Been Cursed

"Little sister, what are you thinking about? Look over here." Fu Xueli interrupted her daydreaming.

Xu Yan murmured, her eyes shifting away from her water cup, snapping out of her trance. She asked innocently, "What's wrong?"

"Look." Fu Xueli gestured towards the front of the classroom, "The teacher said group discussion, front and back rows."

What?

The teacher just said something, but she didn't even hear it.

Xu Yan looked up and saw a line of white chalk on the center of the blackboard.

"Write down the top five things that make you the happiest, in English. We'll read them aloud with our classmates later."

Fu Xueli had already turned around, but seeing Xu Yan still unmoved, she turned her head and urged her, "Baby, hurry up! We need you. This old lady really likes people from our group."

Just then, the teacher entered the classroom from outside after getting water and said while walking, "Everyone, make good use of your time, there are only ten minutes left."

Xu Yan's body jolted, without much time to think, she grabbed a pen and a piece of white paper and turned around.

The two boys in the back row who were chatting just now simultaneously stopped and looked at Xu Yan as she turned around.

She lowered her head slightly, looking at the draft paper with her pen clenched, and whispered in a hesitant voice, "You guys go ahead, I'll translate."

While the rest of the classroom was buzzing with lively conversations, it was unusually quiet in their group.

Fu Xueli finished replying to a message on her phone, put it away, and looked up to find the atmosphere somewhat awkward.

"What's going on?" She was puzzled.

"Uh..." Song Yifan paused for a moment, "I don't know."

In fact, he felt a little guilty because he had just witnessed his brother bullying a young girl.

As for why Xie Ci didn't speak, he didn't know either.

A few seconds passed.

Xu Yan unconsciously curled her fingers and slid them on the paper. Song Yifan's voice sounded in her ears, "Why is no one speaking? Let me go first, give me a moment to think."

After saying that, he furrowed his brow, looked at the sky with a thoughtful expression.

"Hurry up," Fu Xueli propped her chin with one hand and said boredly, "What do you have to think about? You're such a shallow person, besides eating and sleeping, what else is left?"

"Hey, Dalizi, you can't talk to me like that, okay? I am a man with depth and dreams," said Song Yifan.

Fu Xueli crumpled a piece of paper into a ball and threw it forcefully at Song Yifan, "I don't like the nickname Dalizi, fuck."

"And," she stood up and pretended to hit him, "besides being good at picking up girls, I really can't see much depth in you."

Song Yifan straightened his chest and said firmly, "To be honest, besides my poor academic performance--"

"Wait, it's not just poor, it's abysmal."

Xu Yan couldn't help but laugh.

Song Yifan, relieved that the new classmate finally smiled, said, "Hey, let's stop arguing and study together with our classmate Xu."

He deliberately ignored his desk mate, who looked at him with a faint expression.

While they were arguing, Xu Yan had already written her own notes.

She clicked her ballpoint pen and nodded at Song Yifan, saying, "Go ahead."

"Can I say anything? Can you translate anything?"

Xu Yan was taken aback. "What do you want to say? I may not know how to translate everything."

"Well," Song Yifan thought for a moment, "I like playing basketball, sleeping, and playing games."

Xu Yan listened attentively and wrote down on the draft paper:

play basketball, sleep, play games

On the side, Fu Xueli couldn't bear it anymore and interrupted, "Stop, stop! Don't say that, or you'll embarrass yourself when you read it out loud later."

"What's wrong with what I said?" Song Yifan protested.

Fu Xueli turned to Xie Ci, seeking agreement. "Ci, do you think he's an idiot?"

Xie Ci remained silent, with little reaction except for a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Xu Yan continued to write while speaking to them, "Anything else? If not, I'll go next."

"Wait." The person who had been silent for a while finally spoke.

His voice slow and teasing. "I was saying--"

Just say it already.

Xu Yan thought to herself, but didn't interrupt.

Xie Ci remained silent, and Xu Yan didn't speak either. She just held her pen and waited patiently, without any sense of urgency.

Xie Ci's wrist rested on the edge of the table, fingers flipping through his black phone incessantly, but his eyes were on her.

She lay quietly on the table, as docile as a pure white rabbit.

Song Yifan's gaze shifted between Xu Yan and Xie Ci, sensing that something was amiss.

After a while, he lazily spoke up.

"I'm thinking..."

Xie Ci paused for a moment, as if contemplating seriously.

Xu Yan glanced at her watch, three minutes left, she focused her attention and prepared her pen to take notes.

"I don't seem to have any likes, what should I do?"

Song Yifan smirked and punched him in the chest. "It's easy, Xu Yan, just write 'women' for him."

"Come on, that's boring." Fu Xueli snorted and turned away.

Xu Yan clenched her small face, ignoring their nonsense. She quickly wrote "nothing" on a blank sheet of paper and placed it on their table, preparing to pack her things and move over.

"Oh, right, I remember now." Xie Ci raised her eyebrows and called out to Xu Yan, stopping her.

Xu Yan slowly looked up at him.

"What else?" She asked softly.

Why does this person have so many things on his mind?

"Don't you know?" He countered.

Xu Yan fell silent for a moment, furrowing her brows. "How would I know?"

Xie Ci chuckled, "You really don't know?"

He looked meaningfully at her, but Xu Yan couldn't be bothered to figure it out.

The moment she turned her head, she suddenly felt a rush of heat near her ear.

Accompanied by a gust of wind.

Xie Ci stood up, placing one hand on the table and leaning close to Xu Yan's neck. His dark eyes stared straight ahead, his Adam's apple moved slightly, and he wickedly curled his lips as he whispered something to her in a low voice.

Xu Yan's body froze for a moment.

Xie Ci sat back in his seat, propping his elbow on the edge of the table behind him, supporting his head, and staring at Xu Yan's blushing profile. He laughed harder and harder.

Feeling suddenly watched, Xie Ci shifted his gaze.

"Buddy," Song Yifan leaned in, looking complicated, "When did you become so fond of teasing young girls?"

Xie Ci glanced at him and asked indifferently, "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh, how could I dare," Song Yifan said.

After a while.

"I just feel..." Song Yifan couldn't help himself and leaned in again, whispering in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "I just feel like lately you've been acting strange, getting close to the new classmates and all. What do you think?"

As soon as he finished speaking, his shin was fiercely kicked. Song Yifan let out a muffled groan from the pain, and immediately shut up.

Xu Yan wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

She quickly wrote a paragraph on the draft paper and tore it off, placing it on the desk of the person behind her.

In the classroom, the English teacher stood on the podium, and the classroom gradually quieted down.

She cleared her throat and held the lesson plan in her hand, asking, "Have you all finished discussing?"

No one answered.

Teacher Zhang scanned the room with her eyes, lifted her chin, and pointed at Group Four. "Xie Ci, where did you go during the last class? You really have no regard for rules. Come on, tell me what I wrote for the topic."

Xu Yan couldn't help but bite her lip.

The person behind her stood up unhurriedly, the legs of the chair making a scraping sound against the floor.

Seeing that he remained silent, Teacher Zhang glanced at him indifferently and said, "If you can't speak up, stand for one class."

Xie Ci lazily leaned against the wall and picked up a piece of white drafting paper from the table with two fingers.

In the quiet classroom, he slowly read out the poorly written English sentence written with a ballpoint pen:

"I love to give sb a glass of hot water."

Teacher Zhang listened once, thought for a few seconds, and exclaimed in disbelief, "You like to help others get hot water?"