Jiang Yan had barely had time to process the message Hu Hanghang sent him before Hu Hanghang sent several more in rapid succession, as if to prove he wasn’t making things up:

Hu Hanghang: After you left, Lin Tao suddenly ended up as Du Wenbo’s deskmate for some reason. Those two were actually deskmates when they first joined the class too — seems like they’re quite fated.

Hu Hanghang: Oh wait, no — fate and misfortune are the same thing.

Hu Hanghang: Anyway that’s beside the point. The point is, Lin Tao just now in class actually!! Stared at Du Wenbo!! For a full fifteen minutes!!!!!

Hu Hanghang: A full fifteen minutes, bro!!!!!! That’s not having feelings for him — what is it?!

Hu Hanghang: Jiang Yan bro, don’t cry, you still have us.

Jiang Yan found Hu Hanghang, that lovable idiot, utterly speechless. He didn’t reply to a single one of his messages. Instead, he closed their chat window and opened the message his girlfriend had just sent him:

Lin Tao: How dare you!! Breaking the rules!! So all this time Du Wenbo was the spy!!

Jiang Yan looked at this message, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He could almost perfectly picture Lin Tao’s fuming expression as she typed those words.

He was just about to press the voice message button when he glanced up at the quiet laboratory, said a quick word to the classmate in the same group, then picked up his phone and stepped outside.

Jing’an City was in the northeast. Though Spring had already officially begun, snow was still falling heavily.

Jiang Yan stood by the window at the far end of the corridor. The snowflakes drifted in through the window that had never been shut properly, hitting the floor and melting into water almost instantly.

He judged the time and called Lin Tao. It should still be a break between classes. The call connected quickly; the noisy chatter of the classroom came through along with Lin Tao’s voice. “Fine, you don’t have to call me specially to explain anything. I’m perfectly fine right now, not at all angry, I am extremely fine.”

The cold wind howled outside the window, biting and sharp.

Jiang Yan reached out and closed the window. A snowflake landed on the back of his hand — cold for just an instant before melting into water.

He gave a soft laugh. “You think I’m calling to explain myself?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Honestly, no.” Jiang·Tactless·Pouring-Oil-on-Fire·Yan said: “I’m calling to do a check-in inspection.”

“……” Lin Tao hung up cleanly. “Go away, you jerk.”

Jiang Yan looked at the suddenly dark screen and let out a helpless laugh. He was just tucking his phone away to head back to the lab when a hesitant voice came from behind him. “Jiang Yan?”

The far end of the corridor met the stairwell, where two figures were standing one behind the other.

Jiang Yan followed the sound and looked over. His gaze landed first on a familiar face. He smiled with polite warmth. “Attorney Liang.”

“It really is you.” Liang Wei clearly hadn’t expected to run into Jiang Yan at Tsinghua at this hour. He took the last step off the staircase and stopped about a stride away from Jiang Yan. “What brings you here? Shouldn’t a third-year senior be extremely busy right now?”

Liang Wei was the lawyer who had once defended Zhou Yue. After the case concluded, Jiang Yan had rarely been in touch with him privately, but had always harbored genuine gratitude toward him.

He was just about to explain when the young man standing behind Liang Wei suddenly spoke. “A direct-admission student for the Physics Department this year?”

Jiang Yan looked up and met the young man’s eyes, then nodded. “Yes.”

Liang Wei remembered to introduce them. He turned slightly. “Jiang Yan, this is my younger brother, Liang Yu. He’s also studying at Tsinghua — second year in the Law Department. He can almost count as your senior by half a generation.”

Then he turned to Liang Yu. “Ah Yu, this is Jiang Yan — a family member of one of my former clients.”

The two young men exchanged a glance across the space between them, giving only brief nods, and said nothing more.

Jiang Yan kept feeling as though he had heard the name Liang Yu somewhere before, but couldn’t recall where for the life of him.

“Quite impressive, young man.” Liang Wei smiled. “When Lin Tao said her boyfriend wanted to come to Tsinghua, I thought you might sit the exams and get in as the top scorer. I never expected you’d get in through direct admission.”

The mention of Lin Tao unlocked a sealed corner of Jiang Yan’s memory, and he finally remembered where he’d heard the name Liang Yu.

After the trial for the Zhou Yue case concluded, Lin Tao had gone out for dinner with Fang Yisong and Liang Wei — and had met Liang Wei’s younger brother, Liang Yu. In fact, Liang Wei had also considered setting Lin Tao up with Liang Yu.

After the dinner, Lin Tao had mentioned it to him over WeChat.

“……”

His memory rewound and restarted.

Jiang Yan’s gaze shifted through several changes as he looked between Liang Wei and Liang Yu.

These two: one had tried to set someone up with his girlfriend, the other was the one being set up. As far as Jiang Yan — the rightful owner of that “wall” — was concerned, they could both be considered adversaries.

He pressed his lips together slightly, glanced at his watch, and said, “Attorney Liang, I still have something in the lab. I’ll head back now.”

“Oh?” Liang Wei, who had passed his psychology exams with a perfect score, sharply sensed the shift in Jiang Yan’s mood — but he didn’t remark on it, only said warmly, “Of course, go on, don’t let me keep you.”

Jiang Yan gave him a nod and a smile, then turned and walked away — unhurried and self-possessed.

Liang Wei watched his retreating figure, eyebrow slightly raised. He turned to Liang Yu. “Did he seem like he had some issue with us?”

Liang Yu looked at his older brother with an expressionless face. “Before questioning whether someone has an issue with you, you might want to think about what you did that was so terrible to them in the first place.”

Liang Wei: “?”

Liang Wei: “……”

In mid-March, Coach Guo Wen led the full members of the national team to Munich, Germany, for a competition — a trip of about two weeks.

Coach Guo Wen had originally intended to take Jiang Yan along to observe and learn. But a small incident arose during Jiang Yan’s visa application; it wasn’t approved in time. Combined with the limited spots available on the traveling roster, Jiang Yan had to give up this opportunity and unexpectedly found himself with two weeks of free time.

The very first day of his break, Jiang Yan returned to Xixi City. He didn’t tell Lin Tao or the others; he went straight to school upon arrival.

He stopped by to see Teacher Yu first. In the course of their chat, he learned that the Year 3 senior pledge assembly was taking place three days later.

As they talked, Teacher Yu decided he wanted Jiang Yan to speak at the assembly as an outstanding student representative.

Jiang Yan had never liked drawing attention to himself, however. No matter what Teacher Yu said, he wouldn’t agree.

“Teacher Yu, you know as well as I do what the rest of the school says about me.” Jiang Yan was reluctant, but showed no impatience, still speaking pleasantly. “Even if I am admitted already, everyone knows about me skipping class, getting into fights, playing on my phone and sleeping through lessons. Not a single one of those things qualifies me as an outstanding student representative, does it?”

“……”

Jiang Yan toyed with an item from Teacher Yu’s desk, his tone casual. “Oh right — and I started dating early. Add that to the list.”

“……” Teacher Yu felt a surge of helpless frustration.

Knowing there was no room to negotiate on the matter of asking Jiang Yan to speak, Teacher Yu could only try a different approach. “All right then — after the pledge assembly there’s also a parents’ meeting. The other students’ parents all know about your Tsinghua admission and are very interested in your family’s approach to education. Since you won’t share yourself, surely it’s fine if I ask your parents to come and share instead?”

At those words, Jiang Yan’s eyelid twitched. He was just about to refuse when Teacher Yu cut in ahead of him. “Jiang Yan, I’ve been your teacher for two years. Even if I haven’t taught you much, you’re still technically a student I’ve shepherded through school. Surely you won’t refuse even this small favor to your teacher?”

“……”

Teacher Yu reasoned with him and appealed to his emotions, deploying every tactic in the book. In the end, Jiang Yan relented. “Fine. I’ll have them come.”

“Ah!” Teacher Yu raised his teacup with the satisfied air of someone whose plan had succeeded. “Now that’s more like it. All right — I have nothing else to say. Off you go.”

Jiang Yan glanced at him, set down the item in his hand, and said, “By the way, Teacher Yu — could you give me a copy of the recent exam scores?”

“Sure.” Teacher Yu reached into the drawer at his side, pulled out a stack of score sheets and handed them to him. “I’ve marked all of Lin Tao’s scores. Not bad at all. Last semester she placed tenth in the district in the ten-school joint exam, scoring two points higher than Du Wenbo in total. The way things are going, she might even have a shot at being Xixi City’s top scorer in science this year.”

Jiang Yan flipped through it quickly, the corner of his mouth curving ever so slightly. He took the score booklet, stood up, and said, “I’ll head back then.”

Teacher Yu lifted his cup lid and waved him off. “Go on.”

After leaving Teacher Yu’s office, Jiang Yan didn’t go straight home. Instead, he went through the stairwell and circled around to Class 18’s classroom.

It happened to be a break between classes. Inside the classroom, a sea of students were sprawled asleep. Lin Tao was also curled over her desk, resting on her school jacket.

Du Wenbo had caught a cold recently and hadn’t been in class. His seat was empty.

Jiang Yan entered through the back door. The boys in the back rows spotted him and were about to call out, but Jiang Yan put a finger to his lips. The room went collectively quiet without another sound.

The only exception was Hu Hanghang, who saw him and lost control of his volume for a split second. “Bro — mmph mmph—”

Jiang Yan covered his mouth with lightning speed. “Keep it down.”

Hu Hanghang gave an OK gesture. Jiang Yan let go. Hu Hanghang drew in a huge, relieved breath of air — and his volume shot back up instead of down. “Bro! Why are you suddenly — mmph mmph—”

“……” Jiang Yan — who had never actually let his guard down — promptly covered his mouth again. He said with a look of patient amusement, “Have I been too lenient with you lately?”

Hu Hanghang did his best impression of a well-behaved child: shook his head, widened his eyes, tried to look pitiful.

“Don’t give me that look.” Jiang Yan let go and wiped his hand on Hu Hanghang’s jacket with exaggerated fastidiousness. “You’re even clingier than Lin Tao.”

“……”

Hu Hanghang felt that his life was truly a struggle.

Fortunately Lin Tao was deep asleep. The commotion did nothing to wake her. To avoid disturbing her, Jiang Yan made his way around to the corridor and climbed in through the outside window instead.

Fifteen minutes of break.

Lin Tao got half a nap in. Since the grueling intensive studying sessions of last semester, her physics scores had undergone a genuine leap in quality. In the several exams since the new semester began, she had been consistently scoring around eighty-five. It wasn’t as outstanding as her chemistry and biology, but at least it was no longer the subject dragging her down.

Even so, Lin Tao didn’t dare get complacent. She had maintained the same intensive rhythm Jiang Yan had set when he was tutoring her, working through one physics paper every evening.

Sometimes she didn’t finish until very late. And getting up early every morning on top of that meant she was still very sleepy during school hours and kept grabbing naps whenever she could.

But this seemed to have become the natural state of third-year students.

Everyone was carrying the dual burden of exhaustion and drowsiness, pushing forward.

Lin Tao was no exception.

The bell rang out: “ding-ding-ding.”

Lin Tao yawned, sat up, and stretched her arms the way she always did. Out of the corner of her eye she caught someone sitting in the empty seat beside her. She assumed it was Du Wenbo and lowered her arm, glancing over with a perfectly normal, casual voice. “Oh, you’re back — did your cold—”

The moment her line of vision fully shifted, she went completely still.

Jiang Yan was looking down at her steadily. The sunlight from outside fell through the window, as if laying a natural filter over him — hazy and gentle.

“What?” He smiled softly. “Don’t recognize me anymore?”

“Not quite that.” Lin Tao still remembered the whole thing about him having Du Wenbo watch her. “It’s just that I can’t find a single uglier person in all the world.”

“……” Jiang Yan rubbed his temple gently, indulging her without limit. “And I can’t find a single better-looking person than you.”

Before, she had been most defenseless against his honey-coated words. But after enough repetitions, one does build up some immunity. “Please — don’t flatter me like that.”

Jiang Yan still looked like he wanted to say more, when Teacher Yang walked into the room carrying materials, with the commanding posture of someone surveying the room from above. His gaze paused on Jiang Yan.

Teacher Yang laughed with easy good cheer. “Well, well! The university student decided to come back today?”

Caught off guard by being singled out, Jiang Yan had no choice but to stand up and greet him. “Teacher Yang, please don’t make fun of me.”

Teacher Yang had come from a physics background and had spent more than a decade working alongside the subject. He had always had a special appreciation for Jiang Yan, who shared the same passion, and he said with a cheerful smile: “Since you’re here, pay proper attention. And don’t let me catch you talking to your deskmate.”

The relationship between Lin Tao and Jiang Yan was by now an open secret in the class. At Teacher Yang’s remark, a wave of teasing sounds swept through the room.

Jiang Yan shifted uncomfortably and touched the tip of his nose. Lin Tao buried her head and played at being an ostrich.

After all, this was a critical point in the third year. Teacher Yang didn’t crack more jokes. “All right, sit down — we’ll begin reviewing the final chapter today.”

The sounds of pages turning rustled through the classroom.

Jiang Yan sat back down. Lin Tao also spread her review materials on the desk, slipped her phone under the book, and tapped the screen with one hand, sending him a WeChat message:

Why did you suddenly come back?

Jiang Yan hadn’t turned his phone to silent when he came in. When the message arrived it made a small sound. He picked it up, glanced at Lin Tao’s message, and looked at her.

Lin Tao pursed her lips, gesturing for him to use his phone.

Jiang Yan put it on silent and bent over to reply:

On break. That sounds nice. Mm. ……

The two of them just chatted back and forth in WeChat, one message here, one message there.

The afternoon classes passed quickly. During evening study hall, Teacher Yu mentioned the pledge assembly and parents’ meeting three days away.

“This pledge assembly and parents’ meeting are both very important. Please be sure to inform your parents — no absences.”

“Got it!” “Understood!” ……

Lin Tao made a note in her phone’s memo app, then asked casually, “I’m guessing you won’t be going to the pledge assembly or parents’ meeting?”

“Actually, I will,” Jiang Yan said.

“Oh?” Lin Tao looked at him. “Aren’t you practically already a graduate? Is there still any point in attending these things?”

Jiang Yan rubbed his eyes and repeated what Teacher Yu had told him — that someone should come to the parents’ meeting.

Lin Tao hesitated slightly. “Then for the parents’ meeting… who would you have come?”

She knew his family situation well. He had no other relatives or close family friends to speak of, and the only people he was in contact with — Guan Che’s parents — were not in Xixi City at the moment.

“We’ll figure it out,” Jiang Yan said with a smile. “If all else fails, I’ll just pay someone to come.”

“……”

Lin Tao said nothing, but something was turning over quietly in her mind.

The pledge assembly arrived quickly. “A hundred days” was the official title, though strictly speaking there were no longer that many days left — it was simply a tradition third-year students went through regardless.

The day was clear, the sky cloudless, the sports field crowded with people, the wind leaving soft traces in the air.

Hu Hanghang and the others all knew about Jiang Yan’s family situation. When they heard Teacher Yu wanted Jiang Yan to bring a parent to the meeting, they all immediately offered to loan out their own parents.

Hu Hanghang expressed his sympathy. “My mom would come as Jiang Yan’s parent, and at the end of the meeting she’d probably figure out a way to have me eliminated and take Jiang Yan as her real son.”

Xu Yichuan raised his hand in agreement. “My dad’s probably thinking the same thing. I told him about the parents’ meeting the day before yesterday, and he and my mom nearly got into a divorce-level argument over which one of them got to come.”

Lin Tao and Jiang Yan: “……”

Song Yuan had fewer complications. He simply didn’t tell his parents about the meeting at all, and instead told it to the older cousin he was closest to.

This cousin had himself bluffed his way through school via his own older cousin years ago, so he was entirely sympathetic to Song Yuan’s request.

For the pledge assembly, parents were required to gather with students in the classroom first before all going to the sports field together.

Hu Hanghang and Xu Yichuan had told their parents about Jiang Yan’s situation; both families had said they were happy to step up. But since only one parent could go, on the morning of the pledge assembly, both families were standing at the base of the teaching block, arguing over who would be the one to pretend to be Jiang Yan’s parent.

Hu’s mother insisted: “Jiang Yan looks like he takes after me — it’ll be more convincing if I go.”

Xu’s mother countered: “How does Ah Yan look anything like you? If anyone, he looks more like me — the eyes alone are identical to mine when I was young.”

Hu’s father cut in: “None of that matters. I should go. I’m a university professor — I’ll carry more authority than either of you.”

Xu’s father objected: “By that logic, I’m a senior specialist teacher at a top high school with a stack of credentials. Do you want to see them?”

The four parents bickered like elementary school students, trading arguments back and forth.

Hu Hanghang and Xu Yichuan looked at the scene unfolding before them, exchanged a glance, and silently patted each other on the shoulder. “You get used to it,” they murmured in resignation. “You just get used to it.”

Jiang Yan, standing nearby taking in the chaotic scene: “……”

While the four of them were still arguing, Liu Sheng leaned out from upstairs. “Jiang Yan bro — your dad’s here! He’s in Teacher Yu’s office, asking for you!”

“……”

The whole group went blank.

Jiang Yan was just as baffled. He responded with a lift of his hand, then said a quick goodbye to the four would-be parents, and headed straight upstairs.

Teacher Yu’s office was on the second floor.

Jiang Yan had barely reached the door when he heard Teacher Yu’s familiar laughter from inside. A few seconds later, an unfamiliar voice came from within. “Our Jiang Yan has always been bright — never needed us to put much effort into him.”

Two steps further and it was the office window. Jiang Yan tilted his head for a look inside. There was Teacher Yu — and a stranger.

“……”

He rubbed the back of his neck, walked up and knocked on the door. “Teacher Yu.”

Both people inside looked up. Seeing it was Jiang Yan, Teacher Yu smiled warmly. “Jiang Yan, come on in, have a seat.”

Jiang Yan entered and sat down in one of the empty chairs. The man who had been talking to Teacher Yu glanced at him with familiar ease, as if they knew each other well. “Why are you only just getting here?”

“Something held me up, I—” Jiang Yan’s words broke off. He looked up and met the man’s gaze, hesitating for a moment before saying carefully: “I’m sorry — may I ask who you are?”

“This child — what kind of joke is that?” Lin Yongcheng smiled and said each word clearly: “I’m your dad.”

“……”