Jiang Cheng wandered back to the rented room alone. He didn't let Gu Fei send him back. If they kept up the lingering, they probably wouldn't know when to stop, and the two of them might end up sending each other back and forth between the rented room and Gu Fei's shop like ten or eight times.

The rented room side was also covered in red trash, the hallway was like a red carpet, Jiang Cheng walked upstairs smelling the smell of gunpowder.

Although this was an old building, the heating miraculously burned very full, you could feel the heat wave as soon as you entered the room.

He changed into comfortable clothes and sat down at the desk to review.

First do the No. 4 High test papers, then various contents sent by Pan Zhi and First High School materials.

In others' eyes, he probably looked like a tireless machine. A top student has strong self-control, learning ability and memory, and studies with a plan.

But it was still tiring. As he wrote, his pen would stop, and as he recited, his mind would get stuck.

Since he was little, he had been holding his breath, he had to do it, he had to do well, simply wanting a kind of recognition, but now, the reasons that drove him to work so hard had become complicated.

He had no way out now.

Neither did Gu Fei.

In the evening, Gu Fei called and told him to come eat dumplings. If it wasn't Gu Fei's special ringtone which was stimulating to him, he probably wouldn't have reacted at all while absorbed in studying.

The dumplings were made by Li Yan and the others. They said they put money in ten of the dumplings, and whoever happened to eat one would have their wish come true.

There were too many to fit on the plate, so Gu Fei just put a few directly into each of their bowls. In the end, everyone got a coin, and Gu Miao was so surprised biting into the money that she froze for a good while, while Jiang Cheng got money in all five of the dumplings in his bowl.  

"Ah!" When Jiang Cheng bit into the money for the fifth time, he glanced at Gu Fei.

"Da Fei," Li Yan laughed delightedly, "You definitely rigged it!"

"Of course he rigged it," Liu Fan tossed the coin in his hand and said with a smile, "If he didn't put all ten in Jiang Cheng's, that's already showing brotherly affection."

"You guys aren't taking the gaokao," Gu Fei said.

"At least leave two for yourself," Luo Yu said. "We aren't taking the gaokao, but you are."

Gu Fei just smiled and didn't say anything.

For Jiang Cheng, the main event of the new year was over after eating the dumplings. He spent the next few days of vacation holed up in his room without going out much.

Every other day, Gu Fei would take him out for a walk, get some fresh air, and quiz him on some knowledge points along the way.

Jiang Cheng was a little surprised to find that Gu Fei hadn't specifically memorized any content, but after quizzing him a few times, he didn't need to check the answer to know if Jiang Cheng's response was right or wrong.

"Not bad," Jiang Cheng said. "You remembered it all?"

"No," Gu Fei smiled. "How could I, I just remember the general idea. I wouldn't be able to say it, but I know if what you said is right or wrong."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng glanced at him.

Although he didn't know how much meaning it had, he still slowly increased the time for Gu Fei to quiz him. One reason was that the closer they got, the more he needed to recite more, and the fresher the memory the better. The second reason was that he still felt a little unwilling to concede.  

He wouldn't say it directly, but handling both considerations this way was pretty good, and Gu Fei wouldn't notice.

The vacation passed steadily following this rhythm, connecting seamlessly with the advanced semester that started late compared to Pan Zhi's side which started class on the fourth day of the new year. No. 4 High School still gave a week of vacation.

"Classmates! It's February! If you don't work hard in February, don't work hard in March, don't work hard in April, don't work hard in May..." Old Xu stood at the podium saying this. He probably didn't think it through before opening his mouth, and after counting so many months his mouth was practically parched. He coughed a couple times before continuing, "Don't work hard in June, you'll just regret it bitterly! From now on you have no vacation, you can't slack off either..."

Valentine's Day was the day after tomorrow. That morning, Wang Xu had asked what to give Yi Jing for Valentine's Day, and Jiang Cheng suddenly realized, ah, Valentine's Day is almost here!

He really had been reviewing with his brain wrung dry, no time to make a gift for Gu Fei anymore, but he still wanted to give Gu Fei something. What should he give?

"Stop thinking about Valentine's Day!" Old Xu raised his voice. "Don't think I don't know what you guys have on your minds!"  

Jiang Cheng was startled in his heart, unconsciously raising his eyebrows and glancing at Old Xu.

Gu Fei laughed beside him, "Did Old Xu call you out?"

Jiang Cheng just smiled without responding.

"We can just light a couple fireworks when we take a walk," Gu Fei said softly. "Extraordinary times, don't overthink it."

"There are still fireworks? Didn't you let Er Miao play with them all?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Are you dumb?" Gu Fei said. "They're still available to buy on the streets. I bought some."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng laughed and sighed. "Then that's fine. It's only one year, we'll celebrate properly next year."

"Mm," Gu Fei nodded.

"Mock exam next month," Old Xu was still earnestly speaking at the podium. "Buckle down, let me see what you can do!"

The classroom was unusually quiet without the usual buzz, probably because they had partied too wildly over the new year and didn't rest well. Everyone was slumped over their desks catching up on sleep.

The mock exam is next month already...

"Look! The countdown! You see it?" Old Xu continued raising his voice, pointing to the countdown paper above the blackboard. "Go for it classmates!"

Jiang Cheng leaned back in his chair. There were still days until the gaokao.  

He knew there wasn't much time left, but three months still sounded longer than days when he heard it. When he suddenly saw these three thin numbers, his heart still tightened.

Days.

The time he and Gu Fei spent together from morning to night, that was just days plus... His mind suddenly became chaotic, unexpectedly unable to calculate such a simple answer.

But no matter what numbers, compared to infinity, they seemed too insignificant.