Jiang Cheng was sleepy all morning, listening to the teacher's lecture with his ears. The teaching quality of teachers at No. 4 High was at the same level as old monks chanting scriptures—except for Old Lu, who would wake the students up by scolding them from time to time. Other teachers including Old Xu continued lecturing in a monotonous tone without any fluctuations, and students would fall asleep as the lecture went on.

In this kind of weather as autumn was beginning and brought a slight chill that made people very comfortable, probably only Jiang Cheng and Yi Jing could stay awake in class without chitchatting.

Oh no, as Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei burying his head taking notes, there was also Gu Fei.

And there was...Wang Xu, who could accurately find Yi Jing's back among ten thousand other students.

After school at noon, Jiang Cheng instantly slumped over his desk: "Wake me up in 20 minutes."

"Okay," Gu Fei replied, closing his notebook.

"Hey Da Fei, Da Fei," Zhou Jing tidied up his things and turned his head, "Da...."

Gu Fei looked at him.

"You're wearing Jiang Cheng's clothes right?" Zhou Jing asked.  

Jiang Cheng lifted his head, feeling like "I need to shut this guy up immediately."

"No," Gu Fei said.

"No?" Zhou Jing hesitated, "I think I saw him wear it last week."

"Same style," Gu Fei said.  

"...Oh," Zhou Jing hesitated, "It doesn't look new though, I haven't seen you wear it before..."

"Get lost," Gu Fei simply cut him off.

Zhou Jing sighed and stood up: "Can't even have a normal chat, unbelievable."

Jiang Cheng felt like he had left this world during class, with the teacher's voice drifting back as if from beyond the five elements. Now class was over, he could take a nice nap with peace of mind. But he couldn't fall asleep again.

But he persevered and kept his eyes closed until Gu Fei said "20 minutes" next to him. Only then did he open his eyes and wiped the tears that had welled up from being sleepy yet unable to fall asleep.  

"Didn't fall asleep?" Gu Fei asked.

"Ah," Jiang Cheng sighed, "So sleepy I'm nearly blind."

"Then why are you still lying down, I see your eyelids fluttering faster than wings," Gu Fei smiled and pushed his notebook in front of him, "See if this is okay? If not go ask the teacher."

Jiang Cheng flipped open the notebook and felt a ray of light.

He had started taking notes since middle school, and it had been years, but this was the first time he saw such neat and tidy handwriting in his own notebook.

As a failing student, Gu Fei didn't differentiate importance when taking notes. He wrote down everything the teacher wrote on the blackboard and repeated. When reviewing he would pick out the key points again.

But there was one thing Jiang Cheng greatly admired—not only did Gu Fei have good handwriting, he wrote quickly too. Taking notes so indiscriminately was no easy feat.  

"You're pretty amazing," Jiang Cheng said, "I have to use abbreviations and symbols in my notes, or I can't keep up."

"Of course," Gu Fei said, "I just write, I don't think."

"You've never been so hardworking in class before right, scum?" Jiang Cheng stood up and stretched lazily.  

"Yeah," Gu Fei also stood up and they walked out together, "Being with a top student I get to experience a lot of magical things."

"Then..." Jiang Cheng glanced at him, "Is it tiring? Annoying to take notes?"

"It's alright," Gu Fei said.

Jiang Cheng didn't say anything more related to classes and reviewing, but he could feel Gu Fei was different from other failing students. Even if some students just listened without paying attention and only took some notes, they would still find it annoying after a morning. Pan Zhi that certified failing student for example.

Let alone making Pan Zhi take notes like Gu Fei for a whole morning, even one class, he could fall asleep on his pen rest.

Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng felt extremely frustrated and pained.  

Watching Gu Fei bury his hopes like this and walk down the steel factory worker's path, being unable to do anything but stand by and feel terrible.

Whenever he carefully tasted Gu Fei's helplessness, his mood would slide down to the bottom.

"What to eat for lunch?" Gu Fei asked.

Jiang Cheng gathered back his wandering thoughts and pondered for at least two minutes before answering: "Don't know."

"So vexing," Gu Fei sighed.

"I just feel hungry but don't know what I want to eat," Jiang Cheng rubbed his stomach, "Let's go eat something more upscale."

"The pizza place across?" Gu Fei laughed.

"No way," Jiang Cheng tutted, "Wang Er Xian Bing is way better than that."  

After discussing for a while, they went to eat lamb noodle soup at the entrance of Gu Miao Elementary, where Gu Fei used to attend.

Although it was just lamb noodle soup, it looked quite upscale from its appearance and price, meeting Jiang Cheng's requirement.

Jiang Cheng had walked by this lamb noodle place many times, and always thought it was a bar. He even wondered how awesome this rundown little city was to allow a bar right by an elementary school entrance, and the bar had quite an alternative name, Grey Wolf...

"Only coming here once," Jiang Cheng lamented after eating, "Too expensive, 20 bucks! Didn't you feel it when I pulled you just now?"

"Didn't feel it, I thought you were fixing my clothes," Gu Fei laughed, "Actually the price is not bad, they gave quite a lot of meat. I originally wanted to order you another portion of meat to nourish you, you've been using your brain too much lately. But seeing they gave enough meat already, I couldn't bear to add more."  

"See! You couldn't even bear to add more and you say the price is not bad?" Jiang Cheng laughed for a long time, then sighed loudly, "When I start working, I'll bring you to eat noodle soup that costs 800 bucks a bowl, with 200 bucks worth of meat on the side."

"Okay," Gu Fei nodded very seriously, "Not adding extra means you're not Chinese."  

The two laughed again.

When they returned to Gu Fei's mom's shop, his mom was sitting next to the cashier counter. She didn't look to be in great spirits. Usually when she saw them she would yell loudly, "Jiang Cheng you're here!" But today she just glanced at them and continued sitting in a daze.

"Did you eat?" Gu Fei asked her.

"I ate," she replied listlessly, "Brought Er Miao to eat wrapped rice, she insisted on eating that cold stuff, now my stomach hurts."

"Go home and rest," Gu Fei touched her forehead, "Feels like you have a slight fever?"

"No," she stood up, grabbed her bag under the table, and walked to the store entrance, "Don't worry about me, I'm more tired than you are."

"Auntie, bye," Jiang Cheng watched her leaving back, then looked at Gu Fei again, "What's up with your mom?"

"Random mental breakdowns," Gu Fei sat down and checked the cash register, "Got beat up by new boyfriend yesterday, probably in a bad mood."  

"...The one riding the motorbike we saw last time?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Don't know," Gu Fei frowned, "If there's a next time I'll go teach that punk a lesson."

Jiang Cheng didn't speak, and sat down next to him.

"No point talking about it, talked about it hundreds if not thousands of times," Gu Fei fiddled with his phone randomly, "I think she needs to see a psychologist, but of course she won't go. And here...there are no decent psychologists either."

Jiang Cheng reached out and took Gu Fei's phone away, held his hand and gently squeezed it.