After Dreaming That the Top Student in My Grade Was My Wife - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Unkind and Unfeeling

Tao Shuran woke up at past five o’clock once again.

In the blink of an eye, it was already late April. The sky grew bright early, and the blackout property of the curtains in Tao Shuran’s room wasn’t particularly good. When her sleep was shallow, she would be awakened by the dim light outside the window.

She sat up, dazed for a while, then climbed out of bed and turned on her computer.

Spring temperatures in Shanghai hovered around twenty degrees Celsius; there was no excessive sun, nor the overbearing humidity of the plum rain season. It was very pleasant.

Tao Shuran sat at her desk in her pajamas and opened her email.

She still hadn’t received a reply to the list she sent out the day before yesterday. Tao Shuran frowned slightly and opened the group chat, wanting to ask about the situation, but then she suddenly remembered that Jiang Hanqi was also in the group.

It was better not to disturb her at this hour.

Tao Shuran sighed and closed her computer.

No. 5 Middle School had finished the midterm exams for the second semester of the freshman year. Tao Shuran’s total science score ranked in the top twenty of the grade, finally allowing Tao’s father and mother to breathe a sigh of relief. Coincidentally, the Youth League Committee teacher assigned her to plan an inter-school social event. For the convenience of work, Tao’s mother made a grand gesture and returned both her phone and computer, allowing her to keep them in her room.

Grades were no longer a worry, but after burying her head in books for so many years, this was the first time she had taken on such a large project. She worried about not doing it well, and unfortunately, her teammates were very unhelpful. Tao Shuran was so stressed that she hadn’t slept well for several nights in a row.

“What is Shao Zhuorui doing? I sent him the list and requirements the day before yesterday. Why hasn’t he given me the accommodation arrangements yet? The May Day holiday is almost here. If he keeps procrastinating like this, I’m afraid I’ll be working overtime with my computer even when I’m out for the holiday.” As soon as Tao Shuran met Jiang Hanqi after going downstairs, she couldn’t help but start complaining. Her milky and soft voice made her sound a bit spoiled when she was angry.

Ever since taking over this activity planning, the usually good-tempered Ranran no longer spoke in a soft voice. Jiang Hanqi thought her voice, full of emotion, was particularly cute.

With one hand carrying a lunch box, Jiang Hanqi used her free hand to take the fresh milk with the straw already inserted that Tao Shuran handed her. She took a sip, lowered her head, and said with a smile: “Where do you want to go for May Day?” Her tone implied, Wherever you want to go, we’ll go.

“Sigh, I can’t.” As soon as Tao Shuran saw Jiang Hanqi’s smile, the frustration in her gut vanished without a trace. She held the hot milk with both hands and took a sip: “It’s only one day longer than a weekend. I can’t go anywhere. I’d better stay home obediently and work.”

The “work” Tao Shuran referred to was the planning for this inter-school social event.

In previous years, this kind of thing was usually linked to something like an essay competition. But this year the situation was special; there was no shift in the May Day holiday schedule, which meant Youth Day on May 4th fell on a regular school day. According to regulations, there should be a half-day holiday for Youth Day. The school leaders discussed it and decided to simply hold a more high-end activity, which could also count as an outstanding teaching achievement.

Thus, the two who had been scouted by the Youth League Committee teacher in March quickly found a place to use their talents and were put in charge of planning this activity.

A total of three schools were involved in the social activity—all brotherly institutions ranked among the top in the district, with very good relationships usually.

Presumably, it was a decision made by the leaders on a whim; the first meeting was actually arranged for after the midterm exams, under the fine name of not delaying studies, which left Tao Shuran and the others quite overwhelmed.

After a week, everyone hurried to finalize the general plan of the activity.

Regarding the participants, they organized the top two hundred students in the entire district from the midterm exams of the freshman and sophomore years. The duration was two days and one night, just connecting to the weekend. Students from each school would take their school bus to the destination, meeting before noon.

After lunch, a camping march would be held; dinner time was reserved for student exchange activities, and the next day, a trip to a nearby science and technology exhibition was organized, followed by returning to school after lunch.

The consequence of setting such a grand plan was that with May Day almost here, the camping site hadn’t been negotiated, the dinner activities weren’t fully listed, and the accommodation arrangements weren’t out. The only thing finalized was that the tickets for the science exhibition had been bought…

Jiang Hanqi was someone who was highly efficient in everything she did. She finished the fresh milk in a few gulps and threw the paper carton into the roadside trash can. Seeing Tao Shuran’s depressed look, she couldn’t help but smile: “They always work like this, unhurried and calm. As long as it can be produced before the deadline, it’s fine. This time it’s a collaboration, so there’s nothing we can do.”

“Yeah, the neighboring school is the lead, and I heard the hotel for the accommodation is the Shao family’s venue.” Tao Shuran pouted.

Jiang Hanqi wanted to reach out and stroke Tao Shuran’s head, but looking at her neatly combed ponytail, she ultimately didn’t extend her hand. She turned her gaze toward the school not far away, appearing thoughtful: “Shao Zhuorui, right? I’ll go and coordinate with him. You’ve worked too hard lately; you should rest well for May Day.”

Tao Shuran knew Jiang Hanqi didn’t like dealing with people, so she had taken the initiative to handle all information input and output. Campus research was conducted by Tao Shuran—responsible for distribution and collection—after Jiang Hanqi created the questionnaires, and then summarized by Jiang Hanqi. What Tao Shuran had to do wasn’t hard, but it was very tedious, which had caused her no small amount of irritation. Hearing Jiang Hanqi say this now made her feel sweet inside.

The Big Boss Jiang lived up to her reputation; she got the accommodation arrangements during the break after the third period.

Tao Shuran’s front-seat neighbor was chatting with her girlfriends out in the corridor. Jiang Hanqi sat unceremoniously in her seat. Then, right in front of the homeroom teacher who was walking out of the classroom clutching a stack of teaching references, she boldly took out her phone: “See if this works.”

Tao Shuran peeked at the teacher’s expression before looking down at the phone screen. She scrolled up and down for two pages and nodded: “Mm-hmm, no problem.”

Tao Shuran propped up her head with one hand and spun a pen with the other, lowering her voice a bit to add: “It wasn’t a hard task to begin with, yet he had to drag it out. I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t like collaborating with others,” Jiang Hanqi echoed casually, standing up with the intention of going to the printing room to print out the list.

“Let’s go together!” Tao Shuran immediately dropped her pen to follow.

Before they reached the door, she felt like the few people gathered around the bookshelf on one side of the blackboard had mentioned Jiang Hanqi’s name. As she got closer, she finally heard a clear sentence: “…She acts so aloof and refined, how could she possibly do things for her own class? She looks down on the whole school. Only things like hosting a gala that can get on the newspaper and show off will be considered. She only does internationalized stuff to look impressive.”

Tao Shuran slowed her steps to hear the first half, but for the second half, she stood still and refused to walk. Not only did she stop, but she also pulled Jiang Hanqi back, her usually smiling face clouded with gloom.

Jiang Hanqi let out a light laugh and tilted her head, indicating she didn’t care.

But a surge of anger rose in Tao Shuran, and she insisted on not letting it go: “What do you mean by that?”

Although the few chatting hadn’t intentionally lowered their voices just now, it was only because Jiang Hanqi had never expressed anything before; they hadn’t expected Tao Shuran would actually jump in.

“What else could it mean? They’re just sour with jealousy~” Before they could answer, Qi Wenwen, whose seat was by the podium, suddenly spoke up, but didn’t give a single glance this way. With a smile on her face, she looked at the exercise book on her desk, pulled her over-ear headphones out of her desk drawer with both hands, and put them on her head. It was unclear if rock music was playing in the headphones, but she appeared isolated from the world yet incredibly hyped.

Tao Shuran looked at Qi Wenwen and suddenly burst out laughing. It was one thing for Qi Wenwen to have a short temper, but she was also particularly fond of being sarcastic. The standoff also relaxed because of this laugh.

Jiang Hanqi herself didn’t really care, but she didn’t want Ranran to be angry because of this. Looking at the disappearing dimple on Tao Shuran’s cheek, she couldn’t resist smoothing the ends of her hair. She gestured for them to leave the classroom together, then, as if suddenly remembering something, she turned back to look at Tao Shuran with a look of inquiry: “Am I not impressive?”

Tao Shuran giggled and pulled Jiang Hanqi outside, saying as they walked: “Of course, of course, you’re the most impressive.”

Except for that first questioning sentence, she didn’t give them another glance.

Actually, there were printers in the teachers’ offices in each teaching building, but Jiang Hanqi always led Tao Shuran to the library to use the online resource room. Tao Shuran noticed after observing for a bit; Jiang Hanqi liked quiet, spacious, and clean spaces and pursued high-quality solitude, so she never asked why and happily followed her outside every time.

Even though the bell for class hadn’t rung yet, the academic atmosphere at No. 5 was excellent, and few people would leave the teaching buildings during breaks.

Walking on the quiet campus path, smelling the scent of the earth, made one feel refreshed.

Tao Shuran took a serious sniff of the fragrance in the air but couldn’t identify the variety. Turning to look at Jiang Hanqi and thinking that half a year ago they had at most an acquaintance of brushing past each other, she felt a strange sensation of it being a lifetime ago: “Jiang Hanqi, I remember before you were… particularly cold and aloof. Looking at it now, your exterior is completely deceptive; you can even talk back to people now.”

As Tao Shuran spoke, she made an exaggerated expression, as if pained by the discovery of commonalities between the Big Boss Jiang and her mischievous friends.

 Tao Shuran had spoken purely to find a topic, making it up as she went. To her surprise, Jiang Hanqi was silent for a while before slowly speaking: “Don’t you remember?”

“?” Tao Shuran was completely dazed.

“September 12th last year, before early self-study.” Jiang Hanqi stated the time directly. Seeing Tao Shuran still had a face full of question marks, she gave a slight curl of her mouth and continued explaining, “Teachers’ Day was on Saturday last year, so people were flooding the teacher with blessings in the class group. I suppose someone started a small group chat to talk… they mentioned you…”

Jiang Hanqi paused for a moment, thought, and continued: “They mentioned your family background. So on Monday during early self-study, the few who arrived early were chatting about it.”

Tao Shuran’s memory was triggered. She was also in the classroom at the time, listening to those unchanging clichés, but she just lowered her head to write her homework seriously and didn’t speak to refute them.

Tao Shuran had always been very low-key. After school started, she didn’t take much initiative to talk to people, and during the military training self-introduction, she only gave her name. Although she was petite and cute, with a school-beauty-level “big sister” type classmate, few people noticed her. Those people presumably didn’t expect the Director’s daughter to wake up early and study hard, and had actually started discussing it right in front of the person herself.

“Who didn’t work hard to get in? Just her—she was quiet before, but classmates don’t have the same fate, after all.”

“She won’t compete with you for a recommendation spot; she’s definitely going abroad. Coming to No. 5 is just to gold-plate her high school credentials.”

“Truly incredible. Don’t dare to provoke her, don’t dare.”

That was when Jiang Hanqi walked in. The residual heat of midsummer was rising. As usual, her long hair draped over her shoulders, and she wore a pure black cotton T-shirt with her school uniform over her arm. Without the sun and wind of military training, her exposed arms were still as white as snow, and her face wore its perennial frost.

She walked straight from the classroom door to her seat. Having heard a segment of the conversation, she suddenly spoke, her chilling voice easily blowing away the first flicker of heat on a September morning: “Then what are you doing? Does ‘don’t dare to provoke her’ mean you aren’t human?”

Tao Shuran later heard many things about Jiang Hanqi; people said she was indifferent, aloof, arrogant, and unfeeling. But she always felt that the person who was used to residing in the darkness was different.

Perhaps the seeds of affection were sown at that time.

Tao Shuran opened her mouth, unsure if it was appropriate to add a “thank you” that wasn’t said back then, when she heard Jiang Hanqi continue: “…You should have noticed, I’m very bad at interacting with people. So at that time, even in a situation like that, I couldn’t do much.”

Didn’t you talk back for her? Tao Shuran blinked.

“I’m sorry.” Jiang Hanqi’s voice was still very soft, yet the articulation was heavier.

I’m sorry for putting you in an embarrassing situation yet being unable to do anything.

This was a regret she found difficult to let go.

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