On Sunday afternoon’s break, Sheng Xia received a call from Brother Li, saying that since Teachers’ Day was approaching, Sheng Mingfeng had prepared gifts for her teachers and asked when would be convenient to deliver them.

Sheng Xia had no patience or fondness for such social obligations, and refused: “No need, the class is giving teachers gifts together.”

Sheng Xia rarely refused Sheng Mingfeng’s arrangements, so this response left Li Xu at a loss.

Shortly after hanging up, Sheng Mingfeng called.

“Do you feel the teachers are dedicated? How about we arrange a meal together, and invite all your subject teachers?”

Sheng Xia silently sighed, “The teachers are all great, but time is tight, they probably won’t have time for meals.”

“Oh…” Sheng Mingfeng pondered, “Alright then, you focus on studying, Dad will take care of everything else.”

“Actually…” You don’t need to do these things.

“What is it?” Sheng Mingfeng cut in, “If there are problems, you should bring them up right away. There are many things your kids don’t understand.”

“Nothing.”

“Really nothing?”

“Mm.”

“Well then, I heard you have monthly exams coming up. You just transferred, it’s normal if you’re not adjusted yet. Don’t worry too much about grades, don’t always listen to your mom, and push yourself too hard, understand?”

“Mm.”

After hanging up, Sheng Xia turned off her phone and put it in the drawer, packed her bag, changed into her uniform, and headed to school early for self-study.

She didn’t know when it started, but sitting at her desk in her room, she could no longer concentrate fully.

At school, at the bookstore, in public spaces that weren’t her own, she could focus better instead.

After aimlessly riding her bike around for a while, the weather was too hot, so Sheng Xia stopped wandering and turned into campus through the south gate.

Passing by the lecture hall, she found the usually quiet dome unusually lively. The exterior of the lecture hall was all mirrors, and now groups of people were practicing in front of them.

The affiliated school had a gala every year for Teachers’ Day, which served both as a Teachers’ Day celebration and a welcome party for new students. The main performers were first-year students, with second and third years contributing a few programs.

Sheng Xia unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure among the crowd, even though his black T-shirt was so dark and inconspicuous.

Zhang Shu sat on the ground, hands propped behind him. Probably because of the heat, he had rolled up his jeans slightly. His sneakers swayed back and forth making him look even more relaxed. His face was motionless, intently watching a girl in the center of the crowd.

The girl was dancing in front of the mirror, her tied-up T-shirt revealing a slender waist. Under her denim shorts, a pair of long legs were dazzlingly white. Her chestnut curls swung with her movements as she kept flipping them back…

Sheng Xia couldn’t see her face clearly but knew she was beautiful.

Very beautiful.

Probably the school beauty who was the female lead in that big melodramatic love triangle story Xin Xiaohe mentioned.

Sheng Xia twisted the handlebar and accelerated past the lecture hall.

…

Chen Mengyao was out of breath and dripping with sweat from dancing. “Take ten minutes, then we’ll start rehearsing from the second section,” she instructed, walking to the side to rest, standing right in front of Zhang Shu, looking at him with displeasure and resignation.

He came to watch her practice empty-handed. She wasn’t expecting milk tea, juice, or soda, but not even a bottle of water.

A junior boy nearby handed her a bottle of Pocari Sweat, “Mengyao, want some water?”

Chen Mengyao took it and handed it to Zhang Shu.

He was still sitting on the ground as before, while she stood above him. At this angle her legs looked long and straight – she had done camera training, she knew very well.

But Zhang Shu’s gaze wasn’t on her legs.

He was turning his head to look at the trees by the road, looking once, turning back, then turning to look again.

Chen Mengyao followed his line of sight, only seeing a lush green camphor tree-lined avenue, the road surface bleached white by the sun, empty of people.

“What are you looking at? More beautiful than me?”

Zhang Shu raised his head, dusted off his hands, and stood up, looking suspiciously at the Pocari Sweat she was offering, “I don’t want it.”

Chen Mengyao just wanted to roll her eyes – would someone please take away this handsome but destined-to-die-alone monk? Even if he were as handsome as Pan An she wouldn’t want him. “Help! Me! Open! It!”

Zhang Shu gave a light laugh as he took it, easily twisting it open while running his mouth: “Weren’t you just dancing with plenty of strength?”

Chen Mengyao wanted to pour the Pocari Sweat over his head!

“Can you not grow a mouth?”

Zhang Shu didn’t engage, handed the water back to her, and took out his phone to check the time, “I’m leaving first.”

Chen Mengyao called after him: “We haven’t gotten to the singing part yet, who’s going to guide us if you leave?”

“You, the all-around superstar.”

“Fine, you might as well not have come,” Chen Mengyao sometimes really couldn’t understand Zhang Shu, his hot and cold act was too refined, wasn’t it about enough?

“Shu-ge,” she called him again, “Will you give me flowers at the performance in a few days?”

Somehow, she was getting a bit impatient.

During these two years, she had many performances and received many flowers, but that bunch of peonies Zhang Shu gave her at the freshman welcome party remained the brightest in her memory.

Back then they had just finished military training. Zhang Shu only showed his face during the parade formations but had already attracted plenty of attention. His popularity wasn’t less than now, and girls often discussed him during late-night dorm talks.

And she received his flowers in front of everyone.

Chen Mengyao could still recall the moment she took the flowers – his focused gaze, her racing heartbeat, and the cheers and whoops from below the stage.

Her vanity was fulfilled just like that. For a long time afterward, she thought it was just vanity.

Zhang Shu’s steps didn’t pause as he left, not looking back just like that night at the birthday party, only waving his hand, “No money.”

Many junior students were watching, and though Chen Mengyao was drinking her beverage, she couldn’t taste anything.

…

There were surprisingly quite a few people in the classroom on Sunday afternoon. Sheng Xia still couldn’t match names to faces, but a few were familiar – Yang Linyu and his roommate Qi Xiulei. Qi Xiulei was the physics class representative, which was why Sheng Xia could remember him.

Day students rarely came to school during holidays, so Yang Linyu asked: “Sheng Xia, why are you here?”

Sheng Xia said: “Nothing to do at home, so I came over.”

“Bad timing,” Yang Linyu smiled showing his big white teeth, “Xin Xiaohe just went back to the dorm.”

“I see.”

“She’ll probably come back later.”

This Yang Linyu kept going on about Xiaohe this and Xiaohe that, ah…

Sheng Xia took out her exercise book, “You guys don’t go home on holidays either?”

Qi Xiulei said: “My home is too far, takes three hours round trip.”

“There’s nothing to do at home anyway,” Yang Linyu said, “We’re in senior year now, what holiday? Not everyone can be like Zhang Shu.”

Sheng Xia nodded in strong agreement: “Mm.”

Not everyone in senior year had the mood to watch girls dance and still rank first.

Sheng Xia checked the schedule – tonight was a math evening study. There was just enough time now to do a set of math problems, then she could ask the teacher questions tonight.

She had just prepared to time herself doing problems when she heard Yang Linyu and Qi Xiulei discussing a physics problem. She had gotten stuck on this problem when doing it at home, so she changed her mind, took out her physics exercise book, and went over to listen.

Qi Xiulei had just written out one formula when Yang Linyu slapped his forehead in sudden realization, “Ah ah, I get it! Damn, how did I not think of it, wujibayu it’s so simple!”

What exactly was “wujibayu”?

Sheng Xia had heard Zhang Shu “curse” her like this.

Yang Linyu returned to his seat to write it out himself, while Sheng Xia looked confused – how did he understand it with just one hint? Did this make her seem very useless?

Sheng Xia looked at Qi Xiulei a bit embarrassedly, “I still don’t understand, could you explain it to me?”

“Of course, start from the beginning?”

Sheng Xia sat in front of Qi Xiulei, turned around, and spread out scratch paper, “Mm.”

Qi Xiulei explained very thoroughly, even deriving the formulas from scratch, and telling Sheng Xia how to best memorize them.

While brainstorming, Sheng Xia couldn’t help thinking that the top students at the affiliated school were all very willing to share, and good at sharing. This was probably one reason why they were so capable. But even if she could solve problems herself, she wouldn’t be able to explain them. When would she be good enough to explain problems to others?

“Let me try solving it myself then.” Sheng Xia understood after listening but worried she’d only understood temporarily and would forget, still not knowing how to do it.

Qi Xiulei was very patient: “Okay, I’ll cover the answer.”

Their two heads were bent over Sheng Xia’s scratch paper when suddenly a shadow fell over them.

Sheng Xia was focused on solving the problem and didn’t notice, but Qi Xiulei looked up and bumped into the chin above them. He cried out in pain, rubbing his head, “Shu-ge what are you doing, scaring people!”

Sheng Xia’s pen paused, and she looked up too.

Zhang Shu straightened up, one hand rubbing his chin, the other ruffling Qi Xiulei’s head, or rather, roughing it up would be more accurate, “Don’t cry don’t cry, daddy will blow on it…”

Qi Xiulei exploded: “…grandson, get lost!”

Taking advantage of forms of address was the same whether the school was prestigious or not. At No. 2 High School, Sheng Xia often heard boys calling each other daddy and grandpa – she really couldn’t understand their sense of humor.

She shook her head and continued solving the problem.

Yang Linyu turned around to ask: “Shu-ge why are you here too?”

Qi Xiulei said: “That ‘too’ is very meaningful.”

Zhang Shu: “Just passing by.”

“Oh, you went to watch rehearsal?” Yang Linyu understood, “How are the programs this year, any pretty junior girls?”

Zhang Shu: “Didn’t notice.”

Yang Linyu said: “Then did you go watch for nothing?”

Zhang Shu didn’t deny it, “Was bored.”

Yang Linyu: “Why not come explain some problems to us then?”

“Oh,” Zhang Shu pulled over a chair, sprawling across the aisle blocking the way, “Any questions?”

Looking quite magnanimous.

Sheng Xia kept her head down, secretly pressing her lips together.

“Heh, as it happens, not really,” Qi Xiulei pointed at Sheng Xia, “Sheng Xia does, but you two sit together, she can ask anytime, right?”

Zhang Shu tugged at the corner of his mouth – heh, as it happens, she had never asked him, preferring to go far to seek what was near.

“Which problem?” Zhang Shu leaned in to look at her scratch paper.

But Sheng Xia quickly closed her notebook and stood up, “I solved it, I’ll go check the solution.”

After speaking she stood up, but Zhang Shu was sitting in the aisle blocking the way, so she had to detour around through the next seat to return to her seat.

Zhang Shu: …?

Was he plagued or something that made her so wary?

Qi Xiulei and Yang Linyu’s gazes darted between the two.

Qi Xiulei: “Did you bully her?”

Yang Linyu: “Xin Xiaohe won’t let you off.”

Zhang Shu also stood up, putting the chair back, “Boring, I’m leaving.”

All day Sheng Xia had been buried in math, her head spinning.

Unexpectedly during evening study, the math teacher handed out another self-made test, to be completed within an hour, then checked answers, with explanations Monday morning.

The questions were all challenging multiple-choice questions. Out of 15 questions, Sheng Xia got 7 wrong, barely over 50% correct. She glanced at Xin Xiaohe on her left, 4 wrong, Lu Youze diagonally behind, 4 wrong, Hou Junqi in front, didn’t finish, 6 wrong.

Was she about the same level as Hou Junqi?

Zhang Shu on her right…

No need to look, must be all correct because after picking up the red pen, he hadn’t made a single mark on his test paper. Sheng Xia knew he only marked wrong answers when grading, unlike her who would tick every correct answer.

“Waste of ink.” He had said before.

Since they weren’t allowed to lecture, the teacher just wrote answers on the whiteboard, telling them to first see if they could understand by looking at the answers themselves.

Sheng Xia couldn’t help biting her lip while thinking, biting until it almost turned white.

Suddenly a ball of paper appeared on her test paper, passed from the right.

She looked at Zhang Shu, he gestured for her to open it.

The teacher had his back to them writing on the board. Sheng Xia sighed softly but still opened it – it was a corner torn from scratch paper, torn quite casually.

There was a line of text: [Any questions?]

Sheng Xia wrote below: [?]

Then without folding it, passed it back to him.

Soon he threw it back, even folding it properly this time. Sheng Xia opened it again, it said: [You can ask me.]

Sheng Xia wrote: [No.]

Zhang Shu replied: [You understand everything?]

What did he mean, was she not allowed to understand?

Sheng Xia wrote: [Is that not allowed?]

Seeing these three words, Zhang Shu gave a short, soft laugh. Read in her tone, was gentle, but it seemed like arguing, which was rare.

Sheng Xia frowned at him.

With the impression of “arguing”, this expression looked like glaring at Zhang Shu, but he wasn’t annoyed at all, rather feeling quite pleased with being glared at. He lowered his head to write under her glare.

Seeing his mocking smile, Sheng Xia wrote: [Fine, of course, it’s fine, you’re the most capable.]

Zhang Shu replied: [If you don’t understand just ask me, don’t go embarrass yourself outside.]

Sheng Xia had no comment on this “bestowed favor”: [Oh.]