"Congratulations to Shi Wangyue for winning the first prize in the 27th National High School Mathematics Competition, let’s all..."
The international class teacher stood on the podium, jubilantly announcing the good news to the entire class.
As soon as she began, Xia Dai immediately stood up from the back of the classroom and started clapping. Her enthusiastic applause soon encouraged other students in the class to clap for the scholar of their class.
The teacher laughed with joy, "At the same time, congratulations to Shi Wangyue for being selected for the 2016 International Mathematics Olympiad national training team."
She was truly ecstatic, as this was an honor that no student from their former international class at Di Yin had ever won.
Shi Wangyue really made her, the international class, and the school proud.
...
Zhang Xuan did not clap with the rest of the class, but instead looked at the boy not far from her, who remained cold and indifferent as if the commotion around him had nothing to do with him. A heavy feeling surged within her.
She heard a classmate beside her whisper, "The scholar is really mighty. Just recently, he won the gold medal in the National Youth Informatics Technological Innovation Competition, and now he wins another such incredible award. Tsk tsk, we are all human, why is there such a huge gap?"
"Last time I was at home, I saw a video of his competition on TV, wow, it was so impressive! I couldn’t help but watch it for a while, and my mom saw it too. She was so envious that she started criticizing me for everything now..."
"Same world, same mom. My mom is no different. Ever since she saw the scholar on TV after his competition and knew he was in our class, she insisted I befriend him and learn from him."
"Your mom is so funny. The scholar is like a flower on a high peak; how can we mere mortals aspire to reach him?"
"Exactly, we’re not Ning Youguang."
"Haha, exactly, exactly."
The boy became more and more brilliant, and Zhang Xuan found it impossible not to be attracted to him every single day.
But to her, he was as cold as the eternal snow on the Tianshan Mountains, except when he was in front of that girl.
No matter how warm she tried to be, there was not the slightest sign of it melting.
Your teenage years and a young girl’s proud self-esteem cannot be provoked. The more it’s provoked, the more she wants to conquer. She felt like a fool who wouldn’t turn back until she hit a wall, all her attention fixed on him.
She wasn’t short of admirers, but a boy who excelled in everything, was aloof and indifferent, posed a real challenge.
She didn’t think she was inferior to that other girl. Why could the boy be so gentle and kind to her, yet treat herself as if she were invisible?
Why?
Her competitive nature made it difficult to accept being treated with such disparity.
She knew that the seemingly cold people often had fiery hearts. Once they liked someone, they would be serious about it; their entire heart and life would belong to that person.
She wanted to see what it would look like when such a cold and aloof boy melted for her...
One day outside of school, she ran into him alone. She happily approached him to talk. At the time, her condition was excellent; her makeup was perfect, and her attire elegant and fashionable.
But then, without any ripple of emotion on his face, a trace of sarcasm flashed in his deep eyes, and the cold, mocking tone of his words shattered all her confidence and self-esteem in an instant.
He said, "Don’t touch me, disgusting."
Cold enough to make her heart feel chilled.
She had always been very satisfied with her appearance and knew how to win hearts, always being the one praised in any social situation.
From childhood to adulthood, there was nothing she couldn’t get, no one she couldn’t have.
But with this boy, all her efforts became a joke.
After that day, she broke down.
She couldn’t accept her self-esteem being trampled on like that by him.
Back at school, she immediately went to the teacher’s office and asked to change seats.
The teacher found it odd and curiously asked, "Isn’t it good to be deskmates with Shi Wangyue? You can ask him for help with anything you don’t understand with your studies."
At that time, she forced a smile and said, "It’s great, but from that seat, I find it a bit uncomfortable to see the blackboard, so I’d like to change seats."
The teacher was easygoing and quickly helped her switch seats.
...
Warm water and peach blossoms, spring breeze scented the sleeves.
The light clouds drifted shallowly, the green bamboos turned into a lover.
This spring, during the season when peach blossoms were in full bloom.
The news that Di Yin’s famous goddess Zhang Xuan was dating Di Yin’s most admired Shi family’s eldest son, Shi Tongyang, spread wildly around the school.
The teachers heard about it too but chose not to interfere.