Jiang Yi sat at the dining table, still showing signs of illness. He had suffered through a rough night, but his slightly watery eyes still curved into a childlike smile as he looked at Arno. Despite his young age, Jiang Yi had built a stronger tolerance for illness than most kids due to his frequent bouts of sickness.

In the past, whenever he had a fever, his father would soften and let him watch a bit more of his favorite cartoon, Little Puppy, which made Jiang Yi feel content. But this time, having Arno by his side made it even better than being alone while sick.

However, Arno didn’t seem to think the same way. He acted as if Jiang Yi’s illness was entirely his fault, staying on high alert all day, constantly tense. Whenever Jiang Yi sneezed, Arno would immediately whip out a thermometer, anxiously stuffing it under Jiang Yi’s arm, whether the placement was right or not, more for comfort than actual practicality.

Arno couldn’t read a thermometer, and neither could Jiang Yi. The first time they measured a low temperature, the two kids huddled together on the sofa, whispering as they tried to figure out the mercury thermometer. Jiang Yi, his voice thick with congestion, mumbled that it was too hard to read. After pondering for a long time, Arno dryly concluded, “Yeah, I can’t tell either.”

In the end, it was the housekeeper who noticed them and stepped in to solve the mystery for the two little ones. For the rest of the day, Arno carried the thermometer everywhere, constantly seeking out the housekeeper. Whether the housekeeper was watering plants, trimming branches, or planning meals, Arno would interrupt, demanding a reading. Even while the housekeeper was in the bathroom, the door was pounded urgently.

The housekeeper, fearing something serious had happened, hurriedly dressed and opened the door, only to find the young master anxiously holding the thermometer, gravely asking him to check again, worried that Jiang Yi was in serious trouble.

When the housekeeper looked down, he realized that Arno had been holding the thermometer upside down.

“…”

After a long silence, the housekeeper rummaged through some drawers and handed Arno a digital thermometer.

Jiang Yi sat on the sofa, holding a cup of hot water and whispering that he didn’t want to drink anymore. Arno, serious as ever, shook his head and replied, “You have to. My grandparents always say hot water is the cure for sickness.”

Jiang Yi sniffled, disappointedly saying, “Oh, okay.”

Arno, still stern, poured out half of the hot water for him. Immediately, Jiang Yi brightened up again, thanking Arno cheerfully. Arno, keeping a straight face, remained silent.

Within a few days, Jiang Yi’s condition improved. He felt like he could run around again, though in Arno’s eyes, his movements were still as sluggish as a little snail. But Arno didn’t mind the snail pace—it meant Jiang Yi was always within his sight.

Due to his illness, Jiang Yi wasn’t allowed to sit in air conditioning for too long, but the heat in July was unbearable. The housekeeper moved a large fan into the bedroom instead. Jiang Yi liked the fan, which swayed back and forth, and Arno liked it too—because it meant they could sit in front of it together, close and snug.

Jiang Yi thought Arno was like a furnace. While he loved it in winter, summer was different. They’d often end up sweating after sitting too close.

But this simple routine was about to change. One day, Jiang Yi overheard his father say that Arno might return to England in July and stay there for some time. When Jiang Yi heard the news, he was stunned. It took him a while to process it, and then he simply nodded, biting down on his spoon, feeling a bit dejected.

After a moment of sadness, Jiang Yi thought that perhaps he should be happy for Arno. After all, Arno was born and raised in England, and his running away was partly to get back there. Now that he could return, Arno must be excited.

Jiang Yi then asked his father to take him shopping so he could carefully pick out a farewell gift for Arno—a pair of waterproof shoes. After all, the first time they met, Arno’s shoes had squelched with water. Jiang Yi thought Arno needed shoes that wouldn’t leak.

While Jiang Yi was busy selecting the perfect farewell gift, Arno’s world was in chaos. Lu Ting, thoroughly exasperated, dealt with a now very different Arno. Where once Arno had begged to return to England, now he was asking if he could spend one week in England and one week in China.

Lu Ting told him, “The airport doesn’t belong to our family.” Arno responded that his grandfather had a private jet.

Lu Ting countered, “Kids shouldn’t fly that often—it’ll stunt your growth.” Arno immediately replied that it must be a problem with the planes and that switching planes would solve it.

Lu Ting, at his wit’s end, finally said in English, “Arno, your mother misses you.”

That silenced Arno immediately.

The truth was, Arno did miss England, but he couldn’t take Jiang Yi with him. He had to go back alone.

Lu Ting was equally frustrated. While Arno’s mother had agreed that Arno could live in China from now on, it wasn’t feasible for him to stay there year-round. He still had to return to England from time to time.

When Arno finally relented, he sulked his way to Jiang Yi’s house. In his mind, he had imagined a tearful, heart-wrenching farewell, complete with melodramatic scenes right out of a TV drama. Instead, he arrived to find that Jiang Yi had already prepared a farewell gift for him.

Arno: “…”

Fuming, he refused to accept the gift out of spite. But Jiang Yi insisted, earnestly telling him that he would love it.

Still irritated, Arno carried the gift home. When he opened it, he found a pair of plastic rain boots with a cute cow pattern.

On the day Arno left for the airport, dressed in his finest, expensive little suit, Lu Ting noticed that he was also wearing the rain boots.

Lu Ting: “…”

Arno said nothing, but his rain boots made a solid “thud thud” sound with every step.

Lu Ting considered telling him to change his shoes, but upon hearing that they were a gift from Jiang Yi, he hesitated.

Maybe his son just wanted this friendship-filled gift to fly over 10,000 meters in the air…

Jiang Yi didn’t know whether the boots flew 10,000 meters up, but ten minutes after Arno left, his family’s phone rang.

Standing on tiptoes, Jiang Yi softly answered, “Hello?”

There was silence on the other end, followed by a sullen voice: “It’s me, Arno.”

Jiang Yi blinked, asking if something had happened.

Arno, sounding indignant, replied, “Can’t I just call you for no reason?”

Jiang Yi touched his nose and said softly, “You can.”

Satisfied, Arno continued, but then gloomily complained, “No one will play chess with me now.”

Jiang Yi comforted him, suggesting he could find friends in England to play with.

The mention of friends made Arno explode. “No way! They’ll never be as good as you and me. We’re the best—there can’t be anyone else!”

Jiang Yi, slightly confused by Arno’s outburst, agreed anyway.

Hearing Jiang Yi’s agreement, Arno still felt uneasy and warned him several times, “You can’t be best friends with anyone else, okay? And don’t make paper airplanes for anyone else either.”

Jiang Yi, a bit exasperated, replied, “Okay,” and only then did Arno reluctantly hang up.

From July to September, the thing Jiang Yi did most frequently was answer Arno’s phone calls. During meals, before bed, while playing with puzzles—there were always calls.

Jiang Yi started to think Arno had tied the phone around his neck. How else could he call so many times every day?

Arno wasn’t happy with that joke, muttering to himself that it was because Jiang Yi was the most forgetful kid in the world. He was terrified that one afternoon, Jiang Yi would wake up from a nap and completely forget about him, like deleting a file on a computer.

Jiang Yi had no idea what Arno was thinking. He only knew that Arno would call him even if he spotted a toad in England.

At first, Jiang Yi thought he’d miss Arno terribly once he was gone. But after a while, he realized that England had toads too, and Arno talked way more than he’d expected.

By the time September rolled around, there was a small stool permanently placed next to the house phone just for dealing with Arno’s calls.

July to September passed in a blur. One day, Jiang Yi’s father told him to get ready for elementary school.

Jiang Yi was excited—after all, he still thought school would be just like kindergarten.

Jiang’s father had already picked out several schools and was ready to start the admissions process when his old employer, Lu Ting, stepped in.

Lu Ting suggested that Jiang Yi and Arno should attend the same private elite school, with all expenses covered by the Lu family. He hoped Jiang’s father would seriously consider it.

Jiang’s father was stunned. He knew that the elite private school Arno attended wasn’t just about money; it had extremely strict requirements the admission process was highly selective, and the families of the students were all wealthy or powerful.

It was almost certain that the educational resources Jiang Yi would receive at this school would be far superior to the ones offered at the local schools.

After much hesitation, Father Jiang gritted his teeth and nodded. Lu Ting smiled, saying that if he disagreed, Arno would likely be the first to throw a fit, insisting on attending school with Jiang Yi.

When Father Jiang returned home and told Jiang Yi about the arrangement, the boy was visibly thrilled, counting down the days until school started. Arno had told him they could go to school together as soon as the term began.

However, on the first day of school, Arno’s flight from the UK was delayed due to bad weather, causing him to miss the first day of school.

So, on that day, Jiang Yi went to the experimental elementary school on his own, carrying his backpack.

Jiang Yi was placed in Class 1, Grade 1, and received his own name tag. As he introduced himself in front of the class, many of his classmates stared curiously at him.

When it came time to pick seats, Jiang Yi chose one toward the back of the room.

The boy seated in front of him had slightly curly black hair and was named Ying Zhuohan. His sharp eyebrows gave him an arrogant look, which wasn’t entirely misleading. He had a group of loyal followers from kindergarten who now surrounded him in elementary school, acting as his entourage.

Like Jiang Yi, Ying Zhuohan also chose an empty seat beside him. When asked by other students why, he snorted arrogantly, like a proud little lion, and said, “I don’t want to sit with anyone else.”

But during class, Jiang Yi noticed that Ying Zhuohan didn’t even know how to sharpen a pencil.

Growing up in a wealthy family, Ying Zhuohan had always had followers to do things for him, so he never needed to sharpen a pencil himself. Bored in class, he poked at his eraser with his pencil, only to realize later that he had broken all his mechanical pencils.

He wanted to ask one of his followers to help him, but elementary school wasn’t like kindergarten; talking was strictly prohibited. As soon as he spoke up, the math teacher reminded him to stay quiet.

Seeing his classmates pick up their pencils, and with the math teacher making rounds, Ying Zhuohan started to panic—it was his first day of school, and he wasn’t prepared.

Jiang Yi thought Ying Zhuohan’s curly hair reminded him a bit of Song Ziyi, which gave him a sense of familiarity. He carefully passed a sharpened pencil to Ying Zhuohan by gently tapping his shoulder.

Ying Zhuohan turned around, saw the sharpened pencil, and grabbed it as if he had been saved. He quickly pretended to write numbers as the math teacher walked by.

When class ended, Jiang Yi was packing up his pencil case when Ying Zhuohan turned around, arrogantly asking, “Which kindergarten did you go to?”

“Golden Sun Kindergarten,” Jiang Yi replied.

Ying Zhuohan and his followers exchanged a look. They had never heard of such a kindergarten and figured it must be some obscure private school.

The experimental elementary school had a high bar for entry, so most of the students had come from the same kindergarten, just like Ying Zhuohan and his followers.

After hearing about an unfamiliar kindergarten, Ying Zhuohan gave Jiang Yi a once-over. His ears turned slightly red as he hesitated for a moment before saying, “I’ll allow you to be my follower.”

Although the kindergarten wasn’t impressive, Jiang Yi did look quite pleasant.

The school uniform was a blue-and-white striped shirt with casual shorts. Although everyone wore the same outfit, Jiang Yi looked especially well-behaved in his, with his soft black hair and long eyelashes that seemed almost unreal. He had a slight sickly appearance, but it only made him look more striking.

Jiang Yi slowly packed up his pencil case.

Ying Zhuohan thought Jiang Yi had agreed and was visibly pleased, the corners of his mouth lifting. He cast a proud glance at his followers before waving them off, dismissing them with authority.

Once they had left, Ying Zhuohan looked at the empty seat next to Jiang Yi and said with feigned nonchalance, “Since you were so helpful earlier, I’ll reluctantly agree to sit with you.”

Seeing that Jiang Yi still hadn’t looked up, Ying Zhuohan added eagerly, “I’ve never shared a desk with anyone before.”

“Hurry up and move my things over. That way, you can quickly rise to the position of my number one follower…”

Jiang Yi shook his head slowly and replied honestly, “No, I can’t.”

“That seat is already taken.”

That seat belonged to Arno, and no matter how much Ying Zhuohan resembled the curly-haired Song Ziyi, it wouldn’t change a thing.