Xie Ying'an has never had the habit of sharing desks with others since he was young. In elementary school, Li Qingmo insisted on sticking by his side and sharing a desk with him, unable to be driven away. Seeing that they grew up together, Xie Ying'an gritted his teeth and endured it.
After being assigned to different classes in middle school, Li Qingmo and he were never in the same class again. The teachers knew about his peculiarity, so they hadn't arranged for him to have a desk mate again.
After the summer vacation of the first year of high school, he suddenly realized he had feelings and actually wanted to share a desk with Li Qingran, but Li Qingran flatly refused, giving him his first sense of frustration in his life.
Su Chen sneaked in through the back door, carrying breakfast and stooping: "Brother An, why are you sitting here?"
"Um," Xie Ying'an responded indifferently, then said, "Come with me to the storeroom to get a desk."
His upbringing since childhood prevented him from targeting girls like that; if he had to share a desk with a stranger, he couldn't do it. The only solution was to move another desk, and each sit at their own.
"Ah, Brother An." Su Chen watched Xie Ying'an's figure leaving the classroom and hurriedly ran after him.
Following Xie Ying'an, Su Chen rambled analytically: "Brother An, it seems teacher Old Wu is determined to find you a desk mate. How many times has it been? First, it was the underachievers, then the partial ones, and now just after school started, it's a transfer student. You keep moving desks, but it's only a temporary solution. Who knows if another transfer student will come next time…"
Xie Ying'an stopped in his tracks: "Are you suggesting I find a desk mate before teacher Old Wu does?"
Su Chen's layered analysis was suddenly interrupted, and he didn't respond for a moment: "..."
Xie Ying'an didn't have the patience to wait for him, and he went back to the classroom, walking straight to Qingran's seat. His long fingers tapped twice on the desk.
"Li Qingran."
As soon as his voice fell, the noisy classroom eerily quieted down, everyone in the classroom unwittingly pricked up their ears.
Qingran's hand pressed on the open textbook, looking up at him with confusion: "What's up?"
"You lost a bet to me last time, and you said you would agree to one reasonable request from me. Do those words still stand?"
Qingran really thought carefully about which incident he was referring to last time. There were a few days last summer, when Liu Luoxi, Li Qingmo, Xie Ying'an, and she, the four of them, rarely got along peacefully, or rather, it was rare for Liu Luoxi and Li Qingmo to be amicable and gathered together.
The July weather was too hot, Liu Luoxi and Li Qingmo had been gaming in the living room all morning, and after a nap, the two refreshed and habitually started bickering again.
Back then, they were at Xie Ying'an's house, she and Xie Ying'an nestled on the sofa in the study reading travelogues collected by Mr. Xie, Liu Luoxi came over to pull her, saying she and Li Qingmo had bet to see who could hold their breath in water longer and asked her and Xie Ying'an to be the referees.
She was dragged off to the Xie Family's pool area by Liu Luoxi, like dragging a duck onto a perch. Later, Liu Luoxi won Li Qingmo by a difference of three seconds, Li Qingmo shamelessly complained, claiming that females naturally had better lung capacity than males.
How could Liu Luoxi take his lame excuse? The two argued for a while but couldn't decide on a result, Li Qingmo, to prove his point, insisted on having Qingran and Xie Ying'an join a competition too.
Qingran didn't like martial arts, barely learned a few self-defense moves, but liked swimming. Ever since she was little, every summer she would swim around in the water, and her lung capacity was very good. Compared to two Li Qingmo, she was better at holding breath, that's why Li Qingmo claimed female lung capacity was naturally better than males.
Qingran was somewhat disinterested, while Xie Ying'an asked Li Qingmo and Liu Luoxi what the stake was. Liu Luoxi excitedly said the loser had to agree to one request from the winner, with Li Qingmo adding: a reasonable request.
Xie Ying'an was piqued with interest and he negotiated with Qingran, "Shall we make the same bet as them?"
Qingran didn't really care, as she didn't think Xie Ying'an would win.
But the actual result was a slap in her face. She held her breath for three minutes and sixteen seconds, Xie Ying'an for six minutes and twelve seconds, nearly twice her time—a crushing victory by Xie Ying'an.
Li Qingmo and Liu Luoxi were so surprised that they were gaping for a long time, their breath-holding times were nothing compared to Xie Ying'an's.
Xie Ying'an then rubbed Qingran's damp hair, praising, "Ranran's lung capacity is not bad."
Qingran felt completely embarrassed. She remembered the bet throughout the entire summer vacation, curious about what Xie Ying'an would ask of her. Liu Luoxi had once demanded that Li Qingmo learn to bray like a donkey, but Xie Ying'an seemed to have forgotten about it, not mentioning it until the end of summer.
Just when she was about to forget, Xie Ying'an brought it up. Qingran had a bad feeling, and she braced herself and said, "A bet is a bet."
"Then let's be desk mates!"
"..." She knew it.
Someone wanted to brazenly snatch her desk mate. Ruan Ruan could no longer hold back her fear of the school bully, grasping the corner of Qingran's clothes while competing with Xie Ying'an for the same seat, her voice still somewhat timid, "Brother An... ah, no, Xie... Xie, the teacher said that good students need to tutor the underperforming students and share their study experiences. I'm not doing well, so the teacher arranged for the high-performing Qingran to be my desk mate."
You can't take her away. Ruan Ruan still didn't dare to say this aloud, because she saw the cool gaze of the school bully.
Xie Ying'an smiled half-heartedly, "Is Li Qingran's performance in math, physics, and chemistry that bad? How do you think she's good?"
Qingran: "..."
Unable to refute, math, physics, and chemistry were indeed her weaknesses, even though she had chosen science.
Classmates: Excuse me? What did they just hear? The top student saying the fourth-ranked student has poor grades? What about them, who always thought of themselves as underachievers, seems they've been overestimating themselves???
Xie Ying'an lost his patience, "Li Qingran, do you want to move over here or should I come over there? Choose one."
Qingran silently turned and glanced at Wen Shiyi, who looked somewhat helpless sitting there.
She sighed, thinking why did Xie Ying'an have to do this? Torturing your wife feels good now, but won't he end up at the wife-chasing crematorium later.
Qingran smiled apologetically at Ruan Ruan then turned to Wen Shiyi, softening her tone as much as possible, "Classmate Wen, can I switch seats with you?"
Wen Shiyi unconsciously glanced at Xie Ying'an who wasn't looking at her, his finger tapping on a stack of Qingran's books, his expression nonchalant as it was when they first met.
She then looked toward the young girl beside him, whose brows and eyes were slightly curved in a gentle smile, now discussing softly with her.
So Wen Shiyi also smiled, agilely packing up her books as she said, "Sure!"