We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

On Thursday morning, Li Mubai put the toast and milk on Xie Shu's desk. This time, it was arranged beforehand, so there was no need to write a sticky note explaining the reason like last time.

Li Mubai's breakfast was quite simple: an egg, a steamed bun, and a bowl of porridge. Sometimes he felt like an NPC, eating the same food and doing the same things every day. Sometimes, to make it different from yesterday, he would replace the meat bun with a vegetable bun and the porridge with soy milk.

Xie Shu arrived at a moderate pace in the morning, neither too early nor too late. She came with her deskmate, Deng Yi. After sitting down, she went to the table and took out the bag of toast and milk.

"So that's why you weren't eating breakfast. You've already prepared it," Deng Yi said, suddenly realizing.

After the bell rang, the English class representative went to the podium to lead the reading, and the day's classes began again: Chinese, Politics, English, and that annoying Math.

Every time the math teacher called on someone to answer a question, Li Mubai felt his heart tighten. Of course, it wasn't because he was excited, but because he was panicked. Those who knew the answer were able to answer with ease, while those who didn't lowered their heads and pretended to be busy. Fortunately, the class passed peacefully, and there was no embarrassing scene like yesterday when he was called on to do a problem and couldn't answer it.

Chen Qiuhe listened attentively in math class and never chatted with Li Mubai. It wasn't because she loved math, but because the math teacher was very strict. His strong muscles were like a sword of Damocles to the weak students. Anyone who dozed off in class would be hit with a piece of chalk. He also made the students bring their own Tiger Balm to apply when they were sleepy.

Today's math class is the last one this morning, and some students are already eagerly packing up their books and preparing to rush out of the classroom.

"What's the rush! Let me finish explaining this problem before get out of class ends. And you, Yang Kun, where's your math book?"

……

After finishing his math class, Li Mubai felt much better; it was a bright day.

Afternoons are usually reserved for minor subjects, such as art.

"Finally, it's time for art class!" Chen Qiuhe exclaimed excitedly.

"It's time for you to show off." Li Mubai guessed that Chen Qiuhe's painting skills must be pretty good.

Chen Qiuhe lightly punched him and said, "What are you pretending for? You're supposed to be in the literature club, yet you use such vulgar language. I'm just showing off my skills."

"I hope you can use the idioms you've accumulated in your next essay."

These past few days, Li Mubai has been teaching Chen Qiuhe a method to improve her writing skills: copying good words and phrases every day to enhance her vocabulary.

After class started, the art teacher slowly walked into the classroom carrying last week's art assignments.

"I have already reviewed last week's assignments. Some students did a good job and put a lot of effort into their drawings, such as Xie Shu and Chen Qiuhe."

She turned on the multimedia screen and first projected Xie Shu's drawing, which depicted Deng Yi. After showing it to everyone for a minute, she then projected Chen Qiuhe's drawing.

Chen Qiuhe painted a boy's profile. He was frowning and deep in thought, pinching his chin. The background was a classroom window, and it seemed that a breeze was blowing in, which stirred his wispy bangs, giving the picture a sense of movement.

Li Mubai felt a little embarrassed, as if he were standing on a stage being watched by everyone.

The teacher led the applause, and the students immediately joined in.

"Alright, Xie Shu and Chen Qiuhe, come and take your sketches down."

Chen Qiuhe skipped up and retrieved her sketch.

"There are also some students who are quite 'outstanding': Zhao Feng, Yang Kun, stand up and let me see what our class's stick figure looks like."

Zhao Feng and Yang Kunqian smiled and stood up.

"It turns out it's made of flesh and blood; I thought it was just two lines standing up."

"Hahaha." The whole class burst into laughter.

"Alright, you two come up and get it. Although art is only a minor subject, students should still take their homework seriously and not just do it perfunctorily."

After Zhao Feng and Yang Kun took their homework down, the teacher started calling out names to distribute the others' work. Li Mubai went up as well, and the teacher glanced at him, but of course didn't praise him; it was just out of curiosity.

After distributing the homework, the teacher began the lesson.

Chen Qiuhe took out her special notebook, wrote a sentence, and pushed it, along with her sketch, to Li Mubai.

"Here, let me show you your masterpiece."

Another masterpiece...

"Is this still me?"

"How come this isn't you?"

"I'm not that good-looking."

"I said it's you, I'm not talking to you anymore, I have to go to class, hmph!"

Li Mubai smiled inwardly. The drawing was really good, but it didn't feel like him at all; he wasn't that sunny.

The next class was PE, and the teacher didn't come up with any more clever ideas for a competition. They spent the rest of the time peacefully on the rooftop. When they were dismissed, Jiao Yong asked him if he wanted to play basketball, saying it was in preparation for the next competition. Li Mubai refused, as the liberal arts class could form teams across classes for the official competition, so there was no need for him.

Maybe I should change the location; every PE class is always held on the rooftop.

Li Mubai thought about where he could go, and it seemed that the newly built vegetable garden was the only place he could go.

Do you want to go? Yes, there are still 20 minutes until get out of class ends.

He carried the chair back to the classroom and went downstairs.

The school has opened up a new vacant lot and turned it into a plantation, which is intended to serve as a practice base for students' labor practice courses. However, it is not yet completed and will probably not be available for use until next semester.

The plantation was surrounded by a fence. Li Mubai stood on the edge and looked inside. Although it was not yet completed, stone paths had been laid and there was a ditch, which looked like a stream was going to be built. At the very back, there was a long corridor, where two figures were sitting hand in hand on a chair.

The boy's back looked somewhat familiar, and the girl's back also looked somewhat familiar.

The boy in the corridor seemed to sense something and turned around to look.

Li Mubai exchanged a glance with him, then left.

The distance was a bit far, and since he was nearsighted, he couldn't see the other person's face clearly.

……

Today is bi-weekly evening self-study, and the history teacher is in charge. She played the documentary "The Rise of Great Powers" in class, ostensibly to enhance historical literacy, but the students were only grateful for the rare leisure time. Li Mubai studied it frame by frame.

After evening self-study ended, he walked alone on the way back to his dormitory.

"Li Mubai".

Li Mubai turned his head and saw Wang Rui. The two didn't usually talk much. Li Mubai only remembered that Wang Rui had once said that he was in a relationship. Could it be...?

"Wang Rui? What about Jiao Yong?"

"Jiao Yong has gone back first." Wang Rui then changed the subject and said, "By the way, Li Mubai, please keep what happened at the plantation this afternoon a secret."

Li Mubai didn't know who it was before, but now he does.

"Okay." Li Mubai nodded in agreement.

The two fell silent.

"By the way, who is your girlfriend?" Li Mubai asked. He felt the girl looked familiar and wanted to confirm.

"Don't you know?"

"I don't know, I didn't see it."

Wang Rui suddenly laughed: "Then it's a secret."

"Okay." Li Mubai didn't know what to say. He wasn't familiar with Wang Rui, so he didn't want to pry.

Sigh, what's the point of talking about love? If the inevitable outcome is a breakup, then no matter what happens in the process, it will be overshadowed by a shadow called sadness.