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墨書 Inktalez
On the last day of summer vacation, a banner welcoming new students was hung at the entrance of Qide School, marking the true beginning of the school season.
Zhao Binlin was drinking soy milk, leaning against a stone pillar in boredom. After waiting for a long time, he finally saw Jiang Wen get out of the car.
He ran over and elbowed him in the chest. "Ask your brother."
Jiang Wen leaned down to grab his backpack from the car and pushed him away with one hand. "Get lost."
Zhao Binlin refused to let go, jumping up in frustration. "Jiang Wen, why are you being so tsundere? Did you eat gunpowder this morning? I’m sticking to you today!"
A refreshing breeze blew by, carrying the scent of osmanthus trees. The two of them tugged at each other as they entered the school. Zhao Binlin smiled widely, his dimples showing as he tightened his grip on Jiang Wen's shoulder. "Let me ask you, what's going on with that Mexican mixed-blood girl?"
"I don't know her."
"What do you mean? Isn't she your girlfriend?"
Jiang Wen raised an eyebrow, his expression indifferent. "When did I ever have a girlfriend?"
"Someone saw you playing basketball at AU before, and she was sitting on the sidelines handing you water."
"Such imagination." Jiang Wen was a bit annoyed and removed Zhao Binlin's hand.
He had that same tone again, as if he couldn't care less even if someone pursued him to the ends of the earth.
Zhao Binlin couldn't help but criticize him, scanning him from head to toe. "Bro, don’t be so reserved; I hope your sister won’t have to worry about your sexual orientation in the future."
They walked side by side, tall and slender with a touch of youthful handsomeness, standing out against the bright morning sun at ten o'clock. Even though they were in school uniforms, they somehow matched the school's air of elegance perfectly.
At the stairway, they ran into Xi Gaoyuan, who casually draped his arms around their necks. "Good brothers, you’ve made me wait so long."
"What are you waiting for?"
Xi Gaoyuan's cheeks jiggled slightly as he replied, "For the neatness of our F3."
"F3? You think you deserve that!" Zhao Binlin's lips twitched as he mockingly scolded him. "With your looks, don’t you think you’re a bit of a poser next to me and Jiang Wen?"
"Our school’s recognized handsome guys haven’t spoken yet, so who are you to talk? Right, top dog?"
"Don’t call me that. Enough already." Jiang Wen lost his patience and pushed Xi Gaoyuan away a bit. "You all better not pose as me."
As the three entered the classroom, a few people who had been chatting stopped and stood up to greet them. Zhao Binlin and Xi Gaoyuan responded with equal enthusiasm, while Jiang Wen seemed less interested.
They all came from well-off families, their parents having business dealings with each other. They had played together since childhood, even their watch styles were similar. Each of them had older siblings and were the most favored youngest in their families, leading to a smooth upbringing that made them indifferent about how to interact with others.
Among them, Jiang Wen was the most aloof. He spoke little and tended to ignore those he wasn’t familiar with.
The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, and the classroom was noisy. A girl with black-framed glasses stood up at the back and pointed to a stack of papers on the podium. "Classmates, take one each and hand it back to me when you're done."
Jiang Wen didn’t have a pen, so he borrowed one from someone else. He leaned over the podium to fill out the form, his brows lowered in concentration.
This was a rather ordinary scene. But when the clean, transparent sunlight fell on his tousled hair, the girls in the front row who had been chatting lowered their voices.
After all, nicknames aren’t given for nothing.
Both at school and outside of it, everyone—men and women alike—loved to stare at Jiang Wen’s face. However, his beauty carried an ambiguous quality that blended feminine traits; his delicate nose and long black brows framed a coldly stunning face that seemed almost too exquisite for a man. It evoked both pity and teasing—such a face wasted on a man.
Jiang Wen hated being called that. Usually, only Xi Gaoyuan and a few others dared to call him that for fun.
The form only required his exam scores and graduation school, along with some contact information for his family, so it was quick to fill out.
As he wrote, his eyes inadvertently scanned another sheet. The page was filled with chaotic, wild handwriting, and the name at the top was particularly bold and fierce, as if it could pierce through the paper—Feng Ning.
He buried himself in completing the form and submitted it, casually choosing a spot to sit down. Zhao Binlin, unable to stay still, tossed his backpack onto a nearby table and went off to mingle with familiar faces in the crowd.
Amidst the noisy chaos, Jiang Wen spread his books across the table, lazily resting his forehead on his hand, lost in thought. Suddenly, someone poked him from behind, and a voice emerged.
"Wow, it's really you."
Jiang Wen could hardly believe his ears. After a moment, he shifted his gaze and turned his head, frowning. "What are you doing here?"
Feng Ning had stayed up late eating snacks until dawn and hadn’t slept well. Today, she was forced to wake up early by Qilan and had come to the classroom to catch up on half an hour of sleep. She looked drowsy, her body sprawled over the desk like a rag doll, with several red marks pressed into her face.
Hearing Jiang Wen's question, Feng Ning propped her chin on one hand, exuding a carefree attitude. With a smug tone, she replied, "I'm here for class. Is that not allowed?"
She had a habit of teasing any handsome guy nearby without an ounce of shyness.
Then she smiled. Her smile was natural—strong and direct. Her eyes squinted into crescent moons, radiating warmth with a hint of mischief. "Since we’re so fated to meet, let’s get acquainted! What’s your name, handsome?"
He remained silent.
Anticipating this reaction from him, she continued nonchalantly with her self-introduction. "I’m Feng Ning—‘Feng’ as in ‘meeting too late,’ and ‘Ning’ as in ‘rather bend than break.’ Remember it!"
He furrowed his brow slightly, a half-smile forming on his lips. "‘Rather bend than break’?"
"What's wrong?"
After a brief pause, Jiang Wen smirked, "Read it in the fourth tone."
"Huh?" Feng Ning found it interesting; it was the first time someone corrected her pronunciation, and she was intrigued. "Then help me come up with an idiom?"
She thought there would be no further response.
Just a few seconds later, Jiang Wen glanced over lightly, his eyes mixed with mild disdain, then turned back, "Chaos reigns."
*
The homeroom teacher entered the classroom and spoke only a couple of sentences before announcing that everyone should head to the Auditorium for the Opening Ceremony.
The area was divided by class, and it was packed with students. Before it officially started, several outstanding Freshman Representatives were being showcased on the central LED Screen in a loop.
The shy girl from yesterday sat nearby. She was the first to arrive in the classroom that morning, with Feng Ning coming in second, so they naturally became desk mates. Meng Taoyu particularly liked to keep her head down; she rarely spoke to others.
However, Feng Ning was great at chatting. She took the initiative to open up about her past experiences of fighting over hair with others because of hair dryers, transitioning into discussions about comedy comics, talking non-stop like a stand-up comedian, which occasionally made Meng Taoyu laugh. At that moment, a girl with a Lobelia Hairstyle stood a few steps away and called out, "Meng Taoyu, come out for a moment."
Meng Taoyu's expression stiffened; she fell silent for a few seconds before shrugging and getting up.
Feng Ning sat by the aisle and observed her pale complexion for a while. After Lobelia Hairstyle urged her several times, she slowly stood up to let her pass.
With her gone, there was nothing more to do. Feng Ning felt sleepy but couldn't take a nap. To stay awake, she began listening to a couple of people chatting behind her.
"I just ran into Pei Shurou; she looks so mature and has such an aura. She really doesn't seem like a girl our age. By the way, Cheng Jiajia was actually laughing and chatting with her."
"Is this for real?" a girl exclaimed in surprise. "Cheng Jiajia? Wasn't she always so self-righteous, saying that Campus Belle never chose Pei Shurou and privately calling her sharp-nosed and mean?"
Another person mocked, "Isn't it obvious? She's trying to climb the social ladder."
"How so?"
"Zhao Binlin, Jiang Wen, and Pei Shurou from Class Seven—those are the ones who hang out together. Very few people can break into their circle. If Cheng Jiajia has her eyes on someone, she has to first win over Pei Shurou, you know what I mean?"
"Who?"
"Jiang Wen. Do you know him? Look, that's him on the screen right now."
Feng Ning looked up in response.
"Jiang Wen is super unique. In Junior High School, he often gets confessed to on the street and receives love letters, but he never accepts any."
Someone next to her chimed in with more gossip. "Did you know? That really odd girl from our grade also confessed to him. Can you believe it? Her family can't even afford a used car; what was she thinking chasing after Jiang Wen?"
A few girls lowered their voices, laughing mockingly, their tone dripping with superiority. It was such a dull topic, yet they kept circling back to it, chewing over the same points without getting tired of it.
Boring. Feng Ning was completely uninterested and had no mood to continue listening.
"So that little brat with a sharp tongue is named Jiang Wen, huh?" she thought coldly, even feeling a bit malicious. With so many people fawning over him, it's no wonder he developed such a bad attitude!
The lengthy Opening Ceremony finally concluded after the principal finished speaking, but Meng Taoyu hadn't returned until the end. Shuang Yao came over to find Feng Ning as they followed the crowd outside.
Jiang Wen felt someone tugging at his shirt from behind. He turned around to see Xi Gaoyuan draping an arm over his shoulder, flipping through photos he had just taken on his phone. "You looked like such a fool during your speech! Tsk tsk, just look at that pretentious expression—you were just missing a wave to your female fans in the audience."
The older generation of the Jiang family had all served in the military, so Jiang Wen was trained from a young age to maintain a strict posture, as if he were in a military drill. He had to stand straight, with his back unbent and shoulders squared.
As he spoke from the podium, dressed in his school uniform with the school badge pinned to his chest, he looked down at the audience while pulling the microphone closer to his mouth. Below him, sophomore girls whispered to each other, but he remained expressionless, maintaining a distance that resembled the tallest pine tree standing proud in the winter snow.
Xi Gaoyuan put away his playful demeanor and, somewhat theatrically, imitated Jiang Wen’s concluding remarks. “A person’s life is one of struggle. From this moment on, let us embody the spirit of perseverance and together compose a beautiful tomorrow for Qide.”
“Hahaha! I have to say, Jiang Wen, you’re becoming more and more like your dad,” Zhao Binlin said, laughing so hard he nearly fell over before managing to regain his composure.
Jiang Wen remained composed, suppressing a cold smile. “This is a public occasion; you two should keep your distance if you’re going to act crazy.”
“Headliner, you’re so cool; I really like it,” Zhao Binlin replied.
Jiang Wen shot him a disdainful glance. “Don’t gross me out.” He then looked up and met a teasing gaze from someone nearby.
There were several people between them. Their eyes locked for a moment, and Feng Ning raised her right hand, waving it lightly while mouthing something to him.
Jiang Wen was momentarily taken aback, watching her figure disappear into the crowded space. It wasn’t until Zhao Binlin leaned in and shouted in his ear that he snapped back to reality. “What are you daydreaming about?” He glanced around.
After half a second of barely noticeable hesitation, Jiang Wen casually replied, “Nothing.”
“That girl over there, right?” Zhao Binlin pointed her out excitedly with his finger. “I think she’s from the class next door.”
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