Two days of exams. The whole city went silent.
All the construction sites shut down, and Ningchang became strangely quiet. Even if you weren’t sitting in the exam hall, you could still feel that heavy, nervous air pressing down.
Parents stood waiting outside the school gates, craning their necks for a glimpse of their kids.
Every single one of them had eighteen years of hope packed into their eyes.
The schedule was the same as always: day one was Chinese and math, day two was sciences/arts and English.
Lin Wangye felt steady with most subjects.
The only one haunting him was math.
He’d heard people say the gaokao math test was always on a cycle: easy one year, brutal the next. Last year had been easy, so this year… it had to be hell.
Even though he knew it was probably just rumors, his nerves were shot.
Before the exam, it took almost half an hour of talking on the phone to calm him down. He finally settled only when the exam doors opened and the proctors began checking IDs. He hung up, handed in his phone for the standard check, and stepped inside.
The crisp bell rang. At that exact moment, exam papers were handed out across the country.
Every senior high student officially stepped onto society’s stage, walking into one of life’s biggest turning points.
Inside the exam room, every single minute ticked past like it had weight.
And yet, those two days that seemed endless… vanished in a blink.
After the last English paper, Lin Wangye, who had spent these days restless and anxious as if sitting on pins and needles, finally felt like he’d been pardoned—completely free, a huge weight lifted off his chest.
He silently thanked his old man for giving him such a good head start.
Learning English since he was little really paid off; all these years, he’d never once had to sweat about this subject.
With the exams over, the only subject still up in the air for him was math.
In fact, right after yesterday’s math paper, he’d wanted to ask Shi Yuan whether he’d gotten the big problems right. But Shi Yuan had been deadly serious, refusing to let him check answers before the whole gaokao ended—afraid that seeing mistakes would mess with his mindset for the remaining subjects.
Lin Wangye, obedient as ever, listened. He didn’t ask again and just finished the rest of the tests in peace.
After all, this was technically his second round. Politics, history, geography, and English were already his strong suits. Even Chinese didn’t give him much trouble.
So by the time it all ended, he wasn’t hung up on math anymore.
Not a single night of these past few months had been wasted.
Judging by the scores he estimated in the other subjects, even if math didn’t go perfectly, he was sure he’d still get into Ningchang University.
When he came out, the school gate was crowded with parents still waiting or chatting with their kids. Lin Wangye just sat down quietly by the entrance, waiting for Shi Yuan. He kept staring down the road, eyes glued to every passing figure, and only after more than twenty minutes did he finally spot the person he’d been longing to see.
By early June, Ningchang was already in full summer heat, with daily highs pushing thirty degrees.
Shi Yuan now looked even taller than when Lin Wangye had first met him. Judging by his own height, he figured the guy had to be at least 185.
Meanwhile, Lin Wangye was stuck at 177.
Which, honestly, was one more piece of proof that he couldn’t possibly be Lin Shen’s real son.
His dad’s WeChat name wasn’t an exaggeration—he really was a solid ‘185 tall boy,’ not even a millimeter of false advertising. And he was clearly still growing.
But Lin Wangye? After middle school, he’d only shot up two more centimeters before stalling forever at 177. That was it. Game over.
How could genes like this belong to father and son?
Shi Yuan showed up in a plain white T-shirt, the only decoration a little wave pattern over his chest. Paired with light blue jeans, he looked fresh and clean in the summer heat, like a cool breeze sweeping through.
With age, his looks were settling in, sharper and more striking.
The black-rimmed glasses could no longer hide how handsome his features had become.
The street was packed with people, but he cut straight through the crowd like the wind, and in his eyes, there was only one figure.
Anytime, anywhere.
No matter how many times they met, Lin Wangye’s heart would always trip over itself when he saw those tender eyes looking at him.
He jumped to his feet almost instantly, legs carrying him forward as if he were sprinting toward the very edge of his dreams.
Shi Yuan smiled, opening his arms wide, but when Lin Wangye threw himself into them, he wrapped an arm around his waist and took two steps back to soften the impact, carefully glancing at his shoulder.
“Baby, I’ve told you a hundred times—don’t move so rough. Did you even listen?”
Lin Wangye ducked his head, guilt written all over his face.
“I forgot… But really, it doesn’t hurt anymore. Not at all.”
Shi Yuan laced their fingers together and started walking, voice gentle. “Didn’t the doctor say no intense exercise for at least half a year?”
Lin Wangye pouted. “Yeah, he did.”
Shi Yuan coaxed him softly, like he was guiding a kid: “Then can you be good and listen?”
“Alright, alright, I got it.” Lin Wangye nodded hard, even giving a little Young Pioneer salute, face dead serious. “Baby will listen, promise!”
Shi Yuan chuckled, ruffling his hair with a gentle hand.
Following the unanimous suggestion of the whole class, Class Seven decided to hold a teacher appreciation banquet after the last day’s history/politics/geography exam. It would also double as a farewell party—their final gathering before graduation, the last full stop on their high school years.
Once graduation was official, everyone would scatter in different directions.
A reunion with every single classmate in attendance? That was probably something they’d never see again in this lifetime.
For high school students, class activities were rare, which meant the class fund was tiny—not even three hundred yuan in total. Any event needed someone to step up and organize it, and of course that responsibility landed on the class monitor.
But when things were in Lu Chengxuan’s hands, they instantly became simple.
While everyone else debated whether they should chip in another round of class fees to cover a meal, Lu Chengxuan just went ahead and booked a hotel through his family, decision made.
The last of the class fund would only go toward buying a cake.
Everything else—he covered it.
If it had been anyone else, the whole class would’ve protested.
After all, with fifty-eight students in Class Seven, the bill for a banquet was no small thing. For one person, it was basically a fortune.
Maybe no one knew the exact details of Lu Chengxuan’s family background, but the fact he was loaded? That much the entire school knew. And after three years as classmates, everyone here knew it even better.
So when he explained his plan, the class burst into applause and cheers, yelling, “Our monitor is awesome!”
In the end, the banquet was set at one of the Lu family’s hotels, right in the city center. That way, no matter which exam hall the students had been assigned to, nobody had to travel too far.
The one for Lin Wangye was especially close—barely a ten-minute walk.
When he and Shi Yuan arrived at the entrance, they ran right into Zhao Youyou by the elevator.
The three of them rode up together, and before long, they were at the venue.
The venue was a banquet hall, big enough to host a medium-sized wedding. Six round tables were set up inside, each topped with snacks, seeds, and drinks. With the whole class and their teachers, there was still plenty of space left over.
Right across from the entrance stood an extended stage, backed by a custom wall that looked like a giant blackboard. Across it were big, chalk-style words done up in Photoshop.
The message was simple—
‘We graduated!’
At first glance, those five plain words sparked nothing but joy. But look a little longer, and that quiet sting of farewell slipped in without warning.
It was clear Lu Chengxuan had really put thought into this.
By the time Lin Wangye and the others arrived, about half the class was already there.
Some had grabbed seats in little groups, chatting away. Others lined up by the backdrop, waiting to take photos with friends. Zhao Youyou darted off almost immediately, happily joining the photo queue.
Lin Shen glanced around the hall and asked Lu Chengxuan, who was walking over at a steady pace, “Are the teachers here yet?”
“They’re in the lounge.” Lu pointed at a nearby door. “The homeroom teacher and English teacher already arrived. The math and history teachers said they’d come too, but they’ll be a bit late.”
“Math teacher…”
Lin Wangye sucked in a sharp breath, PTSD kicking in on the spot.
Lin Shen had zero sympathy, laughing at him: “The exam’s over, what are you scared of? Me, I’ve been past caring ages ago.”
Students kept trickling in, and almost every single one of them stopped to ask Lu Chengxuan where they should sit. He hadn’t set strict seating—just told everyone to sit wherever they wanted and leave the main table for the teachers.
Everyone had been looking forward to this banquet, so after exams, people rushed over one after another.
Inside the hall, the noise was easy and cheerful. They joked, chatted, messed around. Before long, almost everyone had arrived, with only a handful missing for personal reasons.
Once the math and history teachers finally showed up, Lu brought the homeroom and English teachers out of the lounge, waved to the hotel staff to start serving dishes, and then gave Fu Xuexue a meaningful look.
She shot him an ‘OK’ sign, stood up, smoothed out her dress, and walked to the stage to grab the mic.
“Alright, everyone, quiet down.”
She had said those exact words countless times in the past three years as the class rep keeping order. The moment she spoke, every student in the hall—besides the teachers—felt a kind of instinct kick in, like their DNA remembered.
Instant silence. Not a single voice.
Then, out of nowhere, some joker whistled, and the whole hall burst into loud applause.
Never once had Fu Xuexue managed discipline this effectively.
Even though the teasing made her blush a little, she didn’t flinch. With easy confidence, she said, “Thank you, classmates. I just hope you’re not only this cooperative because the homeroom teacher’s here.”
Her playful tone lightened the mood even more, drawing laughter from the teachers as well.
Lin Wangye stared, wide-eyed. “I always thought our class rep was the quiet type, but turns out she’s a natural at running the show!”
“Of course. Class Seven’s student leaders aren’t ordinary.”
Lin Shen shrugged, then turned to Lu Chengxuan. “So, where do I sit?”
“If you’re willing, we need someone at the main table to keep the teachers company.”
He didn’t spell it out, but the meaning was obvious.
Lin Wangye had planned to sit with his dad, but froze when he heard that. His eyes darted nervously to the math teacher, and he quickly tugged at Shi Yuan’s fingers.
Shi Yuan knew exactly what he meant and was just about to lead him somewhere else when Lin Shen hooked an arm around his neck and dragged him off.
“Sure, no problem. I’ll drink with the teachers.”
Humming a tune, Lin Shen strolled over to the main table. With a big grin, he greeted the teachers, pulled out a chair, and said, “Teachers, mind if I sit here?”
The teachers who taught them these three years were all solid—sometimes strict, sure, but never unfair. Deep down, everyone really liked them.
Still, students were students. That instinctive fear of teachers was always there. So even without Lu Chengxuan saying it, nobody was bold enough to sit at the main table.
Nobody except Lin Shen, who was as stubborn as they came.
The fact that he spent half his evenings sneaking out of study hall to hit internet cafés, or hiding in the boys’ bathroom to smoke, already showed he wasn’t all that scared of teachers.
If his grades weren’t decent enough—and if he hadn’t managed not to drag others down with him—he’d probably have been branded a delinquent and punished long ago.
Three years with someone, even a cat or dog, you’d feel attached. How much more so with a student you’d taught every day?
So no matter how much trouble he’d been, when he came over on his own, the teachers couldn’t bring themselves to mind. They actually looked a little touched, inviting him to sit.
But once Lin Shen sat down, somehow Lin Wangye ended up shoved into a chair too.
And of course, the seat just happened to put him one person away from the math teacher—his dad right in between.
At that point, bolting would’ve looked flat-out disrespectful, so he had no choice but to sit there stiffly, fumbling with the cutlery in front of him.
Shi Yuan noticed immediately and came to sit by his side.
Then Lu Chengxuan took his seat, and by that time, Fu Xuexue had finished her long string of thank-yous to the teachers. After each teacher took turns giving a few words of blessing, she picked the mic back up and said:
“Today’s banquet is mainly to thank the teachers who’ve guided us with such patience these past three years, and also to say goodbye to this class we’ve shared. Three years together, and now we’re all heading our separate ways. I hope every one of you gets into your dream university and reaches your goals soon. And in the future, when we look back, may we remember Class Seven that walked beside us.”
The words weren’t grand or formal.
But paired with that backdrop—‘We graduated!’—they struck right at the softest part of everyone’s heart.
Graduation season is also farewell season. Everyone knew that.
But knowing didn’t make it easier. When the day actually came, the sadness hit all the same.
Habit is the scariest thing.
No more early mornings or late-night study sessions. But also—no more seeing all these familiar faces gathered neatly together.
That classroom they knew better than anywhere else would never be theirs again.
A new group would sit there, writing a whole new story.
By now the cold dishes were served. At every table, classmates sat staring at each other, heavy with that bittersweet feeling. Whether close friends or not, everyone started chatting warmly.
After finishing her speech, Fu Xuexue put down the mic and stepped offstage. Her eyes were red as she quickly made her way to sit with Zhao Youyou, Shi Shi, and the other girls.
The main table, crowded with teachers, wasn’t exactly free-flowing, so aside from Lin Wangye and his little group, no one else dared sit there.
Lin Shen poured drinks for the teachers himself, then lifted his glass with exaggerated seriousness, cracking a joke to set the mood:
“I’ll drink first, teachers. Thanks for putting up with me for three years without kicking me out. I’ll down this one, you take it easy.”
The line got a round of laughter, and the teachers all raised their glasses for a symbolic sip.
“You…” the homeroom teacher sighed with a helpless smile. “If only you’d just tried a little harder.”
The math teacher—also the school’s academic director—clicked his tongue.
“This kid… that’s exactly right.”
They all knew Lin Shen’s family was well-off.
It sounded harsh, but that was reality. Some people had no way forward except through studying. Others didn’t need to fight quite so hard.
Because their parents, or even their grandparents, had already fought that battle for them.
The saying ‘one generation plants the tree, the next enjoys the shade’ fit perfectly here—an unchanging truth.
Over these three years, the teachers had watched with their own eyes. Lin Shen wasn’t a bad student at all. He just saw clearly, from the very beginning, what path his life would follow—and walked it steadily, step by step.
On the backdrop, the five big characters — ‘We graduated!’ — loomed large, burning to the eye.
Yeah. Graduation already. Just like that.
In another month or two, Lu Chengxuan would probably be heading abroad.
Vivian’s family — his maternal grandfather’s side — wielded considerable power in Northern Europe.
Once he got there, Lu Chengxuan would be completely free of his father’s control. He could do whatever he wanted, without constraint. With his ability, it wouldn’t take long before he stood shoulder to shoulder with his father.
So… would he really ever come back?
Lin Shen remembered perfectly what Lin Pengcheng had been like when he was young, and what he was now. Not a single detail forgotten. No one knew better than him how quickly wealth and power could change a man.
What awaited Lu Chengxuan in the future was something far beyond Lin Shen’s imagination.
Suddenly, it felt hard to breathe. As if a crushing weight had been dropped onto his chest, pinning him down. He braced his palm against the floor, closed his eyes, leaned back, and tried to steady himself with deep breaths.
When he opened his eyes again, it was because he heard a sound nearby.
Lu Chengxuan was standing behind him. Lin Shen hadn’t even noticed when he arrived. From his angle, Lu was upside down.
It was awkward like that, so Lin Shen sat up straight and turned his head to look at him.
“When did you get here?”
“I came as soon as you did,” Lu Chengxuan replied. Then he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lin Shen had no idea what he should say.
He had no right, no standing, no place to judge the decisions Lu Chengxuan would make.
He didn’t even want to ask when exactly he planned to leave.
So he stayed quiet for a long while. Eventually, his neck got tired from keeping his head lifted. He looked away, stared forward, exhaled lightly. After a moment’s hesitation, his voice came low and steady:
“I feel like smoking.”
Two, three seconds passed in silence before Lu Chengxuan sat down beside him on the steps.
“Want to try?”
“Are there cameras here?”
“There aren’t, around the corner.”
Lin Shen didn’t say another word. He pushed himself to his feet, grabbed Lu Chengxuan by the collar, dragged him down the steps and slammed him against the wall. Rising slightly on his toes, he bit hard into his lips.
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
