Summer Green Apples

"Turn around."

Ji Xi heard her deskmate speak impatiently, her voice so cold it sounded like ice shards could fall from it.

But it sounds very nice, like the moment an ice cube is dropped into cola and bubbles appear. The tone is a bit casual, with an innate sense of arrogance.

Xu Jiyang laughed shamelessly: "I'm not turning around, I didn't do anything to you."

That is.

Ji Xiwen thought to herself that her deskmate was probably not someone to mess with.

You should be more careful when you get along with others in the future.

"I was already asleep, and you woke me up by poking me. Aren't you just trying to annoy me?"

The person next to him scoffed softly.

Xu Jiyang touched the tip of his nose, ignored it, and turned his head away.

Ji Xiwen: "..."

She crossed out the previous idea.

As soon as the bell rang, the English teacher walked in, wearing high heels, and said rapidly, "Take out the booklet."

The booklet was compiled by the English teachers and is not available elsewhere.

Ji Xiwen naturally didn't have any either.

Everyone around was rummaging through the desk drawers. The English teacher picked up her thermos, took a sip, looked around, and noticed that a strange girl was now sitting in the usually empty seat.

So she touched the microphone to her lips and said, "Transfer students, look at your deskmate's first, and have the English class representative get it for you after class."

Ji Xiwen paused for a moment.

A lot of people looked over, most of them girls.

A thin workbook was tossed to me by someone next to me.

The booklet was very thin, and the cover was printed with the school emblem of Pingzhong.

Below are two characters written in a vigorous and elegant style, clearly demonstrating considerable practice; they are standard semi-cursive script.

—Chi Sui.

Ji Xiwen turned her head to the side: "Thank you."

Chi then let out a snort through his nose.

Ji Xiwen placed the booklet between the two of them.

The boy bent two fingers and pressed them against the edge. "Look for yourself, I'm not listening to the lesson."

"..."

Ji Xiwen was stunned for a moment.

I never expected him to say those words, "I'm not listening to the lesson," so confidently.

"……OK."

She stared blankly at Chi Sui.

The boy pulled two math papers out of his desk and started working on them.

Before Ji Xiwen could even react, he had already circled the answers to the first two multiple-choice questions.

Is it done so fast...?

The boy suddenly stopped what he was doing, turned his head, and coldly stared at her. "Have you looked enough?"

"Excuse me."

Ji Xiwen quickly flipped through the booklet.

The booklet is full of reading comprehension questions, which are quite difficult and profound, at least more difficult than the current joint entrance exam papers. The question types have also changed, with each reading passage followed by twenty very tricky multiple-choice questions.

The person doing the test seemed too lazy to make any markings; the reading passage was completely clean.

Only the word ABC was simply written in black pen before the question stem.

Pingzhong is a key provincial high school, and Class 1 and Class 2 are the most outstanding students in the grade. I heard that Class 1 ranked among the top 40 in science in the second year of high school and Class 2 ranked among the top 40 in humanities.

Both the pace of the classes and the difficulty of the questions were vastly different from what Ji Xiwen had experienced at her previous school.

"Turn to page 17." The English teacher was a pretty woman, but her voice was surprisingly strong and assertive. "I'll read the answer aloud."

Ji Xiwen compared the answers and found that all of this person's answers were correct.

"..."

No wonder they weren't paying attention in class.

At this level, I'd probably score 145+ on every exam, with only the essay section losing some points.

……

An English class passed quickly.

Ji Xi listened very attentively.

Her high school teacher used to lecture in a very simplistic way, repeating a few words and tenses over and over again for an entire lesson.

The English teacher had just left the room when Xu Jiyang turned around and scrutinized Chi Sui's expression.

Chi rummaged around in the desk drawer for a while and pulled out something that looked like a game console. He leaned back lazily in his chair and played it quite seriously. "If you have something to say, just say it."

Xu Jiyang chuckled slyly, "I heard from my dad that your stepmother is going to bring her daughter to live with you. Is that true?"

Chi Sui's expression completely froze. "You already know, so why ask?"

Xu Jiyang leaned closer and whispered, "I just don't believe it. Your dad usually seems pretty smart, a big business owner with such a large company, how come he's suddenly become so brain-dead? He's going to raise someone else's daughter?"

He thought his voice was soft, but Ji Xiwen was very close to them and could hear him clearly.

This plot sounds familiar...

She paused in her note-taking, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that her new deskmate wasn't playing a video game.

Instead, it's the kind of water-filled water dispenser that's educational for children.

Slender, pale fingers casually pressed buttons, causing colorful little rings to tumble in the water.

"Universal love".

Chi casually uttered two words that made Xu Jiyang burst out laughing, "Hahaha, your dad is so loving, hahahahahaha..."

Chi Sui found it annoying; this was the topic he hated most lately, yet Xu Jiyang kept bringing it up, like stabbing him in the heart.

He kicked his chair under the table. "Stop bothering me, turn around."

"I can't keep my mouth shut."

"Tell your deskmate."

Ji Xiwen's deskmate was a girl with a low ponytail that reached her waist. She had two ear piercings. She was reading a magazine when she heard Chi Sui's words and turned her head. "No way, I don't have anything in common with him."

Xu Jiyang rested one hand on the edge of the table. "I apologize. I really didn't know that was your idol. If I had known, I wouldn't have said he was ugly."

"I won't accept it," the girl said coldly.

Two seconds later, she pulled two new test papers from the desk drawer, turned her head, and placed them on Ji Xiwen's desk.

Her expression softened, revealing a sweet smile with two small dimples at the corners of her lips. "Classmate, the first two periods this afternoon are math. The teacher will go over the test papers. I have a new test paper here; you can try doing it at noon."

"Thanks."

Ji Xiwen glanced down at the test paper and was shocked to find that it was the same two test papers her deskmate had worked on for the entire class period.

"You're welcome. My name is Suiyu, Sui as in 'casual,' and I'm the math class representative. Feel free to come to me if you need anything," Suiyu said.

"OK."

Ji Xi responded.

Xu Jiyang listened for a long time, then grabbed Sui Yu and questioned her, "Why did you change your mind so quickly?"

Sui Yu glanced at him coldly, "You insulted my brother, so this is my attitude."

The two were arguing and bickering.

Annoyed, Chi took out his earplugs from the desk drawer and was about to put them on when the girl next to him suddenly leaned closer.

She was a little nervous. "What class is next?"

Chi Sui: "...History."

"OK, thanks."

Ji Xiwen looked at the test paper with regret.

I still need to pay attention in history class; I'll have to save this test for lunchtime.

……

There are still a few minutes left before get out of class ends.

A few tall students, who seemed to be sports students, were scattered in the corridor outside the classroom. Their skin looked quite dark.

They gathered outside and chatted.

Because they were all standing at the back door, their conversations reached Ji Xiwen's ears clearly.