The first Sunday of the school year coincided with Teacher’s Day. The school issued a notice stating that every class from first to third year must create a bulletin board, and on Friday afternoon, there would be a group teacher meeting to evaluate each class’s bulletin board.

The activity committee member received this task during last Wednesday’s evening study session. He had to urgently gather classmates who could write and draw, forming a temporary team to discuss and draft a rough proposal during self-study time.

The homeroom teacher’s requirements were not high: as long as it wasn’t the ugliest bulletin board in the grade, it would be fine.

This statement earned enthusiastic applause from the bulletin board team.

The next afternoon, after finishing eye exercises at the end of the second class, Xu Xing rubbed his sleepy eyes and was about to head to the restroom to splash some water on his face. However, he was stopped by the activity committee member at the back of the classroom.

“Class monitor, can I ask you for a favor?”

Xu Xing responded sleepily with an “Ah,” his tone rising with a question.

The activity committee member said, “Can you call Lu Che to help with the bulletin board? His chalk handwriting is really beautiful. Several classmates recommended him to do the writing, but unfortunately, I can’t persuade him.”

Not many people knew that Lu Che had excellent handwriting before, but he had recently gained fame for frequently writing on the board: “Physics homework check tail numbers X and 7, submit before school ends.”

Xu Xing politely smiled, feeling a bit awkward, and said, “Um… if you can’t persuade him, I definitely can’t either.”

The activity committee member immediately flattered him, saying, “That’s not true! You’re familiar with him!”

“…”

Xu Xing really wanted to ask where he got that delusion. At that moment, the biology class representative, who was standing on a chair drawing, turned around and interrupted him, “Class monitor, just help us ask him. Our bulletin board design is too simple, and now we can only rely on some beautiful handwriting to score points.”

Since the girl had put it this way, Xu Xing couldn’t refuse any longer. He could only agree, saying, “Alright… I’ll ask him.”

Xu Xing felt that anyone could guess it would be unrealistic to get someone like Lu Che, who did his own thing, to contribute to the class. However, since he had already agreed to help, Xu Xing felt he needed to provide them with an answer.

He turned back to look at Lu Che’s seat; it was empty. So he decided to wash his face first and come back to it later.

Xu Xing went to the restroom to relieve himself. Standing at the sink, he washed his hands and then leaned down to splash some water on his face.

He vaguely heard someone approaching, and the faucet beside him turned on. He didn’t pay much attention until he heard that person teasingly say, “Class monitor, nice figure!”

Xu Xing wiped away the water beads gathering around his eyes, opened them, and looked at the person next to him.

It was Lu Che, wearing a playful smile, tilting his neck slightly, his mischievous gaze falling on Xu Xing’s back…

“Pretty perky.”

“…”

“‘Pretty’ is an adverb, meaning ‘very.’”

“…”

Xu Xing couldn’t hold back and cursed, “Are you sick or what?”

Lu Che happily accepted the insult and replied, “I’m just saying, what’s wrong with that? I didn’t hit you like you do.”

Xu Xing felt his anger rising. He usually teased with other boys, but when it came to Lu Che, something felt off.

Xu Xing retorted, “You’re sick; I’m not interested in you, alright!”

He shouted this defiantly, but his gaze suddenly uncontrollably dropped to Lu Che’s crotch, unable to tear his eyes away!

His eyes widened:

What the hell—

A bow tied around Lu Che’s waistband had suddenly appeared!

Lu Che: “…”

He had never seen someone so brazen; it was a textbook case of “disdainful mouth but upright body.”

Xu Xing’s large eyes brimmed with various emotions, including obvious shock and delight. Lu Che could also read two other words from his gaze: thirst.

Lu Che felt a bit embarrassed under the stare and scoffed, “Class monitor, could you tone it down a bit? You’re going to scare me away.”

Hearing this, Xu Xing finally came back to his senses. Seeing Lu Che’s mocking smile made him realize his behavior was too strange. He hurriedly explained, “No, no, no, it’s not what you think…”

It was just that bowtie was too eye-catching; Xu Xing found it difficult to look away.

Lu Che turned back to wash his hands casually, saying, “You can’t beat me anyway, so even if you wanted to force it, it wouldn’t work.”

“…”

Xu Xing felt a mix of frustration and agreement. Lu Che was right; he really couldn’t take him on.

He did want to force things—pounce on Lu Che and forcibly untie that bowtie, which would indeed be a simple, crude, yet effective solution.

After being held back by the red string effect for so long, he figured it would be better to act decisively. Once he untied that bowtie, he could confidently retort to Lu Che, “I really don’t care about you; do whatever you want.”

Unfortunately, as Lu Che said, he couldn’t take him on…

Xu Xing envisioned a promising future where he could bide his time, deciding to keep his composure. Since he could still see the red string, he figured there was time to plan.

For now, his task was to build rapport with Lu Che, ideally getting him to let his guard down so he could seize the opportunity to untie the bow.

Xu Xing remained quiet for ten seconds in front of Lu Che, his internal monologue reaching a climax. He forcibly steered their conversation back on track, saying, “By the way, the activity committee member just told me he wants you to help with the bulletin board. But he couldn’t persuade you, so he sent me to do some work on you…”

Lu Che sneered indifferently, “Why would he think you could persuade me?”

Xu Xing replied, “How would I know? I’m just the messenger. I can go back and tell him you rejected it.”

Lu Che said, “I’ll just tell him myself.”

Xu Xing glanced at Lu Che, feigning a response, “Oh.”

Xu Xing and Lu Che walked out of the restroom and returned to the classroom one after the other.

Xu Xing entered the room first, and immediately the eyes of the activity committee member and the biology class representative were on him, filled with anticipation.

Xu Xing’s gaze fell on the biology class representative. He could see the red string again, this time noticing that a light red thread floated from the biology class representative’s heart, slowly extending behind him and wrapping around Lu Che’s ankles several times.

Xu Xing just glanced at it without paying much attention.

The activity committee member and the biology class representative were still waiting for good news from Xu Xing. Xu Xing hesitated, then turned to look back, leaving the speaking rights to Lu Che.

Lu Che gently smiled, raising his arm to drape it over Xu Xing’s shoulder. He said to the activity committee member, “I can help write a few words, but not too much.”

Xu Xing turned to look at him in confusion. Didn’t he just say he would refuse?

Using the hand resting on Xu Xing’s shoulder, Lu Che playfully scratched Xu Xing’s earlobe and smiled, saying, “After all, the class monitor is stepping up; I can’t just refuse the class monitor, right?”

Lu Che raised an eyebrow at Xu Xing.

Xu Xing: “…”

Xu Xing wanted to shake off the hand on his shoulder, but with the corner of his eye catching the fluttering bowtie, he forcibly suppressed the urge.

The biology class representative rushed to speak before the activity committee member, excitedly saying to Lu Che, “It’s not much at all; there won’t be many things to write on the board.”

The biology class representative lightly jumped down from the chair, opened their phone, and approached Lu Che, explaining in detail the areas and content that needed to be written on the blackboard.

Xu Xing was gradually squeezed to the back by the biology class representative, but he didn’t mind too much and went around Lu Che and the others to return to his seat first.

The class bell rang, and the chaos resumed.

Xu Xing looked at the red thread swaying gently in front of Wang Zicong’s chest. When he looked up, he saw Fu Dai still helping Xiong Huan pour warm water, the two of them still connected by the red thread, but Xiong Huan’s attitude remained cold.

Xu Xing lowered his head to look at his palm. The red thread was pressed against his palm, representing the love line of fate, while the other end was hidden in his pants.

Xu Xing turned his palm into a fist, and with a subtle feeling, he glanced back, only to see another red thread pressed beneath him.

He let out a barely noticeable sigh and inadvertently raised his head, just in time to meet Lu Che’s gaze from the window side—

Lu Che was propping his chin up with one hand, casually looking at him.

“…”

As soon as Xu Xing locked eyes with Lu Che, he felt uncomfortable all over. He hurriedly looked down, glanced left and right, pretending to look for something on the ground. He turned to avoid Lu Che’s gaze, distractedly sweeping his eyes across the floor, when he suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!”

Wang Zicong was secretly tearing open a packet of soft candy under the table. Hearing Xu Xing’s voice startled him, causing him to rip the wrapper too wide.

Xu Xing lifted his head and stuffed the candy into the table’s cavity, saying, “What are you eating for? It’s class time!”

Wang Zicong stretched out a chubby finger, his eyes squinting as he pleaded, “… Just one, please.”

Xu Xing: “…”

He helplessly allowed Wang Zicong to grab a piece of candy, feeling a pang of heartache: just a moment ago, he had seen a red thread wrapped around Wang Zicong’s left ankle.

Xu Xing felt complicated emotions, thinking that this little chubby guy was taking all the good fortune for himself—Wang Zicong not only found a fair-skinned, beautiful, and graceful partner but now someone was also secretly in love with him!

This is too unfair!

Xu Xing felt extremely unbalanced. Pretending to pick something up, he leaned down and stretched out his hand to poke at the red thread around Wang Zicong’s ankle, curiously observing any changes in the thread. However, the thread hanging on the ground was quiet as a chicken, showing no reaction.

Xu Xing speculated: maybe it was because the owner of the red thread was not in this classroom.

He sighed silently and lost the mood to envy or be jealous of Wang Zicong. He took a pen and doodled on a piece of scratch paper, resting his chin on his hand, pondering: how can he untie the bow on Lu Che?

Xu Xing spent the entire class period thinking without any results.

When the class bell rang, he dejectedly lay down on the table, turning his face to rest on the surface, facing the window. A few strands of slightly longer bangs slipped down his smooth forehead with his movement, covering his eyes.

Xu Xing blinked uncomfortably and instinctively raised his left hand to brush aside the stray hair.

His movement was very natural, but the moment he pushed aside his hair, he suddenly sat up in surprise. He spread his palm out in front of him, unexpectedly discovering that the red thread in his palm had suddenly disappeared!

Xu Xing stared in astonishment, looking around, only to find that all the red threads in the entire classroom had vanished—including Xiao Shun, who had been acting special before today, could not escape this time.

What’s going on?

Xu Xing couldn’t figure it out, and an undercurrent of anxiety began to rise within him: the red thread had started appearing during the break of the last class and disappeared just a few minutes after this class ended, the whole thing lasted barely an hour.

Xu Xing anxiously walked outside the classroom. He stood in the corridor, looking around again, confirming that he could no longer see any red threads.

Xu Xing sighed, regretting that when he saw Lu Che’s bow tie in the restroom earlier, he hadn’t made the decision to rush over and untie it. This was an urgent matter that couldn’t be delayed; there was no time for careful planning!

Xu Xing felt deep regret as he hung his head and walked back into the classroom. As he passed the back of the blackboard, someone ruffled his hair. Confused, he looked up to see Lu Che standing on a chair, looking down at him, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Xing waved his hand and replied perfunctorily, “Oh, nothing.”

Before Lu Che could ask further, he was interrupted by other members of the blackboard report team: “Class teacher.”

The homeroom teacher came over after class to check on the progress of the blackboard report. The senior year was in the critical stage of sprinting toward exams, and she felt a bit guilty about taking up these students’ free time to rush the report.

“Everyone’s worked hard, wow, Can Chun’s drawing is really beautiful!”

The biology class representative was named Yu Can Chun.

“Ah, Lu Che, your handwriting is like your person; it’s so handsome!”

The homeroom teacher stood behind Lu Che and praised him.

Xu Xing was still standing nearby. When the homeroom teacher saw him, she joked, “Class monitor, why didn’t you go up to help? You could draw a few little flowers or grass too.”

Hearing this, Xu Xing said, “No way, teacher, don’t tease me! I can’t draw. How about I just go up and sign my name?”

For this blackboard report, the activity committee aimed to cut corners while creating an illusion of sincerity. After internal discussions in the team and getting the homeroom teacher’s nod of approval, they decided to reserve a large blank space in the middle of the blackboard to collect all the students’ signatures, thereby greatly reducing the area needed for drawings and writing.

The homeroom teacher listened to Xu Xing’s suggestion and said, “Okay, we can let everyone sign in batches, so they don’t have to line up to write their names later.”

Xu Xing smiled and said, “The first signature puts a lot of pressure on me; don’t complain if my handwriting is ugly!”

Of course, Xu Xing was just joking, and he had already stepped up to grab the chalk when he heard Lu Che say, “Then I’ll help you sign.”

Xu Xing hadn’t reacted in time to refuse when he looked up to see Lu Che casually signing his name in the center of the blackboard:

Xu Xing.

It was a strong and vigorous signature.

“…”

Xu Xing appeared to smile, but inwardly he was cursing.

The homeroom teacher laughed and said, “Lu Che, do you really think the class monitor is too afraid of his ugly handwriting to go up and write? This is a classic case of lowering the stakes to build tension, my silly class representative.”

The surrounding classmates chuckled in agreement.

Lu Che smiled down at him, saying, “Is that so?”

With a playful lilt in his voice, he added meaningfully, “Then it’s only fair that the class monitor signs my name.”

“…”

Xu Xing internally resisted: exchanging signatures? Isn’t that a bit too strange?

---

Author’s Note: Here’s a note on remembering names with three characters: Anyone with the surname “Yu” in this text is Xu Xing’s rival, after all, “Xu” (with two people beside it) means becoming a couple, while “Yu” is all alone without anyone by their side (No offense to the lovely angels with the surname Yu; I’m just being silly and creating memorable names for the supporting characters [hand gesture]).