"Teacher, I'm really worried. I've always studied physics and chemistry, but suddenly switched to history and geography. I'm afraid I made the wrong choice. I should have consulted someone, but I never thought about studying liberal arts. It was just a sudden impulse before the exam, so..."

"Regretting it?" Dana Yule was still smiling. "If you regret it..."

"No." Ray Cindy shook her head.

Dana Yule then began to speak in a gentle voice, saying that, from a broader perspective, life is full of challenges, and change isn't necessarily a bad thing; from a smaller perspective, she has great potential and is willing to work hard, so as long as she stays confident...

Ray Cindy pretended to listen very seriously, occasionally asking a few irrelevant questions, nodding from time to time.

As Dana Yule was leaving, she suddenly turned back and said, "By the way, Ray Cindy, everyone really misses you and Zoe. The classmates even said they want to throw a farewell party for you two."

Really? Ray Cindy noticed the curve of her lips was a bit cold, so she forced herself to smile even more brightly.

"I'm starting to miss everyone too. This morning I even went to the wrong floor and almost walked back to Class One. Haha, thank you all. As for the farewell party, I'll ask Zoe what she thinks. It's just that everyone is so busy studying, I don't want to take up their time!"

Dana Yule also smiled. "It's fine, go discuss it with Zoe. We all hope to prepare a farewell party for you two.

Thomas Chase even said, you two left so suddenly, it gave the whole class a shock. There's no way we can just let you go. If even our class monitor says so, you can imagine how strange your actions seemed."

Thomas Chase said that? Ray Cindy was a little absent-minded, a hint of inexplicable sweetness mixed with bitterness.

She smiled faintly. "Maybe our actions surprised everyone!"

"Exactly. How about this, you two talk it over, then contact Thomas Chase directly!"

"Got it, thank you Mr. Yule. I'll head back to class now, goodbye."

Ray Cindy let out a long breath, walked a few steps, looked back at the figure in the gray suit, then gradually let the forced smile on her lips fade away, until it became a straight line like a scar.

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4. How Far Is It, Really

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Ray Cindy turned around to go back to class. As she opened the door, she bumped into a girl coming from the other side. She stepped aside, and the other girl stumbled straight toward the opposite wall. Judging by her back, it was Charlotte Lee.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" Charlotte Lee held her head with one hand and hurriedly tidied her slightly messy hair with the other.

"No. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be going then."

Normally, she shouldn't be such a clumsy girl. Ray Cindy took a closer look at Charlotte Lee's running posture—it was actually as affected as Grace Howard's, and she couldn't help but feel a bit of dislike.

Princess.

Ray Cindy returned to her seat and opened the political exercise book that Zoe had brought for her.

At the beginning of each unit, there was a memorization aid, with key points left blank for students to fill in. At the meeting, the school had announced that the teaching schedule would start with Marxist philosophy, and the economics section from first year would be reviewed later. Ray Cindy opened her bag to look for the new political book, lined up three pens on her right hand side to mark key points. She had just read three lines of the introduction when a harsh voice suddenly came from the loudspeaker.

"All students, please gather at the flag-raising square immediately. The school assembly will proceed as usual."

So that inexplicable rain had come and gone in an instant. Ray Cindy felt a bit annoyed—a perfectly good morning wasted for no reason, just like that neurotic rain.

"Let's go together!" Suddenly, a short girl came over and smiled at Ray Cindy. Her chubby face had obvious dimples, and when her small eyes squinted, they almost disappeared. The girl naturally took Ray Cindy's hand, and Ray Cindy was a bit surprised.

"My name is Tina Carter, what's yours?" A simple opening, Tina Carter's voice was so ordinary it was hard to remember, her speech was a bit fast, but her tone made Ray Cindy feel vaguely uncomfortable.

"Ray Cindy. The '锐' as in 'sharp.'"

"Never heard of it!" Tina Carter seemed completely unaware that her deliberately surprised tone had already cast a cloud over Ray Cindy's head. "Which class were you in during first year?"

"Class One."

Students in Class One and Two were either provincial Olympiad first prize winners or had extremely high entrance exam scores. Ray Cindy had long since learned how to say these two words casually, without making it sound like she was showing off. Just say it as plainly as saying Class Five, Six, or Fourteen, with a flat tone, just like when Zoe Young said "Good morning."

Even though she was tired of others' exaggerated reactions to those two words, Tina Carter's complete lack of reaction still made Ray Cindy feel a bit awkward—like a celebrity taking off her sunglasses on the street and not being recognized.

"Class One? That's an honors class too? See that girl? The one who went inside to get her coat." Tina Carter pointed at Charlotte Lee not far away, and Charlotte Lee seemed to hear, glancing over before lowering her head and pretending not to notice.

"That's Charlotte Lee, from Class Two. Class Two is an honors class, really strong in science. She came to study liberal arts, so she must be number one in the arts now. Her family is rich, she's pretty, basically the school beauty."

So you came to talk to me just to introduce the school beauty? Ray Cindy frowned slightly, and for a moment wanted to retort that maybe Charlotte Lee switched to liberal arts because she was bad at science. But seeing the other girl's gossipy, provocative expression, she held back, afraid those words would be maliciously passed on to Charlotte Lee.

"Yeah, I know her. She's really talented, perfect even. Ordinary people like us can only sigh at the goddess from afar."

Ray Cindy echoed in an exaggerated tone. After all, she had said to Zoe Young before that Charlotte Lee would be number one in the grade. But not a word of it was sincere.

Ray Cindy didn't want to be like Charlotte Lee, burdened by everyone's expectations. Others only needed to set standards and shackles with exaggerated praise, never caring how much pressure the person herself would bear.

Praise comes with no responsibility.

Yet having no one expect anything is even more humiliating—the first is in front of others, the second is facing yourself.

Ray Cindy couldn't learn to deceive herself. She knew she hated anyone who, intentionally or not, held up a mirror to show her how insignificant she was. She had smashed Grace Howard's mirror, but this side of Charlotte Lee wasn't something she could just grab and smash.

A crack, shattering irreparably with a bang—that's the ending perfection deserves.

"Which class were you in before?" Ray Cindy changed the subject.

"I was in Class Sixteen." Also from the branch campus, Tina Carter had none of Grace Howard's inferiority or concern. That kind of tone was something Ray Cindy could never imitate when saying "Class One." "There's someone in our class you definitely know, Charles Morgan, the one who got punished. When he fights, he's really manly. Half the girls in our class like him. And do you know Laura Lawrence? That girl who came in a white stretch Cadillac this morning, her dad is the boss of the Jinmen Grand Hotel."

Ray Cindy didn't say anything. They had already walked into the hallway, the crowd was noisy, and Ray Cindy didn't have the energy to keep up the conversation, so the distance between them naturally widened.

Suddenly, she heard a few girls nearby chattering about funny things that happened after they got up that morning.

"I'm going crazy. I was already about to be late, but my mom insisted on sewing a button on my shirt. I had jam all over my hands, and she asked me to hold the button for her. I had no choice but to put it in my mouth. Then my dad got all excited and hung up my prepared uniform on a hanger—just making things worse! I got anxious, opened my mouth to call him, and ended up swallowing the button.

What should I do?"

Ray Cindy suddenly felt as if she'd been struck by lightning. This scene seemed to have happened before, in a stationery store, when she accidentally said what she was thinking out loud, and Zoe Young heard and persistently asked about the fate of that button.

Back then, Zoe Young smiled so warmly and gently, softly asking her, "Do you like stationery too?"

Now, Zoe Young's bag only had a light gray plaid pencil case, with just one fountain pen, one pencil, one ballpoint pen, plus an eraser and 0.5 refills—everything extremely simple.

Ray Cindy was lost in her memories when Tina Carter tugged her arm again—"See, that's Zoe Young."

She saw Zoe Young again, talking to a pale, thin boy beside her. It looked like they were just getting to know each other, talking about classmates and teachers they both knew. When she saw Ray Cindy, Zoe Young smiled.

"Didn't expect the rain to stop," Ray Cindy said.