Chapter 28

After dinner, Yan Xiao stood outside the restaurant, eating her ice cream.
Every few bites, her eyes would sneak a glance toward Qiu Li.
By now, her mood had calmed down.
That little stunt Qiu Li had pulled before dinner really had startled her, but thinking it over, she realized her anger had been nothing more than useless frustration.
She hadn’t earned any points because her own skill wasn’t enough. Taking it out on a victorious villain was just the behavior of a sore loser.
Everyone else had gone back to school after the hotpot dinner.
If it hadn’t been for their class signing up for the basketball tournament, making it all the way to the finals, and then actually winning the championship, none of those geniuses, who normally thought “fun” meant solving equations, would’ve ever wasted time at a sports event, much less gone out for a meal together.
Zhou Hang hadn’t gone back with the rest either. He said he was waiting for his “brother.”
He leaned lazily against the wall, watching Yan Xiao eat ice cream, and couldn’t help licking his lips.
He’d spent all his allowance over the past few days buying drinks to recruit people to come cheer for them. Now he didn’t even have enough for an ice cream cone.
His gaze was so intense that Yan Xiao finally looked up. “You want one?”
Zhou Hang’s eyes lit up. He quickly wiped his hands on his shirt. “C-can I?”
Yan Xiao smiled sweetly, just about to say no, when his head was smacked to the side by a familiar hand.
“No.” Qiu Li didn’t even bother pretending to be polite.
Zhou Hang stumbled, but he wasn’t discouraged. He crept up beside Qiu Li and started, “Number 1, uh, listen…”
One sharp look from Qiu Li, and he instantly shut up.
Still, he couldn’t help sneaking glances at the ice cream again.
Three scoops. Surely she couldn’t finish all three? Couldn’t they at least spare him one? Half a scoop, even?
As he was silently plotting, Qiu Li suddenly moved.
He was walking in the direction of the ice cream shop. Zhou Hang’s eyes lit up again.
Knew it. My bro isn’t heartless after all!
One minute later, Qiu Li walked out of the convenience store next door and tossed something at him.
A single plain popsicle.
Zhou Hang stared at the sad little stick in his hands, frozen in disbelief.
Yan Xiao: “…”
Pfft!
She couldn’t help it. Watching Zhou Hang’s devastated face, she burst out laughing.
He looked from her triple-scoop ice cream to his ancient popsicle, lower lip drooping, about to complain,
When Qiu Li said flatly, “If you don’t want it, give it back.”
Zhou Hang immediately tore open the wrapper, shuffled a few steps away, and started gnawing on it pitifully.
Yan Xiao laughed so hard she could barely stay standing. Without thinking, she rested one arm on Qiu Li’s back for support, trembling from laughter.
When her ice cream almost slipped from her hand, Qiu Li reached out and steadied it for her.
She didn’t even try to eat anymore. Both arms were braced against him, her head resting on her own arm, laughing so hard she could barely breathe, her whole body shaking, and his with it.
Qiu Li glanced down at the half-eaten ice cream in his hand, then looked back at the girl bent over, laughing until she whined that her stomach hurt. The corner of his lips lifted, eyes soft with fond amusement.
It took her a long while to calm down, and even then, she couldn’t speak much, her stomach hurt too badly.
“Ready to go?” Qiu Li asked gently.
Yan Xiao just nodded.
He handed her the ice cream, but she waved it off. She was done.
Without a word, Qiu Li took the spoon from her hand and finished the rest himself as they walked.
Yan Xiao was still a little giddy from laughter, her mood floating so high that she didn’t notice the little details,
But Zhou Hang sure did.
Smart enough not to say it aloud, he waited until they’d all walked Yan Xiao back to her classroom before mumbling, “You and the little sister sure are close. She didn’t even finish her ice cream, just gave it to you…”
(I wanted some too.)
Qiu Li didn’t answer, but the fact that he didn’t glare or snap was proof enough that he was in an exceptionally good mood.
After the autumn sports festival, Qiu Li became the undisputed star of Yanwen.
He’d not only gained a legion of new fangirls, but even some of the guys who used to dislike him had started genuinely respecting him. His throne as the school’s number one male god was now absolutely unshakable.
Only Yan Xiao was quietly plotting to drag him off that throne.
Her target: next month’s midterm exam.
She’d been preparing all summer, plus the past month and a half, and for the next two weeks, she planned to study like her life depended on it.
She refused to believe she couldn’t beat Qiu Li just once.
Yan Xiao was already known as one of Yanwen’s top students.
Being younger only made her more of a legend, teachers and students alike often mentioned her in the same breath as Qiu Li, calling the two of them “the twin geniuses.”
But no matter how well she performed, no matter how many times she exceeded expectations, she had never once taken first place in the entire grade.
That spot had belonged to Qiu Li for years, as if his name were carved there in stone.
Just imagine how angry he’d be if she actually beat him.
Her score would definitely skyrocket then!
The more she thought about it, the more determined she became. Her study sessions turned downright intense.
Within days, the whole school knew that Yan Xiao had entered full-on madwoman mode.
Qiu Li noticed it the very next day, of course, but he didn’t ask right away. Once the rumor spread all over campus, though, he finally did.
Her answer?
“I’m going to beat you on the midterms!”
Qiu Li went quiet for a moment, then offered what he thought was a very considerate suggestion. “Do you want me to go easy on you?”
Yan Xiao’s eyes went red, out of sheer fury.
Excuse me? Look down on who, exactly?!
“No need,” she bit out between her teeth. “I’m not losing to you.”
She’d always been competitive, and Qiu Li knew it, so he just smiled and nodded. “Alright then. Let’s see.”
But that easy smile, to her, was nothing but mockery. Smug. Arrogant. She was so mad she could barely see straight.
As he was leaving, he turned back to ask, “Do you want me to help you review after school?”
Qiu Li’s reputation as a “study god” was legendary, and given how close the Yan and Qiu families were, the question wasn’t strange at all.
Ever since the Yan family had moved into Shengyi neighborhood during her third year of middle school, just to make it easier for her to ask Qiu Li for tutoring, her parents had been nothing but fond of him.
After all, how could they not like a boy who was handsome, polite, and always at the top of his class?
For the past few years, the two of them had gotten used to studying together after school.
Weekends, holidays, it didn’t matter. They’d do homework side by side, exchange test papers, discuss questions. It had long become a habit.
So when Qiu Li asked her that question, it wasn’t casual, it was deliberate.
And Yan Xiao knew it.
She’d been about to refuse, but the words changed halfway up her throat. She nodded firmly. “Yes!”
Those who achieved great things didn’t fuss over small details.
Magic could only be beaten with magic.
If Qiu Li helped her study, and she ended up beating him with his own tutoring, knocking him off his number-one pedestal in both ranking and pride,
Wouldn’t her score value skyrocket then?
Within days, the entire senior grade discovered something terrifying,
The number one and number two students in the entire year had gone insane.
They were solving problems like their lives depended on it.
For everyone else, still struggling to recover from the afterglow of the fall sports meet, or not yet mentally ready for college entrance exam prep, it was a nightmare-level wake-up call.
If even the top two were grinding this hard, what excuse did anyone else have to slack off?
The week before midterms, a chilling two-sentence “ghost story” circulated through the halls of Yanwen:

The people better than you are working harder than you.
Scary, isn’t it?
What was even scarier was realizing, just when you thought you were giving it your all, someone else was still outworking you.
Utter despair.
That, at least, was Zhou Hang’s heartfelt conclusion after watching the two of them for a week.
He’d always thought that he, Qiu Li, and Yan Xiao weren’t that far apart in ability.
Now he knew the truth: he didn’t even belong in the same ecosystem.
Staring at the mountain of papers stacked high enough to bury Qiu Li’s desk, Zhou Hang finally seized a moment when his friend paused to switch practice books.
“Number One,” he asked cautiously, “why are you working this hard? It’s not even the final stretch yet. The college entrance exam’s a marathon, not a sprint. And come on, your grades don’t even need this!”
Without looking up, Qiu Li flipped open a new book filled with advanced questions. “Reviewing.”
“Reviewing doesn’t have to be like this!” Zhou Hang wailed.
“Yan Xiao’s interested in being number one,” Qiu Li said calmly, scanning the first page. “I’m reviewing with her.”
Zhou Hang blinked, then gasped. “You two made a bet?”
“Mm.”
Zhou Hang was silent for a long moment before muttering through gritted teeth, “This is a disaster.”
The two of them had decided to compete for fun, but in doing so, they’d singlehandedly triggered a full-blown panic across the entire grade.
Everyone was studying like their lives were on the line.
Didn’t they realize the collateral damage?
Luckily, he kept that thought to himself.
If he said it out loud, Qiu Li would probably just give him a cold look and say, What does that have to do with me?
As he sighed in defeat, Yan Xiao appeared, holding a math test paper.
The moment she came over, Qiu Li immediately lifted his head.
“For question three, part two,” she said before he could even speak, handing him the paper naturally, “I think the solution they gave isn’t the optimal one. Can you take a look?”
Zhou Hang stood silently off to the side as the two of them discussed formulas and proofs.
When they were done, Yan Xiao took the paper and walked off, never once glancing his way.
He stared after her, then at Qiu Li, who was already back to drowning himself in problems. A shiver crawled down Zhou Hang’s spine.
The world of geniuses is terrifying.
No wonder Qiu Li only had eyes for Yan Xiao, and she only acted special toward him.
Ordinary mortals like him simply didn’t qualify to enter that orbit.
After a long while, he sighed inwardly. I wonder if she’ll actually take first place this time.
The thought lit a spark in him. He straightened his back, grabbed his own test paper, and dove back into studying.
He might never reach their level, but surely he could at least make it to third, right?
With Qiu Li and Yan Xiao setting the pace, how could their friend afford to be left behind?
Once Zhou Hang started going crazy too, the already tense atmosphere across the grade became downright suffocating.

Author’s Note:
Years later, Zhou “Hopeless Sidekick” Hang would sigh:
“I really thought we were good friends…
But in the end, I was just the lightbulb between them.”