“Why are you getting so close…”
Xia Xi gently tried to push Bai Xiaocha away, but unexpectedly, the little girl doubled down and climbed right onto Xia Xi’s lap.
“Are you rejecting me?”
Bai Xiaocha reached out and tugged at the soft skin on Xia Xi’s face, looking hurt and pitiful, like a good friend had betrayed her.
“No, no. Why would I ever reject my adorable Xiaocha?”
Xia Xi thought that saying this would make Bai Xiaocha let him go, but to his surprise, she stared back at him with a shocked and puzzled expression.
“You caught a sickness, but your whole personality changed?”
Normally, if she pulled on Xia Yue’s face like this, Xia Yue would’ve already pinned her down on the desk and given her a good teasing. But today, Xia Yue was just letting her knead her cheeks and even saying all those mushy things.
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
“Really? Not at all. It’s just your imagination.”
Facing the abnormality that Bai Xiaocha had picked up on, Xia Xi didn’t explain much. He just laughed it off and gently pushed her off him.
He’d figured it out—these high school girls were practically psychics with their sixth senses!
Seeing that “Xia Yue” wasn’t paying her any more attention, Bai Xiaocha let out a little “hmph” and turned her gaze to the kitten that had followed Xia Xi back into the classroom.
“Xiao Dao, Xiao Dao! Do you know anything? Is Xia Yue a magical girl? Are you a magical girl’s pet?”
The kitten stiffened slightly in her arms.
It had no idea what this two-legged creature was saying. Magical girl? Could you eat that?
Noticing the confused look on Xiao Dao’s face, Bai Xiaocha grumbled, rubbed its head hard a few times, and then dropped it from her arms.
“Useless Xiao Dao. Goodbye!”
Watching the interaction between Bai Xiaocha and the kitten from the side, Xia Xi couldn’t help but let out a little laugh.
This girl really was adorable—thinking she could get clues from a cat, then getting all sulky when she didn’t get the answer she wanted.
…
The breaks between classes in high school were really short—only ten minutes. Xia Xi and Bai Xiaocha had barely exchanged a few words when the bell for the next class rang.
But the classroom didn’t get quiet just because the bell went off.
This wasn’t some elite or advanced class. It was just a regular class, and naturally, the study atmosphere wasn’t as strong as those top-tier ones.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Can’t you hear the bell?!”
And here it came—the super classic line in Xia Xi’s memory.
“I could hear your racket all the way from the staff office! Your class is the loudest in the whole grade!”
The teacher walked in and slammed the textbook down on the podium with a loud bang.
With that red face, he was probably really angry, huh?
“Can’t you kids learn from Xia Yue? I stood at the classroom door for two or three minutes, and she was the only one seriously reading and studying!”
As soon as Xia Xi heard that, he knew the teacher was making things up.
What “stood at the door for two or three minutes”? Two or three minutes earlier, he and Bai Xiaocha were still chatting away. It wasn’t until the bell rang that he pulled out his textbook and pretended to study.
But in the teacher’s version, it became him studying even during break.
Still, the teacher definitely knew how to redirect the class’s frustration. Whatever anger the students had felt at being yelled at now shifted straight onto Xia Xi.
Of course, since Xia Yue was pretty well-liked in the class, the annoyance faded within seconds for most people. At most, someone muttered “show-off.”
Everyone knew deep down that anyone in the class might study, but those two anime-loving girls, Xia Yue and Bai Xiaocha? Absolutely not.
Come on, if two students who were hovering around the bottom of the class rankings suddenly started hitting the books, that’d be like the sun rising from the west.
Not to mention that every single class, it was those two who got distracted the most.
If the teacher suddenly stopped lecturing and no one else was talking, the only sounds echoing through the classroom would be Xia Yue and Bai Xiaocha whispering.
Hearing the teacher say that, not just the other students but even Bai Xiaocha, sitting right next to Xia Xi, turned to stare at him in disbelief.
“You’ve finally wised up?”
She blurted out, astonished.
Xia Yue—the one who wouldn’t memorize a single word of a poem if she could help it—was actually reading on her own?!
“Ahem… I went to the hospital when I was sick, and it made me think about some things.”
Even though he was just pretending to study—the kind of fake effort—under the watchful eyes of everyone, Xia Xi couldn’t admit the truth. He had to play the role of the good student all the way.
“?”
Bai Xiaocha’s face turned into a question mark.
“Hear that? Even Xia Yue has figured out that studying is the most important thing. What about you?”
Oh my god, teacher, please stop. Can’t you see how weirdly everyone’s looking at me?
“Xia Yue, I believe in you. Review well these next couple of days. I’m sure you’ll do great on the mock exam!”
With that, the teacher started writing on the blackboard, getting ready to begin the lesson.
“O… okay… I’ll try my best…”
Xia Xi twitched the corner of his mouth and reluctantly agreed.
Sure, the system quest required him to do well on the mock exam. But he could’ve waited until after the test, let Xia Yue herself face the class’s questions. Instead, this teacher had to go and paint a target on his back.
At this point, Xia Xi seriously suspected the teacher just didn’t like him.
Honestly, with those two somewhat airheaded girls, Xia Yue and Bai Xiaocha, always acting like the teacher wasn’t worth their respect, any teacher would get annoyed.
To be fair, the teacher had no idea what their family situations were really like.
All he knew was that Xia Yue lived with an unemployed older brother, and Bai Xiaocha’s parents were away most of the year, leaving her to fend for herself.
With that kind of background, it probably wasn’t a wealthy household.
The teacher couldn’t figure out what they’d do if they didn’t study. It wasn’t like they could just end up on the streets, right?
…
“Xia Yue, Xia Yue, Xia Yue, Xia Yue, Xia Yue~”
As the teacher’s lecture began, Bai Xiaocha hid the lower half of her face behind her textbook and whispered toward Xia Xi.
“Why aren’t you answering me?”
But Xia Xi completely ignored her.
He’d stayed up late playing games the night before, been woken up early by his sister, and rushed here in a hurry. He hadn’t slept well at all. Right now, all he wanted was to close his eyes and let the teacher’s “lullaby” put him to sleep for a bit.
“You’re not actually going to start studying seriously, are you?!”
From the side, with her hair in the way, Bai Xiaocha couldn’t see what Xia Xi was doing. She thought he was completely absorbed in his book.
