The weekend flashed by, and it was Monday again.

A thunderstorm had passed in the early morning. Shi Niannian walked along the wet roads to school. She always woke up very early, and when she arrived at the classroom, there were only three or four people.

The class monitor, Youth League secretary, academic representative, and the math subject representative.

All were those who ranked at the top of the exams.

None of the group she disliked.

Shi Niannian relaxed, took out her English book, turned to the vocabulary list, and began memorizing.

Today’s morning self-study was for English, with a dictation scheduled.

Yizhong was divided into junior and senior high sections. Each year, 80% of students were directly promoted from within, so cliques were extremely prevalent.

School was a miniature society, and Yizhong was a miniature society.

The girl she met after evening self-study on Friday was called Cheng Qi, the leader of that group.

They didn’t study seriously, secretly dyed their hair, wore flashy nails, knew many people, and were also acquainted with many troublemakers from the vocational school across the street. They could often be seen chatting together, with laughter resounding through the air.

When Shi Niannian arrived at this school in her first year, she didn’t know anyone. Because she couldn’t speak clearly, Cheng Qi’s group noticed her.

They always laughed at her speech, imitating her stuttering, and then erupting into laughter.

They also called her stupid.

Shi Niannian didn’t know if she was stupid or not. Her grades were excellent, often ranking first in her grade, but many people said she was stupid—Xu Ningqing had said so, and so had Jiang Ling.

But they meant it kindly.

Perhaps she was stupid. Her reactions weren’t quick, and she often didn’t understand jokes that made others laugh until they nearly fainted.

Soon, the classroom gradually filled with people. Jiang Ling returned the math test papers she had taken from her last week.

“Niannian, explain this problem to me.” Jiang Ling turned around, facing backward, with her chin resting on the edge of the chair.

“Draw auxiliary… lines.”

She drew two lines on the complex figure, then paused to look at Jiang Ling.

Only after she nodded did Shi Niannian continue her explanation.

She wrote the subsequent steps on draft paper, habitually drawing a line underneath each step and placing a dot at the end, waiting for Jiang Ling to understand and nod before continuing to the next step.

By the time she finished explaining a difficult math problem, the two had barely spoken, working in complete silence except for Jiang Ling occasionally asking why, and Shi Niannian writing down more detailed steps.

“Great! I understand now!” Jiang Ling made a gesture of respect toward her. “Hearing you speak once is better than studying for ten years!”

“No.” Shi Niannian smiled.

“Niannian, you’re really beautiful,” Jiang Ling remarked, resting her chin on her palm, marveling once again.

From the first moment she saw Shi Niannian, she thought she was beautiful, not with aggressive features, but rather a very sweet appearance, small, soft, gentle, with youthful contours and delicate features.

A quintessential first-love face.

Shi Niannian had little reaction to such compliments, only responding in kind: “You are also pre… tty.”

Jiang Ling tossed her ponytail: “I know.”

She reached out and pinched Shi Niannian’s cheek, frankly expressing her regret: “What can we do about your stutter? Is there no way to cure it?”

“I practice, every… day.”

She would read passages aloud by herself in her bedroom, consciously trying to control it, but with minimal effect.

After the first two morning classes.

During the break, there was suddenly a loud door-kicking sound at the entrance. Cheng Qi sauntered in with her bag over one shoulder, chewing gum.

She blew a bubble that popped and stuck to her red lips, then was bitten back into her mouth.

She threw her schoolbag onto her desk, perched on the corner, and looked at Shi Niannian sitting in the back corner with a half-smile, silently raising one eyebrow.

Shi Niannian stared at her.

“Stutterer,” she parted her red lips with mockery, “you…”

Before she could finish, the homeroom teacher suddenly entered, knocking on the door twice: “Everyone, quiet down! Quiet down! We have a new classmate joining us today!”

Cheng Qi was forced to glare at her once before returning to her seat, tossing her long hair backward.

Shi Niannian continued to lower her head and read her book.

A male student walked into the classroom. Instantly, the previously noisy classroom quieted, then erupted with a wave of hushed discussions.

“Isn’t that Jiang Wang? He’s transferred to our class? It’s so scary. Won’t we get beaten up if we make him unhappy in the future?”

“Really, to still be so handsome after spending half a year in prison is quite something.”

“What good is being handsome? You haven’t seen the scene back then. When he beat people with those red eyes, he was hitting to kill. It was terrifying.”

And Cheng Qi, leaning against her chair back, whistled.

Shi Niannian looked up, startled.

Jiang Wang stood on the podium, his expression cold, seemingly impatient with the discussions below. He wore Yizhong’s uniform, loosely draped on his body.

“Jiang Wang,” he introduced himself.

His voice was pleasant, casual, and at the moment, laced with drowsiness and impatience. His tone was deep and magnetic, very alluring.

Another whistle sounded from below.

Jiang Wang looked over. Cheng Qi sat with one leg crossed over the other, chin raised, staring directly at him with blatant eyes.

Jiang Wang shifted his gaze away without expression, uninterested.

“Nothing else to say?” Homeroom teacher Cai Yucai was unsatisfied with his two-word self-introduction.

“Nothing.”

“…Fine, go sit over there.”

Shi Niannian was startled, seeing Cai Yucai pointing in her direction, though indeed the only empty seat in class was beside her.

Jiang Wang was very tall, and as he walked over, he exuded an intimidating aura.

Shi Niannian had seen him fight before, much more viciously than Cheng Qi and her group, yet she didn’t seem afraid of him at all, perhaps because of his connection with her brother.

Xu Ningqing also frequently fought. When they were younger and living in another city, Shi Niannian was still very small. Xu Ningqing would be fighting on one side, while she sat reading on the other.

When he finished fighting, the two would go home together.

Unlike Cheng Qi’s group, who liked to bully the weaker students at school, Xu Ningqing fought with similar boys.

Jiang Wang recognized her too but had no other reaction, only calmly raising an eyebrow.

After sitting down, he lazily laid his head on the desk.

Shi Niannian heard Jiang Ling talking softly with her deskmate. Although they deliberately lowered their voices, she could still hear clearly.

“Shouldn’t Jiang Wang have dropped out? How is he back at Yizhong?”

“His father is a school director. How could he drop out?”

It seemed everyone knew him.

Shi Niannian turned her head to look at the young man sleeping on the desk.

Narrow eyelids, high nose bridge, thin lips, sword-like eyebrows, three-dimensional features, and a sharp appearance.

Lying on the desk, a section of cold white wrist was exposed.

The fourth class was English.

The English teacher entered with the dictation notebooks from morning self-study and knocked on the blackboard twice.

“Wasn’t this English dictation simple enough? A total of 25 words, yet some students got 18 wrong! Your low intelligence could break the Guinness World Records!”

The English teacher slammed the notebooks on the podium, then picked up the roster. “Let me commend the students who got everything correct.”

“Huang Yao, Chen Ji…” The last one was Shi Niannian.

The class covered the summer homework papers. Jiang Wang slept through it all.

“Come on, Shi Niannian, translate the sentence on the blackboard.”

She stood up, read it once, translated it in her mind, and silently repeated it twice.

“John… John…”

Still, it wasn’t working. She stuttered several times just on the first name.

Laughter erupted in the classroom. This was a unique source of amusement in their class. Most people meant no harm—being young, they didn’t understand how to empathize with others, just laughing along.

Only a few female voices mixed in with particularly mocking tones, imitating her.

“John… John…”

Jiang Wang, annoyed by the noise, sat up with a cold face and looked over.

It was the girl who had whistled at him earlier, along with two or three girls around her.

He slightly furrowed his brow, withdrew his gaze, and propped his head on his hand.

His lazy gaze fell on Shi Niannian’s face.

The girl was also smiling mildly. Her skin was fine and white; through the sunlight, one could see the fine transparent down on it. She was still staring at the blackboard, laboriously continuing.

Like a fool.

Jiang Wang leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen in his hand, and hooked the corner of his mouth.

By the time she finally finished translating the sentence, the dismissal bell rang. The English teacher said a few encouraging words and left the classroom.

Shi Niannian suddenly stood up, the chair legs making a harsh sound. The girl moved like a gust of wind, running quickly out the back door, leaving only a faint fragrance.

Surprisingly pleasant.

The girl in the red hoodie next to Cheng Qi slapped the desk and cursed: “Damn! Qi-jie! This brat ran away again!”

It sounded like this wasn’t the first time.

Cheng Qi’s voice lifted in the deliberately alluring tone of a young girl.

“Let her run. We’ll find her after we eat.” Cheng Qi smiled and turned her head. “I have important business to attend to now.”

Jiang Wang looked over, meeting a pair of bright eyes.

Cheng Qi smiled at him.

Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow without expression.

Cheng Qi then rose with a smile and walked toward his seat. Most people in the classroom had already left in pairs or groups for lunch, with few remaining.

Cheng Qi was very tall, about 170 cm, with straight, slender legs under her fitted school pants, and basketball shoes below—an outfit that would attract athletic boys.

“Jiang Wang, I’m Cheng Qi. Nice to meet you?” She leaned on the desk and extended her hand.

Jiang Wang remained seated without moving, his eyes scanning her from bottom to top. With his eyes and brows lowered, his eye corners displayed a flirtatious charm.

Cheng Qi held her hand out straight, looking at him with a confident smile.

Then Jiang Wang’s phone rang.

It was Xu Ningqing calling, asking him to eat outside school.

“Where are you?… Alright, I’m coming.”

He walked past Cheng Qi while talking on the phone.

Completely ignoring her.

“Fuck your mother! Try running again!” Cheng Qi was particularly angry today, and those around her knew why but didn’t dare advise her.

Shi Niannian was dragged over by two people.

Directly across from the school was a street of food stalls. Many students went out to eat at noon. Jiang Wang and Xu Ningqing’s group had finished eating and returned.

They didn’t go back to the classroom but to the sports field, which was empty at this time.

He leaned against a tree, turning his head to light a cigarette. The flame suddenly illuminated his pupils, intertwining with the sunlight.

He took a deep drag and exhaled.

A rustling sound came from behind.

A leg crossed over the wall—an excessively slender, fair ankle, white fold-over socks, and dirty school uniform pants.

Then, the girl tightly gripped the rough wall surface, pulled hard, and flipped her body down. Her face was also dirty, as if she had rolled in mud.

She lightly patted her hands, brushing off the dirt from her palms, and nimbly jumped down from the two-meter-high wall, landing on the soft soil.

Looking up, she met a pair of black eyes.

Shi Niannian glanced once and calmly looked away, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She sat on a stone bench nearby and took out her phone from her pocket.

There was a missed call from Xu Ningqing.

“I just called you, why didn’t you answer? I wanted to have lunch with you,” Xu Ningqing said.

“Didn’t… hear it.”

“Nobody bullied you, right?”

“No.”

“You’re in the same class as Jiang Wang. If someone bullies you in the future, you can find him. He’s your brother’s friend and will help you.”

Shi Niannian tilted her head to look at the boy sitting on the grass nearby. He was still looking at her.

Her bangs were slightly in her eyes. She raised her hand to brush them aside and turned her head back. “Mm.”

She hung up.

Shi Niannian took off her coat, dusted off the dirt, and cleaned her pants as well.

Throughout the process, she didn’t look at Jiang Wang again. After putting her uniform back on, she started to walk back.

“Hey,” a male voice called from behind. “Little Stutterer.”

She didn’t stop, pretending not to hear.

A small stone hit her back. “You were just on the phone with Xu Ningqing.”

The name Xu Ningqing made her turn around. She looked at the young man who was looking up at her and nodded slightly.

“Did someone hit you just now?” he asked, his tone very relaxed.

Shi Niannian shook her head.

“Then why are you as dirty as a mud ball?” Jiang Wang pointed at her face with his index finger.

She raised her hand and wiped her cheek with the back of it. “I hit, hit back.”

Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow.

That was unexpected.

“Do you know my name?”

Shi Niannian thought about his self-introduction in class earlier. She hadn’t listened carefully and couldn’t remember, so she shook her head.

“Jiang Wang.”

She nodded.

“Say it.”

Shi Niannian looked at him for a while, then walked to his side.

She sat opposite him, continuing to dust off the dirt on her sleeves.

While doing so, she opened her mouth: “Ji… Jiang Wang…”

“Jiang.”

The girl looked at him with clear eyes, not understanding.

Jiang Wang sat up a bit straighter: “Repeat after me.”

“Jiang,” she said.

“Wang.”

“Wang.”

“Jiang Wang.”

“Jiang Wang…” Shi Niannian stuttered, “Wang.”

“…”

Damn, it sounded like ‘woof woof’.

Jiang Wang scratched his eyebrow and continued teaching: “Ge.”

Shi Niannian focused on cleaning the stains on her clothes, just repeating: “Ge.”

“Ge,” Jiang Wang said again.

Jiang Wang Gege.

Shi Niannian opened her mouth, then closed it, looking up at him expressionlessly.

She realized this person was teasing her again.

“Not so stupid after all,” Jiang Wang snorted with laughter, carelessly.

“Was it that girl from your class who did this?” Jiang Wang pointed at her clothes.

Shi Niannian nodded.

“Do you hate them?”

After a two-second pause, she still nodded.

Jiang Wang leaned against the tree, with a half-smile and raised chin, his voice carrying a hint of amusement.

“Then call me Jiang Wang Gege, and I promise no one will dare bully you in the future.”