I’ll Write It for You Tonight

By the end of the month, No. 1 High held its routine monthly examination.

Tian Hongjun printed out the results and posted them at the back of the classroom, letting the students check for themselves.

Since Shi Sui sat in the last row, Tian Hongjun pasted the score sheet on the wall right next to him, as if afraid he might miss it.

Lu Huaizhi was on the first line, ranked first in the class and first in the grade.

Shi Sui, performing with his usual stability, occupied the throne of the very last place. The two seatmates formed a stark, vivid contrast.

Wang Cheng poked his head over to look. “Dad, how did you score so miserably?”

Shi Sui shifted his gaze upward, looking at the person two points higher than him in second-to-last place. “?” “Screw off.”

He pushed Wang Cheng’s obstructing head back and continued looking at his own grades. Except for Chinese, not a single subject had passed 20 points.

“Wait a minute! Since when did you start caring about your grades?” Wang Cheng looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Dad, don’t do anything rash. How am I supposed to survive if you’re not there to be my safety net at the bottom?”

“Stop messing around,” Shi Sui said. “I remember you once improved fifty places in the rankings. How did you do it?”

His grades were usually similar to Wang Cheng’s—bottom of the class. In a grade of nearly 500 people, they always hovered in the last ten. But once, Wang Cheng had suddenly jumped to 450th place and bragged about it for ages.

“That time?” Wang Cheng was about to explain, then stopped. “Wait, why are you asking? You’re not actually thinking about studying hard, are you?”

Shi Sui pursed his lips. “My grandmother mentioned it.”

It was the end of the month, and having received his wages from his part-time job at the internet cafe, he had made time to visit her.

While he was there, his grandmother had been chatting with a neighbor about their grandsons. The neighbor proudly claimed her grandson’s grades were much better than Shi Sui’s—ranked in the 400s—while Shi Sui was just a punk who sat at the tail end of the rankings and only knew how to fight and cause trouble.

Shi Sui’s grandmother had gotten into a huge argument with the woman out of anger.

When Shi Sui arrived, his grandmother looked both angry and aggrieved. “My grandson definitely isn’t worse than anyone else!” Then she looked at him expectantly.

Shi Sui could only grit his teeth and promise: “Next month, I’ll bring you a report card that’ll let you vent your anger.” If even Wang Cheng could score that high, surely it wouldn’t be that difficult.

“Grandma’s request, huh?” Wang Cheng rubbed his nose sheepishly. “Back then… I just guessed…”

That time, he had been possessed by the god of exams. He guessed correctly on most of the multiple-choice questions for English and Math, and for the Math fill-in-the-blanks, he blindly wrote 0 and 1, which happened to be right.

Shi Sui: “?” A vein throbbed at his temple. “You had the nerve to brag to us for a whole month about a bunch of guesses?”

“Of course! That was the best score of my life.” Wang Cheng puffed out his chest proudly.

However, under Shi Sui’s intense glare, he quickly wilted and shrank his neck. “Hey, don’t get worked up.”

“If you want to improve your grades, don’t you have a ready-made ‘cheat code’ right next to you?”

Wang Cheng gestured toward Lu Huaizhi and lowered his voice: “Your seatmate is number one in the grade. If you get him to tutor you, wouldn’t overtaking that neighbor’s grandson take just minutes?”

Shi Sui didn’t respond immediately, but he instinctively glanced at the person beside him.

Lu Huaizhi was holding a pen, writing something in a notebook.

Shi Sui’s eyelid twitched. It was that blue-covered notebook again.

In the middle of writing, Lu Huaizhi would glance at the score sheet on the wall. His gaze was clearly fixed on the very bottom of the list.

Wang Cheng, sharp-eyed, realized Lu Huaizhi was copying down Shi Sui’s scores and asked in surprise, “Top Student, why are you copying Shi Sui’s grades?”

Lu Huaizhi finished writing the last few subjects. “He doesn’t like me. I think if I understand him a little better, the situation might improve.”

His tone was calm, but it left Wang Cheng dumbfounded. “No, wait… Top Student, you care about Shi Sui that much? No wonder you said yesterday you’d only let him copy your homework…”

At this time, there were still many students crowded around checking the scores. Hearing their conversation, they all cast shocked glances at Shi Sui.

“To what extent has Shi Sui bullied Lu Huaizhi that he’d say something like that?” “I knew it. Shi Sui just uses his fighting skills to boss Lu Huaizhi around.” “Keep it down, don’t let him hear you. Class is starting, get back to your seats.”

The crowd dispersed instantly. Someone even bumped into a desk in their haste, creating a brief moment of chaos.

Shi Sui’s reputation was victimized once again.

Wang Cheng burst out laughing. “No, Top Student, what exactly attracts you to Shi Sui? Is he that special?”

To outsiders, Shi Sui was a person of bad character, yet Lu Huaizhi kept using every method possible to get close to him. Even as dense as Wang Cheng was, he had noticed.

Shi Sui remained expressionless. “That’s enough—”

Before he could finish, he saw Lu Huaizhi pick up his pen again and draw a circle around Shi Sui’s Physics score.

“He is indeed special.” Lu Huaizhi paused. “I’ve never seen someone get an 8 in Physics.”

Wang Cheng: “Huh?” Shi Sui: “…” His fists tightened.

Just as Shi Sui was debating whether to slam that annoying blue notebook onto Lu Huaizhi’s head or drag him out by the collar for a beating, Tian Hongjun’s loud voice boomed from the podium.

“Didn’t you hear the bell? Sit down, all of you!”

Shi Sui’s hand, which was about to grab Lu Huaizhi’s collar, froze. Fine. He’d beat the kid up after class.

Near the end of the lesson, Tian Hongjun suddenly brought up the monthly exam results.

“Our class did well this time. Five of the top twenty in the grade are from our class.”

Since Lu Huaizhi transferred, the class had held several small quizzes. Every time, Lu Huaizhi had the highest score, which put a lot of pressure on the top students and created a very positive “chemical reaction.”

This time, the top performers had all done well.

Tian Hongjun smiled as he looked at Lu Huaizhi. But when he saw the person next to him, staring blankly into space and clearly daydreaming, his mood went from sunny to cloudy.

He slapped the podium. “However! Among the bottom five in the grade, three are from our class!” The ratio made Tian Hongjun’s chest tighten just thinking about it.

“Shi Sui, stand up!” His voice was full of grief and indignation. “I told you not to leave the essay blank. You did great—you just copied the entire reading comprehension text from the back of the test!”

If there weren’t enough words, he even knew to start copying from the beginning again.

When Tian Hongjun had seen Shi Sui’s essay, he nearly had a stroke from anger.

“So you like copying that much, huh?” Tian Hongjun huffed. “Then you’re going to copy Lu Huaizhi’s essay five times. Take a good look at how others write!”

After school, the classroom gradually emptied until only the three of them were left.

Wang Cheng was hunched over his desk, frantically writing the corrections the Physics teacher had assigned. Lu Huaizhi sat as he always did during class—back straight, eyes lowered, focusing on his problems.

Shi Sui sat expressionlessly staring at the Chinese exam paper in front of him.

In all fairness, Lu Huaizhi’s handwriting was indeed excellent—vigorous, powerful, and flowing smoothly. It was genuinely pleasing to the eye.

But for a stupid essay, was it necessary to fill every single box?

Looking at the tiny gap of only two lines left at the bottom, Shi Sui strongly suspected that if it weren’t for the fact that a completely filled page would look messy, Lu Huaizhi probably would have filled those two lines as well.

Nevertheless, Shi Sui obediently copied it once, trying to find the secret to a high score. But looking at those literary, classically-referenced sentences, he felt his head spinning.

Fed up with copying, Shi Sui threw his pen onto the desk.

At that moment, Lu Huaizhi was working on a Physics paper and just happened to flip the page.

Shi Sui glanced over and saw the fully written paper. The mockery of that [8 points] from this morning echoed in his ears again.

He pressed his hand down on Lu Huaizhi’s paper, stopping him. “Lu Huaizhi, you think you’re hot sh*t because your Physics score is high?” His tone was nasty, clearly looking for trouble.

Lu Huaizhi looked at Shi Sui’s right hand pressed against the exam paper and suddenly asked, “Does your wrist hurt after copying for so long?”

“It’s fine—” Shi Sui answered instinctively, then realized something was wrong. “The f*ck… whether my wrist hurts is none of your business!”

“Of course it’s my business.” Lu Huaizhi looked down at the Chinese paper on Shi Sui’s desk. “If I had known the teacher would make you copy my essay, I wouldn’t have written so many words.”

“I’ll definitely be careful next time.”

Shi Sui: “?” What kind of sh*t logic was that?

“I’m talking to you about Physics!” Shi Sui pulled the conversation back, his voice cold.

Lu Huaizhi nodded. “Don’t worry. I don’t discriminate against students with low scores.”

Shi Sui poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue. He wanted to hit someone again.

Before he could explode, a bottle of water was suddenly handed to him. “Are you thirsty?”

Shi Sui: “…” How did Lu Huaizhi mistake the precursor to a beating for thirst?

Seeing that he didn’t take it, Lu Huaizhi paused, then reached out to unscrew the cap for him. He handed it over again and lowered his voice: “Don’t be angry. I forgot to unscrew it.”

“You mother…” The fists hanging at Shi Sui’s sides clenched and unclenched. “Don’t speak to me in that tone!”

As Lu Huaizhi leaned closer, the distance between them narrowed imperceptibly. When he spoke, his breath faintly brushed against Shi Sui’s ear. In that instant, Shi Sui smelled that scent again—clean and pleasant, slowly surrounding him.

Combined with the lowered voice, it sounded like he was coaxing someone.

When Wang Cheng looked back from the front row, this was the scene he saw.

The Top Student was holding an open bottle of water, offering it to Shi Sui. Wait? Since when was Shi Sui so weak he couldn’t even unscrew a cap?

Wang Cheng was about to say something when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and his eyes widened.

His tough-as-nails brother actually had the tips of his right ear flushed deep red. In fact, the area behind his ear was turning red as well. It looked like an allergic reaction.

Shi Sui’s skin was pale, so any redness was very obvious.

“Wait, Shi Sui, what’s wrong with you?” Wang Cheng instinctively reached out toward Shi Sui’s ear. “Did you get a mosquito bite on your ear?”

Shi Sui tilted his head to dodge. “Keep your hands to yourself.” He rubbed his ear carelessly. “It’s just hot, that’s all.”

Wang Cheng looked at the air conditioner whirring away in the classroom. “Man, you’ve got some intense internal fire!”

Recently, the students couldn’t stand the stuffiness, and after a lot of pestering, the Dean finally agreed to turn on the AC. The cooling effect was excellent, and since they were directly in the path of the vent, both he and Lu Huaizhi had put on their uniform jackets. He didn’t expect Shi Sui to still feel hot.

Lu Huaizhi’s gaze lingered on Shi Sui’s ear for a while before he moved it away unobtrusively.

Shi Sui roughly brushed aside the Chinese paper, pulled out his Physics exam, and looked at the first question. He had to regain some dignity.

“A stationary Be nucleus captures an extra-nuclear K-shell electron e…” Shi Sui looked wordless. Wasn’t he looking at Physics? Why were chemical valences appearing?

Are Physics and Chemistry inseparable now?

Also, why was the answer key for the first multiple-choice question just [Omitted]? Who are you looking down on?

Shi Sui got successfully stuck on the very first question, filling him with a stomach full of rage.

Lu Huaizhi, seeing Shi Sui’s gaze fixed on those charges, spoke up: “This question is solved based on the conservation of mass and charge.”

He picked up a pen and wrote the nuclear reaction equation on the scratch paper.

Only then did Shi Sui understand. It turned out he had confused charges with valences…

It felt like he had learned it, yet also hadn’t.

Still, Shi Sui maintained his cool exterior. “I knew that already. I don’t need you to teach me.”

Wang Cheng listened in as well. “Whoa, Top Student, I actually didn’t understand that one either. The teacher didn’t even go over the first multiple-choice question.” It meant he didn’t even know the answer for his correction set.

“Anyway, Top Student, what about the second one?”

Lu Huaizhi rolled up his uniform sleeves, took a new sheet of scratch paper, and began explaining.

“Top Student, your explanation is so detailed!” Wang Cheng scratched his head. “I had actually looked at the theory in the book and remembered it, but I didn’t expect you to be so thoughtful as to explain what every letter in the equation represents.”

Shi Sui, who had understood the question by eavesdropping: “?” Something felt off.

However, he had to admit that Lu Huaizhi really had a knack for teaching. His logic was clear, and there wasn’t a single wasted word.

Steady and reliable.

Shi Sui wavered a bit. Maybe… he could ask Lu Huaizhi for help?

While he was debating, Wang Cheng suddenly shoved his phone in front of him. “Shi Sui, look! We’re famous!”

Shi Sui looked at the screen.

It turned out Wang Cheng had edited the footage from yesterday’s basketball game with Yellow Hair and posted it to the school forum. The final scene showed Shi Sui passing the ball to Lu Huaizhi for the winning three-pointer.

The video even featured a close-up of the two of them locking eyes before the pass.

[2L: Holy sh*t! Is this really a basketball game? There are zero rules.] [4L: The ones Shi Sui was playing against were the thugs from South Alley, right? I saw Red Hair intentionally bumping people several times. Luckily, Shi Sui isn’t someone to mess with and took him down.]

[7L: To be honest, Shi Sui’s skills are amazing. To win under such a disadvantage through sheer individual effort.]

[8L: Individual effort my *ss. Didn’t someone else make the final three-pointer? Who is that guy? To score from that angle…] [9L: I know him. He’s in Shi Sui’s class, Lu Huaizhi. Not only is he good at ball, but his grades are insane. He’s number one in the grade for this monthly exam!]

[10L: Are you guys ignoring something? This guy is so f*cking handsome!] [11L: Seconded! He even taught that traitor Qian Hao a lesson. So cool!]

Shi Sui: “?” When it was him, it was “playing dirty,” but when it was Lu Huaizhi, it was “cool”? Is there something wrong with these people’s brains?

Starting from that floor, the comments went completely off-track. Everyone was praising Lu Huaizhi’s looks. Someone even took a screenshot of his shot and analyzed the angle and posture—they were practically ready to peel him out of the screen.

[24L: Wait, look at Lu Huaizhi’s forearm. Is that a bite mark?] [25L: It really looks like one? That position is way too suggestive. Does the Top Student have a secret girlfriend? My heart is shattered.] [26L: His partner is so wild. Look at that mark; it must have bled before, right?]

[30L: Quite fierce.]

Shi Sui: “Are you people sick?” How did his method of self-defense in a moment of crisis become “erotic play” in their eyes?

Shi Sui impatiently brushed Wang Cheng’s phone away. He glanced over and saw that Lu Huaizhi had also found the forum. With a slight movement of his finger, Lu Huaizhi gave the last comment a “Like.”

Shi Sui’s face turned even sourer.

Wang Cheng had also seen the comments and curiously looked at Lu Huaizhi’s arm. “Whoa, there really is a bite mark.”

When Lu Huaizhi was explaining the questions, he had rolled his sleeves up a bit, revealing the mark.

“Top Student, the one who bit you wouldn’t happen to be the person you said you were pursuing, right?” Wang Cheng still remembered Lu Huaizhi asking for the Sports Rep’s advice on chasing someone.

Lu Huaizhi pulled his sleeve down to cover the mark and glanced at Shi Sui. Shi Sui: “…”

“Top Student, I’m asking about the person who bit you. Why are you looking at Shi Sui?” Wang Cheng looked confused. “But the one you’re chasing is really a bit fierce. Have you considered someone else?”

After this monthly exam and the basketball video, Lu Huaizhi would definitely become a celebrity at school on par with Shi Sui. There certainly wouldn’t be a shortage of girls who liked him.

To his surprise, Lu Huaizhi denied it quickly: “I won’t change.” After saying that, he glanced at Shi Sui again, as if declaring his loyalty.

Shi Sui’s face was stiff. “If your eyes are cramping, close them.”

Wang Cheng’s gaze bounced between the two of them. “No, why are you two being so weird…”

Before he could finish asking, they were interrupted by a sweet female voice.

“Excuse me, is Lu Huaizhi here?” A girl in a short skirt with a cute face appeared at the back door. She scanned the three of them and quickly locked onto Lu Huaizhi. She walked into the classroom and offered an envelope with both hands. “Hello, this is my love letter.”

Her goal was direct.

“I’m sorry.” Lu Huaizhi’s expression was calm, and he rejected her quickly.

The girl looked like she had expected it, but she still placed the letter on Lu Huaizhi’s desk. “It’s embarrassing to take a love letter back. Just throw it away for me!”

Without lingering, she left briskly.

Shi Sui, having watched the whole show, felt a bit bored. He kicked Wang Cheng’s chair. “Are your corrections done? Come smoke a cigarette with me.” Writing questions had triggered his nicotine craving.

Wang Cheng: “Wait a sec, I need to buy a lighter.” His lighter had been found in his pocket by Tian Hongjun today and confiscated. Luckily, his cigarettes were well-hidden.

Wang Cheng tossed a cigarette to Shi Sui. “Back in a flash.”

Only Shi Sui and Lu Huaizhi were left in the classroom.

The love letter on the desk was so eye-catching that Shi Sui couldn’t help but look at it. The envelope wasn’t the traditional pink; it was blue, with a small red maple leaf in the corner. It was very pretty.

Just as he was about to look away, Lu Huaizhi suddenly spoke: “I bought one too.”

Shi Sui looked up. “?”

“I mean a love letter envelope.” Lu Huaizhi frowned. “I bought it online, but the delivery is too slow.” It was the fourth day since he placed the order, and the tracking showed it wouldn’t arrive until tonight.

Lu Huaizhi’s tone was serious: “Don’t worry. I’ll write it for you tonight.”