The Moon is Coming to Me

Zhou Qiang didn’t expect Lin Qinhe to simply refuse it, and for a while, he was very embarrassed. Turning his head, Tao Xi, who was rejected on the spot, lowered his eyes, looking like he was shocked and in despair.

 

He couldn’t bear to see the good boy was wronged, his heart was swayed so he sullenly said to Lin Qinhe: “What’s wrong? The classroom is so big!”

 

In fact, there was a vacant seat in the classroom, it belonged to a student who asked for sick leave.

 

The good boy Tao Xi cursed, damn it. If this was in Qingshui No. 1 High School, he would have already shaken his head and left. Who cared about the opinion. If he couldn’t sit there, he would just fuck off.

 

But the other party was Lin Qinhe, so it was different.

 

He lowered his head slightly, but he raised his eyes and looked at Lin Qinhe. Pursing his lips, his eyelashes trembling inadvertently.

 

This was what he was best at. His expressions when begging for mercy and forgiveness to the teacher after a catastrophe. He occasionally used it when making stories for those photographers so he would get more rewards.

 

On the side, Zhou Qiang began to persuade him softly again: “Try it for a week first. Anyway, we will have to change seats later. If you can’t get along, we will change, okay?” He winked at Lin Qinhe as he said that.

 

Lin Qinhe twisted his eyebrows and quickly moved his gaze away from Zhou Qiang’s very spicy eyes. He glanced at Tao Xi next to him. After a while, he turned around and walked towards the last row.

 

Zhou Qiang breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that this was tacit approval and hurriedly pushed Tao Xi, while whispering: “Hurry up and get ready for class, ba.”

 

Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe’s back. With a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, he walked to the empty seat next to Lin Qinhe under the various looks of his classmates.

 

Lin Qinhe had taken out the wireless earphones and plugged them into his ears. He dug out a book from the drawer and studied. It looked like a math problem. From the start to the end, he didn’t give attention to anything else around him. The mineral water was randomly standing on the desk. At one corner, the cold water vapor condensed into beads and rolled onto the tabletop.

 

Tao Xi stuffed the schoolbag into the drawer and sat down.

 

As soon as Zhou Qiang walked out of the classroom, the classroom began to become clamorous again. The previous English reading seemed to be a scene. Many people quietly looked at the last row, either just looking or discussing about it.

 

A boy in front of Tao Xi slid around like a spinning top and smiled, revealing two rows of white teeth: “Classmate Tao, my name is Bi Chengfei. I am a sports committee member of the Class 1. You can call me Da Fei ge.”

 

The girl sitting by his side smiled and cursed shamelessly,but Bi Chengfei didn’t feel embarrass at all. He continued to look at the new classmate with a friendly smile, his eyes full of curiosity.

 

Tao Xi was taken aback, bending his eyes and said, “I know you.”

 

Now Bi Chengfei was stunned. He found that this new classmate looked better when he smiled. Scratching his hair a little embarrassedly, he said: “Am I so famous in your Qingshui No. 1 High School? Then how come no one writes to me?” He glanced at Lin Qinhe on the side and whispered, “Lin Xueshen has received a lot of letters from girls in your school.”

 

Because of the remote live broadcast of the classroom, a few good-looking and good grades in Wenhua No. 1 High School were also famous in Qingshui No. 1 High School. Many Qingshui girls quietly wrote to their favorite boys to confess, and the main target was Lin Qinhe.

 

Tao Xi’s complexion was unnatural for a moment.

 

Because he was one of the “girls” who wrote to Lin Qinhe, and he wrote a lot of letters.

 

However, he was not confessing, but reporting everything about him to his distant friends whom he unilaterally “made friend with”, as if Lin Qinhe was a distant, intimate mailbox.

 

In order to conceal the handwriting of a boy at first sight, he bought pink letter papers and silver gel pen, drawing strokes like flowers, and said in a little girl’s tone that he admired him when he was reading English in English class. Told him how many people have improved, how he wanted to work hard to enter a university with him and how he wanted to know whether he was going to Tsinghua University or Peking University…

 

At the end, the word “Peach”1 was signed, and a small peach blossom was also painted.

 

However, the girls in Qingshui No. 1 High School, including him, had never received a reply. Gradually everyone stopped writing. Only Tao Xi persisted. After the mid-term exam, he learned that at the end of the semester, the number one in the county’s exam could go to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School for a year so he started to prepare for the exam and no longer wrote letters.

 

Tao Xi glanced at Lin Qinhe. He was still reading, maybe because he was wearing headphones, but he didn’t hear their conversation at all.

 

He breathed a sigh of relief and said to Bi Chengfei with a smile: “I know who you are because you often answer questions on the blackboard.”

 

The students who had been secretly opening their ears to listen to the last row suddenly laughed.

 

Everyone knew that Bi Chengfei was often punished on the podium to answer questions for speaking in the class. Sometimes the teacher would yell Bi Chengfei halfway through the class, so the entire Qingshui’s Rocket Class was familiar with this name.

 

Bi Chengfei laughed, not a little bit embarrassed.

 

Maybe it was the warm atmosphere, or maybe it was that the new classmate had a good personality, but a few “lively and enthusiastic” students couldn’t help but get close to Tao Xi and rushed to ask him if he knew them.

 

Unexpectedly, Tao Xi could recognize most of them.

 

Class leader Li Xiaoyuan, Chinese class representative Zhang Mengtong, English class representative Jin Jing, and Literature and Art committee Jiang Xinyun…

 

“Only now I have the real sense of Qingshui No. 1 High School with us in class. I would have paid attention to my image if I knew it.” After sighing, Bi Chengfei took out a mobile phone from his pocket, quickly unlocked the screen, and changed his name affectionately:

 

“Classmate Xiao Xi, let’s add WeChat and QQ. As the leader of our class and boys’ group, I sincerely invite you to join us as a distinguished member of the group.”

 

Other students on the side also took out their mobile phones.

 

Tao Xi got goose bumps from the “Xiao Xi” and shook his head and said, “Sorry, I don’t have a mobile phone.”

 

The people nearby were silent for a few seconds, and Bi Chengfei was silent too. He never thought that there would be people without mobile phones in this era, but he immediately thought that Tao Xi was from the countryside, so he felt that he had said something wrong. He carefully glanced at Tao Xi’s expression, only to find that he was very calm, not a little bit embarrassed, and he was still turning his pen skillfully in his hand, as if he was just saying that he hadn’t had breakfast.

 

Bi Chengfei breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, “It’s okay, I will tell you if there’s any news!”

 

Tao Xi took the pen, smiled and said thank you.

 

Bi Chengfei wanted to say something. However, looking at Lin Qinhe, who was obviously displeased with frowned eyebrows, he closed his mouth again.

 

But then Lin Qinhe’s phone on the table suddenly began to vibrate. He glanced at the screen of the phone, frowned slightly before he picked up the phone and got up and walked out from the back door, as if he didn’t want to stay here for a moment.

 

Bi Chengfei was pardoned. Lying on the Tao Xi’s table, he covered his mouth and whispered: “Xiao Xi, don’t mind the matter of Lin Xueshen not letting you sit next to him. It’s because his best friend finally got into the top 50 at the end of last semester and finally he’s able to transfer to our class. He has been talking about studying and sitting next to Xueshen for a year.”

 

Zhou Qiang told Tao Xi that Wenhua No. 1 High School had tests every two months. Classes were rearranged according to the mid-term and final rankings, but most of the students in Class 1 were relatively stable, and only a few students were changed this time.

 

Li Xiaoyuan, the class leader who patroled back and forth in charge of discipline but also talked in a small voice, pushed the black round-frame glasses and whispered: “Yeah, Yakult has the best relationship with Classmate Lin. It took him a long time to get in from Class 2, but he doesn’t come to class today because he’s sick.”

 

This Yakult sounded like a person’s nickname, and he knew him well.

 

Hey, it turned out to be that the broken up the brothers were finally reunited.

 

No wonder Lin Qinhe resisted so much.

 

Tao Xi said with a guilty expression, “Knowing this is the case, I should tell Teacher Zhou I’m not sitting here.”

 

But he felt bad in his heart. He tried his best to come here from Qingshui No.1 High School and it was in exchange for more than three hundred mornings and nights. How could he easily let go of the opportunity to sit with Lin Qinhe?

 

Seeing this, Bi Chengfei hurriedly comforted him: “It’s okay, everyone is in the same class. Lin Xueshen has always been sitting alone, anyway. Even if it us who are transferred next to him, he won’t be happy.”

 

It means that Lin Qinhe was not targeting Tao Xi.

 

Tao Xi nodded and said nothing, because Lin Qinhe came back from the back door with his mobile phone.

 

Immediately after the class bell rang, the students scurrying in the classroom suddenly rushed back to their seats like beasts. One after another, they took out Chinese textbooks from the drawer.

 

The first class was Chinese. Tao Xi looked to the side and saw that Lin Qinhe had also taken out the Chinese textbook, but he didn’t open it. Just putting it aside for the sake of it, and studied a math competition book instead.

 

So arrogant.

 

Tao Xi naturally did not have the capital to be arrogant so quickly took out the Chinese textbook. His learning progress had been consistent with Class 1. Of course, the learning results had not been consistent.

 

The Chinese teacher was He Wenjiao, a young female teacher in her early thirties, with a petite figure and a kind round face, she looked like she was only in her twenties. The students called her Sister Jiao in private.

 

He Wenjiao walked to the podium with a soft voice: “Did you miss Teacher after a summer vacation?”

 

The student below hurriedly dragged their voice and said, “Miss..”

 

“Yes. In three days, everyone’s ability to tell lies has become more and more sophisticated.” The dimples at the corner of He Wenjiao’s mouth had become deeper. She casted her eyes on the last row.

 

“First of all, I want to welcome the new classmate who come to our class, Tao Xi, welcome.” He Wenjiao said, looking at the only strange face in the classroom with a real smile in her eyes.

 

Tao Xi quickly got up from his seat and happily greeted ‘hello, teacher’ to He Wenjiao.

 

He Wenjiao nodded and asked him to sit down before suddenly dropped a thunderstorm on the ground: “Everyone should remember that after the final exam in the first year of high school, I sent you a full score essay from Qingshui No. 1 High School. At that time, weren’t many people crying? The title was ‘The Man Who Chased the Moon’. It was written by classmate Tao Xi.”

 

After each big exam at Wenhua No.1 High School, the Chinese language committee would pick out some excellent essays and gave them to all the students. The final exam of Qingshui No. 1 High School used the exam papers from Wenhua No. 1 High School. He Wenjiao also participated in the revision of Qingshui No. 1 High School. She was touched by Tao Xi’s composition, so she copied and distributed it.

 

Tao Xi felt a fierce and dense looks again, shocked, sympathetic, incredible, compassionate… Except for Lin Qinhe, there was no reaction at all from him.

 

In front of him, Bi Chengfei turned around to reach out and pat his shoulder, his eyes was full of pain.

 

Fuck!

 

Tao Xi was instantly extremely embarrassed, and his toes were about to dig out a piece of the basketball court!

 

Because that first-person narrative was completely fabricated by him, the protagonist “I” lost his mother at the age of five and his father at the age of ten, and he was poor but still strong, trying to chase his dream…

 

Tao Xi wanted to shout: “Then it’s fucking fake!”

 

As if hearing his inner call, He Wenjiao continued: “But I specifically went to the teacher at Qingshui No. 1 High School to find out, and I knew that this composition was fictitious.”

 

Tao Xi breathed a sigh of relief. The students also breathed a sigh of relief, withdrawing their confused gazes.

 

If this was true, they really didn’t know how to face this little cabbage2 with such a miserable fate in the future.

 

“A lot of people in your class can only write argumentative essays. Once they write narratives, they have no emotions. They can’t move people at all. The stories are sparse and even contradictory.” He Wenjiao slowly said.

 

Some students below might be thinking of their own essays, or scratching their heads or turning their pens, and feeling uncomfortable.

 

“Some people write very wonderful argumentative essays, quotes others, and have rigorous logic, but let him write a lyrical narrative and it becomes a piece of wood with no emotions and desires, such as Lin Qinhe who reads the math competition book in the last row. “

 

Many students quietly casted their eyes on the “wood” in the last row, but no one dared to laugh.

 

Tao Xi also looked to his side. He saw Lin Qinhe’s hand about to turn the page, frowned insignificantly, and then stuffed the competition book into the drawer.

 

Tao Xi couldn’t help but laughed, but he promised that the voice was smaller than a mosquito.

 

But Lin Qinhe obviously heard it. He turned his face slightly and glanced at him blankly. Because he was taller, he had long eyelashes drooping when he looked at him, half covering the indifference and cold light in his dark eyes, as cool as the bottle of ice water on the table.

 

If someone else stared at him so indifferently, Tao Xi would have to stare back, and even curse a few words when he was upset.

 

But Tao Xi just looked back innocently, his eyes filled with I didn’t laugh at you.

 

Lin Qinhe retracted his gaze and turned over a page of the language text book casually.

 

He Wenjiao obviously didn’t intend to let it go easily, and continued with a smile: “Classmate Tao Xi’s composition is better than his sincere feelings and simple and delicate language. Lin Qinhe, it happens that Tao Xi was sitting next to you. You can learn more from him how to write lyrical narratives in the future.”

 

When these words came out, many students were shocked and couldn’t help covering their mouths.

 

This was Lin Qinhe. His performance had always been the first place in the whole year, getting one to twenty points more than the second place. Mathematics, English and science comprehensive were all close to full marks, and Chinese was also an absolute high score.

 

After all, most of the essay questions were not limited to a genre and the argumentative essays that were well written would still get good points.

 

Tao Xi was just an “international student” from a poor county. Even if he was ranking first in Qingshui County, they knew the gap between Tao Xi and them at present.

 

Tao Xi didn’t expect He Wenjiao to give him such a big and tall hat3 as soon as he came, and she still gave it to him in front of Lin Qinhe.

 

They were all young and frivolous. Of course, he felt a little bit proud. Writing and painting were his innate talents. He never missed his composition every time during Chinese exam.

 

But when he thought that Lin Qinhe’s total score was not human, the tail that was about to be wagged dropped again.

 

He Wenjiao was simply pulling hatred on him.

 

Tao Xi cursed inwardly.

 

Lin Qinhe on the side didn’t say anything, probably didn’t care about He Wenjiao’s words at all.

 

Tao Xi found that he couldn’t laugh anymore, because He Wenjiao started to talk about this elective ancient poetry. It turned out that a group of people were asked to learn most of the poem on their own during the summer vacation.

 

And he didn’t study at all during the summer vacation.

 

Tao Xi suddenly had a very strong ominous premonition, as if sitting on pins and needles. Sure enough, Bi Chengfei intimately told him the great news:

 

“We finished self-study of several courses of Mathematics and Science through online classes in the summer. English was originally based on Grand-aunt’s4 interest, and the language lesson is almost finished.”

 

“???”

 

Tao Xi was suffocated for a while, how would he go online lessons without connecting to the Internet?!

 

Bi Chengfei paused, and cruelly dropped another message: “We are about to start school exams after this weekend and we will take the content of self-study during the summer vacation.”

 

“…”

 

Bi Chengfei looked at the pale Tao Xi with pity: “It’s okay, even if you fail the exam, the teachers and the classmates will understand you!”

 

Tao Xi said numbly: “Is it too late for me to change my head now?”

 

He glanced at Lin Qinhe, who was looking at the phone with his head down, thinking that he had a good head.

 

Bi Chengfei thought that Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe because he wanted to ask Lin Qinhe to help him with lessons. He thought that Tao Xi looked weak, but he was very courageous, so he quickly recommended himself: “I can help you! As long as you don’t dislike my performance in our class.”

 

He didn’t want Tao Xi to be rejected by Lin Qinhe again, it would be embarrassing ×2.

 

Tao Xi was really courageous, but he hadn’t dared to go against Lin Qinhe yet. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out a smile and said, “It’s okay, I’ll help you.”

 

 

 

1

桃 (tao) = Peach

2

小白菜. “Little Cabbage” is a folk song tune spread in Hebei and other places in China. It uses very beautiful music materials and refined artistic techniques to create the image of an innocent rural poor girl. It profoundly expresses the sadness and pain of a girl who has lost her mother and was abused and has no support. It is also an accusation of the unreasonable family relationship in the old society (cr: baidu). Basically, a Chinese version of Cinderella

3

from 戴高帽子 (lit. wear a high hat): to be the object of flattery; to be placed on a pedestal (cr: purpleculture)

4

Their English teacher, Bi Aoxue aka Grand-aunt Bi