Xu Xing ran out of the infirmary and headed straight for the school’s convenience store. He remembered seeing Xu Yin’s favorite chocolate there, but when he arrived, panting and scanning the shelves anxiously, he couldn’t find the candy.

Xu Xing pressed his lips tightly together, turned silently, and ran toward the school gate. At this time, it was the start of the first class, and the school gate was already closed. The teachers on duty at the gate had returned, leaving only the security guard in the booth, leisurely pouring himself tea.

The security guard suddenly saw a student running over in a hurry, so he set down the teapot and stepped outside.

Xu Xing was out of breath, looking at the tightly shut school gate, and anxiously turned to the security guard, asking hoarsely for help, “Uncle, I have something urgent to attend to…”

Xu Xing hesitated, his throat feeling dry and tight.

His suppressed emotions surged along with his words.

The security guard asked, “To go out, you need an excuse letter. Do you have one?”

Xu Xing furrowed his brows and replied, “No…”

He hadn’t brought his phone and he also didn’t asked their homeroom teacher for permission to go out.

Seeing the distressed and impatient student before him, the security guard helplessly said, “Without an excuse letter, I can’t let you out. What’s so urgent?”

Xu Xing bit his lip and shook his head, his mind filled with the image of Xu Yin’s closed eyes and her pale, bloodless face. After running to the convenience store and then to the school gate, over ten or twenty minutes had already passed. He felt anxious and afraid, just wanting to run back and ask the homeroom teacher for an excuse letter when he saw the head of the senior class approaching.

“Is something the matter?”

When the security guard saw the director come, he said, “This student says he needs to go outside, but he doesn’t have an excuse letter.”

The security guard relayed the information, and from then on, it was up to the director to communicate with the student.

At that moment, the security guard saw another student in uniform leisurely walking by outside the gate, so he opened the side door and let the student in, asking him to show his ID and sign the late arrival register with his name and class.

The security guard glanced at the student’s signature and ID information. Upon first glance at the name on the register, it was quite impressive. The pen flowed smoothly across the paper: Lu Che – 207.

Lu Che casually wrote down his name, but his peripheral vision caught the two people conversing at the security booth.

He recognized the student as the class leader from Class 7 in the second year; it was the class leader who helped him get his uniform and books when he enrolled.

However, Lu Che’s impression of him was limited to just being the class leader, and he didn’t even know the person’s name, as he hadn’t paid much attention to him. But now, that person’s voice was tinged with a slight sob, suppressing overwhelming emotions as he explained to the director, “My sister fainted from low blood sugar… She asked me to buy candy for her… But the convenience store doesn’t have any…”

Lu Che took his ID and stepped out of the security booth, casting a curious glance at him. The tearful expression made Lu Che raise an eyebrow.

Lu Che had a strong personality and was particularly proud, feeling that the class leader’s display of weakness was somewhat difficult to understand.

Upon hearing this, the director furrowed his brows and asked, “Is she the senior who fainted during the flag-raising earlier?”

The class leader nodded repeatedly.

Seeing this, Lu Che didn’t linger any longer, but after taking a few steps, he heard the director say, “Let’s go out to the supermarket and see if we can find any.”

Lu Che thought to himself that this infamous, rumored ‘mobile phone terminator’ of a senior director was actually quite nice. He didn’t think much further and directly returned to Class 7.

The first class on Monday morning was a class meeting, typically led by the homeroom teacher, who emphasized discipline for a few minutes before allowing students to catch up on assignments during self-study time.

Lu Che called out “Report” as he walked into the classroom, something the homeroom teacher was used to.

He sat by the window, and as soon as he settled in, he heard Ke Di giggle, “Che Ge, you’re here two or three classes earlier than usual today.”

Lu Che’s home was in City A, and he returned home every weekend, saying that it was suffocating in City C, so he would take his time coming back for school on Monday morning.

Leaning against Zhou Mang’s desk, Lu Che replied, “Yeah, I woke up early today.”

He usually didn’t get up before eight, but miraculously woke up at seven this morning.

After that, Lu Che didn’t speak any further and pulled out a box of Wangzai milk from under his desk. He bit on the small straw, leaning against the wall and gazing out the window.

It wasn’t until the second class was almost over that a voice came from the back door of the classroom, saying, “Report.”

Lu Che casually turned around to take a look and saw the class leader had returned.

With the teacher’s nod of approval, the class leader calmly walked back to his seat.

Lu Che’s gaze unconsciously fell on him—

As he sat down, he seemed to freeze for half a minute, then lowered his head to pull out a piece of candy wrapped in green and white paper from his pocket. He rested his hands on his backpack, gently pinching the sides of the candy wrapper.

Just as Lu Che was curious about how long he would look at it, the class leader’s desk mate, a chubby boy, smiled and snatched the candy from him, unwrapping it and sneaking it into his mouth.

Lu Che felt a bit regretful.

During the break of the second class.

Lu Che walked to the front of the classroom to get some hot water. As he carried the cup back, his gaze inadvertently landed on the class monitor, only to hear a girl in the class express her concern for him: “Is your sister okay? I was so scared when I heard it!”

He saw the class monitor’s expression remain unchanged as he nonchalantly replied, “It’s nothing, just low blood sugar. Who told her not to exercise regularly? Her health must have deteriorated.”

The girl frowned and said, “You’re way too calm! If I saw my brother faint outside, I’d definitely cry on the spot!”

The class monitor scoffed, dismissing her concern as he pulled out an old test paper.

“…”

Lu Che held the cup to his lips, hiding the upward curve of his smile.

Lu Che couldn’t help but smirk: “Tsk.”

Afterward, the more Lu Che thought about the class monitor, the more he found him interesting. He didn’t have any particular feelings, but he simply thought it would be fun to get to know him, so much so that Lu Che first felt the desire to know someone.

This new interest in a person led him to recall the class monitor’s tearful expression at the school gate, and he suddenly found himself wanting to see what it looked like when the class monitor cried.

The next day.

During the morning test, Class 7 of the second year was responsible for cleaning the large playground. Lu Che and Fu Dai arrived, occupying an area while lazily sweeping the fallen leaves. With a straw from a carton of Wangzai milk in his mouth, Lu Che’s eyes were fixed on the class monitor not far away. He overheard Ke Di next to him calling out, “Class monitor, can we borrow the dustpan?”

The class monitor was only a few steps away and, upon hearing this, handed over the dustpan to Ke Di.

Lu Che kept his eyes on the class monitor for a moment longer.

Once the class monitor turned to leave, Lu Che casually asked, “What’s his name?”

Ke Di looked up, puzzled: “Which one? Oh, you mean the class monitor?”

Lu Che nodded.

Fu Dai chimed in, “Xu Xing. You should wake up and remember that name.”

Lu Che nodded: “Oh.”

But in fact, Lu Che had already taken advantage of the lunch break the previous day when no one in class was around to check the seating chart at the teacher’s desk and find out the class monitor’s name.

He specifically asked this question today to avoid having to explain to Ke Di later, “What do you mean you know the class monitor’s name?”

Lu Che wanted to get to know Xu Xing, but he didn’t want to be the one to take the initiative.

And this issue of pride—

Two days later, Lu Che unintentionally heard Xu Xing ask a girl next to him while registering on a form: “What’s the name of that transfer student again? I can’t remember.”

—made it even harder to let go.

Lu Che felt unhappy.

During the break, he went to the teacher’s desk to get water. As he filled his bottle, he happened to see Xu Xing hanging up the class log by the blackboard.

Xu Xing had just finished hanging it when someone called him away, never once meeting Lu Che’s intense gaze.

Feeling sulky, Lu Che swallowed back a greeting that was about to escape his lips.

He flipped through the class log casually and found the entry for the current date, seeing a person’s name noted in the special circumstances section, marked as a personal leave. In the corner of the page, the signature was Xu Xing’s.

Lu Che flipped back a page and saw that the class duty student who had recorded his tardiness the previous day was someone else. Flipping through a few more pages, he quickly understood that Xu Xing and another person took turns logging the class matters.

Lu Che remained frustrated, thinking: You don’t remember my name, huh? A good memory isn’t as good as a bad pen. I’ll help you remember it better.

A few days later, Lu Che began frequently skipping classes, leaving early, and arriving late. The homeroom teacher had a private chat with him once, but that was it. From the moment the teacher took Lu Che in as a transfer student, he assumed Lu Che was just a slacker. Rumor had it that he had caused trouble and suddenly transferred from City A.

However, Lu Che didn’t skip classes every day; he spent at least half of his week quietly in the classroom, and the days he acted up depended on when Xu Xing was on duty.

Recently, Lu Che hardly slept in class, choosing instead to observe Xu Xing. Their seats were at a short diagonal distance from each other, and he noticed Xu Xing had a close relationship with the girl at the next desk.

Lu Che furrowed his brows slightly, suppressing this little worry. While teasing Ke Di about Fu Dai and the class representative for Chinese, he naturally seized the opportunity to ask, “Do you guys enjoy keeping things internal? Is the class monitor and that girl next to him a couple?”

Ke Di, being the gossip king, answered him immediately: “No way, they’ve been childhood friends.”

Lu Che casually replied: “Oh.”

His mood was quite complicated.

Soon, another week passed.

Lu Che developed an interest in Xu Xing from a casual glance at the school gate. Because he wanted to get to know Xu Xing, he paid extra attention to opportunities, and gradually, watching Xu Xing became a habit, with Xu Xing’s back becoming the focal point of his gaze.

However, the actual distance and emotional connection between Lu Che and Xu Xing did not change at all.

“…”

Lu Che’s life had been too smooth. Since childhood, whether in adult social gatherings or among peers, he had always been in a position where he was flattered and catered to.

Leaning on his side, Lu Che felt unhappy, his right hand swiftly twirling a pen, and he started scolding himself in his mind: What’s wrong with you, staring at a guy?

Forget it, just forget it.

Lu Che declared this was where he would stop.

Yet a few days later, on Friday, Ke Di learned that the next day was Lu Che’s birthday and eagerly asked him, “Hey, Lu Che, aren’t you going home tonight? Let’s celebrate your birthday together!”

Lu Che leaned against the wall and said, “I’ll think about it.”

Friends from City A were also asking to celebrate his birthday.

Fu Dai added, “Why not invite more people to make it livelier?”

Although Lu Che hadn’t been at school long, he’d joined the basketball team and met quite a few people, not to mention that he’d won the championship and was also known as the school heartthrob, so many people wanted to get to know him.

Hearing this, Lu Che said, “Then let’s invite the people from our class.”

He indirectly suggested, “Invite the class monitor and those class leaders; we can have a drink with them.”

Suddenly, Lu Che had a realization. He thought, getting to know people at a drinking party would be so much easier. If the conversation gets heated, just toast; if you get drunk, you can all share a room for the night. Strangers can quickly become drinking buddies.

Ke Di teased, “Oh, looks like Lu Che is holding a grudge against the class monitor for recording your tardiness every day!”

Lu Che didn’t respond.

After class, Ke Di went to ask Xu Xing and the others, cheerfully returning with news for Lu Che: “We’ve invited about ten people!”

Lu Che then asked, “Is the class monitor going?”

Ke Di replied, “The class monitor said he has to go back to his hometown with his parents this weekend, so he can’t make it.”

“…”

Lu Che’s heart, once filled with anticipation, suddenly fell.

Lu Che remained silent all morning. In the afternoon, he told Ke Di, “Forget it. It’s my birthday; I’ll go home and catch up on sleep.”

Forget it.

Forget it.

Forget it.

After school, Lu Che walked out through the back door of the classroom and happened to bump into Xu Xing walking in from outside. The two brushed past each other without looking at one another.

However—

The places in their hearts faintly glimmered with red light, a red thread had long been connected between them.

---

Author’s Note: