Qi Yang stared at the person in front of him. The other person’s gaze was very gentle, accompanied by expectedly gentle words, “I might have seen you somewhere before, but I don’t remember.”
Qi Yang didn’t dwell on it either. “Meeting is fate. We can still say hi if we see each other again in the future. It’s getting late, I’ll be going first.”
The two of them parted ways very quickly. After picking up his school ID and chatting for a couple of seconds, Qi Yang sprinted into the campus. He suddenly remembered the head teacher’s announcement in the group chat about the start-of-term medical check-up, and since he was in Class 1, he had to get there even earlier.
Their classroom was at the corner of the second floor, acting like a small, secluded utopia. Because it was in the corner and there were no other classrooms around, very few people stopped by to hang out or chat.
By the time Qi Yang reached the classroom door, about half of the class had already arrived.
Seeing Qi Yang, they warmly greeted him.
Xu Sheng came up all giggly and tried to put his arm around Qi Yang, unable to hide the smile on his face, “According to top-secret news, our class is getting a new transfer student.”
Qi Yang looked at him in surprise and asked curiously, “Our class can actually get a transfer student? What kind of background must he have?”
“Xu Sheng, you better not be lying to me.” Qi Yang moved Xu Sheng’s hand away and walked straight toward his desk.
Xu Sheng was one of the only two male omegas in the class, meaning he was the only one who could casually throw his arms around Qi Yang. Xu Sheng didn’t mind these things; betas made up the vast majority of the class, while alphas were considered a minority at the school and usually only interacted with others within the school. Thus, before anyone realized it, this cute-looking omega had evolved into the class’s walking directory of gossip.
Xu Sheng followed Qi Yang and sat in the seat next to him, his face full of confidence, “Why would I lie to you? Even though my grades can’t compare to yours, when it comes to gathering information, if I claim to be second, no one else dares to claim first.”
Qi Yang nodded while taking out his homework, “Yeah, who doesn’t know that Xu Sheng is the teacher’s pet, always the first to know any piece of news.”
Xu Sheng nodded in deep satisfaction, “This pupil is truly worth teaching.”
Xu Sheng’s topic-switching speed was always exceptionally fast, which happened to suit Qi Yang’s taste.
“You didn’t just stay home the entire summer vacation, did you? I asked you to go out and play, but you completely ignored me.”
Qi Yang handed his homework over to the class representative and patiently answered Xu Sheng’s question.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just that there was too much homework and the academic burden was way too heavy. Besides, I’m already in the third year of high school; how can I waste time on entertainment? Doing that is being irresponsible to myself, and irresponsible to my parents. They work hard to send us to school not so we can spend all our time thinking about how to play, but in hopes that we can study hard and learn to support ourselves in the future.”
Qi Yang paused, looking at Xu Sheng, whose entire face read that he should go ahead and keep making things up.
Xu Sheng looked at Qi Yang’s hesitating expression and felt very frustrated.
“If you’re going to say something, finish it. What’s the deal with saying only half a sentence?”
Qi Yang summarized his core philosophy.
“Hanging out with you guys is too boring; I prefer enjoying my private time.”
The conversation completely broke down. Xu Sheng directly abandoned this train-wreck of a talker, Qi Yang, and turned around to find his next target.
Qi Yang finally got some peace and quiet.
It was still early, twenty minutes before the time requested by the head teacher. Qi Yang feared boredom above all else, so he fished a 3,500-word vocabulary book out of his backpack and listlessly flipped it open.
Before he could even memorize two words, Fu Yue sat down next to him.
She also started casually chatting with Qi Yang.
“Yo, taking things so seriously?”
Qi Yang put away the vocabulary book and turned to chat with the girl in front of him.
“Of course, after all, I still need to secure my spot as number one.”
Qi Yang made no effort to hide his pride as the top student in his grade level.
Fu Yue was unimpressed; Qi Yang was never a low-key person to begin with. Still, she retorted with a couple of remarks.
“The person coming into our class this time is no joke. Their score on last semester’s final exam was only one point lower than yours.”
Qi Yang nodded, then said, “So he’s still not as good as me. I’m still amazing.”
Fu Yue smiled, “Let’s hope you can hold on to your rank as grade number one.”
In truth, Qi Yang didn’t really care about the title of being number one; it was simply a way to give his parents peace of mind.
It was the only method Qi Yang had to keep his parents from worrying too much about him living alone.
People are always contradictory. He wanted his parents to worry so they would stay by his side more often, but he had set too many boundaries for himself, and his image as a well-behaved child was already deeply rooted in everyone’s hearts.
Watching Qi Yang’s confident expression, Fu Yue dropped another piece of news on him, “Our first monthly exam is going to be a joint exam with the neighboring Foreign Language School.”
Qi Yang put down the book in his hand and stared at her in shock.
“That school is doing a joint exam with us? Are you kidding me?”
Fu Yue looked completely certain.
Qi Yang still hadn’t recovered from his shock, “Don’t they look down on us the most? Isn’t a private school like that supposed to totally look down on us?”
Fu Yue waved her hand, “Times have changed, okay? Stop reading so much stuff on our school’s campus network.”
On second thought, Qi Yang figured it didn’t matter. If they wanted him to test, he’d test.
Fu Yue leaned closer to Qi Yang, lowering her voice significantly, “Through my extensive investigations, this exam will rank students from both schools across individual subjects and overall scores. The school leaders think very highly of you and hope you can seize first place in this joint exam.”
“Qi Yang paused in silence.”
“I’ll try my best. Who doesn’t know that those people from the Foreign Language School are absolute freaks? They wake up at five in the morning to study and sleep at twelve at night. Five hours of sleep a day and they don’t even get drowsy. Beating them is still going to be a bit tough.”
Fu Yue looked at him with contempt, “And where did you read that from?”
“The campus network.”
Fu Yue stood up from her seat, “Stop reading that stuff; it’s all basically clickbait. Don’t look at it just because it’s posted by senior students, because they tell plenty of lies.”
The campus network Qi Yang mentioned was a creation left behind years ago by a computer genius at No. 1 High School, originally built just to chase another beautiful top student in the same grade. Therefore, the campus network was also known as the little couple’s public affection app. However, it had many partitioned modules, so you could always find whatever you were looking for.
Qi Yang couldn’t bring himself to memorize vocabulary anymore. He was under immense pressure, bearing the heavy responsibility of beating the Foreign Language School.
There was one more thing giving Qi Yang a huge headache: No. 1 High School had an iron-clad rule that senior high students must board at the dormitory, leaving campus was strictly prohibited unless necessary, evening self-study lasted until 12:05 AM, and there was morning reading right after.
Qi Yang desperately wanted to refuse boarding at the dorms, but as a member of No. 1 High School, he had no choice. He had thought about being a day student, but that required his parents to pick him up. His grandparents weren’t mobile enough to pick him up, and although he had an unreliable uncle, the man was a doctor and simply didn’t have time to deal with such trivial matters.
Qi Yang propped his chin in his hand and began pondering his miserable future life. Just what kind of human suffering was living in a school dorm anyway?
With everyone in the class now present, only the head teacher was missing. The classroom noise sounded remarkably like a vegetable market; students who had just finished their summer vacation simply couldn’t suppress their desire to talk.
This state didn’t last long. The moment the sound of high heels echoed down the hallway, the classroom instantly fell dead silent. Even Xu Sheng, who had been chatting the most enthusiastically, obediently sat back down in his seat and nonchalantly began reciting classical Chinese prose.
A woman in her forties, exquisitely dressed and wearing an elegant expression, walked in carrying a stack of medical check-up forms. Behind her followed a tall, handsome young man standing around 1.8 meters. The two entered one after the other; the head teacher stepped into the classroom while the handsome young man waited at the door.
She was the head teacher of Class 1, a rigorous math teacher universally nicknamed the Exquisite Demon.
The students of Class 1 affectionately called her the Exquisite Freak. Always wearing a full face of makeup, she never arrived late to class, ended right on the dot, and most importantly, she could always finish teaching all the material for the lesson in the very last second without ever delaying class. It was terrifying to the extreme. If it happened once or twice, it would be a coincidence, but when it happened repeatedly, it was a manifestation of pure skill.
Her voice completely contradicted her appearance, carrying a youthful, imperial-sister tone, even though she was already in her forties. Her name was equally youthful: Li Lan.
“Long time no see, students.” Li Lan placed the forms in her hand on the podium.
The class responded very enthusiastically, “We haven’t seen you in so long, teacher, we couldn’t even sleep well.”
Li Lan laughed, “Can’t sleep unless you listen to me solve a few math equations? From what I see, your sleeping quality is usually pretty great.”
Li Lan shifted her body slightly to let the student at the door enter.
Qi Yang was in the middle of spacing out. The moment the person at the door stepped inside, all the gloom of his morning was swept away. Wasn’t this the familiar-looking junior from this morning? How did he become his classmate?
Li Lan didn’t pay attention to the change in Qi Yang’s expression and told the newcomer to introduce himself.
Chu Huaize walked up to the podium, but his tone wasn’t as gentle as it had been this morning; instead, it was flat and stated without much emotion.
“My name is Chu Huaize. I took a leave of absence from middle school until the second year of high school. Being able to enter Class 1 to study with everyone in our senior year, I hope we can make progress together.”
Hearing about his four-to-five-year absence from school, yet still managing to enter Class 1 with a score only one point lower than his own, Qi Yang knew he had truly met his match this time.
Then Qi Yang slumped down. Looking at the empty seat beside him, he suddenly bolted upright.
“Oh no.”
Even though Qi Yang was enthusiastic as fire, he was actually socially anxious! The only empty seat in the entire classroom was right next to him. In a flash, he lowered his head as far as possible, hoping the head teacher wouldn’t notice him.
However, the head teacher had no idea what was going on in Qi Yang’s head and spotted him with a single glance, before Qi Yang could even react.
“Chu Huaize, go sit in that seat,” she said, pointing a finger directly at Qi Yang.
“Right next to that one curling up like a turtle.”
The entire class burst into laughter. Turtle Qi Yang lived up to his name.
Then, under the gaze of the entire class, Chu Huaize calmly walked over and sat down right next to Qi Yang.
Qi Yang awkwardly turned his head and greeted him with some hesitation, “Long time no see.”
Chu Huaize looked at him with a full smile, acting as if he hadn’t noticed Qi Yang’s earlier turtle act at all as he greeted him back.