When Lin Tao left, Jiang Yan was still hunched over his desk catching up on sleep. Hu Hanghang and the other two were in no hurry either, clustered together playing games on their phones.

His face was turned toward the wall as he napped. He vaguely heard the little girl tell Xu Yichuan she was leaving first, followed by the scrape of a chair across the floor.

By the time the classroom had nearly emptied out, Jiang Yan finally woke up. He went to the bathroom, splashed water on his face, and came back. Then the group of them went downstairs to find somewhere to eat outside.

Class 14 and Class 18 were one floor apart from each other — one on the third floor, the other on the fourth.

Going down the stairs, Jiang Yan hadn’t fully woken up yet. Song Yuan had an arm slung over his shoulder. To one side, Xu Yichuan was going on and on about his day-to-day life sitting next to the class beauty.

Hu Hanghang called him a flower stuck in a pile of manure.

Jiang Yan listened and laughed.

Song Yuan leaned in close, taking in his drowsy, exhausted face, and asked, “Are you working the night shift again tonight?”

He rubbed his eyes, the corners still pink. His voice was thick with sleep. “No, tonight I’m off.”

Song Yuan let out a quiet sigh at that, and said nothing more.

The four of them had just reached the stairwell on the third floor when a woman’s voice drifted over on the breeze from the hallway: “Do you think just because you’ve got someone backing you up now, you’re something special?”

Then another voice followed — farther away, lower in volume. He could only make out the general meaning, but Jiang Yan had an inexplicable feeling he recognized it.

He turned his head and looked toward the hallway, his steps coming to a stop.

The other three stopped with him, and followed his line of sight. Hu Hanghang reacted first. “Oh man — isn’t that Tao Tao? Who’s that girl she’s with?”

Before anyone could answer, the first voice rang out again: “You think Jiang Yan will always be on your side?!”

Hearing that, Jiang Yan’s eyes narrowed. He caught the contemptuous expression on Lin Tao’s face. Without a word, he walked over.

In that same breath, he answered the girl’s question himself: “Why wouldn’t I be?”

As he spoke, Jiang Yan had already come to stand beside Lin Tao. His expression was cold and still. He looked down at Tang Yushi and asked the question again. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

His tone matched his face — cold and razor-sharp.

The moment Tang Yushi saw Jiang Yan walking toward her, her courage had already evaporated. Her long slender legs were threatening to buckle beneath her. When he looked at her like that — without expression, asking his question — she couldn’t help but shrink back, her voice trembling. “How… how would I know…”

Jiang Yan heard that answer and gave a short, pitiless sound — contemptuous, indifferent. “If you don’t know, what are you blathering about?”

Tang Yushi was so frightened she couldn’t get a word out. Her face cycled between colors like a paint palette — first red, then white. Her eyes went wide, and she looked about half a second away from crying.

Jiang Yan studied her for a moment, and then a memory snapped into place. He looked back at Lin Tao. “Is this the one who threw the ball at you on the basketball court?”

Lin Tao instinctively made a sound of acknowledgment and nodded.

“Did she apologize?” he asked again.

Lin Tao answered honestly. “She did.”

“Fine.” Jiang Yan rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze falling on Tang Yushi again, cool and offhand. “Since she’s apologized, this matter is settled.”

Tang Yushi’s breath caught — and then she heard him continue: “I never hit girls. But if you cross my line, you’re a girl and I’ll treat you the same.”

“…”

Jiang Yan’s eyes were lowered, his voice quiet and level. “My deskmate is my line.”

In the end, Lin Tao and Meng Xin ate with the four boys after all.

Meng Xin had gotten hauled off to the office and lectured for a good stretch for sleeping in class, so by the time they got out, quite a bit of time had passed. Plus, none of the six of them were fans of the cafeteria, so they’d agreed on going to a restaurant off-campus.

The six of them meandered and shuffled their way to the school gate, only to find that the gates — normally thrown wide open — had been narrowed to a gap just barely wide enough for one person to pass through, with only a handful of students trickling out.

“What’s going on?” Xu Yichuan was the first to sprint over to the security booth — he’d spent years skipping class and was on good terms with the guards.

The rest of them waited in place while Xu Yichuan did his reconnaissance.

Less than a minute later, they watched as Dean Li Kun dragged Xu Yichuan out of the booth by the ear. “Going out for lunch in the middle of the day?! What, the school cafeteria beneath you?!”

Xu Yichuan bent at the waist, wincing. “Okay okay okay — sir, sir, sir—”

Li Kun didn’t let go. His gaze swept over the five people standing nearby. “Right. The rest of you — get over here!”

The five: “…”

After Li Kun’s lengthy, rambling lecture, the hour had grown quite late. He personally escorted all six of them to the school cafeteria.

“Into the line! All of you!” He gave Xu Yichuan — standing at the back — a kick for good measure. “Starting today, you’re not allowed out for lunch during the break. If any of you get caught leaving campus at noon again, don’t bother eating — come straight to my office and write a self-reflection instead.”

Everyone: “…”

What a nightmare.

Lin Tao stood near the front of the line, picked up an empty metal tray from the nearby stack, and shuffled forward with the crowd. Jiang Yan followed behind her.

They’d arrived quite late. Most students still ended up at the cafeteria at lunch — it was mediocre, but convenient enough for those staying on campus.

By this point, Lin Tao did a quick sweep and just grabbed two home-style dishes — the kind of stir-fried green peppers and potatoes where you could barely spot the potatoes.

Jiang Yan glanced at her tray from behind, saying nothing. Then he lifted a hand and knocked on the serving window. “Auntie, I’ll have this, and this, and this, and this…”

He listed off several dishes in a row.

Lin Tao looked back at him. “Didn’t you say you hated eating here?” For someone who supposedly hated cafeteria food, the way he was ordering didn’t look like it at all.

Jiang Yan looked back at her too, said nothing, and then leaned forward and lifted the tray from in front of her, sliding it to the serving staff. “Put everything on this one.”

“…” When he’d leaned in, there was a faint scent of mint on him. Lin Tao looked up and caught a flash of his sharp, clean jawline passing before her eyes.

Her heartbeat stumbled — two beats missing in quick succession. Without meaning to, her mind drifted back to what he’d said in front of Tang Yushi.

A strange feeling stirred quietly in her chest.

Once all six of them had gotten their food, Li Kun launched into another lengthy monologue. Finally, when he noticed it was genuinely getting late, he wrapped it up: “Alright, you lot — eat. I’m going to lunch with Teacher Yu and Teacher Yang.”

“!!!”

Five heads snapped up, five faces wearing identical expressions of disbelief.

This was truly unconscionable.

Only Jiang Yan, unmoved, kept eating. He checked his phone periodically. After a while, he stood and headed over to the small store inside the cafeteria.

“Get me a water, bro,” Hu Hanghang called after him.

Jiang Yan didn’t turn back, didn’t answer, and walked directly into the store. A few minutes later, Lin Tao watched him come back out with a bag in hand.

He moved with unhurried ease, his features sharp and clean, his complexion fairer than most. In a simple white T-shirt and dark pants, he had the kind of youthful, unassuming quality that made him look like he was still entirely in the middle of growing up.

Jiang Yan returned to his seat across from Lin Tao and pulled two cans of cola out of the bag. He handed the rest — water and other drinks — to Hu Hanghang.

He placed one of the cans at Lin Tao’s side. His gaze dropped to her arm, still in its cast. He’d been about to pull his hand back, but stopped and rested it there instead.

His palm against the edge of the can, index finger hooking under the pull tab, he lifted it gently — clink — and it was open.

He had beautiful hands. Slightly curved, the knuckles were sharp and defined, and Lin Tao could even make out the faint tracery of veins along his fingers.

This person — every small detail of him was extraordinarily good-looking.

“Eat.” Jiang Yan withdrew his hand. Seeing that Lin Tao had been staring at him, he said quietly, “You were looking at me.”

“…Oh.” Lin Tao quickly looked down, and by way of covering it up, shoved several large spoonfuls of rice into her mouth in quick succession.

After lunch, with no option to wander around off-campus as before, the group could only go back to the classroom and kill time on their phones.

Back in class, the rest period hadn’t officially started. A few girls near the front were bent over their exam papers, but everyone else was chatting, gaming, or doing whatever they felt like.

Lin Tao hadn’t slept well the night before. Now with a full stomach, the drowsiness crept in, and she sprawled across her desk. After a few words with Jiang Yan, she went quiet.

Jiang Yan said something, and when he didn’t get an answer, he turned. The little girl was already asleep — her breathing shallow, as though the sleep wasn’t quite restful, her lashes trembling faintly.

He watched her for a moment, then looked away. He reached into his desk drawer, pulled out his school jacket, and draped it over her head. He glanced at Hu Hanghang, who was in the middle of laughing loudly. “Pangpang. Keep it down.”

Hu Hanghang: “…”

In her sleep, Lin Tao felt the noise around her suddenly quiet. The smell that reached her was familiar. She shifted, head tilting, and sank deeper into sleep.

…

The bell rang for class. Lin Tao jolted awake. The jacket draped over her moved with her, sliding off and falling to the floor.

She’d been startled, still not quite recovered. She rubbed her eyes and noticed the sleeve hanging across her lap — and only then saw the school jacket beside her.

Lin Tao bent to pick it up. Jiang Yan, sitting next to her, had taken off his glasses and was looking at her. “Bad dream?”

“No.” She shook her head, and her gaze landed on the glasses in his hand. “Do you need glasses?”

“I’m not nearsighted, just a bit astigmatic.”

Lin Tao gave a small nod and handed his jacket back to him. She noticed a workbook spread open on his desk. “What are you working on?”

“A workbook.” Jiang Yan paused, then added, “For a physics competition.”

Lin Tao raised an eyebrow. Thinking it over — compared to how he acted most of the time — she found it a little hard to believe. She leaned in closer. “Jiang classmate, be honest with me.”

She was leaning quite close as she said it, her breath brushing against Jiang Yan’s arm. He felt the warmth of it, a single point on his skin going heated. He turned to look at her, and moved his arm away, unhurried. “What?”

“That physics competition a while back — the one you showed me, where you got first place.” Lin Tao wet the corner of her mouth, then ventured, “Tell me the truth. Did you get someone to take it for you?”

Jiang Yan: “…”

I’ve really been too lenient with her.

Author’s note: — Tomorrow is the college entrance exam! Everyone give it everything you’ve got! Charge forward!! Wishing everyone great scores!! See you in September at your new schools!!

—

Lately I’ve been writing alongside a friend who types at lightning speed. Planning to really push during the holiday — if it works out, I’ll add an extra update. If not, pretend I never said anything…