Chapter 15
From then on, Ji Shuyi would appear at Liang Yue's doorstep every weekend to tutor Liang Yue.
Once they got used to each other, Liang Yue would even leave the door open for him in advance, while he waited in the bedroom.
But at school, no one knew that Liang Yue from the regular class and Ji Shuyi, the top student in the grade, knew each other. Even if they bumped into each other, they wouldn't greet each other, as if it were an unspoken secret.
-
“Hey,” during the break, Liang Yue folded the used draft paper into the shapes of “east, south, west, north” and drew a five-pointed star on one side. “Let’s play a game. You first say how many times to draw horizontally and vertically. If it unfolds into a five-pointed star, you have to answer a question for me, okay? Otherwise, if there is no five-pointed star, I will answer a question for you.”
"No," Ji Shuyi brought her a glass of warm water. "Grandma said you ate four ice creams today and told me to remind you not to eat so many."
How did she know?
"She just found it while cleaning the refrigerator."
"I only ate mini ice cream cones, it's okay."
"That won't work either."
"Okay," Liang Yue replied perfunctorily, then muttered in Ji Shuyi's ear, "Let's play a round, let's play a round."
Ji Shuyi was driven to desperation by her nagging, "Three horizontally, seven vertically."
Liang Yue opened and closed the 'East, South, West, North' symbol in his hand, and when it finally opened, a five-pointed star was revealed inside.
"Haha," she stomped her feet excitedly, "You're really unlucky, you won on your first try."
Ji Shuyi calmly replied, "Go ahead and ask."
"Can I ask anything?"
"Yes. But I can only answer what I know."
Did the skinny monkeys cause you any trouble afterward?
"..." Ji Shuyi paused for a moment, his right hand unconsciously rubbing the corner of the book. "No."
"I didn't expect them to keep their word. Luckily, you ran into me last time when I pretended to be sick and didn't go downstairs to PE class."
After a while, Liang Yue moved closer to him and asked shyly, "I know it's not a good question, but I still want to ask you, why did they bully you last time?" She immediately stepped away after saying that, "It's okay if you don't want to say, it's just that I'm too curious."
"It's because a girl confessed her feelings to me. She's probably the girl that the head of the teaching department's son likes."
"Oh," Liang Yue nodded, her curiosity satisfied, she became very easy to talk to, "I see, do you want some ice cream? I'll get you one."
"You're the one who wants to eat it, aren't you?" Ji Shuyi bluntly exposed her. "Your grandma said you're only allowed to eat one piece a day."
"Fine, then don't eat it," Liang Yue pouted, thinking to herself that Ji Shuyi was really dull.
-
In the final exams, Liang Yue's ranking in the grade improved by forty-three places.
After receiving her results, she proudly twirled around in front of her grandparents several times, saying, "I've improved so much, I should get a good rest during the summer vacation."
"Didn't your school arrange summer tutoring?"
"That's only half a month. Let's make it clear first, I'll only study for half a month. The rest of the time I'm going to watch TV, read comics, and read novels."
"Alright, alright," Grandma couldn't persuade Liang Yue, "but Xiao Ji said that this summer vacation before the first year of high school is the most important, a good opportunity to overtake others."
Overtaking on a curve—I don't know where Grandma heard that phrase from.
"Ji Shuyi is talking nonsense. He thinks everyone is as diligent as him, working day and night."
“Oh my,” Grandma boasted to Grandpa, “Look, I told you that having Xiao Ji tutor Nannan would be effective. Now she can even say idioms.”
"..."
Liang Yue froze, momentarily thinking that he had been a complete illiterate before, that even using idioms could make the old lady happy for half a day. "Grandma, I want to eat grilled fish tonight."
“Okay, I’ll ask your grandpa to light the charcoal and grill some for you later, and also for Xiao Ji. He deserves a lot of credit for your progress.”
"You invited him over to eat?"
"Yes, his mother spent the whole day at the mahjong parlor. What kind of food could she possibly cook for him when he's home alone? So we invited him to our house."
"oh."
Liang Yue, knowing that Ji Shuyi would be coming later, ran to the door and left it open for him.
Ji Shuyi arrived early, and as usual, he brought some food, including snacks, duck necks, duck collarbones, and duck wings.
“Xiao Ji always brings so much food when she comes back,” Grandma said politely as she accepted the food. “Nannan is watching TV in the living room. Why don’t you go find her? She’s bored.”
Ji Shuyi nodded and walked into the living room as if he knew the way well.
Liang Yue was half-reclined on the sofa, with an ice cream stick in his mouth.
"How many pieces did you eat today?"
Liang Yue rolled her eyes at him, thinking this guy was really nosy, and casually said, "Just this one piece."
Ji Shuyi didn't believe it, so he reached over to the trash can and saw that there were more than three packaging bags inside.
“...Those were all from before,” Liang Yue argued. For some reason, although Ji Shuyi and she could only be considered friends, she was inexplicably a little afraid of him.
It wasn't that she was truly afraid of Ji Shuyi; it was just that she had done something wrong and always wanted to hide it from him.
Could it be that a teacher for a day is a father for life?
Liang Yue shook his head, dismissing the inexplicable thought.
“Let me tell you, I improved by forty places,” Liang Yue boasted proudly, shaking his head. “If I improve by forty this time, I’ll improve by a hundred next time. Soon I’ll be number one in the grade. You should be worried.”
"The rankings at the bottom of the grade are already close together. Just glancing at one more multiple-choice question can move you up four or five places," Ji Shuyi said bluntly, pouring cold water on the idea.
"What do you mean?" Liang Yue felt that this person had no humanity at all.
What I mean is, pride makes one fall behind.
"..." Liang Yue put on his shoes and clattered as he left the living room. "I hate you."
He left behind this sentence.
As Ji Shuyi listened to the lively and noisy sounds from the TV, he could hear Liang Yue's coquettish laughter in the distance. She said, "Grandma, I'm going to put extra chili peppers in Ji Shuyi's bowl. He says he likes the devilishly spicy ones."
Grandma: "Go to the side."
He curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.
Somewhat cute.
Like some kind of unpruned plant, it playfully stretches out a few tender green branches.
-
In the first semester of the second year of high school, Ji Shuyi continued to tutor Liang Yue every weekend as usual.
In the mid-term exams, Liang Yue ranked among the top 200 in her grade, and the school promoted her to Class 4 based on her ranking.
Class 4 is considered a good class, not as good as elite classes like Classes 1 and 2, but much better than Class 9.
Yu Wei successfully became classmates with Liang Yue.
Shen Zhuo made several unreasonable accusations about this, saying that the two women had abandoned him.
“You’re crazy,” Yu Weila commented. “Please correct your attitude towards studying and try to become our classmate in the senior year.”
Class 4 is on the second floor, one floor away from Class 1, and directly opposite Class 1.
Occasionally, when Liang Yue was lost in thought, he could see Ji Shuyi sitting by the window at the bottom of the building across the street.
He remained focused, watching the blackboard intently, and Liang Yue never caught him daydreaming or talking.
As boring as the sunlight falling on his elbow.
Silent yet blinding.
She looked away and listened to the gossip circulating among her classmates.
The sports meet will be held this Thursday and Friday.
Sports meets are the most annoying thing.
Liang Yue silently complained to herself that she didn't like sports at all.
Sure enough, during the class meeting, the homeroom teacher mentioned this matter and instructed the sports committee member to finalize the list.
There are only forty students in the class, half boys and half girls.
This means that almost everyone needs to engage in a sport.
So annoying.
At this moment, Liang Yue found everything irritating. The wind was annoying, the sunlight was annoying, even the leaves outside the window were annoying, and the birdsong was even more annoying.
'Clatter'
A crumpled piece of paper, about the size of a thumb, landed on her desk.
Liang Yue unfolded the crumpled paper ball: 【Don't try to take fifty meters from me, lol—YW】
She turned her head to look, and Yu Wei put her hands together and bowed to her.
...
Lazy people's friends are lazy people too.
Liang Yue replied, "Can I run the 100 meters?"
However, in the end, one of them ran the 800-meter race, and the other ran the 800-meter relay race.
...
“This sports committee member is definitely a corrupt official,” Yu Weigang rolled her eyes several times in front of the sports committee member. “I secretly saw someone give him White Rabbit milk candy, and he made that person run the shortest distance.”
Liang Yue was currently pondering how to ask for a day of sick leave. Given her constitution, she would likely feel unwell after running around, so she might as well ask for leave in advance; that wouldn't be considered lying.
“You’re not allowed to take leave,” Yu Wei warned her, “otherwise I’ll be all alone, without anyone to cheer me on.”
"Okay," Liang Yue replied, knowing that her grandmother probably wouldn't agree to her taking leave.
-
On the day of the sports meet.
First was the entrance ceremony. The entrance speeches submitted by each class were largely the same, such as "marching with vigorous strides," "just like young students, full of heroic spirit," and "soaring eagles, fighting in the sky."
Liang Yue stood listlessly in the formation, his mind wandering—the school leaders should apply for weather forecasting jobs, otherwise why is it always sunny at the sports meet and rainy at every study tour?
“Hey,” Yu Wei nudged her with her elbow, “Look at the sign-holding staff in Class 1. If you ask me, why didn’t they choose Ji Shuyi? He’s tall and handsome, just a bit thin, but he’s still better than the current one.”
"You know Ji Shuyi?"
“Who doesn’t know the top student in the grade?” Yu Wei said, puzzled. “It would be strange if we didn’t. His big picture is always posted on the honor roll.”
"oh."
“Look at Shen Zhuo, he’s actually a sign holder. If you ask me, his only advantage is his height, and he looks like a kappa.”
“That was a mistake in your subjective judgment,” Liang Yue disagreed. “Are you angry with him again?”
“No,” Yu Wei retorted stubbornly, “Why would I be angry with him? It’s just that he didn’t wait for me after school that day and ran off without telling me beforehand, making me wait for more than half an hour for nothing. It’s a small matter.”
...Is it a small matter?
A girl behind them overheard their discussion about Shen Zhuo and disagreed, saying, "Shen Zhuo is so handsome. In my opinion, he's even more handsome than Ji Shuyi. It's just that you guys have a filter for those who get good grades."
“Ji Shuyi is clearly more handsome,” Yu Wei retorted, turning to the side. “Where is Shen Zhuo handsome? He’s not as tall as Ji Shuyi either. His so-called ‘American-style front thrust’ can add up to five centimeters of his height.”
"It's not that exaggerated..."
"Still talking!" The homeroom teacher stood outside the classroom and said sternly, "You all better behave!"
Yu Wei turned around and pouted.
They had to wait until all the senior students had entered before they could enter, which took half an hour.
Finally, they marched into the stadium, their steps neat and powerful, displaying their determination to win.
So tired.
Sweat soaked his back. Liang Yue squinted and looked at the leaders on the podium with dissatisfaction.
They all sat in the sunshade, looking down at the students who were baking in the sun, offering cheap applause.
So annoying.
Going to school is so annoying.
Sports meets are such a pain.
These teachers are even more annoyed.
One or two students couldn't hold on and collapsed due to mild heatstroke.
Liang Yue felt a little envious; at least they didn't have to wait for their superiors to finish reading long, copied and pasted manuscripts.
Finally, the opening ceremony concluded with the principal's words, "Wishing the sports meet a complete success."
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