I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 79 - 75: Uncovering the Mystery

Chapter 79: Chapter 75: Uncovering the Mystery

Li Qing Mo was indeed avoiding Qingran.

Perhaps he felt it was too embarrassing that Qingran scored second in the grade while he barely clung to the tail end of the top ten, so these days he truly was leaving early and returning late.

At night, he would sneak back home only after Qingran had returned to her room to sleep.

In the morning, he would leave for school before Qingran even got up.

When Mr. Li called him, he used the excuse that the class teacher asked him to stay at school to review, refusing to come home until the agreed time.

Mr. Li, having no choice, ended up calling Li Qing Mo’s class teacher as well.

The Teacher Sun who answered the phone sounded very much like a young girl.

Teacher Sun said that Li Qing Mo was the only one in her class who made it into the top ten of the grade, and that he must concentrate more on his studies from now on. So, for this period, she was personally staying at school to supervise him and hoped the parents would understand.

Of course, Mr. Li understood perfectly well, he was more than happy to have someone else help manage his son.

After hanging up the phone cheerfully, Mr. Li asked Qingran: "Your brother’s class teacher isn’t old, right? She sounds quite young."

Qingran, who was half-lying on the couch looking at pictures sent by Ruan Ruan, responded: "Yeah, I heard she’s only six years older than us. She joined our school the year before last and became a permanent teacher last year. Her first batch of students was my brother’s class."

Mr. Li nodded: "Such a young teacher with such a strong sense of responsibility is really rare."

Qingran also thought it was rare, especially since Teacher Sun was young and had no generation gap with her students in Class Three, and she didn’t force-feed her students chicken soup for the soul like Old Wu did every now and then.

Who knows what kind of luck Li Qing Mo had to land such a good teacher.

Mr. Li’s work was on an upward trajectory again; even when working from home, he worked until the early hours every day.

After Mr. Li left the living room, Qingran too picked up her phone and her bag and headed upstairs.

Messages from Ruan Ruan kept arriving one after the other.

Soft girl: Ranran, I’m home.

Soft girl: Did you see those pictures I sent?

Qingran replied: I did.

Soft girl: Ahhh, Ranran, you didn’t see that scene, Brother An was so cool it was breathtaking.

Qingran’s gaze lingered on the words "breathtaking," and she was somewhat curious about what Xie Ying’an did that made Ruan Ruan use such an exaggerated phrase.

So she responded with a question mark.

Ruan Ruan had been waiting for this and immediately sent over a short video.

The video started with Song Shize holding a megaphone and threatening people, where his words, unusually, had no effect—probably because everyone thought there was safety in numbers; "I won’t go over there, let’s see who you find to blame when the time comes."

It wasn’t until Xie Ying’an took the megaphone and said something nonchalantly—because the camera was too far away, coupled with the low volume of Xie Ying’an’s voice and static from the megaphone—it was impossible to hear clearly.

Qingran didn’t bother listening any further; subsequently, in the video, a few girls were seen bowing their heads at the desks, writing something, and then more and more people followed suit, but that’s where the video ended.

While Qingran was watching the video, Ruan Ruan sent over a bunch of messages describing how the spectacle on the field attracted teachers from several classes, and eventually even the head of the disciplinary committee came over to take a look.

The head of the disciplinary committee walked around happily with his hands behind his back, not only pointing out spots that were not cleaned well but also patting Song Shize on the shoulder when leaving, suggesting that he do more of this sort of thing when he’s free.

Soft girl: Ranran, you should have seen it, Song Erbi’s face kept turning from green to black, just like he was in a dye workshop.

Qingran didn’t want to continue this topic any longer. She knew that as long as it was about gossip, Ruan Ruan’s energy was boundless.

She sent her homework to Ruan Ruan and gestured that she needed to do her homework now. Ruan Ruan replied with a plaintive emoji.

Qingran set her phone to silent, placed it in the corner of her desk, and began to write her homework with intense focus.

The second half of the senior year was really a tense time, but there were still many students who, in Old Wu’s words, acted like ghosts "unaware of their impending demise," believing there was still more than a year before the college entrance exams and that it would be fine to review tomorrow.

Thus, procrastination ruled; tomorrow brought more tomorrows—and an abundance of them.

Ruan Ruan was one of those students. When she shared a desk with Qingran, Qingran could still supervise her studies.

Ever since she became desk mates with Wen Shiyi, this girl had completely let herself go. Fortunately, her grades didn’t drop this midterm, or Old Wu would have called her out for a talk long ago.

Before going to bed that night, Qingran heard a soft door closing from across the room.

Without having to guess, she knew that Li Qingmo, not wanting her to notice his return, must have sneaked back into his room like a thief.

Qingran didn’t bother with him. She was still pondering over yesterday’s class quiz. If it had been any other day, being so close to Wen Shiyi, she would have never been able to answer the teacher’s question.

So why was she able to answer it yesterday?

She had thought maybe the protagonist’s halo was starting to weaken, but this morning, when Zheng Chunming from the desk behind her cautiously asked her a question, her brain suddenly froze again.

The question was so simple; she definitely knew the answer, but she couldn’t articulate it.

No, to put it correctly, she knew the answer but couldn’t voice it.

It even led Zheng Chunming to think that Qingran didn’t want to teach her, which was incredibly awkward.

Luckily, Xie Ying’an came to her rescue, clearing the siege and helping her write down the solution for Zheng Chunming.

What’s more, Qingran felt that the way Xie Ying’an looked at her seemed as if he had somewhat guessed something.

She thought the matter was too mysterious; Xie Ying’an’s glance was probably just her own illusion.

Qingran closed her eyes and carefully recalled the details of answering the question yesterday.

Now she just wanted to live a good life, not get involved in the plot, and not have her hard work in studying overshadowed by the protagonist’s halo, where taking an exam would amount to nothing in the end.

Yesterday, before she was called upon to answer the question, she was worried that Xie Ying’an would get caught playing with his phone in class. When the teacher called her name, she started nudging Xie Ying’an to remind him.

Other than that, it seemed no different from usual.

Could it be that physical contact with the male protagonist Xie Ying’an could weaken the female protagonist’s halo?

That sounded far-fetched.

Qingran turned over in bed, continuing to think about whether there was any other contact with Xie Ying’an before she was called up to answer the question yesterday?

It seemed there wasn’t. She and Xie Ying’an were too familiar with each other. Also, she focused on studying during class, and she wasn’t easily swayed by other emotions.

Plus, Xie Ying’an didn’t talk much usually. His day consisted either of studying, playing with pens, or using his phone.

Although they were desk mates, they usually sat far apart, one on the left and the other on the right, with hardly any physical contact.

Having discovered this secret, Qingran secretly decided that she would try it out covertly in school the next day; after all, a casual bump into Xie Ying’an probably wouldn’t be noticed by him.

With this thought, she felt much more relieved, stopped tossing and turning, and soon fell asleep.