The final exams were scheduled for late January. After three days of testing, students in grades ten and eleven would have vacation, while the seniors continued with supplementary classes.

On Monday, heavy snow fell, and the exams began on Tuesday, so there was no morning self-study session.

Xu You accidentally overslept a bit and hurriedly rushed to the agreed meeting place, only to find Xie Ci sitting on a bench not far away. He leaned against the backrest, his legs lazily resting on the ground, with a thin layer of snow on his short black hair.

She ran in such a rush that she hadn’t caught her breath yet, feeling very guilty, “How long have you been waiting?”

“A long time.”

Xie Ci tugged at the corner of his mouth and shifted his gaze to her face.

Xu You: ……..

She smiled bitterly, pulled him up from the bench, and apologized softly: “I’m sorry, my alarm clock didn’t seem to go off today, and Mom didn’t wake me up either.”

The breakfast shop they went to was a newly opened place nearby, about one street away from school, and not many students knew about it yet.

The interior decoration was quite elegant and rather atmospheric, resembling more of a café. There was a bar counter, small sofas and wicker chairs, round tables and pendant lights.

Xu You stomped the snow off her feet at the entrance and curiously peered inside, turning her head to ask: “Is this really a place for eating breakfast?”

“Otherwise, why would I bring you here?”

After saying this, Xie Ci lowered his head and glanced at her.

Xu You ignored him, put down her umbrella at the entrance, removed her gloves and pushed open the glass door to enter. Wind chimes jingled chaotically, and Xie Ci followed behind her.

They casually found a window seat and sat down. Xie Ci opened the menu and asked perfunctorily: “What do you want to eat?”

The shop had the heating on. Xu You put her backpack aside and lowered her head to unwrap the scarf coiled around her neck layer by layer, “Anything is fine.”

After thinking for a moment, she added: “I don’t like eating dry things.”

“What are dry things?”

“Like steamed buns and such, I guess?” Xu You smiled embarrassedly, “I’m not really used to eating them.”

“Besides that?”

“Nothing else, I’ll have small wontons, congee is also fine…..”

He just made an “mm” sound and said: “Okay, got it.”

After waiting a while, breakfast was served. Xu You stared in astonishment as two servers placed dish after dish on the table.

Cream buns, red bean congee, small wontons, noodles with fried sauce, shredded pork noodle soup, soy milk, fried dough sticks, beef noodles……

The steaming hot food was successively placed on the clean white marble tabletop, and the server joked: “Are you expecting more friends who haven’t arrived yet? Can the two of you really eat all this at once?”

After those two left, Xu You said: “Don’t spend money recklessly.”

Xie Ci seemed to be in an especially lethargic mood so early in the morning. His eyelashes drooped halfway as he turned the teacup in his hand and yawned, “It doesn’t matter, just hurry up and eat.”

That look showed he just didn’t care at all.

Xu You could only lower her head to drink her congee, not wanting to speak or pay attention to him.

After a long while, someone sat down beside her. Xu You continued eating, fuming inside, not saying a word.

“Tsk, eating and ignoring me now?”

Xie Ci propped his elbow on the table, lazily supporting his head, lowered his eyes to look at Xu You, and moved a little closer.

She made no sound.

Xie Ci squeezed in even more.

“Don’t lean against me, you’re annoying.” Xu You couldn’t hold back her anger and threw the ceramic spoon into the bowl, creating a crisp clinking sound.

He stared at her lips that slightly pouted from anger and said amusedly: “What did I do to you?”

“I’m very angry.” Xu You turned her head to look him straight in the eyes, “I think you’re being very wasteful.”

There were still people at nearby tables, and the shop was relatively quiet, so she lowered her voice, “If you have so much money, it could be spent elsewhere entirely.”

Xie Ci seemed both helpless and amused, pinching Xu You’s cheek, “It’s really not that much money.”

“That’s not the issue.” Xu You interrupted him, looking into his eyes and saying: “I don’t like you wasting food.”

She turned her face away and said softly: “I was raised by my grandmother since childhood, and my grandfather was a farmer. They worked very hard……”

After speaking, she resumed drinking her congee.

Xie Ci listened to her say all this without a word, touched his nose, and coughed, “I was just worried you wouldn’t eat well…. It’s fine, should I call some people over right now to finish all this food?”

Speak of the devil. Just as these words left his mouth, a cheerful greeting rang out from behind: “Hey, Brother Ci is here too, what a coincidence!”

Turning around, Li Jieyi was standing nearby with a group of people. Chen Jingyi was also there, along with several senior boys and girls.

They all knew Xie Ci, and the group successively greeted him.

For this kind of meaningless pleasantries, Xie Ci turned a deaf ear.

Chen Jingyi struggled to control her facial expression and nonchalantly found a seat nearby. Then her companions also sat down, and a couple of comments arose: “The girl next to Xie Ci must be his new girlfriend, right?”

“Probably, we don’t seem to have seen her before.”

“I heard Song Yifan say that Xie Ci really likes his current one.”

“That’s really treasuring her, when have we ever seen him have the patience to accompany someone for a meal…..”

After saying this, someone was pushed by the person next to them. The speaker seemed to realize something and also shut their mouth.

After eating for a while, Li Jieyi was called over by Xie Ci.

He was confused.

Xie Ci raised his chin, indicating for him to sit across from them.

Li Jieyi saw the large pile of food placed on the table and sighed while sitting down: “Young Master Xie and his high-quality lifestyle, what a refined gentleman.”

“My wife can’t finish it, help me solve this.”

“Huh?” Only then did Li Jieyi notice something was off between the two of them. Being perceptive, he glanced at Xu You, who was eating with her head down, a mischievous smile curling at the corner of his mouth. With an ambiguous expression, he said: “What’s going on? What did you do to the little lady that she won’t pay attention to you anymore?”

Xie Ci mouthed back, “Fuck you.”

Li Jieyi laughed even harder, “Tsk tsk tsk tsk, you two are having a tiff, this makes me feel awkward too.”

Xie Ci replied flatly: “Had a little argument. Li Jieyi, you’re like an advice columnist for women now, why so nosy?”

“Fine fine fine, Young Master Xie is handsome, whatever you say goes.”

“Get lost.”

“You want me to come and I come, now you’re telling me to get lost, are you playing with me?”

Xie Ci kicked him under the table and cursed with a laugh: “Getting cocky now, aren’t you?”

“Stop it, let’s talk nicely, no need for physical contact.” Li Jieyi was very unhappy.

The two of them bantered back and forth, deliberately joking around and teasing each other. Even though she knew Xie Ci was deliberately being playful, Xu You couldn’t help but laugh.

As soon as she smiled, Xie Ci immediately leaned in: “Oh, finally not putting on a stern face anymore?”

With an outsider present, Xu You wasn’t comfortable being too intimate, so she moved aside a bit and looked at him: “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“How can I eat when you’re angry at me?” He said it as if it were perfectly reasonable.

Li Jieyi sat right across from the two of them, silently complaining in his heart.

These two people in a relationship were sickeningly sweet to those around them, yet completely unaware of it themselves.

And that jerk Xie Ci, when talking to Xu You, practically wanted to press his face against hers…..

Xu You sighed and pushed him away a little, “I’m not angry, hurry up and eat, or the food will get cold.”

“Then feed me?” He tilted his head and asked pitifully.

“I won’t feed you, eat your meal properly yourself.”

Xie Ci rested his chin on her shoulder, “So heartless?”

Li Jieyi, sitting across from them, interrupted, “That’s enough, there’s still another person here.”

Xie Ci couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge him, lifting his eyelids to glance at Li Jieyi, “Annoying or what, where’s all this nonsense coming from?”

—-

Because of tomorrow’s exam, the teachers from various subjects had a meeting, so today was all free review time.

Everyone could switch seats freely. Although they usually didn’t like studying, they still needed to cram at the last minute, so the seats next to the top students were quite popular.

Xu You didn’t work on many problems herself during the morning classes, but she explained quite a few problems to others. She was patient and didn’t find it bothersome.

On a cold winter day, the hot water from the water dispenser was always in high demand. Xu You went to queue up after class, and by the time the people in front of her finished getting water, it had already cooled down considerably.

But she needed to dissolve medicine to drink, so she had no choice but to wait for the next batch of boiling water.

There were many empty seats in the back. Some people hadn’t come, and those who had were mostly sprawled out sleeping on their desks.

Xu You randomly picked a seat to sit down in, her eyes staring blankly at the red light on the water dispenser as it lit up.

After a while, someone poked her back with their finger.

She came back to her senses and turned her head to look.

It was Song Yifan. His face still had red marks from being pressed against his arm, and he groggily told Xu You: “Brother Ci is calling for you.”

After saying that, he was overcome with drowsiness and collapsed back onto his desk.

Xu You took her empty water cup and went to the back of the first row. Xie Ci’s desk was piled with a bunch of things, books stacked in piles on the already small desk.

“Top student, let’s make a deal, how about sitting next to me for the next class?” Xie Ci had obviously just woken up too, his black hair slightly messy, his eyes drowsy and languid.

Xu You put the water cup aside and casually flipped through one of his books.

It was completely blank inside, without any notes at all, only two characters written flamboyantly on the cover.

Before she could say anything, Xie Ci spoke first: “Please please please, I’m seriously trying to learn.”

Xu You continued her silence, obviously not quite believing him.

After waiting a while, the class bell rang. Xie Ci grabbed her sleeve, looking up at her with a bit of pleading in his eyes: “Do you have no conscience? Just one class and you need to think about it for this long?”

“Then you can’t talk to me in class, except to ask about problems.” Xu You set her condition.

Xie Ci immediately nodded.

During the last period, the classroom gradually became restless. Everyone’s focus on studying had faded, and chatter arose from every corner.

However, no matter how noisy others were, Xu You seemed unaffected, peacefully lowering her head to work on her own assignments, truly not saying a single unnecessary word to Xie Ci.

He couldn’t hold back and poked Xu You’s shoulder, asking her to explain a problem.

Xu You took the problem into her hands and looked down at it. It was the first math problem, the simplest trigonometric function question.

She was a bit speechless, looking at Xie Ci: “What do you want me to explain about this?”

Actually, he hadn’t even looked at the problem and just said casually: “Explain whatever you want, I don’t know any of it anyway.”

“…….”

Xu You shook her head, picked up her pen to write formulas on the scratch paper, “This problem is very basic, if you just memorize the trigonometric function formulas from the textbook you’ll get it….”

She leaned across the desk, bent over to explain the problem to him. After explaining for a while, he was obviously distracted. Xu You noticed and looked up saying: “Are you even listening?”

“Yes yes yes.” He blinked at Xu You and quickly leaned in to kiss her.

Xu You put down her pen, “I’m not explaining anymore.”

“Hey wait, why aren’t you explaining anymore!”

Xie Ci became anxious, “Don’t keep bullying someone young and good-looking like me.”