The harsh sounds of pen stabbing into paper resonated in the air, with the ringing voice of the teacher speaking in math gibberish that was simply nonsensical noises to his ears.
Three minutes left. Gu Xiao glued his eyes onto his phone, which was leaning against his stack of books. Watching Doraemon to pass time was truly effective. He nearly finished all the movies just by watching them during math, self-study periods, and evening study, maybe even in other classes. Basically, almost all periods.
Two minutes left. Zhang Yongyin, who sat next to Gu Xiao, instantly flung his head up after sleeping behind the stack of books. When there were only two minutes left to a lesson, the two idiots immediately became alerted with sirens ringing in their heads. Exchanging glances, they firmly nodded.
One minute left. The two stared at the clock with eyes burning with a boiling passion that even the students in front lowered their heads from this strange tingle they received.
The bell sounded.
Gu Xiao's eyes lit up, and he pushed Zhang Yongyin out of his chair. Without wasting a single breath, the two bolted out of their seats just to run to the cafeteria before it got too busy. Yet, before he escaped through the door, the math teacher called out to the brown-haired boy.
"Gu Xiao, where do you think you are going?" the teacher called.
He skidded in his steps and stabled himself by gripping onto the lockers. Suddenly, all the students from other classes rushed out to the cafeteria, sparing not even a second for him to blink. Even his dear friend, Zhang Yongyin, had escaped with the crowd.
Upon noticing the absence of Gu Xiao's face, Zhang Yongyin realised Gu Xiao had disappeared, but it was already too late to turn back since the others had dragged him away with the crowd.
"Head to the office. Mr. Shen wants to speak to you."
"Again?"
...
Mr. Shen handed him a piece of paper, sliding it across his desk with his large palms firmly bracing it down. Tapping the form three times, he rubbed his temples.
"Explain this to me."
The boy read the sheet, and without needing a second glance, he knew it was his career's form.
"What you wrote on this is not acceptable. Do you not take this seriously? Even if this is only for teacher insight, you should still think about this thoroughly."
"But Mr. Shen, what I wrote on is the truth," Gu Xiao responded, his brows slightly furrowed.
"For your goal in the future, you wrote, 'try to live up to a hundred years old' and for your university preferences, you left it blank."
"It's still too early for me to decide."
The three lines of wrinkles on Mr. Shen's forehead stressed themselves when he raised his thick, intense brows. He pressed his fingers harder across his temples, massaging them even more intensely.
"Look. The reason you are studying right now is for your university entrance exams [1]. Let me just tell you this, alright? You are still very young and wild. You have a free spirit, and I can clearly see that. But there are times when you must pause and think about where you stand in your life."
He continued, "You will not be young forever, and the time when you will need to make crucial decisions will come sooner than expected. Let me see. Take another form and reflect carefully, alright? I heard your sister is starting her first year here. It's good if you set a good example for her. If not, then I might need to contact your father."
A needle pricked his chest without warning. Like always, that word—father—only left a dull fog in his heart, polluting his eyes with an inexplicable blankness.
If his father even picked up the phone, he would think someone would have stolen that man's identity.
The sound of a door sliding sounded from behind, but Gu Xiao didn't make much of it until Mr. Shen waved his hand with a bright smile.
The transition between the extreme distress and pale face to hopeful eyes glistening was so distinct that it brought a bitter chill down his spine. Only one person could make all teachers have such an optimistic expression and even erase all of Mr. Shen's wrinkles away.
"Lan Yuning, great timing!"
Lan Yuning lowered a stack of essays and stood beside Gu Xiao. It was one thing to stand a meter apart from each other, but to think there would be a time where they stood beside each other was beyond his imagination.
"You are lucky to have such an excellent role model like Lan Yuning in your class."
"Yes, so lucky that I win the lottery every time he looks at me," Gu Xiao joked, but Mr. Shen stared at him in concern.
"You gamble?"
"No, no, it was just a joke."
How could he even afford lottery tickets if he couldn't even afford to top up his bus card?
"Please take care of Gu Xiao."
Lan Yuning and Gu Xiao exchanged glances, and the accumulated confusion piled within their heads. They didn't fixate their eyes on each other for long as Lan Yuning quickly broke off the eye contact and shifted his gaze back to Mr. Shen.
However, while Gu Xiao's stare remained on the boy next to him, his soul had already left his body, leaving only this empty shell of skin. It was evidently inconceivable that both boys drowned in this state of blankness from their teacher's words.
It was only after a good minute that Gu Xiao's low-grade brain processed the meaning behind Mr. Shen's words, and his soul instantly returned to his body.
"He's going to babysit me?"
"Take a good look at your midterm marks. What was your highest score, and what subject was it? What was your class ranking?"
Gu Xiao blinked twice, and he dug through his memories, which were like forgotten graves, since he never looked at his marks for over five seconds.
In truth, right after he received his results back for any exam, he and Zhang Yongyin compared who got the worse, and straight after they looked at their marks, the test papers simply got buried in their bags and left there until the end of the year—or if they spilt food in their bag and needed to clean it.
"English?"
"Mark?"
Gu Xiao twirled his imaginary strand of hair and giggled, "Mr. Shen, you already know my marks. No need to ask me."
"Yes, because you got a 78. A 78/150[2]. What is strange is that you got 78 for all your subjects," Mr. Shen said before mumbling, "and I don't even know how one does that."
"Why did you expose me like that?"
"You and Zhang Yongyin aren't a beneficial influence on each other, so I will prohibit you two from sitting together. Lan Yuning will now sit with you from now on and I'll move Zhang Yongyin to the front next to Song Anwen. Look at what you two have become."
"Even though Zhang Yongyin sometimes passes the class average mark, you two always arrive late to periods, skip lessons, wear your uniforms in such a lousy manner, and look at what you did to your hair! Dye it back before this week. I will talk to Zhang Yongyin after you."
Gu Xiao stepped back and saw his life flash before his eyes.
"You are separating me from my own blood! My own kin! My other leg! My other arm! My other foot! My other—!"
"If you are done, you may leave. I need to sort out some paperwork."
Mr. Shen smiled at Lan Yuning and said, "Take care of Gu Xiao, alright? It's good if he learns a thing or two from you."
Lan Yuning had a bitter expression that he didn't even bother hiding, like always. But in the end, he nodded slowly, and with each nod, his short black hair would sway along with the subtle movements.
The two exited the office, and Gu Xiao grabbed Lan Yuning by his shoulders.
"Don't you think this is unfair?"
"What is?"
"You are being forced to be glued to someone like me. You must hate it, don't you? Can you try convincing him? It's not like putting me next to you will automatically make me smarter. If that worked, I might as well stand next to Bill Gates and become the next richest man."
He knew if he had someone like Lan Yuning sit next to him, his days of watching cartoons and shows, building card towers, sleeping, everything would all be over. In the end, Lan Yuning didn't respond since there was no need for him to speak.
After all, simply listening to Gu Xiao talk was enough to fill up one entire conversation.
________________________________
[1] University entrance exam/ gaokao: national college entrance exams. The exams have slight differences depending on province. Mandatory subjects: English, Chinese [Language]- usually English. Then two specialty courses of choice. Either social science (history, political science, geography) or natural science (chemistry, biology, physics)
[2] exams are out of 150 except science (300).