She had written an argumentative essay. If he couldn't understand it, did that mean there were issues with her chain of reasoning?
Sheng Xia lowered her voice and asked, "Zhang Shu... was my essay hard for you to understand?"
"If you have something to say, just say it. Stop calling my name all the time," Zhang Shu retorted, spinning his pen and glancing at her.
Sheng Xia: ...Isn't that what names are for?
Though she thought it, she simply nodded and said, "Oh, then about my essay..."
"It's awesome," he said.
His tone was perfunctory, and he had been a bit harsh earlier. Sheng Xia took the hint and didn't press further.
Her dejected expression as she lowered her head left Zhang Shu baffled. Wasn't praise enough?
"Do you really think I can't understand it?"
Hope flickered in Sheng Xia again. "So, did you understand it?"
Zhang Shu was momentarily speechless. "Haven't you heard the saying, 'If you haven't eaten pork, at least you've seen a pig run'?"
He might not be able to write like her, but that didn't mean he lacked the ability to appreciate good writing.
Sheng Xia looked serious. "Then why did you write 'unclear but impressive'..."
Zhang Shu glanced down at the comment he'd written—he'd just been lazy.
Then he pulled his own essay out from under her hand and saw her neat, elegant handwriting. Even her feedback was so eloquently written?
Fine. Tit for tat.
He crossed out the words "unclear but impressive" and wrote instead: Handwriting is amazi...
Before he could finish the word, a soft warning sounded in his ear. "Keep it appropriate..."
Zhang Shu shot her an impatient glare. For once, the girl didn't shrink back, her eyes filled with nothing but resolve.
His pen paused. He scratched out the half-written word and wrote: Handwriting—impressive. Style—impressive. Argument—impressive. Logic—impressive. Super impressive!!
Zhang Shu: "Satisfied now?"
Sheng Xia: ...
After Fu Jie finished explaining the material, it turned out Zhang Shu's thesis could only be considered third-rate, so his score wouldn't be high.
He didn't seem too bothered, though. Instead, he kept flipping through Sheng Xia's paper, as if pondering something, leaving her to use his paper for the lesson.
It wasn't until class ended that he finally returned her paper, then left with Hou Junqi.
Lu Youze came to collect the essays and made a point of looking at Sheng Xia's. "Sheng Xia, your handwriting keeps getting better!"
"Thanks," she replied, unsure how else to respond.
"Zhang Shu didn't write his name on his paper," Lu Youze said, pulling Zhang Shu's essay out and placing it on the desk. "Write it for him."
Lu Youze went off to collect papers from other groups.
"Okay," Sheng Xia said, writing in the name field: Zhang Shu.
Then she handed it in.
...
After dinner, Sheng Xia went to the fruit shop as usual and bought a cup of cucumber juice.
It was essentially freshly squeezed cucumber sugar water. The shop owner said it was a summer special. Sheng Xia loved its refreshing sweetness, perfect for beating the heat.
She and Xin Xiaohe strolled leisurely from the north gate back to the classroom.
They chatted about homework, exams, and Zhang Shu.
When Sheng Xia mentioned the "unclear but impressive" comment, Xiaohe burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. "If he weren't such a jerk, he'd probably be popular with everyone—guys and girls alike. Actually, the guys in our class all like him—they admire and look up to him. The girls are too intimidated to get close, but plenty still have crushes on him. Girls from other classes go crazy talking about him."
Sheng Xia was curious. "Then why isn't he dating anyone? For the sake of studying?"
Xiaohe's expression turned mysterious. "For studying? Have you ever seen him put his heart into studying?"
Sheng Xia shook her head. No, she hadn't.After sitting beside Zhang Shu for two days, Sheng Xia noticed that he was a punctuality fanatic—whether it was morning, afternoon, or evening self-study, he arrived exactly on time, occasionally late but never early.
However, according to Xin Xiaohe, he would leave late.
Though he was a day student, he stayed for the third evening self-study session with the boarders. If he hadn’t finished his homework, he would keep working until the school’s lights-out bell rang.
“He looks lazy, but he’s actually quite disciplined,” Xin Xiaohe remarked.
Sheng Xia sipped her cucumber juice and nodded. “Top students don’t just achieve that effortlessly.”
Xiaohe hugged her thermos and sighed, “But there are plenty of people who work harder than him. That one percent of talent can still crush ninety-nine percent of effort.”
“Speaking of which,” Xiaohe lowered her voice, “no matter how many girls like him, everyone knows he’s been chasing Chen Mengyao for years—from middle school till now, and still no luck.”
Sheng Xia asked, “Why…?”
Xiaohe shrugged. “Because he’s poor? Well, not exactly poor, but his family’s just average. For someone like Chen Mengyao, though, that counts as poor. That girl’s aiming to be a celebrity someday—who’d date a broke guy? The guys from vocational schools shower her with bags, phones, even cars, but she looks down on those nouveau riche types. Chen Mengyao’s after someone like Lu Youze—rich, cultured, a proper young master…”
Sheng Xia asked, “Do you know her too?”
“Who, Chen Mengyao?” Xiaohe seemed surprised Sheng Xia was engaging. “My roommate, Zhou Xuanxuan, our class’s arts committee member, used to be in the music club with Chen Mengyao and Zhang Shu. She’s close with Chen Mengyao and knows everything.”
Sheng Xia sipped her cucumber juice silently.
If they were so close, why would she spill her friend’s business to others? Strange friendship.
So, Zhang Shu suddenly topping the class and hustling to earn money was to prove himself to the girl he liked?
Not easy for someone so proud.
But still… he couldn’t break the law.
“What’re you thinking about?” Xiaohe teased, noticing her distraction. “Don’t tell me you’ve taken a liking to Zhang Shu?”
Sheng Xia quickly shook her head and changed the subject. “I was just wondering if I should stay for an extra self-study session before going home…”
Though she burned the midnight oil at home too, her efficiency was never as high as in the classroom. She’d been mulling over this for days.
Xiaohe said, “That’d be until 10:30. Aren’t you scared walking back?”
“I am…” Sheng Xia conceded quickly.
Xiaohe said, “Let’s just make the most of our fragmented time.”
The two returned to the classroom and buried themselves in homework.
As Sheng Xia focused on solving a problem, she heard a light tap on the window. Turning, she saw two girls standing outside, hesitating and nudging each other.
Sheng Xia didn’t recognize them but still opened the window.
One girl was pushed forward and timidly handed over a gift box, whispering, “Classmate, could you give this to Zhang Shu?”
Sheng Xia froze.
Her expression must have looked hesitant because the other girl added, “Just leave it on his desk. Thanks!”
Then they placed the box on the windowsill and scurried off, still nudging each other.
Sheng Xia: “……”
Someone in the classroom noticed and helpfully explained, “Probably another birthday gift for Zhang Shu. Just put it in his drawer.”
“Oh, okay.”Sheng Xia bent down, intending to place the box into Zhang Shu's desk drawer, only to find two gift boxes of varying sizes already stuffed inside...
She guessed they must have been left by classmates, bypassing her entirely.
This guy really was quite popular.
So she had no choice but to leave it on his desk.
Five minutes after the evening self-study bell rang, Zhang Shu arrived fashionably late. Sheng Xia hesitated over whether to mention the gifts, but then she saw him casually stack them on the floor without a second glance, as if this were perfectly normal.
She decided to let it go.
Sheng Xia thought that was the end of it, but the next morning before morning reading, she ended up collecting two more gifts for him. The situation was much like the previous night—he again piled them on the floor without opening them.
What had happened to last night's gifts?
Sheng Xia didn’t want to meddle, but thinking of the girls’ adoring, hopeful eyes, she couldn’t help herself.
"Zhang Shu..." she called softly.
Tentatively.
Zhang Shu turned his head. "What now?"
What did he mean, "now"?
She hadn’t spoken to him at all today, had she?
He really was a bit baffling.
But since she’d already started, Sheng Xia decided to finish. "Aren’t you going to open the gifts?"
Zhang Shu studied her, his gaze thoughtful. "You want to open them?"
Before she could respond, he scooped up the stack of gifts from the floor and placed them on her book box. "Here."
Sheng Xia: ...?
"Don’t girls like opening gifts?" he asked when she didn’t react.
Sheng Xia felt indignant on behalf of those girls. How could he just hand them off for someone else to open? "These are gifts for you, given with a lot of thought!"
Her voice carried a hint of anger.
How novel.
Zhang Shu raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" What was she getting at?
Then, as if suddenly understanding, he looked almost innocent. "I can’t exactly open them here, can I? I’ll take them home."
Sheng Xia flushed with embarrassment. She’d brought this on herself. "Oh, okay then."
At least he wasn’t throwing them away.
Zhang Shu let out an exasperated laugh, shaking his head as he watched her cheeks turn pink.
A bodhisattva with a meddlesome heart—quite the sight.
Since he did plan to open them, she decided she had a gift for him too.
Sheng Xia skipped her usual lunchtime nap, taking a cab straight to Yifang Bookstore after eating.
The shopkeeper was puzzled. "No class today?"
"There is, I just... wanted to buy a book on criminal law," Sheng Xia said.
"Criminal law?" The shopkeeper stepped out from behind the counter to help her look. "Do you need the legal codes or a textbook?"
Sheng Xia asked, "Can a regular person understand the legal codes?"
"Probably, yes."
"Then the codes, please."
The shopkeeper handed her a small red book. Sheng Xia spent a long time flipping through the table of contents before finally locating the section she needed: "Crime of Producing, Duplicating, Publishing, Selling, or Disseminating Pornographic Materials for Profit" under Chapter 6, Section 9. She paid and was about to mark the page when she hesitated, then called out to the shopkeeper again. "Sir, could you do me a favor...?"
When she returned from the bookstore, it was still early. Sheng Xia stopped by a stationery shop to buy an elegant gift box. She placed the little red book at the bottom, then reconsidered—giving someone a law book for their birthday seemed a bit harsh. So she ducked into the neighboring sports store and bought a set of knee pads, adding them to the box.
While everyone was still napping, she slipped the gift box into Zhang Shu’s desk drawer.
That afternoon, Zhang Shu arrived just in time for class as usual. When he reached for his books and noticed the gift box, he showed no particular reaction, simply placing it beside his desk like the others.He didn't open it until school ended, leaving with two or three gift boxes in his arms as usual.
But Sheng Xia's nerves remained tightly wound.
She had imagined many scenarios of him seeing the legal provisions—he would probably be angry, would definitely try to guess who sent them, and might even glare with a cold, ruthless expression...
Would he think of her? His business partners, his buyers, the girls who secretly admired him and followed his every move—any of them could be suspects.
But what if, just what if, he did think of her?
She couldn't worry about that now. She just hoped he would turn back from the wrong path.
Actually, many people, especially guys, probably didn’t even realize this was a crime, right?
He was so smart, his future so bright—he wouldn’t be foolish enough to mess up like this. He would surely weigh the pros and cons.
Thinking this way, Sheng Xia felt slightly better.
After dinner, she rested for a while, but her mind remained restless. She opened the window, but even the evening summer breeze was warm, doing nothing to ease her agitation. For a moment, she even wished he would find out sooner—better to face the consequences now than drag it out.
She decided to go to the north gate to buy a cucumber juice.
By now, it was almost time for evening self-study, and the cucumber juice was sold out due to high demand. The owner enthusiastically offered to peel and juice one for her right away.
Unable to refuse his kindness, she had no choice but to wait.
Just as she got her cucumber juice, the bell for evening self-study rang urgently. Sheng Xia hurriedly jogged back to the classroom.
Lu Youze was handing out essays from a couple of days ago, and everyone was comparing their scores. The classroom fans whirred overhead, papers flying everywhere.
Sheng Xia was relieved by the chaotic scene—it allowed her to slip in unnoticed.
Surprisingly, Zhang Shu had arrived earlier than her.
She squeezed past him into her seat, still panting heavily, when she sensed something off about his mood.
Before she could even settle in, Zhang Shu suddenly turned toward her, planting his foot on the chair's crossbar and resting his arm on the back of her seat, as if trapping her in the corner. One corner of his mouth lifted in a humorless smirk as he stared at her.
" Sheng. Xia. "
This might have been the first time he had ever said her name.
Slow, deliberate, and through gritted teeth.
Had he... found out?
Sheng Xia's rapid breath hitched. She held it, meeting his gaze as if awaiting judgment.
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