We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

"I'm too young, I don't know how to love!"

The cover of "The Little Prince" features this quote, which Li Mubai pulled out of his dorm room desk drawer and saw immediately.

He didn't actually look at it; people don't develop much desire to explore things they're not interested in.

However, since Xie Shu asked, he would try the salty taste.

In the darkness, Li Mubai turned on the lamp, ran his finger across the cover, and opened the first page of the book…

"Xie Shu, Li Mubai, give this to every student in the class, one copy for each person."

During Thursday's morning exercise break, Wu Changguo handed a stack of small blue notebooks to Li Mubai and Xie Shu.

Li Mubai took a look—Pingyang No. 6 Middle School's school-based curriculum.

The last class on Thursday afternoon happened to be a school-based lesson.

Back in the classroom, Li Mubai quickly handed out the little blue booklets and then sat down in his seat to start reading.

The jingle for morning exercises was still playing outside the classroom. One of the small perks of being a class committee member was that you could legitimately skip the morning exercise break.

"What do you want to choose?"

Xie Shu sat in front of him, holding the notebook and turning slightly to ask softly. The first page of the notebook contained information on various school-based courses, class locations, and enrollment numbers.

"I haven't decided yet."

He glanced at it briefly; the school-based courses were quite diverse, including Lusheng (a traditional Chinese reed pipe instrument) lessons, traditional Chinese painting lessons, novel writing lessons, and so on—a wide variety of options, but none of them interested him.

What courses will Xie Shu choose? A question arose in his mind.

He put down the small blue book and looked up at the person sitting in front of him.

She was carefully browsing through each school-based course.

"This." She placed the notebook on his desk and pointed to one of the places—the calligraphy class.

This stirred up unpleasant memories for Li Mubai. He had thought about practicing calligraphy before, and even bought a brush and Xuan paper, but he could never write well, so he gradually gave up.

After practicing "How to Write Quickly with a Fountain Pen" for three months, his handwriting has improved and is no longer crooked like before.

"Class monitor, do you want to take this course?" Li Mubai asked.

"You might consider taking this course."

"OK."

As soon as Chen Qiuhe returned after the morning exercise break, she picked up the small blue book on the table and started flipping through it.

"Wow, there are so many school-based courses to choose from."

She quickly finished reading it, then turned to look at Li Mubai:

"Li Mu Bai, what do you choose?"

"Still considering it."

"What about Xie Shu?" She looked at Xie Shu again.

"Hmm, I haven't decided yet."

"Since neither of you has made up your minds, why don't you choose the traditional Chinese painting class with me? That way, we can keep each other company," Chen Qiuhe said.

"Traditional Chinese painting class? Landscape painting?" Li Mubai asked.

"Including meticulous brushwork paintings, you can paint landscapes, birds and fish, how about it? Are you interested?" Chen Qiuhe showed an expectant expression.

Xie Shu also tilted his head slightly to look at him.

"Hmm—I'll think about it some more."

"What about Xie Shu?"

"I'll think about it some more."

……

Speaking of which, this afternoon's school-based class was a trial class, right? You can go and listen to one class, and then select the course on the school's smart campus platform this Saturday.

Should he try out a calligraphy class or a traditional Chinese painting class? Li Mubai was torn.

"Shubao, which course are you planning to choose?" At lunchtime, Deng Yi pulled Xie Shu to the cafeteria and took the opportunity to ask.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Then remember to tell me when you've thought it through, I want to choose the same course as you."

Xie Shu nodded slowly in silence.

"Shubao, which course are you planning to try out this afternoon?"

"Calligraphy." Xie Shu hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Oh~" Deng Yi began to recall the classroom where the calligraphy class was held.

"Hey~ Lao Bai, do you want to join us for introductory basketball lessons?" Zhao Feng said to Li Mubai as he returned to his dorm.

"No, I'm not interested in basketball," Li Mubai refused.

"Alright, so what are you going to choose?"

"Calligraphy or traditional Chinese painting."

"Oh~" Yang Kun gave a sweet smile, leaving Li Mubai completely confused.

"Zhao, go and check immediately. Did Chen Qiuhe choose calligraphy or traditional Chinese painting?" Yang Kun and Zhao Feng sat next to each other, the former lowering his voice.

"How am I supposed to investigate? I don't know Chen Qiuhe."

"You idiot, why don't you go ask Chen Qiuhe's people?"

"Li Mubai is next to Chen Qiuhe," Zhao Feng said after a moment's thought.

"No, it's a girl."

Thank you for your letter.

...How could he ask that? He didn't even have Xie Shu's contact information. He couldn't just go up to her and ask, "Class monitor, do you know which school-based course Chen Qiuhe chose?"

"Then ask Wang Rui. He sits next to Li Mubai; he might know."

Zhao Feng glanced at Wang Rui, who was still lying in bed reading an extracurricular book, and said:

Do you think it's possible for boys and girls to have platonic friendships?

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. There must be an ulterior motive behind any contact between people of the opposite sex," Yang Kun immediately denied.

"Then go ahead and ask, you idiot. It's because you worry about these things that your grades are at the bottom." Zhao Feng refused to carry out the task.

"So what if you're at the bottom of the class? You may have gained happiness from good grades, but you've lost the trouble of having bad grades," Yang Kun said matter-of-factly.

Zhao Feng was taken aback for a moment, then realized what he meant, and then lay down for a nap while cursing, ignoring him completely.

Li Mubai was unaware that two people in his dormitory were whispering about him; he was torn between his calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting classes.

Pingyang No. 6 Middle School has an arts teaching building next to the gymnasium, which is used specifically for art students. The dance studio used for the National Day rehearsals was in this building.

The calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting classrooms are both located on the third floor of the building.

In the afternoon, Xie Shu was dragged by Deng Yi to audit a calligraphy class, while Chen Qiuhe hurriedly said she was going to the Chinese painting classroom to grab a seat, leaving only Li Mubai to leisurely arrive at the art teaching building.

He climbed to the third floor, but still couldn't make a decision. Li Mubai already had difficulty making choices, especially when faced with two options that were not the best choices.

The traditional Chinese painting classroom is near the stairs, while the calligraphy classroom is further inside.

Li Mubai lowered his head in thought, then looked up at the Chinese painting classroom. He slowed his pace, but then unconsciously continued forward until he passed the classroom.

He hadn't made up his mind, but instinctively went into the calligraphy classroom.

In an instant, dozens of eyes secretly turned over.

There were quite a lot of people... many were even standing, as the calligraphy classroom only had fifty seats.

Li Mubai lowered his head and quickly walked to the back to stand, disappearing into the crowd. Only then did he raise his head and see that Xie Shu was already sitting with Deng Yi, and there were no empty seats in the classroom.

How about we go check out the traditional Chinese painting classroom?

Just as Li Mubai had this thought, Xie Shu, who was sitting in his seat, slowly turned around, took out a notebook and pen from his bag, looked up at him, and then looked away.

……

"Hello everyone, welcome to our calligraphy class! I didn't expect so many people to come, haha," the teacher said with a smile after ringing the bell.

"To those standing at the back, please bear with us. We can only accept fifty students for this class. If anyone wants to leave now, they can try out other courses."

Upon hearing this, some students left the classroom, but many remained standing inside.

"Okay, in our first lesson, we won't start writing yet. Let's first introduce the course of calligraphy to everyone..."