The topic of “School Bully’s Abs” once again swept through the school forum.

Since Jiang Wang’s return to school, the previously quiet First High School forum had become very lively, with many students from other schools coming to join the excitement.

Shocking! The big boss Jiang asked his little girlfriend if she wanted to see his abs!!

Shocking! The big boss Jiang lifted his shirt to show Shi Niannian his abs during class!!

Shocking! The top-ranked student touched the second-ranked student’s abs!! Playing with abs during English class! Nosebleed!! Hot chicken!!!!!

…

Each forum title was more outrageous than the last.

This eventually sparked a “Hunt for the School Bully’s Abs” photo campaign on the First High School forum.

They had too much free time.

Below that post were photos of Jiang Wang’s abs that people had captured.

Abs revealed during basketball games when shooting or dunking, photos of him lifting his shirt to wipe sweat during sports meets—there were shots from all angles, building the post into a skyscraper.

When that fatty Fan Mengming learned about this, he even posted the stockpile of Jiang Wang’s photos from his phone.

High definition, uncensored.

Photos that no one had seen before.

This led to people below asking if this was the boss’s woman posting.

As a result, Jiang Wang and Xu Ningqing forced him to go to the forum and explain everything.

Soon it was time for midterm exams, which were much more formal than the monthly tests. Seats were arranged according to the rankings from the previous monthly test, with 30 students from each class taking the exam together.

While during the monthly exams, held in their classroom, everyone could rely on Shi Niannian to boost their scores a bit, this was no longer possible for the midterms.

Shi Niannian and Jiang Wang were seated according to their rankings, in consecutive first and second place seats, one behind the other.

The midterm exam content was much more extensive than the monthly tests. It was a joint examination with eight other schools, with increased difficulty. The first examination room was mostly filled with students from the advanced classes, many of them familiar faces from the physics competition class.

So everyone was already used to the first and second place dynamic they had witnessed in the competition class, and they all lowered their heads to make their final preparations before the exam.

Jiang Wang hadn’t slept well the night before and only sat up when the preparation bell for the exam rang. He poked Shi Niannian’s back.

“Do you have a pen?” he asked.

Shi Niannian took one out of her pencil case for him.

“It’s pink,” Jiang Wang looked at the pink exterior of the pen with some disdain.

Shi Niannian then found a black-cased pen in her pencil case and gave it to him: “How about this one?”

Jiang Wang laughed: “Fine.”

The Chinese language test papers were distributed, and the exam began.

Chinese was Shi Niannian’s strong suit, especially composition, while for Jiang Wang, among all subjects, Chinese was relatively weaker. He was too lazy to write many characters, so for the reading questions, he just briefly wrote down the key points for scoring.

This time, the composition topic was a bit difficult, making it easy to write something generic. Shi Niannian spent some time outlining.

The clock hung on the wall at the back of the classroom. When she turned her head to look at it, she caught a glimpse of Jiang Wang’s test paper from the corner of her eye. He had almost finished writing his composition, working very quickly.

After the Chinese exam was over and papers were collected, Shi Niannian sat in her seat, stretching lazily, slowly packing her things.

“Hey,” Jiang Wang patted her shoulder.

Before he could say anything, Cai Yucai came into the classroom from outside: “Jiang Wang, come, follow me out for a moment.”

Jiang Wang’s hand was still in midair. He clicked his tongue and stood up to leave the classroom.

After midterms, the school had no more entertainment activities except for the New Year’s Eve party. This year was also the 60th anniversary of First High School’s founding, and the school leaders would be attending, so it needed to be well-organized.

“There’s a student representative speech at the beginning of the New Year’s Eve party. Since you ranked second in the last monthly test, the school wants you to speak on behalf of all students,” Cai Yucai said.

Jiang Wang frowned slightly: “Teacher Cai, I hardly seem like a student representative.”

“The school has always had the best-performing students speak as student representatives. Before, it was always the class monitor from Class 1. He used to be ranked second, but now you’ve surpassed him.”

Cai Yucai didn’t mention the more important reason: at this New Year’s Eve party, Jiang Wang’s father, Jiang Chen, would attend as one of the school board directors. Plus, since Jiang Wang had indeed ranked second last time, the student representative position was inevitably his.

Cai Yucai sighed lightly and continued, “Originally, it would have been Shi Niannian, since she’s ranked first, but because of her, you know, that’s why she wasn’t chosen.”

Jiang Wang had no interest in being the student representative, but when he thought about Shi Niannian being passed over for something that should rightfully be hers because of her stutter, he felt somewhat angry.

Every time a student representative spoke on stage, everyone knew that Shi Niannian was actually the top-ranked student, and they would inevitably think certain things.

Jiang Wang responded perfunctorily: “We’ll see.”

Even on midterm exam nights, the physics competition training wasn’t suspended.

Jiang Wang only told Shi Niannian about what Cai Yucai had said earlier that day after they finished the competition class.

In the dark staircase and corridor, the twenty-something students from the competition class left the classroom in the Science and Technology Building. The lights in the building had been broken for a long time, previously flickering like a haunted house, but now they didn’t even light up at all.

Shi Niannian couldn’t see the path clearly and walked slowly, falling behind. Jiang Wang also walked at the back with her.

After telling her what Cai Yucai had said during the day, he asked: “Do you want to go?”

Shi Niannian shook her head: “You go.”

Jiang Wang took her competition books from her hand and held them together with his own: “Isn’t the student representative supposed to be the first-ranked student?”

“When I speak, everyone… will laugh.”

“Because of your stutter?” Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Isn’t it quite cute?”

“Only you think so,” Shi Niannian replied, then realized her words were odd—what did she mean by “only you think so”?

Then she heard him respond naturally: “I do think it’s cute.”

Shi Niannian was momentarily distracted and didn’t see the step. Her foot slipped, and just as she was about to fall, a pair of hands grabbed her arms, pulling her forcefully into an embrace.

Jiang Wang’s teasing voice came from above: “Be careful.”

Shi Niannian hurriedly said a soft “sorry” and stepped out of his embrace, lowering her head with a red face.

“I can’t see clearly,” she explained. She hadn’t brought her phone to the competition class, leaving it in the classroom, so she couldn’t use it for light.

She looked down at the steps in the darkness, blinked, but still couldn’t see clearly.

So she had to grope for the stair railing, slowly placing one foot down.

In the darkness, Shi Niannian’s wrist was grasped. Through the fabric, the temperature from the young man’s palm beside her conducted through. He didn’t apply force, just loosely held her slender wrist.

Then he slid down.

His slightly cool fingertips lightly touched Shi Niannian’s fingers. The girl’s hand was soft; though there wasn’t much flesh, it felt very comfortable to touch.

Shi Niannian held her breath imperceptibly, her eyelashes fluttering rapidly.

Jiang Wang, unhurried and composed, separated her fingers with his five fingers, interlocking them to hold her hand. With fingers intertwined, his thumb stroked the back of her hand once.

Shi Niannian wanted to pull her hand away, but couldn’t.

They stood on the stairs, with most of the other students having already left. In the quiet, dark environment, only the two of them remained.

She couldn’t help calling his name: “Jiang Wang.”

“Hmm?”

“…Hand.”

He replied calmly: “Can’t you see clearly? I’m holding your hand to guide you.”

This unfamiliar yet intimate contact made Shi Niannian’s fingertips feel numb. Before she could even think of squeezing back, her fingers remained stiffly curved at an angle.

She was led down the stairs step by step with Jiang Wang holding her hand.

That staircase from the third floor seemed endlessly long, and Shi Niannian’s heart slowly sank with this unusually intimate gesture.

When they finally left the Science and Technology Building, the street lights outside were bright, and Shi Niannian could see again.

She suddenly felt she could breathe normally again.

Jiang Wang still hadn’t let go of her hand.

“You can… let go now,” Shi Niannian tugged her hand slightly outward.

Jiang Wang licked his lips and smiled, this time quickly releasing her hand.

Shi Niannian went back to the classroom to get her backpack, with Jiang Wang accompanying her. However, when they walked out of the teaching building again, the weather suddenly changed, and a thunderstorm started, hitting the bicycle shed nearby with a clattering sound.

Shi Niannian took out a neatly folded umbrella from her bag and looked at Jiang Wang: “You didn’t bring… an umbrella?”

“No.”

She looked at the sky, which didn’t seem like it would stop raining anytime soon: “Then how will you get… home?”

He drooped his eyelids and threw the question back to her: “That depends on you.”

“…”

She knew Jiang Wang lived across from Xu Ningqing’s apartment, but that was in the opposite direction from her uncle’s house and quite far from school, requiring a subway ride.

She stepped forward and held the umbrella over Jiang Wang’s head.

He was so tall that Shi Niannian had to raise the umbrella handle to her chin level to avoid hitting his head.

“I’ll take you… Home first,” she said.

Jiang Wang smiled, hooked his finger through the strap of her bag, and slung her pink and blue backpack over his shoulder. Then he took the umbrella handle from her hand: “I’ll take you home.”

They were among the last to leave the school gate.

Outside the school gate, there were still many parents’ cars waiting to pick up their children, creating a traffic jam that was even worse due to the rain.

Shi Niannian remembered that Jiang Wang could drive and turned her head to ask him.

With the surrounding horn sounds and rain noises mixed, Jiang Wang couldn’t hear clearly. He bent down, bringing his ear closer: “What?”

Shi Niannian could see the blue veins on his ear. She pressed her lips together, looked up, and asked near his ear: “Didn’t you, didn’t you drive here?”

Jiang Wang glanced toward the parking area and replied with a straight face: “No.”

Shi Niannian believed him.

Her uncle’s home wasn’t far from school, and the two walked there almost in silence. On the ground, there were puddles of varying depths, reflecting crystalline light under the street lamps.

This was the second time Jiang Wang had walked Shi Niannian home.

The first time was the day after he was released from prison, at that basketball court. She stood before him, her clothes billowing backward in the wind, outlining the excessively thin body of the young girl.

She looked up, her slender wrist raised, seemingly so fragile it could break with a single bend. Her fingertips held a band-aid, offering it to him.

“We’re here.”

Shi Niannian stood on the step under the eave, able to look him in the eye. “You should… go home now.”

Jiang Wang took her backpack off his shoulder. It was quite heavy. Shi Niannian held it in her arms.

“Shi Niannian,” he called out to her just as she was about to turn and enter the house.

The young man stood before the steps. The street lamp stood silently, casting light and shadow on his angular face. The entire neighborhood was quiet.

Only the sound of rain.

His expression was unusually serious as he began: “I—”

Shi Niannian noticed the deep light in his eyes and somehow realized what was coming. She awkwardly interrupted him: “…Jiang Wang!”

He paused, looking up: “Hmm?”

She tightened her grip on the backpack in her arms, lowered her eyes again, and made up an excuse: “It’s too… cold outside. I need to go… inside.”

When panic is too obvious, it’s easy to show one’s hand.

Jiang Wang understood, curling his lips upward, and leaned forward slightly: “Little one, you know what I want to say.”

“…”

Shi Niannian didn’t know what to say, feeling so nervous and helpless that her fingertips dug into her palm, leaving an indentation. Finally, she said defeatedly, “Anyway… anyway, don’t say it.”

Jiang Wang was silent for about five seconds.

Finally, he compromised: “Fine, I won’t say it.”

“But,” he took a step forward, stepping onto one step, “you should give me some compensation.”

Shi Niannian was still holding her backpack when Jiang Wang already bent down.

The umbrella was thrown aside, trembling constantly under the rain, its surface facing downward, filled with rainwater.

Jiang Wang opened his arms, bent down, and embraced her. Due to the height difference, he stooped his back, with his chin resting on her shoulder, easily enfolding the small young girl in his arms.

Shi Niannian still held her backpack, which was squeezed between them.

Though there was no direct contact, she felt that in this damp night, she would be completely permeated by Jiang Wang’s presence.

The first love of youth.

Tentative yet restless, yearning yet withdrawing.

Shi Niannian’s nose pressed against his shoulder, only her eyes exposed, watching the drizzling rain outside and the rotating umbrella on the ground.

The street lamp dutifully stood by the roadside, illuminating the wet ground to make it sparkle.

After a long while, she finally spoke: “I need to… go inside.”

Jiang Wang hugged her tightly once more, then straightened up, smiling at her with satisfaction: “Go ahead.”