June 21st, the Summer Solstice, Saturday.
Xia Yunuo carried her backpack, following the crowd through the school gates. The blue-and-white school uniform she wore concealed her figure, but it could not hide her beautiful face. Out of every ten boys who walked past her, at least nine couldn’t help but turn their heads to steal a glance at her side profile. Seeing such a walking piece of scenery on campus was a feast for the eyes, leaving a lasting impression in the hearts of many boys. Years later, many of them might not remember the campus scenery, but the memory of this girl catching their eyes would be enough for them to reminisce over for a long time.
Xia Yunuo went to the second floor of the freshmen academic building and entered the first classroom. She quickly found her seat in the middle of the third row and sat down. Subconsciously, she turned her head and glanced at the window seat in the fourth row on her left. Seeing only Xu Zhuoyue with his head down, hurriedly finishing his homework, she immediately retracted her gaze and prepared her textbooks for the morning study session.
Time passed slowly. More and more classmates filled the room, yet not a single person greeted Xia Yunuo. She was used to it. She had always been a loner at school, silently doing her exercise booklets.
It wasn’t until the hour hand on the wall clock edged close to 7:00 AM that a hurried figure barged into the classroom and swiftly made his way to the window seat in the fourth row.
"Awesome, bro." Xu Zhuoyue, who had already finished copying the homework he had missed yesterday, clapped his hands in praise as he watched Song Yunshen rush to his seat. "You arrive at the exact last second every single day. That’s a top-tier skill."
"Hurry up and make way for your father," Song Yunshen said, panting. He patted Xu Zhuoyue on the shoulder, signaling for him to get up and let him in.
Xu Zhuoyue rolled his eyes at him and merely shifted his chair forward, refusing to acknowledge him as his father.
Song Yunshen didn’t mind. He squeezed past sideways and sat down in his seat. Just as he settled in, the bell for the morning study session rang. He glanced around, and his eyes immediately landed on Xia Yunuo’s side profile. In his mind, he was already pondering how to get a look at her handwriting.
Right at that moment, Xia Yunuo’s fingers paused as she was about to open her textbook. A familiar voice echoed in her mind.
"Could it be her? She happens to be asking me math questions every day recently. I’ll just take a close look when she comes over later."
Hearing this voice, Xia Yunuo’s movements only paused for a brief second before returning to normal. After all, this was not the first time she had heard Song Yunshen’s voice in her head. Come to think of it, this situation had been going on for nearly half a month.
However, her ability to hear his inner thoughts was intermittent; she couldn’t tune in whenever she wanted. For example, she couldn’t hear Song Yunshen’s thoughts when she was at home. But once she was at school, she could catch them occasionally. After nearly two weeks of trial and error, Xia Yunuo had roughly determined the factors affecting this ability.
The most crucial one was distance.
Whenever she went over to ask Song Yunshen math questions, she could always hear much more of his inner thoughts, and far more clearly. But sitting like this, with a distance of about two meters between them, she could only catch a sentence every now and then. If they were further apart, the frequency dropped even lower.
Xia Yunuo had no idea what was causing this. Previously, she had been confused and troubled by the phenomenon. Over time, as she gradually grew accustomed to it, she found it to be quite interesting. Being able to hear what someone else was thinking gave her an inexplicable sense of security.
"If only I could hear everyone’s inner thoughts," she would occasionally think. "Hmm, Song Yunshen is quite handsome. If I can only hear one person’s thoughts, him being the one isn’t too bad."
Thinking this, Xia Yunuo gave her head a slight shake, tossing these stray thoughts aside. Following the English class representative’s instructions, she began her morning study session.
At this exact moment, Song Yunshen, who was just about to slack off, heard a familiar voice echo in his mind again.
"Song Yunshen is quite handsome."
Song Yunshen was dumbfounded.
"Huh? What the hell? What just happened?" he thought, his gaze instantly locking onto Xia Yunuo’s side profile as he fell into deep thought.
With conscious effort to identify it, he realized the voice he just heard sounded remarkably like Xia Yunuo’s speaking voice. But why would she be thinking about something like this for no reason? Though he knew he was very handsome, surely she wouldn’t be thinking about his attractive face while reading English vocabulary during morning study...
Song Yunshen stroked his chin, genuinely unable to comprehend Xia Yunuo’s thought process.
Xu Zhuoyue, sitting beside him, noticed Song Yunshen’s gaze and immediately chuckled. "What are you doing? Are you lovesick again?"
"Get lost." Song Yunshen rolled his eyes at him. Then, he suddenly asked in all seriousness, "Yue, let me ask you a question."
"Don’t call me Yue," Xu Zhuoyue said with a dark expression.
"Xu."
"Ask away."
"Am I handsome?"
"Is there something fucking wrong with your—"
"Xu Zhuoyue!" Teacher Jiang’s scolding voice came from the doorway. "Whispering again! Is the morning study session for you to chat? What are you talking about so happily? Say it out loud so your teacher can hear it too."
"Teacher Jiang..." Being called out, Xu Zhuoyue immediately wilted. But when he thought of how that bastard Song Yunshen had inexplicably asked him such a question, a sudden burst of courage rushed to his head, and he shouted, "Song Yunshen asked me if he is handsome! I... MMPH! MMPH MMPH!"
Song Yunshen’s face flushed red. With one hand covering Xu Zhuoyue’s mouth and the other wrapping around the guy’s neck in a vicious chokehold, he gritted his teeth and hissed, "Are you fucking sick in the head?"
As the two clowns wrestled with each other, the classroom immediately erupted into cheerful laughter.
Teacher Jiang rubbed her forehead, utterly speechless, and snapped, "Quiet! Quiet! You two, get out here!"
Jiang Wenpei wore a short pink skirt paired with low white heels today, looking beautifully dressed. Having only taught for a year, she was twenty-four this year—a youthful and radiant age. Her fair legs were particularly eye-catching. When Song Yunshen and Xu Zhuoyue walked out of the classroom, they couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances.
Naturally, Jiang Wenpei didn’t care about the stares of these little brats. After leading them out into the hallway, she began to scold them, working hard to exercise her authority as a teacher.
Inside the classroom, however, Xia Yunuo turned her head and caught a glimpse of Song Yunshen standing in punishment outside the window. Her cheeks carried a hint of coldness, yet they were also slightly flushed.
"Teacher Jiang’s legs are so pale. I wonder if Xia Yunuo’s legs are this pale too? Seeing how fair and tender her face is, her legs definitely wouldn’t be any worse."
"What on earth is this guy thinking about?!" Xia Yunuo thought in disbelief. "Who compares a classmate’s legs with a teacher’s?! How can Song Yunshen be such a pervert?"
If Xia Yunuo could hear the inner thoughts of all men, she would probably understand that it wasn’t just Song Yunshen being a pervert—it was simply how all guys were. But Song Yunshen was oblivious to her eavesdropping. While being lectured by Jiang Wenpei, a dumbfounded expression suddenly appeared on his face.
"How can Song Yunshen be such a pervert?"
"Fuck!" Song Yunshen thought. "Why am I suddenly getting scolded out of nowhere? What does Xia Yunuo mean by this? Did she see the way I was peeking at Teacher Jiang’s long legs just now? Do you have the eyes of a hawk?!"