The Mute Who Is Loathed by Everyone Has the School Heartthrob as His Childhood Sweetheart. - Chapter 3

The last subject was English. The 20-minute break before the exam went by, and Chen Xunfeng, who had been sitting in the front, left the exam room during that break and never returned.

The setting sun had thickened into a rich, golden hue, painting the blank test paper sitting on that empty desk at the front of the room.

Halfway through the exam, a teacher entered the room and spoke to the proctor. The proctor then walked over, picked up a pen, filled in Chen Xunfeng’s name and exam number on his blank paper, and collected it.

Forty minutes into the exam, the glass of the corridor window beside Zhou Ai was suddenly tapped. He subconsciously looked up and turned his face, seeing Jiang Chuan again. Jiang Chuan, his school bag on his back, looked anxious; he gestured with his eyes toward the seat in front of Zhou Ai, seemingly asking where the person who had been sitting there had gone.

Zhou Ai gave him a glance, then indifferently withdrew his gaze and returned to his paper. Jiang Chuan didn’t knock on the window again; he just grabbed his phone and ran off at full speed.

The National Day holiday began as soon as the exams ended. Before heading home, Zhou Ai took a trip to the back hill. Stray cats and dogs have no concept of storing food, so he had to provide them with a steady supply.

In the distance, the setting sun descended sluggishly; the edge of the sky was drenched in red. Zhou Ai crouched under a tree, watching the cats and dogs in front of him. At that very moment, his phone suddenly received a text message from that anonymous number. This time, it wasn’t accompanied by any image, nor was it sent in the middle of the night.

The message was just one simple sentence: “You can tell me if you encounter any difficulties.”

Zhou Ai still didn’t reply. He simply fished a cigarette case and a lighter from his pocket, crouched where he was, and watched the cats and dogs as he slowly smoked two cigarettes. It wasn’t until the orange light on his back had completely vanished, replaced by darkness, that he stood up to leave.

It was a bit late when he arrived home, but this time the house was ablaze with light. The nanny was busy in the kitchen, and Zhou Youbao, fully recovered from his illness, was running around the living room in circles with a water gun.

As Zhou Ai entered and was changing his slippers in the entryway, Zhou Youbao suddenly ran to his feet. Before they could even make eye contact, Youbao’s mother, Xu Li, hurried over from the living room: “Baobao, what are you running around for?”

She pulled tightly on Zhou Youbao, who stood only as tall as Zhou Ai’s thigh, and said to Zhou Ai with a polite, superficial smile: “Xiao Ai, you’re back from school? Is this your National Day holiday week?”

Zhou Youbao didn’t stay still even when held, looking up with his eyes while one hand tugged firmly on Zhou Ai’s school trousers.

Zhou Ai finished changing his shoes before finally looking up at the young, beautiful woman across from him. Xu Li instinctively avoided his gaze; she did not like this somber look in a child of only sixteen.

Fortunately, Zhou Ai looked away quickly, giving a simple nod before heading upstairs.

However, his footsteps were halted by Youbao’s grip on his trousers. He stood there, head slightly bowed, watching as Xu Li used her beautifully manicured nails to pry Youbao’s fingers off his pants one by one.

When Zhou Ai finally left the doorway, his school trousers were noticeably wrinkled on the side where Youbao had grabbed them. Youbao had kept his head raised, looking up at Zhou Ai the entire time, but Zhou Ai never looked back once.

At the dinner table that evening, the attention of the two adults was entirely on the younger son. Zhou Ai, like a transparent person in this luxurious villa, was about to leave after eating in silence when his father, Zhou Ruicheng, suddenly stopped him, as if remembering something.

“Zhou Ai, how many days off do you have for this break?” Zhou Ruicheng asked. His gaze was still on his younger son, but the question was directed at Zhou Ai.

Zhou Ai bowed his head slightly, showing no reaction, and remained in his seat to wipe his hands with a tissue.

Zhou Ruicheng, as if long accustomed to this, just frowned, put down his chopsticks, and continued: “Your mother and I have taken two days of vacation; we plan to take your brother abroad for a trip. Are you coming with us?”

Xu Li also set down her chopsticks silently at that moment, looking at Zhou Ai, who always sat alone across the table.

Zhou Ai finally had a reaction. Without looking at Zhou Ruicheng, he sat there and shook his head.

Zhou Ruicheng wasn’t surprised by his refusal and continued: “Alright then. Your tutor, Mr. Chen, is also on break from university. I contacted him this morning. He will come to the house to tutor you during these few days off.”

And so, for the duration of the holiday, the only people in the house were Zhou Ai, the nanny, and the tutor, Chen Silu, who came over every afternoon.

Chen Silu’s mother was deaf-mute, so he was fluent in sign language. Since receiving his acceptance letter from a prestigious university three years ago, he had been serving as Zhou Ai’s tutor. When Zhou Ruicheng first found him, the intention was for him to use sign language to communicate with his eldest son, who had a history of autism. But regardless of whether Chen Silu used sign language or speech, Zhou Ai’s feedback was always minimal. It was only during lessons that Zhou Ai would accept the information he conveyed.

At 2:00 PM on the first day of the holiday, Zhou Ai waited for him in the study on the second floor. As usual, Chen Silu, led in by the nanny, wore a formal white shirt and carried a black bag. Upon seeing Zhou Ai sitting in his seat, he was the first to offer a soft smile.

Zhou Ai had spent the entire summer vacation of his third year of middle school being tutored by Chen Silu; it had only been a month since their last meeting. Zhou Ai glanced at him and then looked away. That was just the kind of person he was what others called “someone who couldn’t be warmed up.” He was indifferent to others’ malice and completely indifferent to others’ kindness.

Chen Silu sat down across from him and placed a drink beside Zhou Ai’s hand. He looked at him and said, “Long time no see. How are you adapting to high school life?”

Zhou Ai didn’t look up and didn’t want to offer a response. He held his pen, bowed his head, and fixed his gaze on the test paper in front of him. The breeze from the half-open window blew in, ruffling the paper on the desk. He was the only static thing in the dynamic room.

Chen Silu seemed to smile, unbothered by his coldness. While lowering his head to take things out of his bag, he smoothed Zhou Ai’s forehead, as if trying to get him to look up: “I saw the class photo the high school teacher posted on Moments the other day and realized that Mr. Qin is your homeroom teacher for this grade. Mr. Qin teaches math very well… What happened to your hand?”

Zhou Ai continued writing his test paper, only dodging Chen Silu’s hand.

Chen Silu didn’t hide the smile on his face. He sat across from him, observed the faint marks on Zhou Ai’s elbow closely, and then slowly arranged the textbooks on the table: “Come, let me see your current learning progress first.”

Zhou Ai finally raised his head and pushed over the stack of textbooks beside him. Ever since he had known Chen Silu, the man seemed to be trying to tune into his frequency, whether by trying to pull Zhou Ai into his colorful life or by finding ways to break into Zhou Ai’s dark-toned world.

Zhou Ai really disliked this kind of enthusiasm. He only wanted a simple tutor-student relationship with Chen Silu, and in fact, he didn’t need private tutoring at all. But Zhou Ruicheng believed he needed it; Zhou Ruicheng needed to show his responsibility as a father, so Zhou Ai accepted it but only the simplest of academic relationships.

The seven days of National Day passed in much the same way, with time moving extremely quickly. When Zhou Ai returned to school on Monday, he still found a steaming breakfast in his desk bin. Since it was so early, the teaching building opposite still hadn’t lit up any lights.

The bell for morning reading had already rung. The seat beside Zhou Ai remained empty. The classroom was filled with a restless heat before the grades were announced, the sound of discussions masked by the sound of reading. Zhou Ai sat alone in the corner by the window, bowing his head slightly, his gaze fixed quietly on the book page before him.

It wasn’t until the end of morning reading that a crutch suddenly leaned against the desk beside him with a significant thud, shaking Zhou Ai’s table. But the first thing he felt was the thick medicinal smell assaulting the air. He subconsciously looked up and saw the late Jiang Wenyi sitting beside him.

Jiang Wenyi’s hair was messy, his face pale and sickly, with prominent bruises on his cheeks. One of his arms was in a sling, and his leg was encased in a heavy plaster cast he looked exactly like someone who had just been discharged from the hospital after a serious injury.

Behind him stood the homeroom teacher. Mr. Qin watched him sit down, patted the desk, and said seriously: “Everyone has seen it. It might be inconvenient for Jiang Wenyi to get around or study these few days. Students around him, please help him out when you can. Especially the deskmate Zhou Ai, pay more attention to his situation. If there’s anything, go find the class monitor or me.”

Under Mr. Qin’s gaze, Zhou Ai gave an indifferent nod. Jiang Wenyi’s hand beneath the desk clenched into a fist. Mr. Qin called the class monitor out, and the nearby students immediately swarmed over, asking questions in a chaotic jumble.

“Jiang Wenyi, did you really get beaten up by that Chen Xunfeng?”

Zhou Ai bowed his head to look at his textbook, but his brow twitched slightly.

“Was it really Chen Xunfeng from Class 21? He’s way too lawless. Damn, and this was in the school… and it was during the exam too…”

“He has the capital to be lawless, as you all know. It was such a big deal last week, and he’s still perfectly fine. I heard he only got a light suspension.”

“What do you know? I heard that after this incident, the swimming pool that had been shelved for two years in our school finally got funding. That’s a wild approach.”

“Hey, Jiang Wenyi, did his family pay you any compensation? How much did they pay… did he really dunk your head in the toilet to beat you up? You have such a foul mouth, why did you provoke him? He’s so famous in the grade, a well-known thug I don’t believe you didn’t recognize him—”

Jiang Wenyi threw his textbook heavily onto the desk. Surrounded by the crowd, he finally couldn’t hold back anymore: “How many times do I have to say it?! I didn’t provoke him! I didn’t! Am I crazy? Before the last English exam, I went to the bathroom, and I provoked him? Everyone, get away from me! Stay away! Can you stop surrounding me?”

From beginning to end, Zhou Ai sat beside them, his focus entirely on the textbook before him, as if he were in a separate space, indifferent to the joy and sorrow around him. The crowd dispersed, and Jiang Wenyi sat silently in his seat for a long time. Suddenly, he sneered: “Are you just sitting there watching me make a fool of myself?”

The bell for the end of class rang. The students prepared to walk to the playground for the weekly flag-raising ceremony. Zhou Ai tugged on his uniform sleeve and stood up. As he passed Jiang Wenyi, who was still sitting there, he stopped for the first time. Jiang Wenyi looked up and stared at him with heavy resentment, but Zhou Ai’s focus was on the particularly severe swelling and the broken tooth at the corner of Jiang Wenyi’s lips.

It was only a glance, however, and Zhou Ai left, blending into the crowd like a clean shadow, just as he always did.

When they lined up by class on the playground, the sun began to rise. The first ray of golden light happened to fall on the student formation. Zhou Ai lowered his head slightly to avoid the dazzling light and felt a gentle pat on his shoulder.

He turned his face to see Mr. Qin.

The typically stern Mr. Qin revealed a rare, relaxed expression: “You’re the top student in the grade for this monthly exam. I’m here to remind you to pay attention and listen for your name so you can go up and receive the award.”

Zhou Ai looked indifferent, offering Mr. Qin only a polite, slight nod. Mr. Qin placed his hand on his shoulder: “Not bad, but keep working hard.”

Zhou Ai’s demeanor remained as it always was there was nothing to show. His stiff, pale face was even more prominent in the sunlight, and even the students around him who heard the news had a bigger reaction than him, turning their heads to look at him one after another.

Standing on the podium, receiving the award certificate symbolizing the top student in the grade from the Dean, Zhou Ai saw the neat formation of students on the playground in his peripheral vision. It was a familiar perspective. Since his first year of middle school, every time he came to the podium, he could see the students below.

After receiving the certificate, the class monitor was to speak as a student representative for the first grade of high school. Zhou Ai could stand on the podium countless times and receive countless awards, but this activity would never be his.

Once in middle school, a teacher made a scheduling error, assigning the speech task to Zhou Ai, who had always held the top spot. It wasn’t until the teacher was about to let Zhou Ai prepare his manuscript that they suddenly realized Zhou Ai had never uttered a single sound. He couldn’t go on stage and speak fluently, let alone give a speech.

Zhou Ai took the certificate and walked toward the backstage. Halfway there, his footsteps suddenly paused imperceptibly. At the end of his line of sight, he saw a few boys leaning against the backstage wall. The person surrounded in the middle was Chen Xunfeng.

Chen Xunfeng was wearing a loose school uniform jacket; his hair was blown into a mess by the wind. He held two thin sheets of paper in his hand, and there were faint, unhealed scars on his knuckles. He was looking down and reading.

Zhou Ai’s gaze rested on him for only half a second, but Chen Xunfeng was sensitive. In those half a second, he was already looking up from the sunlight. Zhou Ai withdrew his gaze before he looked over and continued walking, passing Chen Xunfeng far away.

After the award ceremony, Zhou Ai returned to the class early. He walked through the empty campus alone. When he reached the two teaching buildings that faced each other and were only connected by an aerial corridor, he saw new photos posted on the bulletin board by the flower bed.

The discipline and punishment boards at No. 6 Middle School were very close together. At this moment, everyone was attending the assembly on the playground, and he was the only one under the teaching building.

He stopped in front of the board. On the left side of the gold-rimmed glass cabinet, in the upper left corner, was his own enlarged photo on a red background. His gaze was deep and cold, lifeless and expressionless, looking at himself through the glass. On the right was the enlarged photo of Chen Xunfeng on a blue background in the punishment section, with his disciplinary notice attached next to it. In the photo, the boy’s gaze was impatient, his brows slightly furrowed, looking at Zhou Ai, who stood there, with a rebellious yet defiant air.

The campus public broadcast had strong penetration. Even in the teaching building area far from the playground, Zhou Ai could still clearly hear Chen Xunfeng’s voice from above. He was making a self-reflection to the teachers and students of the whole school.

“Respected teachers, fellow students, good morning. I am Chen Xunfeng from Class 21, Grade 10. Today, I stand here with a feeling of deep guilt…”

The boy’s tone was cold. He was supposedly making a self-reflection, but his tone didn’t contain the slightest intention of admitting his mistakes. Zhou Ai stepped onto the stairs and walked into the quiet teaching building.

In the background, Chen Xunfeng’s voice continued relentlessly: “I should not have had a dispute with a classmate in the men’s restroom on the fourth floor of Building Five during the monthly exam last month, before the last English exam. I should not have used violence on campus to hurt a classmate…”