A warm breeze blew against Li Yu’s face, and a stray ray of warm sunlight shone on his hair, making the illuminated strands look somewhat golden.
Li Yu dropped his head, staring at the physics test paper on his desk, deeply troubled.
This was awful. After working on it for ages, he checked the answer key, only to find he was wrong from start to finish. He had to erase everything and start over. Talk about taking a giant step backward in an instant.
Li Yu’s grades were in the upper tier of the class, and all his subjects, except for physics, were nearly on par with the top performers.
However, compared to the top-ranking students in academic performance, his physics score was ridiculously poor.
He disliked physics. Ever since he fell behind in this subject right at the start of high school, two whole years had already passed.
If not for Li Yan suddenly inquiring about his grades last time, Li Yan wouldn’t have discovered how terrible his physics score was and almost gone as far as hiring a private tutor for him.
Fortunately, in the end, under Li Yu’s sincere promise to Li Yan that he could master physics well even without a tutor, Li Yan finally dropped the idea.
He certainly didn’t want to spend his precious weekend free time attending those boring tutoring classes!
This time, Li Yu had to make up for all the knowledge points he had failed to master and fallen behind on previously. But things were never as simple as Li Yu imagined. After all, every beginning is hard, and he hadn’t even sorted out the problem-solving steps yet.
Amidst his deep contemplation, his thoughts were interrupted by a soft, gentle voice.
“Classmate Zhou Lu, could you help me with this problem?” The girl pointed timidly at a problem in her notebook, lowering her head shyly as she finished speaking.
Because Zhou Lu excelled in all his subjects and was extremely handsome, he naturally became the object of admiration and pursuit among the girls.
Li Yu had a crush on him for a long time, but had never mustered up the courage to approach him.
Watching the girl step forward, Li Yu lowered his gaze, never expecting that a girl would be braver than he was.
He really didn’t want Zhou Lu to explain problems to others, but what legitimate reason did he have to stop him?
Li Yu lowered his eyes desolately, a slight sourness blooming in his heart.
He admitted that he was a coward. Otherwise, why had he liked Zhou Lu for so long without finding a single chance to strike up a conversation?
Zhou Lu glanced at the girl, shifted his gaze elsewhere, and replied indifferently, “I don’t know how to do this problem. Go find a teacher.”
It was impossible that he didn’t know how to do it. He hadn’t even looked at the problem.
Hearing Zhou Lu’s rejection, that chilling aura seemed to pierce right into Li Yu’s heart.
He had forgotten that Zhou Lu was this cold to everyone.
He and Zhou Lu were just ordinary classmates. Since Zhou Lu could refuse such a pretty female classmate so cruelly and apathetically, someone like him would undoubtedly be ignored even more.
The test paper in his hand tightened slightly. He stood on the spot, hesitant and uneasy, lacking the courage to take another step closer to him.
“Li Yu, what’s wrong? What are you doing here?” His good friend, Lin Ze, patted him on the shoulder.
Startled by the pat, Li Yu snapped back to reality.
Lin Ze stared at the test paper in his hand, looking at the scribbled and revised areas on the page, and the corners of his mouth curved upward.
“Are you stuck on this? Coincidentally, I know how to do it. I’ll teach you!”
His gem-like, pitch-black eyes shone with a subtle light, and a bright smile beamed across his handsome face.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Lu turned his head, his eyes involuntarily locking onto Li Yu’s. At that moment, Li Yu was panicked and at a loss for what to do, tightening his grip on the test paper even more.
“Come on, sit next to me. I’ll teach you. I guarantee you’ll understand once I explain it,” Lin Ze said, patting his chest confidently. With that, he pulled Li Yu over to sit at the desk next to his.
Lin Ze had stellar grades in class, a warm and cheerful personality, and most importantly, a great relationship with Li Yu.
He pulled out a chair and carefully analyzed the problem-solving steps with Li Yu.
To help Li Yu solve the problem more easily, he even circled and sketched out the corresponding knowledge points right in the textbook.
Li Yu looked at the exercises attentively and nodded thoughtfully.
“Alright, now try to work it out yourself.”
“Okay,” Li Yu replied absentmindedly, wanting to get up and return to his own seat to write.
Suddenly, Li Yu’s wrist was grabbed firmly. Puzzled, Lin Ze raised an eyebrow and asked, “Where are you going?”
“Ah, back to my seat to write!”
“Tsk, what a hassle. Just write here!” Lin Ze pointed a finger at the chair beside him.
“Uh, my problem-solving speed might be a bit slow. If I sit here, there won’t be anywhere for your desk-mate to sit when he comes back,” Li Yu explained awkwardly.
He wasn’t exaggerating. Writing two math test papers was faster for him than solving a single physics problem.
“He got called away by a teacher for some school activity or another, and won’t be back until the afternoon.”
Lin Ze glanced at the books on his desk-mate’s desk. His slanted, narrow eyes held a hint of unbridled rebellion as he said somewhat carelessly:
“Never mind him. Just keep writing here. It will be more convenient to ask me if you get stuck.”
“All right.” Li Yu didn’t have the heart to decline any further and waste time, so he sat down, picked up his pen, and began writing furiously on the test paper.
Perhaps feeling bored and wanting to see how far along Li Yu was, Lin Ze looked over and noticed that Li Yu was still deeply buried in working through the second sub-question.
Seeing Li Yu bow his head to write, Lin Ze noticed how the wide collar of his school uniform framed a fair and slender neck. His eyelashes were long and curled, and his dark, deep eyes were fixed intently on the problems on the test paper.
Can a guy look this good too?
Gazing at this scene, Lin Ze lost his focus for a moment.
A crisp voice pulled him back to reality. “This part is done.”
Li Yu handed the completed test paper in front of Lin Ze. “Can you take a look and see if it’s correct?”
“Uh, oh, sure!” Lin Ze couldn’t understand what had just come over him. How could he zone out like that in front of his good buddy?
He definitely hadn’t gotten enough sleep!
In the distance, Zhou Lu silently took in this entire scene.
Though he maintained a poker face on the outside, a surge of restlessness grew deep within him.
His grip on the book page in his hand unconsciously tightened with even greater force.