A new day began, with a headache from the lingering alcohol.

Lu Huai had never drunk that much before. Last night really counted as letting loose for once. But when he thought about all the “bold declarations” he’d made to Su Xiangrong, he couldn't help feeling embarrassed.

He just hoped Su Xiangrong wouldn't help him remember any of it...

Talking about perseverance... If he didn't persevere, would his life really be ruined on the spot? Did he even have a choice?

That wasn't courage. It was just a stray dog barking itself hoarse for the sake of survival.

After washing up in the bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror.

Perfect and flawless... okay, not even close.

It's just that when people look in the mirror, they always get the illusion that they look pretty decent. That's when they should turn on their phone's front camera and calm down.

Lu Huai wasn't that cruel to himself.

Instead, he stared at the mirror, clenched his fist, and showed a slightly ferocious expression.

"My life starts changing from here. Lu Huai, can you really not do it?!"

Who hadn't said one or two unbearably cringey, completely incomprehensible things to a mirror before?

At least when you said them, you still felt like you could do it.

After getting on the bus, Lu Huai, as usual, found a seat in the last row. He hugged his backpack and shrank into the corner.

Okay... so he wasn't changing that fast after all.

After getting off the bus, he still followed the crowd, as if hiding in another dimension no one could see.

Crowded places made him uneasy. But when none of those eyes were on him, when he seemed to turn invisible, the feeling changed. It felt as comfortable as a fish returning to the sea.

Lu Huai was just about to blend into the flow of people like always when he suddenly heard something unusual.

"Whoa... that's a luxury car, right?"

"Of course it is! Since when is a Bentley not a luxury car?"

"Why isn't it a sports car?"

"Because you don't know the school strongly asked her not to drive that kind here... This is already considered low-key."

"So... you know who it is?"

"Obviously. The young miss is here for class..."

The noisy chatter in the crowd turned into looks of envy and jealousy as people slowly entered through the school gate.

Lu Huai glanced over too.

He saw the young miss in school uniform stepping out from the back seat, bag in hand.

Even in a school uniform, that calm and lovely face still gave her an air that didn't belong on this campus at all.

Of course, only her face was lovely.

Her personality wasn't lovely. It was downright hateful.

She was the kind of girl who could make your heart race even in a school uniform. Her personality, on the other hand, could make your heart stop.

Lu Huai hoped she hadn't seen him, then silently slipped into the crowd.

Same school too... Lu Huai was honestly starting to despair over life.

Sure enough, when your luck was bad, the only limit to what could happen was your imagination.

Back in the classroom, it was still lively as ever. And Lu Huai, still not part of the lively center, not even the lively edge, sat down at his seat and started thinking from the moment he sat: what kind of piece did he need to write for the literature club's school magazine to make sure it got selected?

This was important.

Xu Wenxi might've already forgotten about it. After all, she was a rich family's young miss. Even attending school seemed to depend on her mood... But he still shouldn't count on luck. What if she suddenly remembered and asked about it? What would happen to him then?

There was no freedom left in his life anymore...

During break, the boy who still hadn't left his seat heard Xu Zhixi's pleasant "Class dismissed."

Then he looked toward the hallway outside the window, resting his cheek on one hand.

And started worrying about survival.

What should he write...

"Hey, hey, Li Xin, Xu Wenxi actually came to class today. Big news."

"Xu Wenxi's in Class One. What does that have to do with our Class Five?"

"Didn't you say before that she was pretty and you wanted to chase her?"

"Are you dreaming? She's the Xu family's young miss. Just look at what she rides in. No way she'd even glance at me. So many people in school say they like Xu Wenxi, but who actually dares to pursue her? You think this is some noble academy? Just look and that's enough. Don't think too much."

"Heh heh, did you get your phone back yet? Weren't you saying yesterday it'd be in the next few days?"

"...I'm too lazy to talk to you guys. I'm going to find my buddies."

The conversation by his ear went in one ear and out the other, leaving nothing behind in his memory.

"Lu Huai!"

Li Xin plopped down in the seat in front of him and turned around to look at him.

Lu Huai froze for a moment, then looked back.

"What is it..."

Maybe because he had something even more worrying on his mind right now, Lu Huai didn't seem interested in dodging Li Xin's gaze anymore.

Maybe it was also because they were more familiar now. And Li Xin was a guy.

"Nothing. You were spacing out for ages. What were you thinking about?"

Lu Huai thought for a moment. He hesitated, but still couldn't help asking,

"That Xu Wenxi you guys were talking about... who is she?"

He wanted to know how other students saw Xu Wenxi. At the very least, it'd tell him whether she probably wouldn't do anything at school.

And naturally, the price of asking that was...

"Oh? You like girls like Xu Wenxi?"

"...No. I just... heard you guys talking, so I asked."

Lu Huai felt awkward again. He shouldn't have asked. And if loudmouth Li Xin made a big deal out of it, wouldn't that just make things even more embarrassing?

The way people looked at him would be like looking at a toad dreaming of eating swan meat. They might not say it outright, but the sarcasm would definitely be there.

He absolutely couldn't let anyone at school know he had any connection to her. Otherwise... he really wouldn't be able to stay at this school anymore, Lu Huai thought pessimistically.

Luckily, Li Xin didn't seem to have any intention of blabbing. He just thought for a bit, then said,

"I heard the Xu family is famous even nationwide. Chuzhou is basically their home turf."

Crap. So there really was no lucky escape.

"Xu Wenxi... she's the Xu family's only daughter. So I heard she started getting involved in family affairs really early. That's why when she doesn't come to school sometimes, or asks for leave, the school just turns a blind eye... As for the rest, she's pretty mysterious. No one knows what she likes. She doesn't seem to have any especially close friends at school either. Even in Class One, nobody dares say bad things about her..."

So this was the temperament of a capitalist heiress...

He'd only deleted a friend, and somehow he'd lost his freedom. Was there really no justice in the world for a petty young miss like this?!

"One last question..."

Lu Huai suddenly said that.

"Go ahead."

Li Xin seemed very interested in answering his questions.

"You said she's so mysterious... then how do you know so much about her?"

Lu Huai really was curious about that.

Li Xin looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Are you dumb... the school forum. Tons of people talk about this stuff. Some are Xu Wenxi's old classmates, or people who kind of count as friends or whatever... They just leak a little now and then."

"I see..."

Lu Huai never looked at things like the school forum. There was no point. He wasn't interested in other people's gossip. He didn't like joining in on whatever was happening at school either. And he definitely never had the bizarre thought of hoping to see his own name on the school forum.

He was a boy no one paid attention to in the first place.

So how had things suddenly turned out like this?

"...Sigh." Lu Huai let out a breath. The notebook under his hand still had not a single word written in it. He had absolutely no clue what to write.

Just then, as his absent gaze rested on the hallway, something unusual suddenly entered his sight.

From the sunlight-soaked corridor, a figure appeared without warning.

A figure in school uniform wasn't anything especially rare. Her frame was slim and delicate, like a willow swaying in the wind.

But her long black hair spilled down her back, and under the sunlight, it caught a few faint points of light, like stars flickering softly in the night sky.

She didn't walk quickly as she came down the corridor to the window by his side.

Her cheeks, slightly red from the sun, appeared just like that in his eyes. In that moment, Lu Huai seemed to forget how to breathe.

Because he truly realized then that some kinds of beauty really could leave a person breathless.

As if sensing his gaze, the girl who had reached the window turned her head in slight confusion.

And then she saw that Lu Huai hadn't looked away.

In an instant...

Her pupils widened slightly, and her cheeks turned bright red.

It was like fireworks at a midsummer night festival, blooming at the most romantic moment.

Enough to light up the whole sky.

Liu Qianxun lowered her head in panic and quickly walked away.

Realizing his own lapse, the boy immediately turned his head aside too, his cheeks red as well.

Li Xin didn't seem to notice any of it. He just looked at Lu Huai strangely.

"What's wrong? Your blood pressure acting up? Why's your face so red...?"

Lu Huai shook his head.

Then, ignoring Li Xin, he quickly picked up his pen.

"I found it..."

"Found it? What, the Grand Line? Or the treasure of the New World...?"

Lu Huai ignored Li Xin's muttering.

He wrote a sentence in the notebook under his hand:

That day, the sunlight at summer's end invaded my desk.

And she stepped on my gaze and heartbeat, breaking into that little square of window, and into my world.

...

"Looks like you're working very hard, Lu Huai."

This was already after the next class.

Lu Huai had sorted out what he wanted to write. It was a short story of around fifteen hundred words.

He hadn't revised it yet. He'd written it all in one go, pouring out everything from that moment's emotions in one breath.

The story was made up, of course. It wasn't real.

And Lin Ruoxing, who had noticed the boy's behavior, appeared beside his desk again, still wearing her black-framed glasses.

Her sudden words and the gaze she cast over made Lu Huai tense up again. He instinctively put away what he'd written and said softly,

"I-It's okay, I guess."

Lin Ruoxing pushed up her glasses. The cool, understated girl, who today had once again hidden part of her beauty, nodded.

"I saw you writing through the whole class... finished?"

"More or less..."

"You looked pretty fired up."

"Yeah... not really... It's just faster when I know what to write..." It was completely the pressure of survival!

Lin Ruoxing gave an almost imperceptible nod, but her gaze stayed firmly locked on the place Lu Huai was trying to cover.

"Since you're done, want me to hand it in for you?"

Lu Huai looked at Lin Ruoxing. Even though his face was red, even though the shyness and nervousness were unavoidable, this could count as practice for dealing with Xu Wenxi ahead of time. So he forced himself.

"...Are you sure you're offering to hand it in for me, and not trying to sneak a look...?"

That sounded a little shameless. Like he was acting as if what he'd written was definitely good enough to be worth sneaking a peek at.

Lin Ruoxing shook her head.

"If I read it openly, that doesn't count as sneaking."

"...Forget it. I'll hand it in myself."

How could he possibly let someone else see something like this?! Even he would blush rereading what he'd written!

But... in order to... get selected... Lu Huai had no other choice.

Congratulations, Lu Huai. For the sake of survival, you've already started becoming despicable!