[Six months ago]

On a Monday morning, all the teachers and students stood in front of the school playground, facing the flagpole, saluting the slowly rising national flag amid the solemn and dignified national anthem.

Xu Xing stood in the middle of the boys’ line, staring at the flag rolled up on the rope, internally complaining that the new flag-raiser’s skills were lacking—they couldn’t even tell the difference between raising and lowering the flag.

While Xu Xing was lost in useless thoughts, Wang Zicong next to him just asked, “In the second period, we have to write out the vocabulary from Unit 2. Have you memorized it, Xing Xing?”

Xu Xing shot Wang Zicong a sideways glance, seeing through his intentions: “You want to copy, right?”

Wang Zicong immediately grinned at Xu Xing, trying to appease him, “Please help me out; I promise to study the words properly from the next unit~”

Xu Xing snorted in disdain, too lazy to bring up old grievances: when the English teacher had them write the vocabulary from Unit 1, Wang Zicong had made the same promise.

Just as Xu Xing and Wang Zicong reached a tacit agreement, he caught sight of a hurried girl running up from the back of their class’s line.

Xu Xing recognized her as a classmate of Xu Yin.

When their eyes met, the girl’s panicked gaze lit up, and she urgently said, “Xu Yin suddenly fainted; you should go check on your sister.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xing was momentarily stunned, and then his heart sank. In a state of panic, he followed the girl as they ran toward the area where the senior class was gathering.

They passed by neatly arranged lines of students, but the line for Xu Yin’s Class 3 was chaotic, like a collapsed bridge in the middle, where several girls were squatting down with worried expressions. Xu Yin was already unconscious, leaning against another girl.

Before Xu Xing could get close, he saw a tall boy who had just arrived to gather with a breakfast sandwich in his mouth, directly part the crowd and rush to pick Xu Yin up, hurrying toward the school infirmary.

Xu Xing hurried to catch up.

By the time Xu Yin reached the infirmary, she was slowly regaining consciousness.

Her face was terrifyingly pale, and her lips had lost all color.

After examining Xu Yin, the school nurse concluded that she had low blood sugar.

Xu Yin drank a cup of glucose water and sat on the bed to recover for a while, her complexion gradually returning to normal. Many classmates had followed her to the infirmary out of concern, and when the homeroom teacher saw that Xu Yin was okay, they sent the other students back to class, allowing Xu Yin to rest a bit longer.

The flag-raising ceremony ended, and the class bell rang.

In the infirmary, only Xu Yin, Xu Xing, and the tall boy who had carried Xu Yin were left. Xu Yin was wrapped in the boy’s school uniform jacket, while Xu Xing stood nearby, looking worried, scared, and helpless.

After Xu Yin woke up, the concern from the homeroom teacher and other classmates pushed Xu Xing to the back, and he still hadn’t had the chance to ask Xu Yin if she was okay. Xu Yin, meanwhile, had already answered too many times, saying, “I’m fine, thank you for your concern.”

Xu Xing had never seen Xu Yin suffer from low blood sugar before, and even the nurse’s words couldn’t alleviate his worries.

Looking at Xu Xing, Xu Yin suddenly said, “Xu Xing, I want to eat white chocolate. Can you go buy some for me?”

Xu Yin’s voice was very soft, and her complexion was still poor. Her forced smile didn’t bring any comfort, so she simply dropped the pale smile she had been putting on for the teachers and classmates.

Xu Xing responded immediately, “Okay.”

Standing helplessly by her side, he quickly left when Xu Yin gave him instructions.

Xu Yin watched as Xu Xing pretended to be calm while he exited. After a few steady steps, his pace suddenly turned into a hurried run.

Xu Yin asked Xu Xing to go buy candy not because she genuinely wanted it, but because she understood the feeling: they both hated that feeling of “worrying about someone they loved while feeling powerless.”

Thus, Xu Yin hoped that by fulfilling her request, Xu Xing’s worry would ease just a little.

After Xu Xing left, only Xu Yin and the boy remained in the room. The boy, who had been silent with his thin lips pressed tightly together, leaned against the window without moving.

Xu Yin turned her head to look over and saw that the boy’s lips were pressed together so tightly that they were turning white.

Xu Yin sighed silently and said to the boy, “Yi Ze, come here.”

Hearing her voice, Yi Ze moved and walked to Xu Yin’s bedside. He squatted down in front of her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and resting his face on her legs.

Xu Yin gently stroked the back of his head, softly saying, “I’m fine. Really, I’m fine now.”

Yi Ze didn’t respond verbally but held her even tighter.