Bai Jiangxin frowned. Chen Jinghua looked at him patiently.

But in the end, Bai Jiangxin still didn’t say anything, only leaving behind one sentence: “You don’t need to call her. It’s my problem alone. I won’t change seats.”

Then he left the office.

Quite gentlemanly. With the hint spelled out to this extent, he still didn’t come clean—clearly afraid that, as the homeroom teacher, he’d call Xiang Di in to talk and hurt the girl’s pride.

Chen Jinghua curled his lips.

When Ye Minjia had come to report to him earlier, Chen Jinghua hadn’t believed it at first. For one, Xiang Di was such a well-behaved girl—how could she possibly sneak around dating a boy behind the teacher’s back? But on second thought, even Bai Jiangxin, whom he had personally taught from first year to third year and who had barely interacted with girls for three years, could secretly date someone behind his back—so what was impossible for Xiang Di?

Second, even if they had dated and then broken up, at most it would’ve been for a semester. How deep could their feelings really be? It wouldn’t be enough to drive Bai Jiangxin to the point of developing an aversion to studying.

Naughty students were hard to manage; obedient students were even harder to manage, because their self-esteem was often stronger than that of mischievous students. They were thin-skinned and couldn’t take reprimands. If one forced education on them, it would instead backfire and trigger psychological resistance.

Teaching them required careful methods—no rash moves.

So Chen Jinghua temporarily took the seating chart he had already arranged and rearranged it again, switching Bai Jiangxin’s seat with Liang Qianqian’s. He wanted to see what exactly was going on with Bai Jiangxin and Xiang Di—two students who, in his eyes, had always been unquestionably good students.

If they really had broken up, causing Bai Jiangxin to develop an aversion to studying, then arranging them as deskmates could at least temporarily ease Bai Jiangxin’s heartbreak.

If Ye Minjia’s information was wrong and the two of them weren’t familiar at all, then even if they were deskmates for a while, it wouldn’t have much impact. When the seats were changed next time, he could just separate them again.

Now this is what you call professional. Such a brilliant arrangement he had made—who wouldn’t praise it upon hearing and say, “Teacher, you’ve really put such thoughtful care into this!”

Chen Jinghua proudly flicked the sparse bangs on his forehead.

Kids these days, they really are too hard to manage. Luckily, he was rich in teaching experience. If it were some inexperienced young teacher instead, who simply called both children’s parents to the school, that would be a disaster.

Later, after the college entrance exams were over, when these two kids held their teacher-appreciation banquets, if they didn’t invite him, he would definitely have something to say about it.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

Xiang Di stood dazed and dejected in the corridor, continuing to space out.

Why did Bai Jiangxin go to the teacher to ask for a seat change?

Although she also had thoughts of changing seats, in her heart she was actually reluctant. It was just because she was too excited, too shy, and couldn’t bring herself to say it, that she thought it’d be better to just quietly continue her crush.

But what could Bai Jiangxin’s reason be?

Could it also be because sitting next to her made it hard for him to concentrate?

Xiang Di unconsciously bit her lip. This bold thought shot through her mind like a meteor, flashing for an instant before vanishing.

She quickly shook her head again—impossible, don’t be so narcissistic.

Having a crush for three years, she had fantasized and hoped countless times that maybe Bai Jiangxin had noticed her before. But the reality was just this cruel; he had never noticed her, to the point he didn’t even know she was his classmate.

Confessing was out of the question, because it would be 100% rejected, so she wouldn’t subject herself to that blow. Once the college entrance exams were over, this crush of hers would quietly come to a bad ending.

How dare she really hope for something as lucky as a secret crush turning into reality?

Bai Jiangxin didn’t want to be her deskmate probably because he had never shared a desk with a girl before, so he wasn’t used to it, even though she had been very careful to keep her distance.

He was the top student in the grade, and the teacher liked him so much; they’d probably change their seats very soon.

Maybe after tonight’s self-study session, this beautiful dream of sharing a desk with her crush would be over.

Xiang Di comforted herself: No need to be too disappointed. Even if it was just a one-day dream, it was already very good. After all, being in the same class as Bai Jiangxin, secretly calling him “hubby” in her heart, occasionally indulging in some inappropriate fantasies about him to relieve study pressure… this final year of high school, she had already been very happy.

The evening self-study bell rang. Having comforted herself, Xiang Di prepared to enter the classroom.

Just as she turned around, she happened to run into Bai Jiangxin returning from the direction of the teachers’ office.

Bai Jiangxin saw her and his expression also paused.

Both were about to enter the classroom. Xiang Di immediately stepped aside, saying good-naturedly, “You go in first.”

【It’s okay, even if I can only be his deskmate for one day, it’s still pretty good.】

Listening to her somewhat disheartened inner voice, yet seeing her face trying to maintain a polite expression toward him, Bai Jiangxin’s brows slightly furrowed. He said nothing and walked straight in.

Today’s evening self-study was taken over by the biology teacher, as she needed to go over the previously administered biology test paper.

Handing the test papers to the class representative to distribute, the biology teacher used the interval while they were being passed out to summarize the difficulty of this exam.

The summary was: the questions weren’t hard, so everyone’s scores were relatively high.

The biology teacher said, “Actually, according to the standard of our advanced class, scoring at least 85 and above on this paper could be considered passing. But there are still a few careless students—I won’t name names—on such a simple paper, only scoring in the seventies for me. What’s going on? Reflect on it yourselves.”

Bai Jiangxin looked expressionlessly at his test paper. The first digit of the score wasn’t even a 7—it was a 6.

He wasn’t surprised by this result at all. After all, he’d left the last two big questions completely blank, and together those two questions were worth thirty-one points.

Ye Minjia, who sat behind him, scored a 96 and was feeling quite smug at the moment. He glanced at his deskmate Liang Qianqian’s score and felt relieved.

Sure enough, confidence came from comparison. Back when he used to sit with Bai Jiangxin, what kind of miserable days had he been living then?

“Tsk, only 89. You didn’t even reach ninety—you’re not cutting it,” he said.

Liang Qianqian replied irritably, “You’re not the top scorer in the class either. What are you being cocky for?”

Ye Minjia raised his brows. “How do you know I’m not the top scorer in the class?”

Liang Qianqian snorted.

“Nonsense. With Bai Jiangxin around, you think you can take first place?”

Ye Minjia stood up directly and went to look at Bai Jiangxin’s score.

“Hahahahahaha—Bai Jiangxin, you actually have a day where you score in the sixties!!”

Ye Minjia shouted refreshingly, “Oi! This feels good! I’ve finally made a comeback!!”

With that shout from Ye Minjia, everyone in the class knew that Bai Jiangxin had only scored in the sixties this time.

“Is that real?”

“Bai Jiangxin only scored in the sixties?”

“Damn, even I scored over eighty—doesn’t that mean I’m more badass than Bai Jiangxin?”

“Did you see it wrong?”

No one believed it. Everyone crowded over to look at Bai Jiangxin’s score.

Xiang Di didn’t believe it either and leaned over to look. But it really was in the sixties. On Bai Jiangxin’s paper, there was a glaring red “68” written on it.

She opened her mouth in shock.

【Huh?? My husband only got sixty-eight this time??】

【Emmm… suddenly I don’t seem to like him that much anymore. I feel a bit disenchanted with him.】

Bai Jiangxin: “……”

When Ye Minjia had just mocked him for only scoring in the sixties, he hadn’t felt anything. When the classmates gathered around to look at his paper, he hadn’t felt anything either.

Because he knew this wasn’t his real level.

But after Xiang Di found out he scored sixty-eight and said she suddenly didn’t like him that much anymore, Bai Jiangxin was so angry he actually laughed.

First of all, not to mention who it was because of that he’d scored sixty-eight this time. Second, just that afternoon she’d been acting out porn with him in her head, licking and biting the mole on his Adam’s apple—yet the moment she saw he’d only scored sixty-eight, she immediately turned cold and disowned him.

He’d never seen someone so snobbish.