Returning to my senior year of high school before college, I became addicted to dating.

September 18th, the third day of military training.

Lin Feng was woken up by Zhang Wei's alarm clock.

The alarm clock rang like a pig being slaughtered, and it took Zhang Wei a while to finally reach out from under the covers and turn it off.

Lin Feng picked up his phone from beside his pillow and glanced at the time: 5:50.

There was an unread message on QQ, sent by Shen Yutong, around 1 a.m., with just two words: "Asleep?"

Raymond Lam replied, "Just woke up." Then he got up and washed up.

It was still dark outside, but several people were already carrying washbasins to the water room in the corridor.

When Lin Feng came back after brushing his teeth, Zhang Wei was still asleep, wrapped up in his blanket like a spring roll.

Li Mo had already tidied up and was sitting on the edge of the bed tying her shoelaces.

Lin Feng kicked Zhang Wei's bed board: "Get up."

"Just five more minutes of sleep..."

"Inspect the living quarters today."

Zhang Wei sat up abruptly, his voice trembling with tears:

"Being a freshman is too tough."

When the assembly whistle blew, Sun Jianguo took a notebook and began to check everyone one by one.

He walked up to Zhang Wei, looked at his blanket, then at him, and without saying anything, made a mark on his notebook.

Zhang Wei craned his neck to see what was written, but Sun Jianguo slammed the notebook shut: "No need to look, it's not up to standard."

Military training proceeded as planned. Standing at attention, marching in step, and going in formation, the sun was still scorching.

During a break, Lin Feng leaned against a poplar tree, drank some water, and took out his phone. Shen Yutong had replied to his message.

"You're up so early?"

Lin Feng typed: "How could I dare to sleep in late during military training? You were still awake past 1 a.m. last night, were you thinking about me?"

Shen Yutong only posted one photo.

The photo shows poplar trees by the playground, with a blurry figure on the ground; the outline suggests it's Lin Feng.

"The photos are good, but they make my legs look shorter."

"Your legs are naturally short."

"You've seen it before?"

After a while, Shen Yutong sent another picture. It was still the playground, and it was still him, but the angle was lower, making his legs look longer.

Raymond Lam smirked and typed, "Still saying you didn't film me on purpose?"

Shen Yutong didn't respond, but instead asked, "Why didn't anyone bring you water today?"

Lin Feng checked the time; it was 10:30 a.m., and the three women should all be training.

He replied, "They're training; they'll come at noon. Why are you so concerned about me?"

Shen Yutong responded with an eye-rolling emoji.

At lunchtime in the cafeteria, it was still the same six of them.

Zhang Wei, carrying his tray, came over again, his eyes scanning the surroundings, and asked in a low voice, "Did you ask Feng Xiaotang about it for me?"

Lin Feng glanced at him: "Didn't you add her on QQ? You can chat with her yourself. Do you expect me to find her a girlfriend for you?"

Zhang Wei rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "No need for that, I'll handle it myself! The problem is she never replies to my messages!"

Lin Feng ignored him and focused on eating.

During a break in the afternoon military training, a tricycle delivering water to freshmen got stuck on the curb by the playground, and two girls couldn't push it.

Lin Feng happened to be nearby. He grabbed the handlebars with one hand and lifted the back of the bike with the other, pushing it uphill with a burst of energy.

The two girls thanked him repeatedly, but Lin Feng waved his hand.

Zhao Meng, who was standing nearby, witnessed this scene. He walked over and said in a strange tone:

"You're quite strong. Have you trained?"

Lin Feng glanced at him up and down, then chose to ignore him and turned to leave.

Zhao Meng's lips twitched, and his fist clenched so tightly it made a cracking sound.

Zhang Wei ran over: "Is he picking on you again?"

Lin Feng turned on the tap and took a sip of water: "I ignored him."

At six o'clock in the evening, the sky darkened. Dark clouds pressed in from the west, the air was as stuffy as a steamer, and the leaves of the trees were motionless.

After finishing dinner in the cafeteria, Liu Chengcheng said, "It's going to rain."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a bolt of lightning cleaved half the sky, followed by a deafening roar of thunder, and then a torrential downpour began.

Urgent Notice: Evening outdoor training is cancelled. All freshmen will attend a military theory class in the lecture hall of the second teaching building.

Zhang Wei cursed, "Damn it, it won't stop even when it's raining. I'm not going to the battlefield, what's the use of studying military theory?"

The second teaching building was packed with freshmen in camouflage uniforms; the air was thick with the smell of sweat and moisture, and the corridors were bustling with noise.

Lin Feng followed the crowd up to the third floor, found a seat by the window, and sat down. Li Mo sat in front of him, flipping through a math book.

Lin Feng glanced at the cover; it was titled "Mathematical Analysis," a course not yet offered in the first year. He asked, "Where did you get this book?"

"Borrowed from the library."

"Mathematics isn't something you can learn just by reading books; you have to do practice problems."

Li Mo finally looked up at him, thought for a moment, and said, "That makes sense." He turned to the exercises in the book.

More and more people filled the classroom, with Lin Feng's 12th and 11th companies sitting together.

Lin Feng was looking at his phone when someone walked over, stopped for a moment, and then sat down in the empty seat to his right.

He looked up and saw Shen Yutong.

She sat up straight, looking straight ahead, holding a pen and notebook in her hand, as if nothing had happened.

Lin Feng didn't say anything, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Zhang Wei nudged him with his elbow from the left, mouthing "Awesome." Lin Feng glared at him, and Zhang Wei shrank back.

At the front of the classroom, a middle-aged man in military uniform walked onto the podium, opened a PowerPoint presentation, and began to talk about the history of national defense science and technology development, from the development of nuclear weapons and satellites to manned spaceflight.

The voice was flat and monotone, like reading a text aloud, and soon a bunch of students in the classroom collapsed to the ground.

Zhang Wei's head bobbed up and down like a chicken pecking at rice, while Li Mo was still doing math problems, the pen tip scratching on the paper.

Lin Feng rested his right hand on the table, his fingers very close to Shen Yutong's notebook.

Shen Yutong was drawing something on the paper when she caught a glimpse of his hand out of the corner of her eye, and her pen paused for a moment.

Neither of them spoke.

The PowerPoint presentation turned to a page about the atomic bomb, and the picture was an old black and white photograph.

Lin Feng leaned towards Shen Yutong and lowered his voice, "What did you draw in this class?"

Shen Yutong moved the notebook closer to herself: "I won't let you see it."

"mean."

"It's not that I'm stingy, it's that I'm afraid you'll become arrogant if you see this."

Lin Feng paused for a moment, then smiled. If he wasn't mistaken, the drawing was of himself.

Two minutes later, a piece of paper was handed over from the right. It was a drawing of Raymond Lam's profile, with simple yet expressive lines.

Lin Feng wrote on the blank space of the paper: "Not bad, next time draw my nose a little more prominent." and handed it back.

Shen Yutong's ears turned slightly red. Below that line, she wrote: "Your nose is already quite prominent; any more and you'll look like Pinocchio."

Raymond Lam also wrote: "Pinocchio's nose is long because he lies, but I don't lie."

Shen Yutong replied, "You have three girlfriends around you, and you're telling me you're not lying?"

Lin Feng looked at the line of text, thought for a moment, and wrote: "I told them the truth, and they knew of each other's existence."

After the paper was returned, Shen Yutong didn't write anything more. She looked at the line of text for a long time, then folded the paper and put it in her notebook.

The rain was still falling outside the window, pattering against the glass.

The classroom was stuffy and hot. Someone pushed the window open a crack, and the wind blew in, carrying the smell of rain.

A few strands of Shen Yutong's hair were blown up by the wind, and Lin Feng reached out to press them down for her, his movement so quick that Shen Yutong didn't have time to dodge. She froze for a second, then instantly blushed and lowered her head.