Lin Zhao propped herself up on her arm, tilting her head toward Xu Ning, raising an eyebrow and deliberately dragging out her tone: “What? I didn’t hear you clearly?”
Xu Ning clenched the hem of her clothes tightly, her lowered eyes trembling slightly. After hesitating for a long moment, she whispered, “…I… I can… change seats.”
Lin Zhao leaned slightly closer, her gaze fixed on Xu Ning’s face.
“Is this really what you want?” Lin Zhao’s voice was quiet, but unusually serious. “You don’t want to sit with me?”
Xu Ning’s head shot up abruptly, meeting Lin Zhao’s deep, penetrating eyes, then quickly dropped again. She shook her head frantically: “I didn’t… think that.”
“So… that means you do want to sit with me?”
Xu Ning opened her mouth, seemingly to say something or explain herself, but in the end, she just pressed her lips together and remained silent.
The air between them fell completely still, broken only by the relentless patter of the wind against the windowpane.
One strike after another, sharp enough to make the eardrums ache.
After a while, Xu Ning seemed to steel herself, lifting her head slowly. Her voice was soft: “…No.”
Lin Zhao, as if she had already anticipated this response, didn’t change her expression in the slightest. She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed casually, and said lightly, “But I want to sit with you.”
Xu Ning was completely stunned. She looked up at Lin Zhao, disbelief written all over her face.
This couldn’t be right…
The Lin family’s always high-and-mighty eldest daughter… actually said she wanted to sit with her?
“What?” Xu Ning instinctively asked, doubting herself.
“It’s nothing,” Lin Zhao waved her hand, her smile softening a bit. “Just a joke. Don’t take it seriously.”
Then she rested her chin on her hand, gazing out the window, lost in thought.
The silence returned.
It had been several days since she transferred to Class One, and the two of them had barely spoken—maybe enough to count on ten fingers.
Most of the time, Lin Zhao initiated the conversation. Xu Ning’s responses were always polite but distant—a nod here, a short “hm” there. Occasionally she spoke a few more words, but there was always a clear boundary.
Xu Ning still held a grudge.
She hadn’t forgotten how Lin Zhao had treated her before—mocking her family background behind her back, causing trouble for her constantly. Even when Gu Zhuoxiao harassed her, Lin Zhao had slapped her without hesitation, calling her a “shameless bumpkin.”
Those memories were like a thorn in her heart. Even if removed, the wound still throbbed.
Lin Zhao didn’t care.
She didn’t need Xu Ning to immediately drop her guard; she had all the time in the world.
After all, the “prey” was already within her sight. There was no way she could escape.
Days passed uneventfully, until that afternoon at Zhouxi.
The second period was PE class. The teacher gave only brief instructions and then walked off to make a phone call, leaving everyone free to do as they pleased.
The playground immediately erupted with activity. Boys clustered around the basketball court; girls huddled together, chattering away.
Xu Ning didn’t like the noise and found a quiet corner to sit in. She looked down at the ants crawling slowly across a dried yellow leaf, lost in thought.
Suddenly, a basketball came crashing down with a loud thud, bouncing several times before stopping at her shoes.
Xu Ning jolted, looking up to see Gu Zhuoxiao standing not far away, hands on his hips, whistling at her.
“Bumpkin, fetch the ball for me.”
The boys playing with him laughed along.
Xu Ning’s face paled, and she clenched her clothes in humiliation.
She hadn’t wanted to respond to Gu Zhuoxiao, but she dared not defy him. He was notoriously vindictive; if she refused, he would find any excuse to make her life miserable.
After a moment’s hesitation, she lowered her head and silently reached for the ball.
Just as her fingers brushed it, a slender, pale hand shot out from the side and snatched the ball up.
Xu Ning froze, looking up to see Lin Zhao standing beside her, expression unreadable.
Lin Zhao weighed the basketball in her hand, glancing briefly at Gu Zhuoxiao, lips curling in a faint smile.
She didn’t speak, only lifted her arm slightly—and the ball flew like a cannonball straight toward Gu Zhuoxiao.
Thwack!
The ball grazed his cheek, the wind tousling his bangs.
It then slammed into the basketball pole behind him with a dull thud before bouncing back, hitting him squarely on the shin.
“Argh!”
Gu Zhuoxiao staggered, nearly toppling over.
“Lin Zhao!”
His eyes were red with fury. “Are you out of your mind?!”
Lin Zhao brushed dust off her hands, slowly walked over to Xu Ning, sat down beside her, and tilted her chin toward Gu Zhuoxiao: “You wanted the ball, right? Here. Why didn’t you catch it?”
Gritting his teeth, Gu Zhuoxiao kicked the nearby basketball hard toward Lin Zhao’s direction, muttering, “What a buzzkill,” before turning away without another glance.
Lin Zhao looked at Xu Ning, who was staring down at her shoes, pale-faced.
“What are you sitting here for?” Lin Zhao asked.
Xu Ning lifted her head, glanced at her, then quickly looked down again. “…Just sitting.”
Lin Zhao uttered a soft “oh,” glancing toward the basketball court where the students resumed playing. The noise rose again, as if the earlier incident had been nothing but a minor footnote.
After a pause, Lin Zhao turned back to Xu Ning and asked calmly, “That guy… he’s annoying, isn’t he?”
Xu Ning’s body shivered slightly, and she didn’t answer right away.
After a long pause, she finally said, “…Aren’t you the same?”
…
Lin Zhao froze, then burst out laughing as if she’d heard something utterly ridiculous. Pfft!
“What a joke.”
She pointed at her own nose. “I may not be much, but compared to that idiot, I’m still… purer, right?”
Xu Ning looked at her silently.
She had expected Lin Zhao to berate her for Gu Zhuoxiao—but Lin Zhao didn’t.
Why not?
Seeing Xu Ning remain quiet, Lin Zhao didn’t press further.
The silence lingered for a moment.
Feeling a little bored, Lin Zhao casually broke the silence with a new topic: “By the way… how’s your grandmother doing?”
Xu Ning’s body stiffened.
Her head shot up, eyes wide in shock.
She had never told anyone about her grandmother’s hospitalization. She didn’t want others to know her family’s troubles, didn’t want to be mocked, and certainly didn’t want pity. To her, that would make her feel like an object on display.
“How did you know?”
How could Lin Zhao have brought up her grandmother so quickly?
Lin Zhao cursed herself inwardly for losing patience, but outwardly she remained calm. Looking into Xu Ning’s wary eyes, she said casually: “Don’t read too much into it. I just happened to know.”
Xu Ning’s eyes didn’t change, and she asked suspiciously: “Were you following me?”
Lin Zhao’s heart skipped a beat, but she replied: “Of course not! Am I that kind of person?”
Xu Ning studied her for a few seconds, her clear eyes reflecting Lin Zhao’s slightly stiff expression, and then slowly said three words: “…Aren’t you?”
Those three words, light as a feather, hit Lin Zhao like a slap across the face.
It was undeniable—Lin Zhao had been secretly following Xu Ning.
Her fingers curled slightly, but she couldn’t admit it. Absolutely not. That would make her a pervert.
She inhaled deeply, straightened her back, and confidently blurted a lie: “Of course not! The other day when I went to the hospital, I happened to see you, so I just asked about you.”
“When exactly?” Xu Ning asked.
Lin Zhao’s mind raced. Frowning, she feigned effort to recall, murmuring vaguely: “Just… a few days ago. I don’t remember the exact day.”
Xu Ning looked half-believing, softly asking: “Is that true?”
Lin Zhao pretended to be wounded, the smile disappearing from her face, replaced with a hurt expression.
She pulled out a folded paper heart from somewhere, ripped it neatly in half with a rip, and held one half, letting the other fall to the ground, where the wind flipped it over.
“You don’t trust me? We’re at least classmates. And yet you don’t believe me.”
She offered the torn half toward Xu Ning. “You can doubt my character, but you cannot doubt my sincerity.”
Xu Ning looked at the paper in Lin Zhao’s hand, opened her mouth slightly, voice barely audible: “…I misunderstood you.”
Lin Zhao shook her head, blaming herself: “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Xu Ning lowered her head. “It’s okay.”
“Lin Zhao!”
Just then, a clear female voice rang from nearby, breaking the awkward atmosphere between the two.