Chapter One: The Encounter of Three

  Three

  Summer morning always makes people extra spirited, and it's rare for anyone in the class to be dozing off. This is like a stimulant for the teachers. The math teacher seems to be entranced by his own teaching method, with saliva flying everywhere. The students in the front row can only use their test papers as hats to protect themselves. It's always like this every day.

  "Classmates, we're going to switch seats now. I've written down the seat numbers and put them here. You'll sit wherever you draw a number, no complaints." The class monitor walked in with a small box as soon as the lesson started.

  The class was boiling again, and the hormones of adolescence were slowly fermenting. The girls were pinching the seat numbers in their hands, complaining either truly or falsely.

  "What's wrong with him sitting together?"

  "My god, I'm actually sitting at the same table as him, is this a mistake?!"

  The boys looked around blankly according to the seat number, and after finding their seats, they directly threw their books on the table and ran out of the corridor with a smile to discuss last night's basketball game. 33rd, at a glance, there was already a lovely girl sitting next to the empty seat, with shoulder-length hair, fair skin, eyes that would smile when speaking, and two cute and charming small tiger teeth.

  "We're dorm-mates now, you're on the upper bunk and I'm on the lower one. We'll be deskmates from now on." Lan made an effort to sound friendly, although she felt her smile was a bit stiff.

  "Ah, Xiao Yi." She smiled and extended her pale right hand, "Lan... Lan?" Lan was taken aback, hastily shook her hand in greeting, but his tongue got tangled up in nervousness.

  "Ah, Xiao Yi, what a coincidence that I'm sitting in front of you! It's the good fortune of eight lifetimes!" The boy in front was beaming with joy, his slender body looking like it would topple over in the wind.

  Xiao Yi's face burst into a smile, and she used her hand to push the boy's head away, "Scram!"

  He glanced at the seat in front of him and saw that the books were neatly arranged, with a few basketball magazines on the desk. It was probably a boy.

  The bell rang for class, and the people outside the classroom returned to their seats. The front row was still empty, and the class leader walked in with a scowl on his face, holding yesterday's test papers.

  "I really don't understand how your entrance exams are graded, we're the top class and yet our scores turn out like this! Even students from ordinary classes scored better than us!" After finishing speaking, she threw the paper to the first desk for her classmates to pass around. Then, very easily, she discovered the empty seat at the first desk, "Whose seat is this? Where did they go without even attending class?"

  "It's Zhang Chongyu's, just now someone from outside the school came looking for him and he went out but didn't come back."

  "Teacher! Zhang Chongyu has provoked someone from outside the school, they're here to beat him up!"

  The class leader looked at Lan Jue sitting in the back with a serious expression and said, "Lan Jue, you and Xiao Yi go take a look at what's going on. The rest of us will continue with our lesson."

  A string in her heart suddenly broke, Lan looked at the teacher, and the fingers under the table were tightly clenched together.

  "Let's go." Xiao Yi gently pinched her hand under the table.

  The campus is always quiet during class hours, occasionally hearing a certain class of students loudly reciting texts, the basketball court is desolate under the scorching sun, and the trees by the school road are swaying in the summer breeze. Occasionally, there will be two or three high-grade students who skip class sitting at the bottom of the tree smoking, watching them walk over with a provocative whistle.

  Lan was walking quickly with Xiao Yi, her head lowered, eyes slightly out of focus, and one hand unsure where to place itself. As they passed by the boys under the tree, she even tripped lightly on her own shoelaces, causing the boy at the bottom of the tree to chuckle softly.

  "Don't mind them." Xiao Yi seemed very calm, she stretched out her hand to hold onto Lan's arm, the girl who was being held onto obviously felt a bit uncomfortable with this sudden unfamiliar intimacy, her face turned even redder.

  "What are you two doing skipping class?" A familiar voice entered my ears, and I turned to see Zhang Chongyu. He had been sitting in the tree where that group of boys were, leaning lazily against the trunk with his long legs swinging back and forth.

  "The teacher asked us to come and find you, saying that you were beaten by someone." Xiao Yi took over Zhang Chongyu's words.

  "Boring. Whoever spread the rumor, go back, you see Blue is scared to death." Zhang Chongyu jumped down from the tree with ease, patted off the dust on his body, and said to Blue, with a hint of teasing smile.

  "Chong Yu, you're not making any sense, are you? We agreed to skip a class together, but as soon as that beautiful girl came looking for you, you obediently followed her back. Haha." The boys were smiling ambiguously, but Lan's heart was secretly delighted. She glanced up at Zhang Chong Yu, who was also smiling mischievously.

  "Don't joke around, Lan is very timid." Xiao Yi interrupted the intentional and unintentional teasing between the boys in a soft voice.

  "You're a beauty, you look pretty."

  Xiao Yi hurriedly smiled and waved her hand, "No way, Lan is much better looking."

  Three people walked side by side on the way back to the classroom, Lan Xi secretly took a glance at Zhang Chongyu, he was so tall, two heads taller than the girls, standing beside him really gave her a sense of security, if only she could be a little taller, standing together with him would be perfect, Lan Xi thought to herself.

  "What's going on, you'd better give me an explanation." The class head was furious, pointing at Zhang Chongyu who was standing in front of the blackboard. He was really angry, his eyebrows were furrowed together. The class head picked up Zhang Chongyu's test paper from the podium and threw it at him. "Do you think that just because your grades are good, you can skip class at will? You don't even have the most basic respect for teachers! I think I've had enough of teaching, go call your mom to take you home and teach you herself!"

  "Teacher, it's people from outside the school who are looking for Zhang Chongyu to cause trouble. Zhang Chongyu doesn't even know them, they've got the wrong person, that's why he missed class time." Xiao Yi stood up and said loudly.

  Lan Zhan was a bit surprised, the truth is only known to the three of them, originally not planning to tell Ban Tou, pretending to be dumb, "Lan Zhan, is that so? Teacher believes you, you say."

  "...is." Lan Yu raised his eyes and glanced at Zhang Chongyu before responding.

  "Go back to your seat and sit properly, next time I'll ask your mom to take you home!" Zhang Chongyu showed his adorable smile again, turned around and made a face at the blue-clothed monitor behind him. She looked at him, covering her mouth and secretly smiling.

  Many, many years later, when Lan Zhi once again met Zhang Chongyu, she could still vaguely catch a glimpse of the lovely ghost face in his no longer youthful appearance, and it turned out that she had always remembered this pure smile.