If the World Had No Daylight - Chapter 4

The cicadas cried themselves hoarse from the trees outside the window on a sweltering summer afternoon. On the blackboard, the chalk tapped as it drew another symbol.

The person at the desk in front quietly opened a thermos. With a soft pfft, the carbonation in the cola was released, and the wind carried over a faintly icy, refreshing smell.

Bai Tian propped up her math textbook to block the sunlight outside the window and glanced sideways. In her heart, she began calculating how long iced cola could stay cold inside a thermos.

But carrying one bag to school was already tiring enough. Bringing an extra cup would be even more cumbersome.

Ah, so annoying. She would just throw it to Liu Xiaopang and make him carry it.

Wiping away the fine sweat that had slid down to her neck, Bai Tian unconsciously fanned herself with her hand and listlessly looked toward the fat old man at the lectern, who had his hands behind his back as he wrote on the board.

The moment math class arrived, time became especially long.

When she thought that, barring any accidents, the next class would also be math, Bai Tian once again had the urge to skip class.

The person beside her handed over a wet wipe. Bai Tian accepted it, tore it open, and wiped her face and neck. Only then did she finally feel a little cooler.

“Thanks,” she said as she wiped.

The other person only smiled, then lowered her head again and took notes in her notebook.

From Bai Tian’s angle, she could clearly see the neat and beautiful fountain-pen handwriting. Every word and sentence flowed smoothly, pleasing to the eye.

But when Bai Tian saw the content clearly, she could not help tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Putting on an act.

She turned back around and continued resting her eyes right under Old Baldy Li’s nose.

In everyone’s eyes, Ye Wan’s excellence was directly proportional to her effort.

No one could seriously devote themselves to every class of every subject, never get distracted, and never miss a single note. People were not machines. There were always times when they felt tired.

But whenever someone yawned and let their mind wander, they could look over and see Ye Wan listening to the lecture while taking notes.

So they would resentfully pull their thoughts back and sigh, “As expected of the first-ranked student in the grade.”

People more outstanding than you were also working harder than you. What reason did you have not to work hard?

Under Ye Wan’s subtle influence, Class A’s study atmosphere had become unprecedentedly intense, making Old Baldy Li deeply gratified.

Bai Tian sneered at this.

She would bet Liu Ran’s three hidden boxes of snacks that her deskmate had long since finished learning all of the first-year high school material.

Perhaps even more than just first-year material.

Thinking of that one PE class when she had slipped back into the classroom and accidentally seen a copy of Fundamentals of Applied Mathematics for Economics spread open on the other person’s desk, Bai Tian glanced from the corner of her eye at the person still diligently taking classroom notes and only wanted to roll her eyes.

But she could more or less understand the other person’s behavior. After all, someone who was excellent without even needing to work hard really would attract hatred.

For example, Bai Tian herself.

“Bai Tian!”

The moment Old Baldy Li turned around at the lectern and saw the person dozing off, he roared and threw the piece of chalk in his hand over.

Bai Tian skillfully dodged to the right, accurately avoiding the attack. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, the person beside her raised her head and looked over.

“Hiss—”

The root of her ear was struck solidly, and Bai Tian’s eyes immediately filled with tears from the pain. She sat up straight, intending to move away, but her scalp suddenly hurt.

“Wait.” The person on her right stopped her and raised a hand to feel around. “Your hair seems to be tangled.”

Bai Tian: “…”

Expressionless, she tilted her head and let the other person carefully untangle the knotted place.

Bai Tian felt that she might end up with a bald patch.

Sympathetic gazes came from all around. Some people even secretly laughed. Looking at Old Baldy Li’s increasingly dark expression, Bai Tian had a feeling that disaster was coming.

“What are you two huddling together for?”

“Teacher Li, Bai Tian’s hair accidentally got tangled in my hair clip…”

Old Baldy Li immediately found an outlet. “Bai Tian, what is wrong with you?!”

Bai Tian: “?”

Who was the one who made the first move? Was it me?

Cursing “damn it” inwardly, Bai Tian could not be bothered with him. She simply tilted her head and said, “Don’t move. I’ll do it.”

The hair behind her ear had tangled around the hair clip on the other person’s head. From the angle, Bai Tian was higher up and could see clearly.

When Bai Tian saw the messy clump of hair, she let out a long sigh, picked up the crystal hair clip, first loosened it from the other person’s hair, then tugged hard and pulled it free from her own hair.

Bai Tian looked at the hair clip and plucked off some of the strands caught on it. Because she used too much force, one of the heart-shaped crystals embedded on it popped loose and fell to the ground. The remaining hair tangled around it could not be cleaned off either.

Silence fell.

Bai Tian looked at the damaged hair clip and said somewhat awkwardly, “Sorry. I’ll pay you back with a new one.”

Ye Wan looked at her. After a long while, she smiled and shook her head. “It’s fine. It isn’t worth much.”

As if. No matter how one looked at the craftsmanship, it was not an ordinary price.

Somewhat annoyed, Bai Tian scratched her hair, sat up straight, picked up the math textbook on her desk, and placed it in front of her, pretending to listen.

Old Baldy Li let the matter drop. The others also withdrew their gazes, and even the person beside Bai Tian continued listening to class as if nothing had happened.

But Bai Tian could not act as though nothing had happened. She did not like owing others, especially people who were not easy to provoke.

Liu Ran squeezed his way out of the small shop through a crowd of heads while holding a pile of things, then gave Bai Tian an old-fashioned popsicle.

Bai Tian accepted it, tore open the packaging, and took a bite.

“I’m so pissed.”

She crouched under a tree with absolutely no proper posture, biting the popsicle mouthful by mouthful with cracking sounds, as if she were biting human flesh.

Liu Ran plopped down on the ground, tore open a bag of chips, and asked while eating, “Boss, are you really going to pay her back? That thing seems pretty expensive. My cousin has one in the same style. It’s some brand thing called Luosiqi or something.”

Bai Tian paused, then said with a dark face, “Don’t tell me you mean Swarovski.”

Liu Ran, with absolutely no sense of timing, nodded wildly. “Yes, yes, yes! Boss, you’re so smart. You even know that!”

Bai Tian: “…”

After school, Bai Tian carried her schoolbag and squeezed onto a bus going in the opposite direction.

Under the blazing sun, like a dried salted fish, she crossed through the endless stream of traffic and walked through three streets before finally seeing the silver, glittering sign that read “SWAROVSKI” downstairs in a shopping mall.

Bai Tian braced herself and walked in. Ten minutes later, she walked out without looking back.

For the next month, Ye Wan never brought up the hair clip Bai Tian owed her. It was as if she truly did not care. Bai Tian thought about it and felt that made sense. How could the principal’s daughter lack something like that? But whether the other person lacked it or not was their business. Whether Bai Tian repaid it was her own.

By mid-October, the weather finally cooled down completely. Many people wore jackets when they went out and only took them off for a while at noon.

Under Ye Wan’s supervision, Bai Tian had almost stopped skipping school, which made Old Baldy Li’s expression look much better.

That time, Ye Wan had not been speaking casually. She really intended to “help” the truant girl return to the right path.

This caused Bai Tian endless distress. Unfortunately, the other person was difficult to provoke, and Bai Tian still owed her something.

She made up her mind. Once she had repaid the debt, she would completely draw a line between them.

Although Bai Tian was a headache-inducing problem student, she knew very well how much she was capable of, and she cherished her life very much.

There was half a month left before the second monthly exam. Based on the disastrous rankings after the first monthly exam, all the classes other than Class A were putting in every effort to wipe away their humiliation.

But Class A was not relaxed either.

Because in their class, there was not only a perennial first-ranked student in the grade, but also Bai Tian, who would always test within the top thirty.

Many people from the other classes had once placed their hopes on Bai Tian.

They thought that someone like Bai Tian, who did not like studying, had only managed to enter Class A back in the junior high division because of luck. As long as she kept performing badly, her spot could be fought over by someone else.

But disappointingly, she had never once fallen out of the top thirty in the grade rankings.

At first, some people thought it was a coincidence. But as time passed, everyone understood.

Yes, she was mischievous, skipped school, and cut class, but her grades were also real.

If she could play around while still testing in the top thirty, then if she became serious, would there even be a place left for anyone else?

So after entering high school, although most of the students were still the same group as before, Ye Wan had now been added. Faced with these two best examples of “comparing people really can make one die of anger,” the miserable children of Class A studied with even more fear and trembling.

One had to know that being a member of Class A was not only their own glory, but also bragging rights for their parents.

Behind every child who studied hard were parents hoping their child would become a dragon. Once their grades dropped, what awaited them would definitely not be as simple as a sense of defeat.

In such an atmosphere, Bai Tian was not affected at all. On the contrary, the amount of time she slept in class grew longer day by day. Aside from Old Baldy Li, the other teachers did not care about her at all. Because high school was different from junior high. Teachers would no longer take every student into consideration. They could not save those who gave up on themselves, so they might as well put more effort into teaching those who truly worked hard.

After class, the classroom played the English listening audio for the new unit. Bai Tian was drowsy. Those words entered one ear and went out the other, leaving nothing behind.

After one final self-study period, school would be over. She had to seize the time to replenish her sleep.

The person beside her suddenly lay down on the desk, facing her. Bai Tian groggily opened her eyes and saw a somewhat pale face.

After thinking for a moment, she felt around inside her desk drawer, took out a mint candy, tore open the wrapper, and handed it over.

“Eat something sweet. You’ll feel a little better.”

The other person’s long eyelashes trembled. She half-opened her eyes and looked over, then suddenly opened her mouth and swallowed the candy from Bai Tian’s hand.

Her fingertip touched something warm and wet. Bai Tian reflexively pulled her hand back.

The strange feeling climbing up her back made her somewhat alert, but after the other person ate the candy, she closed her eyes again, as if that had only been an unconscious action.

“Do you have low blood sugar?”

Bai Tian quietly wiped her hand and asked.

The person lying on the desk let out a soft “Mm” from her nose, falling as weightlessly as a feather.

“If you feel really awful, go to the infirmary and drink some glucose. A mint candy won’t do much.” Bai Tian propped up her head and yawned.

Ye Wan opened her eyes and looked at her side profile.

“Bai Tian.”

“Mm?” Bai Tian responded subconsciously, her voice carrying a trace of sleepiness. Staying up late for long periods was still too much for her. Even if she slept some of it back during class, she still could not muster any energy.

“Do you hate me that much?”

The classroom’s multimedia system was still playing the English listening audio. After class, there was no shortage of noisy chatter in the room. Students gathered in twos and threes, discussing various things. No one noticed the air in this small corner suddenly freeze.

The girl lying sideways on the desk had a head of smooth, black hair. With gentle brows and eyes, she watched the short-haired girl sitting to her left. The other girl’s uneven bangs fell in front of her forehead, making it difficult to see her eyes clearly.

But Ye Wan still very sharply sensed the sudden sharp aura that Bai Tian revealed after putting away her usual laziness.

She was like a young beast suppressing its anger after being offended, sharp claws and fangs hidden beneath soft fur, ready at any moment to rush forward and deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

Without hiding the slightly wicked amusement in her eyes at all, Ye Wan lifted her gaze and met Bai Tian’s eyes.

“It’s fine. I don’t like you either.”