My Ex-Boyfriend is Chasing Me Again - Chapter 3

The consequence of Xu Yan pulling an all-nighter at the internet café was—he woke up with a stiff neck.

During morning self-study, he walked into the classroom with his head tilted to one side, drawing the attention of most of his classmates as he made his way to his seat.

“Brother Xu, what happened to you?” his desk mate Sun Rui asked curiously, holding an English textbook he was reading.

“Stiff neck,” Xu Yan replied with a smile, all the while bantering with Qiu Muyang, who sat diagonally in front of him, teasing each other about who was whose “dad” today. Yet, his gaze couldn’t help but drift toward the seat directly in front of him.

It was almost eight o’clock, and his front-row desk mate still hadn’t arrived. Didn’t he usually come quite early?

Xu Yan tilted his head with some difficulty as he rummaged through his book bag. He had left in such a hurry yesterday that he had no idea where his English textbook had ended up. Morning study was about to start, and he still couldn’t find it.

As he searched, Xu Yan grew so anxious that he broke into a cold sweat. The awkward angle of his tilted head made the search particularly uncomfortable. Helpless, he finally lifted his head, only to feel a sudden gust of wind brush past his face.

“English book.” Ji Ran, with an air of cool indifference, slammed the English textbook onto Xu Yan’s desk before turning around to start his morning study.

Xu Yan carefully examined the cover and realized it was indeed his book. Surprised, he asked, “How did it end up with you?”

Ji Ran pointed to two tightly packed book boxes placed in the aisle and lowered his voice. “You left it on top of my box.”

“Ah?” Xu Yan quickly apologized, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine.”

A very soft “it’s fine,” which even seemed to carry a hint of a smile. For some reason, Xu Yan felt that the tension between him and Ji Ran had eased quite a bit.

After morning self-study ended, Old Du came to the class to announce that the school would hold an arts festival next month. The previously lifeless classroom, where everyone had been slumped over sleeping, instantly came alive.

“Great!” Qiu Muyang jumped up excitedly from his seat. Old Du, standing at the door, couldn’t help but point at him and laugh. “Qiu Muyang, how about this? The class needs to prepare two performances, and you’ll be in charge of one.”

“Ah?” Qiu Muyang’s mouth fell open, and he stammered, “Me? Old Du, I’ve… never done this before. I can’t.”

“How do you know you can’t if you’ve never tried?” Du Bo continued assigning tasks. “You’ll work with the class’s cultural and sports committee member, Shu Ning. Our class’s performance list needs to be submitted to me after next week’s monthly exam.”

Qiu Muyang nodded blankly, then suddenly realized something was off and let out a wail. “What! There’s a monthly exam next week!”

“That’s right,” Du Bo nodded with a smile. “Why is our class so nervous? I believe everyone is very confident about the monthly exam.” With that, he turned and left.

Leaving Class 2 of Grade 11 in a chorus of lamentations.

As it turned out, whether in an elite class or an ordinary one, students in their school years always treated exams as formidable enemies. Over the next few days, the study atmosphere in Class 2 reached an unprecedented level of intensity.

Some rushed to the teachers’ office during breaks to ask questions, while others stayed in the classroom silently working on practice problems. Almost everyone had a string labeled “monthly exam” pulled taut over their heads.

The reason was simple—this was the first major exam since the class divisions in Grade 11, and it was tied to the honor of their so-called “rocket class.”

Of course, Xu Yan paid no mind to any of this. Class 2 had a total of 50 students, and he had barely scraped in at 48th place in the grade. His weekly test scores were nothing to write home about either. Most importantly, his parents didn’t pressure him at all, so he felt no real stress. He simply sprawled across his desk, fast asleep.

“Damn, Yanzi, I look down on your study attitude,” Qiu Muyang leaned in close to Xu Yan, launching into another round of debate.

Xu Yan’s desk mate, Sun Rui, seeing this, joined in as well.

“Have you memorized ‘The Road to Shu’ yet? Can you recite the twelve Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches?”

“Can you solve the second and third sub-questions of the last math problem?”

“Do you even understand that momentum and energy conservation stuff in physics? And you’re sleeping! How can you sleep at your age!”

Sun Rui and Qiu Muyang’s earnest advice had absolutely no effect. Xu Yan tugged the school jacket draped over his head and went right back to sleep.

“Quiet.” At that moment, Ji Ran turned around and gently adjusted Xu Yan’s jacket. He looked up at Qiu Muyang and Sun Rui, his tone low and serious. “He’s resting.”

The faintly defensive and wary look in Ji Ran’s eyes gave Qiu Muyang a sudden, bizarre illusion—like a wife on guard against a mistress.

“He’s resting.” Seeing Qiu Muyang still hadn’t moved, Ji Ran repeated himself.

Qiu Muyang and Sun Rui exchanged glances. Sun Rui immediately caught on and tried to smooth things over. “Ah, right! Qiu Muyang, why aren’t you getting lost? Can’t you see our Brother Xu is sleeping!”

“Alright, alright, I’m off.”

Only after they had scattered did Ji Ran sneak a glance at the open physics exercise book lying on the book box in the aisle next to Xu Yan.

The results were far from ideal—two multiple-choice questions wrong, and one single-choice. Ji Ran thought for a moment, then carefully wrote out the solutions to these problems and tossed the paper onto Xu Yan’s book box.

Xu Yan only managed to wake up properly during physics class. Since this lesson was going over exercises, he casually picked up his physics workbook from the book box, only to unexpectedly find a scrap of paper on it.

He examined the wild handwriting and the incomprehensible formulas and figured it was probably just someone’s random scribbles. Crumpling it into a ball, he tossed it away.

After class, Ji Ran turned around and asked Xu Yan, “Did you understand?”

Xu Yan found the question a bit odd but still replied brightly, “Yeah, I got it.”

“Yanzi!” The evening before the monthly exam, just before self-study started, Qiu Muyang slapped Xu Yan’s shoulder with exaggerated solemnity and asked with a grin, “You’ve been getting along pretty well with the top student lately, huh?”

“It’s alright,” Xu Yan replied somewhat distractedly as he filled his cup with hot water from the dispenser.

“Just ‘alright’? The top student has started talking to him on his own!” Sun Rui chimed in from the side at some point, his booming voice making Xu Yan’s ears ache.

“Keep it down. It’s fine, our relationship is a bit better than before,” Xu Yan said calmly.

Probably he wasn’t so disliked anymore. But after the monthly exam, he’d probably ask the teacher to change seats to get away from him.

“Why don’t you ask the top student to predict some exam questions for you? I heard from his classmates from last year that his predictions are scarily accurate,” Qiu Muyang suggested with a sly grin, while Sun Rui rubbed his hands together excitedly beside him.

Xu Yan took a sip of water and replied calmly, “Go ask him yourself if you want. I don’t care that much about exam scores.”

“Yanzi, you’re so heartless.”

Xu Yan raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Your dad is just that heartless.”

Back at his seat, Xu Yan noticed another scrap of draft paper on his book box, covered in messy numbers he couldn’t make sense of.

He was puzzled. Why had someone else’s draft papers been appearing on his book box lately? Was his book box some kind of designated trash bin?

Annoyed, he crumpled the paper into a ball and turned to toss it into the trash can in the duty room, only to be stopped by a voice behind him.

“You… threw it all away?” Ji Ran asked.

“Threw what away?” Xu Yan hesitated, pointing at the crumpled ball in his hand, confused. “This?”

Ji Ran stared at the paper ball and nodded.

“Is this draft paper yours? Is it still useful?”

“No.”

For some reason, Xu Yan felt the air around Ji Ran instantly drop to freezing point, as if frost would form the moment he got close. Wisely, he placed the paper ball he had intended to throw away back in its original spot.

Throughout the evening self-study session, Xu Yan vaguely sensed that Ji Ran was angry, but he couldn’t figure out why. Was he upset because his draft paper had been thrown away?

So, during self-study, he secretly placed a fresh stack of his own draft paper on Ji Ran’s book box, thoughtfully attaching a sticky note:

“Don’t be angry anymore, okay? I’m sorry, Brother Ji. I won’t throw away your draft papers carelessly from now on. These are my apology.”

After reading the sticky note, Ji Ran was speechless. He couldn’t understand why someone would mistake the practice questions he had prepared as scrap paper and throw them away.

He just couldn’t figure it out.

After the monthly exam results were announced, the tense atmosphere that had been lingering in Class 2 finally dissipated.

The results were excellent. Ji Ran remained firmly in first place in the grade, beating the second-place student from the neighboring experimental class by a full 20 points.

Du Bo, holding the results analysis class meeting, praised Ji Ran with satisfaction, though he couldn’t help but criticize his handwriting: “Ji Ran, you did very well, but you need to work on writing in regular or semi-cursive script. It’s not that your handwriting is ugly, but it’s too connected and hard to read. The main reason your Chinese score didn’t reach 110 this time is because of your messy handwriting.”

Hearing this, Ji Ran, who had been working on practice problems, suddenly paused. It seemed he now understood why Xu Yan had mistaken his practice questions for scrap paper.

Du Bo noticed Ji Ran looking up with a bright, focused gaze and nodding at him. Warmth filled Du Bo’s heart as he thought, “This kid is really obedient.”

“By the way, now that the monthly exam results are out, those who did well and want to change seats can let me know. I’ll do my best to accommodate you.”

“Also, Qiu Muyang,” Du Bo said with a smile as he walked down from the podium and gently tapped Qiu Muyang’s desk. “You’ve made great progress, but don’t forget to submit the program list for the arts festival.”

“Hand it to me by next Tuesday.”

Qiu Muyang couldn’t help but shiver and replied, “Yes, teacher.”

This smiling tiger, who gave a sweet date only to follow it with a stick, was truly a bit frightening.

“This time, some students in our class have seen a significant drop in their grades. I won’t name names.”

As Du Bo spoke, his eyes remained fixed in Xu Yan’s direction.

Xu Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard, casually fiddling with the pen in his hand and occasionally whispering to Sun Rui beside him. Finally, Du Bo lost his temper: “Xu Yan, come to my office after class. And Sun Rui, pack your things and get ready to change seats.”

“Huh? Old Du, my grades didn’t drop this time.”

Du Bo glanced over and continued with the grade analysis. Xu Yan was a promising student, but sitting next to a slacker like Sun Rui would only make him lazier. This time, he was determined to move everyone in the class to the right spot.

Second year of high school, homeroom teacher’s office.

“Hey, Du Bo, did you know someone in our grade scored 130 in Chinese this monthly exam? I heard they also got over 140 in English. What’s their total score? Is it Ji Ran from your class?”

Du Bo shook his head gloomily. How had this news even reached the homeroom teacher of the liberal arts advanced class?

“It’s not Ji Ran. It’s someone else. It’s frustrating—they’re so unbalanced. Their science composite score is only a little over 160.”

“Oh, why didn’t they choose liberal arts?” The liberal arts advanced class teacher shook his head regretfully and went to fill his cup with water.

“Reporting.” Xu Yan stood at the office door, announced himself, and walked straight to Du Bo’s desk.

He already had a rough idea of what Du Bo was going to say.

“Xu Yan, you’ve slipped beyond the top 150 in the grade this time. I think you need to spend more time on math and the science composite. What do you think?”

Xu Yan pressed his lips together and nodded, flashing an exceptionally bright smile. “Teacher, I didn’t do well this time. Math and the science composite are my weak subjects—I find them challenging. I’ll keep working hard!”

Du Bo had intended to comfort Xu Yan and encourage him to adopt a more serious attitude toward his studies. Instead, the kid was so upbeat it was almost unbelievable, completely unaffected by his grades and brimming with the drive to push forward. Du Bo nodded appreciatively and told him to go back and focus on his studies.

Just as Xu Yan finished dealing with Du Bo, he brushed past Ji Ran the moment he stepped out of the office.

Ji Ran was going to see Old Du? What for?

Xu Yan thought it over carefully. Probably to change seats. Maybe Ji Ran had long wanted to stop sitting in front of him.

During the last self-study session of the evening, Du Bo strode into the classroom with his hands tucked into his pockets, full of energy, right as the bell rang.

“Alright, time to change seats. Let’s get moving.” He clapped his hands and gave the order, and the class immediately sprang into action for the seat reshuffle.

Xu Yan’s seat hadn’t been changed. He watched in confusion as everyone around him stood up and started packing their things—Ji Ran included.

Feeling a bit dejected, he pushed aside the book box tightly wedged next to the aisle.

But Ji Ran in front of him didn’t seem in a hurry at all. Instead, it was Sun Rui beside him who was packing up as if facing a major crisis.

“Where are you moving to?” Xu Yan asked Sun Rui, who was busy gathering his belongings.

“I’m sitting with you.”

Before Sun Rui could answer, Xu Yan heard a cool, clear voice above his head.

It was Ji Ran.

He said, “I’m sitting with you!”

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