"Why are you still awake?"
Outside the window, the distant sports ground was shrouded in a hazy rain curtain, blurring the boundaries between the light and dark green of the turf.
It was only mid-June, yet City Number Seven was already sweltering. Even with the heavy rain pouring outside, the air conditioner in the classroom hummed steadily, pumping cool air into every corner.
It was currently lunch break. After a morning of intense studying, most of the students were exhausted, slumped over their desks to catch some well-deserved rest.
Meanwhile, Fang Qingze stared at the note on his desk and the delicate, lovely face of the girl sitting in front of him, lost in thought.
...
The heavy rain had started during the second-period big recess, arriving completely without warning. The morning had been bright and cloudless, but in the blink of an eye, the sky was covered in dark clouds.
The head of student discipline stood majestically in the exact center of the U-shaped teaching building, holding a whistle. He puffed out his chest like a general preparing to go into battle.
A sharp, piercing whistle echoed through the teaching building, followed by the disciplinarian's full-throated roar:
"Gather around, everyone!
All of you, get down here and get ready for the running drill! Move quickly!
Run a little every day, and your grades will be better!
Train a little every day, and your youth has no limits!
Class sports representatives, get a move on and hurry your classmates up..."
The disciplinarian's name was Pei Zhu. He didn't even need a megaphone; his own booming voice was enough to reach every corner of the sophomore building.
Students trickled out of their classrooms into the corridors, most of them sighing and lining up with expressions of utmost reluctance.
Running drills were a form of torture for most students.
Yet no one expected that before the ranks could even fully form, the clouds above began to gather at a visible speed.
The high sun was quickly blocked by thick layers of clouds. Within barely a minute, the entire sky was pitch black, looking as heavy and gloomy as if it were about to drip water.
And indeed it was. Pei Zhu stood in the center of the U-shaped building, frowning up at the dark clouds, still failing to react to the sudden change in weather.
As he was debating whether to cancel the drill, a raindrop landed with a sharp smack on his oily, plump face.
Immediately afterward, the rain poured down in sheets. Pei Zhu let out a startled cry, turned, and ran hunched over toward the eaves, barely managing to leave behind a single sentence:
"Drill canceled!"
The disciplinarian's round figure fled frantically in the rain, looking from a distance like a comical meatball.
Yet almost none of the students paid attention to his ungraceful retreat. The moment the rain began to fall, they were already buzzing with excitement.
With the final verdict of "drill canceled" dropping like a hammer, the light in everyone's eyes practically overflowed.
All sorts of exclamations rang out:
"Woohoo!"
"Heaven has eyes!"
"Justice from above!"
Cheers echoed through the entire circular teaching building.
Someone pinched their nose and yelled at Pei Zhu's retreating back: "Run faster, Teacher! Otherwise you'll turn into a drowned rat!"
Before Pei Zhu could turn around, *whoosh*, they ducked under the perimeter wall—good thing it was fully solid and not hollow-carved, or there wouldn't even have been time to run.
Someone else joked with their best friend: "Your ten years of lifespan really worked like a charm, summoning rain just like that! Hahaha..." earning an eye-roll and playful curse from his buddy.
The heavy rain had washed away the running drill, but at the same time, it also washed away the final PE class of the morning for Class 16 of the sophomore year.
This left the more active members of Class 16 somewhat depressed. Their once-a-week chance to sweat on the court, show off their athletic figures in front of energetic girls, and reap the sweet fantasy of cheers and screams had been nipped in the bud before it even began.
However, not everyone thought the rain was a bad thing. At least, their Chinese teacher now had an opening; she could seize a whole period from the PE teacher without having to invent any sudden illnesses for him...
...
Returning to the lunch break, in the window seat at the very back row of the classroom.
Raindrops fell on the windowsill, and occasionally when a strong gust of wind blew, the rain veered off course, tapping *pat-pat-pat* against the windowpane.Two sparrows landed on the windowsill. The single-paned window offered poor sound insulation, letting the patter of the rain and the cheerful chirping filter clearly through. The little creatures shook their heads from time to time and occasionally helped each other preen their feathers.
Animals of normal size had become a rare sight since the Catastrophe.
Fang Qingze was somewhat fascinated. Cupping his cheek in his right hand and resting his elbow on the desk, he watched them in a daze.
He turned to glance at the clock on the blackboard: 1:05 PM. Aside from a few overachieving "study hounds" still furiously scribbling away, everyone else had slumped over their desks and fallen asleep.
To have a nice, cozy nap under the air conditioning—what a wonderful thing that would be!
Yet Fang Qingze did not think so. He could not sleep at noon today; or rather, whenever it rained, he simply could not fall asleep.
Perhaps it was because he liked listening to the rain, or perhaps rainy days brought to mind certain vexing thoughts—he no longer knew the exact reason.
One thing Fang Qingze was certain of, however, was that he always suffered from insomnia on rainy afternoons.
Fang Qingze shifted his gaze away from the clock and back to the windowsill.
By now, however, the two sparrows seemed to have flown off. He straightened up, leaned toward the window, and looked left and right, but there was no sign of them.
The heavy rain was still falling, and the temperature outside must have been lower than inside. A thin layer of mist had fogged up the inner surface of the single-paned window, making the sports field not far away even more hazy and indistinct.
Fang Qingze reached out with his left hand and gently wiped a small clean patch on the glass, then resumed cupping his cheek with his right hand, gazing blankly out at the football field in a trance.
Beneath the desk, hidden from anyone's view, a wisp of scarlet flame swept across his palm. The moisture on his hand evaporated into nothingness in the blink of an eye, while Fang Qingze's expression remained completely calm, as if nothing had happened at all.
On the football field, apart from two goals with tattered nets standing far apart facing each other in the rain, there was nothing else. No one knew what Fang Qingze was looking at.
At some point, a faint, fresh fragrance drifted into Fang Qingze's nostrils—it felt like the scent of shampoo or shower gel.
A hand suddenly appeared less than twenty centimeters in front of Fang Qingze's eyes and gave a gentle wave.
Fang Qingze's focus shifted to the hand. Its five fingers were slender and delicate, with clear, well-defined knuckles. He blinked and turned his head toward the desk in front of him. For a split second, his breath caught and his heartbeat accelerated slightly.
Sitting in the seat ahead of him was a remarkably pretty girl.
Her skin was as translucent and flawless as jade, her features exquisite. Her soft, slender eyebrows curved like willow leaves, her eyes were bright and limpid, and the bridge of her nose was high and straight with a slightly upturned tip. Her lips were full yet delicate, and her neck was fair and slender.
To Fang Qingze's eyes, she was utterly flawless. The collar of her school uniform had an unbuttoned clasp, revealing her delicate collarbones.
Yet what made Fang Qingze's heart race was not the girl's beauty—he considered himself far from the sort of person who lost his composure at the sight of a pretty face.
Rather, it was that the two of them were sitting much too close at this moment. Their faces were a mere fifteen centimeters apart, and with his eyesight, he could clearly see the very fine downy hairs on the girl's cheek.
Fang Qingze leaned back slightly to put some distance between them. His inner calm quickly returned, and he met the girl's eyes as if to ask, "Is there something you need?"
Ye Chuqing's heart was also beating quite fast. She was not surprised when he deliberately pulled back; she simply withdrew her right hand and pointed at Fang Qingze's desk.
The latter looked down and discovered that his previously empty desk had somehow acquired a slip of paper bearing a line of neat handwriting in carbon ink:
"Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Surprised, Fang Qingze raised his head to look at Ye Chuqing. Ever since this pretty girl in front of him had transferred into Class 16 of Grade 2 two months ago and become his desk-mate in front, she had barely spoken a word to him.
Even during exams when passing out and collecting test papers, the most they ever did was glance at each other briefly to acknowledge one another.
What was going on today?