“Hey, Chi Ge, why didn’t you come to school last week?”
“I’m so jealous of you, just skipping school whenever you feel like it.” Wang Xiao propped his face up with both hands, squishing the sides of his cheeks together in a way that made him look less than cute. From start to finish, Chi Yu didn’t even spare him a glance. He was lying sideways on his desk, and it was hard to tell if he was awake or not.
Wang Xiao glanced at Fu Zhi’an, who was working on some test papers nearby. He leaned in closer to Chi Yu and whispered, “I finally see the power of your authority, Chi Ge. While you were gone, Fu Zhi’an didn’t even dare to put his books on your desk.”
The person lying on the desk shifted a bit, slowly raising his head to reveal a pair of pitch-black eyes. He muttered, “Can you shut up? I’m trying to study here.”
Wang Xiao then noticed the crumpled test paper underneath Chi Yu. In the top left corner, two bold characters were scrawled: Chi Yu.
Honestly, after being in the same class as Chi Yu for so long, Wang Xiao had rarely seen his handwriting. The number of times Chi Yu turned in homework was easily countable on one hand. Over time, even the teachers knew what to expect from him and didn’t bother with him much.
Wang Xiao squinted in confusion, peeking at the multiple-choice answers already filled out. Tentatively, he asked, “Chi Ge, do you actually know how to do this?”
Chi Yu irritably tossed his pen on the desk, his long legs kicking at the iron bar under the desk. He leaned back in his chair, his voice dripping with exhaustion.
“Like hell I do.”
When Chi Yu was a kid, every adult who saw him would smile and say, “This kid looks smart.” Whether they were being polite or not, Wen Hua took it to heart. Even though she had her own struggles at the time, she would still sit by his bed every day to help him with his homework. Chi Yu’s grades were always middling—out of fifty students, he consistently ranked 26th. One time, he got 25th place, and Wen Hua was so happy she mumbled in her sleep that night.
But now, faced with the dense letters on the test paper, Chi Yu felt a bit deflated. Maybe those people were just being polite when they said he was smart.
Wang Xiao had never seen Chi Yu like this before. He lowered his head, thinking for a moment, and noticed the test paper wrapped around a packet of spicy strips in his drawer, already soaked with red oil. Gritting his teeth, he took the paper out and rubbed it hard with a napkin.
Chi Ge was already so handsome and rich—if he also excelled in academics, wouldn’t that be something?
Lin Jing had been watching Chi Yu from the back door for a while. What a handsome boy, yet here he was, furrowing his brows so deeply that she could see a bit of Zhang Fei in his expression. And this was the school’s best-looking student, no less. Female teachers always had a soft spot for good-looking male students. Chi Yu might not have cared much about studying before, but now that he was making an effort, Lin Jing was determined to support him.
“Starting today, as part of our preparations for the senior year sprint, I’ve decided to form study groups,” Lin Jing announced from the podium with a smile. “You can choose your own groups, but if you don’t want to, I can assign them for you.”
As soon as Lin Jing finished speaking, Chi Yu noticed the entire class directing their gaze towards the boy sitting next to him. But Fu Zhi’an was focused on his math problems, seemingly oblivious to what was happening around him. Chi Yu lowered his eyes to his English test paper. Aside from a few random guesses in the multiple-choice section, the rest of the paper was still blank after forty minutes.
Suddenly, Chi Yu felt a shadow cast over him, followed by a fresh minty scent that made him relax a little.
Fu Zhi’an’s slender fingers, holding a black pen, rested on Chi Yu’s crumpled test paper. The pen hovered over a question for a couple of seconds before circling an answer.
“Choose this one.” Fu Zhi’an’s voice was calm, but every word landed squarely in Chi Yu’s heart.
Chi Yu turned his head to see Fu Zhi’an’s clean and handsome profile. He seemed so fair-skinned that, up close, you could even see the faint red blood vessels beneath his skin and the transparent, glassy quality of his light-colored eyes.
Sensing his gaze, Fu Zhi’an looked up from the paper and met his eyes, raising an eyebrow slightly. “Hmm?”
His voice was hoarse, with a faint lilt at the end, coupled with that harmless-looking face. Chi Yu couldn’t help but gulp, the sound surprisingly loud. In the past, Fu Zhi’an would have crossed his arms, given him a fake smile, mocked him, and found a roundabout way to call him dumb.
But now, Fu Zhi’an’s lips curled up slightly, his eyelashes lowered, with an expression that seemed to say, “I give up.”
A flush crept up Chi Yu’s ears as he licked his lips and grumbled, “What’s with that stupid smile?”
As soon as class ended, Fu Zhi’an stood up and walked to the front of the room. He leaned over, talking to the class rep about something. Chi Yu hadn’t noticed before, but when Fu Zhi’an spoke to people, he liked to look them straight in the eyes, unwaveringly. Not many could hold up under that gaze.
Chi Yu glanced down at the answer Fu Zhi’an had circled on his paper, feeling annoyed. He picked up his pen and scribbled over the entire option until it was completely blacked out.
The break was short, and soon the classroom fell back into silence.
In the back row, Chi Yu had his chin resting on the desk, occasionally tapping the surface with his long fingers.
“Damn it, English is so freaking hard!” Chi Yu finally lost his patience, flipping the paper over to cover his head as he slumped across the desk.
The paper was lifted off his head, and then he heard that familiar hoarse voice.
“You don’t have to study if you don’t want to.”
“There’s no need for two people in the same family to be good at English.”
Fu Zhi’an’s light words drifted into Chi Yu’s ears, causing his spine to stiffen. He mechanically lifted his head, just in time to meet Fu Zhi’an’s smiling eyes.
“Can you not be so flirtatious when you talk in class?” Chi Yu snapped.
Fu Zhi’an chuckled and nodded. Then, leaning in closer, he whispered into Chi Yu’s reddening ear with a playful tone.
“Okay, I’ll do as you say.”
“I’ll save it for when we’re alone.”
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