Chapter 128

"Students who've already arrived help those who haven't yet," Old Liu thought, then amended, "Next time, move them after school on Sunday noon."

Saying that, Old Liu didn't dawdle—he left right away.

The classroom buzzed with activity as students began moving desks.

Li Hua pressed down on Huang Fang's desk. "Fangfang, Lijiang Nian and I will move your stuff—you just pack up and bring your and Zhang Nizhi's chairs."

Huang Fang, clearly used to it, nodded.

"Alright, thanks, group leader."

Zhang Nizhi's things were numerous, and her book basket was extremely heavy.

She used a transparent storage box bought online; Jiang Nian used a five-yuan basket from the school store. Relatively speaking, the storage box was sturdier.

Moving the desks was tricky—Jiang Nian had to pass by the podium. Since the podium was narrow, people kept cutting through it for a shortcut, making him impatient.

The weekly quiz wasn't a major exam, so the book baskets didn't need to be moved outside the classroom—only the desks needed clearing; the baskets stayed with the desks.

Lifting the book basket with both hands, Jiang Nian felt no strain at all.

If the force were more concentrated, he could probably lift it easily with one hand. Rich people rely on tech, poor people rely on mutations, and the elite rely on systems.

Huh huh huh—whose girlfriend's leaking air? He turned to see Li Hua panting after carrying the basket.

"So weak?"

"You don't understand—I'm faking it," Li Hua straightened up, stubbornly insisting.

Ma Guojun's new seat was just one aisle away from Li Hua's group.

The desks were all moved; the exam wasn't imminent, so the three decided to chat outside in the hallway.

Autumn darkness fell quickly, and the weather was more comfortable than summer's.

Ma Guojun couldn't help but smirk, sidling up to Li Hua and adjusting his glasses.

"Why don't you swap seats with someone in your group? Then we could chat."

"Zhang Nizhi? She hasn't even shown up—you'll have to ask her." Li Hua turned to Jiang Nian. "Will she come tonight for the exam?"

"She's almost here—probably at the school gate now."

Ma Guojun was stunned. "Whoa, Jiang Nian knows that precisely?"

Jiang Nian leaned on the railing, expression utterly indifferent.

"Good relationship like this? Next time, team up with Yao Beibei and isolate you two."

"You and Zhang Nizhi—are you two dating?" Ma Guojun lowered his voice. "We're bros, whisper it—anyone who leaks it's a traitor."

"No, just good friends," Jiang Nian shook his head.

"Still pretending."

"How to put it? I can't date—I've got barely any money. I want to keep it for myself," Jiang Nian turned to his two "good sons."

"Fuck!"

"Fuck! You're such a bastard!"

Li Hua and Ma Guojun both cursed simultaneously, a thousand grassy horses galloping through their minds. What abstract nonsense—why doesn't he just die?

After chatting a while, the three entered the classroom together.

Jiang Nian had just returned to his seat when his gaze swept the back row and paused for an instant.

"Class monitor?"

When he switched seats earlier, he'd been too busy talking to Li Hua and Ma Guojun to notice the back-row changes.

Li Qingrong looked up at him and nodded.

"Mm."

The class monitor was pretty boring—he should tone it down a bit.

Even though Li Qingrong's skin glowed pale and luminous under the lights—truly, delicate as if it could burst—and her beauty was top-tier, if he revealed his perverted side…

Like involuntarily saying things like, "Class monitor, your skin is so nice, I really wanna slurp it," he'd never survive in this class.

After thinking it over, he nodded back, saying nothing.

In the middle seat of the fifth row, Yu Tongjie stared blankly at his desk.

Things had deviated slightly from his plan. He'd expected Li Qingrong's seat to be pushed back to the fourth row—right in front of him.

Who knew she'd switched within the group too? Now she was directly in front of Jiang Nian.

Was it because sitting as Empress Dowager made the blackboard hard to see?

Yu Tongjie's heart churned with mixed emotions. He clenched his fists, vowing to score six hundred by month's end—only then could he petition the homeroom teacher to switch groups under the guise of studying.

Six hundred—would he win?

Not long after, Zhang Nizhi arrived late.

She entered the classroom with her bag slung over her shoulder, head down, walking quickly. When she reached the third major group, she saw unfamiliar faces and froze.

Shit! Did she walk into the wrong class?!

By the classroom door, Huang Fang stood up and waved.

"Zhi Zhi, over here."

For Zhang Nizhi, Class Three was a new class—she'd only transferred a month ago, and being introverted, she barely recognized most classmates.

Hearing Empress Fangfang's voice, she nearly cried with relief.

Thank goodness she hadn't gotten lost—otherwise she'd be utterly humiliated.

She returned to Group One, now seated in the second row of the first major group, next to the aisle. Li Hua sat inside; Jiang Nian remained in the middle.

He propped his chin on his hand, still wearing a smug grin.

"Switched seats?"

Zhang Nizhi frowned, sat down with pursed lips, and muttered quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did want to call out to you, but…" he spread his hands, "you ran off so fast, I couldn't stop you. I thought someone's rabbit cage was left open."

"Hmph, rabbits are pretty cute too," said Zhang Ningzhi.

"I think so too—I even adopted one last time," he said.

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi's eyes instantly lit up, sparkling brightly.

"You've got rabbits at home? How many? Can you send me a picture?"

Jiang Nian suddenly became shy. "I don't have enough money—I only adopted half a spicy-flavored one."

Zhang Ningzhi: "..."

Too cheap.

"Jiang, you're truly a newborn!" Li Hua turned around and scolded, "You eat rabbits and don't even leave me a bite? Fine, you're paying me fifty today!"

"Don't distract me from studying, day after day," Jiang Nian stabbed him in the back. "Monitor, I'm reporting Li Hua for talking."

Li Hua was terrified—damn, he'd forgotten the monitor was behind him.

Damn, Jiang Nian really is a newborn! He's turning a chicken feather into an imperial decree!

Zhang Ningzhi also realized the monitor was behind them, glanced back once, then yanked her gaze away and quietly turned back, wearing an adorable "Oh my god" expression.

Li Qingrong showed no reaction, glanced curiously at their antics, then lowered her head and continued reading.

A few minutes later, the Chinese class representative brought over a stack of test papers and answer sheets.

"Ahem, the exam will begin in ten minutes."

The class began moving seats voluntarily, just like last week—by student ID number.

Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong's seats were next to each other again, but this time side-by-side, not front-and-back. Still, no one cared—they were all frantically writing.

When he looked up again, two hours had passed.

Jiang Nian wrote essays quickly—he was among the fastest in class at finishing Chinese exams. High school argumentative essays had formulas; no need to fabricate stories about being sick.

Clichéd, sure—but that's just the essay format.

Break down the prompt, solve it, write it. Argumentative essays? Honestly, they're useless. High Gaokao scores have nothing to do with literature, and you'll never use them later.

In short—no practical use.

He finished it in a flash, then started his usual routine.

Pretending to look out the window, he was actually staring at the monitor. But this staring required technique—no focus, just go dumb, relax, relax, then sneak glances.

Li Qingrong was still writing the conclusion of her essay—usually a few dozen words per paragraph: a proverb + central thesis, then one imperative sentence.

Suddenly sensing a gaze, she turned her head—who's the idiot in Class Three?

Oh, it's Jiang Nian.

Then it's fine.

Boys are weird, especially Jiang Nian and Li Hua's group. Together all day, either in heat or providing the class with comedy.

"What's wrong?" Li Qingrong asked.

"Oh~" Jiang Nian feigned daydreaming, then snapped back. "Finished too early, got bored, wandered off."

This was a lie—in truth, before evening self-study, he'd used "Immunity to Fatigue." Otherwise, he couldn't have finished the Chinese exam in two hours and been gawking at the girl.

Li Qingrong hummed, then continued writing the final paragraph.

She lifted her pen—but hesitated to write.

Her mind was unsettled. She turned to him.

"Can you not watch me write my essay?"

"Oh oh, sorry," Jiang Nian immediately looked away.

Girls never liked having their essays watched—like underwear, it was private. Boys were different—they didn't even wear underwear.

Boys loved sharing their weird essays with friends, laughing together. But if the score was too low, they'd still break down alone under the covers at night.

He stretched his neck to spy on Ma Guojun diagonally to his right. "Old Ma, Old Ma."

"Check this out."

No proctor during the weekly test, and teachers were all in meetings on weekends. Naturally, during the final half-hour of the Chinese exam, the classroom grew restless.

Discipline Committee member Cai Xiaoqing tried to enforce order twice, then gave up.

Li Qingrong finished her essay, checked it three times, still felt it wasn't perfect. She pondered a moment—this wasn't the test's problem.

The problem was Jiang Nian.

She turned, staring at Jiang Nian, whose body was practically flying out of the aisle just to chat.

Poke.

Jiang Nian felt his left leg in the seat brushed—he saw Ma Guojun's face freeze, then immediately turn away.

A son fears his father—deep in his bones.

He turned—and saw Li Qingrong staring at him.

Jiang Nian tried to play dumb. "Monitor, what's up?"

Li Qingrong stared seriously, pointing at her hair.

"Changed hair tie."

Huh? Jiang Nian froze for a second, eyes darting, then gave a thumbs-up.

"Beautiful. Top-tier taste."

For some reason, Jiang Nian saw satisfaction in the monitor's eyes. Wait, woman, what do you even think I am—a blessing-bringing witch?

But he and Li Qingrong weren't close.

Though his thoughts were lively, he always spoke cautiously, never overstepping. After all, they'd only played basketball once—and hadn't even added each other on QQ.

Not to mention WeChat, the highest-level communication tool.

But for now, Jiang Nian had no intention of asking the monitor for her QQ. It wasn't some loser theory—adding people in the class group was easy—but

the monitor didn't surf the internet, so he couldn't crack jokes with her to open a conversation.

He could even imagine the chat scene after adding her.

"Monitor, here's my QQ (laughing-crying emoji)."

Not knowing what to say, just send a laughing-crying emoji and be done with it, then the monitor replies with a "hmm."

No topic, so adding QQ is just collecting stamps?

Collect a hundred female Gao San QQs, then brag about it to your dorm mates in college. Then your dorm mates beat you up: so you're still single because you have some hidden illness?

Hand in the paper.

Li Hua and Zhang Nenzhi switched seats. Hmm. Perhaps Zhang Nenzhi would have a slight disadvantage seeing the blackboard in class. But overall, the seat by the wall was still prime real estate.

At least Zhang Nenzhi was happy.

Ceng You also switched seats with Huang Fang—he wanted to play with his phone. Sitting by the aisle would've been ruined; he begged for ages before they agreed to swap.

Group Six was mirrored.

Jiang Nian sat in the middle, watching Li Hua pack his bag, eagerly awaiting the end of evening self-study. He kindly reminded him that starting this week, there would be four evening self-study sessions.

Li Hua quietly broke. His eyes lost all light.

Ma Guojun, across the aisle, pointed a chubby, Doraemon-like hand at Li Hua.

"Hahaha, look at this idiot."

In the brightly lit classroom, Yang Qiming lay slumped on his desk, feeling gloomy.

In the afternoon, his girlfriend, a junior, had argued with him at the bubble tea shop.

They were currently in a breakup state—though it was one-sided. The bitch was waiting for him to beg on his knees, to plead with her not to leave, to forgive him.

What had he done wrong?

Oh right, attitude problem—because she said Jiang Nian was handsome and his tone got a little off. Then the woman flipped out, dredged up old grievances, and finally threw out one line:

"You never xxxx! Every time you xxxx!"

These random accusations really got him red-hot.

The woman started by completely denying every good thing he'd ever done for her, as if he'd broken heavenly law, as if he were utterly wicked, denying his very person.

But breakup was impossible—he hadn't found a replacement yet.

They were in Gao San now; it was hard to find a replacement.

He'd keep licking for now. When she stopped letting him touch her, then break up. Or wait until she found someone else. Either way, he couldn't get labeled a scumbag—it was too risky.

Ring ring ring, after evening self-study ended.

Yang Qiming saw Jiang Nian pick up his bag and leave the classroom, and he couldn't help but recall the scene from the bubble tea shop. He sighed—this guy really played it fancy.

After washing up in the dorm, Lin Dong suddenly remembered yesterday's topic.

He ran to Yang Qiming's bed, grinning with that knowing tone all guys understand.

"Qiming, how was your date today? Was it fun?"

Yang Qiming rolled over in his top bunk, facing away from Lin Dong, mumbling:

"Fun as hell—I broke up."

"Really broke up?"

"Huh? Dongge, you seem kinda happy?" Yang Qiming sat up, giving him a suspicious look. "You're hoping I break up?"

"How could I? Where would we hear stories if you broke up?" Lin Dong brushed it off. "So what happened? Tell us, bro."

"Yeah, absolutely won't spread it—no outsiders in the dorm." His roommate chimed in.

Yang Qiming rolled over again, stroked his chin, and thought for a moment.

"Fine. The story starts with Jiang Nian."

"Jiang Nian? Did he outshine you?"

"No, not at all. He just passed by—five seconds, tops."

"Five seconds outshined you?"

"Pure love! Not outshined! He wouldn't even be interested in a girlfriend like mine who's just got a body." Yang Qiming said something strange.

The roommates froze. A breakup story starting with a man? And you say this isn't a yellow-hair opening?

Blah blah blah—Yang Qiming finished telling his story. Lin Dong's dorm fell instantly silent.