"You think that by doing this, you..." Lei Jun stopped halfway through his sentence. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes, taking one out and lighting it before cursing, "Fuck."

Lei Jun squatted down to smoke for a while before standing up and saying before leaving, "What are you doing? Trying to make yourself feel better? Stop wasting your time...it's useless. This matter can't be forgiven, and there's no way to get past it. Don't let me catch you again next time, or I might not be able to resist finding someone to beat you to a pulp."

He Chao wanted to say something, but the words twisted and turned on his tongue, and he couldn't get them out.

Lei Jun didn't plan on saying anything more either. After he finished speaking, he patted his pants and walked away. 

He Chao didn't go straight back to the classroom. Instead, he climbed up to the sixth floor of the teaching building. Although the roof was locked, the lock could easily be opened with a piece of wire. 

He pushed open the door and walked up. The wind on the top floor was strong, messing up his hair and clearing his mind a bit. 

Occasionally, someone would come up to the rooftop, and there were a few crushed beer cans piled up in the corner, rolling to the side when the wind blew. 

He Chao lay on the rooftop, blinking as he looked up, as if he could see himself from his third year of middle school, as well as the clever and cunning Fang Xiaolei. 

"There shouldn't be anyone left in the lab at this time." 

"Brother Chao, isn't this experiment supposed to be very dangerous? Should we really sneak in like this..." 

"I've memorized all the steps from the video, there's no problem."

"Where did you get the key from?"

"I stole it."

"..."

Countless voices surrounded him, dragging him towards a bottomless abyss.

Thick black smoke made it impossible to breathe.

The sound of fire trucks.

And the anxious tone of the security guard on the phone.

And finally, a woman sternly questioned them, "Who allowed you to conduct experiments here without permission?! Teacher Liu was trapped inside and almost didn't make it out. Who will take responsibility for this?!"

This incident caused a huge uproar. The students had stolen the key and conducted a chemistry experiment without permission, causing an accident that almost cost someone's life. 

At De Yu Middle School, the chemistry laboratory was strictly managed. There was a small compartment in the laboratory that served as the duty teacher's office. It just so happened that it was Teacher Liu's turn to be on duty that day. Who would have thought that Teacher Liu had not left after work, but had fallen asleep on the desk due to exhaustion.

If it weren't for the security guard's reminder that they hadn't seen Teacher Liu leave the school gate, they wouldn't have even known there was someone inside.

"What's going on? Fang Xiaolei, you're not saying anything, He Chao, you speak up."

"I stole the key," He Chao heard his own voice gradually becoming louder. Although he was also panicked by the situation, he still told the truth, "I also did the experiment. I asked him to come with me, it has nothing to do with him." 

The woman sat in her seat, holding a red pen. She pushed the cap back and forth with her thumb for a while before finally calming down. Pinching her brow, she said, "I know what to do. You guys go back to class...Don't tell anyone about this. Don't say a word if anyone asks."

As they walked out of the office, Fang Xiaolei was trembling with fear. 

"The teacher said she'll figure something out," He Chao patted Xiaolei's head and said, "This has nothing to do with you. If anyone gets punished, it'll be me."

At the time, He Chao didn't know what the homeroom teacher's plan was. The so-called plan was to get rid of the poor-performing student - until Fang Xiaolei was forced to drop out of school. 

With Xiaolei's grades, it was unlikely he would pass the high school entrance exam. Rather than lowering the school's admission rate, it was better to get rid of him.

With only a few days left until the high school entrance exam, it was too late for Xiaolei to do anything when he found out. 

He couldn't get in touch with Er Lei, it was said that he went back to his hometown. Since he dared to make this decision, it was probably that his family didn't have high expectations for him and learning a trade would be more beneficial.

The school's attitude was the same as the homeroom teacher's, retracting the expulsion notice would be like slapping themselves in the face.

He, who should have been expelled, was being kept by everyone, while those who shouldn't have been expelled left.

"He Chao, I have a mock exam for the high school entrance exam here. Take it and I'll grade it for you separately," the woman said with a smile. "The high school entrance exam is coming up soon, so focus on studying."

At the thought of this, He Chao felt nauseous. He propped himself up and wiped his face in a disheveled manner.

Just before this happened, Fang Xiaolei used to come over and ask him questions, holding his books all day, even scaring Lei Jun. 

Fang Xiaolei said, "I want to study hard. I can't keep playing like this."

Lei Jun patted his head and said, "Oh, Er lei, you've grown up. Which school are you planning to apply to?"

"Hehe...I want to apply to No. 2."

"Because the admission score is the lowest?"

He asked himself, if he did this to alleviate his guilt. 

He dropped out of the high school entrance exam, took a year off, and finally came to No. 2. He ranked last in every exam...Was it for this reason?

It seemed like it wasn't just that.

Some things were absurd, and countless "whys" kept popping up. He didn't know what kind of answer he was looking for.

He didn't return to the classroom even after evening self-study ended. 

As the bell rang, Wan Da and his friends cheered and headed downstairs in groups, carrying their bags. "Do you want to come to my room tonight and watch a sci-fi action movie? I downloaded it and heard it's really cool..."

"Brother Yu, are you coming?" he turned to ask.

Xie Yu: "Not coming." He still has to write two sets of exam papers. What's the point of watching a movie?

After taking a shower, Xie Yu picked out several mid-term exam papers from various universities in A city and planned to do them in advance. Although he hadn't learned many of the topics yet, he had been quietly flipping through his textbooks during class and had grasped the concepts pretty well. 

He thought he shouldn't have any problems with these difficult questions.

However, as Xie Yu started to work on the papers with a pen, he found himself getting distracted.

Meanwhile, when He Chao was about to turn off his phone, he received a short message from Xie Yu. 

It was really short, only three words: "Where are you?" 

He Chao was planning to pretend that he hadn't seen the message, but his hand accidentally touched the screen and he found himself typing two words: "Internet cafe."

- Explosive Bar?

- Yeah, you coming? Not going to sleep?

There were several internet cafes near the school, but Explosive Bar was the most well-known because of its good security measures. If a teacher came to check on the students, they would receive an emergency notification.

All the staff in the internet cafe could even recognize the faces of the few teachers who loved to check on the students, especially Head Teacher Jiang. If they encountered this Mad Dog, they would immediately sound the alarm.

They were determined to create a safe and secure online environment for students.

Xie Yu rarely went to these underground internet cafes. He didn't like the stuffy and dimly lit environment, sitting inside like a decadent teenager with a cigarette in his mouth and long bangs covering his sad eyes. 

But when Xie Yu climbed over the wall, he suddenly couldn't understand himself...What was he doing?

The sky had already turned pitch black, with only the streetlights still shining and the sound of rustling leaves in the wind.

A chill crept in through the hem of his clothes, and just as Xie Yu was about to jump down, he heard a voice not far away say, "You don't want your legs anymore, huh, you're quite skilled, still able to climb over the wall like this."

"..." 

He saw He Chao walking over from the other side of the street, but the lighting was too dim to make out his expression. He slowly approached and stood under the wall, asking, "Why are you doing climbing over the wall?"

Xie Yu replied, "Going to play games."

Given Xie Yu's usual behavior, this reason was completely plausible. It was normal for a second-year student to have trouble sleeping at night and come to the internet cafe to pass the time.

He Chao didn't let him jump down directly, instead planning to catch him as he landed. 

"Little cripple," He Chao opened his arms and looked up at him, "jump."

Xie Yu: "You're the fucking cripple."

Explosive Bar was across from Jin Bang Restaurant, up a few steps from the side door of the clothing store, on the second floor.

He Chao was slouching, with earphones around his neck and fingers tapping on the keyboard. While others smoked, he had a piece of candy in his mouth.

He was still wearing his school uniform and hadn't changed yet.

It was already late, and there were quite a few people in Explosive Bar. Xie Yu recognized a few faces that he had seen in the last exam room during the monthly exam after thinking for a while.

He Chao didn't have any particular game he wanted to play, so he just clicked on whichever icon on his desktop caught his eye. He was absent-mindedly playing when suddenly a hand reached over and tapped his desktop with a curved index finger. 

He Chao looked over and saw the little friend wearing a white hoodie with hair that wasn't completely dry asking him, "Do you guys come here to stay up all night often?"

"Not really," He Chao said. "Maybe...just a few times a month."

Xie Yu nodded, feeling like he had gained a new understanding of the world of underachievers. He had never thought about this before. He then lowered his head and typed a line in his phone's notes: Stay up all night at the internet cafe, twice a month.

The two of them teamed up and played a few games. By the end, Xie Yu was so tired that he fell asleep on his seat. 

He Chao yanked off his headphones and stopped playing. He turned his head to look at his desk mate for a while. He realized that the crazy urge to smoke he had just felt in the internet cafe had been smoothed out little by little since he had hugged this person when he jumped from the wall. 

The dim light of the internet cafe shone on Xie Yu's face along with the light from the computer screen. 

He stared at him for a while, unable to move his eyes, and bit the candy in his mouth. 

The next day, He Chao and Xie Yu went to class with dark circles under their eyes. 

"What's going on with you two?" Wan Da exclaimed in surprise. "What did you do last night? Were you forced to stay up late by our class representative?" 

Xue Xisheng never gave up. Convenient notes with various formulas and words, sometimes even with a few words of encouragement, would often appear on the desks of He Chao and Xie Yu. Phrases like "if you don't work hard when you're young, you'll regret it when you're old," "you're never too old to learn," and "keep going, you're only a little bit away from success" were written on them.

If Xue Xisheng had more pocket money, he might have bought them a bunch of extracurricular exercises.

As soon as He Chao arrived, he slumped onto the desk: "No, we stayed up all night at the internet cafe."

Wan Da asked, "Did Brother Yu also stay up all night? I was wondering why you didn't watch a movie with us yesterday."

"What movie?" He Chao's head was a little sore after staying up all night, and he didn't know where his mind was going. He said, "My desk mate isn't that kind of person, don't corrupt him."