What Gu Fei said was about himself, but Jiang Cheng had the same feeling.

Who cared about who, it really was a difficult thing.

Everyone desired it, yet not everyone could get that kind of devotion in return.

"Your previous scores," Gu Fei took out his phone, "Look now?"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng's brows furrowed. "Did it break 630?"

Gu Fei didn't answer immediately, frowning slightly. "As expected, Pan Zhi's words aren't reliable."

"628, very good already," Gu Fei opened the voice message Pan Zhi had sent and held the phone to his ear. "Listen to what he said."

"Old Yuan said, he didn't even finish reviewing, and the grading this time was especially strict. He graded this paper strictly too. I took a look at the rankings, total score fourth place, only two points lower than third place. Based on his previous level it's about the same, didn't regress. Also, he didn't lose points for handwriting this time. You know how his writing was shit before right, but he managed to not write like shit while reviewing and practicing writing at the same time. You say isn't he awesome?"

Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue and gave the phone back to Gu Fei.

"The test itself was hard and graded harshly," Gu Fei said.

"What was first place's score?" Jiang Cheng asked.  

"637," Gu Fei looked at him.

Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue again.

He was silent for a while, then clicked his tongue again. Then he couldn't stop clicking his tongue from the classroom all the way to the school gate, clicking probably over eighty times until his mouth felt dry.

"Is your tongue okay?" Gu Fei sighed.

"Nine points difference," Jiang Cheng said.  

"Nine," Gu Fei corrected him.

"Nine, just one question," Jiang Cheng's brows furrowed. "This is the gap."

"Still over two months left," Gu Fei said.

"Go all out," Jiang Cheng waved his arm.

Gu Fei was probably the only one who could understand what Jiang Cheng meant by "go all out".

After all, Jiang Cheng's total score on No. 4 High School's first mock exam was 648, ranking first in the city. Teacher Xu was so excited his lips trembled on the podium.

Only Gu Fei knew that for Jiang Cheng, the difficulty of this test paper was low. Even though their school was the best high school in the city, it still couldn't compare to the affiliated high school from before.

By Jiang Cheng's standards, he still needed to go all out.

Simply two words, but daunting to accomplish.

Gu Fei always felt Jiang Cheng was already going all out, but didn't know he could go even further beyond that.

In fact the daily study time didn't increase, but Jiang Cheng's concentration was clearly more focused. The time spent glancing at him during review greatly decreased.

Even when eating midnight snacks, his eyes would linger on his books.

This Jiang Cheng astonished Gu Fei, and made him proud, but as days slowly passed, what he increasingly felt more was anxiety.

This is the gap.

Jiang Cheng had said this before.

For Jiang Cheng, the gap referred to those few points.

But for him, the gap was much more complex.

If you traced this gap back to its origin, you'd keep going deeper, until in the end you'd realize, from the very root, the gap had always been there.

These gaps, as time dragged on, as the environment changed, as the people around them changed, would slowly widen bit by bit. One year, two years, three years...in the end it might become a chasm that two high school students relying on each other simply couldn't fill, no matter how deep their feelings.

"Gu Fei." Jiang Cheng put his book down.

"Hm?" Gu Fei looked at him.

"Massage my neck a bit?" Jiang Cheng smiled.

Gu Fei went behind him and slowly kneaded his neck. "Here?"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng had his head lowered, his hand touching the book again. "Feels nice."

"Take a break?" Gu Fei asked.

"On break now," Jiang Cheng retracted his hand again. He tilted his head after a moment. "Oh right, I want to ask you something."

"What?" Gu Fei stroked his cheek.

"Have you been in a bad mood recently?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Have I?" Gu Fei laughed. "You can still notice things like this?"

"No?" Jiang Cheng looked back at him.

"No," Gu Fei said. "I'm just...a bit anxious."

"Anxious about what?" Jiang Cheng was a bit confused.

"Hard to say," Gu Fei thought for a moment. "After all I'm someone taking the gaokao too."

"Psh," Jiang Cheng was stunned for a moment, then laughed for a while. "How is it I don't believe you when you say it like that."

"Then what could I say that you'd believe," Gu Fei also laughed.

"If you said you liked me," Jiang Cheng tilted his head back, leaning against his stomach. "I'd believe that."

"I like you," Gu Fei looked down at him. "Super duper ultra unbelievable shocking electrifying like."