Laura Bennett glanced to the left and said calmly, “Next time, you can copy the common square roots onto your essay paper.”

　　Brian Clark: “Hm?”

　　He stared at him in a daze for two seconds, then lowered his eyes and smiled, saying softly, “You really hold a grudge.”

Chapter 6: Chinese

　　School ended at 8:10 p.m. It was already dark, and the campus was dotted with the twinkling lights of street lamps.

　　A group of people walked together. Samuel Grant poked at his phone and said, “I’ve added you, okay? This group doesn’t have any teachers.”

　　Laura Bennett’s phone vibrated in response.

　　“Cherry” has invited you to join the group chat “Class Four: Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed”

　　He was considering how to greet everyone when Samuel Grant immediately sent another message.

　　-Cherry: Let’s start the new student welcome ceremony!

　　His phone started vibrating like crazy. The screen scrolled rapidly as the whole class sent the same meme in unison—

　　Owl Staring.jpg

　　Laura Bennett almost threw his phone.

　　A round of memes exploded.

　　-Crystal: Welcome, 150-point boss.

　　-Vincent: Class Four welcomes the strong!

　　-Croissant: Your nickname shouldn’t be Renaissance, it should be Gauss Reborn.

　　Below, people started spamming all kinds of owls—charming, rolling, laughing memes.

　　Samuel Grant grinned at his phone, “Don’t you think our classmates are a bit like owls?”

　　Laura Bennett looked at him silently and nodded.

　　“Exactly. The owl is Class Four’s signature. That’s the vibe we want. Our class motto is two words—Vitality! Spirit!”

　　“…Oh.”

　　Brian Clark walked beside Laura Bennett with his backpack slung over his left shoulder. A gust of wind blew by; he reached out and caught a plane tree leaf swirling in the air between his fingers.

　　David Reed laughed and said, “It’s almost time for new buds, but there are still dead leaves. That’s rare.”

　　A faint smile flickered in Brian Clark’s eyes as he gently pinched the dry, slightly curled leaf.

　　After finishing up in the group chat, Samuel Grant asked, “So what’s the level of high school math in the UK?”

　　Laura Bennett pinched his wind-chilled fingertips. “Actually, it’s not as good as here. I studied AMC, so I could keep up.”

　　“What’s that?”

　　Faye Young rolled her eyes at him: “You don’t know that? It’s a graded high school math competition in Europe and America. Laura Bennett must have at least reached AMC12, right? The difficulty is about the same as here, but here it focuses more on advanced math knowledge, while AMC is more about abstract mathematical principles.”

　　Laura Bennett got the gist and casually agreed.

　　Brian Clark turned to look at him: “May I ask your ranking?”

　　“Top 1%.”

　　Faye Young took a deep breath. “Impressive.”

　　Samuel Grant whistled, “Hey, so did you think this science comprehensive test was hard?”

　　Laura Bennett hesitated before answering, “Physics… was okay.”

　　Samuel Grant nodded, “So, not hard. Awesome, awesome. What about chemistry?”

　　“…” Laura Bennett was silent for a while. “No idea.”

　　“Huh?”

　　Laura Bennett sighed, “I couldn’t understand the questions.”

　　Beside him, Brian Clark turned his head away. Laura Bennett glanced at him and saw his lips tightly pressed together, as if he was holding back a laugh.

　　Laura Bennett coldly looked away.

　　“Ah…” Samuel Grant immediately comforted him, “Maybe chemistry just moves faster here. Don’t worry, with your brain, you’ll catch up.”

　　Laura Bennett didn’t want to recall that science test full of blank spaces. He tugged at his backpack and said nothing more.

　　“Hey, hey, sardine, look at the school gate.” Samuel Grant nudged Faye Young again, “Eric Brooks has already packed up his stuff.”

　　Outside the school gate, people came and went. Samuel Grant was talking about the boy who sat by the back door during the day—thin and sharp-featured. Laura Bennett had made eye contact with him that morning. Those eyes were beautiful, but very gloomy.

　　“He’ll definitely have to leave after this class reshuffle.” David Reed said regretfully, “He was second in the city in the high school entrance exam back then, and he and Douzi were once called the Twin Stars of Class Four.”

　　Samuel Grant lowered his voice, “I still remember how high-spirited he was on the first day of high school. Who would have thought… Hope he can bounce back, just like our…”

　　Brian Clark suddenly interrupted, “Why gossip about others? Got nothing better to do?”

　　He raised his hand and stuffed something into Laura Bennett’s palm. “Here’s a gift for you. Just don’t tell my mom about the fight today, okay?”

　　Laura Bennett opened his palm and looked coldly at the dead leaf.

　　Absolutely won’t say a word—how about just writing your mom a letter? In both Chinese and English.

　　But in reality, Helen Carter hadn’t come home at all. Apparently, she had three back-to-back business dinners tonight.

　　Little Martin bought Cantonese dim sum for the two of them as a late-night snack. Brian Clark didn’t eat in the dining room; he grabbed a box of cream puffs and went straight to his room.

　　After finishing his snack, Laura Bennett went upstairs. Passing by Brian Clark’s door, he noticed it was open and glanced inside unintentionally.

　　Brian Clark’s room was much bigger than his. The only furniture was a simple bed and desk. Several studio lights of varying heights were set up on the floor. The largest one looked to be over 1.2 meters in diameter. A small cart nearby was piled with an array of lenses, gimbals, tripods, some tangled power strips, and a big box of batteries.

　　Brian Clark was facing away from the door, adjusting a light stand. The cream puffs were at hand. He casually picked one up and popped it into his mouth. Three seconds later, he tilted his head back—cream puff vanishing act.

　　Suddenly, inspiration struck Laura Bennett. He tapped open the pink TV app he had just downloaded.