The Gap Between People

Sun Tao, with her delicate features, sat cross-legged on the bed wearing a purple silk robe. In front of her, the LCD TV was playing the hottest comedy dating show of the moment.

The dating show was quite entertaining, full of laughs, and the handsome men and beautiful women on screen were definitely easy on the eyes.

But Sun Tao’s mind was clearly elsewhere. Her eyes were vacant, her brows slightly furrowed, lost deep in a sea of memories she couldn’t escape.

The bathroom door opened, and Xia Muzhu, her face flushed from a fresh shower, stepped out. She wore the same style of silk robe as Sun Tao, only in pink. As she walked toward the bed, she used a hairdryer to blow-dry her damp, loose hair.

“Help me dry my hair,” she said.

Reaching the bed, Xia Muzhu twisted her body to sit down and handed the hairdryer over.

Sun Tao naturally took the hairdryer. Her eyes still full of confusion and bewilderment, she knelt on the bed, lost in thought while drying Xia Muzhu’s hair.

“Zhuzi, your Lin Yu looks really familiar,” Sun Tao said.

“I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere, and it must’ve been in the last few days!”

“So what if you’ve seen him?” Xia Muzhu replied, unconcerned.

“We all live in the same city. Isn’t it normal to run into each other?”

“That’s true,” Sun Tao nodded, agreeing with Xia Muzhu’s reasoning.

Living in the same city, running into familiar faces was nothing unusual.

Having convinced herself of this, Sun Tao stopped worrying about where she might have seen Lin Yu and focused on drying Xia Muzhu’s hair. But soon, her attention was drawn elsewhere again.

Looking at the two large, soft mounds pressed closely together beneath the neckline of the robe, Sun Tao couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. She asked sourly, “Have they gotten bigger than back in college?”

Xia Muzhu knew exactly what Sun Tao was referring to. She lowered her head with a sigh, glanced down, and softly said, “Yeah, they have.”

“I’ve forgotten what it feels like to sleep on my stomach.”

Sun Tao clicked her tongue in annoyance. Continuing to dry Xia Muzhu’s hair, she glared at the robe’s collar with a mix of disbelief and frustration.

“I don’t get it. You’ve been single all this time, no guy giving you massages or anything. How did they just keep growing?”

“Spill it!”

Sun Tao’s voice dropped to a low growl as she tossed the hairdryer aside, crossing her arms and curling her fingers like eagle claws, reaching forward to grab. “Are you secretly massaging yourself at night?”

“Ah!”

Startled, Xia Muzhu let out a sharp scream and immediately curled up defensively.

But before she could struggle free, Sun Tao’s mischievous hands retreated.

Seizing the moment, Xia Muzhu quickly covered her chest and moved away from Sun Tao, inwardly puzzled.

Usually, if they were about to have a quarrel, Sun Tao wouldn’t let go so easily.

Xia Muzhu turned to look back and saw Sun Tao kneeling on the bed, head bowed, hands cupped upward, slowly making a grasping motion, looking as if she wanted to cry but couldn’t.

“What’s wrong with you?” Xia Muzhu asked.

Although Xia Muzhu knew that Sun Tao was probably not thinking anything good, she still couldn’t help but ask.

“Ugh.”

Sun Tao looked up with tearful eyes, her palm facing Xia Muzhu, her fingers twitching as if trying to grab but then relaxing. She said with a wronged tone:

“This is just too much.”

“Really too much!”

“Right now, I can’t even hold half of you with one hand!”

As she spoke, Sun Tao glanced down at her chest, feeling even more upset.

In the living room, Xia Yueshan, holding a bottle of sweet drink and about to head back to his bedroom, paused. He turned his head toward his older sister’s bedroom door, which was tightly shut, and muttered to himself:

“Lin Yu said the ‘robbery’ probably isn’t this, right?”

“Mm.”

“Shouldn’t be.”

“If it were, we’d call the cops and catch him!”

...

“Lin Yu ranked first in the class, and two hundred seventieth in the whole school.”

The homeroom teacher was stunned for a moment after reading out the results. He looked up at Lin Yu’s seat, then back down at the report card, making sure he wasn’t seeing things. His face showed a mix of confusion and disbelief at this strange phenomenon.

Still, he nodded at Lin Yu to express his congratulations:

“You did well this time. Your grades have improved a lot. Keep it up.”

The whole class’s eyes followed the teacher’s words, all filled with surprise without exception.

The pink-haired boy sitting next to Lin Yu was the most straightforward. He turned his head and asked directly:

“Damn, with how strict the exam was this time, Long Ge, how did you manage to cheat?”

“I cheated off your dad’s ass,” Lin Yu snapped back without holding back.

Damn it.

The combined scores of the top five students in the ninth exam room probably don’t even match mine. And I’m supposed to cheat?

Who the hell would I cheat off?

After cursing the brainless pink-haired boy, Lin Yu returned his attention to his test paper.

He was actually quite satisfied with his exam results.

All subjects hovered around eighty points, with the three main subjects all scoring above 110.

It was proof that his month of hard work hadn’t been in vain.

But Lin Yu was far from happy with his ranking.

He had expected, with the memory boost from his three years of high school study in his previous life, that getting into the top 100 or even top 50 in the whole school wouldn’t be a problem.

Yet, with this “cheat code,” he only managed two hundred seventieth place.

He didn’t even crack the top 250!

It was a huge blow.

After some thought, Lin Yu came to terms with it.

The students at San Zhong were extremely polarized in their performance.

They were either terrible, like the original owner — hopelessly bad students,

or like Tang Manman, outstanding top students attracted by large scholarships.

The good were very good, the bad were really bad.

There was practically no middle ground.

Staring at the red-inked scores on his papers, Lin Yu felt a pang of melancholy.

In his previous life, he had fought tooth and nail just to barely scrape into a first-tier university.

He wondered if he could be that lucky again in this life.

The grades were announced right after evening self-study. After the announcement, the dismissal bell rang.

Lin Yu slung his backpack over his shoulder and left the school alone. As expected, Gu Yue called out from behind and caught up to him once again.

Lin Yu turned his head to look back. Besides Gu Yue, who was running over while waving, he also saw Tang Manman not far behind, quietly wiping away tears.

?

A question mark popped up in Lin Yu’s mind.

What’s wrong with this unlucky girl?

Being bullied again?

“Long Ge!”

Gu Yue stopped in front of Lin Yu, giving him a sweet, playful smile.

Only then did Lin Yu shift his gaze from Tang Manman to Gu Yue, frowning as he asked,

“What’s wrong with Tang Manman?”

“Did someone bully her today?”

Gu Yue paused for a moment, then quickly shook her head.

“Nope.”

“Who in Third High School would be crazy enough to bully her now?”

“Unless they don’t care about their life!”

“Then why is she crying?”

Lin Yu nodded toward Gu Yue’s back, signaling her to take another look.

Gu Yue turned her head and indeed saw Tang Manman walking with her head down, secretly wiping tears—a pitiful sight.

Frowning, Gu Yue said to Lin Yu,

“Long Ge, wait here for a moment.”

She pulled out her phone, her thumb anxiously tapping the screen. After a short while, she sighed in relief and looked up at Lin Yu.

“No one bullied her. She’s crying because she bombed her midterm exam this time.”

Hearing that Tang Manman wasn’t bullied, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief and casually asked,

“Bombed it?”

“How many points did she get?”

“I don’t know the exact score,” Gu Yue shook her head, then added,

“But I heard she dropped out of the top twenty this time. Apparently, she ranked twenty-third in the whole school.”

“Is that really bombing it?”

Lin Yu’s face twisted in disbelief.

Damn it.

Twenty-third in the entire school and she’s crying?

Then what’s wrong with me, ranking two hundred seventieth? Should I be ashamed enough to jump into the river?

Gu Yue thought for a moment and said,

“I guess it counts as bombing it.”

“I heard she rarely falls out of the top ten in previous exams.”