Chapter 151

On Saturday, the school was quiet; the basketball court outside the window had been cordoned off with warning tape.

The Gao San grade team had indeed put considerable effort into this major joint exam; according to probability, about one-third of students from each Gao San class were assigned to Building B.

Inside the examination room, it was bustling.

To be precise, this was Li Qingrong's examination room.

The classroom was spacious, with only thirty students total. As it was a science examination room, the number of girls could be counted on two hands; the most conspicuous was naturally Li Qingrong.

The girl sat upright, yet not stiffly; her thick high ponytail gave her a fresh, elegant look, but what truly drew attention were her fair neck and graceful jawline.

Under the autumn sunlight, her earlobes glowed honey-toned, like translucent pink amber; her entire demeanor appeared cold and distant, deterring anyone from approaching.

Several boys pretended to look out the window, their glances flickering toward the girl by the window, silently wishing their seats were closer to her.

Perhaps the story could unfold along the clichéd plot of picking up an eraser or borrowing a pencil, then adding each other on QQ to reveal their humorous, adorable side.

That's how it's drawn in Japanese manga—Takagi, Maiko senpai, or Tamako; Konohamaru, Hyouka, Aki no Sora, Jimi Hen, Tang San and Xiao Wu, and so on.

It seems like a lot of complicated elements have mixed in, but it doesn't matter.

Pure love is invincible; it just needs one chance to pick up a pen.

Hmm… could it be possible that one of her pens rolled halfway across the classroom and landed at my feet? What kind of anime plot is this? Would she confess in dialect?

Shit~ Should I pretend not to understand Hakka? This is such a damn hard choice!

The cold girl confesses in unintelligible local dialect.

What should we name our future child?

There was still time before the exam began; occasionally, students could be seen moving between rooms.

Yu Tongjie was no exception—he was also assigned to the third floor of Building B for the exam. After placing his exam supplies down, he rushed immediately to Li Qingrong's examination room.

As soon as he entered, he sensed something was off; several boys in the room had wandering glances, deliberately or not, glancing toward Li Qingrong by the window. He sneered.

Do you even know her? Why are you staring like that? What's so special?

Yu Tongjie didn't speak directly to Li Qingrong; he didn't know what to say.

For this, he had a better plan.

A few minutes later, Yu Tongjie walked over to a friend he knew in the exam room and began loudly chatting with him, occasionally dropping advanced vocabulary.

"Apple Watch isn't that great—XXX said he'd give me one, but I refused."

"Holy shit, that must've cost a fortune!"

"Nah, it's not about the money," Yu Tongjie waved his hand, his peripheral vision flicking toward Li Qingrong. "Mainly, I can't accept it, and besides, I wouldn't even use it."

"Shiiii~" His friend played along, drawing in a sharp breath. "By the way, Brother Yu, I heard—"

Many in the exam room were drawn by Yu Tongjie's voice—some surprised, some dismissive.

Yu Tongjie spoke grandly, gestured extravagantly, and burst into loud laughter at intervals; the whole performance made it seem as if he held the lifelines of the entire Zhennan County's political and business circles.

Yet in his own eyes, he was clearly the composed, reserved second-generation figure from a high-ranking official's novel.

Soon, a figure flashed into the classroom from outside the door.

Jiang Nian stepped in, glanced around, then sat directly beside Li Qingrong. Many eyes in the room followed him, expressions slightly startled.

Wait, who the hell is this guy?

"Monitor, aren't you reviewing?"

Li Qingrong glanced at him, then looked away, lowering her eyes to the desk.

"I finished reviewing during morning reading."

"Oh oh, then let me quiz you," Jiang Nian propped one hand on the desk, glancing at her face as he asked, "In 'Returning to the Fields,' what ancient poem indicates planting multiple kinds of trees?"

Yu Tongjie had been mid-sentence when he heard the familiar voice. He turned his head and suddenly noticed a new person beside Li Qingrong—his anger flared.

Where did this yellow-haired kid come from?

Upon closer look—Jiang Nian was here too?!

He held his breath, straining to listen to Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong's conversation—partly out of curiosity, partly to find out what topics interested her.

But what he heard was…

"Monitor, don't you like drinking water?"

"Monitor, your hair tie looks so nice—how many hair ties do you have at home?"

"Monitor, your hands are so small, and why are they so much whiter than mine?"

In an instant, Yu Tongjie's vision darkened; he nearly lost his balance.

What an oily, repulsive guy!

Li Qingrong glanced at him; she ignored some questions—like why her hands were so pale—but answered others, not rejecting him at all.

After chatting for a while, Jiang Nian left, satisfied, leaving behind a chorus of shattered hearts.

Nearly half the boys in the room watched the yellow-haired kid walk away, their moods dipping for a moment. What the hell—why do beautiful girls like guys like that?

That guy's face is okay, but his speech is oily and unfunny! Then why… does Japanese adorable charm ultimately lose to this local yellow-haired kid?

Yu Tongjie left the exam room in a daze, only regaining his senses when he instinctively returned to his own room. Only when he sat down did he realize he needed to hurry.

Get over six hundred points early, then ask Old Liu to switch groups.

As he thought this, two invigilators entered carrying two sealed document bags.

The Chinese exam papers were distributed.

The instant Jiang Nian received his paper, his first impression was that the paper quality was excellent; a scent of ink rose from it, and inhaling it slightly felt addictive.

He flipped to the last page, glanced at the composition topic—a classic material-based essay: reading Qu Yuan's "The road ahead is long and arduous; I shall seek high and low."

Please combine the material, connect with context, blah blah blah.

Gaokao eight-legged essay—a glance and you can apply the formula.

The moment he saw the topic, Jiang Nian already had several angles for his opening in mind—but he didn't dwell on them, merely noting them for later review.

He continued with the classical poetry and prose dictation, and after finishing, he glanced at the reading comprehension section. Confirming there was a story he could read, he finally let out a long breath of relief.

He silently set a goal in his heart—as long as he finished the questions in front, he could read a story in the exam hall to rest for a bit.

Hopefully it wouldn't be a terrible story. Bless me.

Jiang Nian's handwriting was so-so, the type that wasn't ugly but wasn't good-looking either. So he had no advantage on the paper, and couldn't get the sympathy points Old Liu had mentioned.

But it didn't matter—people from Zhennan didn't need sympathy.

The one-hundred-fifty-minute language exam ended.

After school, Jiang Nian was busy rushing to the cafeteria for food. The moment he handed in his paper, he ran. He didn't wait for Li Qingrong to leave the exam hall together, let alone find people to discuss the test answers.

What's there to discuss about language? A literary feast?

Because in the afternoon was the math exam.

One of the subjects Jiang Nian was worst at, and also the nightmare he'd been trying to overcome for a month. Of course, overcoming it was impossible—he only hoped for a few more points.

For this, he put in one-hundred-twenty percent of his energy.

After eating at the cafeteria, he hurried back to review, and was getting his books in the corridor.

Turning his head, he saw at the bottom of the stairs that someone's book basket seemed to have been stomped to bits. Not the kind of partial burst, but the book basket had completely turned into fragments.

The books were scattered all over the floor, sliding down from the stairs.

Jiang Nian was stunned, walked down a few steps, planning to gather this person's books and stack them back in place. After all, they were all Gao San bros—putting yourself in their shoes.

He looked down and saw the name on the practice book: Yu Tongjie.

In an instant, Jiang Nian didn't want to pick them up by hand anymore. He nudged them with his foot, kicking the books into a circle, roughly piled them into a stack, then left, muttering about bad luck.

"Damn, I'm way too kind. My Anta sneakers are dirty now."

At noon, during the lunch break, only two boys were left in the classroom.

Because the exam wasn't until three in the afternoon, the lunch break usually ended at two. If they forced in this half-period of self-study, students would probably only get about fifteen minutes before heading to the exam hall.

Therefore, the Gao San grade committee decided after deliberation to cancel the self-study before the afternoon exam. The students' rest time was extended from ten-thirty to three.

Day students didn't need to be told—they could sleep a bit longer at home.

Boarding students were the same; they'd never fought such an affluent battle in their lives. They all chose to nap in the dorm, sleeping their fill before getting up to battle math.

In the classroom, Jiang Nian wasn't familiar with Luo Zhongping, but he roughly knew he was Lin Dong's new roommate.

"Why aren't you sleeping in the dorm?"

Hearing this, Luo Zhongping lifted his head from the pile of test papers, confirming that Jiang Nian was speaking to him.

He was stunned for a moment, then gave an honest smile.

"I'm used to napping in the classroom. I can't fall asleep if I go back to the dorm."

"Oh, I see." Jiang Nian didn't pay it much mind either, and went back to his seat to continue reviewing problems.

Half an hour later, the classroom still only had the two of them.

Jiang Nian had set his nap time for one-thirty, and right now it was only twelve-thirty. The classroom was utterly silent, with only the occasional sound of pages turning, until Luo Zhongping's voice rang out.

"Um."

At first Jiang Nian didn't even react, immersed in the sea of problems. The classroom went silent for a few seconds before he realized someone had just called him.

So he turned and looked toward Luo Zhongping in the back-door corner of the classroom.

"What's up?"

Luo Zhongping was tall, thin, and dark-skinned, sitting in his seat. His voice sounded a little nervous as he called out to him across the empty classroom.

"Are you and Chen Yunyun together?"

"Huh??" Jiang Nian's face was a deadpan old-man meme—what kind of question is that? Did I lose my memory or something? "No, why are you suddenly asking this?"

In Jiang Nian's eyes, Luo Zhongping spent every lunch break in the classroom. Always quiet and reserved, looking a bit honest and wooden—no one expected him to suddenly ask this.

Hearing this, Luo Zhongping visibly grew embarrassed.

"It's just—"

Actually, making up some random reason would have been fine, but Luo Zhongping got stuck. He stammered for ages without getting anything coherent out, and the classroom fell silent.

Jiang Nian didn't press further and just turned back around.

Although saying this wasn't quite right, he didn't want to explain that much. He was busy preparing for math right now, and his brain couldn't hold anything else—let alone girls.

Women will betray you. Math won't.

After a while, Luo Zhongping's voice rang out again.

"Um, Nian-ge, do me a favor—pretend I didn't ask anything just now."

Jiang Nian didn't turn around, just raised his hand in an OK gesture.

At one-thirty he lay down, and when he woke up it was past two. He packed his things and headed straight for the exam hall.