As she went upstairs, Qing’s previous gloom had already dissipated, and the drowsiness she’d felt these past few days instantly vanished. Suddenly she felt refreshed and energetic, ready to tackle three hundred more practice papers. Love truly was powerful indeed, bringing both joy and worry.

After finishing her homework, she called downstairs, “I’m going to bed!”

Actually, she would always call out these words to Xing Wu before sleeping, and these four words could basically be interpreted as “come up quickly.”

Sure enough, Xing Wu came up shortly after. He seemed to have just finished showering, his hair still half-dry. When he entered the room, Qing had already burrowed under the covers with only her head showing.

He directly took off his clothes and changed into clean pajamas. Usually, he would draw the curtain when changing, but today Xing Wu didn’t, just turning his back instead. Everything felt so natural that Qing shamelessly peeked at his bare back with just her eyes showing.

Although she had leaned against his back while riding on his motorcycle, seeing it with her own eyes was quite different. Broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist with smooth lines, a nice tan color – even more sensual than she had imagined.

Without turning around, Xing Wu seemed to sense her gaze and asked, “Seen enough?”

He then finished putting on his pajamas and turned around. Qing used the blanket to hide her slightly reddened cheeks. Xing Wu walked to her bedside, sat on his bed looked at her, and said with a slight smile, “I’m turning off the lights.”

She didn’t respond, so Xing Wu stood up and switched off the light. In the darkness, he leaned over and kissed her exposed forehead, but Qing suddenly wrapped her arms around him and consciously moved aside.

Xing Wu asked with some surprise, “What are you doing?”

“What are you thinking? I just can’t sleep and want to chat with you.”

“Can’t I hear you from that bed?”

Qing let go of him and turned away sulkily. Xing Wu laughed, lifted the blanket, and pulled her back: “Let’s chat then.”

This was Qing’s first time lying in the same bed with him. The single bed wasn’t very wide, but having two people squeezed together felt truly warm.

Qing had already forgotten what she wanted to talk about, just lying there with her head on Xing Wu’s chest, listening to his strong heartbeat while her own heart raced uncontrollably.

Xing Wu lowered his head, playing with her hair as he asked, “Didn’t you say you wanted to chat? Did you trick me into bed to help you sleep?”

Qing lifted her head with a smile and said, “Don’t take that job.”

Xing Wu continued absentmindedly playing with her hair, which tickled. Qing turned over in his arms, resting her chin on his chest as she said seriously, “Did you hear me? No matter how much money they offer, you can’t take it. What if we have a deformed child in the future?”

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow: “You’re already thinking about having children with me?”

These words immediately made Qing feel mortified. She buried her face in Xing Wu’s arm in embarrassment: “What are you saying…”

Then she tugged at his clothes and said, “Did you hear me?”

“Mm, I’ll turn it down tomorrow.”

Only then did Qing raise her head in relief, draping her arm over his waist as she asked casually, “Have you ever participated in winter camp?”

“Do I look like someone who would compete in academic competitions?”

“…” Qing suddenly laughed.

She looked up, her eyes bright and sparkling in the darkness: “Teacher Yang talked to me today, insisting that I sign up.”

Xing Wu said matter-of-factly, “You’re our county’s hope. There’s nothing wrong with asking you to sign up.”

“There’s a big problem. I heard from Little Wireless that the David Cup is all predetermined. Jin Zhong already leaked the questions. We’d just be going there as extras. Do you think that’s true?”

Xing Wu furrowed his brows thoughtfully, pondered for a while, and finally replied: “Don’t know.”

“…”

“Don’t know. I’ve never been there, don’t even know how this cup competition works.”

“I heard they solve problems on-site, grade them, and announce scores. Should be similar to tests, just with harder math olympiad problems.”

Xing Wu was still frowning, lost in thought about something, looking quite focused. Qing waved her hand in front of his eyes: “Hey, let’s go together. We’ll have to stay overnight there.”

“What are you afraid of? You won’t be the only one staying overnight there. What could happen?”

Qing lowered her head and nuzzled against his chest: “That’s not what I mean. I just… you know.”

Xing Wu laughed: “You just can’t sleep without seeing me, right?”

Qing bit her lip and glared at him with adorable ferocity: “Don’t say it out loud.”

Xing Wu chuckled and pulled her up to kiss her cute little nose, then suddenly said, “Want to win?”

“Hm?” Qing tilted her head, “What do you mean?”

“You just mentioned the leaked questions. I have a way to handle it. Just perform normally when the time comes.”

Qing’s eyes suddenly lit up with curiosity as she stared at him excitedly: “What way do you have? Wow, tell me!”

She was almost climbing out of the covers, but Xing Wu pulled her back in, tucked her in properly, and said: “I haven’t figured it out yet, but there should be a way. I need to try first. It’s past one, time to sleep.”

He buried Qing’s head in his chest, preventing her from looking around anymore. Qing adjusted her shoulders, finding the most comfortable position, then curled up against Xing Wu’s chest. Breathing in his clean, crisp scent, she quickly fell asleep.

Before falling into deep sleep, she remembered Xing Wu’s words: “Walk forward bravely, don’t look back.”

She clutched Xing Wu’s clothes, knowing without looking back that he was behind her. She wouldn’t let go, no matter what!

But Xing Wu couldn’t fall asleep, and unusually, he just leaned against the headboard lost in thought without looking at his phone. After Qing’s breathing became steady, he stared at her sleeping face for a while and suddenly smiled in the darkness. When her eyes were open she would bare her teeth and wave her claws at him, but now with her eyes closed, she was as quiet as a baby, just curled up there.

He watched her for a while until he heard movement downstairs – Li Lanfang had returned from playing mahjong. He got up quietly intending to leave the bed, but discovered that Qing was still tightly gripping his clothes, not letting go even in her sleep.

He gently pulled his clothes from her hand, and she unconsciously grabbed at the air with closed eyes before turning over to continue sleeping.

The next morning, as soon as class ended, Qing turned around and urged Xing Wu: “Hurry up and register!”

Xing Wu looked up at her, and Qing glared at him. He half-smiled as he slowly put his phone in his pocket and meandered to Teacher Yang’s office.

Teacher Yang’s office was at the end of the third floor. In his three years of high school, Xing Wu had only been there a few times. Good things usually didn’t come his way, and when it came to bad things, even if Teacher Yang called him to the office, he generally ignored her. So even if something came up, these teachers had to personally come to the classroom to call him. He acted like some big shot, whether he’d pay attention to them depending on his mood.

The only times he did go were when their broken air conditioner stopped working, and they had to call Xing Wu to help fix it – without pay, of course.

So when Teacher Yang saw Xing Wu casually stroll into their office, she asked with surprise: “What are you doing here?”

Xing Wu pulled out a hundred yuan from his pocket, tossed it on Teacher Yang’s desk, and said: “Registering.”

Teacher Yang asked very surprised: “You want to participate in the winter camp?”

Xing Wu gave a casual “Mm.”

Before Teacher Yang could speak, Teacher Zhu, sitting diagonally opposite, turned around upon hearing this and said: “Don’t waste your money. The school is providing a bus, you’ll just be taking up a seat.”

“???” How come he wasn’t worthy of having a seat?

Xing Wu’s face dropped as he looked up at Teacher Zhu: “I’m going for the experience. Isn’t this voluntary registration? How come I’m just taking up space?”

Teacher Yang put the hundred yuan in her drawer, mediating: “Alright, alright, if you want to go then go. Just don’t cause trouble when you’re there.”

“…”

Teacher Yang had dealt with these problem students for almost three years but still felt uneasy seeing Xing Wu. This young man didn’t talk much, but his gaze when looking at people wasn’t very friendly. You couldn’t say he was bad though – whenever there were problems with the computer room or school hardware equipment needed fixing, he would help when called. Except for not caring about studies, his intelligence in other areas was exceptional.

The year he had just come up from junior high, the county promoted an integrated teaching platform. The school bought a set of servers through bidding, but after using it for a while, the campus network completely crashed. Even the newly set up website disappeared, and all the important data vanished. The principal was anxiously calling people everywhere.

At that time, Xing Wu had too many consecutive absences, and the school was considering expelling him. So they called him to the educational affairs office, and Principal Zhong rushed in telling Director Gu to quickly find someone on Electronics Street – the school’s server had crashed, there were open classes the next day that couldn’t be delayed, and he had heard this person might be able to help.

Then when Director Gu was calling this person, Xing Wu’s phone rang right there in Director Gu’s office. Later, Teacher Yang heard from the leaders present that he just leisurely answered his phone in front of the principal and other school leaders, looking at them as he said he could try, but he never did volunteer work unless he was a student at the school.

So the expulsion matter was dropped. The school leaders waited from morning until night, and he spent the whole day running data and restoring the server, recovering all the data. After that, Xing Wu became a unique and special existence at the school. Everyone knew he was there just passing the time, but they all turned a blind eye.

The impression he gave Teacher Yang was that despite his young age, he had an unfathomable maturity. So she didn’t bother him unnecessarily, maintaining a certain distance, just trying to peacefully see these students through to graduation.

Seeing Xing Wu still standing at her desk, she looked up and asked seriously: “Anything else?”

“My change.”

“…” Only then did Teacher Yang remember, quickly taking out twenty yuan to give him.

Xing Wu put the money in his pocket and strolled out unhurriedly, leaving Teacher Yang and Teacher Zhu clicking their tongues.

Yellow Hair was hanging around outside Class 2 during the break, craning his neck but not seeing Xing Wu. When he saw Xing Wu walking back from the corridor, he asked: “Where did you go?”

“Went to the office.”

Then they saw Qing sitting in the classroom looking up at him, mouthing: “Did you register?”

He nodded at Qing, and she immediately gave him a sweet smile.

Yellow Hair peeked in curiously: “Did you two make up?”

Then he hung on Xing Wu with a sly grin: “Who gave in first?”

Xing Wu touched his nose and said casually: “She is shorter than me after all.”

“???” Yellow Hair was completely confused as the class bell rang.

Xing Wu removed his hand and left with the words: “Of course, I had to bend down.”

Yellow Hair stood dumbfounded at Class 2’s door, inexplicably being fed dog food.