"Morning."

In the elevator lobby on Monday morning, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi opened their doors at almost the same time.

"This early?"

"I was listening for any sounds from your room."

"You!"

Li Zhi glared at Shen Yuan.

"Say it!" Shen Yuan looked at Li Zhi expectantly.

"Pervert!"

’Ah, that’s better.’

Daily Quest: Receive a rebuke from a beautiful girl (Complete).

With his daily routine out of the way, Shen Yuan got down to business.

"*Defend and Steal* was updated yesterday."

"You degenerate, don’t tell me you’re actually following the updates?" Li Zhi looked at Shen Yuan in surprise.

Shen Yuan sneered. "You dare say you haven’t read it?"

Li Zhi pursed her lips, offering no rebuttal.

After a long moment, Young Master Li muttered under her breath, "I don’t think it’s well-written at all."

Shen Yuan nodded. "Me too. I only read it with a critical eye."

After saying that, they looked at each other and both failed to keep a straight face.

What a load of bullshit.

"Don’t let me find out who wrote this thing, or I’ll gift them a full set of Huanggang Secret Papers," Shen Yuan said resentfully.

"Hey, honestly, don’t you kind of envy the people in the story?" Li Zhi suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" Shen Yuan played dumb.

"Cut the crap. You definitely envy the guy in the story for having such a gentle childhood friend. Even their arguments are so tame."

Li Zhi, her backpack on, stared straight ahead at the street.

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes at Li Zhi. "Can you even call that arguing? Isn’t that just fucking flirting? There’s no intensity at all. It’s completely boring to watch."

"Speaking of which," Shen Yuan frowned. "If the mole is in our class and hears us when we’re arguing, do you think they’d assume we’re... you know?"

The corner of Li Zhi’s mouth twitched.

"There’s no way it’s that ridiculous. My insults are pretty harsh."

"What if the author of *Defend and Steal* is someone like Ai Muyu?"

If He Zhiyu heard that, she would probably just expose herself on the spot.

’He’s the real masochist, coming to Li Zhi for his daily scolding!’

Walking down the road, Li Zhi pressed, "Hey, you still haven’t answered my question. Are you envious or not?"

"You seem pretty hung up on it. Woman, could it be," Shen Yuan flicked his hair back, "that you’ve fallen in love with me?"

"Trying to change the subject with cheesy lines because you won’t admit it?"

Shen Yuan laughed. "Actually, you’re the one who’s envious, aren’t you? Their childhood sweetheart is handsome, considerate, and a good student. Unlike me~"

"Alas, you’ve finally grown tired of your childhood sweetheart. Young Master Li, you’ve changed." Shen Yuan put on a tragic expression, trying to appeal to Li Zhi’s conscience.

"Aren’t you disgusting? I’ll buy you breakfast if you just shut your mouth."

"You got it!"

’Scored another free meal, fam!’

Shen Yuan cheerfully accepted his hand-pulled pancake.

"Hey, we get a break after the monthly exams. Any ideas where you want to go?"

Li Zhi shook her head. "Let’s see how the monthly exams go first. If I don’t do well, I’m not going anywhere."

Hearing Li Zhi, the stall owner said, "Don’t put so much pressure on yourself, young lady! My son goes to Jiyang Middle School too, and I never pressure him, whether his test scores are good or bad."

Li Zhi looked up at the owner. "You’re a pretty good person then, sir."

The owner laughed. "Exams aren’t everything in life."

Li Zhi nodded.

Beside her, Shen Yuan silently turned away and let out a long, shaky breath.

’If the owner knew what her grades were actually like, he’d probably feel obligated to give her five yuan for emotional damages.’

Back in the classroom, Shen Yuan had just sat down when he felt something was off.

’I don’t think I switched seats.’

’So does that mean I’ve transmigrated?’

"No, I’m a knowledge black hole," Shen Yuan explained with a straight face. "When you get close to me, my immense mass distorts spacetime, causing time to slow down and making you lose your sense of it. In reality, all that’s happened is you’ve just orbited me once."

Li Zhi blinked. "So, according to the theory of relativity, if I do practice problems for 15 minutes, that’s equivalent to you studying seriously for 72 hours?"

Shen Yuan: ???

"Sis, if you put it like that, I’m gonna cry."

"Go do your math problems! And if you’re going to cry, you can cry onto your test paper!"

’So ruthless.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Shen Yuan silently took out his test paper and began solving the problems.

The two of them returned to their normal morning rhythm.

’Two arguments in one morning. The intensity was a bit too high.’

...

"There’s the bell!"

The moment Zhou Shaojie’s butt hit the chair, Shen Yuan heard the bell for the morning self-study session ring.

"If you were in one of those ’rules of horror’ stories, you’d be the one who gets the entire main cast killed."

Ah Jie laughed and pulled out his English vocabulary notebook.

"You wanna know? If you do, help me memorize vocabulary, and then I’ll tell you why."

"Is your ass connected to the school bell switch?"

Ah Jie rolled his eyes. "I’m going to study my vocabulary. And let me tell you, I’m really confident about this week’s English quiz."

Shen Yuan just smiled without saying a word.

During the morning self-study period, Shen Yuan noticed his task timer had increased by another 0.5.

’It feels so good having Ah Jie sitting next to him.’

’The progress bar just shoots up like crazy, all without me having to lift a finger.’

Eldest Female Cousin patrolled the classroom twice, but when she saw Shen Yuan doing math problems, she couldn’t be bothered to say anything.

Instead, she pulled a carton of milk from behind her back and tossed it onto Shen Yuan’s desk.

Shen Yuan stared in amazement at the godsent treasure, then at Eldest Female Cousin’s departing back, feeling eternally grateful.

’If anyone dares say a single bad word about my Sis, I, Shen Yuan, will sortie in Gundam form!’

During the morning reading period, Old Zhou also came by for a look. When he saw the math problems on Shen Yuan’s desk, he nodded in satisfaction.

’His grades aren’t great, but his attitude is still very serious.’

Old Zhou’s small gesture was caught by Ah Jie.

Their eyes met, and Old Zhou immediately read the meaning in Ah Jie’s gaze.

’You’re not even going to bust him for that?’

Meeting Ah Jie’s gaze, Old Zhou turned his head and scurried away.

After the morning self-study session ended, the classroom immediately erupted with noise.

A crowd of students stared at the first period subject listed on the blackboard, all guessing what their weekly quiz scores would be.

Shen Yuan, however, wasn’t concerned about that. He was more concerned about his task.

"Hey, Yuan, have you seen the campus confession page recently?"

Shen Yuan nodded. "Yeah, what’s up? I haven’t even finished *Love in the Era of Lecterns* yet."

"Have you read *Defend and Steal*?"

Shen Yuan immediately grew wary. "Why?"

"I just have this gut feeling that I’ve seen the male and female protagonists before."

The moment Ah Jie’s voice fell, he was met with Shen Yuan’s death glare.

"Of course, I’m not talking about you and Li Zhi."

As soon as Ah Jie said that, he saw Li Zhi also shoot him a death glare.

Ah Jie swallowed hard. "The protagonists in that story are nothing like you two!"

"Exactly! That female lead is all gentle and sweet. Nothing like Li Zhi at all."

Li Zhi let out a dry laugh. "I suggest you go to the hospital and get checked for element 29. The sourness coming from some people is reaching the concentration of sulfuric acid."

"Huh?" Shen Yuan’s brain stalled for a moment. "Hold on."

’Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium... FUCK! I’m stuck! What was element 29 again?’

Shen Yuan’s brain short-circuited.

Ah Jie leaned over from the side and said, "It’s copper, you idiot."

Copper. Cu.

Vinegar.

Shen Yuan froze, thoroughly embarrassed.

Just then, Li Zhi landed another blow. "You’ve been hanging out with gay men so much, the relative atomic mass of copper is now equal to Zhou Shaojie’s body weight, is that it?"

’Sharp and to the point.’

Ah Jie was stunned. "Wait, how did I become material for your arguments again?"

"Shut up!"

The childhood friends gave him a simultaneous husky-style warning glare.

And so, the morning in Class 15 unfolded, a vibrant scene of all things flourishing in competition.