chapter one

Li Yuechen was sweating a lot after playing basketball and received a bottle of mineral water from Song Yan. “School’s over?”

“Nope. There just aren’t any class discussions today. Midterm exam results just came out this week, so Teacher Liu would probably be nagging us about it for a while.” Song Yan followed Li Yuechen outside and walked to the playground.

Li Yuechen laughed in disbelief after hearing that, and seeing the other’s response, Song Yan sourly yelled, “Of course you have nothing to worry about, I don’t know how you manage to study every day, but thinking back, you don’t really hang around with us on a daily basis, you stay up late and study hard behind the scenes.”

“Yes, yes, I stay up late every night to study before twelve o’clock, so if you want to surpass me, you should stay up late to study until one in the morning,” Li Yuechen said with a grin.

Song Yan couldn’t help but roll his eyes, like hell I’d believe in that! (literally, 鬼才信你)

However, though he thought as much, he didn’t dare retort, for fear that he might provoke the young master for real.

The two of them had just walked out of the playground and were just about to reach the campus building when they saw Feng Linhao running out with an amused expression and, in an extremely dramatic voice, said, “Have you seen the new seating arrangement made by Old Liu? Quick, try guessing who our Brother Yuechen is sitting next to this time!” Feng Linhao had this funny exaggerated look on his face, not ashamed of attracting the attention of any passers-by in the area.

Li Yuechen spared him an indifferent glance, not really caring about who his new seatmate is.

Song Yan, on the other hand, was really curious, and he reached out to grab Feng Linhao and shook him. “Who is it? Which lucky person is it?”

“Haha, actually…” Feng Linhao laughed and scratched his head. “Actually, I don’t know, I just saw from outside the window from the back door that our teacher was writing down the new seating arrangement on the blackboard, so I came over to give you guys a heads-up… I mean, I didn’t really dare go inside because the teacher was there so… I’m waiting for you two to join me?”

Turns out, Song Yan had been excited about nothing and just experienced some loss of face, and perhaps because of this, he rushed forward in anger to hit him, “You don’t know jack shit, ah!” (literally, 那你装个屁啊) Feng Linhao began to run ahead, with Song Yan chasing him from behind.

After running up the stairs all the way to Class 6’s floor, the two stopped and settled on not saying anything at that moment. Then, they saw Li Yuechen slowly come up the stairs, turning out from the stairway, took a look at both of them and almost laughed out loud: “Sure, go on, keep running, you may as well run through that door and enter since you’re both so in a haste.”

“Actually, it’s not that I’d dare enter without you,” Feng Linhao, the ever-loyal lapdog, says doggedly, bending down his waist and stretching out his arm in an inviting posture. “Please go ahead,” he says, the words choked up in his throat.

Li Yuechen felt a little tense, seeing the silent atmosphere inside the classroom, so he knocked on the door and called in his attendance. Teacher Liu, their homeroom teacher, stood at the center of the podium, talking about the students who were falling behind badly this time around, and some of the class leaders looked really restless, which affected the mood of the entire class. Teacher Liu ignored his call. Until the end of his speech, he held his face and looked at Li Yuechen: “You’re almost ten minutes late. What’s the matter?” Leaving Li Yuechen out of his speech, not replying to his call instantly, can be regarded as a warning by then.

Li Yuechen said without a hint of remorse on his face: “I didn’t feel too well. I went to the infirmary.” Feng Linhao and Song Yan hurriedly backed him up, saying, “Yes, yes, he didn’t feel well, so we helped him go there.”

Teacher Liu frowned and knew very well in his heart that that wasn’t the case, but he didn’t dwell on it. After all, Li Yuechen had done well in the exams this time. Li Yuechen’s excuse may as well work for him. After reprimanding them, Teacher Liu waved his hand, and Li Yuechen took a step into the classroom. Feng Linhao and Song Yan also tried to escape by quietly entering behind him, but was stopped.

“You two, stand outside by the door!” Teacher Liu immediately shouted in a stern voice at the two sneaky heads behind Li Yuechen.

The two reluctantly returned to the door. Li Yuechen shrugged his shoulders helplessly at them, mutely saying with his mouth that Old Liu was in a bad mood today.

Everyone can really tell that Teacher Liu is in a bad mood today. After all, it was directly related to the big drop in the class’s average grade due to their scores in the midterm exams.

After Li Yuechen sat down, he looked up and saw the name Gu Zhen written next to his name on the blackboard. Even though he had a good memory, he couldn’t remember any more information regarding this person who was about to sit next to him. The only thing he could remember is that someone mentioned to him that Gu Zhen was unable to speak; he was mute.

“I won’t be mentioning the students whose grades dropped anymore, you all know in your hearts who you are. You’re already in your second year of high school, and you have one more year left before you take your college entrance exams…”

Li Yuechen listened to the same old sermons and soon diverted his attention elsewhere.

“All right, today’s class meeting ends here. Take your test papers home and review them, study the questions you answered incorrectly, again and again, I’ll start an evaluation on them tomorrow. Aside from that, after school today, change your seats according to the seating arrangement I wrote here. Some of you are too chatty for your own good when seated together with familiar people.” Teacher Liu finished speaking, and sharply walked away from the class.

In less than three minutes, the whole classroom was buzzing, and the sound of moving desks and squeaking chairs began to circulate in the classroom.

Li Yuechen glanced back to look for his new seatmate, and after looking around, he finally spotted that person in a small corner by the last row, thin and small from afar, with pale skin. His head was lowered there and then, upon seemingly sensing something, raised his head up. He just so happened to meet Li Yuechen’s gaze.

Li Yuechen frowned when he saw the other boy’s excessively thin wrists. He walked directly to the last row and lifted Gu Zhen’s table. “You can carry your chair.” After saying this, he went back and put Gu Zhen’s table next to his neatly.

Gu Zhen was stunned, and only after a short while did he bend down to carry the chair that was left behind and walked over to Li Yuechen’s seat.

“Li Yuechen, let’s go!”

Song Yan and several other people were already standing at the door, waiting. They already made plans to go to the Internet cafe after school to play games.

As soon as Li Yuechen finally went to them, he heard Song Yan muttering, “You really are unlucky. Old Liu actually made you sit next to that freak. It’s not because he hasn’t given up yet and he wanted you to help him, it’s really just bad luck.”

“Freak? Why do you call him that, is it just because he can’t speak?” Li Yuechen couldn’t help but frown.

Song Yan looked at his face and hurriedly explained, “You just transferred here this semester, so you probably don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with him being a mute guy, if you don’t believe it, you can always see for yourself. The thing is, whenever he looks at people with his eyes, it feels like you’re being looked at by a dead thing. Being looked at by him, being looked at by something dead, there’s no difference. It’s really creepy.”

“He doesn’t have any friends in this class?"

Remembering the lifeless face that he saw today, he couldn’t possibly think of something that caused him any emotional up-and-downs that would make him look that way.

“Friend… He’s always been alone. Last year, several people found him unpleasant to the eye and the one who led the fight against him wasn’t even spared a single look of disdain from him. In fact, he looked at everyone like that, as though he was looking down on them. Even when people were beating him up, he didn’t react, didn’t even fight back. The people got tired of beating him up, and since there were a lot of people from our old class watching the situation closely, it was over before anyone knew it.”

Li Yuechen lowered his eyes and kicked a pebble away with his foot. “If you can enter our class, can you really allow yourself to be bullied like that?”

After all, No. 1 Middle School in City A had a high threshold, and the students in their class are all rich and wealthy in money and connections or are geniuses who always rank highly in the city during the high school entrance examination.

The two recalled Gu Zhen’s lifeless face, his excessively thin body, how his grades are that of the bare minimum, always barely passing in a few subjects, and how he was neither a spoiled young master from a rich family nor an excellent, studious, and hard-working student. He was just wandering around the edge of Class 6, sitting in a corner like a shadow who couldn’t see the light of day.

“That’s right, it’s weird that our teacher even now still kept him and didn’t convince him to just transfer.” Song Yan scratched his head and then, as if to comfort Li Yuechen, patted his friend’s shoulder. “But it doesn’t really matter. That freak certainly wouldn’t dare provoke you, just treat him as though he doesn’t exist.

Li Yuechen listened, though in his heart, he wasn’t really pleased with all the things he’s been hearing about this “freak.” However, there was no need to start something with Song Yan because of a classmate he barely even knows anything about.

After playing games with them until ten o’clock, a few people ordered some midnight snacks and ate them enthusiastically. Feng Linhao and Wang Hanwen wanted to continue playing: “If you guys want to go back, then go back. It’s still a few hours before midnight.”

“What, you guys plan on staying here all night?” Li Yuechen looked at Feng Linhao’s bright computer screen.

Wang Hanwen tapped on his keyboard. “Is it a weekend tomorrow? What are you so afraid of?”

“Ai, if I leave now and go home, it’ll almost be twelve o’clock, I may as well don’t, my old man would just scold me, there’s nothing fun about that,” Song Yan looked reluctant.

“Let’s go, just be a good boy and save yourself from an even harsher beating from dad if you go home any later than now.” Li Yuechen smiled and patted Song Yan’s head, with Feng Linhao laughing in the background, and Song Yan followed Li Yuechen’s ass with a bitter look on his face.

Once he came out of the internet cafe, the cool evening breeze swooped in, blowing away the dreary air from the internet cafe just now, and Li Yuechen frowned when he noticed the smell of smoke on his body. Actually, he wasn’t really interested in playing games, but it was good hanging out and playing with your friends when you had nothing to do. He’s asked them before, “If your computer configuration at home is good enough for playing, why not play there instead,” and Feng Linhao would always say with a profound look, “You really don’t understand, there isn’t any atmosphere at home, it’s so unattractive.” In the end, Li Yuechen didn’t really understand how playing games in a small, smoke-filled cubicle has a lot more appeal and atmosphere than playing games in a spacious home.

After separating from Song Yan from the last intersection, Li Yuechen arrived home at almost 12:30. The lights in the living room were still on, but the lights on the second floor had been turned off. Li Yuechen opened the door quietly and quickly darted back into his bedroom.