At the same time, his other hand took something out of his pants pocket and handed it to her. Xu Sui looked down to see Zhou Jingze had somehow gone out and bought a hand warmer with a kitten pattern, to keep warm her veins that had turned blue-purple from the IV drip.

Xu Sui said “thank you,” and Zhou Jingze smiled, raising an eyebrow without responding. There was still half a bottle left to finish, so Zhou Jingze sat back down in the chair, staying by her side while looking down at his phone.

Zhou Jingze gradually fell asleep in the chair while keeping watch. Xu Sui sat there feeling bored too, remembering she had put a few pocket dark fairy tale books in her bag earlier, which finally came in handy now.

Xu Sui looked up at Zhou Jingze, who was still resting with closed eyes. Not wanting to wake him, she quietly got out of bed and reached to unzip her bag.

Because her hand was still connected to the IV, the tube wasn’t long enough. She finally managed to get the book, but her foot slipped. In her panic to maintain balance, she supported herself against the wall with one hand, but the pocket book fell out.

Zhou Jingze was awakened by the commotion. He sat up slightly, raising his hand to rub his neck:

“Tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you.”

“The book.” Xu Sui pointed to the pocket book lying on the floor in the distance.

The pink curtain was drawn open. Just as Xu Sui was about to lie back down on the bed, the infirmary door opened, and a draft blew in, making the pocket book on the floor rustle.

Then, a photo with a blue background was blown out.

Xu Sui’s heart tightened as she hurriedly said: “No need, I’ll get it.”

Zhou Jingze raised an eyebrow. His steps were leisurely but didn’t stop as he headed toward the door. Xu Sui became frantic, jumping out of bed, not caring about the needle in the back of her hand.

The cool breeze blew the photo on the ground into mid-air. The blue-background photo spun around and floated down lightly, landing with the white back facing up.

Xu Sui’s heart jumped to her throat. Just as she was about to grab the photo, a long arm reached it first, picking up the photo.

Zhou Jingze’s well-defined hand pinched the corner of the photo, curving his lips as he waved it at Xu Sui. Xu Sui became frantic and immediately reached up to snatch it.

“Want it? Not giving it to you.” Zhou Jingze’s eyes showed teasing.

“Give it to me quickly!” Xu Sui’s face flushed completely red.

In her urgency, Xu Sui grabbed Zhou Jingze’s arm and jumped up, trying to snatch the photo, but Zhou Jingze was clearly teasing her on purpose.

Every time she jumped, Zhou Jingze would raise his arm higher.

Xu Sui pulled at his sleeve, her eyes wet with anxiety, yet trying to look fierce: “Give it to me quickly, or I’ll—”

“Or what?” Zhou Jingze seemed even more interested, his tone casual.

Xu Sui thought and thought, finally squeezing out a soft, weak voice: “I’ll… bite you!”

Zhou Jingze froze, then burst into laughter—the kind of laughter where he bent forward and backward, unable to control his breathing, with his chest trembling with joy.

“Someone very important?” Zhou Jingze looked at her with an ambiguous smile.

Should be very important.

Xu Sui nodded, her long eyelashes trembling: “Yes, very important.”

Zhou Jingze restrained the smile on his face, straightened up, and returned the photo to her.

After Zhou Jingze accompanied Xu Sui through her IV drip, he sent her back to school. The two walked one after the other, with Xu Sui in front and Zhou Jingze following behind with his hands in his pockets, maintaining a leisurely pace.

Xu Sui looked down and saw their two shadows on the ground, one in front and one behind, pressed together like intimate entanglement.

There was still some distance to the dormitory, so Xu Sui stopped. After all, with Zhou Jingze beside her, they had already attracted enough attention along the way. If he walked her to the girls’ dormitory, it probably wouldn’t be as simple as just stares.

“This far is good enough,” Xu Sui looked up at him.

“Mm.” Zhou Jingze nodded.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Xu Sui called out to him, her voice hesitating for a moment: “Thank you so much today. Is there anything you want?”

Zhou Jingze looked down and smiled. He was a person with very low material desires and didn’t really want anything. He was about to tell Xu Sui it wasn’t necessary when he lifted his eyelids and casually glanced behind her.

Shi Yuejie in a crisp white shirt was approaching.

Zhou Jingze’s mischievous nature arose. He lowered his neck and leaned over, a devil-may-care smile on his face as he lowered his voice: “I want you—”

The words “want you” carried deep meaning, landing precisely in Shi Yuejie’s ears. He indeed stopped in his tracks.

Zhou Jingze’s low voice, carrying a few traces of ambiguous, lingering breath, fell by Xu Sui’s ear. Her left ear felt numb and itchy, her heart skipped a beat as she asked: “What?”

A pair of dark eyes looked up at him, the gaze clean yet nervous. Zhou Jingze paused, sighing inwardly.

“Just don’t cry.” Zhou Jingze reached out to pat her head, his eyes showing a hint of helplessness.

After he left, Xu Sui remained standing in place, completely dazed. The feeling of his broad palm gently ruffling her head lingered, the warmth staying above her head.

So, had Zhou Jingze just patted her head?

Xu Sui was still in a daze when a voice pulled her back to reality. Shi Yuejie stood in front of her, slightly frowning: “Junior Xu.”

“Ah, Senior, is there something wrong?” Xu Sui snapped back to attention.

Shi Yuejie had a clean, handsome face with worry in his eyes: “I heard you fainted at the North Aviation basketball game this morning and was worried something happened to you.”

The four words “worried something happened to you” were direct and naked. Xu Sui unconsciously stepped back, widening the distance between them, shaking her head: “I’m fine, thank you, Senior.”

This retreating motion fell clearly in Shi Yuejie’s eyes. He lowered his eyelashes to hide the disappointed emotions within, his tone remaining gentle:

“Then you should eat light foods these next few days and get more rest.”

The next afternoon in public English class, when Xu Sui arrived she noticed a small portion of people were missing. The English teacher who came to teach saw this situation but didn’t say anything.

Who would have thought that halfway through class, the English teacher pushed up her glasses: “Now I’m taking attendance to answer questions. Those who aren’t here will lose credit points.”

Who could have expected that the usually lenient English teacher would suddenly pull this move? The classroom immediately exploded like a pot, with people even using phones to text under their desks, roughly saying “if she calls my name too, who can help answer for me?”

Xu Sui had no one to help answer for her. She sat by the window holding a pen, daydreaming. Sunlight poured down onto the desk, and from outside came the sound of basketballs bouncing on the playground and boys cheering and applauding.

She thought of Zhou Jingze on the basketball court yesterday, his figure as agile as a leopard, swift and beautiful, and how he abandoned the game midway to rush over and scoop up the unconscious her.

Actually, Xu Sui really wanted to ask him why? A heart that had originally cooled and retreated was slowly coming back to life.

Zhou Jingze was poison. She had tried to quit, but found it made her more addicted.

Suddenly, a slightly serious voice pulled Xu Sui back from her thoughts: “The girl in the third row by the window on the far right, please translate the meaning of ‘crush.'”

Caught daydreaming in class, Xu Sui had to stand up to answer the question. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult: “As a verb, it means to crush or shatter. As a noun, it’s a fruit juice drink.”

“Sit down.” The English teacher nodded.

“Actually, ‘crush’ has another meaning in English. As a noun, it also means passionate, brief, shy infatuation or intense love.” The English teacher added.

Xu Sui suddenly looked up, carefully savoring what the teacher said about the meaning of ‘crush.’ She wanted to look it up in her book, but inadvertently glanced down and froze.

Her scratch paper was filled with Zhou Jingze’s name.

Is that it? Passionate, shy, yet brief feelings?

After drinking white porridge for nearly a week, Xu Sui finally gradually recovered. On the day she could eat normally again, Xu Sui posted on her social media: “Being able to eat normally feels so good. I, who can’t live without spicy food, was so miserable.”

Less than five minutes after posting, Da Liu was the first to comment: “Without Sister Xu at dinner gatherings, it always feels like something’s missing.”

Xu Sui replied with a kowtowing emoji. Just as she was about to exit WeChat, her social media got a red +1 notification, with a familiar Mandarin avatar in the small icon.

Her eyelid twitched as she clicked to look. ZJZ commented:

[Come over, I’ll treat you to dinner.]

Zhou Jingze always liked to joke around. Xu Sui couldn’t tell if it was real or fake, so she replied: [Are you sure?]

ZJZ replied: [Mm, I’m not lying to you.]

After seeing this message, Xu Sui ran back to the dormitory from the library, changed clothes, and hurriedly ran to North Aviation to find Zhou Jingze.

Xu Sui walked through the North Aviation gate and headed toward the path on the right. As she hurriedly climbed the steps, she accidentally bumped into someone and apologized: “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” The other person seemed to have a decent temper.

Following the voice, Xu Sui looked up and found the other person also wore the flight academy’s distinctive training uniform. The face was familiar. Suddenly, it clicked—wasn’t this the opponent from Zhou Jingze’s basketball game last week? What was his name… Gao Yang.

Xu Sui nodded and walked around them, taking two or three steps up the stairs. Unexpectedly, a tall boy next to Gao Yang grabbed her arm, his tone teasing:

“Hey, isn’t this Xu Sui?”

This voice was all too familiar to Xu Sui—one of the people from her memory who disgusted her. She looked up to see it was actually Li Sen, her classmate from first year at Li Ying High School.

Xu Sui’s acquaintance with Li Sen wasn’t deep. During school, he loved to suck up to people to act like a boss, had a nasty personality, and often bullied weaker classmates in the class.

She hadn’t expected him to get into this place.

Xu Sui didn’t want to have too much interaction with people like Li Sen. She nodded without emotion and tried to break free from his restraint to leave, but Li Sen gripped even tighter.

Today Xu Sui wore a light purple short knit top that vaguely revealed a section of her flat stomach, straight-leg jeans, and soft shoulder-length hair tucked behind her fair, round ears. Her palm-sized face made her look soft, gentle, and well-behaved.

Li Sen looked Xu Sui up and down, raised an eyebrow and whistled, speaking in a sleazy manner: “Old classmate, you’ve gotten prettier. Leave me your phone number, we can catch up sometime.”

Whether it was Li Sen’s tone or his current behavior, it made Xu Sui very uncomfortable. Taking advantage of Li Sen’s momentary inattention, Xu Sui stepped on his foot. He immediately let go in pain.

Xu Sui immediately walked forward, leaving behind one sentence: “We’re not familiar.”

Hearing this, Gao Yang looked at Li Sen. Li Sen’s face flushed red from this statement. He never expected that beneath Xu Sui’s well-behaved exterior was a soft thorn, making him lose face in front of Gao Yang.

Li Sen was furious and shouted at Xu Sui’s retreating figure: “See that attitude? Her dad was a martyr, you know.”

Sure enough, at these words, Xu Sui stopped in her tracks. The afternoon warm sun slanted through the gaps in the leaves. Her silhouette looked somewhat sorrowful.

Just when Li Sen thought he could manipulate her, Xu Sui turned around, her gaze cold, her tone unhurried as she retorted: “Yeah, better than being a nouveau riche’s son.”

“Nouveau riche” precisely hit Li Sen’s sore spot. He took two steps at once up the stairs, grabbed Xu Sui by the collar, and said viciously: “What the hell did you say?”

From the moment Li Sen rudely brought up her father, Xu Sui’s good temper and kindness were completely exhausted. She looked down at Li Sen, about to repeat the statement when—

Suddenly, a can of carbonated drink flew straight from the distance, hitting Li Sen’s back of the head with a “bang.” At the same time, dark brown liquid poured all over his back, immediately soaking his clothes.

Li Sen raised his neck, his hanging hands slowly clenching into fists: “Who the hell did that?”

“Your father.” A arrogant, lazy voice came through.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. Li Sen turned around. Zhou Jingze stood ten steps below them, with several friends beside him. He wore a black T-shirt and cargo pants with chain details, casually playing with a silver lighter. He lifted his thin eyelids to look at Li Hao, his eyes dark and bright with unreadable emotions, crimson flames occasionally leaping from between his fingers.

Clearly he was looking up at them, yet it somehow gave the impression of looking down. Zhou Jingze’s gaze calmly watched Li Hao, and the latter’s heart gradually grew cold, his original anger dissipating by more than half.

Li Sen didn’t know what Zhou Jingze might do.

Gao Yang stood to the side, taking the initiative to greet them. Zhou Jingze put his hands in his pockets, slowly and leisurely stepping up the stairs. Several boys followed behind, immediately creating a powerful aura.

Li Sen unconsciously stepped back but stubbornly glared at him. Zhou Jingze walked to Xu Sui’s front, loosely putting his arm around her shoulder: “Let’s go.”

Throughout, he didn’t spare Li Sen half a glance.

Damn it, what made him so arrogant? Li Sen stared at their departing figures and shouted mockingly: “Zhou Jingze, do you know what Xu Sui used to look like? Haha, I used to be her classmate. Pockmarked face, swollen and ugly. I still have photos, want to see them or not?”

The implication being: Zhou Jingze, your taste is just so-so.

Zhou Jingze clearly felt the little girl he was loosely holding trembling. He stopped, withdrew his hand, turned around, raised an eyebrow with an interested expression:

“Really? Let me see.”

Li Sen walked forward two steps, looking down at his phone. How could he expect Zhou Jingze to stride over in two or three steps and directly punch him to the ground with one hit, the phone flying far away.

The scene immediately became chaotic. Just as Li Sen was about to get up, Zhou Jingze added another kick. Sheng Nanzhou and Da Liu hurriedly tried to restrain him, but couldn’t hold him back.

Zhou Jingze’s dark eyes carried heavy hostility, like a madman wanting to beat him. Sheng Nanzhou urgently shouted: “You can’t fight! If you keep fighting, you’ll get disciplined. You know how strict the flight academy’s discipline is!”

Li Sen was thrown until he saw stars, covering his chest and breathing heavily, cursing: “Damn your mother, I’ve put up with you long enough. You actually hit a classmate for a woman.”

“Just wait to be disciplined.” Li Sen showed a triumphant smile.

Zhou Jingze straddled him, directly grabbing Li Sen’s collar, looking at him with very slow speech:

“I’ll give you two choices: first, apologize to her; second, avoid any place where I am from now on.”

Li Sen was choked until he couldn’t breathe, spat on the ground, and raised his head:

“Who do you think you are that I should submit to you?”

Zhou Jingze stared at Li Sen and let out a sneer, that arrogant energy coming out: “Competition, you choose.”

At the same time, Zhou Jingze released his grip on Li Sen’s collar. Li Sen was thrown to the ground again, his head hitting the ground. He cursed: “Shit.”

Regarding the competition, Li Sen stopped talking. He indeed wasn’t as good as Zhou Jingze in anything. Gao Yang, who had been silent on the side, suddenly spoke:

“I’ll compete with you.”

Zhou Jingze dropped two words: “Whatever.”

“The flight technology competition in one month—that is, our first test flight.” Gao Yang said.

The instructors all said Zhou Jingze was a genius pilot—excellent, intelligent, born for the sky. Gao Yang wanted to see if this was really true.

“Mm.”

Gao Yang helped Li Sen up. Li Sen wiped the blood from his mouth corner, his tone provocative: “If you win, I’ll apologize to her. If you lose, you’ll streak ten laps around the North Aviation field and shout ‘I am a defeated subordinate.'”

The stakes were high. Sheng Nanzhou and the others all turned to look at Zhou Jingze’s reaction. Success or failure in the first flight was no joke. Besides your skill, there were also geographical location, weather, wind direction—meaning you needed favorable timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony to win.

These stakes were too high, especially for someone as proud as Zhou Jingze. She couldn’t imagine the feeling of Zhou Jingze’s self-esteem being trampled.

Standing to the side, Xu Sui anxiously pulled at Zhou Jingze’s sleeve, saying quietly: “Forget it, let’s not compete. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Let’s just go.”

Li Sen pressed his advantage, deliberately provoking him: “How about it, do you dare?”

Zhou Jingze suddenly smiled. His tongue touched his left cheek, his tone casual and nonchalant:

“What’s there not to dare?”