Chapter 32 Won’t You Join In?

At least if there was one, she wouldn’t have to risk continuing to worry about being watched by the teacher during tomorrow’s Chinese self-study session, staring blankly at the textbook.

Xu Yannuo pushed open the door of the stationery shop. As the mechanical “Welcome” chime sounded at the entrance, she stepped inside. It was just after school, and the shop was crowded and noisy, with the checkout line stretching all the way to the back room. She squeezed through the crowd, bypassing the various pens, notebooks, erasers, and other stationery items, heading straight with clear purpose toward the books and workbooks in the partitioned section at the back.

At this hour, there weren’t many people buying books, but there were still some. Xu Yannuo walked over, bypassing rows of workbooks, and made her way to the literary section at the back. Before she could even start searching for books, her peripheral vision caught sight of someone familiar among the scattered few.

It was her deskmate, Chen Ciyi!

Huh. Xu Yannuo strode right over. He was currently bent over, flipping through the newly arrived workbooks with such focus that he didn’t even notice her approaching. The corners of her lips curled up as she greeted him with a smile, “What a coincidence, deskmate.”

Xu Yannuo noticed that upon hearing her voice, Chen Ciyi’s shoulders visibly stiffened. Then, he lifted his gaze from the workbook—not directly at her, but first straight ahead, before slowly turning to look at her.

Watching his series of reactions, Xu Yannuo’s smile grew even wider at the corners of his lips. How about it, are you happy? Surprised, aren’t you? We’re off campus now!

What goes around comes around; heaven spares no one. Debts must be repaid!

Chen Ciyi looked at Xu Yannuo’s face, which was usually soft and beautiful but now wore a terrifying, forced smile. His heart skipped a beat, yet he remained calm and clicked his tongue softly. He raised the workbook in his hand to cover his face, leaned in, and whispered a reminder to her, “Watch your expression, desk mate. Even though we’re off campus, there are still plenty of classmates from our school around.”

After saying that, he put the book down, raised his hand, and waved vigorously toward the entrance. “Sister Hua, over here! You came too!”

Hearing him call out the homeroom teacher’s name, Xu Yannuo’s expression immediately stiffened, and her heart panicked. She quickly looked toward the door. Had her earlier expression toward Chen Ciyi completely revealed her true nature? When had Hua Jie come in? How long had she been there? Had she seen Xu Yannuo threatening Chen Ciyi just now?

The doorway was crowded. Xu Yannuo frowned and scanned the area carefully, but after looking everywhere near the entrance, she still didn’t see Hua Jie. When she turned back to question Chen Ciyi, she realized he was already gone. She glanced toward the back door and caught sight of the clean hem of Chen Ciyi’s school uniform fluttering in the breeze as the door opened—then vanishing completely into the night outside the glass door as it closed.

“……” She’d been tricked!

Behind the school was a residential area, just a few steps away from rows of apartment buildings and greenery. By the time she thought of chasing after him, it was already too late!

Xu Yannuo took a deep breath, controlled his emotions, forcefully drove the anger out of his mind for the time being, and continued reading the literature book in front of him.

Fortunately, there were some available, although the selection was limited. Only a single row on the shelf had books, and most were just one or two copies. But for her, one was enough. Xu Yannuo picked up a seemingly untouched, quite new copy of Eileen Chang’s *Little Reunions* and went to queue at the checkout counter.

In recent days, Chen Ciyi had been unusually quiet—no picking fights, no provocations. Every day he just lazily worked on problems or sprawled out sleeping in class. Meanwhile, Xu Yannuo remained in character as the timid, well-behaved girl at school. Though whenever her tearful, soft-spooked reactions occasionally earned a derisive snort from Chen Ciyi nearby, no one else noticed, so Xu Yannuo let it slide for now. Mostly because, if she didn’t tolerate it, there wasn’t much she could do about it at school anyway.

As June approached, the school began organizing its summer sports meet. This was undoubtedly the most exciting event of the month, if not the entire semester. Once the sports meet started, every day would become incredibly lively—with students practicing and competing. Not only would physical education classes no longer be canceled, but there would definitely be more of them than usual. In any case, academics certainly wouldn’t be the main focus this week.

The first class in the morning ended, and class sports committee member Xing Fei, with his bulky frame, eagerly ran back to the classroom waving sign-up sheets for various events. He asked his classmates which events they wanted to participate in, emphasizing that the prizes for this competition were generous and encouraging everyone to sign up enthusiastically.

After class, there weren’t many people in the classroom. Because of this, Sister Hua specifically set aside 10 minutes of her next class for Xing Fei to organize everyone and encourage active sign-ups. Although their class couldn’t compare to the specialized sports classes, participation was what mattered most. After all, non-specialized classes made up the majority. High school only lasts three years, and although it was only the first year, senior year would have very few activities. So Sister Hua still hoped they would all actively participate and create some precious memories for these three years.

Class 8 originally had average academic performance but was highly enthusiastic about the sports meet. With Xing Fei’s encouragement and Hua Jie taking the lead in mobilizing everyone, almost all the students in the class were eager to participate. Not only were all the events fully registered, but some events even had more participants than needed, requiring internal competition to decide who would finally take part.

The entire class was filled with excitement and enthusiasm, except for Xu Yannuo and Chen Ciyi in the last row. The passionate and energetic atmosphere of youth seemed to isolate them, as if it had nothing to do with them. They sat quietly in the back, neither raising their hands nor making a sound.

Xu Yannuo turned to look at Chen Ciyi. She had never participated in any group activities and was used to being alone. Back in middle school, she was isolated, and no one in the class ever thought of including her in group activities. Over time, she grew accustomed to it and no longer wanted to join in the excitement.

When faced with others’ cold, skeptical glances or exaggerated, malicious words, she would rather watch from a distance—keeping things pleasant for everyone.

But why isn’t Chen Ciyi participating? This was the annoying troublemaker that all the girls in school were looking forward to seeing!

“Aren’t you going to join?”

Xu Yannuo sized up his 1.8-meter-long legs, then recalled how he usually took advantage of her inability to make a scene at school by acting weak—always tattling to her in that pitiful way and only daring to show off a little in front of her… Could this guy actually have some congenital disability or something?

Chen Ci frowned slightly, “What are you looking at? You didn’t participate either, did you?”

Xu Yannuo nodded. Fine! She wouldn’t say more—avoiding others’ sore spots was a virtue, and besides, she was kind-hearted by nature. Xu Yannuo ignored him and went back to reading the unfinished “Little Reunion” in her hands.

The class continued buzzing for a while longer. The sign-up sheets were mostly filled out, and they just needed to wait for the afternoon PE class to hold internal competitions for some events. Teacher Hua tapped the blackboard, and the class quieted down as she began writing on it to start the lesson.