Song Yu's gaze finally landed on the stack of papers in Xie Sui's hand. "What's that?"
Xie Sui smiled. "The speech for the freshman representative."
Song Yu took it and flipped through it, clicking his tongue. "So this is the treatment the city's top scorer gets, giving a speech in front of the whole grade. Will you be nervous?"
That really was a novel question.
Xie Sui had given countless speeches in his previous life, at companies, universities, and technology summits. His audiences had included men and women, young and old, the successful and the ordinary, people from home and abroad, industry insiders and outsiders. How could a high school freshman speech still give him stage fright?
But hearing Song Yu's question, he smiled playfully and lowered his eyes slightly. "A little."
Song Yu had already forgotten the humiliation of a66, Lagrange, and 135 degrees. Kindhearted as he was, he enthusiastically offered reassurance. "Don't be nervous. I'll pay people to cheer you on. Ten yuan for clapping, fifty for a shout, a hundred for going up to give you flowers. I'll reimburse the flowers, too. Bring friends along and there'll be bonuses. The more people, the bigger the bonus."
Listening behind them, Ma Xiaoding raised his hand to sign up. "Brother Yu, do people you know get extra rewards?"
Song Yu said blandly, "No extra rewards for people I know. You're free labor."
Ma Xiaoding withdrew his hand aggrievedly.
Xi Bowen burst out laughing.
Xie Sui's lips curved.
The classroom stayed noisy for about half an hour.
Their homeroom teacher finally arrived. The homeroom teacher for Class One, Grade Ten was a female English teacher surnamed Ou. She looked very young, wearing high heels and a white slip dress, and the scent of expensive perfume wafted in with her. Song Yu did have some recollection of this teacher. In Gentle Control, Xie Sui had suffered harassment and cold violence throughout high school, and she bore more or less half the responsibility.
Vain and snobbish, she ranked students' family backgrounds first and their grades second. If you had neither background nor grades, she wouldn't spare you a glance.
Ms. Ou stepped onto the platform in her heels, holding a list. She casually ordered two small, skinny boys sitting in the front row, her voice soft and gentle. "Go carry the student handbooks over."
The two boys stood awkwardly and answered in a fluster, "Okay."
Ms. Ou swept back her long hair and smiled at the students. "Hello, everyone. I'll be your homeroom teacher for your three years of high school. My surname is Ou, and my name is Ou Yilian. You can call me Ms. Ou." Then she launched into her glittering résumé: which university she had graduated from, how many years she had studied abroad, and how many outstanding students she had taught. She deliberately affected her voice, too. It was downright sleep-inducing.
Listening to her only made Song Yu sleepy. He opened the window a little, letting Jing City's cool night breeze blow in.
He rubbed his eyes and nudged Xie Sui with his arm. "Wake me when she's done bragging. I'm going to sleep for a bit."
Xie Sui looked at him seriously. "You're sleeping in the very first class?"
Song Yu answered in a muffled voice, "No need to listen to her nonsense."
The first evening self-study period passed amid Ou Yilian's self-indulgent speech.
When the bell rang, Ms. Ou stopped her account of how her nth student had become successful years later and thanked her. Standing on the platform, she cleared her throat. "I won't assign seats for the first month. Sit with whoever you want for now. I'll arrange the seating after the next monthly exam results come out. All right, class dismissed. Take a break, everyone."
She had done one good thing, at least: letting them choose their own deskmates.
During that class, Song Yu had a rather unpleasant dream.
The images were bizarre and shifting, yet cold and bloody.
An unnamed island, desolate and sinister as a cage, followed by endless blue sky and sea.
A man leaned against a yacht, his trench coat billowing like a white gull spreading its wings. The damp, salty wind brushed the tousled black hair over his forehead, and his deep, peach-blossom eyes were cold and heartless.
Someone on the boat seemed to be hurrying out.
The man held a gun, his expression casual.
Then glass shattered, a shot straight through the heart.
There were gunshots, the sea wind, and shouts.
Blood, wind, disbelieving eyes.
The image froze on the bored, disgusted smile at the corner of the man's lips. He turned and leaped into the sea, his departing figure graceful and decisive.
Song Yu jolted awake. Class One was noisy and lively during the break, girls laughing and chatting while boys played games.
Behind him, Ma Xiaoding was volunteering to explain a question to Xi Bowen. "Oh, so you like memorizing poetry, too. I think I studied this one. Ten years, the living and the dead lost in boundless distance; without thinking, I cannot forget. In brocade cap and sable furs, a thousand riders sweep across the level ridge. How's that!"
Xi Bowen said, "??? It sounds fine, but something feels off. Did you memorize it wrong?"
Ma Xiaoding said, "Impossible! It rhymes so well!"
Human voices surrounded him. Song Yu's unfocused, bewildered eyes slowly cleared.
The breeze through the window gave him a little sense of reality. Looking down at his hands, he felt an oppressive weight lingering in his heart that he couldn't shake.
The person he had just dreamed about was probably Xie Sui.
In the book, Xie Sui had ended up imprisoned on a deserted island, his pride broken... He had dropped the novel at that point, so had Xie Sui later shot those three scumbags dead? Or was that the outcome he hoped for?
"Xie Sui." Song Yu's throat was a little dry. He instinctively turned his head, only to find that Xie Sui wasn't in his seat.
Hearing him call, Ma Xiaoding said, "Brother Yu, Xie Sui got called to the office."
Song Yu nodded.
Song Yu lowered his eyes and rubbed his temple.
Just then, a shadow suddenly fell over him as a group stopped in front of him.
"Hey, little buddy, how about we discuss something?"
The speaker was a tall, thin boy in a black T-shirt, with a buzz cut and three rows of ear studs. One glance was enough to tell he wasn't easy to get along with. He tapped the desk with his fingers, wearing a wicked grin, with no intention of discussing anything in his eyes.
The classroom instantly quieted. Those playing on their phones and those chatting all involuntarily looked over.
Song Yu had acted like the daddy of those knife-and-club-wielding thugs on Lianyun Street. How could a few high school students scare him?
But the dream had left him listless, and he lazily lifted his eyelids. "Speak."
The tall, thin boy snorted. "Our Brother Ci wants to swap seats with you. Will you?"
Brother Ci?
Song Yu came fully awake, his eyes opening.
The tall, thin boy gave an inscrutable smile. "You know the Wang Family? The Wang Family of Jing City. Brother Ci wants to swap seats with you."
Song Yu had been fretting over having nowhere to vent his anger. He smiled pleasantly, too.
Spinning his pen, he spoke with casual disdain. "Wang Ci? Who's that?"
The tall, thin boy stared at him in silence. Everyone in Class One instantly held their breath. It was so quiet that even a pen dropping to the floor rang out clearly. They looked at Song Yu as though he were a martyr.
Was this guy really stupid, or was he pretending? That was the Wang Family, whose faces often appeared on Jing City television.
"It's normal that you don't know me. Let's get acquainted now."
A slightly chubby boy stood from a seat against the wall on the other side of the classroom, speaking with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
He had single-lidded, narrow eyes and slightly thick lips. Features that would have looked honest on an ordinary person looked especially greasy and sinister on him.
Wang Ci left his seat and walked straight toward Song Yu, his gaze falling on him like a venomous snake.
"Do me a favor, kid. I want to swap seats with you."
Wang Ci had walked right into the line of fire.
As luck would have it, Song Yu had just had that dream, leaving him gritting his teeth with anger at the scumbags in Gentle Control.
He smiled leisurely. "Why should I do you a favor?"
Hiss. The whole class sucked in a breath.
Song Yu continued blandly, "Because your face is so big?"
The whole class: "..."
Savage!
Wang Ci's lips twitched into an unpleasant smile.
The group in black T-shirts followed Wang Ci's lead. Seeing Song Yu provoke him like that, the boy immediately dropped all pretense and slammed the desk. "I fucking told you to move! Cut the crap! Are you moving or not!"
But before he could do anything, Ma Xiaoding had already stood up and hurled a can to the floor, his voice even louder. "Try raising your fucking voice again!"
The already quiet, oppressive atmosphere in the classroom instantly turned explosive.
The boy in the black T-shirt froze. "Ma Xiaoding?"
Ignoring him, Ma Xiaoding stood beside Song Yu, looking ferocious. "Brother Yu already said he's not moving! If your ears don't work, want me to chop them off for you?"
Ma Xiaoding had always been a troublemaker in middle school, a school-bully-level figure with plenty of followers who fought viciously.
The boy in the black T-shirt was a little scared of him, but couldn't swallow the humiliation. He said stiffly, "Did I ask you?"
Song Yu, the one being asked, found it funny. He tossed his pen onto the desk. "Not moving. Scram."
Three words.
His tone was arrogant to the extreme.
The boy in the black T-shirt froze. Unable to decide what to do, he looked toward Wang Ci. "Brother Ci."
But Wang Ci's narrow eyes stayed fixed on Song Yu. He stared for a long time, his thoughts unreadable, before finally giving an uncomfortable smile. Without a word, he went back to his seat.
With their leader gone, the remaining three or four didn't linger.
The boy in the black T-shirt still left a threat behind. "You've offended Brother Ci. You'll pay for this!"
Ma Xiaoding flared up. "Bring it on! We'll see who pays!"
The boy in the black T-shirt ground his teeth, but didn't dare challenge him. Turning away, he muttered under his breath, "The Meng Family's dog, acting like he's somebody."
After the classroom atmosphere briefly froze over, someone's phone chimed, breaking the silence. Everyone began whispering, and the tension gradually eased.
Ma Xiaoding looked as disgusted as if he'd swallowed a fly. "The Wang Family of Jing City, my ass. Ugh. What the hell are they?"
If Brother Yu hadn't wanted to attend school in peace, revealing his background would have scared these frogs at the bottom of a well to death.
He looked nervously at Song Yu. "Brother Yu, that dumbass didn't touch you just now, did he?"
In his mind, Brother Yu was a porcelain doll who couldn't be touched, who would shatter at a touch and needed careful protection.
For now, Song Yu couldn't be bothered to take those people seriously. "No."
Ma Xiaoding seethed. "When I get the chance, I'm going to beat that dumbass Jiang Xiu up."
Jiang Xiu was the name of the boy in the black T-shirt.
Before long, the second evening self-study period began, and Ms. Ou and Xie Sui came in together.
Song Yu kept his gaze on Xie Sui, watching him walk from the classroom doorway to his side.
His stare was so blatant that Xie Sui couldn't have missed it. Sitting down, Xie Sui looked at his young deskmate and smiled. "What is it? Another question you can't solve?"
Song Yu withdrew his gaze, in a poor mood and listless. "No. I can solve them all."
Xie Sui said, "Right. You are the future city's top scorer who was just shy of eight hundred points, after all."
Song Yu: "..."