After eating lunch in the cafeteria at noon, they returned to the dorm.

Xu You simply took a shower and came out changed into pajamas.

Liao Yuemin had been doing homework, but seeing Xu You, suddenly said: “Xu You, did you see the monthly exam rankings? You’re first in the grade.”

Xu You’s movements paused. She nodded but didn’t respond.

“Is it really Xu You?” Li Lingfang had just finished using the bathroom and was washing her hands. She also turned around in disbelief.

She was in the Sunshine Class. Not long after the grades came out this morning, classmates everywhere were discussing how this time the grade’s first place was a girl from Class 9. Crushing all the top students, with the terrifying high score of 678, directly landing in first place.

Everyone was sighing that truly, Class 9 has always produced academic gods.

“It’s Xu You.” Liao Yuemin confirmed. After school, she had specially run to check the score rankings.

Xu You silently listened to her roommates talking, pulling open a drawer to find a strip of anti-inflammatory medicine, popping out two pills into her palm.

The discussion by her ears continued.

“So amazing, scoring so high, it’s simply outrageous.”

“Right? 680 points is too scary.”

Chen Xiao turned to ask Liao Yuemin: “Hey, who got first in our class this time?”

“Don’t know, probably still Zhang Keke.”

“Oh… right, right, is there going to be a sports meet after the monthly exam?”

“According to people in the PE class, it should be soon…”

Xu You gripped the glass cup, poured water into her mouth, and swallowed the pills.

After taking the cold medicine, she slowly climbed onto bed for an afternoon nap.

—

The first class in the afternoon was PE. The PE committee member had the whole class go directly to the sports field to assemble.

Just past noon, the sunlight was still intense, cicada sounds hidden noisily under the tree shade.

The surrounding air was stifling hot, yet Xu You’s whole body was breaking out in cold sweat, her face pale.

The队伍 lined up in four rows according to height—two rows of girls, two rows of boys.

The PE teacher took attendance at the front, asking the PE committee member: “What’s going on with your class? So few people?”

Ma Zhiwei shouted: “Some of the boys went to get equipment.”

The PE teacher nodded, no longer pursuing it, casually assigning today’s tasks.

After dismissing on the spot, Xu You asked the teacher for leave and returned to the classroom to rest.

She walked back to the classroom, passing through the corridor. Many classes had already started.

The sunlight outside was cut by tree leaves into many fine threads, blindingly bright.

Xu You entered the classroom through the back door.

Just as she pushed open the door, she froze.

Inside was a group of people playing poker.

There were both boys and girls, several of them. At a glance they were all strangers; she didn’t recognize any of them.

Cool air mixed with a bit of cigarette smoke rushed at her, irritating Xu You into sneezing.

“Are you coming in or not? Close the door, it’s so hot.” A long-haired girl shouted at Xu You.

Her voice was very impatient.

Xu You was just about to close the door for them when suddenly a delighted male voice rang out:

“——Oh wow, my little sister! My benefactor!! Don’t leave, don’t leave.”

His voice was too loud; Xu You couldn’t ignore it even if she wanted to.

Li Jieyi quickly caught up, pulling the departing Xu You into the classroom.

The other few people also reacted at this moment. Xie Ci threw down his cards, wanting to stand up.

Xu You struggled hard to break free, looking up to ask: “What’s wrong? Let me go first.”

She felt many people looking this way, very uncomfortable.

Li Jieyi rubbed his hands with a grin, chuckling twice, saying: “Thanks to your great blessing, I scored over 500 points this time!”

“Mm…”

Xu You, seeing she couldn’t leave, lowered her head, wanting to go around him back to her own seat.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Li Jieyi turned around, eagerly calling to her back: “Let me treat you to a meal sometime!”

Under the gaze of a group of strangers, Xu You felt very embarrassed.

But she had taken cold medicine, and her head was still dizzy and foggy at the moment, with no energy to think about anything else.

Chen Jing leaned back, watching the girl who walked to her seat, sizing her up a few times, asking Song Yifan: “Who’s that?”

“First in the grade.”

He was shuffling cards, answering offhandedly.

“She is my hero.” Li Jieyi said gleefully.

Someone rolled their eyes. “Brother Yi, with our level of English, wouldn’t it be better to just speak plain Chinese?”

—

The group in the back soon started up again, laughing and playing around, making people’s heads hurt from the noise.

Xu You took out her exercise book. After writing a few problems, she couldn’t continue anymore.

In the classroom, four ceiling fans kept rotating, and the standing large air conditioner was also operating, blowing out cold air.

Xu You covered her mouth, sneezing several small sneezes in succession.

Her nose also seemed blocked up, breathing not very smooth.

Her head hurt too. Before long she became dazed, lying down on the desk, gradually falling asleep amidst the noisy sounds.

“Zhang Tianyu.” Xie Ci leaned his back against the wall, lazily calling the name of the boy next to him.

Zhang Tianyu’s card-playing motion paused. He turned his head to ask: “What’s up, Brother Ci?”

“Put out the cigarette.”

Zhang Tianyu: ……..

The mouthful of smoke he hadn’t yet exhaled, he forcibly held back.

Before everyone could react, they saw Xie Ci get up from his seat, go to the back of Group 1, and with a snap, pressed a switch.

Xu You, sleeping in a daze, hazily felt the electric fan above her head slowly stop.

—

When she was woken up, everyone in the classroom was noisily packing up their things.

Xu You lifted her face from the crook of her arm, rubbing her eyes.

Fu Xueli’s face was close at hand. She blinked her eyelashes, saying quietly: “Little cutie, we’re changing seats, pack your things.”

Xu You looked up and discovered everyone’s names were written on the blackboard.

This was the first time she’d seen such a novel way of arranging seats.

Finding her own name: Group 1, fourth row, outside position.

Xu You packed her water bottle and small notebook into her schoolbag. While looking up at the blackboard searching for Fu Xueli’s position.

“Xueli, where are you sitting?” Xu You searched for a long time without finding it.

“In front of you.” Fu Xueli made a sound of acknowledgment. “Group 1, third row.”

Xu You looked carefully again.

She discovered that the line above her name clearly read:

Xu Xingchun Fu Xueli

“You’re sitting together with the class monitor?” Xu You was somewhat surprised, turning to ask.

“Mm…” Fu Xueli answered very perfunctorily, a bit sullen. “Sigh, don’t know what the teacher was thinking.”

Xu You knew their relationship was unusual. She paused, but still said nothing. Quietly packing up her own things.

Before long, most people had finished changing seats.

Xu You moved her books to Group 1. Her new deskmate was a boy wearing glasses who looked very honest.

“Hey, top student hello, I’m Yang Kang.” That boy was very enthusiastic, helping Xu You move books onto the desk.

Sweat beaded at the tip of Xu You’s nose. She nodded. “Hello.”

The two had just exchanged a few words.

The transparent glass window beside Yang Kang was forcefully pulled open.

Xu You looked up. Yang Kang turned his head.

Xie Ci propped one hand on the windowsill, glancing at Yang Kang and saying: “Buddy, switch seats.”

—

Yang Kang was an honest person, didn’t dare provoke a school tyrant like Xie Ci. Without a second word, he packed up his things and swiftly left.

The desk beside her was forcibly cleared.

Xu You harbored sullen anger in her heart, hands resting on the desk, head lowered doing homework.

The person beside her stood there, and she just wouldn’t stand up to let him in.

Xie Ci had the patience to wait her out, from time to time bumping her desk with his knee: “Move over a bit. Do you want me sitting in the hallway during class, classmate?”

“Switch back with someone else.” Xu You looked up, attempting to reason with him.

“I won’t.”

“Then I won’t either.”

“You won’t what?”

“Won’t let you in.”

The two went on with this nonsense for quite a while. In the end, even Xie Ci was amused into laughter, too lazy to keep going in circles with her.

He went out through the classroom door, walking to outside the window.

Under Xu You’s shocked gaze, Xie Ci gripped the window frame, exerted force, and jumped directly in through the window.

“Are you a bandit?! So unreasonable!”

Xie Ci pulled out the chair and sat down, actually even made a sound of acknowledgment, asking her back: “What reasoning?”

“You, you, you—what exactly do you want to do?” After holding it in for so long, Xu You could only come out with this one sentence.

You’re asking what I want to do?

Xie Ci looked down, elbow resting on his knee, leaning forward close to Xu You’s neck: “Don’t you know what the hell I want to do?”

She didn’t make a sound, backing away a bit to create distance.

His gaze slid from her eyes down to her nose bridge, then stopped at her petal-like lips.

Xu You felt something wasn’t right, didn’t want to talk anymore, hurriedly turning her head away.

But his voice by her ear continued.

“I want to fuck you.”

Xu You: ……

“Holy shit.”

“Chase you.”

“I’m sorry…”