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Join the ServerThe homeroom teacher cleared his throat, trying to quell the continuous buzz in the classroom.
“Settle down, everyone.”
He raised his voice. “As you’ve heard, today our class welcomes a new member.”
All eyes snapped to the figure beside the lectern, their excitement undisguised.
“This is Bai Shimo.
She’ll be studying with us from now on.
Miss Bai, please give us a brief self-introduction.”
Bai Shimo took a small step forward, her bearing composed, her gaze sweeping calmly across the entire classroom.
“Hello everyone, I’m Bai Shimo.”
Her voice was crisp, neither too loud nor too soft.
“I’m very glad to be here at Ruis Academy.
I hope in the days ahead we can get along well and make progress together.”
Brief.
Proper.
No extraneous information.
And yet it carried an undeniable presence.
The classroom erupted into enthusiastic applause and cheers, punctuated by a few stifled excited squeals.
“Now then, let me see… Miss Bai, you’ll sit…”
The teacher’s gaze roamed the room, searching for a suitable seat.
Finally, his eyes landed on the last row, the corner by the window.
There was only one desk with an empty seat beside it—the one next to Su Yuan.
That desk sat alone against the wall, its owner currently doing her utmost to minimize her existence, nearly burying her entire face into her folded arms.
The teacher raised his hand, pointing in that direction, his lips parted—but he hesitated.
Having the much-anticipated transfer student, the star magical girl, sit next to that barely-noticeable student…
He glanced at Bai Shimo with a hint of apology and inquiry.
“Miss Bai, at the moment the only available seat is next to Su Yuan.
Su Yuan is usually… rather quiet and doesn’t talk much.
Would you be willing to sit beside her?”
All eyes, along with the sunlight and dust motes, seemed to converge on that corner at that very moment.
Su Yuan felt a prickling heat across her skin, like needles.
Bai Shimo turned her head at the words, her gaze falling on the curled-up figure at the back of the room.
Su Yuan could almost feel the weight of that look.
She instinctively wanted to avert her eyes, but she couldn’t even summon the strength to move a single finger.
She could only remain frozen in her bowed posture.
“Oh.”
Bai Shimo’s voice betrayed no particular emotion.
She paused for the briefest instant—but to Su Yuan, that instant stretched into an eternity.
“As long as Su Yuan doesn’t mind,” Bai Shimo said, her voice steady, “I’d be happy to sit beside her.”
“I—of course I don’t mind…”
Su Yuan’s voice was barely a whisper, trembling as it squeezed out of her throat.
Other than herself, probably only the wall closest to her could hear it.
A clear series of footsteps sounded— unhurried, treading across the old wooden floor, moving through the aisle, and finally stopping beside her desk.
A shadow fell.
The faint scent of laundry detergent wafted over.
The sound of new textbooks being placed on the adjacent desktop was very soft.
A chair scraped back.
A figure sat down.
Su Yuan’s fingertips curled coldly beneath her desk.
She barely made it through one class, and finally the bell rang.
Like a prisoner awaiting release, Su Yuan almost immediately relaxed her rigid spine.
She fumbled to organize her books—books that didn’t need organizing at all—trying to find a moment to slip away without drawing attention.
Then a voice sounded beside her.
“My name is Bai Shimo.”
Su Yuan froze.
“Su Yuan, I look forward to working with you.”
The voice was calm, even friendly, coming from less than half a meter away.
Su Yuan’s lips moved, but her throat refused to produce any coherent syllable.
What was she supposed to say?
“Nice to meet you too”?
Or just “hello”?
Would her voice shake?
Would her expression look strange?
But before she could claw her way out of her own chaotic panic to form a response, a wave of people surged over.
“Miss Bai!
Did you really defeat a Tier-1 magical beast?”
“What’s your magic attribute?”
“Is working at the Security Bureau as cool as they say?”
“Can you show us your weapon?
I heard it’s a silver one…”
The enthusiastic students instantly surrounded Bai Shimo’s seat, bombarding her with a flood of questions like a tidal wave.
That face with its distant smile turned toward the crowd, patiently answering each question, occasionally drawing small gasps of wonder and laughter.
Su Yuan was completely shut out behind this wall of people.
The door of conversation that had cracked open just for her moments ago was silently closed.
She watched the girl at the center of the huddle, bathed in curiosity and admiration.
Sunlight streamed through the window, dancing on the tips of her brown hair, gilding her entire figure in a warm halo.
She answered with ease, her expression relaxed, seamlessly blending into the atmosphere around her.
How nice.
Su Yuan thought silently.
To live so naturally under the sun, to shine so brightly, to be so freely liked and accepted by so many people.
Unlike her.
Her “being liked” always required false forms, careful disguises, and those trivial charm spells.
Once those were stripped away, all that remained was a blank spot in the corner that no one noticed.
Her small head sank even lower, nearly touching the desktop.
While everyone’s attention was firmly fixed on Bai Shimo, Su Yuan quietly, gingerly began packing up her meager belongings.
She didn’t even dare let the buckle of her bag make too much noise.
She slowly rose, like a shadow trying to merge into the wall, and edged toward the back door.
Just walk out.
Out into the hallway.
Somewhere empty…
Her fingertips had just touched the cold metal handle.
“Ah, Su Yuan.”
That crisp voice cut through the noisy chatter, coming through clearly.
As if someone had pressed a mute button, the surrounding crowd fell silent in an instant.
All eyes, following Bai Shimo’s line of sight, swiveled in unison and pinned onto Su Yuan, frozen by the door.
Bai Shimo had turned her head at some point, looking at her.
Those amber eyes reflected Su Yuan’s rigid silhouette.
“Our conversation wasn’t finished yet,” Bai Shimo said, a hint of gentle apology in her tone.
Su Yuan’s heart stopped for one beat—then resumed pounding at a near-painful speed.
Blood rushed to her head, then receded just as quickly, leaving behind a numb chill.
That terror of being pierced by countless gazes at once.
That panic of being thrust into the spotlight.
It engulfed her like a tsunami.
Her social anxiety screamed on instinct.
Her mind went completely blank.
She stood there for one second—maybe not even that.
Then, under the astonished stares of all her classmates, like a startled rabbit, she yanked the door open and blurted out: “Sorry—!”
Before the word had even faded, she had already bolted through the doorway, her slender figure vanishing swiftly around the corner of the corridor beyond, as if trying to shake off everything behind her.
Bai Shimo’s outstretched hand hung frozen in midair.
She stared blankly at the empty doorway, at the direction Su Yuan had disappeared.
The polite smile on her face had faded at some point, unnoticed.
“Miss Bai, don’t mind her,” a girl nearby immediately leaned in and said.
“Su Yuan’s always like that—super weird, never talks to anyone.”
“Right, right.
She never hangs out with us either.
Doesn’t fit in at all,” another boy chimed in.
“You went out of your way to talk to her and she just ran off—honestly… Miss Bai, don’t waste your energy on her.”
Muttered comments buzzed softly around Bai Shimo’s ears, carrying that exclusivity of insiders and their unanimous judgment of the “outsider.”
But those words reached her as if through frosted glass—muffled and indistinct.
Her attention remained fixed on that girl who had fled in panic moments ago.
Those drooping eyes and brows that dared not meet anyone’s gaze.
That thin, quivering voice.
That slender back, as if carrying some heavy burden, always eager to hide in the shadows…
Why…
Bai Shimo’s brow furrowed slightly.
Her fingertip traced the smooth cover of her textbook.
Why did that girl feel somehow oddly familiar?
A vague sense of déjà vu stirred a faint ripple in the depths of her heart.
The excitement doesn't stop here! If you enjoyed this, you’ll adore Looking For My Child's Father. Start reading now!
Read : Looking For My Child's Father
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