Chapter 1
On the first day of school at Lianyan No.1 Middle School, the sun shone brightly, the sky was cloudless, and the air was incredibly hot and humid.
Song Qiuxuan, whose home is two kilometers from the school, chose to stay overnight outside the school. Therefore, apart from the anticipation and worry she felt about starting her high school life, she seemed quite relaxed.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day. The air conditioning in the bedroom was turned down low. Song Qiuxuan, with her packed schoolbag on the desk, lay lazily on the bed replying to messages from her junior high school classmates.
Sun Shan, her close friend from junior high, was assigned to Class 19, while Song Qiuxuan was in Class 20 of the first year of high school.
Although they are not in the same class, the two classes are next to each other, so they can still eat together in the future, Sun Shan said.
When Song Qiuxuan arrived at school on her bicycle with her backpack, there were few people around the dormitory building and the parking shed, but the corridors of the teaching building were crowded with people, and the whole building was noisy and bustling.
When Song Qiuxuan arrived at Class 20's classroom, she found that almost all of her classmates had already arrived and were chatting enthusiastically in their seats.
At Lianyan High School, the usual seating arrangement is two rows of single desks against the wall and three groups of double seats in the middle. But at this moment, only the last two seats in the row of single desks near the door are still empty.
Song Qiuxuan glanced around the classroom, took two steps to the second-to-last empty seat, and stuffed her schoolbag into the desk.
The boy at the table in front of me sat there casually, constantly trying to strike up a conversation with the girl in front of me. The girl was reserved and ignored him, so he turned around and started chatting with the boy at the next table.
Just then, the boy noticed a quiet figure in the back seat, resting her chin on her hand and looking out the window. He glanced at her and saw that she was quite pretty, with fair and delicate skin, a small and gentle face, a slender figure, and wearing a white short-sleeved shirt. Her exposed hands were also white and thin.
Song Qiuxuan noticed the boy's gaze, looked up at him, and looked away the moment their eyes met.
It wasn't shyness, it was just an unconscious reaction.
Song Qiuxuan's personality is neither particularly outgoing and cheerful nor particularly quiet and reserved. She is the type who is somewhat distant when she first gets to know people, but becomes warmer after spending more time with them.
Lu Chengzhou exclaimed "Ouch!" and jumped off the table, plopping down in a chair. He turned around and greeted him with a grin, "Hi classmate, what's your name?"
"Song Qiuxuan".
The boy was too approachable, leaning very close to her. Song Qiuxuan subtly increased the distance, shifting her body back and leaning against the chair.
Suddenly, accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of a chair being pulled out and scraping against the floor, Song Qiuxuan's chair next to the table behind her trembled violently, and her body also shook.
Who is it that's making such a fuss over just sitting down?
She subconsciously turned around to look back, and was slightly stunned after seeing the boy's face. She had to admit that she was a shallow person. Her gaze was fixed on his face. The boy had a handsome and sharp face, dark eyes, and a cold temperament.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the classroom was noisy, the curtains were all drawn open, the light was bright and clear, the setting sun shone in from the window, and the air was still hot.
A ray of sunlight fell on the boy's cold face, and a golden halo spread around him. His black hair fell to his brow bone, and below it were a pair of indifferent eyes, calm and emotionless.
"Is there something you need?" Cheng Xun sat lazily in his chair, leaning back as he looked at the girl who had suddenly turned around and stared at him for a long time without saying a word, and asked casually.
"It's because you sat down too forcefully, and the table bumped into my chair." Song Qiuxuan snapped out of her daze and pointed to the joint between the table and the chair.
"Oh." Cheng Xun glanced at the table following her finger, then his pale hand gripped the edge of the table and pulled it back with a ripping sound, creating a gap of more than ten centimeters.
The whole process was smooth and quick. If Song Qiuxuan hadn't seen the boy's indifferent expression, she would probably have thought he was a good-tempered person.
She looked down in surprise at the suddenly enlarged space, then looked up at the boy, unsure how to react.
His straightforwardness made her feel embarrassed.
The boy ignored her gaze, stretching his long legs out awkwardly under the cramped table, leaning over it with his head turned to the side and his eyes closed, as if he couldn't be bothered to say a word.
Cold and taciturn, these two words came to Song Qiuxuan's mind. The male lead in the idol drama her mother had been watching recently had this kind of character.
While the boy was sleeping, Song Qiuxuan observed his surroundings and discovered that his chair had extended a few centimeters beyond the back door.
She suddenly felt a pang of regret, realizing she shouldn't have said that.
"Song Qiuxuan?" Lu Chengzhou, who sat at the table in front of him, called out.
Song Qiuxuan slowly turned around: "What's wrong?"
"I wasn't finished speaking just now. I only know your name, but I don't know which junior high school you went to, what your ranking was in the city on the high school entrance exam, whether you know any classmates in your class, or who your homeroom teacher is."
The boy sitting in front of Song Qiuxuan was a chatterbox; this was the only thing Song Qiuxuan learned after entering the new class.
Before Lu Chengzhou could say more, the school leaders gave a speech to the new students over the loudspeaker, requiring homeroom teachers to maintain discipline in their classrooms and students to listen attentively.
The boring and tedious speech lasted for more than half an hour.
Before concluding their speeches, the school leaders asked each class to organize a few students to collect their books from the lobby on the first floor of the administration building.
*
"Because some students were careless and only received two math workbooks, those who didn't get their workbooks should go to the lobby of the administration building to pick them up," said Mr. Liu, the homeroom teacher, as he stood in front of the podium.
Lu Chengzhou waved the light blue workbook in front of Song Qiuxuan: "You and the person behind you are missing a math workbook. There was only one when it was handed out to me. Remember to go and get it."
"I understand." Song Qiuxuan tidied up the books that had just been handed out, stacking them one by one on the corner of the table.
Song Qiuxuan sighed inwardly, stood up and walked towards the back door. As she passed the aloof boy at the back desk, she curiously glanced down and saw him writing his name in a book.
Song Qiuxuan paused, her gaze falling on his pale, veiny arm, then shifting to the paper, where she saw two forcefully written characters.
Cheng Xun.
Perhaps because she had been standing there for a long time, Cheng Xun looked up and met her gaze.
"Cheng Xun, you're missing a math workbook." Song Qiuxuan wasn't sure if Cheng Xun knew he was missing a book, but after thinking about it, she decided to remind him.
"Hmm." Cheng Xun put down his pen and responded softly.
He seemed uninterested in everything, even inquiring about how she knew his name.
The air pressure around me was so cold it felt like ice crystals.
Song Qiuxuan inexplicably remembered that yesterday, when she was carrying a water cup out of her bedroom to get water and passing through the living room, she unintentionally saw the idol drama that her mother was watching.
The plot I saw at the time was that the female lead accidentally touched the male lead's pen, and because the male lead was not only aloof but also had mysophobia, he threw the pen away.
Thinking of this cliché plot, Song Qiuxuan couldn't help but laugh.
The ambiguous laugh made Cheng Xun frown slightly, and he looked up.
The girl smiled, her eyes crinkling, the afterglow of the setting sun shining on her and her face, making her smile appear radiant.
The smile didn't last; it vanished as soon as his gaze swept over her.
*
Song Qiuxuan walked straight out of the back door of the classroom and found the administration building using the campus navigation map downstairs.
Some classes hadn't finished collecting their books, and the lobby was a bit chaotic with lots of chatter.
Song Qiuxuan's gaze slowly swept across the piles of books stacked on the ground through the crowd. When she saw the light blue math workbooks, she immediately went over and picked one up.
"Class representatives who have received their books, please come and register," said a senior student from the student council, sitting at a long table in the corner of the hall.
Song Qiuxuan took the workbook to the corner and asked the senior student, "Our class is missing two math workbooks. I just came to get them. Do I need to register them?"
"Yes, I need it. Which class are you in?" The senior student picked up a few papers from the table and searched through them.
"From Class 20 of the first year of high school."
The senior student found the paper from Class 20 and handed it to Song Qiuxuan: "Write down clearly what books you missed and how many you missed."
"good."
Lianyan City is a hot and humid city with frequent rain. Although it is already early autumn, the temperature shows no signs of dropping. Even at six o'clock, there is no coolness in the wind.
Song Qiuxuan wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, finished writing, handed the paper back to her senior, and was about to leave the administration building lobby with her book when a sudden downpour completely blocked her in the lobby.
Today was really unlucky. Not only was there no choice of seat, but I also had to pick up the workbooks myself, and then it suddenly started pouring rain.
Song Qiuxuan looked at the rain pelting down in despair. Standing among the wailing crowd in the lobby, she sighed. The rain was so heavy that she could only wait until it stopped or lessened before she could go back to work.
The sky darkened with the heavy rain, and clusters of dark clouds shrouded the horizon.
She wasn't the only one stuck in the lobby of the administration building; they were all there to pick up books and couldn't possibly have brought umbrellas, so they started chatting.
Song Qiuxuan stood in the corner of the hall, listening blankly to the pattering rain and the noisy conversation. The rain did not dispel the sultry atmosphere; instead, it made the air sticky.
A tall, slender figure appeared in the rain, holding a black umbrella. Song Qiuxuan stared at him listlessly. He lifted the umbrella ribs to reveal his face underneath, his features still deep and distinct in the dim light.
Song Qiuxuan's eyes widened. The person was Cheng Xun, who sat behind her. He must have come to collect his books as well.
A glimmer of hope flickered in her heart: if he saw her stranded here without an umbrella, would he offer to share an umbrella with her and go back to class together? That way, she wouldn't have to wait for the rain to stop.
But then she thought, he couldn't even be bothered to say another word to her, so he probably wouldn't care about her situation.
Song Qiuxuan kept her gaze following Cheng Xun, as if that would make him notice her.
Cheng Xun picked up his math workbook, opened his umbrella, and was about to leave when he caught a glimpse of the student sitting in front of him. She was staring at him intently, her eyes seemingly sparkling with anticipation.
Cheng Xun tilted her head and gave a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
"Shall we share an umbrella and go back together?" Cheng Xun opened the umbrella, gripped the handle tightly, and looked at her as she spoke.
That's exactly what I was waiting for.
"Okay." Song Qiuxuan jogged to his side, slipped under the umbrella, looked up at Cheng Xun, and said gratefully, "Thank you."
Cheng Xun wasn't as aloof and unapproachable as she had imagined. She stopped thinking to herself that he resembled the male lead in the idol drama her mother watched.
Heavy raindrops pattered against the umbrella, the rainwater slanting and wetting the trouser legs. Under the umbrella, Song Qiuxuan hunched her shoulders and followed Cheng Xun's steps, her sweat-dampened hair sticking to the side of her face, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.
The two strangers were silent, the sound of rain masking the awkwardness.
Cheng Xun held the black umbrella firmly in one hand. The umbrella was just the right size to support two people, but Song Qiuxuan kept a little distance from him and inevitably got splashed by the rain. Before she had even walked halfway back to class, her arms were already soaked.
Cheng Xun glanced at him sideways and said in a nonchalant tone, "If you don't want to get half-soaked, come a little closer."
Since Cheng Xun had said so, Song Qiuxuan had nothing to be coy about and obediently moved closer.
The dim streetlights elongated their almost huddled bodies, casting shadows on the shimmering, waterlogged ground. Song Qiuxuan looked down at the ground and felt the surrounding air grow even hotter.
Upon reaching the eaves of the teaching building, Cheng Xun deftly folded his umbrella, shook it, and shook off the raindrops.
Song Qiuxuan stood under the eaves, raised her hand to brush away the damp strands of hair sticking to the side of her face, and then used her hand to wipe away the scattered water stains on the exercise book.
"Thank you." Song Qiuxuan thanked Cheng Xun again as he walked past her upstairs.
"It's nothing, we're in the same class and it's on our way." Cheng Xun's voice was clear and calm, as if he felt that this little thing was insignificant and there was no need to thank him repeatedly.
After speaking, he strode up the stairs, leaving her behind without looking back, his umbrella dripping rainwater and leaving long streaks of water.
Song Qiuxuan looked up at Cheng Xun's figure going upstairs and noticed that half of his white short-sleeved shirt was wet, so wet that it was almost transparent.
With a complicated expression, Song Qiuxuan withdrew her gaze and went upstairs back to her classroom.
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