Seventh Year Of Separation chapter 12

Zhao-ge

When Gu Jiahe walked into the classroom, Li Zhao was already sitting in the adjacent seat.

He put down his backpack and then took out the neatly folded white towel from inside, handing it to Li Zhao. “It’s cleaned.”

“Oh, it’s okay for you to keep it.”

Gu Jiahe didn’t respond, he just stuffed it into Li Zhao’s hand and then sat down.

“But why are you sitting in the last row?” Li Zhao was curious. Gu Jiahe wasn’t very tall, but he sat in the back row of the classroom, next to Li Zhao, a transfer student.

“I don’t know.” Gu Jiahe shook his head.

Actually, he understood in his heart that the seating arrangement in Pingcheng High School was more about the personal preferences of the teachers.

Gu Jianmin and Qian Liyun never cared about his studies, nor did they try to “arrange” relationships with the teachers. It wasn’t surprising that he sat in the last row.

The first class was math, which was also the class he dreaded the most.

The teacher at the podium lectured incessantly, and he felt drowsy.

Their class was the first batch to experience the reform of the college entrance examination. Instead of calculating the total score of five subjects as before, it was now only based on the total score of Chinese, math, and English. The two elective subjects were scored separately.

This was a devastating blow to Gu Jiahe, who was good at politics and history but always struggled with math.

For him, the college entrance examination had turned into a huge gamble.

For simple algebra questions, he could still force himself to solve them. But when it came to geometry, he couldn’t think straight and couldn’t find a way to solve the problems no matter what.

Gu Jiahe felt his head was tangled up.

Suddenly, a voice came from beside him, “Connect this auxiliary line.”

Then a slender hand reached over and drew a faint dotted line on his workbook with a mechanical pencil.

“Hmm?”

“Yeah.” Li Zhao nodded at him.

Gu Jiahe looked closely and the originally complex figure suddenly became clear.

“Just connect to the center whenever you encounter a tangent line.”

“Why?”

“You won’t lose anything by doing so.” Li Zhao smiled.

After class, the classroom was noisy. Several boys ran around in the front row, occasionally knocking over a chair, making a sharp and grating noise.

Gu Jiahe lay on the desk, squinting as if to sleep, his brows furrowed slightly.

Not two minutes passed before he felt his face itching. Slowly opening his eyes, he found a face close to his.

Gu Jiahe was startled. “What’s wrong?”

Li Zhao pointed to the skin below Gu Jiahe’s right eye with the cap of his mechanical pencil. “I noticed your eye corners are drooping.”

For some reason, although what he said was just a very ordinary thing, Gu Jiahe suddenly felt his heart pounding heavily and subconsciously touched that area with his finger.

“Ah, yes.”

Qian Liyun had said before that he had a face that looked like he was about to cry, and that he was destined to suffer throughout his life.

“It looks pretty good.” Li Zhao said.

Gu Jiahe had never paid much attention to his own appearance.

Gu Jianmin often felt dissatisfied because he looked too much like Qian Liyun and didn’t inherit his own masculinity.

Gu Jiahe was used to being alone, he wouldn’t draw his uniform in various colors, nor could he afford expensive sneakers.

He was just like all ordinary high school students, hoping to blend into the crowd without being noticed.

However, at this moment, there was someone sitting next to him, focusing his gaze on his face. This gaze made him feel uncomfortable.

Li Zhao was sitting very close, and Gu Jiahe had no choice but to look at his face.

Yesterday, he had only noticed his beautiful almond-shaped eyes. Now, looking closely, he realized that Li Zhao’s nose was also of a very good type. It was neither too wide nor too narrow, and the bridge of his nose connected smoothly to the brow bone, drawing a smooth line.

“What are you looking at?” Li Zhao waved his hand in front of Gu Jiahe’s eyes.

“Your nose.” Gu Jiahe accidentally blurted out his inner thoughts.

Li Zhao laughed as he held the workbook. “You’re quite interesting.”

Gu Jiahe suddenly felt his ears burning.

Li Zhao seemed like a very easygoing person, at least that’s how Gu Jiahe felt.

He hadn’t been at the school for long, but he quickly joined the school’s soccer team and became part of their group. He would go to the playground downstairs to play soccer every day before evening self-study.

Gu Jiahe sat by the window in the classroom and could see the playground below.

After the last class, he could see the sunset gradually sinking at the end of the playground. The sky at the end of summer looked as if it had been set on fire, with a bright red hue.

A large group of boys were playing soccer on the playground. There were many people that Gu Jiahe recognized, but it was limited to his one-sided recognition of them because they were all the school’s popular figures.

However, inexplicably, among the twenty or so figures running around, he quickly found Li Zhao.

Gu Jiahe used a book to cover his face and only put it down after a while, then went downstairs. He was used to being alone, so he went to the cafeteria to have dinner by himself.

According to the original plan, he should have gone back to the classroom for evening self-study, but today he unexpectedly went to the playground first.

He wasn’t sure why, maybe it was to admire the sunset.

On the playground, twenty or so people were divided into two teams playing soccer. In no time, a familiar figure rushed up to him.

“Why are you here?”

“Ah, I just happened to pass by.” Gu Jiahe looked up, the setting sun shining directly on Li Zhao’s face, which was hidden under the reddish light. Gu Jiahe saw that he was smiling.

“The sun is beautiful.” Gu Jiahe said softly.

Li Zhao turned his head to take a look, and the sun was almost completely set below the buildings, leaving behind a half-round orange silhouette. “Indeed, it’s beautiful.”

At the word “beautiful”, his eyes fell on Gu Jiahe’s face.

“I’m almost done playing, do you want to go back together?”

Gu Jiahe saw him covered in sweat from playing on the field, and there were several empty mineral water bottles lying on the edge of the playground. “Do you want me to buy you a bottle of water?”

Li Zhao wasn’t shy about it. “I want one that’s cold.”

From then on, the two of them formed some kind of tacit understanding. After school every day, Gu Jiahe would go to the cafeteria to eat, and he would buy Li Zhao a bottle of cold water on the way to the playground.

The power supply system at Pingcheng High School seemed to have problems this year.

On Friday evening, halfway through the evening self-study session, the power suddenly went out.

The entire classroom instantly plunged into darkness. However, the students in the classroom were not afraid at all; instead, they became excited and restless.

For students under high pressure preparing for exams, even unexpected accidents could turn into a kind of pleasant surprise, breaking the monotony.

In less than five minutes, the head teacher pushed open the classroom door and announced the cancellation of evening self-study, instructing everyone to go home immediately.

Gu Jiahe packed his bag, put it on his shoulders, and was about to leave when someone called out to him from behind.

“Do you want to eat red bean shaved ice?” It was Li Zhao’s voice.

“Huh?”

Before Gu Jiahe could react, he was already being pulled by Li Zhao’s wrist and running into the alley next to the school.

“I don’t want to go home so early.”

“Aren’t your parents looking for you?” Gu Jiahe tugged at the hem of his uniform. Although he didn’t want to go home either, he at least wanted to politely inquire about his new classmate.

“They’re not here, they’re doing business out of town. There’s only me and my aunt at home.”

Aunt, Gu Jiahe speculated for a moment. This aunt should not be a blood relative, but more like a nanny.

With his parents not at home, it’s no wonder he took the bus back home.

“What flavor do you want?” His thoughts were quickly interrupted by Li Zhao.

“Oh, the same as you.”

Two minutes later, the two of them sat at a small table by the street, each with a plate of red bean shaved ice in front of them.

Gu Jiahe rarely came to this alley; the reason was simple, he didn’t have much pocket money.

Qian Liyun occasionally threw him the change left over, but other than that, no one would specifically give him money.

“How much is it? I’ll pay for you.” Gu Jiahe asked.

“No need, I’m treating you.” Li Zhao pushed the plate towards him. “Hurry up and eat, or it’ll melt.”

In the late summer night, Gu Jiahe tasted the flavor of red bean shaved ice for the first time. It was drizzled with condensed milk, slightly sweet.

“What month were you born in?” Li Zhao asked as he bit the spoon.

“I was born in October.” Gu Jiahe answered with his head down.

“Ah, I was born early in the year. Then you have to call me ge.”

“What? Call you ge just because you’re a few months older?” Gu Jiahe thought this guy was pretty good at taking advantage.

“It’s been almost a year. Come on, call me Zhao-ge.” Li Zhao laughed heartily.

Gu Jiahe didn’t reply, he just glared at him.

But this joking around seemed to bring the two of them closer in some way.

Li Zhao dragged a chair over and sat next to him, and Gu Jiahe didn’t avoid it.

Li Zhao’s approach didn’t feel repulsive to him; on the contrary, it even made him feel somewhat, vaguely happy. Gu Jiahe couldn’t explain where this happiness came from; perhaps it was because life in the third year was too dull, and any slight change would give him a bit of hope.

Or perhaps, people just couldn’t resist beautiful and radiant things.

Before the red bean shaved ice completely melted, they finished and left the alley.

They had to cross two intersections from the stall to the bus stop.

Gu Jiahe walked behind Li Zhao with his backpack, watching the warm light from the street lamps shining on his head from an angle.

Maybe he just arrived in a new environment and hoped to have a friend. Otherwise, why would he actively approach someone like him? Thinking like this, he thought Li Zhao seemed a bit pitiful.

Watching his figure walking alone ahead, Gu Jiahe’s heart inexplicably moved, and he spoke up on the quiet street.

“Zhao-ge.”

Li Zhao’s figure suddenly stopped, and about two seconds later, he turned around. “What’s up?”

“Just trying to see if this title works.”

Li Zhao took a step forward, reached out, and ruffled his hair, laughing heartily. “It works. Will you start calling me ge from now on?”