Starting in their senior year, students had to attend evening self-study sessions that lasted until 9:00 PM. At 8:30 PM, the school cafeteria would provide late-night snacks like fried rice, noodles, and steamed buns.

Sun Guotao arrived during the evening self-study session.

He wore his usual faint smile as he taped a piece of paper to the blackboard. "This is the new seating chart," he announced to the class. "Take a look. If there are no issues, you can switch to your new seats."

The students in the front row were already craning their necks to get a look.

Sun Guotao stood to one side, holding his large tea mug. "Come on up and take a look," he told them. "Then, pack your things. We’ll be changing seats during this study session."

As soon as he finished speaking, a few students went up in twos and threes. When the others saw that the first few were fine, they all crowded around the front as well.

Everyone looked confused after seeing the chart. Finally, one student couldn’t resist asking, "Sir, how did you decide on these seats?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Sun Guotao replied with his faint smile, "I’m not telling. If anyone’s unhappy, you can come see me to get it changed."

But strangely, no one was unhappy. Everyone’s new deskmate was a classmate they got along with well.

Furthermore, Sun Guotao had also mentioned that the seats would shift horizontally and vertically each month, so no one would be stuck sitting in the first or last row permanently.

Everyone was quite satisfied.

However, one person wasn’t satisfied.

Qin Jiao didn’t really care who her deskmate was, as long as it wasn’t Lin Nian. She was worried she’d spend all her time dealing with his messes, which would interfere with her studies.

Jiang Xiaoyue checked her seat on the chart and returned to Qin Jiao’s side, saying happily, "Qin Jiao, we’re still sitting one behind the other!"

Qin Jiao was quite happy.

Then Jiang Xiaoyue added, "Whoa, and you’re going to be deskmates with Shen Yi!"

"What?!" Qin Jiao was stunned. She immediately rushed to the lectern. The crowd around the seating chart had thinned out by then, so without needing to push, she could clearly see the name written next to hers: Shen Yi.

’How is this possible?’

In senior year, many homeroom teachers would avoid seating boys and girls together. Puppy love was a taboo subject, and some teachers, worried about it, would even make all the female students sit at the front and all the male students sit at the back.

But sometimes, it was better to channel than to suppress.

Sun Guotao stood by the door, still holding his large tea mug and smiling faintly as he watched the other students start to change seats.

Since not a single student went to the teacher, Qin Jiao felt it wouldn’t be right for her to go ask for a seat change at that moment.

’I’ll just leave it for now,’ she thought. ’I’ll ask the teacher about it in private later on.’

She returned to her desk in silence and began to pack her things.

By the time the evening study session was ending, Qin Jiao was sitting beside Shen Yi. Her emotions were a tangled mess. ’I swore I’d stay far away from him in this lifetime,’ she thought, ’so how do we keep getting closer?’

Thankfully, her brand-new deskmate had his head down on the desk, fast asleep, ever since they’d switched seats. He looked no different from his usual lazy, indifferent self, which allowed Qin Jiao to breathe a small sigh of relief.

But she couldn’t see the faint smile playing on Shen Yi’s lips.

Smiling faintly, Sun Guotao watched as everyone finished moving into their new seats. Then, just before dismissing class, he made another announcement.

"In senior year, the class committee’s duties are mostly study-related, so there isn’t a whole lot to do. We’ll be selecting this year’s committee by vote. Each of you will get one ballot to write three names on. You can vote for yourself or for others, and you can also write down a suggested position for your nominee. Alright, everyone think it over. I’ll collect the ballots during tomorrow’s evening study session."