Brian Carter only bent down close to her for a moment before straightening up again, looking like he couldn’t be bothered to argue: “Take a day off tomorrow, I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Ryan Bennett: “Why are we going to the hospital?”

Brian Carter said coolly, “You don’t need your eyes, so let’s donate them to someone who does.”

Ryan Bennett looked at him, couldn’t help but shake her head, and sighed from the heart: “It’s one thing to be average-looking, but you’re also petty.”

-

When she got home, Grace Bennett had already made dinner and was waiting for her.

Ryan Bennett handed today’s test paper to Grace Bennett, who was satisfied with the score: “See, I told you, ‘the early bird catches the worm’—there’s truth to that saying.”

Ryan Bennett buried her head in her food, too lazy to correct that she wasn’t the “early bird.”

Grace Bennett put down the test paper: “Even though you did well on this test at the start of the semester, you can’t get cocky. The coming studies are important… Oh, and you did well this time, but you really have to thank Brian Carter.”

Ryan Bennett couldn’t help but retort, “I think the main reason is that I’m pretty smart, right?”

Grace Bennett: “You’re smart? Count for yourself—how many of these questions did Brian Carter not teach you?”

Ryan Bennett: “……”

“But anyway,” Ryan Bennett added, “there’s a saying, you can’t cook a meal without rice.”

Grace Bennett: “I can’t be bothered with you. After you finish eating, take the fruit basket over to Brian Carter.”

Ryan Bennett had no choice but to agree.

That night, before she saw Brian Carter, she ran into Ethan Cooper on the way to deliver the fruit basket.

Ethan Cooper was carrying a game cartridge: “Going to Brian’s place? Let’s go together?”

Ryan Bennett didn’t really want to go anyway, and now she’d found someone to run the errand, so she shoved the fruit basket into Ethan Cooper’s hands: “You go, help me give this to him.”

Ethan Cooper held the fruit basket: “You’re not going?”

“Alright, then I’m off.”

After Ethan Cooper finished speaking, he hadn’t gone far before Ryan Bennett called him back.

“Wait a sec.”

Ryan Bennett stopped him and said, “I have something to ask you.”

It was already getting dark, and mosquitoes were everywhere.

The two of them squatted by the edge of the greenbelt, chatting while swatting mosquitoes.

Ethan Cooper was confused: “Xia-ge, hurry up and ask, I’ve already got a bunch of bites on my legs.”

Ryan Bennett thought of those forum replies, and didn’t even know why she’d stopped him on a whim. She organized her words and asked, “You used to go to school with Brian Carter—back then, at school… were there also a lot of people who were blind enough to think he was handsome?”

Ethan Cooper’s expression grew a little complicated.

He didn’t know why Ryan Bennett suddenly stopped him to ask this, but he answered honestly: “By your standards, back at school, there probably weren’t many people with normal eyesight.”

Ethan Cooper added, “But why are you asking this?”

Ryan Bennett wanted to ask about that “getting rejected miserably” thing.

But after thinking about it, she felt it was a weird question, so she dropped it: “Nothing, just suddenly realized there are quite a lot of blind people in this world.”

-

“Beep.”

Ethan Cooper opened the door to Brian Carter’s house.

As soon as he entered, he bumped into Brian Carter coming out of the bathroom.

Brian Carter was adjusting his clothes—the collar was too loose, making him look a bit indecent.

When he saw it was Ethan Cooper, he couldn’t be bothered to fix it.

“What’s that in your hand?” Brian Carter said. “Don’t put it here.”

Ethan Cooper: “Fruit basket. Ryan Bennett just gave it to me, said to bring it to you.”

Ryan Bennett wouldn’t just give him a fruit basket for no reason.

It was obvious Grace Bennett had sent her, so Brian Carter didn’t say anything more.

But Ethan Cooper had more questions: “Why didn’t she come herself? Did you two fight again?”

Brian Carter lifted his eyelids slightly: “She said I fought with her?”

Ethan Cooper: “Not really, but she did say some weird things.”

Brian Carter gestured for him to go on.

Ethan Cooper: “She asked me if there were a lot of blind people at our old school. I told her, yeah, quite a few.”

Brian Carter: “……”

It did sound a bit crazy.

But it was exactly the kind of thing she’d ask.

With his hair still dripping wet, Brian Carter sat down on the sofa, his collar open all the way to his collarbone. He picked up the remote and turned on the TV, glanced sideways at the game cartridge in Ethan Cooper’s hand, and asked, “Wanna play?”

Ethan Cooper was almost dazzled by the “male beauty” in front of him.

Maybe it was that weird question from Ryan Bennett earlier that triggered something, but he suddenly remembered some scenes from when he used to go to school with this guy.

Brian Carter was indeed famous at their old school.

But that kind of fame wasn’t loud or showy—it was more like a tacit understanding.

Everyone tacitly understood: he was someone distant, hard to approach, and out of reach.

Brian Carter had good grades, but he was casual in class.

Sometimes he’d secretly play games during class and get called out by the teacher to stand in the hallway.

The teenager would lean in the shadows, back against the wall, tall and long-legged, in his school uniform.

—Drawing a lot of secret glances.

After a while, Ethan Cooper snapped out of it and said, “Let’s play.”