“You mean this? I got it at the Church when I went for a walk on the Urban Streets during my Saturday break.”
Seemingly noticing Lin Yiyi’s curiosity, the boy took off the star badge and placed it on her desk so she could examine it closely.
Lin Yiyi picked up the Black Star Badge and studied both sides, trying to find anything unusual, but she ultimately saw nothing out of the ordinary.
After finishing her inspection, she shook her head and asked a follow-up question.
“Does this cost money?”
“No. You can just get it directly at the Church. It doesn’t cost a cent,” Wang Zixian replied frankly.
“It’s free?” Lin Yiyi could not help but furrow her brows.
In her understanding, things associated with the word “free” were generally quite special.
If the entity giving things away for free was the Church, then “special” could be equated directly to “dangerous.”
“Yeah. After that Missionary Uncle gave me the badge, he even gave me a box of yogurt.”
There was a hint of smugness in Wang Zixian’s voice, as if he were proud of being able to get things that usually cost money for free.
But as she listened to him, the warning radar in Lin Yiyi’s body was already beeping incessantly.
After pursing her lips, she took a deep breath and looked the boy up and down with an incredibly solemn gaze, trying to discover anything strange about him.
Unfortunately, she found nothing wrong.
“How — is something wrong?” Noticing Lin Yiyi’s strange behavior, Wang Zixian scratched his head and asked with some confusion.
“No, it’s nothing. I’m just a bit envious that you could get a whole box of free yogurt. I hardly ever drink that at home.”
Lin Yiyi made up a random excuse and changed the subject with a smile.
Since there was nothing unusual about the badge or the boy himself for now, she decided not to say things like “throw the badge away for your own safety” to avoid upsetting him.
After all, nothing unexpected had happened yet, and she did not want her well-intentioned advice to be dismissed as alarmist.
She would find it difficult to accept a reaction like that.
So, at a time like this, she just needed to smile and play dumb to get through the conversation.
“There’s nothing to be envious of. If you leave school in the next few days and have time, just take a walk on the Urban Streets. Someone should approach you to proselytize, and they’ll take you to get free eggs or milk.”
“Ah, actually, Lin Yiyi, if you really want to drink it, you can also ask someone else to help you pick it up. The effect is the same.”
Wang Zixian took her words at face value and earnestly introduced the method for getting free eggs.
Halfway through, he suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly added that she could ask someone else to do it, seemingly worried that Lin Yiyi did not have the freedom to go out.
Hearing these words that were almost an explicit hint, Lin Yiyi’s lips twitched. The words Blazing Flame had spoken to her earlier immediately flashed through her mind.
‘So that’s how it is. It seems Blazing Flame didn’t lie to me.’
‘There really are classmates who think of me as an Eldest Young Lady and are afraid of me.’
‘Ugh… what a strange feeling.’
Despite the urge to complain in her heart, Lin Yiyi maintained basic etiquette and replied with a polite smile.
“Thank you, I understand.”
“Mm-hmm, you’re welcome… Ah, class is starting! I’m going back to my seat!”
Just as Wang Zixian was about to say more, the bell for class suddenly rang.
The piercing ring-ring-ring echoed throughout the entire Classroom.
He grabbed his badge, took his Cheat Sheet back to his seat, and hurriedly searched for this period’s Textbook to prepare for the lesson.
Watching his flustered appearance, Lin Yiyi felt inexplicably amused.
Although there had been some surprises along the way, according to the standard definition of a friend, did this count as her having her first ordinary friend?
‘Heh, this feeling really isn’t bad.’
“Alright, students, class is in session.”
“Stand up!”
“Hello, Teacher…”
……
The morning passed quickly amidst the sounds of various teachers explaining the Cheat Sheets.
After finishing lunch at the Dining Hall at noon and returning to her seat, Lin Yiyi observed her classmates out of boredom.
The vast majority of the students matched her previous Impression, doing exactly what they would usually do during this time.
The only ones who exceeded her expectations were Wang Zixian and another student whose grades were mediocre.
Normally, after finishing lunch, these two students should have been flipping through extra-curricular books like Composition Digest and Story Session, or simply reading the non-exam content in their Chinese Textbooks.
Yet, for some reason, both of them were currently using set squares to sketch on scratch paper, solving math problems with serious expressions.
Moreover, judging by their grim expressions, they did not look like they were doing it just to impress themselves.
It looked more like they truly wanted to solve the problems.
‘This… when did they start racing against time like this?’
‘Did they realize the College Entrance Examination is coming and wake up? Did they have a Longchang Enlightenment?’
Lin Yiyi felt nothing but confusion regarding the performance of these two students. Thus, before the nap bell rang, she stretched and pretended to take a bored stroll, intentionally walking a circle around the two classmates.
The result was far beyond her expectations. Even though someone passed right by them, the two students did not look up.
Instead, they continued to focus on the math problems they had failed to complete on their Cheat Sheets.
They would even stop when they encountered a difficult point, write down their doubts on the scratch paper, and then use those doubts as a guide to flip through their math Textbooks and reference materials to find solutions.
Lin Yiyi knew very well that this kind of study attitude could not be faked.
However, this level of devotion to studying was definitely not something that could be formed in a short period.
‘What on earth happened to make these two students fall in love with studying within one day?’
‘I hope it’s because they realize how difficult the College Entrance Examination will be and understand that their chance to study is precious, and not because of some external factor.’
With a prayer in her heart, Lin Yiyi stood up from her seat again and walked around the Classroom a second time.
After finishing this second lap and returning to her seat, she closed her eyes and compared the two boys’ current images with their Past behavior.
She soon discovered several anomalies.
On a normal day, their desks would be cluttered with haphazardly placed Textbooks and workbooks.
Now, they were neatly organized, allowing one to tell at a glance where the materials for each subject were located.
Furthermore, their habits for sketching on scratch paper had changed.
In the past, they would scribble anywhere they found space on the Cheat Sheet, creating a dizzying mess.
Today, however, their scratch work was very tidy — so tidy that they looked like they had the style of top-tier physicists.
‘What exactly happened? Are they both possessed by an Old Man in the Ring?’
‘No, could it be…?’
Lin Yiyi suddenly remembered the Black Star Badge pinned to Wang Zixian’s chest, and then recalled the Black Star Badge the other student had placed next to his pencil case.
An ominous feeling gripped her heart.
But at the moment, no dangerous situation had occurred, and no tragedy had unfolded.
She could not take it upon herself to throw their badges away.
She could not speculate about such ordinary objects from a malicious perspective or make a presumption of guilt.
‘I should believe that they’ve taken the initiative to change because the College Entrance Examination is approaching.’
‘Calm down, calm down…’
After forcibly suppressing the anxiety in her heart, Lin Yiyi slowly opened her eyes and tried her best not to pay attention to the duo’s abnormal behavior.