Chapter 7: The 38 Line – You Take 3, I Take 8

It was quite troublesome that Sun Muchu specifically came over to deliver practice materials to Jiang Chiyu.

In that split second, Su Tian suddenly realized – could it be that Sun Muchu’s timely arrival meant she had been watching them from her seat the whole time?

What was she watching them for? Could it be…

Su Tian swallowed and secretly glanced at Jiang Chiyu.

…Love at first sight couldn’t happen that quickly, right?

Tsk tsk tsk, he really was a male beauty causing trouble.

Sun Muchu was taken aback. She wanted to retort, but seeing Jiang Chiyu beside her, she pressed her lips together and gave up.

After all, she had achieved her goal.

She had been observing from behind for a while and found that Su Tian was quite skilled at flirting – speaking closely when they could have talked normally. What secret conversations could they possibly have when they’d just met?

And deliberately lying on the desk trying to act cute – did she think others couldn’t see through it?

Sun Muchu came over specifically to interrupt them.

“I’ll go now. Just leave it on my desk when you’re done, it’s over there,” Sun Muchu pointed to a seat in the back, telling Jiang Chiyu.

Jiang Chiyu tilted his head to look, nodding slightly. “Mm, okay.”

“Alright, bye bye.” Sun Muchu smiled gently and left with a wave.

Su Tian felt like a third wheel, completely unnecessary.

Just then, the class bell rang, though the teacher hadn’t arrived yet. She lost interest and stopped looking at Jiang Chiyu. She pouted, sat up straight, and continued working on problems while shrinking into her corner.

Jiang Chiyu also seemed motionless, sitting quietly.

Though not completely still.

His gaze shifted from the empty desk to the quiet girl doing math problems beside him. Her bangs covered part of her eyes, hiding her expression.

Maybe things have changed, he thought.

They hadn’t seen each other for five years, during their key growing years. The changes were actually quite dramatic.

Her features had matured somewhat, though that silly and naive quality hadn’t changed much.

Just looking at her made him want to tease her.

That morning when he left home, right after leaving his neighborhood he saw a girl absent-mindedly kicking stones as she walked over. It was this bad habit that immediately helped him recognize her. But after five years apart, Jiang Chiyu couldn’t be completely certain. Wanting to confirm without being too obvious, he planned to deliberately bump into her – if he was wrong, he’d apologize.

But he wasn’t wrong.

Jiang Chiyu smiled as they brushed past each other.

Meeting an old friend naturally brought joy.

But he didn’t stop.

There would be plenty of time ahead.

…

As Su Tian continued working on the practice problems, something felt increasingly wrong – she couldn’t rest her arm on the desk comfortably.

Glancing right, she remembered that Jiang Chiyu had squeezed her against the wall and still hadn’t moved back.

The classroom was very quiet. Su Tian paused for three seconds before turning to look at Jiang Chiyu.

Their eyes seemed to meet for an instant – Jiang Chiyu was looking toward Sun Muchu’s practice book.

Su Tian was stunned for a moment, thinking it must have been coincidence.

She didn’t dwell on it, taking out her pen to tap quietly on the desk between them. When Jiang Chiyu turned to look at her, she said softly, “Classmate Jiang, you’ve crossed the 38 line.”

Jiang Chiyu: “Where did I cross it?”

You’re sitting right in the middle of the desk, brother! Maybe going abroad at such a young age affected your language skills, but how did it make you blind too?!

Su Tian complained internally while using her pen to point at the dividing line between their desk compartments.

See it now?!

Jiang Chiyu shrugged indifferently: “The 38 line – you take 3, I take 8. I haven’t crossed it.”

Su Tian: “…”

Su Tian glared at him.

However, it had no intimidating effect.

Like an angry little kitten.

Jiang Chiyu raised his eyebrows, deciding to mercifully let her off, and voluntarily moved aside.

Until class ended, they didn’t speak another word. However, Su Tian noticed that Jiang Chiyu never opened Sun Muchu’s practice book. As soon as class ended, he directly asked a male student across the aisle to help pass the book to Sun Muchu, claiming he didn’t know where she sat.

The boy was called Hu Cong, a chatterbox comparable to Old Gao.

Originally he had temporarily given up thoughts of connecting with this side since the new student seemed unapproachable. Unexpectedly, the new student initiated conversation with him, and his tone didn’t sound as cold as his appearance suggested. So after helping pass along the practice book, he actively started chatting.

Su Tian wasn’t listening at first, but Hu Cong was really too talkative, so she heard a bit like: “Have you had Peking duck? I think roast suckling pig abroad should taste similar to duck, since they’re both roasted. The lotus leaf chicken here is also very good. We should try the seafood barbecue in the neighboring city sometime.”

Jiang Chiyu smiled slightly, “I don’t eat meat.”

Hu Cong made an “oh” sound and continued, “I think electrically roasted duck is crispier. Now that the country is strongly developing new energy sources, we should support electric roasting. Regular charcoal roasting pollutes the environment a bit.”

Jiang Chiyu smiled slightly without responding.

Su Tian figured Jiang Chiyu probably thought Hu Cong had gone crazy with his studies.

The afternoon passed just like that.

Besides studying properly and occasionally getting drowsy a few times, Su Tian also found Zhou Ying several times, strongly warning her not to say anything and keep her mouth shut!

She didn’t really want others knowing about things between her and Jiang Chiyu.

There wasn’t anything worth saying anyway, deliberately bringing it up would seem like showing off… Su Tian had always kept a low profile.

However, heaven apparently didn’t plan to give her this opportunity.

After school in the afternoon, Su Tian packed up her bag and took several test papers, preparing to go home and face scolding.

Dad had gone to meet old friends and who knew when he’d return home. When mom got angry, only her usually gentle dad could say a few good words for her.

She had been listless all afternoon, which Jiang Chiyu noticed. Seeing her staring blankly at her English test paper, he glanced sideways and snorted with laughter, his tone quite irritating. “You don’t still cry over bad test scores, do you?”

Su Tian came back to her senses and glared at him, saying dryly, “Of course not!”

When Jiang Chiyu transferred, he had just caught their monthly exam and had taken three subject tests in the office – Chinese, Math and English. Now they were all spread out on the desk. Except for Chinese, both English and Math were perfect scores of 150.

Though Chinese wasn’t perfect, it was still first in the class and even the whole school.

Su Tian ground her teeth, wondering how his grades could be so good.

Jiang Chiyu slowly gathered up his test papers, “I don’t think you want to see my test papers right now.”

With no one around, Su Tian looked left and right, confirming no one would see her bullying the new student before baring her teeth at him. “I don’t even want to see you!”

Jiang Chiyu blinked meaningfully, “Well, that won’t do.”

Su Tian snorted coldly, shouldering her backpack: “I’m leaving.”

“Mm.” Jiang Chiyu put his cap and mask back on, draped his jacket over his arm, and followed her out of the classroom.

At the classroom door they ran into Hu Cong. He looked at them, pushed up his glasses, and casually said, “You two seem pretty close.”