Gu Yu remained silent, making no sound.
Just then, Wang Xue’s gentle voice suddenly came from the doorway: “Hello, I’m coming in!” Carrying two plates, she stepped into the room. Her eyes happened to fall upon Zhao Che sitting right next to Gu Yu, and she couldn’t help but feel a little puzzled. “A-Che? Why are you here too?”
Zhao Che replied with a trace of discontent: “Mom, is there a problem with me being here? There’s a problem I couldn’t solve, so I came over to ask for some guidance.”
“You brat, I just asked casually. Look at that attitude of yours.” Wang Xue glared at Zhao Che, then turned to look at Gu Yu, who had remained silent all along, handing the plate over to him. “Here, A-Yu, have some fruit.”
Gu Yu accepted it and said softly, “Thank you, Aunt Xue.”
Zhao Che looked at the apples on the plate with a look of utter distaste—in his past life, he had eaten them so often he practically wanted to throw up.
“Mom, why is it apples again? I want to eat watermelon.”
“Look at you being picky. Eat it or don’t.” Wang Xue tossed the other plate onto the desk and, without saying another word, turned and left.
After Wang Xue left, Zhao Che shuffled closer to Gu Yu’s side, sitting extremely close—so close that he could catch the faint, subtle scent of laundry detergent on Gu Yu’s school uniform, clean and refreshing. The warm light from overhead cast a soft, slanted shadow across the test paper.
He speared a piece of apple with a fork, shoved it into his mouth, chewed twice, and said, “Alright, go ahead, Teacher Gu.”
Gu Yu glanced at him, picked up a pencil to underline the key points of the problem, and carefully explained the starting approach.
On the surface, Zhao Che listened attentively, but his mind had long since drifted away. Only the clear, light sound of Gu Yu explaining the problem echoed softly in his ears.
“Get it?”
“Mhm, got it.” Zhao Che snapped back to reality and smiled, adding with a hint of foolishness, “Thank you, Teacher Gu. That was explained really well.”
Yet Gu Yu dismissed him without an ounce of mercy: “If you get it, then leave.”
“?”
It was so hard to get close to Gu Yu, how can I just leave like that!
Zhao Che said thick-skinly, “Aiya, what if there are other problems I don’t know how to do? How about waiting until I finish before I go?”
“I want to take a shower.”
“…”
Inside, Zhao Che was raging in powerless fury: Damn it, thrown out after barely staying for ten minutes—I’m so unwilling! But at the thought of Gu Yu taking a shower, he could only say sullenly, “Fine, I’m leaving.”
He picked up the test paper from the desk and lifted his chair, getting ready to head back the way he came. Before he could take even two steps, Gu Yu’s voice came from behind him: “Wait.”
Thinking that Gu Yu had changed his mind, he immediately turned his head back, only to see Gu Yu pointing at the plate on the desk, saying, “The apples.”
“…”
His last thread of hope was shattered.
Back in his room, his phone vibrated, and the screen lit up immediately after. It was a message sent by a nickname labeled “I Love Weekends”. He searched his brain back and forth, finally remembering who it was: his backrow classmate, Zhou Wei. Isn’t this guy a boarding student? Full of doubt, he tapped open the message.
I Love Weekends: Are you asleep yet, Che-ge?
Che Ye: What’s up?
I Love Weekends: Hurry and check the campus wall! So many people are confessing to you and Yu-ge!
Che Ye: ?
I Love Weekends: You two became famous after this morning’s battle. Awesome.jpg
After exiting WeChat, Zhao Che tapped into the Experimental No. 2 High School campus wall on another app. Sure enough, just as Zhou Wei had said, it was filled almost entirely with anonymous posts confessing to him and Gu Yu, occasionally interspersed with a few lost-and-found posts.
He had zero interest in posts confessing to himself. After scrolling through casually, he opened a few that were confessing to Gu Yu instead.
Campus Wall: Yu-shen, I like you. I wrote a love letter for you and put it inside your desk. — Anonymous
Student Gu Yu, you were so cool this morning! Cheering for you! — Anonymous
Gu Yu, I’ve liked you for a really long time. I don’t know if you still remember me, but we used to go to the same middle school. You even helped me pick up textbooks and move chairs before. — Anonymous
Yu-shen, back in middle school, I even gave you chocolates before. — Anonymous
Picked up textbooks? Moved chairs? Gave chocolates? He didn’t know about any of these things. He and Gu Yu hadn’t been in the same class during middle school—instead, one was upstairs and one was downstairs.
Until he scrolled to another post.
A-Yu, although we aren’t in the same school anymore, I fulfilled the promise I made to you. I wonder if you are still willing to accept me? — Anonymous
Seeing this post, Zhao Che blew his top instantly! What promised thing? What fulfilled? And calling him so intimately! Could Gu Yu have secretly made a lifelong vow with someone behind his back?!
In his past life, he hadn’t even managed to utter a single word of confession, and now his home ground was being stolen?
At this thought, unable to hold back any longer, he easily created an alt account and submitted a post.
Before long, it was published on the campus wall: Gu Yu, do you still remember the days when we were together? I held your hand, you leaned on my shoulder, sitting on the bench together counting stars, and even promising to go to the same school. — Little Sweetheart
It was already past eleven at night, but less than five minutes after it was posted, dozens of comments poured in, suddenly summoning countless gossiping students to spectate.
Floor 1: Holy crap? What’s going on! A scandal involving Yu-shen?
Floor 2: Couldn’t be Yu-shen’s ex-girlfriend, right?
Floor 3: Holding hands and hugging, it’s definitely an ex!
Floor 4: Agreeing with above, maybe they even kissed.
Floor 5: Judging by the post, they were probably middle school classmates?
Floor 6: Based on my analysis, they probably broke up because they ended up in different high schools and couldn’t handle a long-distance relationship.
Floor 7: For real? Yu-shen practically has ‘Do Not Approach’ carved onto his face. I’m really curious who could take him down.
Floor 8: The ID ‘Little Sweetheart’ sounds like a soft little cupcake just by the name. Yu-shen wouldn’t happen to like soft, cute girls, right?
…
The comments were guessing all sorts of things. Zhao Che read through them line by line, feeling a lot more comfortable inside.
What was written in the post was actually all true—he had just added a little “dramatic flair.”
He and Gu Yu indeed stayed together every day, but they had also truly been separated in their past lives. As for holding hands, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t held hands when they were kids; in his past life when Gu Yu got drunk, he had leaned on his shoulder the whole way back; as for looking at the stars, they had attended an astronomical telescope science outreach activity together back in middle school, which counted as having done so.
Finally, the promise to go to the same school was real too—he and Gu Yu had promised to go to Nandu University together.
After scrolling through a few more posts, he closed his phone in satisfaction and went to take a shower.
The next morning, the moment Zhao Che and Gu Yu entered the classroom, they heard Zhou Wei’s wailing: “Yu-ge! Have you really been in a relationship before?”
The classmates already sitting in the room all looked at Gu Yu with faces full of gossip.
Seeing Gu Yu’s clueless expression, Zhao Che gave a dry laugh and said, “How could that be possible? Would I not know if your Yu-ge had been in a relationship?”
Indeed, not only did he not know, but he had also been so overcome with jealousy that he fabricated one out of thin air.
Wei Junjie suddenly chimed in: “Exactly, don’t go spreading scandals about our classmate!”
Hearing this, Zhou Wei sprang straight up from his seat: “Showing off again, aren’t you!”
Seeing this, Zhao Che smoothed things over: “Alright, alright, wasn’t the class monitor just being well-meaning?” Saying so, he pushed Gu Yu—who had remained silent through the whole thing—to sit down in his seat.
He pulled his textbook out from his backpack and put it into his desk drawer, suddenly remembering a post from last night, so he asked: “Gu Yu, take a look and see if there’s anything in your desk drawer.”
Gu Yu looked puzzled, but still honestly rummaged through his desk drawer, and sure enough, pulled out a pink envelope.
Frowning, he asked, “What’s this?”
Zhou Wei chimed in first: “A love letter! Yu-ge, hurry up and open it to take a look.”
“Where did it come from?”
“A girl from Class 8 gave it after evening self-study yesterday.”
“Return it.” Having said that, he mercilessly tossed the envelope to Zhou Wei and turned back around.
Zhao Che said in a delighted mood: “Aiya, next time someone sends a love letter, just help reject them directly. Our family’s Gu Yu still needs to study hard to get into Nandu University together with me, got it?”
When mentioning getting into Nandu University together, he even used his peripheral vision to check Gu Yu’s reaction—it was just like usual, reflecting an attitude as if it had nothing to do with him.
“Oh.” Zhou Wei rubbed his nose and asked again, “Then what about you, Che-ge?”
“What about me?”
“Should I help reject yours too?”
A love letter? Did he have one too? He rummaged through his desk drawer twice and found a blue envelope inside.
This envelope was the same style as the one given to Gu Yu; they were probably delivered together.
Zhao Che asked, bewildered: “Where did this come from?”
“From the same class as the girl who likes Yu-ge—the two of them delivered them together.”
“Help me return mine too.” Zhao Che scrutinized the love letter back and forth, then tossed it onto Zhou Wei’s desk as well.
Zhou Wei: “Holy crap, no way! I’m the one turned into the bad guy for everyone, wuu wuu wuu.”
Zhao Che gave him a speechlessly exasperated look and said, “I’ll cover the answers for this week’s physics homework, is that enough?”
Zhou Wei’s eyes lit up instantly: “Enough! This humble servant is willing to work like a horse and ox for Che-ge!”
Zhao Che smiled in satisfaction. Raising his head, he saw the English class representative, Wang Anran, walking toward him.
“Zhao Che, hand in your homework.”
He pulled out his workbook and handed it over, then noticed Wang Anran’s gaze kept staring at Gu Yu beside him.
She said with a hint of bashfulness: “Yu-shen, hand in yours.”
Zhao Che: “???”
For me, it was full name included, but when it came to Gu Yu, he became ‘Yu-shen’—talk about double standards.
Gu Yu pulled his workbook out from under his exercise book and pushed it forward, not sparing a single glance for Wang Anran in front of him.
Not long after, Chen Shuang walked in wearing a mask and a sunhat, setting down a canvas bag printed with a public service announcement onto the podium.
“Today’s long recess will be changed to a fire drill. Evacuate according to the pre-planned route, and keep your feet moving swiftly.” She took off her mask and glanced at her phone. “Also, the summer sports meet will be held the week after next. Anyone who wants to sign up should go register with Wei Junjie and report it to me before Friday. No one is allowed to forfeit!”
A low chorus of groans rose from below, but Zhao Che’s thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the sports meet of the past…
That day had been exceptionally hot, and the plastic running track on the sports field felt sticky from the sun. Holding a microphone in his hand back then, he had stood on the rostrum hosting the entrance ceremony.
He remembered that when their class formation marched over, he had deliberately raised his voice, but halfway through reading, he caught sight of the weird, same-arm-same-leg marching posture of a few classmates in his class. Unable to hold it in, he burst out laughing right into the microphone. Amplified by the speakers, the laughter resonated across the entire field, drawing the eyes of the whole school instantly.
Well, that was great—the entire formation fell into complete chaos. Only Gu Yu, standing at the very front, remained proudly upright holding the class sign, looking entirely composed in the face of crisis. As if the farce had nothing to do with him, he completed the march looking straight ahead.
Later, he heard it was because Wei Junjie was too nervous and called out the wrong tempo, causing everyone to march out of sync.
After the sports meet ended, the whole class was punished by copying the school rules three times, while he, due to “disrupting the order of the sports meet,” had to copy the sports meet opening address an extra time.