Brother! This is the adoption certificate. I don't want your sister-in-law!

The two held hands until the school bell rang.

He Shaojun walked into the classroom as the bell rang, holding that thin report card in his hand.

He placed the report card on the podium, adjusted his glasses, and glanced at the entire class.

The classroom fell silent, and dozens of eyes were fixed on the piece of paper in his hand.

The classroom, which was noisy during the long break, was now filled only with the sounds of turning pages and moving chairs.

The report card hasn't been read yet, but the air is already taut like a fully drawn string.

Xu Niannian lowered her head, placed her hands on her knees, and gently twisted her fingers together.

Her eyes were still red, and the warmth of Su Xiao's hand still lingered in her palm, but her heart was ice-cold.

Fifteen students failed, and Su Xiao's name was among them.

She remembered what He Shaojun had said before.

"If you fail your chemistry midterm, you'll have to move out from next to Xu Niannian."

At the time, she thought that this was just a trick the teacher used to scare Su Xiao, but she never expected it to actually come true today.

And at the time... I never imagined I would be so sad today.

Su Xiao sat next to her, glancing at her profile out of the corner of her eye.

Her eyelashes were drooping, her lips were pressed tightly together, and there was a barely perceptible redness around her eyes.

She is sad.

I'm not upset about my own ranking, but about the fact that he's being transferred.

He suddenly felt a little regretful; had he overacted just now?

He Shaojun cleared his throat and began reading out the grades.

He read the names from highest to lowest, and the first name was Xu Niannian.

"First place, Xu Niannian, 91 points."

Xu Niannian stood up, and He Shaojun glanced at her, noticing that she kept her head down and her eyes were red.

He casually asked, "Xu Niannian, what's wrong? Did Su Xiao bully you again?"

All eyes in the class immediately turned to the back row.

Su Xiao quickly sat up straight, her face serious: "No, no, absolutely not, Teacher He, I am a proper student now."

He Shaojun glanced at him for two seconds, then waved for Xu Niannian to sit down.

Xu Niannian glanced at Su Xiao as she sat down.

There was no anger in that glance, only a quiet sadness, as if looking at something that would disappear tomorrow.

Su Xiao felt a little uncomfortable after being looked at like that, but he gritted his teeth.

They held their nerves.

The results will continue to be read.

The score went from over 90 to over 80, and then to over 70.

With each name she read, Xu Niannian's heart sank a little lower.

She listened intently, more intently than ever before, her hands resting motionless on the table, as if listening to some very important verdict.

Scores in the sixties began to appear, one after another. Some students who usually did well were also called up to the brink of failing, and people in the classroom started to whisper among themselves.

Xu Niannian's heart is dead.

Her lips moved slightly, as if she were silently reciting something.

Perhaps they were counting how many names were left to read, or perhaps they were calculating how far he was from passing.

If I teach him a little more, will he pass?

If he weren't so naughty and could have started class earlier, wouldn't he have been able to pass?

in case……

If he had been my deskmate earlier, would everything have been different?

Her fingers traced a name lightly on the table, her nails leaving an almost invisible fine mark on the wooden surface.

When He Shaojun read out the score of sixty-something, he suddenly paused.

He looked down at the last passing grade on his report card, then pushed up his glasses as if he were looking at a name that needed confirmation.

Then he spoke, a hint of barely perceptible relief in his voice.

"Su Xiao. Sixty-two points."

The classroom fell silent for a moment.

Then, a deafening round of applause erupted from the back row.

"Brother Su is awesome!"

Xu Niannian suddenly raised her head.

Sixty-two.

You passed!

He passed!

She turned to look at Su Xiao, her big eyes wide open, filled with disbelief.

Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

Su Xiao stood up, straightened her school uniform collar, and stood tall under the gaze of the whole class.

He noticed that Li Ze in the front row also turned around and glanced at him, his expression complicated.

He Shaojun looked at Su Xiao and nodded, a rare occurrence for him.

"I made great progress in chemistry this time, going from failing to passing. I've put in a lot of effort."

He Shaojun paused for a moment, "But you still need to keep up in the other subjects. You only got 41 in physics and 78 in math..."

"Thank you, teacher."

Su Xiao sat down and gently nudged Xu Niannian with her elbow.

"How was it? I passed."

Xu Niannian ignored him.

She lowered her head again, but this time it wasn't out of sadness.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and a faint blush rose to her cheeks.

It wasn't a shy red, but a red that looked like it had been tricked and was puffed up with anger.

She got it.

During the break just now, he said with a sad expression that he wanted to say goodbye, to kiss her, and to hold her hand.

Then Fang Yu ran in and said he failed.

Then he took her hand and held it for the entire break between classes.

She gave him her whole hand, her heart aching terribly, her nose stinging so much she almost cried.

Then he passed.

How did Fang Yu know the results in advance?

Teacher He hasn't announced it yet, how could Fang Yu possibly know?

She may be a bit slow, but she's not stupid.

Once she connected these events, she understood everything.

Su Xiao is lying to her!

Su Xiao leaned closer and tilted her head to look at her downcast face.

"Teacher Xu? Xu Daidai? Niannian?"

Xu Niannian turned her head to the other side.

"Are you really angry?" Su Xiao leaned closer, her voice very low.

Xu Niannian remained silent.

Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and the blush on her cheeks deepened from light to dark, even the tips of her ears turned red.

"I was wrong."

Su Xiao was always decisive when it came to admitting her mistakes. "I shouldn't have lied to you. But... I didn't do this alone. Fang Yu was involved too. He was the one who came in first and said I failed. I just went along with it. The main responsibility lies with him."

Fang Yu, who was secretly eating spicy snacks in the back row, looked up and his eyes widened like cowbells.

With half a spicy snack still dangling from his mouth, he mumbled an explanation: "No, Brother Su, what does this have to do with me? Didn't you tell me to..."

Su Xiao pressed Fang Yu's face back into the textbook and continued to say to Xu Niannian, "I really didn't mean to."

His voice was very soft, without the playful smile from before, "I just like you so much that I couldn't help but want to hold your hand."

Xu Niannian's face flushed bright red instantly.

Her fingers curled slightly on the desk, and she lowered her head even further, as if she wanted to hide her face in the textbook.

She bit her lip, a hundred things she wanted to say to him in her heart.

Bad guy, liar, big liar, all he does is bully me.

But she couldn't utter a single word.

Because his last sentence kept replaying in her mind.

It's not "I want to hold your hand," it's "I like you so much that I can't help myself."

She pressed her forehead against the textbook; the pages were cool, but her face felt hot.

He said he liked her.

I like her so much that I can't help but want to hold her hand...

The bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class.

Xu Niannian slumped onto the table, burying her face in her arms, refusing to look at him.

Su Xiao looked at her lying on the table, a slender wrist peeking out from the sleeve of her school uniform, and her earlobes were still red.

He smiled and didn't continue to coax him. Instead, he lay down, rested his face on his arm, and deliberately muttered, "Sigh, I finally passed the test, but Teacher Xu didn't even praise me."

It was quiet all around.

The sounds of other classes ending could be heard from the corridor.

But these sounds were all very far away, like they came from another world.

Su Xiao buried her face in her arms for a while, wondering if Xu Niannian really didn't intend to talk to her anymore.

He quietly raised his head and glanced to the side.

When I looked up, I was met with a pair of bright, watery eyes.

Xu Niannian was also lying down, her face turned to the side, quietly watching him.

Her eyes were still so bright, her eyelashes blinking like two petals fluttering in the wind.

She just watched him quietly, for who knows how long.

Perhaps he turned his head away as soon as he lay down, or perhaps it was longer.

Those eyes held anger, helplessness, heartache, and many other things that even she herself couldn't quite explain.

Su Xiao looked into her eyes and suddenly felt something gently bump against her chest.

When Xu Niannian saw him raise his head, she was stunned for a moment, and then a hint of panic flashed in her big eyes.

Her face flushed again, and she quickly buried her face in her arms, moving as fast as a little rabbit hiding in a hole.

Su Xiao lay on the table, her gaze fixed on the table.

He heard her muffled, angry grumble coming from between her arms.

"Bad guy."

Su Xiao rested her face on her arm, looked at her exposed ear which was so red it was almost transparent, and chuckled.

Sunlight streamed obliquely through the window, falling on the desk between the two students and warming their bodies.

The sun is shining brightly, and so are you.