By the time they returned to class, it was already break time.
As Song Qie walked into the classroom, the students’ eyes lit up, and he was met with enthusiastic greetings, even though there were only fifteen students in the class.
In all his years of schooling, he had never encountered such friendly classmates.
It was almost as if they were afraid of what might happen if they didn’t wave “hi” directly in his face.
He figured they were probably still scared of the old “Song Qie,” but since he had been acting quite friendly lately, he hoped they would start to see a change.
Sigh, I just want to be a low-profile introvert.
In the back row, the “F3” were in various states of relaxation: one was face-down on his desk sleeping, another had a book over his face enjoying a sunbath by the window, and Shen Tingsi was leaning back in his chair scrolling through a tablet.
Their seats formed a triangle around the middle desks.
Those middle desks belonged to Song Qie and Lu Beihuai.
Song Qie glanced at his seat, thinking that he didn’t really want to deal with the F3. It wasn’t for any major reason; he just thought they were quite intimidating. Since he wasn’t familiar with them yet, he was terrified of slipping up and revealing his true self.
He stepped as lightly as possible toward his seat, careful not to wake the “sleeping demons.”
He even turned back and gestured to Lu Beihuai: “Quiet, don’t wake them up.”
Better to let them sleep than have them wake up and scare him.
To his surprise, Zhou Ming, who had been sleeping face-down, suddenly lifted his head. His eyes were dark and moody as they met Song Qie’s. “You just got here?”
Song Qie’s hair practically stood on end: “!!!”
Oh, oh, oh, I really hate this feeling. It’s like a fight could break out any second!
Then, a yawn sounded from the other side. Before Song Qie could react, he felt his wrist being grabbed.
His ear twitched, and he immediately pulled away. Looking down, he saw Xie Jingchu sitting up, taking the book off his face, and smiling at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Morning, Song-Song.”
On the other side, Shen Tingsi looked up from his tablet. He noticed Song Qie and Lu Beihuai had just arrived, but his focus was on Song Qie. Noticing the boy looked a bit pale, he asked, “What’s wrong? Not feeling well again today?”
Song Qie: “…” To be honest, he wasn’t much of a social butterfly.
A past attempt at being outgoing had resulted in a brief period of self-isolation. After that, he decided it was better to be the quiet, taciturn type.
At least if he felt “emo,” no one would see it.
No one would say, “Hey, he looks like he’s about to crumble.”
“Yeah, he’s a bit unwell today, so he can’t go out and play,” Lu Beihuai said as he put his bag down. Seeing Song Qie still standing there, he asked, “What is it, Young Master? Do you feel uncomfortable somewhere?”
Since there weren’t many students in the room during the break, the words were heard clearly.
Song Qie was starting to get annoyed by the title “Young Master.” He sat down, pretending to open his bag, and whispered: “Don’t call me Young Master anymore.”
Ugh, that title only exists in novels. Do you know how much of a ‘social death’ it is to be called that in front of so many people?
The moment he sat down, he felt someone touch his ear. He flinched away immediately, glaring back like a startled cat. Seeing a guiltily smiling Xie Jingchu, he felt a spark of annoyance but didn’t dare raise his voice:
“What… what are you doing?”
“Nothing. I just saw your ears were red. Are you hot?”
Xie Jingchu withdrew his hand. Seeing Song Qie blush so suddenly was a novelty. This was like Mars colliding with Earth—why was he suddenly blushing? Could it be…?
“I’m hot,” Song Qie replied, trying to act natural. He even looked out the window. “The sun is so bright; of course it’s hot. I’m dying of heat.”
After he spoke, a subtle, brief silence fell over the group.
Song Qie: “…”
He felt their gazes lingering on him and wished he could vanish into the floor. Did he say something wrong? The sun was bright, so it was hot… right?
“Pfft.” Xie Jingchu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He reached out and pinched Song Qie’s cheek. “Dying of heat, huh?”
He even mimicked Song Qie’s tone, repeating “dying of heat.”
Song Qie dodged the hand: “…” I want to die. Do I really sound like that?
Why are these people always so touchy-feely! It’s so bothersome!
Shen Tingsi smiled. “Mm, sounds like he’s acting spoiled.”
Zhou Ming stared at the hair that had been dyed back to its natural color, looking at the obedient and pretty face. “Why did you dye your hair back?”
Song Qie ignored Xie Jingchu and turned his head away, only to accidentally meet Zhou Ming’s dark, brooding eyes. Terrified, he quickly pulled his tablet out of his bag. Better to study; studying brings me joy.
“…I just… didn’t like pink anymore.”
He looked at Lu Beihuai and whispered, “Let’s study hard.”
Unexpectedly, the other three heard him and burst into various types of laughter.
Song Qie: “…” Why are they laughing? What’s so funny? I’m definitely not talking anymore.
While putting away his bag, Lu Beihuai’s eyes darkened as he caught a glimpse of the hands that had touched Song Qie.
However, seeing Song Qie sitting obediently beside him, he withdrew his gaze.
He noticed that Song Qie’s state in front of these three was completely different from before. They used to be wild together, so why was he being so well-behaved now—almost restless and awkward?
Is he trying to look good in front of me?
Every sign since he woke up suggested that Song Qie had changed significantly. Especially around Lu Beihuai: protecting him, refusing his service, and changing his look to be more “good boy.”
If this was just a prank, he was being far too dedicated.
Blushing and being shy weren’t things you could easily fake.
Right now, he was very shy around him—a clear sign of a crush.
He must really like me.
The first class was AP Calculus BC. Usually, the group in the back row remained silent or slept through it, but today, one of those chronic sleepers became the most active student in the room.
AP Calculus BC is equivalent to first and second-semester university calculus. For international students preparing for US universities, it’s quite a challenge, as BC is significantly harder than AB.
It requires a very solid foundation in science.
The teacher for this class was the new homeroom teacher, Mr. Zhang. He hadn’t yet figured out the true nature of this class. He didn’t know that the previous teacher had been driven to resign. Armed with the passion of a fresh master’s graduate, he started by pulling out a notoriously difficult practice exam and asked the students to solve a Taylor series problem on the spot.
For ten minutes, the only sound was the scratching of two pens; everyone else was groaning in low voices.
“What on earth is this pile of symbols…”
“Why can this junk be used to approximate a function?! Someone tell me!”
“Ugh, what are these higher-order derivatives?”
“Who turned a perfectly good function into this mess!”
“I didn’t understand it before, and I understand it even less now. Why can’t he give us something we actually know how to do?!”
“This new teacher is unbelievable. What a garbage problem.”
The F3 were silent, obviously stumped.
Only Song Qie and Lu Beihuai were seriously writing, not saying a word.
Lu Beihuai glanced sideways, thinking Song Qie was just pretending. But when he saw that Song Qie had already completed the Taylor series derivation on his tablet, his expression froze.
…What?
“Teacher, I’m finished,” Song Qie said, raising his hand.
The classroom went silent. Most of the students looked at him in shock, as if they were looking at someone telling a joke.
The unsuspecting Mr. Zhang clapped his hands and praised him: “Good job! Come up and write the answers for parts a, b, c, and d, and the methods you used.”
Song Qie walked up, took the whiteboard marker from the teacher, and spoke as he wrote: “For (a), the answer is -2, using limits and continuity. For (b) and (c), I used Taylor expansion. For (d), I used first and second-order derivatives.”
In less than three minutes, the whiteboard displayed the complete solution to the large problem in neat, beautiful handwriting.
Mr. Zhang stared in awe for a moment before bursting into warm applause, looking at the confused students below.
“This completion time is fantastic! To get a high score in BC, you must master calculus. You need to be proficient with the five basic elementary functions and have their graphs memorized. Limits and continuity in this problem are easy to forget, so we need to consolidate them through plenty of practice. As for the derivative applications, mostly it’s about applying formulas. You must remember them correctly…”
After Mr. Zhang finished, he looked at Song Qie with a smile. “Student, what was your score on last month’s Calculus BC exam?”
Song Qie sat back down. Hearing the question, he was silent for a moment. He glanced at Lu Beihuai, who was also staring at him silently. Song Qie lowered his head and whispered:
“1 point.”
“What?” Mr. Zhang thought he had misheard.
Song Qie silently held up one finger.
Mr. Zhang: “…” Huh?
A student who could get a perfect score on the final long-form question only got a total of 1 point on the course???
“When did you learn how to do that?”
Song Qie felt his arm being poked by Xie Jingchu, who was sitting across the aisle. He glanced over and whispered, “Focus on the lesson, don’t talk to me.” Then he looked at Lu Beihuai: “If you don’t understand, I’ll teach you later.”
Xie Jingchu grumbled quietly, “Song Qie, you’re so biased!”
Song Qie ignored him, thinking that if he wasn’t “biased” now, his future would be very grim.
Because Song Qie’s knowledge was so solid, the new teacher even invited him to participate in the AMC (American Mathematics Competitions) before the bell rang.
Mr. Zhang walked back to his office full of confidence. This new class wasn’t so hard to teach after all; those veteran teachers were just trying to scare him.
“Young Master Song!! Did you secretly go to a cram school? Why are you suddenly so amazing at BC?!”
“Yeah! You used to say it was too hard. Today you weren’t just ‘not struggling,’ you were a hidden genius! Recommend that teacher to us!”
“Young Master Song, teach me. I don’t know how to do this one.”
Song Qie saw himself suddenly surrounded by classmates. Seeing them so enthusiastic made his ears turn red, but he didn’t turn away anyone who had questions. After all, the material wasn’t that hard for him.
He took a classmate’s tablet and scanned the problem she was stuck on. After a few seconds, he began explaining the logic behind the question. The student had a “eureka” moment, and her eyes lit up.
It was as if she had mastered the method to solve many similar problems at once.
Soon, his small area was packed tight.
The F3 and Lu Beihuai, who had been pushed out: “…”
Xie Jingchu, forced from his seat, could only lean against the corner window. He looked at the surrounded Song Qie in confusion, then kicked Lu Beihuai. “What’s up with your young master?”
Lu Beihuai looked at his pant leg where it had been kicked dirty and suppressed his irritation. “I don’t know.”
His gaze fell on Song Qie, who was teaching his classmates. The boy’s voice was gentle, his pace was kind, and he looked exactly like an obedient, top-tier student. A hint of gloom appeared in Lu Beihuai’s eyes.
How is this possible? Song Qie never studied. How does he know this? Did he secretly study under the covers behind my back?
Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore and pushed through the crowd of students surrounding Song Qie.
Song Qie felt the air clear up beside him. He looked up to see Lu Beihuai and thought, Great, a lifesaver! He looked up and asked with a smile: “Beihuai, shall I teach you how to do the problems?”
That single word, “Beihuai,” accompanied by that sweet, obedient smile, was like a cosmic collision. In the ten years he had known Song Qie, he had never been called that.
Lu Beihuai didn’t know what he was thinking in that moment.
He clearly loathed this rich brat who had bullied and insulted him since childhood. He had been looking for ways to use him to grow his own power. Yet, in this instant, that unexpectedly sweet call made his brain freeze.
“Okay.”