Two months ago...
Seven-ten in the morning.
Morning reading had already been going on for ten minutes. As usual, what started out neat and loud had gradually devolved into the current noisy chaos.
Groups of two or three students had already gathered to chat and mess around.
Standing outside the door, you could hear various classical poems and literary passages occasionally interspersed with a few curses like "what the fuck," "damn it," and "you piece of shit."
The sound of laughter, playful shoving, and books smacking against bodies had completely drowned out the actual reading.
Turns out that even in an elite class at a key high school, morning reading was still a total shitshow...
"What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!"
Near the window by the corridor, Zhang Wen, who was on "guard duty," had been leaning over the windowsill when his eyes suddenly went wide. He blurted out three curses in a row and reached out to slap his deskmate Chen Hao on the head.
Chen Hao was in the middle of reciting when he suddenly took a blow right to the crown. His head spun and he forgot the next line.
Furious, he rolled his textbook into a stick, turned around, and smacked it against Zhang Wen's outstretched arm with a loud *thwack*:
"What the hell are you hitting me for? I'm trying to recite here! Did you eat too much and lose your mind early in the morning?"
Zhang Wen completely ignored Chen Hao's angry expression. He threw an arm around Chen Hao's neck, dragged him toward the window, and shoved his upper body out as well.
Then he pointed down the far end of the corridor and said, "Haozi, Haozi, isn't that our head teacher?"
Chen Hao turned to look in the direction Zhang Wen was pointing. They had been with their head teacher, Liu Jiang, for nearly a year and a half, so they knew him very well.
Plus, there was Old Liu's bald head shining brilliantly in the sunlight—they didn't need to look closely to recognize him.
He said with annoyance, "So what if it's Old Liu? Do you fucking have to be so worked up? He's not some kind of monster, you scared he's gonna eat you or—wait!"
As he spoke, he suddenly felt something was off. Right next to Old Liu... was there someone else?
And it looked like a girl. At that thought, he leaned further out and, just like Zhang Wen, widened his eyes.
Walking beside Liu Jiang was a tall young girl. On her upper body, she wore a white hooded sweatshirt with a print of a squatting cartoon cat on the chest, its head tilted to one side. On her lower body, she had black slim-fit trousers that were slightly loose, not clinging tightly to her figure.
Chen Hao was a bit nearsighted. He squinted as the head teacher led the young girl closer, finally making out her face.
"Hiss—!" Chen Hao drew in a sharp breath. "Holy crap! What a absolute beauty!
Damn! Look at those long legs! She's gotta be at least 170 centimeters tall, right?
Tsk, I bet even the one down in Class 19 isn't as pretty as her!"
His eyes practically glazed over, and without turning his head, he said:
"Mosquito, what's going on here? Who the hell is this next to Old Liu?"
"You're asking me, who do I ask?" Zhang Wen rolled his eyes. As if he would know a beauty of that caliber.
He thought for a moment and said, "Could she be a transfer from another school? In all my memory, none of the other twenty-odd classes have ever had anyone like her."
"Yeah... probably. With a beauty of this level, there's no way we wouldn't have heard a peep about her for three semesters."
Chen Hao nodded. Then he suddenly narrowed his eyes and broke into a wretched smile:
"Hey! You think there's any chance...
she was drawn here by my dashing and peerless good looks?" With that, Chen Hao even gave a suave toss to his non-existent bangs.
"...Oh, sure, sure."
The corners of Zhang Wen's mouth twitched. He looked at Chen Hao's acne-ridden face and thick mustache, suddenly feeling zero desire to entertain this heavily delusional self-absorbed guy.
Yuck, what a total creep!
He turned back to look down the corridor and shoved the daydreaming Chen Hao straight back into his seat:
"Alright, alright, stop daydreaming your pathetic little life away, Old Liu is already here."
Zhang Wen deliberately let out two loud coughs, pretending to clear his throat, before standing up straight, putting on a deadpan expression, and reciting loudly: "Yixi! Dangerous and towering!"
Seeing the "sentinel" give the warning, the students quickly straightened up.
Those who had left their seats to horse around with their besties scrambled back in a low squat, and the sound of reading rang out loud and clear once again: "The road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the blue sky..."
Just then, head teacher Liu Jiang walked into the classroom and stepped up onto the podium. He first swept his gaze over the entire class, and then his eyes settled on Chen Hao.
To be precise, on the book in Chen Hao's hands.
He extended his right hand and tapped his fingers against the podium desk: "Come on! Everyone stop for a second, hold off on the reading.
Look at our classmate Chen Hao here, holding his book upside down. But I'm sure he did it on purpose to show everyone that he's already memorized the classical poem backwards! Well, not bad, definitely worth praising!"
Hearing this, Chen Hao looked down at his book. His face flushed red, and he frantically flipped the book right side up.
"Pfft, hahaha..." Zhang Wen in the back row instantly lost it, letting out a weird laugh. Because he was holding it in, his shoulders were shaking.
The next instant, Liu Jiang's gaze shifted to him, one eyebrow arching: "Oh right, and our classmate Zhang Wen as well!
Every time I walk by, he's always reciting *The Road to Shu*. What does that tell us?
It tells us he has a deep, passionate love for this classical poem, reciting it every single day! This kind of dedication is commendable!
But I still have to criticize him a little—you can't just fixate on *The Road to Shu*~! You've got to share the love with the other poems too!"
Zhang Wen immediately used his book to cover his face, but his shoulders shook even more violently.
You could tell that even though he was being "criticized" by the head teacher, he couldn't stop laughing at all.
Following his lead, many people in the classroom burst out laughing.
"Alright, alright," Liu Jiang clapped his hands with mild irritation: "Everyone quiet down now, I've got serious business to cover."Upon hearing this, the students immediately quieted down. In fact, the moment the head teacher walked in, everyone had already noticed the young girl who accompanied him.
It was just that because the head teacher had first disciplined Zhang Wen and Chen Hao and enjoyed the spectacle for a bit, she had been temporarily ignored.
Only now did they have the leisure to size up the stranger. At this moment, the young girl was standing quietly on the podium.
Her jet-black, beautiful hair was unbound, cascading over her shoulders. She was tall with strikingly long legs, and her cheeks were as white and smooth as jade. Her facial features were exquisite, save for the lack of expression on her face, which made her look somewhat aloof and cold.
This was an aloof beauty.
Though the students were dazzled by her looks, none of them whispered or spoke out loud.
Liu Jiang paused for a moment and said, "According to the school's arrangements, our class is about to welcome a new student. Look! Standing beside me is the new student joining our class. For the upcoming semesters, we will all study together and spend our remaining high school life side by side. Come on! Introduce yourself so everyone can get to know you." The last sentence was directed at the young girl beside him.
The young girl did not speak immediately, instead sweeping her pretty eyes across the room in a quick glance.
Everyone was wearing the uniform blue jacket. When her gaze swept toward the tall, slender figure by the window who was looking outside, her pupils constricted slightly, and the corners of her mouth curved into a subtle arc before smoothing out just as quickly.
Sensing something, Fang Qingze turned his head to look at the young girl on the podium.
However, the young girl's gaze had already shifted away. Fang Qingze glanced a few times at the beautiful figure on the podium.
He thought to himself, "This has got to be the prettiest girl I've ever seen. Well... except for that woman."
He frowned slightly, shook his head, and chased that figure out of his mind. *Damn it, why would I use that obnoxious woman for comparison?*
Stealing one last glance at the young girl on the podium, Fang Qingze suddenly felt that her face looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
After thinking it over carefully and confirming he had no impression of her, Fang Qingze turned his head back toward the window. To him, the scenery outside seemed far more captivating than the person on the stage.
The young girl on the podium wore a blank expression, but her heartbeat was quickening. *Did he actually catch me peeking at her?*
She quickly composed herself, however, and a cool yet magnetic voice came from her lips: "Hello everyone, my name is Ye Chuqing."
The crowd below waited for a good while, but there was no sentence to follow. After saying those words, she didn't speak again, simply standing quietly in place once more.
The students beneath the podium looked at each other in dismay. That... was it? A grand total of eight words—could this even be considered an introduction?
Then they looked back at their old teacher. Liu Jiang, seeming to have anticipated this, didn't look surprised at all. With a faint smile, he said, "Alright, alright, let's give a warm welcome to classmate Ye."
With that, he took the lead in applauding. Although the students below felt Ye Chuqing's self-introduction was far too brief, they still clapped enthusiastically.
After a dozen seconds, the applause gradually subsided.
"Teacher Liu, the desks and chairs you asked us to move up are here," a boy's voice called from outside the door at that moment.
Standing at the doorway were two boys, both over six feet tall with darker skin. Their jackets were covered in colorful graffiti, rendering the original blue-and-white school uniforms unrecognizable.
One glance told the students everything: certified sports majors with dark skin from Class 32 on the first floor.
One of them was hugging a desk in his arms, while the other had a stool hoisted onto his shoulder with one hand shoved in his pocket.
Liu Jiang looked at the two of them. "You two wait a moment."
With that, he scanned the classroom again, his gaze finally resting on Fang Qingze.
"Fang Qingze, move your desk backward to make room for classmate Ye."
It wasn't really directed at Fang Qingze personally; there had originally been only 41 students in the class, arranged in six columns of seven rows.
Everyone had a single desk without seatmates. Fang Qingze happened to be right in the corner, so his column only had six people. Now, with Ye Chuqing, it would make exactly seven.
Without a word, Fang Qingze simply nodded and pulled his stool and desk backward until they were aligned with the very last row.
He glanced behind him and raised an eyebrow slightly: the brooms and dustpan were neatly arranged, and the trash can was entirely free of refuse.
Well! He was now within half a meter of the "sanitation corner."
"You guys can bring the desk and chairs over there," Liu Jiang said, turning to the two at the door.
"You got it." Moving quickly and efficiently, the two athletes set the desk and chairs down right in front of Fang Qingze.
"Alright, you can sit right there," Liu Jiang told Ye Chuqing after the two muscle-men left.
With that, he checked his wristwatch. "Oh right, someone was already asked to prepare your books yesterday; they should be delivered before the first class today."
"Okay, Teacher," Ye Chuqing nodded. "Should I go down there now?"
When Liu Jiang nodded, she stepped off the podium and walked toward her seat.
Students on both sides turned their heads to size up this "uninvited guest." The nascent morning sun streamed through the window, casting a pure and flawless glow upon her fair, exquisite profile that made hearts skip a beat.
Some boys even lowered their heads at a single glance, not daring to look any further.
"Alright, everyone continue with morning reading. I have matters to attend to and will be leaving now. Class monitor, lead the way." With that, Liu Jiang strode down the platform and left the classroom.
Her heart beat faster and faster. Ye Chuqing looked toward the far end of the aisle between the desks.
*Things have changed a lot, so different from when we were little, but I can still recognize him.*
Ye Chuqing let out a soft breath and came to a halt at her seat. After a long moment, she still couldn't resist looking back.
The boy was leaning against the window sill, head turned to look out the window in a daze. Bathed in the morning light, with delicate features and fine, wispy hair,
putting aside the world-weary look in his eyes, he could easily pass for a bright, sunny boy.