After Valentine's Day passed, the last bit of cheerful atmosphere in the classroom before the gaokao also disappeared.

With no more talk about who's paired up with who and who might be going on dates, conversations felt much more hollow.

The atmosphere in the classroom slowly became heavy. The top students were studying, middle and upper-middle students who wanted to make a final push were also gritting their teeth during lessons, those who wanted to give up but didn't quite feel resigned would listen for a bit and sleep for a bit, and a few who had completely given up didn't even come to class anymore.

It seemed Old Xu was pacing back and forth outside the classroom all day - you could see his face peering in through the front door, back door, and windows. If you looked outside, 8 times out of 10 you'd see Old Xu's face.

Jiang Cheng felt that Old Xu had gotten skinnier, his face more sunken in.

"Did Old Xu get botox injections to lose face fat?" he whispered. "How did he get so much skinnier so obviously?"

"Must be from stress," Gu Fei looked towards the front door, "He's been looking for lower-scoring students to have talks with and visit at home these past few days. It'll probably be the top students' turn soon."

"I don't have anything else worth discussing," Jiang Cheng said. "There's hardly anyone in the city working as hard as I am."

"He's under more pressure than you right now," Gu Fei smiled. "He's pretty much going to take the gaokao with you."

Jiang Cheng looked at Old Xu, half of whose face was peeking out from the front door. Old Xu tilted his head and nodded at him. Jiang Cheng hurriedly nodded back, afraid that if he was a beat late in responding, Old Xu would start shouting encouragements while clinging to the door frame.

A week before their school's first mock exam, Pan Zhi forwarded the mock exam papers from the affiliated high school next door. To ensure absolute secrecy, the papers were forwarded to Gu Fei's phone this time.

Although Jiang Cheng felt he had been reviewing very diligently, he still wanted to compare.

"I went ahead and printed them out," Gu Fei said.

"Okay," Jiang Cheng nodded. "I'll start on them in the next couple days."

"Isn't it too intensive to have back-to-back practice exams?" Gu Fei asked. "And...if the scores are very different, won't it affect your morale?"

"You're afraid that if I score lower on the affiliated school's papers compared to our school's mock exam, it'll hurt my confidence?" Jiang Cheng smiled.

"Yeah," Gu Fei glanced at his phone, "I took a look at the geography section, it seems pretty difficult."

"Don't worry about it," Jiang Cheng stretched lazily. "We're at that point where we have to face the gap head on. If I don't know where I fall short, how will I know where to strive harder?"

"You're not striving hard enough already?" Gu Fei looked over at him.

"The strongest skill I've developed my whole life is striving," Jiang Cheng patted his shoulder. "Let me show you what real striving looks like."  

Gu Fei smiled without responding.

To be honest, perhaps because he had grown up in this kind of environment, Gu Fei had never met someone like Jiang Cheng before - and it wasn't just about his top student status.

Rather, his entire personality - that kind of fearless, daring spirit to face things head on. The powerful aura he gave off when he went all out.

Like the fiercest summer sun, an aura that could melt everything away.

Gu Fei had never met someone like this before, never imagined he would one day, and certainly never thought such a person would leave such a deep impression in his life.

After school, Jiang Cheng didn't leave campus. Now there were teachers sitting in the classrooms during evening study hall to go over test questions. Although Jiang Cheng didn't seem to have asked questions before, he still attended the full evening study hall every day.

From the end of school to the end of the last evening study hall period, then continuing to review until around 2am after getting home.

Gu Fei went to print out the test papers after school, and on the way stopped by the pharmacy. He wanted to buy some ginseng tea - in recent days, among the students in class who were studying relatively hard, quite a few had gotten sick, with fevers or colds. Although Jiang Cheng had great physical health, he had been in this state of intense focus since last semester up until now, stretched taut for too long.

"Teacher Xu, I suggest you rest more, health comes first!" As soon as Gu Fei entered the pharmacy, he heard someone say. When he turned to look, he saw Old Xu standing by the Chinese medicine counter.

"I'm leading a third year class right now, just a few more months before their exam, then I can relax." Old Xu said.

"I have to say, for our school, you care too much. Look what kinds of students your efforts have produced," the pharmacy owner said as he counted out medicine for Old Xu. "Like my son last year, useless results, and he won't even retake the exam when I tell him to."

"Oh, can't force some kids," Old Xu laughed. "But I have an absolutely outstanding student in my class this year who will test into a top university for sure. Probably provincial champion, might even have a shot at national champion."  

"Teacher Xu, didn't know you were such a good hand at boasting!" The owner handed the medicine to Old Xu.

"I'm not boasting," Old Xu waved his hand. "You'll see when the time comes."

"If that's true, it'd be the first student from our school to test into a top university in history right?" The owner asked.

"Of course!" Old Xu lifted his chin proudly and walked towards the entrance holding the medicine.

Gu Fei hesitated, then called out "Teacher Xu" behind him.

"Hm?" Old Xu responded before turning around. "Gu Fei? What are you doing here...are you sick?"

"No sickness, I came to buy some nutritional supplements," Gu Fei looked at the medicine in his hand. "That's your medicine?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Old Xu smiled. "Just some old age issues."  

"Calling yourself old already in your early fifties?" Gu Fei said.

"I just have some trouble sleeping lately," Old Xu sighed. "Anxiety, any bit of stress makes me insomniac, so I'm taking some medicine to help regulate."

"Those who can test in will test in, those who can't won't test in no matter how much you lose sleep over them," Gu Fei said. "Why do you worry so much?"

"It's not that I want to worry," Old Xu looked at him. "Kids like you for example...you never appreciate a teacher's efforts. I wish I could just take the exams for you, every single one of you, not a care to improve yourselves."

"Go home and take your medicine," Gu Fei turned to go into the pharmacy. "And eat."

"Gu Fei," Old Xu called out to stop him. "Have you still been reviewing with Jiang Cheng lately?"

"...Yeah," Gu Fei replied.  

"How's he doing right now? I want to see his mock exam score first before talking to him, don't want him to be under too much pressure." Old Xu said.

"He's been working very hard the whole time, don't worry," Gu Fei said. "You...relax a bit, you've gotten so skinny lately it's like you really went for botox injections."

"Botox injections?" Old Xu was confused for a moment. "What's that?"

"They inject it in your face, and your face immediately gets smaller," Gu Fei explained. "It's amazing."

"That magical?" Old Xu laughed. "Teacher Lu should get it then, he's been gaining weight lately."

"Go home and eat," Gu Fei went into the store.

"Botox injections? There's something so amazing?" Old Xu chuckled as he left.

After buying the nutritional supplements, Gu Fei went to print out the test papers and stapled them neatly into sets. Then he went to Wang Xu's to get some meat buns packaged up.

"Ride your bike fast," Wang Xu said. "Otherwise the skin will get soggy and lose its crispiness."

"Okay," Gu Fei nodded.

Ever since Valentine's Day night, Wang Xu had grown mature and steady overnight, speaking with a newly acquired air of gravitas and profundity.

Hard to say if it counted as growth or a setback.

"Want me to pack some lamb soup too?" Wang Xu asked. "I'll give you a thermos."

"Sure," Gu Fei nodded.

Wang Xu ladled the soup for him.

"You..." Gu Fei hesitated. "Going to evening study hall?"

"Da Fei," Wang Xu looked at him. "Don't you think that question is rather cruel to someone like me?"

"Oh," Gu Fei looked back at him, feeling that Wang Xu could break into heartbroken poetry any second. He hurriedly took the food. "I'm going then."

Wang Xu sighed behind him as he left.