See You Next Semester
The time during exams always seemed to pass more quickly than during regular classes.
The last exam was English. Chen Luobai finished his test paper with over forty minutes to spare. He lowered his head to check it once, and after confirming there were no mistakes, he looked at his watch again.
Thirty minutes left.
It was 4 PM, and the sunlight outside was intense.
Chen Luobai wanted to wait for Zhu Ran, so he didn’t turn in his paper early. He simply moved his completed test paper and answer sheet to the side, then laid his head on the desk and closed his eyes to sleep.
Lin Han, the English teacher for Class 1, happened to be one of the proctors for this first exam room.
While other students were writing furiously, the student sleeping at the first desk in the first row stood out particularly.
Everyone knew who sat in the first seat of the first row without even seeing his face.
Lin Han walked down from the podium and glanced at the test paper beside him. All the answers visible on the outer page were correct.
Lin Han returned to the podium.
When the exam ended, the other proctor received a call from home about an urgent matter, so Lin Han took on the task of collecting the papers and letting the other teacher leave first.
English was the last exam, and with summer vacation approaching, the students packed up quickly. Soon, half the exam room was empty.
The student in the first seat of the first row was still sleeping soundly.
Lin Han slowly collected the test papers from back to front.
When she reached the first row of the last column, the student sitting there looked up and asked her, “Teacher Lin, do you want me to help you collect the papers?”
Lin Han looked up and saw it was Class 2’s monitor, Liao Yanbo. She shook her head, “No need.”
After taking his paper, Lin Han seemed to remember something and looked at the first column again.
Chen Luobai was still sleeping.
Lin Han found it a bit strange.
There were quite a few students from Class 2 in the first exam room, and Chen Luobai usually got along well with others. It was surprising that not a single person had woken him up.
Were these kids in such a hurry to get home?
Lin Han pointed to the first column, “Go wake up Chen Luobai.”
Liao Yanbo looked in that direction, his tone hesitant as he spoke while retreating, “Well… Luo-ge has a bad temper when waking up. I don’t dare to wake him. Teacher Lin, you should wake him yourself. I’ll be going now. Bye, Teacher Lin.”
Lin Han: “…?”
Chen Luobai has a bad temper when waking up, so you don’t dare to wake him, but you want me, the teacher, to do it?
Have you completely forgotten about respecting teachers and valuing education?
Liao Yanbo had already run away quickly.
Lin Han couldn’t help but laugh at her frustration.
By the time she collected the papers up to Chen Luobai’s seat, the exam room was empty.
Lin Han pulled out his papers and then tapped on his desk a couple of times.
No response.
Lin Han increased the force and tapped a few more times.
The boy lying on the desk raised his head, his eyes full of irritation at being disturbed from sleep. When he opened his eyes and saw her, he paused for a moment, the irritation slightly subsiding.
“Teacher Lin.”
Lin Han: “…”
Well, at least this one still knew to respect teachers. Even if he had a temper, he didn’t direct it at her, a teacher.
“Was my English paper so easy?” Lin Han held a stack of test papers, looking like she was about to scold him. “I don’t see you sleeping during other subjects, but for the English exam, you slept for nearly half an hour?”
Chen Luobai rubbed his eyes, his tone flat: “It’s not that the paper was easy, it’s that I’m good.”
Lin Han laughed again, this time out of exasperation: “Go ahead and boast. If you lose even one point on anything other than the composition in this paper, I’ll settle accounts with you next semester.”
“Then Teacher Lin, you won’t have that opportunity.” Chen Luobai stood up. “Goodbye, Teacher Lin.”
Chen Luobai went to the back to pick up his schoolbag and walked straight out the back door towards the third exam room to find Zhu Ran. As he passed the second window of the second exam room, his gaze inadvertently glanced inside, and his steps faltered slightly.
The classroom was already empty, with only one person still sitting at the desk by this window.
The girl was slowly unzipping her schoolbag, raising her hand to pick up the pencil case on the desk. Her shoulder-length short hair was tucked behind her ear, revealing half of her snow-white profile.
Completely different from her tear-stained face that day, the corners of her lips were slightly raised, with a shallow dimple on her cheek.
So when she smiled genuinely, she wasn’t unattractive at all.
She was quite sweet.
“How did the exam go?”
When Zhou Anran finished this exam, she accidentally lost the cap of her favorite pen and spent some time looking for it, which was why she stayed until now.
When a shadow appeared in the window beside her, she had sensed it, but before she could turn her head to look, she suddenly heard his voice.
Zhou Anran’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
He was in the first exam room, so he would pass by her side.
Who was he talking to? She remembered Zhu Ran should be in the third exam room, and Tang Jianrui and others might be in exam rooms even further back. Was it other classmates?
While continuing to put her pencil case into her schoolbag, Zhou Anran couldn’t help but secretly look up.
The next second, her gaze directly collided with the boy’s slightly smiling eyes.
The afternoon sunlight passed over the handrail and into the corridor, with a beam just resting on the shoulder line of the boy’s school uniform.
But it seemed nothing was as dazzling as the smile on his face.
There was no one else besides him.
So he was…
Talking to her?
Zhou Anran was completely stunned, but her hand movements didn’t stop.
However, because she had looked away, the pencil case didn’t accurately fall into the schoolbag, but instead slid off and fell to the ground.
Zhou Anran suddenly came back to her senses.
Chen Luobai watched as her expression first froze, then seemed to add a hint of nervousness, as if she wanted to pick up the pencil case, but her movement suddenly stopped.
He hadn’t expected that casually striking up a conversation with her would elicit such a big reaction from her. He couldn’t help but laugh, “Did I scare you?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
Why did she always perform so poorly every time she encountered him alone?
Fortunately, when she was about to bend down to pick up the pencil case, the hair tucked behind her ear fell again, just in time to hide her slightly warm ears.
She clutched the pencil case, trying hard to suppress her nervousness, but still didn’t dare to look at his smiling eyes. She just shook her head and replied softly, “…No.”
Chen Luobai’s gaze lingered on her cheek for a second.
The shallow dimple from earlier had disappeared.
A thought flashed through his mind, too quickly for him to grasp.
Zhu Ran’s voice suddenly rang out at this moment: “Chen Luobai, what are you standing there for?”
Chen Luobai turned his head to see Zhu Ran standing at the door of the third exam room with his school bag.
He didn’t think further and casually waved to the girl by the window: “I’m off then, see you next semester.”
When Zhou Anran looked up again, the boy’s figure had completely disappeared from outside the window.
The air conditioning in the classroom had long been turned off, and the hot summer wind crept in through the window cracks.
Tree shadows swayed in the corridor, sunlight danced at the window’s edge, and fine dust floated in the air.
Zhou Anran sat dazed in her chair, feeling her heartbeat was even more clamorous than the cicadas’ chirping.
Chen Luobai walked up to Zhu Ran: “Let’s go.”
Zhu Ran walked while slinging his schoolbag over his shoulder, then looked back at where Chen Luobai had been standing: “Who were you talking to just now?”
“A girl from our class,” Chen Luobai replied.
“You? Talking to a girl from our class?” Zhu Ran suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Who is it? Let me take a look?”
“What are you looking at?” Chen Luobai hooked his arm around Zhu Ran’s neck and continued to lead him forward. “Aren’t we catching a bus?”
Zhu Ran was still curious: “Which girl is it exactly?”
“It’s the one who’s desk mates with that Yan something—” Chen Luobai paused, unable to recall the other person’s name. “The girl who’s desk mates with the one who helped us at the basketball game that time.”
“Yan Xingxi’s desk mate?” Zhu Ran thought for a moment. “I think her name is Zhou Anran.”
Chen Luobai finally matched the person with the name: “That’s her.”
“Wait.” Zhu Ran was even more curious now. “You can’t even remember her name, why did you strike up a conversation with her?”
“Before the exam, I happened to run into her crying secretly on the rooftop because of study pressure. Just now when I passed by, I saw her—” Chen Luobai’s mind flashed back to that shallow dimple. “She looked quite happy, so I just casually asked if the exam went well. Didn’t expect—”
Zhu Ran automatically continued: “Didn’t expect she completely ignored you.”
Chen Luobai released the arm around his neck and laughed while cursing: “Get lost, you.”
Zhu Ran justified himself: “But Yan Xingxi’s group of girls don’t talk to you, right? Last time after helping out, I invited her to eat, and she didn’t go. Zhou Anran seemed to be beside her at that time, and they never greet us when they see us usually.”
Chen Luobai raised an eyebrow: “You’re always following my ass, why isn’t it that they don’t want to talk to you, and I’m just collateral damage?”
“Fine.” Zhu Ran nodded. “Then let’s say they don’t want to talk to both of us, okay? So what exactly didn’t you expect?”
Chen Luobai recalled that girl’s series of small expressions just now and paused for a second: “She’s way too timid.”
*
After Zhou Anran left the exam room, she suddenly remembered that before leaving school, they still had to return to the classroom for a class meeting.
So why did he say “See you next semester”?
They should be able to see each other when they return to the classroom in a while.
Downstairs, Yan Xingxi and the others were waiting for her in the shade on the first floor.
As soon as they saw her come down, Yan Xingxi asked excitedly: “Anran, why are you so slow?”
“Yeah,” Sheng Xiaowen also said, “When I passed by the second exam room, I didn’t see you. I thought you had left first, but Xingxi said you definitely wouldn’t leave without telling us.”
Zhou Anran walked up to them, pursed her lips, and in the end didn’t dare to mention Chen Luobai. She only said, “I dropped a pen cap and spent some time looking for it. Maybe when you passed by, I had just bent down.”
Sheng Xiaowen: “No wonder.”
Yan Xingxi grabbed her hand: “Then let’s hurry back to the classroom. It’s so hot.”
With the exams over, only a class meeting stood between them and the holiday.
The classroom was livelier than usual.
Zhou Anran followed her friends in from the back, her gaze unconsciously looking toward his seat.
He wasn’t there.
The books on his desk had all been cleared away.
Zhou Anran thought about his “see you next semester” and remembered that afternoon when he taught her how to skip class. Her heart lifted slightly again.
He wouldn’t skip class, would he?
But the homeroom teacher would come for the class meeting.
However, all the teachers liked him very much. As long as it wasn’t a major violation or something that would affect his studies, the teachers would turn a blind eye and not be too strict with him.
Even if he skipped class, it should be fine, right?
Before she could pass his seat, someone helped answer her doubts.
The class monitor, Liao Yanbo, stood next to his seat and asked Tang Jianrui: “Ruirui, hasn’t Luo-ge come back yet? Did Teacher Lin not wake him up?”
“What about Teacher Lin?” Tang Jianrui turned around.
Liao Yanbo: “He finished his English exam early and was sleeping in the exam room afterward. I didn’t dare wake him when I left, so I asked Teacher Lin to help wake him up. He’s still not back now, did Teacher Lin not wake him?”
“Probably not,” Tang Jianrui said. “Even if Teacher Lin woke him up, Luo-ge wouldn’t come back. He’s going out to play with Zhu Ran, he already asked Teacher Gao for leave.”
So that’s how it was.
Zhou Anran secretly let out a sigh of relief.
After the class meeting started, Gao Guohua stood on the podium rambling on and on, mostly about not relaxing too much during the holiday, not completely forgetting about studying, and being careful when going out to play.
Zhou Anran didn’t hear a word, her mind full of the boy’s “See you next semester.”
Her elbow was nudged.
Zhou Anran saw Yan Xingxi push a small notebook over, on which was written: “Did you find money again? Why are you smiling so happily?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
Was she?
She secretly glanced at Yan Xingxi, wanting to share with her, but when her pen touched the paper, she didn’t dare to write a single word about him.
In the end, she gave up again.
Zhou Anran wrote back in the notebook: “I feel like the exam went well. I’ll treat you to a drink later.”
After the class meeting ended, Sheng Xiaowen and Zhang Shuxian heard Yan Xingxi say she was going to treat them to drinks, and they linked arms with her on both sides.
“We should be included too, right?”
“If you don’t treat me, I won’t let you go home today.”
Zhou Anran’s lips curved into a smile: “I didn’t say I wouldn’t treat you.”
When they passed by the small supermarket, the four of them went in and each took a bottle of soda.
Zhou Anran, for some reason, chose a lemon-flavored one. The sour and sweet little bubbles first fizzed in the ice-cold soda bottle then bubbled to her heart and finally burst open bit by bit.
The wind and sunlight that day were both intense and gentle.