They had not seen each other for nearly a month, and everyone was excited on the first day back. Zhu Jingjing had brazenly defied the rules and gotten her hair permed into big curls, and there were still patchy traces of red nail polish on her nails. The moment she saw Shao Wu, she charged straight over and grabbed his arm. “Can we keep sitting together this semester? Huh? Hurry, give me your math paper so I can copy it!”
Zhou Lei crowded over too. “Math paper? Where?”
“First come, first served!”
Zhou Lei ingratiatingly dug a piece of puffed-rice candy out of his schoolbag. “Jingjing, have you had breakfast? My family made this ourselves. Come on, let’s copy together.”
“Oh, quit talking and hurry up! The homeroom teacher will be here any minute!”
The two of them frantically started copying the paper. Shao Wu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Good thing Zhu Jingjing had not kept pressing him about “sitting together again.”
Zhu Jingjing was actually great. She was carefree, blunt, and fun to sit with. But at the start of the new semester, Shao Wu could not help harboring one small selfish wish.
He wanted to sit with the person sleeping beside the trash can.
Seriously, it was the first day of school. Why was he asleep again?
Before long, their homeroom teacher arrived. After the New Year, he had filled out considerably; standing at the front of the classroom, he looked like a rosy-cheeked Maitreya Buddha.
“Every single one of you has a rounder face,” the homeroom teacher said with a satisfied nod. “Looks like you all had a good time. Finished your homework?”
The students guiltily lowered their eyes and said nothing.
“No answer means yes? Very good. Such impressive self-discipline. Class reps for each subject, collect the home—”
“Sir,” Zhou Lei said in a small voice, “can we have two more days?”
The homeroom teacher asked, pretending not to know, “Why?”
“I want to check mine over before I hand it in.”
A few snickers sounded around the classroom.
“Every one of you!” The homeroom teacher rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine. Take the diagnostic exam seriously! Hand in the homework after the exam. Now go to the flag-raising ceremony. When we get back, we’ll rearrange the seats and have class meeting.”
“Yes!”
“Brother Lei, you’re a legend!”
“Holy crap, that scared me to death…”
The danger had passed. Everyone headed toward the athletic field in twos and threes for the flag-raising ceremony. Seeing that Yang Shuyi was still asleep, Shao Wu ran over and poked his shoulder. “Yang Shuyi, flag-raising.”
“Oh…” Yang Shuyi slowly sat up, his eyes still slightly unfocused. “Did the homeroom teacher come by just now?”
“Mm. He said we can hand in our winter-break homework after the exam. Later we’re rearranging seats and having class meeting.”
“Oh.”
The two of them followed the crowd toward the athletic field. Voices buzzed everywhere around them, talking about everything under the sun: someone in Class Two confessed to someone else on New Year’s Eve, they would be leaving for intensive training after midterms this semester, Kunming had been so warm over the New Year… Two girls were horsing around. Shao Wu stepped aside to avoid them and nearly bumped into Yang Shuyi.
“Careful.” Yang Shuyi steadied him by the shoulder, and his hand simply stayed there, clasped around it.
“We’re rearranging seats later, so, um…” Shao Wu said quietly. “You probably won’t still be sitting there, right?”
Yang Shuyi said indifferently, “No idea.”
“How about I talk to the homeroom teacher… and ask if we can sit together?” Shao Wu sounded fairly calm, but in reality his heart was already pounding. “We’re a study group, aren’t we? It’d be more… convenient.”
“Sure.”
“Huh?” Shao Wu jerked his head up to look at Yang Shuyi. “What did you say?”
“Su-re.”
“…”
Yang Shuyi had actually agreed that easily! Shao Wu had expected him to make excuses the way he had when they first started the study group. Was it because, because they were friends now? Of course it was. Sweetness spread through Shao Wu’s chest like a bite of puffed-rice candy. He had gone to Yang Shuyi’s house for a meal on the second day of the New Year, after all!
After a long round of speeches from school administrators, the flag-raising ceremony finally ended. Shao Wu did not wait for Yang Shuyi. He jogged back toward the classroom, hoping to catch the homeroom teacher while no one else was around and ask about the seating arrangement.
But when he stepped into the office, he saw an A4 sheet of paper on the homeroom teacher’s desk with a simple seating chart drawn on it.
“Sir,” Shao Wu said sheepishly, “can I take a look?”
“Go ahead. I was just about to post it in the classroom.”
According to the chart, Shao Wu’s deskmate was Zheng Xiaoning, their class history representative, a very shy girl. Yang Shuyi, meanwhile, was still assigned a desk by himself beside the trash can.
Shao Wu frowned and tried to hold it in, but finally could not. “Sir, Yang Shuyi is still sitting there? It’s a new semester already…”
“You think I want it that way?” The homeroom teacher shut the office door and sighed. “This is already a decent outcome! Of all the people he could hit, he had to hit Director Gao’s nephew. He’s lucky he wasn’t expelled!”
“But—”
“And he doesn’t study anyway. Let him sit there. If he doesn’t mind, that’s enough.”
“It’s not like he never studies…”
“Oh, you know better than I do?” The homeroom teacher looked at Shao Wu with a cheerful smile. “You two are pretty close, huh?”
Shao Wu’s heart jolted. What did the homeroom teacher mean by that? Had he noticed something? N-no way. Shao Wu had not even done much for Yang Shuyi, just explained a few problems. That did not count for anything, right? The class monitor explained problems to Zhou Lei too.
In those few short seconds, Shao Wu became so frightened he could not even speak. He was far too nervous, far too scared. If the homeroom teacher had figured out how he felt about Yang Shuyi, then it was over. Over, completely over. Would he tell Shao Wu’s parents? How devastated would they be? Would Yang Shuyi find out?
“All right, go back to class.” The homeroom teacher sorted through files on the bookshelf as he muttered, “You’re already the fourth one. Every one of you wants to pick your own deskmate. How am I supposed to arrange all that? Do I still have to manage discipline in this class or not?”
So he was already the fourth. The homeroom teacher had only realized that he wanted Yang Shuyi as his deskmate.
Shao Wu put down the seating chart. “Okay… goodbye, sir.”
“Oh, right. Tell Han Huiyuan to keep everyone under control. The grade-level head will be making rounds during class meeting later. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Okay.”
Shao Wu pulled the door nearly shut behind him and slowly headed back toward the classroom.
At the back door, he saw Yang Shuyi already sitting in his “reserved seat,” head tilted back as he drank water. When he finished, he propped his chin on one hand and drifted off into space again.
Shao Wu walked over and said quietly, “The homeroom teacher said no.”
Yang Shuyi nodded. “Then forget it.”
Forget it? What do you mean, forget it? Why should you still have to sit here? But Shao Wu knew Yang Shuyi did not care.
Sure enough, before long the homeroom teacher entered the classroom and posted the seating chart on the back wall. Everyone crowded around it. Some were delighted, some disappointed, and they all chattered noisily about the results.
Only Yang Shuyi gave the chart one quick glance before returning to his “reserved seat,” as though nothing at all had happened.