CSGM - Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Extra - Parallel World

The rule in Class 8 had always been to change seats once every half a month. Now in the ninth grade, the head teacher still adhered to this rule strictly.

It was only the day before the half-month mark that Chu Xi learned of this rule. She was stunned. Everyone else's expressions seemed to hold a confident preparedness, as if they had long known this day was coming. Only she was caught completely off guard by the news.

Damn, there's a rule like this?

She looked at Ren Zhi, who prayed, "We can only hope that when they change seats, they don't get to us."

Ren Zhi's expression revealed a trace of helplessness, like a little rabbit that had lived under this rule for a long time and had already obediently accepted reality.

Chu Xi heard from Ren Zhi that Class 8's bi-monthly seat change was always a minor adjustment, with the head teacher, Teacher Ge, personally directing some students to switch seats.

Teacher Ge's specific reasoning was unknown, but generally, taller students were moved to the back, shorter ones to the front, and desk mates who often quarreled were separated. It was also possible that parents had contacted the teacher, feeling their child wasn't suited to their current desk mate and hoping the teacher would intervene slightly.

Of course, there were also suggestions from other subject teachers. For example, if a teacher saw two students sitting together and chatting privately during class, disrupting order and not studying seriously, they would also suggest the head teacher separate them during the bi-monthly seat adjustment.

Chu Xi looked at them, heads bowed under their desks during the physics teacher's class, muttering about this very matter: "..."

Why do I get the feeling we're in a bit of danger?

As it turned out, that sudden gut feeling she sometimes got was not wrong.

The next day, during the minor seat adjustment, the head teacher separated her and Ren Zhi.

In the quiet classroom, under everyone's watchful eyes, Chu Xi switched seats with a boy in the sixth row of the middle section.

"Chu Xi, you and Zhang Yang switch seats. Hurry up, right now."

The head teacher's voice carried down from the front of the classroom.

The students were sitting, she was standing—that was authority. The students were underage children, she was an adult—that was authority. In the end, her position was also the authority of this school.

Chu Xi cursed inwardly.

Fuck.

Being a student was so frustrating; at times like this, you were still constrained by the teacher's words.

"Why, Teacher?"

Her final act of willfulness was to ask the head teacher this question in the quiet classroom while moving her desk.

"Just switch when I tell you to. Why so many questions?"

"..."

Chu Xi wanted to curse even more, especially seeing the hurt look in Ren Zhi's eyes.

There's an old saying: when you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head. She was just a middle school student now; an arm can't twist a thigh. She could only temporarily submit to the head teacher's arrangement in class.

The entire class still felt a sense of novelty and curiosity toward this new student. Watching her move her desk and chair next to Zhou Yuqi, everyone's eyes inexplicably found the drama entertaining.

Interesting, interesting. Chu Xi finally changed seats. Now she has a new desk mate.

Zhou Yuqi—Chu Xi's new desk mate—opened her watery, doe-like eyes and enthusiastically applauded to welcome Chu Xi over.

She seemed very excited about Chu Xi's arrival.

—Yes, in just this half a month, although no one knew Chu Xi well, everyone knew that she was a truly spectacular desk mate.

Zhou Yuqi thought to herself, This heaven-sent fortune should be my turn now, right?

However, from the moment Chu Xi moved her desk over, she didn't give Zhou Yuqi a single glance. She sat down on her own, leaned back against her chair with her arms crossed, her chin slightly raised, and stared straight ahead at the blackboard without looking away.

The head teacher moved a new boy next to Ren Zhi. The two didn't say a single word to each other for the entire class period. They didn't seem like classmates at all, more like strangers.

However, this boy was already joking and laughing with the students in the row in front of him, as well as the table across the aisle, by the end of the first period.

His sense of unfamiliarity was directed only at Ren Zhi.

Ren Zhi knew it herself. She read her book, listened in class, did her problems, and then, from time to time, like she'd been deflated, she would rest her head on the desk and let her mind wander for a bit.

At times like these, she was always thinking about Chu Xi.

Chu Xi had only been gone for one class period, but it felt as if a piece of her heart had been hollowed out. It was like the support behind her had been suddenly snatched away, and Ren Zhi had once again become that dejected little rabbit with drooping ears, cautious and wary of everything around her.

Her heart felt empty, as if a draft was blowing through it—chilly and very unpleasant. She thought mournfully, Why did this happen?

She had finally met a classmate she could hang out with, a desk mate she could talk to. Why was Chu Xi moved away after only half a month?

—Chu Xi had the same question in her heart.

But Chu Xi's emotion wasn't sorrow; it was irritation, exceptional irritation.

During the head teacher's math class, she didn't listen to a single word. After the main lesson, in the last 10 minutes of class, the head teacher had all the students do the practice problems at the end of the chapter. When they were done, she would come down to check how well everyone had been paying attention.

Zhou Yuqi considered her grades to be pretty good, ranking somewhere between 100th and 200th in the year. The basic practice problems in the textbook were a piece of cake for her, and she had paid close attention during class.

Glancing over and seeing Chu Xi staring blankly at the textbook, she secretly thought, Chu Xi definitely wasn't paying attention and can't do the problems.

So she quickly calculated her answers, wrote them down, and then pushed her math textbook slightly in Chu Xi's direction, saying solicitously:

"Teacher Ge is about to come down and check. You can copy mine. I'm finished."

Chu Xi tilted her head slightly and glanced at her textbook.

She got two wrong and still has the nerve to let me copy.

Her annoyed voice sounded as if she were ungratefully rejecting a kind offer.

"I don't need it. With your accuracy rate, you can let someone else copy."

If I remember correctly, Zhou Yuqi was one of the girls in that group that hangs out in the hallway after class, the one that deliberately excludes Ren Zhi, right?

Who does she think she is, worthy of me copying her problems.

Zhou Yuqi's expression stiffened. Being rejected so bluntly, she clearly felt embarrassed.

Chu Xi paid her no mind, sitting there with her arms crossed and a "don't come near me" expression.

The head teacher walked down, scanned a bunch of students' practice problems, and then saw Chu Xi's—a vast expanse of emptiness.

—It wasn't just the practice problems; even the other page in Chu Xi's book was completely clean, as if it hadn't been touched.

Chu Xi wore a cold expression. The head teacher shot her a disdainful look and walked to the back.

The head teacher was probably thinking: Ungrateful. It's not for my sake that you're studying. This student is hopeless, a real troublemaker. I must criticize her at the next parent-teacher conference!

After math class ended, Chu Xi didn't linger. She tossed her book into her desk and walked straight out the back door of the classroom.

Ren Zhi watched her leave without blinking.

It should be said that from the second the bell rang, Ren Zhi's gaze had traveled over several rows of students to land on Chu Xi, and it never left.

Going back a bit further, starting from five minutes before the end of class, Ren Zhi had been constantly looking at the wall clock at the front of the room, frequently glancing toward Chu Xi's seat, waiting for class to be over.

Unfortunately, after this class ended, Chu Xi really didn't come to find her.

Ah...

Ren Zhi couldn't help but think in despair, It's over. Chu Xi isn't my desk mate anymore. Are we going to slowly drift apart?

Once she starts hanging out with Zhou Yuqi and the others, will she be like my previous "friends," decisively joining another group and then abandoning me?

It wasn't the first or second time Ren Zhi had been ditched by "friends" who gradually grew distant.

She could never understand why, once others joined another group of girls, they would then exclude her.

Ren Zhi listlessly rested her head on the desk, like a balloon that had been completely deflated.

At this very moment, Chu Xi was in the head teacher's office.

"Why did you separate me and Ren Zhi? What's the reason?"

Chu Xi insisted on an answer, questioning the head teacher directly under the scrutiny and gazes of the other teachers in the office.

Her eyes even showed a bold hint of dissatisfaction, looking as if she would absolutely not let it go. Not without a proper reason.

The head teacher took a sip of tea to calm her nerves and temper, then said:

"Because you and Ren Zhi sit together and chat in class every day, which affects your studies. Now that you've moved to a new spot, talk less, or I'll have to move you again."

Chu Xi found it laughable.

"She doesn't affect me."

The head teacher didn't speak, so she asked again.

"Then why don't you move Ren Zhi to the front? She sometimes can't see the blackboard from the back. You can't just let her sit in the trash corner forever, can you?"

The head teacher, with an unsympathetic expression, answered her question indirectly:

"Look at her, which classmate does she get along with? With her personality, no one wants to be around her. She's suited to sitting alone."

Chu Xi: Fuck!!!!

Chu Xi couldn't suppress the rage in her heart and cursed: Idiot.

This head teacher also treated Ren Zhi being excluded, isolated, and bullied as Ren Zhi's own fault.

It was a logic that was both infuriating and laughable, but it seemed to have been pathologically popular in schools for many years—

Why does everyone bully you and not others? Flies don't bite a seamless egg. It takes two to tango. You must have a problem too. First, look for the problem in yourself.

Chu Xi's voice was icy. "I want to be moved back."

The head teacher's tone was harsh. "Impossible."

Chu Xi: "Either we go to the principal's office to argue this out and see if it's reasonable for you to make a student sit in the trash corner long-term."

The head teacher knew the principal always sided with Chu Xi, so she flinched slightly and glared at her.

"I'm doing this for your own good, and you're threatening me! I was worried sitting with her would affect your grades. Who are you studying for? For me? It's for your own future, for getting into university and finding a good job! To put it bluntly, even your parents might not care about your grades as much as the school does."

Chu Xi sneered, "You're so modest. Every single sentence was unpleasant."

The head teacher was choked speechless by her retort: "..."

She shot Chu Xi a ferocious glare and said:

"Our class has another rule, I don't know if you're aware. After every monthly exam, midterm, and final exam, the top fifty students in the year rankings can request to change their seats. If you can get into the top fifty in the next monthly exam, you can change your seat to wherever you want. If you want to move back next to her, I won't have any objections."

After hearing this, Chu Xi was actually stunned for a second.

Huh... that's it?

Good thing the monthly exam is in half a month.

This temporarily suppressed the anger in her heart.

"Oh, then next time I'm moving back next to Ren Zhi."

"Get the score first, then we'll talk..."

Chu Xi didn't even wait to hear the head teacher's next sentence. She left her words hanging and walked out of the office.

In the few minutes she had been in the head teacher's office.

The class bully, Mingzhi, along with his good buddy and lackey, Zhou Tao, had come to Ren Zhi's desk.

"Sister Zhi, lend us ten yuan, will you? We're going out to buy a couple of roasted sausages."

Mingzhi said with a strange, sarcastic smile as he looked at Ren Zhi.

The two of them had Ren Zhi cornered in her seat. Now that Chu Xi had moved, "borrowing" money from her had become as easy as flipping a palm again.

Mingzhi smiled sinisterly, putting on the air of someone with a bad temper who could explode at any moment, intimidating her.

Bullies all used this "smiling tiger" tactic. If you obediently listened, acknowledged him as the big brother, and did as he said, he would be polite to you, even sarcastically calling you "Sister."

If you didn't listen and pissed him off, he would start cursing, spewing a mouthful of profanities to humiliate you in front of the class, and even get physical.

Ren Zhi still remembered a day during break in her second year of middle school. She hadn't responded to one of Mingzhi's disrespectful jokes, and the next second, Mingzhi was pointing at her nose and cursing loudly, his voice audible to every student in the classroom during the break—

"You're so fucking pretty, are you going to be a whore in the future? You're already doing it, right? Huh? Long ones or thick ones, which do you like? Do they all make you feel good? I say you're a whore, you're a fucking whore, you're made from a whore!"

At that time, Mingzhi's finger jabbed forcefully in front of her nose as he mocked and insulted her, his voice growing louder and louder, causing students playing in the hallway to hear the commotion and gather at the doorway to watch the spectacle inside.

Behind Mingzhi stood a group of his buddies, smiling at her as if she were hilarious.

In that moment, the classroom was deathly silent. Not a single other student dared to speak, but they all watched the argument with various expressions, making soft "tsk-tsk" sounds.

Ren Zhi didn't dare to speak. It wasn't until the class bell rang that Mingzhi slowly returned to his seat.

Mingzhi continued to chat and laugh with the students around him, while Ren Zhi sat silently in class, clutching her pen and forcing her tears back.

Even now, Mingzhi was a shadow hanging over her.

She was afraid Mingzhi would go crazy again and curse her with some unbearable words, making the whole class laugh at her.

She slightly avoided Mingzhi's gaze and said softly, "But you still haven't paid back the money you borrowed last time... I don't have much money recently."

Mingzhi smirked. "You have it, Sister. How could you not have money? Just lend us 10 yuan. Don't be so stingy, we're starving to death."

"I really don't... Why don't you ask someone else?"

Ren Zhi pressed her heels against the legs of her chair. She knew that giving money to Mingzhi was like throwing meat buns at a dog—it would never come back.

But Mingzhi always came to her for money, certain that she was the easiest to handle in the class, with no friends and no one to help her.

Mingzhi pestered her shamelessly, finally saying sharply, "Hurry up, class is about to start! If you don't care about us, we won't call you Sister anymore!"

In the end, it was clearly a warning, yet he said it with such self-righteousness.

Ren Zhi clutched her schoolbag, her heart sinking as she resigned herself to her fate:

"Okay, okay, I'll lend it to you. Remember to pay it back..."

She said this without any hope, turning to unzip her schoolbag.

Mingzhi and the buddy he brought with him broke into triumphant, happy smiles.

Ren Zhi took a 10-yuan bill from her bag and handed it over with her head lowered.

Just as Mingzhi reached out to take it, another hand appeared in their line of sight, faster and completely unexpected.

Chu Xi snatched the money from Ren Zhi's fingertips and smiled:

"I was just craving some popping candy. You can treat me. Let's go, we'll buy some candy together."

Ren Zhi looked up in alarm.

Mingzhi and his buddy were also stunned, staring at Chu Xi in a daze: "???"

Chu Xi paid them no mind, slinging an arm around Ren Zhi's shoulders and leading her outside.

"Let's go, let's go, hurry up, or the bell will ring."

Mingzhi gritted his teeth, watching Chu Xi's back. He was angry but didn't dare to speak. After thinking about it, he decided to just let it go.

He'd just have to chalk it up to bad luck. A bit unlucky.

He didn't dare mess with Chu Xi. The fact that Chu Xi was a "psycho" was well-known in the class... ah no, well-heard. Wang Ziqi from Class 12 was a living example. It was better for him not to go kicking this iron plate.

They were both class bullies, and he just wanted to stay out of Chu Xi's way.

It's just human nature to seek advantages and avoid harm.

Chu Xi pulled Ren Zhi to the tuck shop and asked, "What do you want to eat?"

Ren Zhi shook her head. "I'm not eating."

Chu Xi grabbed a bag of popping candy, two lollipops, and a bottle of cold mineral water. Ren Zhi waited obediently by her side.

"Um... you don't have to pay me back."

"Who said I was going to spend your money?"

Chu Xi took her meal card out of her pocket, swiped it on the machine at the tuck shop, then stuffed the 10 yuan she was holding into Ren Zhi's pocket, smiling:

"Keep it safe, don't let anyone snatch it again. I'll deal with those two next time."

Ren Zhi looked up, staring at her in astonishment.

Chu Xi patted her head, really wanting to pull her into a hug.

"Shh, don't say anything. Just pretend you gave the money to me."

She still had to think about how to deal with those two from earlier. Getting into another fight at school would be a bit too conspicuous.

Ren Zhi nodded repeatedly. "Okay."

"Sigh." Chu Xi sighed.

"If I'd known, I would have transferred here sooner. What kind of crappy school is this?"

Ren Zhi thought she was joking and gave a bitter smile.

The class bell rang, and the crowd in front of the tuck shop quickly dispersed, rushing back to their respective classrooms.

Chu Xi slowly led Ren Zhi back by the hand. The tuck shop wasn't far from the Grade 9, Class 8 classroom, so she could only briefly tell her about going to the office during the break.

"The head teacher said, if I get into the top 50 of the year, we can be moved back together."

Ren Zhi said with determination, "I'll work hard!"

Seeing her expression, which looked as if she were about to burn her boats, Chu Xi couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"That won't be necessary. I just need to take the test. I'll move back next to you then."

A trace of doubt appeared in Ren Zhi's beautiful eyes.

Of course, it wasn't suspicion, contempt, or ridicule—just simple doubt.

"Can... you do it? Get into the top fifty in the year?"

Chu Xi scratched her head and laughed. "Am I that much of a noob in your eyes?"

"Uh... that's not it..."

Ren Zhi wanted to say that she had just never seen Chu Xi pay attention in class, take notes, or even turn in her homework sometimes...

"Hehe, that's because these classes are all too easy. I don't need to listen."

Ren Zhi's watery eyes widened, her mouth like a plump little cherry. "Oh..."

It was a look that clearly showed she didn't believe it, but she was still playing along.

Before returning to the classroom, Chu Xi gave her head a good pat, then reluctantly went back to her own seat, the sensation still lingering on her hand.

Her new desk mate, Zhou Yuqi, tried to chat with her during class, but Chu Xi gave her the cold shoulder.

"Chu Xi, you even dare to not listen in Teacher Wang's class. You're so bold."

"Sigh, the head teacher loves calling parents. How were your grades before you transferred? If you do poorly on the monthly exam, she'll definitely call your parents. She called mine before to snitch on me. She's so annoying..."

"Chu Xi, Chu Xi, we're going to play on the back hill at noon. Why don't you come with us?"

Chu Xi couldn't take it anymore. She frowned and glanced at her.

"Can you please keep your mouth shut?"

Zhou Yuqi was taken aback. "...So are you coming to the back hill with us or not? Huang Jiayu, Song Yujie, and Su Ziqi will be there too."

Chu Xi said impatiently, "Not going..."

"It's really fun there. I heard someone saw a pine tree in the bushes yesterday. If the security guard isn't around, we can even sneak out at noon to eat fried potatoes..."

"Who's talking?"

The chemistry teacher, whom the students had dubbed the female half of the "Male and Female Fiends," looked up from the lectern and stared down at the class.

A pair of eyes behind rectangular glasses stared ferociously into the suddenly silent classroom, relentlessly demanding, "Who was just talking down there?"

Chu Xi raised her hand. The chemistry teacher's gaze shifted to her, and then she quickly pointed at Zhou Yuqi beside her.

Chu Xi: "It was her. She was talking the whole time, asking me to go out and play at noon. I ignored her."

Zhou Yuqi's pupils dilated as she turned her head to look at Chu Xi in disbelief: "???!"

The other students in the classroom also stared at Chu Xi, their expressions almost identical to the "backstabbed" Zhou Yuqi.

Holy shit, is this person toxic? How could she sell out a classmate?

No, wait, why did she even answer the chemistry teacher? What's going on?

Chu Xi's sudden "honesty" caught not only Zhou Yuqi but the entire class off guard.

Only the chemistry teacher's expression remained unchanged. One look at Zhou Yuqi's shocked and guilty face, and she knew what was going on.

In any case, what Chu Xi said had to be right.

The chemistry teacher glared angrily at Zhou Yuqi from the lectern. "Go stand at the back!"

In a state of disbelief, Zhou Yuqi slowly stood up, grabbed her book, and walked to the very back to stand there, under the equally dumbfounded gazes of the entire class.

Chemistry teacher: "What are you all looking at? Let's continue the lesson."

Exactly, what are you all looking at.

Chu Xi leaned back in her seat, a slight smile curving her lips. The world was much quieter now.

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