Chapter 169 - THE 'INVISIBLE' GIRL

LUO YAN sat on his designated station inside the Chemistry lab.  Because there were only 20 of them in the class, there's no need to share lab station and thus no need to have lab partners.  This way it would prevent incidents of one student doing more than the other.  It would also promote critical thinking for each student.

But sadly, he was an exemption to this rule.  Because of his situation, the Chemistry teacher thought that it's dangerous for him to handle chemicals on his own.  So every time they had to do an experiment, a classmate would be assigned to him as his partner.  He wondered who would be assigned to him today?

When the Chemistry teacher came, everyone stood up and greeted him.  After they all sat down, the first thing the teacher did was to explain the topic that the class would tackle for today.  Then he looked at Luo Yan's direction.  

"Since we are going to do an experiment today, I will assign a lab partner for Student Luo first."  

He looked around and raised one of his brows when he saw that almost all the students in class were looking at him with enthusiasm.  Clearly very eager to be chosen.  The Luo kid had only been here for a week and yet he had already captured the hearts of his classmates.  And based on the praises his colleagues kept throwing left and right to the kid – even the teachers.  Although he must admit that Luo Yan was indeed charming.  And the fact that he's like a model student was an added bonus as well.

It's like he's the complete opposite of his troublemaker younger brother.  The only thing the two of them had in common was that they're both smart.

But it seemed like not everyone in this class felt that way.  Huang Wen looked like he'd rather be punched that be paired with Luo Yan.  And then there was Yu Jiao who looked like she didn't want to get involve at all.  The Chemistry teacher sighed.  He had already decided who he would choose.

"Student Yu, please go and sit with Student Luo.  You're going to be lab partners for this experiment."

Yu Jiao was startled after suddenly being named.  She looked around to make sure that she was the 'student Yu' the teacher was talking about.  But seeing as how the teacher, even most of her classmates were looking in her direction, it's clear that it was indeed her.

She wanted to decline and tell the teacher that she didn't want to.  But of course she couldn't possibly do that.  What reason could she give anyway?  That she didn't want to pair up with the new popular kid in class?  Because doing so would only attract the unwanted attention of their classmates.  Something she would rather avoid.

But in the end, she could only stand up and walk towards the station where Luo Yan was sitting.  As she walked, she could feel a lot of gazes following her.  He resisted the uncomfortable feeling and just continued walking.

She sat down and put his lab manual and notebook on the station table.

"Hello," she heard a sweet voice calling out to her.

She raised her head and saw Luo Yan smiling at her.  It had been so long since someone smiled at her so openly that she didn't know how to react.  So, all she could do was stare.  Now that she could see him up close, she could understand a little why their classmates were so enamored by him.

Because it's human nature to love beautiful things.  And this Luo Yan's face was one of the most beautiful she had ever seen.  Big peach blossom eyes, pinkish lips, porcelain white skin - add those to his small stature and one would simply want to spoil him unconditionally.  Even she had that urge.

But it was not just his pretty face.  Yu Jiao had seen him interacting with their classmates for the past week.  He was always so charming and friendly.  Even on the occasion that their eyes would accidentally meet, he would smile at her – the class loner.  Because of his personality, he easily integrated with the class.  As if he had long been part of it.

And that was not simply because of his identity as the second young master of the Luo family.  Yu Jiao had a feeling that even if he was just a simple scholarship student, he would still be able to make everyone liked him.  

She only nodded at him as an answer to his greeting.  Then she gazed down and pretended to read the lab manual.

Luo Yan looked at Yu Jiao who seemed like she was about to burry herself in the lab manual.  Which was pretty impossible since she was so tall.  Now that he's sitting beside her, it's only now that he could tell clearly how tall she was.  She was almost the same height as Luo Jin.  Which was really tall for a girl.

He felt a bit envious.  He would love to have her height.  This girl seemed like she would prefer his height anyway.  The way she always looked like she wanted to be part of the background or something.  And for the most part, she did manage to accomplish that.  She probably worked hard to be able to achieve that, with her height and all.  A girl as tall as her would always inadvertently draw attention.  And yet somehow, no one seemed to notice her.

In fact, in class she's like someone who's 'invisible'.  No one talked to her or even purposely approached her.  Aside from the teachers, everyone was treating her like air.  

Luo Yan thought at first that it's because she's a scholarship student.  Teenagers, especially the filthy rich ones, always looked down on others who had lower social standing than them.  It's just the way most of them were raised.  But no, Yu Jiao was not.  She was there because her family was able to pay the school's tuition.  So, that meant that they're rich somehow.  That's why he couldn't understand why everyone treated her so differently.

But he was not curious enough to know the answer that he would personally investigate the matter.

"Okay, now that's done, let's start the class," said the Chemistry teacher.

Luo Yan removed his gaze from the girl and focused his attention on the teacher.

Then the class started.

Luo Yan thought at first that he and Yu Jiao would have a problem working together.  But surprisingly enough, they did okay.  No, in fact, they did extremely well.  Yu Jiao was silent and hardly ever speak but they still managed to work seamlessly together.  Like, before he could even ask for a certain chemical, she would already be handing it to him.  Or before he could ask her to do the next step, she would already be doing it.

This only showed that Yu Jiao had great observational skills.  Somehow, that increased his curiosity for this 'invisible girl'.  

Because of their good team work, they managed to finish the experiment much earlier than the others.  Giving them longer time to answer the questions on the exercise sheet of their lab manual.  After finishing, they passed their papers to the teacher.

The Chemistry teacher looked over their exercise sheets.  Seeing that almost all the answers were correct, he nodded appreciatively.  "Very good.  The both of you could go back to your classroom early."

The two picked up their books and papers then headed outside the lab.

"Yu Jiao is so great.  Because of you we manage to finish so early," Luo Yan praised.

Yu Jiao only looked down.  "N-no.  I didn't do much."

Then she walked faster, almost running, in fact.  As if there was someone chasing him or something.  Because of that, a piece of paper fell off from the stack of lab manual and notebooks she was carrying.  She didn't seem to notice that because she just continued to walk.

Luo Yan bent down and picked up the paper.  And he truly didn't expect what he saw.

It was a drawing – no, a design of a sword.  It was very detailed.  From the hilt to the blade.  The length of each parts were listed, even the color scheme.  There were also materials listed on the side.  And he recognized some of it as materials that could be found in Arcadia.

Luo Yan smiled secretly.  Well, wasn't this interesting?