“So you can’t even do something this simple?” Henry Webb chuckled, took her pen, and placed a book on his knee to support the test paper.

Brian Clark nodded sheepishly.

He really wasn’t a patient person. His handwriting was wild and unrestrained, and he quickly finished writing out the solution steps on her diary, which she used as scrap paper. He spoke rapidly, and when he finished, he asked, “Got it?”

As if she could. But it didn’t matter—his handwriting was left on her diary, and when he handed the pen back, it still carried the warmth of his fingers. Brian Clark hated the passage of time, knowing that this warmth would completely vanish from the world in just a few seconds, and she only had these few seconds.

So, she gripped it tightly, so futilely, and told Henry Webb that she understood.

“You have really good grades,” Brian Clark fished for something to say, her compliment not very original. Then, as if unintentionally, she said to herself, “You’ll definitely get into a top school like Tsinghua or Peking University, right?”

“I’m going abroad.” When talking about the future, Henry Webb’s face showed an expression Brian Clark couldn’t understand. The setting sun reddened half his face, bringing a strange vitality. “I won’t be going to college in China.”

Brian Clark’s heart suddenly felt like a plane plummeting faster and faster.

Even though she knew that wherever this golden boy studied had little to do with her, the moment he said he was going abroad, Brian Clark still wanted to cry. It felt like, as soon as the words left his mouth, mountains and rivers would separate them, and they would never meet again in this life.

She didn’t know how to respond to Henry Webb. After hesitating for a long time, she finally said, “That’s pretty good.”

“I’m off.” Henry Webb patted his clothes, slung his bag over his shoulder, and gave Brian Clark a casual farewell.

Brian Clark didn’t move. She gave a shy smile. “Goodbye.”

“You’re not leaving yet?” Henry Webb was a bit surprised to see her still standing there. He raised his eyebrows at her. The girl looked delicate and frail, her skin was that kind of crystal-clear white, like layers of white clouds. The boy suddenly realized that girls could actually be this fair-skinned. He had always thought all girls looked the same.

“I’ll wait until the moon rises before I go.” Brian Clark answered softly, her thoughts intricate and hard to explain.

Henry Webb found her words interesting—the moon rising… He had never paid attention to the moon. To him, the Mid-Autumn Festival was just a repetition of yesterday and a preview of tomorrow, nothing special.

The thoughtful look on the boy’s face lasted only a few seconds. He nodded and quickly disappeared into the crowd. After all, this was just a chance encounter between the two of them; you can’t call it familiarity after just one meeting, Brian Clark thought as she watched Henry Webb’s departing figure.

The evening breeze rose, cool against her skin. Brian Clark suddenly realized that standing here alone waiting for the moon to rise was very lonely. Her heart felt empty. Even though she was spending the Mid-Autumn Festival with her grandparents tonight, she believed that when she saw the full moon rise, she would still feel this kind of loneliness—unprecedented, novel, a completely unfamiliar world, as if she were all alone in it.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, Brian Clark returned to school, and the first thing she did was buy letter paper. There were many small shops at the school gate, and the girls loved to gather in groups to rummage through celebrity posters, stickers, and pick out pretty diaries and letter paper. Jason Walker, in addition, was especially obsessed with taking photo booth stickers. She dragged Brian Clark into the cramped photo booth to choose colorful frame templates, then pouted, made peace signs, and acted as silly as possible. Brian Clark couldn’t make those faces and was always complained about by Jason Walker for being like a wooden dummy.

The letter paper was too flashy, so Brian Clark picked a more plain one, while Jason Walker had already chosen what she thought was the prettiest photo sticker, ready to send it off with her love letter.

“Look, don’t I look good in this one? My nose is really high.” Jason Walker admired her own photo sticker narcissistically, urging Brian Clark, “Hurry up, the National Day holiday is about to start.”

Behind them, Ryan Miller stuck his head in and said cheekily, “I heard everything—you two are writing love letters!”

Brian Clark’s face flushed bright red.

Jason Walker immediately punched him, and she didn’t hold back. Ryan Miller dodged, laughing nonstop, and said to Jason Walker, “Let me tell you, the number of people who have a crush on Henry Webb is probably N to the power of your number. Don’t waste your time.”

“None of your business! I’ll chase whoever I want!” Jason Walker was always bold when talking to boys, but if the boy was good-looking, she’d rein herself in a bit, trying to act like a lady so as not to scare him off.

“You think you can compete with Grace Bolton?” Ryan Miller gossiped like a girl, deliberately lowering his voice and glancing at the class monitor Grace Bolton’s seat. “Even Grace Bolton couldn’t win over Henry Webb. She has such good grades, her family’s rich, and while she’s not exactly pretty, she’s got her own charm.”

Jason Walker stared at Ryan Miller in shock. “She likes Henry Webb too? How do you know?”

“There’s nothing at Meizhong I don’t know!”

“Yeah, right!”

Brian Clark silently listened to the two bicker, her limbs stiff, but she hid it well. She turned away, pretending to have no interest in the gossip, and lowered her head to read. But suddenly, she realized clearly that she, too, had a dark side. Even someone as outstanding as Grace Bolton couldn’t win him over, so he must have really high standards. That was good—everyone was just secretly crushing on him.

Brian Clark was startled by her own sneaky thoughts. She felt a bit dirty, as if she couldn’t stand to see others do well.