By late June, Xi City had fallen deep into the height of summer. The sky stretched out in an unbroken expanse of blue, and the air hummed with a restless, sweltering heat. Through the swaying shade of the trees, a faint breeze stirred — barely a whisper of coolness.

It was half past one in the afternoon, still the midday rest period, yet the Class Six classroom roared like a street market. The boys in the back rows had clustered together to play games, punctuating the noise with occasional bursts of crude language.

The girl sleeping in front of them woke up, annoyed, and snapped at them to be quiet. The boys fell silent for a moment — then, almost without realizing it, grew loud again.

Out of options, the girl grabbed her water bottle and headed outside. She slammed the door on her way out.

— Bam!

Nearly half the classroom jolted awake at the sound. Someone muttered, “What’s her problem? She can’t sleep, so she won’t let anyone else sleep either.”

Lin Tao opened her eyes in a drowsy haze. The heat pressed in from every direction. Her back was damp with sweat, and her short-sleeved summer uniform clung to her skin, sticky and uncomfortable.

The ceiling fan above her spun at a lazy, unhurried pace, letting out an occasional creak-and-groan.

Her deskmate Meng Xin, noticing she was awake, leaned over toward her. A faint, delicate scent of oranges drifted over, fresh and pleasant. “Want to go to the snack shop?”

Lin Tao had only just woken up and still felt half-absent from the world. She rubbed her face after a few seconds and said, “Let’s go. This classroom is suffocating.”

The two of them filed out one after the other. Once they’d made it down the staircase, Meng Xin draped an arm over Lin Tao’s. “Ugh, thank goodness we’re moving to the new building when we get to second year. If we have to stay in this old place any longer, I’m going to melt.”

No. 10 High School had two campuses, separated by the length of a sports field.

The old campus was the school’s original teaching area. Its five-story building somehow looked shorter than an ordinary four-story structure. Moss crept along the walls of the teaching block, and sprawling curtains of ivy climbed in vivid green across every surface. In some places, the white plaster had peeled away entirely, leaving bare red brick underneath.

The new campus had formerly been a vocational school. When that institution went under, No. 10 High bought up the land and built a modern facility on the site. It came equipped with all kinds of up-to-date amenities — the most coveted of which was air conditioning. The old campus, by contrast, had only four ancient ceiling fans per classroom, its electrical wiring too outdated to support anything more.

As No. 10 High expanded and earned its status as a provincial model school, student enrollment grew larger every year. The school eventually set a policy: all first-years remained in the old campus, while second- and third-years moved to the new one.

“There’s only a week left to wait,” Lin Tao said, stopping in front of a row of shelves to pick out a few bags of chips. She asked, almost as an afterthought, “Is the seating for this exam based on our last midterm scores?”

“Yeah.” Meng Xin had draped herself over the side of the drinks cooler, soaking up the cold air drifting out of it. Then something seemed to occur to her. “Oh right — you only sat one subject at midterms, didn’t you? Chinese? So you’ll probably end up in the last exam hall this time.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Lin Tao didn’t particularly care. It made no difference to her where she sat for the exam.

Not everyone felt the same way, though.

The words had barely left her mouth when a voice came from behind her — cool and dripping with mockery: “Some people have absolutely no academic standing, yet somehow manage to have absolutely no shame about it either…”

Lin Tao turned around. Before she could say anything, Meng Xin was already firing back: “Tang Yushi, can you not be so obnoxious? We’re all in the same class — is this really necessary?”

It was common knowledge in Class Six that Tang Yushi and Lin Tao simply didn’t get along. What Lin Tao had never been able to figure out, though, was exactly what she’d done to earn the other girl’s hostility.

“Like I’d want to be in a class with you.” Tang Yushi swept a cold glance in their direction, letting her gaze linger pointedly on Lin Tao. “Hmph.”

Lin Tao: “…”

Lin Tao didn’t even spare her a sideways look. She hooked her arm through Meng Xin’s and steered them both toward the register, asking in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone, “Did your mom never teach you not to bother talking to people who have nothing going on upstairs?”

“…”

“Pfft.”

A laugh broke through the air somewhere nearby — abrupt and out of place. Lin Tao turned her head. A few boys stood between two shelves on the other side of the shop, their eyes drifting over toward her.

The boy at the center of the group had clean, defined features. He wore a short-sleeved shirt, with his school uniform jacket slung casually over one hand. His blue-and-white uniform trousers were rolled up slightly at the calf, baring a strip of leg.

He was looking down, his gaze resting on Lin Tao’s face. His expression was calm and unreadable.

Lin Tao met his eyes for a moment, then let her gaze drift unhurriedly over the other boys behind him. She turned away without lingering. “Excuse me — can we pay?”

She paid no attention to Tang Yushi behind her. Paid no attention to whoever it was that had laughed.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t her who’d made a fool of herself.

Lin Tao and Meng Xin stepped out of the snack shop. A few moments later, the boys followed. Xu Yichuan threw an arm around the shoulders of the boy Lin Tao had made eye contact with earlier. “That girl just now was something else. She didn’t even need a single swear word to put someone in their place.”

Jiang Yan cracked open the pull-tab on the can in his hand and shifted his shoulder. “Get off me.”

“…” Xu Yichuan stifled a shiver and moved his arm to Song Yuan’s shoulder instead. “Right? I’m not wrong, am I?”

“Absolute icon,” Hu Hanghang said from the side, giving a firm thumbs-up. “I really want to know what class she’s in. Have any of you guys seen her around before?”

“Never. And she’s pretty too — how have we never noticed her?”

The group went back and forth on it for a while.

Xu Yichuan delivered his final verdict: “She’s genuinely cool.”

He waved his hand to emphasize the point and accidentally knocked into Jiang Yan, who had tilted his head back to drink his cola. The dark liquid sloshed out of the can and soaked Jiang Yan’s shirt.

“…”

The awkward silence lasted less than a second.

Jiang Yan was the first to recover. He wiped his face. Then, before Xu Yichuan could even process what had happened, Jiang Yan drew back his foot and drove it squarely into his backside. “Cool, cool, cool — I’ll give you something to be cool about!”

Xu Yichuan yelped and ran. “Come on, man, it was an accident!”

Jiang Yan went after him. The group of figures chased each other off into the distance.

When Lin Tao and Meng Xin returned to the classroom, Tang Yushi and her clique were already at their seats, glowering at the two of them with undisguised hostility.

“…” Lin Tao was mildly exasperated. She had half a mind to tape the girl’s eyes shut.

Fortunately, class started within minutes.

Lin Tao dozed her way through three periods. The last one was the homeroom teacher’s class, so she didn’t dare lose focus and managed to pay attention for most of it.

Near the end of class, the homeroom teacher brought up the upcoming placement exam scheduled for the following Monday. “The exam seating assignments have already been finalized. When the bell rings, the class president will post the list on the back wall.”

He handed the assignment sheet to the class president, then continued: “This exam will determine your class placements for next semester. If you want into the advanced track, give it everything you’ve got — and if you don’t care either way, give it everything you’ve got anyway. You never know, luck might just be on your side.”

A ripple of laughter moved through the room.

Lin Tao pulled out her phone. The class president had already shared the exam assignment sheet in the class group chat. She scanned it quickly and, sure enough, found her name near the very last few rows — followed by an exam hall number and a seat number.

Multimedia Room 03. The final exam hall, just as expected.

She clicked her tongue softly, unbothered, tucked her phone back into her desk, and turned to stare out the window at the rubberized running track below. A group of figures were jogging across it. The air beyond the glass shimmered with heat, and through the thick green canopy of trees, cicadas droned on and on.

Summer had truly arrived.

Before long, the day of the placement exam came.

When Lin Tao was leaving that morning, her mother Fang Yisong pressed an umbrella into her hands. “I checked the weather forecast — it says there’s going to be a heavy downpour this afternoon. Take this with you.”

Lin Tao accepted it obediently. “I’m heading out.”

Her father Lin Yongcheng called after her, “Be careful on your way.”

“I know, I know!”

Lin Tao stepped outside the residential compound and, as usual, caught the bus to school. Maybe it was the approaching storm — the air carried a faint, damp coolness that wasn’t quite there on ordinary days.

At school, the homeroom teacher stopped by during morning reading to go over a few exam-related reminders. The moment the period ended, students scrambled off in all directions toward their assigned exam halls.

The last exam hall was in a multimedia room in the adjacent building. When Lin Tao arrived, only a handful of students were already there. She found her seat and settled in.

A little while later, more students trickled in and sat down behind her and to the right.

“Hey, Yan — cover us today, alright? We’re lucky enough to land in the same hall as you. You’ve gotta look out for your brothers!”

At that, Lin Tao paused mid-page-turn.

The last exam hall. The lowest scorers in the entire year.

It’s not like they’d be getting much from copying each other anyway.

She didn’t think much of it. From behind her came a flat, indifferent reply: “Copy what? Write your own answers. Did you even read what’s written up there?”

Lin Tao looked up. On the blackboard, bold characters spelled out:

— Uphold exam integrity. Zero tolerance for cheating.

“…”

The boys were still chattering away until the supervising teacher walked in clutching a stack of exam papers. “Enough noise! You’re about to sit an exam! Everyone quiet!”

The room fell silent for less than a second before the corners erupted in stunned murmuring.

“Whoa! Why is Blackie supervising? Wasn’t it supposed to be the history teacher from Class Eight?”

“Who knows!”

“So much for copying anything with Blackie watching!”

Blackie was the school’s dean of discipline. His real name was Li Kun, but because of his towering build and dark complexion, everyone called him Blackie behind his back.

With him overseeing the exam, cheating was out of the question — even glancing sideways counted as an offense.

“The next person who speaks can leave!” Blackie slapped a stack of papers down on the lectern. “What are you all here for if you don’t want to take the exam?”

Not another word was spoken.

The second supervising teacher took over: “Alright. We’ll now hand out the exam papers. Please clear everything unrelated to the exam off your desks. If you’re handing in your phone, make sure it’s powered off. No cheat sheets of any kind — this exam determines your class placements next semester, and any instance of academic dishonesty will be treated as a serious disciplinary offense.”

Lin Tao received her paper, did a quick scan of all the questions, and started working.

The Chinese exam was two and a half hours long.

At eleven-thirty, the bell rang.

The moment papers were submitted, the room filled with groans.

Lin Tao paid little attention to the commotion. She packed up her things, switched her phone back on, and sent Meng Xin a message to sort out where they’d meet for lunch.

There was only one exit open, and students were immediately jamming up at the door. After getting her feet stepped on several times, Lin Tao shuffled a few steps to the side.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

She reached for it. Someone nearby suddenly bumped into her — too many people packed into too small a space — and when she tried to find her footing, she lost it entirely. Her body tipped backward, out of her control.

Damn.

She silently mouthed the curse.

Before she could think of what to do, the backward fall stopped. Her back met a warm, solid chest. A hand with pronounced knuckles caught her firmly by the arm.

A sharp, cool scent hit her all at once.

She was held upright from behind, steady and unhesitating.

“Get your footing.”

“Thank—” Lin Tao hadn’t even finished the word when the boy behind her dropped another line without warning.

“Don’t go thinking you can use this as an excuse to take advantage of me.”

Lin Tao: ?

Author’s Note: — Lin Tao: Waaah why isn’t this anything like what happens in dramas!! Why is my future partner such an absolute idiot?? WHY!!!!

Spin-off ① — “I Just Want to Like You”

Wen Jiang never could have imagined that the man who once swore, loud and certain, that he would never marry —

would one day be on his knees, sobbing, clutching her leg and begging her to reconsider —

“Jiang Jiang, please, please? Marry me?”

Chi Yuan, second young master of the Chi Family of Xi City, had spent years living as he pleased — reckless, charming, answerable to no one. In some gilded, smoke-hazed moment, he’d once made a declaration:

“There are a thousand women in this world. Not one of them is worth my devotion.”

He hadn’t counted on an arranged marriage upending everything.

That incorrigible playboy suddenly found himself with someone to answer to — and somehow transformed into a lovesick, clingy puppy:

“Jiang Jiang, when are you coming to sleep beside me?”

“Today’s entry in the diary of a Yuan who just wants to be close to her.”

“All the beauty in the world — yet I only want to like you.”

◎ Lovesick reformed playboy × carefree, unbothered girl

Spin-off ② — “Nothing in the World Is as Sweet as You”

After her fifty-second failed confession.

Meng Zhiyu made a declaration in front of a crowd of friends: “If I ever go chasing after Liang Yu again, then I — no wait, then Liang Yu is the fool. A lonely, pathetic fool who’ll grow old and die alone.”

The only problem was, that declaration spread far and wide.

That very same evening, Meng Zhiyu found herself cornered at the school gates by that very fool named Liang Yu.

After several minutes of loaded silence between them —

Liang Yu lowered his head, and softly, quietly, said: “Woof.”

Meng Zhiyu: “…”

“Everything is sweet — but you outshine all of it.”

◎ Proud, clingy overthinker × sweet-talking little enchantress

◎ Girl pursues boy / She teases, he suffers, then he chases

All I ask is that you add this to your reading list.