Chapter 57: Lonely Little Yu
After tidying up everything, Xia Hong took Wang Wenjuan back home, leaving his kids at school because, well, the little rascals had classes to attend—no skipping school today!
So, since Xia Le was in sixth grade and Xia Yu and Xia Ling were in fifth, once their parents exited stage left, they went off in search of their classrooms like innocent little ducklings.
The moment Xia Yu entered her classroom, despite not sporting a dress any longer, her long hair still managed to astonish her classmates. Wasn’t Xia Yu supposed to be a boy? What’s with the girl-like long locks? Talk about flamboyant! But hey, at least it was kind of cute.
Yep, even though Xia Yu had been M.I.A. for half a year (which is basically a lifetime in elementary school), her former classmates still remembered her.
Xia Yu’s fifth-grade class was neither too big nor too small, housing about forty-four students, and adding Xia Yu made it a nice round forty-five. This meant one lonely soul had to sit alone at a single desk.
You guessed it—poor Xia Yu was that lonely soul! The seating chart was arranged last semester, and no one had expected her to return, so she ended up with the last empty seat way in the back.
And so, after arriving at the classroom, Xia Ling and Xia Yu split since they both needed to return to their respective desks to unpack. There was no way they could just hang out together all day!
Ignoring the various colorful glances from her classmates, Xia Yu made her way to her usual corner at the back of the class by the window. A classic spot, her throne of solitude!
After unpacking her stuff, Xia Yu leaned on the desk with her chin in her hand, staring vacantly out the window like a thoughtful philosopher.
Wow, look at that! She wasn’t as playful as before. It seemed like after that incident, she had gone through some character development or something. No more shamelessly invading boys’ groups to forage for “friends.”
Elementary classes were pretty brief: three in the morning, two in the afternoon, plus morning and evening reading sessions.
Perhaps it was the first-day registration buzz, but there was no morning reading today, nor was there any collective cleaning of the classroom. Once registration wrapped, classmates just huddled and chatted, because who needs books to have a good gossip session, right?
Since she had arrived early, Xia Yu found herself stuck in a seemingly endless wait for class to start. Before she knew it, her bladder started sending urgent signals.
Sighing and glancing at the clock, she ultimately decided to make a bathroom run; after all, the first class wouldn’t start for another ten minutes!
Decision made, she stood up and casually strolled out of the classroom, feeling confident that nobody would notice her absence.
But in a twist of fate that would make any sitcom writer proud, upon her exit, a group of boys who had notoriously enjoyed bullying Xia Yu quickly huddled together.
“Hey, that girly-boy is going to the bathroom. Let’s sneak after her!”
“Yeah! Let’s see if she uses the boys’ room or the girls’. Maybe we can toss her in the girl’s restroom!”
“Right! It’s been ages since we’ve had some fun. I’m a bit rusty, though. Think she’ll tell the teacher?”
“Do you think she’s brave enough?”
And with that plan formed, mere seconds after Xia Yu left, four boys bolted from the fifth-grade classroom like miniature ninjas on a mission!
