A Cold and Aloof Top Student Is Relied Upon - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Bad Mood

◎ Relied on ◎

After a warm welcome, Bai Tan’s seating arrangement was finalized. Since she was tall, nearly 1.7 meters, sitting in the front wasn’t suitable. Lin Qingmei moved a boy from the last row to make space for her, giving her the innermost seat by the window.

The school’s desks were all single units. The last two boys moved to the middle, but one of them didn’t take his desk and chair; he left them for Bai Tan and went with Lin Qingmei to the administration office to get a new set.

Bai Tan was very grateful, surprised that the students in this small-town class were so friendly, which was quite different from her previous schools. She had just sat down and pulled out her textbooks when the girl in front of her turned around to greet her. “I’m Luo Minmin, Bai Tan. Please take care of me from now on!” Then she leaned in conspiratorially. Under Bai Tan’s curious gaze, she whispered, “If you want to know any gossip or secrets about our school, you know who to come to!”

Bai Tan’s eyebrows lifted slightly. She had noticed earlier that except for the seat next to Luo Minmin, every other seat in the class was filled, and since Gu Zhu wasn’t there, there was only one logical explanation: the seat in front of her belonged to Gu Zhu.

I knew it! She and I are so fated!

Now she had a secret she wanted to uncover. So she asked quietly, “Where is Gu Zhu? Does she not have to attend evening self-study?”

“You mean Bamboo? The teacher called her away,” Luo Minmin said instinctively. Then she realized something was off and her eyes swept over Bai Tan like a laser. “Wait, how do you know my deskmate? Do you know her? Are you close?” The last question was loaded with an inquisitive tone, completely revealing her true nature.

When Bai Tan heard that Gu Zhu had been called away by a teacher, her first reaction was: It seems she’s very likely a bad student. They even have to call her away for a private talk during self-study. But that was fine; she was also a bad student. Two bad students together was an even greater sign of fate.

After saying goodbye to Gu Zhu at the dorm the other day, she had aimlessly wandered the campus to avoid running into the people at the administration office. When she passed the honor roll, she had even looked at every single name, but Gu Zhu’s wasn’t among them. This gave her further proof to support her theory.

“Yes, I know her. She’s so nice! She’s helped me a few times and she’s super enthusiastic,” Bai Tan answered with a smile.

Luo Minmin momentarily doubted her own ears. Huh? Is she talking about my aloof, straight-A deskmate who barely says a few words a day?

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” she asked, her face full of suspicion.

“Yes, the Gu Zhu from the poem, ‘the Gu from ‘don’t let the delicate purity near you be neglected’ and the Zhu from bamboo’!” Bai Tan had very seriously researched the source of the poem afterward. Even though it took her a while to figure out the exact words, she had found it in the end. It seemed Gu Zhu was good at Chinese literature, and she was good at English. They had yet another thing in common: they were both language arts students.

Fate!

Luo Minmin didn’t know what Bai Tan was fantasizing about. The name was right; it really sounded like her deskmate. But… why did it feel so wrong? She and Gu Zhu had been deskmates not just in the second year of high school, but in the first year too!

Luo Minmin carefully studied Bai Tan. She had to admit, the transfer student was truly beautiful. Could it be that beautiful people are just drawn to other beautiful people?

Before she could ask anything else, the class monitor on duty called out her name. “Luo Minmin, no whispering. You are forbidden from being a bad influence on the transfer student.”

The class erupted in muffled laughter. Luo Minmin turned her head and made a furious face at the person on the podium. It’s you again! Damn you, Chang Ru!

…

Bai Tan didn’t see Gu Zhu until evening self-study was over. This made her very curious. What on earth had Gu Zhu done to deserve such a long interrogation?

She pondered this as she walked through the cafeteria. Bai Tan saw groups of people coming down from the second floor with late-night snacks, and her stomach began to rumble, humming a duet with her thoughts.

So hungry. A transfer student is about to starve to death…

Her meal card, like her school ID, was at home. She had been so busy arguing with her dad tonight that she had forgotten to ask him to send someone with them. Now her phone was off. She hadn’t felt hungry during dinner time, thinking she could just tough it out. But now… I’m a growing girl in the prime of her life! How can I endure starvation?

But… Bai Tan wasn’t willing to borrow a meal card from her not-yet-familiar roommates. When has a rich young lady ever suffered like this?! She rubbed her stomach, the happy sounds of students leaving class ringing in her ears. Her roommates were also chattering away, but as Bai Tan stood among them, a sudden feeling of loneliness washed over her.

She belatedly realized that she had left her familiar city, her familiar campus, and the friends she had known since childhood. She had been exiled by her parents back to her hometown, a place she only visited twice a year, and had to start a new life.

All the schools she had attended since she was a child were private academies. Even the junior and senior high school dorms were two-person apartments, and the cafeteria was a buffet. She would pay the food fees for the semester and could choose whatever she wanted. She wasn’t used to using a meal card, but now it wasn’t a matter of what she was used to; she had completely forgotten about the problem.

Under the moonlight, she climbed to the fifth floor. Before entering her dorm, she suddenly said, “You guys go on in. I just remembered I have something to do. Just leave the door ajar for me. I’ll be back before lights out.”

Her roommates had no objections and agreed. Once they had all entered the dorm, she turned and walked toward Gu Zhu’s room.

Bai Tan knocked on the door, but there was no response. She leaned against the door, trying to peek through the crack. This sneaky behavior was precisely what Gu Zhu saw when she returned.

Gu Zhu’s footsteps were light. She stood at the stairwell, watching Bai Tan’s frantic attempts, which looked just like a kitten trying to open its owner’s bedroom door, only missing the prying claws. She stood there for a moment. When she finally saw Bai Tan’s shoulders droop in disappointment, she spoke. “Is something wrong?”

Her voice was soft, but the sudden appearance still startled Bai Tan. Bai Tan turned around, clutching her heart. She slid down the doorframe and sat on the floor, pretending to wail. “You scared me! My internal organs are all shaking in fear.”

A little kitten playing the victim card. Gu Zhu watched her performance calmly and said nothing, wanting to see why she was acting like a thief at her door so late at night instead of going back to her dorm.

“I don’t care. You have to compensate me, or I’m going to lie here dead at your door all night.”

Her brazen behavior made it hard to believe she was the child of a wealthy family. Gu Zhu could see that this girl was an expert at using her looks to be coy and get her way. She blinked once and, not wanting to get into a long back-and-forth, simply asked, “What do you want?”

Seeing that Gu Zhu had given in, Bai Tan immediately sat up straight, rested her chin on her knees, and gave her a pitiful look. “I’m hungry. Can you take me to get something to eat?” After she said it, she felt a little embarrassed, and her ears began to turn red.

Oh my god! I’m so desperate for food. Gu Zhu won’t reject me, will she?

She cried out inwardly, but kept a composed expression as she looked at Gu Zhu.

Seeing her like this, Gu Zhu guessed that the girl had probably forgotten her meal card. Maybe she had come to her because she was the first person she had met at this school.

She sighed silently. The young lady didn’t get to fire the chef. She didn’t even get to eat. She walked closer and held out her hand. “Get up.”

Bai Tan looked at the hand held out to her. The moonlight outside was just right, filtering through the treetops and casting a light veil over Gu Zhu. She looked at her hazy face, and all the bad emotions she had been trying to suppress seemed to suddenly retreat.

Whether it was the anger and frustration from the first day of school, when she had heard her father forcing her to transfer and having his assistant negotiate the terms with the school, or her current anxiety and helplessness from being hurriedly packed up and forgetting her meal card and school ID at home—all of it found a release in this person’s silence and composure.

She didn’t ask a bunch of “whys” like others would. She was just there, quietly, like a bamboo, standing beside her.

Bai Tan took the slender hand. Gu Zhu pulled her up with a little force, and due to inertia, they were very close. In the cover of the moonlight, she could faintly smell the floral scent of Gu Zhu’s shower gel—a slightly bitter, elegant jasmine.

When she was steady on her feet, Gu Zhu let go of her hand, took the keys from around her neck, opened the door, went inside to grab her school card, and came out quickly. “Let’s go. There’s still half an hour.”

They hurried downstairs, passing many students who were just returning to their dorms, and headed straight for the second floor of the cafeteria. Only one stall was open, selling noodle soup or stir-fried noodles, as well as some fried snacks.

Gu Zhu didn’t have a habit of eating late at night, but after Bai Tan ordered a bowl of noodle soup, she also quietly ordered a scallion pancake. After paying, they sat at a table and ate.

They didn’t talk much. Bai Tan ate her soup so quickly that she stuck her tongue out, her lips red and numb from the heat. Gu Zhu got up, poured a cup of cold water, and placed it next to her. “Slow down.” She knew that a cat’s tongue was afraid of heat.

Bai Tan finally slowed down. She had regretted ordering the noodle soup the moment she tasted it, but she had been hungry for so long that she had no appetite for dry, stir-fried rice noodles. She felt that Gu Zhu was truly, truly kind. She seemed cold, but with a little coaxing, she was very easy to talk to.

She poured the cold water into her soup to cool it down, and without caring how it tasted, she finished it in two big slurps. “Let’s go.”

Seeing that she was done, Gu Zhu nodded. She stuffed the last bite of her pancake into her mouth, threw away the wrapper, and took Bai Tan downstairs. She glanced at her watch; there was still plenty of time.

“Aren’t we going back to the dorm?” Seeing Gu Zhu walk past the girls’ dorms, Bai Tan walked beside her and tilted her head.

“To the supermarket,” Gu Zhu said concisely. They walked through the automatic glass doors to the daily necessities section. “Pick what you need. You probably don’t have anything yet.”

Bai Tan froze. She really didn’t. She hadn’t even thought about it. In the past, whenever she stayed at school, someone always prepared all her things for her. This time, she had nothing. She fiddled with her backpack strap, looked down, and thanked her again in a very quiet voice. “Thank you, Gu Zhu.”

Her voice, no longer bright and cheerful like usual, was low and strangely sincere. Gu Zhu carefully looked at her. For a second, she even thought Bai Tan was going to cry, but thankfully, when she looked up again, the girl’s eyes were once again curved in a shallow smile.

Gu Zhu waited for her to pick out her things, occasionally offering advice when asked. Even though this was her first time living on campus, she had adapted well, so as a veteran, she had a little bit of experience.

When they got to the checkout, it was still the same owner. She smiled at Gu Zhu. “We meet again, little classmate! This girl looks new. Is she the transfer student?”

“Mhm.” She nodded. After the owner tallied everything up and called out the price, Gu Zhu took out some cash from her pocket. “Could I please get some change?”

This time, the owner looked at the person next to Gu Zhu very seriously. Someone had actually made Gu Zhu pay with cash? Gu Zhu was a real money-grubber! The top student who wouldn’t let anyone get away with anything?

Bai Tan was mystified by the owner’s wide-eyed stare, as if she were a fox spirit who would steal a person’s soul. “What’s wrong? Is there a problem?” She looked at her uniform, which was the same as everyone else’s, clean, with no doodles or unauthorized alterations. She hadn’t broken any school rules.

“Of course not, my mistake. It’s just rare to see such a pretty girl, and I couldn’t help but stare a little longer,” the owner said with a laugh.

Hearing the word “girl,” Bai Tan’s eyes lit up. “You speak Cantonese too?”

The owner nodded, and the two began chattering like old friends.

Gu Zhu silently rubbed her forehead. Where was that listless, dead-tired attitude she had earlier? Gu Zhu pursed her lips. When she realized time was running short, she tapped the glass counter with her school card. “Let’s go.”

“Oh, okay!” Bai Tan picked up her things and happily waved goodbye. “I’ll come back to see you again next time!”

Gu Zhu: …

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