Chapter 21: Sit and Cherish the Moment
“Nonsense, she’s always been a top student. She already said last time was just an accident.”
“Now I finally know why the homeroom teacher was smiling so happily.”
The homeroom teacher looked at Lin Yuejiu with a beaming smile and took the lead in applauding.
Everyone followed and clapped along.
Lin Yuejiu stepped forward to collect her ranking slip. The homeroom teacher handed her the score sheet and, speaking as if to her yet also to everyone, said, “Student Lin Yuejiu made remarkable progress this time—only three points away from second place. In Chinese reading, she only missed one multiple-choice question.”
Everyone’s jaws dropped in surprise.
“Seriously? She was just one multiple-choice question away?”
“As expected, a top student will always be a top student. I’m simply not worthy.”
Lin Yuejiu took the score slip, the corners of her lips lifting into a faint smile, “Thank you, teacher.”
As soon as she turned around, she saw Chen Qianxi giving her a thumbs-up—both hands, in fact.
Lin Yuejiu couldn’t help but laugh, her eyes bending into crescents.
Those watching her paused for a moment. Lin Yuejiu had always been called a “goddess” because of her looks, but lately, due to campus gossip, she rarely smiled. Even when she did, it was just a polite curve of the lips. Now, however, they were seeing a genuine smile.
Her beauty was beyond definition, and in this moment, her smile was like warm winter sunlight—bright, soft, and sweet.
For a while, everyone was captivated.
“No wonder she’s called the goddess—when she smiles, she’s stunning.”
“She was already beautiful, but when she smiles, she’s even more so.”
“That smile just now… I think I might’ve died a little inside.”
As if she hadn’t heard, Lin Yuejiu quietly returned to her seat. Her deskmate looked at her with admiration in her eyes, “Jiujiu, you’re amazing! You’ve improved so much!”
Lin Yuejiu smiled, “You can do it too.”
Lin Rumeng, listening to all the praise around her, felt an uncomfortable knot in her chest.
The homeroom teacher continued reading out the rankings.
“Chen Qianxi, tenth place.”
“…”
“Lin Rumeng, thirtieth place.”
Class 1 of Grade 10 had a total of forty-five students. Thirtieth place was already near the bottom.
The moment she heard her ranking, Lin Rumeng clenched her hands tightly. In the end, she still slowly stood up to take her score sheet.
The homeroom teacher read the last names.
“Alright, rankings are finished. Next, we’ll change seats.”
Du Zhuo immediately grabbed his books and ran over to sit next to Xu Nianshen. He glanced at Lin Rumeng, “Uh, sorry, Student Lin Rumeng.”
Lin Rumeng kept her polite smile, “It’s fine.”
She moved her books slowly, but seeing that, Du Zhuo quickly came to help. The smile on Lin Rumeng’s face stiffened.
Du Zhuo soon finished moving the books for her. Holding her stack, Lin Rumeng looked at Xu Nianshen, “Brother Nianshen, I’m going now.”
Xu Nianshen didn’t even spare her a glance.
She had a faint look of disappointment in her eyes as she turned and walked to her new seat.
Du Zhuolin immediately sat down, grinning as he greeted his new deskmate, “Hello, Study God Xu. I’ll be your deskmate for a while, so please take care of me.”
Xu Nianshen gave a simple response.
There was movement to his side, and Du Zhuo turned to see Lin Yuejiu moving to the seat next to his—though separated by an aisle, they were still quite close.
Lin Yuejiu noticed his gaze, turned her head, and, seeing him looking at her, gave a polite smile.
Du Zhuo turned his head right to look at Xu Nianshen, then left to look at Lin Yuejiu, then finally looked down at himself. Silence.
The two people on either side of him used to be deskmates, and now he was sitting between them.
And Lin Yuejiu was only “one multiple-choice question” away from being right beside Xu Nianshen…
Why did it suddenly feel like he was the third wheel getting between a couple?
Forget it. He probably wouldn’t be sitting in this seat for long anyway. Might as well sit and cherish the moment.
Chen Qianxi was now seated behind Lin Yuejiu. She leaned forward to poke her back and said excitedly, “Great, Jiujiu, I’m your back-desk now!”
Lin Yuejiu smiled.
Lin Rumeng and her new deskmate exchanged names and then fell into silence again.
After school, once she got home, Lin Rumeng went straight into her room and locked the door.
Mother Lin found it strange, walked to her door, and knocked, “Mengmeng, what’s wrong? Why won’t you open the door? Did something happen?”
Father Lin heard the noise and came over, “What’s going on?”
“Mengmeng has been like this ever since she got home. I don’t know what happened.”
Lin Yimo happened to come home from work at that moment. Seeing the two of them standing at Lin Rumeng’s door, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“We don’t know—Mengmeng is hiding in her room and won’t come out.”
“Mengmeng,” Mother Lin called again toward the room,
“If something’s wrong, you can tell Mom, okay? Don’t bottle it up by yourself—you’ll make yourself sick.”
She was about to continue when the door suddenly opened. Lin Rumeng stood there, her eyes red. Father and Mother Lin were startled and quickly asked, “What happened, Mengmeng?”
Crying, Lin Rumeng threw herself into her mother’s arms, “There was an exam recently… I didn’t do well.”
Hearing that, Mother Lin sighed in relief and smiled, “I thought it was something serious. It’s fine—so what if you didn’t do well this time? There’s always next time, right? It’s not like it’s the college entrance exam.”
“But I did really badly.”
“How bad?”
Lin Rumeng hesitated for a moment, then mumbled, “Thirtieth place.”
Father and Mother Lin exchanged a glance. Thirtieth? That really was low—especially since back when Lin Yuejiu was here, she was always first or second place.
Seeing their silence, Lin Rumeng cried even harder, “I knew it—Dad and Mom think I did badly too.”
Mother Lin hurried to comfort her, “No, no, that’s not it. We were just thinking about something else. It’s fine if you didn’t do well this time—just work harder next time. If it comes to it, we can even get you a tutor. It’s no big deal.”
“I just feel so useless… This time, my sister improved a lot—she got third place, and I’m only thirtieth.”
Lin Yimo froze for a moment. Third place—that was a huge improvement from last time.
Mother Lin’s eyes flickered. Third place… and not much time had passed since the last exam. To improve that quickly? Subconsciously, she thought, As expected of our Jiujiu.
When she realized what she was thinking, she was suddenly jolted awake. That wasn’t her daughter anymore.
Afterward, Mother Lin spent more time comforting Lin Rumeng. Once she had calmed down, Rumeng immediately declared that she would study hard and not embarrass them again.
But—although Lin Rumeng said she would work hard, it was just talk.
When it came to learning the violin, she often came home pouting, complaining that it was too hard, or that the teacher was too strict. At first, Mother Lin would feel sorry for her, thinking it must be exhausting. But when the same complaints were repeated over and over, they became tiresome to hear.
Lin Rumeng clearly didn’t realize this. She still came home every day saying the same things. Now, Mother Lin had grown numb to it—maybe even a little… annoyed.
She couldn’t help but think, Jiujiu also learned the violin before. Why did she never complain? In fact, I don’t think she ever said it was hard at all.
