When Shang Nan arrived at the classroom, morning self-study was already over. He gasped for air, standing at the classroom door to catch his breath. Only then did he gently push open the classroom door, "Report..."

His volume was low.

The classroom was silent. Zhang Xueli had just vented her anger over yesterday's essay topic. Shang Nan's appearance was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire. She turned her head, held back for a long time, and dropped a sentence,

"Make a call, tell your mom to come to school."

In a private aristocratic high school, not every teacher feared these rich young masters and young ladies.

No. 3 Middle School had an oddly high matriculation rate. They not only taught textbook knowledge but also various etiquettes. The parents were extremely well-mannered. Except for a few parents who liked to cause trouble, most treated the teachers, and even the school security guards, politely.

Moreover, Zhang Xueli's family was not ordinary either; she had always been strict with students.

Dai Lili would arrive at school in two hours.

Shang Nan's attention was entirely on Yu Zhibai.

He discovered that the desk behind him, which had been empty for most of the day yesterday, belonged to Yu Zhibai.

Yu Zhibai sat in his seat, the whites and blacks of his eyes distinct, a faint smile on his lips. From the moment Shang Nan appeared at the classroom door, he had been gazing at Shang Nan.

Until class ended, he took the initiative to speak to Shang Nan.

"Thank you for your help yesterday; I brought you a thank-you gift." Yu Zhibai tilted his head and rummaged for something inside his desk, his eyelashes long and his pupils pitch-black.

It took quite a while for Yu Zhibai to dig something out of his schoolbag and place it into Shang Nan's palm.

Shang Nan's fingers flinched imperceptibly. He stared unblinkingly at Yu Zhibai's movements, afraid that Yu Zhibai would give him an eyeball, or perhaps a Little Paper Person? For some reason, Shang Nan felt that if it were really one of those two things, it would be perfectly reasonable.

"It's something very cheap, I hope you won't dislike it." The Paper Person's smile actually revealed a hint of shyness, like a completely different creature from the malicious and weird appearance last night.

What he gave Shang Nan were a few fruit candies, transparent wrappers twisted into beautiful fan shapes at both ends, wrapping orange-flavored candies inside.

Shang Nan accepted the candy: "Is it made of paper?" It was almost a provocation.

Yu Zhibai looked at Shang Nan with eyes that always held a shallow smile, only tilting his head very slightly to show his confusion and curiosity.

Shang Nan was unhurried. He unwrapped a candy wrapper; his fingers, white as scallions, made the cheap fruit candy shine like a crystal in his hand. He held the candy in his mouth, speaking ambiguously, "Yu Zhibai, when I saw that Little Paper Person, I guessed everything."

After he finished speaking, he looked up and smiled, "Yu Zhibai, let's be friends. I won't tell anyone your secret." Shang Nan held the candy and turned back to sit properly. He had almost forgotten that Yu Zhibai didn't know he already knew his identity. Fortunately, he reacted quickly.

The two of them going back and forth didn't feel like anything to themselves, just chatting between classmates, separated by a desk, so others couldn't see what Yu Zhibai had placed in Shang Nan's palm.

But Zhang Hu saw it clearly; he was Shang Nan's deskmate after all.

Zhang Hu leaned over and asked in a hushed voice, "Are you planning to pursue Yu Zhibai again?"

Shang Nan peeled the candy wrapper and put a candy into his mouth. Hearing Zhang Hu's question, he glanced at him, "No, I'm just making friends with him."

"Friends?" Zhang Hu savored these two words carefully and asked again, "Does that mean the kind of friends with the goal of becoming a couple?"

"..."

Zhang Hu didn't have the guts to keep questioning Shang Nan. Yu Zhibai was much more approachable. He turned his head to ask Yu Zhibai, carelessly, "You and Shang Nan are going to be friends?"

Zhang Hu's voice was loud. Even though he deliberately controlled the volume, Shang Nan could still hear every word.

Shang Nan pushed the candy in his mouth from the left side to the right, then used the tip of his tongue to push it from the right back to the left. After going back and forth several times, he finally waited for Yu Zhibai's answer.

"Yes." Yu Zhibai smiled shyly.

[14: Yu Zhibai does not trust you.]

'It's normal that he doesn't trust me, but he will eventually come to trust me.'

Shang Nan knew that for someone like Yu Zhibai, who seemed gentle and polite but was actually cold and gloomy, it was very difficult to enter his heart. The fact that he could expressionlessly press an eyeball into an eye socket showed that he was not a monster with a healthy psyche.

Monsters were gloomy, cold, twisted, and full of malice.

......

Dai Lili appeared in Zhang Xueli's office exactly two hours later. She wore light makeup and sat on the sofa with an indifferent expression. The jade bracelet on her wrist looked heavy and luxurious, as if it could snap her wrist.

"I asked you to come today because I actually wanted to discuss student Shang Nan's academic problems with you," Zhang Xueli took out a subject grade analysis sheet. "Student Shang Nan's grades in all subjects are not very good, hovering in the bottom one hundred of the grade, but I accidentally discovered that student Shang Nan is very talented in art. Would you consider letting..."

"Change major?" Dai Lili only glanced at Shang Nan's report card and said, "Teacher Zhang, do you think it is reasonable for the only heir of our Shang Family to change majors to study art?"

The expression on Zhang Xueli's face was a bit awkward, "We advise based on the student's situation. If the parent doesn't agree, it doesn't matter."

Dai Lili pressed Shang Nan's report card onto the glass coffee table with her fingers. "Let's leave it at that. Don't disturb me with this kind of thing in the future. Since the student is handed over to your school, your school is responsible for everything."

She stood up, her high heels clicking, and quickly left.

The homeroom teacher of another class, sitting not far from them, took a sip of hot tea and sighed, "Teacher Zhang, stop worrying blindly. A student like Shang Nan is just loafing around in school. Anyway, his family has more than enough money for him to spend for three lifetimes."

That might be true, but...

Dai Lili walked along the corridor toward the stairs. At the corner, she collided with a student.

Wearing high heels, she almost fell, but fortunately, the student supported her in time. After supporting her, the student immediately crouched down to pick up the scattered exercise books.

"Excuse me." Dai Lili placed her handbag aside, bent down to pick up a few exercise books that had flown further away, and handed them to the boy who kept his head down and remained silent.

The boy stacked all the homework into a pile, held it in his arms, stood up, lowered his eyes slightly to look at the lady in front of him, and said, "It's okay, you didn't mean to."

Dai Lili saw the boy's appearance clearly, and her expression instantly became cold. She bumped Yu Zhibai's shoulder, neither lightly nor heavily, and walked away on her high heels.

Yu Zhibai didn't stay there; he held the homework and went to the teachers' office.

"Report."

"Come in."

Zhang Xueli beamed at Yu Zhibai. Good grades, polite, good character, and good-looking—any teacher would like such a student.

"It's like this, I have an idea I want to discuss with you. If you agree, we'll do it. If you don't agree, I'll ask someone else." Zhang Xueli sized up Yu Zhibai's expression. Yu Zhibai usually had a good temper but spoke very little. Apart from being a subject representative, he held no other positions and rarely participated in class activities. It was hard to guess what he was actually thinking.

Yu Zhibai smiled, "Please speak."

"The college entrance examination is coming up next year. Student Shang Nan has the weakest academic performance in our class. As a classmate, can you help him? If you agree, I want to make you deskmates. But if you can't spare the time, it doesn't matter; I can tutor him myself." Zhang Xueli's tone was very good; she usually discussed things with students reasonably.

Yu Zhibai lowered his eyes and thought for a while, "Okay."

Zhang Xueli was stunned. She didn't expect Yu Zhibai to agree so quickly. But on second thought, their seats were already next to each other, so their relationship was probably quite close in daily life, making it not strange for Yu Zhibai to agree readily.

"However... how do you plan for me to help him?" Yu Zhibai seemed puzzled.

Zhang Xueli pushed up her glasses and smiled very kindly, "Student Shang Nan's enthusiasm for learning is relatively poor. You two can discuss how to make up for the lessons yourselves, but do it step by step and strike a balance between work and rest."

Yu Zhibai nodded almost imperceptibly and asked somewhat hesitantly, "Have you asked for Shang Nan's opinion?"

Indeed, there was still this question. However, presumably, Shang Nan wouldn't have any objections. Compared to his wealthy mother who washed her hands of him, she and Yu Zhibai were doing this for his own good anyway. Having thought this through, Zhang Xueli said to Yu Zhibai, "How about you help me ask him when you get back to the classroom?"

"Okay," Yu Zhibai agreed softly.

......

[14: Your mother has left.]

Shang Nan was lying on the desk. Because he was bored, he had finished all the test papers that were handed out. Now he could only play small games on his phone. Hearing the System's words, he wasn't surprised at all, "Does she love me?"

In Shang Nan's memory, when Dai Lili was not normal, she would smash things and hit people. Apart from Shang Nan, the maid and driver at home had their own jobs, so the only person she could hit was Shang Nan.

In the past, various bruises and injuries often appeared on Shang Nan's body. Shang Nan knew she didn't mean it, but at the same time, he knew that Dai Lili didn't seem to love him much. But not loving him seemed excusable, yet not loving him was also inconceivable.

Therefore, Shang Nan couldn't be bothered to think about this question in detail. Once the mission was completed, he would leave.

[14: After we leave this world, "Shang Nan" will continue everything of yours.]

Shang Nan didn't speak. He continued to yawn, physiological tears welling up and sliding down the corners of his eyes.

Beside him, Zhang Hu was dumbfounded, "Shang Nan, what's wrong with you? Did you not sleep well or, or what?"

"Didn't sleep well," Shang Nan took out a bar of chocolate that the maid had packed from his schoolbag and passed it to Zhang Hu under the desk, "Thanks for your bread yesterday."

Through simple contact, Zhang Hu felt that Shang Nan was a pretty good person, unlike some rich second generations. He took it with a relaxed expression and studied the chocolate wrapper for a while. It was full of incomprehensible letters and looked very expensive. "Thanks," Zhang Hu, who was passionate about food, said happily.

Shang Nan stared at Zhang Hu, who was happily gnawing on the chocolate, for a while, and asked seemingly casually, "Zhang Hu, do you know why Lu Yang's gang bullies Yu Zhibai?" Every class has a few particularly gossipy people, similar to know-it-alls. Intuition told Shang Nan that Zhang Hu was this kind of person.

After he asked, he saw Zhang Hu's face change, and he knew that Zhang Hu was indeed aware.

Zhang Hu frowned, "You've been pursuing Yu Zhibai for so long, and you don't know?"

Facing Zhang Hu's doubt, Shang Nan's expression changed. He lowered his head somewhat ashamedly and said, "I didn't pay attention before."

"Oh, don't blame yourself," Zhang Hu saw Shang Nan was downcast and hurriedly cast his doubts aside. In addition, he poured out everything he knew about Yu Zhibai to Shang Nan. "Lu Yang's dad used to pursue Yu Zhibai's mom. It's all grudges from the previous generation. Yu Zhibai's mom has been dead for so many years, but Lu Yang has actually been biting at Yu Zhibai for several years. In my personal opinion, he's basically just using it as a pretext for school bullying. He's jealous of Yu Zhibai. After all, Yu Zhibai is incredibly amazing, leaving him eighty streets behind."

"Besides, there are plenty of people he bullies, but later he only stared at Yu Zhibai," Zhang Hu truly sympathized with Yu Zhibai. "Yu Zhibai didn't do anything wrong, and his mother didn't do anything wrong either."

Shang Nan lay back down on the table, lowering his eyelashes. Faint white mist could be seen when he breathed.

He thought of the woman in red standing at the tunnel exit this morning. That was Yu Zhibai's mother. Blood-red dress, slender body, surrounded by mist. She was like a stroke of watercolor lighting up the world.

"Why was she there?" Shang Nan was curious, but it seemed only he saw her. What the driver saw was just the normal scene at the tunnel exit.

[14: She can't stop worrying about Yu Zhibai.]

[14: Actually, ever since Yu Zhibai became a Paper Person, his sensory system has been different from you humans. What you find uncomfortable, he doesn't find painful. What makes you ecstatic, he might not feel at all. In fact, for a Paper Person, he can't even feel pain.]

[14 comforted Shang Nan: So, you don't need to feel sad for the monster. Anyway, after the mission is completed, we will enter the next world. Being too emotional makes it easy to lose yourself.]

Shang Nan was moved and sympathetic. He remembered last night, Yu Zhibai whispering the request: "Student Shang Nan, can you help me pick up my eyeball?"

What the monster requested was likely not just helping him pick up an eyeball.

It might also be him testing Shang Nan, 'Student Shang Nan, will you... be the same as them?'