Chapter 208: Are You Worthy, Pure Enjoyment

The next day.

The two stepped out at the same time and froze at the sight of each other.

What the hell.

"Xu Qianqian, how can you sleep in so late?" Jiang Nian said, anguished. "What on earth have you been doing? If you can't work from five to twelve, how will you ever get into Tsinghua or Peking!"

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian shot him a look and leaned against the wall to change her shoes.

"First thing in the morning and already you're losing it."

Morning light filled the corridor. The girl wore a pair of white socks. As she bent over, one could see her slender ankles and the snug edge of the socks hugging them.

The faint loose threads of the cotton socks were just visible, set off by a strip of white along the sock's edge.

Jiang Nian almost lost it and cleared his throat.

"Um, how about I apologize—let me put your shoes on for you?"

Xu Qianqian: "?????"

She had every reason to suspect this guy was a pervert, but watching Jiang Nian look so eager to pounce, she felt a little smug. Can't wait, can you?

Jiang Nian figured that in Xu Qianqian's eyes he was already a super pervert, so there was no point pretending to be a gentleman.

As for the past, he could only say he'd taken the wrong path. Sometimes being honest with yourself lets you go further.

"You're a pervert, Jiang Nian." Xu Qianqian wore a look of disgust, though in truth she didn't find him that disgusting and even felt like laughing. So this is what a virgin boy is like?

Can't even handle seeing socks first thing in the morning. Pretty average.

"Yep, you're a pretty good judge of character."

"Don't even think about it, scram!" Xu Qianqian quickly put on her shoes, giving him no chance at all. "I'm off to school, take your time, you dead pervert."

Any time, any place.

The two had always left the house in the morning by chance—if they didn't run into each other, they went separately; if they did, they walked together.

Only when there was a major exam did they walk together, and even then rarely.

The route to school was uneventful. The two of them, one tall and one short, differed by a head. They walked with some distance between them, looking left and right at leisure like they were on patrol.

After years of walking this route to school, they could do it with their eyes closed and never miss a step.

Jiang Nian yawned, the corners of his eyes brimming with sleepy tears.

A moment later, Xu Qianqian yawned too. Then, realizing something, she glanced at the guy beside her with obvious disdain and complained.

"It's all your fault, now I'm sleepy too."

"Whoa, everything's my fault?" Jiang Nian was speechless. "Oh~ you want to grab my attention, right? Rounding up, that's basically you saying you like me."

Xu Qianqian immediately shuddered and scooted two steps to the side.

"Stop talking."

As soon as he stepped into the classroom, Jiang Nian habitually walked to the edge of his seat.

He stared at the unfamiliar desk, momentarily baffled. After a few seconds, he remembered they'd switched seats yesterday afternoon and smacked his forehead before heading to the back.

Huang Fang watched him, puzzled, and asked curiously.

"Can't find your seat?"

"Yeah, forgot we switched seats yesterday." Jiang Nian sat down and hung his bag on the chair. "What time do you sleep, Fangfang? You're in the classroom every time I arrive."

"Around eleven-thirty, sometimes midnight." Empress Fangfang's tone was flat. "Got no phone to play with, so all I can do is sleep, or recite books for fun."

Incredible—reciting before bed. Truly worthy of Empress Fangfang.

After sitting down, Jiang Nian didn't immediately start on homework.

He usually used the morning period to adjust his state, but everyone had different study habits, so it was really a matter of each to their own.

He opened a shopping app on his phone to check the delivery status.

The day before yesterday, Jiang Nian had bought his mom a two-thousand-yuan bag and his old man a leather wallet. Money sitting in the card with nowhere to go—he'd bought them on a whim.

The system quest panel hadn't refreshed in a few days. Last week it had given him a small skill: 【Precision】.

Honestly, the skill sounded overpowered, but in practice it was only at a hardcore gamer's level. Similar to Japan's Morikawa Aoi, and that was after high-intensity practice.

Ring toss precision, every toss precise. But it wasn't a conceptual god-tier skill—if the distance was too extreme, there was nothing to be done.

Looked like a chicken rib, and in fact was a chicken rib.

That said, Jiang Nian had developed a new way to play with it.

The English morning reading was winding down.

"Students, it's time for the beloved dictation segment." Qian Bao made her energetic entrance. This person actually had zero resentment about coming to work on Monday.

Unreasonable. Extremely unreasonable.

The classroom erupted in wails, everyone going "Ow, what are you doing?"

Clap clap—Qian Bao clapped her hands and raised her voice.

"Same old rules—pick three students to come up to the board for dictation. Class rep, turn on the multimedia. To keep things fair, we'll still pick names at random."

Tao Ran walked up to the podium and turned on the multimedia.

Qian Bao had originally planned to pick names herself, but after a moment's hesitation, she looked up and said.

"Anyone want to come up and pick?"

At her words, the classroom instantly stirred.

Pick names!

This was damn well the power to pick names—what was the difference between this and being Louis XVI's executioner?

Just step up, click the mouse, and you could make the whole class sweat bullets. And the moment the lucky victim's name appeared, you could shout.

English dictation, please take your seat!

Just thinking about it was exhilarating.

Faced with such an opportunity, who could not be tempted? Who could claim to be invincible, who could claim to be undefeated.

"Teacher, me!" Li Hua rushed to the front again.

That's how sly people are—as long as they go up on stage to draw names, there's a certain probability they can avoid themselves. Besides, with such a chance to show off, Li Hua couldn't possibly let it slip.

"Me too!" Jiang Nian also stood up, raising his hand ridiculously high.

"Nian, ah, you—" Li Hua turned his head, face full of disbelief. "Don't fight your bro for it, okay? If I get the chance, next time I'll fully back you running for it."

One after another, seven or eight people raised their hands. Jiang Nian clearly knew that everyone's path in life could not be copied; he'd forgotten both the ones before and after. In any case, he had to attract Qian Bao's attention, or everything was done for.

When two clams fight, the fisherman benefits—lose the selection and he'd want to cry himself to death.

This thing didn't have any formal procedure at all, purely depending on Qian Bao's mood. In other words, it all came down to who the hell could flatter better and win Qian Bao's heart.

"Are you worthy?"

"Are you worthy?"

Jiang Nian and Li Hua didn't know who started it, and then fell into an endless loop of repeating the same line. Over a chance to draw names, father and son turned against each other like enemies.

Damn it, sooner or later he'd find an excuse to get rid of this damn Crown Prince.

Qian Bao was stunned, watching the two of them endlessly repeating over there. Her eyes could hold no one else now—indeed, the abstract ones enjoy the world first.

"How can one class have two people so—"

She wanted to say 'crouching dragon and young phoenix,' but subconsciously felt Li Hua's English grades probably couldn't reach the threshold for 'young phoenix.'

"Talents, you two stop fighting." As the teacher, Qian Bao of course prioritized maintaining classroom order. "How about this—you two play rock-paper-scissors to decide."

Half the class's gaze gathered on the two of them. Zhang Ningzhi felt a bit embarrassed. She covered her face with her hand, burying her head deep into the towering stack of books.

What are they doing?

Ma Guojun, a lover of drama, watching the show and never thinking it was too big, clapped enthusiastically.

"Awesome, just fight, that's all that matters."

Li Hua let out a long, ghostly sigh, striking a pose as he spoke.

"How did it come to this between us, brothers!"

"Eat shit, hurry up and lose, don't drag this out." Jiang Nian showed no mercy.

The two played rock-paper-scissors. Li Hua lost.

"Impossible!!" His face full of disbelief, he acted shamelessly: "Best of three!"

Lose, lose, lose.

Li Hua was purely Chen Rui eating Sichuan peppercorn—completely sick of losing. Lost all three rounds; what kind of dogshit luck could make someone lose three out of three? He suspected Jiang Nian had a cheat on.

"Then Najiang, come up and draw names." Qian Bao didn't hesitate, directly appointing someone.

"Okay."

Jiang Nian walked up to the podium, gripped the mouse, and started clicking the random-draw button. This thing: single-click once to start rolling, single-click again to instantly stop and draw the selected person.

He clicked twice with a click-clack, and a name appeared on the podium screen.

"Li Hua."

"Holy shit?" Li Hua was shocked—killing the donkey after the grinding was done.

Seeing this, Ma Guojun was delighted, his fat hand pointing at him, laughing hard.

"Haha, dumbass Li Hua."

Click-clack, the second draw hit Ma Guojun.

The smile vanished from Ma Guojun's face. He pushed his glasses up with his hand. First he carefully looked at the name on the screen, then cursed under his breath twice.

"Watching dogs is only funny for laughs; for real dogs, you still have to look at Jiang Nian."

Click-clack, the third name appeared.

"Yao Beibei."

"Hmm?" Huang Beibei looked completely baffled.

The three exchanged glances, thinking they'd seen a ghost.

Qian Bao also found it strange, but walked up to the podium and tried it herself twice. Finding the software wasn't broken either, she didn't take it to heart and told the three to come up for dictation.

Because cheating on dictation up on stage, Li Hua stood for an entire English class.

Jiang Nian, comfortable and cozy, had a world for two with Zhang Ningzhi, occasionally chatting during class. Half chatting, half attending class, he played the whole period into pure comfort.

Yang Qiming wasn't interested in the classroom ruckus, only felt they were being noisy.

A whole morning passed, his face expressionless as still water.

What is love in this world, that it teaches people to pledge life and death to each other. He hadn't pledged life and death, but at least he'd put in energy, money, and time—he was already a bit worn out.

Last night he'd scrolled through posts in the romance section all night, reading every single comment under every single post, trying to find comfort from others.

After noon dismissal, walking the road back to the dorm, he suddenly turned his head and said.

"Cai Lang, lend me your phone."

"Oh oh, here."

Yang Qiming took the phone, opened add friend, and skillfully entered a string of numbers. Just before clicking confirm, he suddenly looked up again at Huang Cailang.

"Cai Lang, can I change the hometown on your profile card?"

"Why though? Brother Yang." Huang Cailang was puzzled.

"I—I don't want her to guess that it was me who looked at her QQ. If I change the hometown, she won't suspect." Yang Qiming's move was a bit redundant.

To this, Huang Cailang gave his full four-limbed support.

"Brother Yang, change it however you want."

"Thanks." Yang Qiming skillfully changed the QQ profile, then added the other party as a friend again, clicked into their space—no visitor request needed.

Xiao Wen (College Entrance Exam Prep Version): "My baby (image)."

The instant he saw that nine-grid photo, Yang Qiming felt a surge of stifled air rush from his chest to his throat, and his face flushed red in an instant.

Bro, can't catch my breath.

On the fourth-floor corridor, Jiang Nian slowly turned around from the stairwell. Looking at the sunlight filling the corridor, he couldn't help squinting his eyes, thinking to himself about today's weather.

A sudden ding rang in his mind, and the mission panel popped up after a long absence.

(End of chapter)