Her Little Dimples - Chapter 10: My Hope
She didn’t know what that person wanted.
Xu You felt a little tired. She looked at the drink in her hand and thought to herself.
She suddenly felt that someone was looking at her. She turned and saw Chen Xiao.
Chen Xiao was smiling at Xu You and then asked, “A Chai, who bought you this milk tea?”
After a few seconds of silence, Xu You asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just a little curious.”
Xu You didn’t know that Chen Xiao was currently extremely excited. She shook her head and replied, “I don’t know…”
“Stop acting already!”
Chen Xiao continued to ask seriously, “Are you having adultery with someone?!”
Adultery?!
This word scared Xu You.
Ridiculous. I’ve only been at the school for a few days; I didn’t even learn everyone’s names yet. What adultery…
“What are you thinking?
Xu You didn’t know how to reply and was a little anxious, “Your imagination is too rich.”
“I bet one of your classmates bought it for you!”
Chen Xiao looked at Xu You’s innocent appearance and believed that she really didn’t know. Then, she started to analyze thoroughly, “But most of the boys in your class are all pretty nice. Most of them are handsome and rich too. I’d say it’s probably one of the highest quality classes of the whole grade…”
It seemed that girls at this age were very concerned about all kinds of things in their grades, and they would often get together to share them.
Xu You obviously weren’t thinking about this at the moment.
Chen Xiao continued excitedly, “Maybe a boy in your class likes you!”
“Uh…” Xu You didn’t want to talk about this anymore and tried to change the topic, “Do you know where the multimedia classroom is?”
“Multimedia classroom?” Chen Xiao curiously frowned, “What are you going there for?”
“Our teacher posted the arrangements for tomorrow’s monthly exam already, I’m testing in that room,” replied Xu You.
“Oh, oh oh.” Chen Xiao understood, “You’re a transfer student, I almost forgot about that. But this exam room is where all the bad students go to test.”
Xu You nodded to show that she knew.
Two people just walked into the school, turned a corner from the tree-lined path, and a school building appeared.
Chen Xiao pointed to the other side of the fountain and said to Xu You, “Here, right beside the music room on the first floor, that’s the multimedia classroom.”
Xu You looked in the direction she was pointing and nodded.
—
According to First High School’s traditions, there was no morning self-study classes during the two days of the exam.
Because the STEM and liberal arts students haven’t been divided yet, all subjects would be tested.
The first day would include a Chinese test in the morning, a STEM1A STEM test is made of physics, chemistry, and biology test in the afternoon, and a liberal arts test2Liberal arts test consists of history, politics, and geography in the evening.
The second day will have a math test in the morning and an English test in the afternoon.
Xu You’s alarm rang at 6 o’clock in the morning. She quietly put her clothes on and got off her bed. Then, she sat in front of her table and read some essays for half an hour.
After a while, her roommates got up one by one.
Liao Yuemin rubbed her eyes and yawned. After passing Xu You, she greeted, “Youyou3Forgot to mention earlier, but You in Chinese is pronounced as Yo, you’re up so early.”
Xu You greeted her back, cleaned up her books, and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
Before leaving, she also filled up a big water bottle with warm water and placed it in her backpack.
With the breakfast she bought from the cafeteria in hand, Xu You slowly walked to the exam room, with other students passing by her.
In the early morning campus, a few sweet-scented osmanthuses were on the side of the road. It was their blooming season, so when the breeze blew, their faint fragrance would spread everywhere.
Golden light fell from the brightly lit sky.
In the exam room, Xu You found her seat and sat down. She took out her books and started to review while eating the breakfast in her hand.
The exam would start at 8:30.
Xu You looked down at her watch. It was 8 o’clock, and yet there were only very few people in the room.
After another ten or so minutes, more people started to arrive.
Li Jieyi came with Song Yifan and Xie Ci. The three didn’t bring anything except for a pencil.
He put his hand on Song Yifan’s shoulder and looked around at the door. “Bro, where’s my hope? Let me see her.”
Song Yifan stretched his neck and also looked around.
“There!” He pointed to someone at the front right, “There’s your light, your goddess of hope.”
Li Jieyi glanced over and was stunned for a second.
A thin figure was sitting not too far away. She had her head down and the black ponytail was hanging over her shoulders.
Xu You was reading her book and working very hard to memorize some poems. She suddenly felt someone poking her in the back.
She looked back and was greeted by a head.
Xu You leaned back reflexively, with a startled yell.
However, her soft yell made all the boys laugh.
Some even mocked by repeating it.
Song Yifan laid on the table behind her and said with a smile, “Sister, can we have a slight negation?”
“What?” Xu You looked up and found that there were two more boys standing beside him.
She didn’t know who one of them was, and the other one was…
The moment her eyes met with Xie Ci’s, she was stunned for a second, and then quickly looked away.
Song Yifan pointed to Li Jieyi and said, “This is my good bro, he’ll sit next to you during the exam. Can you let him copy during the exam?”
It took a few seconds for her to process what she had just heard.
Xu You asked back blankly, “How can he copy? The teacher…”
She had never done such a thing before, so she had no idea how this would work.
Song Yifan patted her on the shoulder, indicating that she doesn’t need to worry, “You don’t need to do anything, just raise the paper a little and show him your multiple-choice questions.”
Li Jieyi looked at the weak girl in school uniform in front of him.
He secretly sighed, no wonder, no wonder.
“Thank you, thank you. My living expenses next month would be all dependent on you. I’ll invite you to a meal after this,” said Li Jieyi.
Since he already thanked, it made it even more difficult for Xu You to refuse. After hesitating for a while, she finally nodded, “Uh, no need for the meal…”
There were still more than ten minutes left before the exam would start. The test proctor was already sitting on the platform and counting the papers.
Li Jieyi and Xie Ci left the table, and when they were about to go to their own seats, he suddenly thought of something and asked, “A Ci, quick question.”
“What,” Xie Ci leaned lazily on his table and started to read a basketball magazine.
“Uh…”
Li Jieyi raised an arm and pressed it on his shoulder, and asked in a low voice, “Why do you keep staring at the little girl? Do you like her?”
Xie Ci continued to read the magazine and showed no expression at all.
Li Jieyi pushed him, “A reply?”
“What reply?”
“Do you like her?”
After hearing this, Xie Ci raised his head and glanced at him, and then asked back, “What do you think?”
When Li Jieyi walked back to his seat, he was still thinking, thank goodness I didn’t tell Xie Ci that I kinda girls like Xu You too…
Since the exam room was huge, there were two test proctors, one sitting in the front of the classroom and one in the back. But they didn’t seem to care about the exam. After passing out the tests, they started to play on their phones.
Two and a half hours later, the test ended at eleven.
When the bell rang, there weren’t many people left in the room anymore. Most of the students left after handing in their tests early.
For the first time, Li Jieyi tried very hard to squeeze out a complete 800-word essay.
He felt exhausted after writing and collapsed in his seat.
Song Yifan came to him and saw his half-dead look. He asked with a laugh, “What, you’re dead already?”
“Almost,” Li Jieyi crumbled the scratch paper on the table into a ball and thanked the girl next to him, “Thank you so much.”
Xu You was packing her items on the table. She placed her pencil box in her backpack and zipped it up.
Then she got up, took her water bottle from the table, and nodded, “You’re welcome.”
Then she left.
—
In the afternoon, it was the STEM test.
Xu You was afraid that she wouldn’t have enough scratch paper, so she brought a few extra with her.
After receiving the answers from this top student, Li JIeyi continuously tried to talk to Xu You, “Eh classmate, how old are you? Why do you look so young? Can I take you out to dinner after this?”
Xu You was busy reviewing and replied to him every now and then.
When she was taking out a notebook from her backpack, her desk was suddenly shoved by someone.
Two boys were fighting beside her table.
The sudden shake knocked her water bottle down. The water flowed out of the rim of the bottle that hasn’t been closed tightly and covered the table. It also made Xu You’s clothes wet.
She quickly jumped up from her seat and exclaimed in fear while quickly setting the bottle back upright.
At the same time, Li JIeyi also reacted.
He stood up and cursed at the two boys, “Fu Yishun, what’s wrong with you?”
The boy who bumped into Xu You’s didn’t back down at all and yelled at him back, “What, are you going to do something about it?”
The atmosphere immediately turned intense.
It just so happened that Xie Ci and Song Yifan also arrived.
Xie Ci looked at Xu You, seeing that her clothes were wet, he turned to ask Li JIeyi, “What happened?”
“Fu Yishun knocked over Xu You’s water bottle.”
“It’s okay, it’ll dry in a bit,” Xu You wiped the table with some napkins and interrupted them, “The test is about to start soon, you should get back to your seats.”
Xie Ci didn’t seem to hear what she had said. He pushed Fu Yishun’s shoulders and looked at him in the eyes, “What’s wrong with you, are you fucking blind?”
Everyone around them didn’t dare to say a single word. Seeing the conflict about to occur, none of them dared to go stop them either.
In the end, the test proctor got down from the platform and separated them, “What are you two doing! Get back to your seats! The test is about to begin soon!”
Before Fu Yishun left, he gave them a vicious look, “Just wait.”
—
Xie Ci forced the person in front of Xu You to change seats with him and started to sleep the second the exam began.
Halfway through the exam, Xu You finished the multiple-choice questions, bubbled them in on her answer sheet, and placed it aside.
Li Jieyi quickly began to copy.
Xu You turned her test paper over and began to do the free response on the back.
After writing for a while, a ball of paper was suddenly thrown on her table, making her taken back for a bit.
A few seconds later, another one hit her back.
Xu You turned her head and saw that the boy who just knocked her water over was sitting diagonally behind her, continuously throwing paper balls towards her.
One of them missed and accidentally landed on the head of the sleeping person.
Xu You pursed her lips, lowered her head, and continued to work on the test, ignoring the bother from the back.
The paper balls kept coming.
Xie Ci raised his head from his arms and turned around.
Xu You was behind him, writing a long answer on the test paper.
There were quite a few paper balls scattered around her.
On her beautiful face, her long eyelashes rested over her eyes and covered her expression.
“——You fucking go kill yourself.”
In the quiet exam room, there was a sudden loud yell.
Everyone in the exam room, including the teachers, immediately turned their heads to look at where the sound came from.
Xie Ci was pissed. He shoved the table aside, grabbed a book, and walked towards Fu Yishun.
Slap!
The book slammed into Fu Yishun’s face along with rustling noises from the paper.
Everyone was instantly dumbfounded by his ruthless actions.
Xie Ci kicked Fu Yishun’s table and pointed at him, “I dare you to throw one more damned paper. Then I’ll make you eat all of them, want to try?”
Translated by: UnderTheMoon
Edited by: Summit
- 1A STEM test is made of physics, chemistry, and biology
- 2Liberal arts test consists of history, politics, and geography
- 3Forgot to mention earlier, but You in Chinese is pronounced as Yo