◎Definitely Problematic◎

As everyone knows, candy cannot be bought individually, so that bag with only one useful fruit candy was completely divided among the boys sitting around Yuan Ye’s seat.

Of course, it was Yuan Ye who actively gave them out, then sat back down to continue working on problems.

Xu Shuzhou at the front desk tore open a completely pink candy, threw it in his mouth, and chomped it down like a cow eating peonies, crunching away. The more he thought about it, the more something seemed off, so he turned around and asked: “What’s the meaning of this? Are you getting married?”

Yuan Ye glanced at him: “Are you okay?”

Tu Wenwei was arranging his five candies in a line on his desk, not even looking up as he interjected: “He’s fine, but you have something going on.”

Xu Shuzhou raised his eyebrows excitedly: “Ye-ge, what’s the situation?”

Tu Wenwei snorted coldly: “I suspect this kid is secretly dating behind our backs.”

Yuan Ye gave a half-smile: “Don’t spread rumors.”

“Whoa, he’s getting anxious.” Xu Shuzhou pointed at him.

“Of course, he’d be anxious. Even if he’s not dating, something is going on,” Tu Wenwei said with certainty, glancing toward the front rows at those pitifully few long-haired figures: “Definitely not from our class. Haven’t seen you getting close to any girl. Which class is it, upstairs or downstairs? Or next door? Come clean.”

Xu Shuzhou chimed in from behind: “Exactly! Come clean!”

Yuan Ye drooped his eyes, examining problems, unmoved, continuing to spin his pen with an expressionless face.

“Could it be Lin Xinrui from Class Four?” Tu Wenwei grinned mischievously: “She’s the prettiest on our floor. Wasn’t there a rumor in the first year that she confessed to Ye-ge by the school wall, and even brought him water in person during the sports meet?”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but feel envious and admiring.

Xu Shuzhou nodded approvingly: “Not bad, their looks match well. This dad approves of this union.”

Yuan Ye propped up his forehead, having decided not to participate in their wildly imaginative storytelling session.

Xu Shuzhou and his deskmate sang in harmony, getting more and more excited as they talked, eventually reaching the point where their chatter was like monkeys calling endlessly from both banks.

The girls in the second and third rows heard the commotion and looked back, then shook their heads in disgust, wondering how they ended up as classmates with these weirdos.

Among them, the only quiet little white stallion—Yuan Ye—finally couldn’t bear it anymore: “Enough. Instead of spending time pondering these things, why not think about how to get full marks in math and comprehensive science?”

Tu Wenwei and Xu Shuzhou took arrows to the chest and were simultaneously rendered speechless.

“So what if you got full marks?”

“If you’re so capable, get full marks every time.”

Yuan Ye said flatly: “Haven’t I gotten full marks most of the time?”

This insufferable comment naturally earned him a duet of colorful language, until the class bell finally rang and their homeroom teacher timely brought peace to their ears.

Extending class time was their math teacher’s regular operation. Five minutes after class should have ended, the man was still rooted to the podium like a plant, talking endlessly with no intention of liberation.

The young, restless male beasts dared to be angry but not speak out. No matter how anxious they were, they could only shake their legs under their desks or scratch their ears and heads.

Female students from the liberal arts experimental class passed by the window in groups, their laughter like the collision of glass wind chimes.

The boys’ gazes couldn’t help but dart outside.

The homeroom teacher noticed and knocked the blackboard with his knuckles: “If it’s so interesting outside, go out and look.”

Tu Wenwei squeezed out a sound through his teeth: “I’d like to.”

Xu Shuzhou, in the front row, gave a light sneer.

Class Three’s next period was computer class, so they had to go to the multimedia classroom.

Chun Zao had gone early to the computer room to save seats while holding a stack of computer science textbooks, including one for Tong Yue, who needed to take a bathroom dump.

So when the girl appeared behind the middle window frame of the classroom, Yuan Ye noticed her almost immediately.

Seeing her ponytail bouncing, her steps light, seemingly in a good mood, he lowered his eyes.

—

Yuan Ye’s candy indeed had a magic power. At least for the next few days, Chun Zao was no longer swept away by low moods.

Chun Chuzhen’s endless monthly exam nagging was also treated as background noise by her. She said what she wanted to say, and Chun Zao just did her own thing, automatically filtering it out.

Perhaps sensing her daughter’s inattentiveness, she couldn’t get satisfaction from her controlling tendencies. Chun Chuzhen then redirected her target toward the model teenager under the same roof. One morning, Yuan Ye was shouldering his bag and about to leave when the woman called him over for no reason, earnestly asking about his monthly exam results.

Yuan Ye stopped, glancing at Chun Zao in confusion.

The girl who was burying her head in her sandwich didn’t express any opinion, just stayed frozen by the table, her earlobes already red as pomegranate seeds.

Then he could only improvise freely.

He quietly stated his total score.

Although she had some idea of his level, Chun Chuzhen was still shocked by this unprecedented high score, and asked again: “You’re so good at olympiad math, you must have done very well in math too.”

Yuan Ye replied: “Not bad.”

Chun Chuzhen: “How many points?”

Originally wanting to underreport by two or three points, he ultimately answered truthfully: “150.”

Chun Chuzhen was dumbfounded: “Full marks?”

Yuan Ye nodded, then glanced at Chun Zao again.

The girl seemed to have returned to normal, sipping her soy milk without even a flutter of her eyelashes.

“How did you study, child?” Chun Chuzhen looked completely puzzled: “Help our Chun Zao too. Her math has always been a major difficulty.”

Yuan Ye agreed: “Sure.”

Then asked strangely: “But didn’t Chun Zao do well?”

Chun Chuzhen sighed in frustration: “She’s far behind you. Her math has always been just over 130, no breakthrough after all this time.”

“You might not understand,” Yuan Ye looked at her calmly. “The new college entrance exam uses the same math papers for liberal arts and science students, which is already unfriendly to liberal arts students. Her score is already very high.”

Chun Chuzhen hadn’t expected him to directly take the opposing side and was momentarily stunned: “I know that, but there’s still room for improvement, right?”

The boy seemed to frown disapprovingly, then showed a faultless, innocent smile: “Then you wouldn’t need to use phrasing like ‘far behind,’ would you? By that logic, my Chinese and English are also far behind Chun Zao’s.”

“When there’s time, she should help me too.”

“However—” he changed his tone: “She studies in her room every day and doesn’t seem to have time to share experience?”

After saying this, Yuan Ye said, “Auntie, I’ll go first,” and left.

Leaving Chun Chuzhen standing there dumbfounded.

The young man spoke extremely fast, articulating clearly with rhythm, like high-frequency typing in her brain. The woman couldn’t process it all at once, turning to look at her daughter in confusion: “What did he mean? Doesn’t he want to help?”

Chun Zao was afraid of laughing and making bubbles in her soy milk, so she quickly moved the glass away from her lips, frowning in fake seriousness: “Probably.”

Chun Chuzhen looked up at the sky speechlessly for two seconds, then walked back to cover the table with a cloth: “What’s he being arrogant about? Does being in first place make him so great?”

Chun Zao could only smile along: “Try to understand, academic achievers all have their own temperament.”

Chun Chuzhen put one hand on her hip, still lingering in the aftershock of Yuan Ye’s rapid-fire speech: “But you don’t.”

Chun Zao muttered to herself: How would you know?

—

After packing up her books, Chun Zao clutched her backpack straps and bounced down the stairs. Although it was quite unkind, occasionally seeing her mom get put in her place was happiness beyond measure.

Walking out of the unit door, she saw Yuan Ye.

The boy stood tall at the bottom of the steps, not even looking at his phone, obviously waiting for someone. When he saw her, he smiled knowingly.

Chun Zao understood in an instant.

In this second, she unilaterally determined that her relationship with Yuan Ye had sublimated and advanced, from accomplices to allies, weathering storms together. When she lost her way in the night storm, he would stand up to be the helmsman, leading their ship toward sunrise and green islands.

Chun Zao pointed to herself: “Are you waiting for me?”

Yuan Ye said, “Who else would I be waiting for?”

Chun Zao looked back and up, glancing at the narrow window behind the metal security bars high above: “You could also be waiting for my mom to come down with weapons.”

Yuan Ye’s smile deepened, incredulous: “Not that extreme, right?”

“Just kidding,” Chun Zao walked down the steps, praising from the bottom of her heart: “But you’re something.”

Yuan Ye naturally fell into step beside her, maintaining just the right distance: “Just—” he paused: “not bad?”

Chun Zao scoffed internally: “Excessive modesty becomes pride, you know. You didn’t see how confused my mom was.”

To a degree worth photographing for posterity.

Chun Zao cast him an admiring look: “You seem completely unafraid of parents. Same with your dad last time.”

Yuan Ye said: “They’re all people, I’m not inferior to them in any way. Why should I fear them?”

Chun Zao glanced at him: “Maybe when I get first place, I’ll have your kind of good mentality.”

Yuan Ye said, “Why wouldn’t fourth place work?”

Chun Zao’s eyes widened in shock, her face slowly heating up: “How do you know my ranking?”

Yuan Ye said matter-of-factly: “I went to the office on business a couple of days ago. Your homeroom teacher’s desk happened to be next to ours, and your class’s monthly exam ranking sheet was on the desk. I took a glance.”

Chun Zao: “…”

“What’s wrong?” Yuan Ye feigned confusion in her silence.

“I have no privacy left.” She mumbled unclearly.

Yuan Ye reached into his pocket as if to take out his phone: “Want to see our class WeChat group’s Excel file now? It has all my subject scores.”

Chun Zao half-covered her eyes and turned her face away, avoiding being blinded by the academic god’s aura: “No need, stop stimulating people.”

Yuan Ye laughed in her temporary blind spot, then quickly returned to seriousness: “But seriously… want me to help?”

Chun Zao looked back: “Help with what?”

“Math.”

“No need.” Chun Zao’s refusal was as fast as a meteor, then she exhaled: “You took my mom’s words to heart.”

“It’s not about her,” the boy’s upper eyelid lifted slightly: “Just wanted to say, for studying, relying only on teachers might not be enough.”

But Chun Zao had different views on this: “But isn’t studying something you rely on yourself for?”

Yuan Ye said, “It is yourself. But more accurately, it depends on the method. If the method is wrong, no amount of effort is wasted.”

Chun Zao digested his words for a few seconds, pressed her lips together, and replied clearly: “Then I’ll figure out other methods too.”

Regardless of whether outsiders understood, when it came to studying, she had some granite-layer-like craggy and wrinkled but also unshakeable pride and stubbornness, firmly believing she harbored undiscovered potential that she would never easily accept fate or submit to.

“Even if it’s not the best,” the girl said with determination, “it will be the better kind.”

Yuan Ye looked at her without speaking.

From his slightly elevated angle, the girl’s cheek curved like a crescent moon, her light-filtered eyelashes slightly upturned, like pale golden down. These were all around and soft things, but incredibly, he sensed an unshakeable determination.

Her resolve was worn down by several seconds of silence. Chun Zao suddenly became alert, belatedly apologetic: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to refuse your kind offer.”

“You’ve already helped me so much… but this,” she couldn’t explain clearly for a moment, looking troubled: “How should I put it…”

Unable to articulate it, it was just her true feelings; this was who she was.

When she tried to explain more, Yuan Ye had already gently interrupted her: “I know.”

Everything was understood without words. Chun Zao nodded vigorously: “I knew you’d know.”

The words that slipped out sounded like a tongue twister. Chun Zao was embarrassed, but the boy beside her rarely didn’t laughed.

In the thin morning air, he seemed thoughtful.

After walking several steps in silence, he finally let out a laugh and rubbed his nose twice.

Was his reaction time really that slow? Chun Zao looked at him sideways, her gaze inquiring.

He glanced at her very quickly: “Just suddenly confirmed something.”

Chun Zao: “What?”

He gazed at the billboard ahead, his lips curving up again: “My deskmate’s eyesight is problematic.”