My Deskmate Chapter 24
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 24
As soon as Chi Ye finished speaking, he suddenly realized that the distance between them was a bit dangerous. His first instinct was to predict Wen Xiao’s potential moves and calculate how to counter them.
But sometimes, he misjudged things. Wen Xiao leaned in and actually sniffed, then commented, “Smells like sweat.”
Wen Xiao was so close to Chi Ye’s neck, his nose brushing lightly against his skin. Even though there was barely any contact, Chi Ye felt an itch all over and wanted to retreat about eight hundred meters.
Various sounds came from the sports field, a cool breeze blew in from the corridor, and water droplets from a faucet that wasn’t properly closed fell with a rhythmic "tap-tap" onto the ground.
Chi Ye’s Adam’s apple bobbed as the heat that had been cooled by the cold water surged back up. His voice was a little hoarse as he asked, “It doesn’t stink, does it?”
Wen Xiao, leaning against the tile wall, didn’t move and gave a different evaluation. “It’s okay.”
Chi Ye must’ve been out of his mind because he actually found the cold, indifferent, almost dismissive look in his deskmate’s eyes strangely captivating. He curved his lips into a smile and joked, “Can’t you say something nice?”
Wen Xiao caught the smile in his eyes. “Isn’t this nice enough? You're so demanding.” As he spoke, a faint smile appeared in his own eyes, the light sparkling in his gaze.
The two of them walked out together.
Chi Ye remembered the earlier basketball game and commented, “Old Xu and Cheng Xiaoning are so unreliable. They're like eighty-year-old grandpas. All they need is a cane to sit on the sidelines and play chess.” Recalling Cheng Xiaoning's performance when catching students at the school gate, he added, “Probably only at the school gate can Cheng Xiaoning unleash an Olympic champion-level burst of energy.”
"Old Xu mentioned it in class," Wen Xiao recalled and repeated, "He said that back in college, he participated in the school sports meet and won second place in the 3,000-meter race. His wife was a school reporter covering the event, and after the race, she was so taken by his heroic figure that she fell for him."
"You remember that so clearly?" Chi Ye raised a hand and patted his deskmate’s slender shoulder. "Old Xu is spot on when it comes to highlighting key points before exams, but you don't have to believe these words. He used to brag that he was once a member of the school calligraphy club, and he wrote a piece of calligraphy called Spring River Flower Moon Night for an exhibition. He said his wife was so impressed by his graceful brush strokes that she fell in love with him."
Wen Xiao: "......"
Chi Ye’s hand instinctively went to his pocket, but then he remembered he was wearing a basketball jersey, which didn’t have pockets. He awkwardly let his arm drop to his side and continued speaking to Wen Xiao. "Just listen, don’t believe it."
Wen Xiao zeroed in on the key point. "Sixty points. How do you know Old Xu is very accurate at marking key points before exams?"
"......" Chi Ye paused, unable to come up with a reason on the spot. Finally, he settled on a universal answer. "I guessed."
"Oh, I see." Wen Xiao didn’t press further. As they walked out of the science building, he put on his school jacket and headed toward the second academic building.
Chi Ye, still warm from the game, draped his school jacket over his shoulder with one hand. His tone was light. "Do you think... after we helped Cheng Xiaoning win the match and saved face for the first year team, he’ll smile at me next time he sees me?"
Wen Xiao looked at Chi Ye. "Between you and Xu Gong of Chengbei, who can imagine things so beautifully?"
Chi Ye laughed out loud. "Haha, it’s me. I have the better imagination!"
Wen Xiao listened to Chi Ye’s bright laughter and glanced at the blue sky reflected in the small pond beside the main road. The weather was really nice today.
As soon as Chi Ye and Wen Xiao entered the classroom, they were met with a warm welcome.
"Did you guys throw the game on purpose at the end? That was some serious tanking! You were shooting at the ground, the ceiling, and passing the ball to the opponents. You just couldn't hit the hoop!"
"We were being magnanimous, giving face to the first year teachers!"
"Cheng Xiaoning usually runs around like a whirlwind chasing chickens and dogs, but during the basketball game, he only waved his hand! What a moral decline, hahaha!"
"That was so intense! Chi-ge and Wen Xiao are awesome!"
The entire classroom was as noisy as a marketplace. A few boys were going through puberty, and their distinctive laughter could be heard even in the opposite classroom. Students from the next classroom were peeking through the back door, trying to figure out what was going on.
It wasn’t until the discipline officer threatened to deduct points from their conduct record that the group of excited boys reluctantly returned to their seats.
Shangguan Yu and Zhao Yiyang turned around and lowered their voices to speak to Chi Ye. "Damn, Chi-ge, you and Wen Xiao were absolutely insane! Especially the faces of those two first year teachers. They looked like memes!"
Chi Ye, focused on enjoying the basketball game with Wen Xiao, hadn’t paid much attention to anything else. "Which two teachers are you talking about?"
"The two youngest ones. Word from the first year is that those two teachers were bragging about how they were going to crush the second year team. You know how it is when people boast, it's like setting yourself up for a fall."
Shangguan Yu pushed his glasses up, his tone less exaggerated than Zhao Yiyang's, and added, "I didn’t expect that after meeting you and Wen Xiao, they’d get wiped out like that."
It was exhilarating when students beat the teachers. The entire afternoon, the classroom buzzed with excitement. During breaks, the hallway outside the classroom was filled with more girls than usual. During the long break, Chi Ye slipped away, leaving Wen Xiao alone to face the barrage of attention.
But with his deskmate gone, no one was there to distract him. Wen Xiao pulled out a pen and began working through problems, trying to block out the laughter and shouts from outside.
His phone buzzed on the desk. Wen Xiao reached over with his left hand, picked it up, and saw a message from Chi Ye.
"Are you still being watched?"
Wen Xiao: "."
Even through the screen, Chi Ye could feel the heavy frustration coming from his deskmate. He guessed that when Wen Xiao typed that period, he was on the edge of losing his temper.
Yaya, holding her pink water bottle, glanced around curiously. "Gege, why didn’t Cola-gege come?"
Chi Ye turned off his phone and looked down at his little sister. "Because Cola-gege has class."
Yaya furrowed her brows. "Then why isn’t gege going to class?"
Chi Ye ruffled Yaya’s hair, answering in a relaxed tone, "Because I’m smart. I can learn just fine without going to class."
He placed a small helmet on her head. "Have you seen that uncle who gave you candy money?"
Yaya adjusted her helmet with both hands and replied, "I just saw him a little while ago!"
Chi Ye’s gaze sharpened. “Is he at the school gate?”
“Yes, he was just by the roadside, under that tree. He left when gege and I came out of school.” Yaya happily pointed to her eyes. “I have great eyesight, I’m not blind. Some people in our class already wear glasses. The class monitor calls them four-eyes...”
Chi Ye stared at the tree Yaya pointed to, his gaze fixed for several seconds. His lips tightened.
During evening study session, Old Xu walked in holding a test paper. "I was grading your homework and halfway through, I noticed one problem had a terrifyingly high error rate of 70-80%! I’ll take five minutes to explain it to you all in detail."
Wen Xiao glanced at the words Old Xu had written on the blackboard, then lowered his head to continue working on his physics paper. With midterms approaching, there was more homework than usual, and teachers were starting to stretch every minute of class time. Half of the ten-minute break was taken, leaving barely any time to rest.
“Damn, I really messed this up,” Zhao Yiyang muttered, clenching his fist and tapping his head. He turned to Wen Xiao and asked, “Did you—” Seeing Wen Xiao still engrossed in his physics work, not paying attention to Old Xu, he hesitated for a second before asking, “Did you get this one right?”
“Yeah.”
Zhao Yiyang didn’t doubt him. No matter the subject, people usually had a gut feeling about whether they could solve a problem. If one could glance at a problem and immediately identify the type, the formula, and the specific knowledge point being tested, then they'd undoubtedly get it correct. However, if one found themselves staring at a problem, analyzing it repeatedly, and feeling hesitant to commit to an answer, there was a 80-90% probability that they'd get it wrong. Zhao Yiyang was the latter type, while Wen Xiao was clearly the former.
He quietly groaned. “At this rate, taking the midterm is like going into a battle with the final boss wearing a newbie gear!”
Shangguan Yu, hearing him lament, asked, “If the midterm is the final boss, what’s the college entrance exam?”
Zhao Yiyang said seriously, "The college entrance exam is like a hell-level difficulty bug!" Then, he remembered something. "After the midterm, when the parent-teacher meeting happens, Old Xu should return the phone and game console he took from me, right? That’s probably the only good news."
Wen Xiao paused his pen. "Parent-teacher meeting?"
"Yes, parent-teacher meeting!" Zhao Yiyang nodded. "The school requires every student's parents to attend. If they can’t make it, they have to personally call the homeroom teacher and explain why. But..." Zhao Yiyang glanced at the empty desk beside Wen Xiao. "Chi-ge doesn’t have any parents. No, that's not what I meant. I mean, no one ever shows up for his parent-teacher meetings. His seat is always empty. But Chi-ge doesn’t care. Cheng Xiaoning can’t even handle him, so not showing up to a parent-teacher meeting is no big deal for him."
At this point, Zhao Yiyang couldn’t resist gossiping. "Based on all sorts of guesses, I think something might have happened in Chi-ge’s family, like his parents getting divorced or something, which led to his rebellious phase, and now he’s just given up on studying. Otherwise, with his incredible grades from the high school entrance exam, no matter how much he played around, he could still easily secure a top ten spot in the grade!"
Wen Xiao didn’t say much. He simply replied, "That’s how it is."
Among the people in the class, Zhao Yiyang probably had the best relationship with Chi Ye. He was now sure that Chi Ye had never shared any details about his family with anyone other than their homeroom teacher, Old Xu.
At that moment, Old Xu, who had been standing at the podium, aimed a pointed look at the last row. "Zhao Yiyang, look, it’s raining outside because you’re not paying attention in class!"
The moment Zhao Yiyang’s name was called, he immediately sat up straight. After hearing Old Xu’s words, he couldn’t help but glance out the window. Sure enough, it was raining. But seriously, how was that his fault?
One question took five minutes to explain, another five minutes for the knowledge point, and then an extra ten minutes for the follow-up questions. By the time Old Xu finally let them go, the bell for the first evening study session rang.
Old Xu, as if he hadn’t heard the bell, remained unperturbed. "I’ve taken up two extra minutes of your time. You can continue with your homework, and if you have any questions, come to my office."
Although the bell for the end of class had already rung, almost no one moved in the entire classroom, except for a few students heading to the bathroom. Everyone was busy trying to finish their homework.
In the last row, Wen Xiao lowered his head and replied to a message.
Chi Ye: "I'm feeling a bit annoyed."
Wen Xiao twirled the pen in his hand and replied, "?"
At the top of the screen, the words "The other party is typing..." appeared several times, but no message came through.
Wen Xiao didn’t add many friends on WeChat and wasn’t fond of texting because typing was troublesome, and voice messages were even more of a hassle.
But this time, he waited patiently to see what Chi Ye would actually send.
Nearly two minutes later, Chi Ye’s message finally appeared in the chat.
Chi Ye: "Just really annoyed."
Three words, two minutes?
After reading it, Wen Xiao’s finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before he typed: "Want to fight?"
After a moment’s thought, he added, "Two fights would be fine too."