Turning into December, 2009 became the past. On the first day of the new year, Fang Ruqing took Ruan Mian to a temple where they drew a most auspicious fortune slip.

The fortune said all matters would go smoothly, and what the heart desires would be achieved.

This delighted Fang Ruqing tremendously. In one breath, she stuffed several red bills into the donation box and said to Ruan Mian with a smile: “Looks like you should have good news from this competition.”

Later, after returning from the temple, Ruan Mian tucked that fortune slip into the notebook filled with all her girlish thoughts.

During that time afterward, all that remained were endless test papers to write and endless psychological counseling sessions to attend. The night before the competition, class was canceled. Teacher Luo played a movie for everyone.

The movie was called “The Pursuit of Happyness.” It was a film from two years ago. Ruan Mian had already watched it when it first premiered.

The classroom curtains were tightly drawn and the lighting was dim. Ruan Mian slept sprawled on her desk, completely unaware.

The screening lasted nearly two hours. When it ended, several teachers from the competition class came to the classroom. Ruan Mian rubbed her eyes and sat up.

During the movie’s end credits, Teacher Luo said with a smile: “I don’t have much more to say. I just wish everyone good results on tomorrow’s exam.”

Applause immediately rang out in the class. After more than a year of effort, it was finally time to reap the harvest. Ending also meant separation.

After class, several teachers stood at the door handing out admission tickets and exam supplies. When it was Ruan Mian’s turn, Teacher Wang handed her the items: “Do your best.”

Ruan Mian nodded and gave him a small bow. “Thank you, Teacher Wang.”

“Head back early. Rest well tonight.”

Walking out of the classroom, Ruan Mian turned her head to see Chen Yi talking with Teacher Luo. After hesitating for a few seconds, she deliberately slowed her pace.

Later, during many sleepless nights spent rushing about for research projects, Ruan Mian would wonder—if she hadn’t hesitated those few seconds back then and had instead chosen to go straight downstairs, would many things afterward have turned out differently?

Unfortunately, by then it was already much later. She had lost contact with many people and was studying alone in a faraway place.

And Chen Yi had already gone to UC Berkeley. Separated from her by thousands of mountains and rivers, he had become her forever vivid and beautiful youth.

……

The bitter winter wind surged in from all directions. Ruan Mian took three steps for every one, but Chen Yi seemed to have endless things to discuss with Teacher Luo and never came out.

She walked to the stairwell entrance, planning to wait another five minutes. The window beside her trembled lightly in the wind, the glass making subtle sounds.

Five minutes passed. Chen Yi still hadn’t come out. Ruan Mian pulled her clothes tighter and prepared to go downstairs. Just then, someone came running up from below. The instant they brushed past each other, the person who had walked by called out to her.

“Ruan Mian?”

Her footsteps stopped. Borrowing the weak light to see the girl’s features clearly, her eyelid inexplicably twitched. “Sheng Huan?”

“Ah, it’s me.” Sheng Huan stomped her feet twice. The motion-sensor light above turned on. She walked down two steps. “Don’t you guys take your exam tomorrow?”

“Yes, tomorrow morning.” Ruan Mian raised her head. “Your art exam is over?”

Sheng Huan was an art student. This half semester she had been preparing for the provincial joint exam and individual school exams. Ruan Mian rarely saw her at school.

“The joint exam just ended two days ago. The school exams still have to wait a while.” Sheng Huan laughed: “Then do your best on tomorrow’s exam.”

Ruan Mian also smiled. “Okay, you too.”

Sheng Huan responded with an okay. Her right hand grasped her bag strap. Her face, free of makeup, was clean and pretty. “Then I’ll go up first. Be careful on your way back.”

Ruan Mian nodded. “Alright.”

The girl turned and walked upstairs. A bunch of charms tied to the side of her bag swung in the air, making clinking sounds. Ruan Mian instinctively looked up and glanced. Her breath suddenly caught.

Among that bunch of charms was a very small safety talisman—so small it was identical to the one Ruan Mian had seen every day during this time.

The motion-sensor light, not hearing any sounds for a long time, went dark again.

Ruan Mian gripped the handrail beside her tightly in the darkness. Her heart plummeted. She couldn’t even remember how she finished walking down that section of stairs.

The civic education building rarely had students moving about. When Ruan Mian reached the lobby, her solitary and distracted appearance quickly caught the attention of the teacher on duty at the entrance.

“Hey, student, are you okay?”

Ruan Mian reacted a beat slow before raising her head to look over. “I’m fine, thank you teacher.”

The duty teacher, holding a teacup, walked out and looked around: “If you’re fine, head back early. Don’t linger at school in such cold weather.”

“I understand.”

Ruan Mian walked down the steps. The bitter wind hit her face, a cold that seemed to drill into the cracks of her bones—so cold it made one want to cry.

Coming out of the civic education building, there were two large flower beds. When Ruan Mian reached the second one, she heard footsteps and voices coming from behind.

That voice was too familiar.

She instinctively hid in a nearby shadow. The boy walked hurriedly, not noticing anything unusual around him. The girl bouncing along beside him kept talking and laughing.

“Chen Yi! Wait for me! Why are you walking so fast!”

“Are you confident about tomorrow’s exam? Can you get the recommendation?”

“I heard from your classmates that you’re preparing to go abroad, right? Hey, if my joint exam results aren’t good, I’ll just go abroad too.”

“Which university are you planning to attend? I’ll see if my dad can spend some money to get me in too.”

“Chen Yi…”

“Chen Yi…”

……

The voices, along with the receding figures, gradually became just a blurred trailing sound. Ruan Mian walked out from the shadows, watching their distant figures. Her heart felt as if a hole had been drilled through it. Cold wind poured straight in. All her warmth became desolate and defeated in an instant.

That evening, Ruan Mian returned home in a daze. Zhao Shutang brought her milk on Fang Ruqing’s behalf. Seeing her complexion was off, she asked with concern: “Are you okay?”

Ruan Mian shook her head, picked up the milk and drank it all in one go. But because she drank too quickly, she accidentally choked. Lowering her head, she coughed violently several times. When she raised her head again, her eyes were red.

“Are you really okay?” Zhao Shutang, seeing her looking like she was about to cry at any moment, pressed her lips together and asked: “Are you worried about tomorrow’s exam? Teacher Zhou said everything just requires doing your best. Don’t worry too much either. Get some rest early.”

Ruan Mian rubbed the corners of her eyes. “Okay, I understand.”

“Then I’ll go out first.” Zhao Shutang looked back every few steps. After leaving the room, she stood at the door for a while, looking at the person sitting inside, then gently closed the door.

The long night was endless, sleep elusive.

Ruan Mian didn’t sleep well that night. When she got up in the morning, her eyes were still somewhat swollen. Afraid Fang Ruqing would notice something wrong, she repeatedly applied hot towels in the bathroom for over ten minutes.

When she came out, Fang Ruqing had already set breakfast on the table, saying with a smile: “Come eat breakfast quickly. After eating, Uncle Zhao and I will take you to the exam site.”

That day was Friday. Pingcheng had sudden heavy snowfall and roads in the urban area were closed. Zhao Yingwei’s car unexpectedly broke down on the way to the exam site. Fang Ruqing hurriedly got out of the car with Ruan Mian. After waiting by the roadside for a long time without flagging down a taxi, they finally found a traffic police officer directing traffic nearby who helped send them to the exam site.

By then, examinees were already entering. Ruan Mian saw several teachers who had come to see students off at the exam site entrance. Without saying much, she hurried inside.

Fang Ruqing didn’t arrive at the exam site until half an hour after the exam started.

Zhou Hai brought her to a temporarily constructed shelter in the waiting area. “You didn’t come with Ruan Mian this morning? How come I saw a traffic officer bring her?”

“Originally my husband and I were driving together to see her off for the exam, but unexpectedly, my husband’s car had problems on the road.” Fang Ruqing sighed: “And coincidentally, the urban area was closed off today. We couldn’t get a taxi and could only trouble public service personnel at the last minute.”

Zhou Hai smiled: “As long as she wasn’t late, it’s fine.”

“Yes, fortunately.” Fang Ruqing rubbed her hands together, suppressing the urge to pace back and forth in the shelter, and stomped her feet several times in place.

The waiting was agonizing.

At this time inside the exam room, Ruan Mian lowered her head writing furiously. All around was the sound of pen tips scratching across paper pages. Writing the latter half, she stared at the numbers on the exam paper in a daze for several minutes. It wasn’t until the proctor walked past her that she snapped back to attention and continued writing problems.

One exam lasted three hours, ending precisely at twelve o’clock. Ruan Mian rarely didn’t finish writing the last problem until the teacher said to hand in papers.

Merit and fault, by this point, had already become settled.

The commotion of collecting papers was somewhat chaotic. Ruan Mian sat in the classroom, lowering her eyes to look at the examinee information strip stuck to the corner of the desk. Her fingertips touched it, feeling it a few times.

After the proctor finished collecting papers and did a final count to confirm everything was correct, she said: “Everyone may leave now.”

The classroom immediately filled with the sound of benches scraping against the floor. Ruan Mian picked up her things and went downstairs caught in the flow of people.

She saw Yu Tian at No. 8 Middle School’s gathering point. The girl wore her book bag in front, chatting with a boy beside her about this exam’s problems.

Seeing Ruan Mian, she smiled and waved. When the person came closer, she asked: “Mianmian, can I ask you about your exam answers?”

Ruan Mian nodded and said okay, her gaze sweeping around the surroundings in a circle. She didn’t see Chen Yi.

“For the second small problem of the second-to-last question, what external torque did you calculate for the cube doing uniform rotation?” After Yu Tian finished asking, she also gave two answers—one was her own, the other was from the boy beside her.

After listening, Ruan Mian’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. “…Mine seems different from both of yours.”

“Ah, no way. It’s just one small problem, how did three answers come out already?” Yu Tian waved her hand. “Forget it, forget it. I’m not comparing anymore. The more I compare, the more panicked I get.”

Ruan Mian was stirred up to feel somewhat uneasy by her few words. She lowered her eyes and stood to the side recalling all her impressions regarding that problem.

After a while, No. 8 Middle School’s students finished gathering. The leading teacher led everyone out. Chen Yi was surrounded by classmates from his class.

Ruan Mian fell back two steps. Her gaze landed on the boy’s book bag. The safety talisman attached to the zipper swayed lightly as the figure moved.

The wind that day was very strong. She almost cried.

The days afterward returned to the normal rhythm of senior year. Before competition results came out, they still had to focus on preparing for the approaching final exams, and even the college entrance exam.

It was also during that time that suddenly many gossip rumors about Chen Yi and Sheng Huan appeared around school. Some said they saw Chen Yi and Sheng Huan at the movie theater in the city center on the weekend. Others saw Sheng Huan bring water to Chen Yi at the school basketball court in the evening.

In short, there were too many unsubstantiated things.

That morning, because Ruan Mian had forgotten to set her alarm the night before, she woke up half an hour later than usual. Arriving at school, she ran right into Wu Yan leading people to catch tardy students.

Under everyone’s gaze, Wu Yan couldn’t show her favoritism. Frowning, he jerked his chin to the side, indicating Ruan Mian should stand over there.

Ruan Mian was quite famous at school—good grades, good personality. She was an object of admiration for many underclassmen.

When she stood over, a junior girl even struck up conversation with her. As a result, Wu Yan caught them both, and each person received a warning glare.

“…”

“…”

The junior girl wasn’t willing to give up. After Wu Yan walked away, she asked in a small voice: “Senior, can I add you on QQ later?”

Ruan Mian smiled: “Sure.”

This group of tardy students stood outside for about half an hour. Near eight o’clock, Wu Yan finally relented and let them go.

As punishment, they had to be responsible for the school’s public areas’ cleanliness for a week.

The junior girl exchanged contact information with Ruan Mian. Walking to the fountain’s location, she waved at her and ran toward the first-year area.

Ruan Mian walked forward with several senior year classmates. When they reached the bottom of the teaching building, she saw Sheng Huan standing in the corridor at the entrance of the arts class near the stairwell, holding books and wearing her book bag.

The girl was listlessly shaking her head. Hearing footsteps around her, she looked up and saw Ruan Mian. She secretly greeted her: “Hi.”

Ruan Mian nodded at her and was just about to go upstairs when the girl called out to her again. “Ruan Mian.”

Her footsteps stopped. She raised her head to look over. “What is it?”

“Can you help me bring this to Chen Yi?” The girl pulled out two test papers and a notebook from her bag and handed them to her. “I originally wanted to wait until self-study period ended to bring them over, but I still have to go to the head teacher’s office to write a self-reflection, so I’m entrusting it to you. I’ll treat you to milk tea later.”

Ruan Mian took them. “Okay, no problem.”

A girl standing beside Sheng Huan touched her arm, reminding her in a low voice: “The teacher came out.”

Sheng Huan immediately stood up straight, using the book to cover half her face, but one could still see several parts of sincere smile in her eyes. “Bye-bye.”

Ruan Mian hummed in acknowledgment and walked in one breath to the second floor before suddenly stopping. The hand gripping the notebook used so much force that even her fingertips turned white.

She stood on the steps, lowering her head to look at the black notebook in her hand. As if making some huge decision, she slowly raised her hand to open the cover.

The title page only had one name written on it.

—Chen Yi.

Ruan Mian was more familiar with that handwriting than anyone. On how many nights had she practiced his penmanship on paper, writing down one “Chen Yi” after another like copies.

In an instant, various complex emotions surged toward her like tides—grievance, sadness, helplessness, all woven together.

Ruan Mian flipped back a few pages. Her vision gradually blurred. She hastily closed the notebook, raised her hand to wipe her eyes, and went to the restroom before returning to the classroom.

Teacher Zhao was watching Class 1’s morning self-study. When Ruan Mian went over, he stood at the door holding a teacup, joking: “Got caught by Teacher Wu, right?”

Ruan Mian’s face still carried undried moisture, the corners of her eyes tinged red. “Yes, got caught and was punished with a week of cleaning duty.”

Teacher Zhao’s smile was one of schadenfreude. “Alright, alright, hurry in.”

Ruan Mian returned to her seat. The notebook and papers in her hand caught Fu Guangsi’s attention. She tilted her head and asked: “What are you holding?”

“Things Sheng Huan asked me to give to Chen Yi.”

“Sheng Huan? Why didn’t she bring them over herself?”

Ruan Mian sniffled. “She seems to have to go to the head teacher’s office to write a self-reflection. Probably didn’t have time. I happened to pass by their class entrance, so she asked me to bring them over.”

“I see.” Fu Guangsi clicked her tongue lightly: “Hey, Mianmian, tell me—is that gossip about her and Chen Yi true or false?”

“…I don’t know either.”

Fu Guangsi shook her head and sighed, wishing she could personally go ask the two parties involved for clarity. Her gossip-loving heart simply couldn’t be contained.

After class ended, Chen Yi wasn’t at his seat. Ruan Mian placed the notebook and papers on his desk. Meng Xinglan came over and asked: “What’s that?”

Ruan Mian said: “A notebook and test papers Sheng Huan asked me to pass on to Chen Yi.”

Meng Xinglan casually flipped through them. The papers were Sheng Huan’s, the notebook was Chen Yi’s. She exclaimed: “Chen Yi really is tutoring her.”

Ruan Mian was stunned. “What?”

“Tutoring. Isn’t Sheng Huan an art exam student? This semester she’s been busy with the joint exam and school exams. She couldn’t keep up with cultural courses, so she asked Chen Yi to help tutor her.”

“I see.” Ruan Mian blinked, forcefully suppressing the sourness that was about to well up.

Competition results wouldn’t be announced until mid-to-late February. During this time waiting for results, the school organized several large-scale exams for the senior year.

Joint exams, school exams, and mock exams rotated through.

In the most recently concluded mock exam, Chen Yi, who had always firmly held first place in the grade, unprecedentedly dropped out of the top three ranks, tying for tenth place with a girl from Class 2.

His grades had always been stable and excellent. Since entering senior year, whether major or minor exams, he had always been first place. This regression surprised both teachers and classmates.

Even Yu Tian, who usually clung tightly to his scores, specifically came to Class 1 to find him. “Chen Yi, what happened to you this time?”

Previously, because she always ranked right after Chen Yi in every exam, Yu Tian had once been given the title “eternal second place” by grade-level teachers.

When she came to Class 1, it happened to be evening. Chen Yi stood at his seat, smiling lazily: “Small mistake. No need to make such a big fuss.”

Yu Tian shrugged her shoulders. “Whether we make a big fuss doesn’t matter. You need to think about how to explain this to your Teacher Zhou. He won’t believe this was a mistake.”

These words hit the mark.

That evening, Chen Yi was called to the office by Zhou Hai. Ruan Mian, who had gone to get test papers, went together. Arriving at the office, Zhou Hai gave the papers to Ruan Mian, praising her meaningfully: “You did pretty well this time. Both Chinese and English show improvement.”

Ruan Mian hummed. “Thank you, Teacher Zhou.”

Zhou Hai immediately turned his gaze to Chen Yi, pressed his lips together and frowned, his tone not very good: “So what’s going on with our grade’s first place this time? Don’t use ‘mistake’ to brush me off. Since entering senior year, you’ve taken so many exams—how come you only made a mistake this time? I think it’s because—”

Speaking to this point, Zhou Hai suddenly remembered there was still someone standing nearby. His words cut off abruptly. “That, Ruan Mian, you go back first. Distribute the papers to everyone and have them organize the wrong problems themselves first.”

“Okay.” Ruan Mian raised her head to glance at Chen Yi, turned and walked out of the office. She hadn’t gone far when she heard Zhou Hai’s voice coming from inside.

“Tell me, did you not do well this time because of that girl from the arts class?” Zhou Hai was probably quite angry and slammed the table forcefully: “Do you know what the school gossip has turned into? I didn’t look for you before because I believed you wouldn’t do anything out of line at this time. You’ve really disappointed me now.”

Chen Yi said: “Teacher Zhou, this matter has nothing to do with Sheng Huan. I didn’t do well because I’ve been preparing things for going abroad these past few days and haven’t rested well.”

Zhou Hai sighed. “Forget it, I don’t want to lecture you anymore either. Tomorrow I’ll go talk with her head teacher and ask how she’s been teaching her students. A girl, really…”

He sighed again.

The office was quiet for quite a while before Ruan Mian heard Chen Yi speak again: “Not doing well this time is my own problem. It has nothing to do with Sheng Huan, and nothing to do with her character either. I hope you…”

……

Later, Ruan Mian didn’t take in any more words. Crying, she finished walking that stretch of road and finally understood—whether someone liked you or not really had nothing to do with whether you were excellent or not.

Whether she was good or not also had nothing to do with others. As long as he could see that she was good, she would have already won.

—

**Author’s Note:** The safety talisman was given by Grandma. This is a misunderstanding.

This story is double C [both leads are pure].

I’m reading the comments. I understand and feel for you all. I know everything. But some things are unavoidable and can’t be escaped. It will get better.

Persist for at most 2 more chapters, and we can pretty much finish Volume 1. Thank you for liking it.