Song Ying softly asked, "Are you all full? I bought some cake. Those who aren't full can have some to tide you over."
The Class Teacher turned on the hotpot burner, "I'm going to keep eating hotpot!"
Song Ying was confused, "Didn't we just get scolded by the Director? You still want to eat?"
The Class Teacher said bitterly, "We'll have to write self-criticisms anyway. We might as well eat our fill and enjoy it properly."
Feeling that his words made sense, Song Ying nodded, "Those who want cake can come to me. I'll distribute it."
To tell the truth, although everyone was full from the hotpot, after being dragged to the Director's office to be scolded while standing, plus walking a bit, the hotpot in their stomachs had digested somewhat. Many students felt hungry again and could eat a little more.
Girls have two stomachs - when the meal stomach is full, they can still eat some snacks.
Besides, no one can resist cream cake.
So everyone raised their hands saying, "I want some, I want some."
Seeing the cake she bought was so popular, Song Ying felt extremely satisfied, "Alright, I'll distribute the cake to you all."
A classmate who went with Song Ying to get the cake held up the candles given by the store, saying, "We should have some ceremony when eating cake. Let's light some candles!"
"Sure, sure!"
"Quick, draw the curtains and turn off the lights."
"I'll put in the candles."
"Why didn't the store give us matches?"
The class was full of well-behaved children who didn't smoke in secret, so no one had a lighter to light the candles.
They waited until the hotpot was boiling again, when the Class Teacher suddenly felt the gaze of his little ones.
Whenever they all looked at him like this, it was never for anything good.
He made a motion of patting his pockets, "What are you looking at? I don't smoke, how would I have a lighter?"
The students kept staring, and the Class Teacher resigned himself, closing his eyes, "Fine, fine, I'll go borrow one." He really must have owed them in a past life.
After putting down his chopsticks, he felt a bit uneasy, "Don't finish all the food in the hotpot, leave some for me."
The Class Teacher jogged out to borrow a lighter and handed it to the student by the cake.
He returned to his original spot to find his disposable plate piled high with food like a small mountain.
Hmph, at least these little ones had a conscience.
In the darkness, the candles were lit, illuminating a small area around them.
Someone pushed Song Ying, "You bought the cake, you make a wish and blow out the candles."
Song Ying's face flushed with shy embarrassment, "Is that okay?"
"Of course it's okay. You blow them out today, we'll take turns next time. We can all take turns blowing out candles!"
Someone got carried away and started singing "Happy Birthday."
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday..."
However, it wasn't actually anyone's birthday today.
She had often seen in movies and TV shows people wishing the birthday person: "May you have this day year after year, may you have this moment year after year."
At the time, she could understand the meaning of these words, but couldn't understand why people would say this to the birthday person. She thought it was just an ordinary phrase.
Now she felt it was truly a beautiful blessing. She had never been this happy before. If only every day could be as joyful as today.
So her wish was just one sentence: I hope to have this day year after year, this moment year after year.
When Song Ying opened her eyes, she was smiling even as she blew out the candles.
As the candles went out, the classmate by the window quickly pulled open the curtains.
Light returned to the classroom, and Song Ying held up the cake knife, "Let's cut the cake!"
"I want this piece."
"I want the one with strawberries."
...
It's a good thing Song Ying had chosen an extra-large cake, enough to feed this pack of hungry wolves in the class.
This lunch lasted from 10 AM to 2 PM. After eating, everyone cleaned up the pots and dishes together, then put the tables and chairs back in place.
After finishing the class reassignments, they were about to start summer vacation.
As Class One was cleaning their classroom, the entire floor had returned to its usual quiet. The other classes had finished their big move and had already relocated to what used to be the second-year classrooms.
The original graduating classes had emptied their rooms after the college entrance exams. The second-year students had already moved into the corresponding third-year classrooms.
The first-years, about to become second-years, were waiting for their final exam results to come out for class assignments based on their grades.
Once the class assignment results were out, everyone would move classrooms while switching to the second-year rooms.
Now the other classrooms were empty, waiting for the new first-years to enroll. Only Class One of the first year was still in its original location.
The Class Teacher felt a headache coming on. The other classes had already finished moving, while they had just finished eating.
He glanced at his watch - there was still time.
But before moving, there was one more thing to do: choosing seats based on exam results.
The Class Teacher thought to himself, now that the threat of class reassignment was gone, did he have nothing else to entice them with? That certainly couldn't be the case.
Standing on the podium, the Class Teacher cleared his throat and said, "Students, I have an announcement. As you know, your current seats were chosen randomly when you first enrolled. As a seating arrangement, it has many unreasonable aspects, including Song Ying and Rongrong needing to sit with their classmates instead of always by the podium, which isn't good."
Song Ying deeply agreed, nodding quickly. Sitting by the podium like a teacher's deskmate felt very strange.
"So you might ask, how will we arrange the seats? After careful consideration, to motivate you all to improve your grades and keep up the good work, our class will assign seats based on exam results. This means that students will enter the classroom to choose seats in order of their test scores. First place chooses first, then second place, third place... and so on."
The students quickly realized their teacher's clever plan. Shi Li was in first place, so she would choose her seat first. Wouldn't that mean the second or other top-ranked students could potentially become Shi Li's deskmate?
Their crafty teacher! Why didn't he announce this policy earlier?
Of course, even if he had, it might not have made a drastic difference in everyone's final exam scores.
After all, to stay in the same class as Shi Li, everyone had already put in 120% effort.
Otherwise, the class average wouldn't have jumped up by dozens of points. Such a huge improvement showed that everyone had truly worked hard.
The class's academic progress was so great that even Shi Li felt threatened, hiding at home to study in secret every day.
The lower-ranked students had clearly lost the chance to be Shi Li's deskmate, so they waited to watch the drama unfold and see who would win this prize.
The top-ranked students, especially the top five, had sparks flying from their eyes.
The Class Teacher pretended not to see the turbulent emotions below the podium. He clapped his hands and said, "Alright, let's go choose seats in our second-floor classroom. After selecting seats, we'll move our books and personal belongings over."
Gu Yuqing was counting on her fingers, considering her own ranking and the personalities of those ranked above her. Could she become Shi Li's deskmate? She could definitely secure a spot in front of or behind Shi Li, but her goal was to sit next to Shi Li, left or right. Being an actual deskmate would be best of all.
As the whole class went upstairs together, Gu Yuqing calculated: Second place was Rongrong, who had just transferred to their class recently. Her relationship with the other classmates was generally neutral, though she seemed close to Song Ying. She didn't seem like someone who would want to be Shi Li's deskmate, so she wasn't a threat.
Third place was Fu Huixing. Who knows what he'd been taking lately, his grades had improved so quickly, jumping from the teens to the top three. But he also didn't seem like someone who would compete for the deskmate position.
That left only Duan Yaojing in fourth place as a possible rival for the deskmate spot.
But it didn't matter. Even sitting across the half-meter aisle from Shi Li would be fine.
The Class Teacher had already arranged the second-year Class One room differently from their original classroom.
Six columns and five rows of single desks, no deskmates. Everyone was their own deskmate.
In this case, sitting to Shi Li's left or right would both be good.
Duan Yaojing was very satisfied with this arrangement.
But under Gu Yuqing's expectant gaze, Shi Li chose the second-to-last window seat in the back row.
Gu Yuqing's heart shattered. With Shi Li by the window, she couldn't be her deskmate from outside.
With Shi Li missing a deskmate, Duan Yaojing could only be seated in front of or behind Shi Li now.
The second person to enter the classroom was Rongrong. After she came in, she didn't linger but walked straight to the corner by the window, seemingly having a special fondness for that spot.
Gu Yuqing nervously clenched her fists. She had miscalculated, not anticipating that Shi Li would choose a window seat. But it didn't matter; there was still a chance.
There was still one seat next to and one in front of her available.
Given Fu Huixing's height, he was more likely to sit in the last row.
He wasn't her competition, so she didn't care about Fu Huixing's choice and only waited to see what Duan Yaojing would do.
-------- Mini Scene
Thirty seconds later
Gu Yuqing: I want to kill Fu Huixing!
