William had completely returned to the way he was before he met Ellie.
Or perhaps even more indifferent than before he knew Ellie.
He smiled less and less, and was cold and unapproachable to everyone.
He skipped class more and more frequently, and his presence in the classroom was rarely seen.
On March 10th.
Ellie looked back and saw that the seat behind her was empty again.
William had skipped class again.
The whole morning passed, and she didn't see William return.
It wasn't until noon that she saw William come back, sleeping on his desk.
He lifted his head and happened to meet Ellie's gaze as she looked back.
Ellie saw the band-aid on his face and knew he had been in another fight.
William, however, didn't react and continued to sleep with his head down.
During the physical education class in the afternoon.
Ellie no longer watched William play ball.
But when she heard the cheers from outside the court, she couldn't help but look through the green fence. She didn't see William; he wasn't there.
Sarah walked over to Ellie with a lollipop in her mouth and said, "What are you looking at? Looking at William? He's not there; he left after we were dismissed."
Ellie shook her head: "No."
Sarah put her arm around Ellie's shoulder and said, "What's going on? Did you two have a disagreement?"
Ellie shook her head: "No, it's nothing."
Sarah didn't ask further, but took out a handful of lollipops and said, "Choose a flavor."
Ellie picked a strawberry-flavored one.
Sarah then said to Aria, "Choose one."
"Thank you," Aria picked an orange-flavored one.
Aria suddenly realized that Sarah, who seemed tough and a bit aloof, didn't seem so fierce after all.
After talking with Ellie for a while, Sarah went to find her friends.
Ellie and Aria watched other girls playing games on the playground.
Suddenly, without any warning, Ellie felt a wave of dizziness and passed out. Before she lost consciousness, Ellie heard several panicked voices.
It seemed like Aria was calling out to her.
Ellie woke up to find herself on the infirmary bed again, with a strawberry-flavored candy still in her mouth.
Aria said, "Ellie, you scared me to death."
"I saw you faint from afar and almost died of fright."
"It's okay, just a case of low blood sugar."
The school nurse looked at Ellie and said, "You're too thin; you need to eat more."
Sarah echoed, "Indeed, you're too thin. It's pitiful how thin you are." She remembered Ellie in a skirt at the school sports day, very thin, and it seemed she had become even thinner.
Ellie responded, "Okay." After she finished speaking, she asked, "Did you guys bring me here?"
At this, Sarah paused and said, "No, it was William. He said he had other things to do and left."
At that time, when she saw Ellie faint, she ran over, but William was faster.
The wind blew the young man's hair as he ran quickly. He stopped in front of Ellie, gently lifted her head to lean on himself, and then asked Aria, "What happened to her? Low blood sugar again?"
"She fainted suddenly; it seems like low blood sugar."
"I'll take her to the infirmary."
After saying this, William took out a candy from his pocket, put it into her mouth, and then picked up Ellie and ran towards the infirmary. Ellie looked tiny in his arms.
He always felt that Ellie was thinner and lighter than last time, even though it was winter and she was wearing so many clothes, how could she have become lighter.
Aria and Sarah could hardly keep up with William's pace.
William put her in the infirmary and was about to leave.
Sarah asked him, "Why are you leaving after bringing her here?"
William looked back at Ellie and said, "I have other things to do."
Sarah didn't say anything and watched him leave.
She always felt that these two people were acting a bit strange now.
Even in last week's physical education class, she didn't see the two of them talking, not a single exchange.
Ellie was taken aback to hear that it was William who brought her here, then she said, "I understand."
"Do you want to lie down for a while longer, Ellie?"
Ellie shook her head: "No, I'm fine."
Back in the class, Ellie didn't see William again.
Not until the evening study session did she see him return.
Adrian thought he was focused during the evening study session, until he sat next to Ellie.
The first time he saw Ellie working on the materials provided by the school, he didn't think there was anything unusual, but then he took a closer look and found that Ellie had almost finished the materials.
And Ellie spent every day working on the materials and previewing on her own.
After finishing the materials today, she took out another set of her own materials to work on.
Adrian took a look.
Wow.
He couldn't understand a single problem.
He watched Ellie circle and mark on them, then roughly wrote a few steps for solving the problems.
He couldn't help but ask, "Ellie, what problem are you working on?"
Ellie showed him the cover and said, "It's just the advanced version of Olympiad problems."
Adrian: Okay, the straight A student is indeed different. He can't even solve Olympiad problems, and she has started on the advanced version.
"Why did you only write a few steps?"
Ellie pointed to those steps and said, "I usually skip problems that I can solve at a glance. For challenging ones, I write down the general steps, and for the really difficult ones, I list out each step."
Adrian said, "Ellie, you're right, this saves a lot of problem-solving time."
The bad news is that he can't do it.
Ellie hummed and said, "It does save time, so I usually do problems this way."
Adrian felt that sitting with Ellie made him study harder.
"But I haven't seen you working on this set of materials before. Did you just buy it?" Adrian asked, then felt like he was asking a silly question. She had already worked through half of it, and he was asking if it was new.
Ellie said, "No, I usually work on it at home. I finished ahead of schedule today, so I'm working on this one."
"Ellie, sitting with you is a constant motivation to study. I need to continue working on my problems."
Ellie smiled at him.
Adrian instantly felt full of fighting spirit. He could do it. He was going to tackle three sets of papers tonight.
...
William went to the supermarket and bought several bags of candy.
While checking out, Daniel looked at the bags of candy in his hand and asked in confusion, "William, when did you become so fond of candy?"
William didn't answer, just paid and stuffed the candy into his pocket.
Because Ellie had fainted from low blood sugar before.
So, since that day, he always carried candy with him.
At first, it was for emergencies.
Later, it was to buy for her, to buy for her to eat.
...
William didn't come back until the second period of the evening study session.
Ellie looked up at him, then lowered her head again.
After class, she went to William and whispered, "Thank you for today."
William didn't lift his head and said, "It's just a small act of kindness."
Ellie felt strangely distant.
As if they were strangers.
William watched her back and wanted to say eat more, she's too thin now.
He touched the bag of candy in his drawer.
He inexplicably remembered the time when he found a bag of candy in his drawer before.
She was really easy to blush.
And very cute.