After the “report letter” was submitted, they received a response in less than a week—during one inter-class exercise period, the Director of Moral Education led two PE teachers to catch four boys smoking in a group on the east side of the third-floor boys’ restroom in the sophomore year building. It was exactly Zhao Ge, Ding Zi, Glasses Boy, and Big Head!
Zhao Ge wasn’t a first-time offender, so he received a formal demerit plus a school-wide announcement of criticism. The other three were first-timers, so their class teachers took them back for a scolding and called their parents.
Zhao Ge was so furious his teeth itched. He put out the word that he would harshly teach that backstabbing snitch a lesson. If he caught them, he would definitely give them a beating!
The rumors reached Lu Ping’s ears, but Lu Ping… remained unfazed.
Anyway, those idiots could never guess that there had been two people in the restroom at the time, so let them curse all they wanted—the cash in hand was the sweetest!
With his wallet now bulging, Lu Ping suddenly felt flush with cash.
He had already planned how to spend the 1,200 yuan: he would buy his mom a bouquet of flowers, his dad a belt, his little sister a big bling-bling butterfly hair clip, and… Zhaocai a bag of dried fish! The rest would go into his piggy bank—more was always better.
After hearing Lu Ping’s plans, Shen Yuze said, “…And what about mine?”
Lu Ping didn’t get it. “What do you mean ‘mine’?”
“This was my idea. You even planned a gift for that cat in the backyard—how come nothing for me?”
Lu Ping was shocked and clutched his piggy bank tight. “You’re loaded—why fleece me?”
“This isn’t fleecing,” Shen Yuze said righteously. “This is splitting the loot.”
Lu Ping: “………………”
In the end, Lu Ping gritted his teeth and treated Shen Yuze to “snack freedom” at the little supermarket on the first floor of the school.
To be honest, Shen Yuze wouldn’t touch any of the snacks in the school supermarket—chips, cookies, spicy strips, instant noodles, little breads. He wasn’t seven years old; he had zero interest in that stuff.
But Shen Yuze loved watching Lu Ping’s expression: clearly heartbroken but forcing himself to act generous.
Shen Yuze’s gaze swept over the rows of bread on the shelf. He first grabbed a 2-yuan sausage stick—Lu Ping’s expression stayed calm. Then a 5-yuan coconut bun—Lu Ping remained serene. Next came an 8-yuan chocolate bar, a 10-yuan family-size bag of chips, a 12-yuan tub of gum… Lu Ping’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t say a word. When Shen Yuze’s hand reached for the 15-yuan pickled chicken feet, Lu Ping finally couldn’t hold back!
Lu Ping: “Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough cough!”
Shen Yuze raised an eyebrow. “Sore throat?”
Lu Ping clutched his chest in agony. “My heart hurts.”
Shen Yuze: “If it hurts, deal with it.” He calmly grabbed a yogurt from the shelf, mentally tallied the total, and mercifully said, “These will do for now.”
What could Lu Ping do? He took the little shopping basket from Shen Yuze’s hands and teary-eyed, ran to line up at the checkout.
Students flooded the place during break to buy snacks, so the line was long. It took forever to reach Lu Ping. The cashier scanned everything item by item and quickly rang up the total.
The school supermarket didn’t take cash—only Campus One Card payments.
The cashier tapped on the register and gestured for Lu Ping to tap his card.
But—
“Beep beep beep!”
The machine errored.
“?” Lu Ping puzzledly removed the card and tried again… same error.
“Classmate,” the cashier checked the error code on the machine and told him, “your card balance is insufficient.”
Lu Ping then remembered—there really wasn’t enough on his card. Meals at school were cheap; he usually topped up 200 yuan at a time. Plus, he rarely bought snacks here, and when he did, it was cheap stuff like spicy strips. 200 yuan lasted him two or three weeks.
Lu Ping awkwardly asked, “…Cash okay?”
“No, only Campus One Card.” The cashier said, “Are you checking out, classmate? There are a lot of people behind you.”
As Lu Ping hesitated over whether to remove some items, the buzz-cut guy behind him lost patience. He shoved Lu Ping aside and grumbled, “If you’re not checking out, step aside. Don’t waste everyone’s time. Got some nerve grabbing so much when you know your balance is low?”
He raised his voice on that last bit. He’d noticed Lu Ping’s hoodie under his uniform jacket and sneakers were cheap knockoffs, figuring he was pretending to be rich.
Lu Ping caught the mockery but hated conflict, so he pretended not to hear.
Just then, a figure appeared behind them, firmly wedging between Lu Ping and the buzz-cut guy with an aggressive, no-nonsense attitude.
“Where’d you come from?” The buzz-cut guy stumbled and snapped irritably, “Don’t you know how to line up?!”
“That goes for you,” Shen Yuze said coldly. “We haven’t finished checking out—why are you shoving?”
Shen Yuze grabbed Lu Ping’s hoodie collar with one hand and slapped his own Campus One Card on the counter with the other, pushing it to the cashier. “Please ring it up—with my card.”
Lu Ping: “………………”
The cashier, fearing a fight, quickly took Shen Yuze’s card and tapped it on the machine.
“Beep.”
Shen Yuze’s Campus One Card had money—plenty of it, in fact… ridiculously plenty.
After the swipe, the balance showed on the cashier’s side screen. When she saw the number, her expression blanked out for a second.
Shen Yuze asked nonchalantly, “By the way, how much is on my card? I don’t know.”
He clearly said it for the buzz-cut guy’s benefit.
The cashier recited the number on the screen like she was in a trance.
Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred thirty-two.
The pile of snacks on the counter totaled about sixty-odd yuan.
Which meant… Shen Yuze’s card had originally held 100,000????
Lu Ping: “………………”
Buzz-cut guy: “……………………”
Students behind: “……………………”
Shen Yuze calmly pocketed his card, bagged the snacks, and under everyone’s stunned gazes, kept tugging Lu Ping’s hoodie collar as he dragged him out of the school supermarket.
Lu Ping’s butt still wasn’t fully healed, so he walked slowly. He usually grimaced going up stairs, but right now, his focus wasn’t on his rear.
He ghosted up a few steps before the gears in his brain restarted.
He stopped, turned to the steady boy beside him, and urgently asked, “Shen Yuze, I didn’t mishear, right? Your…” He hurriedly lowered his voice like a thief. “You have 100,000 on your Campus One Card??”
“Yeah, so what?” Shen Yuze pulled out his card and offered it to Lu Ping.
Lu Ping wouldn’t touch it, trembling as he shoved it back into Shen Yuze’s palm, then insisted he put it away properly.
“Are you nuts? Loading 100,000 onto a Campus One Card?” Lu Ping had heard some rich boarding kids preload 3-5k at once. But 100k? He suspected Shen Yuze was both rich and crazy.
No—rich and crazy.
“I didn’t expect that much either. When I transferred, the housekeeper handled the paperwork.” Shen Yuze shrugged. “She probably just asked the max amount and loaded it.”
Lu Ping: “…You don’t even eat at school— what’s the point of that much?”
“True.” Shen Yuze thought for a moment, then seriously asked, “Want to spend it for me?”
“You think I’m a pig?” Lu Ping said helplessly. “Even at 100 yuan a day, it’d take three years to finish.”
……
On Friday, the last period was PE as usual. Lu Ping’s tailbone still hurt, so he furtively handed the PE teacher a doctor’s note and got permission: “Go sit with the bellyache girls in the stands!”
In middle school, Lu Ping had always wondered why girls always skipped PE with “bellyache” excuses. Some lazy boys tried it too, claiming “bellyache,” but got punished with ten laps around the field.
The turning point came one day in his third year of middle school—he remembered the school infirmary teacher entering the classroom, taking all the girls to the conference room with the homeroom teacher, leaving the boys behind. Then the teacher drew the curtains, turned off the lights, and showed all the boys an “educational film.”
The film wasn’t long, just over twenty minutes. At first, the class was rowdy with boys giggling shyly and excitedly.
Gradually, the laughter faded. Aside from the soundtrack, the room was deathly quiet, filled only with the boys’ silent breathing.
In the dark, little Lu Ping watched intently. He didn’t know then that in bigger, more developed cities, sex ed started earlier—many his age had learned it in elementary school. This North Shore boy didn’t see “his” and “hers” differences so clearly on a big screen until third year middle school.
So that’s why girls skipped PE; so that’s why boys washed underwear in the morning… Lu Ping was so late to mature. While watching, he compared himself but found he didn’t fixate on girls’ every move like the film described.
Even years later, sitting side-by-side with girls on the field stands, he still felt no “heart-pounding” thrill—just… extreme awkwardness.
The most awkward part: each girl had brought a little cushion to avoid the chill; Lu Ping had his U-shaped one to protect his injury.
Chen Miaomiao was one of the ones skipping too.
Chen Miaomiao had gradually warmed up to Lu Ping. If his “friendship” with Shen Yuze was the benchmark, she was at least 0.2 friends.
Chen “0.2 Friends” Miaomiao eyed the cushion under Lu Ping’s butt and puzzledly asked, “Why’d you skip?”
Lu Ping mumbled that he felt unwell.
Luckily, Chen Miaomiao didn’t pry and gossiped instead: “Lu Ping, I heard Shen Yuze loaded 100,000 onto his Campus One Card—is that real?!”
It was the hottest school gossip lately! Shen Yuze was well-known, and tons of people had seen the supermarket scene that day. Word spread like wildfire.
Some believed it, some didn’t.
Chen Miaomiao was on the fence. She knew Lu Ping and Shen Yuze were close, so as gossip queen, she had to verify with him!
Wealth shouldn’t be flaunted, so Lu Ping vaguely countered, “You think anyone would really load 100k onto a meal card?”
Chen Miaomiao: “Anyone else? No way. But Shen Yuze? Totally possible!”
“Why? Just ’cause he’s rich?”
“No, because of that face of his!” Chen Miaomiao exaggeratedly cupped her cheeks with both hands and said shyly, “Don’t you think that with Shen Yuze’s face, anything unbelievable he does can be understood?”
“…” Lu Ping thought about it seriously for a moment before saying firmly, “No, I don’t.”
He only thought Shen Yuze was a handsome idiot.
…
In this PE class, the teacher didn’t let the students move freely but had them line up for shuttle runs. Shen Yuze hated exercise the most. He ran a few laps around the field with a dark expression, radiating displeasure from head to toe.
What made him the most displeased was… while he was laboriously running, that little rascal Lu Ping was chatting so happily with the other girls!
He had no idea what they were talking about, but as they chatted, Chen Miaomiao actually pulled a bag of melon seeds from her pocket and shared some with Lu Ping!
Lu Ping (pretended to) decline a few times but ultimately accepted the handful of seeds.
Lu Ping actually wasn’t very good at cracking melon seeds. The other girls could shell the kernels with just their teeth, but he couldn’t. He had to bite a small gap with his teeth first, then pry it open with his hands, clumsily searching for the kernel inside the shell.
He searched with great focus. Shen Yuze ran past him several times, but Lu Ping never even looked up.
What an ungrateful, heartless little rat who forgot his roots as soon as he got some food.
Shen Yuze: “…”
As soon as the bell rang, Shen Yuze strode straight to Lu Ping’s side. Without saying a word, he stared at him with an icy expression.
