She was amused by Ethan's words, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes relaxed. She threw her arm around Ethan's shoulders. "I love hearing you talk, kid! Come on, let's get a photo with the two most handsome people in Class 2!"
As she spoke, she deliberately straightened her collar.
After taking the photo, She suddenly put away her joking expression, turned her head, and gently patted Ethan on the shoulder. "Work hard. I'll be waiting for you to buy me a fancy dinner when you come back as valedictorian."
Ethan also smiled. "Ms. J, just get your wallet ready!"
Immediately afterward, Sarah, Ashley, and Jack also came over to take individual photos with her. Finally, the four of them took a group photo with her before walking over to take pictures with Ms. Rodriguez.
Ms. Rodriguez had obviously dressed up carefully today.
A well-tailored pencil skirt outlined her slender figure, sheer stockings wrapped around her legs, and she wore a pair of classic designer heels that clicked elegantly with every step.
Her lightly made-up face was even more refined, the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose added a scholarly air, and the pristine English literature book with a gilded cover in her hand glowed softly in the sunlight.
Elegant, intellectual.
Several people took photos with her.
Ethan leaned against the oak tree and looked at her admiringly. "Ms. Rodriguez, you look absolutely stunning today. You're the most beautiful woman at our school right now!"
Ms. Rodriguez covered her lips and laughed lightly when she heard this, her eyes behind the lenses curving into crescents. "Ethan, you're being ridiculous again. I'm not nearly as beautiful as you're making me out to be!"
She turned toward Sarah not far away. "Look at Sarah's. She's truly worthy of being called stunning. Even I, as a woman, absolutely love it."
Ethan saw that Sarah wasn't nearby and smiled. "Sarah looks great too, but in my mind, Ms. Rodriguez, you're the best-looking."
But to be fair, the most eye-catching person today was Sarah.
She wore a smoky purple embroidered, with subtle patterns flowing between the sleeves that shimmered like pearls in the sunlight.
A sandalwood hairpin was elegantly placed in her dark hair, and the silk ribbon hanging among her locks gently swayed in the breeze, displaying the unique graceful temperament to perfection.
She stood under the oak tree taking pictures, like a lady stepping out of a classical painting. Even the air seemed filled with an elegant fragrance.
Ashley was also stunning, but compared to Sarah, her only disadvantage was in the choice of outfit.
After taking photos with Ms. Rodriguez, Ethan had originally planned to take pictures with just the group. But what he didn't expect was that he'd become the most popular person in the class.
He turned out to be the most popular guy among the girls in the class.
One by one, they pulled him over, wanting to take solo photos with him, calling it "leaving a keepsake."
As for whether it was truly just a simple keepsake, well, we don't know and we don't dare ask.
Under the old oak tree on campus, dappled sunlight scattered broken gold all over the ground through the branches and leaves. Ethan leaned lazily against the trunk, hands in his pockets, intimately flanked by two beautifully dressed girls.
The girl with the high ponytail on the left casually tugged at his sleeve, while the girl wearing a beret on the right quietly moved half a step closer to him.
"Ethan, look at the camera~" The ponytail girl raised her phone, and the three figures froze on the screen.
Ethan tilted his chin up slightly, revealing a neat row of white teeth, the corners of his eyes touched with warmth from the sun.
From a distance, it really looked like he had a girl on each arm.
Jack was watching from the side, absolutely seething!
'I'm obviously handsome too, but none of you ask me for photos?'
Subsequently, Ethan and the other three also took tons of photos, which became the best memories of their four-person high school experience!
If Ethan knew that Sarah and Ashley both liked him, he didn't know how he'd deal with it...
Should he choose one or take both?
How should he balance the relationship if he accepted both?
This wasn't even the most terrible thing.
The most terrible thing was if Ashley knew that the man she liked also had something going on with her mother...
Just thinking about it made his scalp tingle. Both mother and daughter accepting it? For sure—don't all ambitious guys want that? Hesitating for a second would be disrespectful.
If not handled properly, this would be a real volcanic eruption.
Of course, all of that was for later.
....
Time rushed forward to the last weekend before the SATs.
Today was Saturday, May 31st.
There was only a full week left before the SAT exam.
Since yesterday, the seniors had officially entered study leave. The sound of studying in classrooms had been temporarily suspended, and everyone had been able to take off their backpacks, stay home to adjust their schedules, and organize their knowledge with peace of mind.
Ethan woke up very early today, opening his eyes just as dawn broke.
But he lay in bed motionless, his fingertips scrolling through his phone screen. The information feed passed by one item after another, but his heart always seemed to be weighing something down. An indescribable sense of stagnation made even this rare leisure feel discounted.
Breakfast was carefully prepared by his mother—warm soy milk paired with freshly made breakfast sandwiches dispelled the morning coolness.
After returning to his room, he spread out some essay paper and wrote a few lines on the topic of "Dreams and Reality."
He glanced at his phone—it showed 10:20...
"Oh shit!"
Ethan suddenly bounced up from his chair, his heart pounding against his chest with a "thud thud."
He rushed to the door in three quick steps, changed his shoes in a hurry, and rushed out without even bothering to close the door properly.
Linda's question behind him was still floating in mid-air, the ending with a bit of confusion not yet settled, when Ethan's figure had already rushed out of the yard. He didn't even have time to respond.
"This kid, what's he running around for so early in the morning!" Linda looked at the empty doorway and shook her head helplessly.
Ethan rushed all the way to the street, raised his hand to flag down a taxi, and when he called out "Riverside Plaza," there was still an unsubdued gasp in his voice.
As soon as the car stopped, he pushed the door open and got out, his eyes sweeping around the plaza like radar.
Seeing pedestrians in twos and threes, shops open as usual, and no expected gathering scene, his tense shoulders suddenly relaxed. The breath in his chest that had been held for so long finally slowly exhaled.
Just when he'd been writing his essay, he'd suddenly remembered that today, in his previous life, a tragedy that had shocked the city had occurred at the entrance to Riverside Plaza.
The time had been around 11 o'clock this morning. A young woman, holding a child—only one year old—had been passing by here, planning to go into Riverside Plaza to buy something. When she'd arrived at the intersection, the young woman had answered a phone call.
A runaway car had sped into the young woman.
The young woman had been knocked several meters away on the spot, but the baby in her arms had fallen to the ground, then been run over by the speeding wheels.
Crimson blood had spread instantly, staining the asphalt road with a shocking color.
She'd twisted and struggled painfully on the ground, her blood-stained hands stretching forward inch by inch, crawling toward the silent child. Every inch she moved had dragged long bloodstains on the ground.
But in the end, she'd still failed to reach the child, stopping just a few steps away with no movement at all.
There are 30 advance chapters ahead in my Patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439