[“Is there anyone more law-abiding than me? I haven’t even kissed you yet.”]

Winter vacation officially began.

For Hou Zihai now, the most difficult thing in the world was being separated from Zhou Leqi—heaven knows how long they took to eat that bowl of instant noodles last night, at least an hour, so much so that the night shift worker at the convenience store started rolling their eyes; when he walked her home, they were also clingy and reluctant to part, hugging and holding hands every few minutes, and if he hadn’t been worried about Zhou Leqi getting cold, that goodbye could have lasted an hour.

But the easiest thing in the world was meeting each other.

They really went to the library the next day. Hou Zihai didn’t fall asleep until almost four in the morning, but he still remembered to reserve a study room in advance. He got up early the next morning and went to pick up Zhou Leqi downstairs at her house by nine o’clock.

When they got on the bus, Zhou Leqi was still complaining, “You really didn’t need to come pick me up. What could possibly happen in broad daylight? I can just take the bus directly to the Municipal Library, no transfers needed.”

He just listened and echoed, “Yes, yes, yes,” but he would still come to pick her up next time.

And at the library, they unexpectedly ran into Yan Lin and Milan.

These two had forgotten to reserve a study room in advance and were initially studying at regular seats. However, Milan had many questions she didn’t understand, so Yan Lin had to explain them to her, and explaining inevitably required speaking aloud. At first, Yan Lin’s voice was very, very soft, and the people nearby could tolerate it. But Milan didn’t understand after hearing it once, and still didn’t understand after hearing it twice. Yan Lin’s temper started to rise, and his voice got louder and louder. Finally, they were complained about by the people around them and had no choice but to leave the library looking dejected.

Hou Zihai and Zhou Leqi ran into the two of them arguing just as they arrived at the library entrance.

Milan felt very wronged, “Why are you being so fierce! Your voice was too quiet at the beginning, so I couldn’t hear clearly. How could I learn if I couldn’t hear?”

“When did I get fierce?” Yan Lin was also angry. “That solid geometry problem is practically the second to last freebie in your liberal arts math, right? Besides trigonometry, what’s simpler than solid geometry? How many times have I explained that auxiliary line to you? S is a point outside the plane, outside the plane!”

Zhou Leqi, Hou Zihai: “...”

The two of them were arguing heatedly, attracting the attention of the security guard at the library entrance, who was watching the commotion while munching on sunflower seeds. Hou Zihai felt a bit embarrassed for them, so he went up to say hello, “Yan Lin.”

Yan Lin was also surprised to see Hou Zihai and Zhou Leqi, and his expression was a bit unnatural because he felt they had witnessed his argument with Milan.

Milan was very open-minded and not at all embarrassed. Although she wasn’t very familiar with Hou Zihai, she still greeted him generously as “Brother Hou,” and she also waved and smiled at Zhou Leqi, whom she had never spoken to before.

Hou Zihai asked Yan Lin, “What are you guys doing?”

This question finally revealed the whole story—Yan Lin was tutoring Milan, and they hadn’t been able to reserve a study room.

The study room Hou Zihai had reserved could actually accommodate two more people, but he hesitated whether to invite Yan Lin and Milan to join them—he only wanted to be alone with Zhou Leqi.

After wavering for a long time, he decided to prioritize love over conscience and planned to sneak away with Zhou Leqi silently. Unexpectedly, Zhou Leqi spoke first, “Let’s all go together. Hou Zihai reserved a study room.”

Hou Zihai: “...”

As soon as she said this, the clever Yan Lin naturally saw through Hou Zihai’s earlier selfishness, but he could also understand—Monkey had been pursuing Zhou Leqi for so long, and now it finally seemed like things were looking up, so he shouldn’t ruin it for him.

Therefore, Yan Lin intended to repay evil with kindness and politely decline Zhou Leqi’s offer. Unexpectedly, Milan didn’t consider herself an outsider and agreed enthusiastically, “Really? Great!”

Hou Zihai, Yan Lin: “...”

And so, a strange quartet was hastily formed.

The small study room in the library wasn’t very big, just enough for four people. A pair sat on each side of the long table, with completely different vibes.

Zhou Leqi and Hou Zihai were both top students. Once they started studying, they automatically entered an invincible state, spreading out their winter vacation homework on the table and writing furiously, finishing a whole test paper in no time.

Yan Lin and Milan’s side, however, was stuck in a rut.

Yan Lin himself wrote very quickly, no different from Hou Zihai and Zhou Leqi. But after writing for a while, Milan next to him would poke him and then hold up a question to ask him how to do it. So he could only stop what he was doing and start explaining it to her.

To be fair, Yan Lin wasn’t敷衍 (fūyǎn - perfunctory) with Milan. He explained very seriously. However, the difference in their academic levels, especially in math, was too large. Many things that Yan Lin could see the answer to at a glance, he would directly skip those assumed-known steps and jump to the last few steps to explain.

But Milan didn’t understand. She didn’t know how Yan Lin suddenly got so many conditions from the bare question stem and then performed a series of operations as fierce as a tiger. She was completely dumbfounded and didn’t understand at all. She didn’t want to make Yan Lin angry, so she planned to pretend to understand. But—damn it, Yan Lin, this bastard, was too cunning. He not only asked her if she understood but also asked her to repeat the question to him exactly as it was.

Help.

Milan was thus exposed, and Yan Lin became even more angry.

Seeing that the two people sitting opposite them were about to start arguing again, Zhou Leqi had a bit of a headache. Hou Zihai leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear, “Shall we ditch them?”

“...” Zhou Leqi pondered for a moment and whispered back, “Wouldn’t that be a bit awkward?”

He shrugged, looking like he didn’t care about awkwardness.

Zhou Leqi sighed and ultimately couldn’t overcome her social awkwardness, so she took over from Yan Lin and explained the solid geometry problem to Milan.

She had also noticed that Yan Lin’s train of thought was a bit too jumpy when he explained, and the auxiliary lines he drew for Milan were too simple, making the proof method quite difficult. In fact, compared to this direct approach, sometimes drawing two more auxiliary lines wasn’t a bad thing. Although it was a bit more troublesome, it was easier to understand.

So she supplemented with a different approach for Milan, constructing a new small plane outside the solid figure to help her understand the spatial relationships. This time, Milan really understood. Later, Zhou Leqi found a similar question in Milan’s workbook and asked her to do it. After thinking for a while, she solved it, and this time she was completely happy.

Milan developed a strong liking for Zhou Leqi because of this, feeling that she had saved her face in front of Yan Lin and also indirectly proved that it wasn’t that she was dumb, but that Yan Lin wasn’t a good teacher in the first place.

She was very happy. After parting ways with Zhou Leqi and Hou Zihai that evening, she even said to Yan Lin, “Sigh, I originally thought your top science students were very aloof, but I didn’t expect her to be so nice.”

Yan Lin curled his lip, “Being nice means not嫌你笨 (xián nǐ bèn - finding you dumb)?”

“I’m not dumb, okay!” Milan put her hands on her hips, speaking with conviction, “I understood as soon as she taught me, but I got confused when you taught me. This is clearly your problem, okay!”

Yan Lin scoffed and ignored her.

The four-person study group was formed several more times later. Milan’s liking for Zhou Leqi grew day by day, while Hou Zihai increasingly felt that the two people opposite them were superfluous and was quite dissatisfied.

He complained to Zhou Leqi twice. When he walked her home that night, he even said, “Let’s find a self-study room tomorrow, okay? We haven’t really had a chance to talk much these past two days...”

Actually, it wasn’t that exaggerated. They had clearly talked a lot, but besides talking, he also planned to do something else...

Could Zhou Leqi not know what he was thinking? She immediately reached out and gently tapped him, saying, “Can you not always have歪腦筋 (wāi nǎojīn - crooked ideas)?”

“Me, having crooked ideas?” Hou Zihai was unconvinced. “Is there anyone more law-abiding than me? I haven’t even kissed you yet.”

His straightforward words made her face turn red, all the way to her ears. She couldn’t help but reach out and hit him, saying, “...Shut up.”

Looking at her blushing face, his heart fluttered. He originally didn’t have any bad intentions, but now he couldn’t help but want to kiss her, deeply, to share her sweet breath, to make even her cute little earlobes turn pink.

He turned his eyes away, not looking at her, to restrain his unruly thoughts. After a long while, he barely managed to calm down and then brought up the old topic again, “So, do you agree to change places tomorrow?”

She didn’t speak for a long time. It wasn’t deliberation but merely矜持 (jīnchí - reserve). This silence, which seemed to indicate hesitation, became a small barrier for her to conceal her desire for intimacy with him, with a quite realistic effect. He almost thought she was going to refuse him, but finally he heard her say, “...Okay.”

However, plans could never keep up with changes. For example, Hou Zihai didn’t expect that the next day, January 21st, the sixth day of the holiday, less than half a month before the New Year, Zhou Leqi would be taken back to her hometown by Yu Qing.

The cause of this matter was actually related to Zhou Lei.

Recently, Zhou Lei seemed to have a screw loose and actually started contacting Yu Qing from time to time. It started in early December when he sent Yu Qing text messages saying random things, like asking how Zhou Leqi’s studies were going recently, whether Yu Qing and her daughter were having any difficulties, and if they needed his help with anything. Yu Qing found these sudden concerns a bit strange, but she still replied politely, saying that she and her children were doing well and didn’t need Zhou Lei to worry about them. Unexpectedly, after some time, that loose screw of his hadn’t been tightened back, and he started asking Yu Qing to meet him, inviting her out for dinner and coffee. On New Year’s Day, he even sent a message asking if Yu Qing could bring her daughter to have a meal with him.

Of course, Yu Qing absolutely didn’t want to see Zhou Lei.

She had completely given up on their failed marriage and had no intention of getting back together with a man who had changed his heart. His current actions only made her feel disgusted. Therefore, she repeatedly expressed her refusal to him.

But Zhou Lei was very stubborn, probably because all cheating men are like this—how resolute and ruthless they are when they betray, how shameless and annoying they are when they turn back. He started calling Yu Qing, and after his calls were rejected, he even started showing up at her door. On January 20th, he came to knock on the door of the apartment in the development zone, causing Yu Qing to feel not only annoyance but also fear.

She originally didn’t want to tell Zhou Leqi that Zhou Lei had come to their door, after all, she knew how hostile Zhou Leqi was towards Zhou Lei now, and she didn’t want to upset her daughter. But now that Zhou Lei had already come to their door, she had refused him once today, what if he came again in the future? What if Qiqi ran into him unknowingly? She would definitely be very upset then.

So, when Zhou Leqi returned home that day, Yu Qing told her about Zhou Lei’s recent behavior.