This time, the design of the open class was indeed much more interesting than before. The physics teacher had clearly put in a lot of effort, preparing several sets of fun experiments, completely setting aside the textbook, under the pretense of “popular science exploration.”

Then, the physics teacher’s eager and enthusiastic gaze fell in the direction of Zoe Young and Mia Waters.

Zoe Young could even hear Mia Waters nervously swallowing behind her.

The class arts committee member privately praised Zoe Young, saying this open class was really interesting, that this kind of innovation would definitely be highly valued by the judges, reflecting the autonomy emphasized in the new curriculum standards—Zoe Young and Mia Waters exchanged a subtle glance and sighed.

It was just a more novel format, with a higher level of difficulty. The experiments weren’t designed by them, the results had already been calculated, and even the students who would question the process and results during class had already been arranged.

This open class left Zoe Young with mixed feelings. On the bright side, she now had an excuse to skip many boring classes, like health, labor skills, and even the morning exercises and eye exercises. The physics lab had become Zoe Young’s official refuge, and she was filled with unprecedented enthusiasm for the small experiment she was in charge of.

Her lab partner, Mia Waters, also liked skipping class, but the only disagreement between them was over the labor skills class. Mia Waters liked labor skills and enjoyed those handicraft assignments. Zoe Young couldn’t understand how a boy who wasn’t at all effeminate could love labor skills so much, but as lab partners, they had to act in unison, so when Mia Waters insisted on attending labor skills, Zoe Young finally lost it.

“Are you even a guy? You’re interested in that kind of class? We need to practice, practice!”

Mia Waters yawned. “Practice my foot! Our experiment barely has any technical content. You just want to hang out in the lab with your comics, don’t you? Actually, I think it’s more exciting to read in class while worrying about getting caught, don’t you think?”

Zoe Young had no comeback—their experiment really was simple, very simple: simulating a sunrise.

The basic principle was light refraction. The props needed were a square box, a flashlight, and a glass bottle—specifically, an IV bottle with the label torn off. The flashlight represented the sun, and the height of the square box, representing the horizon, just blocked the light from the flashlight behind it, so the students below the podium couldn’t see anything. But after placing the water-filled IV bottle between the two, the students could see the flashlight’s light. The IV bottle acted as the atmosphere, refracting the sunlight—this was the so-called “dawn before the real sunrise.”

In Mia Waters’s words, even a six-year-old could do such a boring experiment. The physics teacher’s only requirement was—“Figure out your own lines, don’t get up there and embarrass me like a stuttering block of wood!”

But what Mia Waters didn’t understand was, the first time they went into the lab to prepare the equipment, he was putting AA batteries into the flashlight when he suddenly heard Zoe Young giggling in front of the sink as she filled the IV bottle with water.

He quietly walked over and saw her staring at the water-filled glass bottle, the corners of her mouth turned up, lost in some happy memory.

She raised the bottle and murmured to herself, “Ha, take the holy water away!”

“What holy water?”

Interrupted, Zoe Young let out a scream, the glass bottle slipped from her hand, and shattered on the floor.

Off to the side, Sean Sherman, who was wiping the fish tank and the iron stand, turned his face to look at this pair of clowns, his gaze indifferent.

To this day, Zoe Young still hadn’t managed to say a word to Sean Sherman in A class on Saturdays, except for “Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.” The seating in A class changed with every monthly exam, but the table shared by Zoe Young and Sean Sherman never changed, like two stone mountains rooted in the ground.

Zoe Young vaguely felt she had gotten used to being second in the grade, and that wasn’t so bad. Life went on leisurely—studying, but also reading some comics, playing badminton, going for runs, and her mom had even promised to buy her a computer for the New Year...

Sean Sherman was a taut string; she was not Zoe Young.

She even found herself unconsciously aligning with Mia Waters’s life philosophy. Just like his surname, warm and gentle days.

Alan Carter’s protagonist game, and the past at University Elementary School, intertwined into blurry, indistinct images outside the glass bottle.

After that time appearing in front of the physics teacher, Sean Sherman never showed up in the lab again. Faced with Zoe Young’s gleeful class-skipping, Mia Waters kept using, “Look at the grade’s number one, she doesn’t even care about the physics teacher’s open class just to get more study time. No wonder you’ll always be behind her,” to provoke Zoe Young.

Even while feeling frustrated, Zoe Young didn’t forget to retort, “You seem pretty invested yourself, so what about you?

Your attitude toward studying isn’t even as good as mine!”

Mia Waters didn’t even think, lazily replying, “But, Zoe Young, we’re not the same.”

Zoe Young suddenly froze.

Those words sounded familiar.

Memories surged, but ultimately slipped away.

When she returned to the classroom, English, math, and physics worksheets and sample Chinese essays for the weekend homework were being handed out, passed from the front row to the back, and the classroom was instantly abuzz with a flurry of white papers. Each subject’s class rep stood at the podium shouting, “Is anyone missing a Chinese worksheet? Anyone missing?”

“I am, I am!” The arts committee member had just raised her hand and shouted when a burst of laughter erupted around her.

Zoe Young passed by the back door and saw Michelle Cindy helping the boys and girls around her organize their worksheets, stacking them neatly in order. Even though none of them would actually do the worksheets.

A bloodbath caused by a nail. Michelle Cindy’s sense of justice—Zoe Young knew she had no way to repay it now. Now that the person being bullied was Michelle Cindy, she didn’t have the courage to walk over, snatch the worksheets from her hands, and shove them back at Ethan Xavier and the others.

When she got to her seat, she found that Martin Bates had already sorted her worksheets into neat piles.

Zoe Young was a little touched. Looking back at Mia Waters, who was going crazy over a pile of disordered worksheets, she couldn’t help but smile warmly and said to Martin Bates, “Thank you!”

Martin Bates was always grinning like a hyperactive kid. But long ago, Zoe Young had noticed that no matter what expression he wore, his eyes were always hollow, his pupils rarely moved, with too much white showing, staring straight ahead. If you covered the lower half of his face and just looked at his eyes, you couldn’t even guess his expression.

But when he heard her thanks, he didn’t smile or look at her, just blushed a little and said impatiently, “Take care of your worksheets, and stop digging through my desk for them!”

Zoe Young sheepishly touched her nose. She always forgot to bring her worksheets, and whenever the teacher went over the answers in class, she’d have to rummage through Martin Bates’s desk—he never looked at his worksheets, just stuffed them in, all messy, so she could always find the one she needed.

“By the way, the physics teacher came by just now. The list of students going to the competition has been posted. In a bit, we’ll go to the lab with the students from Class 2, I think we’re supposed to rehearse.”

Great, time to rehearse lines. Zoe Young helplessly stuffed “Inuyasha” into her bag.

“Also,” Martin Bates suddenly said, “the competition is right after this weekend. I think it’s at University High School.”

“Oh,” she nodded, then suddenly looked up, “What did you say?”

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6. All Because of Pushing the Wall

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“Zhou...Zoe Young, what’s wrong, are you nervous?”

Mia Waters noticed that the usually open and calm Zoe Young was especially quiet and meek this morning, walking with her eyes fixed on the ground, completely out of character, and couldn’t help but worry. He almost called her “Zoe” affectionately, but quickly corrected himself and added her surname.

Zoe Young looked up, nodded, then shook her head.

How could she explain it to Mia Waters? She wasn’t nervous because of the open class.

On the morning of December 24th, the sky was gray. Zoe Young and the others, led by the physics teacher and the dean, jumped off the bus and walked into the campus of University High School in the bleak cold wind. It looked like the playground had just been swept of snow, making it especially clean.

Since it was the first period of class, they hardly saw any other students on the way.

Zoe Young didn’t know what she was really thinking. She was a little afraid of the University High School campus, so much so that she was especially quiet on the bus, her mind blank. But when she actually walked into the empty campus, she unexpectedly felt a sense of loss.