Final Exams
Pang Qian, you can’t use him!

Not too long after the school performance, it was time for final exams.

Pang Qian couldn’t have been any more nervous. After all, they would be readjusting the cla.s.ses after this exam. And at the midterm exams, she was ranked 7th from the bottom. No matter how you looked at it, she was part of the “poor students” group.

But Pang Qian had her pride. Gu Mingxi wasn’t only ranked 2nd in the cla.s.s, he was 2nd in their whole grade. As his deskmate, how could Pang Qian rank bottom of the cla.s.s? So Pang Qian was much more attentive towards this exam than she’d ever been for any exam before.

What was strange was that Gu Mingxi was also very attentive about this exam as well. That made Pang Qian a bit confused.

Although Gu Mingxi always performed well, he didn’t always rank 1st in elementary school. Sometimes he would be 2nd or 3rd, but he was never unhappy about it. So when he ended up ranked 2nd after their first midterm in junior high, Pang Qian already thought that was really good. It wasn’t something to regret at all.

But this time, Gu Mingxi was very unsatisfied with his performance.

Before the final exams, he did a lot of practice questions. He memorized his English very frequently too. Pang Qian was dumbfounded. Seeing him studying all day long, reading and practicing, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Gu Mingxi, don’t always sit there. Let’s go out and play a bit.”

Gu Mingxi lifted his head to look at her, his gaze pa.s.sing her to outside the window. They were sitting near the window on the third floor, and they could see the school field. There were a few boys from the high school playing basketball on the court, and some junior high students near the table tennis area.

Xie Yi was playing table tennis. He had on an eye-catching red down jacket, holding a paddle, bent over, waiting for the serve. When the ball came from the other side, he quickly started moving, accurately returning the ball.

Gu Mingxi averted his eyes. He pursed his lips and shook his head, “There are exams. After the exams are over, I can play as much as I want.”

Pang Qian let out a long sigh. With a slightly taunting tone, “After exams are over, it’s winter break. That’s the most boring time, and there’s nothing to play then.”

Gu Mingxi looked at her, without refuting. He just lowered his head and picked his pen back up with his foot, starting a new set of math problems.

Pang Qian was waiting for him to start quarreling with her, just like back in elementary school. But she realized then that Gu Mingxi spoke less and less during school now. Sometimes she would poke him with her pen or tease him. But even when she kicked or hit him, he didn’t bicker with her.

Pang Qian felt a bit embarra.s.sed, like it was pointless. She sprawled out across her desk and looked at the other students in the cla.s.sroom. They all seemed to gather around together. Aside from their deskmates, there would also be the students sitting in front and behind them. w.a.n.g Tingting and Zhang Wei were becoming better friends because they sat in front (and behind) each other. Although Xia Lang and Liu Hanlin often quarreled, when Liu Hanlin was sick and couldn’t come to school, Xia Lan brought his homework to his house for him. Xie Yi’s deskmate was named Sun Mingfang. Their relations.h.i.+p was just normal. On the other hand, he was on very good terms with the girl in front of him, Qiu Lina. After cla.s.s ended, Qiu Lina would always turn around and laugh as she talked to Xie Yi. There was also Jian Zhe. After junior high started, he and Gu Mingxi didn’t often hang out much anymore. He’d made new friends, and only helped out when Gu Mingxi needed to use the restroom.

It seemed like only Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi, sitting in the corner of the cla.s.sroom, were still trapped inside the bars of elementary school. The students in the row in front of them didn’t really want to turn around to talk to them. Pang Qian felt that, not only hadn’t she made any new friends, she’d also grown a bit estranged from w.a.n.g Tingting.

Originally, she still had Gu Mingxi. She could joke around with him. But now, Gu Mingxi was growing more quiet. She didn’t know why either. Pang Qian was growing more restless. She only hoped that the exams would finish quickly and winter break would arrive. But thinking of the new semester that would come after the break, things would just be as stagnant as they were now. Pang Qi felt rather disheartened.

She only wanted to find someone who would go with her to the bookstore to rent comics. Go out to eat, go rollerblading with her, play games together, go to the video store, or just sit together and talk like young girls do… Of those things, Gu Mingxi could only do some of them. But even when he went with her places, he wouldn’t play or eat. After many times, Pang Qian felt that it was kind of pointless.

It was the middle of the month when final exams finally finished. She had seven cla.s.ses, Chinese, math, English, history, geology(?), life studies(?), and government. She scored 596 points total, which put her at 23rd place in the cla.s.s. And Gu Mingxi beat out Xie Yi by 19 points, and firmly put himself in 1st for the whole grade.

Pang Qian saw the ranking list posted on the board and was ecstatic. She ran back to Gu Mingxi’s side and tugged at his sleeves. “Wah! Gu Mingxi! You’re 1st place! You beat out Xie Yi! That’s amazing!”

Gu Mingxi’s lips turned up into a slight smile, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He frowned and said, “But… You didn’t make it into the top 20.”

Pang Qian hadn’t thought anything about that. She was already very satisfied with her score and placing. She had made the greatest improvement in the whole cla.s.s. She knew that it was all thanks to Gu Mingxi.

Pang Qian replied, “Gu Mingxi, I’ve already done good enough! Next semester, I’ll work harder to make sure I get into the top 20!” She smiled happily, pat her chest and said magnanimously, “I’ll treat you to something to drink!”

Pang Qian keeps her word, so after cla.s.s, she went to the school mart to buy Gu Mingxi a can of soda. She bought the soda and went back to the cla.s.sroom. After she helped him pull off the tab, she put in a straw and placed the can by Gu Mingxi’s feet.

Pang Qian didn’t notice the strange stares she got from her cla.s.smates at all. A lot of people were quietly watching each move between her and Gu Mingxi. When school finished that day, the cla.s.s representative came over to Pang Qian and told her that Teacher Cao was looking for her.

Pang Qian wasn’t very familiar with Teacher Cao. She was a student who didn’t really grab onto the teachers’ attentions. She never asked any questions, never held any cla.s.s positions – not even cla.s.s representative or group leader.

In every teacher’s mind, Pang Qian was just Gu Mingxi’s deskmate. They’d all heard from Teacher Cao that Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi were deskmates in elementary school for six years. The little girl would help Gu Mingxi with any day to day things. The two students already had an understanding. So it was thanks to Gu Mingxi that Pang Qian was able to join the fast cla.s.s when she enrolled at Origin of Flight. From her ability alone, she would have been placed into the slow cla.s.s.

But Pang Qian didn’t know any of this, and just hesitatingly headed into the office. There were seven or eight teachers there, each busy with their own work. Pang Qian walked over to Teacher Cao cautiously. And she asked, “Teacher Cao, you were looking for me?”

“Mm.” Teacher Cao turned to look at her. The girl looked a bit nervous, her face was flushed. Teacher Cao thought for a moment, then asked directly, “Pang Qian, I was looking for you because there was something I wanted to ask you about. Before, you almost failed your English and math midterms. Afterwards, your homework and unit test scores both went up, but you never came to ask me any questions. On the final exams, I took note of your results. English, 90 points. Math, 88 points. Compared to before, you made great progress. But it’s only been two months.”

The more Pang Qian heard, the more confused she was. She didn’t understand what Teacher Cao’s point was at all. Then Teacher Cao stopped for a moment and asked clearly, “Pang Qian, tell me the truth. During this time, have you been copying Gu Mingxi’s homework? And then for the exams, did you beg him to let you peek at his test?”

Hearing these words, it was like a bomb went off in Pang Qian’s head. She lifted her head and looked around at the other teachers in the office. There were other teachers for her cla.s.ses there. The all had their heads lowered, busying themselves with their work. But Pang Qian kept feeling that they were all secretly listening to her conversation with Teacher Cao.

Her face had gotten extremely red. She didn’t know what to say, and tried to organize her thoughts about how to explain it all to the teacher. She should explain that she’d been working on her homework every night with Gu Mingxi, that there were a lot of things she didn’t understand, but he would teach her.

But before she had the chance to say all that, Teacher Cao had already started his tirade. “Pang Qian, Gu Mingxi is a disabled child. There are things in life that are inconvenient for him. Helping to take care of him is something you should do. But you can’t just threaten him to let you cheat off his test and copy his homework! The school let you into the fast cla.s.s because your dad pleaded with the school, asking to let you and Gu Mingxi be deskmates. It wasn’t because of your own abilities. You know what your own abilities are. The midterm exams showed your true level. You’ve been deskmates with Gu Mingxi for so long. He doesn’t have arms but he studies so hard. Why didn’t you pick up this kind of habit from him? How can you go so far as to cheat off of him and make him let you see his paper?!”

Teacher Cao took a sip of water and then continued earnestly, “Also, Pang Qian, you and Gu Mingxi are in junior high. This is the time for you to do well in your studies. Don’t think about other nonsense things. Gu Mingxi is very innocent. He’s a boy, you know. And his body isn’t good. If you treat him nicely, he’ll develop thoughts. That’s normal. I don’t feel good about talking to him about it, I’m worried I’ll hurt his pride. But you should understand things. Pang Qian, you can’t use him! The only future Gu Mingxi has is to study well. He’s working so hard, you can’t go and distract him!”

After hearing this, Pang Qian already decided to give up reb.u.t.ting. She held her hands, tilted her head, pointed her toes, and looked at the ground as if she didn’t care anymore. She also stopped listening to Teacher Cao’s chattering.

After some more long-winded talking, the teacher wanted her to promise she wouldn’t do it again. All the other teachers in the office looked toward her, and that’s when Pang Qian finally spoke.

She said, “Teacher Cao, I want to change seats. I don’t want to be deskmates with Gu Mingxi anymore.”