Xu You just stood in front of him, very quiet, as if she hadn’t understood what he said.

Until Xie Ci reached out and lifted her chin. He lowered his head to find her eyes. “Mm?”

Xu You furrowed her brows, shaking her head trying to throw off his hand.

Xie Ci gripped her shoulder with one hand, his fingers tightly pinching the skin on her chin. His eyes were pitch black and dark.

Xu You swatted at him. “Xie Ci, let go. You’re hurting me.”

This corner wasn’t too secluded—occasionally two or three students passed by.

He released his hold on her. Xu You immediately looked down at her watch.

There were still five minutes until the next class.

She took a step back, looked at Xie Ci, and said quietly but very seriously: “You’re so young—don’t think about these kinds of things all day long.”

After speaking, she shifted her gaze away, planning to leave.

Xie Ci reacted quickly, stepping aside to grab her arm, his brows furrowing: “Hey, I’m really annoyed right now. Can you stop being so stuffy?”

Xu You stopped in her tracks, thought for a moment, and after a long pause, she nodded: “We’ll see.”

Xie Ci was irritated and frustrated by her perfunctory attitude. He took a deep breath. “You’re just pretending with me.”

Xu You remained motionless, not responding, as if lost in thought.

He asked, “Is it because I’ve been too good to you?”

She remained silent.

The two stood there in a stalemate, looking at each other wordlessly. The class bell rang across the campus.

“Fuck, forget it.”

He suddenly lost his temper, threw out this sentence, and walked away, leaving her with his retreating back.

Xu You stood there for a while.

When she entered the classroom, the teacher was lecturing from the podium.

Xu You stood at the door, raised her hand, and called out a report.

The teacher frowned. Seeing it was her, she didn’t make things too difficult and nodded, letting Xu You return to her seat.

“Where did you go?” Zheng Xiaolin leaned over, lowering her voice hesitantly: “I just saw you walking with Xie Ci, and I thought you…”

Xu You lowered her head to take out her book, opened her pencil case, and pressed her index finger to her lips: “Shh, we’ll talk after class.”

The teacher was writing on the blackboard, students were copying notes below. The originally quiet classroom was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang.

The back door was kicked open directly by someone.

The door panel hit the wall and bounced back, creaking and swaying back and forth several times.

The classmates looked back, and the teacher also stopped holding her chalk.

Xie Ci, with a cold expression on his face, walked straight to his seat and took out his phone from the drawer.

“Xie Ci, what are you doing!”

After the teacher reacted, she shouted loudly and slammed the blackboard, making a thunderous sound.

Xie Ci didn’t even give her a glance. He took his phone and walked out, completely ignoring the furious teacher behind him.

The entire class was silent—no one dared to breathe loudly.

Xu Xiaocheng gave Song Yifan a look and tilted his head.

The two of them, when no one was paying attention, crouched down and also secretly slipped out the back door.

After leaving the classroom, they walked a few steps down the stairs and called Xie Ci.

Several calls were hung up. Song Yifan persisted in dialing, and the last one finally connected.

“Oh damn, Ah Ci, what’s wrong with you now? Who provoked you?”

“………”

“What?? Where are you going now?”

“……….”

“Fu Yishun got people to mess with you? Is he tired of living?”

“……….”

Xu Xiaocheng exchanged a glance with him, grabbed the phone, and said himself: “Heipi and I came out. Where are you? We’ll come find you.”

In the classroom.

Zheng Xiaolin patted her chest with lingering fear and sighed: “Oh my god, what’s wrong with Xie Ci? I haven’t seen him get this angry in a long time…”

She remembered the last time she saw Xie Ci angry was when someone from another class came looking for trouble.

That time left an especially deep impression on Zheng Xiaolin.

It was when they had just started their first year of high school. Several tall male students from the sports class in the same grade entered the classroom and insisted on forcibly dragging out a female classmate.

The girl being pulled screamed loudly, struggling and crying.

Those people cursed and swore, not knowing what grudge or entanglement they had with that girl. In any case, they all had fierce and vicious expressions.

Some boys in the class couldn’t stand it and walked over to stop them, but were immediately pushed away by the people from the sports class.

Young people are all hot-tempered—back and forth it went.

People from both classes clashed together. During the arguing and shoving, someone knocked into Xie Ci, who was sleeping face-down on his desk.

Xie Ci was woken up. He first raised his head, and after seeing the situation clearly, asked slowly: “Who bumped into me?”

A troublemaker male student kicked his desk and cursed: “So what if I did? Don’t act tough with me, you fucking idiot.”

Xie Ci stared at that male student, waiting for him to finish.

Then.

He slowly stood up from his seat, picked up the stool beside him, and weighed it for a few seconds.

Before anyone could react, he didn’t hesitate to smash the stool directly onto that troublemaker student’s head.

Completely reckless, not holding back at all—blood was drawn on the spot.

Everyone present was scared stupid, gasping and with mouths slightly agape.

Xie Ci had just woken up, his black short hair still a bit messy. With a half-smile, he kicked away the stool at his feet and said to the people from the sports class: “Aren’t you leaving yet?”

After this incident, Xie Ci never fought in class again. But gradually word spread among the classmates—so his name was Xie Ci, the boss of the middle school division at No. 1 High.

Because usually in class, most people were a bit afraid of his status as “grade boss,” most classmates still didn’t actively provoke him.

Although Xie Ci didn’t study, he was still relatively low-key. Apart from occasionally skipping class, being late, or sleeping, he hadn’t done anything particularly outrageous.

Zheng Xiaolin asked: “You You, do you know what happened?”

Xu You kept her head down copying notes. She replied softly: “I don’t know.”

“It’s really too terrifying…”

Zheng Xiaolin turned away and also started copying homework, muttering under her breath, not knowing what she was mumbling about.

After this class ended, Xu You and Xu Xingchun were called to the office by the homeroom teacher.

Xu Huiru held the grade report in her hand, looking at their October monthly exam results.

“It’s like this.”

Xu Huiru brought them to the hallway, coughed twice, and got straight to the point: “You two are relatively outstanding students in our class, and of course also very outstanding students in the grade. Today the humanities-sciences form was distributed, so I just wanted to ask your opinions.”

Xu Xingchun spoke first. He nodded and said directly: “Sciences.”

Xu Huiru nodded to indicate she understood and asked: “Based on your grades, you’ll definitely go to the rocket class in the future. What are your thoughts?”

This time, Xu Xingchun didn’t answer quickly, standing there in silence.

Xu Huiru said to him: “The school is counting on you to be the city’s top scorer. Compared to regular classes, the rocket class has better conditions in all aspects.”

Xu You listened quietly to them talk. Her eyes lowered to look at a shadow cast by sunlight on the ground.

After talking for a while, Xu Huiru let Xu Xingchun return to the classroom first and kept Xu You alone.

She first praised her a few times. “I can see that you study very solidly in your daily work, that you can settle down to study. This monthly exam you also ranked in the top few of the grade.”

Xu You didn’t know what to say, so she just nodded.

“Your aunt told me that you previously did physics competitions?” Xu Huiru looked down again at Xu You’s grades.

In the physics column, the score was a striking 109, close to perfect.

Xu You nodded.

Xu Huiru asked again: “When did you start doing this?”

Xu You’s voice was very soft and small as she answered: “Second year of middle school.”

“Do you take it every year?”

“I didn’t sign up this year.”

“You know our school doesn’t have a competition class, right?”

“I know.”

“Mm.”

Teachers always have a lot of good feelings toward students with good grades. Xu Huiru had a bit of a smile on her face and patted her shoulder. “You should also be studying sciences in the future, right?”

Xu You nodded.

Xu Huiru looked at her and said with some emotion: “Study hard and strive to get into Tsinghua or Peking University.”

“Oh right.”

Before leaving, Xu Huiru called her back and handed Xu You a form, instructing: “Fill this out and submit it to the academic affairs office this afternoon.”

—

At noon back in the dorm, everyone was discussing the humanities-sciences division.

Xu You’s cold had been dragging on and hadn’t fully healed. She coughed twice, sat down in the chair, pulled open the drawer, took out her phone, and called her parents.

It rang a few times before connecting.

“Mom…” Xu You called softly.

Chen Xiuyun made sounds of acknowledgment twice and asked: “Ah Chai, what’s wrong? Are you doing well at the new school?”

“Pretty good.”

Xu You lowered her eyes, unconsciously playing with her fingers. “Today the teacher asked us whether we want to study humanities or sciences.”

“Of course study sciences. What future is there in studying humanities?” Father Xu took over the phone and said from the other end, “Oh right, we rented you a place outside school. Next week your mom will go take care of you—don’t stay in the dorm anymore.”

Xu You made a sound of surprise and was stunned for a moment. “Then Mom…”

“You focus on studying now, don’t worry about anything. It’s your third year—studying is what’s important.”

“Is the rented place far from school? Is it expensive?”

“Not too far. Don’t worry about these things for now.”

Xu You remained silent, listening quietly.

Father Xu kept going on and on. “Your aunt told me she’s talked with your homeroom teacher several times. Your grades at school are very good now… If it weren’t for my project being transferred here… your physics competition… sigh…”

“It’s okay, Dad.”

Xu You changed the subject. “We’re starting evening self-study today.”

“Really? Are you eating well in the school cafeteria at night?”

Xu You made a sound of acknowledgment.

Chen Xiuyun took the phone. “We’ll get the place ready in a few days. Don’t go to your aunt’s house this weekend. Live with Mom from now on. I’ll cook for you every day. Be obedient at school. In a few days I’ll go help you pack up your things from the dorm.”

Xu You agreed. “Mom, I’m obedient.”

After saying a few more things on the other end, Xu You hung up the phone.

Liao Yuemin was resting her cheek on one hand. She had just intermittently heard a few sentences of Xu You’s phone call with her parents.

“You’re moving out, You You?” she asked.

Xu You nodded.

Liao Yuemin sighed regretfully. “Sigh, the dorm is losing a top student. I won’t be able to ask you questions anymore. So sad.”

Xu You smiled gently. She said: “It’s okay. If you want to find me, you can come to our class.”

“So you’re definitely studying sciences then?”

Without waiting for Xu You to answer, Liao Yuemin said with certainty: “With grades as good as yours, how could you study humanities?”

Xu You lowered her head, playing with the phone in her hands.

She opened her contacts. She immediately saw “Xie Ci.”

Thinking of this morning and what he had said to her, Xu You became slightly distracted, her finger unconsciously opening the message inbox.

The dozen or so text messages he had sent were all there.

Xu You propped up her forehead, opening them one by one to read.

The dorm room was very quiet. Chen Xiao was holding her phone when she suddenly let out a cry of surprise: “Holy crap!”

Xu You was closest to her. She turned her head and asked: “What’s wrong?”

Chen Xiao stuttered a bit. She widened her eyes and handed over her phone. “Oh my god, look, look—the school forum. Xie Ci got into trouble. Holy crap, he actually…”