My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn't Need Any Comforting

Chapter 31

Their seating arrangement was also quite interesting and amusing.

He Shen and Qiao Shao were next to the window, with He Shen in front and Qiao Shao behind him; Lou Xiao was also in the front row, on He Shen’s right side; Blue Hair was behind Lou Xiao, next to Qiao Shao; Song Yixu was to Lou Xiao’s right and was also in the first row.

In general, Song Yixu had it the worst as he was seated front row center. He started crying his grievance as soon as he entered the classroom. “Oh come on! I don’t want center stage!”

Unfortunately, whether he liked it or not, the seating arrangement had already been set.

Qiao Shao felt that the seating arrangement was actually quite magical.

Obviously, the unscrupulous elements were seated at the front while those who were relatively calm were seated at the back.

Although the last classroom was full of slackers, not all slackers were the same. They could be divided into the ’Daoist’ and ’Buddhist’ factions.

The Daoist slacker faction seated in front was headed by Lou Xiao. This half-blind strongman truly personified the Daoist traits summarized by — “Whatever! F*ck off! Stop bothering me!”

As for the Buddhist slacker faction in the back rows, they were much gentler. Their expressions seemed to say that they had nothing left to live for — “No matter how bad the exam is, it doesn’t matter. Even if I’m last in class, it’s all good.”

Oh, Song Yixu also belonged to the Daoist faction.

Xiao Song probably looked like the type of person who’d cheat, so he was placed right where the teacher could keep an eye on him.

Qiao Shao then had a sudden realization...

He’s seated on the second row! Does that mean he’s also part of the dishonest group!?

No no no!

Qiao Shao comforted himself with the fact that he’d only winded up in the last classroom because he hadn’t taken the last exam, and thus had no grades to serve as a basis. The reason the teacher placed him in the second row was definitely to “protect” him.

That’s right!

Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief. He saw that his seatmate was running late.

They were going to take exams for the whole day today and so there was no need to do any mid-morning exercises. The teachers didn’t require them to wear their school uniforms.

The boarding students had nothing else to change into but the day students could wear whatever they wanted.

He Shen also didn’t wear his school uniform. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans instead.

He was dressed very casually, but because of his long limbs and good figure, he made these ordinary clothes look like they were worthy of being featured in some high-end fashion magazine.

It seemed that he had pulled another all-nighter. He looked sluggish. His eyes made a lazy sweep of the room and found who he was looking for.

Although it was the last examination room, there was a pretty even mix of boys and girls.

Many of the girls gasped and they stared so hard, it was like they had forgotten how to blink.

In fact, not only the girls, but the gazes directed at him by the boys were also very intense.

Thanks to Qiao Shao being seated in the second row, he couldn’t see the situation behind him. Otherwise, he might have thought that it wasn’t He Shen who came in, but the monk Xuanzang and all the other people in class were demons that wanted to take a bite out of him.

He Shen put breakfast on Qiao Shao’s table and yawned.

Qiao Shao opened the plastic bag and asked, “You didn’t sleep last night?”

He had clearly been doing so well this week, why did he have to pull an all-nighter just before the monthly exam!

He Shen was very busy making money. He could no longer put off the jobs that came to his doorstep. He straddled the back of his chair and faced Qiao Shao, chin on top of the back rest. He lazily spit out a single sound, “En.”

Qiao Shao was unhappy. “Today’s the exam. Why didn’t you sleep last night?”

He Shen fought to keep his eyes open. “It doesn’t matter.”

Qiao Shao saw him like this and was both angry and anxious, but it wouldn’t do any good to harp on the matter now. If this affected He Shen’s performance, then wouldn’t all the studying he’d done this past week come to nothing?

“Open your mouth!” Qiao Shao pulled out his cup from the table drawer and stuck a straw into it.

He Shen was very sleepy. “Huh?”

Qiao Shao stuck the straw in his mouth.

He Shen, thinking it was soy milk, took a sip of it, and ... was pierced through the heart by its bitterness!

Qiao Shao laughed and said, “Was that energizing?”

He Shen’s eyebrows furrowed tightly. “Why are you still carrying around this thing?”

Qiao Shao said, “Isn’t this useful? I brought it especially for you!”

Originally, it was terrifyingly bitter, but then there was an inexplicable sweetness. He Shen smiled. “I’ll be taking this then.”

He put Qiao Shao’s cup on his own table, not wanting the child to drink anymore of this bitter stuff.

Qiao Shao quickly said, “Wait!”

He Shen raised an eyebrow. “You said you brought it for me.”

Qiao Shao was in high spirits and had no need for the coffee. His concern was, “My straw.”

He Shen was stunned.

Qiao Shao got up, pulled out the straw and said, “There’s only one straw. If I gave it to you then how am I gonna drink the soy milk?”

He Shen watched as he dipped the straw into the soy milk cup, and his thin lips moved, “But ...”

“It’s okay,” Qiao Shao took a sip, “It’s okay if the coffee mixes in with the soy milk, I’m used to it.”

He Shen originally wanted to say— ‘but I used the straw already’.

But now Qiao Shao has drank through it.

Now, He Shen was completely awake. He stared at him and said, “Give me a drink.”

Qiao Shao bit his straw and looked at him. “You haven’t had breakfast?”

He hadn’t had time to eat, but this wasn’t the point. He Shen said, “The coffee was so bitter. I need a little sugar.”

Qiao Shao was speechless. He was about to hand him the soy milk, when — bang! A lollipop flew over.

He Shen’s neighboring seatmate said, “Here, you can have it.”

He Shen accepted the lollipop and raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to eat it?”

When Lou Xiao didn’t smoke, he had to rely on these things to keep going.

The school tyrant kept his voice very low. “You two are already so sickeningly sweet. If I ate anymore sweets, I’d get diabetes.”

With that said, he took out his lighter and went out to smoke. Lao He is just too much. Can’t he reign it in a little? Does he have to parade it out in public?

The school tyrant’s heart broke for his brother.

Qiao Shao was diagonally behind Lou Xiao and he didn’t quite understand. “What did Lou Xiao say?”

With a bit of regret, He Shen said, “I didn’t hear him clearly either.”

He bit through the lollipop with a crunch. It was very sweet, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the soy milk in Qiao Shao’s hand.

Qiao Shao didn’t take such a small episode seriously.

It was only now that he noticed the gazes coming from every direction.

There was no need to mention Song Yixu, he had “Cheater” practically written across his forehead. But the other students were also looking over with such fervent eyes. They would often cast timid and expectant looks over where he was.

Their looks were quite understandable. It’s like they had seen a cave filled with riches, but they clearly knew that two evil dragons were standing just outside. The warriors were tempted but dared not approach.

Qiao Shao was embarrassed. Although he felt that he had studied very hard this past half month, he still felt that he wouldn’t be able to do very well in this exam. Faced with everyone’s expectation, he was really shamed to the point of blushing.

Especially the blue-haired Wei Jiayu. He wobbled and swayed and looked as though he was about to say something!

Qiao Shao felt guilty. He stared fixedly at his scratch paper. He didn’t even dare look up so of course he never realized that the true target of all these looks wasn’t him but rather the student seated in front of him...

Finally, the test began.

The monthly exam was conducted the same way a formal exam was. The only difference was that the tests weren’t spread out over several days, but will be done in one day. In the morning, Chinese and Mathematics, and in the afternoon, English and General Sciences.

After taking the Chinese and Mathematics exams, Qiao Shao collapsed. He fell on his desk and couldn’t move.

He Shen was already sleeping soundly and even the noon time bell failed to rouse him.

The students stepped out of the examination room one after another, and the noise gradually made Qiao Shao recover. While no one was paying him any attention, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a tissue. When he raised his head again, he had regained his usual demeanor.

Qiao Shao saw that the one seated in front of him was completely dead to the world. He was in a bad mood and he poked the other awake, “The test is done!”

This awakened not only He Shen but also his next door seatmate, Lou Xiao. With both of them looking completely muddled with sleep, they truly looked like blood brothers!

Although Qiao Shao was still a little panicked, when he saw He Shen like this, his anger outweighed the panic. He said, “You didn’t just hand in an empty paper, did you? I’m not going to accept an unfair advantage in our wager like this!”

He Shen said with a hoarse voice, “Behave. Let me sleep a bit longer.”

Qiao Shao: “???”

Lack of sleep was making him completely muddled!

There weren’t a lot of people left in the classroom, so Lou Xiao heard Qiao Shao’s words very clearly.

He asked, “You’re...competing with Lao He on the result of the exam?”

Qiao Shao no longer thought of him as an outsider. “En, if he loses he’ll treat me to lunch for a month, and if I lose, I’ll agree to one request from him.”

His stake in the bet seemed a bit too small so, Qiao Shao added, “He’s the one who thought of it, so I’m just going along with what he wanted.”

Going along with what he wanted...

Lou Xiao was silent for a long while before spitting out these words, “This old bastard!”

The author has something to say:

Don’t think too much about it, Brother He will definitely ace this monthly exam, he isn’t going to intentionally fail the test!

It’s so hot, although it’s Xiao Qiao’s sockpuppet of love, but he’s still thinking of taking it off [covers his face]

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Translator’s Note: Happy Valentine’s day! And thank you to my friend, F.E. who helped me with parts of this story.