Chapter 73: Desk Mate, Where’s Your Humanity?

Seeing the caller ID display “Chen Ciyi,” Xu Yanuo suddenly remembered—oh right, she still had a desk mate. They had been inseparable last semester and got along quite well.

She answered the call and soon heard Chen Ciyi’s cheerful voice on the other end. After briefly asking how her vacation had been, he mentioned treating her to a meal before the new semester started and giving her a gift he’d brought back from his competition trip to Beijing.

Xu Yannuo only then realized he had gone for training and competitions during the holidays. No wonder she hadn’t heard him playing the piano across the hall in the music room. Xu Yannuo felt a bit moved, and also somewhat guilty for nearly forgetting about him, but it was fine—as long as she didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t know.

The day before school started, the two of them went out for a meal at a newly opened pizza place near the piano room. She also received a mysterious gift from Chen Ciyi—something he hadn’t mentioned over the phone.

After placing their orders, Xu Yannuo unwrapped the packaging to reveal an ancient yet exquisite dark brown leather box. Holding it in her hands, she turned it over, feeling a sense of familiarity—as if she’d seen it in some movie before. When she opened the box, she found a wand lying quietly inside: the very one Harry Potter had used.

Xu Yannuo suddenly felt a bit moved, especially since she had completely forgotten about him. Then, her deskmate Chen Ciyi went out of his way to explain to her, “This isn’t something you can just casually buy online or at any mall. I specifically bought tickets to Universal Studios to get this—it’s guaranteed authentic.”

Xu Yannuo had originally planned to say “thank you” with tears in her eyes, but when she heard the words “guaranteed genuine,” she suddenly couldn’t help but laugh. “Guaranteed genuine? Then show me some magic right now!”

Chen Ci on the other side was momentarily speechless, crossing his arms and looking at her. “Deskmate, where’s your humanity?”

Xu Yannuo smiled, happily tucking away her gift. Teasing aside, though this thing was pretty much useless beyond looking nice and carrying sentimental value—and quite expensive at that—she was still pleasantly surprised and genuinely liked the gift. She was even a little moved because she had only mentioned once during self-study class that she liked Harry Potter, and he had actually remembered.

After dinner, to cover up the guilt of having completely forgotten about him, Xu Yannuo insisted on paying the bill. After settling the check, the two wandered around the music room to walk off the meal and then spent some time at an internet café before heading home separately to prepare for school the next day.

After moving up to their sophomore year, their class changed classrooms, shifting from the third floor to the fourth floor. This meant an extra flight of stairs to climb, but otherwise, everything remained largely the same. The classroom layout was unchanged, and seating arrangements were based on the previous semester’s final grades. However, Teacher Hua (Flower Sister) showed a more considerate approach compared to other homeroom teachers. While all classes in the grade followed a performance-based seating system, other classes simply assigned seats in strict grade order. Teacher Hua, on the other hand, allowed students to choose their seats and desk mates based on their academic ranking. Thanks to Chen Ciyi’s high scores, the two of them retained their coveted spot—the most comfortable window seat in the last row. The location was quiet and undisturbed, with ample space at the back of the classroom and a great view outside the window.

The first week of school proceeded as usual, but by the second week, Xu Yannuo began to notice something odd about Zhang Qi. There wasn’t anything glaringly obvious, just a vague sense that something was off. As the Chinese teacher explained vocabulary from the textbook at the front of the class, Xu Yannuo stared at the back of Zhang Qi’s head. Seizing a moment when the teacher was writing on the blackboard, he nudged Chen Ciyi, who was engrossed in solving a math problem beside him, and whispered, “Hey, desk mate, don’t you think Zhang Qi’s been acting a little strange lately?”

Chen Ci looked up at Zhang Qi when called upon and replied, “I don’t think so.” Then he immediately lowered his head to continue working on his problems.

Xu Yannuo nudged him again, “Take a closer look, that’s so half-hearted.”

Chen Ciyi was a bit annoyed by the interruption but still patiently looked up. Before he could get a clear view, Xu Yannuo beside him disdainfully added, “Forget it, you wouldn’t know even if I asked. Do you even know who Zhang Qi is?”

Chen Ciyi pointed to Zhao Ying, who was sitting in front of him. Xu Yannuo glanced at him and said, “Never mind, just keep your head down and work on your problems. Sorry for bothering you.”

Xu Yannuo observed Zhang Qi for a while and noticed that after spacing out briefly, when the Chinese teacher asked everyone to lower their heads and work on the post-class exercises in the textbook, Zhang Qi began writing. Xu Yannuo sighed and also started working on the exercises.

Perhaps she was being overly sensitive. Zhang Qi had just been spacing out more often lately—maybe she was thinking about the magazine content she read during break. After all, wasn’t she the same? Whenever she watched a particularly engaging anime, she would often drift off during class, lost in thought. Sometimes, she would even zone out just from looking at her deskmate, Chen Ciyi, because his face was just too good-looking. So spacing out alone didn’t necessarily mean anything.

The last class of the morning ended, and normally, without any surprises, Xu Yannuo, Zhang Qi, and Zhao Ying would eat together. Occasionally, Xu Yannuo would eat with Chen Ci. But today, just as they grabbed their meal cards, Zhang Qi hesitated and looked at Xu Yannuo and Zhao Ying, “Um, I have something else to do at noon, so I won’t be eating with you guys.”

Xu Yannuo nodded blankly, “Okay.” Neither he nor Zhao Ying asked further, as it wasn’t unusual for Zhao Ying to occasionally have meals with classmates from other classes who had also moved up from junior high.

Afterwards, Xu Yannuo and Zhao Ying went to the cafeteria together. However, during lunchtime, after getting their food and looking around, they still couldn’t find Zhang Qi. The school was closed-off, though not completely impossible to leave, but Zhang Qi had always been well-behaved—she never broke the rules by leaving campus, and she was genuinely obedient, not like Xu Yannuo. So this was quite strange.

During lunch, after Xu Yannuo and Zhao Ying found a seat and settled down, Xu Yannuo asked Zhao Ying the same question she had posed to Chen Ci in the morning. In truth, she had wanted to ask Zhao Ying earlier, but since she shared a desk with Zhang Qi, asking Zhao Ying would mean Zhang Qi would overhear. That’s why she ended up asking someone she shouldn’t have—someone whose answer wouldn’t be of any use anyway—her desk mate, who had intelligence but zero emotional intelligence.

As a result, Zhao Ying immediately gave feedback. She put down her chopsticks, leaned closer to Xu Yannuo, and whispered as if sharing a secret, “You noticed it too? She’s been spacing out in class these past few days. She used to listen so attentively before. And today at noon, she didn’t even have lunch with us. Not eating together is one thing, but she didn’t even explain why. Whenever we don’t eat together normally, we always give each other a reason. Do you think she’s got a crush on someone?”

Before Xu Yannuo could speak, Zhao Ying continued, “Isn’t it too unkind of her to keep her puppy love a secret from us? Are we the kind of people who wouldn’t help her keep it confidential? Does she still consider us sisters or not?”

Xu Yannuo thought for a moment and felt that it didn’t seem like puppy love either. After all, puppy love usually involves someone, but recently, she hadn’t seen Zhang Qi getting close to any boys. If it was someone from another class, she hadn’t noticed any boys coming to look for her during breaks.