Gu Sheng kept dragging Zhou Shiyi forward, blindly heading somewhere with no idea where to go.

There was only one thought in his mind: keep Zhou Shiyi away from everyone, make sure he can’t threaten anyone else.

At the same time, Gu Sheng’s head hurt like it was going to split open. He couldn’t find the reason, only assuming it was a lingering side effect of his rebirth.

After he was reborn, he found he’d forgotten a lot. Sometimes when faced with something, he had a sense of deja vu, like he’d seen it before, and only at the last moment would it come back to him—just like what happened at Miss Gao’s banquet, when the memory finally returned.

His memories up to age seventeen hadn’t changed; only those after seventeen felt somehow missing, fragmented.

But his hatred and unwillingness toward Zhou Shiyi were carved into his soul, tormenting him day and night.

Just as Gu Sheng was about to take him out of the school, Zhou Shiyi frowned. “Gu Sheng, where are you taking me?”

Amid the chaos in his mind, Gu Sheng heard Zhou Shiyi’s voice, and it freed him from that endless pain.

He instinctively pulled his hand away from Zhou Shiyi; after letting go, Gu Sheng felt a little regretful.

That movement made him look like he was disgusted with Zhou Shiyi.

Fortunately Zhou Shiyi only rubbed his wrist where it had been pinched and said, “Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to see a doctor?”

Zhou Shiyi said it very gently. He recalled that Gu Sheng had been taking sick leave all semester, and did seem off—often staring blankly at one spot, sometimes seeming inexplicably in great pain.

“I felt like the bandage was coming loose just now, so I called you over to help me rewrap it.” In that situation, Gu Sheng just wanted to get Zhou Shiyi out—there was nothing more to it.

Zhou Shiyi didn’t detect that Gu Sheng’s excuse was made up.

“Then let’s go to the school clinic.”

Gu Sheng nodded vaguely. Seeing that Zhou Shiyi didn’t press him further, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhou Shiyi’s gaze swept over Gu Sheng, who looked noticeably relieved; he felt as if Gu Sheng had run into a huge problem. And that problem had come knocking—Zhou Shiyi had no choice but to face it.

When they got to the school clinic, the school nurse wasn’t there.

Zhou Shiyi had no choice but to ask Gu Sheng to lift his shirt; he saw the bandage was indeed a bit loose, so he re-tied it for him.

This time, aside from being stiff all over, Gu Sheng didn’t do anything like last night that nearly left him breathless.

Zhou Shiyi was very careful, avoiding touching Gu Sheng’s body; when they were done, both of them were sweating from the exertion.

Their days passed at an unhurried, steady pace.

As time went on, the wounds on Gu Sheng had already crusted over, and Zhou Shiyi grew increasingly familiar with visiting his home.

The security guard at the villa was well acquainted with him; he would often greet Zhou as he came and went and let him in.

Every evening Zhou Shiyi came to change Gu Sheng’s dressings; after a while—no one remembered exactly when—if Gu Sheng asked even one question, Zhou Shiyi would stay to tutor him.

Nian Meilan ran into them several times when she came by.

At first she was a little surprised; later she felt very pleased that Gu Sheng had found a good friend at school.

She knew Zhou Shiyi was a good student, and with him around it seemed like Gu Sheng could always find an excuse to avoid going home.

People his age always prefer to hang out with peers and dislike parental control. Besides, Gu Sheng had been very cooperative with treatment during his two visits to Dr. Li, seemed perfectly normal, and his mood was stable.

She still worried, though, so she often found excuses to bring things to Gu Sheng.

Over time, Nian Meilan grew increasingly fond of Zhou Shiyi.

This child’s emotions were steady; he spoke and acted with proper restraint, treated people and matters with neither servility nor arrogance, and got along well with Gu Sheng — it couldn’t be more ideal.

Sometimes when tutoring ran late, Zhou Shiyi would stay over; Granny Zhou also knew Zhou had a classmate at school he was very close to.

As Gu Sheng’s injuries improved, Zhou Shiyi still didn’t write out class notes for him, but he did pay attention to Gu Sheng’s fundamentals.

By rights, Gu Sheng’s basics shouldn’t have been this weak, but seeing how hard Gu Sheng worked to catch up, Zhou Shiyi became genuinely concerned about his studies.

Gu Sheng is the kind of person who finds it very easy to get close to others.

Being with him felt very easy for Zhou Shiyi.

That afternoon, after doing homework for a while, the two of them curled up in the living room to play games.

Gu Sheng held the controller, his expression focused.

Two little characters moved up and down on the screen; the red one represented Gu Sheng, the blue one was Zhou Shiyi.

They were already on the fourth round, and Gu Sheng still hadn’t won; he watched as the little blue figure was about to rush past the final stage.

Gu Sheng panicked, shoved his body toward Zhou Shiyi and said, “Sorry, sorry.”

He kept saying sorry, but still didn’t get up, stubbornly using his elbow to block Zhou Shiyi’s movements.

With a bang, Zhou Shiyi’s little blue character crashed into an obstacle and died.

Gu Sheng seized the opportunity, vaulted over the obstacle, reached the objective, and stood on the flagged platform; the game even played a victory animation.

Satisfied, Gu Sheng set the controller down, only to see Zhou Shiyi giving him a sidelong look, and he suddenly felt a bit guilty.

“Hey, I let you win up to this point — you didn’t really think you could beat me, did you?”

He said that with not a hint of embarrassment.

He’d assumed Zhou Shiyi knew nothing about games and insisted he would teach him.

Apart from the first game, while Zhou Shiyi was still getting used to the controls, once they officially started playing, Gu Sheng didn’t win a single round.

Seeing him being stubborn and argumentative, Zhou Shiyi laughed and said, “Again then?”

“Fine, come on then.” Gu Sheng started another round.

This time, after a properly played start where they mirrored each other’s moves, someone — nobody could say who — made the first real move.

You block my controls, I cover your eyes, even deliberately lead the other into a pit — all small stuff.

By then, their minds had already drifted away from the game — they just wanted to make the other suffer, each refusing to give in.

No one was tending the game; the screen stayed on the two little characters’ death scene while they’d started attacking each other with throw pillows.

They had messed around for a while, then both lay down on the sofa and declared a truce.

“I can’t—I’m going to rest for a bit.” Gu Sheng’s strength was spent; he collapsed on the sofa, limbs limp.

Zhou Shiyi was also breathing hard, though a bit less winded than Gu Sheng; he walked over, picked up the throw pillow that had been tossed on the floor, patted Gu Sheng’s knee, and motioned for him to move over.

After they stopped, the two of them belatedly realized how childish what they’d just done was.

“Zhou Shiyi, bring me a bottle of water.”

“Get it yourself.” Zhou Shiyi’s voice came from the kitchen.

Gu Sheng rolled his eyes, stood up from the sofa, and swayed behind Zhou Shiyi.

He took a bottle of soda from the fridge and saw Zhou Shiyi pouring hot water into a cup, with some dandelion root steeping inside.

Gu Sheng let out a snort of laughter.

“My dad also had someone bring black goji berries; I’ll bring you two jars in a couple days.”

“I hope after the monthly exam tomorrow you can still be that happy,” Zhou Shiyi said helplessly.

At the mention of the monthly exam, Gu Sheng’s smile froze.

His grades were, to put it mildly, a complete mess. Even though Zhou Shiyi had marked the key points for him and given him targeted practice.

Still, Gu Sheng felt a bit anxious. From childhood through school he’d never given his family cause for worry, but recently he’d been taking time off, and the material he’d learned earlier had long since been returned to the teacher.

He gulped down the soda in one go, crushed the can until it creaked, made a basketball motion toward the trash bin, and hit the center.

“Come on, come on, I still have two big problems I don’t get.” Gu Sheng pushed Zhou Shiyi out of the kitchen and into the study.

The two of them took turns teaching and learning, and their progress wasn’t slow.

Gu Sheng had a good mind, but some basic formulas still needed to be memorized, so Zhou Shiyi wrote the formulas they would need on the side, cutting down on how often Gu Sheng had to flip through the books.

These formulas, when applied, didn’t feel so rigid, and Gu Sheng gained a small sense of accomplishment from them.

Later on, Zhou Shiyi stopped Gu Sheng from writing out the entire solution to a problem; instead he had Gu Sheng, upon seeing a question, write down only the formulas that would be used.

By looking at the formulas, Zhou Shiyi could already judge whether Gu Sheng understood the problem and which parts needed补充.

After morning self-study on the next day, the class erupted into chaos: they were about to start setting up the exam seating.

They found their exam room and seat numbers during the ten-minute break, set up their stations, and then went in to begin the test.

Zhou Shiyi was taking the exam in his own class this time, with He Yanqing sitting behind him.

Gu Sheng, however, had to go to one of the rooms further down the corridor; clutching his exam supplies, he and Qin Shu headed to Class Five.

On the way, Qin Shu chattered non-stop — she’d been caught playing games by her parents yesterday, and if she didn’t do well on this test they’d definitely confiscate her phone when she got home.

Gu Sheng silently went over the formulas again, answering perfunctorily as Qin Shu spoke on—fortunately Qin Shu could continue without needing replies.

Class Five’s classroom was by the staircase; when they reached it, Gu Sheng suddenly stopped.

“Huh? Sheng-ge, what’s wrong? Did you forget something?” Qin Shu turned to him, puzzled.

“Nothing, maybe I misread.” Gu Sheng thought he had just seen Huang Cheng.

Since Huang Cheng was taken away by the police, he hadn’t come to school at all; today, in a daze, Gu Sheng thought he saw him.

In their circle — neither very big nor very small — Huang Cheng’s actions had upset the Gu family. Several projects related to the Huang Corporation had been blocked by the Gus; everyone knew Huang Cheng had offended them.

So Huang Cheng’s days hadn’t been easy. Just now Gu Sheng saw him with his hair buzzed close to the scalp and a scar on the right cheek, standing in the stairwell’s shadow looking at him.

When Gu Sheng looked back again, he found the figure was gone.

Gu Sheng made a mental note of the anomaly and, before entering the exam hall, glanced back at the stairwell once more.

Once inside the classroom, he calmed himself and shoved the weight on his chest out of his mind.

He had never been a poor student, and naturally resented seeing his grades plummet; he still had his pride.

Huang Cheng was wearing a black hoodie. When Gu Sheng had seen him earlier, taking advantage of a blind spot, Huang Cheng had pulled the hood up and gone down the stairs.

The students who came to take the exam, seeing this obvious vibe of someone from the streets, all stepped aside.

He put on his hat, looking unapproachable. He walked to the base of the teaching building. By then the exam bell had already rung and the entire building had fallen silent.

“Gu Sheng, Zhou Shiyi, just you wait.” Huang Cheng looked at the second-year teaching building, his eyes flashing with ferocity; the white of his eyes had overtaken the black irises, leaving only tiny dots of black, making him look especially menacing.

Tugging at the corner of his mouth, Huang Cheng revealed a feral smile. Feeling a tug at his right cheek, his expression grew even darker. “If I have today, it’s all thanks to you. If I don’t get to have it easy, neither will you.”