It's unclear who made the first move, but before he knew it, He Chao had one hand on Xie Yu's waist and was hugging him forcefully.

This boy may have hard bones, with a tough temper too, but he can be surprisingly soft in other places.

Xie Yu was kissed to the point of being unable to speak, so he just pushed him a little. Even his "fuck" sounded hoarse, and he muttered, "He Chao, are you a dog?"

The space behind the door was barely enough for two people, let alone two tall boys.

He Chao kept getting closer until the distance between them was cut in half, leaving Xie Yu struggling to breathe with his back against the wall.

He didn't just kiss him, he liked to bite too.

Xie Yu vaguely felt a slight sting at the corner of his mouth, probably a cut.

This kind of sneaky kissing in the classroom, hiding from everyone, was quite taboo and daring.

The two of them were sticky and affectionate for a while, just about to let go, but as long as their eyes met, they both struggled to restrain their obvious loss of control, and their thoughts couldn't be suppressed.

"Shall we kiss for a while more?" He Chao pulled Xie Yu back, lowered his head, and his lips touched Xie Yu's nose. "It's not enough."

How could it be enough? As long as he saw the little friend being kissed by him until his eyes were misty, he didn't want to let go.

"That's called a kiss?"

"My technique still needs improvement," He Chao's lips moved down a few inches, finally landing on Xie Yu's mouth, "...need more practice."

Every time He Chao whispered in a low voice to tease someone, his voice would deepen and his breath would hit Xie Yu's ear, as though he was seducing someone. With the added danger of their close proximity, Xie Yu felt like he was losing control.

Just then, footsteps could be heard coming from the end of the hallway, followed by a voice getting closer and closer, "Why isn't the door to this classroom closed?"

"..."

It was the student council doing a spot check on classroom cleanliness.

Aside from studying, there were plenty of other activities held at No. 2 High School. In order to enrich students' extracurricular lives, the student council not only conducted regular cleanliness checks, but also helped organize events such as poetry recitation contests and debates, going wherever they were needed.

Xie Yu looked at He Chao's face, which was now just inches away, and realized that the situation was becoming a bit tricky.

"Should we just charge out?"

"Jump out the window," He Chao had no idea why he suggested it, even though he had done crazier things before. "It'll be cooler?"

The members of the student council were lingering outside the door with evaluation forms in hand, but in the end, they didn't come in. "Maybe the student on duty is still around. The classroom looks pretty clean...Let's go check out the one in front first."

They narrowly avoided getting caught.

Wan Da was doing his homework in the classroom, waiting for He Chao to bring his milk tea. He waited and waited, until he finished one assignment and there was still no sign of the tea. "Is he really that slow? I could have gone out and bought it twice by now."

"You mean Brother Chao? I don't think so," Xu Qingqing walked in with a cup of fruit tea. "I saw them when I went out to buy something earlier. They should have been back by now."

Wan Da was anxiously waiting for his milk tea, just like waiting for someone who never showed up.

When He Chao appeared at the classroom door, Wan Da almost threw his pen down and rushed towards him: "I've been waiting for you guys for so long, I thought you weren't coming to the evening self-study."

"We...had a little unexpected situation," He Chao placed the milk tea on Wan Da's desk and casually asked, "Did Hao-zi leave?"

The milk tea was still warm, Wan Da inserted the straw and took two satisfying sips: "Yes, Old Tang came over to comfort him. He talked for half an hour, starting from the psychology of students, all the way to how to face failure calmly. Hao-zi immediately packed up and ran out the back door."

It was indeed their class teacher's style. He Chao said: "Old Tang is really impressive."

After finishing his sentence, Wan Da finally noticed Xie Yu, who had walked in through the back door. "Did you guys get into a fight?" he asked, his action of sipping on his milk tea freezing in place.

He Chao was about to ask "What fight?" and why anyone would even think of fighting when everything was fine.

But Wan Da spoke up again, "Otherwise, how did Brother Yu's mouth get injured?"

Xie Yu had just arrived at the door. Wan Da had sharp eyes. He vaguely felt that the wound didn't look quite right, but he didn't think much of it and persisted in focusing on the "fight": "Who was it? They even dared to provoke this big shot of the west building."

He Chao coughed.

Wan Da couldn't miss out on such exciting gossip, so he kept talking, hoping someone would follow his lead. But no one paid him any attention.

Xie Yu pressed a finger to his lips and walked straight past him to his seat, bypassing the topic altogether.

"Drink your milk tea," He Chao kicked the corner of Wan Da's table and hinted, "Kids shouldn't meddle in the affairs of the adults."

Wan Da thought to himself, what's he talking about, who's a kid and who's an adult.

He bit his straw and planned to finish his chemistry homework. He searched the table for his book but couldn't find it. So, he turned around to look in his backpack and saw the two big shots in the back row acting as openly as if they owned the place.

Xie Yu was originally looking down at his phone, replying to Aunt Mei's holiday greetings. He had only typed half a message when He Chao forcibly pinched his chin and lifted it up.

He Chao leaned in and said, "Don't move, let me take a look."

Xie Yu was already pale, and the cut on his mouth was even more noticeable.

Xie Yu didn't care much about the wound, except for the fear of people associating it with its origin. He just wanted to reply to the text message, so without thinking, he replied: "It's fine, just got a bit fucked."

"..."

During evening self-study, Old Tang came over with a book to supervise.

As the end of class approached and Xu Qingqing and her classmates finished their homework, they started chatting with Old Tang. "Teacher, we heard that you used to teach at Experimental High School?"

Old Tang inserted a bookmark into the page he had been reading and looked up. "Have you all finished your homework?"

"We're almost done," Wan Da said curiously as he moved his chair forward. "Teacher Tang, how did you end up at No. 2 High School?"

This was a question that had been asked of Tang Sen since he first became the homeroom teacher of Class 3. Experimental High School was one of the top schools in A City, and several No. 2 High Schools combined couldn't compare to it.

Xie Yu didn't really listen to what Old Tang was saying, as the topics discussed by Wan Da and the others changed every two to three minutes. "Teacher, when are we going on our autumn outing? Is it coming soon?" they asked.

There were only a dozen or so boarding students, so Old Tang asked them to sit as close to the front as possible. Xie Yu and He Chao ended up sitting in the first row by the window, squeezed in and listening to the others talk about the autumn outing.

"You only care about playing day by day. I never see you so focused on studying," Old Tang said, but after his long speech, he still went along with everyone's wishes and revealed, "The autumn outing is probably going to be this week, tentatively scheduled for Friday. The exact time hasn't been confirmed yet...Don't spread the word to other classes, Head Teacher Jiang didn't want me to notify you guys in advance, for fear that you guys..."

Before the homeroom teacher could finish his sentence, the class had already gone crazy: "Autumn outing! Friday! Autumn outing!"

Old Tang: "..."

Hearing the topic, He Chao also became interested and exited the game to ask, "Are you going on the autumn outing?"

In the past, during autumn outings, Xie Yu would always take sick leave. Without changing his expression, he wouldn't even cough once as he reported to the teacher that he had a fever. The teacher wouldn't dare say anything, as someone like him not attending would actually make things easier.

Thinking about it, he realized that he hadn't participated in any spring or autumn outings since he was in middle school. "Where do people usually go?" he asked.

He Chao replied, "It's pretty boring. The timeless classics are parks, amusement parks, and exhibition halls. Besides these three places, there's nothing else. If the school has a bigger budget, maybe we could go climb a mountain."

Last year, the school took them to the park in autumn for some reason. By then, all the flowers had withered, leaving only bare tree branches in the park. They walked around all day but saw nothing, feeling only the bleakness and despair brought on by the cold wind.

Xie Yu thought it was wise of him to take a day off: "Why would you go if it's so boring?"

"It won't be boring with you around," He Chao said, lying on the table and asking again, "Are you going?"

Xu Qingqing and her friends had already started discussing what to bring: "After school tomorrow, I'll sneak out to buy some snacks and card games. Hey, does anyone want to play Truth or Dare?"

Wan Da raised both hands: "Yes, yes, yes! I represent Hao-zi, and the two of us will play."

In their current state, one would think that the mid-term exams had passed months ago. After a moment, Xie Yu said, "Let me think about it."

The little friend's mouth was tough, and "let me think about it" meant he had agreed.

The news of the autumn outing spread throughout the class the next morning. Liu Cunhao was originally going to get beaten at home, but when he heard the news, he became happy. "This Friday?!"

Wan Da high-fived him and said, "Aren't you surprised! Aren't you happy!"

Liu Cunhao had been hugging Wan Da while crying yesterday. Even during lunch, he was too sad to eat because of his poor exam results. But when they dragged him to the cafeteria, he said he couldn't eat, yet he ended up eating two bowls of rice.

Seventeen is such a simple age.

Xie Yu had planned to catch up on sleep, but they were too loud for him to fall asleep. However, he didn't feel annoyed.

Xie Yu listened quietly for a while before opening his eyes and seeing He Chao sitting arrogantly with his right leg crossed over his left knee, imitating Liu Cunhao's tone from yesterday when he said, "What should I do? I feel like I won't make it through today...No, I really can't eat."

Liu Cunhao pointed at He Chao and said, "Brother Chao, although I can't beat you, it's not right for you to mock your classmates like this."

The class erupted into chaos again.

Xu Qingqing and her friends had already planned it out. As soon as the bell rang for the end of class, four or five of them stood at the door and greeted He Chao, "Brother Chao, do you want to come with us? We're taking the bus to the nearby mall to buy some snacks."

There was only one small convenience store near the school, and even if they weren't picky, they couldn't just buy a few bags of spicy noodles and take them on the autumn outing.

The closest mall was only two stops away. If you were fast enough, you could even make it back to school before evening self-study.

After getting off the bus, everyone scattered to buy their own things.

Xie Yu leaned against the shopping cart and watched He Chao carefully examine the production dates of the snacks on the shelf. It was the first time he realized that this person was actually quite domestic.