Liu Xia’s grin didn’t fade for the entire class. She smiled triumphantly, smiled victoriously~
19 points~
How did she manage to score so perfectly low?! She couldn’t help but praise herself.
19+100=119, then divide by 2.
59.5.
Heh heh heh~ Fail!
Time for celebration.
Mr. Seider’s consistent practice was to keep the score as-is; he never rounded up or down. Half a point short was still a fail.
Surely Patron Mom would finally seek her out now?
During the break, Qi Fei finally couldn’t help but say, “You’re so happy. Looks like you scored well.”
Qi Fei was the boy who kept glancing at her earlier.
Hao Yan and Gai Gai didn’t like sitting in the front row, so recently, Qi Fei had been saving her seat—always the very last one by the aisle in the front row.
Since Mr. Seider’s class didn’t have enough seating, latecomers truly had to sit on stools.
Liu Xia smiled and shook her head. “No, I failed.”
“You failed, and you’re this happy?”
“I just remembered something joyful.”
Qi Fei laughed along. “It must be a truly great piece of news, one that failure can’t even suppress.”
Liu Xia just smiled without elaborating.
When the dismissal bell rang, Liu Xia deliberately packed very slowly and let Hao Yan and Gai Gai leave first, trying to create an opportunity for Patron Mom to approach her.
Thump! Thump!
Is she coming?
She was nervous.
The classroom door was only a few steps away from her. Students walked out in twos and threes, but Gu Lingluo was nowhere to be seen.
She couldn’t help but turn and look. Patron Mom was in her usual black top, black trousers, and black combat boots, her long hair casually draped over her shoulders. She was clutching her books, inching along with the other students in the narrow aisle.
Even while squeezed among so many people, she was the most noticeable. Her lightly reddened lips and downcast long lashes made every frame look like a painting.
Liu Xia couldn’t help but press her lips together.
Patron Mom was truly beautiful…
Wait!
What she meant to think was that Patron Mom was finally about to approach her!
She subconsciously tugged at the hem of her clothes, smoothed the stray hairs on the side of her face twice, and quickly lowered her head, pretending to pack up nonchalantly. This time, she didn’t dare glance around, focusing entirely on her pencil case, turning her pens over and over countless times.
“Still not packed up?”
The sentence startled Liu Xia.
“Ah? What?!”
The person who spoke wasn’t Gu Lingluo; it was Qi Fei.
Liu Xia instinctively looked up and scanned the room.
Where was Gu Lingluo?
She dropped her pencil case and chased to the classroom door, watching Gu Lingluo’s ethereal figure fade and disappear into the corner amidst the throng of people.
She… left?
She just… left?!
Why was this different from what she had expected?
Wasn’t she supposed to confront her with a cold face and settle the score? She was never polite before, so why did she let her off so easily this time?
She had dragged her down to a failing grade, losing points from her overall assessment. Was Gu Lingluo really just going to let it go?
Wasn’t she afraid of failing again next time?
As a hundred thoughts raced through her mind, Gu Lingluo’s figure completely vanished around the corner.
Disheartened, she returned to grab her bag. Qi Fei waved a hand in front of her. “What are you thinking about? You look so focused.”
She forced a smile. “Nothing.”
Qi Fei said, “Shall we go then?”
We? Since when were she and he a “we”?
Liu Xia politely asked, “Go where?”
“The cafeteria! Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I…” Liu Xia glanced at his companion, who was waiting for him.
That companion quickly walked around the desk and headed out, laughing meaningfully as he went. “I have something to do, so I’m leaving first. You two go together, so he doesn’t have to be alone.”
Qi Fei slung his single-shoulder bag on and said to her, “You wouldn’t really leave me all alone, would you? Let’s go?”
Qi Fei helped her save a seat every German class. Although she hadn’t actively asked him to, she was the one who benefited. It felt wrong not to humor him a little.
Liu Xia sighed. Fine, I’ll go. This was a good chance to treat him to a meal as thanks.
Qi Fei chatted merrily the entire way. In the cafeteria, he was incredibly attentive, helping her line up and wiping down the table. When Liu Xia offered to pay, he refused and insisted on treating her instead.
In such a public setting, Liu Xia couldn’t keep arguing with him, so she went and bought him a fruit tea instead.
Liu Xia didn’t know what Qi Fei was feeling, but she herself was terribly awkward. She vaguely sensed that Qi Fei might be pursuing her, but since he hadn’t said anything, she didn’t feel comfortable asking.
After a moment’s thought, Liu Xia said, “You don’t need to save a seat for me next time. I’ll just come early.”
Qi Fei clearly missed her meaning. He took a sip of his fruit tea and smiled. “That works too. Whoever arrives first saves the seat.”
No! She meant she wasn’t going to sit with him anymore!
Liu Xia only had the “thick-skinned” label for Patron Mom. Normally, she was quite shy, so she couldn’t bring herself to reject him outright.
After eating, Qi Fei insisted on walking her.
Liu Xia didn’t live on campus. Usually, after lunch, she either went to Hao Yan and Gai Gai’s dorm or the library.
She had originally planned to go to the library today, but seeing the smiling Qi Fei beside her, she was afraid that if she said the library, he would follow her all the way.
“You don’t need to walk me. I’m going to the girls’ dorm.”
“Perfect, that’s on my way. I’m heading back to the boys’ dorm.”
The girls’ dorm was in the deepest part of the campus, separated from the boys’ dorm by a two-hundred-year-old locust tree.
The old locust tree made Liu Xia think of her cold and merciless Patron Mom.
Gu Lingluo seemed quite fond of that old locust tree; she had even picked up a leaf from it outside the campus wall and tucked it into her book that day.
Liu Xia also liked the old locust tree because there was a long bench beneath it. When she couldn’t find a seat in the library or didn’t want to disturb Hao Yan and Gai Gai, she would sit there and read.
Qi Fei walked her to the girls’ dorm building before reluctantly leaving. She went upstairs, searched around, and found that Hao Yan and Gai Gai hadn’t returned yet, so she went back downstairs.
The November weather was getting slightly cold, but the temperature was still quite warm around noon.
Liu Xia sat on the long bench, looking up at the dense green branches. The autumn sun filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground. The air was clear and bright, and her mood lifted.
So what if Patron Mom ignores her? She didn’t believe Gu Lingluo could sit still if they failed every single time!
No rush. There’s plenty of time~
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. She took out her book and placed it on her knees, reading intently.
A dead leaf fluttered down and landed on the page, blocking her view.
She picked up the stem and turned it, feeling a little sting of sadness.
Even an old locust tree was bullying her. The leaves that fell for Gu Lingluo were fresh green ones, but the one that fell for her was a dry, dead leaf.
Hmph!
She angrily threw the dead leaf away and continued reading.
Rustle!
Another dead leaf fell.
Before she could blow it away, leaf after leaf, in an instant, countless dead leaves showered down like a blizzard.
Wha—
What was going on?
She looked up in astonishment.
Everything before her was like a bizarre dream. The two-hundred-year-old locust tree, which had been tall and robust just a moment ago, now had withered leaves and cracked branches, rapidly decaying and drying up at a visible speed!
Liu Xia sprang to her feet, stumbling back several steps. Her heart pounding wildly, she turned and rushed towards the library.
Reaching the corner, she took a shaky breath, fighting the chills, and quickly snapped a photo, which she posted to the school’s anonymous forum.
[SHOCK! The Two-Hundred-Year-Old Locust Tree by the Dorms Instantly Died! A Supernatural Phenomenon? Or an Unsolved Scientific Mystery?]
Such a terrifying event couldn’t be kept to herself; she had to vent!
Responses quickly poured in, and as she continuously refreshed the thread, her nerves slowly calmed down.
The post became heated faster than expected. Before she even reached the library, students had already uploaded the latest photos to the thread. The old locust tree had withered further; half the trunk was hollow, thoroughly dead and ready to topple over.
When the school was founded, a geomancy master claimed that the locust tree (huai 槐, whose radical suggests ghost gui 鬼) was the “ghost among wood” and unsuitable for the campus. However, the tree was nearly a hundred years old and considered precious. Since no one had heard of any problems during those hundred years, the school ignored the warning.
Now, after being preserved for over 200 years, its sudden death caused an uproar.
Many students topped the thread, adhering to the principle of “the more dramatic, the better.” All sorts of campus legends about the old locust tree flooded in: girls who committed suicide in room XXX, crying sounds in the middle of the night in the bathroom, and the dorm rooms closest to the old tree always feeling a cold draft, and so on.
Some even fabricated stories, claiming the school was built on a mass grave site.
Amidst the fabrications, there were also serious analyses: the termite theory, the magnetic field theory, the alien spaceship radiation theory, the parallel space exchange theory, and the dimensional black hole theory.
Just as the matter was spiraling out of control—the post had been stickied, highlighted, and shared on Weibo, Tieba, Douyin, and other platforms—the usually slow-reacting school quickly released a statement, claiming the old locust tree had been infected by termites long ago and did not instantly wither as rumored.
The next morning, the dead half-trunk was gone. The pit was filled, the dead leaves swept clean. Only the long bench remained forlornly in its original spot.
The rumors quickly subsided. After all, no one except Liu Xia had actually witnessed the old locust tree’s instant death.
Liu Xia remained unsettled and told Hao Yan and Gai Gai about it.
Gai Gai said, “Termites eat very fast. It’s not impossible for it to suddenly die. Don’t worry, it’s absolutely not a supernatural event. There are no ghosts in this world.”
Liu Xia whispered, “But I’ve been reborn…”
Hao Yan comforted her. “So what if you’ve been reborn? That doesn’t mean there are ghosts, right? Many things that seem inexplicable look bizarre, but there’s always a scientific explanation behind them. They’re only inexplicable because science hasn’t researched that area yet.”
Their reassurance helped somewhat. Liu Xia finally managed to convince herself that it was the work of termites.
She felt a little embarrassed to admit it, but Liu Xia was genuinely timid—not afraid of cockroaches or mice, but afraid of the supernatural, ghosts, and spirits.
In her entire life, she had only watched one horror movie, the old version of Painted Skin, and that was when she was very young. She didn’t remember the details, only that afterward, she suffered from nightmares and a high fever, lasting over a week. She nearly lost her life.
With this commotion, Liu Xia had no time to worry about Gu Lingluo. For several days, she rushed home immediately after school.
This day was no different. She was riding her bicycle, ready to head home, when she suddenly heard someone call her name.
She slammed on the brakes and turned around.
The setting sun shone obliquely, and a gentle breeze blew. Gu Lingluo stood not far away, in her black top, black trousers, and black combat boots—the simplest attire, yet the most elegant posture. She was gazing at Liu Xia from afar. Her flawless eyes reflected the sunset, both warm and deep, like warm jade and cold stars.