Michael really doesn’t have much time left. Exactly how long, Zoe Young doesn’t know. It was the first time she realized that a plot as far-fetched as that in “Endless Love” could one day happen to her own friend. When she returned to school and heard Ian mention it, she was stunned for a full five minutes before she could react.

Thinking of Michael’s usual reckless behavior, her pale face, dark circles, and big smile, Zoe Young felt a sharp pain in her chest.

Yet she wasn’t overly sorrowful about reality, nor did she respond to the homeroom teacher’s call to join the dozens of others to visit her.

Zoe Young thought of Tina Young. Her close friend had told her that the smell in the hospital room was nauseating, and that loneliness could change a person.

They came once a day. Then once a week. Then once a month. Then once a year. Then they stopped coming.

She went alone, every Saturday afternoon, doing nothing but chatting idly with Michael until the sun set.

The inspiration that she and Mia Waters once drained from each other surged again, and Michael increasingly marveled that Zoe Young really was more than she appeared.

Andrew Lane would occasionally come too, but never said a word to Zoe Young. He was busy; the winter camps for math olympiad and physics competitions were about to start, and the results of him and Thomas Chase and the others would determine whether they needed to endure the second half of senior year.

Just like back then with Alan Carter.

Zoe Young had once sent him a text, wishing him good luck.

No reply, like a stone sinking into the sea.

As soon as he left, Michael shrugged and said, “My matchmaking career has failed completely, utterly.”

Zoe Young smiled, “It’s my fault.”

“Not even a little disappointed? He just disappeared like that.”

Zoe Young tilted her head and gave a bitter smile, not answering.

Ray Cindy knew the atmosphere in the class was very delicate.

On a certain morning in November, Lucas Walter stood in front of the blackboard and announced that the selection for school-recommended spots for independent admissions and guaranteed admission to Peking University and Tsinghua University would begin this week.

Before these two schools, many other top universities had also started selecting students for guaranteed admission and independent admissions. When Ray Cindy went to the water room to fetch water, she overheard a girl complaining loudly, “How could she do that? She’s already repeating a year and still has the nerve to compete with us for a spot?”

Tension was high, and a strange atmosphere hung over the senior year.

“For liberal arts, there’s only one school-recommended spot for independent admissions to Peking University. Of course,” Lucas Walter paused, “everyone can also self-recommend online.”

But everyone knew that only the school-recommended spots allowed direct entry to the written test. The 20-point bonus for independent admissions was so tempting that no one could resist.

Due to many parents’ requests, the final evaluation standard was very balanced—regular grades accounted for 60%, which meant that science students who relied solely on competitions but were weak in other areas might not get the guaranteed admission to these two schools. The remaining 40% depended on the results of the qualification exam held on November 24. In addition, provincial-level or higher awards in subject competitions, city/province “Three Good Student” and “Outstanding Student Leader” awards also earned extra points.

Regular grades included science grades from the first year of high school, so the scores of Charlotte Lee, Zoe Young, and Ray Cindy were extremely close.

This qualification exam was decisive.

Ray Cindy propped her chin with her hand, coldly watching the fire in Charlotte Lee’s eyes that she tried so hard to hide.

Charlotte Lee had underperformed in three consecutive monthly exams. Although her foundation was solid, her poor state was well known.

Zoe Young still sat steadily in second place, just like in junior high. Ever since Ray Cindy started to “pity” Zoe Young from a certain height, she no longer felt afraid of her.

She, and all of them, were nothing special.

Ray Cindy smiled.

To live by obsession, for all beings—at that moment, Charlotte Lee suddenly turned around and met Ray Cindy’s gaze.

From that look, Ray Cindy read utter contempt at the end of the road.

She suddenly straightened up.

The proctor raised the test papers, showing the seal was intact, then began distributing answer sheets from the first row.

The silence in the exam room was a little different from usual.

The proctor was a bit sleepy, and the vice principal patrolling the floor kept wandering around, so she couldn’t read the newspaper as before. The best liberal arts students at Brightstar High School really didn’t need proctoring at all.

But this time, she noticed that the girl at the third desk by the wall kept sneaking glances at the desk cubby of the girl in front of her, frowning as if she’d discovered something.

The girl looked up, met the teacher’s eyes, and quickly lowered her head again.

The proctor, suspicious, put on a stern face and walked over, first checking near the third desk. The desktop was clean, and the test was being answered quickly.

Then the proctor strolled to the second desk. Like the third, nothing special.

Except this pretty girl seemed especially nervous. With the proctor standing beside her, she kept making mistakes.

The proctor was about to turn back to the podium when, suddenly remembering something, she bent down to look into the desk cubby.

“…What’s this?”

When Charlotte Lee walked out of the classroom, the “peach blossom face” in Zoe Young’s heart had already turned deathly pale.

As she passed Zoe Young’s desk, there was no whispering in the exam room; everyone just looked up at her.

Charlotte Lee’s lips trembled. She only glanced at Zoe Young and softly said, “I didn’t, it wasn’t me.”

“Everyone, keep working on your tests!” Director Lewis stood at the door, his gaze complicated as he stared at Charlotte Lee, “You, come to my office first.”

The proctor, now feeling quite accomplished, was no longer sleepy and stared at them with piercing eyes.

Zoe Young’s mind was in chaos. The look in Charlotte Lee’s eyes at the end sent a chill through her bones.

For some reason, she suddenly turned to look at Ray Cindy.

Ray Cindy seemed to sense her gaze too. Separated by Charlotte Lee’s now empty seat, they looked at each other in silence.

Zoe Young hadn’t spoken to Ray Cindy in a long time. That sense of distance, hard to describe, had never disappeared from Ray Cindy’s eyes since the end of junior high, as if the old Michelle Cindy had vanished completely.

The girl who once secretly scattered a handful of thumbtacks on Ethan Xavier’s chair to stand up for others had, this time, stabbed Charlotte Lee in the back.

Even though her eyes looked so innocent.

“You there! How can you just turn around during the test? Haven’t you learned your lesson?”

Zoe Young turned back, feeling her whole body trembling.

The blackboard in front of her, the red school motto above it, the podium ahead, the bright windows to the side, the clouds outside…

Just like every classroom in the world, and yet no different from the one she first entered in elementary school.

School is an ageless monster.

But what on earth had happened to the people sitting here?

Charlotte Lee suddenly felt a kind of weariness. Fear and panic washed over her like a tide, then receded, leaving only exhaustion.

She never expected that her mother would faint after slapping her in the principal’s office.

It was just like something out of a TV drama.

Was Lucas Walter’s expression the kind you’d call “I saw this coming”?

This group of unrelated people, who clearly knew nothing about her, could analyze her “cheating” motives and psychology in such detail. From long ago: early romance, being too concerned with gains and losses, pride, arrogance, laziness, tense relationships with classmates, repeated exam failures, a problematic attitude toward independent admissions, going astray…

Charlotte Lee sat askew on the sofa, refusing to stand and admit fault.

From beginning to end, she only said one thing.

“I didn’t. It wasn’t me.”

To live by obsession, for all beings—this was her final pride.

Even when her mother collapsed, sunglasses falling aside and the corners of her eyes still trembling, she didn’t stand up.

Let them look at her, this unfilial daughter, with complicated eyes.

She would not bow her head, never.

“The guaranteed admission is definitely canceled, that’s not negotiable!” The vice principal, knowing Charlotte Lee’s father’s status, tried hard to stick to principle. “This matter, it could be big or small, but…”

Charlotte Lee suddenly stood up, grabbed her bag and coat, and walked straight to the door.

“You can cancel my qualification, you can expel me, I don’t care.”