Chapter 12 Didn’t Understand

Between classes, the girls’ restroom was packed. Everyone queued up for stalls while chatting in small groups, occasionally greeting acquaintances from other classes or gathering together to spread gossip even further.

Xu Yannuo, Zhang Qi, and Zhao Ying were also squeezed in the middle. Two stalls away from them, a few girls from their class were whispering gossip with close friends from another class, occasionally glancing in Xu Yannuo’s direction. The outsiders listening to the gossip also kept looking over—more precisely, they were staring at Xu Yannuo.

Xu Yannuo knew they must be talking about the morning self-study session.

Zhang Qi and Zhao Ying also noticed. Although they couldn’t hear clearly what was being said or the exact words, they couldn’t stop people from talking—after all, mouths belong to others. Besides, school life was already stressful and dull enough with studying and exams, so gossip became everyone’s favorite pastime. Whether it was today’s big commotion or trivial matters like who held hands with whom, who had a crush on whom, or who glanced at whom an extra second or exchanged an extra word—such minor things would keep everyone excitedly chatting nonstop.

It’s just so boring.

Xu Yannuo didn’t like being the center of attention, but she didn’t take it to heart either. After all, there were so many people at school, and after a few more classes, everyone would have new gossip to talk about.

However, Zhang Qi and Zhao Ying were clearly a bit worried about Xu Yannuo. The restroom was crowded, and even whispers could easily be overheard by others, so Zhang Qi and Zhao Ying didn’t say anything. They just asked Xu Yannuo if she wanted to go to the campus convenience store to buy a drink before heading back.

Xu Yannuo didn’t want to return to the classroom either. Going back meant running into Chen Ciyi. During class was manageable since the teacher was present and he couldn’t speak too loudly, but between classes was a different story. Who knew what earth-shattering words he might say or what outrageous things he might do? The incident with the eraser hitting Li Wei in the morning was already bad enough.

After squeezing out of the girls’ restroom, the three of them headed straight to the campus convenience store behind the main building. Although this store was half the size of the one near the cafeteria, its advantage was its proximity. Once they exited the back door of the main building, the space opened up, making it relatively safer for them to whisper among themselves.

Zhang Qi glanced at the people around them who were also heading to the convenience store and lowered her voice to ask Xu Yannuo, “Nuo Nuo, what exactly happened this morning? How did your eraser end up hitting Li Wei?”

Zhao Ying also looked worried, “Did he scare you when he came over this morning? How are you? Are you okay?”

Xu Yannuo thought about Zhang Qi and Zhao Ying, who were just as timid as her—they were genuinely afraid of Li Wei. For some reason, ever since the first year of high school, Li Wei had been acting like this, putting on a tough-guy act as if he were the class bully. But after spending more time around him, you’d realize he didn’t stand out much compared to troublemakers from other classes. However, he had one trait: he knew how to pick his targets. Their class didn’t have any particularly dominant boys or girls, which inadvertently made him stand out. So, he kept bossing everyone around, and over time, his status solidified. Everyone got used to it, and thus, the whole class feared him.

Especially the girls, because of his donkey-like nature—unlike the formidable boys in other classes who would pick fights with guys over the slightest provocation—when it came to girls, no matter how they acted up or threw tantrums, he would let them scold him a few times or hit him a few times, occasionally joking back but never retaliating, never taking it seriously. But Li Wei was different—he treated girls the same as boys. As long as there was no real harm, he’d act all cocky and ready to take off.

Thinking about how Zhao Ying and Zhang Qi had just turned around to speak up for her in that situation—even if their voices were quiet and it didn’t really help—Xu Yannuo was touched.

She immediately reassured both of them, putting their minds at ease, “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

But when she thought about the eraser they had asked about, Xu Yannuo didn’t really want to answer. It wasn’t that she wanted to shield Chen Ciyi—what he had done was truly despicable, and she had no reason to cover for him. However, once she explained the whole story, while they might stand up for her and criticize Chen Ciyi, they would inevitably ask why. And that “why” would drag out all the things that had happened between her and Chen Ciyi since they met.

She had many things unknown to others and didn’t want anyone to know.

Xu Yannuo chose to remain silent. “I don’t know. I didn’t hold the eraser steady, and somehow it flew toward Li Wei. Just my luck.”

After that, they didn’t continue the topic—it wasn’t a happy one anyway. Squeezing through the crowd as if the water was free, they paid and grabbed their bottles. Glancing at the time, they saw there was only a minute left before class. The three of them didn’t linger any longer and followed the flow of people through the back entrance of the main building, heading upstairs back to their classroom.

Back in the classroom, Xu Yannuo stole a glance at Chen Ciyi. He was working on some test paper. Although she wanted nothing to do with him and even wished he would take her secret far away and become mute forever.

But Xu Yannuo couldn’t help glancing at the test paper he had done.

To be honest, she was just an ordinary student. So in her dark and gloomy life, when someone suddenly barged in, showed intense interest in her private affairs, persistently refused to ignore her, and frequently picked on her—yet not primarily to bully her—Xu Yannuo found it annoying, but also somewhat intriguing.

What kind of person is this? Did they eat all the elements from the periodic table and fry their brains, leaving them so bored with nothing better to do?

The test paper is a compilation of new question types for the college entrance exam, with detailed analysis. College entrance exam? That means it covers all content from grades 10 to 12. New question types suggest these aren’t basic scoring questions but rather advanced ones—high-difficulty problems designed to widen the score gap among top-performing students?

Xu Yannuo glanced at Chen Ci’s profile—he was solving problems quite earnestly, occasionally jotting down brief steps in the margins of the test paper as scratch work.

Is this test paper a real academic weapon wielded by a top student, or just another pretentious prop like Li Wei’s watered-down dominance in class?

Xu Yannuo glanced at the test questions on his paper again, read them once more… still didn’t understand!

Xu Yannuo withdrew his gaze. Who knew if it was true or not? In any case, the final exams would reveal the truth. After all, not everyone the principal recruited could be fully trusted—some were just pushed in after paying sponsorship fees. Though it sounded unpleasant to say outright, they were still labeled as transfers from other schools.

What’s even funnier is that last semester, the principal recruited a student from Shandong—where the teaching quality is high. He was literally poached, and after his arrival, all the teachers treated him differently upon hearing he was from Shandong. Yet, when the final exams came around, the student ended up ranking last in the class, leaving all the teachers stunned.