As the old saying goes—”Time flies like an arrow, days and nights like a shuttle.”
Wen Qianshu finished writing, counted the words, and then switched to a pencil to write the number “8” in the margin.
Next, she started staring blankly at the composition paper.
2333: “…”
It finally understood where this person’s habit of counting words came from.
2333: “We provide a word-counting service.”
Wen Qianshu refused: “No way, counting words is the only joy I get from writing essays—you have no idea how happy it makes me to slowly add up to 800 words.”
2333 didn’t know, but 2333 suspected Wen Qianshu was trying to kill time.
After dawdling until the end of Chinese class and reaching 327 words, the teacher announced that those who hadn’t finished should continue writing and hand it in to him the next morning. Wen Qianshu let out a huge sigh of relief, quickly folded the composition paper, and stuffed it into her drawer.
The group leaders started to get up one by one with a rustle, collecting the finished composition papers.
Beside her, Jiang Mingyue was just standing up, smoothing out her composition paper, and preparing to go to the front of the classroom to get some water. Wen Qianshu zipped past her, grinning, and said, “Hey, good deskmate, please tell them I’ll hand it in tomorrow, thanks—”
The last word of “thanks” was still floating in the air, and it was unclear if it had even reached the other person’s ears before Wen Qianshu was already out of the classroom.
2333 watched helplessly as she sprinted down the still-quiet hallway, leaped down the stairs three steps at a time, and ran thuddingly towards the cafeteria—No. 1 High School had four classes in the morning, with a thirty-minute break between the second and third periods. During this time, the cafeteria would sell things like chicken skewers, grilled sausages, and fried eggs, all hot, generously portioned, and cheap.
Originally, this was just a plot point in the book—Shen Ting had a foodie deskmate named Zhang Zisheng, a young girl who chattered non-stop all day. In the original novel, she had asked a classmate to grab some meat skewers from the cafeteria for her, and she ate while finishing her essay. According to the book, Zhang Zisheng sat in front of Jiang Mingyue, so when Jiang Mingyue tossed her head, her ponytail got grease on it. The chicken skewer met a heroic end, falling to its death on the composition paper.
Zhang Zisheng was stunned. She looked down at the meat, then up at the person. What followed was “Jiang Mingyue shot her a cold glare, like an ice-sculpted witch, scaring her into bursting into tears. Shen Ting quickly went to comfort her, while Wen Qianshu watched coldly from the side—”
Wen Qianshu hadn’t finished reading it, as she never finished reading the original plots anyway, and besides, she didn’t understand what an “ice-sculpted witch” was. But since this concerned her own ponytail, she paid attention to Zhang Zisheng’s chicken skewers.
And the young girl, Zhang, looked at her, then at the meat skewers she was staring at, and generously shared a bite with her—from then on, the two formed a wicked alliance of fried food.
2333: “Be careful—the stairs! The stairs!”
Wen Qianshu: “I know, I know. I’ve been jumping like this for years and never fall—”
Countless flags are raised, and every single one is broken.
And then Wen Qianshu fell.
She was busy bantering and didn’t have time to react before her knee scraped directly against the concrete floor as she fell to her knees.
2333 winced just watching, sucking in a sharp breath. But being a system, its field of vision was much wider than a human’s, and it immediately saw Fang Wenyuan at the end of the hallway, holding a chemistry notebook. The chemistry class representative was clearly startled and called out, “Wen Qianshu, are you okay?”
Seeing Fang Wenyuan immediately put his notebook on the ground and start rushing over to help Wen Qianshu up, 2333 panicked. It had always insisted on starting with the female protagonist and didn’t want the repairer to get too close to the male protagonist—years of experience had taught it that those who walked a non-protagonist path were always easily attracted to the protagonist. Add to that knowing the plot, the protagonist’s future, and their preferences. A god’s-eye view made it too easy to obtain everything.
2333 gritted its teeth, preparing to intervene, but who would have thought that Wen Qianshu didn’t hear him and shot up, exclaiming, “No, my meat!”
2333: “Ahhh, I’m begging you, please mind your image! Someone is watching!”
Wen Qianshu must have been Nezha in her past life. While others had invisible wings on their backs, she had invisible Wind Fire Wheels under her feet.
She rushed to the cafeteria with great fanfare and ran back to class with the same vigor. The fall looked bad, but thankfully her jeans took most of the damage, so her knee was only scraped. Wen Qianshu hastily rinsed the wound at the sink, making it back just in time for the eye exercises. She could even pretend to rub her eye sockets with one hand while holding a bag and eating a hand-grabbed pancake with the other.
2333: “The inspector is here!”
Wen Qianshu put the hand-grabbed pancake down, her mouth still smeared with sweet bean sauce.
2333: “They’re gone.”
Wen Qianshu continued.
2333 was mentally exhausted.
2333 wanted to bang its head against the wall.
The next class was chemistry. Wen Qianshu grabbed a piece of paper, wiped the grease from her mouth, and suddenly noticed a box of alcohol swabs on her desk.
Wen Qianshu stared blankly for a moment, then heard Jiang Mingyue say, “Fang Wenyuan left it.”
Wen Qianshu let out a “wao” and said to 2333, “What a nice guy, huh?”
2333 hurriedly clarified: “That’s Jiang Mingyue’s!”
Wen Qianshu: “Huh?”
2333: “Fang Wenyuan often plays basketball, so he keeps things like iodine on hand, but he sometimes forgets to restock. So, Jiang Mingyue has always carried spares since they were young. Fang Wenyuan just passed her a note saying you seemed to have fallen and asked if you were okay. Jiang Mingyue looked at your knee and gave you the box of alcohol swabs.”
Wen Qianshu: “So much happened?”
2333: “…”
Yes, and all you cared about was eating.
So, while opening her chemistry book, Wen Qianshu said to the diligently note-taking Jiang Mingyue, “Thank you, good deskmate. And please thank Fang Wenyuan for me too.”
Jiang Mingyue’s pen paused for a moment. She pulled a bottle of mineral water from her drawer, placed it on Wen Qianshu’s desk, and said without wasting a word, “Rinse it, then disinfect.”
Wen Qianshu’s knee was just starting to bleed, so she said emotionally to 2333, “What a warm and considerate little cotton-padded jacket.”
2333 looked at the uncurving corners of Jiang Mingyue’s mouth and couldn’t agree.
The “Fried Food Alliance” learned of the great sacrifice Wen Qianshu had made for the cause of the alliance and, feeling very sorry for her, presented her with the alliance’s founding treasure from elder Zhang Zisheng—potato chips. Wen Qianshu happily munched on the chips as she followed the main group of students out of the classroom to the science and technology class.
No. 1 High School’s comprehensive course was also called science and technology class. It was only for first-year high school students and was taught by just two teachers. Wen Qianshu’s class’s science and technology teacher was a tall, thin old man surnamed Yang. According to students from other classes, although his lessons were boring and he just read from a PowerPoint all year, he had a very good temper and even acted as a delivery point—if it was inconvenient to have things bought online sent home, you could have them sent to him and then pick them up from his office.
But a boring and good-tempered teacher was fine for a main subject; at best, he was like walking cold medicine. Although taking it might make you sleepy, at least listening to it could help cure a cold. But once he taught an elective, the class became a “study hall” with background noise, a health supplement you could take or leave.
There were plenty of students clutching their composition papers, and even some who carried thick math workbooks, as if afraid the teacher wouldn’t notice they were there to do homework.
As usual, Wen Qianshu planned to sit with Shen Ting and Zhang Zisheng, and as usual, 2333 was pondering how to get the male and female protagonists to talk to each other.
But in today’s class, it seemed Teacher Yang wasn’t planning to just lecture on theory; he wanted to do something practical. When they got to the classroom, Shen Ting immediately saw the tools placed on the tables—a base with an upturned ring, holding a handle, which was connected to something like an iron pen, inserted into the ring.
Shen Ting: “Huh?”
Wen Qianshu explained to her: “That’s a soldering iron. Look, there’s solder wire and circuit boards on the teacher’s desk. We’re probably going to be soldering boards this class.”
Shen Ting seemed to only half-understand.
Sure enough, Teacher Yang then handed out solder wire, circuit boards, and a few boxes of small conductors, telling them to follow along and solder.
Teacher Yang: “Why are you boys and girls sitting so far apart? Come, come—”
The science and technology classroom didn’t have desks, just a few ping-pong tables. During class, students who knew each other would usually sit wherever they wanted, forming several circles. Teacher Yang came down from the podium, pulled Fang Wenyuan over to switch places with Wen Qianshu, and then had a few other boys and girls switch seats to ensure there were both boys and girls at every table.
Teacher Yang stood at the podium again: “Next, we’ll be soldering the circuit boards. You must listen carefully. Girls aren’t very good at this sort of thing, so the boys at each table, remember to help out and make sure everyone finishes soldering.”
2333 was busy getting excited: “Great, the male and female protagonists are at the same table!”
Meanwhile, Wen Qianshu, propping up her chin, heard Jiang Mingyue let out a “ha” from behind her.
This deskmate of hers spent most of her time doing problems and reading. She didn’t like to smile and rarely spoke. Wen Qianshu had never heard her laugh with such defiance.
They weren’t at the same table, so Wen Qianshu turned her head slightly and saw Jiang Mingyue lower her head and open the lab materials printed by Teacher Yang.
Wen Qianshu couldn’t help but chuckle.
2333: “What are you laughing at?”
Wen Qianshu: “Laughing at how cute someone is.”
2333: “?”
Wen Qianshu didn’t answer. She flipped through the materials, arranged the conductors on the board, and listened as Teacher Yang slowly instructed from the front. Teacher Yang was very cautious, repeatedly warning them that soldering irons were dangerous and hoping they would be careful.
The students below were all excited. The novelty of it made everyone want to start playing, but when it was actually time to begin, they were a bit hesitant. The solder wire was a long strand, and it was hard to control how much to melt. Often, they would only realize they had used too much when they got to the conductor’s pins, and they’d have to melt the large blob into two.
But at Wen Qianshu’s table, before anyone else had even made a move, she had already flipped the switch. Once the soldering iron heated up, she immediately started melting the solder wire and soldering the board. Her movements were very fast, and her soldering was neat. She finished in just a few quick motions.
Then she took the board to the podium: “Teacher Yang, I’m done. Could you take a look?”
Teacher Yang was very surprised, but also pleased that her soldering was well done: “You finished very quickly.”
Wen Qianshu: “Yep, I’ve played with this before.”
Teacher Yang smiled: “A young lady is interested in this?”
“I guess so.” When Wen Qianshu wanted to, she could still smile very sweetly. “So, Teacher, please don’t say I can’t do it right off the bat. It’s so discouraging.”
Teacher Yang was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood. “Ah, what I just said—” He raised his voice so the students below could hear the rest, “What I said just now was wrong. Girls are not bad at this. A female student has already finished, and she did a great job.”
“You all look at the materials carefully. If you don’t understand something, ask me. Next class, I’ll see if I can teach you how to make a light-up base.”
2333 didn’t understand what she meant and asked. Wen Qianshu explained to it, “It’s nothing. I was just thinking how hard it is to be a teacher.”
She smiled at Teacher Yang and turned to walk down from the podium: “Anyone can have stereotypes, except for teachers. And even if they do, they have to be constantly mindful not to pass them on to their students—the younger the students, the more careful you have to be.”
“I used to be a tutor.” Wen Qianshu saw that when Teacher Yang was speaking just now, Jiang Mingyue had glanced up at her before lowering her head to continue soldering. “I really think it’s hard, much harder than solving problems.”
She had already walked over to Jiang Mingyue’s side, about to reach her own table. She saw Jiang Mingyue with her head down, focused on using the tip of the soldering iron to melt the solder wire.
Wen Qianshu reached out, gently placed something on Jiang Mingyue’s table, and turned to sit back down in her own seat.
Jiang Mingyue stopped what she was doing, looked up, and then down, discovering a small, silver moon—it was made from melted, shaped, and then solidified solder, with a slight metallic sheen. A small loop had been deliberately made at the tip of the moon, and a piece of clear tape had been rolled into a string and tied in a beautiful knot.
Jiang Mingyue looked up at Wen Qianshu, only to see her twirling a piece of clear tape between her fingers, grinning as she taught the person next to her how to solder. Noticing Jiang Mingyue’s gaze, Wen Qianshu looked up, blinked, and said something.
Jiang Mingyue didn’t hear it, but she understood the lip movements.
“I happened to make a moon, so it’s for you.”
Author’s Notes:
I don’t know if every school has this kind of class. Back in my day, none of us soldered the boards properly; we were all just melting the solder wire and making it into various shapes to play with, hhh. We thought it looked pretty cool at the time. Sorry, teacher.
