At two o’clock in the afternoon, the pledge assembly at the high school began on schedule. Each class lined up in their designated positions, and every third-year student was dressed in the blue and white school uniform.

Looking out across the field, the crowd was like a vast, still sea.

Class 18’s position was close to the flagpole. Du Wenbo, as the academic committee head, stood in the front row of the formation holding the class banner.

Under the blazing sun, the red banner snapped in the wind.

Li Kun, the deputy principal, accompanied by members of the student council’s discipline committee, was going around checking attendance and dress for each class.

When they reached Class 18, Li Kun exchanged a word with Teacher Yu, who was standing to one side of the flagpole. Then he let his gaze travel down the formation counting heads — “One, two, three…”

When he reached twenty-five, Li Kun trailed off. He pulled Teacher Yu by the sleeve and pointed at two people at the back of the formation, saying in disbelief, “What’s going on with those two? Is it actually acceptable to bring your boyfriend or girlfriend to something like this? They could at least be mindful of the influence.”

Teacher Yu didn’t need to look. He knew Li Kun was talking about Jiang Yan and Lin Tao. But he didn’t find it as alarming as Li Kun did, and said breezily, “It’s gotten to this point in the year already. Turn a blind eye.”

“……”

Li Kun thought: I have never seen a homeroom teacher this relaxed about things.

Teacher Yu patted him on the shoulder and said warmly, “Come on, let’s keep moving. My class has no absences — I already counted everyone before we came out. And even if there were absences, you couldn’t do anything about it, could you?”

Li Kun shot Teacher Yu a look, then moved on with the students to the next class.

Once he was gone, Lin Tao lowered the speech draft she’d been holding up in front of her face and nudged Jiang Yan’s shoulder with her elbow. “Was Li Kun just now talking to Teacher Yu about the two of us?”

The sunlight was so intense on the field it was almost impossible to read a phone screen. Jiang Yan had to bend forward and bow his head to see what was on his phone. At Lin Tao’s question, he looked up at Li Kun’s already retreating figure. “Probably. He’s likely never seen a student attend a meeting without a parent but with a boyfriend before.”

“……” No sooner said than done. Lin Tao picked up the speech draft and whacked Jiang Yan on the head with it. “You have the nerve to say that. Who was it that insisted on coming?”

“Me. It was me.” Jiang Yan smiled, put his phone away and stood up straight. His eyes caught a sudden blast of sunshine and he narrowed them slightly. “When the pledge assembly wraps up, I’ll need to head off first.”

“Hm? Why?” Lin Tao shifted a little to one side, putting herself between Jiang Yan and the glaring sun.

Jiang Yan raised a hand and rubbed his temple. “Guan Che is back. He asked me to pick him up from the airport.”

Since the two of them had both been admitted through direct placement, each had been busier than the other. Jiang Yan, though away from Xixi City this semester, still had breaks now and then and could generally be reached. Guan Che, however, seemed as if he’d joined some kind of secret organization — out of ten messages sent to him, he might reply to one; out of ten phone calls, you might get lucky and reach him two or three times; his WeChat Moments had long since gone dark.

Hearing that he was now coming back, Lin Tao was genuinely surprised. “Didn’t Guan Che say before he left that he wouldn’t be back in Xixi City until summer? Why the sudden return?”

Jiang Yan shook his head. “I don’t know. He didn’t go into detail.”

Lin Tao didn’t ask further. She went back to running over her speech draft. Her slight figure, mapped in light, stood before Jiang Yan’s eyes.

Jiang Yan looked at her. Lin Tao noticed his gaze, quietly winked at him, and he curved his mouth in a smile — moved by a rare impulse to be the one indulged for once.

The assembly was supposed to begin at two on the dot, but dragged on until two-thirty before it truly started — the same as always. First the principal spoke, then a parade of various leaders got up to speak, and only after that did it get to the student speeches.

Two students from the liberal arts stream and two from the science stream were selected to speak.

The liberal arts students went first. Lin Tao was in no rush; she planned to head over to the teachers when the first liberal arts speaker was nearly done.

The sports field speakers were amplified through speakers on all four sides.

Lin Tao listened to the rise and fall of the passionate voice coming through the speakers and clicked her tongue softly. “I think I might be done in under three minutes when I go up there.”

Jiang Yan curved his lips. “You could read more slowly.”

“……”

A few minutes later, the first liberal arts representative finished. The head of the school’s Youth League Office said a few words, and then it was the turn of the second representative.

This was a boy. He gave off less the air of someone delivering a speech, and more the feeling of someone issuing a declaration of war.

“…We came from the depths of winter and cherish the brilliance of spring all the more. We race toward June, believing ever more firmly in life’s miracles! We believe that effort will always be rewarded; let us give everything we have…”

Hearing those words, Jiang Yan’s eyelid twitched. He had the strong sense that he’d heard this somewhere before.

He looked down and thought for a moment. Then he looked up sharply at Lin Tao. “That line — ‘we came from the depths of winter’ — wasn’t that in your speech draft too?”

Before Lin Tao could respond, Jiang Yan heard another familiar line.

“…Eighty days — in the grand river of history, it passes like a fleeting wave on the surface. Yet for us, these days are of immeasurable significance. Ten years to sharpen a sword, today we test its edge; together we stand through a hundred days, and the golden exam results will reward our days and years!”

The words were far too familiar. Jiang Yan could now say with complete certainty that he had seen those exact lines in Lin Tao’s draft.

He looked at Lin Tao with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “Did you two copy from the same speech draft?”

Lin Tao, who had been on the verge of memorizing the whole thing: “……”

“Though this classmate is at least a little more precise than you.” Jiang Yan laughed. “He noticed there weren’t a hundred days left and changed the number.”

“……”

Lin Tao had by now completely abandoned any urge to beat up her chatty boyfriend. Her entire mind was consumed by a series of cries from the depths of her soul:

“I copied the same draft as someone else??” “There are so many drafts on that website — how did we still end up with the same one? I truly am something special!!” “What on earth do I say when I go up there???” “Should I even go up there at all?”

……

But Teacher Yu didn’t give her time to deliberate. As soon as the liberal arts representatives finished, Teacher Yu passed word through another student that she should get ready.

Lin Tao was still in a state of shock and confusion, and it took a full three seconds for her to snap back. She turned to look at Jiang Yan. “What do I do?”

Jiang Yan rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you have a submitted lineup?”

“Oh, yes.”

The names and classes of the four student representatives had been submitted in advance. When it came time for the speeches, the emcee teacher would read out this information.

Jiang Yan bit the corner of his lip. “Does the other person go before you or after you?”

“He goes first,” Lin Tao said.

“All right then.” Jiang Yan stood up, rubbed the back of his neck, then smoothly pulled the speech draft from her hand and said quietly, “I’ll go speak for you.”

For Jiang Yan to suddenly decide to go up and speak in Lin Tao’s place left Teacher Yu thoroughly baffled. “You won’t? I asked you so many times before and you refused every single one of them. What are you doing going up now? Didn’t you say you don’t qualify as an outstanding student representative?”

Jiang Yan listened to Teacher Yu’s grumbling, touched the tip of his nose, and said with a laugh, “I may not qualify as an outstanding student representative — but as a boyfriend, I can probably just barely manage to be a decent one.”

“……”

Teacher Yu nearly choked with exasperation. This child, ever since getting his direct placement offer, had completely stopped behaving like a student in front of him — not treating him as a teacher at all.

But no matter how Jiang Yan described himself as unqualified, in the eyes of the other teachers at school, he was already considered quite exceptional. So his sudden willingness to speak didn’t raise any objections from the other school leaders. Everyone was rather pleased and assumed he had decided to go up there for the sake of the school — to inspire and motivate his fellow classmates who were still fighting for the university entrance exam.

Jiang Yan had no idea that behind his back the teachers were already heaping all sorts of “model student” labels onto him. In truth, he really had only come up to this podium for his girlfriend.

But since the other teachers at school weren’t as open-minded and understanding as Teacher Yu, some matters were still best handled with a well-intentioned half-truth.

Some students had been aware of the speaker lineup, so when they saw Jiang Yan suddenly appear at the podium, a small wave of excitement ran through the crowd.

Some parents who hadn’t heard of Jiang Yan before were given an on-the-spot briefing by their own children.

“Jiang Yan. The school’s most notorious troublemaker and top student — consistently first in the year on every single exam. Last year he was admitted to Tsinghua’s Physics Department through direct placement. Good-looking, well-liked — and he has a girlfriend.”

“Oh right, after he got his placement, the new year-top is now his girlfriend.” A classmate helped the parent figure out who was who. “See that girl sitting over there? That’s her — she’s really pretty too.”

The briefed parents: “……”

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Lin Tao’s speech draft was now unusable, but Jiang Yan took it up with him anyway. Throughout the entire speech, he didn’t glance at the draft on the desk even once.

The young man stood at the podium with an effortless, unrestrained bearing. Sunlight fell from the eaves above, as if laying a natural halo around him — hazy and beautiful.

A soft wind drifted by. His clear voice came through the speakers and was carried by the wind to every corner of the field.

How could a boy like that — both proud and gentle — not make someone’s heart move.

……

After the student speeches ended, Jiang Yan returned to the formation. The principal went back up on stage, and finally it was time for the homeroom teachers of each graduating class to lead all the third-year students in the pledge.

“To challenge life is our firm conviction; to triumph in the university entrance exam is our unrelenting pursuit! In this solemn moment, we — all third-year students — solemnly swear in the name of our youth…”

“…Parents, rest assured — we have the ability. We will not let you worry. Teachers, rest assured… School, rest assured…”

In that moment, listening to the unified voices around her, Lin Tao felt something surge from the depths of her chest — blood running hot, a rising tide.

After finishing the pledge alongside the teachers, Lin Tao quietly hooked her fingers around Jiang Yan’s in the crowd, and whispered: “Boyfriend, rest assured — I have what it takes. I’ll definitely get into the same university as you.”

Jiang Yan reached over and held her hand properly, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. He said nothing.

The final activity of the pledge assembly was releasing balloons. Students wrote the name of their dream university on their balloon and sent it up into the sky.

This was the free activity segment. Hu Hanghang and Xu Yichuan, who had been enduring lectures from their parents for some time, seized the gap and bolted. Hu Hanghang’s mother Li Su chased after him holding a balloon, calling out: “What’s got into you, child? I’m just asking you to write down a school name!”

Hu Hanghang ducked behind Jiang Yan and muttered, “It’s not like writing it makes it come true. What’s the point?”

Li Su caught up. “Well you could at least write one — look at Yi Chuan, he knows to write Tsinghua for the look of the thing. What about you? All you do is hug that guitar of yours and hum and sing all day.”

At those words, Hu Hanghang was lightning-fast to snatch the balloon Xu Yichuan had just let slip from his fingers. He studied it carefully, then laughed. “Yeah right, this isn’t even close to Tsinghua. He wrote Garrettson University, which is several hundred kilometers from Tsinghua!”

“……”

Xu Yichuan’s parents were no fools — they understood the implication immediately. Xu’s father delivered a swift kick to Xu Yichuan’s backside. “Your mother and I are going to be annoyed to death by you one day.”

Both families wore identical expressions of helpless disappointment.

As for Song Yuan’s cousin, upon seeing Song Yuan’s balloon, which read “Police Academy,” his expression said plainly: “Go ahead and write whatever you want, it has nothing to do with me.”

Lin Tao and Jiang Yan each had a balloon, and the two of them were the only ones who had genuinely written “Tsinghua” — the kind of “Tsinghua” they actually meant.

The four would-be parents: “……”

The cousin: “None of my business.”

Song Yuan, Xu Yichuan, and Hu Hanghang: “You get used to it. You just get used to it.”

After the pledge assembly came the parents’ meeting. Students led their parents back to the classroom, and then there was free time, followed by normal evening study hall.

Jiang Yan left the school grounds right after releasing his balloon, heading to the airport to pick up Guan Che. He left just before Fang Yisong arrived.

Fang Yisong didn’t see him and asked specifically, “Where’s Jiang Yan?”

“Guan Che is back, so Jiang Yan went to pick him up.” Lin Tao explained so Fang Yisong would be clear: “Guan Che is the guy I mentioned before — the one who also got into Tsinghua through direct placement.”

Fang Yisong smiled and nodded, and didn’t ask anything further.

By the time the two of them reached the classroom, Teacher Yu was already there chatting with other students’ parents about grades.

Lin Tao sat with Fang Yisong for a little while inside the classroom. Once things got underway, she slipped out with Hu Hanghang and the others to find Meng Xin in the adjacent building.

The five of them went out together to a bubble tea shop near the school.

A rare stretch of free time. With all five of them together, it was a perfect five-man lineup.

They played a few rounds. Then Lin Tao received a call from Jiang Yan. After asking where they were, Jiang Yan said he and Guan Che would come over soon.

Lin Tao was just about to start a match and answered him casually before quickly hanging up.

Meng Xin looked over with a grin. “So the school’s most feared person is no longer a match for a video game?”

“Games can always be restarted,” Lin Tao said. “But if my boyfriend were gone—”

She paused.

“—I could just keep on playing games forever.”

Everyone: “……”

By the third game, Jiang Yan and Guan Che finally arrived. But something seemed off about the two of them.

One was smiling away. The other had a completely black look on his face.

During a respawn pause, Lin Tao caught a glimpse of Jiang Yan’s thunderous expression. She assumed he was angry because she’d hung up on him earlier, and leaned toward him with a voice soft and tentative. “Are you okay?”

Jiang Yan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m fine.”

Lin Tao wasn’t dull-witted. This state of his — clearly on the edge of a total eruption — was something he’d call “fine? She’d have to write her surname backwards to believe that.

She couldn’t get anything out of Jiang Yan, so while he went to get drinks, she asked Guan Che quietly, “What’s going on with Jiang Yan?”

Guan Che looked up with a casual expression. “He’s fine. It’s just that someone confessed to him on the way over.”

Lin Tao was a bit puzzled. “A confession isn’t exactly worth getting this upset over, is it?”

“No, the confession itself was fine.” Guan Che recalled the scene and couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “It’s just — the person who confessed to him was a guy.”

“?”