If the World Had No Daylight - Chapter 3

A week after the first year of high school began, the already-not-very-intense restlessness around the school slowly settled down.

After all, the first monthly exam was not far away. And at No. 7 Middle School, no exam could be taken lightly, because every exam was tied to the rankings between classes.

For a time, even the corridors after class became much quieter. Especially in front of Class B, where it could almost be described as deserted. Students from Class A who went over to find acquaintances to chat with were startled, and when they came back, they said almost everyone in Class B was staying in the classroom to study.

After hearing this, someone complained: “They probably still remember the humiliation of once being overtaken by Class F, the class at the very bottom.”

Everyone burst into laughter, then tacitly went back and took out their textbooks to begin reviewing.

The classroom was a little noisy after morning self-study ended. Bai Tian sat in her seat, dozing off, while Liu Ran mercilessly bombarded her with chatter.

Sometimes, she truly could not understand why Liu Ran could ramble on and on without even needing to catch his breath. Did being a little fatter mean he had better lung capacity?

“Boss, Boss, do you know why Old Baldy Li was transferred to the high school division?”

“How would I know? It can’t be just to torture me, right?”

Bai Tian got angry the moment this was brought up. She had originally been full of confidence that once she advanced to high school, she would finally escape his clutches. On graduation day, she had been so delighted that even her steps seemed to carry the wind. Who could have imagined that she had barely escaped the wolf’s den only to enter the tiger’s lair?

Looking at the empty chair to her right, Bai Tian felt her headache worsen.

“I heard it’s because of the principal’s daughter,” Liu Ran lowered his voice and said.

The moment Bai Tian suddenly heard those words, her temples immediately began to throb.

Right now, she just wanted Liu Ran to shut up.

But Liu Ran could not understand her feelings at all. He poured out all the information he had gathered in one go.

As the key middle school with the highest advancement rate in the entire city, No. 7 Middle School had countless people fighting desperately every year to get in.

Whether it was the junior high division or the senior high division, the threshold was equally high. Compared to taking the entrance exam from another school, it was a little easier to advance directly from the junior high division into the senior high division. This indirectly caused even more people to try to squeeze into the junior high division, forming a vicious cycle.

But no matter how high the threshold was, students still flocked to it.

What made a so-called prestigious school was not only that it gathered hundreds and thousands of excellent students. More importantly, it lay in the strength of its teachers.

For No. 7 Middle School to maintain the city’s highest advancement rate year after year, the ability of its teaching staff naturally went without saying.

To Bai Tian, Old Baldy Li was a rotten old man who was both fat and bald. He had a fiery temper, was especially serious about everything, and always liked to keep his eyes fixed on her. He could fully be called the nightmare of her junior high years.

But that did not stop Bai Tian from knowing that Old Baldy Li was a good teacher.

Because Old Baldy Li—Teacher Li Xuemin—was No. 7 Middle School’s ace teacher.

According to rumors, Old Baldy Li was originally supposed to officially retire after finishing this year’s junior high graduating class in the first half of the year. Calculating his age, he really should have retired long ago.

But for some unknown reason, not only did he not retire, he was directly transferred to the senior high division instead.

One had to know that the pressure in the junior high division and senior high division was not on the same level. Many well-behaved children in junior high entered a long rebellious phase after reaching high school, and their ability to cause trouble far exceeded even the naughtiest students in junior high.

In particular, the academic pressure at No. 7 Middle School was extremely high. Children with weaker stress tolerance could easily go to extremes, and even the most insignificant conflicts could lead to irreversible tragedies.

So logically speaking, at Old Baldy Li’s age, he truly was not suited to teach in the senior high division. If his health suffered because of the strain, no one would be able to bear the responsibility.

Yet not only had this rather abnormal thing happened, at the same time, the principal’s daughter also happened to be placed in his class.

On the surface, there did not seem to be any conflict between these two matters. In fact, it even seemed very reasonable. One was the teacher exclusively assigned to Class A, and the other was an honor student who always occupied first place in the grade.

But in reality, this first-place student had only entered Class A for the first time starting from senior high. For the entire three years of junior high, she had stayed in Class C without ever moving. It was as if she were a child who had been carried to the wrong family, living in a place that did not belong to her, yet no one objected to it—including herself.

No. 7 Middle School was different from other schools. It was a place that spoke entirely through ability.

To enter Class A, one’s ranking in the advancement exam was only the entry qualification. What truly mattered was the student’s comprehensive performance over the entire previous school year.

Not only that, even after entering Class A, one could still be pushed out by others who tested their way in during the new school year. At No. 7 Middle School, students from any class had the chance to enter Class A—as long as they scored well enough.

So this was where things became unreasonable.

Someone who could have entered Class A at any time over the past three years, yet had always disdained Class A, had suddenly entered Class A.

At the same time, an ace teacher who was originally going to retire had suddenly been transferred to the senior high division, continuing to lead Class A.

It was very difficult not to connect the two and speculate about them.

Liu Ran explained these rumors in a very logical manner, while Bai Tian listened until she grew drowsy.

“So, Old Baldy Li was most likely kept behind by the principal. He’s our school’s TOP 1, after all. Now that the principal’s daughter is in high school, having him teach her has to be better than having any other teacher.” He spoke unclearly while eating, repeating the gossip he had heard.

Having no desire to listen to gossip she did not want to know, Bai Tian yawned and said impatiently:

“Even eating can’t shut your mouth. Say less about this kind of gossip in the future. Don’t forget the person involved is in the same class as us.”

Liu Ran wiped his mouth and looked up at her, his face full of shock. “I actually heard such serious words from your mouth. Looks like I’m still not awake.”

Bai Tian raised her hand and struck the fleshiest part of his arm. Liu Ran let out a scream and jumped up.

When hitting a snake, one must strike its weak point. Liu Ran was not a snake, but his upper arm was his weak point.

“What a vicious woman!” Liu Ran took a bite of his jianbing, then quickly fled before Bai Tian could lift her leg and kick him.

The bell rang on time. Bai Tian deeply suspected that the school timetable lived inside Liu Ran’s heart. Otherwise, how could he always time things so precisely?

The first class was most likely Old Baldy Li’s. Bai Tian rubbed her neck, pulled out her textbook, used it as a cushion on the desk, and buried her head to sleep.

The chair on her right was gently pulled out. A light breeze passed, and a familiar scent drifted over.

A faint fragrance, not as strong and piercing as perfume, nor like the chemical smell of shampoo.

It had been a whole week since school started, and Bai Tian had already gotten used to smelling this scent every day while sitting in the classroom.

It was at least better than the sweat smell on those stinky boys, she comforted herself. Then, as usual, she turned her back to the person beside her and closed her eyes to rest.

The person who had just sat down was the exact opposite of her. She properly took out her textbook and stationery, arranged them on the desk, then looked toward the teacher who had already entered the classroom and said, “Stand.”

Scattered sounds rose. Bai Tian hid by the window in the last row and did not stand up.

“Bow.”

The neat chorus of “Good morning, teacher” was drawn out for a long time. Bai Tian quietly yawned, still lying there without moving at all.

The seats in the class were arranged according to height. Girls developed earlier than boys, so at this age, most of the taller students were girls, occupying the last few rows.

But Bai Tian was an exception.

Her height in the class was neither tall nor short. Her developing figure was on the thin side, and at a glance, she still looked like a little girl. She should have been seated in the first three rows.

But Old Baldy Li had been her homeroom teacher for three years and knew far too well what kind of personality she had. So he simply exiled her to a corner so that she would not affect others.

As for seating her beside the class monitor, it was hard to say whether he had the intention of using that to suppress and discipline her.

But he was destined to be disappointed.

For the week since school started, Bai Tian was exactly the same as before. She had no intention of learning from her deskmate, and her deskmate also turned a blind eye to this.

The fat old man stood at the lectern, taking in everyone below. The eyes hidden beneath his reading glasses swept across his students, pausing slightly on the corner.

He sighed without showing it, held the textbook behind his back with one hand, pinched a piece of chalk with the other, and began teaching.

“…When a > 1, the exponential function is monotonically increasing…”

Bai Tian actually liked listening to Old Baldy Li teach very much, because his voice possessed a magical power that lulled people to sleep. Very quickly, she fell completely asleep and even had a long-lost good dream.

Ten minutes later, the snoring from the corner grew louder and louder. The fat old man standing at the lectern could no longer bear it. He turned around and threw the piece of chalk in his hand, accurately hitting that dark, messy head.

“Ow!” Bai Tian instantly sat up.

“Who hit me!”

The classroom went silent for a moment, then erupted into laughter.

The person sitting beside Bai Tian could not help laughing too. She reached out and picked up the piece of chalk from Bai Tian’s desk, then said softly, “Teacher Li is looking at you.”

Bai Tian finally came back to her senses.

She blinked, looked at Old Baldy Li’s increasingly dark face, and very consciously stood up and walked behind the door.

Whenever it came to moments like this, she was always especially obedient, making it impossible for others to even vent their anger properly.

The person holding the piece of chalk looked at her while playing with the little white chalk between her fingers, then put away the smile on her face.

Bai Tian unfortunately caught that instant. She reflexively avoided the other person’s gaze, straightened her tense back, and began facing the wall to reflect on her mistake.

For the remaining half of class, Bai Tian felt as if needles were pricking her back. It was unbearably difficult.

She was extremely sensitive to other people’s gazes. Even with her back turned, she could feel them. And she knew that the other person was the same as her.

This was also why, for the past week, she had done her best to avoid meeting the other person’s eyes. She had avoided even unnecessary glances. If possible, she hoped that until graduation, there would be no intersection between them at all.

In the entire school, Bai Tian was probably the only one who avoided her as if fearing something terrible. Because in truth, in everyone’s eyes, Bai Tian’s deskmate was a perfect person.

She came from an extraordinary background, had top grades, and was beautiful. She had almost taken every possible advantage for herself.

Yet even her personality was so good that no flaw could be found. She would not refuse anyone’s request for help, was not stingy with her knowledge, spoke generously, and treated others kindly. She was so good that even girls her own age could not feel jealous of her.

If someone was only a little more outstanding than you, perhaps you would feel unbalanced. You might feel displeased when looking at them, or even dislike them because of it.

But if that person was far, far better than you, then all you had left was admiration. Because the feeling of being unable to catch up was far too powerless, leaving not even a trace of jealousy to squeeze out.

Even Bai Tian herself, after spending time with her recently, had gradually become confused by everything the other person showed.

Too harmless. Harmless to the point that Bai Tian had several times involuntarily fallen into self-doubt.

The person she had seen that day—was that really Ye Wan?

Ye Wan propped her head up with one hand while holding a fountain pen in her left hand. In two or three steps, she wrote out the solution process in her notebook, then ended it with a perfect answer.

A question of this level was already so simple that it was boring.

Her eyes focused intently on the person at the lectern. Occasionally, when their gazes met, she would offer a slightly more serious expression, and that was enough to receive the other person’s approving look.

A smile spread in the bottom of her heart, then became dull and tasteless in the very next second.

She could not help glancing again at the person standing in the corner by the back door. Her gaze was open and upright, filled with concern, but it only made the other person resist her even more.

Yes, resist.

Her new deskmate strongly resisted contact with her.

Yet the other person still thought she had disguised it very well. She did not know that beneath that attitude of indifference toward everyone, she was polite and distant only toward Ye Wan. The contrast was painfully obvious.

Ye Wan withdrew her gaze and lowered her head, using her fountain pen to outline the key points of this chapter in her textbook.

As the saying went, details determined success or failure. Beautiful class notes were also one of the standard features of an “honor student.”

“Boss, Boss, I’m here!”

Liu Ran’s voice came from the crowd. Bai Tian looked at the various gazes that turned toward her one after another and, in her heart, whipped the little fatty eight hundred times.

She carried her tray over and sat down, tossing the Yakult to him.

“Thank you, Boss!” Liu Ran happily caught it, inserted the straw, and began drinking.

At this time, the cafeteria was already full of people. Liu Ran had always been among the first batch of people to rush to the cafeteria, though his figure did not look like it. Whenever the cafeteria auntie silently counted in her heart, “The enemy army will reach the battlefield in three minutes,” Liu Ran had already charged through the cafeteria doors. The so-called flexible fatty was Liu Ran himself.

The plate in front of him had already been eaten clean. The reason he was sitting here waiting for the slow Bai Tian was simply so he could drink an extra bottle of Yakult.

“Starting next week, the school won’t be giving out Yakult anymore. They’re switching to plain milk.”

Bai Tian watched with satisfaction as Liu Ran’s face suffered a massive blow in an instant. She pulled out her chopsticks and began eating her braised beef noodles.

Liu Ran loved eating everything. Although he was fat, he was not picky at all. If there was anything he absolutely refused to eat, the only thing left was plain milk.

This came from a tragic childhood trauma, which will not be mentioned for now.

But Liu Ran’s heart was as wide as his waistline. Very quickly, he forgot this blow and began his daily gossip again.

“Boss, do you still remember that Class D class belle we saw on the snack street the day of our junior high graduation ceremony?” He lowered his voice, looking mysterious.

Bai Tian paused, then stuffed a piece of beef into her mouth and slowly asked, “What about her?”

“She transferred schools. It happened last Friday.”

Today was Monday, so only a few days had passed.

Bai Tian faintly guessed something in her heart, but she did not think deeply about it. This matter had nothing to do with her to begin with, and now she did not want to ask about it or get involved.

“Why do you think she transferred only after school started? I remember her parents are both teachers at No. 3 Middle School next door, right? It definitely wasn’t because she moved. My cousin goes to No. 3 Middle School, and his homeroom teacher is her dad.”

Bai Tian ate her noodles and ignored him.

But Liu Ran did not feel anything was wrong. The two of them had grown up together since childhood, and he had long been used to Bai Tian’s personality. Though in other people’s eyes this was very impolite, Bai Tian’s faults were hardly limited to impoliteness.

Liu Ran sucked on the already-empty bottle, reluctantly put it down, then continued talking to himself. “I think it definitely has something to do with that vocational school boy. This is big gossip. I have to go ask around and see whether that boy transferred too.”

“Enough, enough. What’s so big about transferring schools? You should worry about yourself instead. The monthly exam is coming. If your grades don’t go up, watch out or your mom will skin you.”

Liu Ran remained unmoved. He looked at Bai Tian with righteous indignation and said confidently, “You can question my academic performance, but you cannot question my professional instincts as an all-knowing information broker!”

“My intuition tells me this is big news.”

Kid, your intuition is not wrong.

Bai Tian silently said this in her heart, but she could not say it aloud, and she could not let Liu Ran continue paying attention to this matter.

“I heard that once the plain milk is handed out, you have to drink it. You can’t throw it away or take it home. Do you want to go ask Old Baldy Li whether this is true?”

Liu Ran let out a howl, picked up his tray, and quickly fled.

Bai Tian shook her head and once again sighed that this guy was really easy to fool.

No. 7 Middle School gave students plenty of time for the lunch break. After all, the school was also concerned about the students’ physical and mental health. It had to give the children enough rest time so that they could study efficiently.

Back when Bai Tian was in the junior high division, she usually began skipping class from the lunch break onward. Behind the junior high teaching building was a low wall. Bai Tian could climb over it in two or three moves. Every time, she would anger Old Baldy Li so much that he searched everywhere for her, then punished her by making her copy the school rules one hundred times.

However, usually it was Liu Ran who copied them and handed them in, all so he could eat a meal cooked by Bai Tian.

Because of this, Liu Ran’s ability to imitate Bai Tian’s handwriting had already reached the point where the fake could pass for the real thing.

After eating her fill, Bai Tian leisurely wandered around behind the senior high division’s auditorium.

She had not yet familiarized herself with this area and still had not found the most suitable place to slack off.

There were too many people in the senior high division, and lunch break was also when the broadcasting station was active. It was truly difficult for Bai Tian to find a quiet place.

Fortunately, the auditorium was very close to the swimming pool and already far away from the teaching building. The annoyingly loud broadcast could no longer be heard clearly.

Bai Tian wandered into the small grove behind the auditorium and found that this place was very cool, though there were a few more mosquitoes and insects. She was still hesitating over whether to make do and stay here for a while when she heard footsteps from the corridor around the right corner up ahead.

Bai Tian stopped and listened as the sound came closer and closer. Before long, a small, thin figure ran out crying, quickly crossed the corridor, and ran toward the teaching building.

She frowned, staring at the dirt and reddish-brown bloodstains on the other person’s white school uniform, and hesitated.

Had her luck been bad lately?

Or was it simply unsuitable for her to appear in secluded places?

After thinking about it, Bai Tian still did not continue forward. She changed direction, went up the steps to the corridor, and began walking back.

The building beside the grove was the laboratory building. It did not occupy much space, and after only a few steps there was another corner. Bai Tian was full of thoughts and walked forward with her head lowered. Unexpectedly, she bumped into someone.

She had not expected there to be anyone here, so she was truly startled. She raised her head and looked over, and before the shock on her face could fade, it suddenly froze.

The other person lightly steadied her. After seeing her expression clearly, her long, gentle brows lifted slightly. It was clearly a subtle movement, yet in Bai Tian’s eyes, it was infinitely magnified.

Bai Tian quickly came back to her senses. The back of the girl who had just run past flashed through her mind. She pretended not to have noticed anything and greeted her as usual. “Class Monitor, it’s you. Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

Perhaps sensing that acting this way made her seem too familiar, Bai Tian finished speaking and returned to her usual manner. Without waiting for the other person to answer, she moved around her and prepared to leave.

After all, she had always disliked dealing with people. In everyone’s eyes, she was impolite and uncultured. If she suddenly became polite, that would be what seemed strange.

Bai Tian did not know how late this thought had come to her. If she had realized it earlier—no, there were no ifs in this world.

So when the person behind her grabbed her hand, Bai Tian actually forgot to react for a moment.

“You saw it?” the person standing behind her asked. Her voice no longer had any trace of the pretended gentleness she showed in daily life.

Bai Tian was not sure which matter she was asking about.

She had seen both matters, but she absolutely could not admit it.

So she subtly took a deep breath, turned around, and asked blankly, “Saw what?”

The girl, who was half a head taller than her, looked at her. Only now did Bai Tian realize that her eyes were a very pure black. When she was not smiling, that blackness was extremely unsettling.

But Bai Tian had no way out. At a moment like this, any expression of evasion would be evidence.

So she calmly looked back at the other person. The air between them fell completely silent.

A staring contest that lasted for who knew how long finally ended with the sound of a broadcast from the distant teaching building. The lunch break bell rang.

The person holding Bai Tian’s hand let go.

As class monitor, she had to return to the classroom for the lunch break.

Bai Tian let out a breath of relief, but in the next second, she knew she had relaxed too soon.

“Come back to the classroom with me.”

The young girl standing before her revealed a micro-expression somewhere between a smile and not a smile. Her brows and eyes lifted slightly, and a bit of wicked amusement leaked from her black eyes.

“Teacher Li told me to help you properly. So let’s start with not skipping class.”

From the very first day of school, Bai Tian had known that her high school life would not be easy.

But in her imagination, the greatest enemy was Old Baldy Li, who watched her every moment of every day.

Even after she saw the unknown side of her deskmate, Bai Tian still felt it had little to do with her. No matter how frightening a person was, as long as one did not provoke them, one could protect oneself.

But Bai Tian did not know—or rather, she did not know yet.

The most common thing in the world was the thing you did not want to happen.