Mother was stunned. She raised her hand to brush aside Zoe Young's fine bangs, and the hot drops of water on her fingers rolled down, dripping onto Zoe Young's thick eyelashes, blurring her vision.

"Zoe, you don't have to..."

"I have conditions," Zoe Young interrupted her mother's sadness with a cheeky smile. "When I look for a boyfriend in the future, you have to keep this same attitude."

The hand that had been gently stroking her cheek suddenly changed direction and pinched her hard. After Zoe Young let out an exaggerated yelp and stepped back, her mother laughed and scolded her, "You little brat, do you already have someone in mind? Trying to prepare me in advance?"

Zoe Young gave a dry laugh and shook her head. "As the Buddha says, it cannot be spoken, it cannot be spoken."

There are some things that really can't be said. Hard-won happiness—she didn't dare say it out loud, afraid that jealous gods would take it away again.

"Mom, you have to be happy."

A warm tear slid through Zoe Young's smiling heart.

Third place in the grand prize.

When the physics teacher brought this news, the whole class erupted. But the first thing Zoe Young thought of was, would Sean Sherman be a little happier when she heard this?

At the first Saturday make-up class after that open lesson, Zoe Young and Sean Sherman still acted as if nothing had happened, barely speaking to each other. If they did, it was only, "Excuse me, I'm going out," and "Okay." But to Zoe Young, Sean Sherman was no longer mysterious, nor cold. The passionate dreams stirring in this girl's heart were the same as Zoe Young's, and also the name that students at No. 13 Middle School were unwilling or afraid to say out loud.

Although the open lesson award was just a group prize, Zoe Young sincerely hoped this achievement could make Sean Sherman feel a little better—at least to some extent, it showed that No. 13 Middle School wasn't such a bad school, and that the gap between them and the students at the Affiliated High School wasn't that big.

Of course, it was only proof to a certain extent. Including Mia Waters, everyone deeply felt the gap when observing the English class at the Affiliated High School, and it wasn't just about grades. That confident, poised demeanor wasn't brought by grades alone.

After the open lesson, Mia Waters also inexplicably became quiet for a while.

The way he looked at Zoe Young was always a bit strange. When Zoe Young turned around to banter with him as usual, all she got was a bored response. Over time, she consciously toned down her playful behavior in front of him.

The psychological impact from that stage on Christmas Eve morning wasn't so easy to get over.

The only ones who hadn't changed were Michelle Cindy and Martin Bates.

Whenever Martin Bates started making weird noises during self-study, Zoe Young would pinch him hard, and he'd respond with a half-laughing, half-crying, "You witch." What also made Zoe Young uneasy was Martin Bates's dandruff, which could almost sparkle in the bright sunlight, but she couldn't complain about it, because saying it out loud would hurt him. Sometimes, when she was in a good mood, Zoe Young would sing him the Cantonese version of "Congratulations, your house is flooded," and every time, Martin Bates would laugh like a hen about to lay an egg. Of course, even though every time the test papers were handed out he'd stack them up neatly, the forgetful Zoe Young would still reach for his desk from time to time, looking for blank papers or scratch paper. During pop quizzes, he'd lie on the desk and check her simple calculation problems for her. She could focus on the big questions at the end, and he'd check every decimal point step by step. If it was a Chinese test, he'd even open it up, point at Zoe Young's classical fill-in-the-blank, and say, "You wrote this character wrong."

Occasionally, when Ethan Xavier and the others asked him to run errands, Zoe Young would quietly say to him, "Can't you just be tough for once and tell them 'I'm not going'?"

Every time, Martin Bates would look at Zoe Young like she was a weirdo.

"They're my brothers," he would say solemnly.

They're just messing with you. But Zoe Young kept that thought to herself—some things, if you say them out loud, only make the other person feel worse.

Maybe when Martin Bates happily ran downstairs to buy snacks or cigarettes, what filled his heart was the happiness of being needed. She had no right to take away that happiness, even if it was just an illusion.

Martin Bates would often ask Zoe Young why Monica Zack always scolded him and Michelle Cindy, but never held Ethan Xavier and the others accountable for failing. Wasn't everyone dragging down the class average?

Zoe Young shrugged. "Because you're not beyond hope."

She believed that, no matter how muddled Monica Zack was, she could see clearly that Martin Bates had a kind and simple heart.

But the bruises on Michelle Cindy's face made Zoe Young very worried. Now, in every class, whenever the "train" started from the first row, teachers and students would automatically avoid her. Once, when she stood up from the last row, a girl from the first row of another group had already started a new "train." Michelle Cindy stood there silently for a minute, then quietly sat back down.

After that, she never stood up again.

As for the bruises on her face, it was obvious without asking—they were her mother's handiwork.

"Alan Carter, sometimes I wonder, for Michelle Cindy, would it have been happier if she had never been born?"

Zoe Young was lying on her desk writing in her diary when she suddenly heard urgent screams and curses behind her.

"I told you to hand over the bag, are you fucking deaf!"

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9. The Protagonist's Game

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The moment Zoe Young turned around, she saw Ethan Xavier cursing and kicking a girl's arm in the corner. The girl who was kicked didn't even look up, still stubbornly curled up in the corner, clutching her bag tightly—it was Michelle Cindy.

A group of boys rushed up to hold back Ethan Xavier, trying to calm him down. "Chill out, man, what's wrong with you? Why bother with an idiot? If you hurt her, you'll have to pay for it..."

Zoe Young was shocked and hurried over, bypassing the still-cursing Ethan Xavier who was pretending to struggle against the others, and squatted down next to Michelle Cindy, anxiously asking, "Does it hurt? Did he hurt you? Say something, will you?"

Zoe Young's hand rested on Michelle Cindy's shoulder, but all she felt was violent trembling. Michelle Cindy was curled up like a cocoon, wrapped tightly around that dirty dark blue bag, her face buried deep.

"What gives you the right to hit people?" Zoe Young was so angry her face turned red, almost forgetting to be afraid, and turned to shout at Ethan Xavier.

"Because I fucking want to! Damn it, that bitch dared to steal my girlfriend's stuff, fuck your grandma..."

Ethan Xavier's foul language made people want to cover their ears. Zoe Young's anger burned in her chest. She stood up with a "whoosh," about to speak, but was blocked by Mia Waters who rushed over.

"Don't be impulsive. They're holding Ethan Xavier back. Hurry and take Michelle Cindy out to see if she's hurt!"

Zoe Young struggled to calm herself, then squatted down again and patted Michelle Cindy's head. "Meixiang, Meixiang, come with me to the school clinic. Can you get up?"

Michelle Cindy seemed trapped in a spell, just trembling, neither looking up nor responding. For a moment, Zoe Young even wondered if she had really become deaf and mute.

"Meixiang, Meixiang?" Mia Waters also squatted down, gently calling her name. "Can you get up?"

Only then did Michelle Cindy lift her head a little. Her already small eyes were swollen from crying, now just slits. Her lips moved nonstop, but Zoe Young couldn't make out what she was saying.

So she had to kneel down, get even closer, and try hard to distinguish her voice in the noisy surroundings.

After focusing for a long time, Zoe Young finally heard the words she kept repeating.

"I want to kill you."

"Hey, do you think this counts as skipping class?" Mia Waters yawned. He hadn't been alone with Zoe Young for a long time, and now, with Michelle Cindy beside them from the start, it almost counted as being alone.

Zoe Young didn't answer. She was as silent as Michelle Cindy.

It had taken her a lot of effort to get Michelle Cindy out, dragging her all the way up to the school main building's rooftop—the lock on the rooftop was always just for show, so it had become Zoe Young's secret hideout.

Ten minutes later, Mia Waters also came out, having found out what had happened.

During the break, they had kicked Michelle Cindy out of the classroom so that Ethan Xavier's girlfriend could sit at her desk and chat.

After that girl left, she suddenly came back, saying she'd left her copy of "Contemporary Music" on the seat. But Ethan Xavier searched Michelle Cindy's desk for a long time and still didn't see that colorful, eye-catching magazine.