We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

"Hurry up and study, the final exams are coming up soon," Xie Shu reminded him softly.

Alright, Li Mubai suppressed his doubts, temporarily put aside his chaotic thoughts, and took out his books to prepare for studying.

After returning to the classroom from the club activity room, he and Xie Shu entered one after the other. The classmates were already used to it, and no one deliberately discussed anything.

"I'm envious, Lao Bai," Yang Kun said immediately after seeing him sit down.

"You should try to get into the top ten in your grade first." Before Li Mubai could speak, Huang Lingling scoffed.

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, never underestimate a young man's potential!" Yang Kun retorted defiantly.

"Never underestimate the poverty of the young, the middle-aged, or the elderly; respect the dead," Zhao Feng added.

Li Mubai shook his head helplessly. Seeing that there was nothing for him to do, he turned around, sat down, took out his textbooks, and prepared to attend evening self-study.

Good evening, everyone.

The standard opening remarks of the evening news. Li Mubai didn't know why Wu Changguo always had to go back to his office when the evening news started. Maybe the teachers didn't like to have evening self-study sessions either.

"Where's the squad leader?" A hoarse voice suddenly rang out, drowning out the sound of the evening news broadcast.

Li Mubai looked up and saw Zhong Jianjun standing at the front door of the classroom, his gaze sweeping across the entire classroom.

His heart tightened, and he slowly got up and walked over.

Zhong Jianjun glanced at him and got straight to the point: "Take a headcount of the number of people in your class."

Upon hearing this, Li Mubai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that they hadn't come specifically to cause him trouble. He noticed that Zhong Jianjun was still holding the registration form for checking evening self-study sessions.

"Teacher Zhong, our class should have 42 students, and we actually have 42 students present."

"Okay." Zhong Jianjun nodded, picked up his pen and wrote something on the registration form, then said, "Come to my office after the first evening self-study session."

Li Mubai's heart sank again. It seemed that what was coming was inevitable.

The bell rang, and the corridor was filled with students coming out for a break. Li Mubai walked to the office door, knocked lightly, and only after hearing a "come in" from inside did he push the door open and go in.

This time, without the pungent smell of secondhand smoke filling the room, Li Mubai's anxious heart was slightly relieved.

After Li Mubai approached the desk, Zhong Jianjun slowly spoke, "Do you know why I called you here?"

Why else could it be? It's just that he did poorly on this exam. Although he thought this in his heart, Li Mubai remained calm on the surface.

"You dropped one place in this exam. What do you think went wrong?" Seeing that he didn't speak, Zhong Jianjun tapped the table with his finger, his tone somewhat serious.

Li Mubai thought someone was knocking on the door. He pondered for a moment and said, "Perhaps it was an oversight."

"wrong!"

Zhong Jianjun's voice suddenly rose, startling Li Mubai. He actually wanted to say that it was normal for one or two people to fluctuate, but in front of the teacher, any fact could be used as an excuse.

Zhong Jianjun remained silent, waiting for his reply.

"Yes...it's because I didn't try hard enough," Li Mubai said hesitantly.

"Wrong!" Zhong Jianjun interrupted again, his tone firm. "The root cause of your poor exam performance and regression is early romantic relationships!"

Li Mubai lowered his head and remained silent. At this moment, any explanation would be useless; Zhong Jianjun had already made up his mind.

"You've only dropped one place now, but what about after that? You'll sink deeper and deeper, your grades will keep declining, and in the end you won't even be able to get into university. Are you willing to accept that?" Zhong Jianjun's tone was somewhat accusatory.

After he finished speaking, the office fell silent. Perhaps not speaking was also a form of resistance. Zhong Jianjun probably knew what people like Li Mubai were thinking: they wouldn't give up until they hit a brick wall.

"I'll give you one more chance. If you fall behind again in the final exams, I'll call your parents in next semester to talk about this puppy love."

Zhong Jianjun gave the final "notification," and then waved his hand, signaling him to leave.

"Haha, I'll log in when I get back for the Dragon Boat Festival!"

Walking down the corridor, Li Mubai heard the boys laughing and joking around, but he couldn't muster any interest and listlessly brushed past them.

Being with someone is so tiring; there are always so many obstacles preventing them from being together.

Perhaps this was Zhong Jianjun's purpose: to keep him under constant pressure at school until he couldn't take it anymore and gave up on his own.

Li Mubai walked into the classroom and subconsciously glanced at Xie Shu's seat. She and Chen Qiuhe were discussing something. He quietly looked away, sat back down in his seat, and picked up his books.

At 10:30, evening self-study ended on time.

Li Mubai was about to carry his backpack back to the dormitory when Yang Kun called out to him, "Li Mubai, it's our group's turn to be on duty today."

With two boys now on the team, Li Mubai no longer has to do the tiring work of mopping the floor. I wonder who will mop the floor in Xie Shu's group.

"Li Mubai, you can clean up the first group's area, and then take out the trash after you're done," Zhang Qian, the new group leader, assigned him the task.

"it is good."

It would be awkward to just stand by and watch your team members clean up without doing anything.

After Yang Kun finished mopping the floor, Li Mubai was the last to leave. He gestured for Yang Kun to leave the classroom, then turned off the lights, plunging the room into deep darkness, illuminated only by a few remaining lights.

He carried a black garbage bag and walked towards the garbage dump, which was behind the dormitory. Yang Kun was walking the same way as him.

"I used to do all the mopping and taking out the trash, but now we can take turns," Yang Kun said happily.

Li Mubai nodded without saying anything more.

The warm yellow streetlights cast a dim light. Without the senior high school students, the school felt much quieter. There was a fork in the road ahead. Going straight led to the cafeteria, turning left led to the playground, and turning right led to the dormitory.

He and Yang Kun slowly approached the fork in the road. Under the pillar lamp at the intersection, a figure stood vaguely in the dim light.

Seeing them approach, she stepped out of the darkness and into the light.

"Let's go for a walk on the playground." Xie Shu's gaze fell on Li Mubai, his tone calm, without any attempt to hide it from Yang Kun standing beside him.

"I still have trash to throw away." He lifted the black trash bag in his hand.

"That……"

Xie Shu was about to speak when Yang Kun interrupted him urgently:

"I'll do it! I'll throw it!"

Yang Kun quickly snatched the trash bag from Li Mubai's hand, and then ran off in a flash with the trash in his hand.

"Can we go to the playground together now?" Xie Shu asked again.

"Hmm..." Li Mubai hesitated for a moment, "Okay."

They only have fifteen minutes to play, and the dormitory doors have to be locked at 11 o'clock.

Tonight there is a moon, sparse stars in the suburbs, and the evening breeze carries a touch of summer night coolness.

"Xie Shu, you've asked for leave tomorrow, is everything alright?" Li Mubai asked.

"It's okay, I can go back to school on Wednesday." She lowered her eyes, as if trying to see the road beneath her feet.

On the playground, there were people just like them, but they were all dark-skinned and it was impossible to tell who was who.

He and Xie Shu walked slowly on the reddish-brown rubber track, step by step, as if they were taking a stroll.

Maybe they were just taking a walk.

After walking about several dozen meters, Xie Shu's voice came softly:

"What did Zhong Jianjun say to you during break?"

"...About the exam results."

Xie Shu didn't ask any further questions. She gently held his hand, but he didn't exert any force; he simply accepted it passively.

The stars and moon shone brightly, the Milky Way stretched across the sky, and there were no words, only the sound of footsteps and the chirping of insects in the summer night, as we walked around the playground again and again.