They were about to be split up to sit separately. Xiang Di wanted to make one last effort and took the initiative to ask him, “Do you want me to help you move your desk?”

Bai Jiangxin refused outright. “No need.”

Too late—he didn’t care.

“Alright.” Xiang Di asked him again, “Then which side are you planning to sit on later?”

As for the seating of Bai Jiangxin and Wang Sichen, this was how Chen Jinghua arranged it: Chen Jinghua didn’t really care where Wang Sichen sat—after all, boys were tall, even sitting in the last row was fine—but Bai Jiangxin couldn’t be removed from the classroom’s central golden zone. So when one person rose, even the chickens and dogs ascended; Wang Sichen, by being Bai Jiangxin’s deskmate, naturally ascended from the seat by the podium to the top student golden zone as well.

Not wanting to reshuffle seats again, Chen Jinghua simply had the students in the large group beside them move back one row, then let Bai Jiangxin insert himself into the middle row—convenient and trouble-free.

When Xiang Di asked which side he planned to sit on, she was actually asking whether he would sit at the neighboring desk with only an aisle separating them, or move to the other side.

She definitely hoped Bai Jiangxin would sit with only an aisle between them.

However, Bai Jiangxin said, “What does that have to do with you?”

They had already changed deskmates—why should she care where he sat? No matter which side he chose, it had nothing to do with her.

Xiang Di was chilled again by Bai Jiangxin’s indifferent attitude. She didn’t understand what was going on with him—why he was unhappy when the teacher wouldn’t change seats, and now that the teacher had changed them, he was still unhappy.

But she still wanted to try one more time: “Then could you sit at the seat next to mine?”

Bai Jiangxin froze when he saw the pleading look in her eyes.

He pressed his lips together and asked, “…Why?”

“Because I think Wang Sichen talks a bit too much. I’m afraid if he sits next to me, it’ll affect me…” After all, she was speaking ill of a classmate, so Xiang Di’s tone was somewhat guilty. “So it’d be better if you sat on my side.”

Bai Jiangxin didn’t say anything.

So she knew how much it affected someone if a talkative deskmate sat beside them. After he’d been affected, now she could lighten herself, pat her butt, and kick him away with one foot.

She wanted him to sit closer to her, to separate her from Wang Sichen. But what about him? When Teacher Chen had just arranged for him and Wang Sichen to be deskmates, why did she play dumb and not say a word for him?

She was afraid of being affected by a talkative classmate—then did she know in advance whether that mixed-blood talked a lot or not? When the teacher arranged for her to sit with that mixed-blood, she didn’t refuse. Wang Sichen was no good, the mixed-blood was fine. In the end, it was just because the mixed-blood was good-looking—even if he was a chatterbox, she’d be willing. Truly double standards and shallow.

Bai Jiangxin tugged at the corner of his lips and laughed softly.

With that mixed-blood already in hand, she still wouldn’t let go of him—wanting both. Did she really think all the good things in this world belonged to her? In her dreams.

Just as Xiang Di was still negotiating with him, Wang Sichen had already moved his desk over from beside the podium.

Carrying his desk from so far away, facing Bai Jiangxin, Wang Sichen smiled especially ingratiatingly and took the initiative to ask, “Which side do you want to sit on?”

Having just spoken ill of Wang Sichen, Xiang Di felt a bit guilty and found an excuse to leave the classroom.

She still hoped to be a little closer to Bai Jiangxin, but if Bai Jiangxin truly didn’t want to and was determined to sit farther away from her, then there was nothing she could do.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

After casually washing her hands and returning from the restroom, Xiang Di walked into the classroom full of anticipation. However, when she saw that the one separated from her by an aisle was Wang Sichen, she pressed her lips together in disappointment.

Sure enough, Lady Luck wasn’t always on her side.

But it was fine. At least she and Bai Jiangxin were only separated by an aisle and one Wang Sichen—not too far apart.

The class monitor and the new student still hadn’t come back. The seat beside her was still empty. The people in the first two rows couldn’t be bothered to wait for the new student to return and move the desks and chairs again to make room. Before the new student came back, the seats in the first two rows were left scattered messily, crisscrossed and crooked.

Sure enough, it drew the teacher’s displeasure. This period was English. The English teacher walked in carrying a cloud of perfume and immediately frowned in distaste.

“Oh my, why is your class such a mess? What are you doing, fleeing from a famine?”

A student reported, “Teacher, our class has a mixed-blood transfer student.”

“I know. I heard about it from your Teacher Chen.” The English teacher’s tone was calm. “He grew up properly abroad. Later, we’ll have the new student give you all a full English self-introduction, show off his speaking, and compare it with your Chinish.”

The students felt indignant in their hearts. What was wrong with Chinese-style English? What was wrong with Chinish? Anyway, the college entrance exam didn’t even test speaking.

After waiting two minutes, the class monitor and the new student came back chatting and laughing, even though when they had gone out earlier, the two of them had clearly looked unfamiliar with each other.

As soon as Ye Minjia sat down, Liang Qianqian poked his arm.

Ye Minjia: “What?”

“How did you two just go upstairs once and suddenly get so close?”

“What else would it be?” Ye Minjia raised his brows smugly. “With my social skills, I can even handle Bai Jiangxin—let alone a foreigner. Taken down directly.”

Liang Qianqian curled her lips. Looking at how his brows and eyes were blooming with joy, why did it feel like it was him who had been taken down by the foreigner?

After the desks and chairs were moved into place, the English teacher sprayed the little bee microphone a few times, and only then did class finally begin.

By this stage, teachers had long since stopped teaching new material. Every day was just all kinds of college entrance exam real questions and mock papers. The English teacher was no exception, directly telling everyone to take out the test papers handed out last week—first check the answers, then go over the questions.

Looking at the brand-new deskmate’s bare desktop, Xiang Di took the initiative to slide her own test paper over. “Let’s look together.”

Zhou Linxiao smiled at her. “Thank you. You’re really nice.”

The test paper was one Xiang Di had done by herself at home over the weekend. She didn’t even know whether she had done it right or not. Looking at it and correcting it alone was fine, but if she had too many wrong answers, she was afraid the new deskmate would look down on her.

Just like the English teacher had said—he had grown up abroad. His English level was simply not on the same level as hers.

However, what she feared came true. This set of papers was relatively difficult, especially the cloze section. Out of twenty questions, she got seven wrong—almost half.

When she marked them in red pen for herself, seeing that she had gotten so many wrong, Xiang Di couldn’t even lift her head.

She gave a dry laugh, trying to salvage a bit of face with self-mockery. “I got so many wrong, haha.”

“Did you?” Zhou Linxiao’s tone was sincere. “But you got thirteen right. Isn’t that getting a lot right?”

Xiang Di froze.

When doing problems, she had always only paid attention to how many she got wrong, never how many she got right. As for the ones she did correctly, she automatically skipped over them.

“And I feel this answer is really strict,” Zhou Linxiao said. Propping his chin with one hand, he pointed at one of the questions with the other. “Here, the preposition could actually be at, in, or on, right? If you were communicating with foreigners, you could use any of them, and they’d understand.”

Xiang Di said, “…But this is the college entrance exam. There’s only one answer. There’s no way around it.”

“True,” Zhou Linxiao said. “But when I was taking the SAT, my teacher taught me a really good method for doing this kind of grammar question. I can tell you.”

Xiang Di’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course—but I can’t teach you for free. After all, when my teacher taught me, I paid for it.”

“Huh?” Xiang Di felt that his request wasn’t unreasonable, but still said, “How much do you want? I’ll say this first—I’m very poor.”

“I don’t want your money,” Zhou Linxiao said. “Is there anything good to eat at school? After class, can you take me to get some?”

That’s it? Xiang Di nodded. “No problem.”

Zhou Linxiao kept smiling at her. “Thanks. You’re really nice.”

Xiang Di’s ears grew warm. Being praised twice in such a short time made her a little embarrassed.

But Zhou Linxiao was really good at praising people, and he always found different details to praise.

When they got to the reading comprehension, he said, “Wow, you actually got this entire reading passage right.”

When they reached the translation section, he said, “Your Chinese handwriting is very beautiful.”

Finally, at the essay, he said, “Your English is written very beautifully too.”

After checking all the answers on the paper, excluding the 30 points from the listening section from the total score, out of a full score of 120, Xiang Di gave herself 100 points. It wasn’t actually a very high score, but Zhou Linxiao said, “Even without counting the listening score, you got 100. That’s impressive.”

And when he praised her, it wasn’t perfunctory at all—his tone was sincere, the corners of his lips slightly curved, and his olive-colored eyes were full of appreciation for her.

“……”

It was the first time Xiang Di had experienced what it meant to be praised until she couldn’t lift her head.

By the time they finished going over one test paper, it was almost time for class to end. The English teacher asked Zhou Linxiao how he felt about the difficulty of the questions.

Zhou Linxiao said, “They’re pretty difficult.”

“Being modest, huh? You grew up abroad, would this kind of paper really be difficult for you?” the English teacher said with a smile. “How much did your deskmate score?”

Xiang Di answered honestly, “One hundred, not counting listening.”

“If you include listening, you could probably get twenty points. Without aiming for a very high score, one hundred and twenty is still acceptable.” The English teacher was fairly satisfied, then added, “But earlier I heard you recite an English essay—your Chinese accent is a bit heavy. If you have time, you should practice it.”

Being singled out by the teacher for an issue with speaking for the first time, Xiang Di felt a bit inexplicable, but still nodded obediently.

Anyway, class was almost over, and the English teacher didn’t plan to continue teaching. She lent her little bee microphone to Zhou Linxiao, letting the new student give a full English self-introduction.

The homeroom teacher had clearly already had him do a self-introduction once, and now he had to do it again—and in English this time. It felt a bit like forcing a child to perform in front of relatives during the New Year. Fortunately, Zhou Linxiao wasn’t stage-shy and readily agreed to the teacher’s request.