Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The second semester at S City No. 1 High School started in late February.

Due to the course selection for different tracks, classes were rearranged.

I was assigned to Class 2, and Xu Ge to Class 3.

Nian Nian was still my deskmate.

Coincidentally, Ji Yunbai was in my class again.

Our PE class was the second period on Tuesday afternoons.

After the first class, Nian Nian and I were heading to the sports field to assemble.

Nian Nian suddenly elbowed me. “Look over there. Why is Xu Ge with Ji Yunbai? When did they get to know each other?”

I froze, instinctively following her gaze.

Below the teaching building, Xu Ge and Ji Yunbai were coming up from the field together.

Xu Ge wore his uniform very sloppily, the zipper completely open, a black headband on his forehead. One hand was in the air, carelessly spinning a basketball.

Ji Yunbai, usually aloof and unsmiling, was grinning brightly in front of Xu Ge.

And every time she spoke, Xu Ge would look down at her.

I opened my mouth to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

So I shook my head slightly.

Ignoring the dense, needle-like pain in my heart, I murmured softly,

“I don’t know when they got to know each other either.”

“Ruan He, careful!”

Nian Nian’s anxious voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

I was about to lift my head to ask what was wrong, but the next moment, I missed a step and tumbled down the stairs.

After a dizzying spin, intense pain hit me.

The pain forced me to curl up, hugging my drenched-in-cold-sweat self tightly.

In a daze, I felt someone rush up to me.

“How did you fall?”

A surprised young voice.

Xu Ge swiftly pulled his school uniform jacket off backwards and tossed it into Nian Nian’s arms. “Hold this.”

He bent down and picked me up securely. “I’ll carry you to the infirmary.”

It was break time, with many students on campus. A boy carrying a girl through the crowd was really conspicuous.

Along the way, we drew a lot of stares.

Weakly, I leaned against his neck, still worrying about him even at this moment. “Aren’t you afraid that classmates will find out about our relationship? Put me down. In a couple of days, rumors will fly again. It won’t be good for your reputation.”

“And Ji Yunbai is watching. She’ll misunderstand.”

Xu Ge lowered his long eyelashes. The wind lifted the bangs beneath his headband slightly. He stared at me expressionlessly.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Unfortunately, I had already passed out from the pain by then, so I didn’t hear his reply.

The diagnosis from the Grade A tertiary hospital came out quickly.

A minor fracture in my lower leg, requiring crutches for a month.

And I had to be in a cast and rest in bed.

When Uncle Xu heard I was bedridden, considering that my high school coursework was pressing, he hired a tutor for me.

She would give me lessons during the day, and in the evening, Xu Ge would bring back the day’s test papers from school.

Once, I ran into a difficult final physics problem that I just couldn’t solve correctly.

I turned around to look at Xu Ge, who was leaning lazily against the floor-to-ceiling window in my room, arms crossed, gazing outside.

My lips pressed together nervously again and again.

He seemed to sense my gaze. When I looked at him once more, our eyes met.

Eye to eye, he raised an eyebrow slightly.

His gaze dropped from my face to the physics exam paper I was unconsciously clutching tightly.

“Which one?”

Xu Ge was very good at science comprehensive subjects, but he always lost to me in math.

My math scores usually hovered around 140+.

Back when my parents were still alive, they used to praise me.

“Our little Xiaohe has been good at math since childhood. This kid is smart!”

Strangely, while I was great at math, I just couldn’t get physics. Xu Ge’s physics scores always beat mine by a big margin.

The boy sat across from me, head lowered, calculating on scratch paper. When he was thinking, his slender fingers would unconsciously spin the pen.

One page of scratch paper wasn’t enough, so he flipped it over.

Suddenly thinking of something, I quickly reached out and snatched it back, not letting him see.

“Don’t look!” I deliberately said fiercely. “This scratch paper has my secret on it!”

Xu Ge’s hand, poised to write, paused. Indifferently, he tore off another fresh sheet of scratch paper.

He continued calculating with a calm expression, not caring at all about what secret my scratch paper held.

I lowered my head and, under the desk, secretly unfolded that crumpled scratch paper.

It was covered with the two words: Xu Ge.