progress

The morning breeze, laced with dew, seeped into Li Huaizhou's collar. He zipped up his school uniform, and as his fingertips brushed against the collar, he could still feel the red mark left by Wen Juzhi's grip last night. It no longer hurt, but it felt like a mark. A slight touch reminded him of the impenetrable darkness of the room. The pear candy in his trouser pocket, which Xie Mo had stuffed into his pocket yesterday, had broken into pieces, becoming the only warmth he could hold onto.

At the red brick wall at the school gate, Shen Jianhong stood upright, his hands behind his back, the collar of his dark blue uniform buttoned tightly. His eyes behind his lenses scanned over, like a ray of cold light, landing precisely on the blue hair sticking up behind Li Huaizhou's ear. Just as Li Huaizhou was about to turn aside, his wrist was gently grabbed. The director's fingertips touched his hair, his tone filled with his usual sternness: "Li Huaizhou, what's wrong with your hair? Where did you forget the school regulations?"

The wind made the director's voice a little scattered. Li Huaizhou's eyelids drooped, his fingers pinching the wrinkled candy in his trouser pocket. He said casually, as if saying "I ate steamed buns today": "I dyed it for fun."

"Dyeing it for fun?" Shen Jianhong frowned, his voice lowering. "Your attendance this semester is already terrible enough, and now you dare to violate school rules. Do you have any respect for discipline?"

Having heard these words for so long, calluses have formed on him. Li Huaizhou twitched his lips, neither retorting nor responding—the fists clenched in the darkness last night still held a trace of bitterness, and now he didn't even have the energy to argue. Seeing his stubborn defiance, Shen Jianhong angrily let go. "Go in now! If I see you again, I'll have a serious talk with your head teacher!"

"Got it," Li Huaizhou replied, turning and heading back to the teaching building. He could still feel the director's gaze on his back, but he didn't turn back. The corridor was already bustling with noise, the chaos before morning self-study like a ball of crumpled paper. Someone was shouting, "Let me borrow your homework," someone was chasing and playing, the sound of footsteps and laughter colliding, but he could hear them vaguely, as if through glass—only the warmth of the candy in his trouser pocket, still lingering against his palm.

When the classroom door was pushed open without any strength, there was a "creak" sound, and the noisy classroom suddenly became quiet for half a second. Dozens of eyes swept over and fell on the blue hair behind his ear. Some raised their eyebrows, some frowned, and some whispered in each other's ears, the sound was as quiet as a mosquito's buzz. Li Huaizhou didn't take it seriously. He put his hands in his pockets and walked straight to the last row. As soon as he reached his seat, his arm was suddenly grabbed by someone - Ji Jiancheng rushed over from the side, and the force was so strong that he staggered, his eyes staring at his hair: "Oh my god, Zhou He! You dyed your hair so sexy, like a peacock spreading its tail! Do you have a girl you like? Which store has such amazing craftsmanship?"

"No shop." Li Huaizhou leaned over and pulled Ji Jiancheng's arm off his shoulder. His gesture wasn't polite, but he wasn't angry either. He just wanted to sit down quickly, lean his back against the chair, and catch his breath. Ji Jiancheng was stunned for a moment and wanted to ask more, but Li Huaizhou pulled the textbook out of the desk and stopped him. He could only pout and return to his seat.

As soon as the chair was pulled away, light footsteps sounded beside him, carrying with them a familiar scent mixed with laundry detergent. Xie Mo sat down, his back straight, but he didn't immediately open his textbook as usual. Instead, he tilted his head, his gaze falling on the blue hair behind his ear, and his brows knitted slightly—not in surprise, nor in disgust, but in a frown that concealed a hint of worry, which made Li Huaizhou's heart tighten.

The chorus of morning reading spread, and Li Huaizhou's fingertips, gripping the textbook, felt a little stiff, but he couldn't help but glance to the side—Xie Mo's profile looked soft in the morning light. The tip of his pen was underlining the key points in the textbook, and he subconsciously paused, as if thinking about something. Only when the chorus of reading died down and the classroom quieted down did the person next to him gently touch his elbow and said in a low voice, "Why did you dye your hair all of a sudden?"

Li Huaizhou's heart skipped a beat. His fingertips quickly drew a horizontal line on the textbook. He deliberately forced a heartless smile. When he turned his head, he deliberately moved the blue hair behind his ear closer to Xie Mo's eyes. "I saw others dyeing their hair for fun, so I did it myself. How about it, handsome or not? Much better than before, right?"

Xie Mo stared at him for a few seconds, perhaps accustomed to his "don't care" look. Instead of responding immediately, he reached out and gently touched the strand of blue hair with his fingertips. His fingertips were warm, and as they brushed against his scalp, they were as light as feathers, making Li Huaizhou almost unable to suppress the smile on his face. "Handsome," he finally said, his lips curved in a helpless tenderness. "Just don't mess with it yourself next time, it'll damage your hair."

Li Huaizhou hummed, quickly turned his head back, pretending to stare at the words in the textbook, but he didn't read a single word. The place where Xie Mo's fingertips had just touched felt like a spark, slowly burning in his heart. It wasn't until the bell rang that he heard the person next to him gently ask, "I called you several times yesterday, why didn't you answer? You didn't reply to the messages either."

His heart suddenly shrank, and Li Huaizhou tightened his grip on the pen with his fingertips, and the pen felt warm from being gripped. Last night, Wen Juzhi dropped his phone on the ground, and the screen cracked. He didn't dare to secretly pick it up and put it in his pocket until he went out in the morning - he was afraid that the trembling in his voice would be untraceable once he opened his mouth, and he was afraid that Xie Mo would ask him further, and he was even more afraid that he would not be able to help but let out what happened last night. "Oh, I was too sleepy when I got home yesterday, so I fell asleep, and I didn't hear it because my phone was on silent." He threw the pen on the table, trying to sound nonchalant, but his eyes avoided Xie Mo's gaze and fell on the sycamore tree outside the window.

Xie Mo didn't ask any more questions, but just took out a new lollipop from his pencil case and quietly placed it on the corner of his textbook - the candy wrapper was light yellow, different from the wrinkled one in his trouser pocket. Li Huaizhou stared at the candy for a few seconds, and his fingertips quietly moved it towards him, as if hiding a little warmth that he dared not touch.

The morning class passed in a blur. The math teacher was at the podium, explaining functions. Li Huaizhou hunched over his desk, his ears ringing as images of last night kept flashing before his eyes—the force of Wen Juzhi's grip on his chin, the choking musty smell in the room, and the pain of his nails digging into his palm as he clenched his fist. It wasn't until Zhou Yu walked into the classroom with a stack of test papers and knocked on the podium that he suddenly looked up.

"We'll be taking the three main exams this afternoon. Please sit in your seats as you did last time, and clear your desks." Zhou Yu's voice fell, and the classroom instantly quieted down. Some people grumbled quietly, but Li Huaizhou was stunned. He and Xie Mo sat at the same table, so naturally they had to sit together during the exam. The person next to him seemed to see through his thoughts. He tilted his head and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Don't panic. The key question types I marked for you a few days ago should be useful."

Li Huaizhou nodded, but he felt uncertain. After returning home last night, he hadn't bothered to look at the textbook. He hadn't even dared to take out the notes Xie Mo had helped him organize. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he got his math test: the first few multiple-choice questions were the same type of questions Xie Mo had explained to him on the playground last week; even two of the more complex questions were variations on examples from the textbook. He gripped the pen, his fingertips still trembling, but he didn't leave it blank as usual. Instead, he began writing, stroke by stroke. When he tired, he looked up to catch his breath, just in time to catch a glimpse of Xie Mo's profile as he bent over the test. The sunlight fell on his eyelashes, casting a faint shadow, which reassured him.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the last exam was over, and the classroom was instantly in an uproar. People gathered together to check answers, making a cacophony of noise. Li Huaizhou folded his paper and was about to walk it to the podium when Zhou Yu stopped him. "Li Huaizhou, wait a minute." The head teacher held his math paper in his hand, his brow furrowed, but not with his usual "disappointed" expression, but with a hint of surprise. "You actually got over 90 points in math this time? That's almost 60 points better than last time. You..."

"I guessed it randomly." Li Huaizhou interrupted him, his tone still nonchalant, and put the test paper on the podium. "I was lucky and guessed most of the answers right." Zhou Yu stared at him for a few seconds and sighed, but did not ask any more questions, nor did he even mention the matter of his hair - perhaps in the eyes of the class teacher, the sudden progress of the most undisciplined student is much more important than dyeing his hair.

Li Huaizhou didn't respond and turned to walk to his seat. Xie Mo was packing his schoolbag. Seeing him come back, there was a smile in his eyes. "I told you you could do it." "Just like that, I guessed it." Li Huaizhou took the schoolbag strap handed to him by Xie Mo. His fingertips touched the other's hand, and the warmth made him shrink subconsciously. However, he still picked up the unopened snow pear candy on the corner of the table and stuffed it into Xie Mo's hand. "Here, I don't like sweet things."

"Didn't you say you liked it last time?" Xie Mo smiled, but didn't take it. Instead, he stuffed the candy back into his pocket and deliberately scratched his palm with his fingers. "Just think of it as...a reward." As he spoke, he reached out and gently hooked his finger. "Do you want to go eat tomato and egg noodles at the school gate tonight? You said their soup was delicious last time."

Li Huaizhou's fingers tightened around the candy, and the wrapper in his trouser pocket wrinkled even further. He could imagine the warm yellow light of the noodle shop, the aroma of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and the crisp sound of chopsticks hitting the rim of the bowl with Xie Mo sitting at a small table—but Wen Juzhi's words last night, "We are the same," as he stood at the door, suddenly pierced his heart like a thorn. He wanted to agree, wanted to follow Xie Mo, wanted to leave the darkness of last night behind, but his feet felt like they were filled with lead and could not move.

"No," he threw his schoolbag over his shoulder, trying to sound calm, but he didn't dare look Xie Mo in the eye. "I have something else to do when I get back. Maybe next time."

Xie Mo's smile paused, and his packing of his schoolbag slowed down a bit, but he didn't try to persuade him again. He just nodded, his voice softening. "Okay, be careful on the road then." He reached out and quietly straightened the crooked collar of Li Huaizhou's school uniform. His fingertips brushed against the red mark on his neck, moving gently as if afraid of breaking something. "Remember to eat your candy, don't forget to put it in your pocket again." Li Huaizhou hummed, turned around, and walked out of the classroom. The lights in the corridor were already on, the dim light stretching his shadow very long, and the blue hair behind his ears shone coldly in the light. He didn't look back, and didn't even dare to glance in the direction of his seat again - he knew Xie Mo was probably still standing there, tidying up the two desks put together, but he couldn't stop, just like he was used to turning a dean's scolding in one ear and out the other, used to saying "if you want to dye it, then dye it" when asked by others, used to hiding all the things he cared about under that "it doesn't matter" look, and even the courage to walk side by side with the person he liked took him a long time to gather.

Walking out of the teaching building, the wind at the alley was getting stronger and stronger, blowing his hair up, and those strands of blue hair brushed against his cheeks, as cool as the air in the room last night. Li Huaizhou took out the snow pear candy from his trouser pocket. The candy wrapper was wrinkled, but he didn't open it. When he walked to the fork in the alley, he suddenly heard light footsteps behind him. Li Huaizhou turned around suddenly and saw Xie Mo standing under the street light, holding a plastic bag in his hand. There was something in it, and it was warm in the dim light. "I forgot to give you this." Xie Mo ran over and stuffed the plastic bag into his hand. His fingertips touched his hand, and the warmth made his heart skip a beat. "I bought this at the canteen just now. Drink it on the way. Don't get cold."

The milk in the plastic bag was still warm, and through the thin plastic, it warmed Li Huaizhou's palm. He squeezed the bag and opened his mouth, but no words came out - his throat felt like it was blocked by something, sore and painful.

"Don't sleep too late when you go back." Xie Mo stood in front of him, his eyes sparkling like falling stars. "I'll bring you milk tomorrow." After saying that, he turned around and walked in the other direction without stopping. After a few steps, he turned back and waved at him, with the corners of his mouth curved, as if hiding the loss just now.

Li Huaizhou stood there, watching Xie Mo's back disappear at the end of the alley, the milk in his hand warm. He took out the wrinkled snow pear candy and slowly unwrapped it. The sweet aroma spread out, mixed with the warmth of the milk, slowly dispelling the coldness in his palm. He took a bite of the candy, and the sweetness spread from the tip of his tongue to his heart, with a bit of burning warmth - it turns out that some sweetness will not break even if you hold it tightly.