Chapter 167: Not Promoting Early Romance, Nor Sunset Romance

Zhou Yuting was nearly furious enough to spit blood—how could Jiang Nian be so annoying!

He bullied her time and again!

Does he think she's a soft target?

He's not even a real man—only knows how to bully girls. How could he say such filthy things? Clearly, Jiang Nian has become a total loser.

Even the grade leader downstairs, Ji Ming, couldn't have picked a worse time to come up—right when Jiang Nian had just finished cursing her, and she was about to retaliate.

A curse stuck in her throat, neither rising nor falling, swallowed back down.

On the fourth-floor corridor, Jiang Nian walked toward the classroom, regretting bitterly—why had he let himself curse her like that? He'd had even filthier words ready!

He was furious with himself for not performing well.

Before he even entered, he heard Old Liu's voice echoing from inside the classroom.

"Ah! This should serve as a warning to us all! The problem of early romance."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian wasn't particularly surprised.

The whole class knew that Ji Jiayu and Yuan Zhengchuan, the model couple, had argued outside the dorm cafeteria last night. Over a hundred people gathered to watch—the scene was wildly heated.

With help from well-meaning bystanders, it even made it onto TikTok's local recommendations. Old Liu spent the entire night on the phone, and since morning's flag-raising ceremony, he hadn't shown his face all day.

Although Zhou Yi didn't have Chinese class, Old Liu, as homeroom teacher, hadn't appeared at morning assembly or morning run—this was hard to justify.

It was like a sword hanging over the young couple's heads, slow to fall. The couple spent the whole day in dread, but everyone else was eagerly waiting.

Who doesn't love a good show?

"Report!" Jiang Nian walked to the door and loudly interrupted Old Liu's speech.

Old Liu turned around and glanced at Jiang Nian.

"The bell rang ten minutes ago—where were you?"

The classroom was brightly lit; half the class turned their gazes toward the door.

Jiang Nian showed no trace of nervousness and shouted loudly.

"Report! Li Hua likes the cafeteria auntie and asked me to add her WeChat!"

"Holy shit!!" Li Hua nearly spat blood, leapt to his feet, and pointed at Jiang Nian by the door, "This is blatant defamation!"

The class burst into laughter; even Old Liu was speechless and waved his hand.

"Come in."

"We don't encourage early romance, but we also don't encourage sunset romance," Old Liu said next, making the whole class laugh—the tense atmosphere had momentarily eased.

Jiang Nian returned to his seat, ignored Li Hua, and asked Zhang Nenzhi directly.

"When did Old Liu get here?"

"He came right when the bell rang," Zhang Nenzhi whispered, stealing a glance at Old Liu at the podium, afraid he'd catch them whispering.

"You've got serious stealth vibes now," Jiang Nian said.

"I don't!" Zhang Nenzhi glared at him and turned away, refusing to speak to him.

Old Liu had probably already blown up, vented all his pent-up emotions—so instead of lecturing about early romance, he got straight to the point.

"After deliberation by the grade team, it has been decided that since the incident's impact has been contained and no serious consequences occurred, we will make an exception and refrain from issuing an internal school notice."

Hearing this, Yuan Zhengchuan, one of the parties involved, suddenly exhaled in relief. His stiff, corpse-like posture softened visibly.

He'd just acted on impulse—he was angry, but not stupid. If there's no official notice, he could just keep a low profile in class for a while.

Ji Jiayu's face remained expressionless, as if she'd already known.

"There's a cover-up!" Li Hua muttered, furious now that the fun was gone. "If they're not going to issue a school notice, at least issue a grade-wide one!"

"Fine, fine, you're so nice, huh? Next time I'll show up at the principal's office dressed in lingerie and drag Shi Potian!"

Listening to Li Hua's rambling outburst, Jiang Nian glanced over.

This guy was truly extreme.

You better dare to do it—or I'll help you.

Zhang Nenzhi only half-understood the incident; she'd seen the video of their argument from Yao Beibei. She was just puzzled—why did couples fight so fiercely?

Do all couples fight? She couldn't help stealing a glance at her desk mate.

Jiang Nian didn't seem violent—he'd never been seen saying he liked any girl. He just liked talking to girls, but never played rough with them.

Boys only get rough when they play—grabbing waists, lifting legs, dragging each other out.

The classroom instantly erupted in noise, though no one was particularly focused on them—just that not issuing any notice felt too gentle. When had the school become this merciful?

Wang Yuhe glanced at Old Liu at the podium and whispered.

"He's scared."

Chen Yunyun shook her head and replied.

"Don't say that—the homeroom teacher must've been scolded to death in that meeting."

Lin Dong was speechless, muttering under his breath.

"Holy shit—is there a Tianlong person in Class Three?"

Sun Zhicheng smirked and nudged Lin Dong.

"Dong Ge, I know the inside story."

Old Liu, listening to the classroom's chaos, felt deeply annoyed—he'd drawn all the blame, and it was all on him.

"Quiet!"

The class gradually fell silent under Old Liu's stern voice—only a third of them were looking at him.

Most were still doing problems or their own work.

After all, Ji Jiayu and the others broke rules—what did that have to do with us? Couples being clingy? We honest students didn't even glance once.

Although the homeroom teacher always says Class Three is one big family, bluntly speaking, we're just passengers on the same bus.

Moreover, the time for saying goodbye at the station was already clearly set, so what do we care about some little couple? I won't waste a single second on trash.

Old Liu's deep voice echoed through the classroom, deliberately carrying a stern tone.

"The second thing is: Ji Jiayu is transferring to Olympic Class Two, and Yuan Zhengchuan is transferring to Olympic Class One!"

Huh??

Transfer? That's definitely worth a look—after all, new classmates are coming in.

Do you understand the charm of a transfer student? In this county high school, there are no transfer students—only students switching classes or promoted/demoted classes.

Several students simultaneously stopped writing and pushed their glasses up.

"Teacher, who's switching in?"

That question made Ji Jiayu and her friends awkward—before the main person had even left, they were already eager for the next one? Who asked that? Which loser?

Lin Dong received no reply, so he stood up again and asked.

"Teacher, do you know their name?"

But Old Liu was in a bad mood and refused to respond, snapping impatiently.

"See for yourself tomorrow."

After Old Liu left, the classroom erupted into chaos.

Some pretended to beg Ji Jiayu and Yuan Zhengchuan to stay, even voiced outrage on their behalf.

That's just social etiquette—criticize the school a little, and you gain some goodwill.

"Big Brother Yuan, can you leave a puppet clone in our class?"

"God Yuan, can we ever restart this again?"

Compared to the boys' joking and laughter, the girls' reactions were even more fake—comforting, holding hands, even tearing up.

"Yuyu, I'm really going to cry—this school is so cruel."

"One class isn't that far; we'll come visit you after class."

"Okay, no problem."

Group Six.

Li Hua watched it all, turned, and shook his head.

"So fucking fake."

As everyone knows, long-distance relationships never end well—switching classes means switching friends. One buried in Class One, the other in Class Two—sounds close, but—

In reality, Class One is at the end of the corridor, Class Two on the opposite side. Between them lies a multipurpose classroom, used for public lessons by Gao San teachers.

"Why care about them? Just do what you need to do," Jiang Nian said, indifferent.

"Huh? Don't you want to know who the new student is?" Li Hua asked.

"Not interested." Jiang Nian took a photocopy of the grade register from his desk, glanced at his own score and ranking—eighteenth in class.

He hadn't stressed over total score this time—his foundation was solid. Even with eyes closed, he'd score above 530; with eyes open, he'd hit 550.

This time, he focused on raising individual subject scores: math and biology.

As long as he improved each subject's score before the first-round review ended in December, he could easily handle the subsequent second-round review and all exams.

This wasn't his own analysis—it was Qian Bao's.

"It's October now; two months remain until the first-round review ends. Biology leads the science comprehensive exam—speed-reading biology gives you time to solve the other two subjects."

"Math is the keystone—if you don't raise your score in the first round, you won't have time later for the second-round review. So, you must allocate your energy wisely."

"Chinese can wait—you're not bad at it. English has no room for improvement, so don't obsess over it. You should—"

Even now, Jiang Nian still felt dazed recalling it.

Though Qian Bao usually seemed serious, inwardly she was more like a kind college girl—on that day, he'd just casually asked her a question in the office.

Who knew she actually pulled out a densely packed grade chart and analyzed his other subjects too.

Every detail, explained patiently, every point logical.

From that day on, he became a firm Qian Bao supporter.

Jiang Nian looked at his biology score of 80—still not fully satisfied, but good enough.

He wasn't exactly hardworking, but he felt it was fine. He was here to attend school, not to hang himself.

He hadn't been dumped—why should he study like a maniac?

Studying was purely about enjoying the feeling of gradual progress; the smoothness made him comfortable—progress, yet still free to play.

In short, this was his comfort zone.

Online, there's a ton of toxic chicken soup telling people to leave their comfort zone—total idiots. Leaving your comfort zone's prerequisite is finding a more comfortable one.

Jiang Nian estimated roughly—at this pace, 600 points wouldn't take long to become his comfort zone.

During the third evening self-study session, Jiang Nian's phone notification light blinked.

He pulled out his phone—Le Zhi, after much thought, had finally agreed to his proposal, and sent him the account and password, reminding him to find a way to raise his score.

Jiang Nian replied with an OK hand gesture emoji, then casually entered the verification code to log in.

As expected, it was a blank small account, with only one group chat.

【Zhennan Joint Exam Motivational Support Group Two】

He thought for a moment, then changed the group nickname to:

"Clown."