Chapter 14: Helping a Lost Boy Find His Way Back
Four boys were pushing and shoving behind the three girls.
Jiang Yan glanced back and, with a mischievous smile, teased, “Xia Xia, someone’s about to confess to you.”
Liu An’an also turned to look, then turned back around, nodding seriously as she evaluated, “The boy in the middle is quite fair-skinned, pretty handsome. What do you think, Xia Xia?” She nudged Wen Xia with her elbow and winked.
Wen Xia tilted her head and shot her a warning glance. Liu An’an grinned at her in response.
Wen Xia said, “We should head back to the classroom.”
She grabbed the two of them and turned around, deliberately avoiding a face-to-face encounter with the boys behind them by taking a detour around the fake green grass.
She vaguely heard one of the boys urging, “Sun Chen, hurry up, Wen Xia is leaving.”
The next second, the same boy’s voice called out to her, “Wen Xia, Sun Chen has something to tell you.”
Other students on the sports field heard the commotion and turned to look. Two girls, positioned diagonally in front of them, stopped deliberately to watch the scene.
Liu An’an and Jiang Yan were grinning so widely that their eyes squinted into crescent moons, clearly ready to watch the drama unfold.
Liu An’an said with a sly smile, “Xia Xia, he’s not bad looking. Have you thought about it?”
“Liu An’an! Do you believe I’ll tell your brother that you were daydreaming in class?” Wen Xia gave her a threatening look.
Liu An’an immediately raised her hands in surrender, acting coquettishly, “Xia Xia, I’m sorry, I was wrong, I deeply regret it, I’ll reflect, deeply reflect.”
At that moment, the boy Liu An’an had called “fair-skinned” stood in front of Wen Xia, his ears already flushed red before he even spoke.
Liu An’an and Jiang Yan stifled their laughter.
By now, even more students had turned their attention toward them.
The boy, Sun Chen, took out a box of chocolate from behind and handed it to Wen Xia, stammering, “Wen Xia, I like you. Could you… be my girlfriend?”
At that time, chocolates were quite expensive, around 20 or 30 yuan per box.
Wen Xia: “……”
She suddenly remembered when she confessed to Qin Mo, she had also bought a box of chocolate. Qin Mo, however, coldly replied with, “Classmate, study hard.”
After they got married, she had always held a grudge about it, but later, Qin Mo explained that he had been trying to “persuade a lost girl back to the right path.”
She smiled lightly and said, “Classmate, study hard, keep it up.”
Sun Chen froze for a moment, clearly not expecting her to say something like that.
Looking at her pure smile, his face turned even redder, and shyly, he nodded. “Okay.”
…
Once they were out of the sports field, Liu An’an and Jiang Yan burst out laughing.
Jiang Yan laughed so hard that she nearly lost her balance. “Xia Xia, you really pulled it off, you even said ‘study hard.’”
Wen Xia blinked and said with a serious face, “I’m just helping a lost boy find his way back to the right path,” as she raised her left hand and pointed with her index finger.
“Xia Xia, have you been possessed by Old Cao? Hahaha…” Liu An’an laughed loudly without any image at all.
Cao Jun was known for using this gesture in class to emphasize key points of knowledge.
…
English Exam
Wen Xia felt very confident during the English exam. However, with her current “slacker” abilities, scoring full marks seemed a bit unrealistic.
Considering the difficulty of the questions, she deliberately chose the wrong answers to common mistakes that high school students often made. She also intentionally misspelled two words in the essay and included some faulty sentences.
She aimed to control her score to around 90.
…
The next day’s science exams went smoothly for Wen Xia, as most of the questions were just basic knowledge directly from the textbook.
After the exams were over at noon, the entire second-year class was let out early.
Wen Xia had already decided to go to Qin Mo’s school, so she only packed a few books into her bag.
She took the bus with Jiang Yan. Jia No.1 Middle School, Qin Mo’s school, was just one stop past her own neighborhood, De’an Community, so it was very close.
Knowing Wen Xia was heading to Jia No.1, Jiang Yan got off at the De’an Community stop by herself. The two waved each other goodbye.
It took about forty minutes to get from Jia No.2 to Jia No.1’s entrance. By this time, Jia No.1 was already in its first class of the day, which was also the last class.
Jia No.1 Middle School had one fewer class on Fridays compared to other middle schools.
The large black iron gates were half open. Wen Xia told the security guard that she was there to find her cousin Qin Mo. The security guard let her in and kindly directed her to Qin Mo’s classroom on the second floor of Chongyang Building, on the left side near the stairs.
Jia No.1’s campus was a bit old, having been around for several decades, unlike Jia No.2, which had been established only in the last ten years.
Jia No.1 had a strong historical atmosphere. On the stone wall directly in front of the main entrance, there were carvings of statues of ancient figures like Confucius and Laozi.
She checked the time—it was still twenty minutes until class ended. Wen Xia decided to browse the school’s display boards.
Sure enough, there was a photo of Qin Mo—Outstanding Student.
The photo looked exactly the same as the one on Qin Mo’s student ID.
Beneath the photo, there were several lines of small text, detailing how Qin Mo had repeatedly ranked first in his grade and had earned awards such as “Three Good Student,” “Outstanding Leader,” and “Civilized Student.”
She had heard that Qin Mo was excellent at his studies in middle school, but she had never seen it for herself until now.
Seeing it with her own eyes, she couldn’t help but marvel at how fortunate she must have been in her past life.
Actually, her connection with Qin Mo was all thanks to her thick skin.
As she thought about it, she pulled out her phone, opened the camera, and snapped a picture of the photo. “Click!”
She continued browsing through the other display boards, finding more pictures of Qin Mo hosting events, performing, and engaging in various activities.
Looking at her watch, she realized there were only five minutes left before class ended, so she headed up to Chongming Building and stood by the door of the classroom on the left.
A male teacher, wearing glasses with dark circles under his eyes and a receding hairline, was also standing at the door holding a notebook, likely waiting for the class to end as well.
The two of them exchanged glances.
“Student, who are you looking for?” The head teacher of the Rocket Class, Zhou Gang, asked kindly.
Wen Xia guessed he was Qin Mo’s homeroom teacher and replied obediently, “Cousin, Qin Mo.”
Upon hearing Qin Mo’s name, Zhou Gang’s expression softened even more. “You might have to wait a few more minutes.”
Just then, the bell for class to end rang. A female teacher walked out, and Zhou Gang entered the classroom.
His voice was clearly heard from inside, “Class, quiet down. I’ll take a few minutes to talk. The monthly exams are next week, so make sure to review well when you get home…”
He spoke quickly, wrapping up in a minute or two.
Then he added, “Qin Mo, your cousin is waiting for you outside. We’ll leave the bulletin board for next week.”
Soon after, a group of students came out of the classroom. They looked at Wen Xia with curious expressions. Then, Qin Mo appeared, wearing a black sweater and blue jeans.
Without a word, he naturally took her bag from her. “Why are you out so early today?”
Wen Xia had planned to surprise him and hadn’t mentioned it when they spoke on the phone earlier. “There are exams these days, and the school let us out early.”
“Hello, cousin. I’m Zhao Zichuan,” a boy’s voice interrupted.
The chubby boy in front of her was someone Wen Xia recognized—he was Qin Mo’s longtime friend. Though at this time, he was much chubbier than he would be in the future.
“Hello, I’m Wen Xia.”
Zhao Zichuan grinned and complimented, “Wen Xia, that’s such a beautiful name.”
Zhao Zichuan was known for his compliments, which was probably how he managed to win over someone as looks-conscious as Liu An’an.
Wen Xia couldn’t help but smile, “Thank you.”
