Chapter 21 - Alone (1/2)

Chapter 21: Alone

After the national flag was raised on Monday, class was to resume as per usual.

Jiang Yang stood in his class line and looked up at the red flag fluttering in the wind. The class representative stood under the flag giving a loud and powerful speech that resonated throughout the whole sports field through the loudspeakers.

He suddenly recalled the punishment associated with the task of becoming Qin Xu’s desk partner. If he were to actually be forced to go up there and yell out that sentence, then it would definitely become a hot topic throughout the whole school. Does that unreliable system actually want them to become friends? Clearly, it’s trying increase the rift between them and make them lose face! If anyone were to run up there and shouted out something like that to him then he would definitely think that they are playing him and he would teach that person a lesson afterwards.

After class, the teacher placed their homework on the podium for the students to collect and left the classroom.

Jiang Yang went up to the podium to collect his own workbook and saw that the one under his was Qin Xu’s. He picked it up as well in passing and, after returning to his seat, threw it onto his desk.

Qin Xu who was eating his breakfast at his desk saw this and vaguely uttered his thanks.

Jiang Yang ignored this and began working on his homework. However, the glaring sunlight entering through the glass windows reflected from his desk and blinded his eyes. Squinting, he got up and pulled the curtain across to block the light and returned to continue working on his homework.

However, not long afterwards the classmate in front pulled the curtains over causing the sunlight to once again fall onto Jiang Yang’s desk. Jiang Yang frowned but could not be bothered to get up again to readjust the curtains. He changed directions and stood a book up next to him to block the sun.

The entire process was witnessed by Qin Xu who had his legs resting on the horizontal bar under the chair. He sucked hard through his straw and the milk inside was clearly reaching its end as it made a gurgling sound. He stood up and, reaching the back of the room, he threw the milk carton over to the other end of room accurately aiming for the bin.

Qin Xu whistled in satisfaction. He then moved to the window and pulled the curtain across. He didn’t walk off immediately and instead called out to the classmate in front who once again reached out to pull the curtain. Pointing with his finger he said: “Pull the curtain in the front. Can’t you see that the back isn’t covered?”

Only now did the classmate look ahead at the curtain in front and see that it was all folded together with plenty of stretch room. He scratched his head awkwardly and proceeded to reach out and pull the front curtain across.

Qin Xu returned to his seat and saw that Jiang Yang was still sitting in his slanted posture with a book standing up to block the sun. He had his chin resting in his hand while he concentrated on solving the problems and didn’t notice that he no longer needed to block the sun. Qin Xu reached out, moved the book aside and threw it on top of his pile of books. Jiang Yang still had no reaction and continued frowning while solving his problems.

Qin Xu pouted a little and sat back down in his chair.

When Jiang Yang finished solving the problem, he looked up while twirling around his pen and unexpectedly saw that Qin Xu was not in a good mood. He pondered over it for about a second before tossing it aside and proceeded to solve the next question.

The person whose tantrum was ignored: “……”

The class bell rang, and the physics teacher walked in. Jiang Yang couldn’t help but feel his eyebrows twitch. To be absolutely honest, he didn’t like physics. It was like it was designed to go against him and he couldn’t understand anything. Whenever he looked at his physics textbook he had the urge to cry.

Once, a classmate hid a comic book behind the textbook and was immediately discovered and confiscated by the teacher. His reason for how he noticed this was – Normally students would look at the textbook and want to cry but he was smiling instead!

Jiang Yang who heard this at that time nodded and felt deeply impressed.

When attending a class that you are not good at, it felt like hell. Every minute felt extremely long but the moment your eyes closed for a quick nap, time passed by very quickly and class ended in an instant.