The Silent World and Him
Text/Meng Xiaoer
The day I met Qin Yu was a very ordinary day but one that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Coming out of the cafeteria, Pu Chen was greeted by a gust of cold wind carrying snowflakes that swept straight towards his face, and he couldn't help but shiver.
Behind her, classmates who had finished lunch were rushing out in groups of three or five, so she moved to the side.
The campus was covered in white. In front of the cafeteria, the old tree had a branch broken off by the heavy snow that fell overnight, and the broken branch was about to fall.
The weather forecast said that the lowest temperature today would be minus eight degrees Celsius. When she went out in the morning, her father put a pair of thick insoles in her snow boots.
"Peng Jingyang, you are so fucking wicked!"
Then a group of boys laughed wildly.
Pu Chen turned and looked over.
Four or five boys were playing snowballs, and the boy who had just cursed was hit in the mouth by Peng Jingyang's snowball. The boy wiped his mouth while saying "Puh".
Pu Chen knew them, a few boys from Class 1. There were 28 classes in the first year of high school, and Class 1 and Class 2 were intensive classes, and the top students were all in those two classes.
Pu Chen retracted his gaze, zipped up his school uniform to the top, walked down the slippery steps steadily, and walked into the thick snow.
She chose to step on places where no one had walked, and her feet made crisp "crunching" sounds.
Others come to the cafeteria in groups, but she is used to being alone. She attends classes and eats alone.
She left two winding footprints in the snow.
On the way back to the teaching building from the cafeteria, all kinds of laughter could be heard.
The monthly exam had just ended, and this heavy snow became their stress-relieving tool.
"Bang", Pu Chen's eyes went dark and his forehead felt cold and wet. He didn't know who hit him with the snowball.
"I'm sorry."
Pu Chen looked up and saw that the tall boy running towards him was Peng Jingyang.
"Is it in the way?" Peng Jingyang asked again. He recognized Pu Chen. The snowball was originally thrown at him by a classmate, but he dodged it and it hit Pu Chen squarely on the forehead.
Pu Chen shook her head. She wiped her forehead with her sleeve, and took out her cell phone from her pocket with her other hand and typed to him: It's okay.
Peng Jingyang apologized again and went to find his companion.
"You hit Pu Chen from Class 10."
"Oh, it's her."
The voices of several people became smaller and smaller.
Because of her special physical condition, her name is known to everyone in the school. Even Peng Jingyang, the school idol, knows who she is.
After returning to the classroom, before Pu Chen sat down, someone called her at the door: "Pu Chen, Teacher Lu asked you to go to the office."
Pu Chen looked over in the direction of the sound and saw a girl from the next class.
She nodded to show that she understood.
Teacher Lu is their class teacher and teaches English.
Her grades are average, and only her English is barely passable. She is the representative of the English class.
Pu Chen always knocked on the door before going to the office, fearing that he would scare Teacher Lu by appearing suddenly and being unable to speak.
"Knock knock," she knocked twice.
Lu Baisheng looked up from the test paper. The temperature in the office was high and he was only wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
"Teacher Lu." Pu Chen greeted silently with his mouth.
Lu Bosheng could understand what she said through simple lip reading. She usually called him "Teacher Lu" and would occasionally say thank you to him.
"Come and see how much you did in this monthly exam." Lu Baisheng handed her the test paper.
Three bright red numbers: 118.
Pu Chen roughly scanned the test paper front and back to see where the mistake was.
"Not bad. Try to get 125 in the final exam." Lu Baisheng took the test paper from her, picked up a pen and circled the questions that she shouldn't have gotten wrong.
Pu Chen looked at the wrong questions. These were the knowledge points that Teacher Lu had emphasized in class.
Lu Baisheng's cell phone on the table vibrated. He took a look and saw that it was Director Sun's number, so he picked up the phone and answered it.
The call was brief, with Lu Bosheng saying only, "Okay, I'll be there right away." After hanging up, he said, "There's a new transfer student."
These words were said to Pu Chen.
Pu Chen nodded, not knowing whether the transferee was a boy or a girl.
"The physical education class in the afternoon has been cancelled and will be replaced by an English class to discuss the test papers." Lu Baisheng stood up and handed her the stack of monthly test papers on the table.
Pu Chen left with the test paper and met the English class representative from the next class in the corridor. The two returned to the classroom together.
The English class representative was obsessed with Lu Bosheng's looks and sighed, "If Mr. Lu taught our class English, I would definitely score above 140 every time."
Pu Chen smiled back.
Their class 10 of Grade 1 is famous throughout the school, not only because of the girl who can't speak, but also because of their class teacher Lu Baisheng.
When the school just started, there were no less than ten versions of rumors about Lu Bosheng. It was said that his family background was so high that it was hard to reach, and he had an Ivy League education background. It was also said that he had a rough love life and was separated from his family, so he came to Suzhou to teach in anger.
Anyway, the rumor became more and more outrageous, and in the end, Lu Bosheng became the standard male protagonist in romance novels.
But the only thing that is certain is that Lu Bosheng is from Beijing.
Soon, we arrived at the classroom door.
The class representative’s obsession with love came to an end.
Pu Chen walked up to the podium and informed everyone on the blackboard that the afternoon physical education class would be changed to English class and that they would discuss the monthly exam paper. Before she finished writing the last few words, there was a cry of grief from the audience.
I can't attend physical education class in this weather. I was looking forward to attending self-study class, reading extracurricular books, and maybe even getting a chance to sleep, but now all that's gone.
Pu Chen handed out the test papers one by one, and the highest score was 142.
She still had two papers left to hand out and was drowned out by the chorus of exclamations.
"Which class are you from? Why are you so handsome?"
"It's definitely not from our school. I've never seen it before."
"Could it be a transfer student?"
"Hope is hope!"
There was a lot of discussion around, and the excitement in their voices was uncontrollable.
Pu Chen turned around and saw a boy standing next to Teacher Lu. It seemed that he was the new transfer student that Teacher Lu mentioned.
Judging from the appearance, the new boy must be at least 183cm tall, maybe a little taller. He was wearing a brand new winter school uniform with the zipper open. The school uniform that they had always complained about looked different when worn by him.
There was indifference in the boy's dark eyes, and he seemed to have no concern or curiosity about the new class.
"The new classmate has a nice hairstyle, better than Peng Jingyang's. I like looking at this kind of clean and refreshing boys, it's pleasing to the eye." The girl sitting in the last row commented.
Her deskmate, a boy, replied, "Maybe he went to the barber shop to get a haircut before coming here."
There was laughter all around.
The girl said: "Sister, you are poisonous."
She shot the boy in the head with a backhand.
Pu Chen handed the last two English test papers in his hand to the girl and her deskmate, the only two people in the class who failed.
Lu Baisheng knocked on the podium with a blackboard eraser to quiet them down.
Pu Chen returned to her seat. Her desk was right next to the podium, making it the most special seat in the class. When the teacher asked her questions in class, she could type on her mobile phone for the teacher to see.
After years of practice, her hand speed is not much slower than her speaking speed.
Pu Chen gently pulled out a chair and sat down. Qin Yu stood in front of her desk, the hem of his school uniform rubbing against the thick pile of books on her desk.
A girl was sitting alone next to the podium, and Qin Yuduo glanced at Pu Chen.
Next, the new students introduced themselves.
Pu Chen was too close to Qin Yu. She had to look up to see him, which was too obvious. So she simply looked at the English test paper that had just been handed out.
The new boy who transferred here was introducing himself. His voice was very similar to his temperament, clear and pleasant.
It turns out his name is Qin Yu.
There was an empty seat in the second to last row near the back door, so Qin Yu temporarily sat there.
Many people were distracted by the good-looking new classmates and gathered together to gossip after class.
"I heard from my deskmate Qin Yu that he transferred here from Beijing."
"Why doesn't he study in Beijing? How desperate is he to transfer to our province to take the college entrance examination?"
"Maybe he doesn't have a Beijing hukou, so he can only transfer back to attend high school."
"Why do you care so much? Just have a handsome guy to look at. I declare that from today on, Qin Yu will replace Peng Jingyang as the new school idol."
In terms of appearance, Qin Yu is better, but the school idol Peng Jingyang is a top student.
Peng Jingyang got first place in the mathematics competition and second place in the chemistry competition. In addition to the competitions, he also did a good job in his in-class studies, and his monthly exam scores were consistently in the top three in the grade. With these halos, it is hard for Qin Yuguang to be convincing with just his face.
The girls in the class were gossiping about Qin Yu. Pu Chen even heard a few words in the tea room. The girls in their class were bragging to the girls in other classes:
"Our class will have its own school hunk from now on. We don't have to go to Class 1 to see Peng Jingyang anymore."
"No way? More handsome than Peng Jingyang?"
"Anyway, I think Qin Yu is much more handsome than Peng Jingyang."
"Hey, what about studying?"
"Study..."
The boastful voice suddenly lost its confidence.
Since Qin Yu always sleeps in class, it seems his grades aren't that good either.
Pu Chen didn't know what Qin Yu was like in class. She sat by the podium and never looked back. If she hadn't been the representative of the English class, she might not even recognize all the students in the class.
--
The second period in the afternoon was English class. Lu Baisheng looked at Qin Yu more than once during class, but Qin Yu lay on the table without raising his head throughout the class.
After class, Lu Bosheng just explained a wrong question to a classmate. When he looked up again, the second to last row seat at the back door was empty.
There was no sign of Qin Yu in the corridor outside.
"Pu Chen, come with me to the office and give Qin Yu's test paper to him."
Pu Chen nodded and followed Lu Baisheng to the office.
Lu Bosheng gave Qin Yu a copy of all the test papers he had done during this period, a total of eight. He told Pu Chen: "Tell Qin Yu to finish all of them and hand them in to me before school is over on Friday at the latest."
Pu Chen: “…”
Today is already Wednesday.
Does Qin Yu have time to finish so many test papers
Pu Chen returned to the classroom with the test paper, and Qin Yu was not in his seat.
Pu Chen tore off a piece of notepaper and wrote down Lu Bosheng's request: Teacher Lu asked you to finish all of it and hand it in before school is over on Friday at the latest.
She put the note and the test paper on Qin Yu's desk, and asked Qin Yu's desk mate to help remind him again.
There were still five minutes before class started. Pu Chen took her cup to pour some water. When she returned to the classroom, the note she had just written to Qin Yu was stuck on her desk.
There were a few more lines of flamboyant writing on the note:
Please ask the class representative to give me the correct answers to all the English test papers.
Thanks.
—Qin Yu