If the World Had No Daylight - Chapter 3

A week after the first year of high school began, the restlessness at school—which had never been particularly intense to begin with—gradually subsided.

After all, the first monthly exam was not far away. At No. 7 Middle School, no examination could be taken lightly because the results determined the rankings among the classes.

For a time, even the hallways became much quieter after class. This was especially true outside Class B, where there were so few people that one could practically set a net to catch sparrows. A student from Class A who had gone there to chat with an acquaintance was startled by the sight. Upon returning, they said that nearly every student in Class B remained inside the classroom studying.

After hearing this, someone remarked that they probably still remembered the humiliation of once being overtaken by Class F, the lowest-ranked class.

Everyone burst into laughter, then returned to their seats with a shared understanding, took out their textbooks, and began reviewing.

The classroom was somewhat noisy after morning self-study ended. Bai Tian sat at her desk dozing off while Liu Ran mercilessly bombarded her with his incessant chatter.

Sometimes, she genuinely could not understand how Liu Ran managed to ramble on for so long without stopping to breathe. Did being fatter somehow give a person greater lung capacity?

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

“How would I know? It couldn’t possibly have been just to torment me, could it?”

The mere mention of this infuriated Bai Tian. She had wholeheartedly believed that advancing to high school would finally allow her to escape his clutches. She had been in such a wonderful mood on graduation day that there had practically been wind beneath her feet as she walked. Who could have imagined that she would escape the wolf’s den only to fall into the tiger’s lair?

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

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

At the unexpected mention of that person, Bai Tian’s temples immediately began throbbing.

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

However, Liu Ran was incapable of understanding her mood and spilled out every piece of information he had gathered in one breath.

As the city’s leading key school, with the highest advancement rate, No. 7 Middle School had countless students fighting desperately to gain admission every year.

The threshold was equally high for both the middle school and high school divisions. Since advancing directly from the middle school division to the high school division was somewhat easier than taking the entrance examination from another school, even more people fought to enter the middle school division, creating a vicious cycle.

Yet no matter how high the threshold was, students still flocked to the school.

What made a prestigious school was not merely the hundreds upon hundreds of outstanding students it gathered, but, more importantly, the strength of its teaching staff.

It went without saying that No. 7 Middle School’s faculty was exceptionally capable, given that the school had maintained the city’s highest advancement rate for so many years.

To Bai Tian, Old Baldy Li was merely a fat, balding old man. He had a fiery temper, took everything far too seriously, and especially loved keeping his eye on her. He could rightfully be called the nightmare of her entire middle school life.

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

That was because Old Baldy Li—Mr. Li Xuemin—was one of No. 7 Middle School’s star teachers.

According to rumors, Old Baldy Li had originally intended to retire officially after his ninth-grade students advanced to high school during the first half of the year. Judging by his age, he really should have retired long ago.

Yet for some unknown reason, not only had he failed to retire, but he had been transferred directly to the high school division instead.

Everyone knew that the pressure involved in teaching middle school and high school was on entirely different levels. Many obedient children entered prolonged rebellious phases after reaching high school, becoming far more troublesome than even the most mischievous middle school students.

The academic pressure at No. 7 Middle School was especially intense. Students with a poor tolerance for stress could easily go to extremes, and even the most insignificant conflict might provoke an irreversible tragedy.

Therefore, logically speaking, someone of Old Baldy Li’s age was genuinely unsuited to teaching in the high school division. If the strain caused something to happen to his health, no one would be able to bear the responsibility.

Yet not only had this somewhat unusual event occurred, but the principal’s daughter also happened to have been assigned to his class at the same time.

On the surface, there appeared to be nothing contradictory about these two matters. In fact, the arrangement seemed perfectly reasonable. One was the teacher exclusively assigned to Class A, while the other was an honor student who had always ranked first in the entire grade.

But in reality, this was the first time that the top-ranked student had entered Class A. Throughout all three years of middle school, she had remained in Class C without ever moving. It was as though she were a child who had been switched at birth, living somewhere she did not belong, yet no one had ever objected to it—including herself.

No. 7 Middle School was different from other schools. It was a place where ability alone did the talking.

To enter Class A, a student’s ranking on the advancement examination was merely the minimum qualification. What truly mattered was their overall performance throughout the entire preceding academic year.

Moreover, even after entering Class A, a student could still be displaced by someone who earned a place in the new academic year. At No. 7 Middle School, students from any class had the opportunity to enter Class A, provided their grades were good enough.

That was precisely where the situation became unreasonable.

Someone who could have entered Class A at any point during the past three years, yet had always treated it with disdain, had suddenly joined Class A.

At the same time, a star teacher who had originally planned to retire had suddenly been transferred to the high school division to continue leading Class A.

It was difficult for people not to connect the two events and begin speculating.

Liu Ran recounted all this gossip as though he had thoroughly investigated every detail, while Bai Tian grew increasingly drowsy as she listened.

“So, Old Baldy Li was probably convinced to stay by the principal. He’s the number-one teacher at our school, after all. Now that the principal’s daughter is in high school, having him teach her would obviously be better than assigning any other teacher.” Liu Ran mumbled indistinctly as he shared the rumors he had uncovered.

Having no interest in hearing gossip she had never wanted to know, Bai Tian yawned and said impatiently:

“How can eating still not keep your mouth shut? Talk less about this kind of gossip in the future. Don’t forget that the person involved is in the same class as us.”

Liu Ran wiped his mouth, raised his head, and stared at her in astonishment. “I can’t believe such sensible words actually came out of your mouth. I must not be fully awake.”

Bai Tian raised her hand and struck the fleshiest part of his arm, causing Liu Ran to scream and leap to his feet.

To subdue a snake, one had to strike its vital spot. Liu Ran was not a snake, but his upper arm was certainly his.

“What a vicious woman!” Liu Ran took a bite of his savory crepe and swiftly fled before Bai Tian could kick him.

The bell rang for class precisely on time. Bai Tian seriously suspected that the school timetable lived inside Liu Ran’s heart. Otherwise, how did he always manage to time his escape so perfectly?

The first period was usually taught by Old Baldy Li. Bai Tian rubbed her neck, pulled out her textbook, placed it on the desk as a pillow, and lowered her head to sleep.

The chair to her right was gently pulled out. A light breeze passed by, bringing a familiar scent with it.

It was a faint fragrance, neither as strong and overwhelming as perfume nor possessing the chemical scent of shampoo.

An entire week had passed since school began, and Bai Tian had already grown accustomed to smelling this fragrance every day while sitting in the classroom.

It was still better than the stench of sweat on boys, she comforted herself. Then, as usual, she turned her back to the person beside her and closed her eyes to rest.

In complete contrast to her, the person who had just sat down properly took out her textbooks and stationery, arranged them on the desk, then looked toward the teacher who had already entered the classroom and called, “Stand.”

Scattered sounds arose throughout the classroom. Hidden beside the window in the back row, Bai Tian did not stand.

“Bow.”

The orderly chorus of “Good morning, Teacher” was drawn out for a long time. Bai Tian secretly yawned and continued lying motionless on her desk.

The seats in the class were assigned according to height. Girls matured earlier than boys, so most of the taller students at that age were girls, and they occupied the rows toward the back.

Bai Tian was the exception.

She was neither particularly tall nor short compared to the rest of the class. Her still-developing figure was slender, and at a glance, she looked like a little girl. She should have been seated within the first three rows.

However, Old Baldy Li had been her homeroom teacher for three years and knew her temperament far too well. He had simply banished her to a corner so she would not disturb the others.

As for seating her beside the class monitor, it was difficult to say whether he intended to use the arrangement to suppress and discipline her.

But he was destined to be disappointed.

Throughout the first week of school, Bai Tian had remained exactly as she had always been. She had no intention of learning from her deskmate, while her deskmate had likewise turned a blind eye to her behavior.

The fat old man stood at the podium with every student below him in full view. His eyes, concealed behind reading glasses, swept across the classroom before pausing briefly at the corner.

He sighed without revealing any trace of it, placed the hand holding his textbook behind his back, picked up a piece of chalk with the other, and began his lesson.

“…when a > 1, the exponential function increases monotonically…”

Bai Tian actually loved listening to Old Baldy Li teach because his voice possessed a magical ability to put people to sleep. Before long, she was completely dead to the world and even had a pleasant dream for the first time in ages.

Ten minutes later, the snoring from the corner grew increasingly loud. Unable to tolerate it any longer, the fat old man at the podium turned and hurled the stub of chalk in his hand, striking the dark, unruly head with perfect accuracy.

“Ow!” Bai Tian instantly sat upright.

“Who hit me?”

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

Even the person beside Bai Tian could not suppress a laugh. She reached out, picked up the chalk stub from Bai Tian’s desk, and whispered, “Mr. Li is looking at you.”

Bai Tian finally came to her senses.

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

At times like this, she was always exceptionally obedient, leaving others unable to vent their anger even when they wanted to.

The person holding the chalk stub watched her while idly playing with the small piece of white chalk. Then the smile disappeared from her face.

Bai Tian was unfortunate enough to catch that exact moment. She instinctively avoided the other girl’s gaze, stiffened her back, and began facing the wall to reflect on her mistakes.

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

She was extremely sensitive to other people’s gazes and could feel them even with her back turned. She also knew that the other girl was the same.

That was why Bai Tian had done everything possible to avoid meeting her gaze over the past week, even refraining from giving her unnecessary glances. If possible, she hoped that the two of them would never have anything to do with each other until graduation.

Bai Tian was probably the only person in the entire school who avoided her as though she were something terrifying. In truth, everyone else regarded Bai Tian’s deskmate as a perfect person.

She came from an extraordinary background, had outstanding grades, and was beautiful. It was as though she had claimed every possible advantage for herself.

Yet even her personality was so good that no one could find fault with it. She never refused anyone who asked for help, never begrudged sharing her knowledge, spoke with poise, and treated everyone kindly. She was so good that not even girls her own age could bring themselves to feel jealous of her.

If someone was only slightly more outstanding than you, perhaps you might feel resentful, find them unpleasant, or even come to dislike them because of it.

But if that person surpassed you by far too much, all you could do was look up to them in awe. The feeling that you could never catch up was so utterly powerless that you could not squeeze out even the slightest bit of jealousy.

During the time they had spent together, even Bai Tian had gradually begun to be deceived by everything the other girl displayed.

She seemed far too harmless—so harmless that Bai Tian had involuntarily begun doubting herself on several occasions.

Had the person she saw that day truly been Ye Wan?

Ye Wan rested her head on one hand while holding a fountain pen in her left. With only a few strokes, she wrote the solution process in her notebook and concluded it with a perfect answer.

A problem at this level was already so simple that it was boring.

She focused her eyes on the person at the podium. Whenever their gazes happened to meet, she made herself appear even more attentive, easily earning an approving look in return.

The amusement within her heart expanded, only to become dull and uninteresting again the next second.

She could not resist glancing once more at the person standing in the corner by the back door. Her gaze was open and unabashed, filled with concern, yet it only made the other girl resist her more strongly.

Yes—resist.

Her new deskmate strongly resisted any contact with her.

Yet the other girl believed she was concealing it well, unaware of how obvious the contrast was. She treated everyone else with complete indifference, but only toward Ye Wan was she polite and distant.

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

Details determined success or failure, after all, and beautiful class notes were one of the standard features of an “honor student.”

“Boss, Boss, I’m over here!”

Liu Ran’s voice came from within the crowd. As Bai Tian watched all kinds of gazes turn toward her, she mentally flogged that little fatty eight hundred times.

She carried her tray over, sat down, and tossed him a bottle of Yakult.

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

By then, the cafeteria was already full. Liu Ran was always among the first group to charge into the cafeteria, despite his appearance suggesting otherwise. Whenever the cafeteria workers silently counted down, “Enemy troops will reach the battlefield in three minutes,” Liu Ran had already rushed through the doors. Liu Ran himself was the very definition of an agile fat person.

The plate before him had already been completely cleared. The only reason he remained seated there waiting for the slow-moving Bai Tian was to drink an extra bottle of Yakult.

“The school won’t be giving out Yakult next week. They’re switching to plain milk.”

Bai Tian watched with satisfaction as Liu Ran’s face instantly crumpled from the devastating blow. She pulled apart her chopsticks and began eating her braised beef noodles.

Liu Ran loved eating everything. Although he was fat, he was not picky in the slightest. If there was one thing he absolutely refused to consume, it was plain milk.

That aversion originated from a harrowing childhood trauma, but that was a story for another time.

However, Liu Ran’s heart was as large as his waistline. He quickly forgot this blow and resumed his daily gossip.

“Boss, do you remember the class beauty from Class D whom we saw on the snack street after our ninth-grade graduation ceremony?” He lowered his voice, appearing extremely 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 vaguely suspected something, but she did not think about it too deeply. The matter had never concerned her in the first place, and she had no desire to ask questions or become entangled in it now.

“Why do you think she waited until after the school year began to transfer? I remember both her parents are teachers at No. 3 Middle School next door, right? It definitely wasn’t because they moved. My cousin attends No. 3 Middle School, and her father is his homeroom teacher.”

Bai Tian continued eating her noodles and ignored him.

But Liu Ran did not sense anything unusual. They had grown up together, and he had long since grown accustomed to Bai Tian’s personality. Although others might consider this extremely rude, Bai Tian’s faults extended far beyond mere impoliteness.

Liu Ran sucked at the already empty bottle, reluctantly set it down, and continued talking to himself. “I think it must have something to do with that boy from the vocational school. This is huge gossip. I need to find out whether that boy transferred too.”

“All right, enough. What’s so remarkable about transferring schools? You should worry about yourself instead. The monthly exam is coming. If your grades don’t improve, watch out or your mom will skin you alive.”

Liu Ran remained unmoved. He looked at Bai Tian indignantly and declared with righteous conviction, “You can question my academic performance, but you cannot question my professional instincts as a walking encyclopedia!”

“My intuition tells me this is big news.”

Kid, your intuition isn’t wrong.

Bai Tian silently said this in her heart, but she could not speak aloud, nor could she allow Liu Ran to continue investigating the matter.

“I heard that once the plain milk is distributed, everyone will be required to drink it. You won’t be allowed to throw it away or take it home. Why don’t you ask Old Baldy Li whether that’s true?”

Liu Ran let out a miserable wail, picked up his plate, and fled at top speed.

Bai Tian shook her head, once again marveling at how easy that guy was to fool.

No. 7 Middle School provided plenty of time for the lunch break. After all, the school was also concerned about its students’ physical and mental well-being. The children needed sufficient rest before they could study efficiently.

Back when Bai Tian attended the middle school division, the lunch break was usually when she began skipping class. There was a low wall behind the middle school teaching building that Bai Tian could easily climb over in a few movements. Each time, Old Baldy Li would become so furious that he searched everywhere for her before punishing her by making her copy the school rules a hundred times.

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

Because of this, Liu Ran had become so skilled at imitating Bai Tian’s handwriting that his copies were indistinguishable from the real thing.

After filling her stomach, Bai Tian wandered leisurely behind the high school division’s main auditorium.

She had not yet familiarized herself with the entire area and still had not found the most suitable place to laze around.

There were too many people in the high school division, and lunchtime was also when the school broadcasting station was most active. It was genuinely difficult for Bai Tian to find somewhere quiet.

Fortunately, the main auditorium was close to the swimming complex and already far away from the teaching buildings. She could no longer clearly hear the unbearably noisy school broadcast.

Bai Tian wandered into the small grove behind the main auditorium and discovered that the area was pleasantly cool, though it had a few too many mosquitoes and insects. She was still debating whether to make do and stay there for a while when she heard footsteps coming from the corridor around the corner ahead and to her right.

Bai Tian stopped and listened as the footsteps drew closer.

Before long, a small, thin figure ran out crying, swiftly crossed the corridor, and fled toward the teaching buildings.

Bai Tian frowned and stared at the dirt and reddish-brown bloodstains on the girl’s white school uniform, beginning to hesitate.

Had she been having especially bad luck lately?

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

After thinking it over, Bai Tian decided not to continue forward. She changed direction, climbed the steps to the corridor, and began heading back.

The building beside the grove was the laboratory building. It did not occupy much space, and another corner appeared after only a few steps. Preoccupied with her thoughts, Bai Tian walked forward with her head lowered and unexpectedly collided with someone.

She had not expected anyone else to be there and was genuinely startled. When she raised her head, the frightened expression on her face had yet to fade before it abruptly froze.

The other person gently steadied her. After seeing Bai Tian’s expression, her slender, graceful eyebrows lifted slightly. It was clearly only a subtle movement, yet it became infinitely magnified in Bai Tian’s eyes.

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

Seeming to realize that she had sounded far too familiar, Bai Tian immediately returned to her usual manner after speaking. Without waiting for the other girl to respond, she stepped around her and prepared to leave.

After all, Bai Tian had never liked interacting with others. Everyone regarded her as rude and ill-mannered, so it would have seemed stranger if she suddenly became polite.

Bai Tian did not realize how late this thought had come to her. If only she had realized it sooner—but no, there were no “ifs” in this world.

Therefore, when the person behind her grabbed her hand, Bai Tian momentarily forgot to react.

“You saw it?” the person behind her asked, her voice completely devoid of the affected gentleness she displayed every day.

Bai Tian was uncertain which incident she meant.

She had witnessed both of them, but she absolutely could not admit it.

Thus, she took an imperceptible deep breath, turned around, and asked blankly, “Saw what?”

The girl, who stood almost half a head taller than her, looked at her. Only then did Bai Tian notice that her eyes were a pure, pitch-black color. When she was not smiling, that darkness was deeply unsettling.

But Bai Tian had no way out. At that moment, any evasive expression would serve as evidence.

Therefore, she looked calmly and composedly at the other girl, and the air around them fell utterly silent.

Their stare, which lasted for an unknown length of time, finally ended when the school broadcast sounded from the distant teaching buildings. The lunch-break bell had rung.

The person holding Bai Tian released her hand.

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

Bai Tian breathed a sigh of relief, but in the next second, she realized she had relaxed too soon.

“Come back to the classroom with me.”

The young woman before her revealed a minute expression somewhere between smiling and not smiling. Her brows and eyes curved slightly upward, allowing a trace of wicked amusement to escape from her dark gaze.

“Mr. Li asked me to help you properly, so let’s begin 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, her greatest enemy had been Old Baldy Li, who kept his eye on her at every possible moment.

Even after witnessing the unknown side of her deskmate, Bai Tian had believed it had little to do with her. No matter how frightening someone was, she could protect herself simply by avoiding provoking them.

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

The most common things in the world were the very things you did not want to happen.