A few days later, Li Caiyi finally finished her story in time on the last day of submission. She smiled happily as she put the manuscript inside a big brown envelope.
It was her first time finishing something she had started in this timeline. It felt so satisfying and liberating.
She used to put in extra hard work without getting recognition, but she knew better than expecting a reward or praise from someone else now. If no one would give her any recognition, she should have just rewarded herself.
Li Caiyi was humming in a good mood. By the time she arrived at the school, she had first gone to the teacher's office to submit her manuscript.
Li Caiyi was about to make a turn in a corner when a pile of books suddenly appeared in front of her face. She could not stop in time and collided with them.
"Ouch!"
"Whoa!"
Li Caiyi fell on her butt, and books and files rained upon her head, making her grimace in pain. It was clear she was bumping into someone. Her head and butt throbbed in pain.
"I'm sorry! Are you okay?!"
Li Caiyi looked up and saw a boy with chestnut-colored hair bending down with an apologetic face. He stretched his hand towards her, offering his help. The boy was shorter than the average teenage boy. He got piercings in his ears, and he painted his nails in black. Overall, he looked like a naughty bad-boy type of student, but the concerned expression on his face betrayed that cool image.
"I'm okay," Li Caiyi put her hand in his, and the boy swiftly helped her stand.
"Is your head okay? The books fell on your head so hard."
Actually, Li Caiyi was sure she got a bump on her head from this, but she did not bring it up and only smiled faintly. "It's fine. I was partly to blame as well for not looking where I was going."
The boy sighed in relief before squatting down to pick up the scattered things around them. Li Caiyi casually picked up her envelope and put it aside before she helped the boy gather all of them in one pile. It was quite the amount. No wonder this boy could not see where he was going clearly.
"Do you need some help?" I asked after deliberation. "You might bump into someone again if you carry these by yourself."
The boy's eyes sparkled in delight. "Yes, please! Thank you so much!"
That was how Li Caiyi carried half of the pile with her. The boy seemed to be an outgoing and friendly person since he kept chattering about many things to her throughout the trip. It appeared the teacher asked him to carry this to the storage room as a punishment.
"Why are you being punished?" Li Caiyi asked out of curiosity.
The boy grinned sheepishly. "The teacher scolded me for wearing a piercing again, but me without them is like a steamed bun without filling, you know. Too bland! I want to stand out!"
"That's also why you painted your nails?"
"Ah, you mean these? Nah, this isn't real nail polish. It's just artificial nails. You can easily detach and re-attach them. I have a bad habit of biting my nails when I am nervous, so I wear this to help me stop that habit, and for fashion's sake as well!"
To put it simply, this boy was just a naughty student who liked to be the center of attention. Li Caiyi had seen a lot of kids like him in both of her lives, and she had always respected them for attempting to change themselves. This boy was very easy to talk to, making Li Caiyi feel more at ease.
They put away the pile in their hands in the storage room, among the other old files and books in the room's corner. Before walking out with the boy, Li Caiyi rubbed her hand together to brush off the dirt.
"Thanks so much for your help! I'm Shao Jingfei from class 2-D. What is your name?"
"I'm Li Caiyi from class 2-B."
"Haha, actually, I already know who you are, but I want us to introduce ourselves officially so we can be friends, you know?"
Friends… Li Caiyi's heart skipped a beat when she heard that. "N-nice to meet you!"
"Why are you suddenly so formal?" He chuckled, "Just call me Jingfei and I will call you Caiyi. Is that okay?"
"Yes!"
Shao Jingfei glanced at his watch and groaned. "Crap, I forgot I still have homework to do! I will see you later, Caiyi!" He said before quickly walking away.
Shao Jingfei was her first friend from another class, so Li Caiyi's mood became exceptionally bright this morning. She still had to submit her manuscript before the first bell rang, so she hastily walked to the teacher's office.
Fortunately, Teacher Shi had arrived and was waiting for her arrival. Li Caiyi handed over her manuscript, which she accepted with words of encouragement. Teacher Shi was so supportive of her; Li Caiyi planned to give the round-trip ticket to Teacher Shi if she got the first place. She only needed the money, after all.
***
The proud smile of Teacher Shi earlier was the opposite of her frantic look right now.
It was the lunch break when Teacher Shi called Li Caiyi to the teacher's office. Li Caiyi told Feng Nian and Zhou Ya to eat without her, and she moved to the teacher's office.
When she arrived, Teacher Shi looked up at her with a questioning look.
"Li Caiyi, I was checking your manuscript just now, but I think there must be some kind of mistake."
Li Caiyi asked in puzzlement. "What do you mean?"
Teacher Shi gave her the brown envelope. "Check it for yourself."
Li Caiyi took it and checked the content. Her eyes widened when she realized what was happening. "How can this be? I was sure I had put in my manuscript this morning!"
She even checked it thrice to ensure everything was okay, so why would the content be different? This was not her manuscript she spent days and nights making.
Teacher Shi also looked troubled with this development. "Li Caiyi, the other contestants have submitted theirs, and I was supposed to ship all of them to the competition committee by this afternoon. I don't know what is happening, but you'd better try to remember again if you misplace your manuscript somewhere."
Li Caiyi stood in silence. Then she recalled her encounter with Shao Jingfei. She must have dropped it and taken the wrong envelope then!
"Teacher Shi, I think I remember where I dropped them! I'll go to the storage room to check!"
Li Caiyi rushed out of the teacher's office and went to the storage room. The number of old files here was enormous, and it was stacked into many piles haphazardly. Looking at her envelope among these seemed like it would take a lot of time, but she couldn't be pessimistic here!
"It should be here somewhere." Li Caiyi rummaged through the piles, sorting them out and checking them one by one, but she still could not find it anywhere. She had to find it as soon as possible.
Li Caiyi searched for a while, and things did not look good. Even after the bell signaling the end of break time rang, she was still crouching among scattered papers and files.
She worked so hard on that piece; how could she be so careless? Li Caiyi blamed herself ceaselessly inside. The feeling of helplessness overwhelmed her, but she did not stop searching. The teacher might scold her for skipping class after this, but that was not important.
As she reached out for the next pile, the storage room door was opened with a bang. Li Caiyi jolted in surprise. Her hand slipped, and she accidentally made the stack in front of her collapse like an avalanche above her.
Everything was a mess now. Li Caiyi bit her lips in frustration.
"Li Caiyi?" There was a deep voice coming from the door. Li Caiyi looked back and saw a familiar boy standing there.