The afternoon exam was the combined sciences paper.
Whether it was because of the morning’s Chinese exam as a warm-up, or something else entirely, when Lin Tao arrived at the exam hall for the afternoon session, the atmosphere felt noticeably more relaxed than it had been in the morning.
There wasn’t much movement or laughter, but at the very least, the students sitting near each other were chatting with relative ease.
The boy sitting in front of Lin Tao was called Fang Yan, from Class Twenty upstairs.
He’d borrowed tape from Lin Tao once during the morning Chinese exam, and by the afternoon, was chatting with her like they were old friends.
At first the topics were fairly normal — mostly things like: how do you think you did this morning, did you review for this exam, what rank do you think you’ll place in the grade?
Lin Tao had little patience for small talk and after a few exchanges was already not really wanting to engage. Meng Xin and Jiang Yan hadn’t arrived yet, so she picked up her pen and started scribbling commonly-used formulas on a blank sheet, putting on a clear “not open for conversation” vibe.
Fang Yan had zero self-awareness about being a nuisance. After saying a few more things to himself, he fished his phone out of his pocket and grinned in what he clearly thought was a charming way. “Hey, can I get your contact? We could hang out some time.”
Lin Tao set down her pen, looked at the boy in front of her, and replied with complete seriousness: “My dad doesn’t have a son. I don’t have a younger brother. We’re not close. And I’m not older than you. Stop calling me ‘big sis’.”
“…” Fang Yan was visibly caught off guard, but quickly recovered, brushing it off with a smile. “We’re not close now, but once we add each other, won’t we get close gradually?”
Honestly, Lin Tao had met plenty of guys like Fang Yan before — somewhat decent-looking and thinking that made them unstoppable when it came to hitting on girls.
It always started with getting contact info. Chat for a few days, arrange a meetup, dinner, shopping, movies, an amusement park — the whole sequence — and a purely online acquaintance becomes a substantive boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
She’d had plenty of girls in her old class fall for this exact pattern and end up in early relationships.
But Lin Tao was the exception. She never got on the boat. She didn’t even go near the lake.
She twirled her pen between her fingers a couple of times, then fixed her gaze on him with half-lidded eyes and gave a quiet click of her tongue. “Let me be straight with you — even if you add me on there, it won’t get you anywhere.”
Fang Yan raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest.
Lin Tao cleared her throat and pointed at the empty seat to her left. “The person who sat there during this morning’s exam — Jiang Yan. You know who he is, right?”
“…Yeah.” Fang Yan, unlike most diligent students who kept their heads down oblivious to the world outside, ran in similar circles to Jiang Yan. The reputation of the school overlord had definitely reached him.
“He’s my deskmate.” Lin Tao set down her pen. “He doesn’t get into early relationships. And he doesn’t allow the people around him to get into early relationships either. If I started dating someone, he would beat me to death.”
Lin Tao watched the boy’s rapidly shifting expressions and continued building her case for why she absolutely was not going to be in a relationship: “So — are you willing to go through that kind of life-or-death romance with me? Because if you are, this thing definitely won’t stay hidden from my deskmate, and when he finds out, he’ll probably beat us both up first — not that bad, honestly, just roughly half-dead.”
“So — are you willing?”
“…” He’d have to be out of his mind to be willing. Fang Yan laughed awkwardly, and then, quite helpfully, offered her a suggestion. “You could actually consider not sitting next to him anymore — then he couldn’t manage you.”
He thought for another moment and added another idea: “Or you could transfer to our class. No one in our class will bother you.”
Lin Tao felt this person genuinely had zero self-awareness. Was she not being obvious enough?
She was already about to get up and leave the classroom for a bit, when a pen came flying in through the window out of nowhere and landed on her desk — followed by the great one’s low, cool voice: “What’s this? Someone trying to poach my deskmate?”
“…”
“…………”
Lin Tao genuinely hadn’t expected the timing to be this impeccable. She turned her head toward the window.
In the span of one lunch break, the great one was unrecognizable from the drowsy, half-asleep figure of the morning.
Clean, sharp black top and black pants. His dark hair neatly styled. Long lashes pressed lightly downward. He stood in the backlight, his expression carrying a complexity she couldn’t quite read — his manner cool and distant.
Jiang Yan reached up and removed his earphones, coiling them up at a leisurely pace. Then he looked up at Fang Yan, lifting his chin in a small, measured gesture, and repeated those three words: “Poaching my deskmate?”
He was honestly annoyed. He’d only been gone one lunch break, and he came back to this.
Fang Yan hadn’t expected this either — he’d been trying to chat up someone’s deskmate behind the great one’s back, only to get caught red-handed. Sure, he’d meant to do the poaching, but the deskmate hadn’t been playing along at all.
Having the great one look at him like that was genuinely a little scary.
Both of them were wrapped up in their own thoughts, and Lin Tao, under Jiang Yan’s gaze — which looked ready to kill Fang Yan — opened her mouth timidly: “About that…”
That was enough to tip Jiang Yan’s already-present irritation up a notch. He looked up at Lin Tao, his long lashes dropping like raven wings, voice carrying the cool detachment he naturally radiated. “Is being my deskmate that much of a burden to you?”
“No! Not even a little!” Lin Tao pointed at Fang Yan and explained: “Let me tell you — this guy wanted my contact info, but do you think I’m the type to just hand my number out to anyone? Of course not.”
“And I’m not.” She continued with great sincerity: “So I told him my deskmate keeps a tight leash, so I can’t give it out, and then he told me I should stop sitting next to you.”
“I was about to argue back — and then you showed up.”
Lin Tao got all of it out in one breath, then took a long inhale and looked up at him. “Jiang Yan, being your deskmate — I genuinely don’t feel burdened at all.”
“I’m very happy about it, and very honored. If the school didn’t have rules against it, I’d even set off a string of firecrackers to celebrate becoming the great one’s deskmate.”
Jiang Yan: “…………”
Fine.
Women’s mouths — full of nothing but lies.
The combined sciences exam began at two o’clock.
Five minutes before the exam started, the invigilator came in carrying the papers, delivered the same unchanging opening speech as always, then began distributing the papers.
When the exam bell rang, one of the invigilators spoke: “The exam is now in session. No whispering or use of mobile phones during the exam.”
Among the science students who had made it to this exam hall, the majority were genuine science scholars. Lin Tao was different — her combined sciences score wasn’t exceptional, and physics in particular was always the subject dragging her down.
That said, her three main academic subjects were strong enough to offset it, and her overall scores were still quite good.
Halfway through the exam, Lin Tao put down her pen and kneaded her aching wrist, her gaze drifting absently sideways.
Jiang Yan wasn’t being as terrifying as he’d been during the end-of-semester exam. He still had his pen in hand and was writing.
From this angle, his profile was sharply defined — a straight, elevated nose bridge with wire-framed gold glasses perched on it, lips forming a flat, even line, the knuckles of the hand holding his pen angular and prominent. After a brief pause, he went back to writing, focused and intent, his concentration carrying an appeal entirely its own.
They’d been deskmates this long, and Lin Tao had actually rarely seen him like this. Usually he looked like he’d never slept enough, or was perpetually in some state of lazy, effortless composure.
Seeing this other side of the great one right now, she couldn’t help taking a few more glances.
It couldn’t be denied — a man when he was focused really was at his most attractive.
…
— Wait!
Lin Tao was in disbelief. She had just thought that Jiang Yan was… attractive!!
She must have gotten dust in her eye.
Lin Tao told herself this, firmly and with great conviction.
Anyone could be attractive — Jiang Yan couldn’t be, never had been, never would be.
He was an idiot.
The teaching staff at No. 10 High School was exceptionally strong. The teachers who wrote the monthly exams, mock exams, midterms, and finals were typically the same ones active on the front lines of college entrance examination question-setting.
So the difficulty level of the questions was basically always five stars or higher.
This diagnostic exam was designed to assess students’ progress after the arts-science division, so the difficulty hadn’t been lowered — it had, if anything, been turned up another notch.
Even Jiang Yan, who normally finished exams in half the time, spent over twenty extra minutes on the combined sciences paper.
Half an hour remained before the end of the exam.
Jiang Yan set down his pen, took off his glasses and set them on the desk, and rubbed the bridge of his nose — accidentally catching the still-tender injury. He gave an almost imperceptible small frown.
Most of the exam hall was still bent over their papers. The invigilators had gone to stand outside to chat with the invigilators from other rooms. This whole floor was a congregation of top students, so the invigilating wasn’t particularly strict.
Lin Tao got stuck on the last physics long-form question. She tried several approaches and couldn’t find a workable solution.
So she put down her pen and checked over the questions she’d already finished.
If I can’t get it anyway, I shouldn’t waste the time. That was Lin Tao the model student’s thinking.
After reviewing her paper, Lin Tao noticed that at some point her deskmate had already put down his pen. He had his arms crossed, leaning against the desk behind him, either spacing out or staring at his exam paper.
Perhaps noticing Lin Tao’s obvious stare, Jiang Yan turned and met her gaze — and happened to spot the answer sheet hanging over the edge of her desk.
The girl had a sharp reaction — she snatched it back quickly.
Jiang Yan could vaguely see that the last question was still blank. He waited several minutes and she still hadn’t made a move to write anything. He curved his lips slightly, reached into his pocket for half a sheet of scratch paper, and started writing on it rapidly.
When he finished, the great one very considerately folded it, glanced at the teacher standing outside the classroom, then flicked it with his hand.
It landed, perfectly, on Lin Tao’s desk.
When the little slip of paper flew over, Lin Tao was still staring blankly trying to work out the last question. She spotted the sudden small paper on her desk and her first instinct was to slam her exam paper over it — can’t let the teacher see.
But the next second, she came back to herself.
Wait — who threw this?
What is this?
Trying to copy?
Not a chance.
Lin Tao the supposedly-not-going-to-look girl still very dutifully and very carefully opened the little folded note, on which a few characters were scrawled in a messy, undisciplined hand —
Focus on your exam. Stop looking around.
Just from the tone, Lin Tao knew immediately that it was from her idiot deskmate.
She crumpled the note, stuffed it into her pocket, looked up at Jiang Yan sitting across the aisle, and silently mouthed: “Are you okay?”
The girl’s expression was lively — bright round eyes, her whole person radiating displeasure at this inhumane behavior of his from head to toe.
Jiang Yan lounged casually against the desk, his long legs nowhere to put comfortably so they had to stay bent. His eyes were low and languid, a faint curve pulling at his lips, his attractive mouth moving without producing a sound.
But Lin Tao, with her 5.0 vision, still read it clearly.
He’d said —
Little trash.
Little trash? If she’s trash, fine, but what’s with the little?
Lin Tao took back the fleeting moment of eye-dust earlier and sincerely apologized to herself for it. This person was not someone even an illusion could find attractive.
He was an idiot.
A through-and-through, certified idiot.
The two days of exams passed quickly.
Old Yu had said before the exams that they weren’t allowed to leave campus after finishing — they had to return to the classroom for a big cleaning session, to welcome the imminent wonderful dual holiday.
Lin Tao had originally planned to just slip away. The classroom was full of people, and Old Yu couldn’t possibly happen to be paying attention to her specifically.
But she failed.
…
Lin Tao glanced at the person walking beside her, thinking back to his particularly atrocious behavior in the exam hall yesterday, and her tone wasn’t quite as easy as before. “Jiang Yan, a cleaning session missing one or two extra people is completely normal — you didn’t have to take this so seriously.”
The great one’s expression didn’t change. He looked at her calmly. “Old Yu specifically told me to stay by your side.”
“When did Old Yu specifically tell you that?” Lin Tao felt this person was just lying with his eyes open. “Old Yu told me to keep an eye on you.”
“Right, so you’ve got to keep your eyes on me.”
“…”
Fine!!
Just watch! Watch all you want!!
Lin Tao demonstrated a thorough understanding of the word “watch,” strode one step ahead of him, turned around, and walked backward facing him.
“…”
The exam had finished in the evening. The sun had threaded through layers of clouds and sunk to the lowest point on the western horizon, the twilight soft and warm, blanketing the entire school.
In the deserted corridor, a boy walked with steady steps — white top, black pants, posture upright, a profile that could be called flawless — his expression unexpectedly gentle.
Walking in front of him was a girl, her expressions alive and vivid, the dappled amber light of tree shadows falling across her back, her eyes clear and bright.
The scene was like a photograph, frozen at that single moment.
And then, in the next second, a group of boys with basketballs came charging out of the stairwell entrance, shouting over each other, too caught up in their own noise to watch where anyone else was going.
Like an established path suddenly struck by an unexpected obstacle — the two groups collided inevitably.
Lin Tao had already been walking backward. The stairwell connected above and below at the middle of the corridor, and by the time she heard the commotion, her feet were already stepping back involuntarily.
There was a powerful, rushing force at her side — no time to dodge. She vaguely heard a sharp intake of breath from one of the boys, and she had already braced herself for impact with the ground —
But in the next instant, someone grabbed her wrist — and that same force pulled her forward, pitching her off balance.
The whole thing seemed to happen very fast, over in just a few seconds. From nearly crashing to the ground, she fell instead into an embrace — warm, soft, faintly scented with pine.
She tilted her head back, not yet able to speak, when her forehead suddenly felt warm — a brief, soft sensation that vanished in a heartbeat, and then the boy’s taut jaw flashed past her field of vision.
(Author’s note: — Tao-mei has come to the shores of early romance and stepped onto a boat called Jiang Yan — from here, life only gets better — Add fuel to the fire of Tao-mei and Yan-ge’s early romance ship!! Starting this Saturday, update time moves to 9 AM! Pay attention!)