To finish the last of his work by noon, Lin Ran got up and went straight to school without his morning run. The weather wasn't looking too good, though. He checked the forecast before leaving, and it said there'd be more rain today, so he took an umbrella just in case.

When Lin Ran got to school, he went straight to the Student Council office. The door was locked, so he called Ye Qingqian. She seemed to have been woken by the phone; her voice was soft and sleepy as she told him to wait a moment. She had the key with her.

Lin Ran hummed in acknowledgment, then hung up.

At 6:20, Ye Qingqian arrived, yawning. She unlocked the office while Lin Ran sat at the desk and turned on his computer to get to work. Ye Qingqian, meanwhile, kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the sofa.

'Wake me up at seven,' Ye Qingqian said as she lay down.

A little before seven, the driver from Ye Qingqian's home came to bring her breakfast. Maybe she'd told him to, because the middle-aged driver had brought two breakfasts. He tiptoed into the office, moving gently so he wouldn't wake Ye Qingqian. After setting the food beside Lin Ran, he smiled and said, 'Young man, could you make sure my young miss eats her breakfast when she wakes up?'

Lin Ran gave a quiet 'Mm.'

Then the driver slipped quietly out of the office, taking great care as he closed the door, too.

The driver had barely left when it was seven. Lin Ran went over and woke Ye Qingqian, then passed along the driver's message. After that, he went back to entering the information.

Ye Qingqian went out to wash her face. When she came back, she picked up one of the breakfasts and sat down at the desk to eat.

'The other one is for you. Eat before you get back to work,' Ye Qingqian said.

Lin Ran nodded. He didn't stand on ceremony. He finished entering that student's information, then started on breakfast.

Breakfast was century egg and lean pork congee, plus two baozi. Well, what else would Miss Ye have for breakfast? That pork in the congee was definitely no ordinary pork—the pieces were big, and the texture was great. And the baozi were filled with crab roe...

Today didn't seem too busy. After breakfast, Ye Qingqian took the initiative to wash the lunch boxes and spoons, while Lin Ran continued entering information.

After washing the lunch boxes, Ye Qingqian sat on the sofa and played on her phone. She didn't leave until someone called for her at eight.

Lin Ran also worked quickly to finish the day's tasks. He'd gotten very used to the work over the past few days, so by a little after eleven, he'd entered the computer template information for all 289 first-year students. He didn't check it over again. He was sure he'd entered everything correctly—unless a student had made a mistake on their own form.

Once he was done, Lin Ran left without saying anything to Ye Qingqian.

Before heading home, Lin Ran stopped at the market to buy some vegetables. He also dropped by Fatty Five's shop to buy another fish. They'd only just finished eating the fish he'd bought last time, after Su Shijie kicked it into the fish pond. If they wanted more, they'd have to buy another one.

While Lin Ran was buying the fish, Fatty Five teased him about Su Shijie. Lin Ran was happy to join in and talk trash about that idiot.

After buying the groceries, Lin Ran went home and started cooking. He hadn't expected Shen Qingyuan to be the one coming over for a free meal today instead of Si Qing. Well, she wasn't exactly there to mooch off them—Shen Qingyuan was in Lin Ruixue's room with the four little cats, and Su Shijie had told him to make extra.

Lin Ran didn't mind. But honestly, he really didn't think Su Shijie could win Shen Qingyuan over. No matter how hard that guy tried, he was like a bubble in Shen Qingyuan's eyes—there one moment, gone the next. And Su Shijie kept at it anyway. Lin Ran didn't know what to say.

Shen Qingyuan stayed for lunch. By the afternoon, she went home, and Su Shijie was so miserable that he dragged Lin Ran to the gym to work out.

Watching Su Shijie flirt with the female trainers and gym members, Lin Ran sighed. With your bad habits, you'd have to quit cold turkey to change. If you manage to win her over, I'll eat shit, okay?

The next few days were pretty quiet for Lin Ran. Every day was the same as usual: morning run, reading, meals, exercise, games, sleep. On the last day before school started, someone in the class group chat organized a get-together. Lin Ran acted like he hadn't seen it. He'd muted the class chat for the whole vacation, so unless someone @'d everyone, he wouldn't see the messages. And even if he had seen it, he would've ignored it anyway.

The last day of summer vacation came to an end. On the first day of school, Lin Ran got up at seven, made breakfast, and everyone ate together before heading to school. Lin Ruixue was wearing the No. 5 High School uniform today, too. Well, how to put it... The uniform looked kind of odd on her, especially around the chest... But honestly, Lin Ruixue did look pretty good in it.

The three of them arrived at school together. At the gate, the Student Council members, led by Ye Qingqian, were already waiting to check students as they came in. Once they were through the gate, Su Shijie greeted plenty of classmates along the way. He couldn't help it—he was popular at school, especially with the girls.

When they were almost at the teaching building, Su Shijie suddenly ducked behind Lin Ran. Lin Ran could've guessed with his butt that Su Shijie had definitely spotted Bao Xinrou.

Lin Ran first walked Lin Ruixue to Teaching Building No. 3, then returned to their classroom with Su Shijie.

But the moment Lin Ran entered the classroom, everyone looked at him strangely. He walked to his seat in the last row as if he didn't notice. His wasn't one of those VIP seats by the window; it was right in the middle of the classroom—a truly awful spot, where he'd have to face the teacher head-on in class.

As soon as Lin Ran sat down, the student in front of him turned around and stared at him in astonishment.

'You're Lin Ran?' His desk mate looked completely incredulous.

'What's up?' Lin Ran asked, puzzled, looking at him. His desk mate was a slightly chubby boy with fair, clean-cut features and a cute look. He was a nice guy, but his grades were poor, which was why he sat in the back. He was also usually pretty outgoing with the rest of the class, so he was much more popular than Lin Ran.

'Good Lord, it really is you! Lin Ran, what happened? How'd you get so skinny? Damn, what kind of pills did you take over summer break? Seriously, what pills? Send me the link! I've always wanted to lose weight!' His desk mate stared at Lin Ran excitedly, looking him up and down in a way that made Lin Ran really uncomfortable.

'Go to bed early, get up early, eat less but more often, keep it light, and exercise more,' Lin Ran said flatly.

'I don't believe you. You definitely took something! But I never thought you'd be this handsome after losing weight. Damn!' His desk mate sounded incredibly envious.

Lin Ran shook his head and said nothing more.

'Hey, Lin Ran, do you think I'd be as handsome as you if I lost weight? Tsk, even if I wasn't quite as handsome, I'd be pretty close.' His desk mate kept going.

His desk mate wasn't the only one. A lot of people in the class were staring and whispering about him. It was hard to believe that before summer break, Lin Ran had been a fat guy. Then one summer later, the fattest person in the class had slimmed down—and the crazy part was, he looked so good now!

Lin Ran glanced around and noticed that the people who'd always looked at him with disdain no longer had that look in their eyes. Some of the girls even seemed a little excited. Lin Ran gave a dry laugh. Just one more week, then he'd move to another class after the start-of-term exams. He couldn't say for sure he'd make it into Class S, but Class A was a lock.

There was still time before class, but some of the girls had already started coming over to talk to Lin Ran.

'Lin Ran, um... I'm sorry for saying so many awful things to you before. I hope you don't hold it against me,' a girl said as she walked up beside him.

Lin Ran didn't even look at her. He recognized her voice. At the start of the second semester of his first year, she'd been assigned to clean with him, but she'd gone straight to the teacher and asked to switch partners. She'd often called him a fat pig, too, and even spread nasty rumors about him, telling people he leered at this person and that. Back then, Lin Ran hadn't understood what he'd done to make her hate him so much that she'd smear him around the class. But he was just a clueless, chubby kid, and even when everyone disliked him because of the rumors, he still wanted to get along with his classmates.

Strictly speaking, Lin Ran wasn't really that handsome after losing weight. It was just that the difference between before and after was so huge. If they were talking about looks, Su Shijie was the best-looking guy in Class B, with top student Ding Kaiyang in second place and big brother Cao Xun in third. Even after slimming down, Lin Ran's looks couldn't shake up that ranking.

'Zhao Ling, weren't you calling Lin Ran a fat pig all last semester and saying he leered at everyone? What is it—now that he's lost weight, you're sucking up to him?' another girl said mockingly. She and Zhao Ling were sworn enemies.

'What's it to you?' Zhao Ling snapped.

'Is your family in the Peking opera business or something? That's quite a face change. Tsk, tsk.' The other girl kept laughing.

'That's enough, you two. Class is about to start. Get your vacation homework ready,' the class monitor called out.

Only then did the classroom quiet down.

Su Shijie sneaked over to Lin Ran with a grin. 'Hey, look at how everyone's treating you now that you've made your comeback. Tsk, life's gonna be easy for you at school from now on. Get a better haircut sometime, and you'll definitely be one of the best-looking guys in Class B!'

'Not interested,' Lin Ran said, bored.

Before class, the teacher collected everyone's vacation homework. After the class monitor collected Lin Ran's, they gave him another look. Lin Ran still had that same cold expression.

Quite a few people whispered that Lin Ran was acting all high and mighty now that he'd made his comeback.

Lin Ran didn't care about those comments. What he did care about was big brother Cao Xun. He couldn't understand why Cao Xun was so fixated on him and kept staring.

Thinking about Cao Xun made Lin Ran want to laugh. Last semester, someone had started a rumor that Lin Ran had a crush on Cao Xun's girlfriend, Li Li. So Cao Xun had cornered him in the classroom after school, beaten him up, and warned him to stay away. Lin Ran had been completely speechless. Had anyone even looked at what Li Li was like? Her face was the only thing she had going for her; her character was rotten. In Lin Ran's memories of his previous life, Li Li had also crossed Bao Xinrou, though Bao Xinrou was the sort of girl who liked picking on her classmates but treated the other girls well. So she hadn't bothered with Li Li at first. Li Li, however, thought Bao Xinrou was afraid of her, and kept provoking her every few days. Later, somehow, Bao Xinrou caught Li Li working as a 'princess' at a KTV during vacation. Bao Xinrou simply put the photos she'd taken up on the school's bulletin board. Li Li ended up dropping out. Cao Xun dropped out eventually, too, though no one knew exactly why. People said he'd gotten someone to beat Li Li up, things had gone too far, and he'd been taken into custody.

Cao Xun and Li Li had both become infamous at No. 5 High School over the past few years.

On Monday morning, the first two classes went on as usual. The last two were for the opening ceremony.