Qing Ye sat listlessly at her desk, twirling her pen. She felt as if she had choked on water and her whole body was drained of energy while listening to Teacher Yang enthusiastically promoting the winter camp from the podium.

From what Qing Ye gathered, this winter camp was somewhat similar to military training, though not as long – just two days. It was voluntary registration because of the eighty yuan fee per person, so they couldn’t make it mandatory.

However, Teacher Yang implied that, as per tradition, the winter camp was mainly for participating in the David Cup, so he hoped the top ten students in the class would eagerly sign up to bring glory to the school and add a brilliant achievement to their high school career.

As expected of a Chinese language teacher, his motivational speech was incredibly inspiring, as if they were heading to the frontlines of battle. However, everyone sitting below, including Qing Ye, was rather dispirited today.

During break time, she received a call from a foreign student who had previously bought sweet potato chips from her. His Chinese name was Huang Fei Hong – his parents were Turkish, and his father was a huge Bruce Lee fan who later moved the whole family to China for work. As for why he was named Huang Fei Hong despite his father being a Bruce Lee fan, Qing Ye couldn’t figure it out either.

She and Huang Fei Hong weren’t in the same class; they met during a school festival. He was quite funny and could even speak in a northeastern accent, so they added each other on WeChat at the time.

After Qing Ye visited that factory a few days ago, she contacted Huang Fei Hong to tell him she had other goods, but she wasn’t selling individual pieces – only whole boxes. If he could help her distribute in Beijing, she would give him some as a gift.

She had just mentioned it casually, but unexpectedly, Huang Fei Hong placed an order today. On the phone, he boasted about how he had talked his way into getting orders. Qing Ye just listened politely – many of her former classmates’ families were in business with extensive connections. If they really wanted to move wholesale goods, it would just take a single word – it was all about connections.

Qing Ye directly contacted that oily-haired Manager Xie to discuss shipping arrangements.

Including Liu Nian, since sharing Qing Ye’s moments, that young women’s group had also been placing scattered orders recently. Although the profit wasn’t much, because the orders were so varied, Qing Ye was busy consolidating them and negotiating profits with Manager Xie. She hadn’t even thought about signing up for any winter camp – anyway, from what Xiao Ling Tong had implied last time, there wasn’t much point in going, so why waste the time?

However, her leading role in not signing up received high attention from the school leadership. The very next day, she was summoned to Teacher Yang’s office. Teacher Yang earnestly and patiently persuaded Qing Ye that as a top student of the school, she should set a good example. If she had financial difficulties, he could consider applying for assistance for her.

Qing Ye found Teacher Yang’s urgent manner strange – did she look like someone who couldn’t afford eighty yuan? She was busy making eight thousand yuan deals, for heaven’s sake! Ignorant mortals!

Then Qing Ye was forcibly registered, basically against her will. On her way back to class, her mind was still full of profit calculations. She was still planning to discuss tiered profit margins with the old man and try to figure out his costs.

When she returned to class, she glanced at Xing Wu’s empty seat. She didn’t know where he had gone, just as her heart felt empty at that moment. Xing Wu hadn’t come home last night. It was normal for Xing Wu not to come home – when she first came to Zhazha Pavilion, he hardly ever stayed home at night.

But since they got together, Xing Wu hadn’t spent a single night away. No matter how late it was, he would come back to keep her company. Most of the time, Qing Ye had to study and do practice problems, so they didn’t spend excessive time together. Sometimes Xing Wu would even stay downstairs to avoid disturbing her.

But just knowing he was at home made Qing Ye feel secure, the kind where she wouldn’t be afraid even if there was a raging storm outside.

However, last night was so peaceful, yet because Xing Wu didn’t come back, she felt unsettled all night, even waking up in the middle of the night to look at the empty bed next door.

When Qing Ye woke up early this morning, she was quite annoyed, feeling a surge of grievance and anger. She had planned to give Xing Wu the cold shoulder when she saw him at school, but he didn’t even show up that day.

Qing Ye took out her notebook and opened her pen cap, initially wanting to calculate the tiered commission rates she had been thinking about on her way back to class. However, when she put pen to paper, she unconsciously wrote the character “Xing Wu,” inexplicably drew a heart around his name, then suddenly got angry and drew a big X over his name. Looking at his name, her nose inexplicably started to sting.

Xiao Ling Tong in front turned around again to chat with Qing Ye for no reason. She simply lay down on her desk, burying her face in her arms. She wouldn’t let others see her in such a disheveled state, but when her head was down and everything went dark, Qing Ye suddenly felt like crying from grievance. She had never felt this way before, feeling so tormented because of another person.

She figured it must be her period coming that made her emotions so unstable, angry one moment, wanting to explode the next, then feeling utterly miserable. Even after the class bell rang, Qing Ye didn’t lift her head from her arms. Shi Min didn’t dare call her either, worried that she was tired from not getting enough rest last night. After all, since entering senior year, the review pressure was intense, and teachers would occasionally allow these good students to rest for a while.

It wasn’t until Qing Ye felt a jacket fall on her shoulders that she slowly straightened up. But she quickly realized the jacket on her shoulders was a black leather jacket. She instinctively looked back – warm light streamed in from the back door, falling on Xing Wu’s white sweater, seeming to coat it with a faint golden glow. As he raised his eyes, his features were deep and handsome.

Although Qing Ye had always thought Xing Wu was quite handsome, this was the first time she saw him looking so purely handsome, without that usual wickedness and sharpness. His gaze was as gentle as mist, carrying the youthfulness of his age. In that instant, Qing Ye truly understood what it meant for one’s heart to skip a beat.

What Xing Wu saw was Qing Ye with slightly red eyes, a blank stare, and somewhat unusual behavior. He slightly furrowed his brows, but Qing Ye had already turned back around and wouldn’t look at him again. She didn’t look back for the entire class.

Qing Ye hadn’t paid attention in class either. Xing Wu was sitting right behind her; she knew she could see him just by turning around. She wanted to turn around and ask him where he had gone gallivanting last night. Why didn’t he come home?

But she was also holding onto her anger and didn’t want to talk to him, so she just kept writing his name on paper. Before she knew it, she had filled an entire page. When Shi Min was about to ask her a question and accidentally saw the page full of “Xing Wu,” she was stunned and glanced back at Xing Wu. Xing Wu inexplicably looked up from his phone, and Shi-Min quickly looked away, not daring to ask Qing Ye any more questions.

As soon as the bell rang, Qing Ye was pulled away by Fang Lei. Fang Lei was very excited after hearing that Teacher Yang had summoned Qing Ye, and linked arms with her saying she had a companion now. After Qing Ye signed up, more and more classmates started registering successively. Even Pang Hu and Shi Min planned to sign up – they had become Qing Ye’s little followers now, doing whatever Qing Ye did, firmly refusing to leave the organization.

Qing Ye figured that with their class’s ability level, about two-thirds of those signing up were just going along for fun.

Meanwhile, Yellow Hair and the others were already waiting for Xing Wu at Class 2’s door. Xing Wu walked out lazily from the back door. Before the group could go downstairs, they were suddenly stopped by Feng Bao. Despite being classmates for three years, Xing Wu had almost no impression of Feng Bao. This boy was one of those with basically no presence in class, introverted and shy. Xing Wu was also puzzled about what he wanted.

Then he saw him holding out a thick envelope to Xing Wu. Xing Wu lowered his eyes to glance at it – the envelope was addressed “To Qing Ye.”

Feng Bao gathered his courage and pushed the envelope to Xing Wu, saying: “Brother Xing Wu, please give this to Qing Ye after you get home, not at school. Please, thank you.”

Feng Bao kept his head down, not daring to look into Xing Wu’s eyes. He had been secretly watching Qing Ye for several months. These past few nights, chatting with Qing Ye on WeChat, although the conversations were brief and entirely about discussing problem types, Feng Bao felt that Qing Ye wasn’t as proud as she appeared, and was quite approachable in private, especially patient. He seemed to have found the feeling of love, even repeatedly listening to the voice messages Qing Ye sent him many times. So last night, he finally gathered the courage to write down his heartfelt feelings, expressing his admiration for Qing Ye.

Although he had written it, he didn’t dare hand it to Qing Ye personally and was too embarrassed to see her reaction when she opened it at school. So after much consideration, he finally decided to trouble Xing Wu to pass it on, specifically instructing him to give it to her after going home.

After Feng Bao finished speaking, he ran away. Yellow Hair directly asked: “Brother Wu, want us to go twist that kid’s head off?”

Xing Wu casually said: “No need.”

Yellow Hair found Feng Bao’s action amusing for quite a while. He thought this kid from Class 2 had quite the eyesight, and probably wouldn’t even know how he died after running into this situation.

Xing Wu simply stuffed Feng Bao’s love letter to Qing Ye into his pocket, and after finishing a cigarette, wandered back to class through the back door. Qing Ye had already put Xing Wu’s jacket on his desk right after class and was talking with Fang Lei and the others. When the bell rang, she turned to walk to her seat. Meanwhile, as Xiao Ling Tong jumped back from Huang Zhi Ming’s seat, she suddenly bumped into Qing Ye’s desk, accidentally knocking off the notebook at the corner of her desk. The notebook fell open, and Xing Wu, who was just walking back to his seat, saw the pages filled with his name.

Qing Ye was still some distance from her seat, watching this scene unfold helplessly. She rushed back urgently, roughly pushing aside Xiao Ling Tong who was blocking the way. Xiao Ling Tong bewilderedly sat down in her seat. By the time Qing Ye ran back to her seat panting, Xing Wu had already bent down and casually picked up her notebook. As he raised his eyes, there was an ambiguous light in them, as if he was about to smile but didn’t.

Qing Ye swore that at this moment, what she wanted to do most was turn around and directly KO Xiao Ling Tong. With a red face, she didn’t dare look at Xing Wu’s heated gaze. She angrily snatched back the notebook and was about to sit down when Xing Wu placed one hand on her desk, directly blocking her seat. Miss Yu was already walking from the back door to the front door, Shi Min fearfully raised her head to stare at them, and surrounding classmates gradually noticed the situation at the back.

Qing Ye broke out in a cold sweat and fiercely said to him: “Move.”

Not only did Xing Wu not move, he openly leaned closer to her, looking down at her: “How long are you planning to sulk?”

His voice was low and magnetic, that teasing hot breath falling on top of Qing Ye’s head, familiar yet heart-stirring, directly hitting her heart, suddenly making her unable to hold back her tears.

Miss Yu entered the classroom and looked back asking: “Class has started, why are you still standing?”

If it weren’t for Miss Yu’s words, when Xing Wu saw Qing Ye’s red nose, he almost pulled her into his arms. He looked up and swept his gaze around, only then realizing the whole class was staring at them with shocked expressions.

He casually turned his neck and nonchalantly withdrew his hand to circle back behind her. Qing Ye turned around and sat down, her fingers tightly gripping the notebook.

No one had heard what Xing Wu said to Qing Ye earlier, they only saw that Xing Wu had made Qing Ye cry. Everyone instantly assumed Xing Wu had bullied her. So their school bully was truly a villain – how could he be harsh to such a beautiful, graceful young lady? Was he a beast?

Then many people turned to stare at Xing Wu with resentful gazes, even Pang Hu was biting his pen and staring at him unhappily.

Xing Wu bewilderedly met everyone’s gazes. More dramatically, Feng Bao, sitting in front of Shi Min, actually took out a tissue and turned around to hand it to Qing Ye, along with a very unfriendly glance at Xing Wu. This action almost made Xing Wu laugh in anger.

He glared, and Feng Bao silently turned back around, not daring to look at him anymore.