The book was closed and set on the desk, and Wen Qing looked utterly dead inside.
This was where the school's sick-leave policy was so cunning.
If she went along with Old Yang and said she felt unwell, the next second he'd demand a hospital report.
If she didn't go along with Old Yang, that meant admitting she'd skipped morning exercises.
From what Wen Qing knew of Old Yang, whether he'd make her run two extra laps alone after morning exercises tomorrow was anyone's guess.
But at this point she couldn't pretend she hadn't heard.
Just as Wen Qing was about to grit her teeth and nod, Duan Huaian behind her spoke up:
"Teacher, I wasn't feeling well this morning. All the classmates were on the field at the time, so I asked Wen Qing to take me to the infirmary."
She whipped her head around to glance at Duan Huaian.
He was no different from usual, still dazzlingly pale, and there was even a hint of a smile in his eyes as he answered the teacher.
Wen Qing's mind raced through what to say next, but Old Yang simply said, breezily:
"Fine then. Next time you feel unwell, remember to tell the teacher in advance."
After Duan Huaian nodded, the homeroom teacher strolled straight out the back door.
In that instant, Wen Qing, Zheng Shiyi, and Chen Zhi all stared at Duan Huaian in disbelief.
Old Yang might not look strict, but he was extremely difficult to deal with—if you were late to morning reading and made an excuse about a flat tire, he'd make you take him to see the tire.
And yet this pedantic teacher had let the exercise-skippers off with just one sentence from Duan Huaian.
"Old Duan, don't tell me you're the principal's son?"
"Chen Zhi, is there something wrong with your brain? Our principal's surname is Gong."
Chen Zhi and Zheng Shiyi started bickering again without waiting for Duan Huaian to answer.
Wen Qing turned around, pressed her palms together, and bowed twice to Duan Huaian:
"Thank you, Lord Duan, for saving my life."
"Shouldn't you repay the favor, then?" Duan Huaian's gaze shifted from his textbook to Wen Qing's face.
She'd expected him to be joking, but she actually smiled and gave her word.
"Name it. As long as it's within my power, I'm at your service."
Repayments and promises in middle school were nothing more than a few cups of milk tea or some snacks, so Wen Qing hadn't thought much of it when she agreed.
"I'll keep it on file, to use later."
"Okay."
The xiaolongbao shop's packaging was a white foam insulated box.
In summer, students usually brought their uniform jackets—partly in case of sudden weather changes, and partly to shield themselves from the sun.
Zheng Shiyi had wrapped the foam box in her uniform jacket, so the xiaolongbao were still warm when Wen Qing got them.
She was overwhelmed with gratitude toward everyone.
Before the sentimental moment could even begin, Chen Zhi eagerly claimed credit:
"I stayed up all night to buy these. You all have to eat every last bite."
"You stayed up all night and still went to morning exercises?"
"Negative, negative."
Wen Qing's eyes lit up. She set down the insulated box and quickly turned to Chen Zhi, praying he'd reveal some great secret to dodging morning exercises.
"I not only did morning exercises, I played ball for half an hour afterward. That's called skill."
Wen Qing gave him a speechless smile, picked up the plastic box, and went outside the classroom to enjoy her breakfast.
The exam results came out fast. The first exam mainly served as a wake-up call for students. During evening self-study, the homeroom teacher handed the score sheet to the class monitor to pass around.
Entertainment was scarce in high school—forget the score sheet, even the little motivational quotes printed at the bottom of workbook pages could keep someone occupied for an entire class period.
Chen Zhi and the class monitor often went to play ball together, so naturally they earned the right to check the score sheets first.
Wen Qing had just managed to restrain herself from looking when a "wc" from him caught her attention.
Zheng Shiyi impatiently snatched the score sheet out of Chen Zhi's hands. "What, did you get first place or something? The whole school's going to hear you yelling in a second."
"No."
Before Chen Zhi could even finish his denial, Zheng Shiyi took one look at the score sheet and let out a "wc" of her own.
"What's wrong with you two? Don't tell me I got first in the whole grade?"
Wen Qing joked as she looked toward the score sheet, her words full of teasing. Saying big things was one thing, but she knew perfectly well what she was actually capable of.
Yet Chen Zhi and Zheng Shiyi nodded in unison.
Wen Qing hurriedly looked at the score sheet. Right next to her name, it clearly read: Chinese — 138 — 1st.
"Can you two stop with the dramatic pauses? You scared me into thinking the world's collective IQ had dropped a hundredfold and I was the only one unaffected."
"First in the whole grade in Chinese is amazing, okay? You could give me some of that."
Hearing Chen Zhi's words, Zheng Shiyi got annoyed. "If anyone gets a share, it's me first."
"Fine, I'll split it between you two—69 each. No need to fight over it."
"Let's just end this friendship. We're done. I'm out."
In a high school campus starved of entertainment, even analyzing a score sheet could fill an entire class period.
This exam had been a small-scale joint exam, so the rankings were extremely detailed—the whole sheet was so long that if you unrolled it, the end would nearly drag on the floor.
Zheng Shiyi and Wen Qing spent nearly half the class period studying it, with Chen Zhi chiming in from time to time. Duan Huaian, on the other hand, showed only slight surprise at Wen Qing's Chinese score, and didn't even look at his own results.
The workload in senior year was too intense and pressing—there was hardly any time to breathe after exams.
Even before the scores came out, the teachers of each subject had already gone over roughly the problems on the exam papers.
But Wen Qing never returned that exam paper to Zhou Shixu.
Perhaps it was because the explanations written on it were so thorough, or perhaps it was out of selfishness.
She tucked that paper into the back page of her math review notebook.
Before evening study session ended, an unfamiliar student came to the door calling Wen Qing to the dean's office.
She assumed the mess from skipping morning exercises had made its way up to the dean.
Wen Qing spent five minutes mentally preparing herself to run five extra laps the next morning.
On the way downstairs, she was even wondering whether she might faint from exhaustion on the track.
Trembling, she shuffled to the door of Old Liu's office—only to find a small crowd of students standing there.
Before Wen Qing could even start being surprised that so many people had skipped morning exercises, she spotted a very conspicuous figure in the crowd.
Almost in an instant, her gaze was glued to him.
The lighting outside the office wasn't glaring, yet the spots in the little crowd were neatly ordered.
A girl stood at Zhou Shixu's side. Wen Qing vaguely remembered her—she seemed to be a classmate from his class.
Not understanding how the line was ordered, she slowly shuffled around to Zhou Shixu's other side, behind the crowd.
"You skipped morning exercises too?"
Zhou Shixu, however, seemed to have expected her to come, and wasn't startled at all.
"Skipped exercises?"
"Yeah, isn't it because we skipped this morning that we got called to the dean's office to be criticized together?"
Wen Qing's voice wasn't loud, but the crowd was truly so quiet that a syllable or two of hers slipped out.
"No."
"Then what's going on?"
As she spoke, Wen Qing moved a step forward along the line on Zhou Shixu's side.
"Those who did well get their photos taken."
Wen Qing, who had originally sneaked downstairs a bit furtively, even rose up on her tiptoes beside Zhou Shixu.
"Finally it's my turn for something good like this."
As she spoke, Wen Qing took a step forward and asked, "By the way, why isn't Xu Jinqi here?"
"He didn't do well. He said next time he'll definitely take the photo with you."
The photo shoot was for the top scorers in each subject and the top ten of the grade.
After hastily fixing her hair, Wen Qing stepped into the office. Before she even sat down, she was dazzled by two large lights, and she couldn't help feeling grateful for how thoughtful the school was, remembering to light the students properly.
Of course, that was another matter once you saw the photos on the honor roll.
As soon as she finished her photo, it was Zhou Shixu's turn. Wen Qing didn't leave; she stood at the side of the doorway looking in.
The light fell on his profile, and from her angle she could see a small patch of shadow on one side.
By rights, students who'd finished their photos should head straight back to class—even Wen Qing herself couldn't think of a reason to wait for him.
The light outside the office door was worn out from long use, giving off only a dim yellowish glow.
It cast flickering shadows that stretched to Wen Qing's feet.
She looked down, lifted her foot, and stomped hard twice.
The moment her second stomp landed, the shadow suddenly brightened.
Watching Zhou Shixu walk out, Wen Qing withdrew her foot and said, "There was a bug."
"Mm."
"There's ten minutes until school ends. Let's not go upstairs—otherwise we'll have to squeeze through the stairwell later."
"Not getting your bag?"
"Just finished exams. Don't feel like studying."
The two of them hid in the dim corner of the stairwell, in case anyone came out of the office.
Before the air could even settle into silence, Zhou Shixu spoke again: "Not getting snacks?"
His deliberately lowered voice drifted into Wen Qing's ears.
The distance between them seemed to shrink along with his voice.
"I'll just grab a bag to put them in. What, you want to go back for your bag?"
"No."
Wen Qing tiptoed up one step, then turned to look at Zhou Shixu.
Even so, he was still a bit taller than her.
Wen Qing went up another step, and only when the height difference was clearly visible did she stop climbing.
She lowered her head slightly to look at Zhou Shixu:
"How did you do this time?"
"Alright."
After answering, Zhou Shixu paused, then spoke again: "I didn't beat you in Chinese."
"Obviously."
Wen Qing couldn't hold back the smile at the corner of her mouth, and stepped down one stair.
As if those few centimeters of difference had just been evened out by her Chinese score.
They both spoke very softly, and the stairwell was dim.
Even with only one step between them, Wen Qing couldn't quite be sure at that moment whether Zhou Shixu was really standing in front of her.
"Then how much did you get in Chinese?"
"130."
"Forget I asked."
Wen Qing actually had a rough idea of Zhou Shixu's grades.
Though for the past two years she hadn't lingered in front of the honor roll, and even when looking at score sheets in front of everyone, she'd only given Zhou Shixu's grades a hurried glance.
But on the night the results came out, she couldn't sleep.
She would stare blankly at Zhou Shixu's score sheet.
Wonder which questions he'd gotten wrong.
Wonder which questions she could have gotten right to narrow the gap between them.
She had compared them on her own initiative for too many years.
From elementary and middle school all the way to high school.
She even remembered his exam number from every period clearly.
"Do you only get the class score sheet?"
Zhou Shixu's voice wasn't quiet this time, and it came through clearly to Wen Qing's ears.
The score sheet Chen Zhi had gotten yesterday was for the whole grade—a very long list. A class score sheet was posted by the water dispenser, and the grade one was kept with the class monitor for everyone to borrow and look at.
"No."
"Then you didn't see me?"
Wen Qing froze for a moment: "I wasn't paying attention."
How could she not have been paying attention?
The very top spot, visible at a glance—she even remembered exactly how many spaces apart the two of them were.
The bell for the end of evening self-study rang abruptly.
Before Wen Qing could react, a classmate rushing down from the second floor bumped into her.
And she happened to be standing one step higher.
Her balance lost, she pitched forward.
An arm grabbed hers, pulling her to one side, off the stairs and onto the corridor.
Her heart was still pounding with fear when Zhou Shixu's voice suddenly fell at her ear:
"I did see you."