Every year, June is a make-or-break month for high school students taking the national college entrance exams.
[Yan University Affiliated Middle School Sweeps This Year's City-Wide Top Scores in Both Liberal Arts and Sciences]
This news was nothing special to the people of the Imperial City. Yan University Affiliated Middle School was the best middle school in the city, and it produced at least one top scorer almost every year. Cases where it produced both were not uncommon either.
Chu Yao stared at the newspaper, her hands trembling with excitement. She shot up from the sofa and started jumping up and down for a good while.
There was a noise at the main entrance. Chu Zhen Dong walked in, and Chu Yao immediately rushed over. "Dad! Dad! Lu Xize is the top scorer! He's the top scorer!"
Chu Zhen Dong was not yet forty this year. As a successful businessman, he was usually full of vigor, but now, his face was clearly etched with fatigue.
Looking at his hyperactive and ecstatic daughter, Chu Zhen Dong forced a smile. "Is that so? That's wonderful news."
"Dad, I'm going to the Lu Family's house! Don't wait for me for dinner."
After saying that, Chu Yao vanished out the door in a flash, not even bothering to change out of her slippers.
"Yao..."
Chu Zhen Dong opened his mouth but ended up saying nothing. Watching Chu Yao's retreating figure, his face grew even more weary, and he let out a deep sigh.
The Lu Family and the Chu Family lived in the same villa complex. However, the complex was huge, so their houses weren't particularly close. Chu Yao ran gleefully the whole way, not caring that her slippers were unsuitable for running.
Right now, her mind was completely filled with the thought that her Lu Xize was this year's top scorer in science. 'Her Lu Xize...'
As Chu Yao thought about it, a smile she couldn't contain spread across her face. The fourteen-year-old girl still had a hint of youthful immaturity in her features, but her smile was radiant enough to light up the world.
As she ran to an intersection some distance away from the Lu Family's house, Chu Yao suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Under the large banyan tree across the way, a boy in a simple white T-shirt and black sweatpants was leaning casually against the trunk.
The boy was on the leaner side, but he looked fit and not the least bit frail.
The smile on Chu Yao's face grew even brighter. After pausing for only a moment, she took off at a run again. "Lu Xize!"
Even though there was only a short distance left, Chu Yao couldn't help but shout. She was just so, so happy. The feeling was even more exciting than if she had become the top scorer herself.
"Lu Xize...!"
The girl's clear, crisp voice made the boy look in her direction. In the blink of an eye, Chu Yao had dashed right up to Lu Xize.
She wrapped her soft, pale arms around the boy's neck. "Lu Xize, congratulations on being the college entrance exam's top scorer."
Lu Xize looked at the girl before him. Her brilliant smile was like the March sun—resplendent, but not uncomfortably hot.
His brow twitched slightly, and his hand subconsciously settled on the girl's slender waist. The very next second, however, a bone-chilling coldness flashed in the depths of his eyes.
In her state of extreme excitement, Chu Yao didn't notice that the person in front of her was different from usual. Feeling Lu Xize's hand on her waist, Chu Yao buried her head in his chest. "I knew you were the best! You're so amazing! I like you even, even more now."
Her fluffy head nuzzled against the boy's chest. The coldness in Lu Xize's eyes intensified. His thin lips pressed into a line, his jaw clenched. Gripping Chu Yao's waist with one large hand and her shoulder with the other, he forcefully lifted her out of his embrace.
Before Chu Yao could even process what was happening, Lu Xize had already pushed her away.
Chu Yao blinked in confusion, only to hear the person opposite her speak in an impossibly cold, glacial tone. "Like me?"
Lu Xize had always been cold and aloof, but this was the first time Chu Yao had seen him like this. It was completely different from his usual detached indifference. Right now, he was more like a volcano perpetually covered in snow—seemingly frigid, but liable to erupt with fiery lava at any moment.
Chu Yao froze for a moment, then nodded instinctively.
A hint of mockery flashed in Lu Xize's icy eyes, and his thin lips curled into an utterly indifferent arc. "But I don't like you. I've said it before: whoever likes you is a puppy. Chu Yao, from now on, don't ever appear in front of me again. You make me sick."
The hem of the boy's white T-shirt brushed past Chu Yao's fingertips, carrying the sweltering heat of summer, yet it sent a chilling cold straight to her heart.
After two seconds of stunned silence, Chu Yao snapped back to her senses and screamed at the boy's retreating back, "Lu Xize!"
But the boy in white, already far away, seemed not to have heard her at all. His departing footsteps never faltered for a second...