Classmate Number Seven - 5
Qi Xia’s stiff fingers lifted slightly. Just then, footsteps sounded from down the hallway, drawing closer and growing clearer with every step.
Qi Xia suddenly came back to herself. The instant she raised her head, the face she had been thinking about all day crashed unexpectedly into her line of sight.
It was dusk, and the hallway was bathed in a pale golden light. As if conjured by magic, the boy appeared at the far end and slowly made his way toward them.
The weather was still chilly in early spring, but Chen Xifan did not seem bothered by the cold. He wore a white T-shirt that left his arms bare, with a blue basketball jersey over it and black track pants below. His frame was slender without being frail, his shoulders broad and level, his limbs long and lean. He was the sort of person who looked good in anything.
He walked at an unhurried pace, an air of lazy ease clinging to him. His school uniform hung loosely from his shoulders, holding a can of Coke in his right hand.
From the very moment he appeared, the girl in front of Qi Xia stopped paying attention to her.
Her eyes lit up. She hurriedly said, “Thanks, but never mind. I’ll give it to him myself.”
“Chen Xifan...”
The boy slowly lifted his eyelids and looked toward them.
Like a sudden plunge on a roller coaster, Qi Xia’s heart jolted. She lowered her head to avoid his gaze, then turned and fled in the opposite direction.
She wanted to leave quickly, but her body refused to cooperate. Her steps grew slower and slower.
Behind her, the girl’s voice rang out.
“It’s seriously hard to see Young Master Chen. I’ve come to Class 5 three times today and still haven’t managed to catch you.”
“Something you need?” Chen Xifan’s voice held a faint chill.
“Nothing much. Last time, you said the chocolates I gave you were too sweet and wouldn’t accept them. A friend happened to visit Switzerland a few days ago, I had her bring back some dark chocolate that isn’t sweet. You should take it this time, right?”
Qi Xia’s steps faltered. She pricked up her ears, listening, but Chen Xifan did not answer for a long time.
It felt as though a wad of cotton had lodged in her chest, leaving her breathless. A faint ache rose and faded with every breath.
The wind picked up. The withered trees in front of the teaching building creaked and groaned.
The chill swept through Qi Xia’s body, clearing her head a little.
What she was doing was hardly honorable. Unease stirred inside her, she felt like a perverted peeping tom. She desperately wanted to know Chen Xifan’s answer, but she did not stay any longer. She walked straight ahead and left.
On the way home, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Who was that girl? She clearly knew Chen Xifan. Would he accept her chocolates?
The girl was beautiful, poised, and confident. Her family background seemed exceptional too.
Qi Xia had no choice but to admit that she and Chen Xifan... really did make a good match.
Question after question circled endlessly through her mind. The more she let her imagination run wild, the stronger the sourness became.
There were few passengers on the bus, everyone was absorbed in their own affairs.
Outside, the city lights flickered on in broad swaths. Inside, disappointment threatened to swallow her whole.
That day, He Xiao had arranged a basketball game against Class 7. The model-airplane club’s activity had been canceled at the last minute, so Chen Xifan had been dragged into the game.
Class 7 wasn't particularly strong, several of their players had been pulled together at short notice. They were nothing like Chen Xifan and He Xiao, who played together every day and could tell where to pass the ball with a single glance.
The match was an easy victory. By halftime, they were already twenty-six points ahead. Chen Xifan found it boring and simply returned to the classroom early.
When he reached the third floor, he noticed two girls in the hallway. One had her head lowered, and he couldn't see her clearly. The other was Shen Ju, a student from the humanities stream.
He had only taken a few steps before Shen Ju blocked his way.
Chen Xifan leaned to one side and asked what she wanted. Shen Ju said she had brought him chocolates.
Chen Xifan was silent for a moment. Then he decided he ought to make himself clearer.
“There’s no need to waste your time on me. Sweet or bitter, I’m not accepting any of it.”
The implication was obvious. It was not a matter of the chocolates. It was a matter of who was offering them.
Shen Ju had not expected such a blunt rejection. She smiled to ease the awkwardness, but was unwilling to give up.
“Why? Is there something wrong with me?”
Chen Xifan leaned against the hallway railing. With one hand, he pulled open the tab on his Coke, tipped his head back, and took a drink without looking at her.
“I don’t know whether there’s anything wrong with you. But one thing I can say for sure is that I’m not interested in you.”
Back in the classroom, Chen Xifan placed the Coke on his desk and lay there quietly for five or six minutes. Then he sat up and began tidying his desk out of habit.
People were always stuffing things into his desk. Sometimes they were beautifully wrapped gifts; sometimes they were letters. Chen Xifan treated them all the same. He returned everything unopened, exactly as he had found it.
This time was no different.
The moment he reached into the compartment beneath his desk, his fingers touched something long, neither soft nor hard. Chen Xifan frowned slightly and pulled it out.
It was an umbrella, with a green sticky note attached to the handle.
Chen Xifan stared at it for a moment before remembering that it was his umbrella in the first place. The memory of that rainy night slowly resurfaced.
The silent, endless stretch of Baita Lane.
A girl running through the rain.
Two people walking in opposite directions.
He'd completely forgotten that he had given the girl an umbrella that night.
It had been nothing more than a small favor. Chen Xifan never expected the umbrella to be returned. Now that it had found its way back to its owner, he placed it in his schoolbag and picked up the sticky note, glancing at the few words written on it.
‘Thank you for the umbrella.’
The handwriting was neat and delicate. Chen Xifan barely gave it any thought and tossed the note onto the desk.
Not long afterward, He Xiao and the others returned.
The group was always loud. He Xiao approached with a basketball tucked under his arm.
“Fan-ge, weren’t we supposed to play the whole game? Why’d you leave halfway through? I heard some girl blocked your way just now. Don’t tell me you ditched your brothers for her?”
Chen Xifan ran a hand through his hair without even sparing him a glance.
Wei Yupeng looked intrigued. “Who? Which girl was brave enough to block our Fan-ge?”
“Shen Ju. The one from the humanities class. She’s had her eye on Fan-ge since last semester.”
Chen Xifan packed up his things and clicked his tongue.
“All right, enough. We could beat those guys from Class 7 with our eyes closed. What was I supposed to do, stay and watch them lose?”
“Actually, they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves.” He Xiao’s attention immediately shifted back to the game. “They brought in reinforcements in the second half and started closing the gap like crazy. By the final quarter, they’d almost caught up. Luckily, I pulled off a stroke of genius, ignored the defense, and landed a long-range three-pointer...”
He Xiao described his three-pointer in such grandiose terms that he might as well have been the savior of the world.
Chen Xifan glanced at him and gave a short, derisive laugh.
“One word: pathetic.”
A twenty-six-point lead that nearly got erased. If that wasn’t pathetic, what was?
“Who are you calling pathetic?” He Xiao demanded.
Chen Xifan lifted his chin. “Do I really have to name names?”
Everyone burst out laughing. He Xiao felt he had been mocked, but he had no proof!
Just then, a sharp-eyed boy spotted the green sticky note on the desk and let out a curious sound.
“What’s that, Fan-ge? Did you get another love letter?”
The moment they heard love letter, He Xiao and Wei Yupeng perked up. Their faces lit up with curiosity.
“Who sent it? Let me see.”
Chen Xifan slapped their reaching hands away.
“Have you ever seen someone write a love letter on a sticky note?”
“Fair point. A love letter on a sticky note would be seriously cheap.”
He Xiao knew exactly how popular Chen Xifan had always been with girls. From childhood onward, Chen Xifan had received gifts until he was practically buried in them. The love letters were more elaborate than the last, so a confession written on a sticky note was practically unheard of.
Since it wasn't a love letter, He Xiao grew curious about what it actually was. He was just about to lean closer for a look when Chen Xifan crumpled the green sticky note into a ball and tossed it neatly into the trash can from a distance.
The next day, Qi Xia found out who the girl that had given Chen Xifan chocolates was.
During the third-period extended break, Qi Xia, Xing Anya, and Xu Youfei returned from their exercises and saw several girls gathered at the back of the classroom, whispering among themselves.
Xu Youfei loved a good bit of gossip. She squeezed her way into the group.
“What are you talking about?”
The girls looked flustered, their expressions awkward.
“We’re talking about your cousin. Don’t get mad. We were just bored and chatting.”
Over the past few days, Xu Youfei had often eaten lunch with Chen Xifan, He Xiao, and the others. They seemed close, constantly bickering and fooling around, so everyone had learned about their family relationship.
“What’s there to get mad about?” Xu Youfei said, completely unbothered. “What gossip? Let me hear it too.”
Qi Xia had never been particularly interested in school gossip. But because Chen Xifan was the subject, her fingers tightened around her pen. She subtly leaned back, carefully eavesdropping.
“It’s Shen Ju, the arts student from the humanities class. She’s been pursuing Chen Xifan since last semester. Apparently, she gave him chocolates yesterday. But he didn’t accept them.”
The taut string inside Qi Xia loosened a little. She slowly exhaled.
“Shen Ju is practically the belle of our grade. She wins awards for singing and dancing every year. I heard she even appeared in a television drama when she was little. She’s basically a future superstar, right? Chen Xifan won’t even look twice at her. His standards are way too high.”
“Honestly, with Chen Xifan’s face, plus being ranked first in the grade and having that family background, he’s basically got the winning hand. If I were him, I’d have a pretty high opinion of myself too.”
“So many girls like him. What exactly is his ideal type? Feifei, go find out for us.”
...
Qi Xia held her pen and absentmindedly scribbled across her scrap paper. When she came back to herself, she realized she had written the character ‘Chen’ several times.
She was horrified and hurriedly scribbled over them.
Xing Anya poked her shoulder.
“Xiaxia, what are you doing?”
“Nothing. I didn’t understand the example the math teacher explained last class, I’m trying to work it out.”
Xing Anya was a typical study enthusiast. She immediately offered, “Then let me explain it to you.”
“Okay.”
After finishing the math problem, Xing Anya glanced at the little gossip circle and lowered her voice.
“Do you believe that, apart from Feifei, most of those girls like Chen Xifan?”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s obvious. Someone like Chen Xifan, a heaven-blessed prodigy, is hard not to fall for. But I’m different. I don’t want to like someone like that. His light shines too brightly, it would only make me look painfully ordinary. Everyone is unique. I refuse to be a background character.”
She paused, then continued, “Besides, I feel like Chen Xifan and the rest of us don’t even exist in the same dimension. His family is unbelievably rich, he can take first place in the grade without even trying. Anyone with a shred of self-awareness would never dare to like him.”
It felt as though a bullet had struck Qi Xia in the chest.
After a moment’s thought, she murmured in agreement. “That’s true.”
At lunchtime, Qi Xia and Xing Anya went to the cafeteria.
Students at the affiliated high school were forbidden from leaving campus at noon, and ordering takeout was prohibited as well. Every day at mealtime, students from all three grades flooded into the cafeteria, packed together like ants carrying food.
That day, Qi Xia and Xing Anya had braised-pork rice. As luck would have it, they found an empty six-person square table in a corner on the third floor.
They sat across from each other. When Xing Anya noticed Xu Youfei waving at them, she waved back, though she had no idea what the girl wanted.
Xu Youfei jogged over. “Are the seats next to you taken?”
“No.”
“Perfect! I’ll call my brother and the others over to eat with us. You don’t mind, do you?”
Xing Anya shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
Qi Xia’s mind went blank for a second. The end of her response trembled despite herself. “I don’t mind.”
“Muah, my two deskmates are the best!”
Before long, Xu Youfei had brought Chen Xifan and He Xiao over. With those two clowns, Xu Youfei and He Xiao, at the table, there was never a dull moment.
“Miss Xu, eat some fish head. It’ll help you think.” He Xiao transferred the fish head he disliked into Xu Youfei’s bowl.
Xu Youfei instantly bristled. “Ugh! Don’t treat me like a trash can. I scored nine in math, but you scored eight. You’re the one who needs brain food!”
“You’re still bringing up something from first grade? Besides, I scored more than eight now.” He Xiao turned to Chen Xifan for confirmation. “Right, A-Fan?”
Chen Xifan let out a short laugh. “Yeah. You scored twenty-two in math on the last final.”
“Twenty-two. How fitting.”
Qi Xia and Xing Anya both burst out laughing. He Xiao shifted the conversation in embarrassment.
“By the way, where’s Chu Yang? We haven’t seen him at lunch these past few days.”
“Probably sneaking off somewhere with his girlfriend to eat something better,” Xu Youfei replied.
The mention of girlfriends reminded her of the gossip she had heard that morning. She coughed twice before asking, “Ge, you really don’t like Shen Ju? Seriously, she’s really pretty. She has that celebrity look.”
Qi Xia kept her head lowered, her chopsticks pausing in midair.
Chen Xifan said nothing.
He Xiao answered for him. “I know this one. A-Fan isn’t interested in her at all. He even deliberately avoided Shen Ju before.”
The heart that had been hanging high inside Qi Xia’s chest settled back down. She continued eating, though her thoughts had begun to drift.
Xu Youfei asked again, “Then what kind of girl do you like? I’m only asking because I care. There are more boys than girls these days, Auntie told me to keep an eye out for you.”
Perhaps he was tired of being questioned. Chen Xifan set down his chopsticks and glanced at her before replying in an unhurried tone.
“Don’t trouble yourself. I have a girlfriend.”
The words fell, and everyone at the table froze.
Qi Xia’s heart gave a sickening lurch. Her fingers loosened, and her chopsticks slipped from her hand, clattering to the floor.
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