Out of the corner of my eye from the next seat

The classroom was noisy before morning self-study, with occasional casual jokes between students and the sound of diligent students reading aloud from their textbooks. Xu Yanchi, carrying a math workbook, quickly walked to Xue Su's seat and lightly tapped her desk with his fingertips: "Xue Su, are you free now? I still don't quite understand the trigonometric simplification problem from yesterday's homework. I've tried several formulas but none of them are correct. Could you help me take a look?"

Xue Su was organizing her history notes when she heard this. She immediately looked up, smiled, and pulled the workbook in front of her. "Of course I have time! Sit next to me, and I'll tell you. For these kinds of questions, you have to look at the angle relationship first. Look here—" She picked up her pen and circled "2α" in the question. "You can use the double angle formula to break it down into α+α, and then combine it with the previous sinα to form the sum angle formula. It's much simpler than using the power-reduction formula directly."

Xu Yanchi quickly went over, opened her notebook, and followed Xue Su's train of thought to take notes of the steps, nodding from time to time: "So that's how it is! I was so focused on the power reduction formula yesterday that I messed up the symbols at the end." Just as she was about to ask Xue Su to explain the details of substituting the values ​​again, the voice of the politics teacher suddenly came from the classroom door: "Xue Su, come to my office. I'll be checking your memorization of the key points of yesterday's assignment, 'The Disintegration of Primitive Society and the Evolution of Class Society'."

Xue Su's pen abruptly stopped, her smile instantly vanishing. She wailed, clutching her head, "Oh no! I was so focused on helping you with your math last night that I completely forgot about memorizing the material! What am I going to do?!" She hurriedly pushed the workbook back to Xu Yanchi, then grabbed the political science textbook from the table, glancing at it hastily, trying to memorize it in a few seconds. "Chi Bao, you try to figure out the steps I wrote down first. I'll be right back. If you get stuck, we'll go over it in detail when I get back!" With that, she grabbed the textbook and ran out of the classroom.

Xu Yanchi sat in Xue Su's seat, looking at the half-finished solution in her workbook, and sighed helplessly. She tried to calculate using the "combined angle formula" Xue Su had mentioned, but she got stuck on the simplification step of "sinαcosα"—her scratch paper was covered with densely packed formulas, yet she still couldn't get the same result as the answer. She thought maybe the next class would be here, but looking at the math problem in her workbook with only one blank, she was still scratching her head in frustration. Class was about to start, and the next class was Mr. Xing's math class. Even though she only had one blank problem, it made her incredibly anxious.

She pursed her lips, wondering if Xue Su had returned. Her gaze inadvertently swept across the window, the glass reflecting the scene in the back row: Xiao Fuzhou was getting up to drink water, the mineral water bottle tilted, water trickling down his neck. He was drinking in large gulps, seemingly having done some strenuous exercise outdoors, his mouth parched. The water continued its rapid flow, dripping onto his white shirt, leaving a small, faint damp patch. He lowered his head, his fingertips lightly wiping the water stains from his neck, his brows downcast, and he casually flicked a drop of water from his hair. The movement was nonchalant, yet it made Xu Yanchi's heart skip a beat, and her hand holding the pen paused.

She quickly looked away, her cheeks burning, but when she looked down at the math problem again, her mind became even more confused. The conversation she'd overheard earlier in the hallway, between Teacher Xing and several other teachers, suddenly came to mind—Teacher Xing had said that Xiao Fuzhou came from a prominent family, had been specially admitted to the honors class with the city's top science score, and was of impeccable character. In the teachers' eyes, he was a top student "guaranteed to get into Tsinghua or Peking University."

Would someone as capable as her be willing to help someone like her who's only a novice with her problems?

Xu Yanchi bit her lip, somewhat incredulous. She glanced again at the "dead knot" on the workbook, and when she looked up again, her gaze couldn't help but drift to the back rows. Xiao Fuzhou had already returned to his seat, looking down at his physics book. Sunlight fell on his profile, making even the shadows of his eyelashes clearly visible. She hesitated for a long time, but still gently raised her chin towards him, her eyes filled with uncertain pleading—even knowing she would most likely be ignored, even worried that he would misunderstand and think she was deliberately making an excuse to strike up a conversation, that problem weighed on her mind like a stone, making her want to try.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Fuzhou seemed to sense her gaze, and suddenly raised his head, looking directly at her.

Xu Yanchi was so startled that she quickly lowered her head, her heart pounding, her fingers gripping the pen tightly, and even the tips of her ears turning bright red. She thought with annoyance, "He must have noticed, and he probably thinks I'm acting strangely..."

Just then, she heard light footsteps beside her. She looked up and met Xiao Fuzhou's slightly puzzled gaze—he had actually come over.

"What's wrong?" His voice was soft, slightly damp from drinking water, and his gaze fell on the math problems on her desk.

Xu Yanchi was stunned for a few seconds before she reacted. She quickly pointed to the problem and said in a voice so soft it was like a mosquito's buzz, "This...this trigonometric function problem...I'm stuck on the simplification steps. I don't know where I went wrong." Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke, and she even forgot to address her. A blush spread across her cheeks, making her look exceptionally beautiful.

Xiao Fuzhou didn't speak, nor did he notice Xu Yanchi's unusual behavior. He picked up her draft paper and began to read it. Xiao Fuzhou's fingers were long and slender, gently pinching the edges of the paper. Xu Yanchi sat beside him, able to smell the faint scent of cedar on him and see the damp stains on his white shirt. Her heart pounded faster and faster, and even her breathing became shallow. She kept thinking, "Will he keep noticing me? If we go to the same university in the future?" This wasn't an unrealistic thought, she thought to herself, "I need to work even harder." Suddenly, she heard Xiao Fuzhou's voice calling out, "Excuse me, are you listening?" She was completely unaware that Xiao Fuzhou was already explaining a problem to her. She felt a little embarrassed, but didn't want to say anything. What if he thought she was stupid? Would it leave a bad impression? Xu Yanchi lowered her head, thinking for a long time before finally hearing her own voice: "Go ahead, I'm listening."

Xiao Fuzhou paused, chuckled softly, and didn't expose her lie. Xu Yanchi knew her lie was clumsy; after all, her gaze had been drifting towards the window, showing signs of absent-mindedness. Xiao Fuzhou didn't say anything either. He picked up his pen again and circled a spot on the draft paper: "Here, you've mixed up the double-angle formula. sin2α should be 2sinαcosα, not sinαcosα." His pen traced the correct simplification process step by step, "First, combine the angles, then substitute them into the formula, and finally find a common denominator to get the result."

He explained patiently, without the slightest hint of impatience. Xu Yanchi stared at the steps he wrote down, her ears ringing. She only thought his voice was very pleasant, and even the hand holding the pen seemed exceptionally beautiful. It wasn't until Xiao Fuzhou stopped writing and asked her, "Did you understand?" that she snapped back to reality and quickly nodded, "I...I understood! Thank you..."

Xiao Fuzhou hummed in agreement, handed the pen back to her, and turned to leave. Xu Yanchi watched his retreating figure, then suddenly mustered her courage and whispered, "Um... your shirt's wet, do you need a tissue?"

Xiao Fuzhou turned around, glanced at his shirt, and smiled, "It's okay, it'll dry in a bit." After saying that, he walked back to his seat.

Xu Yanchi sat there, pen in hand, looking at the clear solution steps on the draft paper, a slight smile involuntarily creeping onto her lips. His smile just now seemed warmer than the sunshine, making her heart flutter for a long time. It seemed that the gentle breeze he exuded while explaining the problem had quietly touched her heart.