The second monthly exam arrived unexpectedly amid the chaos.

After finishing the Chinese exam, Sheng Xia wilted.

Something felt off about her writing, though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

During lunch, she had no energy and returned to the lunch break room lost in thought, only to find others inside.

Her roommates were sophomore girls who weren’t usually there on weekends. Both parties were startled by the unexpected encounter.

As luck would have it, two of them were the sisters who had asked her for Zhang Shu’s QQ number before.

She had said she didn’t have it then.

And now, Zhang Shu had just escorted her to the break room door.

The two junior girls exchanged glances.

Zhang Shu gave his usual instructions: “If you need anything, call Hou Junqi. When you wake up, wait for me to come get you.”

Hou Junqi was also in this lunch break program, just next door. The boys’ beds were full, while Zhang Shu lived at home.

Since she temporarily couldn’t go downstairs by herself, he would come from home after lunch break to pick her up and carry her down.

As for Hou Junqi – he claimed he had a back injury and couldn’t carry her.

At first, she was shy about it, but Zhang Shu just smiled faintly: “I’ve already carried you anyway…”

Those words were unbearable to hear. Sheng Xia flopped onto his back and reached around to cover his mouth.

Zhang Shu froze just as he was about to stand when Sheng Xia’s ears suddenly turned red.

She had only wanted to shut him up, acting before thinking, not realizing that the mouth might be an even more intimate area…

His lips felt soft against her palm, moving slightly, sending an electric sensation through her hand that made her quickly pull away.

And he…

He hooked under her knees to stand, without touching her thighs at all.

Such “gentlemanly hands” meant she had to hold tight around his neck to stay stable.

From behind, she saw his cheeks puff up – he was smiling, amused at how tightly she clung to him.

So annoying.

Lost in thought, she heard the junior girl speak up.

“Senior, are you Zhang Shu’s girlfriend?”

Sheng Xia startled, quickly shaking her head, “No, I’m not.”

The two girls looked at each other.

“Don’t be shy, we just saw him carrying you! It was super cool!”

Sheng Xia gripped her crutches tighter, stammering, “Really, I’m not, it’s because…”

She meant to explain it was because he had injured her. But the words died on her lips – that didn’t seem quite right either.

The girls thought she was being shy and just smiled before returning to their beds.

Ah…

The conversation ended there. They weren’t close, and the lunch break was short, so everyone lay down without further discussion.

Girlfriend.

Yes, only that kind of relationship would allow for such… physical contact, right?

She understood this perfectly well.

But how had things naturally evolved to this point?

They weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend at all!

A thought occurred to her: what if it had been someone else who injured her – say, Hou Junqi, Yang Linyu, or Lu Youze… would she accept them carrying and piggy-backing her?

No.

The answer came instantly, without hesitation.

The entire lunch break was wasted – Sheng Xia couldn’t sleep.

She took the afternoon math exam in a daze, though her speed was surprisingly okay. She finished the first challenging problem and managed to set up an equation for the second.

Early the next morning, autumn rain drizzled steadily as temperatures plummeted. Cold air swiftly conquered this city known for its long summers. The English listening test played amid the sound of autumn rain through the senior building.

The vibrant summer drew its curtains as another page turned on the countdown calendar.

Everyone had changed into autumn uniforms, bundled up tight. Sheng Xia could only switch to loose-fitting wide-leg pants.

The rain made it even harder for her to walk with crutches. The corridor was full of umbrellas, with Hou Junqi clearing a path in front by moving them aside, while Zhang Shu stayed close beside her, steadying her crutches whenever they encountered puddles.

Passing classmates from Class 6 would help too.

Naturally, heads turned all along the way. Sheng Xia was getting somewhat used to it – or rather, had no choice but to get used to it, as she would be limping for almost two months.

“Look at her, acting like a princess. Making such a big deal of it.” Zhou Xuanxuan and Chen Mengyao walked behind them, several dozen meters away.

Zhou Xuanxuan had been having a rough time in class lately, and an even rougher time in the dorm. No one criticized or cold-shouldered her exactly, but there was a distinct lack of warmth. Whether chatting or eating, people subtly avoided her.

This had worn away any remaining guilt she might have felt. Seeing Sheng Xia surrounded by admirers made her blood boil.

She couldn’t understand it. Was it worth all this?

Chen Mengyao remained silent.

Desperately needing someone to share her antagonism, Zhou Xuanxuan burst out angrily: “Zhang Shu brings her breakfast every day now, fetches water between classes – he might as well follow her to the bathroom! He’s acting like this makes me look like the villain who hasn’t shown any remorse! But I… I didn’t mean to do it!”

“Then go apologize to her.”

Zhou Xuanxuan couldn’t believe her ears. “Yaoyao, what did you say?”

Chen Mengyao stopped walking and said firmly: “Then shut up. You’re annoying me.”

Zhou Xuanxuan: …?

…

The monthly exam results came out the same evening as the tests, bringing joy to some households and worry to others.

“Hah, didn’t you say you bombed it? With these scores, are you kidding me?”

“What about you? You said you didn’t do the final problem!”

“I didn’t!”

“Getting 120 without doing the final problem! How pretentious!”

“But I did badly in comprehensive science!”

“All of it? Don’t lie to me, look at your physics score – is that what you call doing badly?”

“Ah, I was so careless on this question, I had worked it out to the end…”

The surrounding chatter was all about exam scores. Everyone claimed they’d done poorly, yet their results were impressive.

Sheng Xia stared at her 89 in math.

How could this be? She’d felt more fluid solving problems, with both speed and intuition at a different level than before.

How could it be… so low…

She couldn’t even calm down enough to judge which mistakes were careless and which showed a lack of understanding.

While solving them, she’d felt confident about all of them.

Although she’d injured her leg recently, she’d been putting in extra study hours and was notably more efficient in class. Since they’d started the first round of review, she’d even occasionally multitasked, working on problems while listening to lectures.

Her leg would throb periodically, and the pain kept her alert, significantly increasing her focus during classes.

How could this be the result?

She heard her overall ranking was even lower than Hou Junqi’s.

Keep in mind, that Hou Junqi slept through two out of three classes.

At No. 2 Middle School, she could score around 100, and even at her worst, she’d never failed.

Sheng Xia felt like she was sinking in quicksand, unable to calmly accept reality yet afraid to struggle futilely.

She sat motionless, appearing no different from her usual quiet self, though in stark contrast to the noisy crowd around her.

Those who complained without cause made a show of it; those truly suffering remained silent.

Her back felt cold, yet she was numb to it.

Wang Wei stood at the podium and asked quietly: “Everyone has their test papers, right?”

“Here we go with this opening line – he’s here to take over evening self-study,” Xin Xiaohe muttered beside her, pursing her lips.

Sure enough, Wang Wei brought over a chair and settled at the podium, pretending he’d moved inside because of the cold outside. This way he could avoid inspection from administrative teachers.

“Let’s discuss the chemistry exam, take out your papers…”

Sheng Xia temporarily forgot the shock from math, even though her chemistry performance was mediocre too.

As she listened, her mind wandered-

Wang Lianhua would probably want to discuss private tutoring again. She hadn’t dared mention before that it always took her a long time to adjust to new tutors. Being somewhat socially anxious, she could barely absorb any teaching content for the first half month. It was slightly better with teachers from her school, but teachers from South Li Affiliated Middle School weren’t allowed to do private tutoring.

At this point, private tutoring would completely disrupt her review plan.

Of course, she couldn’t voice this reason.

After all, in Wang Lianhua’s mind, her review plan didn’t seem to be helping her grades anyway, so abandoning it wouldn’t matter.

When people feel down, it seems the whole world is against them.

Like Sheng Xia’s highlighter.

Whether due to sweaty palms or an overly tight cap, she couldn’t pull it off.

She had many pens – she could easily switch to another one.

But Sheng Xia was determined now as if venting her frustrations. She stubbornly kept trying to pry it open, her hands under the desk secretly straining, gritting her teeth, her face turning red with effort.

She would get it open!

Suddenly a sigh came from her right, and then a slender hand reached over and took the highlighter.

Sheng Xia turned her head. She watched the young man easily pop off the cap and hand it back to her. “Are you fighting with it, or with yourself…”

Zhang Shu was sitting in a separate row by the window, across the aisle. He spoke at a moderate volume, just loud enough for those nearby to hear.

Xin Xiaohe and Hou Junqi looked over curiously, wondering what had happened.

Sheng Xia lowered her gaze and said softly: “Thank you.”

She took back the highlighter but had forgotten what she’d wanted to highlight in the first place.

Even her deskmate Xin Xiaohe hadn’t noticed her actions – how had he noticed?

…

Lunch the next day.

As usual, Sheng Xia’s table was loaded with food: bone broth porridge, steamed fish, egg tofu, and seaweed soup…

This was the special meal Zhang Suxin prepared for her. By now, all the lunch break students knew that the boss’s wife treated this girl like her own daughter.

Soon everyone also knew that this girl was the Class 6 goddess Sheng Xia, who had become famous on the confession wall during the school sports meet. Her leg had been broken by Zhang Shu…

What had been an accident had become a story circulating through the school.

Sitting with her was Zhang Shu, the academic genius of the senior class.

Beside them was a tall, fashionably dressed “strongman” whom most male students knew – Hou Junqi, former king of the city youth team.

Three celebrities “gathered together” – the combination drew too much attention.

Sheng Xia ate quietly, saying nothing.

She appeared normal, except that she ate extremely slowly, taking long pauses between lifting the fish to her mouth with her chopsticks.

Hou Junqi glanced at Zhang Shu, mouthing: What’s wrong?

Zhang Shu tilted his head slightly and asked: “Unhappy?”

Hou Junqi: … Was that too direct?

“Hmm?” Sheng Xia looked up to find both boys had stopped eating to watch her.

She’d noticed their concern lately. She was just a bit tired of the “special meals” and wanted something spicy, or fried – something with more flavor.

“No, I’m just not very hungry,” she put down her chopsticks, “I’ll go back for lunch break first. Take your time eating.”

She stood up and seeing Zhang Shu about to rise too, she added, “No need to escort me, I don’t have to climb stairs.”

Watching Sheng Xia’s retreating figure, Hou Junqi said: “I heard little Sheng Xia’s ranking is lower than mine this time, how did that happen?”

Zhang Shu spoke seriously: “Actually her grade ranking improved. She’s only below you because your English suddenly shot up like a rocket. She’s too focused on math.”

Hou Junqi: “So what do we do?”

Zhang Shu gave him a sidelong glance. “You seem worried?”

Even this made him jealous? Hou Junqi said: “She looks so pitiful.”

Zhang Shu: “She doesn’t need your pity. Her brain works better than yours.”

Hou Junqi replied irritably: “If you’re going to praise someone, just praise them. Why do you have to put someone down to lift another? Fine, I can tell this isn’t my business anyway. Look how she won’t even glance at you – you must have said or done something wrong again. Whoever caused it should fix it.”

Zhang Shu laughed. Well well, it hadn’t been long but he was already taking the outsider’s side. Was Sheng Xia his brother now?

Zhang Shu said: “No matter who causes it, don’t I always fix it?”

Hou Junqi: … Enough, enough, I’m full, I’m full.