My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn't Need Any Comforting

Chapter 7

“No ... teacher ...” Qiao Shao didn’t get to finish what he wanted to say. He Shen had already stepped forward and grabbed his arm, “Let’s go, tongxue.”

When good fortune comes, the mind works well. Seeing the teasing in his eyes, Qiao Shao finally realized the truth! What international class! What ‘Lou Xiao’! What roommate! All the while, it had just been He Shen — his seatmate!

When Old Tang saw that they got along well, he smiled and said, “Go back to your seats then. Class is about to start.”

Like a duck that had been in a fight, Qiao Shao limped a bit uncertainly towards his seat,

He Shen sat next to him, with his back against the sunlight, he grinned, “Qiao Shao?”

He pronounced the word “Shao” with the second intonation. Because the final syllable for ‘Qiao’ and ‘Shao’ were both “ao”, hearing it said quickly, it sounded like ‘Shao Shao’ or a bit like ‘Qiao Qiao’.

Qiao Shao quickly corrected him, “It’s Shao!”

Qiao Shao didn’t expect that this school scum actually knew some things. He Shen said, “To strive towards your dreams, is to live up to a glorious youth”. It’s the ‘Shao‘ in that, isn’t it?”

Yes, this word ‘Shao’ was indeed pronounced with the second intonation but...

Qiao Shao said, “In our dialect, we all read it with the fourth intonation.”

The second intonation was so superfluous and confusing. Reading it that way made his name sound not the least bit assertive.

He Shen responded, “So that’s it.” There were indeed cases like this.

With matters having reached this stage, Qiao Shao, of course, finally knew that the person he took to be Lou Xiao was actually his seatmate, He Shen.

What school tyrant and school scum? Truth was, there was only the school scum, his slacker seatmate.

Thinking back on what happened the past two days, he couldn’t blame himself for being blind.

He and Chen Su had been so far away at that time, how could he have known which one Chen Su was talking about?

He Shen had also been sleeping on Lou Xiao’s bed, exacerbating his misunderstanding.

And what was even more unbelievable was that despite being seatmates, for four entire classes that morning, he’d been lying on the table, sleeping like a pig. He couldn’t recognize somebody just from the back of their heads, so how was he to know!

After his self-analysis, Qiao Shao felt like hitting somebody.

He called him Lou Xiao that morning, but He Shen didn’t clarify the situation. This guy was intentionally making fun of him!

Qiao Shao furiously said, “Why didn’t you make it clear that you were He Shen?”

What He Shen caught instead was his wrong pronunciation, “He Sen?”

In his haste, Qiao Shao had pronounced ‘Shen’ as ‘Sen’.

He Shen kindly found a way out for him, “Is this also a nuance of your dialect?” There were indeed some places where they didn’t distinguish between the two.

However, this really wasn’t the dialect’s pot to bear. Qiao Shao himself had mispronounced it.

But with such a convenient way out before him, it would be a waste not to take it, Qiao Shao said: “En ...”

He Shen, “Okay, ‘He Sen’ still does sound better than ‘Lou Xiao’.”

Qiao Shao: “...”

This guy was still joking around with him!

Seeing the child fuming, He Shen once again had a wicked idea.

He Shen, “It turns out that &#k2018;s’ and &#k2018;sh’ are indistinguishable in your dialect?”

Qiao Shao understood where he was going, but now that matters had come to this, he could only put on a bold face and say, “A little bit.”

He Shen was waiting precisely for this sentence, “The—-n,” he deliberately stretched the sound and struck the heavy blow, “where you come from, your name isn’t Qiao ‘Shao’. You should be called Qiao ‘Sao’.”

Qiao Shao: “..................”

He Shen repeated it slowly and he even used the first intonation, “sao——”

Qiao Shao exploded, “Shut up!”

He Shen held down his arm and said, “Be quiet, Old Tang is on the podium.”

Qiao Shao’s eyes grew so big; if looks could kill, He Shen would he dead, “You started it!”

He Shen was very satisfied, “Just who was it that mistook my identity?”

Qiao Shao was so angry that his heart, liver, and lungs were all hurting, “You still dare to make bogus accusations!”

He Shen, “I just mispronounced your name. While you, mispronounced my name and mistook me for someone else. So, let’s just call it even.”

Qiao Shao was flabbergasted. What the hell kind of reasoning was this?

He Shen noticed Old Tang looking their way, he lowered his voice even further and leaned close to him. “Remember, my name is He Shen.”

Qiao Shao looked at the face close at hand ... And slapped his forehead, “Tongxue, I’m trying to pay attention in class. Don’t bother me.”

He Shen only felt that the hand on his forehead was cool. As soon as he moved, Qiao Shao retracted his hand, and he sat ramrod straight. He stared fixedly ahead and was completely focused –um, probably.

He Shen said nothing and looked lazily at the blackboard.

It was just the start of school. Old Tang was discussing very simple and easy topics that He Shen already knew by heart since a long time ago. Very soon after, he began to feel drowsy. He stayed up all night again. He had used his budget for food to buy medicine for the little guy. He hadn’t even eaten breakfast.

Hungry, weary, and tired, he lay across his desk and fallen asleep shortly afterwards.

Qiao Shao’s power of concentration was obviously not as good today as yesterday’s. He repeatedly glanced from out of the corner of his eyes. When he found that the god of sleep had taken his position, Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief.

Although this guy wasn’t the school tyrant, he wasn’t all that different. He had a bad personality and a bad mouth. He was a teenage delinquent and a slacker.

After he pays him back for the medicine, he’ll no longer have anything to do with him.

Speaking of ... How much was the medicine?

Qiao Shao saw him sleeping like no one else was there and he ‘just didn’t have the heart’ to disturb him.

By the end of class, Qiao Shao felt that his ankle had swollen a little. He didn’t feel it when he was lying flat, but laying on the ground was very uncomfortable.

As soon class ended, Song Yixu turned around and asked, “Qiao Shao, is your ankle badly hurt?”

Qiao Shao hurriedly said, “It’s all right.”

Song Yixu said, “If I were you, I’d go home early and rest. Why on earth are you sticking it out here? The topics right now aren’t that difficult yet.”

Qiao Shao was about to explain how he was a good student who loved studying, when the god of sleep next to him said, “The topics now are very important. Without a good foundation, how can you keep up later on?”

Song Yixu was obviously a little terrified of He Shen. Hearing him say this, he immediately and thoughtlessly agreed.

Qiao Shao looked preposterously at a certain someone who’d just woken up. In his heart, he said, ‘Well said for someone who doesn’t have such a good foundation himself!’

With his head pillowed on his arms, He Shen turned and asked Qiao Shao, “How’s your ankle?”

He had a drowsy face, his hair was scattered across his forehead and his voice was still a little hoarse. Despite the fact that Qiao Shao disliked him, he did have to admit that with a face like that, he was indeed blessed by heaven.

Qiao Shao’s ankle had started to ache, but he didn’t want to leave the class, “It doesn’t matter.”

He Shen said, “If it hurts, I’ll take you back to the dormitory to rest.”

Qiao Shao turned to stare at him, “You just want to take the opportunity to skip the class!”

He Shen was struck dumb at first, but quickly understood, “Just a little.”

Qiao Shao scoffed and put a stop to that idea. “Don’t even think about it, I won’t go back to the dorm. The next class is math. I have to listen carefully.

These three dimensional diagrams and visual maps were so confusing. He was already listening well but he still couldn’t understand it. If he didn’t listen at all, he’d be dead.

What surprised Qiao Shao was that when the bell for the second class rang, the god of sleep sat upright and took out his math textbook.

Qiao Shao asked in wonder, “You’re not going to sleep?”

He Shen’s long fingers twirled his ballpoint pen, “I can’t just sleep all the time.”

Qiao Shao thought to himself, ‘What’s the use of staying awake? You won’t be able to keep up anyway.’

Of course, Qiao Shao was the kindly sort and decided not the deal this heavy blow.

He Shen opened his math textbook, Qiao Shao took a peek and was completely dumbfounded, “That’s the textbook for last semester!”

He Shen looked down, “Oh, I got the wrong one.”

Qiao Shao was left speechless and he pushed his textbook towards him.

He Shen laughed, “Thank you.”

Qiao Shao couldn’t help looking at his textbook from last semester and said, “Your book is so clean.”

It wasn’t just clean. It was brand-spanking-new.

They were only two days into the new semester, it made sense that the textbooks for this semester were clean. But last semester’s?

Has this guy ever been to class?

He Shen modestly said, “I cherish my textbooks very much.”

Qiao Shao kept silent and then suddenly struck back at hit him with, “This is called cherishing? Don’t you need to take notes?”

He Shen said naturally, “Is there anything worth noting down?”

Qiao Shao murmured: “Well, nothing, when all you do is sleep all day.”

Obviously, this kid thought he was a poor student who didn’t study. He Shen had no intention of explaining. He thought it was actually great fun.

While resting his chin on his hand, he looked at Qiao Shao, “Do you get good grades?”

Being asked this question made Young Master Qiao a bit timid. Straightening his back, he said, “Now that I’m in East High, I must prove myself by getting good grades on my tests.”

In He Shen’s eyes, a good grade meant first place. He asked, “You’re planning to take first place?”

Qiao Shao was not quite so ambitious, but since he’s said this much already, he staunchly said, “That’s my goal.”

He Shen said quietly, “That may be a bit difficult.”

Qiao Shao heard what he said. He pricked up his ears and asked, “Who’s the best student in our class? Is it Chen Su?”

He Shen didn’t say a word.

Qiao Shao shook his fist, “It’s okay, if I can’t do it the first time, there’ll be a second time. I will try my hardest to catch up to him.”

However, after surpassing Chen Su, you’d have just arrived at the foot of the mountain.

He Shen couldn’t bear to deal him a psychological blow. He patted him on the shoulder and said, “Refuel.”

Qiao Shao had already thrown himself wholeheartedly into listening to the lecture, “Okay, okay, don’t talk, what’s going on here? What did the teacher say ...”

He Shen glanced at the problem on the board. Solving something like this wouldn’t even take him half a second, but Qiao Xiao Shao Tongxue ...

Sigh, the task is arduous and the road is long. If this kid wanted to get first place, He Shen would need to throw the game — no, he’d need to throw the entire tournament.

Qiao Shao didn’t need to go to the mid-morning exercises.

He Shen never ever went to those.

With the very best intentions, Qiao Shao tried to persuade him, “Don’t you think you should go and exercise?”

He Shen, “No, I usually get enough exercise.” He works every day, he doesn’t need any more exercise.

What Qiao Shao thought though was that delinquents get their exercise from fighting every day. After all, He Shen was the school tyrant’s follower. It makes sense that he’d also be involved in the fighting.

After the students had all left, He Shen stood up and said, “I’ll see how your ankle’s doing.”

Qiao Shao only wore a pair of slippers. He just had to lift up his leg and you could already see his ankle.

He Shen looked for a while and said, “Why is it more swollen than this morning?”

Qiao Shao said in his heart, ‘It hurts more too.’

He Shen looked up at him, “Don’t pretend to be strong. If it worsens later on, you’ll have to go home.”

Qiao Shao was frightened by this, he said, “No, it won’t worsen ...” He didn’t want to go home and he also didn’t want to skip class.

He Shen paused and said, “I’ll apply more medicine for you.”

Qiao Shao was very anxious about worsening the condition of his ankle, and he timidly said, “Sorry to trouble you.”

He Shen sat in the seat next to his, placed Qiao Shao’s ankle on his knee, and carefully applied ointment.

He didn’t know if it was because of the ointment or because his leg was now level, but Qiao Shao’s foot was a lot less painful.

Just then, the sound of two girls’ shrieks came from the door.

He Shen and Qiao Shao both looked over and saw two girls with inspector armbands around their arms.

These two girls were the inspectors assigned to see if there were any students slacking while there was mid-morning exercises. If they found anyone slacking, they were to deduct school points. At this moment, the two of them were standing at the door, holding the roster, with indescribable excitement on their faces.

Qiao Shao was about to explain when he heard them say, “Excuse us! We didn’t see anything! You ... you guys, refuel!

After throwing down these words, the two girls ran away.

Qiao Shao: “???”

He looked blankly at He Shen, “What was up with that?”

“It’s nothing,” He Shen said calmly. “Maybe they thought we were engaging in ‘gaoji‘.”

What ... what?

The innocent little young master’s three views were suddenly shattered.

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The author has something to say:

Waiting for Brother He sao to break his leg.