As it happened.

Ling Ling only knew a little about street dance. She’d spent a short time around it in college, and the only reason she became the Street Dance Club’s instructor at Senior High School was because Ai Guo asked her.

Although Ai Guo was a music student, she absolutely loved street dance.

Thanks to the connections she’d made in her first year of high school, the moment she started her second year, she became the Street Dance Club’s president. When the previous instructor left, she had to find a replacement. And so she went to Ling Ling, who was a wonderful person with an excellent reputation.

Ling Ling liked Ai Guo, too. She had nothing better to do anyway, so she simply agreed.

Come to think of it.

Z City Senior High School had quite a lot of clubs: the Street Dance Club, the basketball club, the soccer club, and the badminton club.

Back when Ling Ling was in high school, her school valued academics over everything else. It had no clubs at all, just a Youth League Committee and a radio station. To put it bluntly, the arts weren’t taken seriously—not even as seriously as sports.

By comparison, Senior High School was really open-minded. Maybe that was because it was in a small city, or maybe Principal Zhu was just especially open-minded.

Either way.

Ling Ling had finally found one of the few things she liked about this school.

Speaking of which, time had gone by pretty fast. In the blink of an eye, Ling Ling had already been at Senior High School for a month, and the National Day holiday was over.

She hadn’t seen Lin Zishen for a whole seven days.

For some reason, ever since she’d gotten a close-up look at the boy’s perfect physique in the school infirmary a few days ago, Ling Ling had kept zoning out by the windows lately. Before she knew it, her thoughts would start wandering.

She wanted the music class for Class Two, Grade Eleven to come around sooner.

Sigh.

Something was wrong with her head.

Don’t get the wrong idea—even so, Ling Ling blamed her wild imaginings on being single for too long. She hadn’t been around any male hormones, so when she ran into Lin Zishen, she’d just had an over-the-top reaction. That was all.

Ling Ling was only a trainee music teacher, so she didn’t have to supervise evening study. Once five o’clock passed, she was off work. She’d also started running lately, usually at night and only rarely in the afternoon after school.

Of course, she ran on the school track.

After the school sports meet was announced, Ling Ling went for a run on the track one afternoon after school and made a new discovery: Lin Zishen ran every afternoon after school. He was seriously impressive—he did seven or eight laps around the 400-meter track every day.

Ling Ling thought, “Tsk, tsk. No wonder he’s been through surgery. The guy’s in incredible shape.”

For some reason, one time she deliberately ran in the opposite direction from Lin Zishen. The first time they passed each other, the boy didn’t see her. The second time, he still didn’t see her. The third time… What third time? Our poor Teacher Ling was a delicate, perfectly ordinary girl. Eight hundred meters was her limit…

The boy didn’t even look at her.

Poor Ling Ling was so mad!

……

When Ling Ling had first arrived at Z City Senior High School, every day had felt so slow and miserable. But after she started focusing on Lin Zishen, time seemed to fly by.

It almost felt like she was having so much fun that she’d lost track of the days.

But.

Life was never that easy.

By mid-October, the weather was crisp and clear. Ling Ling had muted her Moments feed for a while, but one day during her lunch break, she opened it on a whim—and saw that Cao Zijin had gotten a new girlfriend again.

Ling Ling wilted on the spot. She immediately lost all desire to take a nap. She got up from her seat and decided to go wash her face in the restroom instead.

Incidentally.

Ling Ling was in a temporary office on the fourth floor of the arts building. She’d just reached the fourth-floor restroom when, as luck would have it, she found a sign on the door: “Under Maintenance. Closed.”

With no other choice.

She went up to the fifth floor, only to find that restroom out of order too. So she climbed another floor to the sixth, where she finally got to wash her face in peace. Just as she stepped out of the restroom, she heard a faint meow.

Curiosity got the better of Ling Ling. She followed the sound of the meowing, walking lightly until she reached the storage room at the end of the hall. Then she quietly peered through a gap in the window.

To her surprise, Lin Zishen was petting a cat in the storage room. And beside him were a cardboard box, food, and water… Well, would you look at that—Lin Zishen had been secretly keeping a cat here.

As unprofessional as Ling Ling could be, she was still a teacher. She’d meant to barge in and give him a proper scolding.

But.

When she saw the faint, radiant smile at the corner of the boy’s mouth, she couldn’t help getting a little lost in the moment. “I never knew he had such a gentle, quiet side,” she murmured.

Ling Ling secretly watched Lin Zishen for a while. Without even realizing it, she forgot all about the trouble she’d felt over Cao Zijin getting a new girlfriend.

Later, Ling Ling couldn’t help marveling, “Lin Zishen… Hmph! He really is a scary boy!”

A few more days passed.

One afternoon, not long after getting off work, Ling Ling found herself missing the tabby in the storage room. She headed over to the arts building with a light step, humming as she went. This time, though, she found not only Lin Zishen, but also a girl with a cold expression.

Ling Ling didn’t pay much attention to her students’ grades in science or humanities, but as the Street Dance Club’s instructor, she naturally knew Shan Shan. She’d also heard a little about the girl’s achievements.

She was the most brilliant girl Senior High School—or even this entire southern city—had ever seen.

They said…

When the girl was in her first year of high school, she’d entered an all-around competition open to students of every grade and placed third. She’d even received an early offer from a prestigious university, but apparently she didn’t think much of it and turned it down.

Ling Ling secretly compared her to others again. Honestly, even if Shan Shan had gone to Y City No. 10 High School, or even that affiliated high school of a 985, 211, Double First-Class university, she’d probably still have been a terrifying top-three student in her grade.

All of that was beside the point—or maybe just unnecessary inner monologue.

What Ling Ling was really curious about right then was this: how had a bad student like Lin Zishen ended up hanging out with a top student like Shan Shan?

Curious, Ling Ling leaned against the corridor wall and quietly watched the boy and girl inside through a gap by the windowsill.

To Ling Ling’s surprise, she was looking at it, her eyes perfectly calm; he was looking at her, his eyes full of affection.

At that moment.

Ling Ling seemed to suddenly understand something. For some reason, deep down, she felt a pang of sadness and disappointment. She was a tiny bit unhappy.

Fortunately.

That sudden disappointment didn’t last long.

Ling Ling soon pulled herself together. The strange disappointment bothered her a little, but she didn’t want to think too hard about it. It was probably like how she’d felt as a kid when a friend took away her favorite toy.

On the other hand.

Ling Ling also thought Lin Zishen was a little like she’d been in high school: secretly in love with an unattainable girl who was a top student. After thinking it over, she decided to help him in secret.

And so.

On the day of the New Year’s gala, Ling Ling told Lin Zishen to go up and present the flowers. Who could’ve guessed the boy would be so hopeless—he went and gave them to Ai Guo instead.