ATIBESLM 32

The fruit yogurt shop owner saw with his own eyes how this man’s face turned an iron-green color.

Returning draped in the chill of the rain, Ye Cen pushed open the door. It was Auntie Li who came to open it. She took the fruit yogurt from Ye Cen’s hand, beaming with a smile, then whispered, “You stand outside for a while first. I’ll get you a towel. Come in only after you’ve wiped yourself dry.”

Auntie Li turned to go into the room, still saying as she went, “Lest you bring all that dampness to Jiaojiao.”

“…”

—

The crying child gets the candy. In fact, after starting elementary school, Ye Lingwei stopped saying what he wanted and he wouldn’t run to Auntie Li to complain that his second brother pushed him. However, because his health was poor, in Auntie Li’s eyes, he was always like an unweaned kitten. Besides, Ye Cen and Ye Xuan were both tall and strong; Ye Lingwei simply couldn’t compare to them. Auntie Li’s heart had long since skewed all the way to the North Pole.

Back then, Auntie Li really liked the gentle Jiang Hui. Speaking softly and gently, a mistress of the house who wasn’t extravagant or wasteful—who wouldn’t like her?

When she discovered Jiang Hui was secretly taking diet pills, Auntie Li was stunned at the time. If not for Jiang Hui repeatedly explaining that this was medicine prescribed by a doctor and had no side effects, she absolutely would not have allowed Jiang Hui to continue that dangerous behavior.

However, it harmed the child and it also damaged the foundation of her own health.

When Ye Lingwei was a little over one year old, he started complaining that his chest felt tight. She accompanied Jiang Hui to take Ye Lingwei to the hospital for a checkup, and the results showed congenital heart condition. Auntie Li’s reaction was even bigger than Jiang Hui’s.

“Congenital heart condition? How is this possible? He doesn’t have family genes to inherit it from. His two brothers are very healthy!”

“Congenital heart condition doesn’t mean it’s only hereditary. Incomplete fetal development in the womb, external radiation, as well as the pregnant woman’s diet during pregnancy, whether any forbidden foods or drugs were consumed—all of these can lead to the incomplete development of the fetus’s heart.”

“If the clinical features aren’t obvious, it might not be detected at birth. However, as the body gradually develops, even if the adults fail to notice it in time, the child themselves will feel uncomfortable.”

Auntie Li froze for a moment. “Taking medicine?”

She glanced at Jiang Hui, who remained silent, then turned her head to ask the doctor, “Do diet pills count?”

The doctor pushed up his glasses, still looking at Ye Lingwei’s scans, and said, “I need to know the ingredients of the medicine.”

The diet pills were bought by a friend abroad at Jiang Hui’s request. At the time, that friend repeatedly guaranteed that the medicine was very mild and safe, and absolutely wouldn’t have any side effects.

Jiang Hui said the name of the medicine. A doctor nearby leaned over directly and said in surprise, “Don’t you know this is a banned drug? If you’re just losing weight, it is indeed effective, but it will cause you irreversible organ damage and shorten the user’s lifespan. Let alone the fact that you were carrying a child—it’s a miracle the fetus didn’t die.”

“Watch your language, Xiao Zhang,” the older physician scolded him. The young doctor shrank his neck and went back to writing his medical orders.

Auntie Li’s tears fell instantly. At that moment, she actually didn’t know whether she should curse Jiang Hui or beg the doctor to cure Ye Lingwei.

Jiang Hui stammered, “I didn’t take much, I halved the dosage every time I took it…”

The doctor sighed. “Halving the dosage does indeed greatly reduce the toxic side effects of the medicine. Looking at your examination report, your body is very healthy. According to what you said, you also took the medicine when you were pregnant with the patient’s two older brothers, yet their bodies are both very healthy. This situation is very rare.”

“I cannot assert this with certainty, but there is indeed a possibility that when you first started taking the medicine, your body had already accumulated toxins. When the patient was gestating inside you, all the toxins passed through the placenta and were transferred onto the fetus.”

“You are very lucky, and the patient’s two older brothers are also very lucky. They met a good child,” The doctor said the last sentence as a joke. At least, this could barely be considered a small mercy in a great misfortune—only one person was infringed upon by the side effects.

Jiang Hui’s face was ghastly pale; she couldn’t smile at all.

Auntie Li froze. It took a long time for her to digest the doctor’s explanation. “You mean, he didn’t have to suffer from such a serious illness originally, it’s because…”

The doctor interrupted her, “This is my preliminary guess. It’s possible the fetus was born with weaker immunity, and the toxins invaded him more easily, perhaps.”

Because the two older brothers were physically strong, the toxins couldn’t harm them, but were instead transferred entirely onto Ye Lingwei. Auntie Li cried out on the spot. Right there in the doctor’s office, she slapped Jiang Hui fiercely. “What kind of sin are you committing!”

After asking clearly about the treatment plan, Auntie Li held Ye Lingwei. Jiang Hui wanted to take him over, but she wouldn’t allow it. The little boy buried himself in Auntie’s chest, crying continuously. Auntie Li’s eyes were red. “Think about it yourself. When he grows up, how will you explain it to him?”

Unfortunately, before Ye Lingwei grew up and one week after the diagnosis, Jiang Hui went missing. She left a letter and just departed. She didn’t take any jewelry or ornaments—the only thing she took was a crystal bracelet that Ye Fengmian had given her.

Auntie Li originally wanted to make the facts public, but as Ye Lingwei grew up and showed deep longing for Jiang Hui, considering Ye Cen and Ye Xuan also always held Jiang Hui in high regard, Auntie Li forcibly kept this secret hidden. The medical report was locked in the safe by her. Since Jiang Hui left, she left—it’s best if she never comes back in her lifetime. She didn’t believe these three children couldn’t live without her.

It was just that Ye Cen and Ye Xuan’s attitude toward Ye Lingwei always worried her. At the beginning, when Ye Xuan said, “It’s all your fault that Dad died,” Auntie Li was shocked. She originally thought this was just something a child said out of ignorance, but she didn’t expect that even after Ye Cen and Ye Xuan grew up, they would still stubbornly believe this.

Even though Auntie Li told them in a thousand different ways that Ye Lingwei was innocent and that he couldn’t decide the time of his own birth, whenever this happened, Ye Cen and Ye Xuan would respond with silence.

Every time she was so angry, she scolded them. Ye Lingwei, just a tiny little thing, would rush over and hug Auntie Li’s leg, looking up and saying in a milky voice, “Auntie, don’t scold Gege…”

Auntie Li held back again and again every time. She was itching to drag those two over to that thick stack of medical reports and make them take a good look. Those who originally shouldn’t have been able to run or jump included them too, it shouldn’t have been Ye Lingwei bearing all this alone. Inside the belly of that sin-committing mother of yours, Ye Lingwei already knew how to protect them.

Yet what about them?

What did they do?

If Ye Lingwei hadn’t accepted those toxins, one can easily imagine what kind of damage Jiang Hui’s body would have suffered.

It’s no wonder Auntie Li has favored Ye Lingwei since childhood. From the day he hadn’t even taken form, he was already being harmed by his own brothers and mother.

—

When Ye Lingwei woke up the next day, the living room was filled with a faint scent of fruit. It was drizzling outside, and weak white light filtered through the curtains, making the living room appear quiet and peaceful.

He slept in the living room last night. Auntie added a quilt for him, and the sofa was folded down to serve as a bed.

Hearing the movement, Auntie Li woke up with a start. Ye Lingwei looked to the side, his eyelashes trembling. She was leaning against the single sofa nearby, having guarded him all night.

On his very first day in the book, Ye Lingwei had marveled at how unlucky the original host was. Yet gradually, he discovered that the people who loved the original host loved him no matter what—like Auntie Li, and like… Fei Lan.

“Does your head hurt?” Auntie Li came over and touched Ye Lingwei’s forehead. She stumbled slightly as she stepped back, looked toward the guest room, and said, “Hurry up and get out of bed to eat breakfast. After you eat, let your da-ge take you to school.”

Ye Lingwei threw off the quilt. “I’ll go myself.”

“It’s raining!” Auntie Li exclaimed in surprise.

“…” However, the only person who would hold the original host like porcelain¹This metaphor emphasizes extreme fragility and value. for fear of breaking him was probably only Auntie Li. Ye Lingwei said helplessly, “I know how to hold an umbrella.”

The place where he lived was less than five hundred meters from the school, a distance of just turning a corner.

Auntie Li couldn’t out-stubborn Ye Lingwei. She carried his schoolbag and escorted him all the way to the intersection. Now, there were only three hundred meters left to the school.

Taking the umbrella from Auntie Li’s hand, when he turned around, he saw the flower shop owner also appearing early at the entrance of the flower house, holding a large bouquet of daisies in his arms. He smiled at Ye Lingwei, and Ye Lingwei nodded politely.

As the boy’s back figure disappeared at the gate, the owner sighed.

This boy was arrogant and haughty in his bones. His family background probably couldn’t be described by just great wealth and high honor. The woman who sent him out was obviously not his relative, probably someone like a housekeeper. In such heavy rain, slippers worth over ten thousand were just splashing through the water—pi li pa la. He vaguely remembered that these slippers were pretty much disposable; stepping in water was basically equivalent to scrapping them.

Once at school, Ye Lingwei sat down and read for a while, when his shoulder was patted by someone from behind. Ye Lingwei turned his head to look. It was Xia Huan.

The original host’s childhood friend.

“I saw you posted on Moments last night. You were sick?” Xia Huan touched his forehead. “How do you feel now?”

Ye Lingwei was a bit unaccustomed to being touched so intimately by someone unfamiliar. He tilted to the side without leaving a trace, lifted his eyelids, and lazily glanced at Xia Huan. “I posted that Moment in the wee hours²Refers to the very early morning hours, usually between midnight and dawn (e.g., 1 AM – 5 AM). of the morning. You weren’t asleep that late?”

“I’m new here, and I have trouble sleeping in a new bed.” Xia Huan spread his hands helplessly.

Ye Lingwei didn’t know how to respond. Although he was said to be the original host’s childhood friend, Ye Lingwei discovered that he had a strong sense of repulsion toward Xia Huan from the inside out.

Could it be because the original host’s consciousness still liked Lin Chudong, so he resisted the person he liked?

This guess had just popped up when it was directly denied by Ye Lingwei. If he didn’t even have feelings for Lin Chudong anymore, how could he have feelings about the person he liked?

Xia Huan, on the other hand, was very natural. He touched Ye Lingwei’s face with great familiarity, “You need to be careful yourself. For us, a cold is just a matter of a packet of instant granules³In China, common cold remedies (like Banlangen) often come as brown granules that you dissolve in hot water. Xia Huan is saying a cold for them is a cheap, quick fix.. For you, a cold won’t pass that simply.”

Ye Lingwei took a slice of bread from his desk, gnawing on it slowly, and gave a hum of agreement.

Xia Huan liked to get touchy-feely, either touching Ye Lingwei’s hair or touching his face.

Ye Lingwei frowned. “I don’t like others touching me.”

After speaking, Ye Lingwei felt a tiny bit of regret in his heart. After all, this was one of the original host’s rare best friends.

Xia Huan froze for a moment. He was standing, and looking down, he could see Ye Lingwei’s long eyelashes sweeping gently against his lower eyelids like a small and soft brush. He could also see the tip of his small, delicate nose and the slender, fair fingers holding the bread.

He’s much prettier than when he was little, and his temper has gotten bigger too.

Xia Huan smiled. “Alright, I won’t touch you.”

When Gao Linhao followed Fei Lan into the classroom, this was the scene they saw. Ye Lingwei sat in his seat, listlessly gnawing on bread, while Xia Huan leaned against Gao Linhao’s desk, saying something to Ye Lingwei. It looked very intimate—at least, the scene looked very harmonious.

Fei Lan frowned, almost imperceptibly.

Hearing the sound of Gao Linhao speaking, Xia Huan looked up and calmly met Fei Lan’s gaze. It was as if the person who said those things last night wasn’t him. He smiled and said good morning.

Gao Linhao had a pretty good impression of Xia Huan. He grinned and returned the good morning, then took the hot fruit juice he had hidden in his sleeve and placed it onto Ye Lingwei’s desk.

“Apple juice. I had my mom squeeze it fresh this morning. I’ve already warmed it up for you with my warm body.” Gao Linhao’s eyes were sparkling, like a big dog begging to be petted. 

Warmed up with his body?

Ye Lingwei’s suspicious and slightly disgusted look was caught by Gao Linhao, who immediately blew up. “What kind of look is that? Fine, it was heated with a warmer at home. Didn’t you say you had a cold…”

Ye Lingwei took the cup of apple juice in his hand. He gave a small smile and said, “I know.”

Xia Huan watched the interaction between Ye Lingwei and Gao Linhao, his gaze wandering back and forth between the two for a while before finally resting on Gao Linhao.

He didn’t recognize this boy.

Before coming to No. 3 High, he had asked around about a lot of things, contacting former classmates and friends, as well as students from No. 5 High. The people at the very top of these few high schools usually knew a person or two from the others.

When he asked about Ye Lingwei, he was told that Ye Lingwei had a pretty miserable time in high school and had almost no friends. They were very curious why Xia Huan would be asking about Ye Lingwei.

“Just curious,” Xia Huan answered lightly.

However, looking at it now, that wasn’t the case at all.

This tall and big guy was practically revolving around Ye Lingwei. Moreover, that little fatty who was Ye Lingwei’s deskmate—even with a pack of spicy strips  that only had two in it, he would ask if Ye Lingwei wanted one, even though one could see the sheer pain of parting with it written all over his face.

“Good, as long as you don’t want it.” Chu Ran stuffed the spicy strip into his mouth at lightning speed, terrified Ye Lingwei would change his mind the next second.

Ye Lingwei: “…”

There was a constant buzz of people talking around Ye Lingwei. Fei Lan swept a glance behind him; Ye Lingwei was slumping lazily on the desk, and as they spoke, Xia Huan couldn’t resist reaching out to rub his hair.

Ye Lingwei slapped his hand away in dissatisfaction. In the eyes of others, even his dissatisfaction was endearing. One could tell from Xia Huan’s eyes that he felt not the slightest unhappiness about Ye Lingwei’s behavior.

Fei Lan looked away, the corners of his mouth hooking up in a cold sneer.

Ye Lingwei happened to catch the displeasure on his face and subconsciously dodged Xia Huan’s hand again. He lifted his eyes and sighed. “Stop touching me.”

The smile in Xia Huan’s eyes slowly faded. Just now when Ye Lingwei said he didn’t like it, Xia Huan thought it was because they hadn’t seen each other for a long time and he just wasn’t used to it yet. He had a slow-to-warm and shy personality before, so it was understandable.

However, looking at it now, that wasn’t the case.

When he dodged, his eyes were looking at Fei Lan.

His relationship with Fei Lan was obviously better.

—

This week was the week before the monthly exam.

No. 3 High implemented a weekly and monthly exam system: a small test every week and a big exam every month. Weekly exams were held in their own classrooms, while monthly exams shuffled the entire grade, rearranging the exam halls.

During this time, Ye Lingwei had pretty much gone through the entire high school curriculum once. What remained were the secret papers⁴Elite Chinese high schools (like the famous Hengshui High School) often produce internal practice papers that are notoriously difficult and kept secret from other schools to maintain their competitive edge. produced exclusively by No. 3 High for its own students—high difficulty, diverse question types, and problem-solving logic that was as complex as it could possibly be.

No matter how capable he was, he was essentially just a college freshman and a Liberal Arts top scorer in the college entrance exam. Compared to Liberal Arts, Science was indeed his weak point. In Chinese, points were usually only deducted symbolically by one or two marks, and other Liberal Arts subjects were almost always full marks. However, his Math score often only hovered in the 135 to 140 range.

On the grade ranking board for every monthly exam, the name of the first-place student was stamped in gold. Following that, it went to red, then increasingly paler shades of red, to green, then increasingly paler shades of green. The name of the person in last place was practically equal to being transparent.

Gao Linhao was a solid, standard green. He took a photo, changed his profile picture to it, and swore, “I won’t say I’ll turn red, but at least dark green—dark green should be doable, right?”

Ye Lingwei glanced at it; dark green was roughly in the 300th to 400th place range, yet the scores were all around 600, with extremely minute gaps between them.

For students at No. 3 High, backsliding is simple; dropping a single point means falling several ranks. However, trying to climb up is very hard. The further ahead one gets, the harder it becomes.

The difficulty of No. 3 High’s papers is designed specifically for their students.

This is also why when No. 3 High students go out, they can totally crush students from other schools. Even Gao Linhao is no exception, because the difficulty of other schools’ papers is not on the same level as No. 3 High’s.

Not to mention the competition team specifically cultivated by No. 3 High—they are even more terrifyingly formidable.

No matter how much Ye Lingwei looked down on Lin Chudong’s character, he still acknowledged the other’s learning ability. For Lin Chudong to be in No. 3 High, where experts are as common as clouds, and become the captain of the competition team, he must still have some real strength.

Ye Lingwei actually admired him quite a bit. Under the double devilish training of the school and Li Lan’s sea of questions tactic⁵A standard term in the Chinese education system. It refers to the strategy of assigning students an overwhelming amount of practice problems (a “sea” of them) to ensure they have seen every possible question type before the exam., he still had time to send him such a long message. He is an excellent time management master.

The class group chat had the rankings from the last monthly exam. They took photos of it and uploaded them to the group album.

Two weeks ago, there was no reaction, but when there was only one week left until the monthly exam, the horseplay in the class decreased significantly.

No one wanted to see their name in green, and transparent was even less desirable.

Gao Linhao took out a thick stack of review materials then scratched his ears and cheeks⁶An idiom describing a state of being flustered, anxious, or racking one’s brains to solve a problem. It paints a picture of someone fidgeting physically because they are mentally stuck. at his desk for a long time. He was thinking about how to give the materials to Ye Lingwei without hurting the other’s self-esteem.

The further back the grade ranking went, the bigger the gap became. In the last monthly exam, Ye Lingwei scored less than two hundred points.

The geniuses of every school are different, but the underachievers are exactly the same.

“Xiao Ye.” Gao Linhao feigned a carefree attitude, “Want a set of review materials? Not 998, not 888, just 0.98!”

Several books were lying open on Ye Lingwei’s desk. He was looking at last month’s exam paper, and after being interrupted by Gao Linhao, he swept a cold glance over him.

Gao Linhao: “…” Sure enough, he still hurt Xiao Ye’s self-esteem.

—

In the third period of the morning, the math teacher took sick leave and asked another teacher to fill in for now. The class instantly became as lively as a festival.

Their math teacher was bald with long fingernails. At first glance, his mannerisms seemed sissy, but when he threw chalk stubs, he hit the mark every time. If he said look at the blackboard, you had to look at the blackboard; if he said look at him, you had to look at him. His eyes were like blazing torches, and even dozing off would get you hauled up.

Until the class bell rang, everyone in the class was still full of anticipation—except for Ye Lingwei. Ye Lingwei had held on for two periods, but he was truly too sleepy. Anyway, it didn’t matter if he listened to this class or not, it was mainly just a matter of attitude.

When Zhang Xian’s figure appeared in the corridor, Gao Linhao pulled his head back in from the window and started praying to buddha.

“I believe fate won’t torture me like this. Old Liu left, and this hag came. If it’s her, I would rather have Old Liu poke my forehead with chalk stubs.”

Gao Linhao’s prayers didn’t work. Zhang Xian walked directly into their Class 1 classroom.

Zhang Xian had a pair of very tired but very shrewd eyes. Her cheekbones were very prominent, which made her face look even more mean.

After sweeping her gaze around the classroom, Zhang Xian’s eyes finally settled on a boy in the last row who was sleeping on his desk.

As she walked down from the podium step by step, the hearts of everyone in the classroom rose to their throats.

Gao Linhao, realizing Zhang Xian’s target was Ye Lingwei, reached out and poked him awake.

However, it was already too late.

Ye Lingwei raised his head, the temporary confusion in his eyes not yet dissipated.

Zhang Xian had never looked squarely at Ye Lingwei’s face. What she wasn’t willing to admit was that it was Ye Lingwei who had never looked squarely at anyone⁷To look at someone straight in the eye.. He always kept his head down, his long hair covering his eyes.

She never knew that a boy’s eyes could be this beautiful.

Even more dazzling than the Milky Way.

“Are you sleeping?”

Ye Lingwei yawned. He saw Zhang Xian’s hand holding the textbook trembling from the force of her grip. He subtly withdrew his gaze and answered obediently, “I have a cold, my head hurts.”

When Ye Lingwei arrived, his complexion was already poor. They were wearing thin jackets, while Ye Lingwei was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. They could all notice the difference in Ye Lingwei compared to usual.

Zhang Xian narrowed her eyes and stared at Ye Lingwei’s face, attempting to detect an expression of fear or panic.

However, she failed.

She thought of Li Lan telling her not to provoke Ye Lingwei, that everyone sides with him, and that his eldest brother, who had never appeared before, had also stepped in.

Zhang Xian was not someone to bow to power. A student’s main task is to study. If they can’t even complete the task of studying, then what is the difference between them and trash or scum?

“Stand up and listen.” Zhang Xian didn’t plan to make things too difficult for Ye Lingwei. After all, she was just substituting and Ye Lingwei was no longer a student of Class 7.

She turned, intending to walk away and start the lecture, when she heard a faint complaint from behind.

“You’re kidding, right? Is she crazy? Isn’t Ye Lingwei sick with a cold?”

Zhang Xian froze and looked toward the boy who had voiced his dissatisfaction—Ye Lingwei’s deskmate.

“You have a problem with that? Then you stand and listen with him.” Zhang Xian dropped the sentence airily.

Chu Ran pouted, preparing to stand up with a wronged look on his face, when a slightly cool hand caught his wrist. He was pulled back down halfway through rising. Chu Ran looked at Ye Lingwei in astonishment.

Ye Lingwei propped his elbow on the desk and lazily lifted his eyelids. “Teacher, if you want to pick a fight, I will play along. The condition is that you can afford to play.”

Afford to play?

Zhang Xian froze. The other party’s arrogance was already fully exposed. He held absolutely no regard for her nor for the teachers or the school.

“Is this your attitude toward a teacher?” Zhang Xian questioned, suppressing her anger.

Ye Lingwei gave a short laugh. He lifted his eyelashes, his gaze innocent and confused. His tone is slightly curious. “You count as a teacher too?”

Zhang Xian truly hadn’t expected that every word Ye Lingwei spoke was stoking the fire, every word holding everyone in contempt.

She raised her hand, about to slam the textbook onto Ye Lingwei’s face. She was dizzy with rage. How had she not seen before that Ye Lingwei was a creature rebellious to the bone?

Just as the hard and thick textbook was about to hit Ye Lingwei, it was swatted away by a hand. Zhang Xian stumbled a few steps, only standing steady by holding onto the shoulder of a student behind her. Her wrist, which had been slapped away, ached with a sour numbness. She was trembling all over now, unsure if it was from anger or pain.

Fei Lan stood beside Ye Lingwei’s desk, his eyes unruffled. He watched Zhang Xian’s expression shift from disbelief to blankness, and finally to anger born of humiliation, before he faintly said, “Teacher Zhang, let’s have class.”

Zhang Xian’s fingernails nearly dug into her palms. How could she teach this class now? Several students defying her at once, and even getting physical?

“Just you wait to get expelled!” She picked up the textbook from the floor, just like picking up the last pitiful scraps of her self-esteem, then rushed out of the classroom and stormed away.

It took Gao Linhao a long, long time to snap out of it. He turned his head and asked, “Lan-ge, she’s gone to file a complaint…”

Fei Lan glanced at him. “Why don’t you go take care of her then?”

Gao Linhao shrank his neck. “I wouldn’t dare…”

Ye Lingwei traced his finger along the desktop. He lifted his face and asked Fei Lan, “Aren’t you afraid?”

Wasn’t he supposed to stay mediocre forever, to always be a pearl covered in dust? Becoming famous in school in this way—isn’t he afraid?

He himself was already prepared to dodge, but before he could, Fei Lan beat him to it, standing up and raising his hand to swat away the textbook in Zhang Xian’s hand.

It wasn’t just the class that was startled, even Ye Lingwei was also somewhat astonished.

For the first time, Ye Lingwei felt his fingertips—which had always been slightly cool—begin to warm up. It was a pure sense of being cherished, unadulterated by anything else.

Fei Lan looked at Ye Lingwei’s crooked hoodie hood. He lifted his hand to straighten it and gave a chuckle. “I’m not afraid.”

“What about you? Were you scared?” he asked back.

• 1
  This metaphor emphasizes extreme fragility and value.
• 2
  Refers to the very early morning hours, usually between midnight and dawn (e.g., 1 AM – 5 AM).
• 3
  In China, common cold remedies (like Banlangen) often come as brown granules that you dissolve in hot water. Xia Huan is saying a cold for them is a cheap, quick fix.
• 4
  Elite Chinese high schools (like the famous Hengshui High School) often produce internal practice papers that are notoriously difficult and kept secret from other schools to maintain their competitive edge.
• 5
  A standard term in the Chinese education system. It refers to the strategy of assigning students an overwhelming amount of practice problems (a “sea” of them) to ensure they have seen every possible question type before the exam.
• 6
  An idiom describing a state of being flustered, anxious, or racking one’s brains to solve a problem. It paints a picture of someone fidgeting physically because they are mentally stuck.
• 7
  To look at someone straight in the eye.