia lowered her head without saying anything.
A girl beside them said defiantly: “She said she could score higher than Jia Jia, but she actually didn’t, what’s there to be so arrogant about?”
Wu Nan frowned and pulled her: “Stop talking, it was actually our fault.”
Jiang Zheng Xun sat on a nearby desk, smiling and speaking in a gentle tone: “Besides Brother Huai and the class rep, I don’t see anyone else scoring higher than 139. Let me see…” he looked for the name of the girl who just spoke, “Gu Na Na, 120, quite good. Just about 20 points less than our vice monitor, you could catch up in a month, keep it up.”
Gu Na Na’s face turned from blue to purple from his sarcastic tone, and she stopped talking.
No one thought it was a joke that Tao Zhi hadn’t scored higher than the grade’s top student — that was expected. But that she could directly shoot up to 139 in one month, achieving a score in the whole grade second only to Jiang Qi Huai and Li Si Jia, was a huge surprise.
That her score could have such a leap in such a short time shocked even Li Shuang Jiang and the others who had been watching how hard she worked.
Zhao Ming Qi let out a long breath beside them and said “awesome.”
Everyone turned to look back for Tao Zhi, only to find she was nowhere to be seen.
Fu Xi Ling stood alone at the back, looking somewhat dazed.
Li Shuang Jiang was confused: “Where’s the boss? Didn’t come to see the grades?”
“She saw them,” Fu Xi Ling said numbly, “then left.”
She hadn’t even reacted.
When she saw Tao Zhi’s English score, she almost cried out in joy, but when she turned her head, she saw the young girl looking down, corners of her lips turned down, saying nothing before turning to leave.
She put on her backpack and left silently.
She wanted to chase after her but was stopped by Jiang Qi Huai from behind.
Fu Xi Ling looked at Tao Zhi’s scores again — except for English, all her other subject scores were lower than last time, and her total score was about the same as the previous monthly exam.
She pressed her lips together, listening to Li Shuang Jiang gesturing excitedly beside her, as happy as if he himself had surpassed Jiang Qi Huai to get first in the grade.
Boys were always a bit thick-headed, probably unable to understand immediately.
Tao Zhi had given all her time this month to English. She hadn’t felt she was chasing an impossible bet — when everyone didn’t believe she could succeed, she truly gave it her all, trying to achieve what she said she would.
Maybe she hadn’t even thought about it just being a bet.
She must be feeling very, very sad right now.
Until morning self-study ended, Tao Zhi still hadn’t come.
When Teacher Wang entered the classroom, he just glanced at the empty seat at the back without saying anything, and started class as usual.
But clearly, most of the class was somewhat distracted. Li Shuang Jiang kept turning back to look at Tao Zhi’s empty desk every so often, and Teacher Wang unusually didn’t scold him.
The boys’ nerves, as thick as the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, finally started working. After class, Li Shuang Jiang sighed: “Is the boss quite unhappy now?”
“Probably feels like she’s lost face too,” his deskmate also sighed. “Feel like the monitor has always cared a lot about face, but she did really well this time, and no one thinks she lost embarrassingly. In our class, besides Fu Xi Ling who got the same score as her, and those two above, you can’t find higher scores in the whole grade.”
Li Shuang Jiang slapped the desk: “If she really doesn’t come today, let’s go see her after school, tell her she’s the most awesome!”
His deskmate gave him a look: “Stop being blindly enthusiastic here. If I encountered something like this, I’d just want to be alone for a while, calm down properly.”
Until school ended, Tao Zhi indeed didn’t come.
Fu Xi Ling packed up her bag, thought for a moment, but still called home and took the bus over.
Following her memory to the entrance of Tao Zhi’s residential complex, she explained to the security guard and went in.
Standing at the gate of Tao Zhi’s house, Fu Xi Ling thought for a moment, didn’t message Tao Zhi but messaged Ji Fan instead.
After a few minutes, the young man came out and walked over.
He was wearing pajamas and yawning as he opened the door for her: “Want to come in and sit?”
“No,” Fu Xi Ling said, looking down, “I just wanted to come see, but I don’t know if Zhi Zhi wants to see me…”
“Don’t think too much, it’s just a tiny thing,” Ji Fan waved dismissively. “She’s been like this since she was little — when she’s unhappy she becomes antisocial, cares too much about face, doesn’t want others to see her in a bad state. She’ll be fine in a couple days.”
Fu Xi Ling nodded, insisting: “I won’t go in, just make sure she eats properly.”
Ji Fan didn’t say anything more, just nodded: “Then wait a moment.”
Two minutes later, the young man came out with a piece of paper: “She asked me to give this to Li Si Jia this morning, but since she’s not going to school I don’t want to go either, it’s no fun alone. Can you help deliver it?”
Fu Xi Ling agreed and took it before leaving.
She got on the bus, found a seat, and looked at the thin folded paper in her hand.
She didn’t open it to look — even without looking she knew what was written inside.
This was just how Tao Zhi was.
Whoever lost would write a self-criticism and apologize — she wouldn’t back out just because she scored beyond others’ expectations.
Although in Fu Xi Ling’s heart, she had won beautifully and was the most impressive, in Tao Zhi’s own view, losing was losing.
Fu Xi Ling suddenly felt extremely frustrated.
Why?
Why did her Zhi Zhi have to work so hard, when it was clearly others who misunderstood her? They dumped a bucket of dirty water on her head, yet in the end she still had to apologize.
The next day, Tao Zhi still didn’t come.
After first period, Fu Xi Ling stood up with the paper Ji Fan had given her, looking towards Li Si Jia.
Jiang Qi Huai closed his book behind her, noticed her gaze, and looked at her: “What’s this?”
Fu Xi Ling paused and said: “Zhi Zhi gave it to me to pass to Li Si Jia.”
The classroom was quiet. Several girls beside Li Si Jia were talking, not lowering their voices, faintly carrying over.
“She didn’t come today either, so she thinks not coming means she can escape without apologizing,” Gu Na Na said. “She’s quite calculating.”
“She did quite well this time,” Wu Nan said. “We misunderstood her and were wrong first.”
Gu Na Na rolled her eyes, muttering: “Who knows how she got that score this time, maybe she cheated again…”
Li Si Jia lowered her head, putting her books into her desk.
She had wanted to say that Tao Zhi hadn’t cheated last time either, but saying that would mean publicly admitting her own mistake, clearly exposing her dark side.
Li Si Jia pressed her lips together, hesitated, but still didn’t speak.
Fu Xi Ling was so angry hearing this. She gritted her teeth, wanting to go confront them. Just as she was about to go over, she heard the scraping sound of chair legs against the floor behind her.
She turned to look.
Jiang Qi Huai’s expression hadn’t changed, but his eyes narrowed slightly.
Fu Xi Ling had dealt with this boss for two months and was quite familiar. Although he always seemed emotionless, at this moment, even she could feel that Jiang Qi Huai was quite unhappy too.
She could guess what Tao Zhi had written, and naturally Jiang Qi Huai could too.
He slid his chair back and stood up: “Give it to me.”
Fu Xi Ling made a sound and thought for a moment before handing him the paper.
Jiang Qi Huai walked directly to Li Si Jia’s desk and lightly tapped her desk corner.
The girls were chatting — between close female friends, secrets couldn’t be kept. Tao Zhi and the others knew Li Si Jia liked Jiang Qi Huai because they had seen it.
And naturally Li Si Jia’s close friends all knew too.
When Jiang Qi Huai came over, Gu Na Na made teasing sounds and wiggled her eyebrows, while Wu Nan also smiled.
Li Si Jia glared at them reproachfully, turned around and said quietly: “Is there something?”
Jiang Qi Huai didn’t speak, just held out the paper.
Gu Na Na kept slapping the desk beside them, starting to tease.
Li Si Jia’s face instantly turned bright red. She took it, stuttering: “What is this?”
“What else could it be,” Gu Na Na sang along beside her, “must be a love letter from a boy.”
While they were making a fuss, Jiang Qi Huai didn’t stop them, just said coldly: “An apology letter from my vice monitor to you.”
Li Si Jia’s expression froze.
Gu Na Na instantly fell silent.
Jiang Qi Huai calmly looked at her: “She’s thin-skinned, couldn’t give it to you herself, so I’m doing it for her. But she’ll do what was agreed upon, won’t back out. We lost.”
He said this without any emotion, just stating facts calmly.
Li Si Jia’s expression grew increasingly uncomfortable, her fingers gripping the letter tighter and tighter, not speaking.
Jiang Qi Huai lazily curved his lips in mockery, looking down at her from above as he lightly tossed out his final words: “You won, congratulations.”
He turned and left as soon as he finished speaking, frowning as he turned away.
Li Si Jia couldn’t hold it together anymore, stuffed the letter into her desk, and buried her head on the table.
Fu Xi Ling watched in awe — every word had struck right at the heart.
Zhao Ming Qi stretched his neck beside them, still not understanding what had happened: “Although he still didn’t show much expression, why does Brother Huai seem… angry? He can get angry??”
Jiang Zheng Xun sighed: “This is called killing with words.”
He had expressed that he stood on her side while also sarcastically criticizing them for throwing dirt on someone then being too cowardly to apologize, and these words coming from Jiang Qi Huai had double the impact.
Being at odds with someone you like, hearing him defend another girl by saying these things — probably didn’t feel very good.
Li Shuang Jiang’s emotional intelligence was a bit higher than Zhao Ming Qi’s. He also understood, stroking his chin thoughtfully: “Brother Huai really is merciless even when getting angry at girls, so cruel.”
Fu Xi Ling and Jiang Zheng Xun exchanged glances, both staying silent.
Idiots like Li Shuang Jiang and Zhao Ming Qi couldn’t see it, but over this period of time, Fu Xi Ling and the others had more or less noticed something.
Probably for Jiang Qi Huai, people weren’t divided by gender — he didn’t care if someone was male or female, whether they liked him or not.
There were only two categories: her, and everyone else.
Tao Zhi didn’t know what had happened at school, didn’t know that Jiang Qi Huai, the class’s acknowledged emotionless celestial study machine, had gotten angry for the first time in front of everyone.
She had been antisocial in her room for two days. The sad feelings had passed, but she just felt very embarrassed.
She was the one who had made grand declarations in front of so many people, and she was the one who lost. Not only did she lose, but she also sneaked back into her hole to hide.
Tao Zhi felt she had really lost face, couldn’t even lose properly.
Losing wasn’t anything — not scoring higher meant not scoring higher. When she was working hard, others were working hard too. She wanted to win, but Li Si Jia didn’t want to lose either.
Moreover, during the time she had wasted doing nothing, others had been working hard.
What right did she have to win?
From the moment she started skipping class to fight and spend whole days at internet cafes with Song Jiang and the others, she had already lost that right.
But when she thought about how the person she liked stood side by side with someone else, while she could only stand behind them watching silently, she felt extremely annoyed.
Someone had caught up to her boy before she could.
This fact made Tao Zhi’s entire being plummet to rock bottom.
It was dinner time, and Tao Zhi propped up her head, her chopsticks poking at the white rice in her bowl without eating a single bite for ages.
She had been in a bad mood for two days, and the house had grown quieter. Auntie Zhang put down a plate of chicken wings on the table and quietly asked Ji Fan: “What’s wrong with Zhi Zhi these past two days? Barely eating, not going to school.”
“She didn’t do well on her test,” Ji Fan said while picking up a piece of braised pork. “It’s fine, just let her be quiet for a while.”
As he spoke, the young man pushed the chicken wings slightly towards her.
After dinner, Tao Zhi received a call from Tao Xiu Ping.
Old Tao had been very busy lately — the last time he called was when Ji Fan had just returned. Tao Zhi buried her head in the sofa as she answered, not speaking.
Tao Xiu Ping cleared his throat on the other end.
“What is it?” Tao Zhi spoke.
“Your Teacher Wang called me,” Tao Xiu Ping paused, not mentioning her two-day absence from school at all. “Heard you did quite well in English this time.”
Tao Zhi: “Well my ass.”
“Don’t use dirty words,” Tao Xiu Ping sighed. “Your Teacher Wang really likes you, kept praising you to me.”
“Praising what, praising that I only got eighteen points in physics?” Tao Zhi said sullenly.
“What? My daughter can get eighteen points in physics now?” Tao Xiu Ping’s tone was very delighted. “Amazing!”
“…”
Tao Zhi irritably kicked her legs, making the sofa cushions thump, not speaking.
Tao Xiu Ping laughed on the other end: “Alright, what’s the big deal? Being upset for two days is enough. My Zhi Zhi isn’t the type of child to be defeated by such a small setback. Or is it because you like someone and feel like you’ve lost face in front of them?”
Tao Zhi’s thoughts were completely exposed by her own father. She instantly shot up from the sofa, glaring angrily at Ji Fan.
Ji Fan looked away, whistling as he escaped upstairs while looking at the ceiling.
Tao Zhi sat on the sofa, drooping her eyes dejectedly.
After a long while, she said quietly: “He got first place together with another girl.”
Tao Xiu Ping understood — so this was what was bothering her.
“Then think about it, do you want to get first place together with him?” Tao Xiu Ping pondered how to follow his daughter’s line of thinking. “You’d be satisfied just getting first place with him?”
Tao Zhi thought about it — that wasn’t it either.
“You need to surpass him and make him submit,” Tao Xiu Ping pretended to be serious. “The person you like is meant to be trampled under your feet. What’s the point of standing beside him?”
A sudden enlightenment.
Tao Zhi felt Tao Xiu Ping was right. This Li Si Jia still hadn’t taken her position — she had just finally caught up to Jiang Qi Huai’s footsteps, nothing more.
But Tao Zhi wanted to ride on his head.
After figuring this out, Tao Zhi’s mood improved. She hung up the phone and sat on the sofa propping her head up for a while.
She hadn’t eaten much for two days, and her stomach was already growling. Tao Zhi ran to the kitchen to look — dinner had gotten cold, and she didn’t want to trouble Auntie Zhang to get up and make something.
She put on her coat and went out, planning to buy some snacks from the convenience store.
She pushed open the door and went out. The yard gate was ajar, and Tao Zhi pushed it open, tucking her head into her scarf as she walked out. She looked up and saw someone standing ahead.
Jiang Qi Huai stood by the ground lamp holding his phone, his tall figure bathed in the upward-casting light.
At the same time, Tao Zhi’s WeChat notification sounded.
She pulled out her phone from her pocket and looked.
[A Secret]: Come out.
She looked up, and Secret also looked up, watching her from afar.
Tao Zhi walked over slowly, stopping in front of him, head lowered, not speaking.
After just two days apart, Jiang Qi Huai felt the young girl seemed to have gotten thinner. She wore a thin red scarf that made her small face look fair and delicate.
Her long hair was caught in the scarf, bunching up at her collar, looking somewhat cute.
The words at Jiang Qi Huai’s lips paused, his eyes deep as he quietly looked at her.
Tao Zhi cleared her throat and slowly spoke: “I thought about it.”
She looked at him and frowned: “Your grades still aren’t good enough.”
“…”
Jiang Qi Huai: “?”
Jiang Qi Huai suspected her “your” might be wrong — it should be “my.”
“You only got 141 points, how could you let another girl catch up so easily?” Tao Zhi frowned as she lectured him. “You need to study hard. Get scores no one can catch up to, then wait to be ridden on by me. This kind of situation isn’t allowed to happen again in the future.”
“…”
Jiang Qi Huai looked at her strangely as she rambled on with odd statements. The anger that had been bottled up for so long found an outlet, spurted out, then dissipated.
After a while.
A laugh escaped from his throat as he said softly: “The princess’s teachings are correct.”
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