“What are you doing…” Being so tall, Zhang Shu made Chen Mengyao feel an unprecedented sense of pressure, causing her to step back slightly.

Zhang Shu shifted his gaze from the driveway to the beautiful face before him. After careful observation, he suddenly realized she looked nothing like Zhang Sujin. Zhang Sujin was never indirect; her gaze was always straightforward and forthright.

She only resembled Zhang Sujin when singing, especially when holding a guitar. Her posture and voice were identical. He could almost see what Zhang Sujin looked like in her youth, full of charm and grace.

That night during military training, she sang Zhang Sujin’s song – one so obscure it couldn’t be found anywhere.

The similarity in their voices was uncanny.

“I’m curious, why do you think I would be jealous?” Zhang Shu asked in return.

Chen Mengyao was startled by his sudden questioning tone. After freezing for two seconds, she replied, “I don’t pay attention to these things. It’s just what all my friends are saying.”

“Your friends? Who?”

Chen Mengyao hadn’t expected this interrogative approach. “I have so many friends, do you want me to list them all? Is that the point?”

Zhang Shu let out a light chuckle. “Did they also say I’ve been pursuing you since middle school, desperately pining for unrequited love?”

Chen Mengyao choked, sensing Zhang Shu’s unfriendly attitude tonight, unsure if she should pursue the topic further.

She had come to question why he hadn’t sent flowers, to hint that he could take things further. How had she become the nervous one? Sometimes she was utterly frustrated by Zhang Shu’s nonchalant demeanor – it was impossible to read and difficult to handle.

She chose to take a step back, adopting an equally casual expression and saying in a “can’t-you-take-a-joke” tone: “Zhang Shu, what exactly are you doing right now?”

Zhang Shu suddenly didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t good at handling these situations.

Usually, he treated all his friends the same, regardless of gender, though he was more polite when speaking with girls. He would occasionally make sarcastic remarks but wasn’t as uninhibited as he was with male friends.

So now, in this kind of “cards-on-the-table” conversation, he was a bit lost on how to proceed. He had never had such a frank discussion with a girl before. If he spoke too mildly, it wouldn’t be effective; if he spoke too harshly, he might hurt her feelings.

It was quite difficult!

He had never really cared about rumors since they hadn’t caused him any real problems. If he publicly refuted some claims, it would embarrass the girls involved. While this wasn’t important to him, it mattered to the girls. So he generally chose to ignore rumors.

But these rumors had become too exaggerated. If they spread further, he would end up being seen as some romantic legend.

Life was too short to be a romantic legend – he’d rather go on a pilgrimage to the West.

“Chen Mengyao, have I ever told you I like you or that I want to pursue you?” After much hesitation, Zhang Shu spoke directly, getting straight to the point.

Chen Mengyao was stunned and said, “What are you trying to say?” Indeed, he hadn’t. With his personality, if he liked someone, he would act directly – saying such things wouldn’t match his character.

Zhang Shu carefully considered his words in his mind and continued: “First, I don’t like you, so there’s no jealousy to speak of;

Second, I don’t know where these rumors about me pursuing you since middle school came from. If they bother you, I apologize first. If you enjoy them, I won’t embarrass you, but we must be clear that this is completely fabricated – we didn’t even know each other in middle school, right?

Third, you sing very well, and I hope you become a big star. I’ll even be your fan then, but that has nothing to do with liking you;

Fourth, I sent you flowers that time because you said a performance isn’t successful unless someone sends flowers. My sister said the same thing, and I thought it made sense. Peonies are my sister’s favorite, and I figured girls probably all like similar things. You seemed to like them too. Those flowers were expensive, at least expensive for me, so it wasn’t beneath you, right? Now you have so many people sending you flowers, you’re successful, so you don’t need mine anymore;

Fifth, I think the recent rumors are a bit ridiculous, so I didn’t send any this time to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. You’re confronting me late at night just because of your friends’ questions? Do I have to send you flowers? I’m really poor, sister!

Sixth…”

He was so focused on counting points that he failed to notice the girl before he had turned pale, her hands clenched into trembling fists.

“Enough, stop!” Chen Mengyao interrupted in a deep voice. She had already stopped listening after “we didn’t even know each other in middle school, right?”

Right?

Like hell!

And what’s with all the first, second, third, sixth? With such good speaking skills, why not study broadcasting?

Zhang Shu looked up, stopping his rambling.

How annoying – laying cards on the table was such a pain. He’d rather be making pancakes.

“So you’re saying you’ve never liked me?” The girl’s voice maintained its usual haughtiness as if Zhang Shu’s string of words hadn’t stirred any waves in her heart. She was just a proud swan questioning a tourist who had taken her photo but hadn’t offered any food.

“Yeah!” Zhang Shu nodded, not understanding why she suddenly had such a persistent look in her eyes. “Besides, it’s not like you like me either, so why care about this question? Or is it that, as a big star, you need everyone to like you?”

Chen Mengyao said, “They all say I’m too aloof with you. Is that true?”

Zhang Shu didn’t understand: “What?”

“Then if I say, let’s be together, would you still say you don’t like me?” Chen Mengyao took a deep breath.

What kind of logic was this? Zhang Shu irritably stood with his hands on his hips. “Aren’t you pursuing Lu Youze? What’s this about? Know he’s going abroad anyway, so quickly looking for a backup?”

“I…” Chen Mengyao suddenly became tongue-tied. “I’m not pursuing him anymore. I know you targeted him because of this before… anyway, that’s different, it’s all in the past. Do you want to be with me or not?”

Zhang Shu was completely bewildered. “Why should I be with you? No, wait, first let me clarify – I didn’t target him because you were pursuing him, it was because he provoked me, understand?”

Chen Mengyao asked in return: “Do you not like me?”

Zhang Shu threw up his hands, “Yeah, do I need to prove it?” Isn’t this too hurtful?

Following his gesture of throwing up his hands, Chen Mengyao suddenly moved closer, appearing as if she was about to fall into his embrace.

Zhang Shu, quick to react, pushed her shoulders away with both hands. His mind was blank now, with no prepared script left. Throwing caution to the wind, he blurted out: “I’ve never even had a wet dream about you, what do you think?”

“…”

Chen Mengyao froze. The surroundings became deathly quiet.

The evening breeze rustled through the camphor trees.

“Damn, aren’t you disgusting? I heard the rumors getting really out of hand, and I panicked. I still wanted to be friends, but if you liked me, we couldn’t even be friends anymore,” Chen Mengyao stepped back two paces, crossed her arms, and adopted a relaxed expression. “Fine then, no problem.”

Zhang Shu:?

By this point in the conversation, Zhang Shu understood the situation. After she came all this way to confront him like this, what was there not to understand? But since the girl chose to step back and preserve her dignity, he saw no need to grab onto loose ends and trample her pride underfoot.

Previously, Wu Pengcheng had told him that Chen Mengyao was very vain, both materially and spiritually, loving money and enjoying being surrounded by admirers. He hadn’t commented then – who doesn’t have some vanity? It seemed too harsh to evaluate a girl that way.

She just cared about face, let it be.

“I’m leaving.” Chen Mengyao turned around gracefully, waving her hand.

Zhang Shu stood in place, feeling the breeze. He checked his phone – it was almost 10 PM.

No wonder that coward walked through the residential area.

…

The first monthly exam arrived just like that, and this test held more significance for Sheng Xia than for other students.

It would gauge how well she had adapted to Fu Zhong.

In the week before the exam, Sheng Xia practically studied day and night, reviewing until very late each evening. Wang Lianhua had to urge her several times before she would go to sleep, and even in her dreams, she was surrounded by exam questions, almost becoming obsessed.

She inevitably felt drowsy during the day, so Sheng Xia brewed tea to stay alert.

She liked the fragrance of jasmine tea, so she brought some to school to brew. Once steeped, the aroma filled the entire classroom. Fu Jie came to her desk during break time and asked what brand it was.

Sheng Xia wasn’t sure either, only saying: “Bought it at home, I don’t know.”

Fu Jie praised: “Jasmine suits you well, fragrant and beautiful on every branch, both sweet-smelling and pure white, admired by all.”

This praise was too direct, making Sheng Xia a bit embarrassed. She smiled brightly at Fu Jie. She no longer blushed at every little thing. She was just slow to warm up to people but much better once familiar.

Across the aisle, Fu Jie’s words drifted into Zhang Shu’s ears. He mentally went through the lyrics of “Jasmine Flower”: What a beautiful jasmine flower, fragrant and beautiful on every branch, both sweet-smelling and pure white, admired by all, let me pluck you down, to give to someone else’s family…

Fragrant and beautiful, sweet-smelling and pure white, why give it to someone else’s family?

What strange wording and logic.

This song was really silly.

The exam proceeded just as Xin Xiaohe had described – two rows of seats were moved to the corridor, the remaining seats in the classroom were spread out a bit, and the exam began. Teachers just came to distribute the test papers, went about their own business during the exam, and didn’t supervise. They would return to collect the papers at the end – completely hands-off.

Fu Zhong teachers’ grading speed was no joke. Chinese was tested in the morning and math in the afternoon, and both subjects were graded by evening. The class representative already knew the scores, and Lu Youze told Sheng Xia: “You got first place in our class for Chinese.”

Sheng Xia was delighted, “Really? I thought I would do worse.”

“You’ve got this.” Lu Youze encouraged.

Sheng Xia returned a grateful smile, suddenly feeling more confident about other subjects. The next day’s English and comprehensive science tests felt more relaxed, and she found the difficulty level not too high. She had practiced several sets of Fu Zhong’s notoriously difficult past papers before the exam and felt this monthly test was only of medium difficulty.

But by the evening study session, her mood plummeted like a roller coaster, dropping to rock bottom.

All subject scores were out, and grade rankings were announced during the second evening study period. This speed perfectly exemplified the principle of immediate feedback.

Sheng Xia ranked 43rd in class, 9th from the bottom, and over 1,600th in the grade.

Her class ranking had improved by two or three places, but her grade ranking was far worse than before.

This indicated that she adapted better to joint exam papers than to Fu Zhong’s independently designed papers. This sounded bittersweet but was bad news. Everyone agreed that Fu Zhong’s independently designed papers were of higher quality than joint exam papers, and many well-connected students privately obtained Fu Zhong’s papers from after-school tutoring institutions for practice.

Sheng Xia had left her previous comfort zone and suddenly stepped into treacherous reality, taking this fall hard.

Even though she had mentally prepared herself beforehand, she still felt terrible.

Fu Zhong’s progress was at least one semester ahead of No. 2 High School. They had already completed the high school third-year content in the second year, would review it again during third-year supplementary classes, and after official school start, would begin the first round of review.

So Sheng Xia had spent her entire summer vacation catching up in tutoring classes, taking over 12 hours of classes each day.

After coming to Fu Zhong, her level of effort was completely different from her time at No. 2 High School, yet this wasn’t reflected at all in her grades. Especially in math – she had spent most of her energy on math during this period, yet barely passed the line with 91 points, ranking sixth from bottom.

This was her true level when not under pressure; who knows how much worse it would be with added nervousness.

Had nearly two months of effort just been self-delusion?

Her gaze fell on her delicate pencil holder and colorful water-based pens.

She was just a failing student with lots of stationery.

After the second evening study session ended, Sheng Xia was still looking at her test papers, organizing her mistakes, and showing no intention of leaving. Or rather, she didn’t even know the class was over – she hadn’t even heard the bell ring.

Zhang Shu noticed that throughout the entire evening study session, she unusually hadn’t taken a single sip of water or gone to the restroom.

Like a scanner, she kept her head down, repeatedly reviewing the test papers. She only lifted her head to check answers when teachers were showing solutions on the whiteboard.

She didn’t show any particularly intense reactions, but it was unusual enough.

Xin Xiaohe hadn’t noticed anything strange, only noting that Sheng Xia wasn’t going home yet, and asked: “Xia Xia, are you staying for the third evening study session?”

Sheng Xia looked up with an “huh,” as if just emerging from her world. She turned to look at the half-empty classroom, “Oh, I need to go home.”

Xin Xiaohe said: “Yeah, better not let it get too late when there’s no one on the road, it’s creepy. You head back, and if there are new solutions handed out, I’ll save them for you.”

“Mm, thanks.”

“You’re too polite, baby!”

As Sheng Xia was packing up, planning to take the test papers home for another look, a hand reached across the aisle and pulled away her math test paper.

Zhang Shu looked at her paper, then raised his eyes, “Want me to explain it to you?”

What’s he doing, giving that pitying look like she’s an idiot again?

Sheng Xia tried to take back the paper but couldn’t pull it free. She said softly, “Thank you, but not now, I need to go home.”

“I’ll walk you home later,” Zhang Shu said.

Sheng Xia’s eyes went wide, feeling the surroundings suddenly grow quiet.

Did he know what he was saying?