Sarilang! Sarilang!

Tuesday morning.

Jiang Yubai rushed into the classroom with his schoolbag, sat down, and stuffed it into the desk compartment just as the morning study bell rang. He swallowed the bun in his mouth in a few quick bites.

The freshly steamed meat buns at the school gate had thin skins and generous fillings. Wolfing one down like this was really a waste.

But his home was simply too far from school, and he loved sleeping in, so he truly could not spare the time to savor it properly.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yubai looked forward even more to the house under renovation being finished soon.

After arranging his stationery and textbooks, he took out his draft notebook and some snacks, intending to complete his daily task. Then his movements suddenly paused.

Wait...

Jiang Yubai turned his head, his gaze falling on the deskmate beside him.

The familiar blue-and-white school uniform, the familiar delicate profile, the familiar high ponytail—she looked no different from usual.

But...

If what Lin Jianxia had said last night was true, then the one sitting beside him now was no longer the older sister, but her twin sister.

Lin Tingwan.

Those clear, glass-like eyes flashed through his mind again. After thinking for a moment, Jiang Yubai wrote a line in his notebook:

"Hello, Lin Tingwan!"

After writing it, Jiang Yubai looked at it, his gaze landing on the exclamation mark at the end. He could not help frowning.

It was obviously the same format. Why had it seemed so cute when Lin Tingwan handed it over, but when he wrote it, it just looked stupid?

What was going on...

After hesitating, he still did not erase the exclamation mark. He gently pushed the notebook over along the edge of the desk.

Jiang Yubai waited with a little anticipation. One minute... two minutes...

Several minutes passed, but Lin Tingwan seemed not to have seen it. She continued quietly reading the Chinese textbook in front of her.

Jiang Yubai blinked.

Why was there no reaction? Could it be that this one needed feeding too?

He pulled the notebook back, took a small strawberry cake from his bag, placed it on top, and pushed it over again.

"..."

Still no reaction.

Jiang Yubai frowned and swapped the strawberry cake for a caterpillar bread.

No reaction.

Lifu milk chocolate.

No reaction.

Doctor Panda gummy candy.

Still no reaction.

After trying several times, Jiang Yubai finally confirmed one thing...

It had nothing to do with what he wrote or what snacks he put on the notebook—Lin Tingwan simply did not want to communicate.

Once he finally understood this fact, Jiang Yubai felt rather crushed.

That was not right. Why had switching routes reset her affection points to zero?

Gala Gamuri had not been like this at all!

Back at home, Lin Tingwan had even secretly passed him little notes behind her sister's back. Why, after coming to school, was she unwilling to even spare him a glance?

He could not help turning to look at her again. The girl beside him was quietly reading, looking like she was seriously studying.

Wait.

Jiang Yubai frowned, suspicion gradually appearing on his face.

Could Lin Jianxia... be tricking him again?

She said Lin Tingwan was coming, but it was actually herself, pretending not to know him so she could ignore him openly and with justification.

The more Jiang Yubai thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

He could not help leaning slightly closer and calling out in a low, probing voice:

"Lin Jianxia?"

His voice was very soft, audible only to the two of them.

But to Jiang Yubai's surprise, the girl beside him remained in the same position. Not even her eyelashes trembled.

He was done for.

If it had been Lin Jianxia, hearing that name would definitely have broken her composure. At the very least, she would have glared at him.

After all, she had repeatedly warned him never to mention their sisters switching identities in front of other people.

Which meant...

The one before him really was Lin Tingwan.

Over the next half day, Jiang Yubai became increasingly certain of that judgment.

Lin Tingwan beside him was excessively quiet.

Following the timetable, she took out the appropriate books, copied down the necessary notes, and showed no reaction whatsoever to the teacher's questions, her classmates' discussions, or even the occasional glances cast her way...

To her, school seemed to have truly become a fortress that required tight defenses.

And the method she chose was to completely seal herself off, leaving not the slightest crack.

Watching her mechanically turn the pages, Jiang Yubai felt she was like a completely different person from the girl who had secretly passed him notes.

Sometimes, an absurd thought even arose in his mind...

Could they possibly not be twins, but triplets?

And was this quiet girl, almost transparent in her silence, the most reserved one—the one he had never truly come into contact with?

Setting aside his new deskmate, Jiang Yubai also felt that the atmosphere in the class was somewhat strange.

No matter where he went, he always seemed to sense strange looks from his classmates, accompanied by quiet whispers.

Yet whenever he instinctively looked over, the voices abruptly stopped.

Those who should be reading kept reading, and those who should be looking at the scenery kept looking at the scenery, as though everything just now had merely been his imagination.

He had asked Li Yang too, but Li Yang had looked equally bewildered.

Until—

After lunch break, Jiang Yubai had just entered the classroom when he saw a familiar figure standing beside his seat.

He raised his brows in surprise and walked over. "Zhao Yun? Did you need something from me?"

Jiang Yubai did not actually have much of an impression of this female lead in the rumors.

If he had to put it into words... she was probably just an ordinary classmate he had crossed paths with a little, but would forget about as soon as he turned around.

When she saw him approach, Zhao Yun's eyes brightened slightly. She instinctively reached out, wanting to tug at his sleeve.

Jiang Yubai quietly stepped back half a pace. "What is it? You can say it here."

Zhao Yun paused. Her gaze unconsciously flicked toward Lin Tingwan, who was sitting quietly beside him, before she finally lowered her voice and asked:

"Um... Jiang Yubai, have you... confessed to Lin Tingwan already?"

Jiang Yubai: "?"

The highly shocking words left him frozen on the spot. Only after several seconds did he finally ask:

"No, where did you hear that?"

Zhao Yun's ears reddened slightly, and her voice became even quieter.

"It's just... they said someone saw you two in the little pavilion on the hill behind the school after class yesterday."

"Who said that?" Jiang Yubai frowned.

Zhao Yun hesitated for a while before quietly saying, "Dong Chengze and the others said it..."

Before she could finish, Jiang Yubai had already turned and headed toward the back of the classroom.

In the middle rows, several boys had been secretly watching this side. When they saw Jiang Yubai walking straight toward them, they immediately lowered their heads in panic.

Jiang Yubai stopped in front of their desks, with no intention of being polite. "What are you pretending for? Is spreading rumors about me behind my back that fun?"

"Cat got your tongues? Weren't you talking so enthusiastically before? Dong Chengze, say something!"

Dong Chengze, the leader of the group, awkwardly raised his head. His ears were bright red, but he still stubbornly held his ground.

"Y-yesterday, you and Lin Tingwan were in that pavilion, weren't you? Did I say anything wrong?"

His voice unconsciously rose, and the students in the classroom all turned to look over.

"Being in a pavilion means confessing?"

Jiang Yubai was so angry he laughed.

"Why not say sharing an umbrella in the rain means eloping? Then if you brush past your goddess in the hallway, does that count as the two of you privately pledging yourselves to each other for life?"

Dong Chengze froze. He instinctively glanced at Zhao Yun in the distance, then quickly turned his head away again.

"I..."

"You what?" Jiang Yubai sneered. "You were the one who made up that filthy rumor about me two-timing, right?"

"Zhao Yun and Li Qiuyue not bothering with you is because they're being generous. Me not bothering with you is because I can't be bothered."

"And you still wouldn't let it go. Now you're spreading rumors about me and Lin Tingwan. You really think everyone has no temper, huh?"

After saying that, Jiang Yubai could not be bothered to continue tangling with him and turned to leave.

But the next second, Dong Chengze's resentful muttering drifted into his ears:

"What kind of hero are you trying to be? Can Lin Tingwan even hear you acting all tough..."

Jiang Yubai stopped, turned around, and walked up to him.

"What did you just say?"

Dong Chengze seemingly had not expected him to come back. He shifted his gaze away in panic, but then forced himself to stand firm as though he had seized some leverage.

"S-so what if I said it? She... she's a mute and half-deaf anyway. She can't hear it! So what if I say it?"

Jiang Yubai was silent for several seconds.

Then, he grabbed Dong Chengze's desk with both hands and, before the other boy's astonished eyes, overturned the desk and all the books on it in one motion.