Chapter 12 - TMCTM Chapter 12

“Xi ge, I want to say sorry to you, and you have to forgive me.” Tao Xi walked out of the cafeteria to the teaching building in the morning, and was robbed halfway by Bi Chengfei.

He staggered when he was taken and almost vomited out for breakfast before said with a low voice, “What’s the matter?”

Bi Chengfei didn’t have any guilt on his face, instead he looked a little happy: “I decided with difficulty that I will sacrifice myself to feed the tigress and continue to be Hu Tong’s deskmate. So, I’m sorry, brother¹BCF used 兄弟 (xiong di) here.”

He looked at Tao Xi’s face carefully, for fear that this fragile little cabbage would be sad because of his promise.

Tao Xi was not at all sad, and instead curiously asked, “Hu Tong forgive you?”

After Hu Tong accidentally threw Jin Jing’s water bottle last time, Bi Chengfei gave her a long face and Hu Tong didn’t talk to Bi Chengfei for a few days.

“Why did she forgive me? Me being a grown up forgave her for being the villain, okay?” Bi Chengfei explained that he posted a photo of playing basketball in Moments yesterday. Hu Tong clicked a like and canceled it so he ‘da da’ ran to apologize.

“Oh.”

Seeing Tao Xi’s disapproval, Bi Chengfei said with concern: “Xi ge, you are so good-looking. There must be many girls who would like to sit with you. You can find it now.”

After all, beautiful girls like Jiang Xinyun took the initiative to find Tao Xi, although Tao Xi refused her for him. Thinking about that, Bi Chengfei finally felt guilty and began to wonder which classmate to lead Tao Xi to.

But then, he heard Tao Xi say: “I have deskmate, so I don’t need to look for it.”

Bi Chengfei was taken aback and saw a smile on Tao Xi’s fair face, like a flowering cabbage.

“??? When did you look for it? Jiang Xinyun? Did you guys go back to private association²The term private association refers to the improper private contact between idols and fans, such as falling in love, asking for large amounts of property, obtaining votes through improper means, etc. (cr: douban) yesterday?” Bi Chengfei smelled the gossip.

The two of them just walked to the lobby on the first floor of the teaching building. Tao Xi squinted his eyes and stretched out a finger, pointing to the glory list on the glass curtain wall: “Hey, the one who is the most distressed is my tablemate.”

The arrogant posture was no different from Aunt Zhou.

When he walked to the classroom, Bi Chengfei still felt incredible.

Since earlier, only two people in their class did not have deskmate. One was Huang Qing, the one who ranked second. No one wanted to sit with her because of her eccentric personality. The other was Lin Qinhe, the top 1. There were many people who wanted to sit with him, but apart from Yang Duole, no one dared to speak.

Xi ge was indeed Xi ge, so awesome.

They changed seats during the self-study hours on Monday morning. There were not many changes in the class as everyone sat at their original seat.

Tao Xi was in a good mood. He wiped his desk carefully before sitting down on his seat, and neatly aligned edge of the table again.

After watching the table for a while, he sat down with satisfaction and began to study early.

Lin Qinhe hadn’t come yet, so he guessed he would come before the class bell yet again.

When Tao Xi was walking to the drinking water room to fetch water, he met a short-haired girl named Chen Yachun. She told him: “The head teacher was looking for you just now. He asked you to go to the first floor of Qiushi Building to find him.”

Tao Xi was a little puzzled. If Zhou Qiang was looking for him, he would find him himself and why at the Qiushi Building that was so far?

But he didn’t doubt it. After saying thank you, he turned and left the classroom without seeing Chen Yachun’s smile behind him.

Tao Xi ran to the Qiushi Building, panting. There were no people in the Qiushi Building when there was no club meeting. He scanned the lobby on the first floor and didn’t even see a mosquito.

A passing cleaner asked: “Classmate, what are you doing here? Class is about to start.”

Tao Xi had an idea in his heart. He didn’t explain to the cleaner, but turned around and ran towards the teaching building. He ran fast, getting faster and faster, but he still couldn’t get there before the class bell rang.

At the second when the bell rang, he was panting and was about to rush to the door of the classroom when he saw Bi Aoxue who was already standing on the podium with high heels.

“Yes, there is someone to succeed the champion for being late in our English class.” Bi Aoxue said to Tao Xi with a light smile, wearing a new dress, not looking angry.

“Sorry teacher, I was wrong, and I won’t do it anymore.” Tao Xi knew that no explanation would be useful. The attitude was very upright.

“Come in, it’s still the old rules. You can’t avoid it just because you are new.” Bi Aoxue took out a collection of English essays, turned a page casually, and pointed it to Tao Xi who had came to the podium, “Read this paragraph aloud. Go, ba.”

Before Tao Xi took the book, he glanced at the last row. Lin Qinhe was already sitting at his seat with his eyes down, not knowing what competition book he was reading.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the camera at the end of the classroom again. He knew that the students from Qingshui No. 1 High School thousands of miles away could also see him standing on the podium and hear his voice.

Tao Xi lowered his gaze and read the passage roughly. Bi Aoxue was obviously kinder to him. The passage she picked was very simple, without unfamiliar vocabulary, unlike what she had made Lin Qinhe to read before.

He took a deep breath and began to try his best to imitate Lin Qinhe’s intonation to read English, which he had been practicing when he was in Qingshui No. 1 Middle School.

But after all, he was not Lin Qinhe. When he thought of a few words, he heard several girls laughing below. Although the laughter was very low, he could hear the meaning of ridicule.

Bi Aoxue frowned and looked at the smiling girls coldly. Jiang Xinyun and Chen Yachun waited for three or four girls to stop laughing before closing their smiles.

After Tao Xi finished reading, he returned the book to Bi Aoxue, and Bi Aoxue nodded and let him go down.

He walked back to his seat quickly and took out the English textbook from the drawer. Bi Chengfei wanted to turn his head and turned halfway, but Bi Aoxue glared back.

Tao Xi was actually quite calm. He had always been very aware of the gap between himself and Wenhua No. 1 High School students. This gap was not only in grades, but also in vision, insight, sentiment, and various qualities… Achievements could be made up by any means, but the many things that were determined by birth, he wouldn’t be able to make up at all for a while.

He suddenly remembered that before coming to Wenhua No. 1 High School, the Chinese teacher told him when he saw him off, that he should neither be humble nor arrogant.

He did not feel inferior, but he still couldn’t help being disappointed in himself. He thought, when he saw Lin Qinhe on the screen, he saw the light. So when other students in Qingshui No. 1 High School see him on the podium, wouldn’t they also see the light?

After all, he was the best student in Qingshui County.

He was a little disappointed that he could not become this light.

Tao Xi suppressed these thoughts and finished the class seriously. As soon as the bell rang, Bi Chengfei, who was in front of him, quickly turned around and asked: “Xi ge, what’s the matter, why are you late?”

Tao Xi saw Lin Qinhe on the side looking at his mobile phone from the corner of his eyes. He explained in a perfunctory manner: “I went to the canteen to buy refills, halfway through the run, I remembered that I the class was about to start so I rushed back.”

Bi Chengfei was successfully fooled: “Hey, let me lend it. Will I not lend it to you?” Then he took a handful of refills from the refill box and placed them in front of Tao Xi.

Tao Xi only took one, smiled and said thank you.

Lin Qinhe didn’t say anything from the beginning to the end. Tao Xi breathed a sigh of relief, although he knew Lin Qinhe wouldn’t ask.

He knew what this little prank meant, but he didn’t feel too relieved.

Jiang Xinyun’s sense of superiority would not allow Tao Xi, a boy from the countryside, to refuse her own initiative. Although Tao Xi was angry, he would not cause trouble for the girl.

This was nothing compared to the methods he had seen in his school before.

Tao Xi quickly finished his meal in the cafeteria at noon, and was thankful that Bi Chengfei, a troublesome person, never returned to the classroom during the lunch break.

When rushing back to the classroom, there was only the second place Huang Qing who would not move in the classroom, reading.

He panted slightly and returned to his seat, took out the set of listening books and tape he had just bought, and started to do English listening. He wanted Lin Qinhe to see, that as long as Lin Qinhe said it, he would do it seriously.

About ten minutes later, Lin Qinhe returned to the classroom when he had just finished a set of listening questions.

As soon as Tao Xi heard the movement, he turned his head and looked at Lin Qinhe, his body was straight, and his eyes were full of “I obediently listen to you”.

Lin Qinhe glanced at him and walked over to pull the chair and sit down. Tao Xi suddenly became a little uncomfortable. He didn’t know how to put his hands or where to put his eyes, so he pushed the listening book on his desk to the side. He told him using the tone of reporting to a teacher: “I did four sets of English listening and I made two mistakes in total.”

He nervously thought that it should be okay, and inexplicably looking forward to it.

What did he expect? Maybe a compliment?

But Lin Qinhe only glanced at the listening book and said: “These questions are too old to be useful to you.”

Tao Xi was taken aback. This was already the only audiobook with tapes he could find. He dragged the book back in a little flustered manner, like dragging a bag of disgusted garbage, and said: “Then, then I will go buy new books and tapes.”

He closed the book and found that Lin Qinhe was looking at his cassette player with his name on it. He stuffed the player into the drawer, lowered his head and added: “I am more used to listening to English on tapes.”

It was not just listening on tape.

After that, he felt unnecessary. There was no point in maintaining this self-esteem in front of Lin Qinhe.

Tao Xi thought about going to the larger bookstore in the city to find new listening materials during the weekend.

Lin Qinhe didn’t talk about the listening book anymore. He took out a few printed papers from the drawer and put them on Tao Xi’s desk, saying, “I’ve finished these questions at noon today. Watch the time by yourself.”

After speaking, he put on his earphones and took out his book to read, as if he would no longer look at things next to him.

Tao Xi stared blankly at the papers in front of him. These printed A4 papers were neatly bound, with questions printed on them. Each set of multiple-choice questions and each major question was accompanied by the time required to complete the question in a few minutes.

He had never seen the world. He knew that these topics were not just torn from a supplementary material, but Lin Qinhe selected them one by one, typed them, and then printed them out and bound them.

“Why haven’t you started doing it?” Lin Qinhe said indifferently.

Tao Xi returned to his senses and nodded, “I’ll start right away.”

He untied the old electronic watch from his wrist and put it aside, and then unscrewed the gel pen cap. Obviously it was easy but it seems to have used a lot of effort

Tao Xi put his strength very lightly when he wrote, as if he was afraid of piercing through the paper and was careful not to make mistakes. The paper was clean until he finished writing and there was no alteration.

He also strictly followed the time given by Lin Qinhe. Once the time passed, he would stop answering the question.

After finishing everything, he took a deep breath as he pushed the whole stack of paper onto Lin Qinhe’s desk, and whispered, “I’m finished.”

Nervous like handing in homework to the teacher.

Lin Qinhe put down the book, took out a red pen and started to make marking the paper.

This time had become particularly difficult.

Tao Xi didn’t know what to do beside him. He didn’t dare to look at the question being graded, let alone look at Lin Qinhe directly. However, he felt that it was not good to do other things while Lin Qinhe grading the question for him, so he had no choice but to look around, just to see that there were not many people in the classroom.

There was a boy who buried his head on the table with his shoulders shrugged. He was probably watching some funny novel or movie.

A girl was applying lipstick while looking in the mirror, and she started to squeeze the blackheads on her nose.

The second place named Huang Qing who currently didn’t have deskmate hadn’t changed her posture for so long. She still sat upright, like an iron plate.

It seemed that not all the top-notch people were as relaxed as Lin Qinhe. There were also such hardworking and diligent people.

Tao Xi stared at Huang Qing’s ponytail in a daze, and suddenly listened to Lin Qinhe on the side saying, “Calculate this problem again.”

The voice was low and the tone was a bit ugly.

Tao Xi regained his senses and saw Lin Qinhe put the test paper in front of him and clicked on a math problem with the tip of a red pen.

He shrank his head and said “Okay”, then lowered his head and started to recalculate, only to find that he had made a careless calculation before. No wonder Lin Qinhe would be angry. This kind of low-level mistake was too unacceptable.

After the calculation, he handed it to Lin Qinhe to grade. As soon as he started looking around, Lin Qinhe said solemnly: “Read the book when you are bored.”

Tao Xi retracted his gaze and nodded in agreement. Since it was Lin Qinhe who said it, he was fine with it. He took out a textbook and began to read until Lin Qinhe finished marking the paper for him. Then, he started to talk about the wrong question.

Lin Qinhe’s explanation was very concise, and he could always point out Tao Xi’s problems directly. After Tao Xi finished this set of questions, he felt like he was enlightened, and many things covered by the fog had become clear.

Even the many questions that he did not understand yesterday, he didn’t need to ask anymore

After all, he was a very smart person.

After finishing all the lectures, Tao Xi was still reluctant to give up. After all, Lin Qinhe only talked at noon today. He didn’t say that it would be like this every day in the future. He smoothed out the set of test questions, and after struggling for a while, he tentatively said to Lin Qinhe: “How about you give me a narrative title, and I will show it to you after I write it?”

He didn’t know whether Lin Qinhe wanted to be his friend or not, but friends should be in contact with each other. Even if Lin Qinhe didn’t need it, he still had to express his heart.

Sure enough, Lin Qinhe put on the red pen’s cap and said concisely: “No.”

Tao Xi was not surprised so he replied: “Then you can ask me to write anything in the future. I will write. “

He thought he had written a lot of things to Lin Qinhe.

But what did Lin Qinhe need him to write?

Self-review? He was good at it, but who would dare to let Lin Qinhe write a self-review?

Love letter? If Lin Qinhe asked him to help write love letters to other girls… he didn’t really want to think about this possibility.

Tao Xi had a lot in his mind but he couldn’t think of a reason, so he didn’t expect Lin Qinhe to respond. He listened to Lin Qinhe firmly said:

“Okay, that’s what you said.”

• 1BCF used 兄弟 (xiong di) here
• 2The term private association refers to the improper private contact between idols and fans, such as falling in love, asking for large amounts of property, obtaining votes through improper means, etc. (cr: douban)