Xie Ci stood dazed. After a pause, he lowered his head to look at Xu You again.

One of her hands slid down, inserting between his ten fingers, clasping tightly.

“Are you in a daze?”

Xu You held his hand, preparing to walk out of the small alley, just taking a step.

“Wait…” Xie Ci came back to his senses, his figure moving slightly as he pulled Xu You back. He forced himself to appear calm, but the words came out stuttering, “You—I—you…”

“What?”

“It’s just…” Xie Ci dazedly raised his hand, touching the cheek she had kissed. “Why did you only kiss one side? It feels completely asymmetrical.”

“…Pfft.”

Xu You found his foolish appearance really cute. For the first time ever, the thought of teasing him arose in her heart. The smile at the corners of her lips deepened unconsciously. She released his hand and said softly: “Okay then, lean over a bit.”

Xie Ci immediately bent down and closed his eyes. His eyelashes trembled slightly as he obediently waited.

After a few seconds, there was still no response.

Just as he was growing somewhat impatient, his nose caught a familiar, light floral scent. His right cheek was gently touched by a warm, moist pair of lips.

His heart thumped wildly in his chest.

Even the color of darkness was sweet.

Xu You smiled, stepping back two paces. “Xie Ci, goodbye.”

Xie Ci opened his eyes a crack. By the time he fully came to his senses, Xu You had long since disappeared from sight. On the way back, his brain felt dizzy, his soul practically lost. He got turned around several times.

Returning home, Xie Ci hummed a tune, casually tossing his keys aside.

The living room light was on.

His movements paused. He changed his shoes and walked in quickly, seeing Zeng Qilin sprawled across the sofa, hand propping up his head as he watched TV.

A soccer match was playing on the television. Xie Ci bent down, casually grabbed a cold bottle of mineral water, unscrewed the cap, and tilted his head back to pour it into his mouth.

“What are you doing at my place?” he asked idly.

Zeng Qilin glanced at him. “I can’t come?”

“………”

“Tch.”

Seeing his smug appearance, Zeng Qilin scoffed and asked leisurely: “What’s up, won your girlfriend back?”

“Yeah.”

Xie Ci sat down on the sofa, stretching his two long legs straight out and lazily propping them on the low stool, his feet even swaying.

“Tsk tsk, before you were half-dead, I even thought you were planning to die for love.” Zeng Qilin spoke mockingly.

However, Xie Ci didn’t respond. The corners of his mouth held a slight smile, his eyes lowered, not knowing what he was thinking about.

“By the way…”

Zeng Qilin remembered something important. “Before, weren’t you mixed up with someone called Fu Yishun…”

Hearing this name, Xie Ci’s brow furrowed. “What about it?”

“Do you know him?”

“Of course I know him. He wanted to mess with me before, so later I had people deal with him.”

“And then?”

Xie Ci answered carelessly, “Then he dropped out of school.”

“But why are you suddenly bringing him up?”

“Heh.”

Zeng Qilin lit a cigarette, squinting as he took a drag. “He transferred to No. 2 High School and even recognized an older brother.”

……

—

Days at school always passed monotonously and tediously.

Song Yifan felt uncomfortable seeing Xie Ci’s spirited studying appearance. He didn’t know where this sudden strong ambition had come from.

Someone teased: “Ah Ci is really turning over a new leaf.”

However, Song Yifan thought Xie Ci’s illness probably hadn’t recovered yet. Unable to reason with him, he could only give up. The group thought to themselves, let’s just see what he can achieve through studying.

Which of them didn’t know Xie Ci’s temperament? Where would he have the patience to be a good student? Sitting in the classroom chewing on textbooks—this was nothing but a passing enthusiasm. Probably in a few days he wouldn’t be able to persist.

The first period in the morning was English class. Liberal Arts Class 1 looked like a field of fallen crops—everyone drowsy. A few boys got up to use the restroom.

Chen Yue was reading texts at the podium. Her teaching pace was slow, and she liked to interject irrelevant small talk midway, so most people inevitably let their minds wander.

Xu Xiaocheng was engrossed in reading a magazine with his head lowered, immersed in the colorful pages, unable to extricate himself.

The book was openly laid across his desk.

Someone behind pushed his back with their hand, calling softly: “Brother Cheng, Brother Cheng…”

“What!” Xu Xiaocheng grew impatient, slapping his hand on the desk, turning his head. “Are you summoning souls?”

The male classmate behind him lowered his head without speaking, looking like he was holding back laughter. Just as Xu Xiaocheng realized something was wrong, from the corner of his eye he saw a dark shadow stop beside him.

Chen Yue confiscated his basketball magazine. Xu Xiaocheng stood at his seat, listening to her scold him for probably five minutes.

“Look at the countdown board below—58 days left! Only 58 days until the college entrance exam. What does this mean? It means you’re about to enter your third year. How can you have no sense of urgency? Still reading these idle books in class. You all have the same teacher. Tell me, why is there such a big difference between you and others? Like when I teach in Class Zero, they…”

“Sigh… here she goes again. Middle-aged woman, why is she so naggy…” Song Yifan sighed.

His deskmate glanced at him. “More like menopause.”

“………”

“Oh…”

Song Yifan said casually, “Just kidding around. You know I’m uncultured…”

Chen Yue put down the book in her hands. “Among all the second-year classes, I haven’t seen any more unruly than yours. Really don’t know where you get all this time. The class representative from my other class—you should all have heard of her, right? That girl who always ranks in the top few of the grade. She listens carefully in every class, and even after class she doesn’t relax. You already have a big gap compared to those with good grades, yet you still don’t work hard…”

While Chen Yue was getting into her lecture, the class below had long since devolved into chaos, with sounds of jeering and sighing. As soon as this name was mentioned, a circle of people’s eyes inadvertently turned toward Xie Ci’s direction in a salute of attention.

“Hey, Brother Ci.” Song Yifan called him from behind, his tone slightly sour: “Tsk tsk, hearing the teacher praise your girlfriend—does it give you a kind of spontaneous sense of pride? Especially happy?”

Xie Ci couldn’t be bothered with him.

Song Yifan’s deskmate lowered his voice to ask: “Do you think if the English teacher found out her prize student got picked up by Xie Ci, would she faint on the spot?”

“I think it would probably make the teacher question her entire life.” Song Yifan shook his head, looking over seriously.

“Right.”

“And also… the two of them really don’t match.” His deskmate sighed, afraid of being heard by Xie Ci, lowering his voice further. “I feel that Class Zero girl—with those grades she could easily get into Tsinghua or Peking University. Once they leave school, the gap between them will appear, in terms of social circles and such…”

These words falling into Song Yifan’s ears made him a bit unhappy. He said flatly: “You’re overthinking it.”

“What?”

“Xie Ci and Xu You being together is quite good.”

Song Yifan had always been protective since childhood, unable to stand others saying anything bad about his brothers.

Then he added nonchalantly, “Besides, when we joke around normally, you shouldn’t take it seriously. Xie Ci’s family has plenty of money. Even if he doesn’t study, after graduation he’ll do better than anyone.”

—

Before the exam, Xie Ci’s group were still brothers in adversity, assigned to the multimedia classroom.

Usually monthly exams for them were just calmly passed through, rarely even bringing pens, causing no ripples.

But this time…

Li Jieyi sat next to Xie Ci and couldn’t help asking: “Brother Ci, rumor has it your knowledge has improved recently. Pass me some notes later, yeah?”

Xie Ci stared straight ahead, snorting coldly. “Screw off.”

“Damn.” Li Jieyi cursed at him. “Xie Ci, are you fucking showing brotherhood or not?”

“What are you anyway?” Xie Ci glanced at him sideways.

When the papers were distributed, Xie Ci straightened his scratch paper and buried his head in earnest work. To others, he appeared completely absorbed, calculating problem after problem.

Song Yifan sat just in front of him and to the side, glancing in Xie Ci’s direction from time to time. He was secretly shocked… Looking at Xie Ci’s posture, could he really be planning a comeback…

To others’ probing gazes, Xie Ci felt nothing at all, his brow furrowing and relaxing, completely focused.

In the end, even the invigilating teacher couldn’t help but look at him several times. As the grade’s famous delinquent student, studying so obediently was simply incredible.

Usually their group would hand in papers and leave after half an hour. But now Xie Ci wasn’t leaving, so the rest were waiting for him.

When the bell rang to collect papers, people from the first row got up to collect answer sheets.

When they got to Xie Ci, he was quite unwilling to hand it over, staring heavily at the person collecting, scaring them until cold sweat broke out on their forehead.

“Damn, Xie Ci, are you leaving or not?”

Song Yifan had long since left the exam room. Because Xie Ci hadn’t come out yet, he waited outside forever, so anxious he wanted to stick his head in and call him.

As soon as Xie Ci emerged, Song Yifan followed, chattering: “What were you writing for so long? Reviewing imperial memorials?!”

As he babbled on, he paused, noticing Xie Ci had furrowed brows and a solemn expression.

Song Yifan asked cautiously: “You’re not going to discuss exam questions with me, right? Let me tell you, I can’t handle that… you need to find someone else.”

“What are you yapping about? I’m not an idiot.” Xie Ci glanced at him impatiently.

“…” So Song Yifan sensibly shut up.

A few days later, the monthly exam results came out.

Xu Xiaocheng’s group all had an uncertain feeling. During break when they gathered together to smoke, someone said: “Looking at Young Master Xie these past few days… we won’t actually see him on the rankings board, will we?”

Immediately someone choked on their smoke, coughing twice. “Don’t—don’t—please don’t, I can’t handle that shock!”

“Brothers, if Ah Ci makes the rankings, that would be ‘Moving China,’ right?”

“Hahahahahaha.”

“We’ll have to mock him then.”

Several people discussed it.

Song Yifan on the side had been quiet the whole time, not participating in the discussion.

Back in the classroom, the math teacher distributed exam papers to the class. A swarm of people rushed up, scrambling to hand them out.

Song Yifan returned to his seat, carelessly picking up his test paper to glance at the score.

32 points.

Not bad.

Anyway, he never cared about these things—didn’t feel anything. Song Yifan turned to look at Xie Ci. “Ah Ci, what did you get?”

Xie Ci’s paper was folded up. His expression was bland, not answering, instead asking back: “What did you get?”

“Hahahaha, holy shit.”

In this lifetime, the two of them were actually discussing grades. Song Yifan felt deeply moved internally, shaking his head. “I got 32 points, guessed a few multiple choice questions right.”

Then he saw Xie Ci’s expression become somewhat indescribable.

“What?”

Song Yifan frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re fucking looking down on me now?”

“A little, so hurry up and screw off.”

Song Yifan looked down at him for a few seconds, then taking advantage of his momentary inattention, snatched his answer sheet in one motion and looked closely—

“Are you looking for death?!” Xie Ci immediately stood up, trying to quickly snatch back his paper, his face looking terrible.

“12 points?” Song Yifan was stunned.

Xie Ci said irritably: “Give it back, fucking screw off!”

“That shouldn’t be right! My Ci!” Song Yifan held back from laughing, but also felt confused. “I saw you writing so seriously. How did you only get this many points hahahaha, less than me?!”

Xie Ci said nothing.

Song Yifan was puzzled. “Wait, did the teacher grade it wrong, or were you just scribbling randomly?”

Xie Ci said with a straight face, seriously: “I fucking calculated each problem by hand. I even used up all the scratch paper, damn it.”

“This…”

Compared to Song Yifan, Xie Ci was even more confused. “How did you get 32 points? Did you cheat?” He had even studied, and Song Yifan, this bastard, didn’t even bring a pen before the exam and had to borrow from him. How could he score higher?

“Hahahaha.” Song Yifan coughed. “Honestly, I just randomly did it, relied entirely on guessing.”

“How did you guess?”

“Calculated with my fingers. Pretty cool, right?”

“……”

Song Yifan was especially obnoxious. “Not gonna lie, haha, I even fucking threw dice to verify my answers. Felt pretty effective.”

“…Damn.”

Xie Ci wanted to kick him, irritably picking up the answer sheet and crumpling it into a ball.

Annoying just looking at it.

“Ayo.” Song Yifan patted his shoulder, consoling: “What’s that saying? If fate doesn’t grant it, don’t force it… We’re not cut out for studying. Accept your fate!”

“No no no.”

Xu Xiaocheng behind them had watched the whole show, laughing so hard he could barely speak. “Why give up so easily? Brother Ci, don’t be afraid. We need to let heaven know we don’t give up!”

“……”

Who knows who told Xu You about this.

Early Saturday morning, while Xie Ci was still sleeping in bed, the phone on his nightstand rang.

He was sleeping groggily, closed his eyes and rolled over, answering without even looking at the caller ID.

“Xie Ci… are you awake?”

As soon as that familiar voice sounded, Xie Ci’s spirits instantly awakened. He opened his eyes, suddenly sat up from the bed, took the phone from his ear, looked at it twice, then put it back. “Xu You?!”

“It’s me.”

He cleared his throat, lowering his head, hand clutching the blanket, saying unnaturally: “You…”

“Do you have time today?”

Xu You’s side paused. Her voice was very soft, a bit gentle. “I’m going to the library today. Want to come together?”

“……”

“…Xie Ci, do you not have time…”

“I do I do I do I do!” Xie Ci threw off the blanket and got out of bed, randomly grabbed a pair of pants and hopped into them. “I have time, I have time!!! Where, where? Should I come find you or what?”

“Slow down, don’t bump into anything.”

Xu You was packing books on her end. Hearing the clattering sounds from the phone, the corners of her mouth curved into a small arc. “You have a library there, right? I don’t know where it is either. Let’s go look together later…”

“Okay okay!” Xie Ci’s voice was incredibly happy.

Xu You couldn’t help but smile too. “Remember to bring your math exam paper too.”

“……..”