My Deskmate Chapter 5
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 5
The bell rang, signaling the end of the morning classes. The school’s marching tune blared through the loudspeakers, echoing in everyone’s ears. The sports committee called for everyone to line up in the hallway.
The average height of the students sitting in the back row was about 1.8 meters.
Zhao Yiyang jumped over the railing. Seeing that the classes on the first and second floors had just lined up and were walking towards the sports field, he said, “I shouldn't have been so eager to get in line. I was halfway through solving a big problem, but then I jumped around on the sports field for ten minutes and completely lost my train of thought. What am I going to do now?”
“If you lose it after jumping twice, it means your connection with this topic is too shallow!” The homeroom teacher, Xu Guangqi, arrived holding a black thermos, and happened to hear Zhao Yiyang's complaint.
Zhao Yiyang turned around, slapping his chest twice. “Old Xu, are you a cat? You scared me half to death, I almost had a heart attack!”
“Such a fragile heart at your age?” Xu Guangqi raised his voice. “I say, my students, when you’re doing the morning exercises, could you put a little more effort into it? The way you’re moving, anyone who didn’t know would think they were watching a live-action version of Plants vs. Zombies!”
Someone chimed in, “Teacher, are we playing as the pea shooters?”
Xu Guangqi took a sip from his thermos before replying with a smile, “Still dreaming of being shooters? Calling you guys zombies is already a favor, considering we’ve been together for a year and a half!”
The group burst into laughter.
The line began to slowly move forward. The students at the front were already descending the stairs, while Chi Ye trailed at the back. Xu Guangqi slowed his pace and walked beside him. “You’ve missed the past two weeks of school. How’s your mom been doing lately?”
Chi Ye’s steps faltered slightly as he slipped his hands into his pockets, pausing for two seconds before answering, “Still the same. Things weren’t great last week, so I went to see her. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious, and she’s stable now.”
Wen Xiao didn't intend to eavesdrop, nor was he curious about other people's private matters, but he was about the same height as Chi Ye and they were both at the end of the line. Unless he plugged his ears, he would inevitably hear the conversation.
—The first time he met Yaya, he asked her where her parents were. Yaya had answered that they were at the hospital and hadn’t come back yet.
“Well, if she's still the same, that's good.” Xu Guangqi unscrewed the cap of his thermos, then twisted it back on, then off again, all while watching the relaxed smile on Chi Ye’s face. After thinking for a moment, he decided that words of comfort wouldn’t mean much to Chi Ye. “If there’s anything I can help with, don’t hesitate to speak up.”
Chi Ye held his index and middle fingers together and saluted. “I definitely won't be polite!”
“I'll believe that when I see it.” Then, as if remembering something, Xu Guangqi quickly asked, “Wait, when you went to see your mom, how’d you get there?”
Chi Ye answered honestly, “Of course, I took my beloved little motorcycle. The wind shield on my helmet was broken, so I took it to get repaired. Haven’t picked it up yet. It’s cold in the winter, so I wore a mask to protect half my face from the wind.”
“Can't you just tell a little white lie to spare your teacher’s fragile heart?” Xu Guangqi raised his eyebrows and glared, but mindful of the setting, he lowered his voice and scolded, “You kid, your brain hasn't fully developed, but your courage has grown tremendously! Riding a motorcycle without a helmet?”
Chi Ye mimicked Xu Guangqi’s tone. “Such a fragile heart at your age?”
If it weren't for that precarious shred of professional responsibilities, Xu Guangqi would have almost thrown the thermos at him in anger.
When Xu Guangqi glanced at Wen Xiao again, he couldn’t help but think that this new student had a good-looking face, was well-behaved, and didn't cause trouble. He was really obedient and well-behaved, unlike that brat Chi Ye who was so irritating and worrisome!
With a friendly expression, Xu Guangqi asked, “Wen Xiao, how’s it going? Are you settling in?”
Wen Xiao nodded. “I'm getting used to it.”
Even though he had switched schools, for him, the routine of classes, breaks, and the start and end of school was all the same.
“How about your deskmate? Is he doing okay?”
Chi Ye, standing nearby, spoke up with dissatisfaction. “Old Xu, I’m still here, you know. What do you mean, ‘is he doing okay’? I’ve been so careful, even holding my breath, afraid I might scare my fragile and delicate deskmate—”
Wen Xiao glanced at Chi Ye.
His eyes were narrow, with an almost imperceptible inner double eyelid, and long ends. There was a small mole beneath the outer corner of his eye. If he smiled a lot, he would probably be considered charming and attractive to girls. But his expression was always cold and indifferent, as if everyone owed him money and hadn’t paid up in eight lifetimes.
Chi Ye thought he was too aloof, too solitary, as though he feared becoming involved with anyone, always keeping a clear distance from others.
Yet, just from that one brief glance, Chi Ye inexplicably swallowed the rest of his words.
His former temporary teammate and now deskmate had quite pretty eyes, after all.
The third period was Physics. The teacher, Wu Li, was tall and muscular. When he walked into the classroom, he slammed a stack of papers down onto the desk. "I suspect that Newton and Einstein were both driven to their graves by you lot!"
Someone responded, "Wu-ge, we're not taking the blame for that!"
"Fine then," Wu Li shot back, "if I drop dead one day while teaching, it’s definitely going to be because of you guys!" He thumped his fist onto the stack of papers. "Subject rep, come up and hand out the mid-term tests. I don’t want to see your scores a second time! If I do, I’ll make you all pool the class funds to buy me some heart medicine!"
Zhao Yiyang, feeling a bit nervous, turned around to talk to Chi Ye, only to find him with his prickly head down, sleeping on his desk. He shifted his attention to Wen Xiao. "Hey, are you nervous? I’ve got a bad feeling. I think I made a mistake on the last two big problems."
Wen Xiao shook his head. "Not nervous."
Zhao Yiyang sighed, a worried expression on his face. "Right, you’re two terms behind in every subject. If it were me, I wouldn't feel any pressure at all if I got a 40 or even left the paper blank."
He slouched back down, resting his chin on the desk and sighing again.
Wu Li crossed his arms and listened to the subject rep call out names and scores, his face filled with indifference. "A piece of iron wire with length L is wound into a spiral coil with a height of H, fixed vertically on a flat surface. A bead slides down the coil without friction. The gravitational acceleration is g. How long will it take? Such a simple multiple-choice question, and yet some of you still got it wrong!"
He emphasized, "I don't even need to read the question to know the answer!"
Someone piped up, "Teacher, it must be the new student who got it wrong. He hasn't caught up with the course. The question is easy, but it's normal for him to get it wrong, right?" A boy going through puberty, whose voice was cracking, spoke in a sarcastic tone.
It was already hard for transfer students to fit in, and Wen Xiao wasn't exactly the most outgoing person. As soon as the words were out, a few snickers echoed through the classroom.
Chi Ye, just waking up, heard the noise. Propping his head up with his left hand, he lazily muttered, “I was wondering who was so noisy. Can’t even sleep peacefully. Turns out, we’ve got a bunch of half-grown ducklings in here.”
The snickers immediately stopped. The student who had spoken earlier turned pale with a mix of embarrassment and anger, but since it was Chi Ye who had said it, he didn’t dare respond and could only silently fume.
At just that moment, the subject rep called out Wen Xiao’s name. “Wen Xiao, 79.”
The physics teacher took the paper from the class rep, glanced at it, and nodded in approval. “For a student who’s missed a whole year of lessons, you’ve scored perfectly on all the questions we’ve covered. Your homeroom teacher told me you’ve missed a full year of school? To get this score shows that your ability to learn is very strong and very fast. Well done, keep it up.”
This score was close to what Wen Xiao had estimated beforehand. He walked to the front of the classroom and took the test paper. “Thank you, teacher.”
Meanwhile, Chi Ye slapped Shangguan Yu's shoulder. “What's the total score for this test? 150?”
Shangguan Yu turned around to give him the correct answer. “100.”
Zhao Yiyang, looking dazed, joined in the conversation. “I was just saying he’d probably score 40, but now I regret it. My guess was an insult to him!” He glanced at his own paper. “I only scored ten more points than Wen Xiao. Was the extra year I studied just an illusion?”
Chi Ye casually offered some consolation. “Master, it’s all about the factory settings. You didn’t come with a strong setup to begin with, so no amount of software upgrades will help.”
Zhao Yiyang pressed his palms together. “Amitabha, benefactor, you’ve struck to the heart of the matter.”
He glanced once more toward the group that had just been insulted by Chi Ye. “But Wu-ge’s string of compliments just now might might bring trouble for your deskmate. Those petty guys will probably hold a grudge against Wen Xiao.”
Chi Ye lazily responded, “Then do you think my deskmate cares?”
Zhao Yiyang nodded thoughtfully. “Hey, good point. He really doesn’t seem to care. I bet after just a week here, he’s only met me, Shangguan, and you.”
At the front of the classroom, the subject representative finished calling Wen Xiao’s name, and next up was Chi Ye.
Leaning back in his chair, Chi Ye raised his hand. “Hey, deskmate, could you pick up my test for me too?”
Wen Xiao casually grabbed Chi Ye’s paper, glanced at it, and saw it was exactly 60. Some answers were filled in, others were blank, but the ones that were filled in were mostly correct.
It was as if he had timed his answers to hit precisely 60.
He placed the paper on Chi Ye’s desk. “Here.”
“Thanks.” Chi Ye didn’t look at his own paper, but his eyes landed on Wen Xiao’s test. He noticed that Wen Xiao had nice handwriting, especially his name — each stroke was neat and beautiful.
Just as he was about to look again, he heard the physics teacher direct his attention toward him. “Chi Ye, this is the umpteenth time you've gotten 60 points. Aren't you tired of always getting 60?”
Chi Ye made up an excuse on the spot. “Teacher, it’s my lucky number.”
Noticing that Wen Xiao was also looking at his score, Chi Ye leaned closer and whispered to his deskmate, “See, this is called consistent performance — loyal and dedicated, not one to abandon the old for the new, right?”