This was Sheng Xia’s first time sitting next to a male classmate in high school. Back at No. 2 High School, though they had mixed seating too, everyone liked to tease such pairs. She was worried about the same thing happening here.

During breaks, she particularly noticed that there were only three or four mixed-gender desk pairs in the class.

But throughout the day, there were no strange looks or weird teasing. Perhaps the class atmosphere was different – the students here didn’t care much about such things.

She and Zhang Shu got along without incident.

With the book cart occupying space between them, Zhang Shu usually faced outward, one leg casually stretched into the aisle.

Except for being physically closer, it wasn’t much different from when they were separated by an aisle.

Only when she needed to leave during breaks, she had to walk behind Zhang Shu. She couldn’t go without water for even one class period and needed frequent bathroom breaks, so she had to leave almost every break.

And he was almost always facing away from her.

So every time she needed to leave, she had to make some noise or call out to him.

The first time—

Sheng Xia: “Zhang Shu.”

He turned his head to look at her.

Sheng Xia: “I need to go out for a bit.”

He pulled his chair forward.

The second time—

Sheng Xia: “Zhang Shu, I’m going out for a bit.”

Without turning his head, he pulled his chair forward.

The third time—

Sheng Xia: “Zhang Shu, I…” need to go out.

Before she finished speaking, he pulled his chair forward.

Finally, she stopped saying much, just calling his name.

Zhang Shu, Zhang Shu, Zhang Shu…

After hearing the soft-spoken address all day, Hou Junqi couldn’t take it anymore. While Sheng Xia was out getting water, he turned around and raised his eyebrows, asking, “Shu, can you handle this?”

Zhang Shu didn’t look up: “What?”

Hou Junqi lowered his voice: “I think Sheng Xia’s no worse than Chen Mengyao, what do you think?”

Zhang Shu’s pen-spinning hand stopped, his eyelids lifting slightly, “If you like her, pursue her.”

Hou Junqi made a dismissive sound, appearing quite self-aware, “How could I? I’m talking about you!”

Zhang Shu threw a draft notebook at Hou Junqi’s face: “Mind your own business.”

–

Compared to her previous seat by the door, Sheng Xia was very satisfied with her current seat.

Next to the window, she could hear cicadas during the day and the rustling of camphor tree leaves at night.

It would be better if it wasn’t the cleaning supply corner outside – the brooms and mops spoiled the scenery.

Just as she was thinking this, that mop suddenly moved by itself…

Outside was pitch black, and suddenly the rustling leaves didn’t sound so pleasant anymore – the atmosphere became rather eerie.

Sheng Xia remembered the mop head she saw that day. A chill ran down her spine as she quickly pulled the window closed and shifted slightly inward, accidentally bumping her elbow against Zhang Shu.

Zhang Shu turned around to see the girl again almost trembling, her body leaning toward him as if hiding from something outside the window.

He looked up and saw the head crouching outside the window, with the mop head used as cover.

Zhang Shu laughed softly, his long arm reaching past Sheng Xia to open the window.

Sheng Xia quickly grabbed the arm in front of her, “Don’t open it, there’s something unclean out there…”

Zhang Shu: …

Hou Junqi who turned at the sound: …

The “unclean thing” Han Xiao outside the window: …

When Zhang Shu leaned over to open the window, they were already quite close, and now she was still grabbing his arm, her head timidly tucked near his chest, her loose hair brushing against his jaw…

A sweet fragrance entered his nose. Zhang Shu’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he kept his forearm still, bent his wrist, and pushed with his fingers to open the window wider, announcing flatly: “It’s already open.”

Then he indifferently withdrew his arm.

Han Xiao mechanically imitated AI: “Miss, sorry to disturb you, I’m looking for Zhang Shu. I just took a shower, so I should be clean enough.”

Hou Junqi clutched his stomach, rolling on the desk, “I’m dying of laughter!”

Sheng Xia turned her head to see a head peeking out from behind the mop – small eyes behind large glasses, not exactly handsome but human.

Not a ghost.

She glanced at the supervising teacher in the main corridor and understood – he was using the mop to hide from the teacher.

Embarrassing.

Rude.

Humiliating.

Sheng Xia felt her cheeks burning, and her hands burning too. She slowly lowered her still-suspended hand and lowered her head to continue working on problems, almost crouching over her desk to give space to the person outside the window and Zhang Shu, trying not to be in the way.

Though she couldn’t focus on the problems, she heard their entire conversation.

“What are you doing here again,” Zhang Shu said, “Can’t you come during the break?”

Han Xiao: “Sorry about scaring your deskmate?”

Zhang Shu: “What do you think?”

“Oh, really sorry about that,” Han Xiao didn’t dare laugh in front of his bro, holding it in and saying seriously, “Bro Shu, how about we just hang out nearby on Thursday, skip Milk, and play cards at the north gate?”

Zhang Shu: “What benefit did Zhou Yingxiang give you to work so hard for him?”

“It’s not that! Why would I care about him? We need to celebrate anyway, and Hou Bro said that thing about you being short on… you know…” Han Xiao was mindful of others present and changed tack, “Just said you haven’t been in a good mood lately, let’s play and relax. Besides, whoever plays cards with you is giving away money – you count cards like you’re cheating…”

Zhang Shu stared at Hou Junqi, who raised his hands in surrender, “That’s not fair, I didn’t say that, but Shu, come on, easy money from suckers, why not take it?”

“Besides…” Hou Junqi said in a low voice, “Chen Mengyao said she’d come deal cards for us.”

Zhang Shu said: “We’ll see.”

Not refusing meant agreeing. Han Xiao and Hou Junqi exchanged glances and happily left.

The mop head fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Sheng Xia knew the person outside had left.

She slowly straightened her back and continued working on problems as if nothing had happened, sitting properly, eyes straight ahead, but imperceptibly leaning closer and closer to the window.

Zhang Shu watched the girl trying to move inconspicuously, looking like she wanted to phase through the wall but didn’t know what she was imagining this time and couldn’t be bothered to guess.

Various scenes flashed through Sheng Xia’s mind.

Those magazines and CDs in his backpack…

Him taking money from the stationery store owner…

Him winning every hand at the gambling table…

The school beauty sitting beside him, dealing cards for him…

…

Her deskmate, a delinquent academic genius who “wore many hats.”

What a society!

–

Since being late for morning reading on the first day, Sheng Xia learned her lesson and started arriving at the classroom early at 6:30.

Several students were already there.

Instead of going straight to her seat, she turned to Xin Xiaohe’s desk, the second from the door, and handed her a cup, “Xiaohe, brown sugar ginger tea, for you.”

Xin Xiaohe listlessly looked up, her eyes filling with gratitude at these words, “Xia Xia, how did you know I was on my period…”

Sheng Xia smiled without answering this silly question, saying softly: “I made it this morning, it’s still very hot. I always start drinking it two days before, then there’s no pain. Is your cycle exactly one month?”

Xin Xiaohe said: “Not super regular, about twenty-eight or twenty-nine days.”

Sheng Xia: “How many days does it usually last?”

Xin Xiaohe: “Five days.”

“Then I’ve got it figured out,” Sheng Xia said, “Since it’s not convenient for you to make it in the dorm, I’ll remember the dates and make it for you two days before from now on.”

“Don’t bother, Xia Xia, that’s too much trouble. The hot water bottle works fine.”

“It’s no trouble, I use a health pot to brew it.”

This time Xin Xiaohe felt like crying, “Wuwu fairy, Zhang Shu doesn’t deserve…”

Sheng Xia: “Huh?”

“Nothing…” Xin Xiaohe shook Sheng Xia’s arm, “I hope this week passes quickly, next week you’ll be my deskmate again!”

Sheng Xia said: “I hope so too!”

Xin Xiaohe said: “If Zhang Shu bullies you, call me!”

Sheng Xia smiled sweetly, “Okay!”

“I’ll beat his dog head in!”

“Mm!”

The two girls were caught up in their conversation. Lu Youze sat right behind Xin Xiaohe, originally focused on memorizing vocabulary, but now he couldn’t help smiling slightly.

Did they think they were being quiet?

He looked up to see Sheng Xia had already left. His gaze unconsciously followed her figure until she sat down, then slowly withdrew.

–

For the first composition class of the semester, the whole class groaned.

Nobody wanted to write compositions, much less grade their deskmate’s work.

This was Teacher Fu Jie’s teaching habit – double period composition class, the first period for writing, the second period for grading, then explanation, and finally submission. Fu Jie would grade both the compositions and the peer reviews.

Writing poorly wasn’t acceptable, and grading poorly wasn’t either.

It was a material-based composition, mentioning many famous figures creating great achievements in the tide of the times, with keywords being “era” and “hero.”

Standard difficulty material, non-prescribed topic, leaving lots of room for development.

This kind of current affairs material wasn’t hard to write – it didn’t need too detailed emotions, leaning more toward overarching theory. It was good for argumentative essays, and Sheng Xia started writing after brief consideration.

Zhang Shu remembered Wang Wei praising her compositions to high heaven, and after reading the materials and writing a title, he glanced at her paper.

Wow, she’d already written the introduction!

Setting aside everything else, her handwriting was truly beautiful. Unlike her gentle and shy demeanor, her characters were vigorous and powerful, the ink showing through the paper, overall very imposing.

Title: “No Era of Heroes, Only Heroes of the Era”

Zhang Shu looked at his paper again.

Title: “The Era of Heroes”

…

If she hadn’t written first, he would have suspected she was deliberately contradicting him.

Their eight characters were incompatible – damn it.

Forty minutes for one composition, not many could finish. After class ended, quite a few people were still writing furiously. Sheng Xia checked her paper, folded the composition paper neatly, and went out to get water.

This time, just as she picked up her water bottle before she could speak, Zhang Shu’s chair very proactively moved forward.

Sheng Xia paused for a moment, passed behind him, and said “Thank you.”

As soon as she left, Hou Junqi turned around and snatched her composition paper, opening it and exclaiming: “Holy shit, is this printed… How does this title sound so philosophical? ‘The wheels of history roll forward, the tide of the times surges on’ – this opening… Shu, have you seen this? It’s amazing, should Lu Youze abdicate the throne?”

Zhang Shu: “Is it that good?”

“It’s really good!” Hou Junqi didn’t know anything about composition writing, and just said, “Anyway, it’s awesome.”

Zhang Shu: “Heh.”

The second period was for grading – those who couldn’t finish were treated as incomplete. In exams, if you can’t finish a composition in 55 minutes, there’s no hope of getting a high score.

When Sheng Xia got Zhang Shu’s composition, she paused for two seconds.

“The Era of Heroes” – well… not exactly off-topic, he’d grasped the keywords, just the thesis wasn’t very elevated.

This thesis didn’t align with the historical materialism hidden in the materials.

His writing style was mediocre, the examples cited were just passable, a bit like rehashed content, as if copied from “Middle and High School Composition Materials,” lacking freshness. However, the structure was clear, with five paragraphs in three parts, very safe but also meant it would be hard to get a high score.

Sheng Xia wrote her comments: Neat presentation, logically consistent, appropriate citations, would be better with more current supporting evidence.

After writing, she repeated it to herself.

Should be tactful and accurate enough, right?

Her gaze shifted slightly toward him – he had just finished reading and was writing his comments.

With a flourish of his pen, he left four characters: “Don’t understand but feels awesome.”

Sheng Xia: …