It wasn’t as if Sang Ru had never seen Zhou Tingzhao blush before.

That time, she had suddenly challenged him to a video game competition, sitting beside Zhou Tingzhao while facing the screen. She played with great enthusiasm, her fingers moving quickly over the controller until both of them were completely absorbed in the game. As she continued, her excitement grew, too. She shifted position, asking him to give her some tips.

Zhou Tingzhao thought she was too far away, so he moved closer to show her the right button combinations, his hands briefly guiding hers on the controller.

Sang Ru only felt his presence nearby, but then nothing happened for a long time. She paused the game, her voice showing her impatience: “Hurry, help me…”

Zhou Tingzhao neither agreed nor refused, only telling her in a calm voice to “keep playing” as he watched her character moving across the screen, becoming more confident with each moment.

Sang Ru heard Zhou Tingzhao laugh once, then tease: “So competitive.”

Before she could retort, he suddenly showed her a secret move in the game.

His guidance was very helpful—Sang Ru smiled, her expression brightening as she excitedly said “wow,” and he continued showing her the tricks.

Zhou Tingzhao could even multitask at times like this, playing his character while guiding hers. The challenge was difficult and the game complex, making Sang Ru’s fingers ache a little from pressing the buttons.

She couldn’t help but lose focus, her character almost losing the match. Zhou Tingzhao just encouraged her and continued coaching. After a while, Sang Ru turned to look at him. His face was flushed, probably from the excitement of the game, looking happy and somewhat… cute?

Sang Ru had said so aloud, which led to him challenging her to another round and enthusiastically teaching her more advanced techniques for a while.

Zhou Tingzhao paused, suddenly switching to showing her some character customization options. Her game character had been customized until it was perfectly styled. He pointed to the different outfit choices and said in an enthusiastic voice: “Next time, shall we try designing our game level?”

What had her reaction been then? Oh right, she had excitedly agreed, only to find that making game levels was much harder than she expected, and they spent hours working on it together.

Sang Ru’s thoughts wandered to these fun, innocent memories. Looking at the somewhat serious and focused Zhou Tingzhao before her now, she felt inexplicably curious. Even though she had spent time with him before, now it felt like she was meeting a different version of the boy she knew.

Zhou Tingzhao returned to his seat, and Sang Ru continued calling names.

“Xue Lu.”

130, oh, and I got 145.

Sang Ru smiled as she handed the test paper to her.

She didn’t know where this competitive spirit came from, but yesterday, more precisely, during that study session before she mysteriously returned here, Zhou Tingzhao had casually replied to a text message while helping her with homework. She had seen the contact name: Xue Lu.

It annoyed her, greatly annoyed her.

She had looked at Zhou Tingzhao’s phone with curiosity and asked: “Text messages or study with me, choose one.”

Zhou Tingzhao had stared into her eyes for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said: “You.”

Despite this, Sang Ru was still annoyed.

She had been Zhou Tingzhao’s study partner for over a month. Perhaps students are creatures that easily develop friendships—at any rate, she had begun to enjoy his company, but while becoming friends with him, she discovered that he seemed to act the same with everyone.

He could be friendly with her or with others, appearing to accept anyone who came along.

Especially Xue Lu.

Right, she had liked Zhou Tingzhao since the beginning of high school. If everyone knew, did Zhou Tingzhao know as well? What kind of relationship did they have now?

Sang Ru suddenly regretted not asking Li Chenfei about Zhou Tingzhao’s friendship history.

But regardless, for the sake of her future self, she should first become friends with the seventeen or eighteen-year-old Zhou Tingzhao.

Sang Ru returned to her seat, looking at her high-scoring paper but unable to smile.

The entire paper was complete except for the last part of the final big question, and everything else was correct. However, these problems were too distant from her now. Even though the score was high, it was the achievement of her past self, having nothing to do with the twenty-six-year-old Sang Ru.

Old Zheng’s explanations skipped around, but thankfully, her foundation was solid. Sang Ru could keep up fairly quickly; her reactions to certain knowledge points were almost like muscle memory.

At this moment, Sang Ru was immensely grateful that she had truly studied hard back then. By the end of the class, she had reviewed quite a few key points.

After class, the classroom didn’t become much noisier. Most students were either still reviewing their papers, doing homework, or resting. The few who were conversing kept their voices low.

Recalling Li Chenfei’s mention of the approaching first mock exam, Sang Ru felt a bit anxious.

She had some memory of this exam—it was almost her worst performance throughout senior year. At the time, she had been in a slump for a long while after dropping nearly twenty places.

Though she hadn’t done well, she couldn’t make things even worse for herself.

Old Zheng hadn’t yet covered the last big question. Sang Ru stared at that blank space for a long time before making a decision.

She stood up and walked to the last row, giving Zhou Tingzhao’s deskmate a polite smile.

“I have an academic question to discuss with your deskmate. Could I switch places with you for a bit?” Sang Ru quickly searched her memory for his name and asked gently, “Yang Fan?”

The tall boy immediately blushed furiously, stammering out a “yes.”

However, even after Sang Ru sat down, Zhou Tingzhao didn’t glance at her once, focused on solving a problem. Sang Ru looked over physics.

“Zhou Tingzhao,” Sang Ru poked his arm, leaning in slightly closer, and said softly, “There’s a question I don’t understand. Could you teach me?”

Zhou Tingzhao finally spared her a glance. They looked at each other for a few seconds. Sang Ru pouted and finally heard him say: “Which one?”

Sang Ru smiled.

Friendship and good grades—she could have both.