Chapter 9

The next day, as soon as Su Cheng arrived at the classroom, her classmates curiously came to ask her. They had gossiped for a long time last night and unanimously agreed that the handsome guy was Su Li's boyfriend; even if he wasn't, he surely would be soon.

After all, he had the looks of a school heartthrob, and he didn't lose to Jiang Xiangnan.

"Su Cheng, what is your sister's relationship with that boy?"

"Su Cheng, your sister's new boyfriend is quite handsome, and he even waited for her for so long."

Su Cheng looked at their excited expressions and tightly gripped her schoolbag strap with one hand.

She had also seen it when she was doing homework last night—several photos, and candid ones at that, from every angle and in every setting. It was clearly not a coincidence that they were walking together; they really knew each other.

She also hadn't expected that Su Li would know someone like that.

She had never seen him, so it could only be that Su Li met him somewhere when she wasn't around, then he left for a while and only recently returned.

If she hadn't been abandoned, she probably would have known him too. Su Cheng bit her lower lip slightly, feeling a bit unwilling, but she quickly reacted—compared to knowing this boy, it was better for her to know Jiang Xiangnan.

Could this boy compare to Jiang Xiangnan?

"I haven't seen him in the year or more since I returned home. Maybe Su Li met him outside during winter break," Su Cheng said.

"Maybe he's from another high school? Why don't you ask the classmates from middle school? See if their schools have this person."

Su Cheng put down her schoolbag.

Hearing this, the people in the class were stunned for a moment, finally reacted, and then looked at each other. The students in No. 1 High School came from various middle schools in Z City. Although the advancement rates of each middle school were different, they all had students entering No. 1 High School to some extent. It seemed no one had come to claim that this was their middle school's heartthrob?

"That's true, waiting for someone outside during class time, he shouldn't be a high school student. He doesn't look like a college student either; he looks so young."

"But he doesn't look like someone who didn't finish high school and entered society early, either."

"Could he be some rich kid with poor grades?" A few students looked at the distinguished-looking Zhao Jiu with regret.

The students at No. 1 High School valued grades highly; without grades, at most, it would only be fresh for a while.

Seeing that their interest in that boy was not as intense, Su Cheng opened her English book and began to memorize words.

That boy wouldn't appear at their school every day; once the novelty wore off, no one would discuss him anymore.

At this moment, in Class 1, most students had heard about a student transferring schools through the student whose uncle was the Dean of Students.

"Do you guys think the boy on the bulletin board yesterday is really the new transfer student?"

"Who cares if he is or not, let's first think about which class he's coming to."

"He donated a building, his family background is strong, and his grades over there were okay, so where else could he go? It's either our class or Class 2."

"When I came up, I glanced at the office; are Old Gao and Old Liang worried?"

Old Gao and Old Liang were the head teachers of Class 1 and Class 2, respectively.

"Can they not be worried? It seems the test papers over there aren't as hard as ours. Whoever's class he transfers to, he'll be the one dragging down the average score."

"Do you think it's possible he goes to a regular class? I heard he barely passed the entrance exam. Maybe he has good self-awareness and will voluntarily go to a regular class?"

"If you had the chance to enter a Key Class, would you choose to go to a regular class?"

That boy shook his head decisively; the Key Classes at No. 1 High School were all aiming for the top universities in the country.

"Let's wait. If he's not in our class, he'll be in the class next door." The students of Class 1 chatted while waiting for Zhao Jiu to appear; in any case, it couldn't be a regular class.

In the principal's office, Zhao Jiu was standing.

The principal said, "Student Zhao, our No. 1 High School leans toward science. The key science classes are Class 1 and Class 2, and the liberal arts is Class 3. Although your entrance exam score barely passed, we looked at your grades at Shengde, so after comprehensive consideration, we still arranged for you to be in a Key Class."

"Class 1 and Class 2, which class do you want to go to? Looking at the average scores, Class 1's math and physics averages are a bit higher, and Class 2's are biology and chemistry."

Zhao Jiu spoke up: "I'll go to Class 13."

The principal was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"

His purpose for donating a Library Building was to go to Class 13?

The difference between him going to Class 13 and being at Shengde didn't seem particularly large, right?

Zhao Jiu lifted the schoolbag on his shoulder with one hand: "Is that not allowed?"

The principal looked at the teenager wearing their school uniform; his whole person exuded vitality. He said, "It's not that it's not allowed."

The head teachers of Class 1 and Class 2 were worried to death about Zhao Jiu potentially going to their classes. They clearly didn't want him in their own class, but they were also afraid that if he went to the other person's class, their grades would go up.

Now that he had voluntarily proposed going to a regular class, it solved the dilemma, but why?

Zhao Jiu saw his confusion, pulled the strap of his schoolbag on his shoulder with one hand, and said, "I have a friend in Class 13."

The principal: "???"

Just this?

Zhao Jiu asked: "Can I go to the classroom now?"

The principal came back to his senses and said, "Wait a moment, I'll have your head teacher come to take you to the classroom."

He picked up the landline and dialed the phone for the Grade 2 teachers' office.

In the large teachers' office on the third floor of the teaching building, a group of teachers were grading homework and chatting on the side.

"The ones upstairs must be worried to death, right?"

Another teacher, after putting a big cross on a piece of homework, said, "Indeed, I ran into both of them when I was eating this morning. Both of them were preoccupied and didn't say a word."

Wang Laoshi brewed a cup of tea, very calm. He had only graduated a few years ago; even if such a transfer student with a prominent family background came to a regular class, it definitely had nothing to do with him.

"It is quite worrying. You can't scold or be fierce to a student with that kind of background; he must be hard to manage. Under the premise that you can't manage him, you still have to make his grades go up. If it were me, I'd be worried too."

The other teachers looked at him and felt envious for a moment; some people were just simple. The two upstairs were probably not worried about this.

At this time, the landline rang. Wang Laoshi answered it casually, was dazed for a moment after finishing, stood up, and said, "I'm going to the principal's office."

Everyone was confused for a moment.

Twenty minutes later, Wang Laoshi dizzily led Zhao Jiu out of the principal's office and then led him all the way back to the teaching building.

Zhao Jiu looked at the Grade 2 teaching building, sandwiched between the Grade 3 and Grade 1 teaching buildings; it was quite oppressive visually, but fortunately, the landscaping was okay.

Wang Laoshi coughed: "Student Zhao, our class is on the second floor. Although the average score isn't very good, we are... lively."

After holding it in for a long time, Wang Laoshi squeezed out this one advantage.

Zhao Jiu: "..."

He felt he had made things difficult for him.

Wang Laoshi probably also realized he was making awkward small talk, so he simply stopped speaking and, with quickened steps, prepared to deliver this "Buddha" into the classroom.

Students passing by looked in shock at the student following behind Wang Laoshi, then hurried back to their own classes.

Big news!

The handsome guy from yesterday was actually from their school!

In the hallway, Yu Yangfei was bumped by a student running past; he frowned slightly, then looked at the grimacing Hu Xiao and curled his lip, saying, "You should be thankful that student isn't from our school."

"Otherwise, Brother Jiang's face would be lost until graduation!"

Hu Xiao said with a bitter face, "How was I supposed to know Su Li really doesn't like Brother Jiang anymore? And she has a boyfriend so quickly; the two of them look like they have a pretty good relationship."

Yu Yangfei: "Don't spread rumors about things you aren't sure of!"

Hu Xiao nodded hurriedly; he had learned his lesson.

The two were just planning to head back to their respective classrooms when they saw the person coming up the stairs, and their faces turned ugly in an instant.

The boy from the photo?

And he was wearing their school uniform?

Did he transfer here?

Hu Xiao felt he might be finished off by Brother Jiang; how could this person transfer to their school? It had already been over a month since the start of Grade 2, and the Midterm Exam was in two weeks.

How could someone transfer at a time like this?

Zhao Jiu walked along with Wang Laoshi, looking over his secretary's alma mater; his peripheral vision swept over the two students by the hallway, one panicked, the other looking serious.

Zhao Jiu pinched the strap of his schoolbag; these two seemed to have a problem, and his presence seemed to threaten them, but they shouldn't know him.

Zhao Jiu followed Wang Laoshi into Class 13.

At this moment, the morning study session had just ended; the classroom was noisy, with some doing homework, some playing around, and others bickering with the class representative.

Zhao Jiu swept his gaze around the room; it was indeed lively.

Wang Laoshi coughed heavily; the students nearby looked up at him understandingly, and just as they were about to lower their heads again, they suddenly froze.

Wang Laoshi was a new teacher, so no students feared him; they usually liked to joke with him, and even if he walked in, they wouldn't suddenly go quiet unless the class bell rang.

But today, the students in the front row went quiet, those in the middle looked over in confusion and then also went quiet; after more than half had quieted down, those in the back row also sensed something was wrong and all looked over in unison.

They saw a handsome-looking boy following behind their Xiao Wang.

Isn't this the boy from the bulletin board that was being talked about everywhere yesterday?

The boy was wearing the same blue-and-white school uniform as them, carrying his schoolbag on one shoulder, looking clean and casual; was this the first time they felt their crappy school uniform was actually pretty good-looking?

Chen Xue was stunned for a moment, looking at the boy up front, then at Su Li, who was slumped over her desk catching up on sleep.

Did he transfer here just to collect a debt?

No, no, her brain just short-circuited; who would transfer schools for two thousand yuan?

Relying on the novels and TV dramas she had seen, she imagined a youth idol drama in her head, opened her mouth, and kicked Su Li awake.

Su Li was kicked violently and woke up with a start; she pulled out her phone to check the time—three minutes until class—and then slumped her head back down to continue sleeping.

She had been writing homework until nearly two o'clock last night because she hadn't fully recalled the problem-solving logic for the slightly harder questions.

Chen Xue looked at her in admiration; how could this kid be so calm?

Someone transferred schools specifically under the guise of urging her to pay back money, and she could actually still sleep?

Wang Laoshi introduced him to the whole class: "This is a new student who just transferred to our class, Zhao Jiu; he was previously at Shengde Private High School..."

Zhao Jiu searched the classroom and finally found the back of his secretary's head in a seat by the window.

Wang Laoshi followed his gaze and saw it was exactly the corner of the first row; he recalled the sequence of events regarding Zhao Jiu's inexplicable transfer to their class.

There could be no puppy love in his class, especially with Su Li; if she were influenced again, this kid probably wouldn't be able to return to the Key Class in the future.

"Zhao Jiu, you sit..." Wang Laoshi looked toward the fourth row, but the back of the fourth row was near the trash can, and it didn't seem good to let a new student sit there; he looked toward the third row, but with the seat rotation every two weeks, Zhao Jiu would never be able to reach the person in the first row, "You sit in the third..."

"Teacher, can I sit behind Su Li?" Zhao Jiu said, pinching his schoolbag strap.

In a flash, the whole class looked at Zhao Jiu in horror, then looked at Su Li.

No. 1 High School forbade puppy love; although some people were secretly dating, as long as they were subtle and didn't affect their grades, teachers wouldn't interfere without concrete evidence.

This was a bit too blatant, wasn't it?

Wang Laoshi was stunned: "That... the school forbids puppy..."

Zhao Jiu turned his head and said: "I only know Su Li; with Su Li guiding me, I can integrate faster."

After hearing this, Chen Xue had already finished writing the ending of the idol drama in her head; she hurriedly pushed Su Li awake. Su Li, dazed, lifted her head again and met Gouzi's gaze.

"Then... alright." Wang Laoshi said, struggling with the decision.

The entire class: "!!!"

Su Li looked at Gouzi, who had appeared in their class; Gouzi was carrying his schoolbag and walking toward the seat behind her.

Su Li asked with her eyes, why did you come to Class 13?

Shouldn't Gouzi go to Class 1 or Class 3?

Zhao Jiu put down his schoolbag; if he didn't come to Class 13, where would he go?

Su Li reacted; that was true, he didn't transfer to No. 1 High School for his studies.

The entire class of students: "!!!"

Did Xiao Wang just agree to let the two of them be together?

Wang Laoshi looked at the corner with a complicated mood; the student's background was too strong, he couldn't control it, but he couldn't just call the parents either—that was how Su Li's grades dropped last time.

He was worried to death.