Senior Year Two at the Affiliated High School had no classes on Sundays.

Lin Yao’s parents and relatives from her maternal family came over to visit. The baby’s laughter and the adults’ loud voices came in waves, vibrating against Jin Zhao’s eardrums. Jin Zhao suddenly thought of that sentence: Your happiness is disturbing me.

So happiness really can disturb people.

So happiness really can hurt people.

But she still had to maintain the most basic courtesy. When guests came, she was called out to greet them with a smile, addressing each person one by one.

The first time she did this, her eyes would secretly redden. Now she had grown practiced at it, and there really weren’t any great ripples in her heart. Or perhaps it was because, recently, the frequency with which she thought of Meng Yanxi had been a little too high.

The feeling of secretly liking someone was like hiding a grain of white sugar in one’s heart—you couldn’t taste the sweetness, but every time you thought of it, you would feel happy.

In the afternoon, Jin Zhao packed up her things and went to the library to study, and ran into Wu Nian in the residential complex.

Back then, the complex didn’t have much separation between pedestrians and vehicles. Wu Nian rode her little electric scooter and caught up to Jin Zhao from behind.

“Lingling,” Wu Nian stopped in front of her and asked, “where are you going?”

Jin Zhao said, “The library.”

“Get on, I’ll give you a ride.” Wu Nian patted the back seat of the little electric scooter.

“No need. It’s not on your way—go on ahead, Nian Nian.”

Wu Nian didn’t move, only tilted her head to look at her.

Jin Zhao looked at her as well. Both of them wanted to speak but hesitated.

“Are you…”

“Those people…”

They spoke at the same time, and then both stopped at once.

A car came up from behind and honked once. The two of them moved to the side of the road. After the car passed, Jin Zhao spoke: “Those people didn’t give you any more trouble later on, right?”

“Mm. Don’t worry, it’s pretty much been taken care of.” Wu Nian propped one foot on the ground, her head lowered.

“That’s good.” Jin Zhao pinched the strap of her backpack and said, “Then I’ll head to the library first.”

“Mm.”

Jin Zhao took two steps toward the complex entrance when Wu Nian called out to her again: “Lingling.”

Jin Zhao turned back.

Wu Nian clenched the handle of the little electric scooter in her palm, her gaze flickering slightly as she looked at her. After two seconds, she asked, “You… how much money can you still take out right now?”

Jin Zhao had an education fund her mother had left behind. Before she passed away, she had repeatedly told Jin Zhao that it could only be used for her studies. No matter who asked her for it—even her father—she was absolutely not allowed to give it. She had also made Jin Zhao promise at her bedside that, no matter how difficult things became in the future, she must study all the way through a doctorate and, in the future, find a job as a university teacher. Jin Zhao had deposited this sum in the bank; she definitely couldn’t touch it. But over the past few years, she had saved up all the New Year red envelopes, which added up to a bit over two thousand.

“How much do you need?” she asked.

“Two thousand.”

Jin Zhao fell quiet for two seconds, then gently nodded. “I’ll go back and get it for you.”

Wu Nian waited for her downstairs. Jin Zhao put the money into a large red envelope—it was all New Year’s gift money, most of the hundred-yuan bills crisp and brand-new.

When Wu Nian took it, her eyes reddened slightly. “This should be all you have. You lend the money to me, what will you do? With your family’s situation right now, there’s probably no one who would even think of you. And with your personality, you wouldn’t take the initiative to ask.”

The wind brushed against the girl’s fair, clean face, and Jin Zhao suddenly drifted a little.

She thought of the three thousand yuan lottery ticket with Meng Yanxi.

Lu Jingyue had said his luck was very good—out of ten times, he’d win six or seven. So was it possible that he had deliberately said he hadn’t brought money and let her pay for the lottery ticket, just to have an excuse to give the prize money to her?

He actually understood her predicament and had wanted to help her earn some money.

The thought made Jin Zhao’s heart suddenly leap with joy, like a little bird fluttering and chirping noisily in her chest.

No—she couldn’t be this self-satisfied.

She gathered her thoughts and smiled at Wu Nian. “It’s fine. I don’t have many places where I need to spend money. Your situation is more urgent.”

“Thank you.” Wu Nian squeezed her hand. “Once things ease up on my end, I’ll pay you back right away.”

Wu Nian was about to ride off on her little electric scooter when Jin Zhao reached back and held her hand. “Nian Nian.”

Jin Zhao looked into Wu Nian’s eyes. “Go back to school. Come back and study. Take the college entrance exam.”

Wu Nian’s expression dimmed slightly. “Is that the condition for you lending me the money?”

“You know it’s not.”

“Then stop talking nonsense. For kids from families like ours, you think studying is the way out; I think making money is the way out. I didn’t drag you to work at a bar, and you shouldn’t drag me back to school to study.”

“But at our age—”

“I’m going. I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.” Wu Nian cut her off, twisted the throttle, and the little electric scooter sped out of the complex in the blink of an eye.

Jin Zhao watched Wu Nian’s thin yet resilient figure, and softly let out a breath.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

Monday’s morning reading session still began at 7:20. Jin Zhao arrived at school at 7:10. Her deskmate Ji Haoxuan’s backpack was already on the seat, but he wasn’t there.

Jin Zhao sat down and put her backpack into the desk compartment, once again feeling that terrifying obstruction.

Today it was yogurt and a cheese milk mini cake.

Jin Zhao was really about to lose her mind.

Meng Yanxi’s seat was empty. Jin Zhao forcefully stuffed the yogurt and the little cake into the desk compartment of this culprit.

Today’s morning reading was Chinese. Amid the classroom full of voices reciting “Ode to the Red Cliffs,” Jin Zhao was absent-minded; she couldn’t even open her mouth, her head filled with the question of why—when she had clearly already given the love letter and the food to Meng Yanxi last Saturday—the breakfast was still being delivered to her today. Had he not made things clear with that girl?

Whether he liked her or not, he had to make it clear—rather than letting people keep sending him food again and again, muddled and unclear, and even sending it to the wrong place.

She didn’t want to believe that Meng Yanxi was someone with such a complete lack of moral bottom line.

Right now, her impression of Meng Yanxi was absurdly good—so good that even if someone told her Meng Yanxi was a god, she would believe it.

Jin Zhao secretly twisted around to look toward the back corner—and instantly, her vision went black.

The Chinese textbook was propped up on the desk. Meng Yanxi lounged openly against the back of his chair, long legs stretched out, eyes lazily fixed on the textbook. In his hand was a bottle of yellow peach oat–flavored yogurt, which he drank intermittently, and beside his hand lay a milk cheese mini cake, already scooped out with one corner eaten.

Sensing her gaze, he lightly glanced over at her.

All around them, the sound of reading rang out, “Ode to the Red Cliffs” reaching the line: “To lodge a mayfly between heaven and earth, a mere grain in the vast sea. I mourn the briefness of my life, and envy the endlessness of the Yangtze.”

Their eyes met. Those pitch-black peach blossom eyes were utterly unruffled, bearing not the slightest psychological burden.

Jin Zhao: “……”

So she hadn’t been mistaken at the start—Meng Yanxi really had no moral bottom line at all.

How could he even swallow it?

Her deskmate Ji Haoxuan noticed her distraction and followed her line of sight. With that one look, it was like a bolt from the blue.

Why was the breakfast he had given to Jin Zhao in Meng Yanxi’s mouth?

Ji Haoxuan turned back to look at Jin Zhao in disbelief. “You, you—how—”

Chen Shu stood on the podium, taking in everything happening below. Holding her textbook, she walked over to Ji Haoxuan without making a sound. The words Ji Haoxuan hadn’t finished were forced back down.

Jin Zhao hurriedly lowered her head and continued reading from the textbook.

Chen Shu then walked over to Meng Yanxi and tapped on his desk to remind him, “No eating during class.”

Meng Yanxi complied readily, stuffing the yogurt and the little cake into the desk compartment.

These thirty minutes of morning reading were especially hard to endure for both Jin Zhao and Ji Haoxuan. Both of them were waiting for the bell to ring.

Chen Shu went out in the middle for a while. When she returned to the classroom just before the end of the session, her expression was grim. She walked straight to Jin Zhao and Ji Haoxuan’s desk, glanced at the two of them, and said, “You two, come with me.”

Ji Haoxuan’s heart sank with a thud. Jin Zhao was at a loss.

It was almost time for the end of morning reading. The teacher for first period had already arrived, and there were two other teachers in the large office waiting to go to class. Standing beside Chen Shu’s workstation was a woman—her hair permed into small golden curls, an LV monogram bag slung over her shoulder, arms crossed as she looked at the school motto on the wall.

Chen Shu led Ji Haoxuan and Jin Zhao inside. Hearing their footsteps, the woman turned around.

Ji Haoxuan’s face turned deathly pale.

“Mom.”

Ji Haoxuan’s mother’s makeup didn’t sit well. Pale foundation was caked onto her face, while her lipstick was overly vivid. The downward pull of her facial muscles, combined with the overly dark eyeliner, gave her a somewhat fierce look.

She glanced expressionlessly at Ji Haoxuan, then stared straight at Jin Zhao.

Under her gaze, Jin Zhao felt a chill creep up her back and instinctively looked away.

“Ji Haoxuan’s mother, this is Jin Zhao,” Chen Shu stepped forward. “I think that before we invite Jin Zhao’s father to come over, we should first understand the situation.”

Hearing that parents would be called, Jin Zhao abruptly lifted her eyes, confusion and fear filling them.

“Pa!”

Ji Haoxuan’s mother threw the phone in her hand onto Chen Shu’s desk.

“Teacher Chen, all the evidence is right here. What’s still unclear?” Ji Haoxuan’s mother said coldly as she looked at Chen Shu.

Ji Haoxuan stared fixedly at his phone, his face deathly white, fists clenched tight, his shoulders trembling faintly.

Chen Shu glanced at Ji Haoxuan, then looked toward Jin Zhao.

At that moment, the bell marking the end of morning reading rang, bringing with it a sudden, uniform burst of noise from the entire building. Very quickly, the sounds of students playing and fooling around drifted in from the corridor.

Chen Shu stood up and went to close the front and back doors of the office.

Since she began teaching, she had always been mindful of students’ dignity. Even when students made mistakes, she never questioned them in the large office in front of other teachers. But today, with Ji Haoxuan’s mother coming directly to the school to demand answers, she could only handle it at such a time.

Returning to her desk, Chen Shu asked, “Jin Zhao, are you and Ji Haoxuan in an early relationship?”

Jin Zhao widened her eyes and immediately looked at Ji Haoxuan. His face was deathly pale, both hands clenched into fists, glaring angrily at his mother.

A bad premonition rose in Jin Zhao’s heart at once. She hurriedly denied it. “No, I’m not!”

“You’re not?” Ji Haoxuan’s mother sneered. “You say you’re not dating Ji Haoxuan, yet you accept his gifts with a clear conscience. That’s a pretty good deal for you.”

“What gifts?”

“So young and already such a little green-tea girl—what will you be like when you grow up.” Ji Haoxuan’s mother grabbed the phone off Chen Shu’s desk and threw it into Jin Zhao’s arms. “Look for yourself. Milk today, yogurt tomorrow; croissant today, mousse tomorrow—bringing you breakfast in all kinds of ways. When you accepted his love letter and ate the breakfast he brought you, why didn’t you say then that you weren’t dating him?”

“Mom!” Ji Haoxuan shouted angrily, only to be cut off immediately by his mother.

“Shut up! I’ll deal with you when we get home!”

On the phone were Ji Haoxuan’s WeChat chat records with his friends.

Ji Haoxuan had said many things about liking her, and his friends had advised him to confess. Ji Haoxuan then wrote a love letter. Two days later, he said that lately, every time she looked at him her face would redden and her gaze would dodge, that she probably liked him too, that they liked each other. His friends immediately egged him on, telling him to take it further and bring her breakfast every day. Ji Haoxuan indeed did so, even taking photos of the breakfasts he brought her each day and sending them to his friends.

Jin Zhao looked at those familiar breakfast photos, and in her mind, like a bolt from a clear sky, surfaced the milk, yogurt, and little pastries that had tormented her for an entire week, leaving her restless and unsettled.

Weren’t those for Meng Yanxi?

She had given all of them to Meng Yanxi!

And Meng Yanxi had even eaten them!

Jin Zhao could hardly believe that such a ridiculous mix-up had happened to her.

“I—I don’t… I didn’t know…” A sixteen-year-old girl who had never encountered something like this before had her mind seize up in an instant. She denied it instinctively, wanting to explain.

“Call your parents to come in.” Ji Haoxuan’s mother interrupted impatiently, her gaze at Jin Zhao full of disdain. “We parents can talk it through face to face. My son is going to take the top2 exams—I won’t allow anyone to delay him.”

“Mom!” Ji Haoxuan stepped forward to pull her.

Ji Haoxuan’s mother flung her son aside and pointed at Jin Zhao with her index finger. “Call right now. Have your dad come talk to me!”

Jin Zhao inexplicably bore the brunt of Ji Haoxuan’s mother’s anger, her nose stinging with soreness.

In Jin Wenhui’s eyes now, there was only her younger brother. If she disappointed him again, if he thought she wasn’t studying properly and was getting into an early romance, her situation would become even more awkward.

“How about… I’ll have my dad come talk to you.”

A calm, distant voice cut in, briefly breaking the tense, confrontational atmosphere in the office.

Jin Zhao turned her head.

Chen Shu had closed the door earlier, but afterward teachers had come in one after another, and the door had naturally been left open. Meng Yanxi and Lu Jingyue stood at the doorway, the two of them together, as if they had just passed by on the way back from the restroom.