This was clearly giving her special treatment.
The seats in the classroom were only rearranged once a month, based strictly on academic rankings.
It was already the second semester of the senior year.
The teachers had long since given up on having good students help struggling students.
Their only prayer was that the troublemakers wouldn’t disturb the good ones.
Yet now, Su Ning could freely choose where she wanted to sit.
Every student in the classroom craned their necks, hoping she would notice them.
Who wouldn’t want to share a desk with a stunning beauty?
Su Nanye, in particular, held his rainbow-colored head high.
His posture practically screamed: Look at me, little sister! Look at me!
Seeing Su Ning, Ji Yang was extremely surprised. Remaining seated with his head slightly tilted, he whispered to Su Nanye, “Boss, isn’t that the girl who was looking for you at the school gates the other day?”
Su Nanye turned to look at him. “What? You already knew she is my sister?”
Ji Yang blinked. “Huh?”
Scratching his green hair, Ji Yang asked, “She is your sister? A cousin or a half-sister?”
Su Nanye raised an eyebrow slightly. “My real, full sister!”
Ji Yang’s eyes widened. “Your full sister? Did your dad cheat, or did your mom cheat on him?”
Su Nanye was speechless for a moment. Deciding not to waste time explaining things to Ji Yang, he said, “She is definitely going to sit with me. Hurry up and clean your desk, wipe the surface off, and get ready to welcome my sister!”
Standing on the podium, Su Ning had indeed been drawn to her brother’s rainbow-gradient hair.
Naturally, she also spotted Ji Yang and his green hair right next to him.
The corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
There were two such trouble-makers in class four!
Su Ning instantly felt a surge of sympathy for their homeroom teacher.
The young girl’s gaze didn’t land on him first.
Shen Yanli’s heart sank slightly as his long, dense eyelashes dropped, casting a shadow across his eyelids.
“I want to sit here!”
Su Ning pointed her finger at Shen Yanli’s desk-mate in the front row.
That student’s eyes lit up, and he happily said, “Great, go ahead and sit!”
The desks in the classroom were divided into eight columns, with the ones against the walls on both sides arranged as pairs for two.
The middle four columns were pushed right up against each other.
Shen Yanli sat in the aisle seat, and this student was to his left, directly facing the podium.
Not to mention the immense pressure of sitting right under the teacher’s nose where you could get caught doing anything, sharing a desk with the top-ranked student in the grade was even more nerve-wracking.
He had been praying for a seat change for ages.
Now, this beauty was simply his savior!
There was one empty seat left in the very last row.
The student patted Shen Yanli’s shoulder. “Get up for a second, I am heading out.”
Shen Yanli hadn’t lifted his head, so he had no idea who Su Ning was pointing at.
Hearing his desk-mate’s words, his breath hitched as he guessed what was happening, and he stood up somewhat stiffly.
“Dammit!” Su Nanye’s brows knitted into fuzzy caterpillars. “My sister isn’t sitting with me!”
Not only was she not sitting with him, but she was sitting with his sworn enemy.
It infuriated him to no end!
Ji Yang comforted him, “Maybe your sister thinks the front row has a better view.”
Su Nanye turned and glared at him. “Is sister for you to call? That is my sister, not yours!”
Ji Yang: “Oh.”
Su Ning had also debated whether or not to share a desk with her brother.
Ultimately, she chose Shen Yanli.
If she sat with her brother, getting on Shen Yanli’s good side would be much harder.
The student who had swapped seats dashed off to the back in a flash, overjoyed, humming Today Is a Good Day under his breath.
Seeing that the handsome boy had already stood up, Su Ning walked over with her schoolbag on her back.
Her little leather shoes tapped crisply against the floor.
The classroom wasn’t large, housing a total of forty-six students.
Consequently, the space between the front desks and back rows wasn’t very roomy.
As Shen Yanli stood beside the desk, the young girl brushed past him to reach her seat.
Her shoulder accidentally grazed his, and that spot instantly grew hot and numb.
“Shen Yanli, you can sit down too. Let us officially start our homeroom meeting.”
The teacher spoke.
Only then did Shen Yanli realize he had been standing in a daze for several seconds.
Because everything felt somewhat surreal.
Sitting upright in his chair, Shen Yanli could still catch the unique fragrance lingering around her.
It made his body instinctively want to lean toward her side.
Pure willpower forced him to remain motionless as if nothing had happened, continuing with his math test paper.
Yet, he read a single word problem several times over without comprehending what it was asking.
The question filling his mind was simply: Why did Su Ning choose to share a desk with me?
“Su Ning! Why are you sitting with him?”
As soon as class ended, Su Nanye bolted from the very back to the front podium, demanding an answer from Su Ning with an indignant expression.
Shen Yanli kept his composure outwardly while secretly cocking his left ear to listen.
“I want to study hard. The front row gives the clearest view for listening to lectures.”
Su Ning rested her hands crossed over her desk, answering without a blush or a skipped heartbeat.
A flash of strange emotion crossed Shen Yanli’s cool, detached eyes, and he forced his attention back to his math test paper.
Normally, he should have finished most of the test by this point, but he was still stuck on the first page.
Su Nanye remained half-convinced. “Really?”
Wasn’t it because of that groundless suspicion of hers?
Regarding his future bankruptcy, Su Nanye refused to believe for a single second that Shen Yanli had anything to do with it.
Leaving aside whether Shen Yanli even had the capability to exact revenge on him, what reason would he even have to do so?
It was always him starting trouble first!
Su Ning kept a straight face. “Of course.”
Su Nanye narrowed his left eye, his tone arrogant and rebellious. “If this punk dares to bully you, just tell me. I will crush him!”
Su Ning: “Right.”
The classmates who overheard this statement all widened their eyes in shock.
What on earth was going on with Su Nanye? He was actually taking the initiative to protect Su Ning?
You had to know he practically never hung out with girls!
Someone whispered, “I heard people talking last week saying Su Nanye has a girlfriend. Could this be her?”
“Now that you mention it, that is seriously possible!”
“Does Su Nanye really not like the campus belle anymore? Why is it so hard to believe!”
The people in the front hadn’t caught those discussions.
Su Ning smiled at Su Nanye. “Put your heart at ease, Shen Yanli could never bully me.”
Su Nanye: “Ah.”
Hearing his name drop from the girl’s lips, Shen Yanli continued solving his problems outwardly while giving a subtle twitch of his eyebrow.
Could never bully her?
That was hard to say.
He was far from being a good person.
Since the seating arrangement was locked in, Su Nanye couldn’t exactly force his sister to share a desk with him.
The male classmate who had traded seats with Su Ning earlier sauntered over, flashing a grin as he said, “Hello Su Ning, my name is Zhang Hua.”
Seeing Zhang Hua immediately irritated Su Nanye.
If Zhang Hua had refused, his sister wouldn’t be sitting with Shen Yanli right now.
And yet here he was, still daring to flirt with his sister.
Glaring at Zhang Hua, Su Nanye snapped, “You…”
“No swearing!” Su Ning pinned him with a crescent-eyed stare.
A chill ran down Su Nanye’s spine, and he instantly pivoted his sentence. “How many days has it been since you washed your hair?”
Zhang Hua: “Hey.”
The surrounding students watching this exchange were left completely dumbfounded.
Good grief! How did the lawless school bully turn into a henpecked husband?
At that moment, Ji Yang poked his green head forward as well, his chubby face beaming with eager smiles. “Su Ning, my name is Ji Yang!”
Su Nanye wanted to tell Ji Yang to scram too, but remembering the no-swearing rule, he improvised, “What Ji Yang, you should just call him Qin Shi Huang from now on.”
Su Ning looked puzzled. “Why Qin Shi Huang?”
Such an overbearing nickname.
Su Nanye flicked his bangs. “Because he takes dumps with impressive frequency.”
Su Ning: “Oh.”
Ah. So he was the Emperor of Frequent Dumps.
Ji Yang was too late to clamp his hand over Su Nanye’s mouth. His face cycled from pale to green, and in a fit of pure indignation, he threw a tiny tantrum. “Boss! I am never calling you boss again!”
In front of a beauty, didn’t he have any dignity left? Number Two!
The quiet onlookers all drew sharp intakes of breath.
That settled it. Su Ning was definitely Su Nanye’s girlfriend.
He wouldn’t even let Ji Yang talk back.
Shen Yanli was probably going to have terrible luck from now on!
With a stomachache brought on by pure anger, Ji Yang bolted off toward the restroom.
Su Nanye threw a warning look at Shen Yanli’s direction, then called out toward Ji Yang’s retreating back, “Wait for me, Emperor Qin!”
With Su Nanye and Ji Yang gone, the front of the classroom instantly quieted down considerably.
Only then did Su Ning direct the very first words of the day toward Shen Yanli. “Hello, fancy meeting you again!”
Shen Yanli’s expression betrayed no emotion; he didn’t even lift his head as he kept working on his problems. “Hmm.”
“Class monitor, how are we arranging cleaning duty this week?”
Someone suddenly called out to the desk-mate sitting to Su Ning’s left.
The girl had short hair, very long bangs, and a pair of nearsighted glasses that practically concealed half her face.
She had remained quiet the entire class, to the point where Su Ning had barely noticed her presence.
So this person was Class Four’s monitor.
The girl’s voice was clear yet sounded completely devoid of energy, and she kept her head down. “I already told the homeroom teacher I am not stepping up as class monitor this semester. Go ask him.”
The student asking was slightly stunned, and puzzled, asked, “Class monitor, you have been our monitor for two and a half years. Why suddenly stop now?”
The girl replied indifferently, “I want to focus on studying during my final semester.”
The inquiring student scratched his head. “Alright then.”
Sitting right between two quiet people who rarely spoke or looked up gave Su Ning the distinct impression of being an extrovert trapped in a den of introverts.
Her gaze fell upon the short-haired girl’s face, and with a smile, she asked, “Hello, may I get to know you?”
Su Ning’s pleasant voice fell into Chen Lanxin’s ears, catching her slightly off guard.
She hadn’t expected her to initiate a conversation with her.
When she entered the classroom earlier, she had glanced up as well.
Pretty and refined, she looked like a proud, pampered peacock.
Would a girl like that actually take the initiative to talk to people?
Involuntarily, she lifted her gaze to glance at her before quickly dropping her eyes again. “Hello, my name is Chen Lanxin.”
Her voice still carries that same listless, lifeless quality.
Su Ning even noticed that her gaze seemed somewhat unfocused, as if she were unwell.
“Are you not feeling well? Would you like to go see a doctor?”
The name Chen Lanxin didn’t ring any bells for Su Ning.
However, she recalled an occasion when she was out and her older brother had picked her up on his way home.
Ji Yang had been with him, and both of them had just attended a high school reunion, leaving them slightly tipsy.
The driver was handling the wheel while she sat in the front passenger seat.
In the back row.
Her brother had asked Ji Yang, “Ji Yang, you are getting up there in age, why aren’t you married yet? Have you still not gotten over her?”
“I forgot about her ages ago,” Ji Yang had replied instantly, his voice somewhat hoarse.
Her brother let out a soft chuckle. “I didn’t even mention who, and you answered that fast.”
Ji Yang offered no reply.
Her brother continued, “Stop dwelling on it. The class monitor passed away so many years ago; it is about time you lived your own life.”
Ji Yang still remained silent.
Her brother tended to talk more when he drank, and added, “Seriously, if she hadn’t committed suicide during senior year, you two might have actually ended up together. After all, you are part of the elite tier now.”
“What a shame, she went to her grave without ever knowing you had a crush on her all those years.”
Su Ning had always been completely relaxed around those two, and upon hearing that, she turned back to say, “Ji Yang, I never took you for a pure-love warrior.”
It was also at that moment.
She finally saw that Ji Yang, nearing forty and usually so mature and steady, was already weeping profusely, the glasses on the bridge of his nose removed at some point, being tightly clutched and rubbed between his palms.