Chapter 129: Surrounded by Heavenly Prodigies

"No, so what does this have to do with Jiang Nian?"

"I never said it had anything to do with him," Yang Qiming protested.

"There's still a little connection—after all, if Brother Yang had admitted back then that Jiang Nian was handsomer than him, maybe he wouldn't have argued with his girlfriend or broken up."

Yang Qiming was speechless. "I'd rather argue."

What joke is this? Admitting in front of your girlfriend that another guy is more handsome? Say something like "he's hot," and you'll never get hard again.

"That's real guts—you're truly a Zhennan man," Lin Dong stoked the fire, not caring how big the drama got. "So what if she's a girl? Break up, break up. Brother Yang can find another."

He was a man of principles, always trying to reconcile Yu Zhiyi and Wu Jun Gu. But because she was special—extremely feminine, extremely 【

Lin Dong had zero interest in anyone else, let alone Yang Qiming's girlfriend. So his advice to break up early was genuinely sincere.

But Yang Qiming shook his head seriously.

"Not breaking up."

The dorm, lights long off, was filled with stifled laughter. Huang Cailang stuck his head out of the bathroom, still covered in bubbles, squinting and shouting.

"Why not? Brother Yang, you're not a lapdog, are you?"

Blunt words, hitting right where it hurt.

"Lapdog? Pfft!" Yang Qiming snapped.

Huang Cailang was the most repressed guy in the dorm. If he thought that, it basically meant everyone else thought the same.

"It's not like that," Yang Qiming said, looking at his roommates who were all watching the show. "Do you know how much I've invested to be with her?"

"Milk tea, breakfast, packed meals—I spend over two thousand a month. If we break up now, I won't even recoup my costs."

The damp dorm fell silent again for a second.

In the dark, Lin Dong spoke up.

"When you say 'recoup costs,' you mean…?"

"Of course that—after all, I'm not Wu Jun Gu," Yang Qiming lowered his voice. "Do you think I'm a lapdog who doesn't expect anything in return?"

"Sleep, sleep. I've got to get up at five forty tomorrow."

"So early? The dorm just opened. What are you going to do?" Lin Dong asked.

Yang Qiming pulled his blanket tighter and turned his back to sleep.

"Buy breakfast. She wants those riverbank rice rolls."

"No way—it's three kilometers from campus!" Huang Cailang exclaimed. "Brother Yang, you're not much better! You still claim you're not a lapdog?"

"I already said I'm not. Say whatever you want. A bunch of guys who haven't even touched a girl—you don't know shit. I'm a War Wolf."

Lin Dong and Huang Cailang exchanged a glance, utterly exasperated.

The lapdog's delusional now.

"By the way, did Jiang Nian go to the milk tea shop on a date?" Huang Cailang spotted the blind spot and poked Yang Qiming's butt with a clothespole from above.

"Dunno. Two girls invited him. I thought they were the two girls from Lin Dong's group." Yang Qiming shifted but didn't turn over, mumbling into the wall.

"And then?" Lin Dong pressed.

"I didn't know them. Not from our class," Yang Qiming sighed. "They were playing cards and singing there—really splurging."

"Brother Yang, were they hot?" Huang Cailang asked.

"I didn't have the mood to look. I was just broken up with."

The next day.

Jiang Nian hadn't finished his morning reading for long when he left his seat to use the restroom. On returning through the back door, he saw Lin Dong hiding in the corner eating rice rolls and walked over.

"You're eating this stuff in class at this hour?"

"Yang Qiming gave it to me. His girlfriend confiscated his rice rolls," Lin Dong chuckled. Since being pinned against the wall by Skinned Liuli, he'd become much more subdued.

He'd been watching the drama all this time—never expected to actually taste a lapdog's rice rolls.

This gave Lin Dong an idea: maybe he should encourage Yang Qiming to go all-in. He'd already advised against it—useless. Better to push him further, and maybe he could benefit too.

"Yang Qiming?" Jiang Nian blinked, the name sounding familiar.

"You met him yesterday at the milk tea shop," Lin Dong swallowed a bite of rice roll and offered some to Sun Zhicheng. "Ah Cheng, you want some?"

"No, no," Sun Zhicheng's expression turned uneasy.

He stood at his desk, holding his vocabulary book for morning reading, his feet nervously rubbing under the table. Eating street-market rice rolls? Lin Dong had balls the size of boulders—the enemy was already across the river.

Eat rice rolls? Eat your mom!

Wait, why is Jiang Nian wandering over to our group?

The English class rep is just a dead weight—just letting this guy disrupt morning reading? He scores 140 in English, he doesn't need to memorize words, but others are still studying!

Thinking this, Sun Zhicheng took a deep breath.

He glanced at Jiang Nian bathed in morning light—his short hair, unobstructing his brow, neat and sharp. In the pale yellow dawn, he wondered if Jiang Nian's uniform had been altered.

Fuck, male hoe!

"Oh, right—I remember now," Jiang Nian thought. So that guy was Yang Qiming. "He and his girlfriend seemed to have argued—I saw them."

Chen Yunyun stirred beside him, eager to speak.

The moment Jiang Nian arrived, she'd wanted to talk. But the idiot group leader had stolen the spotlight, eating rice rolls and chatting, leaving her no opening.

So annoying!

They'd switched seats—and now they were farther apart than Tiannanhaibei.

She asked curiously, "Did you go to the milk tea shop yesterday afternoon?"

"Two girls invited me over, so I went to hang out for a bit," Jiang Nian omitted some details. "How was your day? Fun?"

"It was fun—the older sister offered to give us free lessons," Chen Yunyun, though blunt, was perceptive. "But we didn't let her teach—she looked too busy."

"Then we hung out a bit and went back to the dorm."

"Hmm, she's really busy indeed."

Sun Zhicheng in the back row had his face almost pressed against his vocabulary book. Thinking of yesterday's experience, he wished he were dead.

The professional knowledge he'd prepared in advance had been crushed by that female coach. He was utterly dominated during equipment training by Wang Yuhe, and his stamina couldn't even match Chen Yunyun's.

His entire state was just running back and forth.

In the end, he returned defeated, emo for the whole afternoon.

But what pleased him was that he and Chen Yunyun didn't seem affected by his ridiculous confession. So everything had returned to square one.

He still had a chance—start as friends first.

After Jiang Nian left, Sun Zhicheng cleared his throat.

"He went to the bubble tea shop with two girls?"

As he spoke, he stole a glance at Chen Yunyun. He couldn't say he was gleeful, but at least he felt a bit happy—this meant Jiang Nian had no intention of competing with him.

He'd already blown his own cover—what's there to compete for?

Girls care a lot about one trait in guys: loyalty.

He was loyal, and he was persistent.

But Chen Yunyun merely gave Sun Zhicheng a puzzled look.

"Didn't you go to the gym with us yesterday too?"

Hearing this, the words Sun Zhicheng wanted to say stuck in his throat.

Yeah, he'd gone yesterday too—so why wasn't he happy at all? That was just friends hanging out together, suffering through a tour.

No, how could these two things be the same?

Jiang Nian was at the bubble tea shop with two girls! Did he do dumbbells too? With his face like that, you could guess it was definitely not kid-friendly!

After the morning exams, Jiang Nian was utterly exhausted.

After school, Li Hua sidled up.

"Nian, what did you pick for the last multiple-choice math question?"

"Get lost! Don't talk to me about this!" Jiang Nian's vision darkened at the sight of Li Hua; he grabbed his collar outright. "If you dare say the answer, I'll drag you down from the fourth floor."

"Alright, alright, I'll ask someone else." Li Hua slipped away, then joined another group.

Jiang Nian watched as this guy had taken over the prime spot, already pointing at his test paper with a pen, surrounded by a circle of boys with buzz cuts and black-rimmed glasses.

Damn, it's awesome to be good at math.

"Jiang Nian, can I check my English answers against yours?" A girl tugged his sleeve. Jiang Nian turned and recognized her—she was from the monitor's group.

Her name was... Nie Xiaoqian? No, Nie Qiqi.

Why does that sound so much like a fox's name?

"Sure, take it." Jiang Nian handed it over.

"Oh, thanks~." Nie Qiqi grabbed the test paper and skipped away happily.

Jiang Nian was about to go eat when he noticed a third of the class still stayed in the classroom after lunch, checking answers. He found it strange—weren't they hungry?

After lunch, Chen Yunyun and the others were gone.

He remembered Chen Yunyun saying that Monday's exam had a long nap break, perfect for washing hair. Probably as soon as the exam ended, she dragged Wang Yuhe off to the dorm to fetch water and wash her hair.

The classroom had few people. Jiang Nian saw a boy near the back door writing homework—tall and thin, buzz cut, dark skin, wearing his school jacket.

He seemed to be Luo Zhongping—he had a faint memory of him.

It wasn't the right time to greet him, so Jiang Nian sat down, pulled out his Physics 5-3, and stared at its purple cover—his composure cracked.

Thick as a stack, you'd have to kneel for half a day to burn it for your ancestors.

High school homework was never-ending; if you wanted to do it, you'd never have spare time.

Blue "Must-Do Problems," green "Do It Once," yellow "Crush Small Questions," Test Research, 45 Sets, Final Problems, Fifteen Years of Past Papers—pick till your eyes spin.

Textbooks were equally varied: "Textbook Helper," "Top Student Notes," all kinds of handwritten notes, knowledge lists—buy and you'll cry, look and you'll fall silent.

Jiang Nian had bought almost nothing, only one Physics 5-3. The Math 5-3 was a gift from Xu Qianqian; so far, it had yielded almost nothing—he barely touched it.

For Biology, he bought "Do It Once," recommended by Qing Bao. She said "Must-Do Problems" were too basic, and this one was harder, better suited for someone with his foundation.

He hadn't spent a cent on English or Chinese.

That's why his book bag didn't look heavy—mostly just school-issued review materials, thick and thin booklets, and piles of test papers.

As he worked on the test, he silently calculated in his mind.

Ignoring Chinese and English, his weaknesses were obvious. In the end, he needed at least six hundred points to qualify for a top university outside the province.

Hmm... staying in the province wasn't impossible. Jiang Nian truly loved his hometown. But too many people loved it too—he couldn't get a spot.

So if possible, he'd rather go love someone else's hometown.

Fuck, I'm a cuckoo.

No, he wasn't going to destroy someone else's hometown—he was going to join it.

It wasn't just Jiang Nian who lacked loyalty; everyone around him was the same.

If Li Hua pulled up his English, he might go to Huazhong U or HIT. Empress Fangfang? Unknown—the value of the ordinary-person path was still rising.

Yao Beibei said she wanted Xiamen University; Baby Zhizhi wouldn't stay in the province. Xu Qianqian the Demon Queen even more so—though neither had said where they wanted to go.

As for Jiang Nian, he just wanted to leave the province and secure a solid 211.

It seemed easy, but the Gaokao had too many variables.

First, his Science Comprehensive needed to hit around 250; his Math had to stabilize at 130. Chinese had to hold at 110, and English could afford a few points lost.

An ideal score of 600+, but reality would slash it in half. To reliably get into an out-of-province 211, if ranked high enough... 985 was up to luck.

Jiang Nian was quite satisfied with this—he had a science score of 200, what could he even dream of?

Just carry the lantern and walk forward—that's all.

In the afternoon, the comprehensive-science weekly test.

In the final minute of the exam, Jiang Nian scrambled to fill in the last few multiple-choice questions. His heart was pounding out of his chest, but luckily he just barely made it before time was called.

Finally, it was over.

A rather twisted thought suddenly popped into Jiang Nian's head—he hoped Li Hua's comprehensive-science score would be a bit lower. Just for this weekly test, of course. He wanted to hear the sound of him breaking down.

Watching him go crazy, running around the classroom waving his test paper, letting out an Uchiha-style cackle from his mouth.

Grabbing anyone he saw, "Look at this, I was such an idiot on this question!"

"Got four wrong in a row! Hahaha, I'm laughing at myself!"

Evening self-study, comparing answers.

Li Hua suddenly stood up, stared at his test paper, and sucked in a cold breath.

A few class representatives were still copying the answers onto the blackboard, but Li Hua had already gotten the full answer key from the office ahead of time—one had to admit, the son of science really did get special treatment.

Jiang Nian, the benevolent father, and Ma Guojun, the elder brother, both noticed their good son's mental abnormality at the first moment.

The two of them turned their heads in unison and offered their friendly concern.

"What's wrong? Got ten wrong?"

"Did you fill in the answer sheet backwards?"

Li Hua flicked his test paper, a look of joy on his face.

"All the multiple-choice questions are correct."

"Sigh, let's give him a wedgie after class." Jiang Nian looked at Ma Guojun.

"Works for me."

Suddenly, a loud thigh-slap rang out across the classroom.

"Oh yeah! Got all the biology multiple-choice questions right!"

Li Hua was speechless. "Dong Wensong's an idiot, yelling that loud."

Ma Guojun pushed his glasses up. "That's just how Bro Bi is. Wait for it, he'll start wailing again in a bit."

Sure enough, Bro Bi started wailing again.

"Dammit! I picked the wrong answer on the last physics multiple-choice question! My reasoning was all correct! Ugh, I'm done, I swear! So sick of it."

"I clearly knew how to do this one, I just misread it!"

In the rowdy classroom, someone deliberately lowered their voice and let out a hurried curse.

"Shut the hell up, you simpleton!"

The whole class burst into laughter at once. Dong Wensong couldn't find who said it for the moment, both angry and helpless.

Jiang Nian laughed along with them. He could tell that person was most likely Lin Dong.

Zhang Ningzhi was still slowly comparing answers, her little face taut.

Might as well look at the girl.

"How many did you get wrong on the comprehensive-science multiple-choice?" he leaned in and asked.

Zhang Ningzhi frowned, troubled. "Two."

Jiang Nian: "."

He sighed. Both of his deskmates were freaks. He turned his head and saw the class president in the seat behind.

"Class president, how many did you get wrong on the comprehensive-science multiple-choice?"

Hearing this, Li Qingrong looked up, her pink lips parting slightly.

"Zero."

It's over—he was surrounded by science prodigies.