After finishing her essay, Sheng Xia had a few minutes left. She carefully observed Zhang Shu – due to his shoulder injury, he couldn’t raise his left arm to hold down the test paper. The paper kept shifting, causing him to write very slowly.

When the exam ended, the teacher came to collect the papers, giving Zhang Shu a particularly regretful look.

During the collection, Sheng Xia caught a glimpse of his essay – only a few lines were written, probably just the introduction.

Zhang Sujin came to pick up Zhang Shu after the exam. He needed to go back for medicine and an IV drip, and then return in the afternoon.

It was troublesome going back and forth, but there was no other choice.

After lunch, Sheng Xia went to browse a stationery store, wanting to buy an inkstone. Unable to find one, she took a taxi to Yifang Bookstore.

Entering Yifang Bookstore again, Sheng Xia felt a twinge in her heart.

After resuming normal business, the store’s popularity hadn’t decreased but increased. Even on weekdays, there were quite a few people.

The owner’s arm had been slashed – not too serious, but still in a sling. Seeing Sheng Xia, he was even more enthusiastic than before. He asked about Zhang Shu’s injuries and vividly described the incident that day until Sheng Xia was covered in cold sweat.

After this chat, Sheng Xia returned to school too late for a nap and went straight to the classroom.

Zhang Shu arrived just in time for the exam. Seeing the inkstone on his desk, he was stunned for a while, then noticed the price tag from “Yifang” that hadn’t been removed from the base.

He didn’t need to look to know who had given it.

History had an eerily similar repetition – he couldn’t help but think of that criminal law book.

Zhang Shu turned his head and said softly, “Come here for a moment.”

Though there was no subject in the sentence, nearby classmates all knew who he was calling.

The exam was about to start, and the proctor had already arrived, displaying the sealed test papers inside. Sheng Xia crouched down stealthily beside him, “What is it?”

Crouching, she was slightly shorter than him sitting. Zhang Shu lowered his head but still couldn’t reach, so he had to pull her head closer to whisper: “I’ll write it all properly. You focus on your exam, don’t keep looking at me, it makes me nervous.”

Just as he finished speaking, a cough came from behind. Sheng Xia quickly broke free from his hand and looked up to see the proctor staring at them with test papers in hand, expression completely speechless.

Sheng Xia panicked and hurriedly crouched back to her seat, taking deep breaths, trying hard to block out the interested gazes around her.

When the test papers were handed out, Sheng Xia filled in her name and student number, then instinctively wanted to look up at him again, but remembering his words, she forcefully held back.

Strange, did he have eyes in the back of his head? How did he know she was looking at him?

With the inkstone holding down his test paper, Zhang Shu finally regained some of his solving speed.

But Sheng Xia didn’t observe whether he finished writing or not because except for Chinese, she wasn’t so at ease with other subjects.

The news of Zhang Shu returning to take the exam spread throughout the grade on the first day. During the days waiting for grading, everyone was guessing whether he could maintain his first place.

The night before the results came out, even Tao Zhizhi sent a message asking about Zhang Shu’s situation.

Not only Fu Zhong was paying attention, but other schools were watching too.

After the incident, Zhang Shu’s influence had grown even greater. Sometimes Sheng Xia would hypothesize: that if she hadn’t transferred to Fu Zhong, she probably would have heard Zhang Shu’s name by now too.

Sheng Xia replied to Tao Zhizhi: “He’ll try his best, and achieve the best score he can in his current condition.”

She had seen with her own eyes that he only wrote a few lines for the essay – first place was impossible.

This indeed proved true, but people still couldn’t believe that Zhang Shu only ranked three hundred something in Fu Zhong.

He failed Chinese, scored decently but not exceptionally in Math, got 148 in English, and performed mediocrely in Science.

In the cafeteria, water room, corridors, and even online, voices doubting Zhang Shu were endless.

Sheng Xia could hear quite a lot.

Some people would stop talking when they saw her, then start discussing again after she walked away.

“It’s such a pity about Zhang Shu, just because he had to save that transfer student! Ugh so annoying, Fu Zhong could have had a top scorer with an unprecedented lead this year.”

“Right? It’s such a shame!”

“And with Zhang Shu’s qualifications, once his college entrance exam scores came out, he’d have been internet famous!”

“Fu Zhong hasn’t produced someone like him in how many years.”

“You think, after Zhang Shu recovers, will there still be time?”

“Not enough time. I think he’ll probably struggle to even get into a lower-tier 985 university. Ranking three hundred something in our school, he’s already disappeared from the city rankings, not to mention the provincial rankings later. Zhang Shu is finished, the school must have given up on him too.”

“Sigh, the more we talk about it, the more of a shame it is. It’s enough to make even completely unrelated people angry.”

Sheng Xia stood outside the water room, body rigid.

Even when two girls came out and bumped right into her, she remained motionless.

The two girls were startled at first, then became dismissive, even deliberately bumping into her as they passed by.

Sheng Xia turned her head and called after their retreating figures: “Please apologize.”

The girls turned around, quite surprised. Then, the one in front walked towards Sheng Xia, looking at her with amusement, “Why should we apologize? Am I wrong? If it weren’t for you, would Zhang Shu be injured? Would he have gone from first in the city to this, completely disappeared? Don’t you know how guilty you are? Your harbinger of misfortune! Why should I apologize to you?”

Sheng Xia wasn’t as tall as that girl, so she lifted her chin slightly, staring straight at her, “I didn’t say apologize to me, I said apologize to Zhang Shu.”

The two girls looked at each other, then looked contemptuously at Sheng Xia, with expressions that said ‘What kind of international joke are you making?’

Sheng Xia: “Do you know him? Have you tried to understand him? No one has the right to say he won’t make it in time, no one has the right to say he can’t do it. Please apologize!”

The girl in front was genuinely shocked.

Being on the same floor, she was somewhat familiar with Sheng Xia, who always ran into her in the water room or bathroom. Occasionally hearing her chat with classmates, she always seemed gentle and soft, looking particularly easy to bully.

But this calm gaze and cold tone were truly unexpected.

“Please apologize to Zhang Shu!”

There was a catch in Sheng Xia’s voice, but it remained strong.

Heh, nothing but a paper tiger.

Thinking this, the girl laughed and pushed Sheng Xia, “Mind your own business! What right do you have? What’s wrong with what I said about him, what’s it to you?”

Sheng Xia stepped back slightly but stood straight. The girl, taking advantage of her height, approached step by step and pushed her again, “You public menace, what are you pretending to be?”

Each time the girl pushed, Sheng Xia would step back slightly. Finally, at the edge of the steps, when patience was no longer needed, Sheng Xia quickly dodged to the side as the girl reached out again. The girl missed her and lost balance, stumbling down the stairs with a shrill “Ah—”, landing face-first.

The stairs weren’t high, only two or three steps, with grass below.

Serious injury was unlikely, but it hurt.

The girl’s companion hurried down to help, “Are you okay? Are you okay?”

The girl rolled over to sit up, hissing in pain. Raising her hands, both palms were scraped red, and there was a bit of dirt on her chin. She looked at Sheng Xia furiously, “You!”

“Apologize!” Sheng Xia clutched her water cup, still repeating, tears suddenly streaming down her face, so sudden and intense that the tears seemed frozen.

Sheng Xia swallowed hard, trying to force down whatever was stuck in her throat, but in vain.

Because she didn’t even know what it was.

Hearing the phrase “completely disappeared,” she felt like her heart had been stabbed, and something nameless burst forth, stuck in her throat.

It hurt so much.

How could such a brilliant youth be described this way?

As the standoff continued, passing students gathered to watch. Someone ran to Class 6 to report, and Hou Junqi came rushing over.

Who knows what he felt when he heard “Sheng Xia is being bullied”? If anything happened to Sheng Xia, how could he explain it?

In the end, he saw this scene: the usually frail girl standing at the corridor’s edge, looking down at two disheveled girls below the steps, holding her water cup in a pose similar to crossed arms, her entire demeanor fierce.

Who was bullying whom?

Hou Junqi’s first reaction was to take out his phone and take a photo.

Surrounding students: …

The girl, unwilling to back down, berated, “I’m the one who fell, why are you crying? I hate girls like you the most, always crying! Does crying make you right?”

Only then did Hou Junqi notice Sheng Xia was crying.

So did the observing students.

Partly because she was standing at the front, and partly because of her commanding presence, everyone had overlooked her tears.

Sheng Xia was too focused to notice Hou Junqi’s arrival, and then a huge shadow covered her. Hou Junqi stood in front of her, putting his hand back to shield her.

He spoke lightly: “Because she saw something dirty, she needs to wash her eyes.”

Suppressed laughter rippled through the crowd.

The girl was speechless, and facing the tall and sturdy Hou Junqi, she didn’t even dare to glare anymore.

The commotion was too big, and the Dean of Students arrived. Everyone was taken to the office, and the crowd dispersed.

After clarifying the situation, the Dean let them all go, but still following the principle of favoring the “injured party,” made the two girls apologize, then had Wang Wei take Sheng Xia and Hou Junqi back for criticism and education, followed by standing in the corridor for one class period, facing the wall to reflect.

Hou Junqi muttered: “What era is this, facing the wall to reflect? Are you going for vintage?”

The Dean was furious, and Wang Wei quickly came to pull them away.

Sheng Xia had never been punished by standing before.

But she stood willingly.

She should face the wall and reflect – how could she argue with mediocre people about right and wrong?

If everyone could understand Zhang Shu, wouldn’t that make him ordinary?

“How can mud understand the purity of ice?” How could she forget?

…

That evening, Sheng Xia took Zhang Shu’s test papers to the hospital.

Except for Wang Wei, other teachers didn’t know she had stopped attending the study abroad program classes, so no one paid attention to her absence from evening study. Even so, Sheng Xia still felt anxious about skipping class.

She just couldn’t help it; she wanted to see him immediately.

Though she hadn’t gotten the test papers, the scores were all on the school’s supervision system, so Zhang Shu must have known his results.

Since choosing between arts and sciences, he hadn’t scored this low, right?

Rising high then falling hard – how big of a blow must that be?

Sheng Xia tried to put herself in his shoes but knew that no one could truly empathize.

She knew he would feel bad, but peeking through the small window and glimpsing his disheveled, dejected appearance still made her heart clench.

He sat at the desk Zhang Sujin had prepared for him, staring absently at his phone, hair messy as if repeatedly grabbed in extreme frustration, stubble showing around his lips.

This was the first time Sheng Xia had seen Zhang Shu with facial hair.

It felt a bit unfamiliar.

Her eyes immediately welled up again, heart aching unbearably, but she forced back her tears, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

Zhang Shu thought it was Zhang Sujin and didn’t pay much attention. When the person came close, he smelled a sweet fragrance and suddenly looked up—

Why didn’t she tell him she was coming?

Zhang Shu was a bit dazed.

His image reflected in the darkened phone screen looked as unkempt as could be.

Zhang Shu’s hand slipped, and his phone clattered onto the desk.

Perhaps hitting the power button, the screen lit up again, showing the supervision system page, with the score details enlarged, stopped at the Chinese score – a glaring “78.”

“Why did you come?” he asked unconsciously.

He was so annoyed.

Actually, during his hospitalization, he had been quite casual, often going several days without shaving, only tidying up a bit when she was coming to visit.

Because he couldn’t bend over, and the caregiver was male, he felt uncomfortable even getting his face wiped, let alone being shaved – he disliked having his chin handled by a man.

So he tried to minimize shaving frequency.

At first, his sister would shave for him, but once Lu Zheng saw this, he directly forbade it.

Though Zhang Shu found it extremely ridiculous, putting himself in others’ shoes, if Sheng Xia were to shave her brother’s facial hair, he absolutely couldn’t stand it either.

Though she didn’t have a brother.

This…

Why did she suddenly come?

She was so clean and neat, that she must be disgusted by him.

“Came to bring you the test papers,” Sheng Xia answered.

He carefully observed her reaction, and sure enough, she wouldn’t even look at him.

Was she disgusted?

Zhang Shu put the test papers aside and stood up. Sheng Xia quickly moved to support him, making Zhang Shu’s body stiffen.

Because of the sudden closeness, she hadn’t managed the distance well, pressing entirely against his arm.

Zhang Shu only felt something squeeze against his arm, a sensation he’d never experienced before, like cotton candy. No, not quite like that.

He froze.

Only one thought in his mind—

Xia Xia is so soft.

The precision of that contact name – Xin Xiaohe was truly a literary genius of our time.