Mari-San's Favorite

Chapters 22 - 50 are in the PRESENT TIME. Zhan Zheng Xi is in College and Jian Yi, who has been missing for 3 years, is now back and apparently living with him(?) as he makes up high school. The only background that we're given is that Jian Yi went missing the 2nd day of his and Zhan's first year of high school.

Chapters 51+ are set in the PAST. They're a flashback to Zhan's and Jian Yi's third year of Middle School (yes they are 15 and middle schoolers so calm your horny down a notch lol). We see the build up of the friendship between the four boys and their individual relationships. Everything we're reading now is building up to their middle school graduation and eventually the day that Jian Yi disappears.

EXCEPTIONS -- Some of the SPECIAL Chapters, such as Ch. 224 - The Christmas Special, are also set in the PRESENT. Which is why we see that the boys look a bit different, and in this specific chapter Jian Yi mentions that everyone else is in college but him (bc he has to make up high school).

As things have developed I'm sure the creator probably didn't realize this would be such a BIG project or so popular so they've probably have added and developed things in the PAST chapters, that don't translate well to the PRESENT chapters ( such as Zhan's Present personality in the early chapters being a bit more snappy and irritable, while his current Past personality actually shows him be a bit more laid back and mellow). DON'T look too much into it. Just enjoy things as they develop. The author may go back and revise the Present chapters to match things up a bit more.