Xie Shu arrived at the art studio right on time.

Originally, he had plenty of time, but he wasted quite a bit of it deepening the father-son bond with a few rebellious students in the dorm group chat on his way here.

When he arrived, the students were still organizing their art supplies, and Teacher Li was flipping through a sketchbook, looking for the drawing they would be copying today.

Seeing Xie Shu come in alone, Teacher Li asked curiously, “Didn’t you say you were bringing your girlfriend? Why are you alone?”

“Oh—”

Everyone reacted simultaneously to the word “girlfriend” and turned to look at him.

“Uh, she… had something come up at the last minute,” Xie Shu replied with a smile, clearly amused by the attention.

Well, that cat was out of the bag. He hadn’t planned to mention it.

Xie Shu walked around the studio tactically, chatting with Teacher Li while sneaking in a few messages to Ruan Nianxi on his phone.

After Teacher Li told the students which sketch to copy, she chatted with Xie Shu for a bit before heading upstairs.

Once Teacher Li left, Xie Shu put down his phone and began supervising the students.

The students chatted as they drew, while Xie Shu listened listlessly, feeling worlds apart from their boundless energy.

Ah, youth. No wonder the teachers at the training centers worried about them running wild on weekends. He remembered how restless he was during his initial training days, always wanting to go out and play.

In school, even a forty-minute class had a ten-minute break. In the studio… though the classes were more relaxed and had breaks, it still wasn’t quite the same.

In the early days of training, everyone was relatively relaxed, taking breaks during free time. But as time went on, the differences between students became more apparent. Some couldn’t keep up with the pace, and the pressure started to build.

So, later on, no one played during breaks. Everyone focused on drawing, sitting for entire days, falling asleep as soon as they closed their eyes at night, and waking up to repeat the cycle.

They didn’t even have weekends off, everyone was working hard. Who had time to play?

Those few months of training cured him of his restlessness.

He wasn’t a homebody, but compared to his former self who couldn’t sit still and always wanted to run around, he had become much quieter. Uh… at least that’s what his parents said when he returned home after training.

Xie Shu walked around the studio for a bit, then found a spot to sit and rest his chin on his hand, briefly reminiscing about the past. Finally, he sighed silently.

Sigh, the first hour apart from Ruan Ruan, and he already missed her.

“Teacher Xie Shu, Teacher Xie Shu!”

“Huh, what’s up?”

Distracted, Xie Shu quickly responded when he heard a student calling him.

He stood up and looked at the student, thinking they had encountered a problem.

“We’re just curious how you managed to win over our teacher’s wife. Can you tell us?” the student asked.

Other students chimed in, egging him on.

“Is the teacher’s wife the pretty lady we saw last week?”

“How did you confess? Did you tell her funny stories to make her agree?”

Xie Shu: “…”

Did he look like someone who only knew how to joke around?

He was very serious, okay!

Thinking back, he had once aspired to be a fun person, but now he wasn’t!

Xie Shu cleared his throat. Seeing everyone was curious about his girlfriend, he proudly recounted how he had used a pop-up book to confess to her last week.

Some students hadn’t heard of a pop-up book, so they asked Xie Shu what it was. After he explained, they were all amazed.

They wanted to see photos, but Xie Shu had been too busy to take any during the confession. The students were disappointed and asked if he had any photos of the two of them together.

Everyone was gossiping, their eyes filled with anticipation.

He did have photos, but…

Xie Shu glanced at the surveillance cameras, wondering if the teachers upstairs were watching him.

Seeing him look at the cameras, the students understood immediately and told him not to worry, as Teacher Li often played on her phone when she was bored during the week.

Encouraged by the students, Xie Shu proudly took out his phone and showed them a picture of his incredibly beautiful and sweet girlfriend, giving them a taste of his happiness.

Some male students were envious to the point of numbness. They had never even had a pretty girlfriend, let alone a female friend with such looks.

Xie Shu, satisfied with their reactions, put away his phone.

He didn’t force them to look; they asked for it themselves.

He even had a photo of Ruan Nianxi kissing his Adam’s apple, but the photographer hadn’t sent it to him yet.

Even if he had it, he couldn’t show it to them. They were too young for that.

After seeing the photo, everyone returned to their seats to continue drawing, but it didn’t stop them from chatting.

At their age, they were full of curiosity about love. Even if they weren’t in a relationship themselves, they were interested in others’ love stories. If they couldn’t have their own, they could still enjoy others’ CPs!

So, they kept chatting with Xie Shu. The more they talked, the more they learned. When they found out Xie Shu and his girlfriend were childhood sweethearts, they were even more envious.

Childhood sweethearts, how lovely!

Bored, Xie Shu chatted with them for a while. Eventually, he even showed them childhood photos of him and Ruan Nianxi.

Young Ruan Nianxi was adorable, smiling sweetly in every photo with him, looking so cute and obedient that Xie Shu couldn’t help but smile.

Her temperament had changed so much as she grew up. She was cute as a child, but now she had become an elegant lady. In a few years, would she become a cold and aloof Dominant President?

A Dominant President was inevitable, but she probably wouldn’t be cold. Though she seemed aloof now, her true personality was still the same as before.

And she would never treat him that way. At most, it would be towards others!

“Teacher Xie Shu, are these photos from your middle school days?” a student suddenly asked.

“Yes.”

“Really? My brother is in college now, and he should be around your age. When he was in middle school, it was super trendy to have crazy hairstyles. He changed his hairstyle and color every few weeks and always got scolded by our parents. Wasn’t it trendy at your school?”

“Oh, it was trendy back then. Once, we went out for a fight, and when we arrived, there were only two people. They flipped their hair, and there were six more on the left.”

“…But your hairstyle looks normal in the photos.”

“Oh, I was talking about my friend.”

“…”