My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn’t Need Any Comforting

Chapter 12

Qiao Shao slept well during noon break.

When he woke up, one of his earphones had fallen out and he hadn’t noticed. Had he been at home, he would have jumped awake immediately.

Chen Su came out of the bathroom and said, “Let’s go. The first class in the afternoon is chemistry, so we have to go to the laboratory.”

Qiao Shao woke up immediately, he patted his cheek, and took off the other earphone still in his ear, “Let me wash my face first.”

Chen Su asked, “Do you need any help?”

Qiao Shao shook his head. “I can do it myself.”

He had to adapt quickly. It would take at least half a month for his ankle to get better, he can’t be bothering people all the time.

Chen Su also didn’t insist. He went to clean up his desk, putting away all the unfinished papers in the drawer.

Qiao Shao shoved his phone under the pillow. After folding the quilt, he felt the pillow shake.

Was it his cell phone?

“I have physics notes from the last semester. Would you like to see them?” Chen Su asked him.

Qiao Shao immediately forgot about his phone and quickly said, “Yes, yes, please.”

Chen Su pulled out a clean and tidy document pouch from the bookshelf. Inside was a neat stack of A4 papers.

Qiao Shao gazed upon it and exclaimed in admiration, “It’s amazing!”

The A4 papers were covered in print-like handwriting, each line and stroke was written beautifully and clearly.

The notes are in the form of a mind map, which diffused outward from the basic knowledge points. It was laid out so plainly and simply that it could be understood with a single look.

Chen Su, “I think you’re a little unfamiliar with our previous lessons.”

Each semester was always made up of a few months. Qiao Shao came over in May, already quite near the end of the semester.

Having such notes would be of extreme help to him.

“Thank you so much.” Qiao Shao didn’t know how to thank Chen Su.

It seemed that Chen Su rarely heard people say this to him, and he said a bit embarrassedly, “It’s nothing.”

Qiao Shao packed away the notes and shoved the matter about his phone to the back of his mind.

After washing his face, he left the room with Chen Su.

Going downstairs was a lot easier than going upstairs, and he wasn’t all that tired even though he had to hop all the way down.

It was still early by the time they arrived at the laboratory, and not a lot of students were already there.

The seating arrangement in the laboratory was the same as the classroom’s.

Qiao Shao sat down, and his seatmate was naturally absent.

He thought nothing of it and just looked at the lab tools with great interest.

Not having He Shen around wasn’t so bad. This way, all the tools would be his and he can enjoy doing the experiment by himself.

Just as he thought this, He Shen arrived.

He swept a glance across the laboratory and saw Qiao Shao.

It was good to be tall with long legs. In the blink of an eye, he had walked from the door to the back row.

As soon as He Shen sat down, he asked Qiao Shao, “Why didn’t you reply to my message?”

Qiao Shao looked at him blankly, “Huh?”

He Shen understood. “Didn’t you take a look at your phone?”

Qiao Shao said, “You’re not supposed to use your phone when you’re in school.”

The corners of He Shen’s pursed lips turned downwards, “Well, lucky me. I winded up running all over the place.”

Qiao Shao was puzzled, “Why were you running around?”

He Shen took out his mobile phone in the classroom and set it in front of Qiao Shao.

Qiao Shao was immediately nervous, “Aren’t you scared of having it confiscated!” He said in a low voice.

He Shen said, “The teacher doesn’t mind.”

The teacher just doesn’t care about your students like you that he can’t manage anymore! Qiao Shao silently cursed.

He had very good eyesight, completely unlike Lou Xiao who was almost blind. As soon as He Shen handed it over, he could see clearly. It was opened on their WeChat dialogue box&#k2013;

Without Friday: Are you awake?

Qiao Shao did not reply.

Without Friday: How are you going to get to class?

Qiao Shao did not reply.

Without Friday: I have something I need to do. Wait, I’ll get Lou Xiao to pick you up.

Looking at the time stamp, Qiao Shao and Chen Su had already gone downstairs by then.

Qiao Shao said, “I didn’t hear my phone.”

Actually, the phone did vibrate, and he’d heard it but, but unfortunately he didn’t think it was anything important.

He Shen said, “I thought you’d gotten angry because I didn’t come to pick you up.”

Qiao Shao was speechless. “What’s there to be angry about that?”

Besides, if he had seen this message, he most certainly would have replied. Have Lou Xiao pick him up? Let the school bully help him to the laboratory? How is that keeping a low profile?

He Shen said, “I was so scared that I immediately dropped what I was doing and rushed to the dorm.”

Qiao Shao explained, “I went with Chen Su. This is a lab class. It’s father than the classroom.”

He Shen paused, and said quietly, “Yeah … I didn’t know we were having a lab class until I had gone to the classroom.”

Afterwards, he had run here to confirm the whereabouts of the little shorty.

So, it was actually true that he had been running around the campus.

Qiao Shao’s heart felt warm.

However, with He Shen’s next words, the warmth in his heart was quickly extinguished by a bucket of water. “I was so worried that you were bitterly hobbling down the steps by yourself. And that you would accidentally tumble down and end up in the hospital, bedridden for half a month! All the while crying your eyes out or something …”

F*ck it! To think he was actually touched for a moment!

Qiao Shao said chillingly cold, “Sorry to disappoint you.”

He Shen tilted his head and looked at him, “You really didn’t?”

The short hair on his forehead slipped when he tilted his head, making normally cold-looking features appear a bit boyish.

With a completely blank face, Qiao Shao conceded that this guy was a bit good-looking, but what’s the use of it?

This bastard was in essence simply ABOMINABLE — not just with a capital ‘A’ but with every letter in caps!

“As if.” Qiao Shao rolled his eyes at him, “Just what do you take me for?”

Was he some dainty and fragile little girl that he would go so far as to cry?

He Shen froze, and suddenly blurted out what he’d been thinking “… a child.”

What?

Qiao Shao looked up at him, starting at him with a crazy look in his eyes.

And yet He Shen still laughed. The tiredness in his eyes was completely swept away. He patted Qiao Shao’s head and said, “You’re like my family’s little kid.”

Qiao Shao slapped his hand away and said, “Don’t touch my head.”

I might stop growing!

Immediately, he raised his voice and countered, “Just how old are you, He Tongxue, that you’d take yourself to be a father?”

“Well,” He Tongxue calmly said, “I did “mature” early.”

Mature … early?

That is not how you say that you grew up before your time!

Qiao Shao realized that getting mad while trading words with him was just digging himself a pit, so he waved him away, “Step aside. I’m going to attend class.”

He Shen really did leave. He didn’t actually come to the lab to attend class.

Qiao Shao was dumbfounded–just what the hell did he come here for then!

Was it really just confirm if he cried … oh…was it confirm how he was doing?

While doing the experiment, Qiao Shao was a bit absent-minded.

It couldn’t be that He Shen thought of him as his own Friday, right …

A Friday-less Robinson, finally picked up Friday, and since then, on the island…

What a mess!

He wasn’t some poor savage!

Qiao Shao refocused and concentrated on doing the experiment.

The third lesson in the afternoon was physical ed. Qiao Shao naturally wouldn’t need to attend given his circumstances.

He waited for everyone to leave before opening the window, letting the wind carry in the voices from the class next door as they read their lessons aloud.

Qiao Shao took out the exercise sheet, intending to do the problems.

At this time, He Shen, who had skipped two lessons, returned.

Qiao Shao looked at him, “It’s PE class right now.”

He Shen yawned. “En.”

Qiao Shao asked him, “Aren’t you going to the school field?”

“Sleepy.” He Shen lay on the table and closed his eyes. “I’m going to take a nap.”

After speaking, his breaths turned even and he sank into slumber.

Qiao Shao, “…” amazing, simply amazing!

What the hell has this guy done all night? Was he playing games all night? Partying like crazy? Dancing and singing karaoke?

*Groan*, he probably did everything but sleep!

“Problem teenager …” Qiao Shao muttered, and got up to close the open window once again.

Although it was May, the weather today was pretty bad. It had been overcast all afternoon and the wind was quite cold.

With the window closed, the sound of voices from outside was cut off. Qiao Shao began to feel a bit unnerved, but after sitting down, he heard the quiet breathing of the person next to him and he calmed down again.

Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief, opening the exercise sheet, he began to tackle the problems earnestly.

Twenty minutes later, Qiao Shao, who had been doing his problems, was infected by his seatmate and he too toppled over.

This person who perennially suffered from insomnia, suddenly fell asleep in the middle of the day, at a time not normally allotted for sleep.

Luckily, the Qiao family wasn’t there to see it, or they would have been moved to tears.

Ten minutes before the end of PE class, Lin Su and Mo Xiaoxiao snuck back into the classroom.

The second half of PE class was free time. Lin Su had just bought some fan merch and wanted to share it with Mo Xiaoxiao.

The two of them went back to the classroom in secret and saw greeted with the sight of two people sleeping in the back row.

At dusk, the classroom was covered with a thin layer of light. The silver-white tabletops looked like mirrors, reflecting more of the warm light.

The two people in the last row looked like they were sleeping under the glittering rays of orange light. Their hair looked like overflowing fine and beautiful, silken strands

Lin Su’s eyes widened.

Mo Xiaoxiao sucked in her breath.

In fact, there was a gap between the two desks. Although they were ‘seatmates’, it simply meant that their desks were closer together than others and that there was no aisle between them. They weren’t stuck together, after all, all the desks were single desks.

But, right this moment, from their perspective, it looked like the two were nestled together.

After watching them silently for a few seconds, the two girls retreated together.

No longer thinking about showing off her fan merch, Lin Su solemnly said, “I think this is retribution.”

Mo Xiaoxiao looked equally as solemn. “Yes.”

In the next second, the eyes of the two turned bright. “At long last, Lou Xiao has finally received retribution for making our god He Shen wear so many green hats!”

With her hands around her waist, Lin Su laughed, “Lou Xiao, far more than being made to wear a green hat, has failed to secure his position as empress!”

Mo Xiaoxiao agreed, “Bamboo horses are no match against drops from the sky. Our seniors did not lie to me!”

“Sigh …” Lin Suqing cleared her throat. “Our transfer student really does look so good.”

Mo Xiaoxiao also hurriedly said, “Truly fine and tender-skinned. Except for being a bit too thin, he’s perfect.”

Lin Su reached out her hand. “A perfect match for our god He Shen!”

Mo Xiaoxiao held her hand. “Much better than that slag Lou!”

The world of girls today was truly a terrifying place for boys.

Near the end of the class, He Shen woke up first. When he opened his eyes, he saw a small and delicate face like white porcelain.

He Shen froze.

After a long while, he realized that this was his new seatmate.

Truly so white.

He Shen couldn’t help but take another look.

He then caught sight of the exercise sheet on Qiao Shao’s desk.

Did the little shorty fall asleep while solving the problems?

He Shen smiled and carefully pulled out the exercise sheet.

Math exercises — He Shen glanced at it and seeing that the problems were too easy, decided that it wasn’t worth answering.

Qiao Shao had finished half of it. After looking it over, the mirth in He Shen’s eyes deepened.

He got six out of eleven questions wrong. For this little shorty, getting first in the exams would prove to be beyond difficult.

At this time Qiao Shao also woke up. He opened his eyes and saw his own exercise sheet…

Sh*t, why did he fall asleep!

Qiao Shao felt guilty and snatched his paper back.

He Shen saw that he was awake and kindly pointed out to him, “This isn’t how you solve this problem…”

He hadn’t finished speaking when Qiao Shao looked at him in surprise, “Then how? Can you solve it?”

He Shen said frankly, “I can solve all of it.”

Qiao Shao was now completely awake and wouldn’t believe his bragging, “Then why don’t you do it?”

This exercise sheet was an after class school assignment!

He Shen said, “If I did it, then what else would you do?”

This righteous tone made Qiao Shao choke.

“Fine, fine, fine. You’re so capable, you can do everything …” Qiao Shao ignored him, biting his pen as he continued to do the questions, “Oh so smart and intelligent sir, please don’t bother this mere stupid bird.”

He Shen decided not to deal him anymore blows. With chin in hand, he watched the little kid finish the exercises.

Taking a quick look, at most Qiao Shao could get sixty-five point on this exercise sheet…

Oh, he got another question wrong, sixty.

Good enough to pass, at least.