When Yu He arrived home, the living room was pitch dark. She turned on the hallway light, revealing several empty liquor bottles scattered on the floor, along with an uncleared deck of playing cards and leftover melon seed shells on the table.
Yu He’s expression remained calm, as if she were accustomed to such scenes.
The other bedroom in the house was empty.
She didn’t care where Yu Liang had gone. It was common for him to stay out all night either gambling or drinking with his friends. In fact, she preferred it when he wasn’t home.
Yu He opened the windows to air out the stale alcohol smell, then grabbed a black trash bag to clean up the mess on the floor and table.
She had a thing about cleanliness and couldn’t stand the disorder.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Glancing at the screen, she answered the call.
“Hey, Little Mute,” a girl’s voice came through. “Did Ge Tao and the others apologize to your friend? I warned them earlier today. If they didn’t, I’ll go after them again, give your friend some justice.”
“They did,” Yu He replied, tossing the trash bag by the door to take out in the morning.
“Good.”
“Thanks.”
“Wow, those two words are rare coming from you,” the girl laughed. “I’m really curious about this friend of yours. Must be someone special for you to ask me for help.”
Yu He walked into the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water, and answered, “Just a classmate.”
The girl scoffed. “I don’t believe that—”
Yu He took a sip of water. “A friend.”
“You actually have friends?”
“…”
Yu He said, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
Carrying the glass, she returned to her bedroom and sat at her desk. Suddenly remembering something, she turned on her mobile data. A flood of notifications instantly popped up, freezing her phone for a moment before it finally recovered.
[Deerling: I’m home. You?]
[Deerling: Hey, I’m already in bed. You’re not still out, are you?]
[Deerling: Yu, you’re not ignoring me, are you?]
[Deerling: Aaaah, check your messages!]
Dozens of angry emojis followed.
Yu He scrolled to the bottom of Lu Shinian’s messages.
[Yu He: I’m home.]
A minute later, her phone lit up again.
[Deerling: Finally! If you hadn’t replied, I was about to call the police.]
[Yu He: Sorry. I forgot.]
Lu Shinian leaned against her headboard, rereading the message. This was the first time Yu He had ever apologized to her. She couldn’t help but picture Yu He’s usual indifferent expression.
This was practically bullying a high schooler and somehow, it felt weirdly satisfying.
[Deerling: No need to apologize! I was joking. Hands on hips]
[Deerling: Are you going to sleep soon?]
[Yu He: Doing homework.]
[Deerling: ?]
Of course she was studying. No wonder she was ranked first in their grade.
Lu Shinian rolled out of bed, turned on the light, and pulled out a chair at her desk. She grabbed a math test from her bag, adjusted her phone’s angle, and snapped a photo to send to Yu He.
[Deerling: What a coincidence, I’m studying too.]
Yu He didn’t reply for a while. Just as Lu Shinian assumed she had gotten too absorbed in her work to respond, another photo arrived from Yu He.
It was the photo she had just sent, but now there were several red circles marked on the test paper in the picture.
[Yu He: These questions are wrong.]
“……”
Lu Shinian slapped her forehead. How presumptuous of her to think she could compare with a top student.
She opened the photo, found the questions marked with red circles, and carefully rewrote them. Just as Yu He had said, they were all incorrect.
After making the corrections, she took another photo and sent it over.
Once done, Lu Shinian leaned back, spinning her pen casually between her fingers.
Her phone buzzed on the desk.
Lu Shinian set down the pen and swiped open the screen.
[Yu He: Good job.]
Lu Shinian touched her nose, her lips curling upward involuntarily. In high spirits, she hummed a tune while typing on her phone.
[One Deer: Thanks for the praise.]
The first class on Monday morning was a homeroom session where Teacher Liang Hongying announced the National Day holiday arrangements and, at the same time, delivered news about the first major exam of sophomore year, right after the holiday, they would dive straight into exam week.
The announcement was met with cheers from the entire class. Even though they’d face a monthly exam upon returning, nothing could dampen their excitement. No normal student wouldn’t be thrilled about a break.
Sun Qianyue, sitting behind her, said, “I’m definitely going to enjoy this holiday to the fullest. Once the exam results come out, my parents will probably lock me at home might as well have fun now.”
Lu Shinian was quite pragmatic about it. She had a clear understanding of her own academic level. A scolding was inevitable once the exam results were out lectures, parent-teacher meetings there was no point stressing. Better use the holiday to review the knowledge gaps from freshman year.
Being at the bottom now didn’t mean staying there forever.
During the second self-study session in the evening, all homeroom teachers were called to a meeting, leaving the classrooms unsupervised and noisy. The class monitor on duty repeatedly called for order but was ignored, eventually giving up with a resigned expression.
Lu Shinian pulled her hoodie over her head, trying to block out some of the noise.
Sun Qianyue poked her from behind. “Lu Shinian, could you switch seats with Feng Jia? We’ve got something to chat about.”
At this age, girls loved gathering to talk, and swapping seats during unsupervised self-study was common.
Lu Shinian glanced at Feng Jia’s seat, right next to Yu He, her deskmate.
Sun Qianyue asked, “Is that okay?”
“Sure, no problem.” Lu Shinian nodded, closing her workbook and preparing to move.
Sun Qianyue beamed. “Thanks, really appreciate it.”
“What’s this?” Yu Jingjing teased. “Abandoning adorable little me already? How cruel.”
Lu Shinian chuckled. “I’ll be back as soon as they’re done chatting.”
She got up and took the seat beside Yu He.
Yu He turned to look at her.
Lu Shinian grinned. “Hello, it’s me.”
Yu He: “Mm.”
Hah, still as aloof as ever.
“Your deskmate wants to discuss life philosophies with my back-row neighbor, so we switched seats. That makes me your temporary deskmate for tonight’s self-study,” Lu Shinian explained.
After a few seconds of silence, Yu He replied, “Welcome.”
Lu Shinian figured this was probably the best response Yu He could muster after racking her brain.
“Don’t worry, I won’t disturb your studying.”
“Mm.”
Lu Shinian indeed kept her word, sitting quietly in her seat to work on the problems. After finishing, she took out the answer key to check her work. At first, she happily marked several correct answers, but as she went further, her smile gradually faded. She desperately wanted to groan but held it back for the sake of the person beside her.
The atmosphere around her grew restless.
Yu He put down her pen and glanced at her.
The girl was half-slumped on the desk, propped up on her elbow, her hand pressing down on the English test paper. The cloze test had her scratching her head in frustration, riddled with red crosses. She let out a soft “tsk,” seemingly reluctant to mark the mistakes, switching from the red pen to a black one to cross out the wrong answers and write the correct ones beside them.
Yu He couldn’t help but feel a little exasperated, she was quite resourceful.
Lu Shinian tilted her head and looked at her. “Why are you sighing?”
“I wasn’t.” Yu He quickly schooled her expression and averted her gaze, lowering her head to look at her own paper. Lu Shinian could only see her profile.
But Lu Shinian had seen it clearly, Yu He had not only sighed but also smiled.
Yu He had smiled. What a rare sight. So, what strange thing had she just done to make Yu He laugh?
Lu Shinian’s eyes rolled thoughtfully before she came to a conclusion. “Were you laughing at me for getting so many wrong?”
Yu He said, “No.”
“Yes, you were.” Lu Shinian defended herself, “Actually, my English is pretty good. I understand all the words on the test. I just haven’t figured out the question patterns yet, so I made so many mistakes.”
Yu He replied unhurriedly, “I see.”
“Really?”
“Mhm, I see.”
Lu Shinian picked up her pen again and double-checked, “Don’t laugh at me.”
My fragile little heart can’t take it.
“Mhm.” Yu He lifted her eyes to look at her and calmly reminded her, “You picked up the wrong pen.”
“…”
Lu Shinian stared at the red pen in her hand and stubbornly said, “No, I didn’t.”
During the latter half of evening self-study, Liang Hongying suddenly appeared at the back door, catching several troublemakers. The entire class fell silent within seconds.
Liang Hongying stood on the podium with her arms crossed. “I could hear our class’s noise from downstairs. Out of the entire floor, ours is the loudest. Go take a look at the other classes, do any of them make as much noise as ours?”
“The monthly exams are coming up, and none of you are the least bit worried? Those grinning like idiots, go stand at the back as punishment.” Liang Hongying turned her gaze to the class monitor. “How many names have you written down? Let me know who else is misbehaving, they’ll be punished too.”
The monitor stood up hesitantly. “Teacher, it was too chaotic just now. I didn’t catch anyone’s name.”
No one wanted to do something that would make enemies.
“Fine, you’re all quite united.” Liang Hongying’s eyes swept across the classroom.
Lu Shinian lowered her head, almost burying it in her desk.
Don’t see me, don’t see me.
If Liang Hongying found out they had switched seats now, she’d definitely get scolded.
But the more you fear something, the more it happens.
Liang Hongying’s voice drifted coolly from the podium. “Oh? Who’s that with their head down? Don’t be shy, lift your face and let me see.”
Lu Shinian’s mind buzzed as she slowly raised her head, wearing an awkward smile.
Liang Hongying’s face darkened. “Switching seats without permission, how bold.”
Behind her, Feng Jia’s face flushed red.
Lu Shinian immediately spoke up, “Teacher, I switched seats to ask Yu He about a problem.”
Liang Hongying didn’t believe her and frowned, “Is that so?”
Under the desk, Lu Shinian nudged Yu He’s leg with her own, saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda.
Yu He replied, “Mm.”
Lu Shinian let out a sigh of relief.
Yu He subtly shifted her leg further away, creating some distance between them.
Liang Hongying’s expression softened slightly. “It’s good to ask classmates for help with problems, but you can’t just switch seats without permission. If everyone in the class acted like you two, what would be the point of assigned seating?”
Lu Shinian nodded. “Yes, I know I was wrong. I won’t do it again.”
“If you really want to sit together, wait until the monthly exam results come out before switching. Everything should be done according to the rules,” Liang Hongying said.
“Understood. I’ll return to my seat right away.”
Picking up her books, Lu Shinian grinned playfully at Yu He. “Breaking news, I’m leaving now. Don’t miss me too much.”
As the presence beside her disappeared, Yu He’s pen tip paused briefly, her peripheral gaze flickering almost imperceptibly in that direction.