Chapter 210: A Book Hidden in a Fish's Belly

Zhang Ningzhi would also get drowsy in class; she usually chose to lie on the desk and listen to the lecture.

Listening to the lesson while catching up on sleep — the books were stacked high anyway.

Although the teacher standing at the podium could see everything, this trick was basically a cover-your-ears-and-steal-a-bell move. It didn't have to fool the teacher — fooling yourself was fine too.

At this moment, Zhang Ningzhi was clearly getting a bit sleepy.

The air in this classroom was like it had been drugged with sleeping pills — sleepy sitting down, sleepy standing up. Sleepy when hungry, sleepy when too full, and in the afternoon it knocked you out completely.

The scientific explanation was just too many people in too small a space — over sixty students in one classroom, each one breathing in and out.

If the windows weren't opened in the afternoon, the sleepiness was absolutely boundless.

Some students in the class would bring their own little oxygen canisters; when they felt they couldn't catch their breath, they'd take a hard suck on the nozzle and instantly become wide awake.

This oxygen thing only worked miracles when your body was in bad shape.

Back in the day, some schools would organize top students to inhale oxygen collectively before the college entrance exam, and there were even cases of organizing the whole class to hang IV drips together — none of it worked.

Jiang Nian stretched out a finger and gently poked Zhang Ningzhi's arm.

"Ahem."

Zhang Ningzhi immediately sat up straight, and after realizing it was Jiang Nian, turned her head and gave him a rather resentful look, pressing her lips together, clearly a little unhappy.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, reporting you for sleeping in class." Jiang Nian only dared to carefully stack up her anger, afraid that if he provoked her even slightly, things might accidentally spiral out of control.

"You dare!" Zhang Ningzhi raised her cute little clenched fist, fierce in a cutesy way. "If you report me, I'll beat you up the moment class ends."

She was no longer the naive little sweet thing from when she'd first moved up a class — under the indescribable contamination of Jiang Nian, she had fully matured and now had ways to deal with his antics.

Damn, she's countering move for move.

Jiang Nian froze for a moment — all he'd done just now was poke Baby Zhizhi once, yet he hadn't actually offended her, so there was nothing to forgive.

Mm.

Li Hua had already woken up; seeing that the physics class was almost over, he deliberately leaned over to join the fun, squeezing into the two's chat channel.

"How can you sleep in class? As the saying goes, 'if you don't work hard when young—'"

"Drop dead." Jiang Nian pushed him away, speechless. "You were sleeping like a dead pig just now — shut up."

Zhang Ningzhi covered her mouth and snickered, no longer sleepy either.

Plan failed.

The second and third periods passed like flowing water, nothing happened.

Jiang Nian did want the reward, but not that urgently.

What he wanted was to complete the quest without making Zhang Ningzhi angry — not to keep raising the stakes after one failure until he completely pissed Zhizhi off and then had to coax her back.

A person couldn't be that pathetic.

Doing something like that for a reward — next time wouldn't he have to do something even more outrageous?

Afternoon self-study period.

Jiang Nian worked on problems out of sheer boredom, temporarily shelving the quest.

A ridiculous note was passed over and landed on Jiang Nian's desk. He froze for a moment, opened it, and saw written in red pen: "Lend me a red pen."

Signed: Beibei.

He turned his head and saw Yao Bei Bei nudging her chin toward the side, signaling to pass the note to Zhang Ningzhi. He was somewhat speechless and simply crumpled the note up.

He pulled a red pen from his own desk and casually tossed it in the direction of her seat. The red pen crossed nearly half the classroom and landed precisely in Yao Bei Bei's hand.

Yao Bei Bei immediately froze, looked up at Jiang Nian, then looked down at the red pen she had caught, and fell into deep thought.

How did it get here?

"Hey hey! Nian, look quick!" Li Hua clutched a blue shark-shaped pencil case, making it bounce around lively, and said anxiously.

"Quick! Quick, cut open Stupid Beibei Fish's belly!"

Jiang Nian was about to lose his mind from these people — not a single one of them studying properly.

Bro still has real business to attend to!

But compared to bantering with Li Hua and getting trapped in an endless loop of eating shit, clearly playing along with him wasted less time.

So Jiang Nian, looking utterly exasperated, pulled open the zipper of the shark pencil case.

The fish instantly stopped flopping.

Li Hua sucked in a cold breath and put on an exaggerated expression. "A note! There's actually a note in the fish's belly!"

Goddamn, the joys of being a retard.

Jiang Nian gave him a dead-fish-eyed glance, and with a thoroughly impatient look, fished the note out of the pencil case.

【Li Huaxing, Furong Wang】.

Seeing this, Jiang Nian was already beyond words — he had lost all language modules.

Li Hua panted and wagged about excitedly like a dog.

"Read it out! Read it out!"

Jiang Nian glanced at the note and spoke.

"Liu Grandma seven times in and out of Li Hua."

"Eat shit eat shit!" Li Hua let out a piercing shriek, unable to stand such crude vocabulary. "You're really no fun, I'll go find Ma Guojun instead."

Before he even finished speaking, a sudden voice exploded from the classroom door.

"The moment I walked in, I saw you Li Hua chatting with Jiang Nian!"

Old Liu came in with his hands behind his back, slipping into the classroom from outside.

"It's you two again! Stand up!"

When it comes to Jiang Nian actually getting on Old Liu's radar, he had to thank Young Master Jenny for that.

Back then, Jiang Nian had just moved up a class and got thoroughly badmouthed behind his back by Squirtle. It made him furious, and after he hit back, he discovered that this notebook had some pretty solid backing.

Old Liu was willing to vouch for him, and Jiang Nian took the hint and pocketed a few perks.

Being this generous, giving him a few privileges isn't too much, right?

In class, Jiang Nian always preached: when you run into a demerit situation, don't panic—think it through before acting. Can you dodge it? Can you wriggle out of it? Can you pin it on Class Four?

Putting it into practice and loving his class—giving him a few perks isn't too much, right?

Only at this moment, Old Liu was honestly being a bit underhanded. Jiang Nian had no choice but to stand up first, and then Old Liu hauled him off to the office.

In the office.

"Have I ever stressed in class that chatting during self-study is forbidden!" Old Liu barked harshly. "This isn't the first or second time I've caught you chatting."

Li Hua stood there, weathering Old Liu's wrath.

"Yes, teacher."

Old Liu didn't say much more, just gave Li Hua a brief dressing-down.

"Fine, stand there and reflect for a while."

Managing a class is like cooking a small fish—pure high pressure or pure free-range won't do.

On this, Old Liu had his own unique insight.

A homeroom teacher doesn't care about each individual's right or wrong, only about order and chaos. What he needs to ensure is that every student shows up in the classroom safe and sound each day.

Then he focuses on the struggling students, making sure no one in the class falls behind in their studies and daily life.

As for making the class outstanding, that actually still comes down to grades. Being well-behaved and proper is just for the leaders to see—let the leaders think Olympiad Class Three is very disciplined, and that's enough.

Li Hua had no complaints about being dragged to the office, but... he turned his head slightly. He saw Jiang Nian sitting in a chair resting, and his back teeth were nearly ground to dust.

"Teacher, Jiang Nian did it too."

Hearing this, Old Liu looked up at him.

"You're the principal offender, he's the accessory."

"What the hell? You can do that too!" Li Hua was about to pass out. "No... teacher, what the hell, I..."

Jiang Nian laughed and pointed a finger at him.

"Born from my mom."

(End of chapter)