Qin Jiao soon understood Sun Guotao’s good intentions.

She said in a serious tone, "Mr. Sun, you’re amazing. In such a short time, you’ve gotten to know everyone in our class and even arranged the most suitable seats for us."

Sun Guotao waved his hand dismissively. "Not at all. The truth is, this final year of high school is incredibly important. I want all of you to study without distractions and get into the universities you desire. If you get into good universities, I even get a bonus, you know."

Qin Jiao smiled. "Okay, Mr. Sun," she said, still smiling. "I’ll study hard and try to get you a bigger bonus from next year’s college entrance exams!"

"Sounds good."

Qin Jiao didn’t get to change her seat, but during the evening self-study session when they were electing class officers, Sun Guotao had Lin Nian, who had been sitting in front of Chen Feng, switch places with another girl.

From then on, no matter how Lin Nian’s seat changed, it would always be far away from Chen Feng’s.

’I’m starting to suspect that Mr. Sun, our history teacher, is also an expert in advanced college-level mathematics,’ Qin Jiao thought.

Chen Feng frowned, his expression complicated as if lost in thought, while Lin Nian was utterly dejected.

Romance in this era was a delicate, cautious affair. For example, if I turned around to borrow half an eraser from you, the slight touch of our fingertips as you reached for it would be enough to make my face flush and my heart pound.

Or maybe I’d have my Walkman with a certain star’s latest album, and we’d each take an earbud to listen together—that was another kind of romance.

But now, it would be difficult for Lin Nian and Chen Feng to share any of those subtle little romantic moments in the classroom.

They were seated too far apart. How many meters of headphone cable would they even need?

The election for class officers began. As expected, the former class president, Li Dong, basically had to say goodbye to his position. Halfway through the vote count, he only had a pitiful three votes. One of those was probably his own.

In the end, Chen Feng was elected class president, Lin Nian became the sanitation monitor, and Jiang Xiaoyue was the arts and entertainment monitor.

Qin Jiao herself became the study monitor.

What Qin Jiao found most incredible was that her deskmate, her theoretical ex-husband, actually became the physical education monitor!

Although the P.E. monitor didn’t receive many votes, he still genuinely got several—far more than the previous class president. It was a real slap in the face for Li Dong.

Unable to hide her surprise, Qin Jiao turned to glance at her deskmate, only to find him looking right back at her.

Their eyes met.

Qin Jiao felt she had to say something to break the awkward atmosphere. She cleared her throat and said, "Congratulations."

Shen Yi pressed his lips together. It looked like he might be smiling, but she couldn’t be sure.

"Same to you," he said.

Qin Jiao found his "same to you" a little strange. She gave an awkward laugh and quickly turned away.

’Ever since they cleared up that misunderstanding, Shen Yi has been acting a little weird.’

He was still as taciturn as he was in her past life and looked intimidating, but he no longer seemed completely unapproachable.

But Qin Jiao understood. ’He’s only being polite to me now because Grandpa Du is so good to me. Even though Shen Yi is full of flaws, in my past life, he was extremely devoted to Mr. Du.’

He himself had a personality disorder and claimed to be in Ping’an Town to recuperate, but he was actually there to accompany the frail and sickly Mr. Du.

’At least he’s devoted,’ she thought.

After the class officers were decided and just before the evening self-study session ended, Sun Guotao addressed the class. "It gets late by the time you go home. I have the registered address for each of you. We have a total of twenty-eight day students, so I’m going to arrange you into groups. Try to walk home together after school."

The groups were mixed, with boys and girls. Some had four or five people, while others were just pairs.

Qin Jiao was truly impressed with Mr. Sun.