Chapter 42: His Contact List Must Have More Than 2,300 Numbers

Jiang Chiyu returned to his seat casually, placed one of the water bottles on Su Tian’s desk, and said offhandedly, “Here, this is for you.”

Su Tian lifted her head from the desk, glanced at the Shuang Wai Wai ^[1]a yoghurt\ milk drink Jiang Chiyu had placed on her desk, then at the lychee-flavored soda on his desk, and paused.

Jiang Chiyu seemed to know what she was thinking and looked up with a smile. “If you don’t want it, you can go get plain water yourself.”

Jiang Chiyu’s arrival was like a timely rain – Su Tian was just feeling thirsty when he brought her a drink.

But why Shuang Wai Wai?

Su Tian never knew their school even sold Shuang Wai Wai.

This small, chubby, cartoon-styled milk bottle had always been a children’s drink in her mind.

In contrast, Jiang Chiyu’s lychee soda was tall and slim, forming a stark contrast with the Shuang Wai Wai on her desk.

Su Tian suspected he was implying something.

But she had no proof.

Having something to drink was better than nothing, and she really didn’t want to queue up at the back of the classroom for water. Su Tian quietly took the Shuang Wai Wai and said softly, “Thank you.”

She wanted to drink it now but couldn’t find a straw after looking around, so she asked, “Where’s the straw?”

Hearing this, Jiang Chiyu froze for a moment.

Su Tian: “Don’t tell me you didn’t bring one?”

Jiang Chiyu looked at her bottle of Shuang Wai Wai and pondered, “Doesn’t this kind of milk drink usually have a folded straw attached to the bottle?”

Oh.

So he really didn’t bring one.

“Mm.” Su Tian felt like laughing and decided to tease him, “Yes, but this bottle’s straw probably wasn’t stuck on properly and fell off.”

“…”

Jiang Chiyu looked at her suppressed smile, “I’ll remember to bring one next time.”

Su Tian kept smiling.

What was going on?

Just earlier, a girl had confessed to him in front of the whole school, saying his contact info was worth more than 2,300. Now almost the entire school was discussing him, and even their classmates were focused on him.

Yet here was the center of attention, discussing whether Shuang Wai Wai bottles came with attached straws.

The absurdity of it all..

“You have to respect the living habits of someone who just returned from abroad,” Jiang Chiyu said, thinking Su Tian was laughing at him for not bringing a straw. He stretched out his hand impatiently, “Give me your cup.”

“What for?” Su Tian asked with a smile.

“Deskmate, give me a chance to use my water card that hasn’t been touched since I topped it up,” Jiang Chiyu sighed resignedly.

So Jiang Chiyu went to queue up for water.

Su Tian sat at her desk, pinching her gradually reddening ears.

Deskmate…

It was the first time she’d heard Jiang Chiyu call her that.

It felt quite different from when Zhou Ying used to call her deskmate…

When Jiang Chiyu returned, Su Tian couldn’t resist her curiosity and asked him why he was called out earlier that morning.

“To assist with an investigation. The police called me last night. Although I knew nothing about the whole thing, my name was involved from start to finish, so I needed to make a statement.”

No wonder he wasn’t surprised this morning – he’d known about it since last night.

As if hearing Su Tian’s question, Yu He, who sat behind them, leaned forward on his desk and cautiously asked, “Um, classmate Jiang, can I call you Jiang Chiyu?”

“Sure.”

“Um, Jiang Chiyu.” Yu He felt somewhat embarrassed saying the name, “That girl, the one who was scammed, was the junior student she mentioned really you?”

Jiang Chiyu replied casually, “Mm.”

His attitude seemed unwilling to elaborate, making Yu He feel awkward and unsure whether to continue.

Just then, Jiang Chiyu suddenly jolted, stumbling as if he’d lost his balance.

Yu He was startled, but then saw Su Tian leisurely withdrawing her foot from kicking Jiang Chiyu’s chair. “Mind your attitude. Not everyone is as tolerant as I am – seeing you act like this, they might not be able to resist smacking you.”

“You—” Jiang Chiyu looked at her for a moment, then laughed. “That was quite a kick.”

Actually, it wasn’t that Su Tian had kicked hard; Jiang Chiyu hadn’t been sitting properly to begin with. His chair was tilted backward, with the front legs barely touching the ground.

Su Tian hadn’t really meant to kick him. She had suddenly realized that although Jiang Chiyu had been in their class for over a week, apart from her, Zhou Ying, Hu Cong who sat across the aisle from Jiang Chiyu, Sun Muchu, and the class monitor who had exchanged a few words with him…

…it seemed like no one else had spoken to him.

Their class was actually quite friendly and wouldn’t deliberately isolate new students. It was just that even though Jiang Chiyu always appeared lazy and casual, it was a detached kind of laziness, with an inexplicably unapproachable aura.

Their classmates had the desire but lacked the courage.

They wouldn’t actively engage with Jiang Chiyu, and given his personality, he certainly wouldn’t initiate contact for the sake of class friendship.

This wasn’t good – how would he ever integrate at this rate?

Think about it – in the whole class, she was the only one he could really talk to. How lonely was that? What if one day she was absent or away for something? He’d probably suffocate from boredom.

So after kicking Jiang Chiyu’s chair to show he wasn’t as intimidating as he appeared, Su Tian explained to Yu He, “He’s always this lazy and unserious. Keep asking.”

Yu He was still somewhat uncomfortable, but seeing that Jiang Chiyu hadn’t gotten angry when Su Tian kicked his chair, he relaxed a bit. “Well, it’s nothing really. It’s just that our class has never seen this kind of… um, this kind of thing that only happens in legends, so we’re all a bit curious.”

Su Tian sympathized, “Me too.”

Yu He asked curiously, “Jiang Chiyu, are you really that brilliant at studying?”

“The transcript they showed her was probably from my time abroad,” Jiang Chiyu’s tone indeed became more proper, sounding less aloof. “The grading system there is different from here – she probably misunderstood something.”

Su Tian had her doubts about this.

She hadn’t seen Jiang Chiyu’s overseas transcript, but just looking at his perfect scores in both math and English from the last monthly exam had been mind-blowing enough.

Plus, considering how he’d been casually tutoring her in science subjects lately, Su Tian could tell he was definitely no slouch in those subjects either.

She just wasn’t sure about his humanities subjects.

Su Tian didn’t dare speak too highly of him, thinking it was better to stay humble. After all, they wouldn’t want him to underperform in the next monthly exam after they’d recorded his grades.

Wang Suhan, who had been listening for a while, couldn’t help but join in, “Jiang Chiyu, I’m sorry. I thought you were the scammer today. I didn’t realize you were also a victim.”

Hearing Wang Suhan actively apologize to Jiang Chiyu, Su Tian felt embarrassed herself and also apologized to Wang Suhan: “I’m sorry too, my attitude wasn’t very good earlier today.”

Jiang Chiyu’s gaze moved between the two of them.

He didn’t know what had happened, so Yu He, who had witnessed everything, voluntarily explained. “It was like this – after Teacher Gao and the police called you away today, our classmates’ imaginations started running wild—”