Confession to You in Early Summer (GL) - Chapter 8
After the Qingming Festival holiday, the school didn’t give students any time to catch their breath and immediately arranged a monthly assessment. Two consecutive days of exams completely shattered the students’ holiday-relaxed mindset. Their arrogant air was doused with cold water, and their focus returned with surprising efficiency.
Finishing the last subject’s test, Yan Wei walked towards the classroom through the bustling crowd. Zhou Xiaoxiao was chatting with Zhang Yutong, who was in the same exam room, about how difficult the math was and how insidious the biology test setter was. Spotting Yan Wei from afar, she immediately waved and called out, “Yan Wei!”
Yan Wei stopped and turned back. Zhou Xiaoxiao jogged over and asked her, “How did the top student feel?”
“Cold,” Yan Wei replied calmly, stating the facts.
“What does ‘cold’ mean?” Zhang Yutong asked, puzzled.
Oops, Yan Wei felt a little awkward. She had actually used a word that wouldn’t become popular online for a few more years.
Fortunately, she was good at concealing things and immediately made up for it, “It means I’m finished.”
“Too modest!” Zhou Xiaoxiao didn’t notice the unnaturalness in Yan Wei’s eyes, only thinking she was joking. Zhang Yutong also chimed in with a smile, “Exactly, even if the top student doesn’t do well, she’s still in the top three of the grade.”
Yan Wei smiled and didn’t continue the topic.
The three walked back side by side. Zhou Xiaoxiao had been Yan Wei’s deskmate for two months and knew that Yan Wei didn’t have the habit of checking answers after exams, so she didn’t mention the monthly exam just now. She said with a smile, “I went out to play during the Qingming Festival and found a newly opened bookstore near our school. The environment is quite nice. Want to go read books together this weekend?”
“Sure!” Zhang Yutong readily agreed and looked with Zhou Xiaoxiao at Yan Wei, who hadn’t spoken. “Yan Wei, are you going?”
“I won’t go,” Yan Wei shook her head, looking apologetic. “I have some other things to do this weekend.”
Zhou Xiaoxiao felt it was a pity, but she couldn’t force Yan Wei if she had things to do, so she made plans with Zhang Yutong, and then didn’t mention it again.
The classroom was filled with complaints. By now, the students had privately compared answers and knew in their hearts whether they had done well or not. Those who had done well secretly rejoiced, but on the surface, they had to pretend to be heartbroken and share the suffering with the surrounding classmates. Those who had done poorly hugged their desks and wailed, but secretly held onto a sliver of hope, refusing to give up until the subject teachers handed out the standard answers.
In the noisy atmosphere, Jiang Youyi put on her earphones and lay on the desk listening to music. She saw Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao appear at the classroom door, talking and laughing, as she looked over the desks of the students coming and going in front of her.
Every time Yan Wei entered the classroom, she would habitually check if Jiang Youyi was there, and this time was no exception.
She saw Jiang Youyi lying face down on the desk with her arms as a pillow, her eyes closed, as if sleeping. She wondered how Jiang Youyi could sleep in such a noisy classroom.
Due to the holiday schedule adjustment for Qingming Festival, this week had six working days. Two days were used for exams, leaving the remaining four days too ample. Teachers of various subjects raced against time and released the results of two subjects on the same day. The latest results came out the next day, and the corrected test papers were also distributed to the students.
Class 11 suddenly experienced an earthquake, and soon this earthquake spread to the entire second year of high school, even reaching the ears of the first-year students.
“How is that possible?! Did the teacher give you the wrong number?!” Zhou Xiaoxiao’s shout almost broke her voice as she grabbed Yan Wei’s test paper and flipped through it repeatedly.
Large patches of blank space on the paper, accompanied by striking red crosses and question marks, glaringly hurt Zhou Xiaoxiao’s eyes.
One paper was like this, and the other was the same. Except for English and Chinese, the other subjects were a complete mess!
Most of the students in the back rows didn’t care much about grades. Once the scores were out, they would casually take a look, and then throw the test papers into their drawers to gather dust. Compared to the scores themselves, they preferred to talk about other things. Boys talked about games, girls talked about gossip. But today, for the first time, regardless of gender, they were all secretly discussing one topic: Yan Wei had done poorly in the exam!
The goddess Yan, who had consistently topped the grade rankings, actually had a total score of less than four hundred in this monthly exam. Her grades had plummeted. Not only was her name not in the top ten, but her grade ranking had directly fallen to the middle and lower reaches, close to the bottom.
From the moment the scores for each subject were announced, whispers had been constantly coming from her ears. They thought they were being very quiet, but in fact, Jiang Youyi, who was several seats away, heard everything clearly.
The constant noise was extremely annoying. A girl with mediocre grades but always dressed flamboyantly was playing with her newly painted translucent nails, casually expressing her opinion, “Well, she’s a goddess, as long as she’s good-looking, that’s enough. Doing poorly in one exam doesn’t mean anything. There’s still the midterm exam in a few days, right?”
The boy in front of her was nudged by her and, not understanding the meaning behind her words, replied with a smile, “Yeah!”
Bang—
The loud sound of a book slamming shut made the classroom quiet for a few seconds. Everyone looked over at the same time. Jiang Youyi stood up and said to the girl next to her, “Excuse me.”
Her deskmate was startled and hurriedly stood up to make way for Jiang Youyi.
Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao also heard the commotion in the back of the classroom. They turned their heads in unison and watched Jiang Youyi walk past them. From beginning to end, Jiang Youyi didn’t even give them a direct look.
As Jiang Youyi’s figure disappeared out the classroom door, Yan Wei heard the sour-grape girl just now curse, “Damn it, what’s with the attitude! Psycho!”
“Did Jiang Youyi also do poorly in the exam, that’s why she’s in a bad mood?” Zhou Xiaoxiao muttered doubtfully, as if talking to herself.
Taking advantage of Zhou Xiaoxiao’s daze, Yan Wei retrieved her own test papers. She was flipping through her book, looking at the knowledge points she hadn’t answered, when her pen tip paused upon hearing this. “Maybe.”
The impact of the small interlude quickly passed, and the classroom returned to its usual atmosphere. Before the class bell rang, Teacher Xu came to the classroom and gently tapped on Yan Wei’s desk. “Come to the office.” Then she left.
Zhou Xiaoxiao looked worried. Last time, Yan Wei had handed in a blank math quiz and had been lectured by the subject teacher. This monthly exam was different from a quiz. What exactly was wrong with Yan Wei?
Teacher Xu didn’t immediately reprimand Yan Wei, but just asked her how her studies had been recently, whether there were any difficulties in her life, and if she was feeling unwell.
Finally, Teacher Xu began to indirectly ask her how she got along with the students in the class, especially those noisy male students, whether there were any conflicts, and if any classmate was bullying her.
Yan Wei was a well-known good student in the high school, excellent in academics and conduct, and obedient and sensible. Her sudden drop in grades, especially the blank test papers she handed in, made it difficult for the teacher not to think about her emotional state.
Moreover, Yan Wei and Yan Chu attended the same junior school. A few years ago, Yan Chu’s early romance had caused a great commotion in the high school. Although three years had passed and the students who knew about it had graduated, the teachers remained at the school, and Yan Wei’s batch happened to have the same teachers as Yan Chu.
The teachers were very worried that Yan Wei would become like her sister.
Teacher Xu often received calls from Yan Wei’s parents. They asked Teacher Xu to pay more attention to Yan Wei, not only to her grades but also to her living situation, her interactions with classmates, whether male or female, whether there were any overly close behaviors, and whether she often went off-campus.
Their original words were: “We entrust Weiwei to Teacher Xu’s care. She is currently in the most important stage of her life, and we don’t want her to go astray. Please, Teacher Xu, don’t find us troublesome, and please understand our painstaking efforts as parents.”
Teacher Xu expressed her understanding. She also didn’t want a good student who could get into Qinghua or Peking University to be delayed by early romance, so as soon as she saw Yan Wei’s grades were abnormal, she immediately called Yan Wei over for a heart-to-heart talk.
Yan Wei mostly remained silent. No matter what Teacher Xu said, she obediently nodded. Even if she understood Teacher Xu’s unspoken meaning, she pretended not to understand and made the excuse, “I had my period during the two days of the exam, and my stomach hurt, so I didn’t finish some of the questions.”
So it was because she wasn’t feeling well due to her period. Girls were thin-skinned and embarrassed to talk about this. Teacher Xu felt half-relieved and asked a few more caring questions, asking Yan Wei if she wanted to go to the school infirmary to take a look.
After Yan Wei repeatedly assured her that she was fine, Teacher Xu finally let her return to the classroom, instructing her, “If you don’t feel well, you must go to the hospital in time. If it’s inconvenient for you, tell the teacher, and the teacher will take you.”
Yan Wei thanked her, closed the office door, and felt physically and mentally exhausted.
The next class was English, Yan Wei’s strong suit. The English teacher was explaining the monthly exam paper.
Yan Wei whispered a report outside the classroom, and the teacher nodded at her. “Go back to your seat.”
Zhou Xiaoxiao took advantage of the gap while Yan Wei was looking for her notes and whispered, “Are you okay? What did Teacher Xu say?”
“I’m fine,” Yan Wei flipped to a blank page, uncapped her pen, and quickly made annotations next to the questions the teacher was explaining. “Just some old topics, study hard and stuff like that.”
Yan Wei answered casually, and Zhou Xiaoxiao thought to herself that she was being more anxious than necessary, letting out a helpless sigh.
The person by the window in the back row looked up at the blackboard, and when she looked down again, she inadvertently glanced at the corner of her eye.
Although the academic workload for second-year students was not as heavy as for third-year students, their time was also not idle. The shock brought by the top student goddess’s poor performance in the monthly exam was like a gust of wind, blowing over and dissipating. Except for a few individuals, no one really took it to heart. By the weekend, no one was discussing it anymore.
After being confined to school for six days, students scattered like birds and beasts as soon as the weekend arrived. Those who could go off-campus for some fresh air would definitely not stay in the dorm. Zhou Xiaoxiao made plans with Zhang Yutong to go to that newly opened bookstore and immediately packed her bag after class.
“Yan Wei, Zhang Yutong and I are going to the mall. Do you need me to bring you anything?” Zhou Xiaoxiao stuffed her weekend homework into her bag and asked casually.
Usually, Yan Wei rarely left school on weekends and mostly studied in the dorm. Zhou Xiaoxiao assumed this week would be the same.
“No need, I’ll go out myself later,” Yan Wei finished the last incorrect question and replied casually to Zhou Xiaoxiao.
“Ah? You’re leaving school?” Before Zhou Xiaoxiao had time to ask Yan Wei where she was going, Jiang Youyi walked past with her bag on her shoulder and knocked over Yan Wei’s pen case on the corner of the desk.
Jiang Youyi stopped and looked back at the canvas pen case lying open on the ground.
Half of a small gray-green cloth dinosaur keychain had fallen out, getting dusty on the floor.
“Aren’t you going to help me pick it up, classmate Jiang?” Yan Wei closed her incorrect answer book.
Jiang Youyi pursed her lips and hesitated for two seconds before squatting down.
The pendant on the side of her backpack slid open slightly as she bent down, and a small bell made a very light, crisp tinkling sound, revealing an ugly-cute crocodile keychain, with the exact same color scheme as the little dinosaur in Yan Wei’s pencil case.