In truth, he had also learned to play drums in his previous life, and the song Jiang Ruotang practiced the most was “Bell’s Inequality,” simply because Bai Yingchuan liked it.

However, despite practicing for so long, he never had the chance to perform with Bai Yingchuan; the other party didn’t even know he could play the drums.

Today, he finally “fulfilled his dream,” perhaps.

Only, he wanted to perform for Lu Guifan.

A rhythmic sound erupted, like a muffled thunder rumbling from deep within, moving from distant to near, like a tumultuous ride full of sparks.

The classmates, whose attention had been on Bai Yingchuan, all looked towards Jiang Ruotang in unison.

He smiled and made a little cat-scratching gesture towards Lu Guifan, melting the hearts of many female classmates in the class.

“Ah, I never knew before, is Jiang Ruotang this cute?”

“That rhythm just now was so good! I thought he was just joining in for fun, but he actually knows how to play drums!”

“I’m excited now, cool!”

Lu Guifan smiled, thinking to himself that Jiang Ruotang was naturally born to captivate hearts.

Many classmates took out their phones, ready to record.

Jian Sha was even more of a mood-setter, with an energetic solo: “Brothers and sisters, let’s get high tonight—”

Jiang Ruotang started the rhythm on the drums, Jian Sha picked up the mood with a note, and Bai Yingchuan began to sing.

“They say your heart is billions of light-years away—”

Bai Yingchuan’s gaze interacted with the classmates in the room. The drumbeats, synchronized with the music, heightened Bai Yingchuan’s emotions.

Lu Guifan, below the stage, never expected Jiang Ruotang’s drumming to be so good. During the intro, the light taps on the hi-hat were like a gentle drizzle and the hesitant touch of glass, followed by a torrent, as powerful drumbeats formed a pouring downpour.

“Your soul is a projection woven by causality. Tiny variables lead to countless possibilities. Bell’s inequality states that causality constructs logical boundaries in the world. I calibrate my soul to resonate with your frequency, only to let you see the grand quantum phase transition…”

Bai Yingchuan had never been so wild. He looked at Jiang Ruotang, whose drumsticks created blurs as they swung, so free and easy they seemed about to fly into the sky, while Bai Yingchuan could only struggle to keep up.

“In the space of love, infinitely approaching eternity—”

Bai Yingchuan’s voice almost broke. The students looked up, completely surprised that a performance in a KTV could have such a shocking effect.

Jiang Ruotang’s figure, rising and falling with the rhythm, exuded a sense of effortless grace, his hair flying.

When Bai Yingchuan’s singing abruptly stopped, Jiang Ruotang’s arms, holding the drumsticks, also hovered in the air, his heart trembling in the silence.

And Jiang Ruotang’s gaze fell on Lu Guifan, towards whom he showed a hearty smile. In the dimly lit KTV room, his eyes instantly illuminated all hidden, unknown desires.

Lu Guifan didn’t know what others were thinking, but for the first time, he felt a strong impulse for a person. He wanted to hold him tightly, to intertwine him into his bones and blood.

He suspected Jiang Ruotang had deliberately chosen this song.

If Lu Guifan’s life was a Bell’s inequality, verified in classical physics but broken in quantum physics (Baidu explanation).

He was willing, wanting to be eternally quantum entangled with Jiang Ruotang.

Jiang Ruotang put down the drumsticks and returned to the sofa.

The classmates applauded vigorously.

Cai Ji said somewhat shyly, “I really didn’t expect… Ruotang, you’re so handsome!”

Jiang Ruotang, mimicking an idol group member, rubbed his nose: “Don’t fall in love with me, I’m just…”

He hadn’t even finished the second half of the sentence when Zhao Changfeng rapped him on the head.

“If you dare say you’re just a legend, I’ll strangle you right here.”

Jiang Ruotang laughed heartily, “Get me a drink. I’m dying of thirst!”

“Weakling, you sweat that much after playing drums for a bit? You need to exercise more!”

Zhao Changfeng teased him, but still looked around for a cola for him.

Jiang Ruotang took it, complaining, “You’re an incompetent younger brother; you don’t even know to open the cola for your older brother!”

“Then do you want me to feed it to you too?”

Jiang Ruotang tilted his head back and gulped down more than half a can.

The students were all buzzing with discussion.

“Do you feel like you’ve been misjudging things for all three years of high school? Jiang Ruotang is actually very handsome!”

“Handsome is useless, he likes guys…”

“He likes guys, but he’s open about it, not hiding anything! Look at Zhao Changfeng, Cai Ji, and the class monitor; they don’t mind at all and get along with him so well!”

“The class monitor is also very handsome. He used to seem unapproachable, but look how gentle he is with his friends.”

Gradually, more and more classmates came to chat with Jiang Ruotang. Some asked him what new dramas his father was currently filming, some asked if he would study abroad, and some even brought graduation yearbooks and asked him to leave a message.

Jiang Ruotang was flattered. In his previous life, when he attended his last class reunion due to his illness, he felt that everyone was quite indifferent to him. Some even used his father’s death as a topic of conversation, completely unlike the enthusiasm he was experiencing now.

Jiang Ruotang gently nudged Lu Guifan beside him, “Don’t you feel bored?”

Singing, chatting, signing graduation yearbooks – these weren’t part of Lu Guifan’s daily routine. What he liked should be… journals, experiments, data research, and so on.

“No.”

“Really?”

“Mm.” Lu Guifan nodded slightly, then said something else.

But a couple in the class, whose relationship had never been public, suddenly started singing a duet. Everyone started cheering, and Jiang Ruotang didn’t quite catch what Lu Guifan had said.

Jiang Ruotang leaned his ear close to Lu Guifan’s lips. At that moment, Lu Guifan looked at his earlobe; it was a trust without hidden motives, making him wonder what kind of existence he was in Jiang Ruotang’s heart.

Was it pure and undefiled after being beautified?

Just then, Chen Minzhen came over and patted Lu Guifan’s shoulder, “Class monitor, leave a message in my graduation yearbook too!”

Lu Guifan’s core was clearly stable, but with Chen Minzhen’s pat, his body leaned forward, and his lips happened to brush against Jiang Ruotang’s earlobe.

Although it was only for a brief moment, Jiang Ruotang felt his ear burning as if on fire. He was about to look up at Lu Guifan, but then heard the other’s voice, the warm air vibrating with his eardrum.

“I said, I’m very happy to see everyone likes you so much.”

Lu Guifan’s face had a cold, glazed quality under the private room’s lights, yet the curve of his lips made Jiang Ruotang feel incredibly warm.

Jiang Ruotang was still in a daze when Lu Guifan had already taken the yearbook and left a message in it.

“Class monitor, your handwriting is really nice.”

“Thank you.”

Immediately after, the other person handed the yearbook to Jiang Ruotang: “Jiang Ruotang, you were really cool playing the drums just now. It feels like I didn’t truly get to know you until graduation. If it’s convenient, could you also leave me a message?”

“No problem!”

Jiang Ruotang took it, specifically finding the page where Lu Guifan had left a message, and wrote his own wishes and signed his name next to it.

After signing for a while, everyone noticed a very interesting pattern.

That is, Jiang Ruotang liked to sign on the same page as Lu Guifan, and Cai Ji liked to sign near Jiang Ruotang, but with a small gap between their names, and then Zhao Changfeng would also sign nearby, like a guardian.

Jian Sha looked at her yearbook and stroked her chin.

“What’s wrong? Do you need my signature?” Zhao Changfeng asked.

“No… I just seem to have… discovered an interesting, ever-present relationship.”

“Who?” Zhao Changfeng frowned, looking around. “You don’t think Cai Cai and I like you, do you?”

Cai Ji looked over, bewildered, “Who likes whom?”

Jian Sha looked utterly speechless, “Get lost.”

The revelry continued until the early hours of the morning. Although most of them were adults, their parents understood their wildness after the college entrance exam. However, playing out so late for the first time still made them worried, so many parents came to pick them up personally, and the number of people in the private room gradually decreased.

Xiao Gao also came to pick up people. Jiang Ruotang waved to Cai Ji and Jian Sha to come with him.

Bai Yingchuan watched Jiang Ruotang’s departing back. With their parting today, his youth seemed to end with Jiang Ruotang’s departure.

Undeniably, Lu Guifan was truly good, resolute and gentle, understanding Jiang Ruotang better than anyone, as if he were born to be the foil to Bai Yingchuan’s cowardly and selfish self.

He also wanted to pursue without restraint, but knowing the outcome, sometimes a dignified exit was the best choice.

Xiao Gao first dropped Jian Sha off at home, then Cai Ji. When it was time for Xiao Gao to drop off Lu Guifan, Jiang Ruotang directly put his arm around Lu Guifan’s shoulder and said, “Why go home? Stay with me tonight.”

Zhao Changfeng said speechlessly, “Jiang Ruotang, you’re too clingy!”

“The class monitor kissed my ear today, so he has to be responsible for me!”

This was a reason Jiang Ruotang had rehearsed countless times in his head, and now, saying it, it sounded truly righteous.

Zhao Changfeng sighed: “Oh, you think the class monitor is like you, addicted to male beauty! Besides, you’re only average-to-above-average in looks!”

“What did you say?” Jiang Ruotang leaned forward from the back seat to swat Zhao Changfeng’s head in the front passenger seat.

Lu Guifan’s heartstrings were plucked, as if brewing immense power, restless for a long time.

Jiang Ruotang spoke too frankly, so frankly that he seemed not to have thought of anything ambiguous at all. Heaven knew Lu Guifan had been planning for so long. He would rather have seen Jiang Ruotang embarrassed, shy, or even complaining, rather than acting so carelessly, thinking it was an accident.

Everything had been his long-planned scheme.

Lu Guifan quickly composed himself and, with a helpless expression, pulled Jiang Ruotang back.

“My mistake, my mistake, I accidentally touched your ear.”

“That’s not the point, the point is I…”

“You’re very handsome, not just average-to-above-average, absolutely top-tier.”

Only then did Jiang Ruotang sit back.

Zhao Changfeng, however, looked incredulous, “Class monitor, did you drink some sort of magic potion today? He’s top-tier handsome? Then what am I, handsome enough to shatter the heavens?”

Xiao Gao, who was driving, was so amused by these three boys that he almost lost his grip on the steering wheel.

But once they were home, Jiang Ruotang pulled Lu Guifan, saying he wanted to estimate his scores.

“Why the rush to estimate scores? Even if you estimate accurately, you can’t calculate your provincial ranking.”

“If Capital Academy of Fine Arts doesn’t work out, there are other university art departments in the capital. I need to have a backup plan. Before, I only looked at Capital Academy of Fine Arts, but now that the exam’s over, I’m panicking and thinking I should have other schools as backups.”

Lu Guifan sighed, “You’re asking me to estimate scores, are you treating me as the answer key?”

“You are the answer key in my heart.”

It was already 1:30 AM, but Jiang Ruotang was clearly still full of energy. Lu Guifan knew that no amount of coaxing would make Jiang Ruotang sleep.

He pulled out scratch paper and recalled everything from math to integrated sciences. His extraordinary memory surprised Jiang Ruotang; he even remembered the decimal points of numbers in the problem statements clearly.

“Your memory is truly heaven-defying!” Jiang Ruotang tilted his head, looking at the other person, thinking to himself that in his previous life, Lu Guifan had actually worked as a staff member in a research institute for so many years. This was a waste of talent.

Lu Guifan gently tapped Jiang Ruotang’s head, “The question is whether you remember your own answers.”

“Let me try…”

Jiang Ruotang bit his lower lip. He told himself that this absolutely had to be the last time in his life he racked his brain over practice problems.

Lu Guifan looked at Jiang Ruotang’s focused expression, unconsciously propping up his chin.

Ruotang, my memory is indeed very good.

So every time you make me happy or surprised, every word you say, every little gesture that makes my heart flutter, I will always remember.

Your future will be a smooth road. You will meet more powerful and smarter people. Will you still rely on me then?

“Help me check.”

“Okay.” Lu Guifan looked through it from beginning to end. “Math should be around 100, integrated sciences around 195. Your English and Chinese have always been quite stable. From the looks of it, your total score should be enough for 500.”

Jiang Ruotang took a deep breath. If he had around 520 points, he would be set for the Capital Academy of Fine Arts.

“Even if Capital Academy of Fine Arts is a little out of reach, I’ve checked for you. The art departments of these few universities are also very good. For example, Capital Jiaotong University’s advertising design, and Capital University’s fine arts department. If your college entrance exam score can reach over 500 points, you’ll have more than enough to get into these two universities.”

Jiang Ruotang was stunned, never expecting that Lu Guifan had already planned this for him.

He chuckled twice, “So you really want to go to university in the same city as me, right?”

“You should still hope to get into Capital Academy of Fine Arts. After all, Capital Academy of Fine Arts is closer to Capital University of Science and Technology. If it were the other two schools, it would span three or four districts, and take over an hour by subway.”

Jiang Ruotang’s face quickly fell again.

He then checked the time. It was already past 4 AM. If they didn’t sleep now, they’d just stay up until dawn.

“At least I don’t have to get up early to study tomorrow,” Jiang Ruotang yawned, and slowly lay down on the bed.

His pajamas were lifted halfway, revealing his lean waist and a subtle, hidden dimple.