After finishing lunch at the cafeteria, Xu You returned to her dorm room. She took a quick shower and changed into her pajamas. She sat in her chair for a while, casually flipping through a book.
Liao Yuemin was originally doing homework when she looked at Xu You and suddenly said, “Xu You, did you see the monthly exam rankings? You’re first in our grade!”
Xu You paused her page-turning and nodded, “Yes, I saw.”
“Really, it’s Xu You?” Li Lingfang, who had just returned from the bathroom and was washing her hands, turned around in disbelief.
She was from the Sunshine Class. Shortly after the results came out in the morning, classmates everywhere were discussing how this time the top student was a girl from Class 9. She had overwhelmed all the other top students with a terrifying score of 698, directly claiming first place. Everyone was saying that Class 9 had always produced academic geniuses. First, it was Xu Xingchun, and now it was this girl.
“It’s Xu You,” Liao Yuemin confirmed. She had specifically gone to check the score board after school.
“Wow, that’s amazing! You really can’t judge a book by its cover!” Chen Xiao exclaimed, “I always thought Xu You must be a top student, but I didn’t expect her to be a genius.”
Xu You silently listened to her roommates talking while opening her drawer to find some anti-inflammatory medicine. She took out two pills into her palm.
“A Chai is too amazing, getting such a high score is unbelievable. Even our class’s top student was left far behind.”
“Yeah, nearly 700 points. I get nervous just seeing scores like that. Apart from losing some points in the Chinese essay section, wouldn’t all other subjects need to be almost perfect?”
At this moment, Chen Xiao suddenly turned to Li Lingfang and asked, “Hey, who got first place in your class this time?”
“I don’t know, probably still Zhang Keke.”
“Not Qiu Qingqing?”
“Her?” Li Lingfang thought for a moment, “She didn’t do well this time, I forgot her score.”
She slapped her hand on the table, “Oh right, isn’t there going to be a sports meet after the monthly exams?”
“I heard from the sports class students that it should be soon.”
Xu You held her glass, poured water into her mouth, and swallowed the pills.
After taking the cold medicine, she slowly climbed into bed for her afternoon nap.
—
The first class in the afternoon was PE, and the PE representative told everyone to gather directly at the sports field.
Just past noon, the sunlight was still intense, with cicadas chirping hidden in the tree shadows.
While the surrounding air was stuffy and hot, Xu You was breaking out in cold sweats, her face pale. She felt anxious, and her vision was slightly dizzy.
The queue was arranged in four rows by height, two rows of girls and two rows of boys.
The PE teacher was taking attendance at the front and asked the PE representative, “What’s going on with your class? Why are there so few people?”
Ma Zhiwei shouted, “Report! Some boys went to get equipment.”
The PE teacher nodded, not pursuing the matter further, and casually assigned today’s tasks.
“Girls play volleyball or badminton, boys go to the ping pong tables.”
After dismissal, Xu You asked for leave from the teacher to rest in the classroom.
Her face was pale, and she looked like she might collapse even while standing, which startled the PE teacher, who quickly asked, “Do you need someone to accompany you to the infirmary?”
“No need, thank you teacher,” Xu You said in a hoarse voice, waving her hand in refusal, “I have medicine in the classroom.”
“Alright then, be careful.”
She walked back to the classroom, passing through the corridor where many classes had already started, with teachers lecturing from their podiums.
As she passed by, she drew sideways glances from a few people in the classrooms. The sunlight outside was split by tree leaves into many thin streams, bright enough to dazzle the eyes.
Xu You entered through the back door of the classroom.
Just as she pushed open the door, she froze.
Inside, there was a group of people playing poker, and someone had a half-smoked cigarette in their mouth. There were both boys and girls, all unfamiliar faces she didn’t recognize.
They weren’t her classmates.
The cool air mixed with a hint of cigarette smoke hit her face, causing Xu You to sneeze again. She quickly covered her mouth.
“Are you coming in or not? Close the door, it’s burning hot,” a short-haired girl turned to shout at Xu You, looking quite impatient.
At this point, everyone turned to look in her direction.
Xu You had just stepped back two steps, intending to close the door for them and find somewhere else to stay, when suddenly an excited male voice rang out:
“Oh my! My dear sister! My savior!! Don’t go, don’t go!”
His voice was too loud for Xu You to ignore.
Just as she hesitated, Li Jieyi quickly caught up with her. He pulled the ready-to-leave Xu You into the classroom.
The others had now reacted as well. Xie Ci threw down his cards, about to stand up.
Xu You struggled hard to break free, looking up to tell him: “Let go, I have a cold, don’t get too close.”
As she spoke, she felt many people watching them, making her feel scared and uncomfortable.
Li Jieyi rubbed his hands together with a grin, chuckling twice before saying: “Okay, okay, thanks to your blessing, I scored over 500 points this time!”
“Mm.”
A boy laughed and said: “Li Jieyi, is this the benefactor you’ve been talking about to us these past few days?”
Seeing that she couldn’t leave, Xu You lowered her head, trying to walk around him to get to her seat.
“Hey hey hey.” Li Jieyi turned around, eagerly calling after her, “Let me treat you to a meal sometime.”
Being watched by a group of strangers made Xu You feel very awkward. But having taken cold medicine, her head was still fuzzy, and she had no energy to think about anything else.
Chen Jingkan looked at Xie Ci.
His eyes were fixed on the girl who had walked to her seat. She discreetly observed for a few moments, then turned to ask Song Yifan, “Who is that?”
“Top of the grade.”
He was shuffling cards and answered casually.
“She is my hero,” Li Jieyi said gleefully.
Xu Xiaocheng rolled his eyes, “Brother Yi, with your English level, wouldn’t it be better to just speak Chinese plainly?”
—
Sitting down wasn’t as uncomfortable as standing.
However, the group behind her started again soon after, laughing and playing around, making her head hurt. Xu You habitually took out her practice book, but after writing a few problems, she couldn’t continue. She threw down her pen.
Four ceiling fans were continuously spinning in the classroom, and the standing air conditioner was also operating, blowing out cold air.
Xu You covered her mouth, sneezing several small sneezes again. Her nose also seemed blocked, making it difficult to breathe.
Her head was hurting again, and soon she became drowsy. She pulled out her school uniform jacket to cushion her desk, lay down on it, and gradually fell asleep amidst the noise.
“Zhang Tianyu.” Xie Ci threw down a card, his back against the wall, lazily calling the name of the boy beside him.
Zhang Tianyu paused his card-playing motion and turned his head to ask: “What is it, Brother Ci?”
“Put out the cigarette.”
Zhang Tianyu: ……..
The mouthful of smoke he hadn’t yet exhaled was forcefully held back.
What, what’s this about?
Just as Zhang Tianyu put out his cigarette, he saw Xie Ci get up from his seat, swing his long legs over, and walk out from behind Song Yifan.
He went straight to the back of Group One, looked up at the fans, then with a click, turned off all the switches.
Xu You, who was sleeping hazily, vaguely felt the cold wind around her become a bit gentler.
—
When she was woken up, everyone in the classroom was noisily packing up their things. Xu You lifted her face from her arms and rubbed her eyes.
Fu Xueli’s face was close by, her eyelashes blinking as she said softly: “Cutie, we need to change seats, pack up your things.”
Xu You looked up and saw everyone’s names written in chalk on the blackboard. From left to right, Groups One to Four.
It was her first time seeing such a novel way of arranging seats.
She spent some time finding her own name. Group One, fourth row, near the outside.
Xu You packed her water bottle and notebooks into her bag while looking up to find Fu Xueli’s position on the blackboard.
“Xueli, where are you sitting?” Xu You couldn’t find it after searching for a while.
“In front of you,” Fu Xueli pointed, “Group One, third row.”
Xu You looked carefully one more time.
She discovered that the row above her name clearly wrote: Xu Xingchun Fu Xueli
“You’re sitting with the class monitor?” Xu You asked in surprise, turning her head.
Only after asking did she feel like she might have said something wrong. But fortunately, Fu Xueli didn’t notice, she just made a sound of agreement, looking somewhat gloomy, “Sigh, I don’t know what the teacher was thinking.”
Xu You knew about her special relationship with the class monitor. After a pause, she still didn’t say anything. She quietly packed her things.
Soon after, most people had changed their seats.
Xu You moved her books to Group One. Her new seatmate was a boy wearing glasses who looked very honest.
“Hey, hello Xu You, I’m Yang Kang,” the boy was very friendly, helping Xu You put her books on the desk.
Xu You’s nose was slightly sweaty, she nodded, “Hello.”
Just as the two had exchanged a few words, the transparent glass window beside Yang Kang was forcefully pulled open.
Xu You looked up, Yang Kang turned around.
Xie Ci had one hand on the windowsill, the other on the window frame, looking down at Yang Kang saying: “Brother, change seats.”
—
Yang Kang was an honest person who didn’t dare to provoke a school bully like Xie Ci, nor did he dare to ask why. Without saying another word, he quickly packed up and left.
The desk beside her was forcefully cleared.
Xu You felt both speechless and angry, her hands resting on the desk as she lowered her head to do homework.
The person stood beside her, but she refused to get up to let him in.
Xie Ci had the patience to wait her out, occasionally bumping her desk with his knee, “Make way, do you want me to sit in the corridor during class, classmate?”
“Go switch back with someone else,” Xu You looked up, vainly trying to reason with him.
“I won’t.”
But seeing his slouching delinquent appearance, Xu You knew trying to reason with this kind of person was completely pointless. So she lowered her head again, “Then I won’t either.”
“You won’t what?”
“Won’t let you in.”
The two wasted time arguing like this for a while, until finally Xie Ci was amused and couldn’t be bothered to go in circles with her anymore.
He went out through the classroom door and walked to the window outside.
Under Xu You’s shocked gaze, Xie Ci grabbed the window frame, used his strength, and directly jumped in through the window.
“Are you a bandit?! How unreasonable!”
Xie Ci pulled out the chair and sat down, actually responding with an “Mm,” before asking her: “What’s there to reason about?”
“You, you, you, what exactly do you want?” Xu You held back for a long time before bursting out with this one sentence.
You’re asking what I want?
Xie Ci lowered his eyes, put his elbow on his knee, leaned close to Xu You’s neck, “You don’t know what I want?”
She didn’t make a sound, backing away slightly to create distance.
His gaze moved from her eyes, down to her nose bridge, then stopped at her petal-like lips.
Xu You felt something was off, didn’t want to speak anymore, and hurriedly turned her head away.
Leave a Reply