A Cold and Aloof Top Student Is Relied Upon - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: First Encounter

◎ Transfer Student ◎

According to the city meteorological bureau, our city will continue to experience moderate to heavy rainfall with localized downpours for the next three days due to the remnants of the typhoon… All citizens are advised to remain vigilant.

The old, low-rise residential building has only three stories, with each floor having a similar layout. This is a standard two-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom apartment with a balcony. The entrance leads to a small foyer with a wooden shoe cabinet on the side. Two umbrellas stand neatly in a rack beside it. Further in is the living room, which isn’t very big, furnished only with a sofa set and a television. A large ceiling fan, taking up about a third of the ceiling, hangs above.

The television is currently showing the weather forecast.

A typhoon has passed, and although summer hasn’t officially arrived, the temperature has dropped a few degrees. Outside, the clouds are a hazy grey, and raindrops tap-tap-tap against the windowpane and the corrugated metal window guard, creating a percussive rhythm that blends with the graceful, clear notes of a pipa playing “Jasmine Flower.”

After a long time, the music stops.

A delicate, pale hand slowly removes the fingerpicks, placing them in a special storage box. The owner then gently wipes the pipa from top to bottom before carefully placing it inside its case and setting it upright in a cleared-out corner.

After tidying everything away, Gu Zhu slides open a glass window and extends a hand outside, palm slightly upward, to catch the falling rain. The cold, transparent water runs down her long, slender fingers, breaking into a thousand tiny splashes as it hits a tender green leaf.

It’s only early May, yet the coastal typhoon season has already begun. The first typhoon of the year was particularly fierce. As soon as the meteorological station tracked its path, a red alert was issued. All primary and secondary schools in the city closed early, with students who lived nearby going home and those who couldn’t returning to their dormitories.

The glass window is covered by a green, peeling burglar-proof grille. On the windowsill, covered with a fine mesh, sits a single potted plant. Thanks to the plentiful rain, this little jasmine plant has already produced its first buds.

Gu Zhu’s index finger lightly touches a pea-sized bud. On the desk by the window, her phone vibrates incessantly. From outside her room, her mother’s continuous chatter can be heard. Gu Zhu listens absently, occasionally responding with a word or two.

“…Other schools haven’t announced the resumption of classes, so why is your school already asking you to come back the day the typhoon leaves?”

“You just got back from the city competition selection, and you haven’t had a chance to prepare anything before you have to go back… And that new principal, he’s making all the students, unless they have a special reason, stay in the dorms. I went to all this trouble to come and live here with you to be a companion, and now I’ll have nothing to do.”

This is the second semester of her second year of high school. A new principal has arrived at Sanhai High, and he’s rumored to be strong-willed and tough. He’s made sweeping changes, with the first rule being that all students must live in the dorms, attend morning and evening self-study sessions, and not live at home unless absolutely necessary.

Gu Zhu’s family is from the town nearby. They moved to the county seat when she started high school at Sanhai.

To be a companion, Gu Zhu’s mother had quit her job back home and found a new one in the county, dedicating herself to taking care of Gu Zhu’s daily life so she could focus on her studies. But with this new strict policy, Gu Zhu now had to live in the dorms. Although her mother was unhappy, she respected the school and didn’t dare to challenge the decision. She just kept complaining about it.

Gu Zhu herself didn’t have a strong preference for living at home or in the dorms. This would be the first time she’d lived at school. When the news was first announced, she was in the city for the competition selection and hadn’t received the notification.

The dorm beds were assigned according to class, so by the time her homeroom teacher remembered her, there was only a single room left. So, while she would be living at school, she would still be living alone, which, aside from being closer to her classes, didn’t seem much different from home.

The school had given them time to pack. The new dorm policy was supposed to go into effect the second week after the announcement, but the typhoon hit. As soon as the typhoon passed, they were asked to return to school early to settle into their dorm rooms and prepare for classes to resume the next day.

Gu Zhu’s packing was mostly done. She didn’t bring much; her textbooks were already at school. She just packed a few physics and chemistry reference books, along with two school uniforms in her bag. The school had already arranged her bedding, and other toiletries could be bought at the school’s mini-mart.

After closing the window, she picked up her phone. She hadn’t looked at it for a while, and the class group had a new red dot. The top of the screen displayed a group announcement @everyone: “Return to school tomorrow for classes. Remember to copy your homework on time.”

Clearly, this was a class group without a teacher present.

Gu Zhu tapped on it and found there were already 99+ new messages. She scrolled down and saw that the conversation was almost entirely about a new transfer student.

The second year of high school had already been underway for two months, so the arrival of a new transfer student was attracting a lot of attention. From the chat, it seemed the transfer student was no ordinary person.

Gu Zhu watched a group of people with no names or just aliases chatting:

“Homework? What homework? I’ll come stab you first: I heard she’s from a private aristocratic academy in the city next to the city next to ours. It’s a girl.”

“Physics and chemistry, kick me: Aren’t all the students at that school rich or from influential families? Why would she come here? This is just a small, insignificant county, but I guess it’s a great honor for us.”

“My home is in a vast ocean: Don’t talk down to us. We’re the best high school in the entire county, only slightly behind the city’s top high school. As for Tsinghua and Peking University, we’ve had a lot of outstanding students over the years.”

The conversation quickly diverted to a heated debate about Sanhai High’s ranking in recent years for college admissions, until someone shared a link.

“Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper: Hey, hey, hey, I found her school’s forum. There’s a very popular post there. It’s blurred, but I’m 99.99% sure this is the transfer student.”

“Guess how much her outfit costs? See the logo on her clothes? LV. Her shoes? CHANEL. Her watch? Audemars Piguet. And that faint glimpse of a hair clip? Guess what brand.”

Before anyone could reply, the self-proclaimed Number One Eavesdropper answered her own question: “De Beers, a world-class diamond brand.”

“This is definitely a rich second-generation, a rich second-generation who is also a beautiful, well-to-do young woman, no doubt!”

Below was a moment of silence. From the time gap, you could see the other students in the group were stunned. A while later, someone finally spoke, tagging the first person back:

“Class Two Three Class Monitor @Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper, how do you know? Have you finished your homework?”

“Class Two Three Class Representative @Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper, how do you know? Have you finished your homework?”

“Some random person in Class Two Three @Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper, you know everything, so can I copy your homework when you’re done?”

After that, Gu Zhu saw that Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper’s profile picture turned grey, showing she was offline, but the discussion about the transfer student continued. Using the link shared by the Eavesdropper, they followed the trail and started a juicy gossip session.

But the not-so-lonely Sanhai’s Number One Eavesdropper came back online less than two minutes later, happily joining the discussion.

Gu Zhu scanned the fast-moving chatboxes, not finding any important information. She exited the chat just as Gu Baozhi walked over. “Your things are packed. I’ll get a pedicab later. I have something to do today, so I can’t go to school with you. Study hard at school and be a good student. If you need anything, I’ll contact your homeroom teacher.”

As she spoke, she reached out and took the phone from Gu Zhu’s hand. “I’ve put money on your meal card. If you run out, tell your teacher, and I’ll transfer more. Come back on the weekends, and I’ll cook you something good to eat.”

Gu Zhu pushed her glasses, which had slipped down her nose, and simply replied, “Okay.” Then she said, “The rain has stopped, but I’m afraid it might start again, so I’ll leave now.”

Gu Baozhi helped her with her backpack, unzipping it to check the things she needed to bring. Inside, two or three books were neatly stacked, and a vacuum-sealed bag tightly held two school uniforms. This was how Gu Zhu had arranged them herself. In a small pocket were a student ID and a meal card. Everything was clear. Gu Baozhi zipped the bag back up and put it on Gu Zhu’s back. “Just make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. If you do, I’ll find time to bring it to you.”

“Okay.” Gu Zhu took another bag from Gu Baozhi, which contained a vacuum-sealed comforter and bedsheets. She walked out of the room, through the living room, and at the front door, she said goodbye to Gu Baozhi. “There are pedicabs downstairs. You don’t have to come down, Mom. Go do your own thing.”

“Alright. Be careful on the road. Make sure to have the teacher send me a message when you get there.”

“Mhm.” She nodded, waved her hand, and turned to walk down the stairs.

This was the house they rented in the county seat. The location wasn’t bad, making it convenient for her to go to school, but the residential buildings in this area were quite old, so they looked a bit shabby, and in the misty, rainy weather, they looked even more desolate.

Gu Zhu walked out of the alley onto the main road. The asphalt was wet, with many signs of the typhoon. A slender tree from the central median lay on its side, and withered branches and leaves were scattered all over the ground.

Pedicabs and electric scooters were a unique feature of this small county. They weaved through the traffic with a courage more resolute than Iron Man’s. Gu Zhu glanced back. The balcony of their residence didn’t face the road, where the pedicab horns blared loudly. Instead of hailing one, she crossed the street and turned into a deep alley.

Sanhai High School wasn’t far from where Gu Zhu lived, a straight shot of about twenty minutes, but taking the small paths made the journey even shorter. The residential buildings were a maze, with all the alleys looking similar, but Gu Zhu walked quickly and precisely. Each time she turned into an alley that seemed like a dead end, she would emerge from the entrance of another.

A light rain began to fall again. When she emerged from the alley, she was on a relatively wide cement road. She stood at the alley entrance, holding an umbrella in one hand and looking at the puddles ahead.

The drainage system in this small town wasn’t very good, and after heavy rain, the roads were always flooded. This area was on a slope, and the entire street was covered in rain that hadn’t yet receded. The manhole cover on the side gurgled as the water flowed past, creating little whirlpools.

Gu Zhu didn’t hesitate. She hung the bag on her shoulder, tilted her umbrella, bent down, and untied her shoelaces. She took off her shoes and socks, held them in her hand, and pulled up her pant legs. Her fair feet then stepped into the rainwater.

Because the water was flowing, it wasn’t very dirty, aside from some mud. The water reached her ankles, and she could see the road clearly. She was close to the school now. She walked on, with the bag slung over her shoulder and her shoes in her hand.

The main gate of Sanhai High School was wide open today. Normally, the school wouldn’t even let parents’ cars through easily. Gu Zhu glanced at the security guard in a raincoat standing to the side, then entered through the smaller side gate. Since she was worried about getting her uniform wet, she hadn’t put it on. She pulled her student ID out of her bag and showed it to another security guard in the guard booth before walking inside.

This county school was full of classical, scholarly atmosphere. It was said to have been the residence of a top scholar during the early Qing dynasty, later expanded and converted into the county’s first high school. As such, some of the buildings still retained elements of Southern Chinese garden design, though most were modern buildings.

The dorms were behind the academic buildings. The senior classrooms were on the east and west sides, separated from the dorms by a sports field. Therefore, to get to the dorms, she had to pass through the academic buildings.

Gu Zhu turned into a small path, planning to cut through the area under the academic building. With the building providing cover, she stopped and set her shoes to the side, preparing to close her umbrella.

Her vision was obstructed, and she didn’t realize there was anyone else in the corridor. When she finished closing her umbrella and looked up, she realized something was wrong.

She blinked, meeting the eyes of the person in front of her.

This area was near the sports field, close to both the academic building and the dorms, making it the most convenient location for managing students. The school’s academic affairs office was located here. It was just after noon, so there shouldn’t have been any teachers working yet, but she could vaguely hear some conversation coming from inside.

Gu Zhu’s umbrella hung at her side, and raindrops dripped onto her feet, winding past her toes. Her bare feet were stained with some mud. After coming out of the water, her feet were cold. She hadn’t had a chance to pick up her shoes yet when she heard the girl in front of her speak, “Hey, pretty.”

Gu Zhu instinctively looked at her and saw a girl in a white tracksuit pointing at a water stain on her chest. “Could you deal with this, please?”

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