Chapter 3
“Ruan Xinshu, is it?” The head teacher of Class 1 smiled at her.
Ruan Xinshu glanced at the teacher and gave a nervous nod.
She still hadn’t processed being suddenly transferred from her original Class 5 to Class 1 by the principal himself right at the start of the school year.
The teacher looked at the seventeen-year-old Ruan Xinshu.
He had been instructed by the principal to give this Ruan Xinshu “special attention” and, preferably, get her grades up to a passing level within one semester.
Thinking of the report card he had seen that morning, the teacher’s head throbbed. This was going to be a long and arduous task.
“Shu Qianyu, you go sit in that empty seat in the third row,” the teacher said, pointing. “Ruan Xinshu, you can take Shu Qianyu’s old seat.”
Ruan Xinshu looked at the seat the other student was vacating, and her heart immediately sank.
It was a seat right in the middle.
A spot in the center of the classroom was exposed on all four sides, with no cover whatsoever. It was, in a word, a treacherous and extremely dangerous position. Just staring at it for ten seconds made Ruan Xinshu feel a profound lack of security.
Even a seat against a single wall would have felt less helpless.
“Teacher, I…” Ruan Xinshu started, but trailed off.
“Your deskmate, Chu Yu, is an excellent student. You’re sitting in such a prime spot, you must learn from her.”
The teacher organized the files in front of him, clearly having no intention of listening to her. Instead, he smiled as if a weight had been lifted, his mood seeming to brighten considerably just from mentioning this student named Chu Yu, as if bathing in a spring breeze.
Chu Yu? Who’s that?
Seeing the teacher’s expression, Ruan Xinshu already had a bad feeling.
She walked into the classroom with her bag. The first thing she noticed was that the spot next to hers was empty.
This Chu Yu person seemed to be out running an errand; only a stack of files sat on the desk.
But the other students in Class 1 were all sizing her up from the corners of their eyes. Their unreadable gazes made Ruan Xinshu uncomfortable.
She did her best to ignore them and sat down.
She was well aware that an underachiever like her, one who consistently ranked in the bottom fifty of the entire grade, had no business being in this class.
But if you had a father with extensive connections who was also a school board member, then it was possible.
And if that father also believed that pursuing art was not a respectable profession, it was even more possible.
Ruan Jingrong felt that Ruan Xinshu’s failure to win a single award for her painting since starting high school was proof enough that she had no talent.
He believed she should give up on this fruitless endeavor and focus on her studies, saying it wasn’t too late to start.
Ruan Xinshu, obviously, did not agree. She believed she had a talent for painting, and so she had spent the entire summer arguing with Ruan Jingrong.
As a result, the moment school started, she was informed she was now in Class 1 and was personally escorted there by the principal.
A student in front of her turned around to look at her.
Based on the principle of being friendly, Ruan Xinshu felt that since someone was looking at her, she should look back.
But perhaps because she was nervous, her expression was a bit stiff. Her look came across more like a glare, and the student quickly whipped back around.
…Messed that up.
Ruan Xinshu pressed her lips together and sat down.
After listening to Ruan Xinshu recount how she was transferred to Class 1, Song Min nodded, looking as if he had grasped the situation. “So, have you talked to that group of elites in Class 1?”
Ruan Xinshu didn’t answer.
The cafeteria at Xuanbei Foreign Language School was noisy, but she could still hear Song Min clearly. She just didn’t know how to answer the question.
“Can’t you tell? She’s being ostracized,” Qin Tingsen remarked, grabbing a few dishes from the service counter and putting them on his tray. “I bet her dad thinks that if she’s isolated, she’ll finally start studying properly.”
“I’m not being isolated,” Ruan Xinshu immediately frowned, denying it. “Class 1 is basically a detention center. If you were falsely imprisoned, would you talk to the other inmates?”
Ruan Xinshu put her chopsticks down on the table with a thud. “Anyway, I wouldn’t.”
She was declaring that it wasn’t that she couldn’t make friends in Class 1, but that she didn’t deign to.
“Oh? So you’re going to be in that detention center for a year. Aren’t you going to be rehabilitated into a mute?” Qin Tingsen burst out laughing.
“Don’t think I’m exaggerating. That’s just how it is.” Ruan Xinshu frowned in annoyance, feeling that Qin Tingsen was about to laugh himself sick. She huffed lightly. “Do you know what the students in Class 1 are like? The second class starts, they all stare at the blackboard in perfect unison. The second it’s self-study, they all lower their heads in unison. The movement is identical to my automatic trash can at home.”
“During breaks, they just sit there, perfectly still, flipping through books and memorizing vocabulary. They even wear their school uniforms with the same meticulousness. Even their nearsightedness is basically the same—almost every single one of them wears black-framed glasses. Their hairstyles are all identical. You tell me if that’s not a detention center.”
“Now that you put it that way, it does sound a bit like it,” Song Min chimed in with a nod.
Qin Tingsen looked at her. “Is your next line going to be that they think you’re a problematic element bringing in decadent Western influences? That they think you’re some pervert who secretly paints nudes, some psycho who’s going to cut their own ear off?”
Ruan Xinshu nodded, as if she’d found an opportunity to redeem her point. “Exactly! Maybe that’s what they think! They’re afraid I’ll corrupt them, and I’m afraid they’ll turn me into a bookworm.”
Who’s looking down on whom?
“So are you still sitting in the back row in Class 1?”
“…” Ruan Xinshu hesitated. “I’m sitting next to someone named Chu Yu now.”
“Chu Yu?” Song Min looked at Ruan Xinshu.
“You’ve heard of her?”
Ruan Xinshu had only just heard the name for the first time, as she was someone who paid no attention to school gossip.
Song Min’s gaze grew distant, his tone profound. “That is a ‘scholar’ who has never once taken second place.”
Never once taken second place?
Ruan Xinshu couldn’t help but suck in a breath in fear.
“Then if this ‘scholar’ does poorly on a test, isn’t she going to blame me?” Ruan Xinshu frowned immediately, feeling like she was about to be framed.
Qin Tingsen patted Ruan Xinshu on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Lao Qian says Chu Yu is the type of person who would memorize vocabulary even while sitting on the subway. It’s like she wishes she could be immersed in the ocean of learning every single day.”
Lao Qian was Zhang Renqian, the head teacher of Class 5 and also their Chinese teacher. He was easygoing and had a hands-off policy for Class 5.
“She’s the top student in the grade, the model student of all model students, the elite of the elite.”
Qin Tingsen argued forcefully, “Do you think just because you sit next to her, she’s going to start slacking off and sleeping in class with you? Or maybe she’ll start drawing with you in class?”
Ruan Xinshu bit her lip, her brows furrowed. “Who wants to sleep with her.”
“I know how these top students think. They’ll just think you’re so stupid, and they’re so amazing. They spend three hours studying and memorize who-knows-how-many words, while you—”
As he spoke, Qin Tingsen tapped the sketchbook in front of Ruan Xinshu. “You’re just doodling some nonsense.”
Ruan Xinshu shot Qin Tingsen a silent, sideways glance.
“Hey, don’t be mad. Of course I know it’s not ‘doodling.’ My point is, that’s what top students usually think.”
Ruan Xinshu was not pleased, because Qin Tingsen continued:
“I used to sit next to a goody-two-shoes who would tattle on me every time I fell asleep. Always stabbing me in the back. Back then, I’d get called out by the teacher and forced to stand as punishment every time I dozed off.”
Ruan Xinshu was dumbfounded. The thought of sitting next to a snitch made her skin crawl, and a cold shiver ran down her spine.
“Then this top student’s status in the Class 1 detention center must be something like… a model inmate.”
Ruan Xinshu was in despair.
“My condolences.” Song Min shook his head in pity, taking an indifferent bite of his pear.
Because of Qin Tingsen’s alarmist talk at lunch, Ruan Xinshu couldn’t help but feel a little scared when she returned to the classroom that afternoon and sat back down in her seat.
She imagined this “Chu Yu,” this top student of the grade, who sat in such a central position with such a high stack of books, was probably a girl with black-framed glasses, like some kind of literary maiden from a book.
She would definitely be the type to raise her hand to solve problems on the board, and she’d definitely pester the teacher with questions after class. Even the way she raised her hand to snitch would probably be textbook-perfect, just like a Young Pioneer from elementary school.
Ruan Xinshu buried her head in her arms, feeling dejected and helpless.
After a moment, the chair beside Ruan Xinshu scraped.
Ruan Xinshu knew that the top student named Chu Yu was back.
She wanted to test her theory, so she quietly shifted her head and peeked silently at the person sitting next to her.
It was afternoon, and the sunlight streamed quietly into the classroom, painting even the walls a honey-gold.
That person’s eyelashes were also dyed this warm color.
Ruan Xinshu froze.
Because when Chu Yu blinked softly, it made her think that a honey-colored butterfly had landed on her eye, and then, that butterfly gently fluttered its wings…
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