A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 23

Students whose classrooms are located on the fifth floor of the Xiuyuan Building rarely return to the dormitories during breakfast time anymore.

This is likely one of the reasons why the curriculum in the key classes moves so much faster than in the regular ones.

A few minutes after Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang returned to the classroom, the empty seats were filled one by one. Looking around, most of the students were clutching their Chinese textbooks. Only a few held History or English books.

Looking at her busy classmates, the hollow space in Jiang Lu’s heart—left by seeing Su Mengrui again—was silently filled. She lowered her head, opened her textbook, picked out every difficult character with her pen, and practiced them meticulously.

By the time she stopped writing, the sun, which had been hanging high in the southeast, had shifted to the southwest.

Liang Shuang, sitting until her body felt stiff, stood up to stretch. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the final result of Jiang Lu’s math exercise was different from hers. With a quiet “Holy crap,” she sat back down.

“What’s with the ‘crap’? Did you twist something?” Jiang Lu closed her exercise book and looked up.

Liang Shuang excitedly pressed her hand down. “No, wait. Why is your answer for this problem different from mine?”

“Is it?” Jiang Lu pulled over her scratch paper, which showed the entire process of her calculation. “It shouldn’t be. Let me see yours.”

As the words fell, Chu Zishan’s head popped up from the side of the desk. “Hey, is the last problem 0?”

“You got 0 too?” Liang Shuang calmed down.

Chu Zishan was confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing.” Liang Shuang quickly cleared Jiang Lu’s desk and pulled her by the arm. “Next period is PE. The bell’s about to ring. Let’s go downstairs and line up.”

“Next period is PE? Isn’t it Geography?” Chu Zishan turned to look at the class schedule on the wall. She didn’t remember having PE today.

Liang Shuang had no time or inclination to explain things to Chu Zishan. Because of the incident this morning, her impression of these sisters was firmly in the negatives.

She dragged Jiang Lu out of the classroom. “The PE teacher just came in and announced it. He said he has something to do tomorrow, so he swapped classes with the Geography teacher.”

“The PE teacher was here?” Jiang Lu was quite surprised. “When?”

“While you were buried in calculations, when even the Earth exploding wouldn’t have concerned you,” Liang Shuang teased. “I think there’s a problem with my final calculation. Help me look at it after dinner tonight.”

It was almost the fourth period, and after that would be dinner. Jiang Lu had no objections.

As the two headed downstairs, the PE representative for Class 1 ran to the front of the podium and clapped his hands. “Downstairs, everyone! Next period’s Geography is moved to tomorrow’s third period. My hardworking classmates, stop writing and line up downstairs!”

The playground was relatively empty today. Only Sophomore Classes 1 and 2, and Freshman Class 8, were having PE at the same time. With two PE teachers for the three classes, the two adjacent sophomore classes were led by the same teacher.

Shao Shuyi, seeing Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang during class time for the first time since the classes were reassigned, excitedly winked at them. Liang Shuang stared back at her for two seconds as a response across the three-meter gap.

Shao Shuyi was speechless: “…”

Jiang Lu cooperatively raised her hand and waved. Shao Shuyi instantly changed her expression and responded with a finger heart.

“…” Liang Shuang tugged at Jiang Lu, her tone full of discontent. “Why didn’t she give me a heart?”

Jiang Lu looked at the sunlight hitting Liang Shuang’s ear and thought seriously for two seconds. “Probably because you didn’t give her a response.”

“Nonsense, I did respond.” Liang Shuang disagreed.

Jiang Lu shot back instantly: “Then maybe your response wasn’t obvious enough.”

This time Liang Shuang didn’t argue. Following the whistle and the line, they ran past the Class 2 formation. She proactively called out to Shao Shuyi: “Let’s hang out later!”

“No problem, wait for me!” Shao Shuyi nodded vigorously, her expression confident and determined.

As the lines for Classes 1 and 2 separated, Liang Shuang, running at the back of the line, complained expressionlessly: “She struggles so hard during every fitness test. I really don’t know where all that food she eats goes.”

“It’s okay. Didn’t she pass everything she needed to?” Jiang Lu recalled Shao Shuyi’s tenth-grade final fitness report. “I remember her overall score last semester was quite high.”

“Compared to an Omega? Then yes, it’s very high.”

Jiang Lu chuckled. “She’s a luck-based player. You have to respect it.”

After the two sophomore classes finished the fixed items, the PE teacher had the representatives lead the teams to test the standing long jump and pull-ups, which they hadn’t been able to do last time because of the rain. By the time they were dismissed for free activity, only a small portion of the period remained.

Jiang Lu was a bit tired. She led Liang Shuang and Shao Shuyi to sit on some vacant steps and daze out. Liang Shuang saw she didn’t want to talk and accompanied her quietly.

Shao Shuyi wanted to be quiet, but she was too excited to keep her mouth shut. “Hey, I just heard Chu Zishan is a transfer student. She’s pretty capable, getting into Class 1 right after transferring.”

“Capable? I don’t think so.” Liang Shuang’s eyes were half-squinted from the sun, her tone indifferent.

Shao Shuyi sensed something was off. Recalling the incident at 601, she quickly changed the subject. “Oh right, I was so happy eating this morning that I forgot to ask. I heard classmates discussing it all day—when you went downstairs this morning, did you run into…”

Liang Shuang tried to interrupt before Shao Shuyi could finish. Just as she was about to speak, the light in front of her suddenly dimmed. A stranger’s figure walked briskly past her.

Looking at that youthful face… a freshman?

Their attention caught, Liang Shuang and Shao Shuyi’s gazes moved in sync.

The freshman girl was very bold and had a clear target. She stood firmly in front of Jiang Lu and immediately held out a large bar of chocolate she had been hiding behind her back.

Before Jiang Lu could even lift her head, the girl began her opening: “Senior Jiang Lu, I’m Xie Panpan from Freshman Class 8. I’m your number one ‘visual fan.’ I like you very, very much! This chocolate is something I asked a friend to help me buy. I hope you like it!”

The chocolate packaging was sophisticated. At first glance, it looked similar to the brand Jiang Lu used to love buying. But at second glance, the difference was obvious.

Jiang Lu lifted her gaze to the girl’s face. It was strange; although only a year separated them, looking at the current freshman girls gave her the illusion of looking at middle schoolers. They were so young—it felt as if there was a generation gap between them.

The girl was indeed brave. Meeting Jiang Lu’s gaze, her bright eyes didn’t flicker or hide; there was even a faint sense of excitement.

Jiang Lu saw her restless energy, withdrew her gaze to look at the few small stones in her own hand, and said coolly: “I don’t like chocolate.”

“Huh? I saw it in the comments on the Confession Wall… they said you love this kind of chocolate, Senior… Did I buy the wrong one?” Panic finally appeared on Xie Panpan’s face.

Jiang Lu tossed the stones away and rubbed the fine sand from her fingertips. “You were lied to. I hate chocolate most of all.”

Standing against the light, Xie Panpan’s ears burned crimson. Her courage seemed to crumble at those words. She pulled back her hand nervously. “I’m sorry, Jiang Lu. I… I didn’t know. Then… what do you like? I’ll bring it to you next time.”

Liang Shuang and Shao Shuyi exchanged a look, simultaneously propping their chins on their right hands to continue watching the show.

Jiang Lu said: “No need. I don’t like receiving gifts from people I don’t know well.”

Xie Panpan’s hand, which was pulling an envelope from beneath the chocolate, froze. In her shimmering eyes, a different kind of light flickered. Her clear voice began to tremble: “Senior, you—I wrote a letter for you.”

“There’s no need for that.” Jiang Lu stood up, not giving her another look. “If you’re so free, do more practice problems.”

Liang Shuang saw Jiang Lu leave and quickly patted Shao Shuyi to follow.

Shao Shuyi had known Jiang Lu for a year, and this was the first time she had seen her be so cold and heartless to a girl coming to confess. She let out a soft sigh, wanting to say something to comfort the kid, but as the words reached her lips, she felt that being cold wasn’t a bad thing. At least it would cut off the girl’s delusions. In the end, she shook her head regretfully and walked away.

In the blink of an eye, only the tearful Xie Panpan was left on the empty steps.

Not far away, Chu Zishan—who had also been forcibly given a box of chocolates—looked with a half-smile at the freshman kid running away in the distance. The girl standing next to her laughed happily: “Yo, which number is this for the week?”

Chu Zishan weighed the chocolate in her hand and tossed it to her casually. “It’s yours. What kind of milk chocolate is this? Sickly sweet.”

“Sweet? I like it.”

“Heh.” Chu Zishan looked around smugly, only to catch sight of the girl running away while covering her face. The pride in her features froze.

Made her cry?

She couldn’t help but look curiously in the opposite direction. She saw Jiang Lu walking away briskly and understood immediately. It was indeed her.

Who would have thought she was someone who didn’t know how to “pity the fragrant grass and cherish the jade” (show mercy to a girl)?

Hm… does this count as winning a little?

As per the old rules, the last PE class before mealtime was dismissed early.

Shao Shuyi, the “Cafeteria Escapee Rice-Eater King,” led the charge once again. Liang Shuang followed behind, talking to Jiang Lu, who had been wearing a cold face for half the period. “You’re getting cooler and cooler lately.”

“Cool?” Jiang Lu asked.

Liang Shuang nodded. Jiang Lu let out a smirk: “Learned it from you.”

“Me?” Liang Shuang was shocked and confused. “Did I ever say I don’t like receiving gifts from people I don’t know well?”

Just as Jiang Lu was about to answer, she ran into Shao Shuyi, who had suddenly braked. She instinctively reached out to catch her.

Liang Shuang was startled. “Shao Shuyi, what’s with you?”

Shao Shuyi tilted her chin, gesturing for them to look at the figure in the long dress in front of the cafeteria. “The Su family heiress? Our Senior Bai Yue?”

Liang Shuang “tsked.” “Is university break this long? Still haven’t started school.”

“…” Jiang Lu blinked rapidly. Remembering something, she abruptly turned to look at the figures walking up behind her.

“What are you looking at?” Liang Shuang turned back with her.

Jiang Lu replied absentmindedly: “Nothing.”

The cafeteria doors opened early with Bai Yue’s arrival. Many students, though confused, accepted it happily and accelerated toward the entrance.

As Jiang Lu walked over, Bai Yue stood by the steps without moving, holding a filled transparent bento box. Jiang Lu couldn’t help but take an extra look.

That look was caught red-handed.

Bai Yue lifted a paper bag sitting next to her and handed it over. “I brought this for you. I don’t know if you’ll like it.”

Shao Shuyi had already smelled the fragrance of cake. Hearing this, her ears twitched sharply, and she slammed on the brakes again.

Liang Shuang, who bumped her nose against her, almost teared up. “Shao Shuyi!”

Shao Shuyi put her hands together in a prayer motion, apologizing non-stop. “Sorry, sorry! I really didn’t mean to.”

“You did it on purpose,” Liang Shuang said, speechless.

Shao Shuyi gestured for her to look behind. Liang Shuang looked back while clutching her nose.

“Thank you. It looks delicious.” Jiang Lu took the paper bag with both hands, her smile as bright as the morning sun.

Liang Shuang: “?” Are they that close?

Shao Shuyi: “=.=” I don’t know!