It snowed a few more times, and in the blink of an eye, the day of the final exams arrived.

Back then, the seniors’ vacation hadn’t yet been shortened to an absurd degree, nor were there all sorts of cram schools. After the final exams, they could start their winter break just like the first and second-year students.

The only catch was that they had a ton of winter break homework—a huge stack of test papers that would make many students cry.

But Qin Jiao didn’t have to worry about that. She had developed a habit of doing a few sets of practice tests whenever she had free time, was in a bad mood, felt troubled, or even when she was happy.

Some time had passed since she’d given him a potted cactus for Christmas. Now, with the final exam results about to be released, Shen Yi nudged Qin Jiao’s arm with his elbow. "Have you prepared my New Year’s gift?"

"So confident? The results aren’t even out yet."

"Well, I might not be able to beat you, but you think I can’t beat him?" Shen Yi’s tone was casual, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. His smile under the fluorescent lights was a little dazzling.

Qin Jiao also hoped Shen Yi’s scores would surpass Chen Feng’s—otherwise, she wouldn’t have offered him a New Year’s gift in the first place. She nodded and said, "You’re right."

’He might not surpass me, but he absolutely has to surpass Chen Feng.’

Meanwhile, during this period, Du Liya had been trying to divorce Shen Zhengfeng. At first, Shen Zhengfeng refused. He couldn’t bear to part with half of the family assets, so he kept dragging his feet. Eventually, Du Liya lost all hope in him. Then, with the Du family’s help, she issued an ultimatum: if Shen Zhengfeng didn’t agree to the divorce, they would file a lawsuit, accusing him of domestic violence and infidelity. Once the scandal blew up, it would undoubtedly have a major impact on the Shen Family’s companies and factories.

At that point, the divorce would be inevitable, and his losses would likely exceed half of their assets.

Only then did Shen Zhengfeng see he had no other choice. He relented and agreed to the divorce.

And so, Du Liya was waiting for Shen Yi’s winter break to start. She planned to take him on a trip back to North City to finalize the divorce proceedings and handle all related matters at once.

As the year drew to a close, Qin Jiao glanced at Shen Yi, who was engrossed in a sketch beside her, and sighed softly.

It had been so long since her rebirth, and all this time, Qin Jiao had wanted to avoid Shen Yi and keep her distance. But for some reason, things never went as planned. Now, in anyone’s eyes, the two of them were the best of friends.

Qin Jiao had to admit it: ’I’m a sucker for a soft approach.’

Whenever Shen Yi put on his puppy-dog eyes, acted cute, played the victim, or looked hurt, she found him hard to refuse. Not to mention, this Shen Yi was completely different from the one in her past life; he hadn’t done any of the things the other Shen Yi had.

Factoring in the relationship between their two families... Qin Jiao knew she would never marry him again, but she couldn’t bring herself to refuse his friendship. Every time he would say dejectedly, "You’re my only friend," she just felt he was so pitiful.

’I really am just too soft-hearted.’

Shen Yi finally finished the sketch he was working on and handed it to Qin Jiao.

Unsurprisingly, the subject of the sketch was still Qin Jiao, but this time there were props in the background: a chicken and a knife.

Qin Jiao’s mouth twitched. "A picture of me killing a chicken?"

"Yeah. I thought it looked really cool."

"..."

’Fine, we’ll just be friends for now. It’s all we can be, anyway.’

’Having a friend who thinks everything you do is great, cool, and awesome isn’t so bad, I guess.’

Just then, Sun Guotao walked in, once again holding his large tea mug and beaming. The students, knowing he was there to announce the final exam results, let out a cheer and waited expectantly for him to speak.

One of the more outspoken students called out, "Mr. Sun, did our class average beat Class Two’s this time?"