The Ugly Duckling Has Its Own Little Thoughts

Having nothing better to do, Chen Zhi looked around and, seeing no one passing by, stealthily took out his phone. He skillfully entered his password and opened the encrypted photo album.

Since he was idle anyway, he might as well do some reviewing.

His finger swiped across the screen, opening a folder named "Study Materials," and flicked through the photos one by one.

To be honest, Pei Ningxue's legs were truly top-tier. Long, fair, and perfectly proportioned—if only she wore black silk stockings...

"Do they look good?"

A cold, clear voice suddenly rang out right by his ear.

Chen Zhi's finger stiffened abruptly, his heart nearly leaping out of his throat.

The voice was far too familiar.

With extreme composure, Chen Zhi turned off his phone screen and smoothly slid it into his pants pocket. The entire sequence of movements was fluid, without a hint of panic.

He turned his head, looking calmly at Pei Ningxue, who had silently appeared behind him.

"What looks good?" Chen Zhi asked, his face a picture of righteous innocence. "I was checking the time, figuring out when my shift ends."

Pei Ningxue, wearing a baggy school uniform, stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the frame of the classroom's back door. Her beautiful peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Chen Zhi with a half-smile.

"Oh? You need to zoom in to check the time?"

Pei Ningxue took a step forward, leaned in close to his ear, and lowered her voice. "That photo just now, I believe I sent it to you last week, didn't I?"

Chen Zhi was speechless.

He had been careless.

How does this woman walk without making a sound?

"Ahem." Chen Zhi let out a tactical cough, deciding to change the subject. "Why did you come out? Aren't you watching the movie?"

"It's too noisy," Pei Ningxue said lightly, though her gaze remained fixed on Chen Zhi's pocket. "Besides, I've already seen it."

"Then what are you interested in?" Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow.

Pei Ningxue didn't speak. She simply reached out a hand and held it open in front of him.

Her fingers were long and slender, her nails trimmed neatly, revealing a pale pink hue.

"What?" Chen Zhi played dumb.

Pei Ningxue just looked into his eyes.

Chen Zhi leaned against the railing, shrinking back slightly, his hands fiercely guarding his pocket, determined not to yield.

"Lao Pei, this is too much. We are like blood brothers from different parents. What's wrong with a brother keeping a couple of photos? Don't you trust me?"

Pei Ningxue remained silent, but her fair palm stayed open in front of him, her fingers twitching twice in a beckoning motion.

The meaning was clear: Cut the crap and hand it over.

Chen Zhi sighed under the young lady's icy glare.

He slowly pulled out his phone and, with great difficulty, placed it into her palm.

"Delete them gently, can't you leave me something to remember them by? These are the witnesses to our three years of comradeship."

Pei Ningxue turned a deaf ear.

She expertly lifted the phone and flashed it at Chen Zhi's bitter face.

"Click."

Face ID unlocked successfully.

Her slender fingers swiped rapidly across the screen, locating the photo album.

Chen Zhi craned his neck to look, but she turned sideways, blocking his view completely.

Immediately after, a heartbreaking series of taps could be heard.

Select, Select All, Delete.

Empty Recently Deleted.

Chen Zhi clutched his chest, feeling as though his heart was bleeding.

That was two whole years' worth of collection!

From the bedroom leg photo in their first year of junior high to the close-up in the computer lab last week, every single picture documented their indestructible revolutionary friendship.

Now, they were all gone.

Pei Ningxue's guard was getting higher and higher nowadays. Her messages auto-destructed after ten seconds, leaving no chat history to be found.

These reserves were a diminishing treasure.

"Here you go."

Pei Ningxue tossed the phone back into Chen Zhi's arms.

Chen Zhi caught the phone and looked at the completely empty album, devastated.

"Pei Ningxue, you have no heart!!"

Pei Ningxue glanced at him, the corner of her mouth lifting into an imperceptible smile, and turned to walk back toward the classroom's back door.

The moment her figure disappeared through the doorway, the grief on Chen Zhi's face vanished instantly.

He quickly lowered his head, his fingertips dancing across the screen as he skillfully opened an app disguised as a "Scientific Calculator."

He entered a complex functional formula as the password.

The interface switched.

A private album named "Study Materials" impressively appeared.

A triumphant, wicked grin curled the corners of Chen Zhi's mouth.

Little fool.

Trying to outsmart me?

Don't you know the principle of a cunning rabbit having three burrows?

Only an idiot would keep true secrets in a regular photo album where anyone could see them.

He tapped on the first picture.

It was the very first photo Pei Ningxue had sent him in their first year of junior high, the beginning of their unbreakable brotherhood.

Chen Zhi clicked his tongue twice, just about to zoom in on the details for a thorough critique.

"Do they look good?"

A cold, clear voice drifted faintly from behind his ear.

Chen Zhi shivered in fright, nearly dropping his phone through the gap in the railing to the floor below.

He whipped his head around.

Pei Ningxue had somehow returned and was standing less than half a meter behind him, arms crossed, staring right at his screen.

Her beautiful peach-blossom eyes clearly spelled out the words, "I knew it."

Chen Zhi swallowed hard, trying to shield the screen with his body, and gave a dry laugh. "Well, you see... I'm researching ergonomics."

Pei Ningxue ignored his nonsense. She simply took a step forward, pinched the edge of his phone with two fingers, and smoothly pulled it away.

Two minutes later.

The private album was also empty.

Even the app disguised as a calculator had been completely uninstalled.

"It's clean this time."

Pei Ningxue slapped the phone back against Chen Zhi's chest and even thoughtfully straightened his wind-mussed collar. Her tone was as gentle as water. "Stand guard properly, Mr. Class Monitor."

With that, she walked away without looking back.

This time, she was really gone.

Chen Zhi stood holding a phone that was cleaner than his face, looking utterly disheveled in the wind.

He feigned an expression of agonizing grief, watching Pei Ningxue enter the classroom, and even cooperatively pounded the railing a couple of times.

Only when he confirmed that Pei Ningxue had returned to her seat and lowered her head to read did his demeanor change.

The expression on Chen Zhi's face switched instantly.

The grief vanished, replaced by a sly, triumphant smirk.

Heh, women.

You can calculate all you want, but you never factored in that there's something in this world called automatic cloud backup, did you?

As long as it connects to WiFi, all photos are automatically uploaded to the cloud drive.

Humming a little tune, Chen Zhi was in a fantastic mood, feeling that today's sunlight was much brighter.

Just then, the classroom's back door was pushed open once again.

A petite figure walked out holding a few test papers.

It was Li Zhiyi.

She walked up to Chen Zhi and said softly, "Chen Zhi, you can go back and watch the movie. I'm here to take over your shift."

According to the rules they had set previously, everyone stood guard for five minutes.

Chen Zhi put his phone away and casually rubbed Li Zhiyi's fluffy head.

It felt excellent, soft and yielding.

"Alright, thanks for your hard work. If you see Old Baldy coming, remember to cough."

Li Zhiyi shrank her neck slightly at his touch, the tips of her ears quickly turning a shade of pink, but she obediently didn't dodge away.

Hands in his pockets, Chen Zhi was just about to head into the classroom when he suddenly felt a gentle tug on the corner of his shirt.

He stopped and turned around.

Li Zhiyi, blushing, gripped a physics test paper in her hand and pointed to the final major question. "Chen Zhi... this question, I don't know how to do this question."

Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow.

He took the test paper and glanced over it.

It was indeed difficult, but it still fell into the category of standard finale questions.

Logically speaking, with Li Zhiyi's current grades, she shouldn't be completely clueless about this kind of question.

"This question isn't actually hard; the key is force analysis."

Chen Zhi didn't think much of it, simply turning around and spreading the test paper on the corridor railing.

He took the pen from Li Zhiyi's hand and began drawing a diagram on the scratch paper.

"Look, as the slider moves on the conveyor belt, you first need to determine the direction of friction. There's a trap here: the speed of the conveyor belt is changing..."

Chen Zhi was very focused when explaining the question.

He leaned forward slightly, the lines of his side profile looking especially sharp and three-dimensional in the afternoon sunlight.

Because he had to point out details on the test paper, the two of them leaned very close.

Close enough that Li Zhiyi could clearly smell the pleasant scent on the boy.

It was the familiar scent of lavender laundry detergent used at home, mixed with a hint of refreshing mint body wash—clean, like the fragrance of newly bloomed flowers in early spring.

Li Zhiyi's heartbeat began to accelerate uncontrollably.

Her gaze didn't fall on that complex force analysis diagram at all.

She stared blankly at Chen Zhi's side profile.

Watching his Adam's apple bob slightly as he spoke, watching his eyes staring intently at the question, watching the sunlight dancing on the tips of his fine bangs.

His whole person seemed to be glowing.

Li Zhiyi wasn't good at expressing her emotions.

Before her was the childhood friend, the bright and charming Lin Wanwan, and behind her was the wealthy, aloof, and intelligent Pei Ningxue.

Caught in the middle, she felt like a dusty, ugly duckling.

She didn't dare to express herself, not even daring to let these feelings see the light of day.

But even an ugly duckling had her own little schemes.

She knew Chen Zhi was good at science, and she also knew that although he had a sharp tongue, he was actually very patient.

So every time they had an exam or did exercises, she would deliberately leave a few physics questions blank, even though she knew how to do them.

Just for this moment.

So she could justifiably call out to him.

So she could monopolize a few minutes of his time on this noisy afternoon.

So she could get this close, quietly listen to him explain a question, and secretly look at him.

"...Finally, use the work-energy theorem to set up an equation, plug in the data, and you'll get the answer."

Chen Zhi's voice echoed in her ears.

Li Zhiyi hadn't actually taken in a single word; she just greedily traced the boy's silhouette with her peripheral vision, etching this moment deeply into her mind.

"Hey, Li Zhiyi?"

A hand waved in front of her eyes.

Li Zhiyi snapped back to reality, lowering her head in a panic and staring intently at the test paper.

"Ah... huh?"

Chen Zhi stood up straight and stretched broadly.

"I'm done explaining. Do you get it now?"

He twirled the pen once and stuffed it back into Li Zhiyi's hand.

Li Zhiyi didn't dare to look up at him, just nodding frantically, her cheeks burning as if on fire: "I... I get it. Thank you, class monitor."

Chen Zhi gave her a suspicious look.

This girl, why is her face so red?

Could it be that my explanation was too profound and fried the kid's CPU?

"Alright, as long as you get it. If you still don't understand, ask me after school."

Chen Zhi didn't dwell on it anymore, waved his hand, turned around, pushed open the back door of the classroom, and slipped inside.

As the door closed, that pleasant scent was also shut out.

Li Zhiyi stood in the corridor, tightly gripping the pen that still carried the boy's body heat. After a long while, she finally let out a long breath.

She looked at the question on the test paper—one she had actually done countless times in her workbook—and her lips curved into a tiny smile.

Inside the classroom.

The curtains were drawn tight, and only the projector on the podium emitted a faint glow.

Intense fighting sounds from a movie came through the speakers. The whole class of over fifty students watched with great interest, occasionally letting out suppressed gasps.

Chen Zhi hunched over and sneaked back to his seat.

Lin Wanwan was just popping a peeled grape into her mouth; seeing him return, she conveniently peeled another one and handed it over.

"How was it? Is it cold outside?"

"It's fine. As long as there's fire in your heart, anywhere is Hawaii."

Chen Zhi took the grape in one bite, replied indistinctly, and turned his gaze to the big screen.

When the movie was halfway through, right at the climax where the protagonist was dodging wildly amidst a hail of bullets...

"Bang!"

The front door was shoved open.

The loud noise startled everyone.

They saw Li Jiahao rush in, panting heavily.

He lowered his voice.

"Old Baldy is charging over here with the Dean!"

The students, originally immersed in the movie plot, instantly exploded into chaos.

"Holy crap! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

The student in charge of multimedia cut off the projector's power with the hand speed of someone who had been single for over a decade.

The curtains were yanked open with a swoosh, and sunlight flooded back into the classroom.

The fluorescent lights flicked on.

Within three seconds, everyone completed a seamless transition from moviegoers to students cramming for the high school entrance exam.

Everyone held a test paper, brows furrowed, pen tips hovering, as if they were pondering a difficult problem that concerned the fate of humanity.

Chen Zhi even specifically wrote down a few formulas on the blackboard.

The classroom door was pushed open.

The principal, hands behind his back and sporting a shiny bald head, walked in majestically.

Followed by the stern-faced Dean.

Their sharp eyes swept across the room.

What greeted their eyes was a deeply moving scene:

The whole class sat upright, looking focused, and a thick atmosphere of studying filled the air.

Class monitor Chen Zhi was standing at the podium, holding a piece of chalk, pointing at a function problem on the blackboard with a focused and serious expression.

The students below sat straight, their eyes eager and thirsty for knowledge.

He nodded in satisfaction, turning to the Dean and saying, "You see, I told you Class Three has a good study ethic. Even when the teacher isn't here, they can consciously review on their own."

The Dean pushed up his glasses. Although he felt something was off, he couldn't find any faults.

"Indeed, not bad."

Standing by the podium, Chen Zhi put down the chalk, turned around, and wore a standard good-student smile on his face.

"Hello, Principal. Hello, Director. We are conducting intensive training for the high school entrance exam."

The principal patted Chen Zhi's shoulder approvingly.

"Very good, student Chen Zhi. As a top student in the school, you must continue to take the lead. There are only a hundred days left until the high school entrance exam; every minute is precious."

"Yes! I guarantee to complete the mission!"

Chen Zhi stood perfectly straight, his voice loud and clear.

The principal nodded in satisfaction, strolling away with his hands behind his back.

It wasn't until that figure completely disappeared that Chen Zhi let out a long breath, accurately flicking the piece of chalk in his hand into the chalk box.

"Safe."

The classroom instantly erupted into a roar of laughter, filled with the relief of surviving a disaster.