Lin Tiao stared at Jiang Yan's radiant smile for three seconds, then chose to lower her head expressionlessly, pretending she didn’t recognize this person.
Although they had really only met a few times.
Jiang Yan didn’t seem to care much about Lin Tiao's reaction. He put away his smile and walked straight to his seat, pulling a pen out of his pocket.
The pen looked very ordinary, so ordinary that it didn’t even have a cap. Through the transparent casing, one could clearly see that the black ink cartridge inside was almost empty.
This was extremely inconsistent with the aura of a big shot.
When Xu Yichuan came over to hand him a blank paper, he saw Jiang Yan's pen and felt helpless. “Bro, are you really planning to rely on just this pen to get us through?”
Jiang Yan lazily leaned back in his chair, pulled out his school uniform jacket, rummaged through it, and took out a black ink cartridge to lay on the table. “Do you think I’m as foolish as you?”
“…”
A big shot is indeed a big shot; he just operates so differently.
The exam was set to start in ten minutes, but the supervising director, Li Kun, hadn’t arrived yet, and the people in the examination room began to chat again.
“Where is Li Kun?”
“Is something wrong?”
-
“Hey, where do you guys plan to go for summer vacation?”
“Where else? My mom said that if I end up ranking last again, she’ll get me a tutor to study at home for two months.”
“No way.”
Lin Tiao felt a bit bored sitting there. The girl who had sat behind her during the exam yesterday poked her again. “Lin Tiao, can you help me out again during today’s exam?”
After returning home last night, Lin Tiao had accepted the girl’s friend request, and they had exchanged a few messages on QQ.
She learned that the girl’s name was Tao Jia and that she was from Class 16 upstairs.
“Do you trust me that much?” Lin Tiao turned her body to look at her. “We’re in the same examination room, and all the students who ranked last in their respective classes are here.”
Tao Jia was chewing on some candy. “I’ve heard your name. You’re quite famous in our class. This semester, you only passed one subject, Chinese, and you ended up as the top scorer in that subject. Our Chinese teacher has mentioned it several times in class.”
“…”
Lin Tiao felt that only passing one subject during the midterms wasn’t exactly something to be proud of.
Tao Jia was a bit curious and even sounded somewhat envious. “Why didn’t you come to the exam? Don’t your parents care?”
As Lin Tiao was contemplating how to answer that question, an unfamiliar teacher hurriedly entered the classroom holding exam papers. “Students, your supervising director is dealing with something urgent, so I’ll be proctoring this exam. Please put away any materials related to the exam. I won’t elaborate on the exam discipline; you all know what to do.”
Just as everyone was celebrating the news of Li Kun not proctoring, the new supervising teacher picked up some chalk and wrote a large letter “Z” on the blackboard.
What is this?
A new examination rule?
The new proctor quickly clarified, “Everyone rearrange your seats according to the shape of this letter.”
“…”
The classroom immediately erupted in chatter. “Teacher, we’ve always arranged our seats in an S-shape during exams. Are you misunderstanding how to arrange the seats?”
“The papers will be distributed in two minutes. If I see anyone sitting in the wrong position, you will be asked to leave.” The new proctor looked expressionlessly at the entire class of examinees. “There’s one minute and fifty seconds left.”
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the classroom stood up in unison.
In the shuffle, Lin Tiao heard someone complain, “Which class’s teacher is this? Why haven’t I seen them before? They’re even worse than Li Kun at proctoring.”
“Damn, I don’t want to take the exam anymore,” said Xu Yichuan, who had originally sat in the back row but had moved to the second row.
Lin Tiao didn’t pay much attention. She found her seat according to her exam number and had just sat down for three seconds when Jiang Yan walked over from behind and took the empty seat to her right.
“…”
The two exchanged glances, and Lin Tiao quickly looked away, afraid he would flash his eight-toothed smile at her again.
“Hey” Jiang Yan called out to her.
Lin Tiao ignored him.
The proctor didn’t give them any time to catch up. As soon as the people in the back had taken their seats, he started distributing the exam papers. Once finished, he formally announced, “Begin the exam.”
The results of this comprehensive science exam were crucial for class placement in the next semester. Lin Tiao didn’t dare to slack off. As usual, she chose to skip the physics questions first and tackled the other two subjects.
By the time she finished those, just over half the time had passed.
She rubbed her slightly sore wrist and casually glanced at Jiang Yan sitting next to her. He had put on a pair of glasses that he somehow managed to find, looking rather scholarly.
After observing him a few times, Lin Tiao noticed that the moments when he put down his pen were fleeting; he would read the question and almost immediately start writing, hardly touching the draft paper beside him.
To be fair, Jiang Yan was indeed good-looking. Among the entire school, he could be considered a heartthrob.
But after their interactions, Lin Tiao thought that being good-looking wasn’t enough; one also needed to be smart.
The exam time passed quickly. Lin Tiao focused, but just when she picked up her pen again, Jiang Yan had already put his down.
He also took off his glasses, completely breaking away from the scholarly demeanor he had just moments before, looking lazy and like a student who hadn’t slept well.
Jiang Yan rested his chin on his hand, his gaze somewhat dazed, and it looked like he was about to fall asleep. The proctor walked over to him, glanced at his answer sheet, swallowed whatever he was about to say, and simply tapped his desk with his finger.
Time passed bit by bit.
Lin Tiao was stuck on the last large physics problem, having filled an entire sheet of draft paper and only managed to solve one of the smaller questions.
She rested her head in her hand, scrutinizing the problem but still felt blank. By chance, she glanced to her right and happened to meet Jiang Yan’s gaze.
Before she could think, Jiang Yan suddenly lifted his hand and placed his answer sheet to the side, intentionally pressing the exam paper on top of it as if afraid Lin Tiao would see his answers.
“…”
As if I could see it!
—
After the exam, some were happy while others were worried.
Lin Tiao was so furious about Jiang Yan’s behavior during the exam that she planned to settle the score with him after the English exam.
However, to her surprise, Jiang Yan skipped the afternoon English exam altogether and didn’t even show up, along with his three little followers.
Lin Tiao was livid.
When chatting with Meng Xin during summer vacation, she brought up this incident, still fuming. “Just thinking about him makes me want to explode.”
On the other side of the internet, Meng Xin was scrolling through gossip posts about Jiang Yan and Lin Yan on the school forum.
— Shocking! Big shot Jiang Yan actually did something so indecent in front of a girl!
— Crying! The big shot actually likes girls! Didn’t we agree to stay gay forever…
Since the day after the comprehensive science exam, posts like these had been continuously popping up on the forum for the school. However, Lin Tiao wasn’t particularly fond of browsing forums; she mostly relied on Meng Xin to send her some comments.
“Look at this.” Meng Xin sent her another screenshot while laughing. “Hahaha, someone actually said you skipped the midterm exam to accompany Jiang Yan to get braces.”
“…”
“The students' imaginations have really reached a level beyond comprehension.” Meng Xin continued to laugh. “But you were really something back then. You fell into a ditch while riding a bike, and not only that, you gave yourself a concussion! I really can’t help but admire you.”
“…”
Lin Tiao felt helpless as well. She had poor balance since she was little and had practiced riding a bike for over half a year without even managing to ride one meter.
In middle school, while other girls rode their bicycles alongside boys, enjoying the peaceful moments on tree-lined paths, she could only sit behind her father’s motorcycle, feeling the cold wind whip painfully across her face.
Such painful youth.
Meng Xin was laughing uncontrollably on the other end of the video call.
For a moment, Lin Tiao really wanted to crawl through the internet and give her a beating. Once Meng Xin calmed down, Lin Tiao gritted her teeth and declared, “I’ve made up my mind.”
“What have you decided?”
“I’m going to learn to ride a bicycle over the summer!”
“Maybe not. Isn’t it better to stay alive?”
“…”
Lin Tiao hung up the video call directly.
Meng Xin persistently continued to message her. “Then remember to buy a few more insurance policies. If it doesn’t work out, at least get your bike insured; it can’t handle all those crashes from you!”
“How fragile it is!”
“So, why not consider learning to drive a car instead?”
“At least if you crash, you have an airbag to protect you.”
Lin Tiao blocked her.
-
Lin Tiao was a person of her word. The next morning, she took the key and went down to the bike shed to push her bicycle out.
She stumbled and fumbled for an entire morning, only managing to go around in circles.
When Lin Fu came back in the evening, Lin Tiao brought this up. “Dad, can you teach me how to ride a bike this weekend when you’re not busy?”
“Hmm?” Lin Fu flipped through the newspaper in his hands. “Why ride a bike? Taking the bus is much better—safe and comfortable, warm in winter and cool in summer.”
“…”
Lin Tiao gave up seeking help. The next morning, she continued to explore on her own in the square downstairs.
After more than half a month of practice, the kids from her school who learned with her had already learned to ride with passengers, while she could only slide forward with both feet on the ground.
Lin Tiao still didn’t give up. Finally, just a few days before summer break ended, she learned how to ride a bike. Although she could only manage to ride a little over a meter, it was still a sign of progress.
That evening, she called Meng Xin out to the square to show her the results of her learning.
Meng Xin: “…”
She really didn’t want to admit that this kid was one of their school’s outstanding students.
“Without taking small steps, you can’t reach a thousand miles. I feel like I can ride to school any day now.” Lin Tiao sat on the bicycle, feet on the ground, occasionally pedaling.
The wheels rolled slowly forward as Meng Xin walked alongside her.
As they passed the lawn, a dog suddenly darted out from the side. Lin Tiao couldn’t dodge in time; as she pressed her foot down, the bicycle flew forward, and she lost her balance, falling off the bike.
“Lin Tiao!” Meng Xin quickly ran over to help her up from the ground. “Are you okay?”
“My arm—ah.” Lin Tiao felt like crying.
After practicing cycling for over a month, although she hadn’t learned to ride, she had proudly broken her right arm in the process.
Congratulations :)
---
Lin Tiao stayed in the hospital for a week, and on the day she was discharged, it happened to be the first day of school at No. 10 High School. Since she needed to take care of the class placement that day, Lin Fu drove her directly to school after her discharge.
With the new semester beginning, the campus was bustling with activity.
Lin Tiao found her class on the placement list in the square: Class 28 of the second year, in a new classroom in a new teaching building.
As she walked past the playground, she saw the first-year students undergoing military training, and she felt like she was fully alive again.
Lin Tiao arrived a bit late. By the time she found the classroom, the new homeroom teacher was already arranging matters inside. She stood at the door and knocked. “Reporting in.”
Everyone in the classroom looked up toward the door, and a girl recognized Lin Tiao, her face filled with curiosity.
The new homeroom teacher noticed Lin Tiao’s arm in a cast and looked concerned. “Come in quickly! What happened to your arm?”
Lin Tiao felt embarrassed to say that she had fallen while learning to ride a bike, so she made up a reason. “I fell accidentally.”
The new homeroom teacher didn’t press further. “Then you hurry and find—”
Before she could finish her sentence, another voice came from the doorway. “Reporting in.”
Everyone in the classroom looked up at the door again, and upon seeing who it was, the entire class burst into laughter.
Lin Tiao was confused and turned around.
Jiang Yan stood at the door, wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts, revealing a nicely toned calf. He was backlit and held his backpack in his right hand.
His left hand was also in a cast, just like hers.
“…”
At the moment Lin Tiao saw Jiang Yan, she felt like the person who had just come back to life had died again.
Note - Lin Fu (林父) translates to "Lin's father" in English. In the context of the story, it refers to Lin Tiao's father.
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