Chapter 1: So, Zhong Xiao Yi's "Poison" (1)

  After entering high school, I started boarding at school.

  There were five girls living in our dormitory. Because I was lazy all day, I soon got a nickname: Lazy Princess.

  I don't mind this nickname at all, because in that case, I have even more reason to be lazy. Even doing cleaning and hygiene can be exempted, why not?

  Our class teacher is a very young male teacher, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. At first glance, he looks like Korean superstar Bae Yong-joon. He teaches us Chinese language and has good Mandarin pronunciation. Sometimes he's even humorous. Many girls in our class have a crush on him and surround him all day, shouting "Teacher Tong! Teacher Tong!" in unison. Only someone like me can possibly fall asleep in his class.

  "Ding Wei." He walked over to me and called out to wake me up, saying: "What's wrong, didn't you sleep well last night?"

  "Right." I rubbed my eyes and said, "I often have insomnia."

  "Can't sleep without your mom? Don't be too much of a baby." He reminded me amidst the girls' laughter.

  I had no choice but to sit up straight and pretend to study my language textbook.

  But I soon fell asleep again and started dreaming, in the dream was a winding maze, I followed a man in black clothes and struggled to move forward, when I couldn't move, he would turn his head and say gently: "Xixi, add a bit more strength, we're almost there."

  Who is XiXi?

  My name is not Xixi, it's Ding Wei.

  Against the light, I couldn't see his face clearly, but it felt very familiar.

  So I followed him and continued walking.

  Just as the exit was in front of me, the bell rang sharply at this time, I was startled awake, raised my head, and saw "Bae Yong-joon" holding a lesson plan, staring at me with a "worried about the country and the people" gaze. I knew what he was thinking, having such a girl in class is really "troublesome".

  I've always been a "trouble" to others. Every time my dad and mom quarrel nonstop at home, I think to myself: if I hadn't been born, if I weren't in this family, maybe they wouldn't be like this. The thing I least want to hear is: If it weren't for Xiaowei, I would have left you long ago...

  They actually don't know, just leave it be, I won't care anyway.

  I no longer care about anything.

  Except for that dream, that dream where the familiar stranger was so gentle it made me want to cry.

  I always dream of him in "Bae Yong-joon"'s class, he walks ahead of me, again and again, just when I'm about to reach the exit, I'm brutally awakened by the bell ringing.

  In this way, the same dream comes at intervals of three or five days, but I have never felt tired of it.

  There is even some attachment.

  In the new school, I have no friends. As a "school chooser" who spends money to read books like me, I am implicitly inferior to others. I can only use my strong self-esteem to stubbornly guard my fragile loneliness.

  At dusk, I like to go alone to the top of the teaching building to feel the wind. The autumn wind comes in gusts, sometimes strong, sometimes weak. My hair is already very long and has a slight yellow tint, with split ends starting to show, but I don't have the mood to cut it. Just then, Big P walks up to me and says: "Ding Wei, aren't you afraid sitting here?"

  Da P is also known as Ye Daping, but everyone calls him Da P. Da P is a talkative guy, but he can't help meddling in other people's business. I gave him a cold stare and said, "Are you scared? Or should I jump down to show you?"

  "Get back!" Da P pushed with both hands and took a step back, saying "I know you're fierce, I knew it from the first day of school. Don't scare me, old man!"

  "Then stay away from me." I said.

  "Yes!" Da P took several steps back, shouting in a loud voice: "Ting Wei, classmate, we're just chatting like this, you don't mind, do you? You won't think I'm disrespecting you, will you?"

  I ignore him.