“What’s there to worry about? I took a long sick leave,” he said with a laugh.
“Smart move, you sly fox.”
“That’s me,” he replied smugly.
After hanging up, I tidied up and got ready for bed. As I pulled the blanket over myself, my eyes fell on the band-aid on my knee, and Xu Xuan’s face unexpectedly appeared in my mind.
I was momentarily lost in thought, then smiled softly and tucked myself in.
* * *
The next morning, as I arrived at school, I caught sight of Gu Yu. Dressed in a crisp school uniform, his delicate features glowed almost translucently under the sunlight. I stood frozen for a moment until the ringing of the class bell jolted me into rushing to my classroom.
Unsurprisingly, Chen Qiao Luo was absent again. Passing by his class, I glanced inside and saw his seat still empty.
The coursework in the second year of high school was intense and monotonous. I rested my chin in my hand, staring out the window at the drifting clouds while the math teacher droned on about equations at the front of the room.
“Zhu Yun Hao, the teacher’s looking at you,” whispered my desk mate, Li Zi, poking me lightly on the arm.
I turned back to see the math teacher indeed glaring at me. Startled, I quickly lowered my head and pretended to read my textbook, whispering a quick thanks to Li Zi.
Li Zi wasn’t someone I knew well. We hadn’t been in the same class during the first year, and even after being assigned to sit together a month ago, we hadn’t talked much. Unlike other girls who were chatty and noisy, Li Zi was gentle, polite, and always willing to help others.
I didn’t dislike her. In fact, I quite liked her.
* * *
When the morning classes finally ended, I headed to the school cafeteria alone. At Middle School No. 12, I wasn’t exactly a model student. I skipped classes frequently and had little interest in studying. If not for my decent grades in exams, the teachers would likely have written me off completely by now.
Other than Chen Qiao Luo, it seemed I didn’t have many friends.
Speaking of my “fateful connection” with Chen Qiao Luo, it dated back to a school assembly six months ago.
At that time, I was addicted to an online game, spending all my time on it and skipping classes whenever I could. Eventually, my homeroom teacher had had enough. Not only did they call my dad and have a demerit recorded on my file, but they also publicly criticized me by name during the assembly.
When I saw Chen Qiao Luo on the stage that day, he wasn’t much better off than me. His face was bruised, and as the disciplinary director spoke, I learned that he had been involved in an off-campus brawl. Like me, he had been hauled onto the stage for public reprimand.
To be honest, I’d never been scolded so harshly in my life. It left me feeling more than a little dejected.
But when I glanced at Chen Qiao Luo, he seemed utterly unfazed. As though accustomed to such situations, he kept his head down and, to my shock, pulled out his phone to browse—right there, on a stage being watched by thousands of students.
His audacity stunned me.
Noticing my gaze, he turned his head and looked at me. His bruised lips curled into a grin, and he gave me a smile as if to say, “What are you going to do about it?”
This guy was unbelievably bold.
For a moment, I just stood there, dumbfounded. Perhaps it was youthful ignorance, but I found myself thinking his attitude was incredibly cool. Before I knew it, my admiration for him began to flow endlessly, like a river that couldn’t be stopped.
Becoming friends with him seemed to happen naturally after that. Later, I asked him why he decided to befriend me, and he said he’d never seen a girl get a demerit for skipping class before. He was curious about what kind of person I was.
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