Anning Experimental Middle School, Grade 9 Teachers’ Office.

The list of participants for the Mathematical Federation has been compiled. The teachers who came back from class have sorted out their work and gone to the cafeteria to eat, so there are only a few teachers left in the office.

The sunlight slanted in from the window, illuminating the office, making it feel peaceful and quiet.

There are a lot of homework books piled up on the desk near the door, including Chinese, math, and so on. Most of them are put there by teachers after they have corrected the homework, because their own desks cannot hold so many. They put them at the door so that it is convenient for the class representatives to take them away.

When the wind blew, the pages of paper rustled, covering the two boys who were discussing something at the door and also covering the sound of their chattering.

"Old Wang, are we really going in?"

"Why don't you go in?"

"Because we can just ask anyone in the third grade which class Juanjuan is in, why do we have to steal the grade roster?"

"You are right, how about I change the reason?"

"You change."

"Because the tiger and the lion have already bought the firecrackers, if we don't steal the flower list, they won't be able to set off the firecrackers to divert attention and save us. If they don't save us, wouldn't the firecrackers be bought in vain?"

"It seems like this?!" The little bald man finally realized.

"Shall we go?"

"Walk!"

——

Before calling Bao Xiaomeng, Lin Chaoxi hadn't thought of what to say. But when she rushed out of the classroom, put her hand on the girl's shoulder, and saw the surprised and surprised expression on her face when she turned around, all the previous little knots disappeared.

"Why don't you wait for me to eat?" Lin Chaoxi said with a little complaint.

"Ah..." Bao Xiaomeng was a little panicked, "I thought you were going to have dinner with... with Pei Zhi."

Following Bao Xiaomeng's line of sight, Lin Chaoxi turned around.

Pei Zhi was still sitting in the classroom, holding a pen in his hand, with his head slightly lowered. From the angle one couldn't see his expression clearly, but he looked calm and warm.

Lin Chaoxi is very grateful to Pei Zhi.

"I want to have lunch with you today." She turned around and said to Bao Xiaomeng very bluntly.

Bao Xiaomeng blushed, not knowing what to say, so she could only take her hand and say, "Then... let's do it together."

——

Junior 3 teacher's office.

Two boys who wanted to do good things tiptoed in. They glanced at the things on the teacher's desk and subconsciously walked towards the desks of the mathematics group.

There were a lot of test papers on the desk. They opened them and found that the first one was "Anning Experimental Middle School Mathematics League Selection Examination (Volume 1)"

Both of them had their eyes shining at the same time, and they quickly scanned the test paper from beginning to end.

Old Wang, who had his hair tied in a bun, asked the bald boy beside him: "The test paper they took was quite difficult. How many points can you get, Guang?"

"Full marks."

"Why are you so arrogant?" Lao Wang was surprised.

"I'm smart."

“That’s right.”

Lao Wang flipped through the test papers one by one and found that they were arranged by class, from Class 1 to Class 13.

"Quickly find out how many points Juanjuan and Lao Lu got in the test." Lao Wang said excitedly.

"It's definitely not as tall as us, what's so good about it?" A Guang said with disdain.

"Are you stupid? If we find their test papers, won't we know which class they are in?"

"I'm not stupid!" Ah Guang was flipping through the last pile of test papers from Class 13 and said angrily, "The people from Class 13 are stupid. They did so badly on the test. They can't even do this!"

——

Bao Xiaomeng, Lin Chaoxi and another girl from their class walked out of the teaching building. The autumn sun covered the ground. The edges of the leaves of the plants had begun to turn yellow, but most of them were still deep green. The sky was high.

Against this background color, Lin Chaoxi's back is straight, making him look more refreshing and handsome.

Bao Xiaomeng looked at Lin Chaoxi like this, feeling a little strange. It seemed that she couldn't find a topic to talk about, and was afraid that Lin Chaoxi was still angry, so she explained: "Actually, I didn't not wait for you. You have been so serious recently, I don't know how to talk to you."

Lin Zhaoxi looked at her, not knowing how to respond: "Is...Is everything okay?"

"Do you really want to take the Zhongming class?"

Lin Zhaoxi nodded.

"But if you pass the exam, does that mean we won't be able to eat together in the future?"

“You can still eat.”

Although Lin Chaoxi said this very gently, Bao Xiaomeng thought, they were obviously not together much now. She was leaving and going to another class. They couldn't even be friends anymore, so how could they have lunch together?

At this time, another girl next to them interrupted: "Yes, yes, Lin Chaoxi, you are so amazing recently. That Pei Zhi was so handsome when he counted 21 points. Did you know each other before?"

Lin Chaoxi paused for a moment before saying, "We went to summer camp together in elementary school."

"Are you still staying at the summer camp? I'm so jealous."

"We don't live together." Lin Zhaoxi hurriedly explained.

The other female classmate's focus was completely on Pei Zhi, but Bao Xiaomeng thought of some things that Lin Chaoxi had said to her.

She asked, "Which camp?"

"A...competitive summer camp."

After hearing this, Bao Xiaomeng finally understood: "Is it the time when you won the gold medal in the Mathematical Olympiad in elementary school?"

"Um."

Although Lin Chaoxi didn't talk much, when he occasionally mentioned the competition in elementary school, Lin Chaoxi was always in high spirits, very proud and confident, with a real excitement that was completely different from when he talked about Zheng Tianming.

Everything has a reason. It turns out that her old friends have come back, and she is going to work hard together with her old friends.

Bao Xiaomeng finally understood.

The girl next to her was still chatting with Lin Zhaoxi about Pei Zhi.

Sometimes he envied them for knowing each other earlier, and sometimes he said that if Lin Chaoxi really passed the selection, he would definitely not be the same kind of person as them in the future.

But Bao Xiaomeng knew that Lin Chaoxi was really smart, and she was really stupid. Smart people and stupid people could never be the same kind of people.

She took a deep breath and looked at Lin Chaoxi expectantly: "I think Chaoxi will definitely pass the exam. How about we go to Mr. Zhang's chicken rice to celebrate today?"

"If we go to that place, the round trip will take too long." Lin Zhaoxi stopped and looked at her awkwardly, just like the last time they parted at the fork in the road. She said, "I want to study physics..."

"It's just this once. We won't have many chances to eat out in the future. Is that okay?" Bao Xiaomeng asked pleadingly.

"After the exam, can we go out for lunch?" Lin Chaoxi thought about it with obvious difficulty, and finally asked her carefully.

Looking at Lin Chaoxi's appearance, Bao Xiaomeng felt sad, happy and envious.

There were so many voices around them happily discussing where to go for lunch, and no one was talking about studying, but Lin Chaoxi was able to make up her mind to reject her. It was really amazing.

Holding back the tears, Bao Xiaomeng's face fell: "Forget it, you are going to Zhongming's class anyway, and you won't be friends with us in the future, just go read your book!"

She threw down these words, took the hand of another classmate, tried her best to ignore the voice of Lin Chaoxi anxiously calling her name behind her, and started running out of the school gate.

Don't call me, I know you don't want to go so far to eat with me. People in our class are like this, wasting time and not interested in studying. You shouldn't stay here and be influenced by us.

The blue sky in autumn was so high. Bao Xiaomeng tilted her head back, but she couldn't help crying.

But obviously, the wonton shop you and they went to was also very far away.

——

teacher's office.

Lao Wang held up a stack of forms, which was the roster they had been looking for for a long time. Behind each student's name and class, their math league selection test scores were written down.

He read from beginning to end and suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, Lao Wang?"

"Guang, you are still stupid. Class 13 is not bad. The first and fifth place students in their school's exam are also in Class 13. Look!"

Ah Guang took one look and said, "How can it be not bad? They have the lowest average score, and some people got 3 points. This... Bao Xiaomeng, it must be more than 3 points if you guess it by chance, right?"

"Don't worry about it. The average score is the lowest, but the highest score is in their class. What does this mean?"

Ah Guang was stumped by his question. He opened his mouth and answered reluctantly, "This shows that Juanjuan's school is rubbish. The good students in the poor classes can get first place in the exam."

"You are finally right." Old Wang snapped his fingers and stroked his head which was reflecting light in front of him with great satisfaction. "So what are we going to do next?"

"Go to Class 1 and find Juanjuan and Lao Lu. I despise them. They can't even pass the exam in a poor class!"

"No, we are going to Class 13 now."

"Why?"

"Because our purpose is——"

“Helping others is a joy!”

"No, it's 'meet them'."

"You've changed again!"

"I will change!"

The student with a bun and the student with a bald head took the list, quarreled with each other, and happily ran out of the office, starting to look for Class 13 of Grade 9.

——

Lin Chaoxi was left alone in the open space. Her stomach growled. She turned around, bought two sandwiches from the school canteen, and walked back to Class 13.

Pei Zhi was still sitting in the same position, with his head down reading a book, which made his features look beautiful and his nose look particularly straight.

Lin Chaoxi sat in the seat of Pei Zhi's deskmate Zheng Matt, and tacitly handed the takeout food to Pei Zhi, looking at him with his chin in his hand.

Pei Zhi didn't tear open the wrapping paper, but held the sandwich and turned to look at her: "What's wrong?"

"How can I be like you?" Lin Chaoxi asked.

"What?"

"To please girls."

There was also a rare helplessness in Pei Zhi's usually calm and clear eyes.

He tore open the sandwich wrapper and took a bite without answering the question.