In the third row, sixth seat. Lu Xingyan, Shen Xingruo. They were desk mates.
Shen Xingruo stared at the seating chart for thirty seconds, then her gaze shifted to the small print at the bottom: “Note: Seat assignments for this semester will rotate each week, moving one row back and one group to the left.” In other words, it was a fair system, ensuring everyone had a chance to sit in different positions, not just hidden in the back row.
By Monday, the weather was clear, and before seven o’clock, sunlight burst from the horizon, illuminating the sky. The leaves of the camphor trees along the road shimmered with a verdant hue. In early March, Star City finally seemed to embrace the essence of spring.
Shen Xingruo was always adamant about sleeping until the last minute and then rushing to school precisely on time. As for breakfast, she usually grabbed some bread and milk to eat whenever she had a break between classes.
Today, she decided to go out early for breakfast with Shi Qin and Zhai Jiajing because she heard that on Mondays, there was no morning self-study; instead, they had to attend a morning assembly on the playground. Since the assembly lasted half an hour, she needed to eat something beforehand to avoid feeling faint.
From the moment they left, Shi Qin kept complaining, “What karma did I accumulate to end up sitting with her for a whole semester? I’m already sick of seeing her in the dorm every day! Did you see her attitude this morning? It’s unbelievable! She was making phone calls late into the night, and she had the nerve to justify it!”
Shi Qin was complaining about Li Ting. Last night, Li Ting was on the phone in the dorm until one in the morning. Despite Shi Qin reminding her several times to keep it down, Li Ting just said “I know” each time and then lowered her voice. But after a few sentences, she’d raise her voice again. Finally, Shi Qin couldn’t take it anymore and shouted at her, “Li Ting, stop making phone calls!” Li Ting got annoyed and retorted, “I already lowered my voice, didn’t I? When you were up late doing homework, I didn’t say anything! Are you deliberately picking on me?” Shi Qin argued back, “When I was doing homework, I purposely drew the curtains and kept the light away from you. I didn’t make any noise. Can’t you be a little considerate?”
Seeing the tension rising, Zhai Jiajing quickly intervened, trying to mediate between them. Considering the dormitory supervisor, they both backed down, avoiding a late-night altercation.
But this morning, Li Ting got up at six, making a racket in the dorm. When she left, they were still asleep, and her slamming the door woke even the soundest sleeper, Shen Xingruo.
“Li Ting can be a bit stubborn, don’t let it get to you. She’s generally a nice person,” Zhai Jiajing gently advised.
“Is that what you call stubbornness? She’s always so aloof, acting as if we’re mistreating her in our class. She’s so fond of hanging out with the girls from Class Three. Why doesn’t she just apply to transfer to their class? It’s only you two who tolerate her!”
Zhai Jiajing had a good temper; even if Li Ting kept her up at night with her fussing, she wouldn’t argue back. But Shen Xingruo, purely due to sleeping early with earplugs and an eye mask, hadn’t heard any of this commotion.
By the time they reached the most popular noodle shop near the school, the place was packed, and the owner kept adding tables to the front yard.
Shi Qin: “Boss, I’ll have the shredded pork and wood ear mushroom noodles, with a tea egg!”
Zhai Jiajing: “I’ll have the mixed seafood noodles, with a fried egg.”
The owner scooped noodles into bowls and casually asked, “Flat noodles for both, right?”
“Yes.”
It was Shen Xingruo’s first time at this shop. While Shi Qin and Zhai Jiajing were ordering, she was still studying the menu with its red text on a white background.
Once they had finished ordering, she decided, “I’ll have the meatball and steamed egg rice noodles.”
Before she could finish, a voice came from behind, “Boss, meatball and steamed egg, alkaline noodles.”
The owner looked up, “Oh, there’s only one bowl of meatball and steamed egg left. This student ordered first. Handsome, you should choose something else; everything else is still available.”
Shen Xingruo turned around, meeting Lu Xingyan’s gaze.
Lu Xingyan had recognized her silhouette long ago and was leisurely watching her.
Shen Xingruo felt a bit puzzled. Would he give up the meatball and steamed egg just because he was staring like this? Impossible, wishful thinking.
She averted her gaze and returned to her table directly.
Things that were hard to come by always seemed especially delicious. After finishing her meal, Shen Xingruo, rarely offering a compliment, remarked, “The food here is good; I’ll come often in the future.”
Lu Xingyan, seated at the table behind her, settled for a beef noodle soup. He had been enjoying his meal until Shen Xingruo’s comment, suddenly losing his appetite.
Perhaps because of the seating change scheduled for today, everyone arrived exceptionally early, filling the classroom with the sound of chairs and desks being dragged around.
Shen Xingruo and Lu Xingyan sat together, devoid of the usual lively interactions typical of new seatmates. Honestly, what could she discuss with someone who claimed to be pretentious? And what could he discuss with someone who was already planning for their funeral? Which type of pretentiousness was more elegant, and which type of incense was more favored by the underworld? Since they both found each other irritating, why bother looking at each other?
Fortunately, there were still familiar faces around. He Siyue moved to the seat in front of Shen Xingruo, while Li Chengfan moved to the group next to Lu Xingyan, separated by only one aisle.
After the morning assembly, during the English class, Miss Zhou, the English teacher, who preferred an active classroom atmosphere, loved asking questions and encouraging interaction among students.
Halfway through the class, she brought up the topic of “Idol Worship” for everyone to discuss with their seatmates. The classroom instantly became lively with everyone sharing their thoughts. Miss Zhou even walked around to check under the desks. When she reached Shen Xingruo and Lu Xingyan’s side, she noticed that both of them were busy with their notebooks, not engaging in any discussion. So, she asked, “Why aren’t you two discussing?”
Shen Xingruo’s expression conveyed her indifference towards the idea of discussing anything with him. But when she looked up at Miss Zhou, she replied, “We’ve already discussed it.”
Miss Zhou didn’t say much, just glanced at them and continued walking.
However, when the discussion was over, she called on Lu Xingyan to present their discussion points. Shen Xingruo didn’t even bother lifting her head, simply pushing her notebook over to Lu Xingyan’s desk. Since she had initiated the “we’ve discussed it” comment, she felt obligated to provide him with an answer when called upon.
She felt like she had already chewed up the food and spoon-fed it to him; as his seatmate, she had done her duty.
But she never expected that this young master wouldn’t even be able to read.
“We had a he…head… What’s this?”
…
That’s your problem.
Miss Zhou instinctively glanced at Shen Xingruo.
Shen Xingruo remained composed, met Miss Zhou’s gaze for a moment, and then looked at Lu Xingyan.
Maybe because Shen Xingruo had made such a good impression, Miss Zhou involuntarily inferred from her expression, “I don’t know anything. We had already discussed it; maybe he has amnesia,” which appeared innocent.
So, without picking up the matter further, Miss Zhou simply moved on.
It’s strange, that during these two days of new seating arrangements, Shen Xingruo and Lu Xingyan seemed to have incurred some kind of curse. The frequency with which they were called upon to answer questions in class was outrageously high. Sometimes it was Lu Xingyan and Shen Xingruo, and sometimes they even got called up together for a mixed doubles session.
After finishing her Chinese class, Teacher Zhang Jiao took the opportunity to visit the political science department’s office, hoping to snag some of Wang Youfu’s tea leaves. As she brewed the tea, she suddenly remarked, as if remembering something exciting, “Hey, that girl who transferred to your class, Shen Xingruo, she’s quite beautiful, isn’t she? Sitting next to Lu Xingyan, they’re quite the sight.”
Taking a sip of her tea, she added, “And their names match so well too!”
“Right! When I was arranging the seating, I used that random software, and originally Shen Xingruo was supposed to sit in front of Lu Xingyan. But hey! I thought those two names looked pretty good together, so I made a slight adjustment.”
Wang Youfu held his thermos with a sense of accomplishment. Shen Xingruo happened to be helping her former seatmate, Ruan Wen, move some political science assignments when she reached the door and heard the second half of Wang Youfu’s sentence, leaving her speechless for a moment.
In the evening, as the sun painted the sky with shades of deep and light yellow, and the gentle evening breeze blew, Shen Xingruo, along with Shi Qin and Zhai Jiajing, returned to the classroom for evening self-study.
This Saturday was International Women’s Day, and in recent years, for some unknown reason, there had been a sudden surge in the popularity of another celebration, “Three-Seven Girls’ Day,” followed by variations like Goddess Day and Fairy Day.
Shi Qin excitedly shared various gossip about how the boys from different classes were preparing for Girls’ Day. Shen Xingruo listened with half-interest as they returned to the classroom, taking a short break before starting on their homework.
When the bell for evening self-study rang, a faint shadow seemed to envelop Shen Xingruo’s mind. Lu Xingyan had returned. In the two days they had been seatmates, she had never seen him attend evening self-study before, so she couldn’t help but glance at him a few more times.
He seemed to have just finished playing basketball, with sweat still glistening on his forehead. As he sat down, he leaned back in his chair and drank water in large gulps. Despite sweating, he didn’t emit any strange odor. Instead, there was always a faint scent of grass about him, clean and refreshing.
He was quite good-looking, with a strong sense of youthfulness about him.
Otherwise, with his atrocious personality, no girl would ever like him. She realized she had been staring for a bit too long when she snapped back to reality and found Lu Xingyan returning her gaze with a look that seemed to say, “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen a handsome guy before? Do you want to take a closer look?”
She paused briefly before calmly averting her gaze.
Lu Xingyan didn’t want to attend evening self-study, but someone had tipped him off that there would be a check tonight.
Although he wasn’t particularly fond of studying, he rarely added to the burdens of the monthly evaluations in their class. Bored out of his mind, he flipped through a book and noticed a Rubik’s Cube on Li Chengfan’s desk, so he casually picked it up.
Li Chengfan was engrossed in a novel and didn’t notice.
Ten minutes later, as Shen Xingruo finished one of her assignments, she glanced at Lu Xingyan inadvertently and suddenly froze.
The way Lu Xingyan casually played with the Rubik’s Cube at first glance seemed like the demeanor of a hidden master, skilled and knowledgeable. But upon closer inspection for just ten seconds, it became evident—he had no clue what he was doing.
Lu Xingyan maintained his usual arrogant attitude. “What are you looking at?”
“…”
“I’m looking at my Rubik’s Cube.”
My Rubik’s Cube.
Lu Xingyan stopped fiddling with the Rubik’s Cube and kicked the leg of Li Chengfan’s chair.
Li Chengfan jumped, thinking he’d been caught by Wang Youfu. “You scared the crap out of me… What the hell…”
Lu Xingyan couldn’t be bothered with small talk. He just shook the Rubik’s Cube in front of him. “Yours?”
“No, I must be crazy. I don’t know how to play… I borrowed it from your seatmate,” he whispered, “I wanted to talk to her, you know? She’s pretty nice. I mentioned wanting to play with it, and she just lent it to me…”
Lu Xingyan remained silent, kicked the leg of his chair again, and then tossed the Rubik’s Cube to Shen Xingruo.
Shen Xingruo used to learn piano and had developed a habit of keeping her fingers active. Even after she stopped learning, she would sometimes play with the Rubik’s Cube to relax her finger joints when she felt tired from writing.
Just as she picked up the Rubik’s Cube from her desk, the duty teacher, Xu Anqiang, appeared at the classroom door with a stern expression, hands behind his back.
Xu Anqiang had quite a reputation for being extreme. Students often complained about him behind his back, and because he was bald, someone gave him the nickname “Baldy Strong.”
Baldy Strong marched straight in and arrived at Lu Xingyan and Shen Xingruo’s desk, scolding loudly, “I’ve been keeping an eye on you two on the surveillance! Playing for a full ten minutes! And still playing now! You two seem quite engrossed!”
In reality, he only saw Lu Xingyan playing on the surveillance, but when he arrived, the Rubik’s Cube was already in Shen Xingruo’s hands, so he included her in the scolding.
Baldy Strong taught math in the science class, and the classes he taught were all experimental classes. He naturally looked down on the liberal arts class. “Fine if you want to play, but after watching for ten minutes on surveillance and not seeing you two solve it, if you can solve all six sides, then I won’t say anything!”
Lu Xingyan had clashed with him before, but he remained unfazed. He stood up casually, blocking Shen Xingruo behind him. “It’s none of her business.”
“It’s none of her business, then what about her…” Before he could finish, Shen Xingruo suddenly placed the Rubik’s Cube on the desk and stood up too. “Teacher, it’s solved.”
Baldy Strong instinctively looked over and saw the Rubik’s Cube, which was in disarray just moments ago, now neatly solved, resting quietly on the desk as if in retirement.