Please, I'm Trying to Study, Your Highness! - chapter 14

The First Encounter with Lin Hui

It was not long after the start of the second semester of the third year of junior high.

He was led into the classroom by the Homeroom Teacher as a transfer student.

In a new environment, everyone is more or less uneasy, either anxious to make an impression.

He was not. He simply stood on the podium and gave a polite bow to the class.

He announced his name in a voice neither too loud nor too soft, then, under the teacher’s guidance, quietly walked to the last row.

He sat in the empty seat in the corner that the sunlight always seemed to forget.

Most boys in adolescence are brimming with energy, usually gathering in groups between classes.

They excitedly discussed the latest games, or told jokes they thought were mature to assert their presence.

Mixed in were frivolous words filled with unrealistic fantasies about the female body, which made her instinctively frown.

But Lin Hui was different.

He never joined those conversations.

He was either solving problems, reading, or sometimes sleeping with his head on the desk.

If a boy spoke to him, he would reply with a couple of sentences.

When asked about crude topics related to girls, he would just smile and brush it off.

His presence was so faint that if you didn’t deliberately look, you might forget there was a living person in that classroom corner.

He was very clean; the collar of his school uniform was neat and proper, and passing by him you could smell a faint scent of body wash.

Shen Ruanruan noticed the boy’s uniqueness, but that was all.

To her, Lin Hui was just an ordinary classmate-a little strange, separated from everyone else by an invisible barrier.

Like a plant growing alone in a noisy corner, quietly photosynthesizing, out of place with the surrounding commotion.

What truly made him step out from that blurry background, become distinct, even radiate a scorching warmth…

Was in the fifth year of junior high.

That suffocating summer.

Life in the fifth year was divided into countless meticulously scheduled tasks.

Her academic performance had to remain at the top of the grade.

The Shen Family’s requirements for an heir allowed no mistakes.

Three hours of daily piano practice had been a non-negotiable routine since childhood,

Because at the end of the year, there was an international competition that was all about honor.

The pressure was like mercury being poured into a container-

Heavy, cold…

Squeezing from all directions, making it almost impossible to breathe.

That afternoon, Shen Ruanruan made a mistake while practicing a particularly tricky Chopin Etude.

It was a mistake that could be corrected immediately, so minor it was almost negligible.

But it became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

The teacher’s words, her parents’ expectations, the drop in ranking from a careless mistake in the mock exam…

All the pressure converged into an unstoppable torrent, smashing through the dam of “grace” and “propriety” she had built for over a decade.

She stood up, grabbed the thick piano score, and tore it in half with all her strength.

“Riiip-”

The sound was harsh and resolute.

Then came the second tear, the third…

Snow-white scraps of paper fluttered before her eyes like butterflies, mirroring her shattered emotions.

She gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

It was the first time in her life that Shen Ruanruan had lost control so completely, indulging in such hysterical emotion.

The next day.

Just when she thought the storm had passed, a text from an unfamiliar number plunged her into the abyss.

[Shen Goddess, you didn’t look like yourself in the practice room yesterday.]

Attached below was a short video.

It showed her, face flushed, eyes brimming with tears, frantically tearing up the piano score.

The angle was from the small window on the practice room door-a secret recording.

Soon after, a second message followed.

[Tomorrow afternoon, Abandoned Warehouse at school. Come alone, or this video will appear in every corner of the school forum.]

Abandoned Warehouse. Alone…

The words on the screen crawled across her skin like sticky worms, making her feel a visceral disgust.

Of course Shen Ruanruan understood the sender’s intentions and filthy thoughts.

But she couldn’t tell anyone.

If she told her family, they would use thunderous means to deal with the anonymous sender, but that would only make things worse.

It would mean her “imperfection” would be exposed to even more people.

The police? That would also mean going public.

The person hiding in the shadows seemed to know this, grasping her weakness.

For a whole day, Shen Ruanruan lived in agonizing fear.

After school, she didn’t go home, but stayed alone in the empty classroom.

Clutching her phone, the video played on loop before her eyes, every frame mocking her stupidity and fragility.

The pride and composure she had maintained for over a decade shattered completely in that moment.

She finally couldn’t hold on.

Her cheek buried in her arms, her shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably.

No wailing, just a silent despair as if abandoned by the world.

Just as darkness was about to swallow her whole, and she began to entertain extreme thoughts, even suicide-

“Creak-”

The back door of the classroom was pushed open a crack.

A slender figure appeared at the doorway, silhouetted against the dim corridor light.

Shen Ruanruan, like a startled, wounded young animal, jerked her head up.

Her tear-filled, reddened eyes met his gaze.

It was Lin Hui.

He carried a bulging backpack, clearly not expecting anyone to be in the classroom, and paused in his tracks.

Their eyes met.

The air froze.

He saw…

He saw her at her most wretched, her ugliest, the side she least wanted anyone to see.
In that moment, Shen Ruanruan, her mind clouded by fear and shame, did the boldest and most foolish thing she had ever done in her life.

Her gaze locked tightly onto him, and with a voice so hoarse and sharp it felt unfamiliar even to herself, she growled lowly,

“What did you see?!”

Before the boy could answer, she continued her threat.

“If you dare to tell anyone what you saw today… I promise you, the Shen Family has hundreds of ways to make sure you can’t stay in Nanhua City!”

Her voice trembled with agitation; the words, rather than a true threat, sounded more like a desperate bluff.

The moment she spoke, regret flooded her.

Her loss of composure, her bluster masking inner weakness-everything was laid bare.

Shen Ruanruan looked at the boy’s face, indistinct in the setting sun, and the last remnants of her rationality snapped.

In despair, she grabbed her phone and, venting her frustration, threw it to the ground with a dull thud.

She bowed her head again, covering her face with both hands, surrendering all resistance.

Shen Ruanruan heard the boy’s footsteps entering the classroom.

Slow, with a characteristic drag.

It sounded like he was rummaging through his own desk, probably looking for something he’d left behind.

Go…

Just go…

Don’t look at me… please…

A silent prayer in her heart.

But the footsteps didn’t fade away; instead, they came step by step in her direction.

Gradually, he stopped right in front of her.

Shen Ruanruan could feel a gaze moving calmly from her trembling shoulders to somewhere else.

She sensed the boy squatting down.

Then came the sound of fingers picking up her phone.

That threatening text, that video that had utterly disgraced her…

Her darkest, most shameful secret was now exposed, naked, before a classmate she barely knew.

Shen Ruanruan bit her lower lip hard, tasting the metallic tang of blood.

A thick mix of shame and despair flooded her heart; she wished she could disappear.

But the awkward comfort or curious questioning she had expected did not happen.

There was only one sentence…

“Pretty good quality.”

Shen Ruanruan was stunned.

Even in her chaotic state, she couldn’t keep up with his clear train of thought.

Before she could recover from the absurdity of it, she heard his fingers tapping quickly on the phone screen.

The sound was light and brief.

Half a minute later, there was a soft thud as the phone was placed back on the desk.

The boy stood up, said nothing, and with the same lethargic steps as when he came, walked out of the classroom.

“Click-”

The door was gently closed.

From beginning to end, he never asked, “Are you okay?”

He didn’t hand her a tissue.

He didn’t offer any hollow, humiliating words of comfort.

He just left.

As if squatting down was only to check if the phone was broken.

…..

Early the next morning, Shen Ruanruan came to school with the feeling of walking to her doom.

After a sleepless night, she had made up her mind.

Even if it meant mutual destruction, she would never bow to anyone, no matter if the cost was everyone knowing her “flaw.”

Strangely, the whole day passed peacefully.

The person who had threatened her never sent another message.

It wasn’t until after school that the person who had secretly filmed her came to her, face pale, and apologized.

Not only did they delete the video from their phone as quickly as possible, but they also erased all backups in front of her.

After that, they fled in a panic.

During the process, the name “Lin Hui” was mentioned.

‘Was it him who helped me…’

Shen Ruanruan stood alone in front of the locker, bewildered by the sudden turn of events.

The crisis was resolved.

And in a way she couldn’t begin to understand.

“Knock knock-”

The sound of knuckles tapping on metal snapped her back to reality.

Lin Hui’s lazy figure came into view.

He leaned against the locker next to hers, looking as if he hadn’t slept.

He didn’t mention her crying yesterday.

He didn’t ask about the person who had threatened her.

He didn’t put on any airs of “I helped you.”

He just glanced over, his tone unhurried and even, cracking a joke that wasn’t funny at all.

“That sheet music looks pretty expensive. You could make a few more copies for the practice room, though your family isn’t short on money.”

The boy paused for a few seconds, his weary face taking on a look of serious contemplation. “Hmm… Just don’t get addicted to tearing them up. If you run out, your hands will get rusty.”

The words were absurd, ill-timed,

Even tinged with dark humor.

She froze.

Then, unable to suppress it, a smile spread from the corners of her mouth, and she burst out laughing.

It was the first time since starting school that she had truly laughed from the heart, tears streaming down her face.

Seeing this, the boy seemed to feel his task was done.

He straightened up, waved to her casually, and slowly walked away with his heavy backpack.

From beginning to end, he never looked at her breakdown with any hint of judgment.

No comfort, no lecturing.

He simply, in his own way, quietly smoothed out all her wrinkles.

Others cared whether Shen Ruanruan was “perfect.”

Only Lin Hui, with a single joke, acknowledged Shen Ruanruan’s right to be “imperfect.”