Jiang Yan really felt like he had hit rock bottom.
As a notorious school bully, everyone in the school knew him, but ever since he got a new deskmate this semester, he found himself writing reflection essays every few days.
And the reasons didn’t even repeat.
He hadn’t finished the last three thousand-word essay on disrupting classroom order, and now he had to add another three thousand words for playing on his phone during class, making it a total of six thousand words.
Great, he could… he could just forget it.
But he couldn’t avoid writing it. With Old Yu’s incessant nagging, if he didn’t turn in the essay on time, he’d likely get a round of “educational” love from him the next second.
Jiang Yan felt really suffocated as a school bully.
During the break, he didn’t go anywhere but sat at his desk writing the reflection.
His guilty deskmate, for some reason—whether out of guilt or cowardice—disappeared the moment the bell rang.
Hu Hanghang, Song Yuan, and Xu Yichuan squeezed together at the back, three heads lined up, all staring at Jiang Yan as he wrote.
Xu Yichuan poked his head over from behind and, seeing the chaotic handwriting on the paper, couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Bro, do we have time to practice our calligraphy? With that handwriting of yours, who could possibly recognize that you’re writing a reflection essay? People would think you’re drawing some kind of symbol instead.”
Jiang Yan was already boiling with anger.
Xu Yichuan had unwittingly walked into the lion’s den, blathering on. “Bro, your handwriting reflects your character! You can’t waste that handsome face of yours. If you—uh, uh, uh…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Yan threw down his pen and suddenly pressed down on Xu Yichuan’s head. “Xu Yichuan, are you tired of living lately?”
Xu Yichuan hadn’t expected him to act so suddenly, and with his head pressed down, he felt the blood rushing to his face, which was quite uncomfortable.
He immediately begged for mercy, “Big brother, let go! Yan! Big shot! Dad! You’re my dad!”
It sounded incredibly weak.
Jiang Yan was both angry and amused, loosening his grip a bit.
As soon as Xu Yichuan felt the release, he quickly withdrew his head and began to pat his own scalp. “Damn, Fatty! Fatty! Check if my face is still handsome; I rely on this to eat, you know.”
“Not handsome, not at all.” Hu Hanghang slapped him on the face. “Xu Yichuan, you really have no shame. If you could rely on your face to eat, I could use my body to dominate!”
“Why can’t I rely on my face to eat?” Xu Yichuan rolled up his sleeves.
“You can’t rely on it for anything.” Hu Hanghang stood up, too.
Song Yuan watched the spectacle from the side, casually taking two pieces of paper from the desk and placing them on the ground. “Come on, come on, let’s place bets! Bet on Hu Hanghang winning, put it on the right; bet on Xu Yichuan winning, put it on the left.”
Even though he said that, no one in the class dared to place a bet.
Although the three of them didn’t have the same intimidating reputation as Jiang Yan, they were still mingling with him, so they could barely be considered small-time bosses.
Whoever wanted to die could go ahead and bet.
Just as everyone was observing, Du Wenbo, who was completely focused on reading an e-book, walked in through the back door of the classroom. He glanced at everyone and suddenly tossed a coin onto the paper on the left.
“……”
As soon as he made that move, it felt like someone flipped a switch in the classroom. The spectators who had initially been standing by quickly crowded forward.
“I bet on Hu Hanghang!”
“I bet on Xu Yichuan!”
“I’ll bet on both… is that allowed?”
“Get lost!”
It was at this moment that Lin Tiao returned to the classroom, coming in through the front door. Jiang Yan had his back to her, leaning against the desk with his arms crossed, watching the spectacle.
The back was a chaotic mess.
Boys and girls were jostling together.
In the noisy classroom, with the sun pouring in, the shoulders of the boys were straight and slender, occasionally bending down, seemingly laughing, making the whole scene tremble slightly.
Just as he bowed his head, the wind blew in from the window, and Lin Tiao caught a glimpse of his soft black hair being lifted by the breeze.
Suddenly, a word popped into her mind.
Gentle.
Jiang Yan thought that Hu Hanghang was truly a treasure, unmatched when it came to fooling around.
Right now, he was casually lying on Xu Yichuan’s back without any idol baggage, his legs tightly wrapped around Xu Yichuan, his hands around his neck, continually shouting, “Who’s your grandpa? Your Fatty Grandpa is your grandpa!”
“Fatty Grandpa is teaching you how to behave today.”
“Once Fatty Grandpa makes a move, you’ll know whether it works or not!”
Jiang Yan lowered his head, unable to contain his laughter. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted his ungrateful deskmate cautiously inching closer to him.
The moment he raised his head, he immediately put away his smile, staring expressionlessly at her sneaky movements, “…”
Lin Tiao paused in her tracks, revealing a flattering smile. “Classmate.”
Jiang Yan didn’t respond, watching the battle between Hu Hanghang and Xu Yichuan while thinking to himself, Let’s see what nonsense you can come up with today.
“I think I owe you an apology.” Lin Tiao walked up beside him, lowering her head, her posture quite proper in admitting her mistake.
On the other side, Xu Yichuan had Hu Hanghang’s head tucked under his arm, making Hu Hanghang’s chubby face squished and deformed.
Jiang Yan almost burst out laughing. Seeing Lin Tiao, he cleared his throat and replied seriously, “No need, I can’t accept it.”
“You can accept it! You are the revered school bully! No one in this school is more qualified to accept my apology than you.” Lin Tiao closed her eyes and told a white lie.
It’s just an apology!
Just boasting!
Just admitting wrong!
She, Lin Tiao, can do it!
Jiang Yan wasn’t really that angry; he just felt… well, he couldn’t quite put it into words at the moment.
He sighed helplessly, feigning reluctance, “I’m actually still pretty angry, but considering that we’ll be desk partners for the next two years, I’ll accept your apology.”
“? Two years! We actually have to be desk partners for two years?!” Lin Tiao exclaimed without thinking.
“…”
Jiang Yan truly felt that his temper had improved a lot since being desk partners with her. If it had been before, she might have already been flattened.
Lin Tiao felt a bit embarrassed after speaking; how could she endure two years with the school bully? Would she go bald? Would she die young?
Wah wah wah wah wah, she hadn’t even been in a relationship yet.
With the school bully as her desk partner, would she even experience the sweetness of early love?
Lost in her thoughts, Lin Tiao blurted out, “Do you believe in early love?”
“?” Jiang Yan felt that the topic of early love was too serious. Upholding the principle of not leading kids astray, he solemnly declared—
“Early love?”
“Impossible in this lifetime.”
“I, a model successor of socialism, do I seem like someone who would engage in early love?”
Lin Tiao “…”
The conversation between Lin Tiao and Jiang Yan came to an end when the battle between Xu Yichuan and Hu Hanghang concluded, and they “reconciled.”
Meanwhile, Song Yuan made a small profit by collecting bets.
During class, he and Hu Fatty counted up their earnings, which amounted to nearly twenty bucks.
“Damn, this is too profitable. You’re treating us to lunch.” Hu Hanghang made the decision on his own and passed a note to Lin Tiao.
“Sister, we’re going out for lunch; Song Yuan is treating us. He made money, so order whatever you want. By the way, ask Yan what he wants too.”
Lin Tiao’s arm was still in a cast, making it inconvenient to write, so she passed the note to Jiang Yan. When he saw the last line, he exploded.
With a swift motion, he wrote something on the note and passed it back.
Hu Hanghang cautiously opened it.
“Hu Hanghang, am I just a side note? You’ve got guts!”
Hu Hanghang “…”
I’m really exhausted; while being frugal, I still have to comfort kids.
He picked up the pen to write again, then folded it and passed it to Lin Tiao.
Lin Tiao opened it.
The previous line had been crossed out in black pen, and a new sentence was written below.
“Yan! Dad! Grandpa! Ancestor! Today Song Yuan is treating; what would you like to eat?”
She chuckled after reading it and passed the note back to Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan opened it, glanced at it, wrote a line, and passed it to Hu Hanghang.
“Ask my deskmate.”
Hu Hanghang “……”
Flipping the table and storming off.
The English teacher noticed the commotion and cleared his throat. “Students in the back, please pay attention; don’t whisper during class.”
Lin Tiao was still enjoying herself, but upon hearing the teacher’s words, she immediately quieted down, lowering her head to stare at the textbook, unsure of where the lesson had left off.
The sounds of reading from the neighboring class and the teacher’s precise British accent filled her ears.
She turned her head to look outside, and Jiang Yan happened to turn his head to look at her.
Their eyes met, both surprised for a moment.
After a few seconds, Jiang Yan’s gaze fell on her arm. He moved his lips, “When can you get that cast off?”
“Oh, probably in about half a month,” Lin Tiao replied. The injury wasn’t too severe, just a slight fracture.
“How did you fall?” Jiang Yan asked again.
“Learning to drive,” Lin Tiao was no longer resistant like before, so she told the truth, “I fell while learning to ride a bike over the summer.”
Jiang Yan paused for a second, then began to laugh.
Lin Tiao threw her arm with the cast at him. “Classmate, if you keep laughing like that, we might really end our friendship.”
“Ah…” His voice dropped, slightly heavier, but he still couldn’t hold back his laughter. “Aren’t you supposed to be a little academic star? How could you not know how to ride a bike?”
Lin Tiao finally understood; his laughter wasn’t from finding the incident funny, but rather from mockery. Unable to contain herself, she instinctively reached out her left hand to pinch him.
Unfortunately, her left hand couldn’t reach after several attempts, and she didn’t want to lower her head to look, so her hand groped blindly underneath.
Jiang Yan didn’t notice her movements; he was still leaning over the desk, laughing.
The next second, he suddenly felt warmth on his thigh.
He looked down.
Seeing a hand resting on his leg.
He happened to be wearing ripped jeans today, and the little girl’s hand was perfectly positioned right over the hole.
The warmth of her palm was directly against his thigh without any barrier.
The girl’s fingers were fair and slender, her nails rounded and neatly trimmed, each nail had a small white crescent shape.
The back of her hand had green veins, and her palm was warm and soft.
Jiang Yan looked down for a few seconds, secretly cursing himself, Damn…
Then, he discreetly shifted his gaze, raising his head to look at Lin Tiao, and seriously asked, “What’s this, acting like a hooligan?”