On September 2nd, Yansan High School officially started classes. Class assignments, receiving textbooks, and meeting new classmates, everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Ding Xian was assigned to the Elite Class and reported to the classroom for the first evening self-study session on the first day.

Before leaving, she was pestered by the little devil to write half an essay, which resulted in Ding Xian being late. From the school gate to the entire teaching building, it was empty, not even a shadow of a person.

The sun set, twilight descended, and the afterglow of the sunset parted the clouds, creating a cluster of colorful light, like bundles of colorful cotton floating above the school, exceptionally splendid. The colorful light shone down, as if splitting an opening in the sky.

It seemed to symbolize that her three years of high school life ahead would be a bloody path to carve out in this cage.

Ding Xian found Senior One Class Three, cautiously crouched at the back door, peeking her head in to inquire about the class situation. However, the homeroom teacher, who was passionately delivering a motivational speech from the podium, spotted her at a glance and called her out directly.

"That female student."

Ding Xian had a peculiar habit: whenever a teacher called her name in front of the entire class, she would blush. Her skin was sensitive, so her whole face would turn crimson. Moreover, she was late and caught by the teacher, so she blushed all the way to her neck, standing there like a red apple.

The homeroom teacher was Liu Jiang, in his early forties, slightly overweight, with a round head and not much hair on top. He wore wide-rimmed glasses, and when he wore a shirt, he liked to tuck the hem into his pants, cinching his round belly with a Playboy belt.

You can't judge a book by its cover. Liu Jiang had been teaching chemistry at Third High School for over a decade, always taking charge of Elite Classes. He was a notoriously strict teacher, serious and rigid, with no student daring to joke with him. He was nicknamed "Iron Plate Jiang."

Liu Jiang had only one requirement for his students: let results do the talking.

If your grades were good, he'd listen to you; if not, then no nonsense, just listen to him obediently.

It was rumored that a student from the previous year had even dropped out because of him.

Ding Xian felt nervous, hesitating whether to report first, when she heard a deep, penetrating voice from the podium: "Are you peeking around like you're visiting a zoo? Get in here, quickly."

It being the start of the new semester, Liu Jiang was unexpectedly easygoing. Ding Xian quickly sat down in the last row by the door, and her pounding heart finally settled.

Some classmates even found Liu Jiang amusing, chiming in with chuckles, making the atmosphere incredibly harmonious.

Liu Jiang was spewing saliva as he lectured these newly admitted students on ideological work.

Ding Xian rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought.

Xu Ke had told her all this information about Liu Jiang.

Xu Ke was her neighbor in Yanping Town when she was a child, and also the first student from Yanping Middle School to get into Third High School. When she received the homeroom teacher's call and class assignment results, Xu Ke happened to be at her house.

Xu Ke was in Liu Jiang's class in Senior One, and later transferred to the liberal arts stream in Senior Two. Back then Xu Ke was admitted to Yansan High School with a near-perfect score and often topped the school in various tests and exams throughout Senior One, especially in chemistry.

But Ding Xian wasn't as outstanding as Xu Ke; her score had only just cleared the threshold for the Elite Class, and her rank was probably near the bottom.

From childhood, Xu Ke had always been 'the child of another family'.

Every parent in the town probably wished they had a child like Xu Ke – handsome, gentle, and academically brilliant. Whenever Ding Xian went shopping with her mother, she would hear the aunties chattering about him.

"Xu Ke is again the top student in the city in this comprehensive exam."

"Xu Ke got into Third High School!!!!!!!!!"

"The Old Xu family must have had smoke rising from their ancestral graves this time; everyone knows the kids from our Yanping Town aren't known for their studies. Come on, let's go visit Xu Ke's grandmother and ask Xu Ke to come back on the weekend to tutor our child."

Xu Ke's parents passed away early, so he lived with his grandparents.

Perhaps because Xu Ke's grandmother had a gentle nature, Xu Ke resembled her, always speaking and acting softly and appropriately, offending no one. He genuinely helped the children in the town with their studies.

Only Ding Xian didn't seek his tutoring.

Xu Ke understood that Ding Xian was a strong-willed girl, and her study methods and daily routines had been rigidly disciplined by Mother Ding since childhood. He subtly hinted to her that she didn't need to obey her parents too much in everything; studying was her own business.

But a habit of over ten years, once formed, couldn't be changed overnight.

For example, regarding note-taking, Xu Ke had painstakingly advised her several times not to write down everything, but to select the key points.

Ding Xian couldn't change because Ye Wanxian checked her notebook every day, requiring her to record everything the teacher said in class, preferably word for word. At first, she cried and protested, refusing to write. But after Ye Wanxian dealt with her harshly a few times, she obediently wrote everything down, and after a few times, she actually got used to it.

Ding Xian looked down at her notebook, lost in thought, when she heard a "smack" – a black crossbody bag was dropped onto the seat next to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a tall figure sitting down.

'Someone was even later than her and yet so calm and composed. Be careful, Old Liu might target you,' she thought. But Liu Jiang merely glanced in their direction, a quick sweep, and continued speaking.

At the corner of his mouth—

—there was even a smile.

'What's there to be so happy about?'

Ding Xian was about to turn her head to see who this 'divine being' was.

Suddenly, someone in the front row turned around. It was a fair-skinned boy with glasses who looked somewhat familiar. When the boy with glasses saw Ding Xian, he also paused.

It was the boy with glasses she had seen at the Zhou Residence that day.

Ding Xian had a bad feeling, and sure enough, she heard the boy with glasses say—

"Siyue, you haven't been sleeping since this afternoon, have you?"

The person next to her leaned back in the chair and let out a simple nasal sound, "Hmm."

"Holy crap, I even called Aunt Zhou and told her not to forget to wake you up."

Zhou Siyue didn't speak.

"Your mom forgot?"

Again, a simple "hmm," with a sleepy nasal tone.

"Aunt Zhou is really something," the boy with glasses gave a thumbs-up and turned back around.

Li Jinhui was very forgetful; the only thing she remembered was playing mahjong with the neighbor's wife. Besides mahjong, nothing else was important. Mainly, she'd been in a car accident a few years ago, and her memory wasn't as good as before. Plus, her son never needed her to worry, so she rarely bothered with his affairs.

If Zhou Siyue hadn't been preparing for the robotics competition in September recently, staying up late every night, he wouldn't have needed to catch up on sleep in the afternoon.

He scratched his brow, his gaze casually sweeping over his deskmate, and then he noticed Ding Xian, hunched over the desk, drawing in a notebook. Her head drooped, chin resting on the tabletop, her usual ponytail tied neatly. The nape of her neck was fair and clean, slender, like a section of tender, broken lotus root.

'For some reason, I always feel like the word 'fool' is stamped on the back of her head.'

"Hey."

'What 'hey'? Don't I have a name? I don't even know you. We're just temporary deskmates for a bit, so why are you hitting on me?' Ding Xian ignored him, tilting her head to one side, determined not to respond.

Young Master Zhou gave a self-deprecating smile, shook his head, and thought, 'Alright then.'

Liu Jiang grew more animated with each word, ignoring the drowsy students below, excited like a sprinkler, spewing saliva everywhere.

"Once the arrow is shot, there's no turning back. Now that you've stepped through this door, you are born of this place, and 'die' as its spirit. I hope you can make your 'death' dignified! From this moment on, you must tighten your skin, exert as much strength as you have, and the distance the arrow flies depends on how much effort you put in these three years. Even if the bowstring breaks, you must never slacken!"

Ding Xian, hunched over her desk, thought the words were excellent, and the metaphor perfectly apt; the teachers in Yanping never said such things. So, she took out her pen and started writing them down, intending to stick them on her desk to motivate herself. Zhou Siyue, who had been observing with a cold eye, suddenly let out a sarcastic chuckle, glancing at her notebook with disdain: "You're writing down this kind of toxic life advice? How starved for education is your life?"

Ding Xian had just finished writing the character for 'bow' when she heard the sarcastic remark. She quickly covered her notebook tightly with both hands and turned to glare at him.

Liu Jiang spoke with eloquence, and the students below listened with excitement, their eyes glowing green as if they could already see an admission letter from Tsinghua University placed on their desks.

The two in the back row exchanged glances, their gazes clashing with a crackle in the air.

Young Master Zhou looked nothing like he was attending class, leaning casually in his chair, a copy of 'Man and Nature' spread open on his desk, which he was reading with great interest. His eyebrows and eyes curved slightly upwards, the corners of his eyes like feathers just cut, now resembling a pair of scissors, sharp and biting.

Yet, that naturally sharp-tongued face was also incredibly handsome. He had cut his hair short, revealing clean, defined features and soft contours. Compared to the messy 'chicken's nest' hair he had at home that day, a slightly tidied Zhou Siyue was a bit too eye-catching.

Ding Xian stared coldly at that tempting face, enunciating each word: "My name is Ding Xian."

Zhou Siyue lowered his head, flipping through 'Man and Nature', not even lifting his eyelids. He picked at his ear, letting out a lazy "hmm," unsure if he had remembered.

Ding Xian said, "Don't hit on me."

'I can resist temptation.'

This time, the young master looked up, a look of disbelief on his face, his eyebrows almost standing on end.

"I... hit on you?"

Ding Xian said solemnly, "Yes. Tomorrow, the old man will rearrange the seats. At most, we're just temporary deskmates."

The young master's eyebrows nearly flew off his face.

"...temporary... deskmates?"

Ding Xian nodded, thinking she hadn't said anything wrong at all.

Meanwhile, on the podium, Liu Jiang delivered a concluding remark: "Here's the deal: there'll be a diagnostic test in a month. You have one month to quickly review your old knowledge. Seats will remain as they are for now, and I'll rearrange them based on your scores after a month. All right, that's about it for today. Boarding students, gather at my office. Day students, be careful on your way home. Class dismissed."

'Hey, hey, hey, teacher, aren't you being too casual?'

'He truly is a famous teacher; he even timed his talk perfectly. No sooner had his voice fallen than the crisp, sharp dismissal bell rang, as if on cue—'

Students swarmed out of the classroom in a rush.

Ding Xian remained in her seat, staring blankly, even forgetting to pack her things.

The boy with glasses went to Liu Jiang for the class schedule. Zhou Siyue leaned against a desk, waiting. With his height of 1.85 meters, his thighs could almost clear the tabletop. Half his hip rested on the edge of the desk, hands in his pockets, a black bag slung across his body. He looked down at the tips of his shoes, his short fringe falling over his forehead.

The boy with glasses quickly returned. "Let's go, Siyue."

Zhou Siyue stood up and had just taken a step when he suddenly stopped. He patted Ding Xian's shoulder, as if teasing, "See you tomorrow, temporary deskmate."

Ding Xian was putting her pencil case into her bag.

Hearing this, she froze. She suddenly looked up, but he was already far away.

Her pencil case fell to the floor with a clatter, and several pens rolled out, scattering. They happened to roll right under Zhou Siyue's chair.

Like a suggestive beacon.