Chapter 2: The Weird Classmate behind My Seat

Yan Jingxing and his uncle lived in a three-story courtyard. This had been the home of their grandparents. After the two elderly passed away, they left it to their two sons to take care of. Besides the main building, there was also a house outside the gate used for parking and storing odds and ends.

There were two tall orange trees in the yard. With their abundant branches and leaves, they provided a shady spot for taking a break from the heat.

Every time the wind blew through the canopy, the overlapping leaves would rub against each other, creating a "rustling" sound like waves crashing on the shore.

Uncle said that in autumn, the oranges would be ripe. The two trees would yield enough fruit to fill three baskets, so much that they couldn't finish eating it all even if their teeth hurt, and they would have to share it with their neighbors.

He also said that when he was a child, the thing he looked forward to most every year was the oranges on the tree in the courtyard. The sweet taste of those oranges, whenever he thought about it now, still made his mouth water.

These words from Uncle were interspersed with personal childhood memories, making them vivid and interesting, and giving Yan Jingxing great anticipation.

However, the first thing they needed to do as uncle and nephew was to clean up the house.

Both of the Yan brothers had left for the city early on in their lives, and after the death of their elderly family members, the house had been left unattended, almost becoming a dilapidated and abandoned structure. It was only today that it was being put to use again, so there was a lot of dust accumulated in every corner of the house.

First, they cleared out all the unused clutter from the most frequently used living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms, swept and mopped the floors, and wiped down the rest of the house with buckets and rags.

Then they took out the old bed sheets, quilts, and damp furniture to air in the sun, threw away everything that was moldy, and made a list of things that needed to be repurchased, which they bought from the only supermarket in town.

Finally, they unpacked their luggage, put away their daily necessities, and made the beds with new quilts and pillows.

The uncle and nephew worked together tirelessly for two days and one night. They spent the first night back at the hotel in town and only settled into their new home on the second night.

Yan Jingxing took a shower, changed into clean clothes, staggered to his bed, and collapsed onto it, exhausted. Just then, he heard his uncle calling from outside the door.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. You're going to school tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!"

Yan Jingxing exclaimed in complaint.

"Can't we rest for a couple of days? We just finished unpacking."

"Tomorrow is Monday. You're a transfer student coming in mid-semester, so you need to catch up with the curriculum as soon as possible."

"I don't want to go to school..."

"Alright, I've already set the alarm clock in the living room. Remember to get up early, don't make me rush you every time."

With a sigh, the boy buried his face deeply into the pillow, not wanting to face reality.

...

The next day, his uncle drove him to the school.

Yan Jingxing was still sluggish in the car, but as soon as he got off the vehicle, he perked up and adjusted his expression.

Despite his dissatisfaction, he had taken his uncle's advice to "leave a good impression on the new classmates and teachers" to heart.

Simply due to the vanity of a pubescent boy, he was determined to face this first encounter seriously.

Yan Yongzhi looked at his nephew with a serious expression on his face and couldn't help but feel amused. He patted his nephew on the shoulder.

"I'm going to the administrative office first. Can you find the office by yourself?"

"Of course."

The uncle left in a hurry, leaving the boy with a backpack, staring at High sign in front of the school that read "Baiyue Town Experimental High School," feeling anxious.

As he built up his courage and followed the instructions of the security guard, he found the second-grade office along the stairs.

"Is Ms Gao here?"

"Oh, you're here. Are you Yan Jingxing?"

A middle-aged female teacher stood up from her seat. There was fatigue on her face and her black eye bags looked like she hadn't had a good rest in a long time.

"Yes."

"After the flag-raising ceremony, I will take you to Class 1 to meet your classmates. Is that okay?"

"Okay."

Yan Jingxing grabbed the backpack strap and nodded.

...

It seems that every city has a school called Experimental High School, and in some places, there are even multiple branches distinguished by numbers. But in a small town like Baiyue, there is only one.

After the flag-raising ceremony and before the start of the first class, there was a short break. The classroom teacher hadn't arrived yet, and every class in the corridor was noisy. The students sitting in front and back were chatting and laughing, while those sitting side by side were playing or simply leaving their seats to talk with friends.

The scorching sun shone through the windows, making the glass transparent and white. It also illuminated the damp marble floor that had just been mopped by the on-duty students, making it sparkle.

In front of the teaching building stood two tall southern magnolia trees. Their verdant branches and leaves gently swayed in the gentle breeze, casting shadows on the corner of the blackboard where someone had drawn stick figures with chalk. The warm and lively atmosphere floated in the air.

Until the bell rang, indicating the start of class, and the class teacher walked to the doorway. She put on a stern expression that the students were all too familiar with and ushered everyone back to their seats.

"I could hear you all from Class 5! You were making such a racket!"

After the students were seated, the teacher walked up to the podium. Instead of immediately asking them to take out their Chinese textbooks, she looked around outside the classroom, as if waiting for someone to come in.

The students in their seats were all curious. Then, a boy they had never seen before walked in.

"Introduce yourself," the teacher said.

"Hello everyone, I'm Yan Jingxing. I recently moved here from Jinjiang City. Yan is 'swallow'¹ and Jingxing comes from the phrase 'Gao Shan Yang Zhi, Jing Xing Xing Zhi'² in The Book of Songs..."

Yan Jingxing picked up a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the blackboard. When he turned around, he saw the faces of all his classmates for the first time.

Of course, since they were all meeting for the first time, everyone's faces were unfamiliar to him. His gaze scanned over them, and he couldn't possibly remember them all at once. But then--

"..."

Yan Jingxing's eyes widened in surprise.

In the last row, he saw a familiar figure.

She sat alone at a table, with her long hair covering most of her face.

He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.

It was the girl he had encountered at the rest stop in her swimsuit.

She had jumped into the sea and disappeared, so Yan Jingxing had thought he would never see her again, and he felt a bit regretful about that.

Turns out she wasn't a mermaid, but a high school student just like him...

Well, of course, Yan Jingxing thought to himself. He just didn't expect that they would meet again so soon, and even happen to be in the same school and same class.

The girl sitting in the back seemed to notice him at the same time. She looked up at the podium with a look of surprise and uncertainty before quickly lowering her head again.

"Jingxing, what's wrong?"

"Ah, nothing..."

Yan Jingxing, who was distracted by the unexpected reunion, didn't have the heart to say much. After a few random comments, he took his seat amidst the applause of his classmates.

"You can sit next to Yu Heyue. Heyue, remember to lend your textbook to the new student during class."

"Ah~ okay, teacher."

Yan Jingxing sat down next to the smiling girl.

...

The first class after that was math.

Half of Yan Jingxing's mind was on the lesson, while the other half was on the girl sitting in the back row.

After confirming that he could follow the lessons here, and exhaling in relief, all his remaining attention was on the girl.

His deskmate was actually quite interested in him, constantly sneaking questions about where he came from and what city life was like. Yan Jingxing gave brief and vague answers, waiting until the bell rang to immediately get up and walk towards the back.

...Was he coming across as too eager?

But it didn't matter much, after all, he was genuinely curious about her and had many questions to ask.

What Yan Jingxing didn't expect was--

The girl's long, slightly curly bangs blocked her face, making it impossible to see her expression. The moment she noticed Yan Jingxing approaching, she jumped up like a startled rabbit and scurried away to another spot.

"Hey, wait..."

Before he could even call out to her, the girl's figure had disappeared through the back door of the classroom, leaving him looking completely lost.

...

To put it simply, she's a bit different from what I imagined.

Yan Jingxing returned to his seat and wrapped his arms around himself, deep in thought.

Although he had only seen her once, the youthful vigor that radiated from her was truly impressive and not just for show.

However, in school, she gave off a quiet and reserved vibe...

And why was she avoiding him?

Some classmates noticed the minor awkwardness and asked with a smile,

"Are you looking for Ji Chunzao? Did you know her before?"

Ji Chunzao... That was her name. Yan Jingxing silently noted it down and nodded in response.

"I saw her on the road coming here. We only met once, so we don't really know each other. But did she try to avoid me just now?"

"Well, don't take it too seriously. She's a bit... I don't know how to describe it... a bit strange."

After hearing the name "Ji Chunzao", classmates who were seated nearby also came over to join in the conversation.

"Some people even think she's not normal in the head."

"Is that really incredible? She's still taking classes and passing exams like everyone else."

"That's because you haven't been exposed to her before. At first, she was quite enthusiastic, but after hearing her talk about 'water monsters', 'aliens', and 'UFOs' every day, everyone got fed up with her and started to keep their distance. She only became more withdrawn after that."

As his classmates chatted excitedly, Yan Jingxing realized that Ji Chunzao seemed to be an outsider in the collective of Class 1, Grade 2.

Even though he didn't know her well, he could sense a unique temperament in the girl; however, this also made her the center of attention in a way, so everyone had something to say about "Ji Chunzao".

As they continued chatting, everyone started to show more interest in the new student, and Yan Jingxing, who clearly wasn't someone who stood out, smiled and responded to their questions, memorizing their names one by one.

After joining a new collective, it often takes a "turning point" to truly blend in, and that turning point was now.

However, as he chatted enthusiastically with the others, Yan Jingxing's gaze occasionally strayed towards the empty seat in the back row.

...

The Baiquan³ Town Experimental High School has two main buildings. One is the teaching building where classrooms and teaching offices are located, and it is noisy during breaks. The other is used for other functions, with offices, labs, and a library, and it is usually quiet.

The staircase leading to the rooftop is often unlocked. Ji Chunzao ran out of the classroom, walked all the way to the roof.

When passing through the office building, the girl walked a bit furtively; but when she arrived at her destination, she stood up straight, with a hint of a smile on her lips, and walked confidently around to the back of the water tower.

There, in a space deliberately blocked off with brick walls on three sides, was a makeshift "base" with a woven paper mat, plastic bags used for trash, stacked newspapers, rain umbrellas, and raincoats.

What was most notable was the neat stack of magazines and books with titles about UFOs, aliens, the Loch Ness monster, and wildmen of Shennongjia, as well as various editions of "Unsolved Mysteries of the World".

In this unnoticed corner of the campus, Ji Chunzao had built a small, temporary "secret base" that belonged to her alone.

The long-haired girl sat by the wall and picked up a copy of "UFO Exploration" to flip through.

At this moment, in this place where she was alone, Ji Chunzao seemed to relax completely, her posture and expression lazy.

Golden sunlight like feather-light passed through the gaps between the stainless steel bars next to the water tower and landed on the blue and white high school uniform, the slightly faded sneakers, and the yellowed pages...

When it silently landed on the bright face of the fourteen-year-old girl, her snow-white skin seemed transparent and glistened with a luster.

The magazine in Ji Chunzao's hand looked like it had been flipped through countless times; the cover was even starting to come unstuck, but she still read it with great interest.

"Ah, this UFO...! It's similar to what I saw in my dream..."

She exclaimed suddenly, pointing at an illustration and speaking to herself in words no one else could understand.

Unfortunately, all the things in her dreams were in black and white, so she couldn't distinguish colors. The girl thought with a bit of regret.

The bell rang for class, but Ji Chunzao didn't get up.

She knew the next class was an activity period and she didn't have to go back to the classroom.

Anyway, even if she stayed in the classroom, there was nothing for her to do. She would just sit alone in the corner daydreaming and watching others have fun.

...

"Hey, isn't this 'UFO Exploration'?"

A voice suddenly spoke from behind her.

"Waaah!"

The unexpected greeting startled Ji Chunzao, and her entire body went stiff.

It wasn't until she heard footsteps approaching that she slowly turned her neck like a robot.

What she saw was the face of the transfer student.