Chapter 5
“No.”
The flat answer drifted in from outside the window.
“See? Told you,” Wang Lu’an said, smug.
Yu Fan ignored him, dragged his chair back, crossed his arms, and leaned into the seat.
Zhang Xianjing pouted in disappointment. “Do you already have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Then why not? You don’t want to date? Or do you like someone else?”
She eyed his uniform and guessed, “Or maybe you just don’t like girls with bad grades?”
“No,” Chen Jingshen said. “I just don’t like you.”
“…”
“…”
Wang Lu’an stared at the perfect student’s cool profile. Any fantasy of getting help cheating died on the spot. “Damn, this top student is brutally direct.”
Yu Fan toyed with his lighter, not surprised in the least.
An annoying face saying annoying things. Fitting.
Zhang Xianjing’s disappointment lasted two seconds. “I get it. No problem. It just means you don’t like me yet. We still have more than a year in the same class. We can take it slow. I am very patient.”
“Honestly, I noticed you back in first year. I even went to watch you during the sports meet. I didn’t expect you to transfer into my class this term…”
For the first time, Chen Jingshen’s expression shifted.
He lifted his brows a fraction and studied her for two seconds, like weighing something.
After a long beat, he asked, “We are in the same class?”
“…”
Her smile froze. “I have been sitting in front of you for a whole day.”
He thought for a moment. “Sorry. No impression.”
Are you face-blind? I nearly wrenched my neck turning around to look at you and you have no impression?
Her expression almost cracked. She opened her mouth to say something, and the bell cut her off.
Chen Jingshen heard it too. He glanced toward the field and looked back. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” She told herself to stay calm. “We can at least be friends, right? Can we add each other on WeChat?”
“No.”
“… What?”
“I do not have WeChat.”
He left. Zhang Xianjing stood there for a long time without moving.
Wang Lu’an, satisfied, was about to slip away when she suddenly turned and headed straight for them.
“Wang Lu’an. You say.”
She stood outside the window, reached in, and grabbed his collar. “Am I pretty?”
“Pretty pretty pretty,” he said, shoulders hunched.
“Then why does Chen Jingshen treat me like that?”
“Right? Also, how did you know we were here?”
“I saw you a while ago. How many did you smoke? It reeks.”
She let go and looked at the other boy who had not said a word. “Yu Fan, you tell me. Am I pretty?”
“Give it a rest,” Yu Fan said.
She laughed, bracing one hand on the sill. “I did not look closely earlier. Your face is quite a work of art today.”
“You do not understand,” Wang Lu’an said. “Those are my brother’s glorious medals.”
“You want the glory?” Yu Fan asked.
“No, thanks.” Wang Lu’an snickered, then asked her, “Hey, did you really like Chen Jingshen since first year?”
“Of course not. If I liked him back then, how could I have held it in until now?”
“I just said that,” she added.
“…”
Wang Lu’an blinked. “So this is love at first sight?”
“Not exactly.”
She flicked her hair back and returned to her usual bold, pretty self. “I just think he is handsome and he is good at studying. If I could date someone like that, I would never worry about homework or tests again.”
Thinking it over made her a little tempted again. “Do you think I still have a chance?”
“No,” Yu Fan said without lifting his head.
“I kind of think so too…” Wang Lu’an began, then met Zhang Xianjing’s warning stare and swerved. “Mainly, top students have special tastes. What if Chen Jingshen just does not like your type?”
“What is his type then?”
Wang Lu’an warmed to the bit, gesturing. “Hair scraped tight behind the forehead, tiny eyes, thick lips, eight-hundred-degree bottle-bottom glasses. Studies all day. Skinny, short, a few zits on the face—”
“Bullshit.”
She paused, then added, “If I go get glasses now, is there still time?”
Fed up, Yu Fan stood and headed out.
Wang Lu’an’s sleeve was still in her hand. He hurried to ask, “Where are you going?”
“Home,” Yu Fan said. “You two have fun.”
“Who is having fun with her. Wait for me. We should walk together in case someone jumps you… Hey, hey, hey, ancestor, you are going to rip my shirt…”
She did not let go. Something occurred to her, and she called after him. “Yu Fan, do not you dare spread what just happened. Otherwise I will tell Ms. Zhuang you fought kids from the school next door.”
“As you please,” Yu Fan said, hands in his pockets as he turned up the stairs. His voice floated back down the stairwell. “Make sure you say I won so she will not be embarrassed by me.”
“…”
“Top student, did you bring your phone to school?” Wu Si asked as Chen Jingshen stepped back into the room.
Because of Zhuang Fangqin’s peculiar habit of changing the seating chart twice a term, for the moment everyone was sitting wherever. As a fellow transfer, Wu Si had naturally ended up beside Chen Jingshen.
In Class One, seats were assigned by grades.
Before the transfer, he had never imagined he would one day share a desk with Chen Jingshen.
Jingshen sat down and started tidying his things. “Yes.”
“I heard a couple vibrations,” Wu Si said. “From your bag.”
Jingshen took out his phone. Five unread texts.
He stared at the contact name for a moment, then lowered his finger to the screen.
Wu Si had no intention of snooping, but the desks were close. One glance and he could not help seeing the SMS screen.
Words flashed past: “Mom,” “transfer you,” “come home early.”
He did not catch every word, but the meaning was obvious. The top student’s parent was unhappy with the reshuffle and wanted Jingshen transferred out.
That was normal. His own parents wanted the same. Unfortunately, his family did not have Jingshen’s clout. They could not change classes on a whim.
Wu Si was still sighing that he had not even gotten much benefit from sitting with the top student before the guy would be moved again when Jingshen slipped the phone back into his bag, pulled out a problem book at random, and quietly dove into exercises.
“You are not going home after school?” Wu Si asked, blinking.
“No.”
After a while, Chen felt the stare next to him and turned. “Something you need?”
Wu Si smiled, a little nervous. “Nothing. It is just a problem I cannot solve. I went to the office but the teacher was not there, so I wondered if you could take a look. If you are busy, forget I asked.”
“Give it here.”
“Huh?”
He snapped to attention and handed over his book with both hands. “Oh, oh, please.”
He asked to his heart’s content. Hugging his bag, satisfied, he finally left. The classroom was empty except for Chen Jingshen.
The phone vibrated again in the bag.
Jingshen acted like he had not heard it, pen moving as he kept working.
The setting sun lacquered the campus in gold.
After finishing another test sheet, he rolled his wrist, eyed the ink stain on the side of his hand, and headed for the restroom.
On the way back, a shape down by the office across the way made him stop.
At the director’s office door.
Yu Fan leaned against the wall with one hand in his pocket, impatience written all over him.
The director held Yu Fan’s other hand and lifted it toward his nose.
“Do you not think you are acting like a pervert?” Yu Fan asked.
“Watch your mouth,” Hu Pang snapped. “You claim you did not smoke, so why do your hands reek?”
Yu Fan turned his face away and said nothing.
Thanks to Wang Lu’an’s parting jinx, he had not even made it off campus before getting stopped. Fresh from a meeting, Fat Tiger had caught his scent from ten meters and decided he smelled like smoke.
Not even a hound has a nose that sharp.
“No more excuses?” Hu Pang released his hand. “Bring a parent tomorrow.”
For a second, Yu Fan could not hide the flicker of irritation and disgust in his eyes.
It passed quickly. “Can’t.”
“What, you want Ms. Zhuang to call your house and notify your parents instead?”
“It will not help.”
“What do you mean?”
“No one is home.”
“I do not have a mom,” Yu Fan said, turning his head back with a thin smile. “The other one has been dead a long time.”
“…”
Hu Pang stared at the smile, stunned into silence.
“You…” He was still reeling. “How come Ms. Zhuang never told me…”
“Maybe she wanted to keep it private,” Yu Fan said.
The director stood there quietly for a while, rubbing his shiny crown. “I really did not know… So you live alone?”
“More or less,” Yu Fan said, glancing at the darkening sky. “So I do not need to bring a parent, right?”
Who would dare insist now.
“Ahem. No need,” Hu Pang said.
Yu Fan straightened, ready to say goodbye, when a hand clamped his shoulder.
“You still broke school rules. There has to be a consequence.” The director patted him in a consoling way. “Do this. Go upstairs and write a two-thousand-character self-criticism. Just to show you understand. Hand it in before you go home.”
“…”
“I will be at the front gate playing Go. Bring it to me when you are done.”
Yu Fan shuffled into the corridor and glanced down toward the gate.
His eyes met Hu Pang’s, who was already watching from the security office where he and the old guard had set up a Go board. The director waved and formed the words, Hurry up and write.
Yu Fan clicked his tongue and stepped into the classroom.
He had not expected anyone to be there.
Chen Jingshen sat in the sunset glow. He heard movement but did not look up. The only sound in the room was the hiss of pen on paper.
Yu Fan’s eyes flicked across Chen’s desk. A thin sheet lay there, probably scratch paper.
Neither of them had any interest in talking.
Yu Fan strolled to his own seat, hooked a chair out with his foot, sat, and pulled out his phone to pass the time.
A few unread WeChat messages popped up.
[Wang Lu’an: Did Fat Tiger catch you?]
[Wang Lu’an: Hey, why are you back in the classroom? I am waiting for you at the gate so we can go home together.]
[-: He is making me write a two-thousand-character self-criticism.]
[Wang Lu’an: … What now? How long will that take? Want to grab one online and copy it?]
[-: Not writing. Too lazy to copy.]
[-: Go ahead. I will climb the back gate later.]
The back gate stayed closed most days unless it was Friday dismissal.
He would have to wait until Fat Tiger got deep into his game, then slip out behind him.
He put his phone away and opened the built-in Snake game, playing with far more focus than he ever showed in class.
The room was silent. With no distractions, he was on a roll.
Soon the snake was so long it nearly filled the screen. A prompt in the corner kept telling him he was just a little short of his record.
A screech of chair legs scraped the floor.
Yu Fan ignored it, his long fingers sliding across the screen.
He heard the other person get up. Pages rustled.
Finally leaving?
He was thinking just that when footsteps approached, coming straight his way.
Not using the front door. Using the back?
With no one else around, Yu Fan was slouched, half his body outside the desk, legs stretched across the aisle.
Sensing someone near, he lazily pulled his legs back a little.
Two seconds later, the person stopped at his desk.
“Classmate Yu.”
Chen Jingshen’s voice fell from above, cool as it had been earlier when he caught them smoking.
Yu Fan was at a crucial moment, three hundred points away from the record.
He stared at the screen and did not answer.
After half a minute, with the presence still there, he frowned and tossed out his default line. “I am not turning in homework.”
Nine times out of ten, anyone talking to him wanted his homework.
“I do not collect homework.”
“Then what do you want?”
Chen Jingshen stared at the small whirl of hair at Yu Fan’s crown, silent for a beat. He pulled a letter from his pocket and held it out with one hand.
The moment something entered his field of view, Yu Fan reflexively glanced up.
Maybe he looked away for a single second. He did not even register what it was before his eyes snapped back to the screen.
And watched his carefully cultivated, universe-class, super mega snake slam into the wall.
Game over.
Seventy-seven points short of the record.
Damn it.
He tossed his phone on the desk and stood, exasperated. “You looking for a beating? Did you not see I was busy?”
His eyes flicked to the pink envelope in Chen Jingshen’s hand. He looked up, ready to snap, “What is this supposed to mean. A challenge letter…”
Wait.
What color did he just see?
He froze, still bristling with fight. Then he lowered his eyes and took a careful look.
Chen Jingshen’s fingers were long, wrist bones sharp, nails neatly trimmed. He was holding a very familiar pink envelope sealed with a little heart.
“Classmate Yu.”
Yu Fan’s head jerked up, stiff.
With his bag slung on one shoulder, Chen pressed the letter to the desk and nudged it forward. “Please accept my love letter.”
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