Little did they know that, while Yuyang and Tang Qihuang were talking...

Lin Qingyu, standing behind Yuyang with Yuxi, was about to burst out laughing.

She kept her voice as low as she could so Yuyang wouldn’t hear.

“Hehehe... I’m dying. Yuxi, did you see that? The way Tang Qihuang was acting just now—ha! Doesn’t she always say this period of her life is her dark history? And she was just pretending the whole time.”

“Shh... Big Sis Qingyu, you can’t say things like that...”

“What are you two whispering about?”

After sending Tang Qihuang on her way, Yuyang turned around and saw the two cuties whispering to each other.

Quick on the uptake, Yuxi immediately replied, “Big Sis Qingyu said she’s jealous of the student council president’s impressive bust. She wants to drink more milk from now on and see if there’s still hope for her.”

“What?! You little brat! I never said anything like that! And besides, that kind of thing...”

What did she mean, “impressive bust”?!

It only took a moment for innocent little Loli Lin to turn bright red.

Yuxi gave a quiet, amused laugh and twisted the knife a little more.

“I meant that you’re jealous of the president’s broad-mindedness, Big Sis Qingyu. What did you think I meant?”

“I... you...”

Seeing Qingyu blush with a mix of embarrassment and anger was pretty entertaining, but Yuyang had more important things to do, so he cut off the two “mortal enemies” as they traded barbs.

“All right, you two argue nonstop every day. Is it really necessary? Come on, let’s go catch the tail end of the opening ceremony. Never mind Qingyu—if Xiao Xi misses the ceremony on her very first day of school, she’ll regret it.”

“Mm-hmm!”

“Hey! You idiot siblings! Wait for me!”

Seriously! Those two didn’t even think to slow down for her short little legs!

The auditorium at Qifeng No. 1 High School was one of Qifeng City’s most famous buildings.

As the city’s top high school, it had plenty of room and elegant decor. Even with every student in the school gathered inside, there was still space for everyone.

More than three thousand students, from freshmen to seniors, sat in neat rows across three large sections, each in the seats already set out for their class.

When Yuyang and the others slipped in through a small side entrance, a teacher was speaking onstage.

Oh, wasn’t that the “Mediterranean” grade-level director giving the speech? He was almost completely bald on top.

Back then, Yuyang had always thought he was in his fifties or sixties. He didn’t find out until graduation that the grade-level director was only forty.

Yikes... He wasn’t exactly young, sure, but going bald at that age was still scary. He’d definitely have to make sure not to stay up late.

Yuyang made up his mind right then and there.

Once they were inside, he led the two girls along the wall, doing his best not to draw attention.

Normally, Student Council members would’ve stopped them from sneaking in through the entrance. But the doorway was empty now. Tang Qihuang, who’d arrived ahead of them, had probably dragged them off to do something.

That’s what you get for slacking off on the job! Ahem... Guys, I’m not snitching here. This is the hammer of justice!

Yuyang glanced around, then turned back to them.

“We can’t go look for seats in our class sections. We’d draw too much attention and it’d be awkward. Let’s just stand here and watch. Once it’s over, we can head back with our classes. Xiao Xi, I’ll take you back later.”

“Okay, thanks, Big Brother. It’s just... a teacher seems to be coming this way. Is that okay?”

“!”

Yuxi’s words made Yuyang’s heart jump. He spun around and saw a teacher in a fall sweater walking toward them.

Once he got a good look at who it was...

Oh, it’s my homeroom teacher. No problem, then.

Qin Yan had been Yuyang’s homeroom teacher in his first year of high school.

She was probably nearing forty. She had short brown hair and an unremarkable face, and right now she looked worn out.

Yuyang, having been reborn, knew exactly why she looked so tired.

He’d only heard it through the grapevine, but apparently Teacher Qin Yan was under pressure to remarry around this time. He wasn’t really sure what it was like for a middle-aged woman who’d already been through one divorce to face the prospect of marrying again.

All he knew was that Qin Yan’s second marriage went smoothly later on, and she found a pretty good partner.

But that was still a ways off. One look at the dark circles under Qin Yan’s eyes told him how hard things were for her at this point.

If it’d been another teacher coming over, Yuyang might’ve needed to give them a nervous explanation.

But if it was Teacher Qin, there was no need to worry. The reason was simple.

For example, the first thing she said as she walked up was:

“Well, Bai Yuyang, late on the very first day of the new term? And look at that, Lin Qingyu’s late too. You haven’t grown at all over summer break, have you? Hmm? Who’s this? A new student?”

“Who are you saying hasn’t grown?!”

Qingyu was furious. She wanted to jump up and smack the teacher on the head. So what if she was a teacher, and so what if she was telling the truth? She didn’t have to bring that up!

“Um... Teacher Qin.”

Yuyang stopped Qingyu and pointed to Xiao Xi. “Let’s not get into that right now. We were late for a reason. This is my little sister, a new first-year student. Anyway, we’ll stand here for a bit. You can go take care of whatever you need to do—we’ll head back to class in a little while.”

“......”

After so many years of teaching, Qin Yan still had no idea why she just couldn’t command any respect.

Seriously, if a student was late and a teacher came over to talk to them, shouldn’t they at least offer an explanation?

Instead, he was basically telling the teacher to hurry along.

And that wasn’t all. Yuyang added, “Oh, right. You share an office with the homeroom teacher of Class Three, Grade One, don’t you? You both teach physics, after all. Could you do me a favor? Tell them my sister was late because of something that came up at home. They’ll be more likely to believe it coming from a teacher than from us students.”

“Ah... Hello, Teacher Qin. I’m Bai Yuxi!” Yuxi still wasn’t quite sure what was going on, so she started with a polite introduction.

“......”

Good grief. Students these days really were harder to handle with every new year.

But Qin Yan was known for being easygoing. It wasn’t that she was irresponsible; she just wasn’t as harsh and rigid as some other teachers about a lot of things.

She didn’t mind helping out, and she couldn’t be bothered to ask why they were late. Bai Yuyang was a top student, after all—he’d ranked first in the grade on last year’s final exams. He probably knew what he was doing.

But Qin Yan was in a bad mood today. She hadn’t slept well the night before because of a few annoying things.

So she deliberately gave him a hard time. “Bai Yuyang, if you’re late, you have to write a self-criticism. Don’t keep looking for ways around the rules...”

“Teacher, you still haven’t finished the class attendance records the school asked for today, have you? I can finish them for you and bring them over later.”

“!”

Those attendance records were especially hard to sort out on the first day of school. Qin Yan had been worrying about them just now.

When she heard Bai Yuyang offer to take the job off her hands, she couldn’t have been happier.

Her tune changed at once. “Ahem! Forget the self-criticism. Everyone’s late once in a while. Just be careful next time, and don’t let me catch you again. And bring the attendance records to my office when you’re done.”

Looks like she’d agreed to help.

With that, Qin Yan turned to leave, adding, “Don’t forget to include the remarks on the attendance records!”

“Got it, got it.”

She was so easy to deal with.

Having a homeroom teacher like her had saved Yuyang a lot of trouble over the three years of high school.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the “Mediterranean” grade-level director’s voice came over the auditorium speakers.

“All right, that’s all I have to say. For the final part of the ceremony, let’s invite the student representative to come up and say a few words!”

As soon as he finished speaking,

the entire auditorium erupted in the loudest applause it had given since everyone had arrived and taken their seats.

You’d think an idol was about to take the stage.