Chapter 156: A Family Tree This Hard

At the stairwell entrance, Yu Zhiyi bent down and strained to carry the books.

Monday's harvest pressed against the white inner lining, carrying a weighty, beautiful heft; the small-collared top covered everything tightly, which only drew more eyes.

She was slowly making her way down the corridor, recalling that over the past two days Wu Jungu seemed to have not come looking for her, and his replies to her messages were extremely sparse.

Just as she was thinking, she instinctively glanced toward Class Three.

She only heard Class Three erupt in a huge cheer, and then every class along the corridor exploded in turn.

She was stunned for a moment, then vaguely guessed it must be a holiday.

Thinking of this, a faint smile surfaced on her numb, weary face. No evening self-study — in Gao San, that was absolutely a once-in-a-blue-moon rarity.

By the time she struggled to the doorway of Class Three, only ten meters from her own Competition Class Two.

Suddenly, an unexpected cheer rang out.

"Aruba! Old Liu!"

"Charge!"

Yu Zhiyi was startled, and the book basket in her hands slipped to the floor. She stood at the outermost edge of the corridor, watching the boys of Class Three hoist their homeroom teacher and march out the door.

Her mouth fell slightly open, rooted to the spot like a wooden chicken.

Jiang Nian plunged in deep, brushing past Yu Zhiyi's side. He didn't spare a single glance at his Monday girlfriend — in his heart there was only one thought: shove the bastard!

Old Liu wasn't any good either, heitui!! Lù him!

5:40, Jiang Nian tidied up his desk, went down three floors, and waited for Xu Qianqian to walk home together.

Competition Class Four.

Xu Qianqian's homeroom teacher was still holding a class meeting in the classroom; every other class had already left. The students of their class gazed longingly at the doorway — and at the doorway there was only Jiang Nian.

He glanced over, wondering why it still hadn't ended.

Class Four's students saw Jiang Nian every evening, so they were long past being surprised.

Jiang Nian didn't play the show-off either; after one look he shrank back to the side and played on his phone.

Zhang Ningzhi was already on her way home; Nanjiang Bay wasn't too far from the school. With the unseen Old Zhang doing the driving, the risk of puppy love in senior three was eliminated.

Zhang Ningzhi sent him a message, with a cute sticker attached.

"How did this exam go? (cute)"

"Results aren't out yet, hard to say." Jiang Nian first stacked a buff, then typed, "If you're asking about my state, I should have made some progress."

"What about you?"

On the chat screen, it showed: Zhang Ningzhi is typing…

Suddenly, Jiang Nian grew a little curious — what was his note on her side? His name? Deskmate? Or something else? If it was something else, he couldn't even guess.

If he got the chance another day, he'd sneak a peek.

Zhang Ningzhi's message popped up in a flash — a long one, nearly a hundred characters.

"(awkward) Chinese at the front went okay, just not very confident about the essay. Math should be around 130? Science comprehensive—"

Jiang Nian patiently read it word by word, mentally calculating as he went, and couldn't help sucking in a cold breath.

"You're looking at a minimum of six-twenty, heading straight for six-thirty!"

"(awkward) It's not that high, results aren't out yet." Zhang Ningzhi also liked to hide her scores, not liking to speak too absolutely, to avoid awkwardness later.

For instance, after an exam and checking answers, to avoid the actual score coming out lower than her estimate, she'd deliberately estimate even lower — and then the score would come out even lower than that low estimate.

So both of them spoke very cautiously.

It wasn't that they didn't trust each other — it was the biological instinct baked into the bones of every Gao San student.

At the end, Zhang Ningzhi added one more line.

"You're not allowed to tell anyone."

Jiang Nian replied with a sticker, "(image) Don't worry, I'll carry this secret into my coffin."

Zhang Ningzhi replied with a sweating little yellow bean, "No need to keep your mouth that tight."

At this point, their chat temporarily paused.

He had originally wanted to bring up the goal of six hundred points, and the matter of treating her to something to eat. But halfway through typing, he thought again and decided to wait until the results came out.

Probably the day after tomorrow, the scores for all subjects should be out.

In the corridor, Jiang Nian waited in utter boredom for about twenty minutes. It was almost 6:10, and Competition Class Four still showed no sign of letting out.

"What are they even talking about? Is their family tree that hard?"

He was muttering to himself when he suddenly heard a faint rustling. Then from beneath the Gao San building came a voice — someone shouted.

"It's raining!"

Late October, and at six o'clock the sky wasn't dark yet.

From the moment that shout landed, in just a few breaths' time, outside the teaching building white wisps of rain began to drift down, and then the sound grew heavier and heavier.

In the class-stretching Competition Class Four, the classroom was brightly lit, and wails filled the room.

"Teacher, it's raining!"

"Shit, I didn't bring an umbrella, how do I get back?! I'm done for! My bike!"

"Anyone got an umbrella? Take me along."

【Quiet! It's just rain, what's all the noise about!】 Class Four's newly swapped homeroom teacher was a middle-aged woman with a bad temper. 【Will a little rain kill you!】

Jiang Nian stood in the corridor, clicking his tongue and shaking his head.

Hard to comment.

He walked to the railing, gazing at the heavy rain outside; a wind carrying the smell of earth blew in. It slapped his face, the rain threads faintly cool, and he felt only an easy exhilaration in his heart.

The joint exam was over, and evening self-study was cancelled.

He hadn't brought an umbrella, but he had done well on the exam, after a month of hard work. All of it, at this moment, transformed into wisps of clear wind, like some kind of echo.

After the joint entrance exam, he and Zhang Ningzhi were completely safe—solid members of the Competition Class 3.

From now on, the only major exam worth caring about would be the college entrance exam.

As if he'd been tense for a long time, Jiang Nian let out a breath of relief and, surprisingly, took to watching the rain with great interest. When a person's mood is good, everything looks pleasing to the eye.

He hadn't brought an umbrella; Xu Qianqian definitely had.

Braving the rain home, taking a shower, lying in bed playing on his phone. Buy a few things, then firm up the plans ahead, chat with his sisters, play games until ten, then fall asleep.

Just thinking about it, he was already starting to feel good.

Buzz—his phone vibrated.

He assumed it was a message from Zhang Ningzhi, but when he pulled out his phone and looked down, it was from Chen Yunyun.

"Did you head back?"

"Not yet."

After a while, Chen Yunyun popped up with a line.

"Did you bring an umbrella?"

Jiang Nian glanced at Xu Qianqian's class group and typed a reply.

"Got an umbrella."

"OK."

In the girls' dorm, Chen Yunyun put down her phone.

She had just been eating at the dorm cafeteria when the rain came down hard and fast. She and Wang Yuhe were soaked through in an instant, but luckily she'd boiled hot water at noon.

Dry her hair, wipe down her body, change into a fresh set of clothes, wait for the rain to stop before showering.

Wang Yuhe had already mixed two buckets of water, the temperature just right. She poked her head out curiously to glance at Chen Yunyun and called out to her.

"Grab my clothes for me."

"Sure."

Chen Yunyun picked up her own clothes and, along the way, took the clothes from Wang Yuhe's bed. The two of them went into the cramped bathroom; the dorm light would stay on until eleven.

In the bathroom, orange light filled with mist.

Chen Yunyun washed herself while chatting idly with Wang Yuhe.

"Yuhe, that couple in the cafeteria just now—was that from our class?"

"The big-chested girl?" Wang Yuhe asked.

Hearing that, Chen Yunyun's face reddened a little, thinking to herself that was way too blunt.

"No, Ji Jiayu and her boyfriend seemed to be arguing."

Character cards updated. Tomorrow, three chapters to celebrate—updates are being worked on.

Three chapters tomorrow. Let's see if I can keep the momentum going after that.