A new week began, and Zhuang Zi’ang went to school as usual. He had lost quite a bit of weight and bore a faint, sickly look on his face.

  “Son, what’s wrong? You don’t look well,” Li Huangxuan remarked as soon as he saw him, immediately sensing something was off.

  “I’m fine—it’s just that the food at the training camp was so awful it left me looking skinny,” Zhuang Zi’ang replied, reciting the excuse he had long prepared.

  “Then I’ll treat you to something delicious at lunch to make up for it,” Li Huangxuan said, throwing an arm around Zhuang Zi’ang’s shoulder.

  From the front row, Lin Mushi turned around and decred, “I’ll join you guys for lunch—no, from now on, I’ll have lunch with Zhuang Zi’ang every day!”

  Li Huangxuan snorted. “What are you doing joining our lunch? My son has Little Butterfly now—don’t even think about getting any funny ideas.”

  But Zhuang Zi’ang quickly added, “Let Mushi eat with us!”

  Li Huangxuan was taken aback. “You treat her even better than you treat me?”

  In the whole school, only Lin Mushi and Zhang Zhiyuan knew about Zhuang Zi’ang’s condition. Now there were many things Zhuang Zi’ang could only share with Lin Mushi. As for Li Huangxuan, Zhuang Zi’ang simply wasn’t ready yet to reveal the harsh truth to him. Their final farewell would be a true parting of life and death.

  During a break—while Zhuang Zi’ang was away in the restroom—Lin Mushi tugged Li Huangxuan aside.

  “I warn you, don’t mention Little Butterfly in front of him anymore,” she said firmly.

  “Why’s that?” Li Huangxuan asked, puzzled, then suddenly brightened. “Did they have a falling out?”

  Lin Mushi replied evasively, “Something like that… He feels as if he’s just been heartbroken—you know what that feels like, right?”

  Li Huangxuan scratched his head. “I’ve never been in love—how can I know what heartbreak is?”

  “It’s that gut-wrenching pain, that feeling of being torn apart. Just please, don’t make it worse,” Lin Mushi advised.

  “How do you know so much about this?” Li Huangxuan wondered.

  “If you truly care about him, do as I say and don’t pry into other things,” Lin Mushi said, unable to expin any further.

  After hearing her, Li Huangxuan felt deep pity for Zhuang Zi’ang. Little Butterfly is such a wonderful girl—how can he not appreciate her? If it were me, I’d sp myself for even arguing with her.

  Back in the cssroom, Zhuang Zi’ang discovered that the mobile red fg had been re-hung in the corner. It seemed that during the past week, Xie Wenyong had done an excellent job. For the sake of css honor, the cssmates had stopped giving him grief and had begun supporting his work. Zhuang Zi’ang smiled in relief. Truly, even if the Earth were missing someone, it would still keep turning. Css 9 wouldn’t be much different without him.

  During the fourth period that morning, the weekly css meeting took pce as usual, hosted by css monitor Xie Wenyong. He strode up to the podium, full of spirit, and fluently summarized all the events of the past week.

  “Thanks to the efforts of every single one of you, our css is getting better and better. And finally, I want to give special thanks to one person.” As he spoke, Xie Wenyong’s eyes nded on Zhuang Zi’ang.

  The whole css spontaneously broke into appuse.

  “Zhuang Zi’ang, thank you for teaching me that when you give your heart to something, true happiness follows.”

  “I used to always try to one-up you, to beat you—but that was so immature of me.”

  “I still have so much to learn from you, so please keep an eye on me too.”

  Xie Wenyong’s heartfelt words touched everyone deeply. Zhuang Zi’ang felt a bit embarrassed. He whispered to Li Huangxuan, “Has that guy taken the wrong medicine? He’s being so cheesy today.”

  Li Huangxuan replied, “Last week, Teacher Zhang even took half a Chinese css to recount all the honors you’ve won for our css and your many unnoticed contributions. The whole css was so moved—it was like a commendation ceremony.”

  “Since I wasn’t even there, it sounded more like a memorial service,” Zhuang Zi’ang teased.

  “Bah, jinxed,” Li Huangxuan shot him a side-eye.

  “Zhuang Zi’ang, we’re so lucky to have you in our css.”

  “It’s an honor to be your cssmate.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been boasting to students from other csses that the top student in our grade is my friend.”

  “If it weren’t for Teacher Zhang, none of us would know just how much you’ve done behind the scenes for our css…”

  The cssmates’ words struck a tender chord in Zhuang Zi’ang’s heart. With his eyes glistening with tears, he said, “Thank you, thank you, everyone!”

  Teacher Zhang—oh, that guy is so heartless. I’m not even dead yet, and he’s already pulling out all the stops.

  At that moment, Zhang Zhiyuan walked into the cssroom, struggling to keep his expression composed.

  “Teacher Zhang, what’s with all the sentiment? Why are you stirring things up?” Zhuang Zi’ang asked out loud.

  Zhang Zhiyuan managed a smile. “I heard from the physics competition teacher that with the competition coming up, your study schedule will be intense and you might miss a lot of csses. And if you, my boy, end up winning a gold medal and get early admission—maybe even graduating ahead of schedule—then we should celebrate!”

  To avoid raising suspicions among the students, Zhang Zhiyuan had to come up with an excuse for Zhuang Zi’ang. It just so happens that he’s a competition student and can vie for early admission. Everything then falls into pce naturally. As a teacher, there isn’t much he can do for Zhuang Zi’ang; so he decided that in these final days of his life, his student should still feel the warmth of the css!

  At noon, as expected, Lin Mushi joined Zhuang Zi’ang and Li Huangxuan in the cafeteria. She even eagerly swiped her meal card to cover the three of them.

  During lunch, Li Huangxuan wore a puzzled expression. “You two—what are you up to? Are you doing something behind my back? Getting into mischief, perhaps?”

  As longtime buddies, he knew Zhuang Zi’ang’s character well. After all, if he were with Lin Mushi, they had already been together for two years. Judging by their mannerisms, they didn’t exactly behave like a couple—they were just friends.

  Lin Mushi proactively smiled at Li Huangxuan, “I know I used to be a bit headstrong, but now I know better. Surely you wouldn’t refuse to be friends with the campus beauty, right?” With a girl being so humble, Li Huangxuan didn’t feel like quibbling over it.

  He could only offer a goofy smile. “I used to be a bit harsh with my words too—don’t take it to heart.”

  Seeing the two reconcile with a handshake, Zhuang Zi’ang couldn’t help but beam with relief.

  In the following days, life went by peacefully with hardly a ripple. Li Huangxuan carried on his carefree, untroubled self, never noticing anything amiss, while only Lin Mushi knew that beneath Zhuang Zi’ang’s forced smiles y a trace of deep sorrow. He often stood in the corridor, gazing at the ginkgo tree at the northwest corner of the basketball court. After returning from the cafeteria, he would linger for a long time by the flower bed filled with hyacinths and wisteria. There were even a couple of times when he walked to the steps leading to West Campus, only to painfully turn back, his heart heavy. That person had never left his thoughts.

  He had thought that this week would pass by quietly—until Friday at noon, when Zhuang Zi’ang, Li Huangxuan, and Lin Mushi stepped out of the cssroom and descended from the second floor. Habitually, Zhuang Zi’ang gnced at the hyacinths—and in an instant, as if struck by lightning, he froze in pce. There, in the flower bed, sat the girl who haunted his every thought. Cd in a spotless white shirt and a pleated skirt as blue as the deep sea, she looked like a goddess from another world—pure and fwless.

  “Big Dummy, I’m back!” she called.

  Their reunion came completely unawares.