Sound character, independent development, patriotic sentiment, global vision.

If one could become such a person, youth wouldn’t be wasted.

Sheng Xia silently recited these phrases, feeling a sudden surge of what could be called “awe” in her chest.

Or perhaps it should be called resonance.

“Wow, did Zhang Shu write this or did you write it, Xia Xia?” Xin Xiaohe marveled.

Sheng Xia recalled that line “someone told me…” and felt slightly embarrassed, but the main theme was his own. “He wrote it.”

“Really? Not copied?”

Um…

The initial version was, but later he wrote it himself, basically just referencing some speech logic and expression methods.

“It’s not copied.”

Xin Xiaohe was shocked: “Three days away makes one see anew – truly just three days, just these three days of break, and Zhang Shu could transform into a model youth? Please give us more breaks!”

After the flag-raising ceremony, the crowd moved from the plaza toward the teaching building. First and second-year students had to pass the senior building to return to class, and Class 6 was on the ground floor at the very edge. Other senior classes also had to pass Class 6 to go upstairs.

So Sheng Xia and the others in the classroom listened to passing students discussing Zhang Shu.

Especially the first and second years, their voices full of admiration and curiosity.

“Zhang Shu is so good-looking.”

“When that face appeared on the big screen, I thought they’d switched to some talent show…”

“Only lost three points in science, scary…”

“Do people like this exist? Which window did God close?”

“Hey, this is their class, look.”

“It’s a parallel class…”

Xin Xiaohe listened quietly, sighing: “Sharing in the glory, huh? Has Zhang Shu become famous now?”

Sheng Xia nodded: “Seems so.”

Classmates gradually returned, everyone seeming to be in good spirits, perhaps just as Xin Xiaohe said – sharing in the glory.

Zhang Shu was practically surrounded, arms around shoulders as they approached from afar.

Besides Class 6 students, some had been squatting by the window that day.

Reaching Class 6’s corridor, none of them left, just crowding onto the two tables in the hallway, joking and teasing, their laughter almost lifting the ceiling. Everyone passing by turned to look.

“Awesome, Brother Shu! Reading that kind of speech so naturally, who wrote it? Come clean, they’re talented!”

“It was written by Shu himself, I can testify.”

“Really? I don’t believe it. If he wrote this, I’ll walk on my hands!”

Zhang Shu’s mouth twitched, smiling triumphantly, “Even if you peed while walking on your hands, your Brother Shu still wrote this speech.”

“Hahahahaha! Shu, can you try to maintain your idol image?”

“Shu? Nice! Didn’t expect you to be so positive!”

Zhang Shu: “When have I ever been crooked?”

“I believe you’re straight, but why do I feel uneasy about you being this proper? Being useful to the country and world, marching forward with revolutionary spirit – a proper red youth, awesome!”

“Awesome, awesome! I’m uncultured, just awesome!”

“Hahaha!”

“Shu,” Liu Hui’an caught a loophole, “That stuff about being useful to the country and world, wasn’t that something someone told you? Who said it?”

“Yeah!” Wu Pengcheng also realized, “And that part about if ordinary, at least be a good person – isn’t that talking about me? Feeling targeted.”

Hou Junqi argued: “It’s ‘at least’, at least be a good person!”

“Right, right, right.”

Zhang Shu laughed, “How did I not know you all listened so carefully? Even parsing words now.”

“Of course, depends on whose brother is giving the speech up there.”

“I dare say this morning was the most attentively everyone’s ever listened to a flag-raising speech, not just us, right?”

Zhang Shu cut them off: “Alright, alright, enough praise, disperse now, you’re blocking the way.”

Their group was too eye-catching; many who would have passed through Class 6’s corridor took a detour across the lawn.

“Quick, tell us who said it!”

“Why keep it secret?”

“Made it up! Made it up, okay?” Zhang Shu continued shooing people away. “Quick, leave, don’t make trouble at our class. If you don’t go, want to demonstrate that handstand?”

“Tch~”

“Fame’s made his temper big, hard to serve now!”

“Hahaha!”

The boys left pushing and shoving, looking back repeatedly, their laughter echoing through the corridor.

Young people had endless energy to expend.

Zhang Shu entered the classroom, still being teased by several boys. He brushed them off with a few words, came to his seat, pulled out his chair, and sat down, grabbing his water bottle to gulp water.

Speaking for so long had left his mouth dry.

Classmates passing his seat all looked at him with smiles, expressions either appreciative or teasing. Zhang Shu maintained his water-drinking posture, occasionally nodding in response, his gaze slowly moving to the person beside him.

His desk mate was quite calm, showing no reaction.

Shouldn’t it count as pleasant cooperation?

Sheng Xia had no attention to spare for these things.

Just now when she bent down to look for her workbook on the middle shelf, her gaze inadvertently fell on his open backpack hanging on the chair – inside was a pair of sports knee pads.

Unless he happened to buy the same model, those were the ones she gave him, and judging by the elasticity, they’d been used.

Had he opened them already?

Had he seen them?

Why didn’t he have any reaction?

Was he very angry?

Did he know they were from her?

A string of questions flashed through Sheng Xia’s mind like electricity, each question bringing a burst of mental fireworks – almost burning her eyebrows.

Sheng Xia kept her head down, her profile showing pale lips.

“Are you sick?” Zhang Shu asked.

Sheng Xia looked up at him, “Ah, no.”

Her voice sounded unnatural.

Zhang Shu put down his water bottle, reaching with the back of his hand to her forehead – cool?

But Sheng Xia suddenly stood up at his action, her lips even paler, “What, what are you doing?”

Originally the surroundings were bustling and no one had noticed them, but now even Xin Xiaohe, Yang Linyu, and Lu Youze looked over. “Xia Xia? What’s wrong?”

Xin Xiaohe looked at Zhang Shu with questioning, interrogating eyes.

Zhang Shu was also confused – he’d been too abrupt just now, his hand moving faster than his brain. But she seemed to have been trembling even before that.

Because she normally had rosy lips and fair skin, and her skin was so fine and translucent, any change in complexion was very obvious.

Just now she looked like someone who’d just come out of an ice cellar…

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhang Shu ignored Xin Xiaohe, insistently asking Sheng Xia.

His reaction to her – he probably didn’t know they were from her.

Sheng Xia finally realized her reaction was excessive. She shook her head and sat back down, “Nothing, I… have a stomach ache.”

She could only use girls’ universal excuse to brush it off.

Everyone understood – for a shy girl like Sheng Xia, this kind of reaction was normal, so they stopped crowding around to avoid embarrassing her further.

Xin Xiaohe came to her and asked: “Should I get you some hot water?”

Sheng Xia said: “No need, Xiaohe, I still have water, thank you.”

Xin Xiaohe still looked at her worriedly – wasn’t she fine just now?

“Call me if you’re not feeling well.”

“Okay.”

Then Xin Xiaohe said to Zhang Shu: “Keep your distance from her, don’t touch the fairy.”

Zhang Shu was unusually speechless: …

During the next two classes, Sheng Xia felt a kind of care called “don’t touch the fairy” from Zhang Shu.

He barely spoke to her, sat far away, and would look at her whenever she made the slightest movement. That look – as if afraid she would suddenly stand up again.

She dropped her pen and was about to bend down, but he had already reached for it, saying as he handed it to her: “You’d better not move.”

Sheng Xia: …

Not necessary.

Now she was the one feeling guilty.

She didn’t have a stomach ache – she was like a player soliciting sympathy.

Finally making it to dismissal, she had just picked up her tray at the lunch program when she saw Zhang Shu and Hou Junqi enter one after another.

With the first and second years starting school, the lunch program was also crowded.

Sheng Xia got her food and saw a table with two girls already seated. She carried her tray over and asked softly: “Classmates, is anyone sitting here?”

The two girls were taken aback – there was an empty table next door.

“No.”

“May I sit here?”

“Of course.”

Sheng Xia sat down.

Zhang Shu and Hou Junqi passed by with their trays. Hou Junqi made a surprised sound, greeting: “Little Sheng Xia?”

Sheng Xia silently sighed where he couldn’t see – couldn’t he pretend not to see her?

“Mm?” She looked up.

“Come sit with us?” Hou Junqi said, looking back while walking.

Sheng Xia said: “No need, I’m almost done.”

Hou Junqi glanced at her barely-touched tray, “You’re eating this little?”

Sheng Xia: …

Zhang Shu had already sat at the next table, looking exasperatedly at Hou Junqi, “So concerned, why don’t you go help her eat?”

Hou Junqi finally sensed the atmosphere and shut up, sitting down to focus on his food.

The two girls at Sheng Xia’s table looked at each other, then at Sheng Xia, seeming to want to speak but holding back.

Sheng Xia met their gaze, and one girl gathered her courage to ask softly: “Classmate, do you know Zhang Shu?”

Sheng Xia felt this wasn’t a good topic, but still nodded honestly, “Mm.”

The girl’s eyes lit up, “Do you have his QQ?”

Sheng Xia understood – this was the aftermath of someone’s showing off this morning.

She shook her head, “No.”

The lie felt insincere, but she didn’t want to invite trouble.

The girl looked disappointed, “Oh well.”

The other girl consoled: “He looks aloof anyway, but this also shows his social circle is clean, right?”

Sheng Xia ate silently, thinking: If she had his QQ, would that make him not clean? Did she look like some delinquent girl? What kind of logic was this?

The auntie came over then with three bowls of brown sugar egg rice wine, “From our boss for the girls.”

Not just the three of them – all the girls in the store received it. Everyone was pleasantly surprised, some turning to thank the boss, who smiled gracefully, “Start-of-term benefit!”

Some boys pretended to cry: “What about us?”

The boss said: “Boys should be raised poor, plain water is fine.”

“Next life I’ll be a girl.”

The girl opposite mumbled: “Though it’s thoughtful, why serve this in such hot weather? Watermelon juice would be so much better…”

The other said: “Right?”

Sheng Xia just felt having any benefit was good. She took a spoonful of the wine – warm and sweet.

After lunch break, Sheng Xia had put the morning’s events out of her mind. Her whole mental state lifted in the afternoon. Seeing her good recovery, Zhang Shu wondered: After hurting so badly this morning, one bowl of rice wine was this effective?

Girls were truly mysterious creatures.

During the break, Xin Xiaohe came to check on her, “Xia Xia, are you feeling better?”

Sheng Xia paused, remembering she had lied to her friend, guilt rising in her heart.

Her cheeks turned pink, her eyes rippling with moving waves as she transformed guilt into gratitude: “Much better, thank you so much.”

Xin Xiaohe’s round eyes widened: What was she thanking her for?

Zhang Shu frowned and turned his head: ???? What was she thanking her for?