Page 5

The old man shook his head helplessly and left, but the girls refused to go. Gathering their courage, they asked, "Are you Su Yan? Which middle school did you graduate from? Do you live at school or at home?"

Su Yan tilted his head, propped it on one hand, and ignored the girls as he took out his phone and fiddled with it out of boredom.

"Wow, you have a phone? Is this a Nokia 5510? It's so pretty."

After talking for so long, the girl had not expected Su Yan to ignore her completely. Her face immediately reddened with embarrassment, and she left dejectedly.

Su Yan looked like he was lying there bored, but he was actually chatting with the people in his space.

"So this is school? It's so lively! Oh my, so many people, so many young people. Yanyan, hurry and catch a few and bring them in."

I don't traffic people. I'm thirsty, pick me a tomato.

A plump, bright-red tomato appeared inside Su Yan's desk. He grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth. It was bursting with juice, his favorite "fruit." He happily finished it just as the fourth class began.

Su Yan straightened up. The girl beside him suddenly leaned over and said, "My name is Wan Fang. Su Yan, you brought tomatoes to school? Do you have any more?"

Su Yan froze. The giant dinosaur Chen Yan had somehow disappeared, replaced by the class beauty Wan Fang. He raised his head and swept his gaze around the classroom, only to see that Chen Yan had been moved to the third row of the second group. Because she was ugly, Chen Yan had been especially insecure and withdrawn throughout high school. She had never had friends, and no classmate had ever spoken kindly to her more than a few times. On top of that, her grades were mediocre and her personality flawed. Usually, even after being questioned for ages, she could barely squeeze out a few words. The teachers did not like her either. Her reputation was even worse than that of several delinquent students, and people disliked her wherever she went. Su Yan clearly remembered that in his previous life, during their second year of high school, a boy had become furious after the teacher seated him beside Chen Yan. He threw a tantrum, flipped desks, smashed chairs, and threatened to quit school. In the end, the teacher had no choice but to compromise. For the rest of high school, Chen Yan had sat alone in the farthest corner of the classroom.

Su Yan stared at Chen Yan's back and sank into his memories when he suddenly heard someone shout, "Su Yan, Su Yan, come up and solve the problem."

Su Yan snapped out of it. The math teacher had called students to the board to solve problems. There were four exercises after the lesson, and Su Yan had been assigned the last one.

He wrote down the answer with barely a pause, then returned to his seat. As he passed the second row of the fourth group, the corners of his eyes curved slightly in a smile.

"Ahhh, he's even more handsome up close. He's so tall, and his legs are so long." Yu Cong in the second row muttered excitedly. Her deskmate, Chen Wanwan, stared straight at the blackboard and said dismissively, "A handsome guy can't fill your stomach. I can't stand that boy. He's just showing off with some lousy phone."

Yu Cong stuck out her tongue and did not dare say more. She secretly glanced at Chen Wanwan's beautiful profile, feeling indignant inside. Chen Wanwan was far too self-centered—she only allowed herself to show off and could not stand anyone else doing it. Yet Chen Wanwan was beautiful, the acknowledged class flower and the new school beauty. She was also tall and slender, unlike most petite southern girls. On top of that, her father was a high-ranking official in C City, while she herself ranked first in the class. Every advantage had fallen into her lap; she was so outstanding that there was nothing to criticize.

The math teacher was very satisfied with the solution on the blackboard and explained it step by step. With half a class left before dismissal, he took out the attendance book and flipped through it, telling the students to study on their own. He found Su Yan's name in the book and saw that Su Yan had scored full marks in math on the high school entrance exam. The old man smiled approvingly, checked off his name, and marked him as "math class representative."

Bored, Su Yan focused intently on his sketchbook and rapidly wrote down dense lines of game programming code. Relying on his memory, he recorded it without stopping. Before long, he had filled half the book. Wan Fang beside him asked in surprise, "What are you writing? An English composition?"

Su Yan directly filtered out the unnecessary noise. His pen continued to fly across the page, and he did not even hear the dismissal bell. Only after finishing in one breath did he realize school was over and it was time for lunch.

Su Yan's home was half an hour away from school. He could have ridden his bicycle home, but he had no intention of going back to cook, nor did he want to eat in the cafeteria. He found an abandoned old school building and entered his space somewhere deserted. He casually stir-fried a plate of green beans to fill his stomach, then lay down on the bed for a nap. That was right—Su Yan had bought a new bed and placed it inside. He ate, drank, slept, and did everything else here. The little rundown house at home had become mere decoration.

Classes resumed at two in the afternoon. Su Yan returned to the classroom at one forty, and before he even entered, he heard shouting.

"You have to move your desk away. I don't want to spend another second with you!" The round, tall boy roared furiously. In front of him were desks and books that had been shoved into a mess, while Chen Yan crouched on the floor picking up her books.

After Chen Yan stood up, she put the desk back in place. The fat boy immediately gritted his teeth in rage. "You dead dinosaur, are you looking for a beating? You think I won't hit you just because you're a woman?"

Chen Yan said nothing and continued working on her exercises with a pen. The fat boy slapped at her, tore away her book, and scattered it across the floor again. Chen Yan's whole body went stiff, but she did not move. She remained silent and did not resist. Yet Su Yan saw that her eyes had grown wet. She was about to cry, but she was forcing herself to hold it back.

The fat boy was throwing his weight around while a circle of people watched the show.

Lin Qiang, a bespectacled model student, called out loudly, "Wang Hu, forget it. Why are you losing your temper with a girl? It's only for today. The homeroom teacher said the seats will be changed tomorrow."

Wang Hu snarled, "I don't want to put up with her for another second! Do you know how disgusting she is? Looking at her makes my stomach turn. She's ugly and she stinks. Fuck, how can there be a woman like this? Why doesn't she just die? You make it sound easy—why don't you sit with her? Come on, come on, switch seats with me."