When Wang Zhezi (Wrinkly Wang) turned his head, Tao Zhi still hadn’t come back to her senses.
The papers spread across the windowsill fluttered loudly in the wind, that fierce rustling sounding like a merciless mockery.
With a soft sound, Wang Zhezi tapped her on the head again.
Tao Zhi hissed, snapped back to herself, squinted up at him, and her temper began to rise.
Wang Zhezi said, “What? You can’t talk while doing homework and now you’re not convinced? You gonna hit me or what?”
“…No.” Tao Zhi lowered her head again, speaking dryly.
“Alright, go back to class,” Wang Zhezi said as he picked out two books from the table. “It’s the first day of school, so I’ll let you off this once. But if I catch you copying homework again, I’ll really make you stay here and finish it.”
Tao Zhi responded, thinking to herself that not copying was impossible—she just had to make sure he didn’t catch her next time.
Wang Zhezi said, “Find some time during breaks to finish it. You still have to hand it in. I’ll give you a deadline—this week.”
Tao Zhi lifted her head, dragging out her voice, “Ah——?”
Wang Zhezi said, “What? Don’t wanna turn it in?”
“No, no, I’ll definitely complete the task.” Tao Zhi gathered up the papers from the windowsill with a long face, clutching several stacks as she fled back to the classroom.
Morning self-study was about to end. She wandered back to her seat unhurriedly. Next to her sat a young girl reading an English book.
Someone had also arrived in the last row. The inner seat was empty; a boy sat on the outer side.
Tao Zhi glanced over absentmindedly—and froze.
The boy also lifted his head.
Tao Zhi narrowed her eyes, her expression anything but pleasant. Her gaze was already sounding the call to battle.
Jiang Qihuai looked at her coolly, indifferently, and after a pause of two seconds, lowered his eyes without expression.
Tao Zhi almost couldn’t stop herself from throwing all the papers in her hand at his head.
She didn’t even know how this person could act so calm and unbothered, when just five minutes ago in the office he had toyed with her like a fool.
But before she could make a move, Wang Zhezi had already entered through the front door. Tao Zhi had no choice but to swallow her anger for now and sit down. The papers in her hand slapped onto the desk with a sharp pa sound.
Her little deskmate flinched at the noise, glancing at her timidly.
Tao Zhi came to her senses and apologized, “Sorry.”
“N-no problem…” The girl hunched her shoulders and sneaked another look at her. After hesitating for a moment, she said softly, “Um, they handed out this semester’s textbooks earlier. You weren’t here, so I helped you pick yours up.”
See that!
Why could the gap between people be this big?
Tao Zhi looked at the neatly stacked pile of textbooks in the upper left corner of her desk and felt some of her irritation melt away.
She turned to glance at her little deskmate. The girl was very thin, pale and delicate, with a bob haircut—looked exactly like the good-student type.
On the cover of the English book in front of her, a name was written: Fu Xiling.
Tao Zhi thanked her. On the podium, Wang Zhezi had already started his opening-ceremony speech, telling everyone to get familiar with each other over the next few days, and that on Friday evening self-study they would vote for class representatives for each subject and for the class monitor.
Tao Zhi propped her head up, half-listening, half-not, planning to nap a bit and “have a talk” with the boy behind her after class.
“Students from Class Three before should know,” Wang Zhezi’s voice boomed, “I’m a strict person. Those little bad habits you were spoiled with before, you’d better drop them here, got it? Fix them if you can, and if you can’t, I’ll fix them for you. Just look at those pathetic scores you get, aren’t you embarrassed to still slack off?”
Tao Zhi found him noisy, so she covered her ears, turned the other way, and lay with her face inward.
Wang Zhezi went on: “How many of you even did decent in last semester’s city mock exam? From what I saw, only Li Shuangjiang did okay. In the City Affiliated High School, there were three students scoring over 140 in math alone. And our school? What do we have to compare? And physics—don’t even mention it! The last big problem on that paper was written by me, and you all embarrassed me to my grandmother’s house!”
In the front row, Li Shuangjiang was whispering to his deskmate, “There’s only one left at the Affiliated High now. One girl transferred south.”
“What about the other one?” his deskmate whispered back.
“There’s still one who got a full score, sitting right behind us,” Li Shuangjiang said. “Look back—see? Behind your back.”
“I see him. Damn, that’s a top student?”
“Number one in the Affiliated High,” Li Shuangjiang confirmed. “Heard it from Old Wang Ba himself when I went to the office to get the papers.”
“And he’s a looker too. Gotta salute with my pants first, brother.”
Tao Zhi: “……”
What kind of people were these?
Tao Zhi couldn’t stand it anymore and lifted her head.
Li Shuangjiang and his deskmate were still half-turned around, gazing reverently at the so-called handsome genius.
Tao Zhi said, “Your voices are a bit loud.”
“……”
“Within two rows, I bet everyone can hear you,” Tao Zhi said blankly, as she never bothered to be polite when annoyed. “Including that handsome genius back there you’re saluting with your crotch.”
Her little deskmate’s shoulders trembled right on cue again.
The two boys in front instinctively looked past her toward the back once more.
The top student wasn’t sitting upright like they had imagined; he was propping his chin on one hand, lazily flipping through his book. Sensing their gaze, he lifted his eyelids slightly and gave them a glance.
“……”
That single look was enough to make Li Shuangjiang’s whole body go cold. He shivered, pressed his deskmate’s head down, and turned back around.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Physics was, in Tao Zhi’s own words, the best subject to sleep through—no competition. It also happened to be the first class on Monday morning, when everyone was still half-asleep, so she slept like the dead.
Even Wang Zhezi’s booming voice couldn’t wake her.
By the time the bell finally rang and she blinked awake, the whole morning had passed. It was already lunch break. Tao Zhi sat up groggily, rubbed her eyes, and tried to collect herself.
The classroom was almost empty; only a few students hadn’t left yet. Tao Zhi turned her head and saw that Fu Xiling was still sitting there.
“Why didn’t you go eat?” Tao Zhi asked.
The girl looked a bit troubled. “You were asleep.”
It took Tao Zhi a few seconds to realize what she meant.
She sat on the outside, so if her little deskmate wanted to go out, she had to move aside for her.
“I slept too deeply, sorry,” Tao Zhi muttered as she shifted to give her space. Just as she stood up, she remembered something. “Wait—you didn’t go to the bathroom the whole morning?”
The girl’s face turned red immediately. “N-no, I didn’t feel like going…”
Tao Zhi blinked, just about to speak when someone called her from the back door of the classroom.
Stretching lazily, she walked over. Song Jiang was hanging onto the door frame, craning his neck to peer inside.
Tao Zhi grabbed him by the collar of his uniform jacket and yanked him back. “Move it, Timely Rain, what are you staring at?”
[Timely Rain (及时雨): nickname from Water Margin, used jokingly for someone nosy or meddlesome.]
“Just checking if your class has any pretty girls. That one who just talked—who’s she? She’s cute. Does she have a boyfriend? Can you get her to look at me?” Song Jiang stumbled forward as she dragged him. His jacket zipper wasn’t done up, and the pull yanked it halfway off. “Stop pulling, stop pulling, ancestor! My jacket’s falling off! What are you two doing tugging each other in the hallway—what a sight!”
“Hungry,” Tao Zhi said. Waking up meant her favorite part of the day—eating. Her mood finally lifted a bit, and she skipped ahead a couple of steps, urging him, “Come on, come on, let’s eat.”
Song Jiang took the stairs two at a time. “Heard you got called to the office during morning self-study?”
Tao Zhi: “…Can you not bring that up?”
“Just wishing you a good start,” Song Jiang laughed. “First day of the new semester and already summoned to the office—how’s that feel? Your homeroom teacher, Old Wang, is fierce. Doesn’t look like your days ahead will be easy.”
Tao Zhi drooped, too lazy to argue. The two of them walked out of the teaching building, then out the school gate, and sat down at a noodle shop next to the school.
The shop wasn’t big, and it was already full. They went to the table in the back where three others were waiting. Among them was a girl who waved cheerfully when she saw Tao Zhi.
“Zhizhi!”
The noodles had already been served. Tao Zhi sat down beside her, took the chopsticks, grabbed the vinegar bottle, and began pouring it into her bowl in a steady stream.
Once done, she started digging into the chili paste.
“Sour girl, spicy boy,” Song Jiang couldn’t help making a joke. “A complete set of kids already.”
Tao Zhi put down the chili jar and smacked him on the head.
Song Jiang yelped and clutched his head. “Ow! I was kidding! What’s with your bad temper today?”
“Met an annoying person,” Tao Zhi muttered, picking at the chopped scallions, her face sour. After a pause, she lifted her head. “Jiang Qihuai. Ever heard of him?”
“No,” Song Jiang said through a mouthful of noodles. “Where’s he from?”
Tao Zhi looked at him speechlessly. “Top student from the City Affiliated High School.”
“…Why would I know a top student from the Affiliated High?” Song Jiang looked even more speechless. “I barely get three hundred points on exams, how would I know an Affiliated High genius? If you asked me about their school bully, I could probably find something out.”
Tao Zhi puffed out her cheeks and stared at him for five seconds.
Song Jiang squirmed under her gaze. “What? Who is this guy? Which blind bastard offended our school’s ancestral troublemaker? I’ll take care of him right now.”
“Shut up,” Tao Zhi sighed, lowering her head and resuming her noodles. “Forget it. It’s nothing.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After eating, Song Jiang and the others wanted to go to the supermarket. Tao Zhi said goodbye and headed back to school first.
Class One was on the third floor. She wandered back slowly, and at the classroom door, she ran into her little deskmate.
Fu Xiling was standing by the wall, back pressed against it, head bowed. A boy wearing a senior uniform was talking to her.
They were a bit far, so Tao Zhi couldn’t hear what they were saying. The boy leaned in with a smile, and the girl flinched as if startled, shrinking back and shaking her head.
She looked clearly unwilling.
The boy reached out again to tug at her.
Hey hey—what was this? Putting his hands on a girl like that?
Tao Zhi pinched her earlobe, walked over, and calmly inserted herself between them, blocking his hand. She turned her head slightly toward Fu Xiling. “I’m heading back. You coming in? I don’t feel like getting up again later to make room for you.”
Fu Xiling nodded quickly, head lowered, and hurried back into the classroom.
Tao Zhi treated the boy standing in the hallway like air, followed inside, and casually shut the back door behind her.
There weren’t many people left in the classroom. That annoying guy from morning self-study was back, sitting at his desk doing papers.
Fu Xiling returned to her seat, her books open in front of her. Her head was bowed so low that her bobbed hair slipped down, hiding half her face.
Tao Zhi wasn’t the nosy type—especially not about someone she’d only just met that day.
It was early autumn noon. Sunlight streamed richly through the pale blue curtains, and the warmth after lunch made her a little lazy. She slouched back in her chair, tilted her body, pulled out her phone from the desk’s compartment, and started scrolling idly.
The classroom was quiet, the only sound the faint rustling of paper from the “princess” behind her as he flipped through his test sheets.
Tao Zhi listened to it for a while, and then her fingers paused on the phone.
She slid the phone back into the desk, lifted her foot, pressed lightly on the footrest bar, and leaned back so that the front legs of her chair left the ground, balancing only on the back two.
The chairback gave a soft bump against the desk behind her—a light thunk.
Tao Zhi could even hear the rustling pen sound behind her stop for a second.
The corner of her mouth lifted with a hint of mischief. She began rocking the chair back and forth. Like sitting on a swing, swaying gently.
Back and forth.
Each sway brought a faint knocking sound, and after a while, she finally heard the person behind her lose patience. There was a sharp snap as a pen hit the desk.
Tao Zhi silently counted to two in her head—
“Do you have a problem?”
Jiang Qihuai’s voice was low, the tone cold, like rain plunging straight down on a winter night.
Bingo.
Tao Zhi hadn’t felt this delighted in a long time.
She thought, really, it hadn’t been such a big deal at first. She had simply misunderstood—he wasn’t there to make up his homework. If he’d just said, ‘I’m not doing homework’ at the time, the matter would’ve ended right there in the office.
But he had gone along with every word she said.
Even said he’d handle the biology homework.
And it turned out he was just toying with her?
Wasn’t that a bit too much?
She was the kind of person who got physically uncomfortable if she couldn’t say what was on her mind. Straightforward by nature, used to doing as she pleased, always indulged by others—she hadn’t felt this kind of frustration in ages.
So, no—she wasn’t letting it slide.
Tao Zhi shifted her chair forward, turned her body around, stretched out her long legs, and straddled the chair backward.
Resting her arms on his desk, she leaned in closer, and asked him back, “What do you think?”
The girl met his gaze head-on. Her pupils were dark and deep, and when her eyes narrowed, their shape elongated slightly. With her upturned nose and thin lips, her features carried a kind of sharp-edged beauty—beautiful, but with a trace of aggression.
It felt almost like a standoff. Neither of them looked away.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Jiang Qihuai suddenly spoke. “I’m sorry.”
Tao Zhi was caught completely off guard. “What?”
Jiang Qihuai stretched his long legs forward, leaned back in his chair, and his whole posture relaxed as he said calmly, “The thing during morning self-study. My fault.”
Tao Zhi: “……?”
Of all the things she’d expected, this wasn’t one of them. Jiang Qihuai had pulled a move straight out of nowhere—if I apologize fast enough, my opponent won’t even have time to fight back.
She was suddenly hit with a mix of confusion and pent-up frustration, unable to find anywhere to vent it, left speechless.
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