In the afternoon, the wind stopped, the trees stood still, and it felt as though the air itself had ceased to move. The entire class’s exhaled carbon dioxide seemed to settle at the bottom of the room, leaving the air so thin that it made people feel dizzy.

The seventy computers in the lab were all running simultaneously, emitting a dull hum that pressed heavily on everyone’s spirits.

The English essay playing in Xu Xing’s headphones had just finished when the sharp, energizing sound of the class bell rang out through the classroom speakers, marking the end of class.

Answer sheets were passed from the back to the front row. Xu Xing removed his headphones, his ears flushed red and hot from the thick ear pads that had made him sweat.

Class was over, and the students poured out of the classroom, eager to escape into the fresh air outside.

Xu Xing, his face still flushed, stepped out of the classroom just in time to see Xiao Shun walking alone ahead of him. He quickly caught up, smiling, “Let’s walk together, Xiao Shun.”

Xiao Shun turned his head and nodded lightly, “Okay.”

“Xu Xing, wait for me!”

Wang Zicong huffed and puffed as he caught up from behind, already out of breath after running just a short distance.

Xu Xing mercilessly teased him, “You’re already winded after just a few steps? Isn’t your girlfriend worried?”

Wang Zicong’s round, chubby face was soft and smooth, pale but rosy, giving him a fresh appearance without looking greasy.

Wang Zicong muttered in defense, “No rush to lose weight. We seniors need to eat well and drink well to tackle the college entrance exams. Once I get into college, I’ll hit the gym every day~”

Xu Xing completely dismissed Wang Zicong’s talk of losing weight as nonsense.

Xiao Shun stifled a laugh and said, “Well, they say every chubby person has hidden potential. Zicong’s facial features are actually quite good, so his potential is huge.”

But Wang Zicong, with his chubby figure, found even keeping his arms down uncomfortable because of the fat pressing into his armpits. His only relief in the summer came from the snake powder his girlfriend bought him to prevent rashes.

Not wanting to dwell on this sad truth, Wang Zicong cheerfully asked Xu Xing and Xiao Shun, “I’m gonna hit the bathroom first. Xu Xing, could you take my headphones back to class for me?”

Hearing this, Xu Xing suddenly felt the urge too. “I need to pee as well.”

The bathrooms in the tech building were known among students as “five-star restrooms.” Each stall was private, with neatly tiled floors matching the walls, and the washbasins had large, spotless mirrors cleaned by the janitors every day.

Even though the tech building was a good ten minutes from the main school building, many students preferred to trek there for a clean, comfortable bathroom break rather than settle for the dirty, stinky ones in the main building.

After washing his hands, Xu Xing walked out of the restroom and saw Xiao Shun waiting for him and Wang Zicong in the hallway. Walking over, Xu Xing asked, “Is my deskmate still not out yet?”

Xiao Shun glanced back and nodded, “Yeah, he should be out soon.”

Xu Xing shook the water droplets off his hands and casually asked, “What are you looking at?”

Xiao Shun quickly denied it, “Nothing…”

His quick denial made it even more suspicious.

Xu Xing leaned over the edge of the corridor and looked. Sure enough, he spotted a guy and a girl standing on the sky bridge connecting the tech building to Building A.

The girl, facing away from them, had long wavy hair cascading down to her waist, while the boy leaned against the low wall of the bridge, standing face-to-face with her.

It was Jiang Jize.

Xu Xing couldn’t resist sneaking a glance at Xiao Shun beside him, only to see Xiao Shun’s gaze lowered, one hand fiddling with the zipper pull of his school uniform, the other plucking weeds from the potted plants on the corridor railing.

Xu Xing had been waiting for a chance to talk to Xiao Shun about Jiang Jize.

After the morning’s incident on the field—when Xu Xing had called out Xiao Shun’s name, and the red thread had reacted dramatically just because their gazes met—Xu Xing was eager to see if more interactions between the two would elicit further reactions from the thread.

Looking at the boy and girl on the bridge, Xu Xing feigned surprise and said, “Do you think they’re confessing to each other over there?”

Xiao Shun responded softly, “I don’t know…”

Xu Xing continued, “I think I’ve heard of that guy. Isn’t his name something like Jiang… Jize? Or maybe it was Jiang Ze something, hmm…”

Xu Xing pretended to rack his brain for the name, furrowing his brows in a show of frustration.

Perhaps out of pity, Xiao Shun quietly offered, “Jiang Jize.”

Xu Xing’s face lit up in realization, and he clapped his hands with a grin, “That’s it! Jiang Jize—do you know him?”

Xu Xing mentally applauded himself for the seamless way he’d steered the conversation to this topic.

Xiao Shun nodded, his gaze drifting back towards Jiang Jize. “We went to the same middle school. Almost everyone knew him.”

Curious, Xu Xing asked, “Why? Did he do something big that got the whole school talking?”

School celebrities typically fell into one of two categories: troublemakers who got into fights so serious they became the subject of public reprimands, or top students who consistently ranked at the top and earned certificates and scholarships from the principal every semester.

And Jiang Jize certainly had the look of a “troublemaker.”

Fiddling with the weeds in his hand, Xiao Shun responded softly, “Jiang Jize… he’s actually a really nice guy.”

Jiang Jize became a well-known name in middle school during their second year, when something unforgettable happened during the autumn morning exercises. It all started when the girl leading the exercise on stage tore her uniform pants during a kick, leaving the boys in the front row cheering in excitement.

The teacher on duty hadn’t even reacted yet when Jiang Jize swiftly took off his jacket and, with one long stride, leaped onto the platform.

Jiang Jize wrapped his jacket around the girl’s waist, which startled her. He covered the split in her pants before explaining, “Your pants are ripped.”

Upon hearing this, the girl’s face instantly flushed red. When she turned and saw the boys below jeering and laughing, she clutched Jiang Jize’s jacket tightly around her waist, her eyes welling with tears.

The whole field became chaotic because of the incident, and the teachers rushed over to comfort the girl. Meanwhile, Jiang Jize jumped down from the platform and delivered a harsh kick to the boy who had led the teasing, angrily shouting, “Are you out of your mind? How could you joke about something like this?”

Jiang Jize’s kick, combined with his gallant act of covering the girl with his jacket, instantly made him the ideal crush of every girl at school.

After hearing this story, Xu Xing couldn’t help but look at Jiang Jize in a new light, exclaiming, “He was only in the second year of middle school… his emotional intelligence is pretty high.”

Xiao Shun nodded, then shook his head. “At that time, he had a girlfriend. But because of this incident, they had a falling-out, and he broke up with her. Then… the girl on the platform became his new girlfriend.”

Xu Xing: “…”

The story took such a sudden turn that Xu Xing didn’t know how to respond.

Xiao Shun smiled helplessly and added, “He’s the type who doesn’t refuse anyone…”

As he finished that sentence, Xiao Shun’s gaze drifted to the two figures on the bridge.

Xu Xing could tell that Xiao Shun had more to say but was holding back.

“Oh, right,” Xiao Shun added. “Although we went to the same middle school, he doesn’t know me…”

As he said this, Xiao Shun habitually lowered his gaze, his fingers restlessly fiddling with the zipper of his school uniform.

Xiao Shun didn’t explicitly say it, but Xu Xing could already guess about 70 or 80 percent of it: Xiao Shun had feelings for Jiang Jize. Ever since that second year of middle school, when Jiang Jize became the crush of the entire school, he had burst into Xiao Shun’s life like a god descending from the heavens, turning everything upside down.

The sky was clear, and the breeze was light.

His affection was careful and restrained.

Looking at Xiao Shun in front of him, and then at Jiang Jize chatting with the girl on the bridge, Xu Xing wanted to comfort Xiao Shun. Even though the red string between them was strange, it was still fate, and there was bound to be some connection between them.

Although Xu Xing didn’t fully understand why Xiao Shun liked boys, he didn’t feel strongly opposed to the idea of homosexuality. Instead, he felt sorry for Xiao Shun—secretly harboring a crush on Jiang Jize, afraid to speak, afraid to pursue, and avoiding even the slightest accidental glance.

A thought sparked in Xu Xing’s mind, and he plucked a withered blade of grass, holding it as a cover. When no one was looking, he folded the red string behind Xiao Shun and Jiang Jize, pulled it taut with his fingers, and silently drew it tight.

A straight line is the shortest distance between two points—

Xu Xing pulled hard on the red string, and it glowed faintly.

Immediately, both Jiang Jize and Xiao Shun, as if drawn by the string, raised their heads at the same time.

One stood on the fifth-floor corridor, the other leaned against the bridge railing, and the two locked eyes from afar.

The subtlety of the moment caused Xiao Shun’s face to redden slightly.

---

The Author has something to say:

1. Thanks to Wang Zicong’s long bathroom break, Xu Xing and Xiao Shun had time to chat aimlessly.
2. The flag from the previous waving at Xu Xing.
3. Both Xiao Shun and Jiang Jize have perfect eyesight.
4. Jiang Jize is the only important character with a three-character name (his original name was Jiang Ze…).
5. Lu Che didn’t even get a mention in this chapter, so I had to name-drop him.