Lu Yu had no idea what Lin Beixing had said to their math teacher yesterday while using his body.  
But he vaguely sensed that today, Old Zhang—the math teacher—looked at him with a flicker of renewed hope in her eyes.  
She seemed to wish for him to improve.  

But Lu Yu didn’t like it. He didn’t want anyone—*anyone*—to hold expectations for him.  

Leaning against the back wall near the blackboard, he kept a careful ten-centimeter distance to avoid smudging the class’s hard-worked-on bulletin board.  
Standing in the very last row was deeply uncomfortable. He wanted to pull out his phone, but under Old Zhang’s sharp, watchful gaze, he couldn’t very well play games in plain sight.  

Thankfully, the back door of the classroom was open, letting a steady cross-breeze flow from the hallway through to the balcony window. At least it was cool here.  

Up front, Old Zhang was explaining a commonly missed problem. The white chalk scraped briskly across the dark green board.  
Lu Yu watched her sharp handwriting and her animated expressions—but not a single word she said made any sense to him.  

“Huh?”  
Just as boredom drove him to count the smudges on the blackboard, his eyes accidentally met those of a girl who had turned around to look at him.  

Lin Beixing had faint dark circles under her eyes, yet her clean, pretty face remained strikingly lovely. Her clear eyes usually held a gentle sweetness—but right now, they stared at him with surprising intensity.  

Lu Yu: “?”  

She raised her hand and pointed to her test paper.  
She’d scored 145—a top-tier result in this teacher-designed monthly exam, easily among the best in the entire grade.  

Lu Yu couldn’t tell if she was showing off her score—nearly thirty times higher than his—or trying to hint at something deeper.  

Then he saw her lift a slender finger, tapping lightly on the last question of her paper.  

Lu Yu looked down at his own test.  
That question? He hadn’t even attempted it. A bold red “0” marked the space.  

He usually skipped the final few big problems on math exams anyway—reading the questions felt pointless when he couldn’t understand them. So he’d just fill in A, B, C, or D for the multiple-choice sections and call it a day.  

Only now did Lu Yu realize that Old Zhang was *exactly* going over that very problem.  
And Lin Beixing’s urgent, meaningful gaze seemed to be urging him: Pay attention.

Pay attention?
Lu Yu blinked in mild shock.  

He didn’t even know what half the symbols in that word problem meant, let alone how to solve it.  

As class monitor, Lin Beixing was both gentle and commanding. Her natural authority made classmates willingly obey her—precisely why she’d remained Class Five’s monitor for so long.  

But just because others followed her didn’t mean he would.  

Under Lin Beixing’s fierce stare, Lu Yu calmly folded his test paper, tucked it into his hand, and went back to counting blackboard smudges with bored indifference.  

Lin Beixing, who had been making subtle gestures to catch his attention, froze.  
When she realized he wasn’t looking at her anymore, her clenched little fists trembled in frustration.  

The rest of the class dragged on in utter tedium for Lu Yu.  

The moment the bell rang, the tension in the classroom dissolved instantly as Old Zhang dropped her chalk.  

Lin Beixing was the first to stand up from her seat.  

Lu Yu was still ambling slowly back to his desk—but when he saw her storming toward him with clear determination, his steps instinctively quickened, a twinge of guilt prickling in his chest.  

Yet before Lin Beixing could reach him, someone else got there first—their math teacher.  

“Lu Yu, come to my office.”  

Ms. Zhang intercepted him just ahead of Lin Beixing.  

Lu Yu hadn’t even managed to shove his test into his desk. He gave a soft, resigned “Oh,” picked up his pen and notebook as instructed, and trailed behind her like an obedient puppy.  

Lin Beixing stood a short distance away, lips parted as if wanting to say something—but she held back.  

As Lu Yu passed her, their eyes met in silent understanding.  

She really did smell nice.  
Having visited her home yesterday, he knew that delicate scent wasn’t from perfume—it came from her shower gel.  
He actually kind of liked that clean, floral aroma.  

“Is there something you needed, Ms. Zhang?”  

Inside the staff office, the air conditioning blasted cold air. Lu Yu loved this icy chill.  
Honestly, “freeloading AC” was pretty much the only thing he looked forward to whenever summoned to the office.  

“Have a seat.”  
Ms. Zhang pulled over a single stool and gestured for him to sit.  

He didn’t hesitate. Who’d refuse sitting in a cool, air-conditioned room?  

Once seated, Ms. Zhang began rummaging through a stack of booklets on her desk until she pulled out Lu Yu’s exercise workbook.  
Tucked inside was a white worksheet—the math homework assigned yesterday.  

Lu Yu’s stomach tightened.  
He had a pretty good idea what was coming.  

“Did you do this math homework yourself?” she asked.  

Just as he’d expected.  

His answer was calm and immediate:  
“No.” He shook his head.  

He wasn’t stupid. If Ms. Zhang had called him in alone, she already knew the truth. She wasn’t asking to find out—she just wanted him to admit it himself.  
Resisting would only make things worse. Better to own up cleanly.  

“It’s clear someone tried to mimic your handwriting…” She sighed. “Kids your age aren’t foolish—but you seem to have forgotten one thing.”  

“Yesterday’s homework was very difficult, yet you solved every single problem clearly and completely.”  

And so began her lecture.  

Lu Yu sat comfortably in the cool air, listening patiently.  
Whether he actually absorbed anything was another matter—he was perfectly happy just staying in this AC paradise a little longer.  

“Lu Yu, it’s already this late in the year. Stop fooling yourself like this. I didn’t expect that after you so earnestly agreed with me yesterday, you’d hand in something like this today.” Her voice carried disappointment.  

Lu Yu frowned. “Ms. Zhang… I was half-asleep yesterday. What exactly did I promise you?”  

“Is that so…?”  

Wrinkles lined the corners of her eyes. Lu Yu couldn’t tell if she was frustrated or heartbroken—but her weary, kind gaze made him look away uncomfortably.  

“Then I’ll remind you once more,” she said gently.  
“You promised to study seriously every day—and to complete *two* full math tests daily, which you’d hand in to me personally.”  

“…” Lu Yu opened his mouth, then closed it.  

He could let the first part slide—but *two full math tests every day*?!  
At his current level, unless he copied answers outright or hired someone to do them, it was impossible.  

“Sorry, Ms. Zhang…” He shook his head honestly.  
“Can I… take back what I said yesterday? I don’t have the ability to do it.”  

“Is it really ‘lack of ability’… or just that you don’t want to learn?” she countered.  

Lu Yu gave a helpless, wry smile. “Both.”  

“I still think it’s not too late.”  

“Ms. Zhang,” he said quietly, meeting her gentle eyes—eyes etched with years of teaching, care, and quiet strength. His fingers tightened slightly into fists.  
“Please… spend your energy on other students, not on someone like me.”  
He added softly, “I’m sorry.”  

Ding-ding-ding—!

The ten-minute break was over. The next-period bell rang like a lifeline, rescuing him from this suffocating moment.  

“Class is starting, Ms. Zhang. I’ll see you next period.”  

Without waiting for her reply, Lu Yu stood up, gathered his pen and notebook, and walked out of that cold, cold office.