More than a week had already passed since the new semester began, but many of the students still hadn’t recovered from winter break and sat through class listlessly. Ke Bu rubbed his eyes and shook his head, trying to fling away his drowsiness. His final-exam results had been too horrible to look at. If this kept up, he was going to become hopelessly useless. Bad morals, bad personality, bad grades, bad at sports… Ke Bu had been examining himself half-jokingly when the thought hit him like a basin of cold water: what exactly were his good points?
After class, he went straight to Chu Hao Yu, folded his arms, and asked with a solemn expression, “I’m too modest and low-key to think of my own strengths. Tell me. What are my good points?”
“Sharp tongue. Dream destroyer.”
“Gong Zhu, what are my good points?” Ignoring Chu Hao Yu, Ke Bu turned to Gong Zhu instead. Gong Zhu frowned and racked his brains before answering weakly, “Being a shou?”
“How is that a good point?! That’s all you could come up with?”
“Anyway, none of us has that many good points, and we’re still doing just fine.” Chu Hao Yu finally said something that sounded human for once, then added, “But at least the rest of us have one or two strengths. You, on the other hand—” Ke Bu really was an idiot. He had almost been moved by Chu Hao Yu. He sat down beside Zhi Li and was just about to speak when one of their classmates handed Zhi Li a pink envelope. “A girl at the door asked me to give this to you.” For some reason, handwritten love letters had suddenly come back into fashion with the new semester. Ke Bu looked toward the doorway, but the girl had already run away. He pursed his lips as he watched Zhi Li open the envelope, his tone turning slightly sour. “Freshman this time?”
“Fourth-year.”
“Shouldn’t she be concentrating on graduating?”
Zhi Li skimmed the letter quickly and put it into his desk drawer. Ke Bu leaned over and discovered that quite a few had already accumulated inside, separated into several stacks of different heights. “You’re even sorting them by person?”
“By writing quality. This one is the champion.”
“Love letters are written to express feelings to you, not for you to judge like some competition!!” Ke Bu reached into the drawer and stirred everything around until all the stacks were ruined, then propped his head up irritably. “Should someone as useless as me start feeling a sense of crisis? If some perfect person shows up and steals you away, then…”
“Don’t leave it out.”
“Then it would make me…” Ke Bu deliberately stopped again, waiting for Zhi Li to get impatient and press him for the rest.
“What?”
That was what he got instead: Zhi Li’s “What?”
“You gave up way too fast!”
“You were talking too slowly.”
“Zhi Li, just now you didn’t deny it when I said I was useless, did you?”
“What?”
“You’re absolutely not getting away with it this time.”
“What?”
“If you keep doing this, I’m going to start answering you with nothing but ‘what’ too.”
“I have plenty of ways to make you talk.”
“Just now you didn’t deny it when I said I was useless, did you?”
“What?”
“Where’s your phone?”
“In the dorm.”
“Just now you didn’t deny it when I said I was useless, did you?”
“What?”
Ke Bu gave up. He stuck out his lower lip. “Whatever. I’m someone without a single good point. If you ever decide to dump me, tell me in advance. I want to be the one to say it first so I can leave with a little dignity.” He had just stood up when Zhi Li’s voice came from behind him.
“Sit down.”
Ke Bu knew that tone. Without the slightest hesitation, he sat right back down.
“Say what you just said again.”
“I said I’ll never leave you even half a step for the rest of my life.” Ke Bu cursed himself internally. Apparently, his joke had actually managed to provoke Zhi Li.
“Repeat that ten thousand times in your head and remember it properly.”
“I don’t need ten thousand times. Once is enough for me to remember.”
Zhi Li patted Ke Bu’s cheek. “That counts as a strength. Pretty smart.”
“Your expression doesn’t look like you’re praising me at all.” Ke Bu stuck his lower lip out again, something bright flickering through his eyes.
The bell rang. Their next class was physical education, so the two of them got up and headed toward the field. Ke Bu only let his attention wander for a moment before Zhi Li disappeared. The PE teacher had everyone do a token warm-up before dismissing them for free activity. With nothing to do, Ke Bu found the most comfortable-looking spot and was just about to sit down when a student wearing a student council badge stopped him. “Hey, go somewhere else. This is where our president rests.”
“Doesn’t the president have some luxurious student council office?”
“That’s none of your business. Move.”
Getting tangled up with the student council would only bring trouble. They were practically a country within the campus. Ke Bu and the others had beaten them at basketball before, but only because they had borrowed the strength of Lan Yin and Dora. The student council wasn’t something they could afford to underestimate. Of course, calling them some evil organization would be unfair too. Every organization had its own structure, and without the student council keeping things under control, the school would probably descend into chaos.
“I told you to move. The president will be here soon.” The boy reached out and shoved Ke Bu.
“I was already leaving.” Ke Bu knocked his hand away.
A pen dropped onto the boy’s head.
Both of them looked up at the same time.
Zhi Li was sitting on a tree branch with his back against the trunk, one leg bent while the other hung in midair. He took out another pen and continued drawing. “Put your hands on my person again, and next time it won’t be a pen that falls.”
“President, you’re here. This guy took your spot.” The boy immediately became respectful.
The meticulously groomed student council president, Yan Feng, looked up at Zhi Li in the tree. “Forget it. Leave that person alone.” With that, he turned and walked away. Unless there was absolutely no choice, Yan Feng wanted nothing more to do with Zhi Li. He had already had enough of Zhi Li and the collection of demons and monsters that made up his family. At school, the two of them now minded their own business and stayed out of each other’s way.
Ke Bu withdrew his gaze and sat down in the spot from before, resting his cheek in one hand as he stared blankly ahead.
The school had never actually ranked its students by popularity or importance, but Ke Bu had long since decided who ranked first in his own heart. There was only a first place. No second, no third, no other position at all. Of course. Who else could it possibly be but Lord Zhi Li? Who could compete with him? In the place Ke Bu had reserved for love, Zhi Li’s position was so secure, so vast, that it took up everything.
When, exactly, had Zhi Li’s ranking in his heart been decided?
Ke Bu hadn’t expected that, after searching through so many memories, he would find the answer almost immediately.
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