Chapter 43: All Broken
“Oh, okay.” Tan Mo got up. “Thank you.”
Li Xingyun smiled reluctantly. She kept her head down and walked to her seat.
Tan Mo didn’t think much about it. She a.s.sumed it might be because Qin Muxiao was there.
Although everyone else, except Ming Yeqing, stopped following Qin Muxiao’s command to isolate her, none of her cla.s.smates were friends with her.
They didn’t think they could afford to offend her, but they also didn’t want to offend Qin Muxiao.
They realized it wasn’t good to get close to any of the two, so they just kept their distance.
Tan Mo didn’t care about what they think. She left the cla.s.sroom to find Qin Muye.
Tan Mo was at the door of Qin Muye’s cla.s.s, and Qin Muye was chatting with her cla.s.smates.
Tan Mo shook her head and sighed. Qin Muye’s popularity in cla.s.s was much better than hers.
But before she could call out to Qin Muye, Qin Muye saw her first and rushed to the door.
Qin Muye was full of energy every day. She would run instead of walk everywhere whenever she could.
“Mo Mo.” Qin Muye ran to the door and said, “The examinations will begin soon. Why are you here?”
“Weren’t you looking for me?” Tan Mo was baffled.
“No. Who told you I was looking for you?” Qin Muye asked curiously.
“Li Xingyun told me that you asked her to call me,” Tan Mo explained.
“If I was looking for you, I would go to your cla.s.s by myself. Besides, why would I trouble you to come over?” Qin Muye couldn’t think of anything else.
Then Tan Mo said worriedly, “Oh no, I’ll go back first.”
“What’s the matter?” Qin Muye saw that Tan Mo’s expression immediately changed, so she hurriedly followed her.
While walking, Tan Mo said, “Li Xingyun said you asked her to call me, but you didn’t. That means someone must have wanted me away to do bad things.”
She couldn’t think of anyone else except Qin Muxiao.
If it’s Qin Muxiao, then she must be setting her up.
Qin Muye immediately went to the cla.s.sroom with Tan Mo.
As soon as Tan Mo entered, her eyes spotted Qin Muxiao.
Qin Muxiao was talking and laughing with their cla.s.smates at this time.
But Tan Mo felt that Qin Muxiao dared not to look at her because she was afraid of arousing her suspicion.
To mask her guilt, she chatted and laughed loudly with other people with great effort.
However, because it was too deliberate, she appeared to be more suspicious.
Usually, when Tan Mo would look over, Qin Muxiao would return her gaze provocatively.
Tan Mo looked at Li Xingyun again.
Li Xingyun lowered her head guiltily when she saw Qin Muye enter with her.
Tan Mo wasn’t in the mood to confront Qin Muxiao and Li Xingyun.
She went to check her things first.
All her stuff were in her school bag, and nothing seemed to be amiss.
Tan Mo checked the books again and found that there was no problem.
Tan Mo frowned. Then, the stationery box on the desk caught her attention.
This was the only thing left unchecked now.
Tan Mo opened the stationery box, and its contents were also there.
She was baffled, but she also trusted her instincts.
She checked all her pens.
The refill of the sign pen was there, as well as the eraser.
As Tan Mo inspected her stuff, the cla.s.s fell silent at some point.
Qin Muxiao stopped chatting and laughing. Holding her breath, she watched Tan Mo nervously.
She didn’t expect that Tan Mo would go over her things meticulously.
‘Has she found out already?’
“Mo Mo, is there any problem?” Qin Muye watched as Tan Mo inspected her stuff.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m checking.” Tan Mo quickly added, “If there are no problems here, I’m sure something is wrong somewhere.”
Tan Mo was convinced that something wasn’t right.
Tan Mo picked up the mechanical pencil.
She clicked it, but after a few tries, the lead broke and it fell out of the mechanical pencil.
Tan Mo continued to click, but the pen’s core was jammed, and all of the lead fell out.
“The problem is here,” Tan Mo said in a deep voice.
She took out a box of lead refills.
When she opened it, she found that all the refills were broken into smaller pieces.
She had brought only one mechanical pencil because she had refills.
Of course, if Qin Muxiao was set on deliberately destroying her refills, it would be useless no matter how many pieces she brought.
“It’s all broken!” Qin Muye said, shocked.
Her first reaction was to look at Qin Muxiao.
No matter how naive Qin Muye was, she couldn’t think of other people who would do such a thing except for Qin Muxiao.
Tan Mo then picked up the fountain pen to check.
She did not check the refill this time. Instead, she took out her notebook from her school bag and scribbled on it using the fountain pen.
It turned out that although the pen was full, it couldn’t make a single mark on the paper.
Tan Mo thought that something was wrong with the nib, so she examined it closely.
She found that the nib was clogged. Hence, the ink would not come out.
Tan Mo put the pen down and said to Qin Muye, “I have to go to the stationery store. These pens are no longer usable.”
There was a stationery shop in Jixia Academy to make it convenient for students to buy school supplies.
“But there is only 20 minutes left until the exam. You don’t have much time.” Qin Muye said, “I still have a refill. I can give it to you. However, I don’t have a fountain pen.”
The exam Qin Muye was going to take was the normal first-grade exam.
As a first-grade student, she only needed a pencil to answer questions.
“How about we ask Wei Keli if he has one?” Qin Muye appeared disdainful when she mentioned Wei Keli.
But there was no other way. Wei Keli was the closest to them.
“No,” Tan Mo said in a low voice. “There is no need to despise him while asking him for help.”
Moreover, Tan Mo didn’t want to owe Wei Keli, even for a small favor.
As a little snow fairy in her previous life, it took her only a day to hone her skills for a thousand years.
She believed that karma existed in this world.
Today, if she asked Wei Keli for help, no matter how small the favor was, she would have a karma connection with Wei Keli.
She would need to return the favor at some point.
Even if she returned the favor, she would still be entangled with Wei Keli.
It would even be troublesome to get rid of Wei Keli.
“I will run fast. I won’t be long,” Tan Mo said. “Even if I return a little late, the teacher will still let me take the exam.”
“I’ll go with you,” Qin Muye said and went with Tan Mo.
“You’re about to take an exam. Why go with me?” Tan Mo put the stationery box in her school bag just in case and carried it on her back.
This was to prevent Qin Muxiao from playing dirty tricks again while she was not around.
“The two of us running to the stationery store will not make us faster nor will slow down time. It will be the same as me running to the store alone,” Tan Mo tried to dissuade her.