"Lynnie, after the college entrance exam, I'm planning to travel to Thailand. There's a film crew shooting a movie over there and the director already reached out to me—we've had a chat, and a bunch of big-name stars are in the cast. How about you come with me?"
"Treat it as a way to relax after exams. You can meet the celebrities you like and take photos with them. Once I'm done filming, I can show you around. I've traveled abroad a lot before, but honestly, I've never really enjoyed it—mostly because I never had anyone to go with me."
Ever since Eric Yu got utterly humiliated by Evan Lin at the Shangri-La and was scared out of his wits, he’d painfully reflected and decided it was best not to mess with someone as ruthless as Evan. Instead, he poured even more energy into pursuing Lynn Chen.
Even though Eric could clearly feel that, ever since that incident, the little bit of progress he’d made with Lynn Chen seemed to vanish overnight—their relationship was suddenly distant again.
After a few days of trying to keep things friendly, Eric realized their relationship was actually getting worse, not better.
Still, Eric Yu was confident in himself.
"We'll see," Lynn Chen replied, brushing him off.
If it weren’t for the teacher asking them to pick up their workbooks, Lynn wouldn’t have left the classroom at all. These days, she’s always got her head buried in books, trying to keep her mind from wandering.
"Think about it. Thailand’s actually a lot of fun," Eric said, flashing a sunny smile—too bad no one cared.
Just as they were talking, Evan Lin happened to walk right past them.
They brushed past each other.
At first, Eric thought it was just another student passing by, but when he caught a glimpse of Evan Lin’s face, he instinctively shuddered.
Evan had left such a huge impression on him that seeing Evan again made Eric genuinely nervous.
Lynn, who’d been lost in her own thoughts, suddenly froze in mid-step.
She jerked her head up, spun around, and watched Evan Lin walking away. Lynn bit her lip, her expression shifting—complicated and hesitant.
But while she hesitated, Evan was already gone from the hallway.
"Come on, Lynnie, let’s head back. The teacher’s about to hand out the homework, and they’ll go over it in class soon."
Eric finally let out a sigh of relief once Evan left.
He didn’t want to stick around for another second—he just wanted to be as far from Evan Lin as possible.
Evan returned to the classroom and took his seat.
In just two or three days, Evan’s desk drawer was already stuffed full of test papers.
Senior year is basically built on test papers. Back at Brightsea No. 2 High School, Evan remembered countless banners plastered everywhere to motivate the seniors.
He could still picture the banners hanging on the walls: 'This life is only for the college entrance exam—get into a key university and honor your parents,' 'Bleed and sweat but don’t cry; lose skin and flesh but don’t fall behind,' 'If you don’t fight in senior year, you’ve wasted your life; if senior year isn’t exhausting, life has no flavor.'
Those banners used to amaze the freshmen and sophomores, but for seniors, it was like getting a daily dose of adrenaline.
"The superstar transfer is back."
"Unbelievable—he skipped class for three days straight. Dude’s basically a legend."
"Legend? Last time on the science comprehensive he only scored 150 out of 300. You call that a legend?"
As soon as Evan walked in, a bunch of students started whispering to each other.
He’d left a strong impression—daring to stand up to teachers, getting a commendation banner from the police chief, and most impressively, winning first prize in the Seacrest Olympiad.
With all those honors stacked up, Evan was suddenly the center of attention. And after he took down Ethan Yi on the soccer field in front of everyone, the whole school was fired up—he instantly became campus royalty.
But then Evan disappeared for a whole month—he missed the monthly exam and just vanished. At first, people thought something serious had happened, but when the recent science test scores came out, a bunch of students were disappointed. They felt his reputation didn’t match his results.
Capitalview First High is packed with talent—the teaching quality is top-notch, and even the weakest students manage to get decent grades.
Around here, grades are everything. If you want to tell the good students from the bad, you look at their scores. So when Evan’s science results dropped, his image took a hit in a lot of people’s eyes.
But since Evan was known for being able to throw hands, nobody dared say it out loud—they just watched him with a mix of curiosity and amusement.
Listening to all the gossip, Evan dug through the pile of papers in his desk and found the test from a few days ago.
"This isn’t my test paper."
The moment he saw the test, Evan realized something was off.
The handwriting and answers were totally different from what he remembered. Evan checked the name section—blank.
"I must’ve forgotten to write my name that day, so my paper got mixed up with someone else’s. That’s how I ended up with this 150-point test."
Once he figured out what happened, Evan just put the test away.
Evan did have to admit—it was his own fault for forgetting to write his name.
Before long, the bell rang and Byron Yang walked in to start the lesson.
He was surprised to see Evan back in his seat, but quickly regained his composure and began teaching.
After class, Byron Yang thought about having a word with Evan. After all, it was pretty outrageous for a senior to skip so many classes without explanation.
But when he got close, Byron stopped himself. He just said, "Since you’re back, call your mom. I called her earlier because I was worried something happened to you."
After that, seeing Evan’s indifferent attitude, Byron Yang just shook his head and left the classroom.
"What a waste. He’s so gifted at math, but only got 150 in science. No wonder he skipped the last exam—he was probably afraid of a low score."
Byron Yang muttered to himself, a little worried and disappointed.
He didn’t look down on Evan—in fact, he thought it was a shame to see such a promising student not taking class seriously.