The summer heat in Lin City was oppressive, the sky brilliantly blue with white clouds tinged with a hint of dryness.
After last night’s rain, the temperature didn’t drop but rose instead.
Cicadas chirped noisily, and on the school’s black iron fence, wild roses bloomed beautifully.
Xu You, carrying a white backpack, leaned over the second-floor railing, peering through gaps in the dense tree shadows at the lively basketball court in the distance. On the sun-scorched rubber track, a group of boys ran about.
After waiting a while longer, Chen Lizhi finally emerged from the administrative office with a young female teacher.
Xu You straightened up and called out obediently, “Auntie.”
Chen Lizhi nodded, took her arm, and said with a smile to the slightly plump woman beside her, “I’m entrusting our child to you then.”
Xu Huiru pushed up her glasses, looked down at the name on the roster, and read aloud: “Xu You, what a coincidence—she shares my surname.”
Lin City No. 1 Middle School was the best private school in Lin City.
Because her parents’ work required relocation, Xu You came along to this northern metropolis. Through her aunt’s connections, she transferred into this school as an insertion student.
No. 1 Middle School had both junior high and senior high divisions, with most students being local and relatively few boarding students.
When her father brought her, he lectured and admonished her the entire journey, telling her to study hard once she got there and not waste time.
Xu You had always excelled academically since childhood, was well-behaved and didn’t cause trouble, and had strict family discipline.
Seeing Xu You’s docile demeanor, Xu Huiru felt quite satisfied.
She couldn’t help thinking that finally a proper-looking transfer student had arrived who could help straighten out the class atmosphere.
After thinking this, she felt a bit worried again.
This child was so quiet and gentle—she looked like she’d be easily bullied.
She had been assigned as the homeroom teacher of Class 9 last semester and had really worried herself sick over it for half a year.
The students in that class were more troublesome than the last.
They didn’t respect teachers, didn’t care about class collective honor, and liked fighting and causing trouble.
For a private elite school like No. 1 Middle School, it was naturally full of wealthy young masters and misses. But Class 9 was especially notorious for having many such students, a group that was particularly rebellious.
Each one had a more unruly temperament than the next, along with quite a strong sense of superiority.
After collecting textbooks from the materials office, Xu You followed the homeroom teacher to class. The bell had just rung for break, and male and female students in uniforms walked past them in twos and threes.
In the hallway, they ran into two boys wearing basketball jerseys head-on. As soon as they saw Xu Huiru, they immediately stopped and saluted, both shouting in unison: “Hello, Teacher Xu!”
Their booming voices startled Xu You.
The male students from the north all seemed to be this tall and imposing, with particularly loud voices.
Xu Huiru nodded in acknowledgment and casually asked, “Did you just finish PE class?”
“Hehe.” One of them, a dark-skinned boy dripping with sweat, stretched his neck to peek at Xu You standing quietly behind the homeroom teacher and asked with a grin, “Teacher, is this the new student in our class?”
Xu Huiru waved her hand, shooing them away: “Mind your own business.”
They walked away.
Xu Huiru instructed her: “From now on, don’t pay too much attention to those unscholarly boys in class. Study hard, understand?”
Xu You nodded, “I understand, Teacher.”
“Good.”
Xu Huiru looked at the cotton dress she was wearing and remembered: “After morning classes, go to the main hall of Zhicheng Building to pick up your uniform.”
Around a corner, Class 9 was right next to the staircase.
The classroom was lively and noisy, with students chasing and playing around, voices clamoring, everyone doing their own thing. The moment Xu Huiru stepped through the door, it gradually quieted down.
Everyone’s eyes focused on the unfamiliar transfer student appearing in the classroom behind the homeroom teacher.
Xu You held her books and stood near the podium.
Bright sunlight gently outlined her figure, soft black hair falling over her chest. A white dress that reached just past her knees, short cotton socks, exposing pale ankles.
Since the next physics class was about to start and the teacher was already waiting at the door, Xu Huiru didn’t plan to have Xu You give a self-introduction. She simply clapped her hands and briefly said to them: “This is a new student named Xu You. Everyone welcome her.”
A brief silence.
“Welcome, new student.”
Some mischievous boys in the back row sat on their desks, elbows propped on their knees, and whistled at Xu You, accompanied by laughter from several other boys.
“Alright, alright, don’t fool around!”
Xu Huiru slapped a desk with one hand, stopping the atmosphere from getting rowdy. Her eyes scanned around, then her finger casually pointed toward the back of the fourth group, saying to Xu You: “You sit in that empty seat first.”
After two seconds, Xu Huiru seemed to realize this wasn’t appropriate. She hesitated for a moment and patted Xu You’s shoulder: “Sit there for a while. We’ll change seats next week.”
“Okay.”
So under the entire class’s gaze, Xu You walked through the gaps between groups and stopped in the aisle of one of the last few rows at the back of the fourth group.
It was very messy there, with several half-smoked, extinguished cigarette butts scattered on the floor. Books and draft paper were piled haphazardly on the desks and chairs, and there was even a basketball under a stool.
Xu You paused and stood there, a bit hesitant.
In the second-to-last row, a boy wearing a black t-shirt sat inside, not wearing the school uniform. He leaned against the wall, brazenly playing on his phone with his head down. He seemed not to have looked up once since she entered the classroom.
Seeing Xu You standing there, the person who had whistled earlier called out to the boy playing on his phone with a mischievous smile: “Ah Ci, your new deskmate is here.”
The boy called “Ah Ci” supported his head with one hand, resting it on the desk.
He had probably been running during PE class too—his black hair was damp.
He chewed gum in his mouth and didn’t respond at first.
Only after someone leaned over and pushed him did he slowly raise his head.
His pitch-black eyes swept up and down over the girl standing in front of him.
After a second or two, he lazily and indifferently moved his legs that had been crossed on the chair, making room for Xu You.
“Wait.” Xu Huiru changed her mind at the last moment and called from the classroom door, “Song Yifan, switch seats with the new student. Let Xu You sit in the front row.”
Xu You breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
The next class was physics, taught by a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, nicknamed “Li Tietou.” He was also famously one of the strictest in the grade level, treating students like enemies with the ruthlessness of autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
Although the students in Class 9 were quite unruly, they were still somewhat intimidated by Li Tietou.
Group leaders left their seats to collect the physics homework notebooks from last time, one by one.
Xu You lowered her head and took out her notebook and pencil case from her backpack, placing them on the desk. Then she organized the new books she had just received, arranging them neatly one by one.
Her deskmate was a very pretty girl whose desk was messily arranged with cosmetics and a curling iron.
Her deskmate, Xiao Juanfa, had curls draped behind her, and was holding up a small mirror to touch up her lipstick.
Xu You quickly glanced over, then straightened her posture, looking toward the blackboard, preparing to listen attentively.
The group leader for the fourth group was a tall girl with glasses and a ponytail.
When she reached the row behind Xu You, she deliberately slammed the notebook heavily on the desk with a shrill voice: “Xie Ci, hand in your homework.”
So his name was Xie Ci.
Xu You thought silently to herself.
After a while.
“Didn’t write it.”
An indifferent voice rang out, with a hint of mockery.
Song Yifan said sarcastically: “Group leader, you don’t collect homework from all of us in the back, so why are you targeting Ah Ci?”
“Is it because… hmm?” He deliberately drew out his tone, with provocative and teasing implications, causing the group behind to burst into laughter.
“Song Heipi, why are you so annoying!”
The group leader cursed, tossed her hair, and walked away with the homework in her arms.
Xu You tried hard to focus her attention on the podium but still heard bursts of laughter from behind her on the right:
“The grade boss’s homework she dares to collect—group leader is awesome.”
Li Tietou prepared to teach the new lesson on electromagnetism.
Electromagnetism was one of the more important difficult points in high school physics. Xu You had already finished studying it in tutoring class long ago and had worked through many sets of problems. She took out her physics book and turned to the page the teacher was going to cover.
For her, studying and doing problems was as instinctive as breathing.
“Hey, new student, what’s your name?” After finishing her makeup, Fu Xueli familiarly picked up the student ID Xu You had placed on the desk, looked at it twice, and said, “Xu You?”
“Mm…” Xu You lowered her voice, dropped her eyelashes, and nodded gently.
“What a tongue-twister of a name.”
Xu You: …
“It kind of is.”
“My name is Fu Xueli—xue as in snow, li as in pear.” She introduced herself.
Xu You quietly glanced at her and nodded again, “I’ll remember. Your name sounds really nice.”
Fu Xueli laughed out loud, thinking this child might be a bit naturally naive.
Seeing her like a well-behaved good student, afraid of being caught talking in class by the teacher, Fu Xueli found her truly adorable.
The friends she hung out with were either slick operators or rebellious types. Not one of them was afraid of teachers.
Class 9 was severely polarized, with many small cliques. Roughly divided into two camps: those who studied well and those who were wealthy.
Neither side thought much of the other, but both had a consensus not to provoke each other. Fu Xueli was the typical type—wealthy and coasting through school, her friends also unscholarly types who spent their days eating, drinking, and having fun.
Someone like Xu You—bare-faced, soft-voiced, with delicate and clean features—this was truly the first time she’d encountered such a girl.
A small face, small build, like a middle school student.
She looked like someone with a regular lifestyle and excellent academic performance—a good student.
Fu Xueli silently grumbled to herself, put Xu You’s student ID back in its original place, and took out her phone to play with it out of boredom.
There were two more classes left in the morning, which passed in a flash.
As soon as the bell rang for the end of the fifth period, the people in class quickly dispersed to eat.
Xu You didn’t like crowding with others, so she planned to wait until everyone had left before leaving.
She casually pulled out a sheet of draft paper and lay on the desk, calculating step by step a problem the teacher had assigned during class.
“New student, such a studious one.”
Song Yifan walked past Xu You and casually glanced over. Seeing her head down, writing away, he couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration: “Oh my, very diligent.”
His voice was casual and habitually improper.
Xu You’s pen tip paused.
After a few seconds, not knowing what to say, she buried her head and continued calculating.
Suddenly, whoosh—a book was thrown at Song Yifan.
Fu Xueli glared at him and said bluntly without any reservation: “Can you stop teasing the little girl or not?”
“Damn.” Song Yifan rubbed his shoulder in pain, “I was just your deskmate a moment ago, why are you so violent? Can’t I show some concern for the new student?”
“Get lost.”
Fu Xueli couldn’t be bothered with Song Yifan—she knew exactly what he was thinking.
She slung her shoulder bag over her arm and squeezed out from behind Xu You, “Xu You, when are you going to eat?”
“Ah?” Xu You looked up at Fu Xueli, thought for a moment and said: “I’ll go soon.”
At that moment, a group of boys from other classes waited at the class door. Someone poked their head in and called: “Ah Ci, are you ready yet?”
Song Yifan immediately responded: “Coming, coming, he and I are leaving now. You guys go block people first.”
There seemed to be a sudden gust of wind.
In Xu You’s peripheral vision appeared a pair of black and red sneakers.
Xie Ci stopped beside her, holding his school uniform jacket in one hand.
The draft paper on the desk was suddenly pulled away, catching Xu You off guard.
The black gel pen drew a line across the paper.
Her gaze moved upward, meeting a pair of pitch-black eyes with slightly upturned corners.
That person leaned against her desk, holding the thin paper between his index and middle fingers, cynically tilting his head and glancing at it.
On the draft paper.
Several lines of neat, elegant small script, with solution formulas listed out in orderly fashion.
“Help me write a physics assignment.”
He said lazily, then left the classroom with the remaining boys from class.