Chapter 30: Daily Life

“Shi Yue, why are you spacing out?”

“Ah…”

Bu Yang patted Shi Yue on the shoulder, smiling at her. Lu Yansheng and Wang Xuelai were also looking at her. Shi Yue scratched her head in embarrassment.

Back in the classroom, after weaving through the noisy clusters of students, Shi Yue rested her head on her desk for a quick nap. By the time class started, she felt much more refreshed.

Thinking about it carefully, there was no need to be overly concerned about Qian Yuhui. While it was true that leaving that menace alive meant he could expose her at any moment, he was, at the end of the day, a criminal himself. Even if he helped the police catch her, couldn’t she just reveal that he had driven a classmate to suicide and attempted to murder her? As for evidence, her special abilities were the best proof of all.

“If he dares to expose me, I’ll expose him. If I go down, I’m taking him with me.”

This thought brought Shi Yue a considerable amount of peace. During the afternoon classes, she stared intently at the blackboard, notebook open, not daring to miss a single word. during the breaks, she mustered her energy to flip through her books, trying to patch up the missed curriculum bit by bit.

By the end of the afternoon, Shi Yue had made significant progress. Her grades had always been decent—not top-tier, perhaps, but as long as she applied herself, she could close the gap quickly.

“Changing seats! Changing seats!”

Before the homeroom teacher even arrived for the evening self-study session, the class monitor was already on the podium shouting. The teacher had divided the class into nine groups of five students each. Each group had a leader and a deputy leader, categorized by grades (A+, A-, B+, B-, C) and assigned subject representatives for Chinese, Math, and English based on their strengths. Since there were 44 students, exactly one group was short a person—that was Shi Yue’s group.

Their group was placed… right in the center of the classroom. Bu Yang (Grade: A+, cheerful personality) was the Group Leader and English Rep… she was also the class’s Study Commissary. Shi Yue (Grade: A-, stable personality, good at Chinese) was the Deputy Leader and Chinese Rep. Wang Xuelai and Lu Yansheng had slightly more “challenging” personalities; however, Wang Xuelai was decent at math, with overall grades slightly lower than Shi Yue’s, so she was the Math Rep. Lu Yansheng was an underachiever.

After school, the homeroom teacher called Bu Yang, Shi Yue, and Wang Xuelai to the office specifically to emphasize that Lu Yansheng was a slow learner and was timid and shy by nature. She asked them to look out for him and, above all, not to bully him.

“Lu has a somewhat delicate and sensitive personality, not quite like the other boys, but classmates should help each other. Lu started school a year early, so he’s effectively a year younger than the rest of the class. Think of him as your little brother. You three need to act like big sisters and take care of him.”

By the time the teacher finished her lecture, the sky was completely dark. Wang Xuelai lived in the dorms, so she parted ways with Shi Yue and Bu Yang to head back alone. Watching Wang Xuelai’s retreating figure, Shi Yue turned to Bu Yang.

“During the day, you were really brave.”

“Huh?” Bu Yang smiled curiously.

“With so many people around Qin Yong, I probably would have wanted to run away. But you fought so hard to speak up for Wang Xuelai. That was impressive.”

Bu Yang instantly looked bashful. “No way, I was just talking to them. You’re the one, Shi Yue—what were you thinking when you threw Qin Yong?”

“He came at me so aggressively, I was scared witless, so I just reacted. I didn’t intend to hit anyone; my body just moved before my brain did. It was subconscious.”

Shi Yue shrugged. However, her explanation only surprised Bu Yang more. It was the first time she had heard of someone whose reaction to being “scared witless” was to body-slam a person. Her impression of Shi Yue had been of a quiet student sitting in the corner who didn’t say much. Aside from occasional comments about her being hard to approach, Bu Yang didn’t know much about her. But today, Bu Yang felt she had re-evaluated Classmate Shi Yue, and she somewhat understood what “hard to approach” actually meant.

“Shi Yue, you’re someone with an edge!” Bu Yang said with a laugh.

The two walked side by side to the school gate. Shi Yue indicated she was taking the subway, while Bu Yang lived closer and took the bus. They walked together for a short distance outside the gate before splitting up.

“Study hard, Shi Yue! If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me! Hurry up and catch up on the lessons you missed!”

Bu Yang made a “fighting” gesture. Shi Yue didn’t know how to respond, so she simply said thanks. Bu Yang was amused by Shi Yue’s wooden reaction, giggling behind her hand as she waved and shouted, “See you tomorrow!”

Bu Yang’s bouncing figure quickly disappeared from Shi Yue’s view. Shi Yue turned and entered the cold subway station. The high-intensity catch-up session during the afternoon and evening study hall had left her exhausted. Afraid of missing her stop, she estimated the travel time, set an alarm, found a seat on the train, leaned her head back, and fell asleep.

When the alarm woke her, she was just a minute or two away from her station. Shi Yue wiped a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, drank some water to rinse away the taste, and got up to leave.

Feeling the train slow down, accompanied by the beep of the doors opening, Shi Yue exited with the congested flow of people, like a bursting dam. Outside the station, she bought a grilled meat skewer from a street stall. A week of eating scraps with Old Jin had made her crave decent food; she wanted to devour every piece of meat she saw.

When she got home, her dad had already left, leaving only a few unwashed bowls in the kitchen. Driving at night was hard work; if he had any energy left, he wouldn’t bear to leave the chores for his daughter. Shi Yue sighed, scooped a large bowl of cold rice in the kitchen, then picked out bits from several plates of cold leftovers in the fridge to mix in. She made a simple homemade bibimbap, threw it in the microwave, and then shoveled the heated food into her mouth. The rice, soaked in vegetable oil, was greasy and chewy. Shi Yue really liked that grainy, oily texture.

The house was enveloped in the silence of the night. The chairs were tucked neatly against the table. Shi Yue sat there, head buried in her steaming bowl of leftover rice. The steam rose under the light of the single small pendant lamp hanging overhead, which illuminated the immediate area around the table like a spotlight on an empty stage.

After eating, Shi Yue wiped her mouth, washed up in the bathroom, went back to her room, and scrolled through her phone for a bit. On second thought, she pulled out her new textbooks—now bearing a few notes—and her workbook. I should suffer a bit for a few days to catch up, she thought.

She reviewed the problems she had done during evening study, made a few notes in her error log, and studied until about midnight before finally going to bed.

Another dreamless night.

The next morning at 6:30, Shi Yue was woken by her alarm as usual. As usual, she slapped it off, struggled out of her warm blankets, washed up, and cooked something to eat. The stock in the fridge was running low; she’d have to find time to buy groceries this week. She took the subway as usual, and about twenty minutes later, she appeared at the gate of Yongchang High School. Head down, she walked into the classroom, put down her bag amidst the noise of morning reading, and silently took out her textbook to begin.

But today was a little different, because a classmate greeted her.

“Shi Yue! Morning!” Bu Yang waved at her happily.

Another classmate who had arrived early, Lu Yansheng, glanced at Bu Yang, then mimicked her, timidly giving a small wave. “Morning, Shi Yue.”

It had only been a day, and the “Classmate” suffix had already been dropped from her name. Give it two more days, Shi Yue thought, and they’ll probably be pushing their luck and giving me a nickname.