My Deskmate Chapter 19 (Part 1)
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 19.1
Wen Xiao's pen slipped, making a 'zz' sound as the stroke he was carefully writing went awry.
"You don't have to say anything anymore."
Holding back his laughter, Chi Ye held up two long fingers at his eyebrow in a mock salute. After a beat, he truly stopped speaking and leaned his head on the desk.
Zhao Yiyang, who was sitting in front of Wen Xiao, reacted even more strongly. Staring at his desk, he kept repeating to himself: What the hell did I just overhear?
When the English test papers were handed out, many students lost all interest in sleeping. People started rubbing their faces, trying to wake themselves up from their drowsiness.
Xu Rui's paper was filled with so many red marks that it made his eyes hurt. There was no way he could concentrate enough to sleep. After glancing around, he finally grabbed a chair and pulled it over to sit next to Shangguan Yu and Zhao Yiyang's desk.
"Hey, you two aren't sleeping either?"
Zhao Yiyang lazily lifted his eyelids and shot back, "Can you sleep?"
Xu Rui grimaced. "Sleep, my ass. If I actually manage to fall asleep, I'll probably have nightmares. I can't even take this test paper home. If my mom sees it, she won’t care about how hard the questions are. She’ll just yell at me for an hour and a half."
"My parents have been busy with work lately, always either at meetings or traveling for business," Zhao Yiyang replied, knowing full well that Xu Rui's mom was too busy gambling at the mahjong parlor to care. "Isn't your mom busy playing mahjong? Does she even have time to yell at you?"
"This is called drawing tiles and disciplining people without neglecting either, killing two birds with one stone."
Xu Rui, Zhao Yiyang, and Shangguan Yu were all firmly within the top ten of Class 1. When the three of them compared their test papers, it was clear that their answers aligned closely. If they all got a question wrong, it only meant that question was a five-star challenge.
Noticing that some people in the classroom were asleep, like Chi Ye, Xu Rui leaned over to Wen Xiao and whispered, "Wen Xiao, can I borrow your English test paper for a look?"
Wen Xiao handed his paper over without a word.
The three of them unfolded the paper, expecting to see the usual problem-solving steps, but instead, they noticed something different.
Normally, when they answered questions, they would underline or circle key points in the multiple-choice section, and mark keywords and phrases in the fill-in-the-blanks and reading comprehension sections with various stars and triangles. This was a study habit they had developed since middle school.
But Wen Xiao’s paper was spotless, no markings, no symbols. All there was, besides ABCD, was DCBA.
Xu Rui couldn’t help but exclaim, "Doesn't Wen Xiao even need to think about it? He just rely on intuition?"
Zhao Yiyang sighed in amazement. "It must be all about intuition, or maybe he’s so familiar with the material that he doesn’t need to think."
The three of them exchanged glances. Standing in the shadow of a true genius, they finally realized how much they still had to improve.
Chi Ye had been lying there for several minutes but couldn't fall asleep. And with Xu Rui and the others whispering about the questions in front of him, he couldn't block out the noise. The more he tried to sleep, the more awake he became. He opened his eyes and saw a crumpled sticky note on his desk. Reaching for it, his fingers nimbly folded it into shape.
Holding the folded note in his hand, Chi Ye nudged his deskmate with his elbow. "Hey, want to see something?"
Wen Xiao paused, his gaze falling on Chi Ye's clenched fist. "What is it?"
"Guess what it is."
Wen Xiao raised an eyebrow. "A boat?"
Knowing that Wen Xiao was already being very cooperative by not ignoring him, he didn’t beat around the bush. He opened his palm to reveal a paper crane.
Wen Xiao looked at the crane, which was carefully folded from a blue sticky note.
However, before he could comment, a low voice sharply interrupted. "Chi Ye! I told you not to disturb your deskmate while he's studying. What are you doing? Making a paper crane to wish him luck?"
Xu Guangqi had quietly appeared at the back door, observing the classroom. It was peaceful, with some students focused on their studies and others sleeping. He was feeling satisfied with the calm atmosphere, but then he saw Chi Ye fidgeting restlessly with something in his hands.
Turning around to see Xu Guangqi looking like an angry dragon, Chi Ye grinned. "I’m just showing my deskmate the long-lost art of paper folding. Wishing him luck? Old Xu, why are you so superstitious?"
Noticing that his outburst had woken someone, Xu Guangqi narrowed his eyes, lowering his voice even further. "Behave yourself and go back to sleep!"
Once Xu Guangqi had left, Chi Ye, feeling bored, lazily slumped back down, attempting once more to drift off to sleep. Then he heard Wen Xiao ask, "How do you know how to fold this?"
"The paper crane?" Chi Ye pinched the wings of the paper crane and swung it in a circle on the desk. "Yaya is not only a little silly, but she's also terribly clumsy. Back in kindergarten, when she had a craft class, everyone else had learned it, except her. She came home pulling at my sleeve and crying."
"So, you went and learned it?"
"Mm, I learned it and then taught her. I spent about three days teaching her, and eventually, the little sillyhead finally got it. She was so happy, she folded a whole box of paper cranes and took them to kindergarten to trade with the other kids."
Wen Xiao noticed that although Chi Ye's words were filled with teasing, his eyes softened when he mentioned Yaya.
On Saturday, Wen Xiao headed out, only to realize at the bottom of the stairs that it was raining. He turned around and went back to grab an umbrella.
The neighborhood was old, and so were its streets. On rainy days, the puddles in the potholes would fill up with water, and tiny frogs, no bigger than a fingernail, would hop out of the grass, splashing mud everywhere.
Since it wasn't a workday and the students weren't in school, the street vendor selling breakfast at the entrance of the neighborhood had little business. He was sitting idly, and when he saw Wen Xiao, he greeted him. "Are you going to a cram school?"
Wen Xiao didn’t say much, just nodded in response, handed over some money, and bought a cup of eight-treasure porridge.
The vendor quickly filled the steaming porridge into a plastic cup, sealed it with a lid, and inserted a straw, smiling as he praised Wen Xiao. "You really love studying. You’ll definitely be successful in the future. Unlike my two little monkeys at home, still sleeping in."
Standing at the bus stop, the water droplets on the umbrella gathered into a stream, dripping from the tip onto the ground. Wen Xiao watched as the bus he was supposed to take slowly pulled away, but his feet remained frozen in place.
He didn’t like going to the hospital.
Or rather, he resented the idea of his innermost thoughts being completely exposed and picked apart by someone else, being analyzed over and over, and finally labeled with a seemingly profound English acronym, PTSD, in a black ballpoint pen on a medical record.
After tossing the empty plastic cup into the trash, Wen Xiao watched as the second bus pulled into the station. A sharp, pungent smell of exhaust fumes filled the air. Just as the doors closed, Wen Xiao pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt and stepped on board.
It was almost noon by the time he emerged from the consultation room. He'd only had a few sips of eight-treasure porridge, and gnawing hunger began to set in. But even though his stomach was aching from hunger, Wen Xiao had no appetite.
Following the signs inside the hospital, he found a supermarket and spent four yuan on a can of iced Coca-Cola.
The annex to the hospital had probably only been built recently. The facilities were new, and the environment was pleasant. Behind the supermarket was a large lawn and a sizable lake. Since it was raining, the lawn was empty, devoid of even a single person.
Holding the umbrella with one hand, Wen Xiao made his way toward the lake, gripping the can of cola in his other hand.
As he got closer, he noticed that there were already people sitting in the wooden pavilion. He turned to leave, but then realized he recognized one of them.
Chi Ye was dressed all in black. He was leaning against one of the wooden pillars, with one leg bent casually. The loose neckline of his hoodie hung low, revealing a white T-shirt underneath. He was tossing stones into the water, or more precisely, skipping them across the surface.
Wen Xiao had seen plenty of people skip stones, but he’d never seen anyone do it quite as skillfully as Chi Ye. It wasn’t that he seemed particularly focused, but he was calmly chewing on a white lollipop stick, his eyes tracking the ripples that spread out across the water. When the ripples began to fade, he would pick up another stone and toss it again.
The ripples from the stones spread out, one after another, gradually extending farther and farther into the distance.
Yaya was wearing a white hoodie, with a pair of little deer antlers dangling from the hood. She was reciting an ancient poem, but got stuck, prompting Chi Ye to gently remind her.
"In Jiangnan, lotus may be picked, its leaves so densely spread, while fish play — Cola-gege!"
Chi Ye clicked his tongue, not even turning his head as he spoke. "Yaya, are you thinking of your Cola-gege while reciting poems? Why aren’t you thinking about me? And besides, your Cola-gege probably doesn't like playing with fish."
Yaya pointed outside the pavilion. "Cola-gege!"
Chi Ye followed her finger and saw someone standing outside holding an umbrella, with a can of cola in his hand. The figure was slender, with delicate silver-framed glasses. It was none other than Wen Xiao.
Wasn’t the last time they met also on a Saturday?