Chapter 165

Ding-ding-ding, the first evening self-study session ended.

Li Hua jumped up eagerly, eager to see where the score sheet had reached; he didn't want to hoard it—just wanted to photocopy a few copies at the office to savor slowly.

So anxious, anxious enough to spiral into the heavens.

He wished he could kiss the first-hand photocopy of the score sheet, stare at it fiercely through all three evening self-study sessions—do nothing else, just examine each person's grades one by one.

Damn, just thinking about it made him want to fly off with pleasure.

Li Hua, who had been bursting to say something, shouted out loud.

"Who's got the registration form?"

Hearing this, Jiang Nian stared at the restless Li Hua with lifeless, fish-like eyes; he truly wanted to steal his science scores—even if his English was perfect, it wouldn't matter.

"Hua, I'll quietly watch you forever."

In the science class, mediocre math and physics scores were truly unbearable—it felt like being powerless, forced to cower in a damp corner and intensely stare at Li Hua.

"So what?" Li Hua mimicked Jiang Nian's deadpan catchphrase with a smirk, "Kid, can hatred make you stronger?"

Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand and yawned, utterly indifferent.

"I could spit on my English exam paper and still get seventy."

"Holy shit, you fucking—" Li Hua nearly choked; he remembered Qian Bao telling him to score ninety, "Fuck it, I'm done with you."

"Hahaha." Jiang Nian grinned.

Li Hua never learned from his mistakes—he always loved showing off, screamed like a wounded animal when poked, the kind of idiot who drools even after being cured.

After Li Hua left, Zhang Nizi stood up, apparently preparing to go out; Jiang Nian shifted forward with his chair, clearing space for her.

Suddenly, he sensed no movement behind him and turned, puzzled.

"Aren't you going out?"

Zhang Nizi seemed to be thinking; the next second, her small face tightened, and she said seriously.

"Baby Zhizhi told you to go out."

"Huh?" Jiang Nian was stunned.

Got it—you have a friend named Huang Beibei, right?

That tone was exactly like challenging someone to a duel.

Of course, a duel wasn't bad—but if I could duel with Baby Zhizhi, it'd be even more expansive and boundless. After all, it's all for promoting fertility. No, for promoting academic progress.

Jiang Nian didn't know why Zhang Nizi was using code, but he reacted instantly.

"Alright, I'll go out first."

"Okay." Zhang Nizi nodded seriously, "Hurry up, Baby Zhizhi said."

Actually, I have a stand-in son named Li Hua who wants to say received.

Jiang Nian walked out, thinking: Who's he hiding this from? A group needs secret codes now? Probably just going outside to say something simple.

Inside the group, everything was normal—except Ceng You occasionally smirked with a dazed grin, and Wu Jungu studied like a protagonist from a teenage pain novel.

The bastard Li Hua was gone; Empress Fangfang had been quietly doing problems. First, eliminate Baby Zhizhi—so who am I hiding this from? Myself?

He couldn't figure it out, waited by the door a moment, then turned to see Zhang Nizi emerging; he was about to greet her when he noticed she was walking toward the end of the corridor.

Jiang Nian froze, then immediately followed.

The evening self-study break was only ten minutes—truthfully, not nearly enough time. Already wasted a third of it; he really wanted to hear what Baby Zhizhi had to say.

Could it be…

No need to say it—by the water dispenser in the corridor.

Zhang Nizi stood there waiting a moment, glanced back at him, then kept walking up the stairs.

Upstairs was the fifth floor—no one knew their liberal arts class; sometimes, you didn't need a completely empty place to talk—just a place where no one recognized the two of them was enough.

On the fifth-floor corridor, the two stood side by side; half the ten-minute break had passed.

"Huang Beibei, what's wrong?"

Zhang Nizi's words choked off; her face flushed red.

"I'm not."

Jiang Nian didn't say something like, "Then why did you call me out? Go ahead and say it now."—too dull. Instead, he chose another way.

"You want to talk about that thing, right?"

Hearing this, Zhang Nizi froze, blinked her eyes.

"What thing?"

Did your mom approve our marriage?

"So you're going to cut off my drinks?" Jiang Nian cried dramatically, "I really need that sip—I'll do anything."

"It's not because of that!" Zhang Nizi retorted, her face warming.

Maybe I could blackmail him—no, no, I can't do that! It's all his fault for saying all those weird things; now I'm weird too.

"Oh oh, go ahead," Jiang Nian became serious.

"You don't have to be so serious—it's just… I have some things I want to say to you." Zhang Nizi instinctively bit her lower lip; her face was already burning.

Jiang Nian patted his pocket—dammit, didn't bring his ID.

"Say it."

Although Zhang Nizi didn't know why he suddenly looked downcast, she was now highly tense and could only recite her rehearsed script.

"This exam was harder; Gao San review is inherently like rowing upstream. If you ignore other subjects, you'll slowly sink."

"Huh?" Jiang Nian suddenly understood—it was about analyzing exam scores. "I didn't pay much attention to Chinese, but over a hundred is already pretty high."

"If your essay hadn't gone off-topic, you'd already have six hundred." Zhang Nizi gave him that look—You're amazing—and added, "You've improved a lot."

"What about you?"

"Me?" Zhang Ningzhi thought for a moment, a little hesitant, then looked up and said carefully, "Is it because I scored too high? I didn't expect it either. I don't want to be moved down a class."

"I was super nervous during the exam, and then—"

He nodded. "Zhizhi teacher, is this your secret manual?"

"What—I'm not, don't call me such a weird title." Zhang Ningzhi's face went completely red; the speech she'd prepared in her head was thrown into disarray by those four words, Zhizhi teacher.

She wished she could cover her face with both hands, but her shyness still spilled out from between her fingers.

Hm? Why does it feel a little strange.

Forget it.

Jiang Nian nodded and said a meaningless word. "Okay."

One sentence, and the pressure was handed right back to her.

"If I really have to say it, the math this time was actually pretty easy too." Zhang Ningzhi said something that matched her grades, but before she could finish, the class bell rang.

Ring ring ring!!!

"I think next time, as long as I review properly and don't fall behind in any subject!" Zhang Ningzhi stood on tiptoe in the crowded fifth-floor corridor, leaning close to his side.

The fragrance on her was the kind of warm floral scent steamed out by body heat—you could only smell it when you pressed close.

Amid the piercing bell, the corridor surged with people flowing back to their classrooms. A little farther from them was the brightly lit corridor of the liberal arts classes.

The girl's breath was almost pressed against his ear, hot and rapid.

"Next time, I'll definitely be able to score even higher!"

Back in the classroom, Jiang Nian glanced at his deskmate.

Zhang Ningzhi had her head buried in her work, her face almost touching the desk. A stacked pile of books completely hid her face, leaving only one slightly red ear exposed.

To be precise, only the shape of the upper part of her ear, just a little.

Jiang Nian wasn't shy—rather, Zhang Ningzhi had made herself completely shy. After going down from the fifth floor against the flow of people and returning to the classroom, she'd kept this posture the whole time.

Hm. Where on earth did I put my ID card?

"Tsk tsk tsk!! Tao Ran, 137 in Chinese." Li Hua held a photocopy of the grade registry, the warmth not yet faded, shaking his head and sighing.

"Nian, do you say this is a score a person can get out? Could his ancestor really be Tao Yuanming?"

Jiang Nian glanced at him. This guy—here we go again.

For the next three evening self-study periods, the story that followed was already predictable. First, look at the students with the highest scores in each subject, pull them out one by one for evaluation.

Look at your own scores, compare them one by one.

Look at b-brother's scores.

"Dong Wensong isn't doing well either—102 in English, and he's always yelling about dying back there." Li Hua gave his sharp review. "Anyone who didn't know would think there's a little 'seobba' exchange student in our class."

"A solid native accent—must have taken a beating for three years on the streets of Guangzhou."

"Hey, Nian, that's not right." Li Hua patted Jiang Nian and pulled him over. "Look at that idiot—how did he get 125 in English?"

Jiang Nian took a look. Squirtle's English score really wasn't normal. But after a glance at the total—545—the score didn't actually seem that strange.

Looking more closely, Chinese was 95—definitely bombed it.

Science comprehensive: Bio only 60, Chemistry 85, Physics 55. Even stranger—Chemistry broke eighty, but what kind of score was that in Physics?

"It is pretty strange. Did he pour all his time into Chemistry?" Jiang Nian asked.

Li Hua shook his head. "Let me look again."

On the other side.

Third big group, Sun Zhicheng turned his head back for the nth time.

"No way, why hasn't it been passed over yet?"

The student behind him glanced at him. "The grade registry is with Yang Qiming. If you're in a hurry, you can just go grab it yourself."

Sun Zhicheng: "."

Huang Cailiang did average, didn't want to look at the grade sheet.

His deskmate Yang Qiming did pretty well, and was carefully savoring the original grade registry. First he looked at his own, then at his former bro Lin Dong's scores.

First, a wistful sense of loss, missing the past.

Then he carefully looked at his other roommates' scores, and at the people in class he didn't get along with. To be precise, that was b-brother Dong Wensong—seeing he'd done badly on the exam.

Yang Qiming was instantly seized by another wave of unexpected wild joy, his whole body feeling as comfortable as reading a power-fantasy novel.

"Cailiang, I did the math—if I add back all the points I shouldn't have lost... I could rank... holy crap, straight into the top five in class."

Sun Zhicheng waited half a class period, and finally got his hands on the grade registry. Before he'd looked at it for two seconds, he looked up and saw someone from the next group casting their gaze over.

Although not a single word was said, the meaning was self-evident.

Seeing this, Sun Zhicheng frowned.

He lowered his head and glanced at the grade sheet he'd finally gotten—within a few minutes of looking at it, someone would definitely come rushing over. He hadn't even had a proper chance to savor it yet—how could he hand it over?

Gritting his teeth, steeling himself, he took the grade sheet and got up to head to the bathroom.

End of the second evening self-study period.

Li Hua-Conan was still analyzing Squirtle's scores, and had even dug out Yu Tongjie's promotion records and every past weekly test score sheet, copying them all down with a pen.

It was clear Li Hua was truly idle, and truly disgusted with Squirtle.

He was waiting to hear Li Hua's analysis results, and was just about to lie down for a nap, when someone at the door called out.

"Jiang Nian, someone's looking for you."