After they finished talking, both of them fell silent for a while.

As He Chao thought back on the conversation, he was surprised by his own thought process. He couldn't believe that he actually listened to the nonsense that Shen Jie was spouting.

Even though the way the little friend had grabbed onto his collar and kissed him earlier had resulted in an awkward posture, he wouldn't mind going through that a hundred times over!

After a moment of silence, He Chao cleared his throat and said, "That, just let that matter be."

Xie Yu leaned back in his chair, the neon lights from outside casting a glow on his face. He couldn't help but chuckle and say, "No can do."

"..."

"You're too ridiculous. I won't forget this, Brother Chao."

He Chao had been cooling off by opening the window and letting the breeze in, but the wind had blown his hair into disarray.

He was always a bit of a show-off, his head could be chopped off but his hair couldn't get too messy.

Xie Yu watched as He Chao used the front camera to look at his hair. Due to lighting issues, the camera couldn't capture it clearly, so He Chao just randomly grabbed a few strands and tried to flatten them down.

Xie Yu watched for a while, propping his elbow on the car window and casually remarked, "No one's looking at you anyway."

He Chao continued to grab at his hair and said, "A handsome guy needs to maintain his appearance."

Yeah, appearance.

After all, it was too dark in the car and He Chao had been grabbing at his hair for a while without noticing that there was still a tuft sticking up on top of his head.

Xie Yu reached out and ran his fingers through He Chao's hair, lightly scratching it like he was petting a cat. He remembered that when he first met He Chao, his hair was still short and probably would have been prickly to the touch.

"..."

He Chao was momentarily stunned, but then he realized that the camera he had used to take pictures of his hair was still on, so he called out, "Old Xie."

Xie Yu looked up and asked, "What?"

He Chao pressed the shutter button and captured two blurry black shapes.

The photo was still, but you could see the swaying of the train carriage, the lights passing by outside the window, and the faint outlines of two people in front and behind.

"It's a couple photo," He Chao said after taking the picture. He set the photo, which looked particularly artistic and incomprehensible to others, as his phone background. "Let's commemorate this moment."

The bus didn't even announce the next stop and kept circling around the block. Finally, it stopped at a street corner that neither recognized and opened the front door.

No one got on the bus.

The driver turned his head and shouted down below, "No one? If there's no one, I'm driving off. This is the last bus!"

After setting his background, He Chao heard this voice and looked outside. He saw a small grocery store next to the station and felt a bit familiar.

Xie Yu followed his gaze.

"I think I've been here before," He Chao put away his phone, stood up and sat in the back row next to the little friend, enunciating each word, "Jian...Jianxing Grocery. Isn't there an internet cafe nearby? I shouldn't be mistaken, right?"

This block was a distance away from Blackwater Street, and the bus had been taking a circuitous route for a while without going too far.

There was indeed an internet cafe, right behind the grocery store.

Xie Yu asked, "When did you come here?"

"During the summer vacation," He Chao said, "when my friends invited me, I came over because I was bored at home." He couldn't remember where he had made plans, so he just wandered around aimlessly.

The half-hour car ride was not long at all, and they chatted away in no time.

Before getting off at the station, He Chao wanted to take two more round trips.

"Friend, this is the last bus," Xie Yu pushed his boyfriend off the bus, "what are you thinking?"

He Chao stood at the door and said, "I want to stay with you a little longer."

This time, Xie Yu didn't kick him, but the driver couldn't resist the urge to kick someone. He sat in the driver's seat, waving his hand and urging them, "Are you getting off or not? Why are you dilly-dallying?"

Xie Yu: "..."

He Chao: "..."

After getting off the bus and turning a corner, the bus station was right there. Xie Yu needed to take the No. 3 route, while He Chao was taking the Songting line. They were going in opposite directions. Xie Yu habitually walked to the back of the bus after inserting his coins.

With only a few minutes left until departure, the engine of the bus roared loudly.

At this time, there were only a few buses left at the station, and people were still walking in from the entrance.

Xie Yu leaned against the window and looked outside for a while. He happened to see an idiot jump off the Songting line from the side without even using the stairs, leaping down from the top.

Then, the person came up from the back door, walked through rows of seats, and stood in front of him.

Before Xie Yu could even ask, "What are you doing up here?" He Chao lowered his head and kissed him aggressively - completely different from the previous kiss, this time it was urgent.

His approach was awkward and inexperienced, driven by an uncontrollable impulse.

He moved quickly, catching Xie Yu off guard, and the other passengers in the car had no idea what this young man was doing as they watched the two of them huddle together for a few seconds before he got up and left through the back door.

"I was looking for someone, I won't be taking this bus. Sorry," He Chao said to the driver before turning to Xie Yu. "I'm really leaving this time."

"...Just get out of here already."

Xie Yu replied harshly, but as the car drove away, he couldn't help but touch his burning ear.

The weekend passed quickly, and amidst the cries of "I don't want to face my exam results" in their class group chat, Sunday was coming to an end.

Xie Yu finished packing, and before going to bed, he took a glance at the class group chat.

[Liu Cunhao]: Why did two days pass by so quickly? I haven't had the chance to fully enjoy my last two days on earth.

[Wan Da]: And our school teachers are so dedicated, they took the papers home to grade. Did you see the message from Old Tang? He said the grades will be out by Monday. Hao-zi, have you thought about where you want to be buried after you die? I want to be scattered in the sea, facing the vast ocean, with flowers blooming in the spring.

[Liu Cunhao]: I prefer burial in the earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

[Xu Qingqing]: You guys are crazy, it's just a midterm exam.

[V Long=abc]: Learning is never too late, and one failure doesn't mean anything. What's important is to have the right attitude towards learning.

[Luo Wenqiang]: class committee rep, did you change the formula again?

After a while, He Chao also spoke up and said a few words.

[He Chao]: What's the rush?

[He Chao]: I feel like these two days have passed so slowly.

[Luo Wenqiang]: ...

[Wan Da]: This is unlike you, Brother Chao.

[Liu Cunhao]: Brother Chao, are you bored with life?

Not only did their Brother Chao look like he was bored with life, but he also acted out of character by arriving early to class the next day.

"You're here early today," Liu Cunhao said, as he had to wake up early for his duty and face the bleakness of life. "It's a bit strange."

He Chao looked up and smiled, "You make it sound like I'm late every day."

Liu Cunhao was shocked and wanted to say "aren't you?", but in the end, he didn't say anything and just shook his head before going to the restroom to wash the cloth.

Before coming to the school, Xie Yu went to a breakfast shop outside to buy a cup of soy milk. When he was paying, he saw Mad Dog and Old Tang eating inside the shop. He held his things and didn't know what to do, so he just said, "Head Teacher Jiang, Teacher Tang."

Old Tang nodded at him, swallowed what was in his mouth, and greeted him, "You're just drinking soy milk? Can you be full? Sit down and have two buns."

"No need, I..."

"Don't be polite, come over." Mad Dog dragged out a plastic stool from the side, fully embodying the meaning of the phrase 'abuse of power': "Otherwise, you won't be allowed into the school."

Xie Yu held a meat bun and sat on the side, listening to Head Teacher Jiang complain about the school cafeteria's food, "That meat bun, you can't even taste the meat after three bites."

Old Tang nodded, "The first time I ate it, I thought it didn't have any filling."

Head Teacher Jiang said, "The taste also isn't very good."

Xie Yu: "..."

Head Teacher Jiang was actually quite easy to talk to as long as he wasn't at school, even though there was only a road separating them from the school now.

He was different from the Announcer Jiang from the daily broadcasts, and different from the Mad Dog that made the majority of students suffer.

He was just ordinary.

Ordinary to the point where it seemed like the weight on his shoulders and the title of "teacher" made him have to become powerful.

When Xie Yu arrived at the classroom, most of the students had already arrived. Wan Da rushed back from the teacher's office, exclaiming, "Good news, the papers haven't been graded yet! Haven't! Been! Graded! Yet! We have an extra day to live, brothers!"

Liu Cunhao threw his rag and embraced Wan Da on the podium, "Good brother, we'll have a good meal at noon today. We'll die gloriously if we have to."

"What's going on?" Xie Yu entered through the back door and sat down, saying, "You guys are making a big fuss."

He Chao had been watching the commotion all morning and finally his desk mate had arrived. "It's midterms," he explained. "They've even written their wills. Something like, 'If I'm unfortunate enough to be killed by my mom...I can't remember the rest, but you get the idea.'"

The scene of classmates writing their wills early in the morning was too beautiful for Xie Yu. He didn't even think eating buns with Head Teacher Jiang was a big deal anymore.

Speaking of eating, Xie Yu remembered another important matter.

He Chao had been thinking about this boyfriend of his all weekend. But in less than a minute of meeting him, the second thing Xie Yu said to him was, "Have you eaten the walnuts?"

Wan Da's eavesdropping wasn't always accurate. He heard that the papers hadn't been graded yet, but he didn't hear everything. It was only some classes that hadn't been graded yet, and Class 3 wasn't in that category.

So when Wu Zheng walked in with a stack of papers, the whole class fell silent.

He Chao was quite happy: "Hey, Old Xie, look at this, I actually got this question right."

Xie Yu thought to himself, I don't really want to look.

"I bet you didn't expect that I finished grading these papers on Saturday," Wu Zheng picked out a few pieces of chalk from the chalk box and said, "Let's all see how we did on the exam. Wan Da, why are you closing your eyes? Even if you close your eyes, you still got an 80...Look at how happy He Chao is, even getting a 30 can bring him joy."

Wan Da: "..."