We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

"Dad, Mom, have you paid the tuition yet?"

On his way back to school on Sunday, Li Mubai suddenly remembered this incident and turned his gaze back into the car.

"Your dad paid for it a long time ago." Li's mother sat in the passenger seat without turning her head.

"How much did you pay in total?" Li Mubai pressed.

"Two thousand, including your tuition, accommodation, and books."

"It's quite tall," Li Mubai remarked.

"Studying hard at school is more important than anything else."

He hasn't studied hard enough! In a 24-hour day, the school and Zhong Jianjun wish they could spend 23 hours and 59 minutes studying, leaving only one minute for rest.

Today was even more unusual; I returned to school several hours earlier than usual, just to be in the classroom to study before 3 PM.

"Xiaobai, have you been assigned to a class? Which class are you in?" Li's mother suddenly asked.

Class 18.

"How come you went from Class 3 to Class 18 all of a sudden? Did your grades drop?" Li's mother asked with concern.

"How could that be?" Li Mubai, who had been half-lying down, suddenly sat up straight. "I don't know which rich person had nowhere to spend their money, so they insisted on using donations to get the school to reorganize classes. Now Class 3 and Class 18 are both humanities elite classes, with the same teachers, except for a different homeroom teacher."

"Which class is your classmate in?" Li's mother paused for a moment.

"Which classmate?" Li Mubai didn't react for a moment.

Thank you for your letter.

"Xie Shu..." He paused for a moment, "She's still in Class 3."

"That's fine. She's in her final year of high school; let her focus on her studies first." Li's mother pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. "Where is she planning to apply?"

"North..." Li Mubai was about to say Peking University, but then remembered that Xie Shu seemed to be going abroad after graduation, so he changed his mind and said, "Maybe Peking University."

"No wonder you said you wanted to go to Peking University," Li's mother said suddenly, then frowned. "But Peking University is very difficult to get into. Do you think your grades are good enough?"

"There's still a bit of a gap."

Although he made it into the top 30 in the joint entrance exam of the three schools, there are other key provincial high schools in Pingyang City that did not participate in the ranking, as well as those in other prefecture-level cities. It is said that some high schools have more students admitted to Tsinghua and Peking Universities than Pingyang No. 1 High School.

If there were a province-wide mock exam, he would probably rank several hundredths.

And Xie Shu? His scores have consistently been above 670, which is the score required to get into Peking University.

"Take the exam if you can, but don't force yourself if you can't," Li's mother comforted her earnestly. "If you exhaust yourself, you won't do well on any exams. It's the same if you choose a university in Beijing."

"Hmm," Li Mubai responded indifferently.

But he didn't just apply to Peking University to be with Xie Shu.

"By the way, Xiaobai, I haven't asked you yet, what's Xie Shu's family background? What do his parents do?"

Li Mubai paused for a moment, opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a long time. If he told the truth, he was afraid of putting pressure on his parents; if he said that his family was of average means, he felt like he was lying.

The car came to a gentle stop, and before we knew it, we had arrived at the school gate.

"Haha, I'm heading back to school now! Our homeroom teacher told us to be in the classroom by 3 o'clock. See you later!" Li Mubai chuckled, opened the car door, and sped out.

Li's mother leaned out of the car window, watching her son's figure disappear quickly at the school gate before slowly pulling back in.

"Do you think Xie Shu's family might not be well-off?" she suddenly asked.

"Who cares?" Li's father gripped the steering wheel, his tone indifferent. "As long as Li Mubai studies hard and doesn't end up like Li Muyong, who only graduated from a vocational school and ended up working in another province."

"I'm serious," Li's mother rolled her eyes at him, "What if Xiaobai marries Xie Shu in the future?"

"Why are you thinking about this so early? They haven't even finished high school yet, and it's uncertain whether they'll be able to stay together in the future."

"Too."

Li's mother nodded, but she had other plans in mind. It seemed that it was time to save some money for Li Mubai's betrothal gifts and house and car. She would save a little each month, and little by little, it would add up.

"Hurry back to business." She snapped out of her thoughts, urged them on, and the car gradually accelerated, driving away from the school...

Li Mubai pushed open the dormitory door. Inside, Wang Rui was packing his schoolbag, while Zhao Feng's suitcase sat quietly in his spot.

"I'm going to the classroom now," Wang Rui said, and left.

Li Mubai was the only one left in the dormitory. He glanced at the time; there were still nearly twenty minutes until three o'clock. He quickly tidied up, looked up, and saw two books on his pillow.

Li Mubai was momentarily dazed, then reached out and pulled out "The Little Prince" from the bottom of his bag, putting it inside.

In the classroom, most of the students had arrived, leaving only Li Mubai and a few students who were late.

The minute hand completed a full circle, and the hour hand quietly pointed to three o'clock. The classroom, which had been brightly lit, suddenly darkened as a thick, dark cloud descended over the school.

Li Mubai stood up, turned on the light, and glanced around the classroom.

No one was late, that's good, otherwise it would be a bit difficult for him as class monitor.

He sat back down. Since Zhong Jianjun wasn't there in person, the atmosphere during self-study wasn't as tense.

The monitor on top of the blackboard silently spun around, then stopped...

"Hey, wanna go to the cafeteria?" Zhao Feng asked, leaning closer.

Just as Li Mubai was about to nod, Zhang Hao's voice interrupted from the side:

"Li Mubai, Teacher Zhong wants you to go to his office with Lin Xinle."

"You go first," Li Mubai said to Zhao Feng.

"Fine," Zhao Feng said helplessly as he left.

Li Mubai glanced back at Lin Xinle, who nodded to indicate that she understood. They stood up and walked towards the office, but unexpectedly Zhang Hao followed them.

"Li Mubai, how did you do on your last exam?" Lin Xinle asked in the corridor.

"I don't know," he replied casually.

"Are you good at math? I feel like I got a lot of questions wrong this time. Could you explain them to me when the test papers are handed back?"

Is he good at math? He's almost at 120 in math, which is probably better than the average liberal arts student, many of whom are still struggling to pass.

But all of this is thanks to Xie Shu. If it weren't for her tutoring last semester, his math score would probably only be between 90 and 100.

"Mr. Chen will explain it. Maybe during math class or his evening study session," Li Mubai politely declined.

"Fine." Lin Xinle looked a little frustrated.

"Math? I think I'm alright, I should be able to get a 110." Zhang Hao suddenly interjected, a gentle smile curving his lips. "Lin Xinle, if you have any questions, we can discuss them together."

Lin Xinle gave a faint "hmm" and didn't say anything more.

Li Mubai glanced at Zhang Hao, then looked away.

I feel like there's something strange about these two people. Lin Xinle doesn't seem to treat him like an ordinary classmate. Is it because of the class monitor and vice class monitor?

Zhang Hao gave him an indescribable feeling; he couldn't quite put his finger on what was strange about him.

He was pondering to himself when he unknowingly arrived at the entrance of the Academic Affairs Office. He gently knocked on the door.

"Come in."

"Teacher Zhong."

Zhong Jianjun glanced at him indifferently, then looked towards the corner of the office.

"Go and hang those signs on the wall, and then ask the arts and culture representative to design a blackboard bulletin board for the back row with the theme of senior year life."

"Okay, Teacher Zhong."

Li Mubai walked over to the pile of signs, picked one up, and it read: "No pain, no gain; no struggle, no success; no senior year."

...He stared at the words for two seconds, then silently flipped the sign over and picked up half of it.