"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Seeing Su Zelin staring into space without speaking, Qin Shiqing furrowed her eyebrows and reminded him again.
"Come on, Shiqing, do you really think this guy is the type to lose sleep over exam anxiety? It's ridiculous that you even believe that!"
Qin Shiqing's deskmate, Tang Yan, a girl with slanted bangs and a chic short bob, criticized him with a barrage of words.
As Qin Shiqing's best friend and Su Zelin's classmate from junior to senior high school for six years, she was quite familiar with her friend's childhood friend's temperament.
Qin Shiqing was just concerned. After taking a closer look, she noticed that Su Zelin's face was flushed and he seemed full of energy, showing no signs of insomnia fatigue.
"Su Zelin, you're beyond hope!"
The girl's light scolding, tinged with slight anger, had its own charm.
"Qin Shiqing, why do you like nagging so much? It's so annoying. Anyway, there are only a few days left before the college entrance exam, and my grades are just destined to muddle through and wait for death!"
After collecting his thoughts and accepting the fact of his rebirth, Su Zelin quickly got into character, lazily responding.
Qin Shiqing felt helpless. Her childhood friend had no interest in studying from a young age. No matter how much she pushed, it was in vain, wasting his good brain. She could only lament the waste.
"Su Zelin, by the way, your spoken English is really not bad. It sounded like something out of a movie. I couldn't understand half of what you said to teacher Lisa!"
Tang Yan spoke again, a bit surprised and indignant: "Why is it that someone like you, who slacks off, has better English grades than me?"
"Xiaoyanzi, you can't say that. I put in a lot of effort too, okay!"
Su Zelin laughed it off.
Xiaoyanzi was Tang Yan's nickname, because her eyes were big and round, and her personality was lively and straightforward. She spoke like a machine gun, much like Xiaoyanzi from "Princess Pearl," although looks-wise she'd be considered a low-budget version.
The slacker grinned cheekily, "I watch foreign films at home all the time for English practice!"
"Really?"
Xiaoyanzi was half-believing, half-doubting.
"Xiaoyanzi, don't listen to his nonsense!"
Thinking of something, Qin Shiqing spat, a bright blush appearing on her jade-like face.
She leaned over to her deskmate and whispered a few words, and Xiaoyanzi suddenly realized.
"Ugh, you sneak, you're rotten to the core!"
The so-called foreign films Su Zelin mentioned weren't exactly serious. Once when Qin Shiqing was helping Su Zelin's mom clean the house before New Year, she found them under his bed.
Tang Yan glared fiercely at Su Zelin.
She really couldn't understand how a great girl like Shiqing ended up with such a trashy childhood friend!
"No matter what kind of films they are, if they improve my English, they're good films. Otherwise, how do you think my standard accent came about?"
Su Zelin shrugged, unfazed.
"Oh please, just because you know a few phrases in English, you're getting all cocky!"
Qin Shiqing rolled her eyes, unable to stand his smug demeanor.
"Haha, it's called confidence, Qin Shiqing. Do you think in this week's third mock exam for the college entrance English exam, I can outscore you?"
Su Zelin's mouth curled into a smile.
Qin Shiqing hadn't answered yet before the pale, clean-looking boy with glasses on the left couldn't hold back.
"Su Zelin, you think you can compare with Qin Shiqing? Aren't you afraid your boast might blow up in your face?"
"Qin Shiqing is excellent in both character and academics, the class representative and English class rep. In the last second mock exam, she took first place in the whole school in English. And you?"
The bespectacled boy was full of disdain.
Zhao Mingxuan, the class president of Class 2, Grade 3.
Su Zelin was just a slacker and a troublemaker. People like him generally don't get along well with the class president.
Moreover, Qin Shiqing, being the class beauty, had many admirers, Zhao Mingxuan included.
He had once subtly expressed his feelings to Qin Shiqing, but she politely declined.
Instead, Su Zelin and Qin Shiqing were very close, even if he knew it was because they were neighbors, it still irritated him greatly.
Su Zelin casually glanced at him, "Who are you? Do I know you well? Was I talking to you?"
His three consecutive questions left Zhao Mingxuan speechless.
Su Zelin was a master of words, eloquent and persuasive, even Tang Yan had to concede. Zhao Mingxuan was no match for him.
The bespectacled boy's face was flushed with anger, his body trembling, wishing he could punch Su Zelin in the face.
But his chest heaved, and he ultimately held back.
As class president, I can't be as rude as him, hmph!
More importantly, Zhao Mingxuan couldn't beat Su Zelin.
This troublemaker's fighting skill and ferocity were renowned throughout the school.
Back in the first year of high school, Su Zelin once had a conflict on the basketball court with several senior athletes, he took them all down single-handedly. Since then, he's had free reign at the school, and no one dared to provoke him.
Zhao Mingxuan, with his refined demeanor, would probably be flattened by a single punch from Su Zelin, forced to stay in bed for half a month. It was only his status as class president, and his father being a city official, that made him dare to occasionally run his mouth, but he certainly didn't have the guts to fight.
"Qin Shiqing, just one sentence, dare to bet or not? If you lose, before the college entrance exam, you have to bring me meals and water every day, and if I lose, I'll do the same!"
Su Zelin ignored Zhao Mingxuan and instead raised his eyebrow at Qin Shiqing, the challenge evident in his expression.
He didn't plan to distance himself from his childhood friend just yet. Anyway, they'd go their separate ways after the entrance exams, and abruptly changing his attitude towards her wouldn't be smooth.