After the subject placement exams, the division into Arts and Science tracks finally began.
Yu Shulin, as expected, entered the Science track's advanced class, which was still Class 2, and his homeroom teacher was still Teacher Gao. Wang Zhi, unfortunately, was placed into Class 1 and could only reluctantly bid a tearful farewell to his familiar classmates before packing up and moving next door. On a happier note, although Liu Fen had also chosen the Science track, she did not get her wish of being in the same class as Yu Shulin, which was a cause for celebration.
The students moving into the new classroom were very excited, chatting in small groups, creating a lively buzz. Seats hadn't been assigned yet, so Yu Shulin carried his books and chose a seat in the fourth row.
Familiar classmates came over to greet him, and he smiled, responding to each one while organizing his books and chatting, occasionally pulling out snacks from his bag to share with everyone—his approachability was top-notch. Yes, that's right, upon learning he was in a new class, Auntie Liu had stuffed another pile of snacks into his bag, claiming that "sharing food can quickly build bonds between classmates and help him integrate into the new class."
Practice proved this method was effective; the power of food is immense.
Several students who wanted to get closer to Yu Shulin eyed the empty seat next to him with interest, but seeing the crowd gathered around, they felt a bit shy and decided to wait until the crowd thinned out.
Li Tao stepped into the classroom carrying his books, scanned the room, and his expression softened slightly when he saw Yu Shulin surrounded by the crowd. He strode over, ignored the group of people, placed his books on the desk next to Yu Shulin, turned his head to look at him, and asked, "Is this seat taken?"
"Huh, no," Yu Shulin was momentarily stunned, then shook his head in reply.
"Then I'll sit here." Li Tao pulled out the chair and sat down, tidied his textbooks a bit, and very naturally laid his head on the desk, directly treating the surrounding students as air.
The classmates looked at each other, then quickly said their goodbyes and scattered like birds and beasts. Nobody wanted to see Li Tao's sour face. Poor Shulin, getting picked by Li Tao as a deskmate.
The students who had wanted to be Yu Shulin's deskmate were frustrated, heartbroken, and filled with regret—if only they had been more proactive! Yu Shulin had such a good temperament, was patient, and had excellent grades. What a perfect deskmate candidate!
Damn that Li Tao!
When Teacher Gao entered the classroom, the students were still chatting animatedly. His face darkened, he slammed his teaching plan onto the lectern, and said loudly, "Class has started. Quiet!"
The original Class 2 students immediately fell silent and sat up straight. The newly added students looked at them, then at Teacher Gao's stern face, and obediently settled down as well.
"Hmm, good." Teacher Gao was quite satisfied with their obedience and his attitude softened. "You're now in your second year of high school. You need to focus even more on your studies. Let's start with a little assessment." He turned around and swiftly wrote two problems on the blackboard.
After finishing, he turned back, swept his gaze over the well-behaved students, and asked leisurely, "Who wants to come up and solve these?"
The original Class 2 students all looked toward Li Tao and Yu Shulin. Teacher Gao followed their gaze, saw the two sitting together as deskmates, was momentarily taken aback, then smiled. Why hadn't he thought of it? These two sitting together was quite fitting.
The newly added students were bewildered. Their eyes swept over the problems on the blackboard, and their faces paled. This legendary Teacher Gao was indeed terrifying!
Li Tao met Teacher Gao's gaze, glanced sideways at Yu Shulin, and raised his hand. "I'll do it."
Yu Shulin, whose scalp was tingling from the classmates' stares, also raised his hand, feeling somewhat helpless. "I'll give it a try too."
Teacher Gao nodded, revealing a smile. "Good, good. Same old rule, one problem each. Go on up."
The original Class 2 students nodded with relief—still the familiar routine. It was great. Thankfully these two were still in their class. Without them... oh, Teacher Gao was too scary! The two assessment problems were too scary!
The newly added students focused intently on the blackboard, nervous yet expectant. They had long heard of the reputations of the two top students of Class 2. Now was the time to see if they lived up to the hype!
Five minutes later, the two returned to their seats.
Teacher Gao glanced at the blackboard, nodded with satisfaction, and drew two checkmarks on it. "Not bad. It seems you two have prepared your textbooks quite thoroughly. Everyone, turn to page seven. Today we'll start with the second theorem used in the second problem."
The students lowered their heads to flip through their books, their gazes occasionally drifting toward Yu Shulin and Li Tao.
These two... impressive!
During the afternoon homeroom period, Teacher Gao assigned seats. Yu Shulin and Li Tao remained deskmates.
Looking at Li Tao, who was resting his head on the desk reading a book, Yu Shulin grabbed a handful of chocolates from his bag, placed them on Li Tao's desk, and said with a smile, "We'll be deskmates from now on. Please look after me."
Li Tao sat up, took a chocolate, unwrapped it, and ate it. He then fished a bag out from under the desk and tossed it over, saying quietly, "Don't mention it."
He actually gave a return gift?
Yu Shulin picked up the delicate paper bag on the desk, opened it, and saw it contained cookies. He took one out, examined it, tasted it, and praised, "The flavor is really good. Homemade? Thank you."
Li Tao averted his gaze, lowering his head as if concentrating on his book, and said nonchalantly, "The housekeeper made them. There happened to be extras... I'm glad you like them."
Yu Shulin looked at him sideways, the smile in his eyes deepening. This kid was actually quite easy to get along with.
He put the cookies away, nodded, and replied, "Yeah, I really like them." All in all, everything was going smoothly after entering the new class.
During dinner, Guan Bowen picked up a serving of chocolate ice cream, eating it while sighing. "Chocolate flavor... Too bad it's not the handmade heart-shaped brand, nor is it heart-shaped... Ah..."
Liang Zhou paused while cutting his steak, looked up at him expressionlessly, and continued eating.
Scooping a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, Guan Bowen closed his eyes in enjoyment. After the ice cream melted on his tongue, he slowly swallowed it and spoke in a rather cheerful tone, "How come I haven't seen your little sweetheart calling you? Doesn't he miss you?"
"There's no 'little sweetheart.' Don't talk nonsense," Liang Zhou stated impassively, feeling quite helpless against Guan Bowen, whose skin was as thick as a city wall. This guy was impervious to both soft and hard tactics, and he talked too much. Utterly annoying.
"Is that so..." Guan Bowen shed his refined mask, crossed his legs in a slouch, squinted, leaned closer, and gossiped, "I say, you don't actually like your brother, do you? The smell of vinegar has been hanging in the air for days now..."
"Pfft—" He Long, who was eavesdropping from the next table, spat out the mouthful of red wine he had just drunk and bent over in a fit of violent coughing. Guan Bowen's assistant, Little Guo, wiped his face speechlessly with a handkerchief and pushed his plate of pasta away.
This assistant of Actor Liang really had no manners.
The sound of Liang Zhou's knife scraping across his plate was thankfully drowned out by He Long's coughing, saving him from too much embarrassment. He picked up his napkin, wiped his mouth, and said coldly, "So what if I do, so what if I don't? Eat your meal. You talk too much." Being ambiguous was the best reply. After all, given Guan Bowen's personality, even if he guessed the truth, he wouldn't blab. This guy was a nuisance, and this was the best way to shut him up and get some peace.
Guan Bowen, who had initially just been casually teasing with a guess, was taken aback. He pondered the other's tone and observed his expression, then was utterly shocked. With a splat, he smeared his ice cream onto the table, leaned in nervously, swallowed, and asked, "...Are you serious?"
"Don't you already have your own conclusion?" Liang Zhou crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, lifting his chin to look at Guan Bowen from the corner of his eye. "You know what should and shouldn't be said. Shut up and eat."
"..." Guan Bowen opened his mouth, only to find himself speechless under the other's glare. He rolled his eyes and simply shut up, focusing on his meal.
Little Guo glanced at the mess of ice cream by Guan Bowen's hand and twitched the corner of his mouth. Well, his own movie star wasn't exactly refined either... But what had the two movie stars just been talking about? His own mischievous movie star had actually been subdued by Liang Zhou's aura... That was truly something.
During the break between evening self-study sessions, Liu Fen once again stood at the door of the second-year Class Two classroom, peering toward the seat where Yu Shulin sat.
A boy sitting near the door saw this and smirked suggestively. He looked back at Yu Shulin's seat, found it empty, then pursed his lips and said to Liu Fen, "Beauty Liu, Yu Shulin isn't here."
"Not here again..." Liu Fen pouted, very dissatisfied. "Does he even have any awareness of being a boyfriend? He's never here whenever I come looking for him."
"Boyfriend?" The boy's teasing smile vanished, replaced by a strange expression. "Yu Shulin is with you? I haven't heard anything about that."
"He's just shy," Liu Fen said sweetly. After speaking, she scanned the classroom once more. Seeing that most people inside were looking at her, she smiled with satisfaction and left.
"Tch, that girl really has no shame. She's been pestering Shulin since the second semester of first year, and even now that we're in different classes, she still won't quit. She even goes around telling people Shulin is her boyfriend and how good he is to her. It's disgusting. And what's this about Shulin pursuing her? Pah!" The short-haired girl next to the boy adjusted her glasses and spoke disdainfully. She then shot a sidelong glance at her deskmate. "Shallow guy who only looks at appearances. Have you finished your chemistry homework? Confident you'll get first place? Stop meddling in things that are none of your business."
"...Unreasonable," the boy muttered, speechless. He lowered his head to continue his chemistry homework, mumbling, "It's not like I like that girl, why so fierce... And saying she doesn't like Yu Shulin, what a hypocrite... There's clearly someone better right beside you..."
"What did you say?" The short-haired girl slammed her compass heavily on the desk, glaring at him with the whites of her eyes showing. "Looking for trouble?"
"I dare not..." The boy shifted his body slightly and fell silent.
Yu Shulin had just stepped into the classroom carrying the graded test papers when his classmates' curious gazes swept over him. He paused, twitched the corner of his mouth, quickly distributed the papers to the group leaders for them to hand out, walked back to his seat, and asked, "Li Tao, did Liu Fen come by again?"
"Mm," Li Tao replied, turning a page of his book. He looked up at Yu Shulin, carefully observing the expression on his face, and said calmly, "She also said you're her boyfriend."
Yu Shulin frowned. This Liu Fen was getting more and more outrageous; he had clearly already rejected her. He sat down, rubbing his forehead, feeling very troubled. It seemed he needed to find a chance to have a proper talk with her. Letting her continue misunderstanding like this was truly aggravating.
"Annoyed?" Li Tao twirled his pen.
Yu Shulin waved his hand, taking out the textbook for the next class. "It's nothing. It'll be resolved."
The teacher for the last evening self-study session ran a bit overtime. By the time class was officially dismissed, students from other classes were already in the hallway with their backpacks, ready to go home.
Yu Shulin packed his things, said goodbye to Li Tao, and headed out of the classroom.
"Shulin!" Liu Fen, who had been waiting in the hallway, hurried over as soon as she saw him come out, excitedly saying, "Shulin, do you want to get a midnight snack? Let's go together. Oh, and I saw a necklace I really like. Will you buy it for me? My birthday is coming up soon."
Behind Liu Fen were a few girls wearing suggestive smiles. Hearing this, they chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, Yu Shulin, since you're with our Liu Fen, you should show some gesture."
"Stop it, you guys. Shulin is very shy," Liu Fen turned around and lightly scolded them with a smile. When she turned back to Yu Shulin, her expression became much more bashful as she said softly, "They're all my friends. After they found out we're together, they were very curious about you. When they knew I was coming to wait for you, they insisted on tagging along to see. You don't mind, right?"
"Liu Fen," Yu Shulin frowned. He glanced at the chattering girls behind her, his dislike reaching its peak. He shook his head and said, "You know we are not in a relationship. Please don't do this anymore." He had originally wanted to spare the girl some face, but he deeply disliked her method of forcibly twisting their relationship into a romantic one. These unfounded rumors spreading everywhere seriously affected his school life. Thankfully, his older brother was away on a business trip. If he found out about this... headache.
Liu Fen's expression changed upon hearing this. She looked somewhat awkward but still forced a smile. "Shulin, what nonsense are you talking about? Are you angry about that Ma Jian from Class Five chasing me? I swear, there's nothing between us. Don't misunderstand."
The girls standing behind Liu Fen exchanged glances, somewhat confused by the situation, and also helped explain, "Yeah, that Ma Jian has nothing to do with Liu Fen. It's completely one-sided on his part."
Yu Shulin shook his head, the usual smile absent from his face, which was now expressionless. "I don't even know who that Ma Jian is. Liu Fen, you are already disturbing my life. I lost the gift you gave me last time, so I can't return it. I'm sorry. I will get you something similar to make up for it. Thank you for your kindness, but I cannot accept it."
