The Last-Place Student’s Heart-Fluttering Notebook

Xia Xiaoyu's high school life had two great unsolved mysteries:

First, why her math grades always hovered right around the passing mark; second, how Jiang Yi could always catch the eraser she sent flying with uncanny precision.

She was the only student in class who could turn morning self-study into an extra nap. Hidden in her desk was a locked notebook, filled not with formulas and theorems but with her rambling thoughts about Jiang Yi:

“Today, when he bent down to pick up his pen, his exposed wrist was straighter than a ruler.”

“In physics lab, his fingers trembled as he helped me hold the test tube.”

“After the monthly exam, he left his book of mistakes on my desk. On the title page, he wrote, ‘Show every step.’”

She thought the crush she kept hidden on the back of her scrap paper would stay in the dark forever, just like her grades. Then one day, while on cleaning duty, she found a drawing tucked inside Jiang Yi's textbook. It showed her sleeping in class, seen in profile, with a note in pencil beside it: “Dreamed about eating ice cream for the 17th time.”

It turned out some feelings never needed a standard answer. Just like the notebook of a student ranked last, courage to reach for first place had been written there all along.