These past few days, Ray Cindy’s addition, subtraction, and mental math have been honed to lightning speed. After totaling the scores once, she’d calculate again using the score difference, once forward, once backward, once with addition, once with subtraction...

No matter how she calculated, her score could never surpass Charlotte Lee. No matter what, the final result was always the same.

She bombed math, did so-so in Chinese, so-so in English, and her liberal arts comprehensive score was good, but not good enough to close the gap.

Maybe the only thing worth being glad about was that she’d never expected to be first in the grade, so not making it was only natural—no embarrassment, no shame.

Ray Cindy lifted her head and gazed at Charlotte Lee’s radiant smile, wanting to send a text to Zoe Young. She took out her phone, but on the polished black screen, she saw her own reflection: dark, cold, and hard, with the corners of her mouth drooping in an ugly way.

She turned her face away, feeling Tina Carter’s orange juice splash into her eye again.

Andrew Lane had been in an incredibly good mood these days.

Second in the grade for liberal arts: Zoe Young. Second in the grade for science: Andrew Lane.

He wanted to grab every passerby and ask, “Isn’t this a perfect match?”

Everyone was in high spirits: Andrew Lane was beaming with pride, Charlotte Lee breathed a sigh of relief, Thomas Chase was as usual, and Zoe Young was calm as ever. Andrew Lane even thought of a song he’d never actually heard before, “Our Life Is Full of Sunshine.”

Every day at noon, as soon as class ended, he’d happily run over to hang around near Class 7, waiting for Zoe Young to come out. Then he’d follow her—not too close, not too far—and when they were almost at the cafeteria, he’d speed up to tug her ponytail, putting on a “What a coincidence!” expression.

Today’s operation went as smoothly as always. Andrew Lane looked at Zoe Young’s slightly tired smile with satisfaction, as if she was already resigned to these “coincidences.” The old Andrew Lane would have felt hurt and angry at such a smile, but now he saw the map in his heart clearly, treating Zoe Young as a tough stone, like math olympiad or physics, that required a lot of effort to conquer. Anyway, she’d get used to him one day. One day, she’d treat him as family, or maybe... someone else.

Family ties were never mysterious. They started unconsciously, just being together, constantly providing warmth and love, and in the end, she’d never be able to leave him.

To make up for the family affection lost because of his unintentional mistake. Andrew Lane firmly believed that this lazy, indifferent Zoe Young was someone who needed saving.

It was just family affection, nothing more. As for other feelings, even thinking about them made Andrew Lane blush furiously. He was born of obsession, for the sake of all beings, so he’d set those aside for now.

Suddenly, Andrew Lane felt a pair of hands climb onto his back.

Nathan Lucas jumped out from behind Andrew Lane like a ghost, grinning as he said to Zoe Young, “Sister, we finally found you. For over a month now, Andrew Lane has been slipping away as soon as class ends, ditching his brothers—turns out he was coming to find you...”

Zoe Young’s face was calm as water, showing no reaction to these words, as if the lively Nathan Lucas was just a beginner’s still life sketch.

“On behalf of us brothers, congratulations on becoming the third concubine after Charlotte Lee and Charles Johnson! Don’t be mad, actually you’re the luckiest—in all the novels and TV dramas, the third concubine is always the most favored!”

Andrew Lane was startled and kicked Nathan Lucas, making him stumble. Nathan Lucas still grinned at Zoe Young, saying, “See, see, that’s our young master’s only flaw—his temper’s too big, way too big. But that’s how all rich kids are, you’ll just have to put up with it.”

Zoe Young leaned quietly against the desk, watching them horse around, smiling faintly. Andrew Lane suddenly realized that this kind of smile only meant one thing: impatience.

“Nathan Lucas.” Andrew Lane stopped smiling, stopped restraining Nathan Lucas, and called his name seriously.

Nathan Lucas froze, stuck out his tongue, and turned to run.

Zoe Young and Andrew Lane were left in silence. Andrew Lane felt extremely awkward. Just as he was about to force a smile and change the subject, Zoe Young seemed to make up her mind and spoke: “Andrew Lane, this month, I’ve only spent 20 yuan on my meal card.”

Andrew Lane hadn’t expected Zoe Young to bring this up. He scratched his head awkwardly, “I just don’t have the habit of letting girls pay. If you think it’s not good... how about you pay for this meal?”

“That’s not what I mean,” Zoe Young said, half amused, half exasperated. “I mean, let’s not eat together anymore.”

“It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose,” Andrew Lane lied with his eyes wide open. “It’s just a coincidence we always run into each other. I eat by myself, you eat by yourself, sharing a table isn’t a big deal!”

“Is it really a coincidence?” Zoe Young cut him off directly.

Andrew Lane was at a loss for words, looking at her awkwardly.

“Andrew Lane, what I want to say is...”

“I know,” Andrew Lane said anxiously, “I know you want to say you don’t blame me anymore. I don’t care whether you really don’t blame me or not. I want to tell you, guilt has tormented me for a year, but now I don’t feel guilty anymore. It was just a coincidence. I didn’t know that meeting me would delay your family’s trip, and I couldn’t have known something would happen to them during that time. I couldn’t foresee it, and I couldn’t stop it. If I have to make it up to you, I can’t bring back what you lost, but I can take their place to... you.”

His voice grew smaller and smaller, and in the end, his face was so red it looked like it would bleed. He never managed to say the word “take care.”

“Andrew Lane, I... you don’t need to make it up to me.” Zoe Young’s voice was like a bucket of cold water poured over Andrew Lane. “There’s really no need at all.”

“Back then I was too impulsive on the phone. I hope you can understand I was too shocked and said things I didn’t mean. I’ve already said, it really wasn’t your fault... and it wasn’t mine either. I figured it out a long time ago. I’m not wallowing in past pain, like Shinji Ikari, the autistic child with a wounded soul in EVA...”

Zoe Young smiled, trying to make a joke, but found the other person didn’t laugh at all.

“I’m fine. Maybe I’m a bit different from before, and you have to understand I can’t be as carefree as I used to be, but I’m not some mental patient. Give me time, I’ll recover slowly. I’m living just fine, I haven’t given up on myself, I haven’t given up on my studies. You don’t need to feel guilty, and you definitely don’t need to compensate me like you’re monitoring me.”

Andrew Lane lowered his head and didn’t answer for a long time. After Zoe Young said all this, she didn’t feel as relieved as she’d imagined.

“Maybe I’m not making it up to you,” Andrew Lane looked up, “I’m making it up to myself.”

“Andrew Lane...”

“I can’t out-argue you. But you really aren’t the same as before. There’s no passion in your eyes, you don’t like to smile, you have no energy, and... no dreams... I want you to go back to how you were.”

Born of obsession, for the sake of all beings—Zoe Young smiled.

How could she tell Andrew Lane that her dream was already dead? Zoe Young’s only obsession since childhood was to become better. Whether it was story competitions, math olympiad, or Brightstar High School, they were all just parts of “becoming better.” She’d never thought about why she worked so hard to live positively, why she studied so diligently to be a good kid, just like Benny never thought about why he wanted to be a lazy troublemaker. She just swore to herself that this was the right thing to do.

Only when her dream became clearer did she realize she just wanted her mom to have a good life. She couldn’t change her mom’s first half of life, and the marks of being a single mother and an illegitimate child had already branded her in ways she couldn’t imagine, but she could change her mom’s second half.

For the chance at such happiness, she resolutely refused the invitation from Duke Bunny in her fantasy world, gave up the glory and riches of being a queen, and focused on following her mom, braving the cold wind step by step through the long journey.

Fate did give them a chance. Zoe Young believed she hadn’t wasted it; she tried so hard to be happy. But after her mom died, she no longer had any reason to struggle.

When burning paper money, Zoe Young never muttered things like “Mom, take the money.” She didn’t believe people had souls after death, so she didn’t believe in things like “Mom is watching you from heaven.”

Lying in bed late at night, she asked herself: if she became a delinquent girl or dropped out to beg, so what? If at this moment Ryan Johnson and his mother reappeared, so what?

Whether they repented or kept mocking and insulting, her mom couldn’t hear it.

Her mom couldn’t hear, so she didn’t care.

Zoe Young suddenly realized her life was free—so free that she could pack her bag and wander off at any moment. She curled up in bed, deeply wrapped in fear and emptiness.