Chapter 229: Afraid of brothers living poorly, yet also afraid

Evening self-study, the classroom was brightly lit.

Jiang Nian had just finished twelve multiple-choice math problems; the draft paper was covered in dense numbers, spreading across the entire page like a spider weaving its web from the corner.

"Little conch horn, blow it blindly." Lin Dong walked into the classroom with light steps, shook the print list in his hand, and said, "Time to check answers, fam."

The classic answer-checking segment—everyone was hiding a few blind-box questions.

Guess right, and you get a late-night snack; guess wrong, and you get a glum late-night snack.

Lin Dong picked through the items on the podium and grabbed a marker, then turned and began writing the multiple-choice answers on the blackboard.

The class instantly erupted in wails of misery, and the room grew noisy.

"I got three wrong! I'm done for!"

"I got four wrong—now I'm really done for, they're gonna kill me."

"Ah!!! Me!! Not a single one wrong." Li Hua pointed at the others, looking like Xi Yangyang, "Hahaha, you're all done for."

"No, you're the one who's done for."

The next second, Li Hua was immediately pinned down on the spot by several people—and it got very real.

"Ah!! Discipline committee, someone's leaving their seat!"

"Class monitor, ah!! Help!"

"Don't! Not there!"

Listening to Li Hua's pleasant screams, Zhang Ningzhi, who sat by the wall, couldn't help feeling a little amused inside.

Other people know there's a tiger on the mountain, so they don't go to the mountain.

But her own group leader was a weirdo—he leaned toward the tiger's mountain, even taking the initiative to put himself in danger. He couldn't wait to slide-tackle right in front of the tiger and add a line.

"I gave you the chance and you couldn't take it!"

She secretly suspected her group leader was actually an M-type personality, with a bit of a masochistic streak.

Every time, he used mockery of others to indirectly achieve his own ulterior motives.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ningzhi primly took out her test paper. Out of habit, she turned to glance at Jiang Nian, wondering what personality Jiang Nian would turn out to be.

Her pupils slowly focused, only to find him sneakily drinking lemon tea.

She was instantly speechless—evening self-study didn't forbid drinks, so why was Jiang Nian acting all sneaky and—wait, lemon tea?

She blinked, reached into her drawer, and felt around.

The spot where the drink had been was completely empty; the situation was already obvious—someone had swiped it.

"Little thief!" Zhang Ningzhi grumbled unhappily.

"Huh?" Jiang Nian turned his head in slow motion.

"Where's my drink?"

"That's a good question, but I don't know." He gulped down two more sips of lemon tea. "As a matter of fact, you're mistaken—the lemon tea was something I picked up."

"Where did you pick it up?" Zhang Ningzhi gritted her teeth.

It wasn't that she was unwilling to give Jiang Nian drinks; it was just that she used to be able to use drinks to control him. Now that Jiang Nian had taken matters into his own hands, there was no way to counter him.

"From your desk."

"I'll kill you!" Zhang Ningzhi nearly fainted from the scumbag's audacity, angrily smacked him once, then turned away without speaking.

To be fair, that amount of force could only kill an ant.

Still, Jiang Nian wasn't quite shameless enough to lean close to Zhang Ningzhi's ear and whisper, "Baby, did you not eat?"—if he did that, she'd really get angry.

"Actually, I didn't mean to take your drink on purpose; there's another hidden reason." Jiang Nian deliberated for a moment, then lowered his voice toward Zhang Ningzhi and said.

"Do you still remember what you lost during the sports meet?"

Zhang Ningzhi blinked—of course she remembered.

It came back to her in almost a second. Back then it was the long-jump event. The wager was a bottle of mineral water Zhang Ningzhi had drunk from, and at the time Beibei had privately—

Actually, she had tacitly agreed, figuring Jiang Nian couldn't possibly win the long-jump championship. Who knew he'd used underhanded means and shamelessly taken the title.

Of course she couldn't admit it now, or he'd push his luck further.

"I don't remember."

"Liar—if you didn't remember, you should be asking what matter." Jiang Nian caught every detail, pressing the attack. "You definitely remember, right? When are you cashing in the prize?"

"What?" Zhang Ningzhi deployed the uniquely female technique of playing dumb, turned around and slumped over the desk, not even checking the answers anymore. "I don't know."

Alright, alright, wanna play it that way? Sooner or later I'll force the prize open for you.

Seeing this, Jiang Nian continued drinking his lemon tea with a clear conscience. Next time Zhang Ningzhi asked about it, he'd bring up the prize claim—as the saying goes, every thing has its match.

He was happily checking answers when Li Hua, having recovered from being pinned down, came back over. As if remembering something, he trotted up to the edge of his desk and said.

"Nian, let me tell you something wild."

Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow and glanced at him sidelong.

"What is it?"

"This afternoon after school, someone almost got into a fight with the school team on the basketball court." Li Hua was animated, gesturing nonstop with both hands. "That scene—damn."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian's expression turned a bit odd.

"Did you see it?"

"No, I heard it ended in just a few minutes." Li Hua's face showed a hint of regret as he kept shaking his head. "Too bad I didn't witness it in person, what a shame."

"Sigh, I love watching idiots fight the most."

Jiang Nian opened his mouth to speak, then stopped; there wasn't really anything to hide.

"That was your dad."

"Bullshit, my dad got off work ages—" Li Hua got halfway through, then his brain completely crashed. "Ah—! Eat shit eat shit eat shit! You're fucking taking advantage of me again!"

"Wait, you really did it?"

Looking at his good son Li Hua's suspicious gaze, Jiang Nian appeared slightly helpless. "Lin Dong did it too."

On the podium, Lin Dong, who was copying answers, suddenly went "ah ah" for half a day.

"Ah-choo!! Damn!"

The people in the first row froze, then looked up and asked.

"Autumn grass?"

Hearing this, the whole class burst into laughter.

"Get lost, get lost, just a sneeze." Lin Dong said dismissively, but when he turned to face the blackboard, a hint of loneliness crept in.

Could winter really be coming?

In past winters, several girls would always ask after his health. Every day he could savor the taste of love, even receiving scarves they had sent.

But now, this winter was destined to be spent alone.

If only he had a girlfriend to fuss over him.

That was what he thought, but the face of Skinned Liuli from the Black Tower inexplicably surfaced in his mind. It startled him so badly he quickly took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Monsters and demons, begone, monsters and demons, begone—"

At his seat.

Li Hua muttered under his breath, mumbling to himself.

"It really was you?"

"I should have guessed it sooner, your shooting is that accurate." Li Hua seemed possessed, muttering to himself alone, "Listen, the point now is—"

"Why the hell didn't you take me along when you were showing off? Huh? Traitor, speak! I heard there were junior girls from the first year of high school there too, damn your dad, are you even human!"

Li Hua had completely fallen into a state of not wanting his brother to suffer, but the moment his brother suddenly drove a Land Rover, pure torment.

"No, on what grounds can you—can you promise me you won't add unfamiliar girls on QQ? Please? Just this once, no one can add anyone these few days."

"Tormented, who knew that kind of thing would happen." Jiang Nian was genuinely speechless, "No one added me, I was rushing to eat, cursed a few times and left."

"That's good, that's good." Li Hua breathed a sigh of relief, then patted Jiang Nian's shoulder, "Brother, don't worry, it's safe now."

Jiang Nian wasn't interested, and continued checking the answers to the weekly math test.

He had long known this matter wouldn't spread—only about ten minutes of basketball, after all. The conflict itself lasted only a few minutes, and there weren't that many onlookers.

Among those people, barely one in a hundred knew him.

Add to that the fact that Zhang Xiaofan was bursting with superiority and cared most about face.

Was he really cursing people out because of his temper?

Of course not—the moment he ran into someone more powerful and influential, he immediately became obedient.

To put it bluntly, he just looked down on the people around him. Treating them like dogs, casually laughing and cursing. People are like that toward things they look down on.

The people on the school team didn't want to offend Zhang Xiaofan, so they would certainly keep their mouths shut about that incident.

He couldn't care less—since the facade was torn off, it was nothing more than cursing him out every time they met.

He didn't buy Zhang Xiaofan's act, fight him head-on no matter what. The son of a merchant, no matter how rich, how connected, how awesome—could he out-awesome Young Master Squirtle?

Although Jiang Nian was nothing, he held leverage over Yu Tongjie for cheating. Illegal stuff he wouldn't do, but taking down a few idiots was fair game.

This stratagem was called 【Driving the Wolf to Swallow the Tiger】.

Once the weekly test was over, the account codenamed 【Joker】 should officially launch again.

After Zhang Xiaofan returned to the classroom, the more he thought about it, the more something felt off.

He was the goddamn victim here!

He didn't understand why everyone around him had sealed their lips.

Sure, he couldn't outplay Jiang Nian at basketball. But there were plenty of people he couldn't outplay—there are always people better, mountains beyond mountains. Did Jiang Nian have no rivals?

So, what of it?

Jiang Nian was just a poor bastard. Honestly, he and Jiang Nian weren't even on the same level. Whenever he wanted, he could find a way to study abroad.

When he returned home in glory, where would Jiang Nian be? Probably somewhere earning three to five thousand a month, working himself to death every day, without even a girlfriend.

Thinking of this, his thoughts instantly cleared.

Ring ring ring, the first evening self-study session ended.

The more Zhang Xiaofan thought about it, the more pleased he became, his brain acting like it had been tuned to Best Actor mode, already starting to hallucinate. He wished he could teleport right in front of Jiang Nian and slap his face hard.

"What do you even have? Besides a little bit of shooting, what else do you have!"

Ceng Ceng Yunde was Zhang Xiaofan's classmate and little sidekick, usually trailing behind his big brother sipping soup. Watching Zhang Xiaofan rubbing his fists and muttering to himself there.

He couldn't help but silently swallow a mouthful of saliva, a little scared.

"Brother Xiaofan, what's wrong with you?"

Zhang Xiaofan was interrupted, and coming back to his senses, he was greatly annoyed.

"nmsl, what do you want!"

"N-nothing." Ceng Ceng Yunde automatically tuned out Zhang Xiaofan's profanity—he was used to it by now. "Bro, I heard the elders say that for possession you need gua sha."

Zhang Xiaofan froze for a moment, then instantly flew into a rage and kicked him.

"Possess your ***!"

But on second thought, he really did need manpower to gather intel right now. Know yourself and know your enemy, a hundred battles without danger. He couldn't wait for later—he was going to slap faces right now.

"Come here, do me a favor." Zhang Xiaofan spoke, pulling out his phone directly from his pocket, "Transferred you four hundred, help me figure out Jiang Nian's exact situation."

"Brother Xiaofan, are you trying to—" Ceng Ceng Yunde hesitated.

Zhang Xiaofan grinned and spoke.

"Just go do it, don't ask about the rest."

(End of chapter)