We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

On Wednesday, during the break between classes, Li Mubai and Xie Shu handed their revised essays to Teacher Yang.

Li Mubai originally wanted to meet the deadline, but Xie Shu wanted to submit the manuscript as soon as possible, so Li Mubai naturally chose to submit them together, as it would be too awkward for one person to submit alone.

"Okay, I'll put your essays in the drawer for now. The school will submit them all on the 25th, and the公示 period will be next February. We'll talk about it then." Teacher Yang put away the two essays.

Li Mubai recalled the call for submissions he had seen before. Didn't the submission notice say to submit a Word document? Did the school expect them to type it in manually?

After the two left, Teacher Zhou teased, "Sister Qin, what methods did you use to get Li Mubai to participate?"

"Last time you said that Li Mubai listens to Xie Shu more, so I did just that."

"Oh~ do you guys think this guy likes Xie Shu?"

One teacher speculated that everyone loves gossip, whether they are teachers or students.

"Judging from what Mikoto and Sister Qin said, it's probably true."

Teacher Zhou wholeheartedly agreed. In fact, she felt that Li Mubai's attitude towards Xie Shu was different. He showed distance from Xie Shu, yet longed to get closer. His subconscious gaze during class was a clear sign of unrequited love.

These are all old paths that teachers have already walked.

"These students these days don't know anything about love; they just want to be together," one teacher commented.

"Yes, the students haven't thought about the future at all. Whether they can stay together or not depends on whether they are well-matched in terms of social status, not just grades, but also class and so on. I heard that Xie Shu's family is quite wealthy."

As adults, teachers think about love differently from students. They believe that love cannot overcome everything, and that being well-matched is the true foundation for a long and happy life together. Clearly, they do not approve of this unrequited love.

Sighing inwardly, Teacher Zhou thought to herself, "Who doesn't have an unattainable 'white moonlight' in their heart?"

With the essay writing session coming to an end, Li Mubai prepared to continue writing poetry; he couldn't give up his old skills.

Yan Shu seems to be quite busy lately. In the past, besides her bi-weekly assignments, she would also work on other topics. No wonder she's making such rapid progress.

But the most extreme was Lu You, who made it a daily practice, writing one poem a day, just like a high school student's homework.

"Huang Lingling, come and distribute the workbooks. Once you have them, start explaining the problems."

Since learning about the joint entrance exam, the teachers have become even stricter. On Wednesday evening, they spent an entire math study session going over the workbook exercises. Fortunately, he did some homework during his club activities.

Xie Shu seemed very busy, constantly making corrections in his notebook. At first, Li Mubai thought he was revising the manuscript, but since the manuscript had already been submitted, it seemed he had other things to do.

Today it was their group's turn to clean. Xie Shu was still the group leader even after the change of position, and everyone seemed to assume that she would be in charge of all the responsibilities.

Li Mubai took a rag to the sink. He was a boy when he needed to mop the floor, and when he didn't need to mop the floor, he would wipe the blackboard. But it was quite cold in winter.

He shook the water off his hands, and they warmed up a bit, but were still red from the cold.

Deng Yi stood at the classroom door waiting for Xie Shu. Li Mubai didn't know what he was thinking. He couldn't clean up with Xie Shu and go back together. Was he relieved? Or sad? Maybe both.

After cleaning, he carried the garbage bag and walked alone into the darkness.

"Shu, it's time to go," Deng Yi called out.

Xie Shu looked away and gave a soft "hmm".

"Shu, why did you suddenly want to perform in a play? I remember you never liked performing before." After walking for a while, Deng Yi suddenly asked.

"I want to act."

"It's that simple?"

"Um."

Deng Yi sighed inwardly, but this was at least a good development. Xie Shu was lonely too, wasn't he? That's why she and Xie Shu became friends.

"Shu, Li Mubai didn't do anything, did he?"

"without."

"That's good."

……

"Li Mubai".

Li Mubai, who was taking out the trash, ran into Jiao Yong and Wang Rui, who were returning from the convenience store. Jiao Yong called out to him.

"What's wrong?"

Jiao Yong glanced at Wang Rui, who understood, and then walked away.

Jiao Yong said hesitantly, "Li Mubai, there's a question I want to ask you."

Is this a confession? What the heck? I'm not a bottom.

"Uh—go ahead and ask."

"So, do you like Chen Qiuhe or not?"

Ah this...

"dislike."

"That's alright then, thank you."

Li Mubai was terrified, thinking he had run into a monster. He picked up the trash bag and continued towards the landfill.

"How was it?" Wang Rui asked, looking at Jiao Yong who had run back.

He said he didn't like it.

"I've already told you, but you don't believe me and insist on asking me in person."

"Haha, this is just to confirm," Jiao Yong laughed.

"It's no use even if you confirm it. Anyway, I don't think Chen Qiuhe likes you. It's been more than a month, and she hasn't even accepted your QQ request. Even Fei Yangyang has to call you 'Ancestor'."

"Ugh."

"Stop licking the burnt bits, just give up."

"Ugh."

Boys generally don't admit to their failures, but two sighs say it all.

"Li Mubai, look what this is!" Chen Qiuhe said proudly, holding up her MP4 player after school on Friday.

"The black box."

Fun fact: the black box is actually orange.

"This is an MP4 file."

Li Mubai took a look out of curiosity. To be honest, this was the first time he had ever seen a legendary MP4 player in his life. It was something that had been superseded by smartphones and was probably only used by students.

"Want to listen to some music together?" Chen Qiuhe took out a pair of wired headphones.

"I won't listen." He has a phone and headphones, why should he listen with others?

"Ha, even if you wanted to hear it, I wouldn't let you."

It turns out it was revenge for the coffee incident from last time.

Li Mubai put on his headphones and listened to music. If he could sit by the window, he could also watch the ever-flowing scenery along the road.

What music do you listen to?

"The Lone Warrior".

Li Mubai played "Walking Through the Long Space of Time," closed his eyes, and prepared to take a short nap.

……

When I opened my eyes again, the scenery outside the car window was completely unfamiliar. I had missed my stop, and the spider sense had failed this time.

Fortunately, it was only two stops past home and not far from his house. It took him more than half an hour to walk to his parents' restaurant.

"Xiao Bai, why are you so late coming home tonight?"

"I missed my stop."

"Remember to message us if you come home late next time. We thought something had happened to you."

Li Mubai took out his phone and found that his mother had sent him several messages, but he hadn't seen them because he was in a hurry to get going.

"OK."

After returning home, he did some homework, then washed up and went to bed.

Li Bubai: "Have you been busy lately?"

Yan Shu: "Hmm, a little."

Li Bubai: "Okay, I'm all set here. We were going to continue the research project for another two weeks."

Yan Shu: "I'll continue when I'm done with my work."

Li Bubai: "Okay."

Yan Shu: "Good night."

"She went to bed so early," Li Mubai muttered to himself, and replied to her with a message from the moon.

He opened his WeChat again, scrolled to Xie Shu's chat page, and the last message was still about the essay contest.

His fingers repeatedly typed and deleted on the phone's keyboard, but he felt he had nothing to say. Finally, he exited the app and turned off his phone, plunging the room into darkness.

Ding dong.

It's a message from QQ.

The ruthless test-taking machine requests to add you as a friend.

Who is this? A ruthless coding challenge machine? Li Mubai clicked on his verification message.

"This is Xing Yi. I need to talk to you about something."