Chapter 135: Baby, Do You Still Hate Me?

Li Hua had just entered the classroom when he saw Jiang Nian tactically lean back.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, sit down," Jiang Nian said, putting distance between them; then, seeing no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice and asked, "Did you wash your hands?"

Li Hua: "What joke is this? Do you think I'm like you?"

Jiang Nian gave him a suspicious look, then pointed at him and burst into wild laughter.

"You little brat, have you become a saint overnight?"

"Stop messing around, class is starting," Li Hua said with an exasperated expression, unwilling to dwell on the topic; he sat down and pulled out his exam paper to listen attentively.

He folded his arms on the desk like a primary school student, nodding along with the teacher's rhythm.

"Mm-hmm, top and bottom unchanged, near small, far large!"

Turning his head, Li Hua suddenly noticed a pair of sinister eyes fixed tightly on him; he jumped and said to Jiang Nian, who was staring.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Jiang Nian said nothing, his gaze passing over Li Hua to lock eyes with Ma Guojun across the aisle.

On the podium, the physics teacher was still explaining the clothesline problem; the old ceiling fan creaked as it spun, and the balding teacher's voice rose and fell dramatically.

"Step one: analyze the forces. The downward gravitational force mg, two upward tensions. Force analysis shows the rope tension at the pulley is equal."

Ma Guojun immediately concluded this had something to do with Li Hua, and that it was definitely something Li Hua didn't want to talk about.

He saw Jiang Nian make a two-finger gesture, then bend and move it up and down twice.

"Oh!!!" Ma Guojun instantly understood.

Ma Guojun and Jiang Nian's eyes met; they both squinted, exchanged a knowing smirk, then simultaneously swept their gazes toward Li Hua.

Li Hua felt like he was sitting on needles, sweat pouring down his forehead.

OK, stay calm.

Judging by the current situation: he was in the classroom, in physics class; all classmates were present, OK, eighty percent of his social circle was right here.

Worse still, his two best friends now knew his secret.

It was like there was a bomb in the class, but no one knew when it would explode!

No way, I can't take it anymore!

Li Hua suddenly stood up, took his exam paper, and went to stand at the back; overwhelmed by guilt, he remained completely silent for the rest of the afternoon's three classes.

During the final afternoon self-study session, Lin Dong and another boy left on leave.

Ceng You, having heard about the dorm relocation, also wanted to see the commotion and slipped away.

Huang Fang turned from her seat, glanced at Li Hua, thought for a moment, then decided to ask Jiang Nian.

"Why is the group leader so quiet today?"

"I'm usually like this too—a reserved handsome guy," Li Hua blurted out.

Jiang Nian and Ma Guojun both laughed; though they said nothing, they pressed down on Li Hua with immense pressure, like a gun pressed to his head.

A gun's intimidation is strongest when it's not fired.

"Strange, what's wrong with Li Hua?" Zhang Ningzhi was also curious; she'd been too busy listening in class to ask earlier, "He's never like this."

Jiang Nian laughed heartily, "What's he usually like?"

"He's always so…," Zhang Ningzhi hesitated to say the word 'show-off'—it was too crude—"so lively in science classes, like he wants to sit on the teacher's head."

"Hahaha!!!"

Students in front and back couldn't hold back anymore; they burst into laughter.

"Haha, ridiculous, sitting on the teacher's head."

"Come to think of it, damn, Li Hua really is like that," Ma Guojun leaned over from the narrow aisle, joining the chat with a grin, "Whenever they hand out weekly test papers, he jumps up."

"Like a damn monkey, he wants to sit on the teacher's head and pin the test scores to the blackboard. Such a pretentious, shameless bastard."

Li Hua's face turned bright red; he nearly retorted, but was paralyzed by the intimidation from Jiang and Ma.

He was paralyzed—they held his social death leverage.

The Era of Intimidation had begun.

"You!! You… how can you fabricate lies to smear someone's reputation!"

After he spoke, everyone around laughed; everyone in class knew exactly what kind of person Li Hua was, and now even the transfer students knew.

Behind the second row, several boys glanced toward the group laughing by the door.

"Envious—they're still laughing and joking so close to the exam."

"Who says? If you score full marks in science, you can strip down on the podium and the principal will clean up after you."

"Fuck off, that's your fetish!"

Suddenly, someone spoke up.

"The big month-end joint exam is coming—aren't Jiang Nian and the other two transfer students worried?"

"Who? Are Jiang Nian and the other two transfer students? Isn't there only one transfer student in our class?"

"I don't know, didn't they transfer in last year?"

"????"

After lunch in the afternoon, the sky had grown dark.

Jiang Nian passed the basketball court; people were still playing in the dim light. He checked his phone—over ten new messages.

Usually no one messaged him at all; since they saw each other every day, they just talked face-to-face. They were all free-spirited folks.

Xu Qianqian certainly wouldn't message him—she'd at most send a number via WeChat.

Need a few bucks? Send that many numbers.

Half of their WeChat chat history consisted of text; the other half was numbers and transfer records.

Xu Qianqian never lacked money to begin with, and she didn't deliberately skimp on her daily food and expenses. But girls probably all like this sort of thing — keeping accounts or doing things that look like they're keeping spending in check.

A few of them were from Lin Dong, showing off his new dorm room.

"【Image】"

"Nian-ge, if I switched dorms, you have to take half the blame! (serious face)"

Jiang Nian saw it, couldn't help but chuckle, and replied.

"A-Dong, you're playing video games again! Take a break, will you? Read a book, how about it!"

Lin Dong: "Eat shit!"

Jiang Nian was overjoyed, and sent a few more Jie-ge memes.

"I only said two words to you and you already say I'm annoying. I just hope you can study properly!"

Lin Dong was typing for a moment, and seven or eight messages popped out.

"It's a bit complicated, I've basically figured it out. You scared me to death, but turns out it wasn't that, anyway it's pretty wild, I'll tell you at evening study hall."

"Now I've found something even more interesting, I'll tell you at evening study hall too."

Jiang Nian swiped away the chat page with Lin Dong. The second person to message him was Chen Yunyun. She hadn't said a word, just sent a creepy meme.

"【Ghost】."

Boring — no talking, no reply.

Li Qingrong had replied to him, and it wasn't a row of pokes this time.

"Did the weekly test total score go up?"

Jiang Nian: "570, the combined science score isn't good."

He was walking toward the senior-year building, scrolling through messages as he went.

At a time like this there were lots of people and it was chaotic, so even bumping into the Dean of Studies was no big deal. After work hours, who cares if you're on your phone — just don't get caught during class.

Li Qingrong replied after a few breaths, "Where isn't good?"

Jiang Nian's footstep on the stairs faltered — sometimes he really couldn't stand people who spoke so bluntly.

How could he answer? That nowhere was good?

"Physics and chemistry, I guess."

Jiang Nian typed those few characters out, thinking to himself: does Li Qingrong often bring her phone to school? To reply that fast, she probably wasn't in the classroom.

He had just reached the third floor and instinctively glanced toward Xu Qianqian's classroom. He couldn't be bothered to walk over — his style was just a casual glance, a random peek.

Just as he was about to head up to the fourth floor, he ran into Zhou Yuting, of all people.

In the senior-year building corridor, the lighting was mostly provided by the stairwell lights — a small portion — and by the light leaking out of the classrooms — the larger portion. By the stairwell entrance, the light was already inadequate.

Possibly because of the dark patch under the light, Zhou Yuting froze for a moment before recognizing Jiang Nian.

Then, enemies meeting face to face — eyes redder than ever.

"Jiang Nian, long time no see." Zhou Yuting glared at him. She wasn't dressed as flashily as before — she'd tied a simple ponytail, her eyes bright as light.

"Long time no see, baby." Jiang Nian smiled, his voice gentle. "You piece of trash who can't even score 530, still running your little fish pond?"

"You!!" Zhou Yuting's defenses crumbled in a second, her chest heaving violently, gnashing her teeth. "Jiang Nian, don't get cocky — you'd better not bomb the weekend joint exam!"

"Don't worry, scoring 530 is like drinking water." Jiang Nian stepped forward, the distance between them shrinking. "You scored so little — what are you struggling for?"

"Why bother with Ludao University, baby? Just go online and get into Tai Sect instead."

"Jiang Nian, are you this petty?" Zhou Yuting was furious. She used to think Jiang Nian's mouth was a bit sharp, but it had never been turned on her before.

Now that he wasn't chasing her, all kinds of insulting words were chilling.

"Can't you just talk properly? The old you wasn't like this — maybe there's some misunderstanding somewhere." She spoke frankly, coaxing gently, wanting to see Jiang Nian's reaction.

Did Zhou Yuting want to make up? Absolutely not — she only wanted to get back at him!

Stupid Jiang Nian!

Once he came crawling back, she'd give him a vicious kick!

Hearing this, a trace of bewilderment suddenly appeared on Jiang Nian's face. He murmured.

"The old me, the old me really wasn't like this. To be honest, I've been dreaming a lot lately. Dreaming of scenes from before, but I can't go back."

"Really? You really think that way?" Delight flashed across Zhou Yuting's face, and she stepped closer. In her heart, she had almost instantly woven together a revenge plan!

She hated! She resented! She raged!

Starting over from scratch, she swore she would stand at the peak of the Olympiad class and take back everything that belonged to her.

"Of course, baby." Jiang Nian's voice caught. The distance between him and Zhou Yuting was extremely short — at that distance, either he was about to kiss her or they were about to come to blows.

"I really regret it. The things I did to you must have hurt you deeply. Every day I'm anxious and uneasy — I want to see you but I don't dare to."

"I'm afraid you hate me, and I'm afraid you forget me. Really. This kind of life is too hard to bear — I can barely hold on."

"It's fine, I don't blame you." Zhou Yuting clenched her teeth and forced out a smile.

"Really?" Jiang Nian drew in a long breath, his voice trembling slightly. "You don't hate me at all? Liars won't be able to score 500 on the joint exam."

Zhou Yuting's face stiffened. She hesitated, then said softly.

"Actually, I do hate you a little. Who told you to be so excessive before, saying things like that to a person~."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian was instantly overjoyed.

"Hating me is great — hating me is exactly right. It proves I hit the mark. Heitui! You piece of trash who can't even score 530."

With that, Jiang Nian turned and ran up to the fourth floor.