Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

The winters in Jiangcheng are unreasonably cold.

The next morning at 6:30, just as dawn was breaking.

Su Qinghe turned over in bed and felt an unusual chill.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes, threw off the covers and got out of bed. Barefoot, she walked to the French windows and swiftly pulled back the curtains.

Su Qinghe was stunned.

Outside the window, a pure white world covered in silver.

This is the first snow of the year in Jiangcheng, arriving quietly in the early morning without any warning.

Su Qinghe's eyes lit up instantly, and the last bit of drowsiness vanished.

She quickly finished washing up, pulled a long white down jacket from the closet, wrapped herself up tightly, and pushed open the door to 1601.

"Click".

Almost at the same time she opened her door, the door opposite her also opened.

Xie Wang saw Su Qinghe, who was wrapped up like a dumpling.

Good morning, Teacher Su.

Xie Wang walked over, reached out and pulled the hood of her down jacket over her head, then casually pinched her warm, soft cheek, which was still soft from just waking up.

"You saw snow? You're that happy?"

Su Qinghe didn't dodge, his eyes brimming with excitement: "Jiangcheng rarely sees such heavy snow, especially in the morning."

"Let's go, we won't ride bikes today, I'll take you to play in the snow."

The two walked hand in hand into the swirling snow.

There weren't many pedestrians on the streets in the early morning, and the snow crunched underfoot.

The cold air invigorated them, but the hands clasped in Xie Wang's coat pockets continued to radiate a burning heat.

As I walked down the old street at the corner of the school, a sweet caramel aroma pierced through the cold air and went straight into my nose.

"Roasted sweet potatoes for sale! Freshly baked, hot sweet potatoes!"

An old man pushing a tin bucket was standing in the wind and snow, calling out his wares.

Xie Wang stopped and glanced at Teacher Su, whose nose was already slightly red from the cold, but who was still secretly swallowing.

"Want some?"

Su Qinghe nodded very honestly: "Eat."

"Boss, give me the sweetest one, the kind that's baked until it's like honey."

Xie Wang scanned the QR code to pay and took the hot paper bag.

The two took shelter behind the glass partition of the bus stop sign to avoid the wind.

He carefully peeled off the charred skin from the sweet potato.

The scalding hot steam instantly rose out, revealing the golden, soft, and sweet-smelling sweet potato flesh inside.

Xie Wang lowered his head and gently blew on it until it wasn't so hot, then handed the peeled end to Su Qinghe's mouth.

"Ah—" He looked at her as if he were coaxing a child.

Su Qinghe blushed, but still obediently leaned over and took a big bite.

The sweet potatoes were hot and sweet, and their soft, glutinous texture melted on the tongue. The warm, smoky flavor went down the throat and into the stomach.

"Is it sweet?" Xie Wang asked, looking at her puffed-out cheeks.

"Sweet," Su Qinghe answered indistinctly, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons with laughter.

"You eat too."

Xie Wang didn't mind, and took a bite from the spot she had bitten:

"It is indeed sweet."

Snowflakes landed on their heads. Xie Wang watched her eat intently, then suddenly leaned close to her ear and whispered in a low voice:

"Teacher Su, you said in your diary that you wished summer by the sea would never end."

He gently wiped the sweet potato bits from the corner of her mouth with his thumb and chuckled softly.

"But now I think the first snow in Jiangcheng is pretty good too, as long as you're by my side."

Su Qinghe's heart skipped a beat. Amidst the swirling snowflakes, she tiptoed and swiftly touched his chin with her lips, which were still sweet with the taste of caramel.

"Hurry up, we're going to be late." Her face flushed, she turned and walked towards the school.

……

[8:15 AM · Classroom of Senior 3 (1)]

As soon as I entered the classroom, a sweltering air mixed with the smell of steamed buns and the heat from the radiators hit me.

A thick layer of condensation covered the glass windows, and everything outside was a white blur.

Shen Hao was curled up in a ball, sitting next to the radiator, frantically rubbing his hands together.

"It's freezing! This awful weather is practically impossible for anyone without body fat to survive!"

Beside him, Lu Yi was standing by the window.

He stretched out a pale finger and sadly drew a weeping skull on the condensed glass.

"The heavy snow may have buried the world's filth, but it could not conceal the trembling of the human soul..."

Lu Yi adjusted his glasses, looked at the withered branches outside the window, and sighed softly:

"This sky full of white is nothing more than a gorgeous shroud that this planet has draped over our boring senior year of high school."

"Poet Lu, can you please stop summoning spirits so early in the morning?"

Xie Wang led Su Qinghe in, casually tossing a can of hot milk into Shen Hao's arms:

"Drink something hot to shut your mouth, and also to warm this poet up."

The first section is Old Li's math.

"Look at this question! Look at the blackboard! Don't look down!"

Old Li suddenly turned around and slammed the chalk on the blackboard:

"I've explained the eccentricity of this ellipse eight hundred times! Why can anyone still calculate it to be greater than 1? Anything greater than 1 is a hyperbola! It's gone! Have your brains flown out of the solar system along with the hyperbola?!"

There was complete silence below.

However, in the special corner reserved for perfect couples in the classroom, the atmosphere was completely different.

Su Qinghe was looking down at Xie Wang's math quiz that he had just finished.

Xie Wang's science skills are already top-notch; he finished this kind of problem in fifteen minutes.

With nothing else to do, he rested his chin on one hand and stared intently at Su Qinghe's profile.

Since receiving the "ultimate killing move" yesterday, Xie Wang's state today can only be described as floating on clouds and being completely lawless.

With the diary as his evidence, he now sees Su Qinghe as someone who is hopelessly in love with him.

"The steps for solving the tangent equation in this derivative problem are too many."

Su Qinghe drew a circle on the paper with the red pen in his hand, his brows furrowed slightly, and his voice was very low:

"Rewrite it."

Xie Wang did not accept the exam paper.

He looked at Su Qinghe's businesslike demeanor, a wicked smirk flashing in his eyes.

"Teacher Su, I remember..."

"Someone wrote in black and white in a small notebook—'My boy is the best person in the world.'"

Su Qinghe's back stiffened instantly.

Her hand gripping the red pen tightened suddenly, and her mind exploded like fireworks.

Here we go again! This is the third time this person has mentioned this today!

Xie Wang, however, had no intention of letting her off the hook, continuing to push her boundaries relentlessly. He even let out a affected sigh, his tone filled with innocence and grievance:

"Since I'm the best person in the world, shouldn't the best of us deserve even the slightest privilege? Like... being exempt from rewriting this problem?"

"Thank you, sir."

Su Qinghe gritted her teeth and squeezed out his name, her cheeks already flushed red.

"And one more thing..."

Xie Wang, taking advantage of the situation, tapped the table lightly with his slender fingers, tore a small piece of paper from his notebook, picked up a pen, and wrote two lines of text on it in a flamboyant style.

Then, while Old Li was patrolling ahead, he pressed the small piece of paper with his fingertip and quietly slid it to the side of Su Qinghe's test paper.

Su Qinghe caught a glimpse of the note out of the corner of her eye, gave him a wary look, covered it with her elbow, and looked down at it.

The note reads:

[Teacher Su, it's so cold in the classroom.]

Since the diary says, "My boy is the best person in the world," it's not unreasonable for this best person in the world to ask to hold their deskmate's hand if their hands are cold, right?

Su Qinghe almost snapped the pen in his hand when he saw the two lines of shameless words.

That scoundrel! After getting his hands on the diary, he treated it like a get-out-of-jail-free card and a flirting tool! He'd take it out anytime, anywhere to whip the corpse!

Su Qinghe took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm.

She picked up a red pen and wrote a few words on the back of the note with extreme coldness, then shoved it back with a "whoosh".

Xie Wang raised an eyebrow, took it, and looked at it.

[Focus on your work, or I'll smash the head of "the best person in the world" in.]

"Oh."

Xie Wang couldn't help but chuckle softly.

The soft laugh sounded somewhat abrupt in the quiet classroom.

Old Li on the podium instantly activated his radar, abruptly turning his head to stare at the last row.

"Xie Wang! What are you laughing at?"

Old Li, holding a pointer, strode down from the podium, walked over to the two-person desk with his hands behind his back, and sharply scanned Xie Wangkong's empty desk:

"Finished the test? Didn't you check it? Do you think you're a god who can get it right the first time?"

Xie Wang obediently turned the test paper over: "I'm done, teacher."

Old Li picked up his test paper with suspicion, glanced at it, and found that his reasoning was indeed correct.

But Old Li's gaze suddenly sharpened, landing on the small note that Xie Wang hadn't had time to put away on the corner of his desk.

"What's this?" Old Li reacted quickly, pressing down on the note.

Su Qinghe was stunned.

It’s over.

If Lao Li saw the words "the best person in the world" and those cheesy diary quotes written above, she might as well just jump out of the first-floor window and bury herself in the snow.

Just as Old Li was about to flip the note over, at the critical moment...

Xie Wang reacted even faster.

He suddenly slapped his hand forward, covering Old Li's hand and pressing down hard on the note.

"Ahem... Teacher."

Xie Wang raised his head, a flawless, serious smile on his face, his eyes filled with utmost sincerity:

"This was an inspiration that suddenly flashed into my mind when I was working on the last derivative problem! A completely new method for reducing the dimensionality of calculus, one that goes beyond the curriculum!"

Old Li was taken aback: "A completely new solution?"

"Yes!" Xie Wang said, spouting nonsense with a straight face.

"But I haven't finished the derivation yet, and the logic is a bit messy. I'm afraid that showing it to you would taint your rigorous mathematical thinking."

"Once I've perfected the derivation, I'll definitely present it to you first!"

As he spoke, he deftly snatched the note from Old Li's hand, crumpled it into a ball, and casually stuffed it into his pocket.

Old Li was completely taken aback by his explanation.

As a math teacher who cherishes talent, my attention was instantly diverted upon hearing "solutions beyond the syllabus".

"Oh? A solution that goes beyond the syllabus?" Old Li stroked his chin, a hint of admiration flashing in his eyes, but he still tapped the table with a stern face:

"Alright, alright, having inspiration is a good thing, but don't get arrogant! The college entrance exam is graded step-by-step, so save your fancy tricks! Proofread your paper carefully!"

After saying that, Old Li put his hands behind his back and continued his inspection tour ahead, completely satisfied.

The crisis is over.

Su Qinghe let out a long sigh of relief, feeling a layer of cold sweat on his back.

She turned her head, glared fiercely at Xie Wang, and mouthed the words:

"You troublemaker!"