She had written an argumentative essay – if he couldn’t understand it, did that mean there was a problem with her chain of reasoning?

Sheng Xia lowered her voice to ask: “Zhang Shu… was my essay hard to understand?”

“Just say what you need to say, stop calling my name all the time.” Zhang Shu twirled his pen, glancing at her.

Sheng Xia: … Aren’t names meant to be called?

Though she thought this, she just nodded, “Oh, then about my essay…”

“It’s awesome,” he said.

His tone was dismissive, and he had just been a bit fierce, so Sheng Xia took the hint and didn’t pursue it further.

She looked so dejected with her head down that now Zhang Shu was confused – wasn’t praise good enough?

“Do you think I don’t understand?”

Sheng Xia had hope again: “So did you understand it?”

Zhang Shu was stumped by the question, “Haven’t seen pork but haven’t you seen pigs run?”

He might not be able to write like that, but didn’t he have any appreciation ability?

Sheng Xia’s expression was serious: “Then why did you write ‘don’t understand'”

Zhang Shu looked down at his comments – he had just been taking the easy way out.

Then he pulled his essay out from under her hand and saw her beautiful, neat handwriting – even writing comments she had to be so literary.

Fine. Reciprocity it is.

He crossed out the characters for “don’t understand but feels awesome” and wrote behind them: “Super awe-“

Before he could finish the last character, a soft warning came from beside him, “Write something more proper…”

Zhang Shu was impatient and gave her a sidelong glance. For once, the girl wasn’t trembling, her eyes only showing determination.

His pen paused, he crossed out the incomplete phrase and wrote: Excellent presentation, excellent writing, excellent argumentation, excellent logic, super excellent!!

Zhang Shu: “Satisfied now?”

Sheng Xia: …

After grading, Teacher Fu explained the materials. Sure enough, Zhang Shu’s thesis could only be considered third-rate, impossible to score high.

He didn’t seem to care much, just kept looking at Sheng Xia’s paper repeatedly, pondering something, so Sheng Xia had to use his paper to follow the lesson.

Only when class ended did he return her paper, then left with Hou Junqi.

Lu Youze came to collect the essays and specifically looked at Sheng Xia’s paper, “Sheng Xia, your handwriting is getting even better!”

“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say.

“Zhang Shu didn’t write his name,” Lu Youze pulled out Zhang Shu’s essay and put it on the desk, “Write it for him.”

Lu Youze still had to collect papers from other groups.

“Oh, okay.” Sheng Xia wrote in the name field: Zhang Shu.

She handed it in.

…

After dinner, Sheng Xia went to the fruit shop as usual to buy a cup of cucumber juice.

It was just freshly squeezed cucumber with sugar water. The owner said it was a summer-limited offering. Sheng Xia liked this sweet, refreshing taste that helped beat the heat.

She walked slowly back to the classroom from the north gate with Xin Xiaohe.

They chatted about homework, exams, and Zhang Shu.

When they got to the “don’t understand but feels awesome” comment, Xin Xiaohe laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach, “If he wasn’t such a jerk, he’d probably appeal to both guys and girls. All the boys in our class like him – that mix of envy and admiration. Girls don’t dare approach him much, but there are still lots who like him. Girls from other classes go crazy talking about him.”

Sheng Xia was a bit curious: “Then why hasn’t he dated anyone? For his studies?”

Xin Xiaohe’s eyes immediately turned mysterious: “What studies? Have you seen him being devoted to studying?”

Sheng Xia shook her head. No.

After being Zhang Shu’s deskmate for two days, she had discovered that Zhang Shu was just extremely punctual – whether in morning, afternoon, or evening study hall, he arrived exactly on time, occasionally late, but never early.

However, according to Xin Xiaohe, he stayed late.

Though he was a day student, he would stay with the boarding students through the third evening study period, and if his homework wasn’t finished, he’d continue writing until the school’s lights-out bell rang.

“Looks lazy but quite self-disciplined,” Xin Xiaohe commented.

Sheng Xia sipped her cucumber juice, nodding, “Top students don’t get that good randomly.”

Xin Xiaohe hugged her hot water bottle and sighed: “But there are so many people who work harder than him – one percent talent can crush ninety-nine percent effort.”

“Coming back to the point,” Xin Xiaohe lowered her voice, “What’s the use of so many girls liking him? Everyone knows he’s been pursuing Chen Mengyao for years, from middle school until now, without success.”

Sheng Xia: “Why…”

Xin Xiaohe: “Because he’s poor? Well, not really poor, just very average, but that counts as poor to someone like Chen Mengyao. That girl says she’ll be a star in the future – who wants to date a poor boy? Those guys from the vocational school gave her bags and phones, I heard someone even gave her a car. But she looks down on new money types like that. Chen Mengyao wants to pursue young masters like Lu Youze who are rich and cultured…”

Sheng Xia asked: “You know her too?”

“Who, Chen Mengyao?” Xin Xiaohe was quite surprised Sheng Xia would comment, “My roommate, our class’s arts committee member Zhou Xuanxuan, used to be in the music club with Chen Mengyao and Zhang Shu. She’s very close with Chen Mengyao, and knows everything.”

Sheng Xia sipped her cucumber juice, silent.

If they were close friends, would she tell others everything about her friend? Strange friendship.

So, Zhang Shu suddenly became first in class, working hard to make money – was it all to prove himself to the girl he liked?

Must be tough for such a proud person.

But still, he shouldn’t break the law…

“What are you thinking about?” Xin Xiaohe saw her lost in thought and teased, “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for Zhang Shu?”

Sheng Xia quickly shook her head, changing the subject: “I was just thinking whether I should stay for one more evening study period before going home…”

Although she would still burn the midnight oil at home, efficiency was never as high as in the classroom. She had been thinking about this for several days.

Xin Xiaohe said: “That would be 10:30 – wouldn’t you be scared going home?”

“Scared…” Sheng Xia quickly gave in.

Xin Xiaohe said: “Let’s just make the most of our fragment time.”

The two returned to the classroom and buried themselves in homework.

Sheng Xia was focusing on solving problems when she heard someone lightly knock on the window. She turned to see two girls standing outside, hesitating and pushing each other.

Sheng Xia didn’t know them but still opened the window.

One of the girls was pushed forward and tremblingly handed over a gift box, saying softly: “Classmate, could you help give this to Zhang Shu?”

Sheng Xia was stunned for a moment.

Her expression must have looked troubled, as the other girl said: “Just put it on his desk, thank you.”

Then they put the box on the windowsill and left, pushing and shoving each other.

Sheng Xia: …

Others in the classroom had noticed this scene and helpfully explained to Sheng Xia: “Must be another birthday gift for Zhang Shu. Just put it in his drawer.”

“Oh okay.”

Sheng Xia bent down to put the box in Zhang Shu’s drawer but saw two gift boxes of different sizes already stuffed inside…

She guessed those must have been left by classmates who didn’t need to go through her.

This guy was quite popular.

So she could only put it on his desk.

Five minutes after the evening study bell rang, Zhang Shu arrived fashionably late. While Sheng Xia was still wondering whether to tell him about it, she saw him naturally stack the gifts on the floor, not seeming surprised at all.

So she let it be.

Sheng Xia thought that was the end of it, but unexpectedly, the next morning before morning reading, she helped receive two more gifts. The situation was similar to last night, and he still just stacked them on the floor as usual, neither looking at them nor opening them.

Then what happened to last night’s gifts?

Sheng Xia didn’t want to meddle, but thinking of those girls’ eyes full of admiration and expectation, she couldn’t help herself.

“Zhang Shu…” she called softly.

Very carefully.

Zhang Shu turned: “What are you calling me for again?”

What did he mean “again”?

She didn’t think she had spoken to him yet today.

He was… quite inexplicable.

But since she had already spoken up, Sheng Xia decided to finish what she wanted to say, “Aren’t you going to open the gifts?”

Zhang Shu studied her, his gaze contemplative, “You want to open them?”

Before she could speak, he picked up the stack of gift boxes from the floor and put them on her book cart, “Here.”

Sheng Xia: …?

“Don’t girls love opening gifts?” he asked when he saw no reaction from her.

Sheng Xia felt indignant on behalf of those girls – how could he just randomly let others open them? “These are gifts people gave you, they put their hearts into them!”

Her voice carried some anger.

That was new.

Zhang Shu raised an eyebrow: “Hmm?” What did she mean?

A moment later he seemed to understand, looking a bit innocent, “Wouldn’t I take them home to open? Who opens them here?”

Sheng Xia was suddenly embarrassed, “Oh, that’s good then.”

As long as he wasn’t throwing them away.

Zhang Shu couldn’t help laughing at her reaction, staring at her slightly reddened face and shaking his head helplessly.

A clay Buddha with a warm heart – finally standing firm.

Since he would open and look at them, she also had a gift she wanted to give him.

Sheng Xia didn’t go home for a lunch break. After eating, she took a taxi straight to One Square Bookstore.

The owner was puzzled, “No class today?”

“I have class, I… want to buy a criminal law book,” Sheng Xia said.

“Criminal law book?” The owner stepped out from behind the counter to look for one, “Do you want the legal code or a textbook?”

Sheng Xia asked: “Can ordinary people understand the legal code?”

“Should be able to.”

“Then the legal code please.”

The owner handed her a small red book. Sheng Xia spent a long time just searching the contents, finally finding “Crime of Making, Copying, Publishing, Selling, and Distributing Pornographic Materials for Profit” in Chapter 6, Section 9 of the Special Provisions. She paid and was about to mark the book when she thought of something and stopped, calling to the owner again: “Owner, could you help me with something…”

Returning from the bookstore while it was still early, Sheng Xia went to the stationery store to buy a beautiful gift box, put the little red book at the bottom, then thought giving this on someone’s birthday seemed a bit unkind, so she went to the neighboring sporting goods store to buy a set of athletic knee pads and put them in the gift box.

While everyone was on lunch break, she stuffed the gift box into Zhang Shu’s drawer.

In the afternoon, Zhang Shu arrived precisely on time as usual. When he took out his books and saw the gift box, he had no special reaction, just took it out and put it on the desk edge as usual.

Even until school ended he hadn’t opened it, just carried three or four gift boxes away as usual.

But Sheng Xia’s nerves had been tense the whole time.

She had imagined many scenes of him seeing the legal code. He would probably be angry and would guess who sent it. He might even give threatening looks…

Would he think of her? His collaborators, his buyers, those girls who had crushes on him and paid attention to him daily… it could be any of them.

But what if, just if, he thought of her?

No time to worry about that now – she just hoped he would turn back from the wrong path.

Many people, especially boys, probably didn’t know this was a crime, right?

He was so smart with such a bright future ahead – he wouldn’t be foolish about things like this, he must be able to weigh the pros and cons.

Thinking this way, Sheng Xia felt a bit better.

After resting a while after dinner, Sheng Xia still felt restless. She opened the window, but even the evening summer breeze was hot, doing nothing to ease her anxiety. For a moment she even hoped he would discover it soon – better to get it over with quickly.

She decided to go to the north gate to buy a cup of cucumber juice.

It was almost evening study time, and the cucumber juice was sold out due to high demand. The owner enthusiastically said he would peel some right away for her.

Unable to refuse such sincerity, she had to wait.

Just as she got her cucumber juice, the evening study bell rang urgently. Sheng Xia quickly ran back to the classroom.

Lu Youze was distributing the essays from two days ago, everyone comparing scores around the room, fans whirring overhead, papers flying everywhere.

Sheng Xia was grateful for this chaos, slipping into the classroom unnoticed.

Unusually, Zhang Shu had arrived earlier than her.

She squeezed past him to her seat, still breathing heavily, when she sensed his mood was off.

Before she could settle in her seat, Zhang Shu suddenly turned toward her, foot on the chair rail, hand on her chair back, as if trapping her in the corner. One corner of his mouth twitched as he looked at her with a cold smile.

“Sheng, Xia.”

This seemed to be the first time he had called her name.

One syllable at a time, through gritted teeth.

He… had discovered it?

Sheng Xia’s rapid breathing caught, and she held her breath as she looked back at him, as if waiting for judgment.