Chapter 1: The Transfer Student

Yangming No. 1 High School.

It was autumn, but October’s weather was still hot and dry. They say spring brings drowsiness and autumn brings lethargy – when Su Tian hit her desk with her head while yawning for the third time, her deskmate Zhou Ying finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave her a pat on the back.

“Ah!” Su Tian let out a small cry, opening her still dazed eyes and sitting up straight with a start.

The surrounding students all turned to look at her. Su Tian belatedly realized what happened, embarrassedly shrinking back in her seat and lowering her head while glaring at Zhou Ying. “What was that for?”

Zhou Ying had an exasperated expression, though she kept her voice low. “What are you afraid of? The teacher left ages ago. So, feeling more awake now?”

At the mention of it, Su Tian felt drowsy again and covered her mouth for another yawn.

Since starting high school, the coursework had become complex, disrupting her usual schedule. She still hadn’t adjusted and felt exhausted every day.

The young girl wore two small braids, had a small face with large almond eyes, and smooth, attractive facial features. Still looking dazed, she appeared incredibly cute and delicate.

Zhou Ying admired her for a moment before suddenly remembering something and cupped her face, saying, “Stop sleeping, I’ve got something interesting to tell you.”

Su Tian responded with a meaningless “mm-hmm” as acknowledgment, her eyelids already starting to close again.

“They say our class is getting a transfer student.”

“Just another new student, right? The class next door got three yesterday,” Su Tian said with her eyes completely closed.

“No, not like that. They say he’s transferring from England and is super good-looking. Tall with long legs – 180 centimeters!”

Su Tian gave a noncommittal “oh.”

It’s not like she hadn’t seen foreigners before.

Just then, a sudden rustling sound spread through the classroom. They were too familiar with this noise – they exchanged a glance and immediately straightened up, pretending to be diligently writing.

Sure enough, a minute later, the classroom door opened and their head teacher, Teacher Gao, walked in.

Teacher Gao first surveyed the classroom from the podium, then nodded with satisfaction. “The class discipline today has been quite good.”

No one below spoke, all appearing busy with their studies.

“Very good, very good! Although you’re only in first year and it seems like third year is far away, you still can’t relax. Remember, only by staying alert at all times can you maintain your best condition and avoid feeling lost when you reach third year…”

Teacher Gao was Class 3’s Chinese teacher and homeroom teacher. He wore round glasses and always carried a thermos. He talked a lot and always appeared to be smiling and gentle, but he was the teacher everyone feared most in class.

This smiling tiger always struck when least expected.

Just like now—

“Su Tian!”

Su Tian suddenly froze, her back straightening.

“Su Tian.. Classmate Su Tian. Our class’s Chinese representative, care to guess what score you got on your English monthly exam?”

Now Su Tian was truly startled awake. Meeting Teacher Gao’s smiling gaze, she stiffly stood up and made a dry guess: “Did… did I fail?”

Teacher Gao shook his head with an ambiguous expression.

Zhou Ying seemed to understand and gave Su Tian a schadenfreude smile.

“And Su Tian’s deskmate, don’t laugh. You scored less than half of what she did.”

The class erupted in laughter.

Zhou Ying’s smile froze on her face.

“I won’t tell you the exact scores – you’ll find out when you get your papers back. I came here to inform everyone that after the monthly exam scores are recorded, I’ll be making some targeted seating arrangement changes.” Teacher Gao said while scanning the class, then paused before emphasizing, “I’ll arrange them personally.”

The students couldn’t help but let out a dissatisfied “Ah…”

Having said his piece, Teacher Gao observed the class’s reaction with satisfaction and left in high spirits.

As soon as he left, the whispered discussions in class became unrestrained. All were complaints and grumbling about the seat changes.

“If Teacher Gao arranges it, we’re done for – our group of bros will definitely be scattered to the four corners!”

“Even his direct class representative got called out, our whole class must have done poorly.”

“…”

Su Tian sat down, feeling dead inside, and looked at Zhou Ying. “Out of 150 points, how much do you think you got?”

Zhou Ying understood her concern and patted her shoulder consolingly. “To be honest, I’ll be happy if I got 40.”

Su Tian sighed, resigned herself to her fate, and pulled out her “53” English exercise book to practice.

Finally, at dismissal time, Su Tian slowly packed her bag to go home.

Her home was in the city center, not far from school, so she had chosen to commute as a first-year student. Still thinking about how to explain her scores when they came out, Su Tian walked dejectedly while kicking small stones.

When she reached her residential complex, a sudden shadow fell before her. Before Su Tian could react, her right arm collided with someone.

“Ah, sorry!” Su Tian apologized quickly, ignoring the pain. The person seemed unaffected and walked straight past her without looking back.

As they passed each other, Su Tian only caught that it was probably a tall, slim male student. He had his bag hooked over one shoulder, wore a black jacket and jeans, a black baseball cap, and even had on a black face mask.

After being stunned for three seconds, Su Tian became wary of his attire and quickly checked her wallet and schoolbag – everything was there.

“How strange…” Su Tian muttered, then remembered that their complex had always had good security, so she relaxed and continued walking home.

It wasn’t until she reached her yard’s entrance that she suddenly recalled – when that boy bumped into her, he seemed to have let out a mocking laugh.

Could he have been some kind of creep?

Her thoughts began spiraling in an uncontrollable direction, giving her goosebumps all over.

“Tian Tian, you’re back?”

The elegant Mrs. Bai Jing was tending to flowers in the small garden and, seeing her daughter standing frozen at the gate looking like she’d been struck cold, couldn’t help but furrow her brow.

Su Tian snapped back to reality, saw her mother, and remembered her English score that was even lower than failing. She forced a smile and pushed open the gate to enter.

Mrs. Bai Jing removed her delicate lace gloves and stood straight, looking at her daughter. “Why do you look so unwell? Did the monthly exam results come out?”

“Not yet.” Su Tian went over to link arms with her, a sweet smile blooming on her face. “Mom, you look so beautiful today.”

Mrs. Bai Jing was completely unmoved and lowered her daughter’s hand. She didn’t pursue the topic further, “Go wash your hands for lunch. We won’t wait for your father today – he’s meeting an old friend and won’t be back for lunch.”

Su Tian pouted.

That noon when heading to school, Su Tian had nearly been late because she’d slept in, so the family driver had driven her to school.

Taking a different route would be more convenient.

As Su Tian leaned against the car window looking out, she suddenly noticed workers moving things into the empty villa behind their house, so she casually asked, “Uncle Meng, are we getting new neighbors?”

Uncle Meng glanced outside, “Seems so. They’ve been busy the last two days look quite rushed – they’ll probably move in soon. Tian Tian, do you remember playing there when you were little?”

Su Tian muttered quietly, “I’ll never forget.”

How could she possibly forget!

The previous owners of this villa were a very nice couple, but that couple had a very not so nice, very mean son who loved to tease her and make her cry!