He couldn't sleep.
Shen Yuan stared wide-eyed at Li Zhi.
Why did the same laundry detergent smell so much better on her than on him?
Shen Yuan couldn't figure it out. It just didn't make sense.
So he kicked Zhou Shaojie awake.
Zhou Shaojie lifted his head and looked groggily at Shen Yuan. "Huh?"
"Where's your husband?"
"Screw you!"
Zhou Shaojie turned over, ready to go back to sleep, but felt another kick from Shen Yuan.
"What do you want?"
Shen Yuan said shyly, "I can't sleep."
"Then do some problems. Do English. No, wait, do math. The last big problem set."
After saying his piece, Zhou Shaojie pointed a finger threateningly. "Kick me again and I'll come to your room tonight and cosplay as a Sunny Day Doll."
Shen Yuan froze. 'Yeah, that's really not necessary.'
But Zhou Shaojie's method actually worked. The moment he saw the problem description, Shen Yuan started to feel drowsy.
By the time he started writing out the solution, he was yawning.
'Time for sleep, time for sleep.'
The second he put his head down, Shen Yuan was fast asleep.
It was great to be young. You could fall asleep the moment your head hit the desk.
Of course, the math problem deserved most of the credit.
If it had been physics or chemistry, Shen Yuan might have been able to struggle through a derivation or two. But math was different. With math, if you didn't know it, you just didn't know it.
Waking from his nap, Shen Yuan stretched contentedly.
Li Zhi, beside him, was already awake. Her eyes were a bit glazed over, her brain clearly still in "booting up" mode.
"Hey! I just thought of a joke. Wanna hear it?"
Li Zhi turned her head and nodded instinctively.
Shen Yuan cleared his throat. "So, Xiaoming's parents kept him in the dark for so long that he eventually suffocated to death."
Li Zhi's dazed expression immediately turned into one of speechlessness.
The joke was definitely a groaner, but it had certainly woken her up.
"I'll tell you a joke, too."
Li Zhi looked at Shen Yuan and said, "Xiaoming always kicked off his blankets when he slept. Luckily, his mom broke his legs, otherwise he would've caught a cold."
"Well, that's not necessary."
The words had barely left Shen Yuan's mouth when he heard Zhou Shaojie erupt into pig-like snorts of laughter behind him.
"Haha, hahahaha! Serves him right!"
Before he could finish laughing, Zhou Shaojie was caught in a man-locking chokehold by Shen Yuan!
"Aruba him!"
A group of burly guys appeared again, dragging Zhou Shaojie toward the back door of the classroom.
"AHH!!"
The bell signaling the end of nap time for Class 15 rang.
The afternoon consisted of three class periods plus one self-study session. But for high school seniors, everyone knew what "self-study" really meant: whichever teacher was free would come in and teach a class.
This was especially true in a fast-paced place like the honors class.
Not to mention, it was still early in the school year, so the value of that last self-study period in the afternoon was ridiculously high.
Shen Yuan ate dinner at school.
The evening self-study session was all about cranking out homework.
A three-period evening session, but the homework was six test papers. It was inhuman.
However, in Shen Yuan's mind, there were only five test papers.
He didn't do English.
English was the kind of thing you could just do on the spot when it was due.
Unless he was truly bored, he wouldn't even touch the English paper.
But even so, he couldn't finish five test papers in three evening periods.
Shen Yuan's usual plan was to split his evening study time between physics, math, and Chinese homework.
As for biology and chemistry?
He'd do his biology homework during Chinese class and his chemistry homework during English class.
Math class was a no-go. If you looked down for even a second, you'd be completely lost.
And if he really ran out of time, he'd just copy the homework.
When the bell rang for the end of the third evening session, Shen Yuan packed his things and waited at his seat for Li Zhi.
Watching Li Zhi put her books into her backpack one by one, Shen Yuan couldn't help but ask, "You're packing so many books. Are you actually going to read them when you get home?"
Li Zhi nodded. "It's just a few notebooks. Half an hour to review one section. I'll go to bed at 11:30. It's enough time."
Shen Yuan gave her a thumbs-up. "If I worked as hard as you, I probably would've made it into the honors class a long time ago."
Li Zhi snorted in disdain.
Shen Yuan didn't react, simply reaching over and pulling a notebook out of Li Zhi's backpack.
Li Zhi instinctively moved to take the notebook back, but Shen Yuan's words stopped her.
"Come see Naonao today. You know he's a dummy. If you don't visit soon, he won't even recognize you anymore."
Li Zhi retorted, "He's just deaf, not a dummy."
Shen Yuan shrugged, slung Li Zhi's backpack over his own shoulder, and tossed his own bag—which had been wedged in his chair—to her.
"Isn't it dirty?!"
Li Zhi frowned, dusting off Shen Yuan's backpack before calling out to He Zhiyu in the front row.
"Zhiyu, I'm heading out!"
"Okay, bye! See you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow."
Li Zhi put on Shen Yuan's backpack, and the two of them walked out the back door of the classroom, one after the other.
The school building was crowded with students heading home.
Neither Li Zhi nor Shen Yuan paid any attention to the other, walking out of the building at their own pace. They only regrouped once they reached the school gate.
"If the school administration ever opens the back gate, they'd probably be praised for the rest of their lives."
"You're dreaming. The back gate opens right onto a main road with too much traffic."
Shen Yuan pouted.
The two of them lived in the residential complex right across the street from the school's back gate. If it were open, it would only be a three- or four-minute walk to the classroom building. Now, they had to take a huge detour.
There was a shortcut, but it was through an old alley.
The streetlights there were unreliable. It was possible for the lights in the first half of the alley to be working fine, while the ones in the second half were all broken.
When that happened, you either had to turn back or brace yourself and keep walking.
To be safe, Li Zhi usually avoided the old alley.
Even if Shen Yuan was with her, she wouldn't go.
Shen Yuan, on the other hand, wanted to take the alley, just to re-experience the scene of his childhood friend clinging to his arm and whimpering about how scared she was.
But Shen Yuan could never forget the bruises Li Zhi had pinched into his arm the first time they walked through that alley.
She was genuinely scared, and she genuinely pinched that hard.
So, while taking the super shortcut during the day was fine, it was better to play it safe at night.
As the saying goes, safety first.
The only danger they'd encounter on the main road was the possibility of money from their cards migrating into a street vendor's pocket.
High school seniors were always hungry. Even someone like Li Zhi wouldn't gain weight eating four meals a day if she didn't deliberately restrain herself.
Their brains were working overtime, so naturally, they burned a lot of calories.
Smelling the aroma of food in the air, Shen Yuan looked at the girl beside him.
"Want to get something to eat?"
Li Zhi glanced at the food stalls. "Let's get stir-fried noodles."
"Baby, I'm your fan."
Li Zhi immediately went to kick him, but Shen Yuan bolted away with lightning speed.
After Shen Yuan's antics, Li Zhi changed her late-night snack order to fried noodles.
One order of fried noodles was 10 yuan. Shen Yuan bought two.
The two of them walked down the road eating from disposable containers. When his mouth got dry, Shen Yuan asked Li Zhi if she had any water.
"You want my saliva?"
Shen Yuan opened his mouth. "Ahhh—"
"Pfft."
"Never mind then."
Shen Yuan zipped over to a small roadside shop and bought a bottle of Coca-Cola, tilting his head back and drinking half of it without his lips touching the bottle.
"Much better. Here."
Li Zhi took the Coke, and after drinking some, she casually stuck it in the backpack's side pocket.
That made it easier to grab, so she wouldn't have to reach behind her back.
By the time the two of them reached the ground floor of their apartment building, they had finished their late-night snack.
"Check me for any traces."
Li Zhi moved closer to Shen Yuan and tilted her neck up.
Seeing the grease at the corner of the girl's mouth, Shen Yuan was suddenly overcome with the urge to lick it off.
"Want me to lick it off for you?"
"What are you, a dog? You like licking your master?"
"If I call you Master, will you let me lick it?"
An expression of disgust appeared on Li Zhi's face.
Shen Yuan's face was full of anticipation as he urged, "Say it."
Looking at Shen Yuan's expression, Li Zhi managed to swallow the word "pervert" that was on the tip of her tongue.
Seeing the girl pull back, Shen Yuan was terribly disappointed.