On the day the mock exam results came out, the school gate was surrounded so tightly that not even water could trickle through.

Tan Jin jumped in place and, with his height advantage, immediately spotted Lin Shilan’s name hanging high in the grade’s top ranks on the ranking board. He remembered her saying with little confidence “I remember very little, I’ll do my best on the test,” yet the result was she scored third place in the entire school.

Tan Jin hummed a tune and walked away. This score already exceeded her mother’s target score requirement. It seemed Lin Shilan could rightfully bring Jing Jing home.

Unlike Tan Jin’s ease, the atmosphere in his class wasn’t very good.

The second mock exam scores showed their class at the bottom of the entire grade, with students’ grades declining seriously.

The homeroom teacher wanted to stimulate a learning atmosphere and came up with an idea: for both this mock exam and the next one, there would be rewards for students with high ranking scores. Students could choose their seats and who they wanted as deskmates, with higher rankings getting priority choice.

Everyone didn’t take this incentive mechanism too seriously. After another third mock exam, the college entrance exam would follow. Where they sat and who their deskmate was didn’t matter much anymore. The buddy ranked 12th casually chose Tan Jin, who was ranked 15th, and picked a spot by the window, bringing Tan Jin over with him.

This position had a nice view, and Tan Jin admired the scenery outside. The lush green hillside, tree branches swaying in the rain—as he watched, he suddenly felt his back getting a bit creepy.

He whipped his head around.

His gaze collided with an intense stare.

Behind overly long bangs hid a pair of pitch-black, eerie eyes. Su Ge, sitting in the corner, propped up her chin with one hand, the corners of her mouth curling up bizarrely.

Not daring to look at her more, Tan Jin quickly turned back around. He pulled a thick textbook from his backpack and covered the back of his head with it.

He lay on his desk.

She didn’t reply to him until break time: [Might have to stay late today to review test papers. My glasses are fixed, if you go early, pick them up for me. See you at home.]

Staring at the three characters “see you at home,” Tan Jin rapidly added the text message she sent to his favorites.

After school.

He went to the glasses shop to get Lin Shilan’s glasses.

Tan Jin took a shortcut. The town’s alleyways were winding and tortuous, hiding many delicious food stalls among them. Since he was also hungry after school, he ate as he walked.

There was always an uncomfortable feeling behind him, making him lose much of his appetite even while eating.

The first time Tan Jin looked back, he saw an advertising sign; the second time Tan Jin looked back, he saw a garbage pile; the third time Tan Jin looked back, he saw a cluster of bougainvillea.

The fourth time, as Tan Jin was almost at the glasses shop entrance, he suddenly whipped his head around.

He saw…

A manhole cover floating in the air.

The person holding the manhole cover tightly blocked her own face, but he still recognized her through her body shape and school uniform.

Startled, Tan Jin ran into the glasses shop and texted Lin Shilan.

[Oh my god, Su Ge is following me!]

She replied super fast: [I know.]

He was puzzled: [You know Su Ge is following me?]

The other side still replied instantly: [Yes.]

He was even more confused: [How do you know?]

Her reply shocked Tan Jin.

[Su Ge is following you, I’m following Su Ge.]

This is how it went.

Lin Shilan’s class had the first place total score in the grade for the second mock exam. Today the teacher was in a great mood and, unprecedentedly, didn’t keep them late to review test papers, letting them go home early.

Walking out of the classroom, she just happened to see Tan Jin walking toward the school exit in the corridor.

So Lin Shilan quickened her pace to catch up. When there was still some distance from Tan Jin, she discovered a female student constantly following behind him.

Lin Shilan took off her glasses with insufficient prescription and flipped them around.

With the lenses closer to her eyes, the world ahead of her became incomparably clear.

—That female student was Su Ge!

Tan Jin bought fried chicken at the alley entrance, then went to the end of the alley and queued to buy a flatbread. Then, he used the flatbread to sandwich the fried chicken and ate in big bites.

At this moment, feeling something was off behind him, he stopped his chewing motion and turned around… Su Ge whooshed behind the advertising sign.

Tan Jin walked away completely unaware.

Lin Shilan cursed him as a fool in her heart, but saw that Su Ge also seemed to sense her presence and was turning back to look.

Bold and careful Lin Shilan hid behind a passing elderly woman, using her for cover.

Probably not having eaten enough, Tan Jin continued toward a small stall selling roasted starch sausages.

Having just eaten a few bites of the hot steaming sausage, after walking just a few steps, his attention was attracted by a fried skewers stall.

Su Ge’s tailing technique wasn’t very sophisticated. When Tan Jin was eating fried skewers, she just stood straight in the middle of the small path watching him.

Lin Shilan was just about to take out her phone to text Tan Jin to look back when he, as if sensing her signal in advance, looked back behind him while biting on a skewer, dazed.

Su Ge, quick-eyed and nimble-handed, dove into a garbage pile by the roadside, using large black plastic bags to conceal her form.

—This! Was quite committed!

Lin Shilan refused to be outdone by her.

When Su Ge came out of the garbage pile and looked toward her direction, Lin Shilan had already joined an elementary school soccer team in the alley.

She kicked the children’s ball while gradually retreating.

The children had no choice but to follow behind her, also helping to block her silhouette.

On the other end, having eaten a round of salty and spicy food, Tan Jin felt thirsty. He turned toward a bubble tea shop and bought two cups of pearl milk tea.

While waiting for the milk tea, he glanced again at the alley he’d come from.

After being soaked by rainwater, the bougainvillea in the alley bloomed like crazy, cluster after cluster of fresh tender purple-red climbing all over the stone walls.

After looking at the bougainvillea twice more, the milk tea was ready, and Tan Jin went to drink his milk tea.

Lin Shilan watched helplessly as Su Ge used both hands and feet, frantically climbing onto the stone wall. After dodging the crisis of being discovered by Tan Jin, she jumped down from the height, with several bougainvillea flowers she’d crushed still caught in her hair.

Lin Shilan felt the relay baton of hiding traces had returned to herself once more.

This time she found a perfect disguise situation in advance. Old men were playing Chinese chess in front of a small shop, and she squatted there, vividly directing the battle.

“Sir, listen to me, move your chariot, drive the chariot straight over.”

“Then on your side, I’m telling you, take his pawn, eat it hard.”

The sudden advice didn’t gain the crowd’s approval, and Lin Shilan was immediately scolded.

“Hey! Young lady! Haven’t you heard that observers shouldn’t speak during chess?”

“I’ve heard, I’ve heard, I was just talking nonsense. Sorry for disturbing, you continue playing.” She planned to slip away.

The old man stopped her.

“But I must say, I realize that moving the chariot is a brilliant move. This game is over.”

“Young lady knows a bit, huh? You’ve ruined our chess game. How about you come play a round?”

Su Ge had left.

But Lin Shilan couldn’t leave.

“Sir, I really can’t play. Chess—I only know five-in-a-row.”

The old men enthusiastically set up a fresh chess game for her.

“Can’t play? If you can’t play, why did you come here to watch chess?”

Out of options, Lin Shilan randomly grabbed a chess piece, planning to prove through action that she couldn’t play… At this moment, Tan Jin sent a text message.

She grabbed it like a lifeline, exchanging several text messages back and forth with him.

[Su Ge is following you, I’m following Su Ge.]

After sending this, she immediately asked him for help: [Can you play Chinese chess? Even if you can’t, come to the small shop across from the glasses store to find me.]

In less than a minute, Tan Jin appeared before Lin Shilan.

She had already lost one pawn and one cannon to the old man.

He looked at the chess board for a few seconds, exchanged positions with her, and sat down.

Lin Shilan didn’t understand, and Lin Shilan didn’t dare ask.

She watched as Tan Jin wasn’t much better than herself. The old man was killing it, having eaten several of their pieces while they had only taken two of his.

Tan Jin’s eyes were deep. He picked up a chess piece and gently set it down.

“Check.”

These two words made the old man’s body tremble.

His eyes swept back and forth across the chess board, muttering to himself: “This, could this be checkmate?”

After looking carefully, the old man laughed heartily: “This move of horse-cannon combo, I didn’t guard against it! Young man plays well!”

Lin Shilan was a bit dazed by the professional terminology and asked quietly in Tan Jin’s ear: “What does it mean? Did we lose or win?”

His expression was serious as he turned his head.

The two faced each other.

He made a “peace” sign at her and suddenly broke into a smile.

“How do you know how to play Chinese chess?” She was so pleasantly surprised.

Tan Jin looked matter-of-fact: “I love playing games. Chinese chess is also a game to me, so I occasionally play against people online for fun.”

Lin Shilan’s eyes held a smile as she asked a very amateurish silly question: “So does that mean, as long as it’s a game, you can play it very well?”

He wasn’t modest either: “That’s right.”

Escaping from the small shop, they finally had time to discuss Su Ge following him.

By now, there was no trace of the manhole-cover-wielding female student around them.

On one hand, Tan Jin thought Lin Shilan’s choice to also follow Su Ge was very miraculous; on the other hand, he really didn’t understand her thought process.

“Discovering Su Ge was following me, couldn’t you just come up and catch her in the act?”

“No.”

She admitted extremely straightforwardly: “I lack the courage to confront unfamiliar girls face to face.”

He was puzzled: “Then why can you confront me?”

“Because,” Lin Shilan bobbed her head, counting off one by one: “You’re my ally, you cook egg drop soup for me, you joke around with me, you accompany me to rescue dogs, you buy me milk tea…”

Tan Jin couldn’t listen anymore: “So basically, you only bully people you’re familiar with?”

She shook her head: “Not right.”

He thought about it and realized: “Oh! You only bully me!”

Lin Shilan didn’t deny it.

Wearing her newly fixed glasses, she poked through the milk tea lid with a straw herself.

On the surface, the matter of Su Ge’s stalking was lightly and cleverly brushed aside by them.

Lin Shilan didn’t say it directly, but in reality, she silently cared about it very much in her heart.

Dog abandoner, stalker, potential rival…

Lin Shilan knew she was facing a mysterious, formidable, ruthless character.

From Tan Jin, besides knowing that Su Ge liked him, she hadn’t obtained any other effective information. Her somewhat subtle feeling was: she didn’t want him involved too much, and preferred to investigate Su Ge herself.

Exchanging battlefronts was what she had proposed. There was no reason for Tan Jin to unilaterally help her while she didn’t even try before returning to him what he didn’t want to face.

The cup of pearl milk tea Tan Jin had packed extra for her was very delicious.

Lin Shilan finished it all in less than five minutes of sipping.