The teacher said Xie Lianqing was an outstanding student at the school, who had transferred to their class due to taking a leave of absence for a fractured bone.
A year had passed, and Xu Qingqing had almost forgotten about this boy. She had just moved up a grade and was busy every day with studying and having fun. The events from a year ago had long been submerged in the river of memory, becoming one of its insignificant fragments.
Xie Lianqing arrived in their class on Monday morning, followed by the school's flag-raising ceremony. As an outstanding student representative, he would take the stage to give a speech.
On the elevated flag-raising platform, he wore a school uniform white shirt, gold-rimmed glasses, with his hair falling beside his ears.
With an indifferent expression and calm eyes, he said, "I am Xie Lianqing..." These were the first words of his speech.
At the same time, those memories Xu Qingqing had buried suddenly surged like a tide, surfacing in her mind.
Xie Lianqing had only been in the class for half a month, yet he quickly won over everyone, becoming the teacher's favorite student. He also became the English class representative.
On the way home from school, Xu Qingqing tugged at Zhou Chenyu, chattering excitedly about the day's events: "Do you remember that annoying boy I told you I met at the hospital? He actually transferred to our class!!"
"Zhou Chenyu!! Are you even listening to me?" Miss Xu was getting angry.
Zhou Chenyu, carrying her backpack on his shoulder with one hand in his pocket, said lazily, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm listening."
When Xu Qingqing and he reached the school gate, they saw a car parked there, and the new classmate she had been talking about was about to get in, escorted by a driver.
Xu Qingqing immediately pulled Zhou Chenyu, exclaiming excitedly, "He's the one who bullied me!!"
Zhou Chenyu looked at his familiar friend and was momentarily stunned: "Xie Lianqing? How do you know him?"
Xu Qingqing was bewildered: "Yeah, his name is Xie Lianqing. How do you know him?"
Zhou Chenyu shrugged and said, "He's my friend."
In fact, a very good friend. But he guessed Xu Qingqing would be upset, so he phrased it a bit more mildly.
Sure enough, Xu Qingqing instantly shifted her focus, glaring and questioning him: "You're friends? Are you closer to him or to me?!"
Zhou Chenyu, helpless against the young miss, could only raise his hands in surrender and say, "To you, to you!"
As the two of them roughhoused, Xie Lianqing, who was about to get into the car, paused for a second, then seemingly casually glanced in their direction.
The driver, seeing him not moving for a while, asked hesitantly, "Young master? Are those your friends?"
Xie Lianqing shook his head. Just as he hesitated whether he should get out and greet Zhou Chenyu and the others, he saw the two in the distance chasing each other as they ran off.
"Zhou Chenyu, stop! Don't you run!"
"Young miss, you're the one who should stop chasing!"
...
Their playful voices drifted away on the wind. Xie Lianqing silently watched the two running into the distance, paused for a moment, then looked away and got into the car alone.
Not long after, the school held its first monthly exam. Xu Qingqing's grades were consistently at the bottom, while Xie Lianqing surpassed the class monitor to become the top student in the grade.
According to classmates, his total score was several dozen points higher than the second-place student.
Xu Qingqing just sighed briefly and moved on, never expecting this would affect her future life.
After the monthly exam, the homeroom teacher rearranged the seats as usual. Students with excellent grades would enter the classroom first to choose their seats, followed by the others in descending order.
When Xu Qingqing slowly walked into the classroom, she found that the seat next to hers had been taken by Xie Lianqing. And there he was, sitting properly at the desk, reading a book.
Xu Qingqing: ...!!!
After becoming Xie Lianqing's new deskmate, Xu Qingqing felt extremely uncomfortable all over.
A few days later, the class teacher asked the English class representative to give a dictation during morning self-study. Students who failed would be punished by copying the vocabulary words.
Being an academically poor student, especially one who chronically failed English, Xu Qingqing decided to do something slightly unethical to pass.
Like cheat!
Like several other students, she placed an English textbook under her exercise book, opened to the vocabulary page.
While the English class representative was giving the dictation, she buried her head, secretly flipping through the book to look up words.
English Class Representative Xie Lianqing on the podium: ...
After a while, Xie Lianqing walked up to Xu Qingqing and tapped on her desk.
Xu Qingqing was busy flipping through the book to find words; of course, she had no time for him while cheating. She just glanced up at him briefly before continuing to flip through the book.
Xie Lianqing frowned slightly and had to remind her, "Stop flipping."
Seeing him disturb her repeatedly, Xu Qingqing got angry. She immediately took the English book hidden under the desk and placed it on top, giving him a defiant look—her challenge was obvious.
Just then, someone strode over from outside the window: "Xu Qingqing! What are you doing?!"
Xu Qingqing: ...
Xie Lianqing: ...
Afterwards, Xie Lianqing looked at Xu Qingqing, who was being punished to copy vocabulary words, and couldn't help but explain, "I just wanted to remind you that the teacher was coming."
Xu Qingqing snorted and turned her head away, ignoring him.
If it weren't for Xie Lianqing deliberately causing trouble, she wouldn't have gotten angry and taken out the vocabulary book, only to be caught by the homeroom teacher... It was all Xie Lianqing's fault!
That evening after school, Xu Qingqing discussed with her childhood friend: "We need to think of a way to get back at him!"
Zhou Chenyu: "...Hold on, Miss Xu, why 'we'?"
Xu Qingqing glared at him: "What do you mean? You won't help me?"
Zhou Chenyu was practically afraid of her: "Alright, alright, alright. You tell me what to do. But let me say this first: Xie Lianqing seems polite and good-tempered, but his actual personality isn't someone to mess with. If you really make him angry, I'm afraid you'll cry."
Xu Qingqing was brave: "I'm not scared. I'll prove it to you right now!"
She immediately opened her backpack, tore a page from one of her exercise books, rolled it into a ball, and threw it at Xie Lianqing, who was walking ahead.
Xie Lianqing: ...
Zhou Chenyu: ...
Xie Lianqing turned around and saw Zhou Chenyu behind him, with a girl clearly crouching behind Zhou Chenyu—his new deskmate.
His gaze sharpened, and he immediately walked towards Xu Qingqing: "What do you think you're doing?"
Xu Qingqing was startled and immediately turned to run, shouting as she went, "Help!"
Xie Lianqing, infuriated by her, immediately forgot about decorum and prepared to catch that infuriating young miss.
Then he was pulled back by his friend grabbing his shoulder. Zhou Chenyu said helplessly, "Don't chase her. She's trained in sprinting."
Xie Lianqing: ...??
He suddenly remembered—Xu Qingqing had told him about this back at the hospital.
Zhou Chenyu added, "She's someone who acts out recklessly even in front of a Hercules capable of lifting a tripod, yet has managed to live unscathed until now."
Xie Lianqing frowned: "Who is 'capable of lifting a tripod'?"
Zhou Chenyu laughed: "My cousin."
Xie Lianqing: ...
Thanks to her childhood friend's rescue, Xu Qingqing avoided the tragedy of being caught by her deskmate on the first day of the new term.
On the third day, she arrived at school trembling with fear.
As soon as she entered the classroom, she moved everything on her desk to the left, building a high wall between herself and Xie Lianqing.
When Xie Lianqing arrived at school and saw this scene, he didn't comment. It wasn't until the second period, when the foreign language teacher handed back the quizzes from the previous day and asked desk mates to grade, correct, and explain each other's papers.
On the podium, the foreign language teacher said, "The class monitor and I have already circled the mistakes. Now, everyone, pass your papers to your desk mate to calculate the total score. Students who failed must come to my office after school and memorize today's reading comprehension passage before leaving."
After saying this, the foreign language teacher gave the test papers to the class monitor, instructing them to distribute them to everyone.
Xie Lianqing stood at the podium, calling out names one by one, and each person went up to collect their paper.
"Xu Qingqing." The gentle voice called out Xu Qingqing's name.
Xu Qingqing was chatting with a classmate and, upon hearing her name, bounced up to the front. Then she saw the huge red circles on her paper.
Her heart sank. It can't be! she thought. I even memorized the words before this test! Don't tell me I failed again!
After getting her paper, Xu Qingqing hurriedly calculated the points for her mistakes and found she had exactly 88 points. The foreign language test was out of 150, with a passing score of 90.
So, she had failed this foreign language test and had to stay after school to memorize the reading comprehension in the office.
In an instant, Xu Qingqing felt utterly miserable and embarrassed. Failing was one thing—she was used to that—but for her archenemy Xie Lianqing to know about it... that was just too heartbreaking!!
When Xie Lianqing finished distributing the papers and returned to his seat, Xu Qingqing indignantly handed her test paper to him.
Xie Lianqing's foreign language paper was neat and tidy, with no red circles marking errors. Apart from losing one point on the essay, he had made no mistakes elsewhere.
Xu Qingqing pouted and dryly wrote a "149" on his paper with a red pen.
How infuriating!
After finishing tallying the total score on Xie Lianqing's paper, she turned her head, rested it on the desk, and stared unblinkingly as Xie Lianqing calculated her score.
She wished Xie Lianqing was bad at math. Maybe then he'd miscalculate her score, and she could pass.
Xu Qingqing held onto this hopeful fantasy in her heart, though she knew it was unlikely. After all, in last month's exam, Xie Lianqing had gotten a perfect score in math. The final problem was so difficult, yet not only had he solved it, he had provided two different methods. That test paper had even been circulated among the class as a model answer sheet.
Under Xu Qingqing's eager gaze, Xie Lianqing went through each mistake one by one. When tallying the final score, his hand paused slightly before neatly writing "90" on the paper.
Xu Qingqing's pupils dilated. First came shock and disbelief, then she covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes curving into crescents as she secretly rejoiced.
The list of students who failed the foreign language test was submitted, and Xu Qingqing's name wasn't on it.
After school, Xu Qingqing said to her desk mate quite smugly, "Xie Lianqing! I'll tell you a secret—you're bad at arithmetic!"
Humming a tune, she then happily bent down to pack her bag and get ready to go home.
She was so lucky today! Xie Lianqing had actually miscalculated her score, so she just barely passed and didn't have to copy vocabulary words!
Meanwhile, Xie Lianqing, still seated, watched her, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. "Are you an idiot?"
Xu Qingqing: ...!!!
Ten minutes later.
"He's done for!" Xu Qingqing said to Zhou Chenyu under the big tree at the school gate. "I need to come up with a plan."
She stood with her backpack on, arms crossed, and declared, "I'm going to make him fall for me, and then I'll dump him hard!!!"
Zhou Chenyu: ...
Xie Lianqing, who happened to be passing by: ...
Later, Xu Qingqing applied the same perseverance she used for memorizing vocabulary to relentlessly pursue Xie Lianqing. She quickly succeeded in winning over the aloof, universally admired school heartthrob.
But when she was ready to dump him, she found that having Xie Lianqing by her side actually brought her a lot of prestige. He looked impressive giving speeches at flag-raising ceremonies, he could help her with her foreign language homework, and he would even walk her home after school...
So, Xu Qingqing quietly decided to keep him around a bit longer. She had worked so hard to chase him (Zhou Chenyu: Are you for real??), so of course she should enjoy the fruits of her victory!
She kept putting it off, and by the time Xu Qingqing finally thought about breaking up, she found herself almost married!!!
How did this happen?! It was only then that Xu Qingqing realized she might have been played.
...
Long before, when Xu Qingqing was completely unaware, Zhou Chenyu had also had a conversation with Xie Lianqing.
On the school rooftop, Zhou Chenyu said with a serious expression, "Xu Qingqing is actually a good person. A bit childish and spoiled, but very cute. If you get angry, please don't take it out on her."
The sunset slowly descended, its rays stretching out and shining upon the silent boy.
After a long while, Xie Lianqing smiled and asked in return, "How do you know I'm not perfectly willing?"
If it weren't for that, how would Xu Qingqing have ever taken the initiative to stay for him?
