Living Only For Myself: Make Those Who Hate Me Regret It-Chapter 40 - 39: Looking Like He Was About to Go Over Her Mistakes
"I’m so curious what Old Wu and he talked about in the office that day." Huang Feng always loved gossip. "It’s obvious Xi Zirong likes you, you know? Look, everyone else has to go ask him when they have a tough problem, but with you, Susu, he offers to help on his own."
Qian Jia asked curiously, "Speaking of him taking the initiative, I heard Xi Zirong highlighted the key points for you a couple of days ago?"
City No.1 High School had many boarding students. They ate and lived at the school, so compared to the day students, they were better at getting firsthand news—right on the front lines of all the gossip.
Xu Su froze. Thinking about the "highlighting key points" incident, she didn’t know how to respond for a moment. She gave a slightly awkward smile. "I guess so."
During evening self-study the day before yesterday, Xu Su had returned to the classroom right after dinner. Although her total score on the midterms had improved, her math and physics results weren’t that great. She planned to find some practice problems based on the questions she’d gotten wrong.
There were only seven or eight people in the classroom at the time. Not long after, Xi Zirong came in, walked past Xu Su, and sat right down in Chen Huiyu’s seat, then asked for her test paper.
He looked as if he was about to explain her wrong answers to her.
Although Xu Su really wanted to improve her grades, she couldn’t just let the rumors of them dating fly. Seeing him sit right next to her and lean in, right in front of several classmates, she was scared stiff and of course refused to show him her test paper.
Then Xi Zirong returned to his own seat. He took out his math, physics, and chemistry textbooks and spent a long time circling, marking, and writing in them. He worked for so long that Chen Huiyu had already arrived by the time he finally gave his three books to Xu Su.
Xu Su wouldn’t take them, so he just placed them on her desk and told her to flip through them to see if they were helpful.
Evening self-study was three hours long. The three books sat on Xu Su’s desk for a full two hours before she finally opened them. She couldn’t help it; the notes Xi Zirong had made were just too tempting.
Xu Su sighed. ’This guy really understands what kind of help I need.’ If she could get into the top three of her grade on the final exams, she would get First High School’s top-tier scholarship.
When school started next year, she wanted to pay her own dorm fees. That way, she wouldn’t need to ask for Xu Weiping and his wife’s permission and could just live on campus.
The scholarship money for the top three in the grade versus the top ten was a full five hundred yuan. The dorm fee for one semester at City No.1 High School was four hundred. If she could get into the top three, her dorm fee would be covered.
But she was already putting all her energy into studying and could only just barely scrape into the bottom of the top ten for her entire grade—and that was only when she gave it her all and made no mistakes.
Every student who could make it into the top ten of the grade possessed both diligence and talent. While you were studying hard, they were studying hard too. It would be incredibly difficult for Xu Su to break into the top three on the final exams by relying on her own hard work alone.
At this point, any bit of effective help could have a huge impact on her ranking. A few extra points could mean moving up several places.
In the books Xi Zirong had given her, important formulas were marked with detailed notes. He had also circled many types of problems, noting their likelihood of appearing on the exam. It was all his own judgment, and the handwriting looked fresh, clearly done on the spot.
In other words, during the past few months since school started, he hadn’t made these "exam highlights" for himself in class. He had specifically made all these notes just for her.
Just as this thought flashed through Xu Su’s mind, she discovered a note in Xi Zirong’s chemistry book.
There were many more words on this note than the last one: [What questions did you get wrong on the midterms? I’ll find some practice problems for you. What I’ve marked in the books are all the key topics for this semester. You can focus on those. Memorize the formulas that are highly likely to be on the final exam. By the way, are you choosing the liberal arts or science track?]
The handwriting was beautiful, a semi-cursive script that was neat yet had a touch of unruliness. Just like Xi Zirong’s cool and composed personality, it was very pleasing to the eye.
Xu Su had seen Zhou Mochen’s signature before. His strokes were sharp and his writing was very messy, but it was handsome in its own way.
This note met the same fate as the last one. It went unanswered, crumpled into a ball by Xu Su and tossed away on a small path outside the school.
So, Qian Jia’s information didn’t quite match the facts. Xi Zirong hadn’t just highlighted key points for her; he had given her his own textbooks, which were still on her desk even now.
Xu Su had tried to return them, but he wouldn’t take them back. There were always people in the classroom, and she didn’t want to get into a tangle with Xi Zirong in front of everyone, so she had kept the books for several days.
Actually, Xu Su was also curious about what they had talked about in Teacher Wu’s office that day. Why hadn’t Xi Zirong reined in his ’intentions’ at all afterward?
Rumors about them dating were flying around, yet he didn’t seem to understand the need to avoid suspicion. He gave her test papers, then books, and even passed her little notes from time to time.
Across both her past and present lives, this was the first time Xu Su had ever been shown such blatant ’goodwill’ during high school.
She didn’t know how to handle it. He hadn’t confessed his feelings directly, after all. She couldn’t just go up to Xi Zirong and, like she did with Zhou Mochen, bluntly tell him, ’I don’t like you...’
Xu Su imagined the scene and couldn’t help but feel it would be awkward.
Time passed unhurriedly, and Xu Su’s attitude caused the rumors about her and Xi Zirong to change direction.
The rumor shifted from them dating to, ’Xi Zirong, the first-year top student, is pursuing Xu Su from his class.’
...
By mid-December, the new subsidized apartment that the textile factory had promised to allocate to the Xu Family was officially theirs. A simple renovation had already begun. Chen Shulan spent her free days running over to the new apartment to supervise the work, preparing to move before the end of the year so they could celebrate the New Year in their new home.
The interior design style of this era was extremely simple. The Xu Family was just an ordinary working-class family, so a simple coat of white paint, new floor tiles, installation of lights and other necessary furnishings, and then airing the place out to get rid of the smell was about all it took.
Xu Su left home every morning before anyone else was awake and returned at night after everyone was already asleep. She never offered any opinions on these matters, nor did she care.
But Xu Weiping and his wife seemed determined to maintain a good relationship with her. For two consecutive weekends, they waited until she was home to specifically ask her if she had any requests for the new apartment’s renovation.
’What requests could I have? Getting my own room already satisfies all my requirements.’ Besides, she had already decided she had to live on campus next semester. At that point, she wouldn’t even want to go back to the new apartment on weekends. ’How many days would I even live there?’
Seeing their persistent attitude, she reluctantly mentioned wanting a water heater installed for more convenient showers.
Throughout all these developments, Zhou Mochen never once appeared. After he had promised not to interfere with Xu Su’s studies before the college entrance exams, he had kept his word and vanished completely. This allowed Xu Su, who had been extremely tense since meeting him again, to finally breathe a long sigh of relief.
She was truly terrified of the Zhou Mochen from her past life—his endless need for control, the suffocating lack of freedom from being forced to stay by his side after she became an adult. It was something she never wanted to experience again.
With ten days left until New Year’s Day, Teacher Wu suddenly decided to hold a New Year’s party in their class. His exact words were, "In your three years of high school, your first year is the only time you’ll have for a New Year’s celebration. To add a bit more color to your high school memories when you look back in the future, let’s celebrate this time."
