Henry Clark finished reciting, and when she saw that the other girl had fallen silent, she turned her head to look again. Perhaps she was amused by the other's completely unhidden jealous expression, and a happy smile appeared on her face.

Thomas Reed suddenly realized that Henry Clark seemed to have changed a little. She never used to smile, nor would she ever meet her gaze. She still remembered that, even earlier, it was as if Henry Clark's eyes couldn't see anyone else, only the textbooks and problems in front of her, completely immersed in her own world. But now, she could see her in those eyes—clear, reflecting her own shadow.

Thomas Reed averted her gaze and looked out the window at the ginkgo tree. The leaves of the ginkgo were turning yellow. It seemed that, without anyone noticing, autumn had arrived, quietly and silently.

The three days of midterm exams were, for most students, probably three days worse than death. Even Thomas Reed wore a withdrawn expression after the exams, zoning out with her headphones on. The questions were hard—extremely hard. She felt she probably hadn't done well this time.

Behind her, the air was filled with buzzing discussions, one after another: "I didn't do well this time," "I didn't do well either, what should I do," "It was really too hard, does the teacher want us dead or something?" Of course, some really hadn't done well, while a small portion were just pretending, a kind of humblebrag unique to top students.

Suddenly, Thomas Reed felt like asking Henry Clark, "How did you do on the exam?"

Henry Clark put down her pen and answered honestly, "I think I did pretty well."

This "pretty well" didn't bother Thomas Reed, but it seemed to get to someone else. Emily Wright in the front row turned around with a fake smile: "How could the top student in the grade do badly? Thomas Reed, that's a pointless question."

Thomas Reed didn't reply, so she kept fishing for conversation: "I've noticed you two talking a lot lately. Thomas Reed, I think you shouldn't distract Henry Clark from her studies. She's so busy, and whenever you talk to her, she has to stop and respond. If you distract her and her grades drop, the homeroom teacher will definitely have a talk with you."

She said all this without ever looking at Henry Clark, and it didn't really seem like she was talking seriously to Thomas Reed. Who knew who she was actually targeting.

Thomas Reed couldn't stand people acting all passive-aggressive like that. She tossed her pen aside, crossed her arms, and said, "You sure like to meddle. We're just chatting, not dating. It doesn't affect our studies. You can rest easy— even if it did, she'd still do better than you. If you have that much free time, you should worry about yourself."

Emily Wright was so angry she wanted to say more, but her deskmate pulled her back. "Forget it, forget it, don't talk to them."

Suddenly, Thomas Reed felt it was all incredibly pointless. She stiffened her face, flipped through her book, and stopped talking.

After a while, a notebook was pushed over from the side. She instinctively thought Henry Clark was about to feed her more problems, but when she glanced at it, she realized it wasn't a problem— it was a note.

On the notebook, which was usually filled with all sorts of steps and drafts, there were a few neat lines of handwriting. A diligent top student passing notes during self-study class— in this sense, she really had led her astray.

—"Don't listen to her. It won't affect me."

—"I don't like talking to others, but you're different from them."

Thomas Reed felt her mood lift again. She took the notebook and wrote a sentence on it:

—"Emily Wright is an idiot. Why are there so many damn idiots in our class?"

She cursed without holding back, and even her handwriting had a cold, rebellious air to it. Compared to Henry Clark's neat script, hers looked wild and unruly. The two styles side by side were a stark contrast.

After writing, she pushed it back, and Henry Clark smiled again.

When the test papers were handed out, Henry Clark unsurprisingly took first place again. The honor roll was posted on the bulletin board, and her name was at the very top. In this grueling midterm where everyone else suffered a crushing defeat, she even outperformed herself, scoring fifty points higher than the second place in the grade, shocking all the teachers.

The teachers of Class 2 wore stepmother faces as they handed out other students' test papers, slapping the desk in frustration. But when it came to Henry Clark, they instantly turned into loving mothers, pulling her out to praise her over and over.

Henry Clark was still the same— she just listened when praised, not saying much. Even so, there were still rumors that Henry Clark was arrogant and looked down on everyone after one good result.

It wasn't the first time people had said things like that, but Henry Clark didn't care at all. What made her happy was that, because her results were so outstanding this time— perfect scores in math, physics, and chemistry— the teachers decided to give her a cash reward.

Two hundred yuan. Not a lot, at least not for most students, but for the cash-strapped Henry Clark, it was a pleasant surprise.

"The reward is for Henry Clark. Why are you so happy? Anyone who didn't know better would think you got the reward," Emily Wright said, glancing at Thomas Reed and curling her lip.

Thomas Reed immediately put away all her expressions and bristled, "Which damn eye of yours saw me being happy?"

Her own terrible test paper was still lying on the desk— what was there to be happy about? Nonsense!

Beside her, Henry Clark looked up at her test paper, and Thomas Reed quickly snatched it up to cover it.

"I can explain the problems to you," Henry Clark said softly.

Author's note:

The silent autumn has arrived.

Chapter 9 Explaining Problems