Classmate Number Seven - 9
In the dead of night, Qi Xia's heart was pounding. She stared at her phone screen without blinking, terrified she might miss even a single message from him.
A few minutes passed, but the chat remained exactly as it was. No new message appeared.
Why wasn't he saying anything? Had he fallen asleep?
Uneasy, Qi Xia typed, Why did you add me? Then deleted it. She tried Who are you? and deleted that, too. After thinking for a moment, she composed a simple greeting instead.
Hello.
This time, she didn't have to wait long. The words The other person is typing appeared at the top of the chat.
Qi Xia held her breath.
The next second, a message from Chen Xifan popped onto the screen.
Stars in Splendor View: Sorry, I added the wrong person.
A loud buzz seemed to go off inside Qi Xia's head. She froze.
The typing indicator appeared again. Before long, Chen Xifan sent another message, this one longer.
In short, the QQ number of the person Chen Xifan had intended to add was almost identical to Qi Xia's alternate account. Only the final two digits were different. He had just realized his mistake.
Stars in Splendor View: Sorry for bothering you.
Oh. So that's what had happened.
Once she understood the whole story, Qi Xia felt a little less tense. She had been afraid he'd somehow discovered her secret account. Apparently, Chen Xifan had no idea who was behind the QQ number.
Classmate No. 7: It's fine. You didn't bother me.
Stars in Splendor View: Mm. So, should we delete each other?
The nervous excitement that had been fluttering through her chest plunged straight to the bottom.
She had finally managed to add Chen Xifan on QQ. How could she possibly agree to delete him?
A coincidence like this would never happen twice.
Perhaps the anonymity of her alternate account gave her courage she'd never had before. With a screen between them and the safety of a false name, Qi Xia typed at lightning speed, her heart hammering. She was terrified that if she hesitated for even a second, he would delete her first.
Classmate No. 7: Could you not delete me?
Classmate No. 7: I'm in the Aviation Enthusiasts group, too. We've actually crossed paths there before. We're both aviation enthusiasts, it would be convenient to have each other added. We could chat about our interests. What do you think?
At that moment, Qi Xia was profoundly grateful that Xu Youfei had sent her the group number a few days earlier.
She had originally planned to join using her main QQ account, but that had seemed far too obvious. Quite a few classmates knew that Chen Xifan was passionate about aviation. In a sense, the word aviation had become synonymous with following Chen Xifan.
Qi Xia didn't want anyone discovering her secret, so she'd joined the group using her alternate account. That was how she'd found Chen Xifan in the member list.
She sent the entire message in one breath, without pausing once.
The wait lasted only a few seconds, but to Qi Xia, it stretched into centuries.
Finally, his reply appeared.
Stars in Splendor View: Okay.
It felt like winning the lottery. An impossible stroke of luck, and somehow she'd been the one hit by it.
Qi Xia buried her face in her pillow and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Cake, disturbed by the noise, woke up, shifted into a new position, and went right back to purring in her sleep.
It was already late. She had school the next morning.
Worried that continuing the conversation might annoy him, Qi Xia sent a good-night message. Stars in Splendor View replied with a single word.
“Mm.”
Even after saying good night, Qi Xia didn't go straight to sleep. She held her phone in both hands, wrestling with a question.
Should she look through Chen Xifan's QQ Space?
She couldn't afford to activate the premium membership that would let her browse anonymously. If she visited Chen Xifan's space, her account would definitely leave a record.
But...
She really wanted to look.
After three seconds of indecision, Qi Xia threw every last concern out the window. Nobody knew that she was Classmate No. 7. What did she have to be afraid of?
With a perfectly clear conscience, she tapped into his profile.
Chen Xifan didn't post particularly often, maintaining a frequency of roughly one update every two months. What he did share, though, covered a surprisingly wide range of things: his aircraft models, competition trophies, new skiing techniques he'd learned, volunteer work at a stray-dog shelter, and everything he'd seen and experienced while traveling abroad.
If someone else posted updates like these, they might come across as showing off, trying too hard to impress people.
But Chen Xifan only made you feel that he was genuinely sharing his life with you.
Every post was crowded with comments and likes. He replied to some of them, and with people he knew well, he even got into playful banters.
In short, his QQ Space was much like the person himself: bright, confident, passionate, and brimming with youthful pride. Yet beneath the boldness of his words, there was also a glimpse of gentleness.
Qi Xia scrolled through his posts one after another.
Then, without warning, her eyes began to sting.
Aircraft models. Competition trophies. Travel abroad.
Those things felt impossibly far from her. They belonged to a world she'd never set foot in.
The gap between people could be so vast.
More and more, Qi Xia felt that Chen Xifan was like the moon, shining somewhere she could never reach.
Still, even moving a little closer to the moon was enough to make her happy.
---
On the other side of the screen, Chen Xifan was working through a set of competition problems when his phone began vibrating incessantly.
He frowned slightly and picked it up. Teacher Xu, the competition coordinator, had added him to a group chat.
Chen Xifan muted the group notifications, then returned to his message list. Inevitably, his eyes landed on the account named Classmate No. 7.
The whole thing was rather strange, when you thought about it.
The upcoming AMC math competition was being held in California. Teacher Xu, who was based in the United States, was responsible for arranging food and accommodation for the students coming from China. To make things easier, she'd created a small group chat.
Earlier, after finishing his test paper, Chen Xifan had remembered Wei Yupeng's reminder from that afternoon and messaged him to ask for Teacher Xu's QQ number.
Wei Yupeng sent him a string of digits. Chen Xifan searched for the number and added the account.
Then Wei Yupeng immediately sent a kneeling emoji, confessing that he'd remembered incorrectly. The QQ number he'd just given Chen Xifan wasn't Teacher Xu's after all.
And that was how the mix-up had happened.
By sheer coincidence, this Classmate No. 7 he'd accidentally added also happened to be in the Aviation Enthusiasts group.
Chen Xifan had plenty of QQ friends. Some were people he knew in real life, while others were strangers he'd added because they shared his interests. They exchanged messages every now and then.
So when Classmate No. 7 asked him not to delete her, he'd agreed.
Chen Xifan was about to close the app when his finger slipped, tapping Classmate No. 7's profile picture.
The internet at home was fast. In an instant, the image expanded across his screen.
It was a cat, entirely white except for a few tufts of black fur on its forehead. Its expression was adorably vacant, so cute that made you want to smile.
Pets seemed to possess a natural talent for putting people at ease.
The corners of his lips lifted slightly. He turned off his screen, lowered his head, and went back to his problems.
---
The happiness of accidentally adding Chen Xifan on QQ stayed with Qi Xia all the way into the next day.
Jingda High School didn't prohibit students from using their phones. They simply relied on everyone to exercise self-discipline.
During the morning break, after finishing their exercises, Qi Xia and Xu Youfei went to the restroom.
Inside one of the stalls, Qi Xia pulled out her phone and replied to a text from her aunt. Then she couldn't resist. She logged into her alternate account, opened the chat with Chen Xifan, and stared at it for a long moment.
She wondered whether other girls acted this way when they liked someone.
Did they keep going back over the same conversation, reading it again and again?
There were only a handful of messages, but Qi Xia had already secretly reread them several times since the previous night. Somehow, she couldn't get enough.
When she came out of the stall, she stood at the sink and washed her hands.
"Xia Xia." Xu Youfei splashed cold water onto her face. "What happened to you? You've been in an unusually good mood today."
"Have I?"
"Of course. You've been smiling nonstop."
Qi Xia's heart gave a hard thump.
She looked up at the mirror and discovered that, sure enough, the corners of her mouth were curved into the faintest smile.
She quickly came up with an excuse. "We only have class for half a day today. Of course I'm happy. We're getting out early this afternoon."
The written teacher certification exam was being held in Jing City that weekend. Since Jingda High School was serving as an examination site, the school needed time to prepare. Classes would end at noon.
Xu Youfei loved holidays more than anything. At the news, she grinned, too.
"Hehe, I'm happy as well. Tickets for the Mayday concert are going on sale soon. I'm going to switch seats next class so I can time it perfectly and grab the tickets."
Students in their class occasionally changed seats. As long as it didn't interfere with the lessons, the teachers generally didn't bother stopping them.
Qi Xia had never been to a concert before.
"Do you really have to fight for tickets right at the second they go on sale?"
"C’mon. It's Mayday!" Xu Youfei pressed her palms together and began her prayer. "Please, please, let the internet stay smooth. Please let me get VIP tickets!"
Qi Xia asked, "Who are you planning to switch seats with?"
"Not sure. Maybe He Xiao, or Chu Yang? Their seats are toward the back, perfect for secretly playing phones."
As soon as they entered the classroom, Xu Youfei went looking for He Xiao.
Qi Xia returned to her seat and found Xing Anya sitting there with a deeply troubled expression.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Do you know how to solve this problem?"
Xing Anya pointed to a difficult physics question.
Qi Xia shook her head so vigorously she looked like a bobble head. "If you don't know how to do it, there's no way I will. Why don't you ask your tutoring teacher when you get home? And when you come back next week, teach me, too."
"I'm not going to tutoring this week. I have to go back to my hometown for ancestral rites."
"Then ask your teacher on Monday."
Xing Anya's academic instincts wouldn't let her leave today's problem unresolved until the following week. She sighed.
"The School Heartthrob would definitely know how to solve this. If only Chen Xifan would come over for a minute."
She had no idea how quickly her wish would come true.
The bell rang.
Qi Xia looked up and saw Chen Xifan strolling toward their seats, a book tucked under his arm. Xu Youfei followed close behind him, wearing an expression of such eager flattery that she practically had a tail wagging.
When they reached the desk, Xu Youfei gathered her things and said, "Xia Xia, I'm switching seats with my brother for this class, okay? Be patient with me."
Xing Anya's eyes lit up. She immediately leaned toward Qi Xia and whispered into her ear.
"Perfect. Ask him about that problem for me."
"Why do I have to ask?" Qi Xia said, her entire body going rigid.
"Because you're sitting in the middle."
Class had only just begun, and the room was still buzzing. Chairs scraped across the floor, voices overlapped, the noise of everyone settling in filled the air.
Qi Xia heard none of it.
Chen Xifan pulled out his chair and sat down beside her.
A clean, fresh scent drifted into her breath.
She had never been this close to him before.
Time seemed to slow. Her breathing nearly stopped. Every thought she had was swallowed up by the boy sitting beside her, leaving her incapable of concentrating.
She forced herself to calm down and fixed her eyes on the textbook. Then, beneath the desk, she pinched the back of her hand hard.
At the same time, she stole a glance at Chen Xifan from the corner of her eye.
The class was English, and the teacher hadn't arrived yet.
After settling into his new seat, Chen Xifan felt his phone vibrating continuously in his pocket. He'd never been one to care much about rules, and he wasn't worried about being caught by the teacher. With casual audacity, he pulled out his phone, opened QQ, and replied to a message.
Qi Xia had excellent eyesight.
Without meaning to, she caught a glimpse of his screen.
Her alternate QQ account was sitting at number five on his message list.
Chen Xifan would probably never know that, at that very moment, Classmate No. 7 was sitting right beside him.
---
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