—My mommy looked at the images for you. The eardrum in the first film is indeed ruptured, but it’s the right ear, not the left. See, there’s a bright spot on the eardrum called the cone of light. It should be pointing forward and downward. If the doctor’s diagnosis wasn’t wrong, then it can only mean that these two images are not of the same person.
—There’s also a problem with the X-ray of the fracture. You said this is an Alpha who presented a year ago, but the epiphyseal line of an Alpha gradually closes after the growth spurt of presentation, usually completely closed within half a year. But this is clearly the bone of a child; the epiphyseal cartilage is very clear.
Lion’s message cheered Zhong Xiu up a bit. She hadn’t spoken to Lin Xi this weekend, though she hadn’t said much to her usually anyway.
She immediately found the pictures in the forum, ready to screenshot them as evidence, only to find that those questionable pictures had been secretly replaced sometime earlier.
These medical imaging pictures all looked similar. Non-professionals couldn’t tell any difference, and it was even more impossible for a group of high school students to notice the subtle flaws.
Zhong Xiu, who only saved the pictures but failed to screenshot them, was so angry that she threw her phone onto the bed and then threw herself onto the bed as well.
How could I forget to screenshot!
It was because she hadn’t even dared to consider the possibility of forgery.
However, Lion quickly sent her a few screenshots.
—I was bored last night and happened to look at the gossip on your school’s forum. You’re welcome.
Zhong Xiu quickly saved them, then sent the other party a new outfit and wand set in the game. This was the only way she could express her gratitude.
However, relying solely on these was far from enough.
What was bound to happen eventually did. When Zhong Xiu walked into the classroom on Monday, she heard the students in the front discussing the seat change.
“Class monitor, Old Tang might have genuinely forgotten. Why don’t you preside over the seat change?”
“I don’t have that authority,” Zhai Yong was very hesitant. He wanted to change, but he was afraid Old Tang would scold him for doing so.
“We change once a month anyway. It’s always been this way. What can Old Tang say?”
Zhai Yong still hesitated, scratching his head and remaining silent.
“Just change it. Everyone wants to change. If Old Tang says anything, just say it was everyone’s collective decision.”
The Alphas also began to egg him on.
Almost the entire class supported the rotation of seats, except for the few students who were about to sit around Zhong Xiu and Lin Xi, who insisted that if Old Tang didn’t say anything, they wouldn’t change.
“We applied to Old Tang. If we change, we won’t sit in the second-to-last row!”
“Why do you get out of it just because you applied? Everyone takes turns. If it’s your turn to sit there, you sit there!”
The students who were arguing had similar grades. They weren’t in the top ten of the class and didn’t have the authority to choose their seats.
“Changing seats is up to Old Tang. If Old Tang doesn’t say it, we don’t change. Who are you to change it yourselves?”
Lin Xi happened to walk in with her backpack and must have overheard quite a bit.
“I don’t care. We’re not sitting here anymore.”
Everyone was at a stalemate, with no one willing to sit down. Lin Xi was placed in an extremely awkward position.
“Zhong Xiu, what about you? Do you want to switch?” Zhai Yong sought her opinion, with a hint of expectation in his tone.
If she wasn’t sitting with Lin Xi, the best choice in the class would undoubtedly be him.
“I’m not switching,” Zhong Xiu stood by the door.
“Why aren’t you switching?” If Lin Xi had asked this, Zhong Xiu would have been very sad.
But it was Lin Xi who asked it.
The Alpha stood in front of her, looking down emotionlessly.
“I’m sitting here just fine. Why should I switch?” Zhong Xiu stubbornly looked up, meeting her gaze, ignoring how much her heart was racing.
“Fine, if you all won’t sit, I will,” Gao Lan dragged his backpack and threw it onto the seat. “I want to see what kind of poison this seat has.”
You Tian followed behind her and sat down in front of Zhong Xiu.
Seeing that someone had taken the seat, Zhai Yong glanced at Zhong Xiu, who was still confronting Lin Xi. Ignoring his disappointment, he immediately decided to proceed with the seating change.
Old Tang said nothing throughout the entire process.
“I’ve been wanting to switch here for ages,” You Tian couldn’t help but turn around and talk to Zhong Xiu right after class. “Now this is great. We don’t even have to pass notes.”
“Mhm,” Zhong Xiu wasn’t in the mood to joke with him right now.
The relationship between her and Lin Xi seemed to be caught in an ice age.
“Zhong Xiu, this is my Physics notebook from the last two years of high school. It contains detailed knowledge points and some of my mistakes. You can take a look. Maybe it will help you.” Zhai Yong was standing by the window outside the classroom.
He opened the brown leather notebook. It contained many cut-out test papers of mistakes he had made, and the solutions were indeed detailed, though the handwriting was a bit messy, the typical style of a Beta straight male.
“Thank you.” Zhong Xiu originally wanted to decline his kindness, but somehow, all the classmates were looking their way. Rejecting him in front of so many people might be embarrassing. Zhong Xiu decided to find another opportunity to return it to him.
“Well done, class monitor. You won’t lend it to me, but you proactively give it to Zhong Xiu,” Gao Lan also leaned against the window. Zhong Xiu casually put the notebook into her desk.
Zhai Yong smiled and said nothing.
“Is she looking for you?” Zhong Xiu pointed to the staircase outside the window behind Gao Lan. Ye Shuwen was climbing the stairs to the fifth floor.
Seeing her, Zhong Xiu remembered Ye Shuwen asking her to help deliver milk tea. Actually, Ye Shuwen had a much better relationship with Gao Lan and could have asked him to help her.
Did that last cup of milk tea get given to Gao Lan?
“Ah, right,” Gao Lan quickly ran off.
Zhai Yong didn’t leave, seeming to want to say something more to Zhong Xiu, but Zhong Xiu closed the back window when she noticed Ye Shuwen looking in their direction.
“Lin Xi, I didn’t understand the math problem Old Tang went over this morning.” After a long internal struggle, she finally waited until Lin Xi finished the test paper in her hand. Zhong Xiu moved her scratch paper to the clear dividing line between their desks.
Lin Xi glanced at the problem on the notebook but didn’t move.
The problem wasn’t difficult. Old Tang had explained it very clearly, even using two different methods. Zhong Xiu hadn’t failed to understand it; she hadn’t listened at all.
Even though she knew this, she just wanted to say something to Lin Xi. Even if Lin Xi scolded her for not paying attention, it would be better than this silence.
But the next second, Lin Xi took the notebook.
Her fingers holding the fountain pen were long and slender, with clearly defined joints. Zhong Xiu watched them move skillfully, and clean lines of writing appeared on the paper.
When she wrote, her back was perfectly straight, her posture upright, and her expression focused. Zhong Xiu’s attention was slowly drawn to her. The sunlight shone on her profile, warming half of her body.
The dazzling flowers are tempting, but Lin Xi surpasses even the most beautiful blossoms.
She felt she could never tire of this simple scene.
A little while later, when the notebook was handed back, it was filled with detailed solution steps. Zhong Xiu’s math foundation wasn’t too bad, and everything Lin Xi wrote was understandable to her. The particularly difficult parts were written in more detail, even including one more method than Old Tang had used.
Facing such detailed handwriting, Zhong Xiu was often distracted. The phrase “Why aren’t you switching?” kept repeating in her mind.
Not switching. I won’t switch, even if you kill me.
Unknowingly, she scribbled what she wanted to say on the scratch paper, then hastily crossed it out.
The seating change incident hadn’t been long ago. While Lin Xi was in the restroom, You Tian quickly turned around and said to Zhong Xiu with a dark expression, “Someone tore up my test paper.”
“Was it in the classroom?”
“Yeah,” You Tian was extremely wronged. He showed the shredded test paper. The stack of papers held together by a binder clip looked like a pile of dried salted vegetables.
“I’m not doing great either,” Gao Lan lifted his sleeve. A large patch of skin above his elbow joint was scraped off. “Lately, when I play basketball, people keep intentionally bumping into me with the ball.”
“I’m sorry,” both of them were clearly being retaliated against. Zhong Xiu felt guilty.
“It’s not your fault. Why are you apologizing? When Dad catches the culprit, I’ll definitely give them a piece of my mind!” You Tian said aggressively.
“That’s not right,” Gao Lan pondered, looking at Zhong Xiu with suspicion. “Zhong Xiu, are you okay?”
Zhong Xiu lowered her head, her eyes slightly flickering.
“Yeah, you’re closest to Lin Xi. Haven’t they bothered you?” You Tian caught on.
“No.”
“Impossible,” Gao Lan said very certainly. Others were retaliated against just for speaking up for Lin Xi, and Zhong Xiu did more than just speak up.
“Are you still treating us as friends? Zhong Xiu, be honest.”
Zhong Xiu was about to speak when Lin Xi walked in. The Little Tigers quickly turned their heads, pretending nothing had happened.
Lin Xi saw their quick movements clearly.
Of course, she wasn’t fine. Whenever Zhong Xiu walked home these past few days, she always felt as if someone was following her, very obviously, probably trying to scare her.
—Damn it, that’s disgusting.
The Little Tigers group chat became lively again.
—Zhong Xiu, be careful and protect yourself.
—I know, but I don’t think they’ll dare to do anything serious. The person following me seems to be that Omega boy from the Student Council.
The same one who held back Lin Yucheng in the cafeteria last time. Zhong Xiu saw him in a shop mirror as she crossed the road and recognized him instantly.
—Hah, Zhang Mingming. I wonder who it was. Isn’t that Lin Yucheng’s #1 bootlicker Omega? That guy is utterly despicable. Zhong Xiu, if you can’t stand it, I suggest you beat him up.
—Exactly.
Gao Lan rarely agreed with You Tian.
—We Alphas shouldn’t get physical, but you’re a Beta! Beat him up if you want to. Just remember to do it somewhere private.
Zhong Xiu successfully laughed at the two of them.
With the math problem as an opening, Zhong Xiu plucked up her courage and followed behind Lin Xi after school.
“Lin Xi.”
“Is something wrong?” The small distance she had managed to close between them returned to the starting point with that question.
“Do you want to eat egg waffles today?” Zhong Xiu was full of hope.
“No.”
“Oh,” the next phrase, “go home together,” couldn’t be said. Zhong Xiu tried hard not to show how disappointed she was.
After walking a few steps, she suddenly heard Lin Xi call her name.
Zhong Xiu quickly turned around.
“Don’t send milk anymore in the future,” Lin Xi said flatly. The extra weight in her backpack was easily noticeable.
For some reason, a feeling of bitterness seized her entire heart.
“Stay away from me.”
“No.”
“Getting close to me will bring—”
“It won’t.” She was a little stubborn, even though her eyes were red. “You know these are all fake. Lin Yucheng is saying this on purpose. Everyone is lying. I have evidence.”
Evidence. What a naive, childish thing. Lin Xi looked at her for a few seconds. “You should go first. I want to be alone for a while.”
“I won’t bother you.”
She was determined to follow her. Lin Xi lowered her eyes.
“Do you still remember? The day you became my deskmate, your mother was admitted to the hospital.”
Zhong Xiu’s eyes widened suddenly. How could she say such hurtful words?
“Her death, maybe…”
Before she could finish, Zhong Xiu held back her tears, ran away with her backpack, and didn’t cry in front of her.