The break was almost over when Dou Sheng finally returned from outside. He placed a hand-painted paper cup, which was radiating a chill, on Xie Lan’s desk. “Your afternoon tea has arrived. Please accept it.”

Xie Lan said thanks, glanced at the sticky note on the large white notebook, and calmly stood up to let him in.

Che Ziming stared at the two cups of milk tea for a moment, subconsciously looked at his own desk, then turned to look at Wang Gou, and craned his neck to look at Dai You.

“Don’t we get any?”

Dou Sheng glanced at him. “The shop at the gate is slow. Didn’t have time to make six cups.”

Che Ziming sighed in disappointment. “True.”

Xie Lan happened to pick up the paper cup and take a sip of the milk tea. The cool sensation slid down his throat into his stomach, instantly soothing the depression of writing the self-criticism.

He sighed softly in comfort.

“Damn, I’m craving it now.” Che Ziming pushed Yu Fei. “Let’s order milk tea delivery to be sent during P.E. class. What do you want to drink?”

Yu Fei struggled up from the desk. “I’ll order then.”

“Okay, I want taro balls. Order a latte for Dai You. What about Gouzi?”

Hearing this, Wang Gou was a bit flustered. “I’ll pass. Water quenches my thirst just fine. Isn’t milk tea quite cloying?”

“Don’t be like that,” Yu Fei said, yawning. “My treat, give me some face.”

Wang Gou froze. “Your treat?”

Yu Fei tilted his head back, spacing out for a moment. “Celebrating that Che Ziming hasn’t come to annoy me during breaks recently. Peace and quiet is priceless… I’ll order you this signature osmanthus brew, with added black sticky rice.”

“Then… okay.” Wang Gou’s dark face turned red again. He paused before saying, “I haven’t had milk tea before. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it; I should thank you.” Yu Fei leaned against the wall to place the order. “I’ll cover milk tea for this semester. Please continue to share the burden of this annoying skin (Che Ziming) for me.”

Che Ziming immediately threw his butt onto him, shouting, “Gouzi, don’t be polite with this stinky fish! Rip him off!”

Shouts of fighting and killing surrounded them. Xie Lan drank his milk tea, watching the tigers fight.

On the surface watching tigers, in reality secretly watching Dou (Beans).

After Dou Sheng came back, he started zoning out. Every afternoon during the long break, if the weather was sunny and the breeze gentle, Dou Sheng would stop whatever he was doing and stare out the window for a while.

Only today, he held a cup of milk tea identical to Xie Lan’s in his hand.

Xie Lan glanced again at the notebook pressed under Dou Sheng’s arm and asked, seemingly inadvertently, “What’s the next video about?”

Dou Sheng came back to his senses. “Haven’t decided yet. I’ll think about it slowly.”

As he spoke, he casually flipped open the planning notebook, then his movements suddenly froze.

Xie Lan had already put down his milk tea extremely naturally and continued writing his self-criticism. His left hand referenced the first-person perspective self-criticism in front of him, while his right hand wrote the perspective shift smoothly. It also served as grammar practice—killing two birds with one stone.

After a while, Xie Lan heard Dou Sheng clear his throat.

He put down his pen and glanced to the side, seeing Dou Sheng holding the cup again and looking out the window, appearing somewhat dazed.

Probably struck dumb by the criticism that fell from the sky.

Expressionless, Xie Lan placed his pencil case between them, turned on the video recording on his phone, and propped it against the pencil case. The lens faced Dou Sheng, the screen faced himself.

This angle couldn’t capture the person, only the desk and hands. Dou Sheng was holding that pink sticky note, his slender fingers gently rubbing the paper surface, seeming somewhat at a loss.

After a long time, the hands in the lens gently folded the pink sticky note, put it into the pencil case, and zipped up the zipper that had been left half-open for ten thousand years.

“Cough.”

Dou Sheng cleared his throat. “Did anyone come over here just now?”

Xie Lan hesitated for a moment.

Saying it was Feng Miao directly seemed inappropriate. Although Feng Miao had indeed come to roast Dou Sheng, that sentence had been changed by him, and changed somewhat bluntly.

He paused before saying, “Lots of people came by. Why?”

“Nothing.”

Dou Sheng put down the milk tea, picked it up again, took a sip, and put it down again.

Then he unzipped the pencil case and rummaged through the pile of identical ballpoint pens.

In the lens, the pink sticky note peeked out from inside the pencil case. Dou Sheng’s good-looking fingers quickly unfolded the folded note, paused for a moment, then folded it back and zipped it up again.

“By the way,” Dou Sheng said. “How is your copybook practice going recently?”

A plain and simple question, but Xie Lan’s heart skipped a beat.

Exposed so soon?

He brushed his hand over the phone screen, calmly stopped the video recording, and asked back, “It’s okay. Why do you ask?”

Dou Sheng’s brows furrowed slightly. His distinct black and white eyes held openness but also a bit of confusion and inquiry.

The two were very close, close enough to see the amplitude of each other’s hair strands trembling gently in the air.

After a long time, Dou Sheng shook his head. “Nothing.”

---

The third period in the afternoon was Physics. The moment the bell rang, the sound of Hu Xiujie’s high heels also sounded at the back door. The classroom instantly fell silent. Xie Lan hurriedly pocketed his phone and took out his physics notes.

In his peripheral vision, Dou Sheng also slowly tidied up his desk, smoothed out those notebooks and papers, casually opened a physics textbook to press under his arm, his left hand still gently pinching that sticky note through the pencil case.

Hu Xiujie stood on the podium with a stern face. “I’ve looked at the homework papers assigned over the weekend. Sitting in this classroom, there are actually people losing points on comprehensive questions about electromagnetic equilibrium. This class, we will go over four example problems. If you get it wrong next time, come to my office and explain it to my face.”

Below, everyone was silent as cicadas in winter. Everyone was cautious even when opening their notebooks, daring not to make a sound.

Xie Lan had absolutely no problems with electromagnetic equilibrium. He glanced at Hu Xiujie, who had her back to everyone writing on the board, and silently took out his self-criticism again. Dou Sheng showed no abnormality either, bowing his head and writing shua shua shua along with him.

Xie Lan thought he was also writing a self-criticism, but unexpectedly, after a short while, Dou Sheng tore off the sheet of paper he had just written on, folded it twice, and tossed it over.

• You changed the words, right? Where is the original note?

Xie Lan froze at this sentence.

While he was hesitating, Dou Sheng reached out and took the paper back, wrote shua shua shua for a long time, and threw it over again.

• I just felt like I’d seen it somewhere. The original sentence was “You did not intend to be the wind passing through the hall, yet your solitary arrogance caused a mountain flood,” right? Did you misunderstand? This isn’t a roast; it’s a confession.
• Did you write it yourself, or did someone else write it and you changed it?
• Leniency for those who confess, confess quickly.

The last eight characters looked like a last-minute addition; the handwriting was scribbled, and the last stroke of “come” (lai) dragged out very long.

Xie Lan didn’t have time to ponder that much, staring blankly at the word “confession.”

Confession?

He subconsciously looked up towards Feng Miao—it was hot in the afternoon, so Feng Miao had taken off her uniform jacket. Her refreshing short-sleeved shirt fluttered gently in the breeze, and her high ponytail bobbed up and down with her note-taking movements.

He suddenly remembered her constrained and contradictory appearance just now, and suddenly felt struck by lightning.

Dou Sheng, not getting an answer, seemed a bit anxious, unconsciously squeezing his fingers.

Xie Lan subconsciously turned to look at him, only to find Dou Sheng staring at him. Their eyes met, and Dou Sheng immediately withdrew his gaze, leaning back against the windowsill and yawning.

He tore off another strip of paper and wrote again: Who left the note exactly?

Xie Lan frowned unconsciously at the strip of paper.

Although he didn’t understand Chinese love poems and made a joke of himself, he wasn’t mentally deficient. He could still understand this obvious display of suppressed anxiety. Usually, this kind of reaction only indicated one thing—Dou Sheng had an expected person in his heart who might confess to him. Although that person wasn’t necessarily Feng Miao, such an existence must be there.

Xie Lan suddenly felt agitated. He couldn’t say if he was annoyed by the misunderstanding he caused, or by something else.

He picked up the milk tea and took a sip, frowning.

The milk tea didn’t taste good anymore.

Dou Sheng seemed very anxious, pushing that note towards him again and giving him an inquiring look.

Feng Miao actually hadn’t signed her name, and had instructed Xie Lan not to tell Dou Sheng she had come.

After a moment of silence, Xie Lan simply reached into his desk, pulled out the original sticky note, and whispered, “Don’t know who it was. I thought it was originally roasting you. Sorry.”

As soon as his voice fell, he felt Dou Sheng’s mood seem to drop instantly. After a good while, Dou Sheng lifted the note to look at it, then casually crumpled it up and threw it into the trash bag hanging by the desk.

Xie Lan looked back at him, only to see him glance faintly in Feng Miao’s direction, then withdraw his gaze. His expression was as plain as before, perhaps even more indifferent than usual.

Xie Lan couldn’t help asking, “How did you know it was her?”

“Xie Lan, stand up.”

Hu Xiujie’s icy voice suddenly rang out.

Xie Lan’s heart thumped. Under the sympathetic gazes of all the “owls,” he silently stood up.

Hu Xiujie put down her lecture notes and said coldly, “I see you have fewer and fewer rules. You dare to talk to your neighbor in my physics class?”

The surroundings were dead silent; even the chirping sparrows outside the window stopped calling. Xie Lan took a silent deep breath and lowered his eyes. “Sorry, Teacher.”

“Don’t say sorry to me! Teacher usually tolerates you because you are smart and hardworking, and I feel for you struggling with schoolwork after just returning to the country. Is this how you study? Not returning to the dorm when you should, talking in class when you should be listening.” Hu Xiujie said sternly, “Get out! Come to my office for a talk after class.”

Che Ziming risked death to lean back, humming in a mosquito voice, “Admit defeat, hurry.”

Yu Fei also whispered, “She has a sharp tongue but a soft heart for you. Hurry up and admit your mistake.”

Xie Lan didn’t make a sound. His gaze fell on his self-criticism, which was only a few hundred words away from completion. He suddenly felt the room was very hot, so hot his mouth was dry.

The milk tea was still on the side, but it had lost its temptation.

Annoyed. Inexplicably annoyed.

He whispered, “Sorry, Teacher. I shouldn’t have disturbed the class. I’ll go out.”

As he spoke, he came out from his seat. After thinking about it, he folded up the pages of the self-criticism and took them, along with a pen.

Walking to the front of the podium, Xie Lan heard the sound of chairs dragging in the back row. Looking back, he discovered Dou Sheng had followed him out.

Hu Xiujie sneered. “Punish one, get one free?”

Dou Sheng’s steps didn’t pause. “Sorry, Teacher. I passed the note first.”

Hu Xiujie: “…”

In the originally suffocating classroom, someone suddenly laughed. Xie Lan walked out the door and heard Hu Xiujie scold, “Laugh. One of them got full marks in physics, the other is first in math. You guys go ahead and laugh.”

So the classroom returned to dead silence.

The door closed, separating the atmosphere inside from the outside. Xie Lan walked to the corridor window and took a deep breath.

Hands in his pockets, Dou Sheng walked up to him, leaned lazily against the windowsill, and sighed in a low voice. “I’m really impressed by you. She tells you to get out and you get out. Do you have to be so obedient? How many classes have you stood for today?”

As he spoke, he glanced at the paper in Xie Lan’s hand, his expression even more complex. “Really never forgetting to write your self-criticism wherever you go, huh.”

Xie Lan didn’t know what to say. He was made a bit unwilling to speak by the inexplicable stifling feeling and irritation, so he leaned on the balcony and continued writing the check, only whispering, “Why did you follow me out? It wasn’t your business.”

Dou Sheng’s voice also revealed low spirits: “Annoyed. Came out for some air.”

Xie Lan’s pen tip paused.

Dou Sheng threw the paper ball away and said he was annoyed. Perhaps Feng Miao wasn’t the person he was hoping for?

After a long time, Xie Lan returned to writing normally and asked, seemingly unintentionally, “How did you know it was her?”

“Feng Miao?” Dou Sheng propped himself up on the windowsill and hopped up to sit, just blocking the dazzling sunlight shining on Xie Lan. “Her handwriting is quite recognizable. She copies the homework Old Hu assigns on the blackboard every day; I’ve seen it enough to know.”

Xie Lan gave an “Oh.” “Sorry. I thought I could add some video material. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have made this joke.”

Dou Sheng smiled silently. “Prank material?”

“En.”

“You can’t do it like that.” Dou Sheng laughed and sighed. “Seems I still have to give you a demo.”

“Demo?” Xie Lan was dazed. “What are you going to do now?”

“Don’t worry about it. You better prepare yourself mentally to be roasted completely by Hu Xiujie.” Dou Sheng tutted. “You’re really brave enough. Daring to talk in physics class—even I don’t dare, I only dare to write notes.”

Mentioning this made Xie Lan even more stifled.

He wouldn’t usually commit crimes in Hu Xiujie’s class; today was purely a special situation. Although he couldn’t say what was special about it. Actually, it was just a small misunderstanding; tearing up the sticky note would have been the end of it. But he just felt that his whole person wasn’t right, a sense of anxiety from head to toe for no apparent reason.

“Write your self-criticism.” Dou Sheng suddenly said faintly, “I’m going to the playground to get some air.”

“Ah?” Xie Lan was stunned. “Aren’t you afraid the teacher will come out?”

Dou Sheng was already walking away with hands in his pockets. “She told the students to scram. As long as they scram, it’s fine; where they scram to doesn’t matter. Get ready to be scolded. I’m going to buy an ice pop and come back.”

Xie Lan hesitated. “Then I’ll go with you…”

Dou Sheng immediately refused. “Don’t. I’m in a bad mood, walking alone. When I adjust my mood, I’ll come back and teach you how to properly prank people.”

In a bad mood?

Xie Lan shrank back. After a long time, when Dou Sheng’s figure had almost disappeared at the end of the corridor, he gave a low “Oh.”

---

The self-criticism was extremely boring to write.

Xie Lan wrote mechanically until he turned the page and found nothing left, realizing he had finished the prepared sheets of paper. He had probably reached the word count too. He had absolutely no idea what he had written at the end and was too lazy to review it, so he just wrapped it up casually.

Xie Lan folded the self-criticism, let out a breath, and casually took out his phone.

He browsed Bilibili for a while, feeling numb watching the crazy rising data in the backend, so he simply closed it and opened Twitter (X).

Coincidentally, the chat box for QZFXR jumped to the top the moment he opened the DM list.

• QZFXR: /Disappointed.

A face with a downward-turned mouth.

Xie Lan was a bit surprised and typed a reply: What’s wrong?

• QZFXR: Mood is like a roller coaster.
• SilentWaves: Why?
• QZFXR: Reachedjoy for nothing, and only rejoiced for about five seconds.
• QZFXR: Blame me for being too clever, and too direct (straight ball), otherwise I could have been happy a little longer.
• QZFXR: Sigh, but indeed, one shouldn’t think too much, or one will be disappointed.
• QZFXR: It’s just that people are greedy. If the heavens give a gift, he will hope this gift is a bit bigger, and bigger again, big enough to be unique in the whole world, that no one but himself is worthy of it.

A crackling string of words that left Xie Lan confused. He didn’t understand what “straight ball” meant either. He subconsciously wanted to look it up, but opened Baidu and then gave up.

He wasn’t in the mood to comfort internet friends right now.

The bell for the end of class suddenly rang. Sounds of tables and chairs dragging came from the room. Xie Lan immediately stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

Sure enough, Hu Xiujie soon pushed the door open and came out. She glanced at Xie Lan’s lonely figure in the corridor and snorted, unsurprised.

“Come with me.”

Xie Lan sighed silently, put the self-criticism in his pocket, and followed her to the office.

Just as Dou Sheng said, Hu Xiujie showed no mercy. She threw Xie Lan’s self-criticism on the desk, first criticizing him for padding the word count—the last three pages were basically a rehash of the first three. Then she scolded him for learning all the bad habits before even half a semester had passed since enrollment. If he was left unchecked like this, let alone the math competition, he wouldn’t even graduate if sent back to elementary school tomorrow; he would be finished in minutes.

When Hu Xiujie scolded people, her speed was astonishingly fast. Every word was like a machine gun aiming at the brain. By the end, Xie Lan’s mind went blank; he couldn’t even take in what she was saying.

Hu Xiujie choked on a breath in her throat. “Are you listening?”

Xie Lan looked at the desk top, was silent for a moment, then said, “Sorry Teacher, can you scold a bit slower? I can’t quite keep up.”

“…”

The office was dead silent for a few seconds, then Hu Xiujie was actually angered into laughing by him.

She sighed, and her tone finally softened. “I watched that video of you and Dou Sheng at noon. It was well made, and you organized other students to play too. Since it’s not Grade 12 yet, Teacher isn’t completely opposed to you having extracurricular activities. But you must have limits. When the activity is over, bring your heart back to study. Students need to know what their main job is. You must make progress and not let crooked ways and messy things disturb your mind, understand?”

“En.” Xie Lan nodded in confusion. “I understand. I understand your thoughts.”

Actually, after thinking it over repeatedly, he felt that the root of his anxiety was similar to Hu Xiujie’s.

Hu Xiujie didn’t want him to violate discipline because she was afraid he wouldn’t study well and would waste his main job. Just like deep inside, he vaguely didn’t want Dou Sheng to get involved in complicated interpersonal relationships. Making videos while studying was already busy enough; he guessed he was also afraid Dou Sheng’s Uploader career would be hindered.

Xie Lan’s brain circuit went around for a long time before he added, “Teacher, rest assured. I will watch the classmates around me closely and make them focus on proper business.”

Hu Xiujie froze, shocked. “My heavens, did you understand what I said? Manage yourself first!”

Xie Lan nodded repeatedly. “Understood. Is there anything else? I want to go back and revise this self-criticism, try to write it to your satisfaction.”

Hu Xiujie’s expression went numb. “No need. Hurry up and go. Go back and write the paper properly. I’ll watch your performance in the future.”

“Okay, Teacher.” Xie Lan immediately bowed to her. “Then I’ll take the self-criticism back too. It’s not easy to write an essay; keeping it can accumulate essay material.”

Hu Xiujie: “…”

---

Xie Lan went back alone. The corridor of Class 4 was empty. The next period was P.E., so the “owls” should have all gone out by now.

He planned to put the self-criticism back on his desk, then text Dou Sheng to ask where he was.

Walking to the classroom door, before Xie Lan entered, he caught a glimpse of a familiar skirt corner in his peripheral vision.

Feng Miao.

His toes paused, and he subconsciously shrank back.

Inside the classroom were not only Feng Miao but also Dou Sheng. Just the two of them. Feng Miao stood on the podium counting the physics homework to be distributed, and Dou Sheng stood by the blackboard.

After a long time, Dou Sheng said faintly, “You wrote the note, right?”

Xie Lan choked.

He seemed to suddenly understand without a teacher the term QZFXR used just now—”Straight Ball.”

How can it be like this? Receiving a confession and asking about it just one class later?

Xie Lan felt his heart suspended in his throat, an indescribable nervousness. He instinctively felt eavesdropping was impolite, but for some reason, he was just curious and wanted to hear the development.

After a good while, Feng Miao gave a low “En.” “I wrote it.”

“Sorry.” Dou Sheng said immediately. “Thank you, but I think it’s better to put your mind elsewhere.”

The afternoon classroom was spacious and bright. Dou Sheng’s voice was the same as usual, low, somewhat light and airy. Whether it was an illusion or not, it seemed more distant than usual.

Feng Miao didn’t make a sound. Dou Sheng sighed again. ” really sorry, but don’t write me notes in the future. Oh, Xie Lan didn’t say it; I guessed it based on the handwriting.”

After saying this, he didn’t seem to intend to wait for the girl to reply. Hands in pockets, he turned to walk to his seat. Just as he sat down and took out a pen, Feng Miao suddenly asked softly, “You rejected me so crisply, is it because you’re afraid of delaying studies, or because—”

“I have someone I like.” Dou Sheng said indifferently.

Outside the door, Xie Lan was stunned.

That stifling feeling came again, and his brows furrowed unconsciously.

“Oh…” Feng Miao paused. “Sigh, alright then. Let’s forget about what happened this afternoon. We’ll still be normal classmates in the future.”

“En.”

Feng Miao picked up the water bottle for P.E. class, but unwilling to give up, asked, “Sorry, I still want to know. Are you already together with her?”

“No. She may not necessarily look highly upon me.” Dou Sheng lowered his head to write, paused, then answered faintly, “Not a girl from our school. We… met a few times in middle school. I like her one-sidedly.”

The room was unrealistically quiet.

Xie Lan peeked in secretly from the door. The angle allowed him to see the last row perfectly. Dou Sheng put down his pen, casually fiddling with the pendant hanging from his backpack zipper on the windowsill, lost in thought.

It was a Wutong (Phoenix tree) leaf-shaped pendant. On the first day back in the country, Xie Lan had noticed this thing at the airport. At that time, Che Ziming’s “scalp massager” hanging on Dou Sheng’s bag had snagged his bag strap. When Dou Sheng removed that junk, he had touched this small pendant as if to soothe it.

Feng Miao stared for a good while before sighing. “Someone like you doesn’t need to be so humble, right? Sigh, forget it, forget it. I didn’t hear anything. Going to P.E. class.”

Dou Sheng didn’t speak again. He casually flipped his backpack over and started zoning out at the window again.

Xie Lan dodged temporarily. After Feng Miao left, and a while later, Dou Sheng also went out.

The All-Subject Class A next door had started class. The Class 4 classroom was completely empty; he was the only one in the corridor again.

He couldn’t describe the taste in his heart. Suddenly crashing into the secret hidden in Dou Sheng’s heart, as a good friend, he felt he should show concern or offer guidance, but he just didn’t want to bring it up. He just wanted to pretend he heard nothing.

There was an indescribable sense of loss.

He sighed lightly, planning to put the self-criticism away and hurry out to class.

However, when he walked to his seat and inadvertently moved the notebook on the desk, his fingertips paused.

Stuck on the physics notebook was a pink sticky note. Not only was it pink, but it was also heart-shaped.

On it was Dou Sheng’s distinct handwriting—

Douzi’s Prank (gu) Class is now in session:

Do you smell something burning in the air? That is my heart burning for you.

Don’t complain (bao yuan), hug me (bao wo).

Xie Lan: “?”

__

Author’s Note:

Bean Egg passed by the room, sighing round after round.

The Keyboard Typer didn’t want to pay attention at first, but later compromised.

She opened the door and said: “Want to vent to me?”

“No.” Bean Egg lay on the floor and said spookily: “Not venting, just sighing.”

He paused and added: “Eggs are truly greedy creatures.”

Keyboard Typer: “Why do you say that?”

Bean Egg looked at the ceiling and whispered: “Actually, sharing a nest with Lazy Egg is quite happy.”

“But, I seem to be gradually unsatisfied with the relationship of roommate eggs.”