He Chao had been looking down, staring at the steps below without blinking, his mind in a jumble. It wasn't until he heard that sentence that he suddenly looked up.

Xie Yu didn't seem to have much of a reaction.

The only reaction was that before He Chao could even say whether he wanted it or not, Xie Yu had already stuffed the candy into his mouth.

He Chao was stunned.

Then the taste of the fruit candy slowly rose up.

It was sweet.

The little friend had just eaten it.

The little friend even called him "brother".

Suddenly, all other thoughts in He Chao's mind came to a halt, leaving only one sentence: ...this is unbearable.

Xie Yu had never imagined that the "Trivia King" beside him would almost give up on himself for this reason. He repeated a year and still couldn't let go of his worries, and ended up attending the lowest-ranked high school, clinging to the bottom of the class.

He had fallen from being a top student with unlimited prospects in everyone's eyes to barely passing the exams.

Xie Yu suddenly remembered that the only time he had seen this person get angry was during the incident with Xu Xia and Yang Sanhao.

"Did you also fight in your first year because of this?" Xie Yu leaned back and asked, propping himself up with his hands on the ground.

As someone who never listened to gossip, Xie Yu didn't know who the boss of the neighboring building was at the time, but He Chao's heroic deeds had spread throughout the school, making it hard not to know.

Xie Yu had become the boss of the West Building because of "cheating on the entrance exam" and fighting, but He Chao had not.

He was not like Xie Yu, he came to school normally and even remained quiet for a while. After two months of calm classes, and following the mid-term exam, he suddenly became famous for one thing.

In short, he beat up a teacher.

Although it was also a fight, it carried much more weight than Xie Yu taking down four people outside.

"Well, you see..."

"At that time, someone in our class bought the answer key, and he thought I was the one who instigated it," He Chao chewed on candy, not even wanting to mention the name, using "he" instead. After finishing, he added, "He really thought highly of me. What's the point of me buying the answer key? Even if I did, would I still get a just ten points?"

As He Chao looked back on it now, he realized that his temper was too explosive back then. After a couple of "hehe"s, the argument should have been over. There was no need to get up and kick the table, continuing the fight. As the argument escalated, he couldn't control his anger and ended up throwing a punch.

He didn't hold back, and almost sent the other person to the hospital.

That day after school, he didn't leave. He finished half a pack of cigarettes in the bathroom stall, reeking of smoke. He kept thinking to himself, what am I even doing?

As He Chao spoke, he remembered that the Second Last next to him hadn't spoken yet. He changed the subject and asked, "What about you?"

"I," Xie Yu says calmly, "am afraid of being too outstanding and want to leave room for others."

"..." He Chao was taken aback and rubbed his head, saying, "Can you be serious?"

Xie Yu's situation was a family matter.

He had already encountered the intellectually disabled older brother in his family, and had also witnessed his little friend walking back and forth in the corridor, proficiently cursing without repeating any vulgar words.

After finishing his story, Xie Yu noticed the expression on He Chao's face, as if he wanted to say something, and interrupted him, saying, "It's okay, I know what to do."

When Zhong Guofei had told him that his son had to be the best, he hadn't paid much attention to it, and had almost blurted out on the spot, "What does it have to do with me? He's not my son."

But he couldn't ignore Madam Gu.

At least until he had the ability to leave this environment, he would do his best to protect her in any way possible.

Although the little friend seemed cool, He Chao was still a little worried and asked, "What do you mean by 'know what to do'? What school are you planning to apply to?"

Xie Yu replied, "It doesn't have to be too good, just Tsinghua or Beijing University."

"..."

He Chao was speechless.

Now when he thought back to the post he had made on Baidu Zhidao asking for help, he realised it was full of problems.

The two of them sat in the hallway for a while longer. Xie Yu checked the time and realized it was almost dinner time. He stood up, kicked He Chao's foot, and turned to go upstairs. "Are you hungry? Let's have a meal."

He Chao crunched on his candy and looked at him. "Let's have a date."

Since they had started dating, they usually spent their time at school and had their own plans on weekends.

Even when they went out, it was always a group activity. They couldn't even have a moment alone together. Except for the time when He Chao silently went to find him on Blackwater Street, which could barely be considered a date, there was nothing else to think about.

As Xie Yu pulled open the heavy door of the safety passage, he paused upon hearing the words "have a date."

They were on the seventh floor now, and if they had taken just two more steps earlier, they would have reached the top floor directly.

Upon exiting the safety passage, they found themselves surrounded by home decor on this floor. It was high up and there were few people around, so they had to take the elevator down. As they walked, He Chao leaned on Xie Yu's shoulder and asked, "What do couples usually do on dates?"

"Don't you know?" Xie Yu replied.

"It's my first time dating, so I'm not very experienced," He Chao admitted.

"Why don't you just ask Baidu? You like using it, don't you?"

He Chao was silent for two seconds before saying, "...Okay, that's enough. Can we move on from this?"

Xie Yu mercilessly teased He Chao, and in the end, He Chao obediently took out his phone and searched on Baidu.

The elevator had just left and was still at the bottom floor. It would probably take a while before it arrived.

Xie Yu was holding his test paper, feeling bored. He leaned over to take a look at He Chao's phone screen and saw a particularly embarrassing title: "Dating Strategy: Teach You How to Capture His/Her Heart."

"Eating, watching movies," He Chao read aloud as he scrolled through the webpage. He paused after reading two options and said, "...Watching movies, except for horror movies, I can watch anything with you."

In addition to these main ideas, the webpage also recommended nearby restaurants and even provided tips on what to pay attention to when dining with your significant other. It claimed that paying attention to small details would showcase a man's gentlemanly and romantic qualities, making the other person fall deeply in love.

Xie Yu glanced down and accidentally saw something marked in red at the end of the document, labeled as the ultimate climax.

After reading the previous part, He Chao scrolled down a bit and his finger stopped at the ultimate climax. He also saw the two prominent words and stuttered halfway through reading them: "Book a..."

Book a room.

"..."

The elevator displayed floor numbers closer and closer to their own.

He Chao swallowed hard and turned off his phone directly.

Xie Yu didn't say anything, but even though he appeared calm on the surface, when He Chao lowered his head, he saw that the person's ears were turning red.

With a "ding," the elevator door slowly opened.

Xie Yu couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong, but everything seemed off.

His mind was racing and he couldn't stop it.

He Chao cleared his throat and changed the subject, "Shall we go eat first?"

At the beginning, they were cautious and looked around for any sign of Xue Xisheng while searching for a restaurant. But after finishing their meal and walking to the entertainment area, they found that it was so crowded that if they let go of each other's hands, they would be separated in an instant.

If they were to run into him again, it would truly be fate.

"He should be sharing his experiences in learning now," Xie Yu recalled the itinerary and corresponding times on the invitation, and casually said, "Later, he will also be sharing about 'Happy Physics'."

"..." He Chao hadn't paid much attention before, but now he felt that it was quite impressive. "Can people really do this?"

"I don't know. We're different," Xie Yu replied.

The entertainment area was mainly divided into an arcade and a cinema.

The cinema was packed, with a long queue just to get in and check tickets.

Xie Yu chose a movie solely based on its proximity in time and whether or not it was a horror film. Everything else was irrelevant. In the end, he settled on a sci-fi mind-bender that was about to start in ten minutes.

He had noticed this about Xie Yu before, when they were shopping at the mall. Xie Yu was not indecisive at all. If he saw something he wanted, he would just grab it with a clear purpose. "Let's do this?" he would ask.

Xie Yu didn't really care which movie they watched. "We can watch something else if you want," he said.

"This one's fine," said He Chao. "They're all pretty much the same anyway." He knew that his attention would likely be elsewhere during the movie.

They had bought their tickets late, so all the good seats had already been taken. They were left with only the back rows.

Looking from the back, all they could see were the backs of people's heads in front of them.

After sitting down, Xie Yu immediately reached over to He Chao's side, palm facing up, with the red string still hanging from his wrist, especially eye-catching: "Hold hands, brother."

He Chao noticed that Xie Yu always liked to find something to tease him when he was in a good mood.

The surroundings were very noisy, with chatter all around.

It wasn't until all the lights in the cinema dimmed and the movie was about to start that the people around quieted down a bit.

The plot was quite cliché and lacked originality, belonging to the type where the promotional ad that was a hundred times better than the actual movie, relying on the two lead actors and special effects to carry it. The audience couldn't stay quiet for half an hour, and when they found the content uninteresting, they started chatting again.

The movie's sound effects were exaggerated, suddenly rising and then slowly falling.

The light from the screen illuminated the surroundings a bit.

In the dim light, Xie Yu stared at He Chao for a while, his fingers twitching slightly as he called out, "Brother Chao."

He Chao turned his head to look at him.

Xie Yu was huddled in his seat, dressed in black, his whole person shrouded in darkness, but his eyes were still bright, fixed on He Chao with intensity. "Last time you asked me what kind of person you looked like," he said.

On the big screen, the images kept changing, and the sound effects of the movie distracted He Chao's attention for a moment, causing him to pause and try to remember which "last time" Xie Yu was referring to.

"Now I'm not someone else," Xie Yu continued, pausing for a moment before saying, "I'll answer that question again. I'll say it once, if you can't hear it, tough luck."

He Chao instinctively held his breath.

And then he heard Xie Yu say, "Someone I like."