Chapter 215

"Send a fucking message? I'm not a girl, how the hell would I know?" Ma Guojun grumbled.

"Just don't send it, be civilized, you, me, and him," Li Hua found another amusement, dancing with excitement, then turned to ask, "Nian, what do you think?"

Jiang Nian stood in the corridor, stroking his chin.

"Why not ask the magic conch?"

Yao Bei Bei had just finished using the restroom and walked by, overhearing the three idiots' nonsense, and glanced at them sideways.

"Idiots."

The three were attacked, but they didn't care.

In Li Hua's understanding, their little group of five had only one and a half girls. One was Zhang Ningzhi—she was a girl in the truest sense.

Yao Bei Bei was only a quarter girl, and another quarter belonged to Jiang Nian.

Because he occasionally triggered the "Little Red Book Warning" trap card, or used the invincible skill card "Family, Who Understands?"

The rain will stop someday, but the head will keep falling.

Now, Yao Bei Bei was right in front of him.

Should he ask?

Guaranteed.

Li Hua smiled in relief, abandoning this suicidal thought. Step back and the sea widens—the death star above his head no longer flickered.

The next second, Jiang Nian suddenly spoke.

"Huang Beibei, Li Hua wants to know if you usually watch."

"What the fuck?"

Li Hua, shocked, turned and bolted.

Explanation was redundant; words were pale. Thrown down the stairs, the body came in pieces. When in doubt, invoke Han Tianzun—no need for further words.

"Why did he run?" Yao Bei Bei looked puzzled.

"Frequent urination."

"Oh." Yao Bei Bei nodded. "What were you just asking me?"

Ma Guojun's breath suddenly caught. His gaze involuntarily shifted to Jiang Nian—he couldn't possibly ask it outright, could he? If he did, Ma Guojun would run too.

"Ahem, I just remembered I haven't done my homework."

He took one step forward, but his body type limited his speed. Just then, Jiang Nian spoke—and Ma Guojun's heart leapt, thinking: Shit.

Come back, Li Hua, my most cherished faith.

Let the sect brother die, not me.

"I mean, do you usually watch movies? Any new releases to recommend?" Jiang Nian's expression was perfectly calm, with not the slightest hint of implication.

Yao Bei Bei froze for a moment—no new releases, but other recommendations did exist.

"I haven't watched lately. Maybe they haven't come out yet."

Nonsensical, but it didn't matter—the class bell rang.

The group fell into a tacit understanding, ending the topic, walking toward the classroom.

First and second periods were Chinese class; if you didn't want Old Liu to find an excuse to scold you, better get to class early and avoid trouble.

Old Liu was a good man, but sometimes he was just disgustingly annoying. Mainly because he didn't rely on his salary—he had zero weaknesses.

The school leadership had been unlucky—they thought they'd caught a golden Palu.

Turns out he was the tiger of the Chinese department, a rising star entirely supported by his wife.

The bell ended.

Li Hua sat anxiously in his seat; before Old Liu arrived, he lowered his voice and asked Jiang Nian, who sat calmly beside him.

"What did Yao Bei Bei say?"

"Want to know the answer?" Jiang Nian turned, giving a mysterious smile.

"Yes."

"I've hidden the answer in the endless ocean. Go find it, young man."

Li Hua was speechless—Jiang Nian, this riddler, deserved execution.

"Fine, don't tell me."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian's lips tilted slightly; he glanced at Li Hua, deciding to tease him a little longer.

Within one class, this guy would be scratching his head, going to Ma Guojun to ask.

Sure enough, after the first class, Li Hua went straight to Ma Guojun.

Jiang Nian was dead tired, immediately lying face-down on the desk and falling asleep. When he lifted his head, he saw Zhang Ningzhi sneak a glance at him, then quickly turned away, refusing to look again.

"Oh."

The class bell rang; Huang Fang looked up at the blackboard.

She didn't pay much attention to Chinese class—sometimes she memorized vocabulary during it. Occasionally she'd sneakily do other homework, but she did it extremely discreetly.

In the daily monotony of studying, the biggest amusement was watching the comedy troupe in her group. They might lack noble sentiments, but they definitely had life.

Old Liu always entered with "Stand up, sit down," followed by the students' muscle-memory response.

As they sat down, Ceng You rubbed his leg.

He was a classic heavy-duty day-passer, living one day at a time. His phone opened, he scrolled—until his eyes went blurry, never feeling tired.

Until Jiang Nian was promoted, first Wu Jun Gu transferred into the dorm, then Lin Dong moved in.

Slowly, he realized these people around him were somehow out of sync with him.

Jiang Nian didn't need mention—he had a Young Lady from Nanjiang Bay as his desk partner, and Chen Yunyun constantly came to chat with him, completely outshining everyone.

Lin Dong was the math class representative—no need to elaborate. Wu Jun Gu had high looks and a clean demeanor, and he even had a girlfriend with a prominent chest—truly enviable.

Slowly, it was as if the corpse had gained a trace of yang energy. He still liked it, but occasionally he had thoughts of wanting to participate more in real life.

After two uneventful Chinese lessons passed, the students in the classroom had been preparing to run laps, but upon seeing Qian Bao, they burst into cheers.

"You're all back, Qian Bao, my most cherished belief!" A group of them were goofing off in class, dragging their feet and refusing to go downstairs for running. To outsiders, it might seem like they had overactive tear ducts—but in truth, they were just waiting for Qian Bao to pick names.

Who wants to go downstairs and slog through running laps? Can it replenish your kidneys?

Qian Bao smiled around the classroom, her gaze finally locking onto several people.

"Monitor, Jiang Nian, Liu Yang—come here for a moment."

Everyone sighed and slowly filed out.

Li Hua twisted in jealousy, his eyes glowing green.

"Why pick Jiang Nian?!"

Calling Liu Yang made sense—you needed someone to do the grunt work for events. Liu Yang was tall and strong; perfect as a beast of burden.

The monitor could operate the multimedia independently and knew more than the study committee member, Tao Ran.

But why call Jiang Nian? It was purely Qian Bao's personal preference—like an emperor's sycophant, always kept close at hand no matter what.

"Stop acting crazy, let's go run laps," Ma Guojun dragged him out.

Zhou Yuting happened to pass by, but if only she weren't in the Olympiad class.

It was simply hard to believe that those people looked like they'd dropped out of Tai Sect, yet their scores were all above six hundred—truly too abstract.

Before leaving the classroom, she turned back to glance at the acrylic display screen. It showed a mental health-themed class meeting, reminding her of that QQ number.

—

Clown.

From heart-pounding anxiety to relief, it took only three or four short days.

She'd almost given herself a psychological scar.

It should be fine now.

Jiang Nian stood beside Qian Bao like a top-tier lackey.

Others only saw him acting absurdly every day, twisting and crawling like some dark creature, spying. No one had ever seen him devoted, earnestly studying.

No one saw it, because he'd never done it.

"Monitor, do you want me to turn it on?"

Li Qingrong nodded. "Mm."

"Got it."

Qian Bao was speechless and yanked Jiang Nian up.

"You still have to carry things."

"Huh? Can't Liu Yang carry them too?" Jiang Nian said something utterly shameless. "I thought the monitor couldn't handle it alone, so I came to help."

Qian Bao saw right through him, speechless.

"Li Qingrong can handle it alone. You're just adding trouble."

"Conscripting conscripts," Jiang Nian grumbled.

If he couldn't use the multimedia hand-in-hand with the monitor, he'd rather run laps. At least then he could chat with Li Hua or talk to Chen Yunyun.

On the stairs, sunlight spilled down.

"I say, we're doomed to be donkeys," Liu Yang said loudly, uttering cynical remarks. "I just took a peek—it's all snacks inside."

"Is there Xixi Le jelly?" Jiang Nian asked.

He himself carried a large box, heavy with various gifts and game props. Even more insane—he spotted a stack of Sprite.

Who could resist this? You'd have to flip your guts over.

"No way. Why would they prepare such childish snacks?" Liu Yang looked puzzled, then burst out laughing. "Qian Bao's an adult—she'd buy jelly?"

Jiang Nian's expression turned strange. He thought: old women just love this stuff.

Back in the classroom.

As Qian Bao had said, Li Qingrong had completed all multimedia setup alone—and even helped Qian Bao decorate the classroom, sticking up slogans.

The students hadn't finished running laps yet, but deafening music still blasted from the classroom speakers.

Li Qingrong hadn't heard their footsteps; after sticking up one slogan, she turned and saw them, pausing slightly before walking over.

Liu Yang was excited and said as the monitor approached.

"No no, it's not heavy."

Li Qingrong passed by him, nodding sideways in response.

"Mm."

Then she stepped past him, walking straight toward Jiang Nian, saying:

"Give it to me."

Liu Yang turned his head, barely holding it together.

Am I not a person?

But then he realized—he'd been an idiot earlier, insisting it wasn't heavy. Now the snow and wind had crushed him for two or three years—totaling five years.

Sometimes, polite lies really shouldn't be spoken lightly.

As Li Qingrong opened the box, a strand of her black hair fell, her eyelashes trembling slightly. They stood very close; Jiang Nian could even smell the faint fragrance emanating from the monitor.

Golden sunlight streamed down the corridor, spilling across half the classroom.

Just then, a breeze surged in through the wide-open window, making stacks of books and exam papers rustle loudly. Thin homework notebooks fluttered to the floor; several white exam sheets scattered wildly.

"Hey, where did this wind come from?!" Liu Yang, ever helpful, bent to pick up the exam papers blown onto the aisle.

Jiang Nian hadn't had time to respond when a strand of Li Qingrong's black hair was swept by the strong wind—floating forward, brushing against his cheek. Li Qingrong instinctively looked up.

The distance between the two of them was no more than two fists, and they both raised their heads to exchange a glance.

Li Qingrong's pupils were black as ink, her gaze deep and quiet. The depths of her eyes were clear as a brook, and a pair of eyes that seemed to have many things they wanted to say, yet swallowed them back down.

By the time Jiang Nian came back to his senses, the class monitor had already walked away.

Qian Bao stood with arms folded, leaning against the doorframe of the classroom bathed in platinum-gold sunlight, squinting her eyes mischievously.

"Youth is wonderful."

(End of chapter)