It was just in time for the afternoon physical education class, so Luo Wenqiang said, "Sorry, sorry, I got too excited. Let's talk about it during our physical education class. Anyone who wants to join can find me anytime."

Xie Yu was sleeping lightly and could vaguely hear someone talking, but couldn't make out the words.

Just before class, Wu Zheng passed by their classroom and handed the homework to the class representative. The class representative distributed the homework with such enthusiasm that he didn't even want others to help him share the load.

"Xie, Xie Yu..." the class representative muttered his name, then looked up and instantly locked onto his target.

The next second, the exercise book smashed beside Xie Yu's head.

"..." 

Xie Yu opened his eyes. 

The class representative gestured in apology, but Xie Yu remained silent and didn't even look at him. He casually stuffed his exercise book into the drawer.

He Chao sat next to him, playing with his phone and wearing earphones with the cord hanging out of his pocket. 

The class representative called out to He Chao, "Brother Chao!"

He Chao cooperatively raised his hand, ready to "catch the ball". After receiving the exercise book, he exclaimed in English, "Wow, nice!"

"You're awake?" He Chao turned his head to look at Xie Yu and asked, "...What about your homework?"

Xie Yu replied, "Why do you care?"

He Chao, who believed in self-reliance, leaned over to Xie Yu's desk and peered into his drawer, saying, "Just taking a look." 

Xie Yu didn't stop him or hit him with anything. He simply took out his exercise book and slapped it onto his desk, saying, "Take a look and hurry up and leave."

On He Chao's and his homework books, there were hardly any big red check marks from beginning to end.

He Chao opened up the few questions left from last weekend's homework and confirmed that Xie Yu hadn't answered any of them. Satisfied, he put the book back and said, "I feel relieved seeing you."

Xie Yu was still lying down, half of his face covered by his sleeve, with only his eyes exposed. The hot air he exhaled hit the fabric of his sleeve, making him look like some kind of animal that made people want to reach out and rub him. Of course, before doing so, one had to be prepared to be scratched to death. "What's wrong with you?"

He Chao pointed to the line of words on the blackboard, written in Wu Zheng's neat and grand handwriting. 

- The two students who classmates who got all their homework wrong, meet in the office after PE class, no excuses.

"..."

"That was when you were sleeping," He Chao couldn't resist and reached out to rub his head, "life is like this, always full of surprises."

Xie Yu didn't really care and just responded with an "oh". He was cold and indifferent, from his expression to his voice, there was no room for doubt. But He Chao felt like he was under a spell, or maybe it was because Xie Yu's hair was too soft, he couldn't help but find his sleepy look a bit cute.

He Chao continued, "Don't worry, you still have me."

Xie Yu's could no longer respond with just an "oh".

The notice on the blackboard had been up for two whole classes, even though it was written anonymously, everyone knew who it referred to.

Wan Da was itching to make a bet: "Want to bet?" 

Liu Cunhao said, "Is it necessary to bet on this? Who else could it be?"

Xu Qingqing asked, "Can you find a third person in our class whose homework is completely wrong?"

Xie Yu glanced at He Chao's notebook and found that he had only copied the questions, then casually wrote "solution" and "colon" on the left side, and that was it.

"You were looking for someone to ghostwrite it for you, right?" Xie Yu put his own notebook back in the drawer and asked casually, "And they wrote it like this for you?"

He Chao said, "I didn't ask anyone. Thanks to your reminder, I realized that no one in this world can write such cool handwriting except for myself. Look at my majestic strokes, the twists and turns..."

Xie Yu ruthlessly interrupted, "Your flowery words are useless, you can't polish a turd." 

"Can you do the short distance and relay, Ding Lianghua? I heard about your heroic deeds. You have explosive power...As for the girls, I'm not too sure. Sister Qing, can you help me consolidate those who want to participate?"

During PE class, Luo Wenqiang, Liu Cunhao and the rest sat in a circle on the field. Luo Wenqiang had three pens in his pocket and took one out to give to Xu Qingqing. "There's also a class competition, like tug-of-war and such. I'll take some time to teach you some techniques. For the long-distance run, it'll be Brother Chao and Brother Yu...Hey, where are they?"

Luo Wenqiang only just realized that the two long-distance runners he had been set on since last week were missing.

Wan Da said, "You just noticed? Those two were called to the math teacher's office."

Liu Cunhao added, "Those two long-distance runners got all their homework wrong." 

Luo Wenqiang rubbed the back of his head and said, "Huh? I was too excited after receiving the notice for the sports meet, I didn't pay attention..."

Two long-distance runners were feeling miserable in the teacher's office.

"You two, take your homework and find a seat for yourselves. When you understand it, you can go to the physical education class," Wu Zheng said, continuing to grade papers. "You guys are really something, but there's one thing I want to commend you for. At least you didn't cheat on your homework and stuck to your principles."

He Chao said, "Thank you, thank you."

Wu Zheng didn't expect He Chao to have such thick skin and paused while grading papers. "Do you really think I'm praising you?!"

Xie Yu took the homework and directly dragged He Chao away, explaining on behalf of his desk mate, "He didn't take his medicine before leaving today."

"He really needs to take some medicine," Wu Zheng said. "He's quite sick." 

In the office, there were only a few teachers left. Old Tang had gone to teach Chinese in the next classroom, leaving his seat empty. The other teachers' seats were also inconvenient to sit in, so the two of them sat at Old Tang's desk to do their work.

Before, they hadn't noticed, but Old Tang had several small plants on his desk. He even wrote their names on sticky notes, along with instructions on how often to water them. His attention to detail was truly remarkable.

He Chao lifted a sticky note and read the name of the succulent in front of him, "...Little Cui?"

Xie Yu: "..."

"Are all middle-aged people so scary when naming things? Isn't this plant variety just the Jade Dew Succulent?" He Chao propped his homework on his elbow and had no intention of doing any work. "He's a Chinese teacher, but he still names it something like Little Cui?" 

Xie Yu looked up and saw that under the glass plate on Tang Sen's desk, there were many photos of the classes he had taught over the years, starting from the early 2000s and neatly arranged up to the previous year.

"What are you looking at?" He Chao asked.

Xie Yu wanted to say that he was looking for last year's graduation photo, but he felt that it would sound boring, so he didn't say anything and continued to work on the questions.

With the office desk between them, He Chao talked for a while before secretly moving his chair closer and closer to Xie Yu. Finally, he stopped when he was leaning against Xie Yu's side and poked his desk mate with his pen, "Did you understand the question that Old Wu just explained?"

Xie Yu held his pen and asked, "What do you think?"

"I think I understood it," He Chao said, "I really understood it this time." 

The questions weren't too difficult. Wu Zheng tutored the two of them, going over the formulas and steps. If they still couldn't understand, they must be intellectually challenged.

Fortunately, He Chao finally understood what was being taught. He was probably eager to attend physical education class. Perhaps his IQ had temporarily increased due to his eagerness. 

Xie Yu also relaxed his demands on himself. The two of them spent almost half a class' time struggling to "understand" the questions.

"Here they come, your long-distance runners," Wan Da's sharp eyes spotted He Chao and Xie Yu from afar. "Our village, no, our entire class's hope has arrived." 

"What entire class's hope?" He Chao walked over and saw the entire class sitting in a neat circle on the exercise ground. He sat down and patted the plastic ground, saying, "Old Xie, have a seat."

"It's the long-distance run, 3,000 meters. No one in our class wants to do it."

"Fill it in," He Chao waved his hand generously. "Just put my name down for any event."

Wan Da: "Awesome!"

Liu Cunhao: "Strong!"

After asking, Luo Wenqiang looked at Xie Yu again. Xie Yu replied indifferently, "Whatever."

The phrase "whatever" was the gentlest word Luo Wenqiang had ever heard from Xie Yu's mouth. He was so moved that he wanted to cry. "Okay, I'll fill it in. You two can sign up for the long-distance run first, and then maybe...let me see, push-ups, can you do push-ups?" 

The sports meet lasted for two days, which meant two days off from classes.

Although not everyone was passionate about sports, the prospect of two days off from classes piqued their interest. Even those who didn't participate in the events wanted to come and join in the fun.

"Did you see the neighboring class with their matching uniforms? Should we get a set for our class too?" Xu Qingqing was particular about clothing, and continued, "Everything can be lost, but not our style."

Wan Da chimed in, "The neighboring class even has a cross-dressing expert. Shouldn't our class have one too?"

The conversation veered off topic and by the time the bell rang for the end of class, they hadn't come to a decision.

The students in charge of the sports equipment went to the equipment room, with Luo Wenqiang responsible for counting and organizing. That circle of Class 3 students had mostly left, leaving only a few people behind.

Wan Da leaned in to He Chao and whispered, "Actually, when you mentioned the cross-dressing expert earlier, my first thought was of Brother Yu." 

He Chao said, "If you want to die, I can give you a ride."

"No, it's mainly because of Brother Yu's appearance. It's definitely not because he looks like a girl. He's very manly..." Wan Da searched through his vocabulary, but couldn't find a suitable word to describe it. "It's just that, anyway, both Sister Qing and I think so. Do you think Brother Yu will agree?"

"You will really die." He Chao continued, "And it will be in a way that you never expected, at a speed you never imagined."

Upon hearing this news, Xu Qingqing felt a little regretful, but the feeling quickly dissipated as she thought of a new idea. "Since we can't have the most beautiful in our grade, we should at least have the most eye-catching cross-dresser, like a diamond Barbie..."

Luo Wenqiang felt a chill down his spine.

Then countless pairs of eyes stared at him. 

Xie Yu had no idea what this cross-dressing topic was all about. He went out to take a call and when he came back, Luo Wenqiang was already sitting in the classroom, crying his eyes out: "I don't want to, I refuse - why do they have to do this to me?"

"Your muscles are very sexy," Wan Da comforted him, "you have to believe in yourself."

He Chao had been laughing the whole time, laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight. He waved at Xie Yu and then leaned in to whisper in his ear: "Our sports committee member is going to cross-dress. Are you scared?"

"Are we filming a horror movie?" Xie Yu asked.

He Chao replied, "Exactly."

As soon as he finished speaking, He Chao asked again, "Have you ever worn a skirt?"

A string in Xie Yu's mind suddenly snapped. 

His facial features are now open, but when he was young and had short hair, some people thought he was a girl, including Zhou Dalei, who was one of those idiots. Because of a single "little sister," their friendship took several years to develop, from fighting every time they met to becoming friends who enjoyed eating skewers on the roadside.

Zhou Dalei was also very bitter. He admitted his mistake, but he couldn't win the fight.

When Madam Gu was young, she also did some mischievous things. Her son was soft, cute, and good-looking, so she thought it was fun to dress him up in a little skirt. Even now, there are still a few black history photos in the house that cannot be erased.

While Wan Da was still comforting the traumatized sports committee member, he heard a loud bang from behind the classroom and saw He Chao and Xie Yu twisted into a ball for some unknown reason, with chairs overturned. 

Liu Cunhao watched in awe, "They're at it again? I feel like something's missing in our class if they don't fight one day."

"Big brother, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay?" He Chao apologized while trying to appease him, but at the same time, he added fuel to the fire by pouring oil on the flames. "But your reaction is not right, Old Xie. You really wore it before?"

Xie Yu spoke with his fists, and He Chao couldn't defend himself, nor did he dare to really hurt him. So he leaned back and held his stomach, shouting, "...Ah, it hurts."

Given this man's criminal record, Xie Yu's first reaction was that he was faking it, and it was quite exaggerated.

But Xie Yu didn't know why he took two steps forward anyway, "Where does it hurt?"

He Chao didn't know which part to point to for a moment, changing three places in one second, and finally stopped at his chest, "Here, there might be internal bleeding." 

His mouth was bleeding internally, quite impressive.

Xie Yu reached out and touched through the fabric, "Here?"

He lowered his head and looked at Xie Yu's hand resting on his chest, suddenly feeling a bit dazed, "Ah, yes."

That strange and alluring thought didn't last long, until he saw Xie Yu move his wrist a few times, "Fuck, are you really trying to give me internal bleeding..."