Daydreaming about Me

Chapter 19

This warm-hearted individual, who preferred to remain anonymous, had prepared two sets of review materials for him: a text document and a thirty-page PowerPoint. The materials were comprehensive, with clear explanations of the key points emphasized by the teacher, as well as all the important knowledge points from the book. Each point was presented clearly and included related exercises, two or three questions per type, with the correct answers provided on the last page.

Shen Juan spent ten minutes going through the contents of these attachments and was somewhat dumbfounded. The materials had been sent at 2:30 in the morning, along with an introduction that sounded like something out of a spam advertisement.

He wondered if she had stayed up until 2:30 AM just to prepare these materials.

Shen Juan found it quite amazing, as if something had activated a simulator in his mind. Lin Yujing, who initially seemed like a flat, two-dimensional character, was gradually becoming more three-dimensional and vivid.

Half a month ago, she had seemed like a depressed girl he thought he would never see again. Now, Shen Juan didn’t know how to describe her; every facet of her was different

and gave him a new understanding of her. She was such an intriguing person that Shen Juan strangely felt that all her attributes blended harmoniously.

The old alley had poor sound insulation, and usually, the sounds from the neighboring houses could be heard. At 2 AM, everything was silent.

The lights in the studio were off, and the moonlight filtered in through the windows, casting a faint glow that barely illuminated the rows of inks on the shelves beside the window.

Shen Juan got up from the sofa, leaned his arms on his knees, and looked at his phone for a few minutes.

Then he lowered his head and laughed.

Shen Juan tossed his phone onto the coffee table, leaned back into the sofa, rubbed his left eye, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

In the quiet, empty studio, he sat on the sofa, covering half his face with laughter, his low chuckles echoing eerily.

He didn’t know why, but he just wanted to laugh and couldn’t stop.

Spending so much time with He Songnan and Wang Yiyang had lowered both his humor and intelligence levels, making him beyond saving.

Shen Juan thought he might indeed be a bit mentally unstable.

Lin Yujing had indeed stayed up until 2:30 AM organizing the study materials. After sending them, she was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open. Satisfied with her work, she patted the corner of the table, closed her physics book, and went to bed, feeling content and ready to sleep.

She believed in putting her heart into whatever she did. As the diligent Lin Yujing, even the study materials she created had to be the best. Given her brilliant desk mate’s intelligence—who couldn’t remember Ohm’s Law after copying it a thousand times and thought pi was part of physics—she figured detailed explanations were necessary.

So she approached the task with the same meticulousness as Liu Fuxiang’s lectures, even racking her brains to analyze what might interest delinquent teens most. After some thought, she messaged Cheng Yi: “President Cheng, what kind of messages do you usually read carefully at night?”

Late at night, Cheng Yi replied instantly: “HD animated GIFs of beauties bathing, and passionate yellow ads.”

Lin Yujing agreed. If she had titled it “Selected Physics Elective Knowledge Points and Detailed Solutions for Grade 11,” Shen Juan might not even glance at it.

During adolescence, with hormones burning fiercely, it was understandable.

Lin Yujing’s weekend was peaceful. Since Fu Mingxiu had driven her to school last time, they hadn’t spoken or even seen each other. Lin Yujing wasn’t sure what to make of their last conversation, where she hadn’t held back and wasn’t particularly friendly.

But Fu Mingxiu’s reaction was surprising, almost bizarrely conciliatory, giving Lin Yujing the illusion that they might get along.

However, the illusion quickly vanished. Like her, he seemed to think it best to avoid each other since they didn’t get along.

Fu Mingxiu, a sophomore in college, stayed on campus after the semester started and didn’t come home last weekend, nor did he plan to this week.

On Monday morning, Lin Yujing dragged a 16-inch suitcase into the car’s back seat. Uncle Li watched her, hesitant to speak, but finally just sighed.

She had stayed at the school dormitory all week, returning only on weekends. Having just moved to the city, she had few belongings and packed only essentials like pajamas and underwear in a small suitcase each weekend.

Since her last unpleasant phone call with Meng Weiguo, she hadn’t heard from him. He hadn’t returned, and Lin Yujing sincerely hoped he wouldn’t. Her dormitory stay was still unknown to him, and the household staff hadn’t told him. His return would inevitably lead to another stormy argument.

At school, Lin Yujing first went to her dormitory to drop off her suitcase. On Monday mornings, everyone was still energetic, not yet crushed by studies and exams. Li Lin had even finished her homework and wasn’t copying it during the early self-study period but playing games with three boys in the class.

One of them was Song Zhiming, a lively student frequently seen in the dean’s office writing self-criticism letters.

Lin Yujing’s first impression of him was on the first day of school, when Liu Fuxiang gave the silly task of “staring at your deskmate for a minute.” Song Zhiming eagerly held

his deskmate’s hand and stared into his eyes for a full minute, even blowing him a kiss at the end, earning a beating from his deskmate.

He was quite the character.

On Monday’s early self-study period, the dean usually held a small meeting with the subject teachers, so he wouldn’t come to the class, leaving it in chaos. Students were doing various things without worrying about the dean’s sudden inspection.

The three boys surrounded Li Lin’s seat. Song Zhiming, seeing Lin Yujing enter, looked up briefly: “Lin, give us a moment, we’ll move when we finish this game.”

He said this while standing up from Lin Yujing’s seat, continuing to play by the desk.

Lin Yujing: “…”

He spoke, but his actions were quite honest.

Lin Yujing put down her backpack and sat, curious: “What game are you playing?”

“A new sniper game,” Song Zhiming didn’t look up, wearing one earphone with the other dangling. “Do you play?”

Lin Yujing blinked: “I’ve never played.”

“No problem, I’ll teach you,” Song Zhiming generously handed his phone to her, leaning over the table to explain, “It’s not hard. Playing on the phone is easier than on a computer. Look, this button is for shooting, and this one is for moving forward—”

Shen Juan arrived ten minutes before the end of the morning self-study session.

As soon as he walked in, he saw a crowd around his desk. His deskmate was turning around, holding a phone, intensely playing a mobile game with a few other boys nearby.

A boy next to her seemed to be teaching her how to play. He was standing beside her, supporting himself with one hand on the desk, leaning in closely with his back bent and head lowered. Their heads were almost touching, and his arm occasionally brushed against her ear as he pointed at her phone screen: “Hey, there’s someone here. See them? Open the scope and shoot them in the head.”

Lin Yujing followed his instructions, aimed the red crosshair at the person’s head, and fired a burst of bullets. However, the person stood unharmed, with not a single shot hitting the mark.

The boy let out an “Oh no!” and naturally placed his hand on her shoulder: “It’s okay. Everyone is like this the first time. I’ll teach you. When you want to shoot at his head, you need to control the recoil…” As he spoke, he lowered his head further, demonstrating on the screen.

Shen Juan stood at the door, watching the two of them get closer and closer, their heads almost touching.

He walked over, stood next to Lin Yujing, and lightly tapped the edge of the desk with his fingertip.

As soon as he approached, the atmosphere around them dropped. Song Zhiming’s hand shook, causing the crosshair to slide off target, and he missed the shot. The person they were aiming at immediately turned and fired back, landing a headshot on Lin Yujing with a “bang.”

Lin Yujing let out a cry, wrinkled her nose in displeasure, stood up to give Shen Juan her seat, returned the phone to Song Zhiming, and thanked him.

“It’s alright, just practice more,” Song Zhiming said cheerfully. “Let’s add each other as friends? We can play together later.”

“Sure,” Lin Yujing replied.

They happily added each other as friends. Lin Yujing sat back down, turned around, and added a note to Song Zhiming’s contact.

When she looked up, she saw Shen Juan sitting sideways, expressionlessly flipping through a book.

“Good morning, deskmate. Have you had breakfast?” Lin Yujing greeted him cheerfully. Shen Juan ignored her.

Lin Yujing was already quite familiar with Shen Juan by now. Ever since she had gone to his studio for hotpot, their relationship had gradually improved, and they would sometimes chat. However, Shen Juan always had his little quirks. Maybe he wasn’t in a good mood because he had gotten up too early, so Lin Yujing didn’t mind and opened the book for the first class.

After about five or six minutes, Shen Juan suddenly closed his book with a “snap,” looked up at her, and asked, “Do you really like playing games?”

“Huh?” Lin Yujing looked up, “No, I don’t play much.”

“Then don’t play in the future either,” Shen Juan said with a not-so-pleasant tone. “With your skills, if you play more, the game company might go bankrupt out of frustration.”

“…”

Lin Yujing realized Shen Juan was in a particularly bad mood today. Maybe he had spent the entire weekend studying physics without making much progress and was stumped by electricity problems? She recalled the practice questions she had given him—they weren’t hard, just basic ones.

“Even the heavens are jealous of a genius like Lin Yujing. Nobody can be perfect,” Lin Yujing said calmly. “And I’m a kind person, so I need to leave some room for others.”

“By the way, did you study this weekend?” Lin Yujing asked. Shen Juan: “No.”

Lin Yujing was persistent, having stayed up until 2:30 AM to write the material: “How about physics?”

“No,” Shen Juan said expressionlessly. “Didn’t I tell you? We social folks never study.” “…”

Lin Yujing was quite annoyed by people giving her the cold shoulder. Whatever mood you’re in has nothing to do with me. If someone treated her coldly, she’d be even colder in return. Usually, she wouldn’t even bother responding and would let them stay cold on their own.

She mustered the last of her patience and said expressionlessly, “Who knows if you said it or not? I never remember unimportant things.”

Shen Juan paused and glanced at her.

The girl’s eyes were cold, and she was starting to get a little emotional. If he didn’t smooth things over, she might ignore him for the rest of the day.

He sighed and said, “I did study. My deskmate sent me review materials at 2:30 AM, and I seriously studied all weekend.”

Lin Yujing glanced at him and corrected, “The anonymous helper Xiao Lin.”

Shen Juan: “…”

Alright.

Shen Juan held his temper and said, “This anonymous helper Xiao Lin also sent me a spammy yellow ad, which I almost filtered as junk.”

Lin Yujing chuckled, lying on the desk and looking at him: “You’re so hypocritical, Shen Juan. I think people should be honest with each other. Would you have read it if it didn’t look like a spammy yellow ad? Don’t you boys like this kind of stuff?”

Shen Juan raised an eyebrow: “Who told you that boys like this kind of stuff?”

Lin Yujing: “Do I need to be told? I sent it to you like that, and you read it seriously all weekend. If I had sent ‘Physics Elective II Knowledge Points + Detailed Solutions’ instead, would you have opened it?”

“Thank me, Shen Juan,” Lin Yujing sighed. “Thank your deskmate for staying up until 2:30 AM, racking her brains, and successfully teaching you Ohm’s law, which even middle schoolers know, bringing your physics score closer to thirty.”

Shen Juan was silent for a few seconds, then slowly smirked: “Anonymous helper Xiao Lin, huh?”

Lin Yujing: “…”

As they talked, she was trapped by his cunning words, even though it was a mutually understood pseudonym.

But it was still a real pseudonym!

Lin Yujing sighed: “Shen Juan, you’re making things difficult for me,” she lowered her voice. “I never leave my name when doing good deeds.”

After a brief silence, Shen Juan suddenly laughed.

His voice was deeper than his peers, making his laughter sound more mature and magnetic.

Shen Juan lowered his eyes, chuckled, then straightened up, gently ruffled her hair, leaned in a bit closer, and said softly, “Thank you, Teacher Xiao Lin.”

Author’s note:

“My Wife is Always So Cute”

Shen Juan really has no status. His wife plays games with other boys and wants to throw a tantrum, but they don’t pamper him. In the end, he has to coax her. What’s the point, huh?