My Deskmate Chapter 74
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 74
On Friday, Chi Ye got off Bus 117 and happened to run into Zhao Yiyang. Both of them were headed in the same direction to grab breakfast.
The sky hadn’t fully brightened yet, and there was a faint mist in the air. Outside the shop, the owner was calling out, "Steamed bun, porridge, soy milk, fried dough sticks, pancakes, tea eggs, what do you want?"
Zhao Yiyang was still undecided between vegetable porridge and eight-treasure porridge, but Chi Ye spoke up first. "One basket of braised pork buns, one cup of soy milk, three parts sugar."
As the owner opened the steamer, he asked, "What kind of sugar?"
Amid the rising steam, Chi Ye paused for a moment before replying, "Less sugar in the soy milk."
The owner understood immediately. "Less sugar, got it. The soy milk on the left has less sugar. You can pick whichever you like."
Soy milk with three parts sugar.
I didn't realize when, but your habits have become mine.
During the break, Chi Ye was once again summoned to the office by Xu Guangqi.
When Xu Guangqi saw that Chi Ye had zipped up his school uniform and neatly folded the collar, he nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad, not bad. More composed than before. The school uniform might be ugly, but as long as it’s worn neatly, it’s still presentable. And with your looks, even if you wear a long-sleeved shirt and a short-sleeved shirt together, there will still be a group of girls following you with their eyes."
Chi Ye glanced down at the zipper of his school uniform and bluntly replied, "I ran into Cheng Xiaoning on the way to the office, and he made me zip it up."
"......" Xu Guangqi pretended he had never given the compliment just now.
He then heard Chi Ye speak lazily. "Besides, why would I want a group of girls staring at me? I already have someone I like. I'm taken."
"Your mysterious girlfriend?" Xu Guangqi teased. "I’m starting to suspect you’ve fallen for that... paper lover! You know, isn’t it the trend now to like anime characters?" He shot back, "Besides, a beautiful flower already has its owner. You need to be a beautiful flower first! You're just a broken leaf, pretending to be a flower."
"Not an anime character." Chi Ye only refuted that one point before getting back to the matter at hand. "Is there something you need to talk to me about?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. I have something for you." Xu Guangqi opened a drawer and pulled out five notebooks. "Wen Xiao left these for you before transferring. He asked me to give them to you when you returned to school."
For a moment, Chi Ye was so stunned he thought he was imagining things. He asked hoarsely, "You just said... who?"
"Wen Xiao," Xu Guangqi replied, pointing to the stack of notebooks. "I remember you two were really close. These are for your reference — language, math, foreign languages, physics, chemistry, biology... except for Chinese, there's one for each subject. They cover key knowledge points and common mistakes. I flipped through them when I first got them. Originally, I thought of printing them out, but after thinking about it, the content in these notebooks is aimed at students with a super high level like you and Wen Xiao, assuming that the basic knowledge has already been mastered. For average students, they wouldn’t be of much use. The content is too advanced, the problems too difficult. Zhao Yiyang and the others wouldn’t benefit from them. So, they’ve just been sitting in my drawer, collecting dust for half a year."
Chi Ye’s gaze fell on the stack of notebooks.
They were very ordinary notebooks, with solid-colored covers — the kind Wen Xiao had always used.
His throat tightened. Chi Ye picked up the notebooks, holding them in his hands. "These are specifically for me. No one else can take them."
Upon hearing Chi Ye’s tone, Xu Guangqi waved him off dismissively. "Alright, alright, it’s yours. Just take it and go!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Chi Ye noticed the potted cactus on the desk. The tea leaves in it were still damp. He couldn’t help but comment, "You’re overwatering your cactus. It’s going to die." As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized something felt off. After a quick mental calculation, he tactfully added, "Maybe you should take a closer look at your cactus?"
During the next break, Xu Rui rushed into the classroom through the back door, holding onto the desk and laughing uncontrollably. "Hahaha! Guess what? The cactus in old Xu’s office is a fake plant — fake! Hahaha! Poor Old Xu, he watered it so much, thinking it’d help with blocking the radiation!"
Zhao Yiyang, who had been listening with orange earplugs in, pulled them out and turned around. "Fake? Damn, who made it? The craftsmanship is amazing! How did Old Xu react?"
Xu Rui grinned. "He took out his erhu."
During the lunch break, Wen Xiao opened WeChat and checked his Moments. The top post was from Chi Ye.
"Old Xu’s cactus, which he’s been taking care of for a year, is a fake plant. He was so heartbroken he played the erhu for ten minutes."
Wen Xiao stretched his sore fingers, reading the post over and over. For a few seconds, he managed to escape the suffocating atmosphere that had been weighing on him.
At Qingda Affiliated High School, there were many students preparing for competitions and overseas studies, but even more were focusing on the upcoming college entrance exams. With only a few dozen days left, everyone was pushing themselves to the limit, mechanically cramming through practice questions, while the pressure and frustration mounted steadily.
The homeroom teacher had once expressed regret that Wen Xiao hadn’t pursued competitions, but Wen Xiao didn’t think much of it. Studying, taking the college entrance exams, and attending university were simply a path. Once the path was chosen, he intended to walk it through to the end.
Wen Xiao didn’t have any close friends in this class. He recognized a few names he’d heard, but none of them seemed to match the faces. As he sat at his desk, someone called out from the back door of the classroom. "Wen Xiao, someone’s looking for you."
With that, the person lowered their head and went back to cramming.
Wen Xiao stood up and walked into the hallway, where a girl he didn’t recognize was waiting for him.
"Uh... I... I’m here to confess," she said, her voice trembling. "I know this might be interrupting your studies, but with the college entrance exams coming up and graduation so close, I still... I just wanted to say it and fulfill a dream of mine. I’m sorry!"
Wen Xiao suddenly realized that he and Chi Ye hadn’t gone through any of this. There had been no confessions, no exchanging of heartfelt words, just a look that had locked them in place, their feelings growing too strong to suppress. Like a wildfire, it had only taken a single spark to ignite it.
A single spark was all it took.
He turned her down gently. "Sorry, I already like someone."
"Is it someone from your old school?" The girl’s fingers tightened around a light blue envelope, and she bit her lip. "Then... could you at least take a look at this letter?"
Wen Xiao declined once more. "Sorry, I can’t."
"Why?"
Wen Xiao didn’t answer. His expression grew colder, his features hardening into a mask of indifference.
Back at his desk, Wen Xiao absentmindedly picked up his pen and wrote two familiar characters on the scratch paper.
He had promised the person he liked that he wouldn’t read any love letters or accept gifts from others. He wouldn’t let those things distract him from his studies.
That evening, when he got home, his grandmother began talking to him about his choice of major for the entrance exam.
Wen Xiao didn’t hesitate. "Physics."
His grandmother wasn’t surprised by the answer. She asked, "And which school?"
"Qingda."
"To be fair, Qingda is a great school. Last year, its overall ranking was third, and this year it rose back to second. But its Physics Department has always been number one in the country." His grandmother's eyes glinted with nostalgia. "When I was in school, Professors Yang Yoning, Huang Kunxian, Wu Ci, and my mentor, Xu Jishi, were all teaching at Qingda. Every time they gave a lecture, the classroom was packed, and many young teachers would even bring notebooks to attend their lectures. The classroom couldn't hold everyone, so the corridor was filled with people. At that time, I didn’t care about anything else. I was determined to go to Qingda, and I didn’t even look at other schools."
Wen Xiao took a bite of fried rice and picked up the conversation. "Now, Professor Lu Dongqing is also teaching at Qingda, and the classrooms are still packed."
His grandmother gave him a playful glare. "Are you making fun of your grandma now?"
Wen Xiao shrugged. "I’m just being honest."
"You’re using sweet talk," his grandmother teased. After a moment, she asked, "What about Chi Ye? Which school is he applying to?"
"I don't know," Wen Xiao replied, thinking for a moment before narrowing it down. "Qingda, or maybe Huada, the university next to Qingda."
"Huada has been ranked first in the overall standings for several years in a row. It's a great school too." His grandmother’s voice held a note of concern. "Does he have a high enough score?"
Wen Xiao nodded confidently. "He does."
The desk lamp was switched on as Wen Xiao sat down. Next to the lamp was a photo frame, inside which was the picture Old Xu had given him.
Originally, he had kept the photo under his pillow, but at some point, his grandmother had taken it out and placed it in a new wooden frame. She had put it on his desk.
Wen Xiao lifted his hand and gently tapped the picture of himself, with Chi Ye lying next to him, asleep.
Outside the classroom, the sound of cicadas grew irritatingly louder. The sunlight was blinding, and the curtains had to be drawn just to block it out enough to bear. The heat was stifling, so the air conditioning was on, set to nineteen degrees. By the end of the day, the cold air left their bones chilled.
One mock exam after another, Old Xu kept repeating the same words every day: "Each exam is not just an exam. It's a chance for you to find and fix any gaps in your knowledge! But you must treat every exam like it’s the real one! Only with practice and familiarity can you remain calm and composed in the exam room."
The school had released the latest meal plan. Old Xu was now standing at the front of the class, recounting the horror stories of previous students who had suffered from stomach problems due to food poisoning during the exams. His tale was so vivid that several students were carefully folding the meal plan, preparing to take it home and post it in their kitchens.
Zhao Yiyang was sitting nearby, flipping through a stack of test papers, trying to count how many he had completed during his third year. "61, 62... Wait, did I mess up again? Chi-ge, have you counted yours?"
Chi Ye twirled his pen between his fingers. "I haven’t counted. When you finish, just multiply it by two and that’s how many I've done."
Zhao Yiyang didn’t question this statement.
Since Chi Ye returned to school after his break, he had completely transformed. Zhao Yiyang finally understood what it meant when people said, "Some people are ten times smarter than you and a hundred times more hardworking."
He just wanted to ask Chi Ye if he was a freaking Saiyan. He seemed to study nonstop, as if sleep and rest were irrelevant. Zhao Yiyang couldn’t figure out what kept him going.
Chi Ye’s speed with practice questions was impressive, and his memory was nothing short of astounding. After breezing through a book of past exam papers in record time, he could practically recall, with his eyes closed, the exact question number and knowledge point for any given year.
At first, Zhao Yiyang had been a bit concerned. Although he knew Chi Ye had ranked first in the Mingnan High School entrance exams, he had seen his scores drop to around sixty in the following months. But up until then, he had never seen Chi Ye truly put in effort.
That changed after Chi Ye took the first mock exam after returning to school.
Many had already prepared to laugh at Chi Ye, expecting him to score barely sixty again. But when the results came in, he had topped the four-school joint exam.
That day, the hallway outside Class 1 was packed with curious onlookers, all eager to glimpse the rare specimen that was Chi Ye. Even on his way to the cafeteria, he was met with countless scorching stares that could almost burn a hole through him.
Zhao Yiyang couldn’t help but ask, "Chi-ge! Can you please act according to your persona? How the hell do you still get first place after missing so many classes? My fragile little heart is once again shattered into a thousand pieces!"
But all he got in response was a casual, "You can ask Wen Xiao about that. His answer is my answer."
Zhao Yiyang threw his hands up in resignation. "Fine, whatever. You two are both study freaks, overachievers, supernatural students!"
Once Xu Guangqi left, Zhao Yiyang snapped a picture of the meal plan and sent it to his mom. Then, he rolled it up into a tube and walked over to Chi Ye. "Chi-ge, let me interview you. What's the motivation that drives you to study so hard and grind away at practice questions day and night? Or what are you working towards?"
Chi Ye pretended to think for a long while before saying two words under Zhao Yiyang's expectant gaze, "For love."
Zhao Yiyang rolled his eyes. "Stop with the cheesy lines and be serious!"
Chi Ye touched the corners of his well-worn notebook, where the edges were frayed and bent from being flipped through so many times. His gaze scanned the familiar handwriting across the page, and a smile tugged at his lips. "Because someone is waiting for me."