CY – Chapter 10

Chapter Ten (High School Arc)

“When you get to the new class, don’t just muddle through like before,” the elegantly dressed middle-aged woman said, unable to resist lecturing as she drove. “Strive for something, get into a good university, and then I’ll arrange for you to come live with me abroad in the future.”

Sitting in the passenger seat, Zhang Xiaotian silently looked out the car window. His blue school uniform was excessively large, hanging loosely on him.

Zhang Xiaotian’s mother waited patiently for a moment, but still not hearing her son’s response, her recently relaxed brow furrowed again. She couldn’t help but speak again, “You’ve grown so big and still don’t know how to be considerate. You don’t even reply when an adult talks to you. That sulky face is all from your father. Your father, that heartless, inhuman thing, not only neglects his own son but raises someone else’s child. You’ve only grown taller all these years and haven’t accomplished anything. Don’t see him anymore in the future, do you hear me?”

Zhang Xiaotian rolled down the car window a bit further. This road was always congested. Even though he was being driven to school today, he didn’t feel he was any faster than when he walked. He silently counted down the numbers on the red traffic light, forcing himself not to think about anything.

“Did you hear me?” his mother raised her voice and asked again.

“I heard you,” Zhang Xiaotian replied.

“Good that you heard me. You must remember what your mother does for you. I have much more responsibility than your father.” The light turned green, and the traffic slowly began to flow again.

Zhang Xiaotian’s previous class was also an experimental class, but compared to Class One, it was slightly different. Class One had the best teaching resources, which also led to Class One’s achievements being more prominent among other experimental classes.

Given Class One’s outstanding achievements, Zhang Xiaotian had expected the atmosphere in Class One to be one of “ignoring the outside world and focusing solely on the teachings of the sages.” But he was mistaken. Before he even reached the door, he heard a cacophony from inside. Zhang Xiaotian stood at the back door, holding a pile of books and belongings, planning to sneak in and find a corner to sit down while no one was paying attention.

Before he could take his first step, someone entered through the front door – Director Chi, who had just been promoted.

“What’s going on with your class? Chirping away on the first morning of the semester, where’s the academic atmosphere?” Director Chi of the Academic Affairs Office boomed, his voice drowning out all sounds in the classroom. “You’re already in your second year of high school, and all you think about is playing every day? You’d be better off reading books and doing problems with the time you spend chatting. Do you really think your class will always be first? Self-study until the class teacher arrives!” Director Chi looked around and noticed Zhang Xiaotian still standing at the back door, and said, “What’s going on at the back door? Why are you standing there? Come in quickly!”

Zhang Xiaotian felt extremely awkward standing at the back door. Under the spotlight-like gaze, he could only walk into the classroom and sit in the seat closest to the back door.

Director Chi stayed for a while longer, and only left after confirming that no one in the class was whispering anymore. Zhang Xiaotian didn’t take his things out of his backpack. He wasn’t sure if anyone occupied this seat, but since he was already sitting, he’d just stay there for now. If someone came later, he could move. He placed his backpack at his feet, randomly pulled out a book, and spread it open in front of him, but he couldn’t actually read a single word.

He hadn’t seen his mother in many years. The memories he had of his mother were few and far between, and he couldn’t connect the woman who had yelled at him in the car today with the mother in his memories.

Zhang Xiaotian knew very well that he couldn’t control his own life at the moment. Everyone might have the right to choose, but he didn’t know when he would have that right.

His mother said she had finally found her love after living for so many years, and after divorcing, she resolutely went abroad and was never heard from again. His father also seemed to have been waiting for the day of the divorce and quickly formed a new family. He was merely an existence that the two of them couldn’t easily abandon due to responsibility. He was very clear about his position.

It didn’t matter if it was just changing classes or changing guardians to live with. These things had never belonged to him, and Zhang Xiaotian had long known that he had no right to fight for or choose them. He knew that all he could do was adapt.

He closed the book in front of him and looked up, meeting someone’s gaze. Seeing him look up, the other person quickly lowered their head, averting their eyes. Zhang Xiaotian stared fixedly in that direction for a moment, then picked up another book and lowered his head again.

The classroom was quiet, making the footsteps in the hallway, sometimes near, sometimes far, more noticeable. Zhang Xiaotian flipped through his book, but his attention was on his ears, trying to guess where people walking by outside were going. Among them, one set of footsteps was fast and heavy, carrying a somewhat abrupt vitality. The moment the morning self-study bell rang, those footsteps appeared behind Zhang Xiaotian.

Was he a classmate? He was really late. Zhang Xiaotian listened to the footsteps, his head down, guessing where his seat was. He heard the footsteps pause at the doorway for a moment, then get closer and closer, finally stopping to his left. A hand holding a schoolbag appeared within his line of sight.

“Oh, who’s this new deskmate?”

Following the arm, Zhang Xiaotian looked up and into a pair of bright, dark eyes.

Lu Bai plopped down in the seat next to Zhang Xiaotian. “Are you a new student?”

Zhang Xiaotian didn’t answer. He asked back, “Are you supposed to sit here? Is this seat your deskmate’s?”

“Now you’re my deskmate,” Lu Bai said.

This… wasn’t exactly wrong. Zhang Xiaotian couldn’t help but frown, and then continued to ask him.

“Then where’s the person who used to sit here?”

“Over there,” Lu Bai pointed to the person sitting next to the podium. “He asked if I wanted to switch before, but I thought it was too close to the front, so I kept this spot for myself.”

Zhang Xiaotian nodded and lowered his head to continue reading.

Seeing that Zhang Xiaotian had no intention of talking to him further, Lu Bai also took out a book and placed it on the table. His eyes were fixed on the book, but he didn’t want to read a single word. He sat still for a moment, then pretended to stretch, leaning back and secretly glancing at Zhang Xiaotian’s books.

Although the new deskmate’s books had writing on them, they were still as neat as new, without a single crease or curled edge. His handwriting, however, was somewhat different from his appearance.

Lu Bai carefully examined his handwriting, then stared blankly at the back of Zhang Xiaotian’s head. He looked thin, neat, and quiet, even his crown was perfectly in place. How could his handwriting be so unrestrained?

Zhang Xiaotian didn’t manage to study anything during the entire morning self-study. Although he had moved to a new environment and expected not to get into his rhythm so quickly, being stared at intently by a new classmate he wasn’t familiar with for an entire morning would make anyone unable to study. He thought about going to the front to copy the class schedule. As soon as he stood up, a student he didn’t recognize walked towards him.

“Uh, classmate, the class teacher wants to see you in his office.”

Zhang Xiaotian nodded and walked out of the classroom.

“Hello, Teacher Zhang.” Zhang Xiaotian knocked on the door. The class teacher gestured for him to come in and pointed to a stool in front of him with his chin. After Zhang Xiaotian sat down, he began, “I just spoke with your mother on the phone.”

Zhang Xiaotian nodded.

“I believe you know what kind of class this is. I won’t talk about anything else, but in my eyes, grades are always the most important. I hope you also attach importance to this. I can’t control who gets into this class or how, but whether you can stay depends on your own abilities.”

The class teacher paused for a moment, looked at the thin boy in front of him, and softened his tone slightly.

“Students with good grades are naturally welcome in any class. I’ve seen your previous grades, and they’re not very stable, but I’m very optimistic about you. The key is this month’s monthly exam.” He said this and tapped a table with his finger. Zhang Xiaotian leaned in to look. It was the grade-wide ranking list from the last monthly exam, where he had performed poorly, ranking over 120th in the grade.

“The school’s intention behind this tiered advancement system wasn’t for students to change classes every month, but your grades are too unstable. If you perform too poorly in any exam, even if I want to keep you, it will be difficult to explain to the school and your parents. There are parents watching our class positions every day.”

Zhang Xiaotian was speechless. He felt a bit dazed, as if he had been drifting along one moment and the next, he was handed a weapon and pushed onto the battlefield, without even putting on his armor, with sand filling his face.

“In the next monthly exam, your ranking must be at least in the top eighty.”

After leaving the office, Zhang Xiaotian returned to class. As soon as he entered, he saw his deskmate chatting with two girls in front of him. The two girls turned away when they saw him return.

As soon as Zhang Xiaotian sat down, Lu Bai leaned over and placed a small biscuit in front of him. “Han Cheng… Han Chengcheng gave this to you. It’s delicious.”

Who is Han Chengcheng? Just as Zhang Xiaotian was about to ask him, he caught a glimpse of the girl sitting in front of Lu Bai secretly turning her head to look at him. Caught, she quickly straightened her body.

It seemed to be her.

“Thank her for me,” Zhang Xiaotian said, and then placed the biscuit at the corner of the desk.

“I won’t do that for you. You tell her yourself.” Lu Bai leaned back in his chair and continued, “Which class were you in before?”

“Class Four,” Zhang Xiaotian said, taking out the items for the next class one by one and arranging them on the desk.

“Class Four, huh,” Lu Bai drew out his words slightly. “I don’t know anyone there well.”

Zhang Xiaotian didn’t respond.

“Hey, you’ve got the wrong book,” Lu Bai tried to strike up a conversation again. “The next class isn’t Chinese.”

“I saw the class schedule in front, it says Chinese.” Zhang Xiaotian didn’t believe him.

“That’s the old schedule. I know the new one.” Lu Bai reached out to put his arm around Zhang Xiaotian’s shoulder, but Zhang Xiaotian dodged. He settled for resting his arm on the back of his chair. “Just trust me on this.”

Zhang Xiaotian was skeptical. Just as he was about to put away his Chinese textbook, he saw the Chinese teacher walk in through the front door.

Zhang Xiaotian looked back at him and saw Lu Bai’s mischievous smile. He felt a bit speechless and couldn’t help but glance at him sideways.

“Oh, if I remember correctly, she teaches Chinese in Class Four too,” Lu Bai said. Failing to tease him didn’t make him embarrassed; instead, he became more forward, leaning over to look at Zhang Xiaotian’s books.

Lu Bai’s sudden proximity caught Zhang Xiaotian off guard. He couldn’t pull his hand away to push him away in time, only managing to lean back. Lu Bai’s fluffy head was right in front of him. He lowered his gaze, looking at the person’s dark, coarse hair, and smelled a laundry detergent scent, a warm lavender fragrance.

Zhang Xiaotian’s Chinese textbook had his name written on the bottom right corner of the cover. Lu Bai leaned over to look closely and realized Zhang Xiaotian was trying his best to lean back to create distance. He then retreated to his own seat, repeating Zhang Xiaotian’s name with a smile.

“Your name is Zhang Xiaotian? That’s a rather cute name.” He rocked his chair back and forth. “My name is Lu Bai. Let’s get along well from now on.”