After the noon break ended, the very first class was taught by their headteacher, Chen Shuang.
The moment she stepped into the classroom, she brought a palpable sense of pressure with her. Holding her lesson plans in one hand, she used the other to push up her glasses from time to time. Her sharp single-eyelidded eyes swept across the room like blades. Years of lecturing had worn away the high pitch of her voice; instead, she sounded steady and calm like a news anchor—though it had absolutely nothing to do with the word “gentle.”
“All three afternoon classes will be math. We’ll use the first period for a class meeting to address what happened this morning,” Chen Shuang said, her gaze sweeping toward the two students sitting by the window in the first row.
Zhao Che spoke up first: “Teacher, we were wrong.”
Gu Yu: “…”
This strategy of striking first indeed softened Chen Shuang’s tone considerably.
“Mhm. It’s good that you’re brave enough to admit your mistakes. But if you have objections to the school’s rules and regulations, you can come to my office to talk about it privately, rather than pointing it out in front of everyone…”
Relying on his years of reading the room, Zhao Che could tell that “Old Chen” actually thought they made a fair point. She was merely giving them a mild scolding to save face.
Seeing that she had said enough, Chen Shuang asked, “Understood?”
“Understood, Teacher! We promise we won’t do it again next time!”
She then looked at Gu Yu: “What about you, Gu Yu?”
“Mhm, got it.”
Satisfied, she nodded and began going over the test paper.
The pace of instruction in the honors track was blisteringly fast. Before anyone could fully digest one set of concepts, the next set of mock exam papers came crashing down on them.
The four periods crept along at a snail’s pace before school finally let out.
Zhao Che stretched his arms and looked at the answers filled across his test paper, smiling with a face full of pride.
Looks like even after not studying for six years, I can still casually answer a high school test paper. I’m practically a born genius, exceptionally gifted, unmatched under heaven…
Suddenly, a cold voice interrupted his narcissism without warning.
“Are you going or not?”
Following the voice, he saw Gu Yu already standing up with his backpack on, looking down at him from above.
“Going, going, going.”
Zhao Che stopped idling, shoved his papers into his backpack all at once, and went downstairs together with Gu Yu.
Along the campus path, a gentle breeze rustled the ginkgo leaves into a soft chatter. Day students carrying their backpacks poured out of the buildings, chatting shoulder-to-shoulder as they hurried home.
Everything was so familiar, as if he really were just that seventeen-year-old youth. Amid the crowd, he naturally draped an arm over Gu Yu’s shoulders, keeping his other hand shoved in his pants pocket. Walking at a neither fast nor slow pace, he headed toward that “Experimental No. 2 High School” bus stop he had waited at countless times.
After boarding the bus, the vehicle suddenly jolted. Zhao Che pulled the metal tin from his pocket once more and gently nudged Gu Yu’s arm with it.
Gu Yu turned his head, a hint of the vagueness from looking out the window still lingering in his eyes. He took the candy, popped it into his mouth, and mumbled a soft: “Thanks.”
Watching Gu Yu purse his lips as he ate the candy, Zhao Che remembered asking him in the past: “What flavor do you like?”
“Grape is pretty good.”
At this thought, his gaze drifted back to the purple metal tin in his hand, his mind drifting into the past.
It was a certain summer night.
“Boss, do you have any more of these mint candies?” He had held up the tin for the store owner to see, and the owner casually pointed to the shelf in front.
He leaned in to check, only to find the shelf packed exclusively with strawberry ones: “I don’t want strawberry, I want grape.”
The owner waved a hand: “Out of stock then. Haven’t gotten the new shipment yet.”
Refusing to give up, he ran to the next store to ask, only to get the same answer: “None left.”
He ran to yet another store. Looking at the tin in his hand, the landlady advised him with a smile: “The other flavors are tasty too, why not grab this one instead?” He shook his head.
Mindful of Gu Yu’s motion sickness and knowing he would need it for school the next morning, he turned around and ran to the next shop.
Without realizing it, he had run across three whole streets. Finally, at a convenience store on a corner, the owner heard him ask for grape flavor, dug a box out from beneath the counter, and handed it to him.
By the time he ran back, his short-sleeved shirt was completely soaked with sweat.
Halfway back, his phone rang. It was a call from Gu Yu. He answered it while panting heavily, and the cold voice came through the receiver: “What did you go off to do?”
He just made up an excuse on the spot: “Night running! I’m gonna secretly get handsome and shock everyone!”
The other end of the line went silent for two seconds before hanging up.
Clenching the candy in his fist, he pictured Gu Yu’s exasperated, frowning face on the other end of the line, and suddenly burst out laughing—so much so that even the summer night breeze felt sweet.
Turns out I liked Gu Yu this early on.
“What are you daydreaming about?” Gu Yu’s cold query pulled him back to reality.
Zhao Che stammered instantly: “N-Nothing…”
Gu Yu glanced at him again and said plainly, “Time to get off.”
“Oh!”
By the time they returned to Fengjing Garden, dusk had just settled in.
Hearing the door open from the kitchen, Wang Xue called out to them through the glass: “A-Che and A-Yu are back? Go freshen up and wash your hands for dinner, it’s almost ready!”
At the dining table, Zhao Guowei spoke up first: “Xue-‘er, the lunch you packed for me today was exceptionally lavish. Little Li was even envious that I have such a dutiful wife… except that juice…” Before he could finish, Wang Xue glared at him, making him hastily switch gears, “…that juice was exceptionally delicious too!”
“Pfft—” Zhao Che exposed him without mercy. “My dad means it was ‘exceptionally terrible’.”
“You brat!” Zhao Guowei craned his neck to defend himself, only to be slapped on the shoulder by Wang Xue: “So what did you mean then?”
Zhao Guowei instantly deflated, bowing his head to quietly wolf down his rice.
Wang Xue turned to Gu Yu, her face full of anticipation: “What about A-Yu? How did the loving juice from this morning taste?”
Gu Yu picked up a piece of cucumber with his chopsticks and said earnestly, “I think it was fine.”
The other two men coughed in unison.
Wang Xue immediately beamed with joy: “I knew A-Yu is the one with refined taste! Then tomorrow I’ll squeeze a new blend for you guys.”
The words “new blend” hit Zhao Che’s head like a bolt of lightning. In his past life, he had been tortured by these “new blends” into stomach aches more times than he could count. Even as his twenty-four-year-old self, he couldn’t handle his own mother’s frantic experimenting!
Zhao Guowei also cast a resentful glance over.
Zhao Che raised his head and saw Gu Yu pursing his lips with a somewhat stiff expression, looking as though he regretted his words just now. Seeing that there wasn’t much left in his bowl either, Zhao Che pulled him up: “Mom, Gu Yu and I are full. We’re heading upstairs to study.”
“You ate so little? A-Yu, are you full?”
“I’m full, Aunt Xue.”
Pulling Gu Yu back into his own room, Zhao Che spoke in a teasing tone: “Student Gu Yu, what’s with that face?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what are you nervous about?”
“Which of your fucking eyes saw me being nervous?” After cursing, he turned and left without looking back.
Zhao Che glanced at the tightly shut bedroom door, silently declaring: Both eyes saw it.
Having had no time all day to think carefully about his rebirth, he could finally settle his mind and sort things out properly. Sitting at his desk, he began to slowly organize his thoughts.
After a day of experiencing it firsthand, he had discovered a crucial issue: he might have truly returned to when he was seventeen, and the way things unfolded seemed to shift according to his actions.
However, the general framework probably wouldn’t change—things like the timing and scope of final exams, the curriculum knowledge, and even the juices his mom whipped up were all identical to his memories of being seventeen.
In other words, if he did nothing, everything would likely follow its original trajectory. But if he actively intervened—especially regarding his relationship with Gu Yu—the outcome might turn out completely different from his past life.
The most important thing, however, was to first figure out why Gu Yu had secretly changed his college preference back then and left Nancheng. If it really was just because Haida’s civil engineering program was better, why lie to him, leave without saying goodbye, and break off contact for six years? That reason was far too flimsy.
Still, nothing could be rushed; he had to plan for the long haul. In particular, his own feelings absolutely couldn’t be revealed too early. If he scared Gu Yu away before the college entrance exams even finished, that would truly be the end of it.
Having finished this train of thought, he pulled out his test papers from his backpack to start his homework. Not even ten minutes into writing, he grew inexplicably restless. He couldn’t settle down at all, his mind constantly drifting back to Gu Yu’s cool, handsome face. So he came up with an excuse to go find Gu Yu under the pretense of asking about homework.
Once his mind was set, he tossed the homework assignment sheet into a small drawer beside him. The moment the paper landed inside, his gaze suddenly froze.
Scattered inside the drawer were quite a few small slips of paper, all filled with homework assignments for various subjects. Their corners were curled up, and some were even smudged with blurred ink marks.
He picked up the top one; written on it was “English Workbook P35-37.” The handwriting was casual and free-flowing, almost identical to the sheet he had just tossed in, except for the varying degrees of wear and the lightness or darkness of the ink—as if his selves from two different spacetimes were silently looking at each other.
“Tsk, it really is…” Zhao Che let out a helpless laugh, his thumb brushing over the paper.
Living life over again, even his stupid excuses for pretending to forget his homework were identical.
Back in his freshman year of high school, it was precisely by relying on these tiny slips of paper that he pestered Gu Yu every day to “borrow assignments for reference,” all just to have a legitimate excuse to make him stay a little longer.
He gathered the old slips together, pressed the new one right on top, and got up to go look for Gu Yu.
Knock, knock, knock. Standing at Gu Yu’s bedroom door, Zhao Che knocked while shouting, “Gu Yu, what’s the physics assignment?”
Before long, footsteps approached from inside, and the door opened: “Don’t you have a phone?”
Zhao Che certainly wasn’t going to tell the truth—that he came to knock on the door on purpose: “Aiya, since we’re so close, I just thought I’d come straight over to ask you.”
“I sent it to you. Go back.” The moment Gu Yu finished speaking, he shut the door without another word.
Zhao Che: “…”
Why aren’t you playing by the rules!
He pulled out his phone in frustration. Seeing a red notification dot pop up on that pinned profile picture made him feel inexplicably annoyed, yet his hands didn’t stop typing: Thank you, Student Gu Yu! HandsTogether.jpg
Twenty minutes later, he took the initiative to send another message: Are you there? There’s a problem I can’t solve. Pitiful.jpg
Two minutes later, a reply came from the other side: Snap a picture and send it over.
Zhao Che flipped back and forth through his homework paper. Finding nothing challenging after a quick look around, he snapped a photo of a math competition problem and sent it over.
Ten minutes later, his phone vibrated. Opening it, he saw the step-by-step solution sent by Gu Yu—the logic was crystal clear. Even so, he still replied: 【What should I do? I still don’t get it. Can you explain it to me? BeggingYou.jpg
GY: …
Should I come over then?
Mhm.
Zhao Che got his wish and arrived in Gu Yu’s room, holding a chair in his hand—looking like he had no intention of going back anytime soon.
“Hehe, Student Gu Yu, hurry up and explain it to me.”
Gu Yu looked at him with eyes as if looking at a fool: “Didn’t you say you were the Archimedes-Che of the mathematics world?”
Zhao Che cupped his head, feigning a sigh: “Sigh, even gods have times when they fall from grace.”