Chen Yi slept through the entire morning self-study period. The moment the bell rang for class dismissal, he woke up.

It was only the second day of school, so a strong study atmosphere hadn’t yet formed in the classroom. As soon as class let out, it was like boiling water exploding from a pot—lively and bustling.

He leaned lazily against the wall, his eyes showing the red bloodshot veins of insufficient sleep, watching the classmates running back and forth in the classroom without much energy.

His new desk mate wasn’t there either. Her textbook was spread open on the desk, the pages rustling loudly in the wind, the name written on the title page flashing by in the breeze.

Chen Yi lowered his head and yawned, shrugged his shoulders, and had just stood up from his seat when a figure suddenly sprang out from behind him, hanging directly onto his shoulders and back, pressing down with half their body weight.

He was pulled downward by this weight into a slight arc. He reached out in time to brace himself on the desk surface, barely avoiding being pulled down.

“Are you a pig, Jiang Rang?” Chen Yi laughed and cursed.

Jiang Rang walked around from his back to face him with a grinning, shameless expression. He removed the book Ruan Mian had placed on the desk and sat directly on it, his feet stepping on the horizontal bar of the chair. “What did you do during summer vacation? You didn’t even come yesterday on the first day of school.”

Jiang Rang and Chen Yi had been classmates since their first year. They also hung out with two other male students—one named Shen Yu, who was now in the neighboring class two.

The other one was named Liang Yiran. When they divided into tracks, he chose humanities and was the only humanities student among the four of them.

“Old Wang organized a competition camp. I went to participate in the intensive training.” Chen Yi rubbed his neck. “With the competition included, it was exactly ten days. Yesterday was the last day.”

Old Wang’s full name was Wang Yang. He was their first-year physics teacher. Before summer vacation, he had a physics competition that was short on registrants. When Chen Yi found out, he went and asked for a registration form.

Jiang Rang gave Chen Yi a thumbs up, his mouth running nonstop. “So how did you do? Can you win a prize? How much is the prize money? Let’s agree in advance—if you win a prize, you’re treating us to a meal.”

Chen Yi ignored him and moved his chair aside with his foot to sit down.

Jiang Rang flipped through the chemistry book in his hand. Seeing the name written on the title page, he leaned his body sideways toward Chen Yi. “Your new desk mate is a super academic genius.”

Chen Yi made an indifferent “Mm” sound and matched a face to his new desk mate in his mind.

“Yesterday’s assessment exam, she actually got a perfect score in biology.” Jiang Rang jumped down from the desk. “On a test paper made by Zhou Hai too. We took so many tests made by Old Zhou in our first year—how many people have you seen get perfect scores?”

Chen Yi raised his eyebrows, his expression showing some surprise. “That impressive.”

“Absolutely.” Jiang Rang looked quite proud, occasionally tapping the textbook in his hand, his tone somewhat regretful. “It’s just that her appearance is a bit plain.”

“…” Chen Yi reached out and snatched away the book he was holding. “If Teacher Yu knew you were misusing words like this, he’d probably come charging back from No. 1 Middle School immediately.”

Jiang Rang laughed out loud, his eyes bright and sparkling. “Forget it, forget it. I’m not talking to you anymore. It’s about time I made a trip to Old Zhou’s office.”

The fact that he hadn’t shown up for morning self-study had probably reached Zhou Hai before class even ended.

After Jiang Rang left, Chen Yi opened the biology book in his hand. In the lower right corner of the title page, he saw a name. The handwriting was bold and flamboyant, in stark contrast to the quiet appearance.

—Ruan Mian.

Chen Yi read the name aloud softly, then closed the book and put it back in its original place before getting up and walking out of the classroom.

As soon as class ended, Ruan Mian was called to the office by Zhou Hai. It was about a competition. No. 8 Middle School cultivated a batch of students every year who were recommended to universities through competitions.

Zhou Hai felt Ruan Mian had this potential and planned to have her register for a biology competition jointly organized by No. 8 Middle School and several other key high schools.

“This is the registration form. Take it back and fill it out, then turn it in to me before this Friday.” Worried she might feel pressure, Zhou Hai counseled her: “It’s not any kind of formal major competition. Just treat it as practice, go experience the atmosphere of competition.”

Ruan Mian had participated in competitions before. Having just transferred here, she didn’t want to give the teacher a bad impression of not cooperating with work. She nodded and said, “I understand, thank you, Teacher Zhou.”

After explaining about the competition, Zhou Hai asked about her situation getting along with classmates in the class.

Ruan Mian couldn’t help but think of Chen Yi, but didn’t know where to start asking. She only said, “It’s going well.”

“That’s good.” Zhou Hai said, “Most of the students in the class weren’t familiar with each other before. Now we’re a new class. Just treat it like being assigned to a class without any acquaintances after track division. After getting along for a few more days, it’ll be fine.”

“Yes, I understand.”

After just a few words, someone knocked on the door.

Ruan Mian and Zhou Hai both looked over. Jiang Rang stood at the doorway with one hand in his pocket, a grinning smile on his face. “Good morning, Old Zhou.”

He looked at Ruan Mian again, smiling without proper form. “The new classmate is here too.”

Ruan Mian nodded her head as a response.

Zhou Hai didn’t even let him enter the door, looking like he was disappointed in him for not living up to expectations. “Same old rule—a one-thousand-word self-reflection, turn it in to me at noon today.”

Jiang Rang gestured an OK sign with his hand. “Got it, I’ll go write it now. I guarantee this won’t happen again.”

Zhou Hai frowned with a disgusted expression. “Go, go, go.”

Jiang Rang left immediately when told to leave, very straightforwardly.

Ruan Mian pressed her lips together in shock. After adjusting her emotions for a few seconds, she asked hesitantly, “Then, Teacher Zhou, should I head back too?”

Zhou Hai’s expression immediately changed from cloudy to partly cloudy. “Oh yes, you can go back first.”

When Ruan Mian came out of the office and walked to the classroom door, she saw Chen Yi and Jiang Rang standing in the hallway. The blue and white interspersed school uniform wrapped around the male student’s figure, which was straight and tall like green bamboo.

His arm rested on the railing. Under his pale skin, the veins and pathways on his arm extended with exceptional clarity. His expression held sufficient nonchalance as well as alluring lazy indulgence.

By the time Ruan Mian entered the classroom, another male student had joined him and Jiang Rang. The three of them were talking and laughing, their voices and laughter entering the room almost without concealment.

…

“Yiran just sent me a message. He has to help the teacher organize test papers at noon and won’t eat with us.” Jiang Rang’s voice was especially energetic. “I heard their class’s Chinese teacher this semester is Wu Yan.”

“The dean of studies?” Chen Yi asked.

“Is there a second teacher named Wu Yan in our school?” Jiang Rang’s laughter clearly carried some schadenfreude. “Wu Yan said last semester that this semester he only planned to teach one class. Who would have thought it would be exactly Liang Yiran’s class?”

“Our little Student Liang is in for it.” As Shen Yu spoke, he couldn’t help but laugh too. “This is too tragic.”

Chen Yi also laughed, not standing out much amid their loud laughter, but Ruan Mian was like she’d installed a detector on his voice—she could always avoid all distractions and capture it accurately.

Soon the bell rang. The classroom was like birds returning to their nest. But the noise only existed temporarily. When the bell stopped, the classroom had already become completely quiet.

There was a slight sound of a chair being dragged and someone sitting down next to Ruan Mian. She gripped her pen, her thoughts in chaos, at a loss.

This state lasted for an entire day. And during this day, Ruan Mian and her front desk mate Meng Xinglan quickly and effectively established a friendship because they went to the girls’ bathroom together once.

Later, through the forging and tempering of time, this bathroom friendship evolved into revolutionary friendship.

Of course, these were all things that came later.

Meng Xinglan and Chen Yi weren’t in the same class in their first year, but because of Liang Yiran’s connection, they had quite a bit of interaction with each other.

“Chen Yi is heaven’s favored one—excellent in both character and academics, handsome with a wild personality. Quite a few girls in school are his admirers.” Meng Xinglan’s tone held only pure appreciation. “He has an easygoing and carefree personality, many friends. Teachers and classmates all like him very much, especially girls. I dare guarantee that out of the sixteen girls in our class, fourteen have had feelings for him.”

“What about the other two?” Ruan Mian didn’t react immediately.

“The other two are you and me.” Meng Xinglan turned off the faucet, speaking with conviction. “Liking someone like him, heaven’s favored one, the sadness will inevitably outweigh the joy. But liking someone should be a happy thing. I don’t want to look back in the future and have only sorrow in my memories.”

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener took it to heart.

In the trickling sound of water, Ruan Mian vaguely saw her future self. She turned off the faucet, shook the water from her hands, and said very calmly, “Let’s go. Class is about to start.”

In the afternoon biology class, Zhou Hai had Chen Yi stand up and introduce himself. Actually, this wasn’t necessary at all—basically, no one at No. 8 Middle School didn’t know Chen Yi.

Even Ruan Mian, who had just transferred here, had learned about most things regarding him through Meng Xinglan’s explanation.

Chen Yi probably understood this point clearly too. He stood up, said his name, and that was it.

Zhou Hai told him to sit down, then quickly announced the selections for other class officers in the class. As for class representatives, aside from Ruan Mian whom he’d confirmed in advance, the selections for representatives of other subjects were all left for each subject teacher to decide themselves.

When the class period ended, Meng Xinglan pulled Ruan Mian to go get water again.

Their growing closeness quickly caught Zhao Shutang’s attention. That evening on the way home from school, Zhao Shutang made some passive-aggressive jabs at her.

At this age, it was nothing more than some childish taunting. Ruan Mian didn’t take it to heart, nor did she tell Fang Ruqing about it.

Blended families were difficult to begin with. Becoming a real family wasn’t something that could happen overnight. All she could do was cause her mother less trouble.

After returning home, Ruan Mian took out that registration form from her backpack and filled in the information one by one. When she paused her pen, she looked up toward the window.

Across from her was Pingjiang Manor with its rows of villas. In the dark night, the lights in the distance were like a low-hanging galaxy, brilliant and resplendent.

In her mind gradually surfaced the words Meng Xinglan had said during the day—

“Chen Yi’s whole family consists of very accomplished people.”

“His father is an expert in astronomy research. His mother is a dancer. He has an uncle who’s an officer in the military. His maternal grandfather is a retired old general. His maternal grandmother is a doctor. His paternal grandfather and grandmother are both famous seniors in the literary world.”

“He’s the only child in the family. Born in Rome. He’s been ‘other people’s child’ since childhood.”

“His family lives in Pingjiang Manor. The houses there are super expensive, and it’s not the kind of house you can buy just because you have money.”

…

In her recollections, Ruan Mian heard her own voice, carrying a calm indifference after disguising herself. “Then he—I mean Chen Yi—with his family being so outstanding, has he thought about what he wants to do in the future?”

“Yes.” Meng Xinglan thought for a moment. “During the freshman speech in first year, he said he wanted to join the military in the future. Boys, you know, they all have this kind of heroic patriotism about serving the country. What’s more, he himself comes from a military family. But whether he’s changed his mind now, I don’t know.”

Later, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by the ringing bell. Ruan Mian also came back to her senses, put the registration form in her bag, opened the lock on the drawer, and took out a notebook from inside.

She opened to one of the pages.

On it were written two lines.

—2008/8/16.

—Chen with the ‘ear’ radical on the left side, Yi as in ‘standing tall like a pagoda reaching for the stars.’

Ruan Mian turned to a new page and wrote a few characters with her pen.

—2008/8/31.

—What’s wrong?

—

**Author’s Note:** This story is slow burn / Due to the writing style and tone, you probably won’t see me in the author’s notes much (breaking) (the) (atmosphere) anymore =v=

The school arc is tentatively set to take up half / Content has been adjusted, the chemistry-related content that appeared earlier has now all been changed to biology-related.

All comments on the first three chapters have red envelopes. Valid until 11 PM tonight—I’ll send out all the red envelopes for the first three chapters then / Thank you for your support.

Here’s the thank you list:

Thanks to the little angels who threw rocket launchers: L, A Drunkard

Thanks to the little angels who threw grenades: Sero, A Drunkard

Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: Squeak Squeak Only Only, A Little Sweetness Left for You, I Have a Sudden Whimsical Heart

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Think Think Is Think Think, Whale Rice, Smiling Like Flowers, Don’t Eat Red Bean Buns, Crane’s, RoyWang-s, A Big Lemon