Proofreader & Editor:Peter Pan
In the last morning class, Xie Shu was fully engrossed in revising his drawings under the teacher's guidance after showing them for review.
Unlike him, his classmate Su Qianyi wasn't nearly as focused.
Mouse in hand, Su Qianyi struggled to draw even a single line, and the few steps she managed to sketch out were promptly deleted.
She just couldn't calm down…
Her mind was still reeling from the words Xie Shu had spoken to her earlier.
How could he speak to her like that!
How could he say it was none of her business!
And how could he be so close to Ruan Nianxi??
He had her by his side, and she didn't even like Ruan Nianxi, so he shouldn't be getting too close to her!
Wasn't he always like this before?
Even if he was doing this deliberately to get her attention, wasn't it too much?
Throughout the class, Su Qianyi didn't get much done on her assignment, but her thoughts were racing.
After class, it was noon, and everyone in the classroom began shutting down their computers and packing up, leaving the room one after another.
Su Qianyi had wanted to pack up slowly on purpose, to see if Xie Shu would wait for her.
But before she could even shut down her computer, she saw Xie Shu, with his laptop bag, already out the classroom door.
He hadn't glanced her way even once.
Her hopes dashed, she felt an extreme sense of disappointment.
Pretending nothing was wrong, Su Qianyi packed up her computer and left the classroom with An Tian, heading towards the cafeteria.
Halfway there, she checked her phone countless times, but no message from Xie Shu came.
Even as she reached the cafeteria entrance and joined the queue for food, there was still no message from him.
In the past, although she and Xie Shu didn't always eat together, he would often join her, and even if he occasionally ate with his friends, he would message her to explain.
It had been two days.
Xie Shu hadn't initiated contact to meet up in the cafeteria for two days.
***
On his way to the cafeteria, Xie Shu had already sent a message to Ruan Nianxi.
He knew she didn't have class in the morning and thought they could go to the cafeteria together at noon.
But after a long wait and having reached the cafeteria entrance, Ruan Nianxi hadn't replied.
Figuring she was busy with her duties as class president and hadn't seen the message, he didn't think much of it and casually had lunch with his buddies before heading back to the dorm.
***
They had two major classes in the afternoon, and when the time came, Xie Shu grabbed his textbooks and headed to the classroom.
The lecture was for several classes combined, so it was crowded, and by the time he arrived, only the first two rows had empty seats.
Since both rows were almost the same, he chose to sit in the first row.
After a while, more students trickled in, filling up the remaining seats in the front two rows.
Just minutes before class, Xie Shu, who had been looking at his phone, caught a glimpse of someone entering through the corner of his eye. He instinctively looked up, locking eyes with Su Qianyi, who had just walked in.
After a few seconds of eye contact, Xie Shu calmly lowered his gaze and continued with his phone.
Seeing that Xie Shu didn't look at her again, Su Qianyi also turned away with a stern face.
Despite the large lecture hall, it was packed with students, and Su Qianyi, arriving just in time, couldn't make out where the empty seats were.
She hesitated at the door, unsure of which way to go.
An Tian was also by Su Qianyi's side, scanning the classroom several times, equally unsure of where to sit.
In such classes, everyone usually came in groups and sat together with people they knew well. If they weren't familiar with each other, they would often leave an empty seat between them.
But Su Qianyi and An Tian were two people who naturally wanted to sit together, so one seat wouldn't do.
So there they stood, unable to find seats for a good while.
Just then, the teacher arrived.
Seeing the two girls standing at the classroom door, he immediately understood the situation.
He always took attendance, so it was rare for students to skip his class, and he had encountered this issue of latecomers not knowing where to sit several times before.
The teacher glanced around the classroom and pointed to the front two rows: "There are empty seats over there, do you want to sit there? You might have to sit separately, though."
The place the teacher pointed to was right where Xie Shu and his friends were sitting.
They were seated in the middle of the classroom, with a few empty seats between them and some other guys from different classes due to not knowing each other.
The row behind them was in a similar situation.
So, if they wanted to sit here, they would have to sit separately, one behind the other.
An Tian was still hesitant, but Su Qianyi quickly agreed.
"Okay, thank you, teacher."
With that, she took An Tian's hand and walked inside.
At the same time, the teacher went to the podium and addressed the students in the front two rows: "Could you all move in a bit to make room for these two ladies?"
As soon as the teacher finished speaking, Xie Shu felt someone standing next to him.
He looked up and once again met Su Qianyi's gaze.
Xie Shu: "……"
An Tian: "……"
She realized why Su Qianyi had agreed to the teacher's suggestion.
Xie Shu was sitting on the edge, and he had to wait for his friends to move in before he could make room.
He looked away, nudging Liu Ping with his elbow, silently urging them to hurry.
It wasn't that he was worried about Su Qianyi getting tired from standing.
It was just that being stared at by Su Qianyi like this made him uncomfortable.
Soon, Su Qianyi and An Tian sat down in the front two rows, and the bell for class rang, with the teacher ready to call roll.
Xie Shu and Su Qianyi were in the same class, and their names were close to each other on the attendance list.
As the teacher called their names one after the other, they raised their hands to respond, and many in the classroom looked at them, puzzled.
Only the students in the front few rows knew about the teacher arranging seats for Su Qianyi and An Tian, while those sitting in the middle and back, busy with their phones or chatting, hadn't noticed or heard, so they were surprised to see the two sitting together.
Wasn't it said that Xie Shu had stopped pursuing Su Qianyi?
Why were they sitting together again?
Could the posts on the campus forum this morning have been just rumors??