Sui Da Affiliated High School was the best high school in the entire province. Among parents, there was a saying: get into the Affiliated High School, and it was equivalent to having one foot already stepping into a key university.

The Affiliated High School had a class-rotation system that was so competitive it drove students to exhaustion. Based on each semester’s final exam rankings, students across the entire grade rotated among parallel classes, experimental classes, and top classes. In addition, the Affiliated High School also had an A Class that sat high upon an untouchable pedestal, an existence akin to a faith among students’ parents. It was said that students in this class were at least bound for a 985 university¹985 university: Refers to universities included in China’s Project 985, a government initiative launched in 1998 to develop a small group of elite, world-class institutions. Being admitted to a “985” university signifies top-tier academic achievement..

The lower limit was 985; the upper limit was immeasurable.

It was no longer just about what university one attended. It was said that once, an unknown alumnus who had come out of A Class returned and donated an entire building to the school.

Jin Zhao entered A Class in her second year of high school.

That summer, Suiyi was exceptionally scorching. In the early morning, there was still a trace of coolness in the air, yet the cicadas among the plane trees were already clamoring incessantly.

From 7:20 to 7:50 was the Affiliated High School’s morning reading time. Amid waves of recitation, Jin Zhao arrived at the office of Chen Shu, the homeroom teacher of A Class.

Her final exam ranking last semester had been 36th in the grade; this semester, she was promoted to A Class. Today was the first day of remedial classes after the summer break, and Jin Zhao had come to A Class to report in.

The teachers on each floor shared a single large office. At this hour, the teachers with classes had not yet come back, and the teachers supervising morning reading were in their respective classrooms. Chen Shu’s voice drifted out from inside, carrying a hollow quality.

“Are you in a relationship with Meng Yanxi?”

Jin Zhao raised her hand, just about to knock on the door. When she heard the three words “Meng Yanxi,” her slightly curled fingers stopped in midair.

At the Affiliated High School, there should have been no one who didn’t know Meng Yanxi. In fact, with how completely Meng Yanxi dominated the honor wall and the forums, even the school’s stray cats should have heard of him.

She lifted her eyes, her gaze naturally passing through the half-closed door.

Chen Shu was a young female teacher, seated around the middle of the office. Standing in front of her was a girl. The girl wore the school uniform with her hair tied in a ponytail, her head lowered, her back slender and tall.

Jin Zhao hesitated for a moment between waiting where she was and leaving.

As she turned to leave, she heard the girl’s voice, thick with sobs: “I’m sorry, teacher. Even if I leave A Class, I’ll still work hard at my studies.”

What they said afterward, Jin Zhao didn’t know.

She arrived at the stairwell landing, where the sounds of morning reading came from above, below, left, and right. She took out her earphones from her backpack and leaned against the wall to listen to an English text.

Just as morning reading was about to end, footsteps came from above. Jin Zhao lifted her head.

The girl was very pretty, with fair skin, tall and slender, long legs. When she walked, her head was lowered very low, but because Jin Zhao was below, she still saw at a glance the redness around her eyes.

The other party didn’t notice her presence and passed by her side. Jin Zhao saw the name badge pinned to her school uniform—Wu Fei.

At this moment, the bell signaling the end of morning reading rang, and Wu Fei broke into a light run down the stairs.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

When Jin Zhao returned to Chen Shu’s office, most of the teachers were already there. Some were eating breakfast, some were chatting idly, and some were scolding students.

Chen Shu spotted her at once and waved at her with a smile. “Are you Jin Zhao?”

“Hello, teacher.” Jin Zhao walked up to Chen Shu and greeted her obediently.

Chen Shu still looked quite young, around thirty years old, wearing light makeup, her hair slightly naturally wavy. As Jin Zhao reached her, she also stood up and said, “Come, I’ll take you to the classroom.”

The corridor during break was as lively as a shopping mall—students chasing and playing, laughter, curses, and the occasional sharp scream.

Jin Zhao tugged at her backpack and followed behind Chen Shu. Chen Shu sidestepped to avoid some students who were chasing each other, then turned back and smiled at Jin Zhao. “Teacher Su has told me about you. She said you’re very outstanding. When you first entered in your first year, you were in a parallel class; in the second semester of your first year, you moved up to the experimental class; and this semester, you’ve reached A Class. She said it wasn’t easy for you—you’ve progressed very quickly.”

Teacher Su was Jin Zhao’s previous homeroom teacher. Unlike the young Chen Shu, Teacher Su was a veteran teacher, about the same age as Jin Zhao’s mother. Jin Zhao liked her very much.

As they spoke, the two of them arrived at A Class.

As they were entering, a boy suddenly rushed out from inside and nearly collided with Chen Shu. Chen Shu laughed and scolded, “Luo Heng!”

The tall boy called Luo Heng had round eyes, and when he smiled, he showed a mouthful of white teeth. “Shu-jie, sorry… whoa! Is this the new classmate?”

Luo Heng stopped mid-sentence, his eyes fixed straight on Jin Zhao behind Chen Shu.

The girl’s skin was so fair it seemed to glow, her face small with smooth lines, gentle and obedient almond-shaped eyes, clear pupils. Beneath them were two faintly pink aegyo-sal, like slender crescent moons.

Chen Shu led Jin Zhao up to the podium and briefly introduced the new classmate to the students.

Luo Heng took the lead in applauding, and the whole classroom erupted into enthusiastic applause. Amid the noise, a girl turned her head to her deskmate and said, “She’s so pretty!”

There were two empty seats by the window in the third row. Chen Shu led Jin Zhao over. “You’ll sit here…”

Halfway through the arrangement, she suddenly stopped. Looking at Jin Zhao’s face, she changed her mind on the spot, her gaze quickly sweeping across the classroom.

Jin Zhao stood quietly to the side, waiting for her decision. Chen Shu soon spoke again, “Alright, you’ll sit here.”

Chen Shu turned her head toward a boy in the back row of the class and raised her voice. “Class monitor, come over and sit with the new classmate. When Meng Yanxi arrives, have him sit at your place.”

The boy was seated alone, in the second-to-last row. Wearing glasses, he had been bent over working on a paper. Hearing this, he lifted his head and glanced at Jin Zhao.

“Okay.”

After arranging the seats, Chen Shu left. As she passed the doorway, Luo Heng cracked a joke mischievously, “Shu-jie, is my Yan-ge not worthy of sitting with the new classmate?”

Chen Shu didn’t respond, cursing “a troublemaker” in her heart.

After walking a fair distance, she turned back and told Luo Heng, “When Meng Yanxi arrives, have him come to the office to see me.”

“Got it!”

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

The new desk mate was named Ji Haoxuan. He was the class monitor of A Class and also the Chinese subject representative. Ji Haoxuan didn’t talk much; after finishing introductions with Jin Zhao, he lowered his head again to work on problems.

Jin Zhao sat by the window. The girl in the row ahead suddenly let out a “pfft,” then turned around and smiled at her. “Shu-jie’s arrangement is brilliant. Brilliant.”

Jin Zhao was confused.

The girl smiled at her. “Hi, my name is Si Tian. You can call me Tiantian.”

“Hi, Tiantian. My name is Jin Zhao.”

“I know. I saw you pass by outside the window during morning reading.” Si Tian winked at her, generous with praise. “You’re really pretty, someone you notice at a glance.”

“Thank you.” Jin Zhao pressed her lips together and smiled. “You’re very pretty too.”

“You’re prettier.” Si Tian waved her hand, then suddenly leaned over mysteriously and asked, “Do you know whose seat you’re sitting in right now?”

She cupped both hands around her mouth and answered herself, “Meng Yanxi’s.”

Jin Zhao lowered her eyes, took out the newly issued textbooks from her backpack, and said softly, “I know.”

Si Tian’s eyes lit up at once. “You know this is Meng Yanxi’s seat?”

As a student in the same grade, it was impossible for Jin Zhao not to know Meng Yanxi.

He had entered the Affiliated High School with the top score in the entire city, given a schoolwide speech at the opening ceremony. He had long sat firmly in first place in the grade, won countless awards in major competitions, and his photos occupied half the Honor Wall of the Affiliated High School.

Not only were his grades outstanding, he also loved sports: basketball, skiing, racing… he excelled at all of them. Most importantly, he was also strikingly handsome in a cool, refined way. He wasn’t merely the type who grew on you—though he certainly did—but was universally acknowledged as the kind of breathtakingly good-looking guy who left a lasting impression at first glance.

Here one had to mention that, regarding Meng Yanxi’s looks, there was a saying circulating among the students—out of ten measures of good looks at the Affiliated High School, Meng Yanxi alone took eight.

Jin Zhao didn’t know which genius had come up with it; the first time she heard it, she really wanted to thank Cao Zhi on their behalf.

Sixteen was an age when it was easy to fall for someone. A rain, a corner, brushing past each other—an entire day’s quiet, unspoken delight. Jin Zhao knew many girls liked Meng Yanxi; just to secretly catch a glimpse of him, they would deliberately take a long detour to “pass by” A Class.

Tingwan Lake at the Affiliated High School was very famous. A white jade arch bridge stood over the lake, with a grove of yew trees beside it, one of Suiyi’s best spring-viewing spots.

Meng Yanxi’s seat was also one of the Affiliated High School’s spring-viewing spots.

It was hard for Jin Zhao not to know, but she only said, “The teacher just said it.”

Si Tian was about to say more when the class bell rang, and the idle chatter stopped.

A Class moved at a fast pace. For the entire day, Jin Zhao studied at full stretch.

That year, Suiyi had not yet implemented the new college entrance examination system; it was still a strict division between arts and sciences. The Affiliated High School divided streams in the second semester of the first year, and Jin Zhao chose science. She had one major advantage—she wasn’t weak in any subject—but this also made her especially conflicted when choosing between arts and sciences. She didn’t know what she liked, and in the end, with the mindset of “learn math, physics, and chemistry well, and you won’t fear going anywhere,” she chose science.

For day students, evening self-study ended at 9 p.m. Jin Zhao neatly placed the newly issued textbooks from that day into the desk compartment.

All day long, Meng Yanxi never appeared.

Besides Meng Yanxi, there was another empty seat in the class. Si Tian said it belonged to Lu Jingyue.

Lu Jingyue and Meng Yanxi were cousins. It was said that as soon as the vacation started, the two brothers went to Switzerland to escape the heat and hadn’t returned yet.

She didn’t know which of Si Tian’s words had sparked her wild imagination, but that night, Jin Zhao dreamed of Meng Yanxi.

She dreamed that Meng Yanxi didn’t come back until after the National Day holiday in October, when the weather had turned cool. Because he had missed too many lessons, his grades slipped badly, allowing her to take advantage of it. She became first in the grade, and the school gave her a one-million-yuan bonus.

The alarm woke her up.

In summer, dawn came early. Morning light filtered through the curtains and fell on the bed. Jin Zhao sat up with her eyes closed, thinking wistfully—did first place in the grade really get a one-million-yuan bonus?

Probably not. It would have to be the top scorer or getting into a top-two university.

She immediately let it go.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

Someone had once said that dreams were the opposite of reality. Jin Zhao hadn’t believed it before, but today it was proven with immediate effect.

She caught the bus as soon as she left home in the morning and ended up arriving at school fifteen minutes early.

At this time, no one had arrived around her yet—there was already someone sitting in her seat.

Early in the morning, the boy was slumped over the desk catching up on sleep. His tall frame was curled within the limited space of the desk and chair, his shoulder blades slightly raised. One elbow propped on the desk, the bent wrist rested naturally at the back of his head. His fingers were long, falling into jet-black short hair, faintly revealing a stretch of cool, clean jawline.

Outside the window, the sun climbed over the plane tree canopy. Golden sunlight slanted down into his hair, coating his cool, reserved presence with a layer of soft light.

Jin Zhao stood awkwardly in place.

After thinking it over, she stepped forward and gently tapped the desktop.

He didn’t wake up.

Jin Zhao spoke up: “Meng Yanxi.”

She called him twice. Only then did he slowly wake, lifting his head from the crook of his arm.

Beautiful peach-blossom eyes carried weariness and distant coolness, now filled with irritation at being woken.

“Who are you?”

The voice was low and hoarse, yet icy. Jin Zhao thought that if sound had substance, she would already have been blasted straight out of the Affiliated High School.

At this moment, Luo Heng in the back row slung his bag over his shoulder and swaggered in through the back door. Seeing the situation, he grinned and explained, “She’s Jin Zhao, the new classmate. Shu-jie arranged for her to sit here and told you to go sit in Ji Haoxuan’s seat.”

Meng Yanxi rubbed his face tiredly, then pushed off the desk with his palm and stood up.

He was even taller than the rumors suggested. At such close distance, Jin Zhao had to look up quite a bit to see his face.

His skin was cool white, his nose bridge high and straight, handsome without losing a hint of sharpness. Because he had been sleeping face-down on the desk, a faint red mark had been pressed into the right side of his cheek, and the loose strands of hair on his forehead were slightly messy.

As he passed by Jin Zhao, he politely left behind a single sentence: “Sorry.”

His voice was clean and distant, like dew flowing along the tips of bamboo leaves at dawn deep in the mountains in midsummer.

Jin Zhao replied awkwardly, “I-it’s fine.”

Behind them, Luo Heng asked him, “When did you get back?”

The tall, slender boy walked toward the back row, his voice growing more distant and even more drowsy. “This morning.”

“Don’t you need to deal with jet lag?”

“I’m dealing with it.”

Jin Zhao: ?

Dealing with jet lag at school?

Classmates gradually arrived. Jin Zhao sat down, preparing to take out her Chinese textbook from the desk compartment for morning reading. As she reached in, her hand first touched a plastic bag.

The bag rustled softly. Before she could react, she had already pulled the thing out.

A white transparent bag with a pharmacy name printed on it. Through the gaps in the bold blue lettering, Jin Zhao unexpectedly came face to face with the topmost box inside.

Light blue and white, with several huge characters printed right in the golden center—

Ultra-thin, pleasure three-in-one.

Above it was the logo of a well-known family planning brand.

A sixteen-year-old girl was like a gardenia bud just beginning to bloom—pure, tender, yet to see the light of day. Her entire understanding of such matters was limited to the vague chapter in a middle school biology textbook and the rows of condoms displayed at supermarket checkout counters, which she would hurriedly avert her eyes from after just a passing glance.

Yet at this moment, Jin Zhao was holding a pack in her hand, completely unguarded.

The instant she realized it, blood rushed to her cheeks with a whoosh. Her palms burned hot. Her fingers loosened, and the plastic bag fell with a “pa” onto the desk, paused for half a second at the edge, then immediately dropped to the floor with another “pa.”

The bag wasn’t tied. The contents scattered all over the ground.

Meng Yanxi, who had just changed seats and was about to continue dealing with jet lag, heard the sound and opened his eyes.

Morning reading was about to begin. Today’s morning reading class was Chinese, and Chen Shu was already standing at the podium. Hearing the commotion, she naturally looked over in Jin Zhao’s direction.

Jin Zhao snapped back to her senses and hurriedly left her seat to pick things up.

One hand held the plastic bag, while the other moved quickly to gather the scattered items not suitable for minors on the floor.

One box, two boxes, three, four boxes…

Her fingertips burned hot, and her face was flushed red.

Just as she reached out to pick up the last box, a pair of long fingers that didn’t belong to her moved faster than she did and picked it up.

Meng Yanxi was half-crouched in front of her, his jet-black peach-blossom eyes looking at her, his gaze completely opposite to hers.

She was shy, flustered, caught off guard.

He was cool, calm, expressionless. As if what they were holding weren’t condoms at all, but boxes of chalk, picked up to be handed to the teacher in a moment.

He even casually spun it twice in his hand, as naturally as he would twirl a pen. At the same time, his other hand extended toward her. “Sorry, give it to me.”

There were five minutes left before the bell rang. More and more students were arriving in the classroom, clusters of conversation passing by them. Si Tian and Ji Haoxuan had also arrived, the two of them walking toward their seats one after the other.

“Meng Yanxi, you’re at school? Huh, what are you picking up?”

Si Tian’s voice was close at her ear. Jin Zhao, like she was tossing away a scalding hot potato, swiftly stuffed the plastic bag into Meng Yanxi’s arms.

Meng Yanxi straightened up, composed and unruffled, and said to her, “Thanks.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

It was as if something were lodged in her throat—no matter what, she couldn’t bring herself to say “you’re welcome.”

Author’s note:

It’s not the male lead’s, okay! The male lead is c (virgin)… up until he’s 26… laugh-cry
The campus arc isn’t long, just a few tens of thousands of words~ it lays down the feelings, so that big brother can keep himself for later.

Footnotes

• 1
  985 university: Refers to universities included in China’s Project 985, a government initiative launched in 1998 to develop a small group of elite, world-class institutions. Being admitted to a “985” university signifies top-tier academic achievement.