We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

The new first-year high school students will register for school this Sunday.

A passing high school senior happened to see several freshmen dragging their suitcases inside, their faces showing a mixture of youthful naivety and excitement, curious about everything and full of anticipation.

Time flies... a high school senior remarked.

However, Li Mubai had no feelings to express; he was currently studying in the classroom.

The afternoon air was so stuffy it made people sleepy. The windows were open, but no wind came in. The classroom was so quiet that only the scratching of pens on paper and the occasional turning of pages could be heard.

Everyone stayed obediently in their seats, not out of self-discipline, but because Zhong Jianjun was sitting on the podium grading yesterday's Chinese exam papers.

"Class representative, go and distribute the papers with the class monitor."

A hoarse voice broke the silence. A girl stood up and slowly walked over to pick up a stack of test papers. She turned around, her gaze hesitating between Li Mubai and Lin Xinle.

"Damn old man Zhong, he didn't even make it clear whether the squad leader refers to Li Mubai or Lin Xinle," she cursed inwardly.

"Give this to Lin Xinle." Zhong Jianjun added without looking up, "Girls should be more careful."

"OK."

The girl breathed a slight sigh of relief. As she passed Li Mubai's seat with the test paper in her arms, her steps became lighter. She pulled half of it out of her arms and handed it to Lin Xinle's desk.

The two began to move around the classroom, their footsteps and the soft sound of test papers hitting the desks like pebbles thrown into still water, creating slight ripples.

"Li Mubai".

Lin Xinle placed his Chinese test paper on the table. Li Mubai straightened it and looked at it. There was no score, nor any red pen marks.

"Have you all received your test papers? We'll go over them during the first period of evening self-study. Now, continue self-study."

Li Mubai tilted his head slightly and glanced at the paper that his classmate on the right had spread out. Although it was quite far away, he could see faint red marks on the paper.

He looked away, silently folded his test paper, stuffed it into his desk, and returned his attention to the homework on the table, as if nothing had happened.

Drip!Drip!

The alarm clock on Zhong Jianjun's phone went off. He calmly closed the test paper, packed up his textbooks, stood up, and walked out of the classroom with his hands behind his back.

"Lao Bai, what's your score?" Zhao Feng asked, leaning closer.

Li Mubai was speechless for a moment.

"Did you get a score of 140?" Zhao Feng boldly guessed when he didn't answer.

"It's not that bad."

Just as Li Mubai was wondering how to explain, a voice suddenly came from behind him:

"Li Mubai seems to have done quite well on this week's test."

"Oh—it has to be the God of Language."

Li Mubai smiled noncommittally. He turned around and saw that Lin Xinle had already stood up and left the classroom.

On Friday, Lin Xinle secretly took photos of him and Xie Shu, which were discovered by the quick-witted Chen Qiuhe. Lin Xinle deleted the photos on the spot.

This is what Chen Qiuhe told him. He didn't understand why she would take photos secretly. Was it to publish the white wall?

Forget it, I don't want to.

He slowly stood up and walked out of the classroom. Xie Shu was still waiting for him under the tree downstairs in the teaching building.

The cicadas were still chirping in the trees at the end of summer, and the afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the teaching building, falling on the ground as regular patterns of light spots.

She stood there quietly, her school uniform clean, holding nothing in her hands, attracting the attention of many people.

Li Mubai paused for a moment before walking up, and said in a joking tone:

"Xie Shu, don't wait for me anymore. The second-year students will be going back to school next week. If you wait for me, you won't get any food."

"Then let's go to the convenience store and eat instant noodles together," Xie Shu replied abruptly.

"..."

Li Mubai was a little speechless. Actually, he was worried about being seen by Zhong Jianjun.

On his way to the cafeteria, Li Mubai kept his attention on his surroundings. It was fine that his parents had been called to the school, but what if Xie Shu's parents were also called?

Li Mubai could foresee the worst-case scenario: Xie Shu's parents would immediately arrange for her to go abroad to stay away from him.

To be honest, even if Xie Shu really went abroad, it's not impossible for him to come back to Pingyang to meet her during the holidays.

But... the future is full of uncertainty. Can he be sure their relationship can last? Will Xie Shu's family accept him?

He didn't know, so he could only try to improve himself first.

"What are you thinking about?"

Xie Shu's voice came from the noisy cafeteria. It turned out that he had unknowingly gotten his food and was sitting at the table.

"It's nothing," he smiled.

Xie Shu didn't speak. She put down her chopsticks and looked at him quietly.

Li Mubai always preferred to keep his thoughts to himself, even though she reminded him many times that they should face them together.

But this was a long-standing habit of his, just like a person drinks water when thirsty.

"You kept looking around on the way here. Were you afraid of running into a teacher?" she speculated.

"..." Li Mubai paused slightly. He thought for a moment, "It's Zhong Jianjun. Do you remember the argument we had last week? He said if he saw you and me together at school again, he would call our parents."

Xie Shu remained silent for a few seconds after hearing this, and only spoke after a long while:

"Okay, I understand."

Silence returned to the dinner table, as if Xie Shu only knew this much...

During evening self-study, Li Mubai intended to ignore Zhong Jianjun's voice and study on his own, but how could he completely ignore Zhong Jianjun's hoarse voice?

Li Mubai let out a long breath. Since Zhong Jianjun didn't care about him, did that mean he could do whatever he wanted in his class?

In any case, the most important thing about Chinese language learning is daily study, not classroom learning.

Having made up his mind, he took out his notebook and continued to refine his novel.

"Let's move on to the next question. Keep your attention on the test paper..."

A shadow fell over his desk, and Li Mubai's heart tightened. Zhong Jianjun stood beside him and continued explaining the test paper.

He stopped writing, then resumed writing a few seconds later, but kept his body crouched down to avoid being spied on.

Ring ring—

"Hey Lao Bai, what were you doing in class just now?" Zhao Feng asked, leaning closer.

"I didn't do anything," Li Mubai said, feigning ignorance.

"When I saw you lying on the table, I thought you were sleeping."

Li Mubai smiled but didn't say anything. As soon as get out of class ended, he put the notebook back into his bag.

"By the way, why did you choose A for this question?"

Zhao Feng placed the test paper on the table. He glanced at it; it was a multiple-choice question on modern Chinese reading comprehension.

The answer to this question is A because...

Although he didn't listen to Zhong Jianjun's explanation, Li Mubai was able to analyze it himself.

"Sigh—I imagine the new first-year high school students must be too excited to sleep right now. I'm getting old, but my younger schoolmates are still as vibrant as ever."

"Brother Chicken is feeling sentimental again."

"Don't you guys feel the same way? In the blink of an eye, we're already seniors in high school, and next June, we'll all be going our separate ways!" Yang Kun retorted.

Time really flies. Could I have imagined my life a year ago? Li Mubai thought to himself as he leaned against the headboard and read a book.

"When did the moon first appear by the riverbank? When did the river moon first shine on man? Life goes on endlessly, generation after generation, but the river moon remains the same year after year." Yang Kun said with a sigh.

"666, that's way beyond the scope of this statement. Is this still our Chicken Bro?" Zhao Feng joked.

"What the heck! I'm just an average student, not a top student."

Li Mubai closed the book and reached out to turn off the lamp.

It's almost midnight, time to sleep.

He lay down in the darkness, closed his eyes, and wondered what they would become a year later.