Chapter 103

The evening clouds outside the window faded from pale purple to blue.

Night self-study; the classroom was utterly silent.

Jiang Nian, his mind numb from solving problems, gently set down his pen and knelt down.

Math isn't something you can improve through effort alone—you can only gain small, short-term progress. If your foundation isn't solid, raising your score above 110 is like inching forward an inch at a time, each inch harder than the last.

Beneath the bright lights, he turned his head toward Zhang Nianzhi.

His only daily pleasure was watching the beautiful girl; the side effect was that while looking, he wanted to lick her.

Too depressing.

But he couldn't blame himself—Zhang Nianzhi's skin was just too good.

It was like buying a bowl of ginger curd milk, leaving it there staring at it, and inevitably wanting to test how smooth and tender it was.

"Stop fantasizing, you depressing guy," Li Hua suddenly said, as if he'd gained mind-reading powers, "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking."

"What? I wasn't." Jiang Nian denied it.

The word "fantasy" was too vulgar—it ripped open his disguise and exposed his thoughts in one brutal stroke. Such a cruel critique; if he heard it again, he'd be utterly crushed.

"Our bio teacher is so beautiful—private tutoring? You're getting a deal!"

"Huh??" Jiang Nian was stunned.

Oh, so she wasn't talking about Baby Zhizhi—then it was fine.

"Still pretending? Don't tell me you didn't know the next night self-study is bio!" Li Hua's expression was like the Husky pointing meme.

"I've been watching you this whole time—you threw your pen away before self-study was even halfway over."

"Are you already looking forward to getting close to the bio teacher? Fucking depressing guy, you make me feel sick!"

Jiang Nian stared at Li Hua in confusion. "I never thought you liked women older than you?"

"What are you talking about?!" Li Hua panicked, dodging the topic. "It's you who's into her—don't shove that hat on me!"

Ha, the thoughts of a little freshman are so easy to read.

After self-study ended, the classroom buzzed with noise; Jiang Nian prepared to leave his seat to use the restroom.

Just as he was about to stand, Zhang Nianzhi suddenly poked him with her finger.

"Will the advanced class material be different from regular lessons?"

Every time Zhang Nianzhi turned to talk to him, her presence glowed vividly.

Like a vibrant spring day, she radiated a pure, well-protected feeling.

"This… how do I put it? I haven't had the class yet, so I don't know." Jiang Nian's abstract heart was occasionally moved; his pervert brain temporarily took a backseat.

"Our bio scores are about the same—I'll go over it with you again after class."

"Will that be too much trouble for you?" Zhang Nianzhi asked cautiously.

Jiang Nian said nothing, only stared at her smiling until she blushed and turned away, plopping her head onto the desk like a fish bubbling beneath the water.

After leaving the restroom, Jiang Nian didn't immediately return to the classroom.

Minutes remained before the bell; he leaned against the corridor, gazing at the distant lights.

He idly opened his task panel—the red "Pending" text was glaring.

The phone Lao Jiang suggested buying for Xu Qianqian was never given to her; his mom didn't send it. Too expensive, Xu Qianqian refused it, and eventually it ended up in Jiang Nian's hands.

Only seven months remain until the college entrance exam; every day is unbearable.

Xu Qianqian's grades are solid for a 985 university, but she's still far from Tsinghua or Peking. Still, with effort, she can pick a popular school and major within the 985 tier.

Jiang Nian won't score that high, but he isn't worried. The system has given him a boost—he's already taken off.

With a little more effort, getting into a decent 211 is no problem; push harder and he can get out of the province.

What happens after that? We'll see—after all, he has the system.

Even if the system vanished, it wouldn't matter—he'd just quit when necessary and let fate have no purchase on him.

Ding ding ding, back to self-study.

"Again, blowing air?" Chen Yunyun appeared beside him.

"Yeah, got urine on my hand—drying it off." He reached out as if to pull her. "I'm not sure if it's dry yet—let me use your sleeve to wipe."

"Eww! So gross!" Chen Yunyun recoiled instantly, made a face, and ran off.

Jiang Nian laughed, preparing to pull out his phone to check the delivery status.

He'd bought a lot these past two days: a large range hood, small items like a JK skirt.

Suddenly, he turned and saw Sun Zhicheng, head down, entering through the back door.

Before stepping inside, he glanced back, casting Jiang Nian a slow, lingering look.

Huh?

Jiang Nian froze, his brow slowly tightening.

Could Sun Zhicheng and Chen Yunyun be some kind of secret couple? If they were, he'd need to keep his distance from Chen Yunyun.

He'd always avoided high school couples—never curious, never involved. With Chen Yunyun, he was just a classmate chatting casually.

Guys don't touch cuckold stuff—it's too weird.

Guys with yellow hair never end well.

He loitered outside the corridor a while longer, then Zhong Qing arrived, telling him to bring a stool and fetch his textbook.

He did as told; outside the classroom, besides Zhong Qing, another girl suddenly appeared.

The girl looked familiar—she was the one he'd just seen today…

It was now the second night self-study; outside the classroom, the night was completely dark.

Zhong Qing took the stool from him and sat in the center of the desk.

Then she pointed to two small empty seats beside her, gesturing for them to sit closer together.

So it was that the stern Qingbao stood in the middle, with one person flanking her on each side.

"Jiang Nian, you turn to—" Qingbao got halfway through her sentence, seemed to think of something, paused, and said, "Forgot to mention, this is Yu Zhiyi from the class next door."

"You came up from the promoted class, so you probably don't know, but I teach both classes. I pick one student from each class for enrichment training, and you two are the ones chosen."

"If you have questions in the future, you can come find me directly at the Integrated Sciences office. Yu Zhiyi should know where my seat is; Jiang Nian, if you don't know, you can ask another teacher."

Zhong Qing's way of speaking was always ten parts of seriousness delivered with twelve parts of rigor.

Brief and to the point—one student per class, taught together for convenience. If you have something to discuss, come find me at the office directly. Don't get too close to each other in private—I'm not here to play matchmaker for you two.

Jiang Nian certainly wouldn't be having any contact with a succubus; he followed Qingbao's words closely and answered affirmatively.

"Got it!"

Zhong Qing's work was defined by its thoroughness. She carefully annotated the knowledge points in the textbook tables of contents for both Jiang Nian and Yu Zhiyi, telling them to do more practice problems in the relevant areas.

For Jiang Nian, the requirement was to do more problems, and she produced a handwritten problem guide she had long prepared.

"Follow this guide to find problems to do. I've clearly marked which page and which problem. Two big problems a day—that's not an issue, right?"

Faced with Qingbao's inquiry, Jiang Nian instantly became a member of the Qing Party—good teachers really are all in the olympiad circles!

"No problem."

"Mm, as for you, Yu Zhiyi. Your problem volume is sufficient, but your fundamentals are—" Qingbao turned to make a study plan for Yu Zhiyi, sorting out the knowledge points.

As soon as class ended, Jiang Nian grabbed his things and headed back to the classroom, keeping Qingbao's teachings firmly in mind.

Suddenly, he was called out by Yu Zhiyi.

"Classmate Jiang Nian, help me call Wu Jun Gu over."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian turned to glance at her and gave an "mm."

Monday girlfriend, succubus?

Back in the classroom, he happened to bump into Wu Jun Gu, who was about to leave his seat, so he passed the message along to him.

The latter nodded and quickened his pace out the door.

Jiang Nian took a curious glance, then withdrew his gaze.

The people he'd been running into lately all felt a bit strange to him—anyway, people dating in high school were generally pretty weird.

All sorts of unspeakable feelings, hiding and sneaking around.

Back at his seat, before he could even speak with Zhang Ningzhi, Li Hua pulled him aside.

"Hey, didn't I just hear Yu Zhiyi's voice?"

Jiang Nian shot him a look, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

"The other enrichment student Qingbao's mentoring, duh. Making a fuss over nothing."

"You!! How are you already calling her Qingbao?" Li Hua was shocked, his reaction even bigger than when he'd been sneakily asking about Yu Zhiyi just now. "Don't tell me you—"

Jiang Nian stroked his chin. "Yeah, Qingbao's really pretty, and she speaks so gently."

He gazed at Li Hua's anguished expression, his mood so pleasant he felt like he could eat a few extra bowls of rice tomorrow, and clapped him on the shoulder as he burst out laughing.

"Is something on your mind? You can tell me, I'll pass it along to Qingbao."

"Ah!! Why!?" Li Hua thumped his chest and stamped his feet, looking like a man who'd just lost his wife. "Why doesn't Qingbao notice me? Is it because my grades are too good?"

"Your mom, you can still show off at a time like this!" Jiang Nian was speechless, and turned to go talk to Zhang Ningzhi.

On the way home from evening self-study, everything was as usual.

Except for some unknown reason, Xu Qianqian had bought a small bowl of oden. With an agonized expression she gave her fish ball to him, which struck Jiang Nian as very strange.

But no matter how he asked, he couldn't get anything out of her.

Before bed, Xu Qianqian felt that most of her guilt toward Jiang Nian had dissipated. She immediately smiled happily and decided to forgive herself on Jiang Nian's behalf.

She pulled the little blanket over herself and drifted off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, just as she was sleeping soundly, she was suddenly woken up by her phone.

Xu Qianqian turned to look and saw that Jiang Nian had sent her several messages.

"Am I about to have something happen to me lately? Why are you being so nice to me? What did the master say to you? How much longer can I live? Damn it, I can't sleep."

"Xu Qianqian, are you asleep?"

"How can you sleep at a time like this!"

She stared blankly at the messages on her phone, and once she came to her senses, her fist clenched.

"Drop dead! Sending messages in the middle of the night!"

"What are you being crazy about!"

About three seconds later, "the other party is typing" appeared in the chat window.

Jiang Nian: "I just want to know why you've been acting so weird lately?"

Xu Qianqian, feeling guilty: "No I'm not."

Three seconds later, a line popped up in the chat window: "The thing I fear most is a friend's sudden concern; at least one of us doesn't have much time left. I'm freaking out right now."

Stirred up by Jiang Nian like this, Xu Qianqian lost all desire to sleep as well.

"You're the one who doesn't have much time left!"

"Huh? How much longer did the master say I can live?"

In the pitch-black room, Xu Qianqian gritted her teeth. She wriggled over and rolled over in bed, the screen's light falling on her face, and lay on her stomach replying to messages.

"One day."

"Holy shit, then can we discuss something? (squirming shyly)"

Seeing the coy emoji Jiang Nian had sent, Xu Qianqian immediately had a bad premonition. That birdman—no, wait, let me retract that—that sword-person definitely had nothing nice coming out of his mouth.

"What do you want?"

"You know, I'm still a vir—don't waste it."

"Get lost!" Xu Qianqian tapped her screen rapidly, sending over a dozen 【vomit】 stickers. "Stay away from me. If you keep bothering me while I'm trying to sleep, I'll block you!"

"Block me? Does that mean you want me to spend less time on my phone and actually keep you company in real life? So sweet, Xu Qianqian. So you do care about me."

"Stop grossing me out, bro, I'm begging you." Xu Qianqian surrendered. "Didn't I mock your math score the day before yesterday? I feel a tiny bit guilty about it."

【Panda sticker from the Yi Dian Universe set】

"Oh~ so your guilt amounts to... one breakfast plus two fish balls." Jiang Nian was typing. "Wait, you didn't already forgive yourself, did you?"

Xu Qianqian, who had been caught dead to rights, suddenly felt guilty, but still fired back a reply.

"I wasn't even wrong!"

"Oh damn, you really have no shame, Xu Qianqian!" Jiang Nian replied quickly. "You wrecked me with one sentence, gave me severe yuyu, and you..."

"You actually forgave yourself without permission?"

Xu Qianqian had soft lips but a hard backbone.

"What fault does this sovereign have?"

"Haha, Xu Qianqian, just you wait." Jiang Nian fired off a message. "Don't let me catch you tomorrow, or I swear you won't get off easy."

"Bleh!"

After ending the chat, Xu Qianqian found she couldn't quite fall asleep.

It was all Jiang Nian's fault, so she grabbed a plush toy from the bed and thumped it twice.

"Go die! Pervert!"

Early the next morning, Xu Qianqian slung her backpack over her shoulder and opened the door quietly.

She held her breath at the doorway and listened for a moment. Once she confirmed no one was around, she immediately slipped away. She wasn't feeling guilty—she just didn't want to run into that annoying guy first thing in the morning.

Sun Zhicheng was walking to school, swaying a little with every step.

He had gotten home at ten the night before and spent an hour building up his courage.

He spent two hours writing his confession. Then he lingered in Chen Yunyun's QQ chat window for another two hours.

Finally, at three in the morning, he made up his mind and sent the carefully edited confession.

The moment he hit send, he tossed his phone aside.

He lay in his room, clutching the blanket tightly, holding his breath.

His phone's notification volume was turned all the way up, so even the slightest movement would trigger a ding!

The Gao San academic affairs group required boarders to hand in their phones, only getting them back during the weekly holiday.

But Sun Zhicheng knew Chen Yunyun always had her phone on her—she'd handed in a dummy. And she liked to appear offline on QQ, but her account was always online.

However... three minutes passed. Five minutes passed.

Not a peep.

Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

Sun Zhicheng finally couldn't hold back, picked up his phone, and tapped to check the message. He stared at the timestamp in a daze for a moment, then slapped his forehead—he'd forgotten it was the middle of the night.

He barely forced himself to sleep, and the first thing he did when he groggily woke up in the morning was check his phone.

Ding—a notification sounded.

But when he opened it: 【QQ Reminder: Three friends have birthdays coming up】.

He spent the whole morning checking his phone, even refreshing QQ repeatedly on the way to school. Chen Yunyun must have seen it—why wasn't she replying? Was her phone dead?

Was his confession too long? It was only thirteen hundred words, every single one straight from the heart.

Even if she was going to reject him, she could've at least sent back a smiley.

His confession vanished without a trace, like casting a fishing line with the hook removed into the water. Afraid the fish would bite, yet afraid it wouldn't.

In a daze, he had already arrived at the classroom door. Only a few people from the class were there.

Sun Zhicheng mustered his courage and walked in, just in time to see Chen Yunyun carrying a white charger and heading toward the podium.

Suddenly, another girl grabbed Chen Yunyun.

"Yunyun, can I borrow your phone to log into QQ after morning self-study?"