A Young Woman's Heart

If at some point, almost the entire public starts paying attention to one thing, it means that something serious has happened.

That's not a good thing.

So, the best situation is when everyone has something they're interested in to talk about.

Mo Xueyao lay lazily on the railing, listening to Wang Jiale recount the interesting things that happened during the New Year.

Gradually, more and more people joined in, including many other classmates.

Everyone was chattering away at the entrance, surrounding Mo Xueyao.

Some boys talked about catching birds with bamboo baskets, while some girls talked about how they knitted a scarf out of boredom during their winter break.

The person who knitted the scarf was Mo Xiaoxiao.

"Look, this was knitted by my sister!" Mo Zhuyou said proudly, waving the scarf around her neck as if she had knitted it herself. "Isn't it pretty?"

……

Chapter Seventy: New Students and Seating Arrangements

There's a lot of homework during winter break, and even just copying takes a long time, but some people still come to school to copy homework.

"Can you finish copying them all?" Mo Xueyao asked Zhou Yong, who had borrowed two winter break assignments from her, with suspicion.

"It's okay if I can finish copying it all, I have a technique." Zhou Yong said with an air of expertise, "Copy one page out of ten, and write a few lines on each of the other pages. Write more densely at the beginning and end, and you can omit most of the middle part, since the teacher won't look at it carefully anyway!"

What should I say?

No wonder he's a veteran?

"Wow, Zhou Yong, you're so smart! I thought I wouldn't be able to finish my homework, but it looks like I can manage now." Li Hongran patted Zhou Yong's shoulder hard and said happily.

"Trust me, you won't go wrong." Zhou Yong wiped his nose. "I'm a professional, okay?"

"Copy, copy, copy, hurry up, time is very tight!" Li Hongran took her homework and sat down in the seat in front of Mo Xueyao.

"Hey, can't you take your copies somewhere else? Don't bother me here!" she yelled irritably. "Go away, go back to your seats and copy!"

There are quite a few people who copy homework; even good students might try to copy their winter break assignments.

However, although they are both copies, the level of effort put into them is different.

After all, winter break is long, and sometimes it's possible to forget to do it. Others are away from home and don't have time to do it, so there's no other way but to copy it.

Ye Banxia was one of them. Because she had to copy homework, she didn't even have time to direct others to clean up. She just lay on her desk and started writing furiously.

However, today is the first day of school, and even the students on duty haven't been assigned yet. Even if someone wanted to give orders, they probably wouldn't know who to give orders to.

Amidst the chaos, the morning meeting bell still rang.

Some finished copying, while others didn't.

There were even cases where the homeroom teacher came, but students still openly copied homework.

The person copying wasn't nervous, but the person being copied was extremely nervous.

"Alright, alright, put down what you're doing and line up at the door!" the homeroom teacher shouted impatiently, hands on her hips. "Today is the opening ceremony, our class can't be in such a mess!"

After a month apart, some people had even forgotten where they were in the queue.

"Hey, why are you all lining up so haphazardly? Have you all forgotten where you are in line?" Ye Wen asked, looking at the chaotic queue.

"Teacher, I feel like Liu Xiaowei is a little taller than me!" Gao Yuan exclaimed. "Has this kid not grown taller in the past month?"

"You've grown taller, aren't you envious?" Liu Xiaowei said with a smug look on his face.

"Hmm... Liu Xiaowei has indeed grown taller. Gao Yuan, you stand in front of Liu Xiaowei, okay... that's about right. Alright, everyone, line up like you did last semester. We'll have the PE teacher rearrange the lines according to your height later!" The homeroom teacher used an even louder voice to quell the noisy students. "Alright, now go downstairs!"

After not seeing each other for a month, even the principal became more approachable.

He was still the same as before, with a stubble beard and a weathered look, but his voice was quite energetic—full of vigor.

Generally speaking, opening ceremonies usually waste most of the class time on rambling. However, the new principal of Yukong High School has never liked rambling, and the opening ceremony was no exception. He greeted the students who had returned to school with a few brief words, then said a few words of blessing and mentioned the activities that the school would arrange later, and then ended his speech.

On the contrary, the student representative gave a speech with a long and tedious script, talking for ages without any substance, until the audience was thoroughly tired of hearing it.

"Phew—finally over." Mo Xueyao breathed a sigh of relief. "It gave me a headache. Which class is this student representative from? Why does he talk so much nonsense...?"

"A second-year high school student," Hua Yinyin rolled her eyes in agreement, "Too much nonsense..."

“She’ll be a senior in high school next year, and they’ll change her,” said Mr. Xue, who had somehow appeared beside Mo Xueyao.

"Changing players won't change anything," Wang Jiale said, shrugging.

"They might change our class monitor." Mr. Xue seemed to know some inside information.

"Huh? Really?" Hua Yinyin said dejectedly, "That's terrible, we can't openly say that student representatives are annoying anymore..."

"Ahem!" Mo Xueyao coughed twice as soon as she saw Li Wanyan approaching, interrupting Hua Yinyin's words.

Everyone pretended to be nonchalant and returned to the classroom. Although the principal saved a lot of time, the first class of the morning had already started five or six minutes ago.

The new timetable hasn't been distributed yet, so the students don't know what class this is.

Some of the new books haven't even been distributed yet.

Before the holiday, only textbooks for Chinese, Mathematics, and English were distributed; textbooks for Science and other elective subjects were not yet distributed.

Of course, there are still many more exercise books and workbooks that haven't been distributed yet.

"Ahem, alright, alright, everyone quiet down~" The homeroom teacher coughed a few times and stood on the podium and said, "Everyone go back to your seats. The first class is Chinese, but since it's the first day of school, we'll use it as a class meeting."

Upon hearing that it was a class meeting, those who hadn't finished their homework quickly pulled it out and began writing furiously, while the others took the opportunity to rest.

Those who got tired of copying would lie down on the table and take a nap, while those who were energetic would chat quietly.

Wang Jiale then took out a notebook and invited Mo Xueyao to play Gomoku on the paper...

"I have a few things to say next. Everyone can lie down quietly, but please don't whisper, otherwise you won't be able to hear what I'm saying." Ye Wen patted the podium, then walked to the door and pulled a petite girl in.

Her hair was quite short, barely reaching her ears, but despite having such short hair, she was very shy and not the tomboy one might imagine.

"First of all, one of our classmates has transferred schools. Some of you may have already noticed. That's right, it's Wang Yang. Her parents have arranged for her to study abroad, so she's already overseas."

Only after the homeroom teacher pointed it out did Mo Xueyao realize that the seat that was supposed to be Wang Yang's was empty.

Many people only realized at this point that a student had transferred to another school in their class.

The main reason is that she has too little presence. Perhaps some people can remember what she looks like, but when you mention her name, they can't remember what it is for a long time.

Some people didn't even remember her—for example, Mo Xueyao, whose impression of her seemed to be just that of a 'not very noticeable' student.

"And then, a new student joined our class." Ye Wen pushed the shy girl onto the podium. "Her name is Huang Yuxi, and she's a rather special student—"

As Ye Wen was speaking, Huang Yuxi bowed shyly.

"He suffers from aphasia, which simply means he can't organize his thoughts when speaking, just like he can't speak at all. He wasn't born deaf and mute, so he can hear, he just can't speak." Ye Wen's words attracted the attention of many absent-minded students. "I hope everyone can get along well with him."

“Aphasia?” Mo Xueyao pondered this completely unfamiliar term.

"Then, let Huang Yuxi introduce herself to everyone?"

“!…” Huang Yuxi’s face immediately turned bright red. He shyly picked up the chalk and wrote a few words on the blackboard.

"My name is Huang Yuxi, please take care of me."

"Hey, what a joke!" Gao Yuan was the first to shout. Making jokes and stirring up trouble was his forte, but at times, it could also liven up the atmosphere.

"Alright, Huang Yuxi, stand next to me first. Everyone, please don't discriminate against him. If anyone bullies him, tell me, and I'll punish him immediately." As Ye Wen said this, she deliberately lingered her gaze on the faces of a few mischievous boys and girls in the class for a moment. "Then, the first thing we need to do at the start of the semester is to change the seats. You've been sitting in the same seats all semester, and you must be tired of them, so let's change the seats first to give everyone a change of pace."

"Then I want to sit with Xiaoyao," Wang Jiale muttered softly.

"I... I'm fine with either." Mo Xueyao didn't seem to mind who she sat next to.

Of course, it would be best to sit next to someone you know well.

"Ahem, Mr. Xue, Li Wanyan, distribute these slips of paper." Ye Wen pointed to the pre-cut slips of paper on the podium. "If you want to sit somewhere or change your deskmate, you can write it on this slip of paper. I will take it into consideration, but I may not necessarily adopt it. However, as long as you write it down, there is a certain chance that it will be granted for you."

So the class monitor and vice-monitor distributed the cut-out strips of paper.

Without hesitation, Wang Jiale wrote down the words "I want to continue being Mo Xueyao's deskmate" on the note.

"Xiaoyao, what are you thinking?"

"Uh...me?" Mo Xueyao felt a little embarrassed to write 'whatever' under the stare, so she ended up writing 'maintain the status quo' instead.

Five minutes later, Ye Wen collected all the notes.

At this point, everyone can chat freely, since the homeroom teacher is still looking through the notes one by one, taking everyone's suggestions into consideration.

It's clear that she did listen to the students' ideas, because she would occasionally jot down a few words in her notebook, seemingly making notes for the students whose seats had been rearranged.

"Alright, let's start adjusting the seating. Generally, it'll be from the fourth group to the third group, and so on. However, we have quite a few details to adjust this time. First... we need to arrange a seat for our new student, Huang Yuxi." Ye Wen looked at the students below the stage, and finally fixed her gaze on Mo Xueyao's face. "How about this, Huang Yuxi will sit with Mo Xueyao, okay?"

"Hmm...?" Huang Yuxi blushed deeply when she saw Mo Xueyao's beautiful face.

"She's one of the nicest girls in our class, and the prettiest too. Hmm, Xiaoyao, you'd better take good care of Huang Yuxi, okay?"

"Ah... okay..."

"Eh—" Wang Jiale immediately looked disappointed.

"Then, you two can move to the third row first..."

……

Chapter 71 Huang Yuxi is a boy

After a semester, the homeroom teacher had gained a better understanding of the students' personalities and academic performance, and selectively accepted some of their opinions. In the end, the teacher almost completely rearranged most of the original seating arrangements.

Don't underestimate the importance of seating arrangements. Just like troop deployment before going into battle, a well-arranged seating can improve learning efficiency and make the class more harmonious.

However, it is a difficult task, and it is also somewhat thankless, so most teachers will not put too much effort into it.

I wonder if this homeroom teacher is so young and full of energy that he arranged everything in such detail.