In the afternoon, it was time for the science exam.
Whether it was due to the familiarity gained from the morning language exam, Lin Tiao clearly felt that the atmosphere was much more relaxed when she arrived at the exam room in the afternoon.
Although there wasn't much walking around or laughing, at least the students in the front and back rows were chatting more comfortably.
Sitting in front of Lin Tiao was a boy named Fang Yan, from Class 20 upstairs.
During the morning language exam, he had borrowed tape from Lin Tiao. By the afternoon, he was already chatting with her as if they were old friends.
At first, the topics were quite normal, mostly about how the morning exam went, if she had prepared for this exam, and where she thought she would rank in the grade.
Lin Tiao was getting impatient and didn't really want to engage in the conversation after a few exchanges.
Meng Xin and Jiang Yan hadn't arrived in the classroom yet. Lin Tiao lowered her head and began to write some frequently used formulas on a blank sheet of paper, clearly showing her reluctance to talk.
Fang Yan didn't seem to realize he was being ignored and continued talking to himself. He even took out his phone, smiling mischievously, "Hey sister, can I get your contact info? We could hang out sometime."
Lin Tiao stopped writing and looked up at the boy in front of her, speaking seriously, "My dad doesn't have a son, and I don't have a younger brother. We're not familiar with each other, and I'm not older than you. So why are you calling me 'sister'?"
Fang Yan was momentarily stunned but quickly recovered, laughing nonchalantly, "We might not be familiar now, but if we add each other as friends, we can get to know each other better over time."
Lin Tiao had seen many boys like Fang Yan before—guys who would use their looks to flirt with girls. They would start by asking for contact information, chat for a few days, and then ask the girls out. After a series of dates like meals, shopping, movies, and amusement parks, they would turn a simple online friendship into a real boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
Many girls in her previous class had fallen into this early dating trap.
But Lin Tiao was an exception. She never got on the boat, not even going near the lake.
She twirled her pen between her fingers, lowered her eyes to look at the boy in front of her, and clicked her tongue. "I'll be honest with you. Even if you add me as a friend, it's useless."
Fang Yan raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue.
Lin Tiao cleared her throat and pointed to the empty seat on her left, "The guy who sat there this morning, Jiang Yan, you know him, right?"
"Yes," Fang Yan was not as ignorant as some of the good students. He was somewhat familiar with Jiang Yan's reputation as the school bully.
"He's my deskmate," Lin Tiao released the pen from her fingers. "He doesn't date early and doesn't allow others to date early either. If I were to date, he'd kill me."
Lin Tiao looked at the boy's changing expression and continued to build her image of not dating early. "So, do you want to experience such a life-and-death love with me? If you want to, this won't stay hidden from my deskmate. Once he knows, he'll probably just beat us up. It wouldn't be too bad, just half-dead."
"So, do you want that?"
"..." Only an idiot would agree. Fang Yan awkwardly laughed and even offered her some advice, "You could just not be his deskmate, then he wouldn't control you."
He then thought of another suggestion, "Or you could transfer to our class. No one there would control you."
Lin Tiao thought this guy had no self-awareness at all. Had she not made it clear enough?
She was about to get up and leave the classroom when a pen suddenly flew in from the window and landed on her desk, followed by a deep, indifferent voice, "Trying to steal my deskmate?"
"..."
"..."
Lin Tiao didn't expect such perfect timing. She turned her head to look at the person outside the window.
After a noon break, the guy was no longer in the drowsy state he was in the morning.
He was dressed in clean and neat black clothes, with well-groomed black hair, long eyelashes slightly downcast, standing against the light. His eyes held complex emotions, and his expression was somewhat indifferent.
In a sharp black outfit with meticulously groomed black hair, standing against the light with his long eyelashes casting shadows, Jiang Yan looked both complex and indifferent.
He took off his headphones, packed them slowly, then looked up at Fang Yan. With a slight lift of his chin, he repeated the three words, "Stealing a deskmate."
He was seriously annoyed. He had only left for lunch, and now he was back to find such an irritating topic.
Fang Yan hadn't expected to be caught red-handed while trying to flirt with his deskmate. Although he had intended to steal the girl's attention, she was clearly uninterested.
Seeing the intimidating gaze Jiang Yan was giving him, Fang Yan was a bit scared.
Both of them had their own thoughts. Under Jiang Yan's increasingly murderous gaze, Lin Tiao spoke up timidly, "Um…"
Lin Tiao's voice only made Jiang Yan's annoyance worse. He lifted his gaze to meet hers, his eyelashes like raven feathers, and said with a chilling tone, "Is it really that hard to be my deskmate?"
"Not at all," Lin Tiao said, pointing at Fang Yan. "This guy wanted my contact information, but you know I'm not the kind of person who just gives it away."
"Of course, I'm not." Lin Tiao continued with a serious tone, "I told him that my deskmate is very strict, so I can't give it to him. He then suggested that I shouldn't sit with you."
"I wanted to argue with him, and then you showed up."
Lin Tiao spoke a lot in one breath, then looked up at him with a sigh, "Jiang Yan, I'm really not at all upset about being your deskmate."
"I'm actually quite happy and honored. If the school allowed, I would even set off fireworks to celebrate being your deskmate."
Jiang Yan, "..."
Alright then.
Women's words are just deceitful.
—
The science exam started at 2 PM.
Five minutes before the exam began, the proctor walked into the classroom with the papers, reciting the usual opening lines, and then began distributing the test papers.
When the exam bell rang, one of the proctors spoke up, "The exam starts now. No talking or using phones during the exam."
Most of the students in this exam hall were science high achievers. Lin Tiao was different; she wasn't particularly outstanding in science, especially in physics, which was always her weak subject.
Fortunately, her grades in the main subjects were good, so her overall performance was still excellent.
Halfway through the exam, Lin Tiao set down her pen and rubbed her sore wrist. Her gaze inadvertently fell to the side.
Jiang Yan wasn't as devilish as he was during the finals. He was focused on writing his answers.
From this angle, his profile was sharp and well-defined. The high bridge of his nose was accentuated by his gold-rimmed glasses, his lips were a straight line, and his fingers, gripping the pen, were well-defined. After a brief pause, he continued writing, his intense focus giving him a different kind of appeal.
Having been deskmates for a while, Lin Tiao rarely saw him so serious. Usually, he looked half-asleep or was in a relaxed, lazy state.
Seeing this other side of him, she couldn't help but look a few extra times.
She had to admit, a man's serious look was indeed the most charming.
Wait a minute.
Lin Tiao couldn't believe she had found Jiang Yan charming.
She must have been squinting in the wind just now.
Lin Tiao thought firmly to herself.
Anyone could be charming, but Jiang Yan was impossible. It would never happen in this lifetime.
He was just an idiot.
The school had strong teaching resources. The exam questions were set by teachers who were active in preparing high school entrance exams.
Therefore, the difficulty of the questions was usually five stars or higher.
This mock exam, intended to test students' learning after the subjects were divided, had not lowered the difficulty but rather increased it by another star.
Even Jiang Yan, who usually solved problems in half the time, spent an additional twenty minutes on this science exam.
With half an hour left in the exam, Jiang Yan stopped writing, took off his glasses, and set them on the desk. He rubbed his nose, accidentally touching a sore spot, and frowned slightly.
Most students were still engrossed in their papers, and the proctors were chatting outside. This floor was filled with top students, so the proctoring was not very strict.
Lin Tiao got stuck on the last physics problem, trying several approaches but unable to find a suitable solution.
Deciding not to waste time, she stopped and reviewed the questions she had already completed.
Since she couldn't solve it anyway, she thought it was better not to waste any time.
After checking her exam paper, Lin Tiao realized that her deskmate had somehow already stopped writing. He had his arms crossed, leaning against the back of his desk, either daydreaming or looking at his test paper.
Perhaps noticing Lin Tiao's blatant gaze, Jiang Yan turned to meet her eyes and saw the answer sheet of the little girl hanging over the edge of the desk.
The girl reacted quickly, swiftly pulling the paper back. Jiang Yan vaguely saw that her last question was still blank. After waiting a few minutes without seeing her start writing, he smiled slightly, pulled out a scrap of paper from his pocket, and began to scribble on it.
Once finished, Jiang Yan folded the paper, glanced at the teacher standing outside the classroom, and tossed it accurately onto Lin Tiao's desk.
When the note flew over, Lin Tiao was still pondering the last question. Seeing the sudden appearance of the note on her desk, her first reaction was to quickly cover it with her test paper to avoid being caught by the teacher.
But the next moment, she realized.
Who the hell threw this?
What's the deal?
Trying to cheat?
That's impossible.
Despite her disbelief, Lin Tiao carefully opened the note, which had a few hastily scribbled words.
"Focus on your exam, stop looking around."
From the tone of the note, Lin Tiao knew it was from her idiot deskmate.
She crumpled the note, stuffed it into her pocket, and looked over at Jiang Yan, silently mouthing, "Are you crazy?"
The girl's expression was defiant, her eyes round and bright, clearly showing her dissatisfaction with his unreasonable behavior.
Jiang Yan leaned casually against the desk, his long legs awkwardly bent. With his eyebrows lowered and a faint smile on his lips, his lips moved soundlessly.
But with her poor vision, Lin Tiao still understood.
He was saying,
"Little trash."
Trash is trash, but adding "little" seems unnecessary.
Lin Tiao apologized to herself for the brief illusion that Jiang Yan could be charming; he was just an idiot.
A true idiot.
—
The two days of exams quickly passed.
Before the exams, Mr. Yu had said that after the tests, they couldn't leave the school and would need to go back to the classroom for a major clean-up in preparation for the upcoming holidays.
Lin Tiao originally planned to sneak away, thinking that with so many people in the classroom, Mr. Yu couldn't possibly spot her.
But she failed.
Looking at the person walking next to her, Lin Tiao, remembering his extremely annoying behavior during the exams, spoke with less politeness than before, "Jiang Yan, it's really not a big deal if one person is missing from the clean-up. You don't need to be so serious about it."
Jiang Yan remained calm and looked at her indifferently, "Mr. Yu specifically instructed me to keep an eye on you."
"When did Mr. Yu ever say that?" Lin Tiao felt he was blatantly lying, "Mr. Yu actually told me to keep an eye on you."
"Exactly, so you need to keep an eye on me."
"..."
Okay.
It's just keeping an eye on him.
She could do that.
Lin Tiao fully understood the meaning of "keeping an eye on" and took a big step forward, turning around and walking backward, facing him.
—
The exam ended in the late afternoon, with the sun descending through layers of clouds to the western horizon. The twilight was soft and warm, enveloping the entire campus.
In the empty corridor, a young man walked with a steady pace. Dressed in white and black, his tall figure and perfect profile exuded a gentle demeanor.
In front of him walked a young girl, her expression vibrant, bathed in the soft, golden light filtered through the tree shadows, her eyes clear and captivating.
The scene seemed frozen in that moment.
Then, the next second, a group of boys burst out from the staircase, holding basketballs and cheering loudly. They were oblivious to each other's paths.
As if a preordained course suddenly encountered an unexpected twist, the two groups collided.
Lin Tiao, already walking backward, was retreating uncontrollably when she heard the commotion. The stairs in the middle of the corridor connected the upper and lower floors, and she was unable to avoid the collision. She heard the boys' sharp intake of breath and braced herself for the impact.
But the next moment, she was suddenly grabbed by the wrist, and the force of the pull made her lean forward.
In what seemed like mere seconds, she was swept from the brink of falling to the ground into a soft, warm embrace that carried a hint of pinewood scent.
She looked up, about to speak, when she suddenly felt a warmth on her forehead. The soft touch was fleeting, and the rigidly defined chin of the young man flashed before her eyes.
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