My Desk Mate is My Fiancée - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Turns Out They’re a Little Couple. . .

“Zhong Xiu, who do you choose?” a Beta asked her with an air of indignation.

“Choose who for what?” Zhong Xiu, confused, was a little stunned.

“You weren’t here for the election in freshman year, when Zhai Yong and Lin Xi ran for class monitor. Your vote was the deciding one.” You Tian, sitting in the front, reminded her.

“But wasn’t the class monitor already chosen?” Zhong Xiu looked down at Lin Xi, who was still reading, and more or less guessed what was going on. You Tian and Gao Lan had told her about this later.

As the only Beta girl in the class, she was the target of Zhai Yong’s affection. The Beta boys in the class were usually quite protective of Zhong Xiu, although they also loved to tease her and Zhai Yong. On the other hand, she had a good personality, wasn’t as impulsive or competitive as the boys, had an elegant demeanor, and a look that leaned toward Omega, so the Alphas also liked to hang out with her. You Tian and Gao Lan were typical examples of this.

“Isn’t it obvious someone here doesn’t acknowledge the results?” the Beta spoke righteously.

“So what if we don’t? Prove it by getting first place in the exam.”

With this provocation, Zhong Xiu’s choice no longer seemed to matter. Both sides started rolling up their sleeves. The Alpha and Beta students who were close to each other were already shoving each other’s shoulders.

“You guys are so childish! Why are you acting like elementary school students? Will you get little red flowers if you win?” Zhong Xiu said with a laugh. Taking advantage of everyone’s stunned silence, she grabbed a stack of newspapers from the windowsill. “Old Yu said this paper is due next Monday. You have to write an essay. If you’re bored, you can start writing now.”

“…”

“We have an exam tomorrow! And he still gives us a newspaper? Is he even human?”

“Just kill me now!”

The class instantly erupted in shrieks like pigs being slaughtered. In the eyes of a group of high school students, no mention of class monitor or gender could be as devastating as the impact of a Chinese newspaper right now. After all, a Chinese essay required 800 words, and it took a lot of brain cells to just get through it.

Lin Xi looked up at Zhong Xiu, who was handing out newspapers and smiling as she spoke to the students in the front.

It was amazing. A single sentence and a smile made the entire class quiet down.

“Let’s go,” the smile on Zhong Xiu’s face didn’t disappear after handing out the papers; instead, it grew brighter.

“Okay.” Lin Xi also put away her things, picked up her backpack, and walked out with her.

Dismissal was liberation. The back street was packed with students from Experimental High School. Looking around, almost everyone was wearing the same blue-and-white school uniform as Zhong Xiu and Lin Xi, crowding into the oily, old alley—a spectacular sight.

Everyone held colorful, fragrant snacks in their hands. The overwhelming aroma was much more appealing than the few dried-up words on the pushcarts.

“Boss, one chive box.”

“Coming right up!”

Lin Xi’s head followed the fragrant smells. Her height was particularly prominent among the high school students, standing out like a crane among chickens. No matter where she was, no matter how many people were between them, she could easily see what was cooking in the vendors’ pots.

“One grilled cold noodle!”

On the other side, someone ordered a grilled cold noodle. The sizzling frying sound and the smell of cumin floated far away. Lin Xi couldn’t help but turn her head to look over there, the tall girl standing in a group of “shorties,” looking left and right.

“The fried rice and egg waffles we bought yesterday are at the very end of the street. There are other things here too, like barbecue and spicy hot pot,” seeing her looking so interested, Zhong Xiu felt like a tour guide. “What do you want to eat?”

“What is this?” Lin Xi stopped in front of a small stall, pointing at the golden cake on the iron mold.

“Egg burger. Haven’t you had one?” Zhong Xiu found her curious, like a child who couldn’t walk past candy, and was a little charmed by her cuteness.

“Come get one, little student! My egg burgers are the best on the whole street! Full of flavor, come on, smell this,” the owner, a straightforward middle-aged Beta uncle, fanned the aroma toward her and scooped a ladle of batter from a small bucket next to it for her to see. “An ancestral secret recipe, especially fragrant.”

Lin Xi turned her head to look at Zhong Xiu, seemingly asking for her permission.

Who could resist a study genius’s unconscious cuteness? Zhong Xiu immediately held up a finger. “Only one.”

She had to eat other things later. This egg burger was a bit greasy, so she couldn’t have too much.

“Mhm,” Lin Xi’s answer was incredibly obedient. She stood next to the uncle, watching him make it with great interest.

The maid never let her watch her cook, afraid the oil would splash her, and her parents also thought cooking was meaningless and didn’t allow her into the kitchen.

“Aha, turns out they’re a little couple. The girlfriend keeps a tight leash,” the uncle was amused by them. He then whispered to Lin Xi, “It’s fine, Uncle will add two extra little scoops of batter for you.”

Zhong Xiu didn’t know if it was for the two extra scoops, but Lin Xi didn’t deny it. Zhong Xiu lowered her head to scan the code for her, concealing her burning heart amidst the lively, oily fumes.

“Is it good?” It wasn’t Zhong Xiu’s first time eating this. She could usually get any of the food on the snack street whenever she wanted, so it wasn’t very tempting for her.

“It’s so fragrant,” Lin Xi took a small bite. The rich egg aroma wrapped around her lips and teeth, and the chewy texture made her eyes narrow slightly.

It was a bit like how Sherlock looked when he ate.

“Do you want some water?” Zhong Xiu always needed to have some kind of liquid or soup next to her when she ate, otherwise, she felt dry.

When she drank water, she tilted her head back slightly. The subtle outline of her throat, along with the long, white sternocleidomastoid muscles on both sides, formed an elegant, youthful line. Zhong Xiu couldn’t look away, even forgetting to remind the Alpha to eat slowly.

Watching her eat was a pleasure for Zhong Xiu, whether it was her seriousness about food or Lin Xi herself.

Thinking of the egg waffles from last time, Lin Xi didn’t need directions from Zhong Xiu and found the stall by following the aroma.

“Want some?” Lin Xi was wearing a disposable glove, plucked off a newly bought egg waffle piece, and held it out to Zhong Xiu’s mouth.

The vendor only gave one pair of gloves. Zhong Xiu hadn’t planned on eating, afraid she wouldn’t have room for dinner later. She had already made her father sad once yesterday; today, she wanted to save her appetite for his cooking.

But facing such a temptation, she couldn’t help but be moved. She gently bit the soft egg waffle piece.

It clearly had no sugar, so how could it taste sweet?

They walked and bought snacks all along the way. Zhong Xiu secretly observed her reaction. It seemed that with the distraction of food, Lin Xi should be less unhappy.

Having been deskmates for over two years, Lin Xi rarely showed different expressions, making it hard to discern her mood, as if she were an emotionless robot. But Zhong Xiu, perhaps through practice, could sense her emotional changes just by standing next to her.

For instance, after Lin Yucheng said those things at noon, or just now in the classroom.

When she was unhappy, she wouldn’t express it, nor would she act differently than usual. Only Zhong Xiu could sense the subtle difference in the air circulation, the way she walked, or the stretched shadow she cast on the ground—all expressing her sadness.

Zhong Xiu once watched a game on a TV show where people closed their eyes and identified others by smell or touch. Zhong Xiu thought that if it were her, as long as Lin Xi stood in front of her, she would be able to recognize her.

“Are you walking this way too?”

Leaving the snack street, it was getting dark. The streetlights along the road had come on. Lin Xi asked Zhong Xiu.

“Yes, I am,” Zhong Xiu said with a smile.

She had walked this road for two years and had never realized that every time she went home, there was another person following her a hundred meters behind, listening to the tender, heart-stirring music in her earphones, hiding a bittersweet and secret crush, imagining the day she could walk by her side.

“Physics is tomorrow. Mechanics is a guaranteed topic. Do you still remember Universal Gravitation?” Out of nowhere, Lin Xi suddenly quizzed her.

She would occasionally quiz Zhong Xiu like this in the classroom, but this was the first time she asked about Physics content.

Thank goodness. The question was about the only piece of Physics knowledge Zhong Xiu knew.

Zhong Xiu was about to answer when her right earbud just happened to switch to the next song.

So, the prepared answer, the famous “$F = frac{GMm}{r^2}$”, silently disappeared.

“Finally, the dismissal bell rings, I’ve already agreed to wait for you on the playground…” As the intro started, Zhong Xiu’s mind blanked for a second, and she unintentionally yet intentionally disconnected the Bluetooth from her earphone. A sweet singing voice played from her phone.

With the lively rhythm and melody, Lin Xi looked at her phone screen, which displayed the words “Universal Gravitation”,and her eyes widened.

When the song got to “chocolate filling,” Zhong Xiu immediately hit the pause button, put the phone in her pocket, and dutifully began reciting Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation.

“Why didn’t you finish listening?” Lin Xi tilted her head to look at her.

“Of course, because…”

If she kept listening, she would expose herself.

“The exam is more important.”