By all accounts, the day after final exam results came out should have been the start of vacation, but because of the “cheating” incident, the atmosphere carried a tinge of gossip rather than the usual relaxed mood.

Actually, schools don’t normally determine a student has cheated so easily. The grade director’s decisiveness this time was mainly due to three reasons.

First, Pei Chuan’s history grades were vastly different from his first place in the joint exam—no reasonable person would believe someone could make such dramatic progress in just one month.

Second, the joint exam was extremely important. If Third High didn’t handle this quickly, it would be a thorn in the hearts of all the students about to go home for winter break and the New Year.

Third, vacation started tomorrow—there was no time to have Pei Chuan take another test.

Ordinary cheating wasn’t a scandal, but leaked answers were. Because students would wonder: why were people from Third High the only ones among the three schools who could obtain the standard answers?

They would suspect—could it be that Third High’s grades had always been fake?

With the school’s reputation at stake, the grade director almost instinctively wanted to immediately provide an explanation to settle this matter. After all, vacation started tomorrow and all the students would be going home. If this wasn’t handled well, forget the students—even the school leadership wouldn’t have a good New Year.

But that particular student was a tough nut to crack.

When evening self-study began, Pei Chuan still refused to give an explanation. Teacher Chen said, “Pei Chuan, I’ll have to contact your father.”

Pei Chuan suddenly stood up. The classroom was very quiet at that moment, and almost everyone heard the young man say coldly, “My file says I have no parents.”

You could hear a pin drop in the classroom.

Pei Chuan grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and left the classroom.

C City’s winter was endless snowy weather.

He walked through the snow, leaving footprints of varying depths.

Bei Yao ran to Third High just as he was walking out. At night, all the school’s lights were on. She wore a red scarf, her breath white in the cold air.

“Pei Chuan.” The young girl ran to his side. “Where are you going?”

Pei Chuan saw his “reason.” He pressed his lips together. “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t cheat, so why won’t you explain?”

Those eyes were soft and bright. Pei Chuan looked at her. “What’s there to explain?”

Bei Yao said, “Come with me, let’s go prove it together. We can’t let people wrongly accuse you.”

Pei Chuan said quietly, “Bei Yao, that’s not important.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “What?”

Pei Chuan looked away.

None of that mattered—scores, reputation, nothing mattered. What mattered was that in this world, among all things, as long as you spoke it, I would stake my life on achieving it.

But the reason and the feelings had to remain sealed, unspeakable to anyone.

Bei Yao blinked. She said, “Come back, okay?”

Pei Chuan’s eyes darkened as he walked toward the school gate.

Bei Yao watched his retreating figure, still thinking about that possibility. Why wouldn’t he explain? Was it really what she thought?

She touched her own soft cheeks—they were a bit warm.

Was Pei Chuan… just like how she liked him a little, actually working hard and taking it seriously because of something she said?

At the thought of this possibility, a shy, gentle smile crept into her eyes.

“Pei Chuan.” She cupped her hands around her mouth, drawing out her words. Her voice was soft and sweet in the winter night. “Pei Chuan—”

He turned around.

Bei Yao said, “Come back.”

She waved at him in the snow, wearing that bright red scarf, like a festive little dumpling. Her cheeks were pink and soft, her eyes like they held a pool of clear, transparent water.

His heart beat powerfully. For that instant, he was helpless.

Pei Chuan’s principles, his hatred—before those clear almond eyes, there was no place for them to exist.

He even felt a bit angry. He hadn’t even planned to do anything to her. Could she please just be good on her own, stay settled?

Could you please be good? Could you stay away from me on your own?

Yet the little dumpling stood in the ice and snow, looking in his direction with a smile. “Come here quickly.”

He went.

His anger grew thick and dense. Pei Chuan simply wanted to end himself.

“There, let’s go back.” Unlike Pei Chuan, her heart rippled with circles of happiness.

She seemed to suddenly understand something, as if the little seed in her heart had broken through the cold, hard soil to become a tender, immature sprout—making her heart soft and full of joy.

~

The grade director was forty-eight this year, with a beer belly and slightly overweight.

Because he often scolded students and was petty, he was quite unpopular.

Bei Yao and Pei Chuan stood together, with Teacher Chen also present. Bei Yao looked at Pei Chuan. The young man’s expression was cold and hard, his voice slightly hoarse. “I didn’t cheat.”

Director Zhang said, “Heh, just because you say you didn’t means you didn’t? This afternoon I gave you a chance to explain—why didn’t I see you explain then?”

Pei Chuan’s eyes were pitch black.

Bei Yao said, “You need an explanation. He said he didn’t cheat, so as a teacher, you should believe your student.”

Director Zhang glared, spittle flying. “And who are you? Not attending evening self-study and running here—what business is this of yours?”

Pei Chuan stepped in front of Bei Yao. Teacher Chen could tell—he was getting angry.

Teacher Chen’s heart jumped. He was truly afraid Pei Chuan would hit someone. The cheating matter wasn’t resolved yet—if he dared hit a teacher, he would truly be ruined.

A small hand grasped Pei Chuan’s hem. Bei Yao poked her small head out from behind the tall young man. “Anyway, you’re wrongly accusing people. As a teacher, instead of hoping your students do well, all you think about is the worst.”

Teacher Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This pretty little girl was clearly also afraid of Director Zhang, yet her eyes were bright and black, stubbornly insisting on finishing her words.

Pei Chuan stiffened somewhat.

Her hand intimately held his clothes. Even though winter clothes were thick, this kind of close gesture—if she cared about reputation at all, she shouldn’t do it in front of teachers.

Bei Yao said, “Obviously proving whether someone cheated is simple. Just take another test with the same difficulty. But you didn’t give him a chance to prove himself.”

Director Zhang said, “Vacation starts tomorrow. Who’s going to waste time with him? Cheating once isn’t embarrassing enough?”

Bei Yao said, “I’ll proctor his exam. If he doesn’t do well, we’ll accept the punishment. If he does well, you have to apologize to him at all three schools.”

Director Zhang looked into the young man’s dark eyes and his heart jumped. He frowned. “You know him. Who knows if you’ll cheat together with him?”

Teacher Chen stepped forward. “I can also proctor for him, Director. If you don’t trust me either, then Teacher Fang who’s supervising evening self-study, and Teacher Liu from our class who’s watching Class Four—we can call them over too. This is important. No one will find it troublesome.”

Director Zhang’s expression turned ugly.

Teacher Chen continued, “Our winter homework has a quite difficult test paper, a bit harder than this joint exam. It was created by teachers from the neighboring city. The students haven’t seen it and don’t know about this math test. We can use that paper.”

With Teacher Chen saying this much, if Director Zhang still didn’t agree, he would truly seem like the person unworthy of being a teacher that Bei Yao described.

The proctored exam took place in an empty classroom on the ground floor.

Teacher Chen placed the test paper in front of Pei Chuan and smiled. “Good luck. You didn’t bring your phone, did you?”

Pei Chuan pressed his lips together and gave her the phone from his pocket.

“Alright, the exam begins. Two hours. You’ll probably finish right around when third period evening self-study ends.”

Bei Yao sat on the podium watching him.

As Teacher Chen said, there were two other teachers in the classroom. Hearing they were helping prove a student’s innocence, both teachers came immediately.

Bei Yao couldn’t help but think: Pei Chuan, look—in this world, besides bad adults like Director Zhang, there are even more good people. Sometimes we just need one chance to meet them.

Pei Chuan gripped his pen and lowered his eyes to work on the math test.

No one disturbed him. The classroom was extremely quiet.

For two hours, she quietly watched him. He was very good-looking—different from Han Zhen’s refined and gentle handsomeness. Pei Chuan’s features were sharp and striking, very tough, with well-defined angles, a cold and hard temperament, and a sharp, piercing youthful air. It didn’t quite match this year’s popular aesthetic among girls, but in her eyes, he was incredibly handsome.

When he focused, the only sound in the classroom was his calculations. The pen scratched against paper with a rustling sound.

Outside, the wind and snow had stopped. Inside the classroom, the lighting was soft.

Watching him so serious and calm made her heart soft.

Her heart pounded—faster than after running—this feeling was so strange. Chen Feifei said: when you see him you feel joy, when you can’t see him you miss him—that’s what liking someone is.

A very strange yet not unpleasant feeling.

Like the suddenly stopped wind and snow outside, her heart also cleared. This year she was almost seventeen. Without asking Chen Feifei, she suddenly understood.

She liked him.

A very shy yet very sweet kind of liking that no one knew about.

She accepted his habitually cold temperament, and loved his unmatched spirit and courage. She also pitied him for not being tenderly treated by the world, and felt regret for this.

Her cheeks slowly flushed, her almond eyes bright and pure.

First awakening of love—her heart beat like little drum beats that couldn’t stop for even a moment.

Bei Yao couldn’t help but wonder: did he like her?

Was it as Chen Feifei said—because she was his childhood friend, so he protected her, indulged her? Or was it because of other feelings?

She suddenly felt that last time, right after that kiss, while the novel feeling was still fresh, she should have asked Pei Chuan whether he actually liked her or not.

But… however… how embarrassing would it be if she was rejected?

~

Pei Chuan used an hour and a half on the test. He checked it once, then handed the paper to Teacher Chen.

Several teachers rigorously graded it against the answers. After a few minutes, the test score came out.

Perfect score.

This result surprised even Teacher Chen. She looked at Pei Chuan in amazement. The teachers exchanged glances, but the result was undoubtedly delightful for Teacher Chen.

The problem-solving approach was rigorous and clear, the calculations very skilled.

He truly had the ability to score perfectly.

Teacher Chen was both surprised and gratified. Her support hadn’t been misplaced. Her heart had been suspended for over an hour, and now she’d gotten the best result.

The group returned to the director’s office.

Third period evening self-study hadn’t ended yet.

Director Zhang also hadn’t expected this outcome. His face turned green. “The teacher will… apologize to you. The school will rescind your punishment, Student Pei. Go back to class.”

Bei Yao said, “Rescinding the punishment and apologizing to Pei Chuan at all three schools—that’s what you promised me.”

Pei Chuan lowered his eyes to look at her.

The young girl’s voice was soft, yet stubborn. “Vacation starts tomorrow. While it hasn’t started yet, you need to call the teachers at all three schools and have them broadcast an apology.”

“…”

“Also, the honor roll was defaced—you need to replace it.”

“…”

“And also, your school has a city-wide first place. That’s truly impressive.”

That was true.

Pei Chuan’s fingers slid across his phone screen in his pocket. He’d recorded audio earlier. Director Zhang, who had rashly handled this and determined a student had cheated, should have originally been utterly disgraced—either dismissed or never promoted for the rest of his life.

However, the girl beside him had a crisp, clear voice, like a cheerful little kingfisher. Her snow-white chin was covered by her fluffy scarf, making her small face even more endearing. He’d proven his innocence, and she was even happier than he was.

He suddenly felt that the bad people in the world didn’t necessarily need to be completely destroyed.

Because he himself was relying on exactly this kind of goodness and vivid loveliness, struggling to draw warmth.

As they walked out of the office, Director Zhang said with a dark face, “Wait, that girl—what’s your relationship with Pei Chuan? Dating isn’t allowed!”

Bei Yao’s face turned completely red. She looked at him softly.

Um…

Pei Chuan had her go out first.

He turned back to look at Director Zhang, his hand in his pocket gripping tightly, his voice low, suppressing anger. “What relationship do you think we could have? She’s my sister.”

Bei Yao, who hadn’t walked far from the door, blinked and froze.

Was he telling the truth or lying?