undercurrent
Haicheng No. 1 High School has eight liberal arts classes in its sophomore year. The top two are key classes, each equally matched. The middle four are called "backbone classes," or average-level classes. The bottom two are "optimized classes." Despite the "excellent" designation, they are actually worse than the last. The teachers' only expectation is that they stay out of trouble.
As for grades... honestly, even if students who managed to get into Shanghai No. 1 Middle School weren't very bright, they still had a good attitude. As long as they were motivated, they were basically assigned to the top classes during the first-year placement test.
But schools, for various reasons, often have to admit students with special needs. Most of those in the advanced program are either wealthy or privileged, enrolled simply to improve their resumes. The rest are students with various special talents, and academic performance isn't a high priority.
For example, Class 7 is such an optimization class. The teacher's lectures are basically just a formality. As long as the students don't go too far, the teacher basically doesn't care whether they are listening carefully or not.
Compared to other students, the optimized class's campus life was considerably more "colorful." Eating snacks, playing games, chatting about the latest gossip, and skipping classes were commonplace. The only difference between the two sibling classes was that Class 7 had one more pastime than Class 8: "teasing" a male classmate.
That boy had a name, but no one called him by it very often. Instead, they nicknamed him "Dog Tail." They got so used to calling him that they forgot his name and just took "Dog Tail" for granted.
"Dogtail" was a thickset, overweight boy who stood out among the trim, slender male classmates. Furthermore, he was untidy, constantly reeking of alcohol and body odor. His hair was always unwashed, growing long, tangled, and greasy, sticking to his forehead. The girls in the class would shy away from him in disgust, while the boys would tease him for fun, constantly pulling off some nasty tricks.
For example, when Lu Zhou returned to school this Monday, he saw a disgusting coat on his seat as soon as he entered the classroom.
He frowned and instantly felt that his seat was dirty.
A nosy classmate nearby reported to him: "Brother Zhou, that's a dog's tail. I don't know how it got onto your desk."
Lu Zhou's face turned cold as he walked towards the last row of seats near the wall.
Dogtail was sitting there, behind him was the trash can. Lu Zhou impatiently kicked the other person's desk, and it tilted with a creak, causing all the textbooks inside to fall out.
There was silence for a moment, and everyone's eyes were focused on him, with unconcealable excitement and gloating in their eyes.
The dog's tail shuddered with fear and buried its head even lower, wishing it could crawl into the table pocket.
Lu Zhou said coldly, "Take that disgusting thing away from you."
The dog's tail stammered, "That...that wasn't me who put it there..."
Lu Zhou said impatiently, "I don't care who put it there. Is it yours? If you don't take it, I'll have someone throw it out."
Only then did Gouweiba slowly stand up from his seat and trot over to take the coat away.
Lu Zhou returned to his seat. Disgusted by the foul smell, he found a familiar face and asked him to move the table and benches out and bring in a new set of tables and chairs.
A few people with good eyes hurried forward to move the other party's original seat, and within a few minutes, new tables and chairs were brought back.
Lu Zhou then sat down, opened his schoolbag, and took out the weekend exercises to do.
A lackey came over to offer his courtesy, and with a playful smile, whispered, "Brother Lu, do you want me to find someone to beat him up?"
Lu Zhou flipped open the exercise book and pressed his pen to start working on the questions. Hearing this, he said perfunctorily, "Whatever."
The lackey let out an "Ah", winked at the people around him, and ran out laughing.
Someone noticed what Lu Zhou was doing and said in surprise, "Brother Lu, are you doing math problems?"
As soon as these words were spoken, several friends who were familiar with Lu Zhou gathered around to watch and discuss the matter.
"Brother Lu, have you changed? Didn't you say studying was the most disgusting thing and you'd rather die than touch a textbook?"
"Brother Lu, what did you write? Hiss—I can't understand it."
“Is this mathematics or physics?”
"We are in the liberal arts class, so why do we need to study physics? It must be mathematics."
Lu Zhou found them annoying, so he picked up his workbook and waved it left and right, dismissing them: "Get lost! You're like a swarm of flies! Are you annoying?"
Seeing that the other party had no intention of teasing, everyone stopped daring to be rude and quickly dispersed.
————
When Shen Anyan entered the classroom this morning, she saw Lin Yue and the others gathered together, discussing something. Her seat was occupied by Jiang Xiaosong, whose laughter was the loudest in the crowd.
Seeing the real owner coming, Jiang Xiaosong jumped out of his seat and pulled Shen Anyan over.
"It's just right that you came. We were waiting for you!" Jiang Xiaosong leaned his arms on the other side of the table and shouted happily.
Lin Yue explained, "Xiaosong just told me about her escape room experience over the weekend. It was so much fun! We were planning to go together this weekend. Would you like to come?"
Jiang Xiaosong said, "It's my treat! Come on, come on! It's more fun when there are more people!"
Shen Anyan said with a smile: "Come on, come on, but do you want to discuss this about treating us?"
He Qingtian knew her concerns and explained, "That's okay. The escape room experience center is run by her family."
Shen Anyan was relieved.
At lunchtime, she went to the next class to join Gu Cijiang as usual. While the crowds of people were leaving, Gu Cijiang remained quietly in his seat, seemingly unhurried.
Shen Anyan waved to the other party and shouted: "Gu Cijiang, let's go!"
Gu Cijiang looked up and saw the other person, then stood up and walked out of the classroom.
Honestly, Chen Anyan's overly familiar and enthusiastic nature often annoyed Gu Cijiang. One reason for this was that he liked to be his companion, but never initiated small talk.
Gu Cijiang felt that they were not familiar enough to not talk without feeling awkward, so every time he went with the other person, he would rack his brains to think of suitable topics to talk about.
Fortunately, both of them had good grades, so chatting about academics was a good idea. This morning, both classes had math class, and the teacher assigned extra homework, so he asked the other if he had any ideas.
"Oh, that question, I know it. Do you want me to explain it to you?" Shen Anyan asked.
Gu Cijiang was not in a hurry to finish the questions, but he nodded in agreement as it would be good to let the other party talk more.
Although lecturing was just an excuse to liven up the atmosphere, Gu Cijiang had to admit that the other person was worthy of being the top student in the grade. Even when he was just speaking, his logic and thoughts were exceptionally clear. By the time they finished walking from the teaching building to the cafeteria, he had explained the problem clearly.
"...Finally, find the root and you'll get the result. Do you understand?" Shen Anyan asked.
The two of them had already reached the cafeteria window and were queuing up for food. Gu Cijiang nodded when he heard this and couldn't help but say, "You speak very well."
Shen Anyan smiled and said, "Your thinking and reaction ability is also very good. I can't explain it this way to others. If I don't write it on the blackboard, they will definitely not understand."
As they were talking, the line had already reached them. After they finished their meal, they found an empty seat and sat down.
Before Shen Anyan had taken a few bites, someone suddenly sat down next to him.
She turned her head and met a pair of smiling peach blossom eyes.
Lu Zhou said, "Teacher Xiaoyan, what a coincidence! I saw you right after I got my lunch!"
Chen Anyan said: "It's quite a coincidence, you are not with your friends?"
Lu Zhou curled his lips and said, "It's boring to be with them. Let's go together!"
After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Gu Cijiang who was sitting across from him, and asked with a smile, "Hey, classmate, do you mind adding me?"
Gu Cijiang frowned ever so slightly the moment the man appeared. He didn't mind sharing a table with someone he didn't know well. After all, the cafeteria had few seats, and with so many students eating, sharing tables was common. Furthermore, having more people would alleviate the strange silence that had settled over his meal with Shen Anyan. But for some reason, he felt that the man who had come today was particularly glaring. Due to his good upbringing, he couldn't show any negative emotions, and simply hummed softly.
Lu Zhou didn't care about the other party's opinion. Since Shen Anyan had no objection, he sat down happily.
"What are you eating? Why didn't I see this dish when I got my meal?" Lu Zhou didn't eat well. After a while, he came close to Shen Anyan to see what he was eating.
Shen Anyan said: "The braised lion's head tastes average, nothing special."
Lu Zhou said, "I don't believe it unless I try it!"
He took advantage of her inattention and quickly snatched away one of her meatballs. Shen Anyan couldn't bear to argue with her over a broken lion's head, so he could only say speechlessly, "Can you please eat properly?"
Lu Zhou took a bite of the meatball and said with a grin, "I'm eating it right now! Hey, I think it's quite delicious. Maybe it's because I snatched it from you—ah, food really does taste better when you're the one eating it."
Shen Anyan rolled his eyes at the other person.
Despite the lively bickering across from him, Gu Cijiang suddenly felt a bit depressed. He'd occasionally felt awkward when it was just him and Shen Anyan, but never as uncomfortable as today, to the point where he didn't want to stay any longer.
There was still most of the food left on the plate, but he was no longer in the mood to eat. Gu Cijiang stood up and said to Shen Anyan: "I'm done eating, I'm leaving first."
Shen Anyan said: "So soon? Wait for me, let's go together."
Lu Zhou held his chin in his hand and said, "If he wants to leave, then let him leave. I haven't finished eating yet. Why don't you stay with me?"
Shen Anyan said: "Are you a child? You need someone to accompany you when you eat..."
Gu Cijiang felt even more depressed. He lowered his eyes and said, "You don't have to come. I have something else to do later."
After he finished speaking, he took the plate and left without caring about the other party's reaction.
Lu Zhou glanced at the man's departing back, raised his hand to press Shen Anyan's shoulder, and gently advised: "He's busy—can't you see? That person is really annoying you, and you still insisted on going up to him and asking for trouble."
Shen Anyan was a little confused: "No, I had a good chat with him."
Lu Zhou waved to the neighboring table, who tactfully ran over and handed them two glasses of juice. He handed one to Chen Anyan and said with a smile, "You girls don't have these roundabout ideas. Guys don't show their likes or dislikes on their faces. You might think you're having a good chat with someone, but who knows what they might say behind your back."
Shen Anyan took a sip of juice and shook his head when he heard this: "That's not the case. I know him. He is not that kind of person."
Lu Zhou's expression froze, but he didn't let the emotion stay on his face for too long, and soon he smiled again.
"Okay, okay, you have your own ideas. I'm just worried that you'll suffer."
Shen Anyan glanced at him sideways: "You're really worried about this. Improving your academic performance is more important to me than anything else."
Lu Zhou exaggeratedly covered his head and complained half-heartedly, "Hey, hey, hey—Teacher Xiaoyan, we're not allowed to talk about study during dinner!"
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