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The three balloons continued to drift gently in the air.

All along the way back, the balloons had been trailing behind Le Ya, yet she hadn’t noticed them at all.

Now she finally understood why some of the students she encountered on the stairs had looked at her with such strange expressions.

So that was why.

Xie Qingyu walked over and pinched the strings. “Where did you get these? You didn’t even notice these balloons, but they look so cute.”

The three pink bunny-shaped balloons were all different. The one in the middle had one ear sticking up and the other drooping down, making it appear lively and playful. The other two had mischievous expressions.

“Someone must’ve tied these to you,” Su Hui said as she ran over to Le Ya’s side and pulled one of the balloons down. “Take a look and see who gave them to you.”

Who gave them?

It was definitely Chen Yang—no doubt about it.

Le Ya fumed silently and turned her head away. “Help me untie them, but be careful not to pop them.”

Xie Qingyu chuckled. “If they burst, you’d be scared out of your wits.”

These balloons were quite large. If one accidentally exploded near her ear on the way back, it would surely give her a huge fright.

Su Hui touched them and said, “Actually, these aren’t regular balloons—they’re different from the ones we usually blow up ourselves. These are more like the kind kids take to amusement parks. You’ve seen them before, right?”

At her words, Le Ya immediately recalled.

During her visit to Disneyland, many vendors carried large bunches of balloons and sold them by hand. These were somewhat similar.

Xie Qingyu took down one balloon—the rabbit with a smiling face—and handed it to Le Ya. “Here, take a look.”

Le Ya accepted it.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about it—it was just a very cute balloon.

Su Hui took down the remaining two and tied them together before handing them to Le Ya. “They’re so adorable! Who bought them for you?”

This Christmas gift was far cuter than receiving apples. None of them could think of anything else quite like it at the moment.

Le Ya shook her head. “I don’t know who gave them.”

Xie Qingyu observed her with narrowed eyes, forming a guess in her mind but refraining from voicing it. “If you don’t know, then so be it.”

Le Ya felt a bit guilty and stuffed the balloons into her desk drawer. She tied the rest to the window handle since there was nowhere else to put them.

She reminded everyone, “Evening self-study is about to start.”

True to her words, the bell rang a few minutes later.

The first evening self-study session was with the biology teacher. As soon as he entered, he noticed the two balloons floating by the window and paused.

The biology teacher loved to talk, and since many students had given him apples tonight, he was in a good mood. Sitting down on his chair, he asked, “Whose balloons are those? They’re so pretty.”

All eyes in the class turned toward the balloons.

Although they weren’t looking directly at her, Le Ya still felt embarrassed.

She couldn’t understand why Chen Yang had secretly tied the balloons to her clothes instead of giving them to her directly.

Now that she thought about it, it must have been when he said there was something earlier—he must’ve tied them on then.

A classmate piped up, “Teacher, they belong to Le Ya.”

The biology teacher smiled, his eyes crinkling as he looked at the delicate girl sitting there. “Le Ya’s? How cute! Very fitting, hahaha.”

The teachers all adored Le Ya.

She was obedient, well-behaved, academically excellent, and beautiful—such a student was always a teacher’s favorite, and she was no exception.

Le Ya smiled faintly at the teacher.

When she lowered her head, she inwardly grumbled complaints about Chen Yang. This was way too attention-grabbing. Didn’t he care if someone found out?

Her deskmate nudged her lightly and whispered, “Le Ya, your face is so red. Could it be because you’ve been under the air conditioning for too long and feel hot?”

Le Ya: “Huh?”

She reached up to touch her cheeks. The heat radiating from them traveled through her palm straight to her heart—it was scorching.

Le Ya quickly replied, “Probably.”

Her deskmate didn’t suspect anything, nodded, and turned back to continue working on her homework, leaving Le Ya to exhale a long sigh of relief.

Le Ya wanted to open the window to let in some fresh air, but she was worried the cold breeze might freeze her classmates. After some thought, she decided against it and endured.

After sitting there lost in thought for a while, the heat in her cheeks finally began to fade.

Class Seventeen was much livelier.

When Liang Qian returned from outside, he carried several “Peace Apples,” each exquisitely wrapped. Some even had greeting cards attached.

“Wow, so popular?” Zhao Mingri sat on his chair, enviously remarking, “You have so many!”

Liang Qian sat down. “You think they’re all for me?”

Ninety percent of these were actually meant for Chen Yang. Even though he had refused them, the girls insisted that he at least try accepting them. If he truly didn’t want them, they said he could just eat them himself.

Liang Qian ended up bringing them back himself.

He placed the apples on the table and asked curiously, “Where’s Yang-ge?”

Zhao Mingri shrugged. “I don’t know. He left as soon as school ended. He didn’t tell me where he was going, probably had something to do. I haven’t seen him.”

It was only a few minutes before evening self-study would start, so he guessed Chen Yang would be back soon.

Liang Qian said, “Probably avoiding people.”

As he spoke, the window was pushed open from outside, letting in a rush of cold air. Just as Zhao Mingri was about to scold whoever it was, he saw Lin Xinqiao standing there with a smile.

Liang Qian said, “Yang-ge isn’t here.”

Lin Xinqiao replied, “I’m not looking for Chen Yang.”

She took out two apples and tossed them onto Liang Qian and Zhao Mingri’s desks. “For you. Happy Christmas Eve.”

After she left, Liang Qian was still a bit stunned.

What was this? Why wasn’t she giving apples to Chen Yang but to them instead?

Liang Qian examined both apples thoroughly and noticed that Zhao Mingri’s apple was much prettier than his own. Instantly, he felt不服 (unwilling to accept).

Zhao Mingri said, “You can’t be jealous.”

Liang Qian suspiciously asked, “Did you secretly contact her?”

Zhao Mingri put away his apple and replied, “Yeah, last time she asked me for help, and we chatted a bit more.”

Liang Qian remarked, “Nice.”

Just as they were talking, the back door was pushed open again.

Liang Qian was about to scold someone when he saw Chen Yang walk in, holding a box with a bow tied around it—a “Peace Apple” from the small shops outside the school grounds.

“Yang-ge, where did you go?” Liang Qian leaned over to ask, “Is this for someone? Our little sister-in-law?”

Chen Yang’s eyebrows twitched slightly. “It’s for me.”

Liang Qian was momentarily shocked by the realization that “Yang-ge actually received someone’s apple” before snapping back to reality.

“Is this from Le Ya?”

Chen Yang calmly nodded.

After the bell rang, everyone outside returned to their classrooms.

Liang Qian fully embraced his identity as an academic underachiever—he didn’t write homework, watching Chen Yang solve problems seriously beside him while Zhao Mingri chatted with others, feeling unusually guilty.

Bored, he browsed through the school’s online forum.

Though he rarely visited the forum, recently, due to the holidays, there were many posts. It was quite entertaining to browse through them when bored.

Then he clicked into a thread with several exclamation marks titled “Love Confession.”

Upon seeing the content inside, Liang Qian froze, quickly turning his head to look at Chen Yang and swallowing hard.

No wonder Yang-ge seemed to be in a good mood tonight!

The reason lay right here!

Not many people were focused on studying during Christmas Eve.

Many students in the class were openly playing on their phones. With the air conditioning on, the warm air made it impossible to see what was happening inside from the windows.

Xie Qingyu played openly without hiding.

She was well-liked, and her presence could be found in almost every school event. The latest gossip always reached her.

Until someone sent her a link.

At first, Xie Qingyu suspected it might be a virus, but after confirming it was safe, she dared to click it and was immediately shocked.

Inside was a post that had been uploaded not long ago—”Can someone please explain what kind of divine love is this? How can such a thing happen at our school!!!”

The main post contained a picture.

The image was blurry because the background was dark, but those who knew wouldn’t mistake it. Xie Qingyu instantly recognized Le Ya’s silhouette.

Two figures stood there—one taller, one shorter. Le Ya was facing away from the other person, allowing the boy behind her to tie three bunny balloons to her collar.

The scene was extraordinarily harmonious.

“Uwaa, those balloons look so cute, why can’t I have such a romantic encounter!”

“Anyone know where this happened?”

“A freshman girl replying for the first time—can someone explain what’s going on? Is this really our school?”

“I’ll just say... I think I saw a guy dragging those balloons when I returned to campus last night—I never expected they’d be used like this.”

“AAAAAHHH I really want to know who these people are! Such couples exist in our school?!”

Xie Qingyu: ???

So this was the truth of the matter?

Though she knew Chen Yang and Le Ya definitely weren’t a couple.

Xie Qingyu felt like she had uncovered some incredible secret. Her heart raced, and she couldn’t resist poking Le Ya in front of her.

Le Ya had just finished writing half a page of her test paper.

She turned her head in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

Xie Qingyu whispered excitedly, “Check your phone. I sent you a link. Go take a look.”

Le Ya nodded. “Okay.”

She wanted to take a break anyway.

Le Ya pulled out her phone, followed the link Xie Qingyu had sent, and immediately recognized the image upon seeing it.

Her breath caught, and she tensed up.

Continuing to scroll down, she noticed many comments were simply marveling without knowing who the people in the picture were. Only then did Le Ya let out a sigh of relief.

To be honest, she herself didn’t know how Chen Yang had managed to tie the balloons on her.

Le Ya returned to the main post and realized Chen Yang was indeed much taller than her. This picture was clearly taken covertly, and it showed quite obviously.

She absentmindedly touched her head. Why were others so tall?

From middle school to high school, Le Ya had only grown a few centimeters. Now, her height had completely stopped growing, fixed at 160 cm.

Meanwhile, Su Hui and Xie Qingyu were both 165 cm.

Though there was only a five-centimeter difference, it felt like an insurmountable gap—just like the difference between 158 cm and 160 cm.

She really wished she could grow taller.

Le Ya pursed her lips and tapped her phone a few times.

This was the final stretch of the evening, so many students were in the hallways, often stopping by other classes to exchange apples.

The class monitor called from the doorway, “Le Ya, come here for a moment.”

Le Ya set down her pen. “Is there something wrong?”

The class monitor came in and shook his head. “I don’t know. The teacher called for you. You’ll find out when you get there.”

For a moment, Le Ya’s heart raced, fearing that the content of the post had been discovered and that she’d be scolded again by the homeroom teacher.

Fortunately, it was just about homework.

She was like a startled bird now, checking the forum every few minutes, terrified someone might identify her as the subject of the post.

Thankfully, no one did. It seemed none of her classmates frequented the forum.

Le Ya listened to a lot of unnecessary chatter in the office before leaving. By the time she realized it, she was already in the hallway.

“Classmate.”

“Classmate.”

After being called twice, Le Ya finally turned around to see a boy holding a small box standing in front of her. She didn’t recognize him.

Pointing to herself uncertainly, she asked, “Sorry, were you calling me just now?”

The boy nodded. “Yes.”

Le Ya asked, “What is it?”

Hearing this, the boy pushed the box forward and finally spoke the words he’d rehearsed for so long: “It’s for you. Happy Christmas Eve.”

Le Ya was startled. “I don’t know you…”

She truly felt she had never seen this boy before, let alone interacted with him in any way. Yet here he was, giving her an apple.

There was no way she could accept it.

The boy smiled faintly. “I know. I often see you and know you’re in Class One, so I came over specifically. I just wanted to give this to you.”

Le Ya kept her hands behind her back and declined politely. “No, thank you.”

From inside the classroom, someone opened the window. Zhou Xiaoqing was watching this scene, and after thinking of something, she sneered.

She slammed the window shut with a loud snap .

Le Ya heard the dissatisfaction from Zhou Xiaoqing’s deskmate inside.

The boy in front of her continued to push the apple toward her. “It’s something I wanted to give you. There’s no hidden meaning. You can just—”

Before he could finish, a slender hand reached out and took the box away.

Le Ya was startled and followed the direction of the movement to see Chen Yang standing behind her, holding the small box.

She opened her mouth to say something.

Their eyes met. Her dampened gaze locked onto him.

Chen Yang momentarily lost himself.

Without hesitation, he shoved the box back into the boy’s arms, his expression darkening as he said, “You don’t need to give it. She already has one.”

Each word was clear and audible.

The boy obviously recognized Chen Yang, his face turning pale as he trembled while clutching the box. “I’ll go now, hahaha.”

With that, he dashed off like the wind. In the blink of an eye, his figure disappeared from the corridor.

Le Ya snapped out of her daze. “You scared him.”

Hearing her words, Chen Yang looked down at her delicate, pale face and asked, “Then tell me, how exactly did I scare him?”

Le Ya was momentarily speechless.

For some reason, she detected a hint of wronged feeling and perhaps even anger in his tone.

And besides, she didn’t even have an apple.