Michelle Cindy walked a few steps with a slight hunch, then suddenly turned back and gave Zoe Young an incomparably gentle smile.

"Zoe?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

There was one more thing she didn't say out loud.

"Thank you. No one has ever invited me out to play, no one has ever called my house before."

Zoe Young was completely confused, watching as Michelle Cindy disappeared around the corner.

When the new semester started, Zoe Young's English speaking and listening had improved a lot, she had read a lot, was getting better and better at long-distance running, and actually felt a bit like a young hero in the making.

The only problem was, she hadn't finished her summer homework.

That big summer homework book, which included fill-in-the-blank ancient poems, short essays, intelligence contests, science knowledge, and math review tests, still had a lot left unwritten. Zoe Young's resistance made it hard for her to stick to doing a page a day. In the last few days of summer vacation, she flipped through comics while cursing her own procrastination and lack of diligence, but in the end, still didn't finish.

Zoe Young calmly took a deep breath.

Then she reached out and tore out four or five pages in the middle, which were all short essays she didn't have time to write and had left mostly blank, making sure it was clean with no trace left behind.

She knew that when checking homework, the teacher would just flip through from beginning to end and wouldn't carefully check the number of pages—where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure. All those rule-bending, loophole-exploiting behaviors start from childhood.

In the first class, everyone passed their summer homework, weekly journals, penmanship practice books, and English workbooks to the first row, and the students in the first row of each group carefully counted them and reported any missing ones to the teacher.

Many people claimed they forgot to bring theirs.

So Monica Zack pointed to the door: "Go home and get it. If you can't make it back within an hour, it's as if you didn't do it."

Instantly, a third of the class was gone. Ethan Xavier and others strolled out of the classroom, and Zoe Young knew they probably wouldn't be coming back.

After half an hour, Mia Waters was the first to return. As the first class ended, Zoe Young stretched, walked over to Michelle Cindy to ask if she had any single volumes of Conan Doyle, and happened to see Mia Waters borrowing a stapler from people around.

Last time, she had left him standing there like a sleepwalker, so Zoe Young felt a bit guilty and took the initiative to say, "Mia Waters, did your homework book fall apart?"

Mia Waters's expression turned strange. He grinned, nodded, and shook the grid notebook in his hand, the pages rustling like white waves.

After pressing the stapler hard on the desk twice, he was satisfied and shook the homework book again.

Then he suddenly leaned in close to Zoe Young and whispered in her ear, "Didn't you notice this book is especially thick?"

Zoe Young was startled by his sudden whispering and quickly moved away. "So what if it is?"

Mia Waters looked around, lowered his voice, and said with a smile, "I took apart last semester's homework book, and for all the pages that didn't get a red check mark, I tore them out and put them together. It was hard work to piece together enough for a whole vacation's worth of homework, and I even had to staple it. Do you think that's easy for me?"

In that instant, Zoe Young felt deeply ashamed of her own act of tearing out blank pages—it was so low-level, so childish.

At that moment, Mia Waters gently pressed his new pimple on his forehead with his index finger and seriously asked her, "Did you finish all your summer homework as soon as vacation started? You're such a hardworking person..."

Zoe Young suddenly really wanted to curse. You're the hardworking one, your whole family is hardworking.

For a moment, she even wanted to loudly announce to Mia Waters that she had actually torn out several key pages of her summer homework, that she had been lazy...

But then she thought it was strange. Being hardworking isn't a bad thing. In fact, it should always be a compliment. When did praising someone for being diligent and hardworking become a way of saying the kid is dumb and has no potential?

Honestly, it's just that deep down, you feel you're not smart enough, so you put on an act, imitating the mischief and laziness of the smart kids, as if that proves you're not just a bookworm.

At this pitiful age, you always have to prove yourself to others before you dare to cautiously affirm yourself.

Zoe Young suddenly became interested in Mia Waters. She widened her eyes and leaned in close, her nose almost touching his chin. This time, it was Mia Waters's turn to jump back in fright.

"You... what are you doing?"

"Other than the penmanship, did you finish all the other homework?"

Mia Waters blinked: "For the English vocabulary copying, I didn't copy the words I already memorized... I guess the teacher won't notice. I didn't finish that big comprehensive summer homework book either, just did the interesting questions, the rest I just scribbled something, since the teacher doesn't really check, as long as it looks full..."

Zoe Young suddenly realized that Mia Waters never seemed to waste time on repetitive tasks, like copying words he already knew by heart, or penmanship practice.

So Mia Waters stood there, parched, watching as Zoe Young once again stared intently at his face and zoned out, showing a weird smile, then passed by him with a blank look.

Good students are all crazy. Mia Waters muttered, seemingly unaware of his slightly flushed face, and continued fiddling with his grid notebook.

At that moment, Michelle Cindy looked up, gazing at the backs of Mia Waters and Zoe Young for a while, then lowered her head again.

There were three big changes in eighth grade.

A new subject: physics.

Monthly exams.

And Saturday make-up classes.

The make-up class system was simple: the top students in the whole school were divided into four classes, A, B, C, and D, all strictly based on ranking. After each major exam, seats and classes would be reassigned.

Zoe Young didn't know what to say; she was nervous and excited.

She even practiced how to greet Sean Sherman many times. Should she just sit at her desk and wait for the other person to greet her, or should she smile warmly and say, "I'm Zoe Young, I've heard you have great grades, nice to meet you"?

Finally, Saturday arrived. She got to Class A's classroom early and, following the simple seating chart on the blackboard, sat on the outside seat by the door.

The September sky was always bright and clear, making people feel happy, as if everything could be sorted out and started anew.

She was grinning foolishly at the sky outside the window when she suddenly heard a cool voice by her ear: "Excuse me, could you let me through?"

Zoe Young was startled and quickly stood up, causing the desk to jump forward.

The desk legs scraped against the cement floor with a harsh sound. Zoe Young felt a bit embarrassed, staring straight at the cold girl with glasses beside her. All her carefully prepared greetings and smiles crashed, and she suddenly blurted out, "You're back, then go ahead!"

After she said it, Sean Sherman didn't really react, but she herself was stunned for a few seconds by her own awkward tone, then awkwardly lowered her head and moved aside.

Suddenly, she heard some schadenfreude laughter at the door.

Mia Waters, who had been assigned to Class B, was at the door for some reason, apparently passing by and catching the scene.

Zoe Young swallowed. He suddenly stepped forward, walked up to Sean Sherman, and shamelessly knocked on the desk: "So this is the famous number one in the grade, never missed a single exam, amazing, really amazing..."

Sean Sherman glanced at him, ignored him, and lowered her head to take out her pencil case, scratch paper, and workbook from her huge bag.

Zoe Young secretly laughed in her heart. See, she doesn't even bother with you!

Unexpectedly, Mia Waters wasn't really interested in Sean Sherman. He tilted his head and leaned over, his grinning face magnified several times in front of Zoe Young.

"Yu Er Er—oh no, Zoe Young, you're pretty good too, always second place, never missed a beat, very steady, amazing, really amazing..."

His smile grew even bigger as Zoe Young stared at him in shock.

Zoe Young was furious, but after a moment, she suddenly laughed.

She squinted her eyes again, the corners of her mouth curving in a proud and dangerous arc.

"What are you talking about, Sixth Master?"

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3. Repaying Kindness

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A sweet "Sixth Master" made Mia Waters suck in a cold breath. He hurriedly stepped back, almost bumping into the door.

Tsk tsk, how is this a Sixth Master, at most he's a little lackey. Zoe Young snorted disdainfully in her heart, but on the surface, she was still all smiles.