He insisted that it was Michelle Cindy who stole it and put it in her bag, so he demanded to search Michelle Cindy's bag. Michelle Cindy, who had always stayed silent and let them bully her, was uncharacteristically tough and stubborn this time, protecting her bag and refusing to let him search it no matter what. In the heat of the argument, she angrily stood up, clutching her bag and tried to run out the door, but after being grabbed by Ethan Xavier, she was violently dragged down, landing hard on the floor, her head hitting the corner of the table.

The scream that Zoe Young heard was at the very moment she fell.

The next second, Michelle Cindy was huddled in the corner, rolling and crawling, and no matter how much Ethan Xavier kicked her, she wouldn't let go of her bag.

"Meixiang, let's go to the infirmary, okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Let's check if you got injured, alright?"

Zoe Young spoke softly, but Michelle Cindy seemed bewitched, her eyes vacant, lost in her own hatred.

"Hey, can you stop being like this? If you want to stab him, just go get a knife now, what's the point of all this dithering!" Mia Waters's patience finally ran out. Zoe Young glared at him several times, but he ignored her completely.

Michelle Cindy acted as if she hadn't heard, just kept her head down, and occasionally a smug smile would appear at the corner of her mouth.

Mia Waters looked at Zoe Young in surprise. "She can't be... crazy, right?"

Zoe Young was stunned too, thought for a long time, then suddenly started to laugh.

"You aren't crazy too, are you..." Mia Waters took a few steps back. "Don't tell me this is contagious..."

Zoe Young shook her head, her smile growing gentler, tinged with a bit of sadness.

"Mia Waters, if you really, really wanted to do something, but just couldn't because you weren't good enough... what would you do?"

Mia Waters scratched his head, said nothing, and just looked down at his toes, no longer shouting.

He didn't want to tell Zoe Young that on the night after that open class, before going to sleep, he lay in bed and replayed all the scenes from the day. Only this time, the role of the mysterious Romeo was played by himself, and every line about the horizon, he repeated in his mind with his eyes closed. He didn't even realize that his facial expressions were just as vivid as the fantasies swirling in his mind.

When we are powerless, we daydream.

It's just that some people's daydreams never end.

Zoe Young sighed, "I think Michelle Cindy is probably imagining herself stepping on Ethan Xavier right now!"

Mia Waters stayed silent, not responding.

Zoe Young sat down next to Michelle Cindy, gently putting her arm around her shoulders. The cold wind was biting, and Zoe Young felt her cheeks had gone numb from the wind.

The final exams were in three days, and another semester was about to end.

She remembered how she used to fantasize before bed about getting into Brightstar High School and then swaggering back to University Elementary School to "visit" Teacher Yu. She imagined all the possible reactions—fake smiles and "I always knew you'd succeed," or awkward admissions of short-sightedness, or regret for having belittled her... No matter which, she had a response ready. She hardly needed to consider how hard it really was to get into Brightstar High School; in her daydreams, she was the queen, enjoying it all with ease, then drifting off to sleep with a satisfied smile.

When she woke up, outside the window was the harsh reality and the lazy morning light. No matter how noble the queen, she still had to get up for morning study.

The three of them didn't know how long they stood there. Just as Mia Waters was about to turn into an ice sculpture, Michelle Cindy suddenly spoke, asking softly, "Were you always good students since you were little?"

"Alan Carter, you know, when Michelle Cindy went with the school nurse to check if her shoulder was dislocated, Mia Waters and I secretly looked through her bag.

"That magazine really was in her bag.

"Mia Waters was very surprised, but I always knew Michelle Cindy had a habit of stealing. Just stealing. That copy of 'Seventeen Never Cries' was something she stole from a rental place. She didn't have much money to rent, or rather, she couldn't afford the deposit.

"A lot of her comics and novels were just taken—though after reading them, she would return them, uh, as long as they weren't boring...

"I don't know why, maybe because she's so pitiful, but I always felt her behavior was understandable. After all, she never got anything she should have.

"I know why she asked us that question. I've wondered more than once, if my grades weren't good, would Monica Zack still like me, would my mom still give me so much freedom to read comics, would my classmates still support and like me...

"Actually, I know the answer: no. In sixth grade, math olympiad already told me, if my grades aren't good, I'm nothing.

"Michelle Cindy thinks that as long as her grades are good, she can have everything we have. Even though I think love should be unconditional, in reality, it isn't. I don't know if getting better grades will make her happy, but I know this might be the only way she can try."

The only chance.

On the way to take Michelle Cindy back to class, Zoe Young softly told her about the "main character's game."

The game rules that Alan Carter once taught her, she now used to save another girl.

One had once lost love, the other had never had it.

The fire in Michelle Cindy's eyes made Mia Waters a little afraid.

"I'll help you." Zoe Young promised softly as she returned to her seat.

"Why bother." Mia Waters shook his head behind her.

"You don't understand."

"How do I not understand?" He looked at Zoe Young seriously. "You went to University Elementary School in elementary school, right?

You came all the way to our lousy school for that stupid game rule, didn't you? Holding it all in, just to show everyone how capable you are, that you can get into Brightstar High School, isn't that right?"

"What's wrong with that?" Zoe Young was a little agitated.

"Nothing wrong," Mia Waters shook his head, "nothing at all."

That's why he once told Zoe Young, we're different.

At that moment, the cloud of inferiority and confusion that had hung over Mia Waters since the open class gradually faded away.

Mia Waters sat at his desk, smiling as he watched the back of Zoe Young bent over her desk, studying hard.

Because they were different.

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

10. How time flies

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Zoe Young had seen classmates suddenly get motivated, stick with it for a few days, then gradually slack off and return to their old lazy ways.

Even Martin Bates had once pulled himself together after a bit of encouragement.

The neurotic but kind geography teacher was jokingly called "Crazy Old Lady" by everyone. One day in class, she called on Martin Bates and asked him, on the blackboard, which line was the Yangtze River and which was the Yellow River?

Martin Bates answered casually and got it right.

The whole class made a big deal of it and applauded enthusiastically—after all, for Martin Bates, this was practically a miracle. He sat down, face flushed with joy, and Zoe Young smiled and said, "So smart."

Sometimes Zoe Young really didn't know which little details would unexpectedly touch someone's heart. Martin Bates suddenly started studying seriously, writing awkward characters on paper, then shyly saying, "Wow, I haven't written in so long, haha, I... I can't even write anymore."

Then, during a break, the Chinese teacher walked into the classroom and said, "Martin Bates, do you have any shame? Only you and Michelle Cindy in the whole grade failed. Do you know how much you dragged down the average score?"

Martin Bates, who was practicing holding his pen again, suddenly stood up, eyes red.

Then he sat down again.

That brief burst of motivation ended there, and Martin Bates went back to his old joking self. Although Zoe Young knew that even if the Chinese teacher hadn't shown up or said those hurtful words, Martin Bates wouldn't have lasted long anyway. But still, hope had appeared, and it was because of that hope that he reacted so strongly to the teacher's scolding, which was really no different from usual.

Most people just give up on their study plans out of laziness.

But Zoe Young never expected Michelle Cindy to make it through.

It was as if she poured all her hatred onto her desk, and just a dab of her pen could keep her writing for ages. After the final exams and before the Spring Festival, the school organized extra classes for grades eight and nine. Every time Zoe Young passed by Michelle Cindy, she saw her head down, writing furiously.