The final exam bell at St. Sakura Academy was like a precise paper cutter, slicing the chill of late December into equal pieces.
The first exam was advanced mathematics. Yu Jiuyuan sat by the window, the sound of her pen gliding across the draft paper was so soft it was almost inaudible, but her gaze occasionally drifted past the backs of the students in front of her and landed on the straight back of the person diagonally in front of her.
Hsieh Che-cheng always sat upright like a textbook example. He held the black fountain pen in his hand with distinct knuckles, and every stroke of the pen was even. Even the fold lines on the draft paper looked as if they had been measured with a ruler.
He seemed indifferent to everything around him until the proctor walked down the aisle in high heels, at which point he furrowed his brow very slightly—an instinctive aversion to imperfect order.
Yu Jiuyuan looked away and filled in the last answer on the answer sheet.
Warm golden sunlight streamed through the windowpane, which was covered with a thin layer of frost, illuminating her exam paper and highlighting her neat yet sharp handwriting. She checked the paper to make sure there were no corrections before gently capping her pen.
The system panel appears at the edge of the field of view:
Hsieh Che-cheng: Favorability rating 77, Emotional fluctuations (Negative 0/Neutral 5/Positive 105)
Compared to Yuan Xu and Rong Shenghan, whose scores had already reached 100, Xie Zhecheng, this block of ice, seemed exceptionally difficult to melt.
Yu Jiuyuan lightly tapped her knee with her fingertips, a barely perceptible smile curving her lips. In the world of perfectionists, the most intolerable thing is flaws, but the easiest thing to be swayed is the indulgence of "exceptions".
As she handed in her paper, she deliberately slowed her pace as she passed Xie Zhecheng.
He was working on the last bonus question, his pen hovering in mid-air, seemingly having hit a roadblock.
Yu Jiuyuan's heels tapped softly on the floor, and Xie Zhecheng's eyelashes trembled, but his gaze remained fixed on the exam paper.
“For the third problem, the auxiliary lines,” she said in a low voice, like a sigh falling on snow, “could be used to connect AC.”
After saying that, he walked straight out of the classroom without looking back at his instantly tense shoulders.
The corridor was filled with the smell of disinfectant and turpentine. Yuan Xu leaned against the railing, holding a thick book on molecular biology, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the gold lettering on the cover.
Seeing Yu Jiuyuan come out, his eyes lit up, and he rushed over like a startled deer: "How did the exam go? I just saw Xie Zhecheng frowning at the bonus question. He actually had a question he couldn't solve?"
Yu Jiuyuan took the hot cocoa he handed her, her fingertips touching the warm cup, and chuckled softly: "Even the most capable person has moments when they stumble."
She took a sip of cocoa, her gaze passing over Yuan Xu's shoulder to the end of the corridor, where Lin Yanran was surrounded by several student council members, seemingly arguing about something. Her face still carried her usual impatience, but unlike before, she didn't simply turn around and leave.
“He seems a bit different.” Yuan Xu followed her gaze, her tone carrying a hint of biologist’s curiosity. “Last week he slammed the club registration form on the table, but today he’s actually listening to people talk.”
Yu Jiuyuan did not respond.
She had witnessed Lin Yanran's transformation. From initially being perfunctory in her work with the student union, she now proactively checked the activity procedures. Yesterday, she even lingered in front of the bulletin board for five minutes, where her handwritten notice of her winter break social practice was posted.
Although his favorability rating on the system panel increased slowly, it was constantly fluctuating upwards, like water quietly melting under the ice in early spring.
Lin Yanran: Favorability rating 48, Emotional fluctuations (Negative 0/Neutral 9/Positive 21)
The second exam was on physics.
When Yu Jiuyuan entered the examination room, Rong Shenghan was already sitting diagonally behind her.
He was wearing a light gray cashmere sweater today, with the collar loosely open. When he saw her come in, a gentle smile appeared in his eyes, and he even winked at her very subtly.
Yu Jiuyuan returned a faint smile, but in her heart she was reviewing the situation.
Before Tang Nianzhi left, she sent her a message with only one simple sentence: "The way he looks at you is different from how he looks at others."
At that moment, she was applying lipstick in front of the mirror. When she saw the message, she merely curled the corners of her lips casually. Rong Shenghan's eyes were always like carefully prepared warm water, seemingly all-encompassing, but in reality, unfathomable.
In the last half hour of the physics exam, the only sound in the classroom was the scratching of pens on paper.
Yu Jiuyuan handed in her paper early, and as she passed Rong Shenghan, he suddenly asked in a low voice, "What are your plans for winter break?"
"I might spend a few days in the lab." She didn't stop walking, her voice as soft as a whisper. "Yuanxu said the newly bred white mice have reached their breeding season."
Rong Shenghan's low laughter came from behind: "You always manage to find something to do."
As Yu Jiuyuan walked out of the examination room, she bumped into Lin Yanran coming out of the classroom next door.
He held the exam paper in his hand, his brows furrowed tightly. When he saw Yu Jiuyuan, he paused, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just stiffly said "President" and turned to walk towards the stairwell.
"Wait a minute." Yu Jiuyuan called out to him, taking a box of mints out of her bag. "For the last big physics question, is the direction of the magnetic field marked backwards?"
Lin Yanran turned around abruptly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. He had indeed been stuck on that problem for a long time, and when he finally marked the direction of the magnetic field, he always felt something was off, but he didn't have time to check it again.
He looked at the mints Yu Jiuyuan was holding between her fingers, the wrappers shimmering with iridescent colors in the sunlight, and suddenly felt his throat go dry: "...How did you know?"
"I'm just guessing." Yu Jiuyuan handed him the candy box, smiling innocently. "I'm not entirely sure either, but I just felt that the direction of the Lorentz force at that angle was a bit strange."
Lin Yanran took the candy box, and the warmth of her touch on her fingertips felt like a faint electric current running through her.
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