Chapter 19: The Position is Taken

Guided by memory, Shen Mianmian found her classroom and, upon seeing those youthful and immature faces, she felt a complicated mix of emotions. Zhou Siyu had also arrived in the classroom and was currently sitting at her desk, staring at Shen Mianmian with a leisurely anticipation, as if waiting for a show to start.

Because of her short stature, her desk was in the first row in the middle. On the wooden desk, worn of its red paint, was a line marking an unjust boundary drawn by Su Xiaohong. Any slight encroachment by Shen Mianmian would be promptly pushed back.

As Shen Mianmian arrived at her spot and put down her schoolbag, her deskmate Su Xiaohong spoke without any warmth, "This isn't your seat anymore, don't sit here."

"Where should I sit then?" Shen Mianmian's first reaction was that she had remembered the wrong seat, which seemed reasonable after more than twenty years.

With a smug look on her face, Su Xiaohong declared, "You haven't been here for two days. Your sister said you're not coming back, so the teacher moved Chen Juan over here to sit."

Chen Juan, like Shen Mianmian, was also petite, only slightly taller, and she had previously sat behind Shen Mianmian.

"It was your aunt who said you weren't allowed to come anymore," Zhou Siyu promptly clarified, indicating that she wasn't the one who spread the rumor.

Zhou Siyu was popular in the class and also a group leader. Because she was decent at academics and often let students who were struggling copy her homework, she had won over many hearts.

In contrast, Shen Mianmian, a poor student with neither a sweet tongue nor strong personality, became the target of exclusion. Nearing the end of her three years in middle school, she remained solitary.

After giving her a glance, Shen Mianmian didn't say a word.

Chen Juan entered the classroom, and upon seeing Shen Mianmian, she was taken aback. Su Xiaohong immediately went over, took Chen Juan's schoolbag, stuffed it into the drawer, and then pressed her down to sit on the stool.

"Chen Juan, just keep sitting here. The teacher moved you here, and nobody can take it from you."

Chen Juan had a more honest disposition, but as she came from the same village as Su Xiaohong and was a good student, the two had a decent relationship and had long wanted to sit together.

To Shen Mianmian, it was like Cheng Yaojin had emerged halfway down the road, being short and taking other people's places.

Sitting in the first or second row didn't make much of a difference in reality. Shen Mianmian turned her attention to Chen Juan's former spot, where a girl was now sitting vigilantly, as if fearing Shen Mianmian would take it, immediately hunching over her desk to assert her territory.

"I'm sitting here now. No one else can take it."

Lu Siyuan, who had just parked his bike, entered and merely glanced over here before going back to his own seat, unconcerned with the matter.

The classroom bell rang, and Shen Mianmian simply stood at the front of the classroom. All eyes in the classroom were on her, save for Lu Siyuan, who, like the others, looked on with the eager anticipation of spectators at a spectacle.

If it had been someone else, they would have been daunted by now, but Shen Mianmian, who had already faced death once, was she supposed to be afraid of being looked at by some teenagers?