Chapter 61

◎The Cold New Desk Mate◎

In recent years, schools in the city have become increasingly demanding. In order to finish the new curriculum as early as possible and increase the number of review sessions for senior high school students, the time for students to choose between arts and sciences is also being brought forward.

Under this trend, the placement exams began as soon as the first semester of the first year of high school ended.

Private schools don't have many classes to begin with. This year, two of the ten science classes were divided into experimental classes. Zhan Xinyue did well in the placement exam and was successfully admitted to one of the experimental classes, Class 10.

Having only spent a short semester with my old classmates, we hadn't even formed deep bonds before we had to go our separate ways. The school didn't give us much time to be sad either; the grades and class assignments were only released that afternoon, and we were all asked to move our belongings into the new classrooms before evening classes, which would then begin in our new classes.

The teaching building was bustling like a market all afternoon. Zhan Xinyue struggled through the chaotic stairwell carrying a thick stack of books, as she had to climb from the first floor to the fifth.

She spent too much time organizing her things downstairs. When she finally arrived at the new classroom with her first batch of belongings, there weren't many people in the classroom, but the seats were almost all taken. Many empty seats were piled with thick books, and only the front row had some empty seats.

Zhan Xinyue didn't want to sit in the front row, so she stood at the back door of the classroom and quickly searched for an empty seat in the back row with her eyes. She had climbed five floors, and now the books in her hands were so heavy that she could hardly hold them.

Her vision, mostly obscured by books, suddenly caught sight of an empty seat in the last row of the classroom. Seeing other students entering the classroom, she didn't hesitate any longer. Adhering to the principle of first come, first served, she decisively went in and piled her books all over the table.

Carrying heavy items for too long, she found her fingers trembling uncontrollably when she put down the book, so she decided to rest for a while before continuing to move her other things. There were just too many high school textbooks and supplementary books; she roughly estimated that she would have to make at least three or four more trips up and down the stairs to move them all.

During the break, she looked around the classroom, taking in her new class that she would be spending the next two and a half years with, as well as the classmate next to her who would soon become her new deskmate.

The classroom was so noisy, yet the boy next to me was asleep. He must have arrived very early, or perhaps his original class happened to be in this classroom, because his things in his desk drawer were already neatly organized.

He was resting his head on his arm, his face turned to this side, one hand covering his eyes, so only a smooth and beautiful jawline could be seen.

Zhan Xinyue glanced at him curiously, but didn't think much of it. There was already someone in the front row, a boy wearing black-rimmed glasses. He turned to greet her, "Hello, my name is Xin Wenhua, I'm from Class 5. What about you?"

"New Moon, Class Two"

Xin Wenhua nodded, "Okay, we'll be classmates from now on, let's help each other out."

After exchanging a few words, Xin Wenhua turned back and plopped down in his seat. His chair wasn't reclined properly; the backrest rested on Zhan Xinyue's desk. The moment he sat down, the desk wobbled, and the cup on top of her stack of books lost its balance and rolled off.

Zhan Xinyue quickly reached out to grab it, but failed.

The hard plastic mug, half-filled with water, happened to hit the boy lying next to it squarely on the forehead with a dull thud, then bounced off with a thud and fell to the ground, the lid popping off and the water spilling everywhere.

Zhan Xinyue was startled. From the sound just now, she could tell that the impact was very heavy. The commotion was so great that many people in the front row turned around to look at them.

Seeing her new deskmate, who had been hit, slowly sit up while holding her forehead, Zhan Xinyue quickly bowed her head and apologized repeatedly: "I'm so sorry, classmate, I hit you. Are you alright?"

There was no response for a long time. She looked up at him nervously, and was stunned.

Her new deskmate, whom she met by chance, turned out to be Shi Ziqian.

Shi Ziqian looked much the same as when she first met him, yet somehow different. He looked genuinely sleepy, and after being suddenly hit by her, his eyes were somewhat dazed, and there was a faint red mark on one side of his cheek from where his watch had been pressed. The coldness emanating from him had also lessened.

Standing so close to him, he was even more handsome than any of her imagined memories. But in that instant, Zhan Xinyue didn't have time for any romantic thoughts to arise; she only felt that something was very wrong with her.

From what she'd heard throughout the semester, this young master not only had an unapproachable demeanor, but also a rather bad temper. And she, on her very first day in the new class, literally woke him up with a bang.

Zhan Xinyue secretly glanced at Xin Wenhua in front of her. He was also scratching his head, looking lost and silent.

Knowing that Xin Wenhua was probably out of the question, Zhan Xinyue cautiously asked, "I'm so sorry, is it a bit serious? Should we go to the school clinic?"

Shi Ziqian rubbed his forehead, half-closed his eyes and looked at her for a while. After a long while, as if he had finally figured out the situation, he shook his head, then silently moved to the side, turned his head and lay down again.

Does this mean they don't intend to pursue the matter further?

Zhan Xinyue was a little confused and exchanged glances with Xin Wenhua. After standing there for a while, Shi Ziqian didn't raise his head again. She finally felt relieved and, confirming that Shi Ziqian really didn't take it seriously, hurriedly picked up the cup that caused the accident and went to find a mop to clean up the water on the floor.

When this interlude finally ended, she left the classroom again to continue moving the remaining books. As she walked through the bustling stairwell, she suddenly felt a little dizzy, and a deep sense of unreality welled up in her heart: Shi Ziqian, whom she had only glimpsed briefly but who had left a deep impression on her and whom she thought she would never cross paths with again, had actually become her classmate and even sat next to her at the same desk.

Moreover, he doesn't seem to have the bad temper that people say he has.

By the time she finished moving everything, it was lunchtime. Shi Ziqian had disappeared during one of her book-moving trips, and there weren't many people left in the classroom. She looked around but didn't find any classmates she recognized, so she decided to go to the cafeteria alone.

As soon as she stepped out of the classroom, a girl caught up with her from behind and casually hooked her arm around hers from behind. "Are you going to the cafeteria? Can I come with you?"

Zhan Xinyue looked at her in surprise. She was a very thin girl with slightly curly hair and a sweet appearance.

The girl met her gaze, smiled, and said, "You're alone, right? Me too. We can keep each other company, otherwise it feels quite lonely to eat alone."

“Okay,” Zhan Xinyue said quickly, “Let’s go.”

The other person covered their mouth and laughed: "You've got a good eye for seating, haven't you? You picked our ice-cold school heartthrob to sit next to. How about it, not frozen to death, huh?"

Upon hearing this, Zhan Xinyue was momentarily speechless, opening her mouth to say, "Ah, I..."

The girl was shorter than her and affectionately linked arms with her. "I was just joking, but you're so brave to sit next to Shi Ziqian. Look at all the people in the class, not one of them dares to sit next to him."

Zhan Xinyue quickly explained, "I didn't notice, I only realized it after I sat down... Is there a problem sitting next to him?"

The girl smiled reassuringly, "It's nothing, he's just very aloof, and everyone is a little afraid to approach him."

Zhan Xinyue suddenly remembered that she had just hit this unapproachable classmate on the head with a cup, and she became uneasy again.

The girl noticed her unease and patted her hand. "It's okay. Actually, I was in the same class as him before. He won't eat people, haha. By the way, I don't know many people in this class. I see you're alone too, so we can hang out together sometime."

Having just arrived in the new environment, Zhan Xinyue almost immediately took a liking to the girl who took the initiative to show her kindness. She nodded and said, "Okay, my name is Zhan Xinyue, what's yours?"

"My name is Xie Wanzhi."

When the two returned to the classroom after finishing their meal, Shi Ziqian was already sitting upright at his desk, engrossed in doing practice problems. Zhan Xinyue glanced at his profile and finally realized that she was truly now Shi Ziqian's deskmate.

They were deskmates, sitting side by side, spending every day together.

A sense of nervousness inexplicably arose in her heart. In the minutes before returning to her seat, Zhan Xinyue kept rehearsing in her mind how to greet her new deskmate and how they should introduce themselves to each other. The short distance of a dozen meters felt like half a century to her.

However, she soon realized that her mental simulation was completely unnecessary. From beginning to end, Shi Ziqian didn't even look up. When she sat down next to him, he circled an option on the paper with the pen in his hand, and then moved on to the next question.

Compared to her nervousness, Shi Ziqian seemed to have no desire to explore or be curious about this new class or his new deskmate, appearing indifferent to the point of being aloof. She hesitated for a long time, but in the end, she didn't say anything and silently sat down.

Well, although his temper isn't as bad as rumored, he is indeed as unapproachable as rumored.

The new homeroom teacher, Ms. Zhou, was very casual about these trivial matters in the class. She didn't mention changing the seats and let everyone sit in the places they had chosen. And so, she truly became Shi Ziqian's deskmate.

Although they were deskmates, they were actually strangers sitting together, and they didn't exchange a single word until long after the start of the semester.

He used to be the talk of the town, but now that they're in the same class and he's in the same place, no one dares to mention him so freely anymore. All the discussions have fallen silent, and Class 10 has become a vacuum around his name.

When Zhan Xinyue first sat next to Shi Ziqian, she felt a little uneasy. Someone raised in such luxury was bound to be spoiled, but after sitting with him for a while, she realized that Shi Ziqian wasn't difficult to get along with. He was indifferent to most things, it was hard to tell if it was easygoing or simply apathetic. His daily routine was simple to the point of being monotonous; he rarely left the classroom even during breaks, either continuing to do problems or sleeping on his desk—he seemed to be tired every day, sleeping on his desk during many breaks, just like on the day they were assigned to different classes.

Zhan Xinyue would sometimes steal glances at him—this wasn't surprising; many classmates would do the same. Several times, she unexpectedly met Shi Ziqian's gaze and quickly looked away awkwardly, but Shi Ziqian never said anything.

During breaks, Xie Wanzhi would always come over to chat with him. Later, she became familiar with Lu Meng and Xin Wenhua, who sat in front of her. The group would chatter away during breaks, but Shi Ziqian never joined in. She would secretly glance at Shi Ziqian between conversations, but he was lying down asleep, seemingly unbothered by their noise.

In her memory, she was always observing Shi Ziqian. He was reading, he was doing math problems; he solved problems very quickly, rarely using scratch paper for multiple-choice questions, always drawing an option in just a few strokes. His knuckles holding the pen were beautiful, like works of art. Occasionally, he would show a side different from his outward appearance; sometimes he would daydream in class, and sometimes he would fall asleep during breaks, waking up with a cute strand of hair sticking up...

A girl's crush is expressed through her eyes; she always uses her eyes to meticulously depict everything about the person she admires. Where her gaze falls, her heart follows. It was through such careful observation that she gradually fell in love with the boy who was etched into her heart at first sight.

Their first real interaction occurred before the sports meet.