First Day with An Qi

Qin An walked slowly into the Grade 2, Class 6 classroom. He felt a twinge of disappointment at not being in the same class as the Little Tyrant. It was like stepping into a strange new world, and in this unfamiliar territory, he didn’t even know which seat was his.

“Qin An, you’re finally here!” A petite beauty blocked his way, hands on her hips, her face flushed with anger.

She wore a pink dress with a ruffled collar that accentuated her beauty. The dress had no other flashy or luxurious decorations, yet it made her look so ladylike and refined that one’s gaze lingered on her, unwilling to leave. A bow adorned her hair, making her appear even sweeter and cuter.

At twelve, she was just beginning to develop, with a slight curve at her chest. Her delicate face was as fair as snow, and her jet-black hair shone. She was undoubtedly a future beauty capable of captivating entire kingdoms with a single smile.

But what does someone as dazzling as her have to do with a nobody like me?

“What are you standing around for? Go to your seat and take out the test paper I gave you yesterday. I’ll grade it for you.”

She sat down first. Qin An hesitantly pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. If he had chosen the wrong seat, it would have been mortifying.

“The test paper…” She stretched out her hand. Qin An was baffled, a question mark practically hanging over his head.

“Don’t tell me you forgot! The teacher asked me to be your little tutor. Yesterday after school, I gave you a test paper and told you it would be on today’s quiz. I said to finish it at home and bring it to me for correction. Did you forget all that?”

Qin An rummaged through his backpack, pulling out a crumpled mess that looked like pickled vegetables—it was the test paper she mentioned. Instantly, the little beauty’s expression cycled through a kaleidoscope of emotions before she finally burst out furiously, “You big idiot! I’m done with you! Boo-hoo!”

She turned and ran away. Qin An clearly saw a small wet patch on the floor. Her tears. On his first day of school, making his pretty deskmate cry was not a good omen.

“Isn’t that Qin An, the one who hangs out with the Little Tyrant?”

“Little Tyrant or not, he made An Qi cry. I’ll still kill him.”

“Better not. I hear he’s pretty fierce and strong.”

Qin An didn’t chase after the pretty girl named An Qi. He had no idea what to say even if he caught up. But because of this incident, he seemed to have become the class’s public enemy—both to the boys and the girls.

An Qi only returned to her seat when class was about to start. Her eyes were slightly red and swollen. When she saw Qin An looking at her, she shot him a vicious glare. Then she wrote on a piece of paper: “I’m mad. I’m never talking to you again. If you cross this ’38th parallel,’ I’ll kill you.”

Looking at her delicate, rounded handwriting, Qin An thought that the saying ‘the handwriting reveals the person’ truly applied to An Qi.

She waved her little fist at him symbolically and made a fierce, exaggerated face. Qin An laughed so hard he nearly choked. She pinched the soft flesh on his waist viciously, making him wince in pain. Finally, after his cries for mercy and promises not to laugh, she reluctantly let go.

She used chalk to draw a “38th parallel” on the desk that looked like a little snake. Qin An just smiled, feeling as though he had returned to a pure and unfamiliar student life.

This first day of school felt novel to him. There were no strict instructors, no bloody killings in every class, no constant threat of death. Everything felt so free and incredible. The only constraint was that whenever his mind wandered in class or he accidentally crossed the “38th parallel,” his deskmate An Qi would slap him hard or give him a sharp rap on the head, demanding that he sit up straight with both hands on the desk. But she was still angry and didn’t say a word, only passing notes.

Then a slightly plump female teacher walked in carrying a bundle of white test papers. Was this the so-called quiz An Qi had mentioned?

The subject was math.

Looking at the unfamiliar yet familiar numbers, Qin An’s mind processed them like a computer. After scanning the paper once, most of the answers formed in his brain.

Strictly speaking, Qin An’s education might not have even completed elementary school. But as an assassin, the knowledge he needed was often diverse. Many assassins also held doctorates or professorships in chemistry, physics, biology, or other fields.

Qin An prepared to write, but realized he didn’t even have a pen. An Qi seemed to notice his predicament and handed him a pink ballpoint pen, along with a note: “Do well on the test. If you fail, I’ll never talk to you again.”

The pen carried a faint, pleasant fragrance, which refreshed Qin An and lifted his spirits.

He tried hard to imitate his former handwriting. After finishing, he noticed that the questions on this test paper were strikingly similar to that crumpled one. So his little tutor wasn’t just blowing hot air. No wonder she had been so furious when she saw his blank paper.

He finished the test quickly, but then felt it was a bit too perfect. After altering a few answers unnecessarily, he was satisfied and lay down to sleep.

Seeing Qin An fall asleep soon after the test started, An Qi’s anger flared up. She wanted to wake him up immediately. But when she saw the 38th parallel she had drawn, she hesitated.

Several times, she reached out her hand, only to pull it back like lightning. Only after confirming that Qin An showed no signs of waking did she feel relieved.

The test ended, and class was over. Qin An was still sleeping. That was something An Qi couldn’t tolerate.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her. She pulled Qin An’s arm across the 38th parallel and then gave him a sharp rap on the head with her little fist.

When Qin An woke up, rubbing his head in confusion, An Qi couldn’t help but giggle. But she pretended she knew nothing and ran out of the classroom without looking back.

Qin An just smiled faintly. In truth, he had woken up the moment An Qi pulled his arm. He just hadn’t expected the sudden knuckle sandwich from the little beauty.

The rest of the time passed in a blur. Qin An and An Qi didn’t exchange a single word. Qin An had no problem with that; he once lay motionless for a full day and night while waiting to assassinate someone. But An Qi couldn’t hold back, constantly writing on scraps of paper.

Still, Qin An stubbornly refused to speak, driving An Qi crazy. After a whole lesson, she didn’t even know what class it was. Gradually, she began to regret her decision.

Although An Qi was a very cute little beauty with many boys liking her, none caught her eye. She thought those stinky boys only knew how to lift skirts and bully girls, and they would shout loudly to get girls’ attention. They had no gentlemanly demeanor at all. Her father was the boss of a big company, usually too busy with work to care for her. Her mother had left when she was still naive, but she still remembered one sentence: ‘Men who like you only because you’re pretty are no good.’

Back then, she didn’t know what ‘men’ were, but she figured they were probably similar to boys!

As for girls, because she was too dazzling, she attracted most of the male students’ attention, so many girls cast hostile looks at her. Sometimes she tried to chat with them, but it was just a warm face meeting their cold backsides.

Her only real friend was this boy named Qin An. She had been very curious about this guy who shared the ‘An’ in her name. He never spoke at school and kept to himself. Apart from that Little Tyrant, she hardly ever saw him interact with anyone else. So lonely—didn’t he feel awful? She couldn’t stand it; she often cried alone in her room. But she couldn’t tell her father, because he never paid attention to her matters. She was afraid that if she said something, her father would dislike her even more.

One day, when the homeroom teacher announced a deskmate system and a tutoring method, An Qi’s head spun. What if she got paired with a really bad girl? Would she pull her hair and beat her up? What if she got paired with a perverted boy? Would he grope her? And… and…

Her mind filled with images of herself being abused. But to her surprise, she ended up as deskmates with that Qin An.

On the first day, they didn’t say a word.

On the second day, they passed a note.

On the third day, they spoke their first words: “Good morning.”

She naturally became Qin An’s little tutor. She discovered that Qin An wasn’t unable to talk; he just wouldn’t speak if she didn’t ask, and wouldn’t start a conversation if she didn’t initiate.

They had been deskmates for a month now.

Come to think of it, today was exactly the one-month anniversary of their being deskmates. Yet this guy had still managed to make her angry. What a nuisance. But… but…

The little beauty wavered between her pride and what she considered ‘friendship’.