On Tuesday morning, Hua Jie arrived at school early. She took out the small paintings and designed signatures she had done for her classmates the previous night from her backpack and placed them on the desk alongside her textbooks.
The homeroom teacher suddenly instructed a male student to set up a desk and chair at the front row near the window.
Their class was organized into eight columns and six rows, though it could be considered four columns since desks were shared between two students.
The seat that was set up parallel to the teacher’s desk by the window was a lone spot.
Hua Jie paused for a moment.
That position belonged to her high school crush.
The sunlight was fresh and spilled onto that lonely green desk. In her memories, a particularly tall and handsome male student sat there, often propping his chin in his hand, squinting in the sunlight, staring out the window while twirling a pen in his other hand.
She remembered that Shen Mo transferred to their school in the first week, and it looked like it was about that time again.
Lost in thought for a moment, she suddenly shook her head and chuckled to herself.
Having been single for over two decades, one unrequited crush followed another.
Although Shen Mo was her last real-world crush, she later became a fangirl…
Scratching her short hair, she felt a bit embarrassed.
She really was timid, possibly traumatized by Yu Tonglin and Bian Ying’s torment, always feeling that having a crush and liking someone was extremely dangerous, embarrassing, and detrimental to one’s self-esteem.
As she opened her books and held her pencil, she suddenly heard the girls huddling at the front row, gossiping about the lonely ‘seat of honor’ by the window:
“I heard he transferred from No. 2 High School.”
“No. 2 High School started earlier than us, they even had military training, which we didn’t.”
“Yeah, apparently he’s a bit of a troublemaker. Heard he beat up two instructors and two male students, and had to transfer.”
“That sounds terrifying.”
“Yeah, I heard he’s really scary looking. A friend from my junior high went to No. 2 High School, and she said that seeing this guy… you’d tremble with fear.”
“Ah? I’m sitting behind him, what am I supposed to do?”
“He’s a boy; he wouldn’t hit a girl, right?”
“Who knows…”
“But I heard his family is super, super rich. They live in a big villa and drive luxury cars.”
“Definitely, how else could he transfer schools so easily?”
“Our school’s selection fees are pretty expensive too.”
“A rich troublemaker, that just makes him even more lawless…”
Hua Jie propped her chin, somewhat lost in thought.
So that was how everyone viewed Shen Mo before he transferred to No. 1 High School.
But it seemed that, during those three years, she had been afraid of him too, even though he never seemed to hit any female students, she didn’t dare talk to him.
She remembered the only time they had a conversation. She was late for class and rushed into the classroom from the hallway, accidentally running straight into his solid back.
At that moment, she was terrified, thinking she had collided with Shen Mo and that she was going to be killed.
Instead, he just coldly turned his head to look at her, then pressed a hand on top of her head and compared her height to under his arm, leaving her with the words “little shortie” before sauntering back to his isolated seat in line with the teacher’s desk, walking with the relaxed gait of an old man taking his bird for a walk.
Hua Jie still remembered how she felt at that time, her face flushing as she internally screamed two thoughts—
“I’m of average height in our class, not short at all!!!” and “Shen Mo touched my head! Ahhh, he touched my head!”
She was so embarrassed, her cheeks red for the entire four periods!
The endearing innocence of a girl in her adolescence, who has never been in love but longs for it…
A smile crept across Hua Jie’s lips.
Quietly gathering her thoughts, she opened her math book to preview the day’s lessons.
Her right hand, holding a pencil, continued unconsciously practicing line strokes on scrap paper, a habit she had developed since she began drawing in elementary school.
As the scrap paper filled with evenly spaced horizontal, vertical, left diagonal, and right diagonal lines forming small squares, and as she flipped through the math book, the tall figure from her past that had always seemed so distant in her memory gradually blurred into a sea of mathematical symbols.
…
By the time for morning reading, all her classmates had arrived. Hua Jie went to get some water to drink, and her deskmate, Jing Nian, quietly peeked at the scrap paper on Hua Jie’s desk.
The paper was almost entirely covered with short, straight lines.
Each set of lines was uniform in length, and the spacing between each pair of lines was exactly the same!
Jing Nian was slightly taken aback; he studied drawing and fully understood the difficulty of such precision.
How could anyone have such a steady hand???
How much practice must that have taken?
When Hua Jie returned with her water, Jing Nian casually withdrew his gaze, creating a little space with his book. He picked up a mechanical pencil and tried it himself, only to find that even with full concentration, he couldn’t achieve the same precision!
His attempts at line drawing became increasingly agitated; he pressed too hard, and his lines tore through the paper, leaving ugly tears.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Hua Jie following along with the morning reading and simultaneously picking up her pen to draw lines on paper again.
The lines were still perfectly straight, the spacing flawless…
“…”
Damn!
Was Hua Jie some kind of freak who had been drawing since she could hold a pen?
…
Since yesterday, Hua Jie had been contemplating her relationship with drawing.
She realized that no matter how much her previous life had been tormented by the demands of art buyers and commissioners, her love for drawing remained strong.
But she certainly did not want to relive the lonely, excruciating life of her past life, where the charm of painting was worn away by days spent scrambling for money, turning it into a painful endurance.
To continue considering painting as a profession, she would need to become a renowned artist.
In the year 2000, there weren’t many people who were exceptionally good at painting.
But by the time she would enter the workforce ten years later, the market would be filled with talented painters, and twenty years later, the market for artists would nearly be saturated.
Except for those who were exceptionally skilled or had gained popularity during a boom, life as a painter was incredibly hard and grueling.
Technically, despite relentless practice during her college years, Hua Jie hadn’t reached the level where clients wouldn’t dare ask for revisions.
She thought she might have reached a plateau in her understanding of painting; merely continuing to paint wouldn’t elevate her level.
Unless she suddenly had a brilliant epiphany and found a unique, highly commercial style, or met a mentor in the art world who could rekindle her artistic spirit and talent.
But… such epiphanies are rare, and art mentors hard to come by.
So, sitting in the classroom again in the early morning, she had made up her mind.
She would treat painting as a dream to enjoy and pursue.
And then!
Study hard!
Get into Tsinghua!
Find a high-paying job to fund your dream of painting!
After all, painting can’t be a job anymore, just a hobby that enriches life.
During the break before class, Hua Jie was already daydreaming, imagining herself making a lot of money, buying a big villa, sitting in a spacious, bright room facing a beautiful garden filled with flowers and plants. The warm breeze would lift the sheer curtains as she basked in the warm sunlight, freely expressing herself on the canvas.
To be the most independent and wealthy woman, living in the most beautiful and artistic big house, painting whatever she wanted.
If anyone dared to criticize her paintings, she would lift her proud head, coldly and disdainfully deliver a single word:
“Scram!”
Ah, to live proudly, never again bowing down to money!
She was almost drooling when the bell for class brought her back to reality.
Sitting upright, she gazed intently and eagerly at the teacher, as if looking at a Wealth God scattering money her way.
The teacher, feeling the intensity of her stare, glanced at her frequently. Her fervent gaze became an invisible pressure, compelling him to focus more and enhance his delivery.
…
Although she didn’t want to bow to money again, faced with her simple and honest classmates, she was still willing to sell her artistic skills.
After graduating from high school in her previous life, Hua Jie had moved far from home to study and work in Shanghai, rarely keeping in touch with her high school classmates.
The bond of old classmates might still exist, but it was thin, so charging them for her drawings did not make her hesitate.
During the first break, Liao Shanshan suddenly placed a beautifully wrapped small gift on her desk, causing Hua Jie to look up in surprise.
The client had already happily settled the payment for the drawing yesterday, so what was this for?
Liao Shanshan’s sweet smile, her buoyant dash to the restroom, and the lively swing of her long ponytail encapsulated the unbeatable spirit of youth.
Turning her attention back, Hua Jie opened the small gift box.
It was a Mickey Mouse-shaped pencil sharpener.
She held it in her hand, playing with it carefully, and caught a whiff of orange scent—Liao Shanshan had even sprayed the gift with a girl’s perfume.
Beneath the gift box, there was a small note:
“Hua Jie’s drawings are really beautiful, and your handwriting is the prettiest!
I’m going to keep them safe and when you become a famous artist, I’ll sell them for 10 million.
Here’s a little gift to celebrate our future riches.
:p (tongue-out smiley face) Liao Shanshan”
High school girls are so sweet, she loved it.
Hua Jie’s heart softened, sweetened, and warmed.
The morning light filtered through the window glass, illuminating her face. She carefully refolded the note and placed it back into the gift box, storing both the note and the Mickey Mouse pencil sharpener in her backpack.
Drawing indeed brought happiness.
And it even had the power to cheer up a girl, heh.
…
…
During the breaks between classes, Hua Jie’s orders were endless—those who couldn’t get a certain poster of their idol, those who wanted customized bookmarks, and those who asked her to decorate their book covers with drawings on plain paper… The requests kept coming.
By Wednesday afternoon, Hua Jie had easily earned over sixty yuan.
Drawing had become an enviable and lucrative skill among her classmates.
…
…
Since her rebirth, Hua Jie has been engrossed in learning to paint and enjoying her new life, keeping herself delightfully busy.
Her junior high deskmate, Yu Tonglin, however, felt somewhat lost.
During the break of the second class in the afternoon, Yu Tonglin couldn’t sit still any longer. Taking advantage of the moment when Jing Nian left the classroom, he moved next to Hua Jie to get a closer look at her painting.
“Hey, draw a portrait for me,” he said, tapping Hua Jie’s head with a familiarity typical of an old classmate.
Hua Jie didn’t even look up, recognizing the voice immediately.
“Two yuan,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“…Hey, aren’t you being too mercenary? Do we really need to talk about money?” Yu Tonglin was unprepared for her rejection, feeling somewhat embarrassed, and retorted, “Can’t afford you now?”
“You’re too stingy, can’t you spare two yuan?” Hua Jie frowned slightly. She neither liked his overly familiar tone nor his joking attitude.
She was no longer someone who would bend for money!
Now, she was the artist bold enough to provoke her clients fiercely.
If he kept nagging, she was ready to coolly send him off with a “Love it, buy it, or get lost!” Thinking about this, she suddenly looked eagerly at Yu Tonglin; she had been wanting to say those words for a very~ long~ time!
For a lifetime, it felt!
“…” Yu Tonglin’s face stiffened for a moment as he calmed his emotions, relieved that no one around had heard her retort. He then reluctantly pulled out two yuan and held it up to her.
Hua Jie took the money with a sigh of regret and said:
“I still have three paintings lined up, I’ll give you yours tomorrow.”
“…Okay.” After Yu Tonglin responded, Hua Jie ignored him again.
He felt somewhat unwilling to let it go. In the past, she would always initiate conversations with him, always smiling and never losing her temper. Why was she so distant now?
Feeling uncomfortable, he scratched his short hair and poked her again.
“What do you want?”
“I see Jing Nian is always picking on you. How about we sit together again?” Yu Tonglin whispered.
“…” Hua Jie paused in her movements, slowly straightening up and looking incredulously at Yu Tonglin.
???
In her previous life, when Jing Nian bullied her, she had asked Yu Tonglin if they could sit together like in junior high. What was his response again?
“Not really a good idea…”
She had loved him like Shuang’er loved Wei Xiaobao in “The Deer and the Cauldron,” selflessly and unconditionally, for three years, but he had never reciprocated.
Now!
He actually… voluntarily asked to sit with her???