My heart skipped a beat-oh no, I can't hide it in my eyes

Ever since Song Shiwei was little, her mother, Lu Man, had always taken her to school.

It wasn't just school, either. Piano practice at the youth center, hospital visits when she was sick, trips to the park... Lu Man was there for almost all of them.

Her father was too busy. He often went away on business, disappearing for a month or two at a time.

At first, her mother only occasionally frowned or let out a quiet sigh. She even taught Song Shiwei to be understanding of how busy her father was.

But as time passed, her father became more and more respected, while her mother sighed more and more often. Frowning had become a habit...

Such a beautiful face, yet it had stopped smiling so early.

After a series of marital arguments and quarrels failed to improve their relationship, Lu Man could only pour all her love and energy into her only daughter.

Love that paid too much attention could sometimes become a shackle. As a professor, she understood that perfectly well, but as a mother, she didn't know how to change...

"We're here."

At the entrance to Zhixin Middle School, Lu Man glanced at her daughter in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

Song Shiwei opened the car door and got out without a word.

"Don't be late coming home tonight, or..."

Lu Man leaned out to remind her, then suddenly stopped. She couldn't quite bring herself to finish with, "or I'll worry."

She felt that her daughter wasn't close to her anymore, and saying it aloud seemed a little embarrassing.

Still, Lu Man watched her daughter all the way through the school gates before putting on her sunglasses and stepping on the gas.

On the drive to school, she had kept the same steady speed as always;

It was on her own commute to work that she unconsciously drove faster because she was pressed for time. When she'd said over breakfast, "I can drive a little faster," she had ended up applying it only to herself.

A mother's love in a highly educated family like this was like a soaked cotton-padded coat. It weighed heavily when worn, but if you took it off...

Song Shiwei had no intention of taking it off. She could still remember how, a few months ago, when she had decided not to attend Tsinghua and Peking Universities and to stay in Guangzhou for college instead, beneath her mother's anger and bewilderment there had actually been a tiny trace of relief.

Perhaps her mother had also been thinking that if her daughter left for college, she would be the only one left in that empty home.

SYSU was a good university, and she would be able to see her mother whenever she wanted. If college also brought a few interesting people and experiences that could dry that soaked coat like sunshine, that would be even better.

Just then, several girls in their final year of high school approached from the opposite direction. They froze briefly when they saw Song Shiwei.

Once they had walked a little farther away, they couldn't resist whispering among themselves:

"Did you hear about what happened last night...?"

"With all that commotion, who hasn't? Li Jianming beat up another guy who was chasing Song Shiwei. I think it was Chen Zhu from Class 11, the one who gave that speech onstage last time. I heard he was hospitalized..."

"I have a friend in Class 11. He said the school beauty and Chen Zhu might have been dating for ages. Li Jianming's a complete clown..."

Listening to their wild speculation, Song Shiwei pressed her lips together almost imperceptibly.

It seemed... things were already rather interesting.

When she reached the classroom doorway, her classmates, who were in the middle of morning study, all turned to look at her.

They seemed desperate for X-ray vision, hoping to read everything that had happened last night right off her face.

Song Shiwei walked to her seat with her usual indifference. That consistently cool expression only made it impossible for anyone to find a clue.

"Shiwei~"

Her deskmate, Mou Jiawen, could no longer contain her burning "thirst for knowledge." She had stayed with Song Shiwei the night before until Song Zuomin arrived.

But Mou Jiawen boarded at school, and the dorm had a curfew. Otherwise, she would have hopped into the Mercedes to go watch the excitement.

"How badly was Chen Zhu hurt? Can he still take the Gaokao?"

Mou Jiawen opened with a question that was nothing if not startling.

As Song Shiwei took out her English study materials, she answered calmly, "If he wants to, he probably can."

Mou Jiawen had already assumed that Chen Zhu was injured. Hearing Song Shiwei's answer, she immediately thought she understood. "So it wasn't too serious?"

"That's a relief."

Mou Jiawen patted her flat chest, seemingly letting out a relieved breath. "Some students who saw it said that after Chen Zhu got beaten up yesterday, his face was covered in blood and he could barely walk. He even needed another kindhearted boy in a school uniform to support him..."

At the words "kindhearted boy," Song Shiwei suddenly glanced at her deskmate.

"What is it?"

Mou Jiawen was puzzled. Why did Shiwei's look seem a little strange? Just as she was about to ask for more details, she suddenly saw a figure running down the corridor.

Huang Bohan!

Huang Bohan alone.

Mou Jiawen let out a wistful sigh. Everyone knew Huang Bohan was not only Chen Zhu's deskmate but also his good friend.

Now that Chen Zhu was injured, he would surely need some time to recover. Huang Bohan would have to go to the cafeteria all by himself from now on.

The moment Huang Bohan stepped into the classroom, he discovered his classmates' gazes stabbing toward him like javelins.

Never having received that much attention before, Huang Bohan jumped in alarm. He lowered his head and hurried to his seat, cursing inwardly:

Chen Zhu, you idiot! Why the hell did you suddenly have to go to the bathroom?

When Chen Zhu returned to the classroom after using the bathroom, most people didn't notice him at first, apart from a few classmates who happened to look up.

He had almost reached his seat before the class reacted. As one, their eyes scanned him up and down like a CT scanner, searching for injuries.

Fortunately, this was an advanced class. The top students were fairly restrained and disciplined, so nobody ran over to question him during morning study.

Still, pairs of deskmates looked at the completely unscathed Chen Zhu while discussing the versions of the story they had heard-all except those like Empress Qian, who cared only about studying, Song Shiwei, who knew the truth, and Mou Jiawen, who was utterly dumbfounded...

Only when their homeroom teacher, Yin Yanqiu, strode into the classroom carrying several stacks of exam papers did everyone suddenly remember:

Holy shit, we almost forgot! The Second Mock Exam results come out today!

Compared with whether Chen Zhu was injured-or, to exaggerate a little, whether he was dead or alive-their own exam results mattered far more to these graduating seniors.

As always, their homeroom teacher, Yin Yanqiu, knew exactly how to keep her students in line. The moment she entered, she sensed that something was off. Without even thinking, she knew it had to be because of Chen Zhu and Song Shiwei.

So Sister Yin immediately put on a stern face and glared at them. "Do you all think you did wonderfully on the exam? I've told you plenty of times: read aloud during morning study! You'll remember it better if you speak up..."

Then she set the papers on the desk, folded her arms, and patrolled the classroom again and again.

Wherever she went, the students' recitation involuntarily grew louder.

After a few rounds, the students regained their focus, and only then did Yin Yanqiu relax.

As their homeroom teacher, she was genuinely worried that her students' readiness for the exam might slip during these final few dozen days.

Did they really think everyone was like Chen Zhu and Song Shiwei? Dating, yet still improving their exam scores!

When Kang Liangsong had previously reported that those two were dating, Yin Yanqiu hadn't really believed him. But after what had happened last night, she felt it was almost certainly true.

Otherwise, why would Li Jianming get people to beat up Chen Zhu?

Now the whole school was saying that Song Shiwei and Chen Zhu had added each other on QQ, which meant they were in close contact outside school.

That was why, when Chen Zhu's father and Song Shiwei's father shook hands and chatted, Sister Yin, convinced she understood everything, had worried they would get so carried away that they went straight to discussing the bride price.

"All right!"

Yin Yanqiu suddenly returned to the podium and clapped her hands. "We'll hand out the papers now. Come up and collect yours when you hear your name."

There it was! What had been a gossip session a moment ago had instantly turned into the MVP results screen for every subject in the Second Mock Exam.

Yin Yanqiu picked up the papers for her own subject, math, first, and read out the names one by one:

"Deng Qian, 148. Kang Liangsong, 146. Chen Zhu, 145. Song Shiwei, 143..."

The name "Chen Zhu" still drew plenty of attention that day. Especially since his math score put him directly ahead of Song Shiwei: their papers were stacked together, and they went up to collect them at almost the same time.

"Why does this feel like a TV drama?"

Chen Zhu muttered to himself. Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, he and Song Shiwei passed each other expressionlessly in the narrow aisle between the desks.

But to these high school students with their overactive imaginations, that fleeting moment was anything but expressionless.

It was a fluttering heart, a lowered head, a sidelong glance, a deliberate attempt to act as though nothing was happening...

Looking at the bright red "146" on his paper, Kang Liangsong clenched his fist in regret. Why didn't I score 144? Then I'd have been right between them...

After handing out the math papers, Yin Yanqiu began distributing the physics papers. This time, Chen Zhu had ranked first in their year with 148, while Song Shiwei had scored 140.

But Yin Yanqiu suddenly noticed that when she read several names between Chen Zhu's and Song Shiwei's, some of the girls actually looked disappointed, as though they desperately wanted those two papers to be next to each other.

Yin Yanqiu smiled inwardly. High school romance was innocent and sweet. Never mind exam papers-even having their exercise books placed together when handing in homework probably felt like happiness.

So after finishing with physics, Yin Yanqiu, who had intended to hand out Chinese next, suddenly switched to English.

Song Shiwei's English score was still around 140, while Chen Zhu's hovered around 90. Almost an entire class separated them.

Hmph~

Sister Yin snorted inwardly. If you want romance, wait until the Gaokao is over! For now, I'll draw a Milky Way between you two...

"The teacher knows best!"

Kang Liangsong couldn't help praising her.

In the end, Chen Zhu's total for the Second Mock Exam was 658, an improvement over his First Mock Exam score. Amusingly, though, neither his class ranking nor his year ranking had changed.

The next several days were spent going over the Second Mock Exam papers. Meanwhile, at Zhixin Middle School, the names "Song Shiwei" and "Chen Zhu" had unsurprisingly become linked.

But nobody noticed that Li Jianming hadn't come loitering outside Class 11 for a long time.

(The title is actually a bit exaggerated. Song Shiwei and our rascal's relationship hasn't reached that point yet. But after finishing this chapter, these lyrics inexplicably popped into my head: "My heart skipped a beat-oh no, I can't hide it in my eyes. My heart races for you for no reason..." While I'm here, please send some votes my way.)

(End of chapter)