She held a breath in her chest, running until she was close to the classroom before releasing it.

Her steps slowed down. Xu You pushed open the back door of the classroom, raised her hand, and softly called out “Report.”

The English teacher, holding an exercise book, was explaining problems. She looked at her for quite a while, then asked unhurriedly: “Where did you go?”

This teacher’s surname was Zhang, a middle-aged woman in her menopause period. She treated students particularly harshly, poor Xu You, being new, didn’t know this.

She bit her lip, not wanting to waste class time, and stammered to explain: “Teacher, I’m sorry, I went to the restroom.”

Teacher Zhang asked: “Xie Ci, what about you, were you also in the restroom?”

What?

Xu You froze.

Hearing someone laugh behind her, she suddenly turned around and was startled.

Xie Ci had somehow already been standing behind her, the distance between them extremely close. His tall figure leaned crookedly against the door frame, his jacket slightly open, revealing the skull on the T-shirt underneath, swaggering at Xu You’s face just like its owner.

Seeing her completely dumbfounded expression, Xie Ci laughed even harder, using a voice only the two of them could hear, ambiguously asking in a low voice: “Classmate, after watching, you wanted to run away?”

Someone in the back row started jeering.

“—I’m asking you a question, Xie Ci. Which one of my classes are you not late to? Do you feel uncomfortable if you’re not late?” Teacher Zhang slammed the exercise book onto the podium, her shrill voice cutting through the classroom.

Xu You listened with her heart trembling, not daring to speak with Xie Ci anymore, lowering her head in silence.

After a few seconds.

The person behind her raised his eyes, asking carelessly: “How do you want me to be comfortable?”

……

After the entire class fell silent as death, earth-shattering waves of commotion erupted.

The male students in the back were making a racket, some whistling, some already laughing so hard they were bent over their desks unable to straighten up.

Wu Pengfei shouted at him: “Brother Ci, just speak properly, why did you suddenly become obscene?”

Their hippie smiling faces and unrestrained mouths made the teacher even more furious. Her face flushed red as she gritted her teeth, but with so many people present, she didn’t explode.

The result was that Xu You was permitted to return to her seat, while Xie Ci was made to stand outside the classroom as punishment for one period.

However, he wasn’t that obedient. In just a few minutes, there was no sign of anyone outside the classroom.

Teacher Zhang picked up the book again, shook it, and said sarcastically: “The exam is the day after tomorrow. Let’s see if you can still laugh so happily when your grades come out.”

As soon as she said this, the class immediately erupted in wails of grief.

Someone asked: “Teacher, it hasn’t been long since school started…”

“It’s precisely because it hasn’t been long since school started that I’m giving you a heads up.”

Xu You took out all her books, pressing her palm against her lower abdomen, her chin against the desk, writing the third English reading comprehension.

She wasn’t feeling well, so she could only use homework to distract some of her energy.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of class, the teacher walked out, and the classroom immediately became chaotic. Xu You lay listlessly on her seat, her face pale.

Zheng Xiaolin, sitting in front, holding paper and pen, had just turned around to ask a question when she was startled by Xu You’s weak appearance.

She set her things aside, bringing her face close to Xu You’s and asking: “Classmate, what’s wrong with you?”

“She’s on that, stomach ache.” Fu Xueli, while cracking sunflower seeds, took the time to answer for her.

As a fellow female, Zheng Xiaolin immediately understood, making two “oh” sounds.

Xu You lifted her head from her arms, asking listlessly: “What’s wrong, do you need something?”

“Nothing, nothing. I originally wanted to ask you about a question, but since you’re not feeling well, forget it.”

“Which one?”

Zheng Xiaolin pointed with her pen to an English question on the exercise book, asking: “Why does ‘feel’ have to be in this position in the sentence? The teacher explained too fast, I didn’t understand.”

“Let me see.” Xu You took the book, carefully reading through the question once.

Her abdomen ached sourly, the pain coming in waves.

Cold sweat appeared on her forehead. She moistened her dry lips, organizing her words to explain to Zheng Xiaolin: “‘Feel’ is a linking verb, followed by a predicate, describing the subject’s condition, so…”

Xu You felt somewhat drained of energy, forcing herself to maintain her spirits while explaining the problem to Zheng Xiaolin.

After explaining for a while.

“Oh! I understand now!”

Zheng Xiaolin looked suddenly enlightened, gratefully thanking Xu You, pressing her palms together: “Oh great master, thank you, thank you. I’m going to copy it into my correction notebook right now.”

After saying that, she turned back around.

Xu You couldn’t support herself anymore and collapsed back onto the desk.

After recovering slightly, waiting for the wave of pain to pass, she fumbled her water cup out from the drawer, supported herself on the desk to stand up, preparing to go to the water dispenser at the back of the classroom to get some hot water.

Xie Ci sat in the seat by the corridor in Group 3, his two long legs brazenly crossed, placed in the aisle, chatting sporadically with Song Yifan.

Absentmindedly, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Xu You stopping beside him.

“Classmate, I want to get water, could you let me pass?”

She lowered her head slightly, her small face pale, her voice very low, drowning in the noisy voices.

Xie Ci, whether he didn’t hear or was deliberately ignoring her, didn’t even lift his eyes once.

Xu You waited in place for a while. Finding that he had no intention of moving his feet in, she was too lazy to continue talking with him, and had no energy either, so she directly lifted her foot preparing to step over.

Xie Ci suddenly smiled, the tip of his tongue pushing against his cheek. While talking to others, his right foot unexpectedly blocked upward.

Xu You’s ankle was caught off guard, hooked by him and knocked together. Her movement failed to stop in time, her body falling forward. Her hands flailed about trying to support herself on the edge of the desk to steady herself, but her entire body’s center of gravity was unstable.

In the chaos, she felt her arm being forcefully pulled aside by someone.

Song Yifan beside them had his mouth open in an “O” shape, watching helplessly as Xu You, in this split second, threw herself completely onto Xie Ci.

A thought suddenly flashed through his mind: Did Xie Ci do that on purpose?

Xie Ci was hit by the oncoming water cup, hissing from the pain, and opened both hands to catch Xu You in his full embrace.

His back hit the desk behind him, letting out a muffled grunt.

The two made such a big commotion in class. With a crash, the world seemed to quiet down. Everyone’s gaze focused over, just in time to see this ambiguous scene.

The hot breath of his inhalations and exhalations sprayed beside her ear.

As if it was an instant thing, yet also as if a very long time had passed.

Xu You hadn’t yet recovered from her fright. After reacting for a few seconds, trembling terribly, she quickly pushed Xie Ci away trying to stand up.

All around her ears were ill-intentioned whistles and jeering sounds.

Xie Ci had one hand against her shoulder, one hand supporting her waist. Through the thin uniform, his fingertips felt the soft touch of the young girl. On her body was a faint scent of jasmine.

“You… you hurry up and let me go.”

Feeling her struggle, his throat slid up and down, his face moving closer, his voice low: “I used myself as a human cushion for you, you won’t even say thank you?”

Xu You was shocked by this person’s thick face. For the first time in her life, she so badly didn’t want to talk to someone. She bit her lip, her face flushed red with shame, struggling hard to break free from his restraint: “Classmate, let me go first.”

“Calling me what classmate, don’t you know my name?” He clicked his tongue, laughing even harder, his chest vibrating.

Seeing the two of them locked in stalemate for so long, the jeering voices of others grew louder and louder.

“Aiyowei, you two need to be mindful of your influence in class.” Someone whistled at them.

The rest echoed: “That’s right, in broad daylight don’t be inappropriate, Brother Ci.”

“Xie. Ci. Let. Go. Of. Your. Hand.” Xu You said word by word, extremely mortified. No matter how good her temperament was, her patience was nearly worn out at this moment.

Xie Ci laughed with a hum, saying slowly: “Wasn’t it you clinging to me and not leaving?”

Fu Xueli had just heard a loud crash and quickly turned her head to look. After reacting for a few seconds, she walked over quickly, pulling Xu You up with one yank, frowning as she said: “A’Ci, don’t go too far.”

Xie Ci made an “oh” sound, carelessly, the lazy roguish smile at the corner of his lips not diminishing.

After Xu You steadied herself, she said thank you to Fu Xueli in a low voice. Then under the gaze of a circle of people, she silently crouched down, picking up the books that had scattered on the floor one by one after being knocked over, putting them back on the desk. From start to finish, she never lifted her gaze, not saying a word, slowly walking back to her seat.

The oversized uniform jacket draped over her body, making her figure appear even more slender and frail.

“Boss, what are you doing, acting like a hooligan?” Song Yifan also reacted at this moment, stuttering out a useless question.

Xie Ci didn’t respond, his dark eyes staring at Xu You’s retreating figure.

Fu Xueli frowned and reproached: “Xu You wasn’t feeling well to begin with, and you still deliberately tormented her.”

“Huh?” Song Yifan was shocked, “What’s wrong with her, is she sick?”

“You idiot, you’re the one who’s sick.” Fu Xueli, exasperated, hit him, “Why would a girl not feel well!”

Xie Ci said nothing on the side. Unhurriedly, he bent down and picked up the blue water cup that had rolled to the side.

—

Xu You supported her forehead with one hand, biting her lip hard, holding a pen and copying math formulas over and over on scratch paper.

From trigonometric functions to spatial geometry, points, lines, planes, square roots, parentheses, decimal points…

After writing for a while, her mood was still irritable beyond measure, unable to calm down.

She lowered her head, just about to pull out the math exercise book from the drawer, when her face suddenly felt warm.

Xu You was startled, reflexively lifting her head to look up.

Xie Ci leaned lazily against her desk. The corner of his mouth slightly curved up, his palm holding the water cup he had just filled with warm water, pressing it against her face.

He lowered his eyelids, leaning down slightly, moving close to her ear and laughing softly: “Hey, don’t be angry anymore, okay?”