Lena Taylor and a few classmates squeezed past, and out of the corner of her eye, Zoe Young caught sight of the pure white little leather boots over her black leggings and smiled slightly—this must be the birthday present she fought with her parents for so long to get, right?

The awkward little elementary school girls were quietly growing into young ladies. Even in winter, you could still hear the sound of seeds stirring in the earth. So, could spring really be far away?

When the girls talked about boys, they no longer pretended to be indifferent and uninterested like they did in elementary school. They dared to paint their nails in all sorts of colors, and after putting on a new dress, always wore an expression that was both eager for others to notice and afraid of being accused of showing off. Meanwhile, many boys sitting in the back row had started to carefully spray gel on their hair in front of small mirrors, or squeeze pimples with intense focus, and when called on by the teacher, they were nervous but pretended not to care, pursing their lips and suddenly giving some attention-seeking answer...

Sometimes Zoe Young would talk to her mom at the dinner table, saying that another classmate had argued with the teacher, another boy and girl had secretly held hands, or someone had skipped class again...

Zoe Young picked up a piece of pumpkin and examined it in front of her: "Mom, everyone has changed, they've gotten braver."

Her mom just smiled: "It's just puberty."

The health class teacher sat at the podium reading the newspaper, while the students below giggled and whispered. That class was supposed to be about puberty development. Secondary sex characteristics, physiological structure, menstruation...

"For this class... read it yourselves." The health teacher said only this after entering the classroom.

Naturally, students like Zoe Young who were well-behaved and shy didn't follow the teacher's instructions to study the health textbook. She blushed a little and pretended to be uninterested, opening her English workbook to start doing multiple-choice questions.

Laughter would occasionally erupt from the boys and girls in the back rows. Ethan Xavier was holding up the health textbook, reading something out loud, while the girl next to him kept blushing and playfully hitting his shoulder, and even Martin Bates was grinning foolishly from afar. In this shy yet cheerful "self-study atmosphere," only Michelle Cindy kept her head down, as if she hadn't heard a thing.

Zoe Young still frowned slightly as she looked back. Over the past six months, Michelle Cindy had become even more silent, and her grades were as bad as ever.

Every time Monica Zack got the results of a big exam or a monthly quiz, she would only scold two people: one was Michelle Cindy, the other was Martin Bates.

Even though there were plenty of other students with poor grades.

Zoe Young sighed, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Mia Waters, who was right next to her, was reading the health textbook with great interest. The diagram of the male physiological structure looked like an ant nest—of course, Zoe Young would never admit that when the new textbooks were handed out at the start of the semester, she had already secretly read those chapters in the health book. Otherwise, how would she know that the diagram was so confusing?

"You..." Zoe Young curled her lips.

Mia Waters looked up in a panic, his cheeks quickly turning red.

"The teacher said... the teacher said to study on our own..."

Zoe Young nodded: "You work so hard even in health class, which doesn't even have a final exam. You're not slacking off in any subject, Mia Waters, you're truly an all-around model student."

Mia Waters's face started to turn green.

"Of course I have to work hard! Besides, the teacher always tells everyone to learn from you. Actually, it's already too late for me to start working hard now," he said with a grin, tapping the big bold title "Menstrual Precautions" on the page with his watermelon-striped ruler, "Our role model Eric Young has always been previewing ahead!"

Already feeling guilty, Zoe Young was caught off guard and stared speechlessly at Mia Waters for a long time, blinking before she stammered, "I—I didn't read it!"

Mia Waters said nothing, just raised his eyebrows and smiled smugly. For the past six months, he and Zoe Young had been in a state of bickering every three days, with a big fight every five. The seemingly quiet and gentle Zoe Young was actually sharp-tongued and ruthless. Their arguments ranged from the simplest solutions to math problems to which song was better, 《Dark Skies》 or 《Kite》, and even included childish tricks like secretly tying each other's shoelaces to the desk legs. Yet he always ended up losing, but this time, he finally managed to win a round thanks to the natural thick-skinned advantage of being a boy.

While he was still feeling pleased with himself, he noticed Zoe Young's gaze was fixed on him. His ruler, unfortunately, was pointing right at the bold words "遗精".

Zoe Young looked down, then up at him, then down again, then up at him.

Compared to menstruation, which for girls was already almost common knowledge, those two words were definitely more lethal.

Mia Waters's neck stiffened, and he was so embarrassed he couldn't speak, only able to look at Zoe Young with pleading eyes.

When you lose your shame, you become invincible. The now-victorious Zoe Young turned back around with a cheerful smile, lying on her desk in relief, feeling as if her ears and cheeks were burning, so hot it was scary.

Mutual destruction.

------------

5. We Are Not the Same

Fastest update of the latest chapter of Hello, Old Times!

The physics teacher was a young woman full of energy, said to be quite prominent in the physics teaching group. Physics was also the only subject where Class Six and Class Two shared the same teacher.

Zoe Young rested her chin on her hand, listening intently as the physics teacher explained the province-wide open class competition. This open class competition was a big deal for the whole school, with each grade sending a teacher to participate. While everyone was still guessing whether the physics teacher would choose the high-achieving Class Two or the more lively Class Six, the teacher announced on the podium that the participating class would be made up of enthusiastic students from both classes.

"That's obviously cheating," Mia Waters muttered in the back.

Zoe Young turned around and quietly agreed, "It's not like you haven't participated in open classes before. It's always been like this, hasn't it?"

The lesson plan would be written, the overall process planned, all the teaching aids prepared, and almost every question's responder arranged in advance. In the days before the competition, it was like rehearsing a play, with everyone memorizing their lines. The teacher would be kind and patient, the students active and quick-thinking, and no matter what the question, the whole class would raise their hands—of course, pay attention to those who raised their hands the highest—

They were the ones who really knew how to answer the question.

When the physics teacher got to the core part of the lesson, she took off her glasses and put them in a battered, oddly shaped glasses case, then casually tossed it onto Zoe Young's desk before returning to the blackboard to write and draw. Martin Bates suddenly reached over, grabbed the glasses case, fiddled with it a bit, and managed to balance the obviously uneven case upright on the desk.

Zoe Young raised her eyebrows in surprise: "Wow, how did you do that?"

She reached over to try it herself, but every time she tried, it fell over, making a loud noise on the desk.

"Clumsy." In unison, from her right and behind her.

Once upon a time, Zoe Young had decided to treat Martin Bates as invisible, but as time went on, his childish, mischievous behavior became less restrained. He started muttering in weird accents during class, bothering everyone around him, scattering notes or crumbled snacks all over Zoe Young's side of the desk, or stepping on her new shoes under the table.

Mia Waters would often sit with his hands behind his head, watching the exasperated Zoe Young with glee, occasionally making a sarcastic comment.

But both boys forgot that Zoe Young was never one to be messed with. Once her "flare gun" personality was activated, Martin Bates began to realize how serious things could get.

When he tried to step on Zoe Young, it was just for fun, but her kick in return was strong enough to turn someone into a limping pirate captain, making Martin Bates howl, "Teacher, Zoe Young is bullying me!" When Mia Waters laughed at Zoe Young's desk covered in paper scraps, she had already quietly swept them all up and collected them—until Mia Waters came back from PE, opened his bag, and found it filled with white scraps, burying all his textbooks. Looking up, he saw Zoe Young in the front row, hands behind her back, greeting him with a sweet smile and crescent eyes.

"Count them, not a single piece is missing!" she said with a grin.

At this moment, holding the physics teacher's glasses case, Zoe Young glanced sideways at Martin Bates, who immediately got the hint and pretended to sleep.

"Are you even a man!" Only Mia Waters was left behind to complain helplessly.

"Yesterday, I basically finalized the list of students who will lead the experiment at the front. As for who else from our class can participate, that's not decided yet, but it will definitely be half from our class and half from Class Two, absolutely fair."

Experiment? Zoe Young shifted her attention from the glasses case to the physics teacher.