Even on the weekend, Zhang Shu was still slaving away for Wang Wei. If they didn’t order the class uniforms by next week, it would be too late. Wang Wei was practically hounding him morning and night. Zhang Shu didn’t have professional design software at home – that stuff required payment, and it wasn’t worth buying just for one use. Hand-drawn drafts couldn’t be printed either. When Zhang Shu casually mentioned this in the group chat, Zhou Yingxiang volunteered, saying his relative owned a small advertising shop nearby and could take Zhang Shu there.

So on this scorching day, Zhang Shu went to work at the shop. After a busy afternoon, he finally finished the design and sent it to Wang Wei. Zhang Shu stretched lazily while Zhou Yingxiang flattered him from the side: “Brother Shu, you can do this stuff too? That’s awesome!”

Hou Junqi played games nearby, smiling to himself – so this was what it felt like to watch someone else brown-nose.

Zhang Shu said, “I was forced into it.” Wang Wei was such a cheapskate – there were plenty of designers on Taobao, but he wouldn’t spend the money, insisting on exploiting him instead.

“With my brain, even force wouldn’t work,” the three walked out of the advertising shop as Zhou Yingxiang said, “Brother Shu, want to grab a bite?”

“Too hot, I’ll pass,” Zhang Shu refused, then reconsidered – someone had just helped him, he couldn’t just leave them hanging like this. “Actually okay, let’s get some ice cream, my treat.”

“Let me treat, let me!” Zhou Yingxiang said.

Zhang Shu replied: “Then never mind.”

“Fine fine, you treat.”

Hou Junqi said: “Shu, weren’t you going to buy a necklace for your sister? Get Old Wang to reimburse you for this meal.”

“Him?” Zhang Shu snorted coldly. “Better to ask him to give the girls more money for dresses.”

“Hahaha, what a cheapskate!”

Zhou Yingxiang was confused: “What necklace? What dresses?”

Zhang Shu didn’t answer him, suddenly stopping in his tracks.

Zhou Yingxiang almost crashed into Zhang Shu’s back.

“What’s wrong, Brother Shu?”

Hou Junqi also stopped, sharing Zhou Yingxiang’s confusion. Then they followed Zhang Shu’s line of sight.

Across from the advertising shop’s entrance, a white electric scooter was parked in the roadside shade. A girl in the Fu Zhong school uniform was hunched over it, her shoulders trembling slightly.

They were too far away to hear anything, but her posture made it clear – she was crying.

Zhang Shu frowned, rolled up the sample drawings in his hand, stuffed them into Hou Junqi’s arms, and strode toward the roadside.

“Hey, Brother Shu?” Zhou Yingxiang started to follow but was yanked back by Hou Junqi. “Stop right there!”

Zhou Yingxiang looked questioningly at Hou Junqi. “No ice cream then?”

“Fuck your ice cream.” Stupid people were so frustrating.

“Who is that?”

“Your Brother Shu’s goddess.”

“Huh? Not Chen Mengyao?”

“Idiot.”

“…”

Sheng Xia was bent over, tears falling onto the scooter’s footboard. Crying itself required lung capacity, and she was having trouble breathing. She slowly straightened up, but having forgotten she was leaning on the front of the scooter when her hand slipped, the vehicle wobbled dangerously.

A flash of panic crossed her mind, but before she could react, someone grabbed her arm while steadying the scooter’s front.

She looked up to find a face both familiar and strange in her blurry vision.

Familiar because it was the face she’d seen daily for over two months.

Strange because of his expression.

Gone was his usual cool, laid-back demeanor. His brows were furrowed, his eyes filled with emotions she couldn’t describe.

“You…” she began, but a sob caught in her throat from being hunched over so long. Her shoulders shuddered as tears streamed down her cheeks in crystalline trails.

Sheng Xia felt embarrassed about this tearful hiccup.

Zhang Shu just found those tears irritating.

Without thinking, he raised his hand, brushing his knuckles across her cheek, feeling the wetness.

This time Sheng Xia had neither the time nor presence of mind to dodge. She stared at him blankly, gradually coming to her senses.

How long had she been crying? This wasn’t school, was it? Why was he here? When did he arrive? Why was he touching her without permission again?

“Just passing by,” Zhang Shu said.

Sheng Xia looked at him with panicked eyes, then around at their surroundings. Seeing few people about, her gaze returned to Zhang Shu’s face.

How did he know what she was thinking?

Zhang Shu was amused by her reaction and reminded her: “I don’t have any tissues, so stop crying.”

Sheng Xia sniffled and pulled tissues from her backpack, carefully wiping away her tears. When she looked up again, her face was clean as before, though her eyes remained red and glossy.

The redness was jarring.

Zhang Shu shifted his gaze slightly and asked, “Are you heading to school?”

Sheng Xia nodded. Her breathing was still rapid from crying, her nose sniffling, making her look particularly pitiful.

“Why so early?”

“To study.”

Zhang Shu checked his watch. “It’s almost 5 PM. You’re going to study without eating?”

She had planned to grab something near the north gate, or maybe just buy bread from the supermarket. But that was too much to explain, so she just said: “Not hungry.”

“It’s so hot, and I didn’t bring my bike. Want to get food together?” he said, making a show of fanning his face.

Sheng Xia’s round eyes widened. “Together?”

“Not okay?”

“I… no need, I bought snacks,” she made up an excuse.

Zhang Shu gave a short laugh. “What snacks? Lollipops or gummy bears, orange soda or Want Want milk?”

Sheng Xia was still internally grumbling about how annoying his laugh was when she suddenly froze.

She stared at him, confused and shocked.

What did he mean?

Did he know everything?

What should she say?

“You stuffed a law book in my hands and thought you could appease me with those snacks?”

He did know!

The air stood still for half a minute.

“I’m sorry,” Sheng Xia’s mind went blank, completely losing her ability to think. She could only go along with it.

Zhang Shu said: “I won’t accept unless…”

“Hmm?”

“You treat me to a meal,” he said.

Zhou Yingxiang and Hou Junqi, still lurking by the advertising shop’s door, exchanged bewildered looks.

They were shocked enough to see their usually arrogant friend gently wiping away a girl’s tears.

Then they watched as the two talked about something, the girl got off her scooter, Zhang Shu got on, the girl sat behind him, and the electric scooter drove away.

Just abandoning them like that.

Standing up their ice cream plans.

Zhou Yingxiang was quite annoyed.

If he knew the person who had just complained about it being too hot to eat was now scheming to get someone else to have a meal, he would probably have been furious.

Sheng Xia once again sat behind him, and this time he was more skilled, starting and accelerating smoothly.

She didn’t dare speak behind him anymore.

Zhang Shu felt the wind at his back, knowing she was probably keeping a ten-foot distance from him. He smiled helplessly, remembering how after agreeing, she had added, “Can we not eat near school?”

Was she that afraid of being associated with him?

Zhang Shu rode through Nanli University’s east gate.

Sheng Xia asked from behind, “Are we eating here?”

Zhang Shu nodded, “There’s a good tonkatsu ramen place inside.”

“Oh, okay.”

Japanese food – she actually quite liked it.

The restaurant was in the sunken plaza below the university’s student activity center. They had to park above and walk down.

Zhang Shu wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and white sneakers today, blending in perfectly with the college students. Sheng Xia was still in her high school uniform, her fair face bare of makeup, ponytail sprouting several cowlicks, making her look even more juvenile. Together, they looked like a college student luring a minor.

The university campus was bustling on weekends, especially at mealtimes. Every restaurant in the sunken plaza was packed with queues. Their eye-catching appearance drew quite a few looks when they entered the shop.

“Find a seat, I’ll order. What do you want?” he tilted his head to ask.

Due to the crowd, they were barely a breath apart. Sheng Xia’s heart skipped a beat as she edged away, “Anything is fine.”

“Can you handle spicy?” he asked casually, completely unaware.

“A little.”

“Okay, wait for me.”

“Mm.”

As Sheng Xia went to find seats, Zhang Shu watched her docile manner and smiled. What would happen if he suddenly pinched her cheek?

Would she cry from fright?

Sheng Xia sat down and realized this wasn’t the type of restaurant where you order at the table – if he went to the counter to order, wouldn’t he pay directly? She was supposed to treat him, but she couldn’t leave the seats or they might be taken, so she could only wait.

Zhang Shu found her a few minutes later and sat across from her.

Sheng Xia said: “I should have paid.”

“There’s plenty of time ahead, next time,” Zhang Shu said.

Next time…

Sheng Xia lowered her head. Better not have a next time.

She stayed quiet, and the atmosphere grew silent. Afraid he would ask why she was crying, she carefully chose a topic: “I’m sorry for misunderstanding you before.”

Starting a conversation while also properly apologizing.

“It’s fine.” Zhang Shu’s expression was completely unbothered, seemingly uninterested in pursuing this topic.

If he was so unbothered, why did he insist on her treating him to a meal, then not let her pay, saying next time? What exactly was he doing?

“When… when did you find out…” her voice grew smaller as she asked.

Zhang Shu curved his lips. “When I opened the gift.”

What?

Sheng Xia’s almond eyes went round, unable to utter a single word.

Zhang Shu let out an amused snort, his smile somewhat helpless. Worried that if they continued this topic she wouldn’t be able to eat, he changed the subject: “So, after looking at my wrong problems notebook, what insights did you gain?”

How did he know she looked at his wrong problems notebook?

How did he know everything?

Sheng Xia hesitated, thought for a moment, and answered softly: “Very systematic.”

His wrong problems notebook had horizontal lines drawn on the right and bottom, dividing each page into three parts. The middle section contained copied wrong problems – he usually just cut and pasted them, wrote the correct answers, noted common mistakes on the right, and summarized key points with some extended thinking at the bottom.

“But I have a question,” Sheng Xia said.

Zhang Shu raised an eyebrow, and leaned back in his chair, assuming a listening pose.

“Why did you paste some problems you didn’t get wrong into your wrong problems notebook?”

Looks like she had read very carefully.

Zhang Shu said: “Because they’re typical. Some problems you get right might just be lucky guesses – those still count as not knowing it. And some problems seem simple but are especially easy to get wrong.”

“Yes,” this was exactly Sheng Xia’s problem – she kept making mistakes on problems that weren’t particularly difficult. “Some problems, I’m just careless.”

“No, it’s not carelessness,” Zhang Shu said. “Being careless means you don’t know it.”

“Huh?” She didn’t understand. She did know it.

“Carelessness sometimes happens because your hand moves faster than your brain, or because you think a step is just intermediate and can be rushed through. When you keep skipping over it like this, by the time this knowledge point becomes the final step, you’ll make mistakes. Ultimately it comes down to not being familiar enough, so carelessness is essentially not knowing.”

Sheng Xia was silent for several seconds, unable to describe her current feelings.

So this was what sudden enlightenment felt like – clear and refreshing, like wiping years of dust off a pair of glasses.

Zhang Shu said this casually, without any lecturing tone. He was just stating facts.

Sheng Xia stared at him blankly. So some people’s excellence was never accidental.

“What, stunned by my handsomeness?” He leaned forward, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

Sheng Xia snapped back to reality, looking away while muttering: “Narcissist.”

Zhang Shu smiled.

The tonkatsu ramen was indeed delicious, no worse than what Sheng Xia had eaten in Japanese restaurants, but her appetite was small. She drank quite a bit of soup but left most of the noodles.

Zhang Shu looked at her. “Eat a bit more.”

“I’m full,” she drooped her shoulders, looking tired from eating.

This appearance had a touch of coquettishness, almost like she was pouting, though she was completely unaware of it.

Zhang Shu coughed lightly. “Done?”

“Done.”

“Give it to me then.” As he spoke, his chopsticks reached over and took the remaining noodles from her bowl.

Sheng Xia: …

But she had eaten from that!

Her ears started burning uncontrollably.

Zhang Shu ate the noodles with his head down, then seemed to remember something and looked up. “In the future, you can ask me questions directly. If you’d asked this question earlier today, wouldn’t that have been better?”

Sheng Xia thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Problems need to be solved to be useful. Crying doesn’t help,” he said, then seemed to feel his words were too harsh and added, “Of course, crying a bit is fine too. Cry it out, then find solutions. You won’t be at the bottom in the next test.”

He… thought she was crying about her grades?

This misunderstanding was fine too.

“I’ll try my best first. As for grades, we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate.” She didn’t have much confidence.

“What fate? With your ideals, how could you lose?” Zhang Shu waited until she looked up and their eyes met before saying, “You have no idea of your potential.”

…

Sheng Xia never imagined she could have such a conversation with Zhang Shu.

Back in the classroom, she was still pondering this question – had she misunderstood Zhang Shu too deeply before? He was actually… not a bad classmate.

Moreover, something she’d been anxious about for so long seemed to be nothing to him. Boys and girls did care about different things.

All evening, Hou Junqi was acting strange, occasionally turning back to look at her sneakily. Finally, Sheng Xia couldn’t stand it anymore and asked: “Brother Hou, is there something you need?”

Her gaze was helpless, her tone slightly teasing. Usually, everyone called him Brother Hou, some even called him Great Sage. Hou Junqi was used to it and didn’t think anything of it, but now he understood why Zhang Shu wouldn’t let Sheng Xia call him by name.

That final tone was deadly.

“Hey,” Hou Junqi suddenly became interested, “why don’t you try calling ‘Brother Shu’?”

Sheng Xia: … What kind of random request was this?

She glared at Hou Junqi.

“Hey!” Hou Junqi found this fascinating and suddenly stood up, calling across the entire classroom to Zhang Shu at the far north end, “Shu, Sheng Xia glared at me!”

Even during break time with the classroom’s usual noise, his voice was too loud and eye-catching. Many people looked over curiously to watch the show.

Sheng Xia didn’t know what expression to make – why did he sound like he was tattling? What would others think?

Zhang Shu was explaining problems to someone else. Hearing this, he looked up at the standing, “merit-seeking” Hou Junqi and the girl with her head buried in her books. He glared at Hou Junqi and said: “Nonsense!”

Then he continued explaining problems.

Though Hou Junqi got this cold response, his enthusiasm didn’t diminish. He crossed the entire classroom to Zhang Shu’s seat. The student asking questions had just left, so he leaned close to Zhang Shu, grinning: “Really, little Sheng Xia did glare at me!”

The classmates around Zhang Shu were somewhat shocked: Could it be that Hou Junqi liked Sheng Xia? Calling her so intimately, and being happy about getting glared at?

Zhang Shu asked: “What did you do?”

Hou Junqi leaned close to Zhang Shu’s ear: “I asked her to try calling you Brother Shu.”

Zhang Shu’s expression remained unchanged as he raised an eyebrow: “Mm, keep at it.”

Hou Junqi walked away smiling.

Surrounding classmates: How exactly was this situation developing?

Hou Junqi walked to the podium, then seemed to remember something. He smacked his forehead and returned to Zhang Shu’s desk, speaking somewhat gravely: “Shu, last week I heard Sheng Xia and Lu Youze agreeing to go home together…”

Before he finished speaking, he saw Zhang Shu’s expression change and quickly corrected himself, “Not going to the same home – they’re neighbors. Sheng Xia is afraid of the dark so she didn’t attend the third evening study session, but now that they discovered they’re neighbors, Lu Youze asked her to finish the third session and go back together. Little Sheng Xia… agreed.”

She agreed quite happily too. He didn’t say this part.

Zhang Shu gave him a sideways glance.

“Switch seats,” Zhang Shu gathered some math and science test papers, “you take mine.”

Hou Junqi: …

“Sure thing.”

Sheng Xia looked at the person who suddenly appeared in front of her and lowered her head.

After that meal, she and Zhang Shu seemed to have become more familiar, but this familiarity always felt a bit strange to Sheng Xia. She couldn’t explain what kind of strangeness or where it came from, but whenever he spoke to her now, she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

“Sheng Xia.” He turned his head to call her.

Sheng Xia looked up. “Mm?”

Zhang Shu said: “Let me see your wrong problems notebook.”

“Huh?”

“What ‘huh’? Your Brother Shu’s private tutoring time is precious, hurry up.” Zhang Shu simply straddled his chair backward, resting his hands on the backrest, watching her.

Your… Brother… Shu…

Sheng Xia almost dropped her pen.

Had Hou Junqi’s craziness infected him?

The class bell rang. Not wanting to cause a disturbance, she asked: “Which subject?”

Zhang Shu wore an expression of “I’ve bestowed such grace and this is your attitude” and said: “All of them.”

“Huh?”

So Sheng Xia took out her math, physics, chemistry, biology, and English wrong problem notebooks.

“Skip English, let’s start with math.”

“But class has already started.” How could they discuss it now? Besides, she still had a lot of homework to finish.

Zhang Shu flipped through briefly and found she had copied all the original problems by hand. “Let me first see how you organize these. Do you have the corresponding test papers?”

Sheng Xia’s materials were all very neatly organized and she could produce them immediately.

Zhang Shu didn’t turn back around but leaned against Hou Junqi’s desk, placing the materials at the edge of her desk as he looked through them, not taking up her workspace.

But Sheng Xia still felt constrained and completely uncomfortable.

Although evening self-study wasn’t as strict, all the surrounding classmates were watching, and she now sat in the window row where math teacher Lai Yilin could see her from outside…

“Zhang Shu…” she called softly.

“Hmm?”

“Turn around.”

“What?” He hadn’t heard clearly.

Sheng Xia sighed, tore off a sticky note, and wrote on it: [Turn around].

Then she stuck it on the test paper Zhang Shu was looking at.

His lips curved slightly as he glanced at her, but didn’t comply with the request to turn around. Instead, he casually pulled a pen from her pencil holder and wrote: [Why?]

Sheng Xia replied: [Teacher is watching]

Zhang Shu looked out the window – Lai Yilin had already gone to help other students. He raised his eyebrows and wrote:

[Nobody is watching you]

Just as he was about to pass it to her, he seemed to remember something and pulled it back, adding:

[Except me]

What on earth was he saying?!

Zhang Shu acted as if nothing was unusual, lowering his head to look at the wrong problems notebook, leaving Sheng Xia staring at the note in bewildered disarray.

She crumpled up the sticky note and threw it in the trash bag.

Zhang Shu sat backward like this for the entire class, occasionally making requests:

“Which one is the pencil?”

“Where’s the red pen?”

“Eraser.”

Xin Xiaohe shot over an inquisitive look, raising her eyebrows at Sheng Xia across the aisle, then mouthed to Zhang Shu: “Flir-ting, bro!”

One corner of Zhang Shu’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t respond or comment, keeping his focus on the test papers, marking them with a pencil in a casual way that made even studying look graceful.

When the class bell rang, day students packed up to leave and the classroom grew noisy. Several boys passing by looked at Zhang Shu teasingly, with some patting his shoulder and laughing: “Shu, so eager to help?”

“When will you look at mine too?”

“Can I queue up too, Brother Shu?”

Zhang Shu’s only response was to attack them with his eyes.

Hou Junqi returned to his seat with an exaggerated “Yo!” and exclaimed, “So this chair can be sat on like that, I never knew, Shu!”

“Opening the doors to a whole new world!”

“Awesome!”

If this continued, Sheng Xia rather wanted to leave.

She turned and asked Lu Youze, “What time do you usually leave?”

Lu Youze said: “Around eleven. If you want to leave earlier, that’s fine too.”

Getting home around eleven-twenty, and then reviewing vocabulary after washing up would be perfect timing.

Sheng Xia thought for a moment, “Eleven is good.”

While they were talking, Zhang Shu and Hou Junqi were watching from the side. To onlookers, this scene appeared to be another triangle drama of chase and pursuit.

Xin Xiaohe whispered to Yang Linyu.

“Is Zhang Shu pursuing Sheng Xia?”

“Don’t know, but he’s not acting normal.”

“I’ve heard some rumors.”

“Do Zhang Shu and Lu Youze have some grudge from their past life, destined to be love rivals in this one?”

“It’s not like Sheng Xia likes Lu Youze, right?”

“Who knows? They’re neighbors, and didn’t they say their dads are friends? In fancy terms, that’s called family friends.”

“Oh ho, and they were middle school classmates too.”

“They know each other well.”

“Well-matched backgrounds.”

“I think pursuing Sheng Xia is much harder than Chen Mengyao.”

“Zhang Shu’s just stubborn.”

“Alright, let me explain to you.” Zhang Shu tapped the desk with his notebook.

Sheng Xia turned around. “Mm, thank you.”

Polite and maintaining clear boundaries.

Zhang Shu talked about everything from her efficiency in copying problems and problem classification to how to make summaries and how to identify and mark common mistakes. By the time the third evening study session bell rang, they hadn’t even finished one subject.

“Come out with me.” Zhang Shu stood up, scooped up her notebooks, and walked out first.

Sheng Xia had already been watched for an entire class period; being coy now would only make it seem like something was going on. She simply picked up her notes and followed him out naturally.

Teacher Lai was sitting outside, so they weren’t exactly alone.

Although Zhang Shu usually acted incredibly arrogant, he was quite patient when explaining problems and methodology. Eventually even Lai Yilin came over to join the discussion, occasionally praising Zhang Shu and telling Sheng Xia to learn well.

To be honest, she was having trouble processing it all – she should have recorded it.

At one point, she glanced at his serious profile as he explained, and momentarily lost focus, feeling as if he was surrounded by halos of light, his figure hazy yet elegant.

After explaining for half a class period, Zhang Shu said: “Before your next monthly test, first reorganize your math wrong problems notebook according to what I just said. Redo every problem before the test. Take the other subjects slowly – math is fundamental.”

Hearing this, Lai Yilin nodded solemnly, “Well said. Math is crucial, and thoroughly reviewing wrong problems is much more useful than doing new ones.”

Sheng Xia also nodded seriously, “I understand, I will.”

“Ask me if you don’t understand,” Zhang Shu said, then added, “Ask Teacher Lai.”

Lai Yilin smiled, “Ask him, ask him. It’s so convenient, ask him more.”

“Okay.”

Back in the classroom, Zhang Shu switched seats with Hou Junqi again.

Sheng Xia buried herself in digesting what Zhang Shu had just taught. After class, as boarding students gradually left, people passed by in the corridor, so Sheng Xia simply pulled the window closed and continued working hard.

At eleven o’clock, Lu Youze reminded her: “Sheng Xia, ready to go?”

She came back to her senses, feeling time had passed too quickly. Indeed, concentration was better in the classroom.

“Okay, let’s go.”

The two walked out of the classroom one after another. Sheng Xia felt somewhat moved – even at this late hour, there were still so many people in the classroom. If she wasn’t falling behind, who was?

Zhang Shu hadn’t left yet, seemingly catching up on homework – she had taken up too much of his time earlier.

Even Hou Junqi hadn’t left, still working on English papers.

Zhang Shu finished his homework just minutes after Sheng Xia left, coming over to call Hou Junqi: “Let’s go.”

“Finally!” Hou Junqi followed.

“Little Sheng Xia just left with Lu Youze.”

Zhang Shu swung his backpack onto his shoulder, appearing unconcerned: “I’m not blind.”

He had seen it. With him, she could barely stand being within a hundred yards, but she followed right behind others, trotting along step by step.

Hou Junqi couldn’t understand, “Then what was that seat-switching about?” He had thought Zhang Shu switched seats to prevent those two from going home together, but this was the result.

Zhang Shu said: “That’s different.”

“Huh?”

“Can’t I simply enjoy helping others?”

Hou Junqi couldn’t even be bothered to expose his lie: “Whatever.”

Sheng Xia rode her bike out of the school gate with Lu Youze, one in front of the other. Once they reached the non-motorized vehicle lane, they rode side by side. Even though she slowed down, Lu Youze still had trouble keeping up on his bicycle. He laughed and said: “Looks like an electric scooter is more convenient. I should buy one too someday. What brand is yours?”

“I don’t know,” Sheng Xia hadn’t paid attention, “We can check later, the logo is on the back.”

“How do you feel about your studies lately?” Lu Youze casually started a topic.

“It’s okay,” Sheng Xia answered casually, but thinking about her grades, how was it okay? She sighed, “Actually, I don’t know.”

“I saw Zhang Shu tutoring you?”

Why did he bring up Zhang Shu too? Sheng Xia paused, choosing her words carefully before saying: “Teacher Wang asked me to learn from him about organizing wrong problems, but a top student’s methods aren’t so easy to learn, it’s quite difficult…”

The topic essentially returned to studies, and Lu Youze responded: “Mm, you still need to figure out what methods work for you.”

“Mm.”

There was a moment of silence, but since they were both riding bikes, it wasn’t awkward.

After a while, Lu Youze broke the silence: “How’s your search for a formal dress going? My dad often attends events that require formal wear, so he probably knows some people. Do you need me to help you make some contacts?”

Only then did Sheng Xia remember – with Wu Qiuxuan’s situation distracting her, she had completely forgotten about this.

“It doesn’t need to be too formal, I’ll just find something simple.”

“How can that work?” Lu Youze smiled, “I heard the boarding students in our class are already betting on who has higher popularity between you and Chen Mengyao.”

This…

Sheng Xia didn’t want to say anything discouraging – these things were beyond her control. She only replied lightly, “I’ll ask my family.”

“Let me know if you need help.”

“Thank you.”

“No need to be so formal.”

They continued this awkward conversation until they reached Jade Waves Court. Sheng Xia arrived first, while Lu Youze still needed to go around to Block A.

“See you tomorrow then.”

“Mm, see you tomorrow.”