Winter had already arrived in City A. Although it didn't snow much, the damp and cold air still found its way into sweaters and jackets.

Xie Yu put down his pen, still wearing the coat that He Chao had handed him earlier. He looked up at him with a half-smile and said, "...Is your standard really that low?"

Before He Chao could reply, Xie Yu called out "Brother" without any hesitation.

He had caught a cold these past few days. Last time, after playing basketball and sweating profusely, he had stripped down to just his thin undershirt and endured the cold wind blowing through the basketball court for half a class period. Now, his voice was slightly hoarse and carried a hint of casual indifference.

He Chao almost lost his soul from the nonchalant way Xie Yu called him "Brother."

Then He Chao buried half of his face in his palm, leaning against the back of the chair, and sighed softly, "Who is the one being punished in the end."

Seeing that it was getting late, Xie Yu raised his hand to massage his temples, intending to get up and leave. But before he could take two steps, his wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind. He heard He Chao say, "Don't go."

He Chao repeated, "Don't leave tonight."

Xie Yu stopped in his tracks and let him hold onto his wrist without struggling. "'Call me 'Brother' and I'll let you go.' Who was the idiot that said that?" he said.

He Chao replied, "Yeah, which idiot said that?"

"..."

The brightly lit dormitory suddenly lost power. The patrol uncle walked around downstairs with a flashlight, the beam of light occasionally flashing through the windows.

The single bed was too narrow, so Xie Yu took off his sweater and lay down, almost touching He Chao.

Xie Yu shifted uncomfortably and his leg brushed against He Chao's through the fabric. He Chao hissed and warned him in a low voice, "Don't move around."

Xie Yu opened his eyes and turned to look at him.

Occasionally, the two of them would spend the night in each other's dorm room.

When it was time for lights out, they either couldn't bring themselves to leave or didn't leave at all.

Although the school was accommodating when it came to dormitory arrangements, allowing students to switch rooms with just a written request that would be processed within three days, Xie Yu and He Chao's situation was different.

Before, they were worried about the pile of extracurricular study books and past exam papers in their dormitory, thinking to themselves that if they lived together, they might have to secretly get up in the middle of the night to do their work. Now that this concern was gone, they had also considered changing rooms.

However, when Mad Dog received their application, he was so angry that he pounded on his desk and shouted, "What do you two think you're doing? Are you planning to play games every day until midnight? I've seen through all your little tricks, let me tell you."

He Chao tried to defend himself, "Actually, we plan to study hard..."

Mad Dog threw the application directly into the trash can and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Don't even think about it. This is not up for discussion. Go back to class."

The consequence of squeezing onto a single bed to sleep was that Xie Yu woke up the next day aching all over his body. He was also annoyed by the Mad Dog's broadcast that it almost made him kick He Chao off the bed.

With too much homework to do, Wan Da and the others had already arrived in the classroom shortly after the school gate opened. They were exchanging homework while nibbling on breakfast.

While copying homework, Wan Da heard the sound of someone pushing the door open and looked up. He breathed a sigh of relief, but then his gaze stopped and he bit off a small piece of fried dough, saying, "Good morning, Brother Yu...What's wrong with your waist?"

Xie Yu was not in a good mood and felt a bit dizzy. He walked straight to the back row and said, "It's nothing."

"Hey, don't flip it," Wan Da lowered his head again and found that Liu Cunhao's math exercise book had already been flipped over by Luo Wenqiang. "I haven't finished copying yet, wait a minute."

The two of them copied quietly for a while. Wan Da was very serious, not even lifting his head when he grabbed breakfast, relying solely on touch. After a while, Luo Wenqiang couldn't take it anymore: "Can you stop eating my buns?"

Wan Da swallowed the last bite in his mouth: "I kept feeling like something was off. I clearly didn't buy beef filling..."

He Chao brought a cup and was getting water in the back. He couldn't help but laugh when he heard this conversation.

As he laughed, he remembered the bizarre scene during the previous physical education class and casually asked, "What were you guys doing surrounding those two female classmates last time?"

Wan Da's chewing stopped for a moment.

Luo Wenqiang stopped copying halfway and looked at Wan Da for two seconds: "..."

They were a famous couple in their school, no matter how they tried to explain it, the incident where they stopped two girls outside the basketball court had caused a stir. That day, a new post was created on the school forum: "Someone in Class 3 said they were honest and good brothers, who believes that?"

Almost all the comments were: "Do you know the story of 'there's no silver here'*?"

*T/N: A story where a thief declared that there's no silver hidden here. Obviously nobody would believe what he said.

- Don't believe.

- Whoever believes it is an idiot.

There were too many posts, and even with their three accounts, they couldn't keep up with the replies.

He Chao didn't take it seriously at first, but he casually asked and didn't expect the two guys' reactions to be a bit strange. After pouring hot water and handing the cup to Xie Yu, he said, "Judging by your expressions, is there something going on?"

Luo Wenqiang was so nervous that he couldn't even speak properly: "N-nothing's going on!"

Since Liu Cunhao was not present, Wan Da had a brilliant idea and directly pushed the mess onto the class representative: "Well...you see, Hao-zi participated in the student union before, and they need him for something."

Luo Wenqiang breathed a sigh of relief and secretly gave Wan Da a thumbs up: "Impressive."

It sounded reasonable enough, so He Chao didn't ask any further questions.

However, Xie Yu, holding the cup of hot water that He Chao had handed him, had half of his hand tucked into his sleeve, and the exposed half was slightly reddened from the cold. He asked, "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Can you take a bit more care?" He Chao sighed, "Don't you know you have a cold? Next time we play ball, don't you dare try to take off your jacket."

For the past few days, Xie Yu hasn't been feeling well, but he didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was just a minor cold or illness. When He Chao mentioned it, Xie Yu stood there holding a cup of hot water, stunned for a moment.

In Zhou Dalei's eyes, Xie Yu was someone who could still pick up a stick and fight with him even when he had a fever.

One time, when Xie Yu was told by Madam Gu to take some fever-reducing medicine and rest for a while, Zhou Dalei didn't know about it and came knocking on his door, saying, "Let's go fight! That little bastard from the next street..."

After they finished fighting, Zhou Dalei happily said, "Let's go, have a few drinks at my place." But when Xie Yu declined and threw away his stick, his voice was hoarse, and only then did Zhou Dalei realize something was wrong. He touched Xie Yu's forehead and it was burning up.

It wasn't a big deal.

But it was these small details that Xie Yu didn't even notice that someone else took seriously and cared about.

His hands were slowly warming up.

Unbeknownst to Xie Yu, as the temperature gradually rose, his previously irritable mood was also gradually suppressed.

In the classroom, most of the students had already arrived and were busy copying homework. Even those who weren't copying couldn't resist checking their answers and casually changing a few. When Xu Qingqing came over to collect the test papers, He Chao had just started to catch up on his homework.

"Brother Chao, you didn't write anything again," Xu Qingqing said with a hint of reproach, holding a stack of test papers and observing him. "Everyone else handed in a complete set of test papers, but you only handed in half. You might as well not hand anything in like Brother Yu...How can you choose the correct answers when you don't even have the context for the questions?"

Under He Chao's arm was a half-set of mock exam papers that he had just managed to dig out from the pile on his desk. Even if the reading comprehension section was printed on the missing half of the paper, it didn't affect his ability to answer the questions.

He Chao said, "Answering questions is all about feeling. As long as you have the right feeling, you'll be fine."

Xu Qingqing replied, "...I only have the feeling that you're done for. The English teacher won't let you off the hook."

After completing one mock exam after another, they finally arrived at the final exams.

Outside the gates of the No. 2 High School, a street full of restaurants was decorated with various banners. Taking advantage of the final exams, Top Scorer Building had once again launched a "20% off everything" promotion.

- Celebrating the end of term with joy, warmly celebrating the participation of the students from No. 2 High School in the final exams, with a 20% discount throughout the examination period!

"..."

"I will blow up Top Scorer Building one day. They're too much."

"Although exams can be painful, once they're over, we can enjoy a happy vacation," Liu Cunhao directed everyone to move the tables and chairs while saying, "Doesn't thinking about it this way make it easier?"

Xie Yu moved the tables and chairs to the left row. Just as he was dragging a chair, he saw a girl struggling to move them ahead of him.

Her desk was filled to the brim with books and materials, making it too heavy to push and slowing down the process, causing inconvenience to those behind her.

He Chao had prepared a pen and was sitting at the back of the first group, twirling it between his fingers. He turned his head and saw his little friend helping her move the tables and chairs from the front to the back.

Although his expression seemed the same on the surface, the weather was already cold, but with just one glance, he felt the temperature around him drop a few degrees.

The girl in the same class suspected that Xie Yu was annoyed by her slow movements and unhappy with her.

"Here?" Xie Yu stopped and asked.

"Yes, yes thank you."

He Chao's lips curling up slightly as he looked at Xie Yu.

After sitting down, Xie Yu realized that He Chao was staring at him. Staring was still alright, but he was even smiling. Xie Yu mouthed to him across the distance, What the hell is wrong with you?

The final exams lasted for three days.

Each exam room was tense, except for the last one.

The underachievers still gathered together, but even cheating couldn't help them get high scores. They were like hermits, with strong mental fortitude and laughing and joking around.

There were also those who cared more about their grades. They stood up and rallied the others before the invigilator arrived, saying, "Whether we have a good New Year's or not depends on this exam."

"To everyone here, although we are ranked in the bottom thirty of our grade, we cannot give up hope. If we work together and tackle each question one by one, as long as we gather our wisdom together and spread it to every corner of the classroom..."

These students who turned cheating into "spreading wisdom" may have passed notes back and forth, but in reality, their abilities were not much different from each other.

Xie Yu looked at He Chao's answer sheet. After several exams, He Chao had indeed quietly raised his scores in all subjects.