After that night, Jiang Cheng felt that his mind suddenly became calm like water.

He did not inquire about Li Hui's situation, but in a steel factory like this, any news spreads efficiently and comprehensively.

Gu Fei's small shop, the community hospital next door, they are all information transfer stations.

The initial news was that the eldest son of the Li family was beaten to death with his whole family. Later someone denied it, saying no, the child did not die. Then someone else corrected that Li Hui had died.

The cause of death varied, beaten to death by debt collectors, beaten to death by his wife's lover, these two were the mainstream.

But in less than a week, the truth surfaced.  

He didn't die. Li Hui was beaten into a vegetative state and the assailant had not been caught yet.

Jiang Cheng did not know all these speculations comprehensively. Gu Fei would not tell him, he only caught a few ears when he was in the shop, and every time they saw him, the sources of information would consciously avoid the topic.

For Jiang Cheng, no matter what kind of news, it was no longer important. This person who was closely related to him by blood, would have no more interactions with him in the days to come.

He changed the phone number that he had been using for a long time, and the people that disappeared from his life along with this number were not just Li Hui.

As the temperature dropped day by day, the leaves on the trees grew lesser day by day. On the icy dry days that made people's noses itchy and unable to control drowsiness, the atmosphere that the high school seniors of No. 4 High should have before the college entrance exam finally came.

In the corridors, classrooms, there were all kinds of motivational slogans, red characters on black background, black characters on white background, with huge exclamation marks, every time Jiang Cheng saw them, he couldn't help but shout along in his heart, in addition, there were all kinds of reminders that time was running out.

There's no time left, classmates!

The college entrance exam is coming!

Ah! It's just ahead!

...It's kind of scary.

Most of the time, time passed quite slowly, only when looking back, would one be surprised "Oh it's been so long already."

Jiang Cheng leaned half-lying on the desk, twirling a pen in his hand, looking at the math teacher from beside Zhou Jing's ears that were unusually upright today for some reason.

For the people in this classroom at this moment, time passed very slowly. Maybe at this time next year, when they look back, they will find out that the year of high school passed swiftly, so fast that it left almost no memory.

Jiang Cheng did not feel time passing slowly at this moment, he felt that time passed too fast, completely insufficient.

Not enough time to review.

Not enough time to do exercises.

Not enough time to listen in class.

Not enough time to go for a walk with his boyfriend.

Not enough time to see new photos taken by his boyfriend.

Not enough time to see...his young sis-in-law's new hairstyle.

...

At this time next year, no, no matter when, next year, the year after, five years later, ten years later, when he looks back, the memories of this year will always be full and abundant.

"You changed the green rabbit head avatar, didn't Gu Miao get anxious with you?" After class, Jiang Cheng asked while tidying up the notes from the previous class.

Gu Fei's avatar was changed from a green rabbit to Gu Miao's photo.

The little girl's new hairstyle, after her hair grew longer, Li Yan gave her a short bob cut, her bangs were thousands of miles away from her eyebrows. In the photo, she looked quite arrogant with one raised eyebrow and had a lot of personality.

"It's fine, she was the one who changed it for me," Gu Fei said, "Going to the bathroom?

"Ah, I..." Jiang Cheng hesitated.

"You don't know right?" Gu Fei sighed and stood up, "Let's go pee."

"I was going to say it doesn't seem like I need to go," Jiang Cheng tutted and stood up as well, "Just directly say you want me to accompany you to the bathroom, why make it so complicated."

"You don't need to accompany me," Gu Fei said immediately, "Really, don't need to accompany me, just go back to class."

Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes.

"Please go back to class," Gu Fei said, "Let me go to the bathroom alone, let me bravely head towards the bathroom all alone."

"You're sick," Jiang Cheng followed him downstairs, "I'm a little hungry, let's go buy some food at the school store later? Zhou Jing said they started selling Guandong stew."

"Okay." Gu Fei nodded.

"I think this is a great thing about No. 4 High," Jiang Cheng swallowed, "At our previous school the school store would get cancelled after half a semester, the cafeteria wouldn't sell anything outside meal times, if you didn't bring your own food, you'd starve to death before meal time."

"The school store here earns quite a lot every month," Gu Fei said with a smile, "Much more than my family's store."

"Your family's store only doesn't earn much because no one has time to manage it properly," Jiang Cheng sighed, "The first time I went was because it looked cleaner than other stores."

"If you hadn't come to my place, you would have had to lie on the ground for at least another hour that day." Gu Fei said.

"Bullshit." Jiang Cheng answered simply.

"Really, I wanted to get you inside but Liu Fan and the others were against it," Gu Fei smiled, "This area is chaotic, many people are afraid of trouble."

"Then why did you insist on getting me inside?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"You helped Gu Miao before," Gu Fei said, "And in front of Gu Miao, I couldn't just let her watch her brother ignore someone in mortal danger."

"I just fainted for a bit, I wasn't dying!" Jiang Cheng corrected him.

"The main reason is actually you're good-looking," Gu Fei gave him a thumbs up, "So handsome."

Jiang Cheng tutted.

The Guandong stew from the school store tasted pretty good, it's just that by the time it was carried from the store to the classroom, it was mostly cold already.

Jiang Cheng was now able to fit in with the locals and eat while listening in class. He was even a little envious of the class next door that had someone who brought a thermos into the classroom to cook food and eat... Of course, the guy with the cup made a self-criticism in front of the whole school, reportedly because he was reported by classmates who couldn't stand not having hot food to eat during class.

"Jiang Cheng!" Old Lu bellowed from the podium.

Jiang Cheng was just lowering his head to spear the last fish ball and send it into his mouth. At Old Lu's yell, his hand shook and the fish ball fell to the ground along with the bamboo stick.

"Ah..." He let out a soft cry of anguish. He was already feeling extremely upset having only one fish ball left when he wasn't full or satisfied yet, and now he didn't even get to eat this last one.

He really wanted to secretly pick it up, rinse it in the soup and eat it.

"I'm not scolding you! I know you're tired from reviewing now, I won't say anything if you want to sneak some food during class!" Old Lu pointed at him, "But aren't you eating a little too slowly! Who'd think you ordered a full table banquet! Come up here! Translate this paragraph!"

Jiang Cheng carefully placed the paper bowl into the desk drawer, there was still some soup inside that he could drink later to relieve his craving.

Walking up to the podium, he had just picked up a piece of chalk when Old Lu already handed over the half-used piece in his own hand: "Use this! Don't bother breaking a new piece! I've sharpened this for you!"

"...Oh." Jiang Cheng took the chalk and started writing the translation exercise on the blackboard.