Chapter 30 New Deskmate
The hot sweet potato was stuffed into her hands, and her hands were clasped on both sides of the sweet potato. Soon, the warmth crawled along the skin of the sweet potato to the palm of her hand.
The warmth spread from her palms to her whole body, becoming the closest warmth she had in this winter.
"Sitting by the lake in the winter breeze," the young man said, his eyes arched at her. "It's a unique experience, isn't it?"
At that moment, a ray of light suddenly appeared from the dark sky in the distance, spreading the same warmth as his smile and entering her heart.
So many years later, when others asked her why she liked him, she could give many reasons, but she still insisted:
That day, the sunshine came with him, dispelling the dark clouds and her unhappiness.
The dark clouds were dispelled by the sunshine, and her unhappiness was also driven away by him.
.
She broke the sweet potato in half and put half in Yu Shuli's hand.
She raised the remaining half to her lips and began to eat it in small bites.
Yu Shuli beside her observed her movements and followed her example, putting the sweet potato in his hand into his mouth.
After eating half a sweet potato, Yan Sui's body warmed up a lot. Another gust of cold wind blew over her, but she didn't feel the coldness at all.
"Why are you here?"
"Just like you, I want to feel the breeze and feel the winter." When saying this, Yu Shuli took a deep breath in a slightly exaggerated manner.
It feels like I’m here to truly experience winter.
If she could ignore Yu Shuli's lips, which were frozen purple, Yan Sui might have been deceived by his expression, thinking that he really wanted to sit by the river like her, feeling the cold wind like a fool.
But after hearing what Yu Shuli said, she felt much better. "It's one feeling here on the embankment in the summer, and another in the winter, right?"
Yu Shuli nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes."
Yan Sui laughed out loud and pushed Yu Shuli's head away with a hint of disgust. "Yeah, that's what I mean. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Yu Shuli was puzzled: "Aren't you talking about the different feelings in summer and winter?"
"Do you think I'm a great poet? That I can instantly write a speech inspired by a scene?" Yan Sui patted his coat and stood up. "Let's go! Let's go back!"
"Wouldn't you like to sit for a while? The view here is quite nice."
Yan Sui glanced at him and said, "I'm worried that if I sit down any longer, the person next to me will freeze into an ice sculpture."
Yu Shuli was exposed and scratched his hair in embarrassment, but said stubbornly: "Isn't that good? There's no snow in Sushan, so you have nowhere to see the ice sculptures!"
"Yes, yes, if you turn into an ice sculpture, I'll set up a stall nearby and charge you to watch. How about fifty cents a time?"
"Isn't fifty cents a bit too cheap? I'm such a handsome guy..." Yu Shuli counted his advantages carefully and continued with her topic.
From the moment he sat next to him until now, he hadn't mentioned a single word about the game.
Instead, divert her attention in another way, so that her attention and topic can be focused on other things.
Even if it means making yourself the center of the joke.
Yan Sui pursed her lips and smiled, the warmth in her heart did not fade with time.
In fact, she really wanted to thank Yu Shuli. Today was one of the few times when she lost control of her emotions.
She was not good at showing her emotions in front of other people, so she hid by the lake and tried to laugh off her emotions alone.
Ultimately, she didn't want to expose her emotions to others. She didn't know how to respond to the comfort others offered her.
Yu Shuli suddenly appeared beside her. He must have sensed her emotions. But he asked nothing, said nothing. He didn't ask her to show her vulnerability, but stayed by her side in a way that suited her better.
Thinking of this, Yan Sui suddenly said, "Forget it, you'd better not turn into an ice sculpture."
Yu Shuli paused, "Why?"
Yan Sui pursed her lips and said nothing.
After a while, Yu Shuli seemed to finally realize what she meant. His eyes lit up and he began to joke tentatively, "Actually, you can't bear to leave me, right? You're afraid I'll be cold."
Yan Suidan shrugged and walked straight forward.
Yu Shuli fell a few steps behind her and stood there, not knowing what he was thinking. It took him a while to catch up with her.
He walked beside her, raising and lowering his hand, which was hanging at his side, over and over again. After taking a deep breath, he took Yan Sui's hand in one go and put her hand in his pocket.
He held her hand tightly and put it in his pocket.
Yu Shuli's face flushed red, not knowing whether it was from the cold or something else, but the hot air from his breath turned into white mist, changing again and again. The only thing that remained unchanged was the determination in his eyes, "Actually, I'm not afraid of the cold."
Yan Sui tilted her head, staring at him quietly.
"But I don't want to turn into an ice sculpture."
He suddenly stopped and Yan Sui was forced to stop as well.
Yu Shuli slowly turned around and faced her: "If I turned into an ice sculpture..."
He pulled his hand out of his pocket, put his arm over her shoulder, and held her tightly in his arms.
"I can't hold you anymore."
—
They didn't say "I like you" when they confessed their love.
Just a hug, he expressed the meaning of this sentence, and her response of raising her hand to hug also expressed her meaning.
—
After chatting with Tan Shu about the choir, Yan Sui suddenly remembered Tan Shu's birthday: "Is your birthday coming soon?"
Tan Shu said "hmm", "I haven't figured out how to spend the day yet, so why not have a meal with you!"
Yan Sui recalled that in her previous life, she had invited many friends to celebrate Tan Shu’s birthday.
"Why don't you invite more friends to dinner?"
Tan Shu is different from her. She loves to socialize. She is cheerful and outgoing, and enjoys socializing with people.
So Yan Sui wondered if Tan Shu was too concerned about his own affairs to want to make a big deal about it.
Tan Shu avoided my gaze and stammered for a long time without being able to speak.
As soon as Yan Sui saw her like this, she knew that this must be the reason.
She sighed softly: "Shushu, don't let my affairs affect your own life."
Tan Shu subconsciously wanted to refute, but Yan Sui held her hand and continued, "I feel bad when you do this. I have plans for my family. Don't worry about me. Just celebrate your birthday the way you want. Just be happy."
Yan Sui's words reached this point. Tan Shu didn't want to let such a small matter cause a rift between the two sides. After thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was indeed inappropriate, so he changed his tone: "Okay, okay, then I will think about the arrangements for the day! But I have a task for you. Think of a dish that you like to eat and tell me."
Yan Sui knew what Tan Shu meant and nodded with a smile.
After Tan Shu left, Yan Sui returned to her seat and chatted with Chen Ling about the exam for a few more minutes before the bell for class rang.
The first class in the afternoon was English. After the English teacher distributed the test papers, he praised the top three students in the class.
"Yan Sui's composition was very well written. There were only three students in the grade who received full marks: two from Class 2 and one from our class, Yan Sui."
There was thunderous applause in the class.
"Yan Sui, after we finish explaining the test papers in this class, please post your paper at the back so that other students can see your composition." The English teacher raised his chin towards Yan Sui.
Yan Sui agreed.
"Okay, everyone, please take a look at the test paper. You can discuss your mistakes with your deskmate. We will start discussing the test paper in five minutes."
“…”
After the English class, the remaining three classes plus evening self-study were used by the main subject teacher to discuss the test papers.
Yan Sui did well in the exam this time. Except for English, she was also among the top students in Chinese and liberal arts. Only her math score was too low, which dragged her ranking down a lot.
The math teacher also noticed this problem. After class, he called her to his office for a chat and half-jokingly asked, "Student Yan Sui, do you have any opinions about me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Sui's face flushed red and she waved her hands, saying, "No, no, teacher. It's my fault that I didn't do well in the test this time."
The math teacher adjusted his glasses and sighed, "It's my math class that's holding you back."
“…”
The teacher flipped through Yan Sui's test paper and asked her a few more detailed questions before saying, "Your academic performance is quite poor. You can discuss this with your family and ask for a tutor or to attend a training class outside to improve your math skills."
"Okay, teacher."
"You can always come and ask me questions at school. Or there's a student in my science class who's really good at math and will be representing the school in a competition soon. You could ask him for advice if you'd like."
When it comes to Science Class 1, Yan Sui feels something is wrong.
"Yu Shuli, do you know him? I'll bring his papers to you someday, and you can take them back to the classroom and study them carefully."
Sure enough, it was Yu Shuli.
She had always known that Yu Shuli was good at math. In her previous life, her grades plummeted due to family issues. Her Chinese, liberal arts, and English were okay; she already had a foundation and could catch up with more time. But math was a subject she had always struggled to overcome. Before the incident, she had wanted Yan Zhaoting to find her a tutor. But before she could find one, her family was in trouble. Now her family was struggling to make ends meet, and she needed to work part-time to supplement the income. Tutoring was out of the question.
After Yu Shuli found out, he took the initiative to ask Yan Sui to tutor him in math. He and Yan Sui each took a few days out of the week, sometimes at school, sometimes in a cafe outside the school, or in the park. He tutored her in math and she taught him English.
It was also because of Yu Shuli's help that she was able to keep up with the school progress while taking care of her part-time job and attending school at the same time.
This time Yan Sui was reborn, and her math was much better than in her previous life.
She planned to deal with the family affairs before considering other things.
The math teacher chatted with her for a few more words about her daily study problems. When he saw that the clock hand had reached the "ten" position, he realized that it was very late, so he waved his hand and asked Yan Sui to go back today.
Before leaving, the teacher called Yan Sui again and said, "Next week, our sophomores may have a trial class for class change."
"Shift change" was something Yan Sui had never heard of.
"The school plans to use Chinese and math as trial courses in the second year of high school, implementing a two-month class rotation system. Students from the arts and science classes will alternate between classes. For these two classes, some students will go to the arts class, while others will stay in the science class. Seats will be arranged with two students from each class, four students in a small group, and two students will sit at the same table to supervise and guide each other. Yan Sui, you can ask the students in the science class next door more about math when the time comes."
Until Yan Sui walked out of the office, her mind was still in a trance.
In her memory, there was no form of "class exchange" with the science class in her previous school.
After her rebirth, some of the changes she made would affect subsequent developments, creating a butterfly effect. However, she had been carefully maintaining these changes to prevent further butterfly effects from changing the intended outcome.
But she couldn't understand the changed direction of the story of "Shift Change".
—
The class change was announced at the regular grade meeting on Friday, and the high school sophomores were all sighing.
Chen Ling took a step back and closed the distance between herself and Yan Sui: "Does this mean we have to change desk mates? I can't bear to leave you, Sui Sui."
Yan Sui: "It's Chinese and math. We're still together in other subjects."
"That's a lot! These are two major subjects, with multiple periods a week!"
"It's only two months anyway!" Yan Sui comforted.
When this policy was announced, some students were happy while others were worried. However, the trial phase was only two months, and no one could guarantee whether these two courses would promote students' learning.
Students in the key class like Yan Sui and her classmates didn't care much about the class division. Class members were rotated based on their grades twice each semester, with the poorer students being demoted to the regular class and the better students being promoted. Rotation among classmates was a common occurrence.
Yan Sui did well in this midterm exam and successfully stayed in Class 1.
Chen Ling and Wen Qingman both loved to play, but they always managed to keep their grades in the middle and lower reaches of the class.
As for Tan Shu, she said that because of the choir affairs, she had slacked off in her studies recently, dropped out of the class rankings, and transferred to the second science class.
The policy of changing classes came quietly during the students' discussions.
Early Monday morning, the head teacher announced the student distribution of the two classes.
Yan Sui and Wen Qingman are in the same class, while Chen Ling is assigned to another class.
The first class on Monday happened to be mathematics, so Yan Sui stayed in the class.
Before the bell rang, students from the science class came in from the front and back doors of the classroom one after another.
Looking at the people coming in one after another, Yan Sui's heart was in her throat, and her eyes were fixed on the people coming and going at the front door.
Until Qin Yuanjia’s voice came from behind - Yu Shuli!
She choked and slowly let out a breath.
When the bell rang, the math teacher asked the students in the science class to sit in the empty seats in the first row of the first group of the liberal arts class in order of their ranking.
Last time, the math teacher and Yan Sui mentioned that Yu Shuli was the top student in math in their class.
This week, the liberal arts class just happened to switch seats, and Yan Sui and Chen Ling were moved to the first row of the first group.
Yan Sui: “…”
Until Yu Shuli sat down next to her, Yan Sui was still thinking about a question.
Are she and Yu Shuli destined to be together?
The system coldly said: "No fate."
Yan Sui: “…”
"Yan Sui."
After not seeing him for a week, Yu Shuli no longer looked as frail as he did last week.
He seemed to have forgotten what Yan Sui had said to him. The moment he met her gaze, he smiled at her slowly: "New deskmate, please give me your guidance."
.
The next class after mathematics is Chinese taught by the head teacher of Class 1 of the liberal arts department.
Seeing that the math teacher had already arranged the students' seats, the head teacher did not make any further arrangements and asked everyone to sit according to the seats.
Yan Sui: “…”
Halfway through the class, after thinking about this question for two whole classes, she couldn't help but ask, "Does it have anything to do with you?"
During these two classes, Yu Shuli talked a lot to her, but Yan Sui ignored him.
At this moment, he was asked out of the blue. Yu Shuli didn't react for a moment: "What?"
"It's about this shift change."
As soon as she finished speaking, without waiting for Yu Shuli to answer, Yan Sui said "forget it" to herself and looked away.
She thought about it and agreed.
How could Yu Shuli be the one who changed the class? Even if he did something she didn't know, he was just an ordinary high school student.
How could he have such ability?
Yan Sui is now fully focused on the task at home. She doesn't want the relationship between her and Yu Shuli to affect the progress of this task. So after two classes, except for the simple communication during class, after class, whenever Yu Shuli shows any sign of wanting to say something to her, she will pull Wen Qingman to the bathroom together.
There are three shift classes on Monday morning and afternoon, after the afternoon math class.
As usual, Yan Sui dragged Wen Qingman to the bathroom. When they came back, Wen Qingman shook the water off her hands and asked, "Why did you go to the bathroom so frequently today? Are you feeling unwell?"
"It's okay, I just drank a little too much water."
Wen Qingman nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
When Yan Sui returned to her seat, Yu Shuli had already left. The things that were originally placed on Chen Ling's desk had been taken away by him, leaving only a stack of books on the desk.
She glanced at him twice and then looked away. In the next physical education class, before Chen Ling came back, Yan Sui tidied up the things on her desk.
Just as she picked up the books that were pressing on the test paper, her eyes suddenly noticed that the test paper was different, and her hands stopped moving.
The beige test paper was covered with yellow sticky notes, each densely covered with explanations of the exercises.
It was the analysis of the wrong questions on her test paper.
The words on the note were in a handwriting that she was familiar with in both of her lives. In her previous life, her test paper also had explanations of wrong questions annotated with such notes.
The papers from both lives bore the handwriting of one person.
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