Chapter 13 That Year My Deskmate

At the other end of the carriage, the deliberately suppressed breathing gradually became regular and long.

Luo Xincheng turned her head and saw Fu Zhiheng with his brows furrowed, his long legs bent and leaning against the car door, sleeping in a slightly cramped and constrained position because he couldn't move freely.

Luo Xincheng: ...

He said he was going to wash his face with cold water to wake himself up, but he's still fast asleep.

Fortunately, after he fell asleep, the feeling of being constantly watched disappeared.

She felt more at ease, reclined the seat, and crossed her legs with her feet on the footrest.

She lowered the car window a crack, and the late autumn wind slipped in through the gap, making her short, wispy hair fly wildly. She casually brushed her hair back and glanced at the pictures Fang Shiyue had sent her on WeChat.

Fang Shiyue flew to Hong Kong early in the morning to meet a business partner. After the amicable negotiations, she attended the VIP preview of Phillips Auction House with the partner. She was quite kind-hearted, thinking of her stepsister Luo Xincheng even though she was thousands of miles away. In the midst of her busy schedule, she sent her the auction catalog and asked her what she wanted, promising to help her bid on it.

Luo Xincheng skimmed through the list, eventually settling on a seven-carat fancy orange-pink diamond ring and a brooch made in the last century, featuring onyx and emeralds.

The pin is shaped like a leopard in a hunting pose. It looks quite ugly at first glance, and it is ugly upon closer inspection. The diamonds are also densely set. It's just a good thing that Luo Xincheng doesn't have trypophobia, otherwise it would be painful to look at.

After sending the message, Fang Shiyue was somewhat surprised: You actually took a liking to that pin?!

Luo Xincheng laughed and said: Don't you think it looks kind of ugly-cute after a while?

Fang Shiyue said sincerely: When it comes to aesthetics, you and my dad are more like a biological father and daughter.

Her father liked to buy all sorts of bizarre art exhibits, and the things he displayed in his collection room were even more abstract than the ones Luo Xincheng had bought.

Luo Xincheng humbly replied: No, no, no, when it comes to aesthetics, I am far inferior to Uncle Fang.

After saying that, she picked out a super cheesy flying kiss emoji that she had stolen from Xu Peiyi from a bunch of emojis and sent it over.

Fang Shiyue immediately replied with a disgusted emoji.

She had to spend time with her business partner, so after confirming the items Luo Xincheng liked, they chatted for a couple more minutes before she politely ended the conversation. Luo Xincheng asked her the exact time she would be back before exiting the chat.

The car drove onto the overpass without us realizing it, and got stuck at the traffic light intersection after we got off the overpass.

Luo Xincheng's eyes were getting a little dizzy from looking at her phone. She turned her head to look at the scenery outside the window for a while to relax her eyes. A moment later, she inexplicably glanced to the other side.

He was still asleep, sleeping soundly, without grinding his teeth or mumbling in his sleep. If his breathing hadn't been a little heavier, Luo Xincheng might have forgotten that there was someone lying next to him.

Her eyesight was excellent, and the two of them were not far apart. When she looked over, she could even see that there were still water droplets on his eyelashes, glistening. His equally wet eyebrows seemed to have been furrowed the whole time, giving him a bitter and resentful look, as if he was not sleeping soundly.

Luo Xincheng didn't realize that she was paying more attention to him than usual. She simply raised her hand to rest on the back of the chair, propped her head up on it, and stared at his face expressionlessly in a more comfortable position.

To avoid misunderstandings, she hadn't really looked at him closely since their reunion, fearing he might mistakenly think she had any improper thoughts about him and develop inappropriate ideas... However, it seems that her good intentions didn't achieve the desired effect.

She gazed at his defined brow bone, slightly deep-set eyes, long, thick eyelashes that drooped like fans, and the dark circles under his eyes, and felt a little puzzled:

Isn't it said that if nearsighted people wear glasses for a long time, their eyeballs will bulge and look awkward? How come after his eyes deformed, his eyeballs did bulge a little, but his eye sockets also looked deeper, and with his parallel double eyelids, he looked more like a mixed-race person?

Because of this question, she recalled her high school days after a long time.

During her first year of high school, her parents remarried one after another. For various reasons, she did not integrate smoothly into her new family. In addition, she was attending a key high school at that time, with heavy workload, strict teachers, and classmates who were all working harder than her, which made her even more annoyed.

She wasn't a particularly studious person, but she was concerned about her image and couldn't stand having the worst grades. So, she put a lot of effort into improving her grades, and not hiring a private tutor after school was her bottom line.

In the year she harbored the purest hatred, she hated her stepfather, stepsister, and the nagging housekeeper in this family; in another family, she hated her biological father, stepmother, stepsister, and the chef whose cooking didn't suit her taste; and at school, she hated her teachers, classmates, and the countless assignments...

Luo Xincheng couldn't explain why she had so much hatred. It was all accumulating, and one day it might explode like an overblown balloon.

As she continued to hate, the first semester of her first year of high school passed by. By the second semester, she had adapted a little to the heavy workload, and her hatred for the school had lessened slightly. Of course, it was only a little bit; she still hated it to the core.

Fu Zhiheng.

Luo Xincheng had only ever heard of this classmate but never actually met him.

Last semester, their seats were about half a classroom apart, and she didn't usually go that way, so strictly speaking, she never actually met this classmate.

But this guy had excellent grades, consistently ranking first in the grade in both midterms and finals. In class, whenever the teacher asked a question and no one answered, this student would be called on to answer. He never failed to live up to expectations, always answering the teacher's questions fluently.

Then the teacher will praise him and encourage the other students to learn from him.

At this time, Luo Xincheng would follow the crowd and turn to look at the classmate who was being praised, along with many other classmates.

However, he was rather introverted and didn't like being watched by so many people. Every time Luo Xincheng looked over, all he saw was a fluffy head and black-rimmed glasses with a cold gleam, partially hidden by his bangs.

Introverted, taciturn, academically excellent, and... his voice is quite pleasant. That's all he had of Luo Xincheng.

*

When Luo Xincheng first discovered that her deskmate had become a boy, she was very unhappy.

Because of her height, she was assigned to the third-to-last row last semester. Looking behind her, all the students were boys. They would whisper to each other during class and make a racket after class.

It's one thing to argue, but she'll really suffer when the temperature rises and all sorts of body odors fill the air.

Especially since boys of that age are active and energetic, they would go to the court in groups during long breaks and physical education classes to play. After playing, they would at most wash their faces, and some would not even wash their faces. When they heard the preparatory bell for class, they would run back to the classroom in a sweat. The strong smell of sweat often made Luo Xincheng's head throb with pain.

The key is that she tried to negotiate amicably with them, but they were all unhappy and said she was being spoiled. Otherwise, why would she be the only one with a problem when everyone else was fine?

Luo Xincheng was so angry she laughed. The next day, she brought a huge can of air freshener and sprayed it on the boys in the back row as if it were insecticide when they returned to their seats, covered in sweat.

The swirling white mist ignited the anger of the boys in the back row.

"Luo Xincheng, don't go too far! What's the meaning of spraying air freshener on purpose? Do we smell that bad? Don't be so dramatic!"

Luo Xincheng slammed his fist on the table even louder than him, and retorted with an even louder roar.

"Don't you have any idea how stinky you are? People who don't know better would think that a lot of people died after me, and that the corpses are all rotting, sour, and stinking!"

Still feeling the air quality was substandard, she continued spraying air freshener. As she lowered her gaze, she caught a glimpse of her former deskmate giving her a thumbs-up.

Clearly, she had long harbored resentment towards the boys in the back row.

The boy she was scolding wanted to say something, but by then, the teacher had already entered the classroom with her lesson plan.

Upon seeing this, Luo Xincheng immediately sat down, stuffed the air freshener in her hand into the desk drawer, and then spread out her textbooks, pretending to be a student.

The boy in the back seat also sat back down, but he clearly had no intention of letting the matter pass easily. Taking advantage of the teacher's rambling on with the PPT, he vented his dissatisfaction on Luo Xincheng's chair, kicking it hard a few times.

This infuriated Luo Xincheng.

At first, she was mindful that it was during class and didn't want to disturb the lesson because of her. Suppressing her anger, she turned around and gritted her teeth, warning him to behave himself and stop kicking her chair. To her surprise, he smiled and nodded in agreement, but when she turned around, he did the same thing again and kicked her chair.

"Hold!"

The loud crash of the table falling to the ground overlapped with her angry roar, and the classroom fell silent; no one dared to utter a sound.

"Have you kicked enough yet?!"

She pushed her chair aside and kicked the overturned table.

The student behind her collapsed to the ground, staring at her with wide, terrified eyes.

"I told you to stop kicking, but you kept kicking! You still kicked! You've been giving me a much nicer look, haven't you?"

"Don't push your luck!"

The teacher who was teaching the class happened to be their homeroom teacher. After regaining his senses, he hurriedly came over and comforted Luo Xincheng.

There are many students in their school with outstanding family backgrounds, but it is rare to find one as prominent as Luo Xincheng. So when the homeroom teacher found out that this student had been assigned to his class, he was worried for a while, fearing that the young lady would cause trouble.

However, after observing her for a while, he let go of his prejudices against her.

Although she always comes to school with an extremely irritable and world-weary face, and every time you talk to her she looks impatient, as if to say, "This is so annoying, why do you have so much rambling nonsense to say?", but she is actually quite low-key.

She wears her school uniform properly every day, doesn't dye her hair or wear makeup, and her grades are in the middle to upper range of the class. Since the start of the semester, he hasn't heard of her having any conflicts with anyone. She is nothing like the unruly rich girl he imagined. At first glance, she is just an ordinary student with a bad temper.

In comparison, the boy whose desk she kicked had a much worse reputation with the homeroom teacher; he was at the bottom of the class, mischievous, and always causing trouble.

Therefore, when he clashed with an honest student like Luo Xincheng, whose grades were decent, even before understanding the ins and outs of the incident, the homeroom teacher naturally sided with Luo Xincheng.

After listening to both sides' statements and the supplementary remarks from the surrounding classmates, the homeroom teacher completely sided with Luo Xincheng. He immediately ordered the boy at the back of the class to lift up his desk and stand outside as punishment. Finally, he reminded him to remember to submit a 2,000-word self-criticism the next day.

After the class ended, the homeroom teacher called Luo Xincheng into the office again. Upon learning that she was deeply annoyed by the foul smell of the boys in the back row, the teacher solemnly promised to try to arrange a better seat for her next time.

Don't ask why we didn't just move her to the front row of girls. It's because she's one of the tallest girls in the class. If we moved her to the front, the girls behind her would have to crane their necks so much during class.

After the conversation ended, Luo Xincheng inevitably felt a great deal of anticipation for the next seating arrangement. As she waited and waited, her new deskmate turned out to be a male classmate.

Additional information: a male classmate I didn't know.

To add to that, there was a male classmate I didn't know, but whose grades were so good that they made others envious.

Even a seemingly lazy and unmotivated student like Luo Xincheng would find it hard not to feel envious after seeing his report card.

A note from the author:

I've received so many nutrient solutions since I started writing this post, thank you everyone! [kissing emoji]

I wonder if anyone has seen this item yet and hasn't added it to their favorites? If so, please do! [cat paws][cat paws][cat paws]