My Deskmate Chapter 84
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 84
Both Mingnan and Qingzhou released their results on June 23rd.
Since the 20th, Xu Rui had been increasingly restless. Unable to stay still at home, he dragged people to the internet cafe to pass the time by playing games. However, the gaming sessions were a disaster. Xu Rui missed his skills nine out of ten times, Zhao Yiyang constantly forgot to buy his gear when leaving the base, and Shangguan Yu kept drifting off in the middle of the game. The only two relatively normal players on the team, Chi Ye and Wen Xiao, tried their best to carry the team, but they couldn't.
After losing eleven games in a row, Zhao Yiyang realized that this was a bad omen. So, he decided to temporarily quit gaming and meditate until the results were out.
Early on the 22nd, Wen Xiao was woken up by the constant pinging of his phone. He picked it up and opened WeChat, only to see that a group chat named "." had risen to the top of his notifications.
Zhao Yiyang: "I can't check my Moments anymore. Damn it, it's all about results! Those assholes have flooded the feed with endless memes and jokes! Now I'm even more anxious! Why can't they just leave it alone and maintain some calm before the storm?"
Xu Rui: "You're so hypocritical. You're the one posting memes, and probably the most active one at that. How dare you complain?"
Zhao Yiyang: "I'm just using poison to counter poison, haha!"
Someone came up from behind and placed a warm hand on Wen Xiao's arm, slowly trailing down until it rested on his hand, pressing the phone into the bed. "What's going on?"
Chi Ye, still half asleep, kissed Wen Xiao's neck absentmindedly.
Wen Xiao: "The results are coming out today."
Chi Ye reached out to grab his phone and, while opening the class group chat, reflected on himself — perhaps the past half month had been too comfortable, he almost forgot about checking the results
There was a "3760" badge on the top right corner of the chat app icon. With so many messages piled up, the interface even lagged for a few seconds as Chi Ye entered the group.
Old Xu was busy in the chat, acting as a spiritual guide, sending out comforting motivational quotes now and then. Everyone pretended to be calm, but every once in a while, someone would post links like "Expert Analysis on This Year's Cutoff Scores!" or "What You Must Know About Filling in Your College Applications."
Chi Ye skimmed through the messages briefly, then tossed his phone aside and pulled Wen Xiao closer. "Old Xu said the results will be available at eight tonight. It's only nine in the morning now, so we still have eleven hours."
Wen Xiao, who had been typing a response to Zhao Yiyang’s question, heard Chi Ye's lazy mumbling but didn’t look at him. "Don’t cling so tightly. It’s hot."
It was nearing July. Despite the two heavy rainstorms in the past few days, the temperature was rising quickly. By now, the sunlight outside was already blinding.
Chi Ye, eyes half-closed, pretended not to hear, pressing even closer to Wen Xiao. As teenagers, their body temperatures were naturally higher, and their skin felt hot pressed together. Wen Xiao glanced sideways at Chi Ye, said nothing more, and didn't move away.
Hearing the steady tapping of Wen Xiao’s fingers on the keyboard, Chi Ye became curious. "What are you chatting about?"
"Zhao Yiyang posted the steps for his second-to-last chemistry question and asked me how many points he might score."
Although he knew it was pointless to calculate his score a hundred times since there was no chance to change or correct anything anymore, he still couldn’t resist trying to comfort himself with such little calculations before the results were out.
Once Wen Xiao finished, Chi Ye pressed him down on the pillow. "Your boyfriend is really anxious right now."
Wen Xiao looked up at him, his eyes clear and sharp. "So?"
Chi Ye’s gaze burned with something fierce, his words blunt. "So I want to kiss you."
Wen Xiao: "Kiss where?"
Chi Ye felt as though those few casual words from Wen Xiao could ignite every spark of desire within him. His gaze drifted downward, finally settling on Wen Xiao's collarbone. He lowered his head and bit it lightly, not too hard but with intent.
The sharp pain was quickly replaced by something else, and Wen Xiao hissed, drawing in a breath.
Chi Ye’s eyes darkened as he leaned in closer to Wen Xiao’s ear. "Want to make use of the time and do something else?"
Wen Xiao’s voice was husky. "Do you know how?"
Chi Ye smirked. "I’ve studied it. I’ve got it down. I just need practice. If you don’t know, don’t worry. Your Chi-ge will teach you."
Wen Xiao pressed his forehead against Chi Ye’s neck, a thin layer of sweat forming on his skin. His voice was low, strained. "Chi Ye…"
Chi Ye responded with a soft hum.
Wen Xiao’s eyes fluttered half-closed, his tone tight with impatience. "Can you hurry the hell up?"
Chi Ye let out a low, amused laugh.
Wen Xiao’s skin was already pale and cool to the touch, his lips naturally faint in color. Now, with his lower lip constantly bitten, it had taken on a soft pink hue. Chi Ye’s finger brushed over Wen Xiao’s bottom lip, his voice low as he coaxed him, "Let go, be good. Don’t bite yourself — bite me."
When Wen Xiao went to take a shower, his thighs were so sore that he could barely walk. After showering, he returned to the bedroom, opened the closet, and found one of Chi Ye's T-shirts to wear. As he did, his gaze happened to fall on a set of clothes hanging in the corner. "Why do you have three school uniforms?"
Chi Ye, pulling a white t-shirt over his head, hadn’t quite heard. "What?"
Wen Xiao repeated himself. "Why do you have three school uniforms in the wardrobe?"
The light red scratch marks on Chi Ye's back were covered by the clothes. This time, he heard the question clearly and replied, "Two of them are mine, one is yours."
Wen Xiao’s eyes lingered on the uniforms, his mind running. Two of them were definitely ones Chi Ye often wore, but the third had faint, light-colored stains. If it was his school uniform, then it could only be—
The scene suddenly shifted back to two years ago. He had just transferred to Mingnan, and on his first day after evening self-study, he had gotten lost in the winding, disorganized alleys near Jiuzhang Road.
He remembered the low, shabby building with peeling walls, the old lamp posts plastered with advertisements for small services, the dull sound of fists meeting flesh, and the countless muddy splashes from the falling rain.
He still remembered the voice of one of the fighters threatening loudly, "Your little sister is in primary school, right? What grade? First grade?"
Back then, with only himself and his grandmother at home, he had tried hard to avoid causing any trouble in unfamiliar places. But after hearing those words, he couldn’t help but return to the scene. He took off his own school uniform and draped it over the injured person’s wounds, although it probably didn’t help much.
"The person who was injured was you."
Knowing that Wen Xiao had remembered, Chi Ye leaned in and kissed the red mark on Wen Xiao's collarbone, confirming, "It was me."
The lingering soreness didn’t fade by evening, leaving Wen Xiao feeling listless and uninterested in anything. He leaned against Chi Ye’s shoulder, idly glancing at the class group messages with him, responding only in passing.
By 7:30, someone in the group chat mentioned that the results were available, and the conversation immediately fell silent. All the ongoing topics abruptly stopped, as if the internet had suddenly cut off.
Chi Ye opened the page to check the results, entered a string of exam registration numbers, and clicked to query. The page immediately crashed. Wen Xiao saw it happen and asked, "How do you remember my exam registration number?"
"I saw it once, and without realizing it, I just remembered it." Chi Ye glanced at Wen Xiao’s phone screen, smiling as he asked the same question back. "How do you remember mine?"
Wen Xiao: "The answer is the same as yours."
The page kept crashing. Every few minutes, they refreshed it. In between, the WeChat notifications kept pinging. When they switched back to the group chat, it turned out that some of their friends’ scores had already come through.
Zhao Yiyang: 674! 674! 674! I got 674! Someone hold me back, I’m so excited I might jump off the building!
Not long after, Shangguan Yu posted a screenshot. "682. Two points higher than my estimate. Thank god my essay wasn’t off-topic."
Xu Rui: Damn, why can you all see yours and I still can’t get mine to load? Is this wifi recognizing faces? Let me try again!
Less than half a minute later, Xu Rui appeared again: "680! It suddenly loaded?! Damn, I scored 680! This is so exciting, I got full marks on the second-to-last physics question!"
Zhao Yiyang: Brothers, I’m definitely the last one in the whole group, haha. How about you, Chi-ge and Wen Xiao? Have you checked your scores?
Chi Ye tapped his phone twice. "."
He then switched back to the score-checking page, reflexively refreshing it. He expected it to freeze or show some kind of error like before, but to his surprise, the number appeared on the screen.
At the same time, Wen Xiao turned his phone toward Chi Ye, showing him the screen.
Both of them saw the same number.
The total score displayed was 721.
On June 29th, after filling out their college applications, Xu Rui and the class monitor suggested in the class group chat that anyone who wanted to go back to Mingnan High and attend one last class should wear their school uniforms for a final visit.
Outside the window, the cicadas chirped under the scorching summer sun. In Class 1’s classroom, all forty-two students sat in perfect rows, not one missing.
On the podium, Xu Guangqi’s shirt was neatly buttoned up to the collar. He picked up the score sheets, just like every other time results were released, and began reading them out from the bottom: "...Chen Jiaying, total score 571; Wang Hongyuan, total score 589; ...Li Wencheng, total score 612; Wang Haoxuan, total score 613; ...Zhao Yiyang, total score 674; Xu Rui, total score 680; Shangguan Yu, total score 682; ...Chi Ye, total score 721; Wen Xiao, total score 721."
After reading out each name, Xu Guangqi put down the score sheet and looked around the classroom. "Everyone did extremely well this time. You should all be proud of yourselves! Everything I wanted to say before the exam, I’ve already said. I hope you all go further, and when you return, you’ll still be the young people you are today. Now, class is dismissed!"
Some students were taking photos and recording videos in the hallway, while others went downstairs to take pictures with the statue of Confucius — all the ordinary things, when labeled with "the last time," take on a different meaning.
When Chi Ye entered the classroom from the back door, he saw Wen Xiao wearing his blue-and-white school jacket, lying on his desk asleep. His profile was clean and sharp, and the hand resting on the desk looked pale and delicate, the wrist slim, the nails faintly colored.
Noticing the movement, Wen Xiao lifted his head. His eyes were cold and sharp, yet there was a hint of confusion, as if he had just woken up. He picked up a can of lemon Sprite, popped the tab with a crisp sound, and took a sip to shake off his drowsiness.
He looked at Chi Ye, and after a few seconds, asked, "Why are you here?"
Chi Ye, wearing the same blue-and-white school uniform, stood by the desk, his slim, tall figure relaxed. He answered with a lazy smile, "That's a question I was just about to ask."
Wen Xiao, focused, looked Chi Ye up and down. "Oh, you’re my deskmate."
Chi Ye curved his lips. "I thought the answer to that should have been obvious."
Suddenly, time rewound to seventeen months ago, when they had first met in this classroom.
The cicadas chirped and birds sang as sunlight filtered through the trees. Wen Xiao looked at the confident, energetic young man standing before him—
"Hello."
.
.
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Author's Note:
(finger heart emoji)
Yesterday, while writing, I thought I could write a few more chapters, but after staying up all night, I suddenly found myself at the ending. However, there will still be one more extra chapter tomorrow~
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I love you all so much and I’m really grateful to have you. This book has been a tough journey. My writing speed was slow, and my update time gradually shifted to 4 or 5 AM. I stayed up all night every day, and my health deteriorated later on. Sometimes I even had to take a break. Thank you so much for always being there. I love you all, my little fairies!!
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This story was a new attempt, and while it has many shortcomings, I’ve learned a lot from it. Although it was difficult, I am very happy and satisfied. I hope I can improve with each book and write even better stories for you to enjoy~
May we continue running towards a distant horizon, our hearts still filled with the youthful spirit and pride of daring to bind an Azule Dragon!