The big one and the little one faced off for a while.

“What do you want?” Grace Bennett spoke first. The emotion from earlier hadn’t completely faded, and his tone was still tense.

The little girl trembled.

She really trembled.

Grace Bennett: “……”

Grace Bennett sighed, squatted down to look her in the eye: “Speak.”

The little girl was holding a plastic bag bigger than her face. She mustered her courage: “Mom said she was cleaning the house yesterday, it was really noisy, but it won’t be tonight. She asked me to give you dumplings… Big brother, please don’t be mad.”

“Got it.” Grace Bennett glanced at the bag. “Take it back, I don’t want it.”

The little girl stood still, looking at him with pleading eyes.

Grace Bennett frowned: “Don’t understand?”

The little girl hugged the dumplings and trembled again.

“……”

After a moment, Grace Bennett carried the plastic bag back inside, stuffed all the dumplings into the fridge, and went back to making instant noodles.

The family upstairs kept their word and didn’t make a sound that night.

But Grace Bennett still couldn’t fall asleep by 2 a.m. Maybe it was the back-to-school effect—he’d been sleeping poorly these days.

He ran a hand through his hair, decided to give up struggling, and got up to the living room for some water.

When he saw what was next to the kettle, Grace Bennett paused slightly as he poured.

He had a habit of dumping everything from his pockets onto the dining table before showering. Now, a bunch of stuff lay scattered on the table: a set of keys, a school meal card, some loose change, and a pink envelope.

Grace Bennett stared at the items for a while, picked up his cup, and left.

A moment later, he returned with a blank face, fished the envelope out from the pile, and went back to his room.

Grace Bennett had received love letters before. Girls were usually shy, and after he rejected them, they’d take the letter back on the spot. This was the first time he’d actually brought one home.

He lay on the bed, staring at the envelope in his hand, and suddenly thought of Brian Brooks’s overly proper school uniform, and the cold, unfeeling way he rejected Emily Clark.

He really wanted to see what kind of stuff a person like that could write.

Grace Bennett propped one hand behind his head, lay lazily on his back, and casually flipped open the envelope with his fingers.

The envelope and seal of this love letter were flashy, but inside was just a plain sheet of letter paper—the one Brian Brooks had written in the classroom after school.

“……”

If he’d known, he would’ve just left back then.

Brian Brooks’s handwriting was lean and neat, with a hint of carelessness, as if he’d practiced.

Grace Bennett pinched the letter and started reading from the top—

“To classmate Yu from Class 7, Grade 11:

Hello.

I am Brian Brooks from Class 7, Grade 11.”

There were two kinds of handwriting on the letter, one darker and one lighter. The darker one was probably added after school.

The “7” in “Class 7, Grade 11” was originally a “1”; the darker pen had added a stroke to make it a “7”.

“I don’t know if you remember me. We’ve met a few times at the flag-raising ceremony.

The first time in Grade 10, you spoke confidently on the podium, reciting your self-criticism letter from memory. That image is deeply etched in my mind.

It was from then on that I started to notice you.

I began to check the bottom of the grade ranking list; sometimes when I passed by Class 7, I couldn’t help but glance at the back of your head as you slept; during class, I’d find myself looking out the window at you running laps on the field as punishment from the teacher.

Unknowingly, I’ve been paying attention to you for a year.

Once, after a big exam, I noticed your ranking had improved by one. I was genuinely happy for you, and realized my feelings for you.

So I decided to write this letter to express my feelings.”

From here on, it was all in the darker handwriting.

“Although you ended up last again in last semester’s final exam, I believe you have a talent for studying, especially in math. After all, a score of 9 is something most people couldn’t get even if they tried.

So as long as you’re willing to work hard, you’ll definitely get better results.

Here are some study guides and question banks I recommend for you:

‘How Beginners Learn Math,’ ‘The Early Bird Gets the Worm 2017,’ ‘Summary of Junior High Math Key Points.’

Wishing you: good luck on your exams, and progress in your studies.

Brian Brooks.”

Grace Bennett: “?”

Grace Bennett: “……”

What the hell?

No wonder your Chinese is only 110.

Chapter 7

The next day, unsurprisingly, Grace Bennett woke up late again.

He’d given up on trying, and strolled slowly toward the school gate, thinking about how to negotiate with Mr. Smith to skip the pointless routine of climbing the wall—

“It’s only the first few days of school, huh?” Jack’s booming voice carried all the way to the nearby convenience store. “Just started and you’re already late! Planning to skip class altogether next?”

A row of boys stood at the school gate, all familiar faces at a glance.

They all slouched with their heads down, looking lazy and indifferent, each with their own unique posture, and none of them looked happy. They probably hadn’t expected Jack to personally catch latecomers on the second day of school.

This group looked like troublemakers, which made the person standing at the far right stand out immediately.

David Howard finished scolding, put his hands behind his back, and walked over to that person, his tone suddenly much gentler: “Brian, what happened this time? Slept in?”