Xie Yu was awakened by a noisy static sound.

It was already 6 o'clock in the morning, and Mad Dog had already started shouting on the broadcast: "Morning is when we have the most energy. We cannot be lazy. Everyone, wake up and embrace the new day and new challenges."

"Classmates, I believe you are ready!"

Before Mad Dog could finish his two sentences, the corridor had already become lively: "Ready my ass!"

"This is harming the flowers of our motherland!"

"Bro, don't stop me. I'm going to climb up and cut the wires. I must dismantle this damn broadcast today. If it exists I won't be able to, only when it's gone can I live, I can't go on like this anymore."

Upon hearing this, he closed his eyes and took a moment to reach for the alarm clock on the bedside table, even though he knew he would most likely just end up throwing it across the room.

However, as he moved his fingers, he felt a sharp pain throughout his body.

Xie Yu half-opened his eyes to see He Chao's profile. The single bed was a bit cramped for two people, so they had to sleep on their sides to make more room.

He Chao was still asleep, but his tossing and turning had caused his hand to unconsciously tighten around Xie Yu's waist.

Xie Yu's gaze shifted down to He Chao's neck, where he noticed a few faint red marks. Memories of the previous night slowly began to resurface.

......

Those marks were from him.

Xie Yu buried his head in the pillow and closed his eyes once again, as the scenes from last night played back in his mind like a movie.

He didn't really care who was on top or bottom. His personality was naturally cold. If it wasn't for He Chao, if it wasn't for this person, he probably wouldn't even have had such thoughts.

Plus, he had drunk too much last night. Although his mind was clear, he still couldn't control himself and was taken care of by He Chao.

When the Mad Dog started talking about the second topic, He Chao finally woke up, scratched his hair, and whispered, "Good morning, what time is it?"

Xie Yu wanted to say "Don't make noise, check for yourself," but his throat was dry and his words came out hoarse.

He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he didn't say anything. He lifted the covers and got out of bed, his bare feet touching the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground, he gasped.

He Chao also knew that he had been a bit too rough last night, but Xie Yu had been tough on the bed at first, constantly provoking him: "Can you do it or not?"

When He Chao really went harder on him, he couldn't take it anymore. He tightened up, unable to bear the pain, and reluctantly begged for mercy.

Thinking of this, He Chao sat up and asked, "Still hurts?"

Xie Yu was getting annoyed.

He bent down to pick up the clothes on the ground. The hangover headache and discomfort swept over him. "What do you think."

He Chao said, "Then next time..."

"There won't be a next time."

Xie Yu opened the door and said, "Your technique is too poor."

Neither of them had much experience. He Chao's movements were reckless and inexperienced, and he couldn't control his strength. It couldn't be called technique.

But it was more about the psychological pleasure than the physical.

This person was his.

Completely and without reservation.

Every part of his body belonged to him.

Xie Yu had planned to freshen up and go to the classroom for the morning self-study, but he had overestimated his physical fitness.

After sleeping in until noon, he woke up during lunch break.

When He Chao pushed open the door with his lunch box, the person was still in bed and snuggled under the covers.

"Get up and eat something before going back to sleep," He Chao placed the lunch box on the table and walked over to the bed, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Be a good boy."

In response, Xie Yu threw a pillow at him.

"..."

After throwing the pillow, Xie Yu sat up, the blanket sliding down to his waist. The clothes he was wearing were a bit disheveled, with the collar crooked.

He Chao glanced at him but didn't dare to look again.

Xie Yu got out of bed and bent down to grab two pieces of clean clothes from the wardrobe.

Leaning against the door of the bathroom, He Chao listened to the sound of running water inside and said intermittently, "Several people were late this morning. Old Tang dragged them out into the hallway one by one and these little brats all came up with excuses..."

Some of those who had stayed up late drinking and talking about life on the rooftop last night had a hard time getting out of bed. Six or seven of them stood in a row outside the classroom, looking guilty.

Although Old Tang had a good temper, he had never seen such a situation where there was a queue of late people. "What's going on with you guys? What were you doing last night?" he asked from the front of the line to the back.

Ding Lianghua stuttered for a long time before finally saying, "...I'm sorry, teacher. I overslept."

Old Tang went through each person one by one.

They all had to come up with an excuse that wasn't too repetitive. The further back he went, the more it tested their imagination.

Halfway through walking, their pants suddenly ripped - they could even find an excuse like this.

"Teacher, when I just reached the teaching building, I suddenly heard a sound of fabric tearing from below...At that moment, I felt like time had stopped, and my world turned from color to black and white."

He sounded just like He Chao.

Xie Yu pressed the switch for the shower and casually commented, "Is his brain broken."

The sound of running water gradually faded away.

"How do you feel?" He Chao asked again. "...Otherwise, don't go this afternoon. Take a nap, and I'll go ask for leave from Old Tang."

Although he still didn't feel very comfortable, it wasn't to the extent that He Chao was worried about.

Xie Yu put on his clothes, opened the door and said, "I'm not disabled."

"Is my technique really that bad?" He Chao took two steps to the side, still concerned about the topic from earlier. "Weren't you enjoying yourself and calling out."

"..."

Xie Yu really wanted to say that it hurt like hell.

After finishing their meal and checking the time, Xie Yu and He Chao were on their way back to the classroom when they ran into Wan Da, who was heading out.

"Brother Yu, you finally made it? I shouldn't have bought alcohol. I almost didn't get out of bed this morning. Luckily, my roommate kicked me off the bed..."

After Wan Da finished speaking, he felt that something was off and took a few more glances. He vaguely saw a red mark near Xie Yu's neck, close to his collar.

Xie Yu's skin was already fair, and up close, one could see the faint blue veins lurking beneath his skin.

That small red mark looked particularly conspicuous.

"By the way," Xie Yu walked by, and only then did Wan Da slap his forehead and remember something, "Old Tang came by earlier and asked you to go to his office to see him."

Since this semester, Xie Yu has rarely skipped classes and has not caused any more fights or trouble, which has made things much easier than before.

The teachers of various subjects also often discuss these two "prominent figures."

"That He Chao did pretty well on the final exam last semester," a female teacher finished grading papers, leaned her chair back, and planned to take a nap. She muttered to herself, "Old Wu is a good teacher, getting a score of forty-nine is pretty good. I remember he used to always score ten or twenty points..."

During the lunch break, there were not many students in the teachers' office, and a few teachers chatted with each other.

Old Tang didn't participate in the discussion, busy organizing the things in front of him. It wasn't until Xie Yu knocked on the door that he looked up and said, "You're here? Sit down."

Xie Yu thought that Old Tang was probably going to talk to him about skipping class that morning. Just as he was about to say "I'll pay attention next time," he saw Old Tang push the thick stack of materials in his hand towards him.

The top sheet of A4 paper was labeled "Summary and Analysis of Exam Points."

It was all very basic stuff, starting from middle school knowledge points. The first line was "The Expression of Argumentative Writing," with key points highlighted in red font.

Xie Yu was stunned and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"These are what I organized during my free time over the holidays. They're not quite perfect yet. You can go back and look at them with He Chao, or make another copy."

Old Tang unscrewed the cap of the flask and poured out the goji berry tea. "Your problem now is that you don't memorize enough. You need to read and memorize more of these things so that you know which direction to answer the questions when you do them..."

He said it was "organized in his spare time," but it was clear that he had spent a lot of time organizing these materials.

Then Old Tang carefully considered and said, "With your current grades, the college entrance exam is still a bit risky."

Xie Yu had no idea what he was talking about: "..."

"It's okay if you don't understand, but you still need to try to do the homework that the teachers assign after class," Old Tang sighed and continued, "And don't always read comic books in class."

During this period of time since the start of the school year, although Xie Yu had stopped pretending to be a poor student, he still gave the impression of not being serious and having a worrying future.

The difficulty level of classes at No. 2 was not high, and the homework assigned was too simple. Neither he nor He Chao bothered to write much. They could just glance at the questions and know the answers, so there was no need to put much thought into them. It was better to do more challenging problems instead.

During class, he only lifted his head to listen when something interesting was being discussed. The rest of the time, he was looking at the competition questions he had bought.

It had only been half a month since the start of the semester, and they hadn't even taken any exams yet. Xie Yu suddenly realized how heavy the burden of being a "learning loser" was, and how difficult it was to shake it off.

Xie Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say, Teacher, it's not me, I'm not like that.

"Oh, and there's this too." Old Tang took a few sips of tea, put down his cup, and took out a file folder from his drawer.

Inside the folder were their previous exam papers, both his and He Chao's.

He and He Chao never corrected their own mistakes, but now every wrong question is marked by Old Tang with a red pen. Not only are the correct answers written, but even the problem-solving methods and simple templates are posted on the side with sticky notes.

Xie Yu was completely speechless.

He felt his reputation as a 'learning loser' was so heavy it could smash him to pieces.

Xie Yu had never encountered a teacher like Old Tang before.

When he was in Blackwater Street, because of his outstanding grades, the homeroom teacher often asked him to participate in some competitions, but other than that, there was no other interaction. After coming to No. 2 High, the teachers of each subject only sought peace and quiet, and it was enough to avoid trouble.

Looking at these documents, Xie Yu finally understood what He Chao meant when he said, "I'm afraid of scaring them." This homeroom teacher of Class 3 really saw him and He Chao as students who needed help.

And there's also the class committee representative who worried about their grades on a daily basis.

After the final exams, He Chao only improved by a dozen points, but the students in Class 3 were still happy in their group chat, even though they had scored better than him.

......

The documents in his hand suddenly became heavier and heavier.

Old Tang looked at the time and said, "Alright, go back to class."

As Xie Yu was carrying the stack of documents back to class, Class 3 was in chaos. The school was organizing some sports activities, and Luo Wenqiang was holding a list and shouting, "Anyone else? Who else wants to participate?"

He Chao was sitting in the back, making a fuss. When he saw Xie Yu, he stopped talking.

Xie Yu threw the documents directly onto the table, and He Chao reached out and flipped through two pages. "What did Old Tang want to talk to you about? What the hell is this?"

"Documents," Xie Yu said, then secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hesitated for a moment before asking, "You...what's your plan? Let me see."

"What?"

Xie Yu said, "Steady improvement plan."

Meanwhile, Luo Wenqiang was still on stage asking if anyone wanted to participate.

Someone who had just come back from outside heard this and asked, "What activity?"

Luo Wenqiang said, "Basketball competition! Are you excited? Can you feel the passion of hot-blooded men?"

"But I heard it was cancelled."

"Wan Da said that Mad Dog and the higher-ups applied for it several times, and finally got it approved..."

Last year's basketball competition almost turned into a fight towards the end. Mad Dog publicly criticized the perpetrators in front of the whole school for this matter, and scolded them quite harshly. He threatened to cut off the competition and make them all go play shuttlecock in the future.

However, it was also Mad Dog who privately pleaded with the school leaders to bring back the basketball competition.

As the bell rang for class, they were still reluctant to give up the topic of basketball. When Old Wu walked in, he scolded them, "Are you having a meeting? Didn't you hear the bell for class?"

During the first class in the afternoon, Old Wu taught a few new concepts and had them do some practice exercises on the spot to reinforce their understanding.

As the classroom emptied out and only a few students were left gathering their stationery, Xiu Zheng's pencil accidentally hit the desk, making a slight noise. A few classmates whispered to each other with their heads close together.

Xie Yu held his pen tightly, with the competition exercises book that all the teachers mistook for a comic still on his desk.

He felt a bit hopeless inside.

He Chao was lying on his desk, not asleep, and reached out to slowly take the pen from Xie Yu's hand. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

Suddenly, Xie Yu's palm was empty. He closed the competition exercises book and thought to himself, what else could he possibly think, it was just that the burden of being a learning loser was too heavy.

"I'm considering whether or not to give others a chance to live."