Chapter 67 – Winter Camp

This was the first time Song Yu had dreamed of his childhood.

His and Xie Sui’s years of childhood friendship had been mentioned in passing in <Gentle Control>. So, it turned out that they’d been so amusing?

He bit into a piece of bread and ate it without tasting it at all. His heart was a little confused; other than the way every detail in his dream seemed too clear and too real, what made him confused was that it was also too familiar—the Song Yu in his dream had a temperament that was too much like his own.

His expression, the tone of his speech, and even the thoughts in his heart—it was as though he was looking at himself from the past.

After spending so long in this world, Song Yu had always felt a kind of illusion that this might be his original world. Did that mean his original world was only a dream? Was <Gentle Control> just something from his imagination, where he’d somehow gotten the details of Xie Sui’s life correct?

Exactly which one was the truth was becoming more and more blurred. Zhuang Zhou dreamt of the butterfly, and the butterfly dreamt of Zhuang Zhou1; true and false could no longer be distinguished.

But not completely.

He drank a sip of milk.

Song Yu came back to the present, shook his head, and quickly refuted himself.

That was too much. 008 had shown up in his life; how could it be a mere dream?

He sighed internally. It was likely that he’d only get a real explanation when that waste of a system came back.

There was an English self-study session in the morning.

The classroom was noisy and lively as everyone memorized words and read the textbooks. He’d dreamed of Xie Sui last night and was now eager to see the real person during the day. He often looked at the empty spot beside him, but Xie Sui never showed up for the entire study session.

When the self-study session was about to end, their English class representative stood up on the platform as was customary and displayed the PPT with the designated conversation topic.

They were left with ten minutes with which to talk to their deskmate in English.

Xi Bowen and Ma Xiaoding were like a chicken talking to a duck2, with each of them saying their own thing. ‘Well,’ appeared at least five times in each sentence.

Song Yu splayed out lazily on the desk and decided to get some sleep.

Everyone had their deskmate, and he was the only one who didn’t.

Annoying.

Physics was the first class of the day.

Their physics teacher arrived late. He’d finished marking the mock test paper they’d done in the previous class and stood on the platform to make his comments, “Although the test paper this time was simple, there still weren’t many of you who got full marks.”

He hated iron for not being steel and knocked on the blackboard with the book in his hand, “Students, details. How many times do I have to say it? Details will determine success or failure. In fact, the difficulty level of the college entrance examination isn’t anything special. You just need to get the details right, and it won’t be hard to get 80 points on your exam.”

“Now then, I want to praise Student Song Yu. Speaking of which, this is the first time that Song Yu has gotten full marks in physics. In the past, he was always just a little short, but he finally changed his habit of roughly skimming over a problem. This behavior is worth encouraging!”

The classroom was full of applause and cheers.

Song Yu received his test paper and saw that it had a score of 100. He then looked at Xie Sui’s test paper, which was placed beside him. It was another 100. He suddenly felt that it was very uninteresting.

Xi Bowen was more excited than he was, “Brother Yu is so amazing. Didn’t you always want to get a full score in physics?”

Ma Xiaoding spoke up, too. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that Brother Yu started talking about it around last month’s exams, saying that physics was the only science subject where he hadn’t gotten 100 before. Now, you’ve finally gotten what you wanted and there’s no regrets.”

Song Yu had pursued his study god reputation for such a long time now, but this was the first time he didn’t feel happy about his progress towards being number one.

Ding dong.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the self-study class.

Song Yu finally couldn’t hold back anymore and tilted his head to ask them, “Where’s Xie Sui?”

Xi Bowen was copying out answers and was stunned when he heard his question. His small eyes were filled with confusion behind the lenses of his glasses, “Didn’t God Xie tell you?”

Song Yu: “Tell me what?”

Xi Bowen: “About the math winter training camp.”

Seeing that Song Yu was really confused, Xi Bowen patiently explained it to him, “Jingcheng No.1 has five free spots. Four of them are given to Senior Two, and one to Senior One, which was allocated to God Xie. But God Xie didn’t want to participate, and this angered Old Cheng to death. He pulled him to the office before you came. It’s likely that he’s still earnestly trying to talk him into it.”

Song Yu: “Then why do you know about it?”

Xi Bowen scratched his head in embarrassment and laughed dryly, “I heard about this from other people. But God Xie is really crazy. The entry threshold for the winter camp is really high, and it’s held especially for the provincial team to sprint for next year’s math competition. If they can get first place, then they’re guaranteed a spot at A University if they apply. Countless people hone their skills just to attend the trial, but he’s dismissing it just like that. Well, those with good grades can afford to be willful.”

Song Yu: “Oh.”

He settled down after getting the reason for Xie Sui’s absence. He turned back and opened up his textbook, preparing to start studying, but his hand froze just after he’d turned the page.

That wasn’t right.

Why did this damned winter camp sound so familiar to him!

—It seemed that it had been mentioned a few times in the book?

F*ck, the winter camp.

He finally remembered.

Wasn’t this the place where Qin Mo attacked Xie Sui in the original story?!

There were four spots for Senior Two students. Qin Mo had one of them.

Song Yu abruptly stood up.

Xi Bowen was stunned, “Brother Yu, where are you going?”

Song Yu’s expression was cold, “I’m going to find the teacher to deduct points and discuss why he didn’t deduct any on my test.”

Xi Bowen was completely stunned, “You’re going to ask the teacher to deduct points? Brother Yu, don’t you want your full score?”

Song Yu had already left his seat, “I don’t want full marks that are given out so casually.”

Xi Bowen was at a loss. What was wrong with Brother Yu?

Ma Xiaoding, on the other hand, had an expression that seemed to say he very much understood what Song Yu was thinking. He patted Xi Bowen on the shoulder, “You don’t understand. The first time is always very important. This is Brother Yu’s full score virginity.”

Xi Bowen: “……”

Song Yu held his test paper and hurried to the office. As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw Xie Sui’s back figure standing there in front of Old Cheng.

But there was another person beside him in addition to Old Cheng that he disliked immensely: Qin Mo.

He didn’t know what a sophomore like him was doing here.

Old Cheng was still trying his best to persuade him, “Xie Sui, don’t you want your own Senior Three to be a bit more relaxed? If we get first place, you’ll have a guaranteed spot at A University. This is an opportunity that countless people want but can’t get.”

Xie Sui looked at the time. It had been almost an hour and his patience was about to run out.

Qin Mo stood to the side, his temperament clean and gentle, polite and well-behaved. His gaze was on Xie Sui without any cover and he was smiling, his meaning unclear.

Old Cheng drank a sip of water. He was really doing this for Xie Sui’s own good, “Even if you don’t think about it for your own sake, you should think about your family. You can save a lot of money with a guaranteed spot.” As his class teacher, Teacher Cheng naturally knew about Xie Sui’s family background and was trying to help him.

Xie Sui, who was now not short of money, refused politely and distantly, “Thank you, Teacher. I don’t have any such plans for the time being. This won’t change even if you talk for another hour.”

Old Cheng had already finished saying everything he could. He sighed deeply, shook his head, and acknowledged his loss.

It was at this time that Qin Mo spoke up to ask, “Student Xie Sui, are you really not going to continue considering it?”

Xie Sui’s gaze finally landed on him. There was no fluctuation in his eyes, and his expression was slightly cold.

Qin Mo said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Qin Mo. I came over this time specifically for you.”

“There are many points of knowledge covered in the winter camp that are only touched on in Senior Two. You haven’t studied these yet, so the school arranged for me to give you some guidance first.” His amber eyes were filled with a pleasant smile, “Even if you don’t go, we can still be friends. Besides, there’s no need to answer so definitively so soon. There’s still some time to go before the winter camp. You have enough time to think it over. How about giving it a try first? —What if you regret it later on?”

Old Cheng set down his thermos and found another point he could use in his favor. He excitedly said, “Right! Your senior, Qin Mo, even came over after class just for this. You should at least show him some respect.”

Xie Sui glanced at Qin Mo.

His smile was careless, his tone indifferent.

“But I don’t really want to give him that respect.”

Qin Mo’s expression stiffened slightly.

Old Cheng swallowed his anger back down and stared at him, hating iron for not being steel, “Forget it, then. You might not want it, but there are others who do.”

Xie Sui turned around and ended up locking eyes with Song Yu, who was standing at the door with his test paper in hand.

His steps stalled.

The coldness that hadn’t yet dispersed from his eyes condensed before being hidden away in their depths.

He blinked, then started smiling, “Did you come looking for me?”

Song Yu had originally run over because he’d been afraid that Qin Mo would cheat Xie Sui away with his words. Yet as a result, he’d heard his neat and direct refusal even before entering the office.

It hadn’t been easy to get a full score on his Physics test. How could he be willing to let it suffer?

All of a sudden, there was no reason for him to be here.

But he couldn’t keep the corners of his lips from curving up.

“Yes.”

Saying no was good. A discerning eye could recognize scum.

Xie Sui liked seeing him smile.

It was bright and shining, like a star.

Many of the negative emotions in his heart suddenly dispersed.

Yesterday, he’d spent a long time investigating Song Yu.

This weak and frail little young master from the Song Family had always been obscure in A City. He became ill after falling into the water at six years old and didn’t appear in the eyes of the public for nine years. There was no hint of him, as if he’d just disappeared into thin air.

The rumors outside said that the young son of the Song Family was seriously ill and could only stay at home, and that they’d hired tutors for private one-on-one classes for him.

But his intuition told him that there were abnormalities to be found during this period.

And transferring to Jing City was probably Song Yu’s first move after leaving the hospital. It was also when he’d really shown up in the eyes of the public.

He sorted out the hints he’d noticed before.

His inexplicable approach.

His ability to predict the future.

He never mentioned anything about the past, including schooling, and including family, too. It was like it was all a blank.

Xie Sui was making a hypothesis.

A bold and crazy assumption.

Song Yu hadn’t yet had time to see Qin Mo make a fool of himself when—

Old Cheng’s eyes suddenly lit up, “Oh, Song Yu! What a coincidence that you came; it saves me from having to go find you.”

Old Cheng beckoned enthusiastically.

“Xie Sui refused a spot at the winter camp, and I can’t think of anyone else out of the whole grade more suitable for it than you. You two were the only ones in the class who got full marks in last month’s monthly exam.”

“Are you interested? You don’t have to worry about not being able to keep up. There’s a sophomore from Senior Two waiting to specifically coach you through knowledge points one-on-one.”

One-on-one coaching.

Ha.

Three people’s expressions all looked cold.

Qin Mo’s and Song Yu’s gazes met.

It was the first time that Qin Mo had ever been rejected and he looked gloomy.

On the other hand, Song Yu was happy and in good spirits. He was calm and steady, “Thank you, Teacher, but if Xie Sui isn’t interested, then I certainly am not interested either. Since this senior came to coach us, he must be really committed to his duties. Even if no one is there to appreciate it, we should still be polite.”

His thin lips rose up, jeering and sarcastic.

“Senior, you’ve worked hard. Let me pour a cup of hot water for Senior; the cup is beside the water dispenser. Be careful you don’t burn your mouth.”

Old Cheng: “……”

Child, do you know how to talk properly?

Qin Mo’s gaze made it clear that he wished looks could kill.

After dragging Xie Sui out of the office and down the stairs, Song Yu removed the sarcastic smile he’d used to ridicule Qin Mo. It was replaced by an anxious expression.

“Did that person say anything to you?”

Xie Sui burst out laughing and coaxed him, “He didn’t say anything.”

Song Yu was like an old father as he repeatedly warned him, “Don’t get too close to him, and don’t talk to him too much.”

In the corridor, Xie Sui’s eyes darkened, but his tone was casual, “Why?”

Song Yu: “Just believe me.”

Xie Sui suddenly thought of something, “You purposely came to find me in order to stop me from attending the winter camp?”

Song Yu’s brain stalled for a moment, “… Kinda.”

Xie Sui stood still, his thoughts moving quickly as he slowly said, “In fact, I regretted it after refusing just now. I feel that getting a guaranteed spot for A University is quite good.”

Song Yu was so anxious that he almost bit his tongue. His eyes grew wide as he suppressed the words that wanted to come out. But it was true that, for Xie Sui, the winter camp was a viable option at this time.

He weighed the options for a long time, then gritted his teeth and forced out, “Then, how about I join with you?”

Xie Sui was stunned for a moment, then smiled and asked, “Because you’re not willing to leave me?”

Song Yu: “No, it’s because I don’t want you to get along with that scum Qin Mo on your own.”

Xie Sui: “Afraid that I’ll like him?”

Song Yu: “Yes—Uh, that’s not it!”

He abruptly looked up, his spirit tense and his light brown pupils reflecting his shock.

His assumption might be correct.

Xie Sui licked his lower lip and smiled, his voice low and hoarse, “Song Yu, I’ll start thinking you’re jealous if you act like this.”

Song Yu: “……”

Xie Sui dropped his gaze, pressed his lips together, and chuckled.

He thought to himself—

Song Yu likely had memories from his last life, maybe in the form of dreams. Or maybe he’d started having chaotic memories after falling into the water at six years old.

He stood up straight and looked into Song Yu’s eyes.

The child was in a daze from his questions, his eyes clear and pure, like a spark of light in dark mud.

Xie Sui’s thoughts were slightly distracted.

A calm, yet crazy thought slipped through his heart.

It made his fingers tremble a bit.

Song Yu liked him, right?

Liked him from the last life.

So, all of his memories were about him.

So, he’d come to his side.