While Bai Shinan was focused on solving exam papers, two pairs of eyes kept glancing his way—one from Mu Yuwei in the front left, the other from Zhu Yuyou in the front right.
Mu Yuwei had been distracted the entire evening and couldn’t focus on her questions. She kept wondering whether he had seen her post or not, and if he had, what he might be feeling. He must be feeling uneasy right now, right? After all, she had declared herself unclaimed, and she had plenty of admirers.
Zhu Yuyou, on the other hand, turned to glance at Bai Shinan every ten minutes. Seeing him frowning and relaxing at times, her emotions fluctuated along with him. Was he stuck on a difficult problem? Should she go help him?
But overall, she was happy—because Bai Shinan was finally studying seriously.
Two and a half hours passed. Bai Shinan pinched the bridge of his nose and put down his pen. The evening self-study session was over. He had just enough time to finish a comprehensive science paper and a math paper.
All that was left now was to check his accuracy. Just as he pulled out the answer key to mark his work, a timid voice sounded from directly in front of him.
“I’ll help you check it. It’ll be faster with two people.” Zhu Yuyou had gathered up the courage to speak.
“I’ll leave the math paper to you, then,” Bai Shinan replied without hesitation. It would only take a few minutes, after all.
Zhu Yuyou took the paper and answer sheet, then sat directly across from Bai Shinan. As they looked at each other, Bai Shinan noticed her gaze and gave her a friendly smile. She immediately lowered her head to check the answers—any more eye contact and her heart might leap out of her chest.
Suppressing the flutters in her chest, Zhu Yuyou focused on the paper. His handwriting looked more elegant than before—each stroke flowing smoothly, making the paper pleasing to the eye.
No, no! She reminded herself—she was here to check answers, not to admire his handwriting.
She quickly began comparing the answers—
Hmm, all the multiple-choice questions were correct. Bai Shinan is amazing.
Yay, even the fill-in-the-blank questions were all right. Bai Shinan really can do it when he tries.
Wait… the long-answer section… he even solved the final big question?
Perfect score!
That was Zhu Yuyou’s first reaction—but something didn’t add up. It wasn’t that she doubted Bai Shinan’s ability, but she had done this same paper before. Among all past math exams, this one ranked as one of the hardest—even she hadn’t been able to solve the last question.
“Classmate Shinan, have you done this paper before?” That was the only reasonable explanation she could think of.
“Oh? If you’re asking that, I must’ve done really well,” Bai Shinan said, setting down his own perfect-score comprehensive science paper, smiling brightly.
Zhu Yuyou was no fool. Hearing his reply, she knew her guess was wrong. Her heart filled with even more joy. “Classmate Shinan, you’re amazing—it’s a perfect score.”
“Keep it low-key.” Bai Shinan gestured modestly, though inwardly he was quite pleased. After all, that was praise from the top student in the year.
Even before he gave up on studying, he could only look up to Zhu Yuyou as a towering mountain—one he couldn’t even hope to match.
“Childish.”
A cold voice interrupted. Bai Shinan didn’t need to look up to know who it was. That privileged tone and the faint floral scent lingering in the air—who else but Mu Yuwei?
Mu Yuwei had been watching Bai Shinan the whole time. If he had only pretended to work through a math paper in two and a half hours, fine. But doing both a math and a science paper—and getting perfect scores?
Impossible.
To her, this could only mean one thing—Bai Shinan had staged the whole thing. He was trying to rebuild his image as a top student, hoping she’d fall for him again.
But Mu Yuwei had only one word for this: childish.
“Are you sick or something!?” Bai Shinan didn’t hold back. Why was he suddenly being attacked?
“You’re yelling at me?” Mu Yuwei pointed at herself, shocked.
“I yell at whoever wants to get yelled at,” Bai Shinan said coldly. He and Zhu Yuyou were having a peaceful conversation, and someone butted in just to insult him. If that wasn’t asking for it, what was?
Mu Yuwei’s eyes instantly turned red. How could he talk to her like that—so harshly?
“Bai Shinan, are you even a man? I know you’re upset because Yuwei rejected you, but you can’t just go around verbally attacking people!” Liu Tiantian rushed over, shouting, instantly framing the situation.
The classmates who hadn’t been paying attention finally understood what was going on. Thanks to Liu Tiantian’s outburst, the whole class now knew—Bai Shinan had confessed and been rejected, and now he was taking it out on Mu Yuwei.
“That’s going too far. Just because she rejected him doesn’t mean he can lash out at Mu Yuwei.”
“Even if they can’t be lovers, they could still be friends. Why make such a scene?”
“Not manly at all. If I were Mu Yuwei, I’d reject him too.”
The surrounding whispers mostly sided with Mu Yuwei. Her tear-filled, pitiful expression made her look every bit the victim.
“No… classmate Shinan isn’t that kind of person…” Zhu Yuyou tried to explain, but her voice was drowned out by prejudice and misunderstanding. No one paid attention to her, and she looked like she was about to cry.
Mu Yuwei, too, was a bit flustered. This wasn’t the outcome she wanted. But she couldn’t possibly step forward to explain, so she could only grab Liu Tiantian and flee the classroom to avoid escalating the conflict.
But to everyone else, her retreat looked like she had been humiliated and fled in tears.
…
“Now I really think Mu Yuwei’s lost it. She just let Liu Tiantian spout nonsense like that?” Li Pengfei walked alongside Bai Shinan and Zhu Yuyou on their way back to the dorms, unable to hold back his frustration. He had been sitting right next to Bai Shinan and knew exactly what had happened.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what they think. As long as you two believe me, that’s enough,” Bai Shinan said, hands behind his head. The opinions of a bunch of kids didn’t stir his heart in the slightest. In a few months, they’d all go their separate ways. Who knew if they’d ever meet again?
Li Pengfei still wanted to say something but saw Bai Shinan shake his head at him. He got the message and kept quiet.
“Old Li, you head back first. I’ll walk our class rep a little further.”
When they reached the boys’ dorm, Bai Shinan didn’t stop. Instead, he continued walking toward the girls’ dorm.
“No… it’s fine. I can go back on my own.” After being silent the whole way, Zhu Yuyou finally spoke. Her voice was hoarse, like she’d cried.
“What, is it embarrassing to be seen walking back with me?” Bai Shinan turned around and looked at her carefully. Beneath her neat bangs, her eyes looked slightly swollen.
“N-no, it’s not that… thank you.” Zhu Yuyou realized she couldn’t argue with Bai Shinan. Just like in the cafeteria earlier—refusing felt wrong, but accepting didn’t feel right either.
Seeing her like this, Bai Shinan smiled. This was what it meant to ‘press with righteousness.’