After the New Year, School No. 10 began its new term. The timing couldn’t have been better — early spring warmth had melted the ice and snow, and the campus, silent for over a month, welcomed back its familiar sounds of laughter and cheer.

Class 18 was as lively as ever. The boys and girls clustered in their own groups; long-feuding frenemies chased each other around with brooms, trading insults while their faces were full of smiles. Best friends who hadn’t seen each other in ages dug through their bags to share snacks, showing off what new lipstick shades their favorite influencers had just recommended.

Old Yu was exactly as he’d always been — standing at the doorway with his insulated thermos, smiling as he watched them, as though the chaotic scene in front of him was nothing worth fussing about.

Lin Tao had accidentally stayed up all night the evening before. When Fang Yisong dragged her out of bed in the morning, she was still in a daze — dazedly ate breakfast, dazedly got dropped off at school, and nearly walked into the wrong classroom at the last moment.

Just before she crossed the threshold, someone grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back.

Lin Tao snapped to attention. She turned her head and was momentarily blinded by the early morning sunlight. After blinking a few times, she made out the person standing in front of her. “What are you doing here?”

Jiang Yan had followed her all the way through the school gates and watched her sway around like a drunk until she nearly walked up to another class’s door. He’d stepped in just in time to pull her back. “School starts today,” he said flatly. “Where else would I be?”

He tilted his chin, gesturing for her to look over. “Where were you headed? One month away and you can’t even find your own classroom?”

Lin Tao turned her head and looked. On the clean white doorframe hung a nameplate trimmed in gold with characters painted in black lacquer: Class 12, Grade 11, Section 7.

“……”

She yawned and sidled over with a grin. “I just haven’t fully woken up. I’m a little out of it.”

Jiang Yan glanced at her sideways.

During this time he’d spent with Lin Tao, Jiang Yan had come to know that the girl had wildly irregular sleep habits — she often had her days and nights completely reversed, and staying up late was routine for her.

Though he stayed up late himself — sometimes even pulling all-nighters — he knew it was bad for the body, so he’d been constantly devising ways to get her to sleep earlier.

At first, Lin Tao had been a good sport about it, saying goodnight to him right at midnight and announcing she was going to bed.

In the beginning, Jiang Yan actually believed she went to sleep right after saying goodnight — until one night, well past midnight, he received a party invite on QQ from Hu Hanghang. Since he had nothing else going on, he casually clicked to accept.

The moment he joined the party, he heard the voice of his girlfriend, who had already said goodnight to him: “Pangpang, grab mid lane for me this round! I’ll carry us!”

Jiang Yan: “……”

A second later, Lin Tao, deep in the game, seemed to notice something and made a surprised sound, then laughed. “This person’s avatar kind of looks like…”

Her voice cut off abruptly.

Jiang Yan let out a soft hum, clicked on the in-party speaker, and said in an unhurried tone: “Looks like what?”

“……”

“Looks a little like your boyfriend?”

“.”

“What a coincidence. That would be me.”

“T-T”

From then on, Jiang Yan switched tactics. Every night, right on schedule, he would call her on voice and stay on the line until she fell asleep.

But as time went on, there were always moments beyond his reach.

“Did you stay up again last night?”

Classes 17 and 18 were separated by just a single wall. The two of them stood in the corridor without going inside.

Lin Tao instinctively denied it, her tone firm. “No, I didn’t.”

And then she immediately let out another yawn.

“……”

Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

It was obviously serious sleep deprivation. Her eyelids drooped heavily; the corners of her eyes were red and damp, and there were faint bluish shadows beneath them — she looked like a wilted little cat.

He reached out and lightly traced a finger beneath her eye, just about to say something, when a thud rang out from inside Class 17’s classroom behind him.

Both of them turned to look.

The crowd that had been crammed at the window watching froze for a moment, then moved swiftly to put away their phones. Within three seconds, not a single silhouette remained at the window, which had been packed full just moments before.

Lin Tao: “……”

Jiang Yan: “……”

On the first day of the new semester, the big bold highlighted post on School No. 10’s online bulletin board about the school tyrant’s secret crush came alive again —

Oh my god I got the real deal!! [Photo]

Absolute proof the school tyrant is in love. [Photo]

Several other users posted images below.

Nearly all of them were candid shots taken that morning of Jiang Yan and Lin Tao standing outside Class 17’s door —

AAAAAAAAAA the school tyrant is so domineering! So gentle!!

Just standing outside OUR classroom asking classmate Lin if she stayed up late again!! Note the word: AGAIN!!!! And then he TOUCHED her!! Note: TOUCHED!! (It doesn’t matter where he touched, what matters is that he touched)

Can this thread be renamed “The School Tyrant’s Love Story” at this point??

……

During break time, Hu Hanghang spotted the thread and couldn’t help grumbling, “Hey, not to point fingers, but can you two be a little more discreet?”

Xu Yichuan chimed in: “Spreading lovey-dovey affection first thing in the morning, right outside someone else’s classroom — who can handle that?”

Lin Tao made a sound, then said, “We were just standing there chatting for a bit.”

Xu Yichuan slapped his desk. “Just chatting isn’t enough? You have to understand — our Brother Yan used to have zero — no wait, not even half — a female creature within three meters of him.”

“……” Lin Tao touched her ear. “That exaggerated?”

“Exaggerated doesn’t even begin to cover it. Back in first year, a girl confessed to him — got through the whole thing — and he came back with one sentence.” Xu Yichuan cleared his throat and imitated Jiang Yan’s tone: “Hey classmate, your eyeshadow is smeared. It looks really bad.”

Lin Tao: “……”

Regarding that secret-crush post, Lin Tao’s original plan had been to wait until things naturally fell into place between the two of them, then come clean with him and delete the post.

But events had not only strayed from her original plan — the outcome had been entirely unexpected.

Lin Tao hadn’t anticipated that Jiang Yan would claim the post was his own doing. She could guess his reasons, so she’d never told him who the real author was.

When the two of them had just gotten together, Lin Tao had even dropped hints, asking him whether the post should be deleted — and he’d refused.

So Lin Tao had never deleted it, never told him the truth. She’d been thinking that, over time, people would probably lose interest. Who could have guessed that just when things had barely quieted down, the topic heated up all over again.

After classes began, Jiang Yan came in from outside, and Lin Tao told him about the post, cautiously asking once more, “Do you want to delete it?”

“Why would I delete it?”

Jiang Yan saw it differently from Lin Tao. To him, the post was a uniquely precious piece of evidence that this girl had once had a crush on him — it held sentimental value.

He couldn’t bear to part with it. He didn’t want it deleted.

There was also one more very important reason — one he had no way to delete it himself.

“I’m worried Old Yu will find out and try to drive us apart.”

Though she knew Old Yu wasn’t capable of doing something like that, Lin Tao was still a little worried. After all, Old Yu now looked at Jiang Yan much the same way someone would look at the top scholar of the province.

“If the sky falls, I’ll hold it up. If a stick comes down, I’ll block it.” Jiang Yan pinched her cheek lightly, smiling as he said, “What is there for you to be afraid of?”

Lin Tao couldn’t help but smile either, and let the matter of the post go.

A week passed without incident. On the weekend, Lin Tao even went on the bulletin board to browse, found all sorts of ridiculous comments, and laughed until she couldn’t stop.

Then, first thing Monday morning at school, they were both called into Old Yu’s office.

Usually they were called in separately — this was the first time they’d been summoned together.

Old Yu was the same as ever, sitting beside his desk with his teacup, taking a sip and casting a glance at the two of them, waiting a long time before he spoke.

Lin Tao and Jiang Yan were both veterans of a battle of endurance. Neither would make a move until the other did.

After a prolonged standoff, Old Yu conceded first, choosing his words carefully. “All right. I think you two probably know why I called you here.”

Jiang Yan touched the tip of his nose. “I genuinely don’t know what you need us for.”

“You genuinely don’t know?”

His expression was blank. “Genuinely don’t know.”

Old Yu found he couldn’t make any headway with Jiang Yan. He turned to Lin Tao. “And you don’t know either?”

Lin Tao pretended to think it over seriously, then nodded. “I know.”

Old Yu’s face immediately lit up, and he raised his teacup to his lips.

Lin Tao continued, “You called us here to reward us for the great progress we made on last semester’s final exams, didn’t you?”

“Cough —” Old Yu had just taken a sip of hot tea and promptly choked on it.

Jiang Yan: “……”

Lin Tao said modestly, “Actually I didn’t improve that much. There’s no need to make such a big deal out of it. After all, pride leads to falling behind.”

“……”

They’d been going around in circles without getting to the point, and Old Yu felt he couldn’t keep this up any longer. He threw caution to the wind. “I’ve been hearing some rumors lately that have to do with the two of you.”

Old Yu had already known about the bulletin board post since last semester and had chatted with Lin Tao about it at the time — he hadn’t taken it too seriously back then. But recently the post had been getting more and more attention, blowing up to the point where he’d gone to teach in another class and still caught students sneaking glances at it during lessons.

He was beginning to think the situation had gotten a bit out of hand.

“I’m not the sort of narrow-minded teacher who refuses to see reason, but the influence this is having is really too significant. If the school administration finds out, it won’t be good for either of you.” Old Yu spoke earnestly. “So my thought is: for this semester, the two of you temporarily stop sitting together as desk partners. What do you think?”

The moment he heard this, Jiang Yan disagreed. “Old Yu, if you genuinely believe that splitting us up will make those rumors disappear on their own, then I’d agree to it.”

“But can you guarantee that once we’re separated, these rumors will simply vanish?” Jiang Yan raised a hand and smoothed his brow. “I understand what you’re worried about. But you yourself called it a rumor — does that mean a rumor is automatically true?”

“I’ve seen the post you’re referring to, but I don’t give it any weight.” Jiang Yan spoke with great conviction. “Today’s high school students are under a lot of pressure. Occasionally wanting to spread a little gossip as an outlet — I understand that. So it doesn’t bother me.”

Old Yu opened his mouth to speak, but Jiang Yan cut him off: “Even the two people directly involved haven’t gotten worked up about it. There’s no need for you to either.”

Old Yu: “……”

Jiang Yan’s reasoning had sounded quite sensible, point by point. Yu Bingshan was stunned for a good while before he remembered to respond. “You…”

He wasn’t quite sure what to say.

Jiang Yan smiled politely. “Teacher Yu, don’t worry about it. There are only benefits and no drawbacks to us staying as desk partners.”

Seeing that Old Yu was still hesitating somewhat, Jiang Yan added without batting an eye: “If you really do move us apart and give me a new desk partner, I might not be able to adapt quickly enough — and I might not take first place in the next exam.”

Lin Tao: “……”

Brother, isn’t that a bit of an overblown claim?

Old Yu hadn’t always cared so deeply about whether students did well on exams. He believed that as long as you gave your best effort, whatever result you got was the outcome of your hard work.

But Jiang Yan had taken first place in the grade two exams in a row. If that truly suffered because of this incident, Old Yu felt he’d be the one to blame.

Having spent over a decade as a steady, conscientious teacher, Old Yu felt that weight of blame was rather heavy to carry.

After much deliberation, he gave in. “Then let’s leave things as they are. I’ll handle this matter myself. I’ll see if I can get the school’s site administrators to remove the post.”

“I don’t think the post should be removed either,” Jiang Yan said. “Deleting it would look like we have something to hide — it would only make the rumors seem more credible.”

Old Yu: “……”

In the end, after all that discussion, the post wasn’t removed, the seating arrangement wasn’t changed, and Lin Tao and Jiang Yan left the office exactly as they’d entered it.

Nothing had changed whatsoever.

Lin Tao was once again left marveling at Jiang Yan’s ability to tell outrageous lies with a perfectly straight face.

After leaving Old Yu’s office, the two walked down the corridor.

“I actually think it doesn’t matter if we stop sitting together,” Lin Tao said. “We still see each other all day anyway. Sometimes distance can create its own kind of beauty.”

Jiang Yan stopped and looked at her sideways.

This entire floor was faculty offices, with a few empty rooms used for meetings — their doors were never locked.

Right behind Lin Tao was one such meeting room.

Seeing him stop, Lin Tao stopped too. “What is it?”

Jiang Yan pressed his lips together, stepped forward, grabbed her arm, pushed open the door behind her, and pulled her inside.

The door clicked shut.

Before Lin Tao could process what was happening, she was already pressed against the door.

Jiang Yan gripped her arm and leaned in, their breath mingling. “You don’t want to sit with me?”

The distance between them had suddenly closed.

Lin Tao froze for a moment. Without thinking, she swallowed and lowered her voice to explain. “That’s not it. I was just thinking Old Yu has our best interests in mind too.”

“Best interests, my foot.”

“……”

Lin Tao laughed. She slipped her arm free from his grip, smoothed out his collar, and gave his shoulder a pat. “Come on, let’s go back to class.”

Jiang Yan didn’t move. He looked down, eyes lowered, thoughts unreadable.

Lin Tao sighed, reached up, and pinched his cheek gently, her voice going soft. “Come on, boyfriend.”

“Not going. Still have something left to do.”

“Hm?”

Before the words had even finished landing, he had already lowered his head and kissed her.

Boys of seventeen or eighteen have long since moved past the stage of restraint when it comes to kissing. His sharp teeth grazed her lower lip, lips moving against lips, and then the warm tip of his tongue pressed in, coaxing her jaw open, slowly tracing through the small gap that opened for him.

Lin Tao let out a muffled sound. He caught the tip of her tongue between his teeth, and the faint, sharp sting of it was unusually vivid in the mingling warmth between their lips.

She instinctively tried to pull back, but he wrapped an arm around her waist while his other hand cradled the back of her neck, pressing her flush against him with no space left between them.

“……”

Lin Tao was forced to tilt her head back. Her shoulder blades dug into the door, the pressure at her waist impossible to ignore, her whole body nearly lifted off the ground by how tightly she was held.

It was uncomfortable.

Her neck was beginning to ache.

Her lips had gone a little numb.

“…uncomfortable.”

She murmured this under her breath.

Jiang Yan didn’t relent. He drew a soft pull at the tip of her tongue, teeth lightly grazing against her lower lip from time to time.

After lingering like that for a while, Jiang Yan finally released her. His breathing was slightly uneven, his eyes churning with something indecipherable.

After a long moment.

He gently closed his eyes, then lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her tear-damp, flushed eye corner. His voice, slightly rough at the edges, carried a kind of husky, intoxicating quality.

“Baby, I’m quite uncomfortable too.”

Author’s Note: Lin Tao: None of my business.