After they received their books for the new school year, the students immediately felt the pressure of becoming third years. It was no longer like in the past where they could go home after taking their books and only officially start cla.s.ses the next day. Now, their cla.s.ses began the moment they took their books. Shi Yan didn’t see He Nuo, and his first reaction was that He Nuo was late. But when he still didn’t see He Nuo even after half the cla.s.s was over, he knew that he had guessed wrongly — He Nuo must have been a.s.signed to another cla.s.s. Compared to other students his age, Shi Yan and his friends who were the kids of high-ranking officials better understood how society worked — he guessed that He Nuo must have been squeezed into Cla.s.s 3 because the kids from influential families wanted to enter cla.s.ses 1 and 2.

After cla.s.ses ended, Shi Yan went to the neighbouring Cla.s.s 3 to look for He Nuo. He couldn’t find him after looking a few rounds so he grabbed a student to ask, but they said that He Nuo wasn’t in their cla.s.s. Thanks to Shi Yan’s fight last time, a lot of people knew who He Nuo is now. Shi Yan walked towards Cla.s.s 4, but he still drew a blank. Shi Yan could hardly believe it. With He Nuo’s grades, it wasn’t possible for him to be in the last, trashiest cla.s.s. Perhaps he was in the best cla.s.s, Cla.s.s 1? Shi Yan had planned to make a trip down to Cla.s.s 1 when the bell rang, so he had to return to his own Cla.s.s 2 to attend his cla.s.ses first.

After their second period, it should have been the time for their morning exercises1. But since school hasn’t began for the first and second years, this week’s morning exercises were cancelled for the time being. Shi Yan went to the entrance of cla.s.s 1 and looked at every student inside, but he still couldn’t find the person he wanted to find. He asked one of the students who sat at the front row, and after he got the answer that He Nuo wasn’t in this cla.s.s, he walked towards Cla.s.s 5. He had just took two, three steps, when he suddenly stopped moving. His expression changed as he suddenly changed his trajectory and walked towards Cla.s.s 6 (liberal arts cla.s.s).

When he stood in front of the liberal arts cla.s.s, he found the person that he had been searching for everywhere with just one glance, and that wasn’t the only familiar face. The one who sat next to He Nuo and was talking to him right now was also extremely familiar — she was his ex-girlfriend, Yu Yao, the one who had accompanied He Nuo in his cross talk. Shi Yan was so angry he felt like his lungs were about to explode. He stared at the two of them like he wanted to eat them up and his blood was boiling. The racket of a cla.s.sroom after the end of cla.s.s began to quieten down, and the He Nuo and Yu Yao who had discovered that something was unusual also looked around in confusion.

When He Nuo saw the Shi Yan who was standing at the door, his heart was so nervous it contracted. He still thought that it was wrong for him to have deceived Shi Yan, so he could only continue sitting in his seat in a daze. His deskmate Yu Yao tugged on He Nuo’s sleeve before he snapped out of his daze and stood up, then walked towards the door. When he was about to reach the door where Shi Yan was standing, Shi Yan gave him a cold sneer, then turned around and left. He Nuo couldn’t help but quicken his pace and walked out of the cla.s.sroom, only to see Shi Yan’s tall receding figure in the corridor while the students around him gave way.

He Nuo quietly returned to his seat to wait for the next lesson. After he had arrived in the morning, he had always been wondering about when he should go and tell Shi Yan about him being in the liberal arts cla.s.s. But when their seats were being allocated, he found that a girl had come up to him to greet him. And he of course knew who she was. She didn’t manage to get into college, so she repeated another school year, and since there was only one liberal arts cla.s.s, she would naturally be in the same cla.s.s as He Nuo. When she saw He Nuo, she appeared very happy and offered to sit together, and He Nuo agreed. There were more girls than guys in the liberal arts cla.s.s, so He Nuo was glad to sit with someone he knew.

And after their cla.s.ses had ended, it wasn’t convenient for He Nuo to walk to every single cla.s.sroom to ask which cla.s.s Shi Yan was in, so he thought that he would talk about it when they met after school. So he ended up chatting with Yu Yao between cla.s.ses. He asked Yu Yao about the usual third years’ studying strategies, and he wanted to know more about the college entrance examination. Meanwhile, the Yu Yao who had taken the examination before generously shared her experience about her failure with him.

Shi Yan was really mad. When he had a minor dispute with He Nuo in their first year, the fight they had wasn’t really worth mentioning; in their second year their dispute escalated and had developed into a true fist fight, but Shi Yan never really took it to heart. That dispute only occurred because he was a tyrant who was used to the subordination of others, so he thought that He Nuo had offended him and he merely wanted to teach him a lesson to mend the face that he had lost. If he had really bore a deep grudge against He Nuo, why would he have stopped when he saw He Nuo’s injuries?

But now, he had really been thoroughly angered by He Nuo. He Nuo had practically strung him along and betrayed him. He had regarded He Nuo as a friend, and it really was the first time for him to take the initiative to treat someone so attentively — he truly wanted to be friends with He Nuo. Shi Yan’s circle consisted of people who were all approximately the same status; the only one who was different from the rest of them was He Nuo, and he even had to deign to force him into accepting his friendship. When he had a vague guess that he was in the liberal arts cla.s.s, even his heart refuted the idea for He Nuo. But the truth is that he really did sign up for the liberal arts, and had never mentioned it to him throughout the whole holidays!

The more he thought about it, the more the hatred in Shi Yan’s heart grew. It’s not like he didn’t have friends, and it’s not like he was trying to get something out of He Nuo, so why did he have to cheapen himself just to be friends with him? This had even given He Nuo the opportunity to put on airs like this. If you f.u.c.king go look for that d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d again, then you’re his f.u.c.king grandson. The Shi Yan who was flaring cursed himself indignantly, but he never thought of using violence to take vengeance for the grievances he suffered.

When school ended in the afternoon, He Nuo didn’t see Shi Yan, so he came to school a bit earlier in the evening. He had already seen Shi Yan enter Cla.s.s 2 in the afternoon, so he waited for Shi Yan at the entrance to Cla.s.s 2. Shi Yan only reached with the others when cla.s.ses were about to start. Shi Yan’s buddies saw He Nuo and they greeted one another before He Nuo called out, “Shi Yan.”

But Shi Yan walked right past He Nuo as if he didn’t exist and entered the cla.s.sroom, while the rest also walked in without another word. He Nuo ashamedly looked at Shi Yan, and saw that after he sat down, Shi Yan’s gaze did fall upon him but it didn’t linger. Instead, he began to talk to his deskmate without any expression on his face. He Nuo didn’t see Shi Yan during their night revision cla.s.ses either, because he naturally couldn’t keep up with Shi Yan’s bicycle on foot.

1. Schools in China generally have breaks after their first period to stretch/exercise↩