Before Sean Sherman could react, he started grinning mischievously.

"I really hate it when people spread rumors. Since that's the case, why don't we just make it real? What do you think?"

Sean Sherman's face, which had always been pale, finally regained a bit of color because of Frank Yeats's crude remark.

Out of anger.

Frank Yeats's car drove farther and farther away, heading toward the highway on the outskirts of the city. Sean Sherman sat calmly in the passenger seat, not at all flustered by the unfamiliar scenery outside her usual range of activity, nor did she anxiously ask questions.

"You're pretty calm, aren't you? Aren't you afraid I'll take advantage of you?"

Sean Sherman turned her head to look at the side mirror on her side. "How could you possibly have feelings for me?"

Frank Yeats was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Sean Sherman, did you grow up eating preservatives or something? How come you haven't changed at all after all these years, not even a single word different from before."

Facing Sean Sherman's puzzled gaze—who knows how many times now—he shrugged. "Seriously, the word 'feelings'—I first heard it from you back then. People who are good at studying really do have a bigger vocabulary..."

The car finally stopped in front of a factory building under construction. Frank Yeats got out first, walked around to Sean Sherman's side, and beat her to it by opening the car door for her. "Come on, take a look."

"This is..."

"Once it's finished, this place will be mine."

"What for?"

"Clothes."

"You're the boss?"

"Yeah."

Sean Sherman racked her brains, feeling like she should ask something more.

"Are you about to ask me where I got the money, whether it's from my parents, what kind of clothes I sell, when I started, how a company is set up, how to register, how much the startup capital is... hmm?"

Sean Sherman nodded seriously, and that look made Frank Yeats laugh again.

"Back in middle school, I never thought I'd ever be explaining this to the top student."

Sean Sherman felt a bit uncomfortable inside.

Sean Sherman番外 This kind of discomfort was like being constantly asked if she regretted her choices, giving her a deep sense of powerlessness. She hadn't harmed anyone; she studied hard, was diligent and quiet, never mocked anyone, never persecuted or hindered anyone. So why did everyone like to use "fate's tricks" as an excuse to seek some kind of balance in front of her?

Yet her innate unwillingness to admit defeat forced her to endure, insisting on listening humbly.

Maybe this inner struggle showed on her face, because Frank Yeats apologetically patted her shoulder and said, "That's not what I meant."

Just as Sean Sherman turned her head to say something, that warm hand accidentally brushed her cheek.

Both of them fell into an awkward silence for a while before Frank Yeats finally spoke in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Back in middle school, I really was a mess. I didn't study, hung out at the pool hall every day, really, really... My parents were busy, didn't have time to watch me. The change jar was just left on the table, and by the time they realized I'd emptied it, I'd get a beating and a lecture, but before I even had time to reflect in the corner, they'd be off busy again."

"I kept messing around until right before the high school entrance exam. Our family wasn't doing well financially, but they still believed studying was the right path. No matter how bad my grades were, they'd spend whatever it took to get me into at least a key district school."

Paying to get into a key district school.

Sean Sherman suddenly remembered how, back then, she stubbornly filled out only Zhenhua on her application form, leaving all the city and district key schools blank.

She went to a regular high school.

Her parents never blamed her for failing the entrance exam. She stood up herself, and when her parents tried to scrape together money to send her to a key school as a self-funded student, she seriously said she wanted to go to a regular high school.

Accept the consequences of your bet. There will always be a next time; she would not lose forever.

Looking back on all this now, it still stings a little. The Frank Yeats who messed around all through middle school actually ended up at a key district school.

"I didn't go."

Frank Yeats always seemed to understand Sean Sherman's thoughts. Sean Sherman didn't know if he was especially perceptive, or if she was just easy to read.

"I could hang out with a bunch of good-for-nothings every day because I was still immature and didn't know any better. Since my parents said so, I figured at least I'd have a school to coast through high school, nothing to worry about. I never thought about how hard it was for my parents to make money, or whether I was even cut out for studying."

Frank Yeats's frankness made Sean Sherman feel ashamed of her own pettiness just now.

"Then one day, a few buddies and I went to play at a new pool hall near Yibai. Passing through the underpass, I saw my mom carrying a huge woven bag, way bigger than a burlap sack, sweat streaming down her face, rope digging red marks into her hands... That's when I realized, when they picked up goods from another county, the delivery only went as far as the train station. They couldn't bear to spend money on a car, so they carried everything themselves."

"That was when I realized what a damn jerk I was."

"And then?"

Frank Yeats took a deep drag on his cigarette, then slowly exhaled. In the vast night, the smoke and white vapor curled upward, and Sean Sherman felt like there was a patch in her chest just as dense and unbreakable as the white mist before her.

"You think I realized my parents' hardships, started working hard, and became a promising young man?

"Sean Sherman, that's you, not me.

"I did try for a while, but I don't know if I just wasn't cut out for it or if I started too late. Anyway, I still did terribly on the entrance exam. My dad didn't beat me; he knew that's just how I was, so he started frantically pulling strings and giving gifts, trying to get me into Beijiang's key district school.

"But I stood up and refused. If I had to keep studying, it would be vocational school or technical school, definitely not physics and chemistry anymore. I didn't want to waste their money. At least, if I had to carry bags again, I could help out, right?

"This time my dad really beat me, beat me half to death."

He paused, took another drag, and grinned roguishly. "Forget it, all this family stuff, no point talking so much. Sean Sherman番外 Anyway, in the end, I won—I didn't go. My grandma called from the old home to scold my parents, the neighbors all said I was a useless loser who couldn't pass anything... Anyway, that time was actually kind of interesting."

Sean Sherman couldn't imagine how any of that could be interesting.

Maybe now, standing in front of his own factory, even the hardest times seem a little interesting in retrospect.

I made it through back then, too.

Frank Yeats didn't say anything more for some reason. Sean Sherman stood beside him in front of the half-finished factory, both of them breathing in the icy northern winter air. That same disappointing summer, Sean Sherman and Frank Yeats made different choices, but both had the same kind of courage behind them. That courage was something they could be proud of, and it would never lose its shine, no matter the outcome.

"Can I ask, why did you bring me here to tell me all this?"

"Because I... Wait, after all this, you still haven't remembered who I am?"

Frank Yeats covered his eyes in despair.

Many, many years ago, after the homeroom teacher enthusiastically praised the perennial top student Sean Sherman, the troublemaker Frank Yeats, bored out of his mind, ran up to her and grinned, "Hey, can I ask, what's the total score for our exam?"

Sean Sherman didn't even look up at him: "."

"So how many points did you get?"

"."

"Damn, you're amazing, just 8 points short of a perfect score?"

Sean Sherman still didn't look at him, nor did she correct his showy mistake.

Frank Yeats simply dragged a small stool over and sat down. "Hey, top student, share your secrets—how can you sit so still in your chair? My dad says that's how you get hemorrhoids. You're not even afraid of hemorrhoids for the sake of studying, you're really our role model!"

Sean Sherman was carefully working through a buoyancy calculation problem, and after a long time finally turned her head.

By then it was already the second semester of eighth grade, but she looked at him in utter confusion.

"Who are you?"

A guy like Frank Yeats, who always cared about his reputation, had been showing off for two years, and yet the girl sitting in front of him didn't even know who he was.

He immediately pointed at his nose and shouted, "I'm Frank Yeats, 从, as in... as in the character for 'two people'!"

He heard Sean Sherman laugh, a soft snort, as if she were laughing at an illiterate.

Out of revenge, he leaned in with a cheeky grin. "Hey, genius, your name is two mountains, mine is two people—don't you think we make a good pair?"