Chapter 14: Do You Want to Borrow My Water Card?

He only wrote four or five lines of equations.

This problem didn’t look like something that could be solved in just four or five lines.

Su Tian thought he hadn’t figured it out and consoled him, “This is a really difficult problem. Even Song Mingxing, our math class representative, hasn’t solved it yet.”

Unexpectedly, the next moment, the math teacher said, “Good… very good… Student Jiang Chiyu got it right. And very quickly too. Though the steps are a bit too brief and jumpy – you might lose points for that in an exam. Keep that in mind next time.”

Jiang Chiyu still had that thoughtful look, as if he had taken the teacher’s words to heart.

Only Su Tian knew this guy was definitely spacing out.

She had worried about him for nothing!

After class, Su Tian needed to get water and wanted to ask Jiang Chiyu to move aside. Before she could speak, Jiang Chiyu looked up at her with a gentle smile and said softly, “Getting water? Let me get it for you.”

Knowing what kind of person Jiang Chiyu was, after just one day as deskmates, Su Tian had concluded he was more childish than ever and just as difficult as before. It was extremely rare to see him being this gentle, and she didn’t buy it. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly realized, “You want to borrow my water card, don’t you?”

Jiang Chiyu’s smile froze.

Su Tian put both her water bottle and card in front of him, “You have to go to the second-floor office yourself to apply for and top up a water card. Were you waiting for the school to issue you one? Also, stop with that fake smile, it’s hideous.”

Jiang Chiyu’s frozen smile disappeared completely. He gave a cold snort and icily spat out three words: “Go do it yourself!”

Su Tian: “…”

Great, now she could add ‘moody’ to the list of adjectives describing the pretentious, immature, malicious, and childish weirdo Jiang Chiyu!

In the end, Su Tian didn’t go get water because Zhou Ying came to ask her to go to the school store.

Jiang Chiyu slowly moved his chair to let her pass.

Zhou Ying loved spicy strips the most and almost never went shopping for snacks without buying a pack or two. This time was no different – as soon as they entered the store, she made a beeline for the rack full of spicy strips.

Watching Zhou Ying eat them all this time had made Su Tian quite tempted by these junk food snacks, but her mother was strict and never let her eat such things. Once she couldn’t resist and asked Zhou Ying for a pack. After eating it at lunch, her face broke out in acne that evening, and her mother immediately knew she had secretly eaten spicy strips – she could tell every time.

That day, after returning from the dermatology department at the hospital, her mother lectured her terribly. When she was lying in bed that night feeling wronged and hugging her stuffed rabbit, her father came to comfort her and she learned that her inability to eat spicy strips was inherited from her mother.

Her mother had also secretly eaten such junk food when she was young, and her face was unbearable to look at for a whole week afterward.

Since then, Su Tian’s obsession with spicy strips had faded.

However, for some reason, right now, her desire to eat spicy strips was stirring again…

She still had some of the allergy cream from last time – if she ate just a little bit this time, it should be fine, right?

After hesitating for a long while, Su Tian said to Zhou Ying, “Zhou Ying, grab one more pack.”

“Huh?” Zhou Ying hadn’t forgotten that she couldn’t eat spicy strips. “You want to eat them?”

Su Tian just wanted to try some, but she knew Zhou Ying definitely wouldn’t let her eat them. So she came up with what she thought was a clever response. “I’m not eating them, I’m getting a pack for Jiang Chiyu. He wants some.”

“Wow, wouldn’t have guessed! Jiang Chiyu doesn’t look like someone who’d enjoy this kind of junk food.”

“Maybe he likes spicy food.” Su Tian nodded, secretly pleased with herself.

Thinking that her mouth would definitely taste strong after eating, she’d need a drink to wash it down, so she asked Zhou Ying, “Do you want a drink?”

“What? Is Jiang Chiyu asking you to get him a drink too?”

“Um… I want one. I’ll get him some water too.” As soon as Su Tian finished speaking, something suddenly clicked in her mind.

Zhou Ying’s words had reminded her, “Oh right, he doesn’t have a water card or bottle. Wait, then why did he want to borrow my water card?”

Could it be that he was genuinely being nice and offering to get water for her?

Su Tian was stunned.

Zhou Ying was also confused, “What are you talking about?”

Su Tian didn’t know how to explain – she wasn’t even sure herself. So she shook her head, “Nothing. I’ll get Jiang Chiyu some water too. What do you want to drink? I’ll grab it while I’m at it.”

Zhou Ying had already picked out her snacks and linked arms with her as they walked to the beverage section, “Come on, I’ll go with you.”

Unnoticed by anyone, after they walked away, a girl stood thoughtfully at the other side of the spicy strips rack.

Her phone was still open to WeChat, showing a brief conversation.

“Is that boy who was watching us practice today Su Tian’s boyfriend? Haven’t seen him before.”

“Don’t know, but I heard their class got a transfer student. I saw them carrying textbooks and uniforms from the academic affairs office direction, it must be him.”

The girl stood there for a long while, pursed her red lips, and somewhat nervously clicked on another person’s profile to send a message—

“Do you know the name of the new transfer student in first year?”

The reply came quickly: “If you mean the famous one, I know, it’s Jiang Chiyu!”

They messaged again: “Sister Ran, you usually don’t care about gossip, why are you suddenly interested in this transfer student?”

An Ran replied: “It’s nothing, I mistook him for someone else.”

…

When they returned to class, it was almost time for the next lesson to start, so they had to save their snacks for the longer break. Su Tian was carrying a bag of snacks and sat down under Jiang Chiyu’s strange gaze.

Su Tian: “Don’t look at me like that. These are for the whole day, not for eating all at once. And I’m sharing them with friends too, I won’t eat much myself.”

Jiang Chiyu raised an eyebrow mischievously, “Why are you explaining to me? I didn’t say anything.”

Su Tian calmly said, “Your eyes just now betrayed what you were thinking – that I’m a pig for eating so much…”

She had barely finished speaking when she saw Jiang Chiyu raise an eyebrow, and by the time she realized what she’d said it was too late. Jiang Chiyu nodded, “That is indeed a fact.”

“Hah!” Su Tian gave a cold laugh and took out the soda she’d bought for him, throwing it directly into his lap, “And here I was being nice getting someone a drink, while that someone was insulting me in their head. Talk about ingratitude!”

Jiang Chiyu caught the soda she threw with one hand, paused for a moment, genuinely surprised that she’d bought him something. He looked at the bottle, then at her, and said with a rising, drawn-out tone, “Thank you, classmate Su.”

Su Tian wanted to take the chance to ask if she had misunderstood their conversation before going to the store, but just as she was about to speak, the class bell rang and Teacher Gao walked in right after, so Su Tian had to keep quiet, planning to ask after class.

This time Teacher Gao wasn’t just teaching Chinese – he also held a brief class meeting in the first ten minutes, generally summarizing the monthly exam. He particularly praised the average students who had shown improvement in this test, and added a comment that students with good grades shouldn’t become arrogant, as once they become arrogant, they’ll be left far behind by others.

Su Tian automatically took Teacher Gao’s words as a criticism of herself and lowered her head in shame.

She had indeed become arrogant.