My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn’t Need Any Comforting

Chapter 19

Qiao Shao finished reading and saw He Shen lying on his desk with his eyes half open.

The two locked eyes and He Shen winked his left eye.

Qiao Shao thought, sleeping in broad daylight and you still have the nerve to wink! If I were the teacher, I must definitely give you panda eyes!

The English teacher on the podium was already praising Qiao Shao, saying that his recitation had been fluent and his pronunciation, eloquent. He must have spent a lot of his personal time to practice and the teacher hoped everyone could follow his example.

Hearing these praises, Qiao Shao was kind of embarrassed. He reservedly lowered his head and fiddled with the things on the desk.

Then the teacher suddenly called out, “He Shen.”

He closed his eyes with a swish.

Qiao Shao: “…”

The teacher called again: “He Shen?”

Qiao Shao really wanted to tell the teacher, ‘Teacher, it’s no use calling him. Just come and slap him awake!

However, the teacher “accepted a compromise”. Like he had never called out a name, the teacher turned to the others and said, “The next text is an interview, two students need to cooperate. Which two students want to give this article a try?”

For a moment, there was absolute silence.

The interview in the textbook was long and complicated. There were a lot of strange words. Who would be willing to read it?

Moreover, Qiao Shao had read the previous paragraph so well. If they were compared to him, the teacher might just throw them out the window.

The English teacher was still encouraging them. “Be brave. When learning English, we can’t just read all the time. Although speaking is not covered in the exam, it is the basis of language and the basis of communication …”

These clichéd speeches were repeated so often that everyone was tired of hearing them.

The teacher said, “Don’t be shy, get up and read it. Read it bravely. Teacher won’t criticize you.”

Seeing that no one raised their hand, Qiao Shao felt distressed for their teacher and had to raise his hand again.

The teacher’s eyes brightened and he said, “Okay! Qiao Shao! Is there anyone else? Does anyone want to cooperate with Qiao Shao?”

The students shrank into themselves even tighter, like they wanted to drill into the table drawer, and turned into a humble little eraser!

Surprisingly, someone raised their hand at this time.

First, someone in front of the class started to raise their hand, and when the teacher was about to call out “Chen Su”, someone else stood up and said lazily, “I’ll do it.”

Everyone glanced back and saw the half asleep and half awake, god He Shen.

Qiao Shao could only remain seated because of his foot, and he had to look up to see him.

It was a pity that He Shen was looking straight ahead and didn’t give him a glance.

Qiao Shao muttered in his heart, ‘Why didn’t you just behave yourself and stay sleeping? Just what wicked idea did you get in your head? It will be completely embarrassing if you get 9 out of 10 words wrong!

The teacher was overjoyed, “Okay, you two choose your roles. Who will be the female reporter?”

At this moment He Shen bowed his head and looked at Qiao Shao, “Will you be the girl or will I?”

What a terrible question!

Qiao Shao instinctively replied, “I won’t be the girl.”

He Shen said, “Alright. I’ll be the female reporter.”

At this time, Qiao Shao had a realization. The female reporter’s questions were very short, and the phrases were simple. It wasn’t at the same level of difficulty as the interviewee’s answers.

No wonder He Shen had asked so ambiguously, he just wanted to be lazy and speak less!

Qiao Shao didn’t care. His reading will be a lot better than He Shen’s fumbling attempt.

Because Qiao Shao had a sprained ankle, it would be inconvenient for him to stand up. So He Shen also sat down to match with him.

The two read the interview, and they worked seamlessly together.

Because the sentences were complicated and Qiao Shao didn’t want to disappoint the teacher, he read the text earnestly, keeping a sharp focus.

He Shen was not the same though. He didn’t look too much at his textbook, but the delivered the interview questions casually. Not only did deliver it perfectly, with not a single error but he also spoke clearly, and his pronunciation was not any worse than Qiao Shao’s.

They got through this five or six minute worth of content, trading one question for one answer. Apart from He Shen’s voice being not at all like a female reporter’s, there were no flaws.

In the end, the teacher once again gave them unrestrained praise.

Qiao Shao was quite pleased with himself. He even glanced at He Shen a few times. Not bad, looks like my slacker seatmate isn’t completely hopeless.

He Shen took a pen from the table drawer and wrote something on the book.

Qiao Shao took a look–

“You read that very well.”

Qiao Shao was never one to scribble on his books. He found an empty notebook and wrote, “You weren’t so bad either.” Although the sentence was simple, not stumbling through any of the words was already outstanding.

He Shen wrote under his sentence. “I’m still far from your level.”

That’s for sure. Qiao Shao encouraged him. “You are very talented in English. You’ll get better if you listen in class.”

He took a look at his full and mellow handwriting. His thin lips curved up in a slight smile, and he wrote, “I’m very talented in all aspects.”

Honest people tell it as it is.

Qiao Shao wrote forcefully on the paper. “So what if you have talent? Can you learn by sleeping all day?”

He Shen originally wanted to write ‘I can’, but after thinking about it, he changed it to “If I get some sleep, I’ll be able to focus in class.”

How was this any different from ‘I have to eat my fill so that I’ll have the energy to diet’!

Qiao Shao ignored him, and listened attentively to class.

When he turned back, someone was already asleep…

He really was going to follow his own advice!

Qiao Shao was so annoyed that he wanted to poke him in the head and sent him a message — This young man cannot be taught well!

After the back to back English lessons, it was finally time for mid-morning exercises.

What Qiao Shao had been worrying about all morning was finally going to have a conclusion. He Shen had promised him that he was going to take him to look at the surveillance video during mid-morning exercises.

He was a little nervous, but he wasn’t afraid of anything else except that He Shen might have just been putting on airs and had deceived him.

Did the security camera really capture anything?

If it were that simple, then why didn’t Chen Su investigate it?

Of course, Chen Su might never have thought about this possibility. After all, the past him didn’t even have to courage to clear his name. He had just directly given up.

Qiao Shao waited for all the other students to leave before nudging He Shen. “It’s mid-morning exercises now.”

He Shen didn’t move, like he had totally blacked out.

Qiao Shao had to push him again. “Get up!”

He Shen still slept soundly.

Qiao Shao said unhappily, “You’re not going to feign sleep to get out of this, right? Get up! You said you’d take me to see the surveillance.”

He pulled harder. He Shen, who was asleep, raised his arm and pulled him down against the desk. “Ssshhh, sleep.” His voice was hoarse and tired, as if he hadn’t slept for hundreds of years.

Qiao Shao’s eyes widened. “He Shen!”

He exploded in anger but he couldn’t get free. What the hell! Is this guy’s arm made of iron?

This cry of anger managed to rouse He Shen.

He stared puzzled at the small face pinned under his arm, um … an adorably fierce face.

“Ah …” He Shen let go of him and apologized, “I was half-asleep.”

Qiao Shao rubbed his neck and said, “Are you going to take me to watch the surveillance video?”

For this matter, he really had ‘to endure so much humiliation’!

He Shen yawned, “Go, let’s go.”

Saying so, he helped Qiao Shao up.

Qiao Shao was anxious to take care of business, so he didn’t argue with him.

The two were on their way out when He Shen stopped again.

Qiao Shao was afraid that he’d gotten a wicked idea in his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Your hair’s messed up.” He Shen reached out and fiddled him with short hair.

Qiao Shao said unhappily, “It’s because you pressed me down against the table.”

“I was muddle-headed from sleep.”

“Well, who told you to stay up all night!”

He Shen gave a sigh and showing the self-importance of the aged, said, “It’s done out of necessity.”

Qiao Shao: “…” More like, it’s done because of your love for gaming!

Qiao Shao finally understood. Given the chance, this guy just won’t stop talking. “Are you done?”

Mr. Hairstylist He finally took back his hand. “Ok. Now we’ve got a good-looking young lad.”

Qiao Shao kept his mouth shut.

The two boys then found that there were two girls standing in the doorway.

They were the girls assigned to inspect during mid-morning exercises.

The girls stood ramrod straight, the rosters in their hands. With voices trembling, they said, “Sorry! Excuse us! Bye!”

The two the quickly slipped away. Along with the sound of their receding footsteps there came a ‘hehehe’.

Qiao Shao was silent. He turned to He Shen. “Were they …” They were letting their imaginations run wild again!

“It looks like it.”

Qiao Shao wondered, “Why do they like this?”

He Shen muttered, unsure, “It could be considered as a kind of balance. Men used to make fun of girls, but now girls can make fun of boys, too.”

Hmm … sounds reasonable, but it doesn’t seem right.

He Shen also said, “Well, we boys must be like gentlemen. Anyway, it’s not doing anything to us. We’re fine, and it make the girls happy.”

Therefore, on East High’s wall, he and Lou Xiao once again became a hot topic.

Because the concerned parties themselves did not care at all.

The monitoring room was in the Academic Affairs Office and fortunately it was on the first floor. The two arrived without much trouble.

The closer Qiao Shao approached, the more nervous he got. But when they were really about to go in, he found out that…He Shen really hadn’t lied to him.

The teachers in charge in this area was familiar with He Shen.

As soon as He Shen explained his intentions, the teacher immediately said, “Go ahead and check it. I’m stepping out for a smoke.” Then he went out.

Qiao Shao was stunned. “It’s … as simple as that?”

He Shen laughed. “I told you it was easy.”

“Okay …”

He Shen pulled him to sit and said, “It should be this camera. Do you have a general date?”

Qiao Shao asked Chen Su long ago, and quickly gave the date. “Look at the days before and after too. He wasn’t too sure about the specific date either.”

“Okay.”

He played it at 16x the speed, and they soon saw Chen Su.

Qiao Shao said immediately, “It’s here!”

He Shen slowed down the video and they now clearly understood the whole story.

Chen Su hadn’t lied to Qiao Shao. He did pick up the schoolbag from the trash.

And there was a reason why this schoolbag was in the trash.

It was a male student playing a prank and he’d thrown the backpack in the trash.

The owner only knew that his schoolbag was missing and when he’d seen Chen Su with it, he thought the other had taken it.

As for why the mischievous boy didn’t clarify the situation, Qiao Shao was going to have to ask the boy himself.