The bus passed by.
The green light quickly turned on, and pedestrians around started crossing the road.
The little dog turned back to bark "woof woof" at Xu Che, urging him to move forward.
But Xu Che just gripped the dog leash tightly. Instead of walking forward, he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of candy.
It was a brand of milk candy that he didn't particularly like because it was too sweet.
Another traffic light cycle passed as the candy melted on his tongue.
It was even sweeter than expected, sickeningly sweet.
He didn't like it.
*
At the Murong Family home.
Everyone gathered around Song Yi, examining the wound on her forehead.
Shen Yujing laughed heartily, "No way? You got that from hitting the car window? Song Yi, you're really something else."
Song Yi didn't hesitate to pinch Shen Yujing's arm, saying with a forced smile: "Do you have a death wish?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Shen Yujing immediately apologized and handed her the hot tea, "Here, warm your hands and calm down."
The heating in Murong Huan's room was on full blast, but the two who had just come in from outside were still quite cold.
Song Yi took the teacup but passed it to Hang Feng, saying: "Hold this."
Hang Feng had been holding a frozen water bottle to help ice her injury the whole way here, so he must have been colder.
Hang Feng took the hot tea with his right hand, and when his stiff left hand lightly touched the cup, he quickly pulled away because it felt too hot.
Seeing this, Murong Huan stood up and went downstairs, saying: "I'll ask the housekeeper to bring you a hot water bottle."
Quan Le immediately followed her, "I want one too!"
Shen Yujing frowned, his gaze falling on the teacup before turning to Song Yi, "That was tea I gave to you, why did you give it to him?"
Song Yi rolled her eyes, "Why do you care so much?"
Shen Yujing asked suspiciously: "Don't tell me you're his guardian angel?"
Song Yi neither confirmed nor denied it, instead saying with a smile: "You'll have to guess."
Murong Huan quickly returned with Quan Le, handing an electric hot water bottle to Hang Feng, "Here, take this."
"Thank you," Hang Feng accepted the hot water bottle but didn't put down the hot tea in his hand.
With everyone present, today's lesson could officially begin.
There were six people in total: three academic stars and two poor students, plus one mediocre student who was reluctantly grouped with the poor performers.
Song Yi and Hang Feng took turns teaching the three, while Jiang Yiheng was responsible for grading their previous assignments.
At first glance, it seemed quite organized with a decent study atmosphere.
At noon, lunch was prepared by the Murong family's chef, with a full table of dishes from various cuisines.
However, after taking a bite, Murong Huan frowned and said glumly: "It's still not as good as your dad's cooking."
Shen Yujing nodded, "Though it's better than what we have at my house, it really can't compare to your dad's."
Song Yi: "?"
She carefully picked up some food with her chopsticks and tasted it, finding it delicious.
Song Yi only had three ratings for food: delicious, average, and bad, so she couldn't really tell much difference.
But given Shen Yujing and Murong Huan's family backgrounds, what delicacies hadn't they tried before?
Song Yi had originally thought they were just flattering her father, but now it seemed they genuinely thought Song's Father's cooking was better, so...
Still skeptical, Song Yi decided to ask the most honest smart person present.
So she turned to Jiang Yiheng and asked: "Which do you think tastes better, this food or my dad's cooking? Be honest."
Jiang Yiheng thought for a moment before saying: "In terms of knife skills, the Murong family's chef is slightly better, but Song's Father does everything else better."
Since even Jiang Yiheng said so, Song Yi had to believe it whether she wanted to or not.
It seemed like a waste for Song's Father to work as a carpenter with such culinary talent. She thought she should find an opportunity to have a good talk with him about possibly changing careers.
In the afternoon, they returned to their routine study session.
Compared to sitting in a classroom with dozens of students where one could slack off at any time, this almost one-on-one supervised study made Murong Huan feel miserable.
So she raised her hand, "I request a ten-minute break!"
Song Yi checked the time on her phone and nodded: "Request approved."
Shen Yujing and Hang Feng also put down their pens at the same time, leaning back in their chairs looking half-dead from exhaustion.
All three were filled with regret and wondered: Study like this for seven days? Someone might die.
But besides studying, everyone still had something else on their minds—
Protecting the person they were supposed to guard, and finding their own guardian angel.
Quan Le lay back in his chair and shouted: "I'm so thirsty!"
Jiang Yiheng said expressionlessly: "If you're thirsty, why don't you get water yourself?"
Quan Le: "..."
He sat up and said: "Where's my guardian angel? I'm going to die of thirst if no one gets me water!"
Murong Huan rolled her eyes and said: "You're truly an idiot. Being your guardian angel doesn't mean being your servant. If you can't even get your own water, you might as well die of thirst."
Quan Le retorted: "I'm just trying to find an opportunity to flush out who it is!"
As he spoke, his gaze swept across everyone in the room, landing suspiciously on Jiang Yiheng, "Jiang Yiheng! Why are you avoiding my eyes? Are you feeling guilty? You're my guardian angel, aren't you?"
Jiang Yiheng: "..."
Jiang Yiheng didn't answer Quan Le's question, only saying: "Ten minutes are up."
Song Yi picked up the practice book and handed it to Hang Feng, "Shall we finish teaching them math first?"
Hang Feng nodded, "Sure."
Then Jiang Yiheng calmly spoke up: "There's a third solution to the last math problem. I noticed you both only wrote down two methods."
"Please don't torture me like this." Song Yi waved her hands repeatedly. She wasn't interested in participating in any math Olympics; being able to score high on tests was enough for her. She really had no interest in how many different ways there were to solve a single problem.
However, Hang Feng furrowed his brows, his gaze falling on the last problem, seemingly pondering how to find the third solution.
Jiang Yiheng looked at Song Yi and arranged: "You go ahead and explain the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions to Shen Yujing and the others. I'll explain the last problem to Hang Feng."
"Alright." Song Yi agreed and walked to the whiteboard, tapping it with her hand, "Sit up, sit up, everyone pay attention to the lesson!"
Meanwhile, Hang Feng glanced up at Jiang Yiheng, doubt in his eyes.
Jiang Yiheng turned to the last page of the test paper and explained in a cool voice: "Teaching you should be much easier than teaching those three."
The next day, the tutoring continued.
However, near noon, the class group chat exploded with discussions about the final exam results.
"The final grades are out, you can check them in the academic system," Murong Huan said while picking up her phone, giving Shen Yujing a fierce look.
After more than a month of hard study, Murong Huan felt her accuracy was very high when they were reviewing papers yesterday. This time she would definitely win! She would crush Shen Yujing under her feet and let him know there was a gap, a huge gap between their intelligence!
However, coincidentally, Shen Yujing thought the same way, as he was also very confident this time.
Song Yi and Jiang Yiheng's grades didn't need to be checked because they had already been mentioned in the group chat.
Song Yi dramatically covered her mouth, "Sorry, Genius Jiang, I beat you by a few points again, barely holding onto first place."
Song Yi and Jiang Yiheng both had extremely high scores in all subjects, neck and neck with each other, but Jiang Yiheng scored slightly lower than Song Yi in Chinese, which was why his total score was lower than hers.
Jiang Yiheng glanced at Song Yi and said: "You seem very happy? Then I can rule out you being my guardian angel."
Song Yi: "..."
Jiang Yiheng's focus was quite unique.
The next moment, Quan Le's cheer rang out, "Eighteenth place! I ranked eighteenth! This is the first time I've made it into the top twenty in Class A! I'm no longer the last in our class!"
Quan Le stood up with his phone and walked out, "I'm going to call my dad and tell him the good news. I might finally get that new car I've been eyeing for so long!"
Song Yi looked at Hang Feng and asked with concern: "How did you do?"
Hang Feng put away his phone and said: "Fourth place."
"A true display of ability." Song Yi extended her hand towards Hang Feng, saying solemnly, "Congratulations on returning to Class A."
Hang Feng pressed his lips together and reached out his own hand—
"Ah!!!"
A scream from Murong Huan beside them made Song Yi instantly withdraw her hand and hurry over to ask, "What's wrong? What happened?"
Hang Feng lowered his gaze at his hand still suspended in mid-air, paused for two seconds before slowly lowering it.
Murong Huan looked at Song Yi with a devastated expression, "Ninth place! I got ninth place!"
Song Yi was stunned for a moment, then reached out to stroke her cheek like comforting a kitten, "Ninth place is great, you've improved a lot."
Song Yi genuinely felt this way, after all, they had been focusing on strengthening fundamentals lately. At this rate, Murong Huan would be a top student in Class B when school started.
Shen Yujing spoke up from the side, saying: "It's a tie for ninth place."
"Huh?" Song Yi was taken aback, then seemed to realize something, "So who's the other ninth place?"
Shen Yujing turned his phone screen toward Song Yi, showing an insufferably smug smile, and said: "It's me."
In Shen Yujing's view, not losing was winning, and he always maintained a good attitude.
Song Yi: "..."
It was quite a coincidence that those two always got the same ranking in every exam.
Song Yi silently put an arm around Murong Huan, "It's okay, you'll definitely surpass him next time."
To this, Shen Yujing replied with two words, "Dream on."
He looked extremely proud, as if he had a tail that would be wagging if he had one.
Despite the small drama, everyone was generally satisfied with their grades. Their efforts over this period had paid off well.
However, Hang Feng didn't show up for the tutoring session the next morning.
Jiang Yiheng frowned and asked, "Why did only you come?"
Song Yi answered, "His grandmother needs to set up her stall somewhere far today, so Hang Feng went to help her get there."
After speaking, Song Yi took a sip of her hot milk tea and asked Shen Yujing beside her, "What are Murong Huan and Quan Le doing?"
Murong Huan and Quan Le were each sitting in different corners of the sofa, both holding notebooks, heads down, writing something unknown.
Shen Yujing answered, "They've been trying to solve the mystery since early morning, analyzing who everyone's guardian angel is."
Song Yi walked over with interest and asked, "So have you figured anything out?"
Quan Le looked up and said seriously, "I think my guardian angel is..."
As he spoke, he pointed at Song Yi with a solemn expression.
Song Yi: "?"
She swallowed and forced a smile, "How could it be me? What are you talking about?"
Quan Le said word by word: "Move aside."
Song Yi: "?"
Song Yi stepped back and saw that Quan Le was actually pointing at Shen Yujing behind her.
Shen Yujing was equally puzzled, "Come on, how could I possibly be your guardian angel?"
Quan Le gave a cold laugh and said, "If the person you're supposed to protect isn't me, why would you specifically buy my favorite milk tea! Admit it, Shen Yujing! There's only one truth!"
Shen Yujing: "Because I like that flavor too, don't we always drink it together? What's wrong with you, being so suspicious?"
Quan Le: "..."
Well... that did seem to be true.
Since Shen Yujing had disproven his theory, Quan Le lowered his head and continued calculating, muttering, "Did Shen Yujing really not draw my name? That seems impossible..."
Shen Yujing was even more exasperated and said, "Please, me drawing you? If it was that disgusting, I wouldn't even be here today."
"Wouldn't be here?" Quan Le caught the key point and looked up, "Could it be that Hang Feng drew my name? Is that why he was too disgusted to come?"
Shen Yujing: "..."
This was a first – he'd never seen someone so eager to consider themselves disgusting.
Regardless, Quan Le hadn't suspected her, and Song Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Ever since drawing Quan Le's name that day, Song Yi had felt quite at ease.
After all, among this group, only Shen Yujing and Quan Le were a bit slow-witted, so the chances of being discovered shouldn't be too high.
"But that's not right, Hang Feng barely spoke to me yesterday," Quan Le once again overthrew his own deduction, waving his pen around the room...
Remembering how she had specifically helped Quan Le with several problems yesterday, Song Yi feared he might recall this detail. She quickly turned to Shen Yujing and said loudly, "Disgusting? You find it disgusting if you drew Quan Le? Shen Yujing, that's going too far! I can't stand by and watch this!"
Song Yi's voice was extremely loud, naturally attracting Quan Le's attention.
He suddenly also grabbed onto this point he had overlooked, slapping his thigh in anger, "That's right, Shen Yujing, how dare you say I'm disgusting? Is the person you drew not disgusting then?"
"Of course not." Shen Yujing looked at Quan Le righteously, unusually serious, "You can't compare at all to the person I drew. They're far more excellent, intelligent, and likable than you."
"Huh?" This time it was Quan Le's turn to be stunned, then he muttered to himself, "More excellent than me, smarter than me, and more likable than me? Is there even such a person here? You probably couldn't find someone like that in all of Saint Slee."
Song Yi & Jiang Yiheng: "..."
It was rare to see someone so narcissistic these days.
Murong Huan directly smacked the back of Quan Le's head, her disdain obvious.
Then Song Yi said, "Oh right, there's something else – tomorrow is Hang Feng's birthday."
"Birthday? Yay!" Murong Huan got excited, "I didn't expect your birthdays to be so close together. Let's do something special tomorrow!"
Shen Yujing cast a suspicious glance at Song Yi, "Don't tell me you drew Hang Feng?"
Song Yi pressed her lips together, but went along with it, "Indeed, I admit it, Hang Feng is the person I'm supposed to protect."
As Song Yi said this, her gaze quickly swept across everyone's faces, but she didn't notice anything unusual. All four showed different degrees of surprise.
Murong Huan asked, "Yi Yi, the game rules say we can't admit it, why did you tell us?"
Song Yi said, "This is just a game, it's not a big deal. Of course a friend's birthday is more important."
Murong Huan was convinced by this reasoning and nodded, "That's true."
Jiang Yiheng also unusually took the initiative to say, "He's quite introverted, but since he's willing to spend time with us now, let's all celebrate his birthday tomorrow."
Quan Le nodded too, saying, "We celebrated Song Yi's birthday, so it wouldn't be right not to celebrate his. We can't show favoritism."
Shen Yujing shrugged, "I'm fine with whatever."
Murong Huan raised her hand enthusiastically, "Then leave it to me!"
Song Yi was silent for a few seconds, then looked at Murong Huan and cautioned, "No roses."
Murong Huan responded somewhat exasperatedly, "Of course not! How could I give roses? He's a boy!"
The next day—
Song Yi stared at the person-sized Ultraman model and five different custom-made high-end Ultraman onesies in front of her, lost in thought.
She slowly turned her head to look at Murong Huan, struggling to force a smile, "This is what boys should have?"
Murong Huan nodded, very confidently saying, "I asked my seven male cousins, and they all said Ultraman was what they wanted most!"
Song Yi: "How old are your cousins?"
Murong Huan: "Some are in elementary school, some in middle school, why?"
Song Yi: "..."
How could she explain? It was obviously a generation gap! What high school student still likes Ultraman? Isn't that childish and embarrassing...
"Wow! So cool!!!"
The door was pushed open as Shen Yujing and Quan Le walked in side by side, both exclaiming the same thing in unison, their faces showing looks of admiration.
Murong Huan became even more proud and said, "See? I told you all boys love Ultraman!"
As she spoke, she picked up two Ultraman onesies and handed them over, "Quick, look, these are what we're wearing today."
Shen Yujing and Quan Le instantly rushed over, both reaching for them and almost getting into a fight.
"I want Tiga's! I want Tiga!"
"No way! Tiga is the coolest! Give me the Tiga costume!"
Song Yi: "..."
Is she abnormal, or is this world abnormal?
Of course, Jiang Yiheng's arrival soon made Song Yi breathe a sigh of relief.
The young man stood by the door, looking with disgust at the two people who were almost wrestling over a Ultraman Tiga onesie, and asked, "Are they performing a bullfight?"
"They're fighting," Song Yi briefly explained the current situation to Jiang Yiheng.
Jiang Yiheng went from initially saying "I don't understand" to later declaring "I think they're sick in the head."
Jiang Yiheng directly stated, "I'm not going to wear something like that."
Song Yi also refused flatly, "I don't want to either."
Murong Huan said, "That's fine, you two can just be in charge of pushing the cake. The three of us wearing it will be impressive enough!"
Song Yi opened her mouth, saying with a complicated expression, "Huan Huan, you should really spend less time playing with these two."
Murong Huan asked, "Why?"
Song Yi: "Because poor brain function might be contagious."
Shen Yujing and Quan Le, in the midst of their fight, turned their heads and demanded, "Who are you saying has poor brain function?"
Quan Le chimed in, "Yeah! Who are you talking about?"
Song Yi: "...I meant Hang Feng."
Satisfied with this answer, Shen Yujing and Quan Le simultaneously turned back to continue their fight over the Ultraman Tiga onesie.
Song Yi turned to Jiang Yiheng beside her and exclaimed loudly, "Jiang Yiheng! Something terrible has happened!"
Jiang Yiheng played along and asked, "What is it?"
Song Yi said, "Two of my friends are fighting! But there's something even more horrifying!"
Jiang Yiheng: "What's that?"
Song Yi enunciated each word clearly: "The ugly one is about to win!!!"
As soon as Song Yi finished speaking, Shen Yujing and Quan Le instantly let go of the onesie.
Quan Le stepped back, waving his hands repeatedly, saying, "I give up, I give up."
Shen Yujing stuffed the Ultraman Tiga onesie into Quan Le's hands, "No, no, no, I'm the one who lost!"
The atmosphere between the two suddenly shifted from wrestling to "respectful and friendly," as they started being courteous to each other, making the scene before them harmonious to the point of being bizarre.
Jiang Yiheng & Murong Huan: "..."
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
As expected of Song Yi.
