Early Monday morning, Leng Siyu woke Little Yuanyuan up and shoved a comb and a hair tie into her hands.
"Do your own hair."
This time Yuanyuan didn't resist. She obediently stood before the vanity mirror, fiddling with the messy fluff on her head. After working her tiny paws for quite a while, she barely managed to tie two uneven, lopsided ponytails sticking straight up.
"Not terrible. Better than the first time I did my hair. Let's go with this for today, it's getting late," Leng Siyu urged beside her.
Yuanyuan looked at the crooked center part and odd hairstyle in the mirror and was so distressed she nearly cried.
"Jiejie, you're really letting me meet Chongchong like this? It's awful!"
"It's fine, your face can handle it."
"My whole image is ruined by this hairstyle!"
"That's why you need to speed up your growth. Practice when you get home. Maybe by tomorrow you'll reach a new level."
After breakfast, the sisters went downstairs and saw Xia Pengfei dragging Xia Chongchong along, walking unhurriedly ahead.
Normally, Yuanyuan would have shouted a greeting from far away. But today she whispered to Leng Siyu,
"Jiejie, walk slower."
Leng Siyu instantly saw through her thoughts. Instead of slowing down, she bent over, scooped Yuanyuan up, and dashed past the Xia brothers in a streak of wind—vanishing from their sight in a blink…
"Huh? Why is Sister Yu running so fast today?" little Chongchong asked.
"Because her life needs to run."
Leng Siyu dropped Yuanyuan off at kindergarten. On her way to the main teaching building, she saw from afar a plump girl waving at the base of the building—round as a spinning top.
This girl was Siyu's best friend, Hua Kedu.
As soon as Siyu approached, Hua Kedu wrapped her chubby hands around Siyu's arm, her eyes narrowing into festive slits as she whispered mysteriously:
"Siyu, I've got explosive news for you."
Siyu wasn't interested in gossip. She merely responded with a half-hearted "Oh."
"I heard Teacher Nian say our class is getting a major new transfer student."
"A boxing-PE recruit or a sumo-PE recruit?"
"With that level of imagination, how did your Chinese score get to 115?"
"Just tell me—what kind of handsome guy is he?"
"Huh? How did you know it's a handsome guy?"
"If he weren't handsome, you wouldn't be this excited. Usually at this hour you're passed out on a desk catching up on sleep."
"It's Xia Pengfei! Excited? Surprised? Shocked?"
Leng Siyu paused, said nothing, and walked upstairs.
"What's with that reaction? He's the one and only Xia Pengfei!"
"What's so different about him? He doesn't have a third eye."
When Siyu entered classroom 201, it was already chaotic to the point of near-riot. The girls in particular seemed fired up.
"…He's got the three highs—high looks, high IQ, and high wealth. How does he manage to be so perfect?
Rumor says his father is some mysterious hero who could beat Wang Dalong twenty-on-one without a scratch.
His mother has a top-tier MBA from abroad, made a fortune in industrial investments, then entered the service industry and thrived. She's opened huge malls in multiple cities. The two 'Fengyuan' shopping centers in our city belong to his family…"
Jiang Meidan was passionately singing praises to her deskmate Ye Zhiqiu—not only for Xia Pengfei, but also for his parents.
Ye Zhiqiu sat quietly, saying nothing, serene like a soft monochrome sketch. What Meidan knew, she knew; and what Meidan didn't know, she knew even more.
Zhiqiu glanced at Leng Siyu in the back row, who was buried in her politics homework, a faint trace of worry brushing past her brows.
"Siyu, can we switch seats?" Zhiqiu—normally distant—unexpectedly took the initiative.
"I don't mind. Whatever makes you happy."
Siyu, a woman of action, immediately packed up her books and moved to the front next to Jiang Meidan, continuing her homework without pause.
Meidan looked at Zhiqiu with wounded eyes.
"Zhiqiu… do you think I talk too much? We were sitting perfectly fine. Why move?"
"I have more books than you two. One person has more room than two."
"Oh… so that's why." Meidan nodded as if enlightened.
At the doorway, tiny Tian Feng suddenly shouted:
"He's here! Teacher Nian in front, handsome guy in the back!"
The chaotic classroom instantly fell into enchanted silence—except for Siyu, who continued writing with her head lowered. Everyone else stared at the entrance.
First to enter was Nian Wentian, their homeroom teacher and History teacher—early forties, dark grey suit, perfectly knotted tie, composed, confident, with silver titanium-framed glasses adding scholarly elegance. His forehead practically bore the words: "cultured man."
Then came Xia Pengfei, wearing the school uniform, carrying his bag, moving with casual grace.
The moment these two handsome men—one mature and refined, one youthful and bright—stood together at the podium, the room's brightness seemed to triple, like swapping an 8-watt bulb for a 100-watt LED.
Xia Pengfei's searchlight-like gaze swept the class and finally landed on the only person who hadn't looked up—Leng Siyu.
"This is our new classmate, Xia Pengfei. He also ranked first among all liberal arts students in the sophomore entrance exam. I hope everyone will welcome him warmly," Teacher Nian said.
"No worries, Teacher! We've already accepted him!" Jiang Meidan shouted.
"Oh? Is that so?" Teacher Nian raised a brow. "Then I hope you accept not only his economic base, but also his superstructure."
Sports student Wang Xiaobao asked,
"Teacher, what's an 'economic base'? And what's a 'superstructure'?"
Teacher Nian ignored him and turned to Xia Pengfei.
"And I hope Pengfei can integrate into this new class as soon as possible."
Pengfei nodded. "I will."
"Teacher Nian! Let him give a speech!" Pengfei's friend Liu Xudong teased with a grin.
"Yeah!" Jiang Meidan echoed.
"All right, Xia Pengfei, please." Teacher Nian gestured gracefully.
Every student—except Leng Siyu—looked at him with starstruck expectation, as if waiting for a rousing, soul-shaking, quote-filled speech to jolt their numb teenage hearts awake.