“Come on, Gan Lan, gimme, gimme~”

“Aww, please, just give it to me~”

“If you don’t, I’m gonna die. Hurry…”

Gan Lan glared at him.

Ye Yubai was clinging shamelessly to her arm, begging to copy her Chinese reading comprehension answers.

This scene played out almost every morning.

Thinking about how he might one day mess up the Chinese reading comprehension section and lose his chance to get into Tsinghua or Peking University, Gan Lan decided she’d start correcting this bad habit today.

“Ye Yubai, you can’t keep copying homework. You need to put in the effort yourself.”

Gan Lan patted him on the shoulder.

“If there’s a reading comprehension question you really don’t understand, I can teach you. But I’m not going to help you get away with cheating anymore.”

Ye Yubai slumped over his desk, looking at her with lazy eyes.

He blew at the bangs that had grown a little too long over his forehead.

Then, in a muffled voice, he said:

“I don’t wanna work hard. I wanna slack off.”

Just listen to that voice—so pitiful, like a big puppy.

Gan Lan pretended not to hear him, took out her Chinese textbook, and started memorizing classical poems.

When Ye Yubai realized he really wasn’t getting her homework, he didn’t even ask anyone else to lend him theirs. He just sat up straight and started working through the questions himself.

The homeroom teacher never kept an eye on them during morning Chinese study period.

Plenty of students in class were still rushing to finish their homework.

Gan Lan was getting a headache from studying when Ye Yubai kept poking her arm with his pen cap, asking questions that had absolutely nothing to do with school.

Like…

“Hey, Gan Lan, did you know there’s a ghost story about the east campus? I heard an art student jumped off a building there…”

“Hey, hey, Gan Lan, wanna go see a movie? I wanna watch that new horror movie.”

“Gan Lan, guess how much allowance my dad gave me this month?”

Smack—

Gan Lan angrily dropped her pen, set down her textbook, and covered her ears.

When Ye Yubai saw she wasn’t going to play along at all, he let out a sigh and turned away, looking dejected.

The class rep started collecting homework.

Morning study period was almost over.

Ye Yubai stretched, stood up, sat on his desk, and rested his legs beneath Gan Lan’s desk, by her chair.

Just then, a sudden commotion broke out in the hallway.

Ye Yubai and Gan Lan both turned their heads to see what was going on.

“Whoa, it’s Tiantian, the beauty from the elite class!”

“And the one beside her—isn’t that Meimei, who came third in the school beauty contest on the forums?”

“Wow, they’re way prettier in person than in the photos!”

Tiantian and Meimei each held a letter and a gift box of candy, smiling as they watched their targets.

“Hi, could you please call Ye Yubai out for me?”

“Hi, could you please call Gan Lan out for me?”

Ye Yubai and Gan Lan were called outside.

As the two of them stood by the doorway, the teasing from everyone around them grew noticeably louder.

Ye Yubai was a handsome top student.

Gan Lan was a pretty academic underachiever.

One was a sunny, youthful boy; the other, a brooding pretty boy.

Naturally, they were both popular.

Ye Yubai casually draped an arm over Gan Lan’s shoulder and smiled at the girls. “What can I do for you two?”

Meimei handed him her letter and gift.

“Ye, if you don’t mind, would you like to go see a movie with us this weekend?”

Tiantian handed over her letter and gift, too.

“Gan Lan, would you like to go see a movie with me this weekend?”

As soon as the gifts were handed over, the crowd started hooting.

“Damn, you’ve got guts!”

“You’re handing stuff out right by the classroom? Aren’t you worried the dean will catch you?”

“I heard the dean’s out of town…”

Amid all the teasing, Gan Lan and Ye Yubai went back to the classroom as if nothing had happened.

Ye Yubai chuckled. “Look at my son, making something of himself. A girl actually confessed to you!”

Gan Lan’s expression remained cool and indifferent.

Ye Yubai studied her face, puzzled. “The class beauty confessed to you. Don’t you feel anything?”

Gan Lan shook her head.

Ye Yubai burst out laughing and teased her, “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for me and aren’t interested in women anymore? Hahaha…”

Of course Gan Lan hadn’t fallen for this narcissist.

She was thinking about what had happened before.

Tiantian hadn’t really asked her to go to the movies. She was using Gan Lan as an excuse to strike up a conversation with Ye Yubai.

Being used like that didn’t feel good at all.

This time, she wasn’t going to be so foolish and help her.

When Ye Yubai had laughed enough, he frowned. “But I don’t think that movie sounds any good. I don’t want to go. What should I do?”

Gan Lan looked at him without expression. “You really want to go. You’ll even get up at three-thirty tonight to try on clothes. Want to bet?”

Ye Yubai: “Huh?”

Gan Lan: “If you don’t believe me, let’s bet. Loser does the dishes for a week.”

Gan Lan could say it with such confidence because she had a good memory.

That good memory hadn’t helped her with studying or memorizing lessons. Instead, it helped her keep track of the people and things around her.

For example, even though eight years had passed, she clearly remembered that on this day in her previous life, it would be windy and rainy that night, with thunder, too.

…

Before long, it was time to go home.

Usually, after school, Gan Lan stayed in the classroom, finished most of her homework, and didn’t leave until the school gates were about to close.

After all, she was much more productive studying and doing homework at school.

But today, she finished her homework early. The moment the dismissal bell rang, she grabbed her schoolbag and left.

Ye Yubai had slept through the entire English class. He stretched and sat up.

“Gan Lan, school’s out. Let’s go eat… Hm?”

The seat beside him was empty.

Ye Yubai frowned.

Muttering, “Did she go to the bathroom?” he casually rummaged through Gan Lan’s desk.

Instead, his hand found a heavy bundle of metal pieces.

He pulled out the bundle and opened it.

Inside was a heap of broken utility knife blades, stained with red paint.

There was a printed note underneath.

“Stay away from Ye Yubai, you shameless piece of shit.”

Ye Yubai’s half-lidded eyes instantly darkened.

Utility knife blades, red paint, and this kind of disgusting stunt…

It looked exactly like the work of those deranged women from the art class.

But in those few short minutes, Ye Yubai couldn’t figure out who could hate a boy so much.

“If I catch her, she’ll find out what cruel really means.”

Ye Yubai sneered, rewrapped the bundle of blades, wound tape around it several times, then tossed it into the trash.

He pulled his phone from his schoolbag and deftly found Gan Lan’s number.

“Let’s send her a message and see where that person is…”