Chapter 246: Having Seen the Mountains, One Cannot Take In the Plains

At one in the afternoon, the two groups parted ways at the intersection.

"Well then, we're heading off first." The Yang Qiming duo prepared to use unconventional means to enter the school.

There was a path at the north gate—the risk was just a bit higher.

Jiang Nian stood together with Chen Yunyun and the other girl, watching them leave before finally speaking.

"Let's go."

"Where to?" Chen Yunyun was a bit confused.

If Jiang Nian weren't here, she would probably have taken Wang Yuhe to the mall. Buy a few things, then return to the dorm from the north gate, and head to class afterward.

Eighteen-year-olds were bursting with energy; aside from dozing off in afternoon class, there were basically no side effects. If it really came to it, there was always the option of dying.

But none of that was a problem—just losing one class period. As long as they lay down for a bit during the break, ten minutes would bring them right back to full health.

Wang Yuhe stared at the street in a daze, feeling a bit overstuffed.

Huang Cailang ate way too much—she couldn't compete at all. Felt like he hadn't eaten in a whole day, yet she'd even snacked on biscuits during the break between running drills.

So the biscuits are guilty!

Where to?

Jiang Nian turned to look at Chen Yunyun, thought for a moment, then said.

"Let's go to my place."

"Huh?" Chen Yunyun's pupils shrank slightly, startled by his outrageous remark. "No-no, that won't be necessary. We can just hang out at the milk tea shop by the school gate for a bit."

"Then let's go." Jiang Nian agreed readily.

Chen Yunyun: "???"

She suspected Jiang Nian had been talking off the top of his head—in fact, he'd long planned to rest at the milk tea shop. He was just bored and deliberately teasing her.

She really was going to be driven mad by this clueless guy.

Wang Yuhe had no opinion about where to go—wherever Chen Yunyun went, she'd go too.

"Yay, milk tea!"

"Drink too much and you'll break out." Jiang Nian poured cold water on it in time.

"Then you won't break out?" Wang Yuhe fired back.

"I don't drink it."

Wang Yuhe was instantly at a loss for words, grinding her teeth.

"Fine, don't drink it then!"

She realized she was currently fighting a solo battle, with zero chance of winning against Jiang Nian.

So she wondered whether to rope Chen Yunyun in to fight Jiang Laogou together.

Thinking it over carefully, she decided against it—Chen Yunyun's combat power was zero.

Early winter afternoon, the sunlight on the street was just right.

Jiang Nian walked in front, his neck and back straight as a line. His black hair was thick and soft, giving off a languid air.

The two girls lagged half a step behind, chatting arm in arm.

Platinum sunlight filtered through the glass of the shops along the street, refracting into Chen Yunyun's pupils. Pupils dark as black jade, flecked with shimmering gold.

At the school gate, the three entered a newly opened milk tea shop.

Not much business—looked a bit deserted.

Jiang Nian glanced at the menu by the counter and asked very naturally.

"What are you drinking? My treat."

He'd just mooched a wedding banquet, so picking up the milk tea tab was only right.

Even if Chen Yunyun and the others chose to climb back over the wall, he'd still grab two milk teas to go for the girls.

On top of that, milk tea at this shop started at six yuan—you needed eight or nine to get a proper cup.

At the entrance of a county high school where competition was already fierce, this price made it hard to attract a large student crowd.

Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe didn't feel much about the price, but were rather wary of the breakout talk Jiang Nian had mentioned. After hesitating a few seconds, they both chose fruit tea.

Milk tea shop, second-floor private booth.

"So dark?" Chen Yunyun remarked in surprise.

"The curtains aren't drawn." The clerk downstairs paused, looked up, and said, "The light upstairs stings the eyes. If you want it brighter, just pull the curtains open."

This was basically an attic—dim light, a faint coolness.

"Should we open them?"

"No need, it's perfect for sleeping." Chen Yunyun hesitated, cutting off his move.

Her instinct said darker was more atmospheric—otherwise, being watched by Jiang Nian, she probably wouldn't be able to sleep at all during the nap. Afternoon class would still be a death sentence.

Gloomy high-schoolers don't deserve bright, shiny romance fantasies.

Because it was a three-person situation, the atmosphere didn't drift toward anything indescribable. Just normal chatting, and some talk about exams.

They were all students scoring above six hundred—no one here was an illiterate.

Ahem, all top students.

Jiang Nian thought this to himself, forcibly inserting himself into the group. It wasn't until they started discussing a certain math problem that the smile on his face began to freeze.

Just then the clerk came upstairs carrying the milk tea, and he coughed before speaking.

"Enough, let's just drink some fruit tea."

"Oh, okay."

Chen Yunyun took a sip of fruit tea and instantly lost the mood to talk math.

"First period this afternoon is Chinese?"

High school students have a habit: even though they know the class schedule backwards and forwards, when their brain hasn't caught up yet, they'll instinctively look to the people around them for confirmation.

"Yes," Wang Yuhe said.

"Then we don't need a lunch break at all, right? Anyway, the first class in the afternoon is—" Chen Yunyun stopped mid-sentence, feeling it wasn't quite appropriate, so she stopped talking.

"Anyway, I'm definitely catching up on sleep," Jiang Nian said.

After chatting for a while, the second floor gradually fell silent.

Wang Yuhe was already slumped over the desk, and Chen Yunyun was also fighting to keep her eyes open. At the banquet just now, she had drunk less than half a glass of beer—just a sip.

"If you're sleepy, lie down for a bit," Jiang Nian glanced at the time on his phone on the desk—1:25. "At this time, if we were in the classroom, we'd usually already be lying down."

Chen Yunyun glanced at Jiang Nian; the light was dim and she couldn't see very clearly.

"Aren't you sleepy?"

"A little. I'll find a spot on the empty sofa to sleep in a bit," Jiang Nian pointed to a darker spot deeper in the attic, where the light was even dimmer.

"Mm-hmm." Chen Yunyun lay down, then immediately propped herself up again, raised her head, and asked Jiang Nian softly, "Should we set an alarm?"

Jiang Nian had already stood up. Hearing this, he lowered his eyes and answered softly.

"1:55."

"Okay." Chen Yunyun nodded.

After unlocking her phone, a faint glow fell on her face. Her jet-black pupils were clear, reflecting the alarm interface on the screen—she set three alarms in a row.

13:54.

13:55.

13:56.

A cluster of alarms, gently rousing the sleeping heart.

Chen Yunyun lay on the desk, her eyelashes fluttering; she brewed for a long time but still felt no sleepiness.

She opened her eyes, curious whether Jiang Nian had fallen asleep. Slowly she sat up straight, and carefully stood.

During this, she made no sound at all, nor did she wake Wang Yuhe beside her.

So, the next step was to move her feet. She tiptoed over, intending to see with her own eyes whether Jiang Nian was asleep—but this plan got stuck at the very first step.

Too much of a fangirl—what kind of plot development is this.

Chen Yunyun patted her slightly flushed cheeks; she began to realize the environment was affecting her reason.

The attic was too dark, with only the three of them.

Moreover, based on Chen Yunyun's understanding of Wang Yuhe, she falls asleep quickly and doesn't wake easily. Rounding up, it was just the two of them in a dim environment.

Because it was a bit too ambiguous, it had given rise to irrational thoughts. She took a deep breath and gave up on that absurd idea in her head. But just as she was about to sit down, another thought suddenly popped into her mind.

What if... I find a reasonable excuse?

Then she'd tiptoe over for a peek, and if caught, she'd say her phone was dead and ask him to set an alarm.

Having made up her mind, Chen Yunyun moved her steps. Inwardly she told herself she was drunk, drunk—just one look, and she'd retreat right after.

But the moment she crept over, Jiang Nian sat straight up from the short sofa, catching Chen Yunyun completely off guard.

"Something?" he asked curiously.

"No, my phone—" Chen Yunyun faltered.

"Broken? Let me take a look." Jiang Nian heard this and reached for her phone. "Master Jiang has been professionally fixing phones for thirty years—cheating young and old alike."

"No—" Chen Yunyun pulled her hand back, and stepping back, immediately sat down on the sofa chair to the right.

The scene went quiet for a moment.

Jiang Nian didn't understand, but he respected it.

"Can't sleep?"

"Mm."

"Then it's perfect to sleep in Chinese class—who told Old Liu to be our homeroom teacher." Jiang Nian felt no guilt at all. "Having him teach us, he's blessed in this life."

Although the current situation wasn't quite what she'd imagined, going along with the mistake was fine too.

In the cool, dim corner, Chen Yunyun and Jiang Nian chatted in low voices across a narrow aisle.

Soft, scattered voices carried through the second floor.

Chen Yunyun's eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed red. Even across the aisle, even though they were just chatting, she still felt it was pretty nice.

Unconsciously, her eyelids grew heavy again, and before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

Until the phone rang.

Chen Yunyun jolted awake, her heart pounding violently, and she instinctively groped for her phone on the seat. A good-looking hand reached across the desk through the air and turned off the alarm.

She looked up; Jiang Nian was already standing there in the aisle.

"You didn't sleep?"

"Played on my phone, won't be sleepy this afternoon either," Jiang Nian said.

In fact, he planned to catch a nap in Chinese class, then do his daily fortune-telling.

"Oh right, I'll go wake Yuhe."

She didn't remember how she'd fallen asleep—seemed like they were chatting, then the voices faded, and she slept for about twenty minutes.

A bit embarrassing; never doing this again.

Downstairs, the street was full of students.

The sunshine was just right, and the evergreen trees remained lush and verdant.

The three came down from the attic and naturally blended into the crowd. Quite a few first-year boys cast glances at Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe, then finally looked at Jiang Nian.

A boyfriend-girlfriend-plus-best-friend combo was quite common at a school like Zhennan, where the campus dating culture was practically zero.

But it seemed this young couple was rather careful about appearances.

After the lunch break, the classroom was rowdy and noisy.

Ceng You wandered into the classroom in a daze. He and Wu Jun Gu tried to get into the school through the small gate next to the west main gate.

But they failed.

So they could only find a shady spot nearby and sit down to rest during the lunch break.

Even though he was now sleepy to death, he still insisted on doing one thing — to confirm whether the hallucination was real, so he could have some peace of mind.

Ceng You walked up to Yang Qiming's desk for two, asking Yang Qiming first.

"Cousin, got a question for you."

"What is it?" Yang Qiming looked up, looking utterly worn out.

After splitting up with Jiang Nian and the others, the two prepared to climb over the wall into the school from the north gate. Talk about bizarre — they happened to run into two security guards peeing at that abandoned inner wall,

and the two of them almost climbed in right in front of them, and were caught on the spot.

Luckily, they used 【Substitute Art】.

Hopefully there's no "Zhang Da" or "Wang Pao" in the Olympiad Class 4 — if there are, brothers, safe travels.

Ceng You coughed once, building it up for a while before asking.

"Did you guys go to the Chuyun Grand Hotel for a wedding banquet at noon? That one called Chen Haisheng's wedding? I forgot the bride's name — Zhang something-li, I think."

Hearing this, Yang Qiming's heart skipped a beat.

Damn, Ceng You wouldn't happen to be a relative of that family, would he? Eating one — no, half a meal, just catching some of the wedding luck — shouldn't warrant digging to the bottom of things, right?

Buddy.

"Uh, Chuyun Grand Hotel?" Yang Qiming scratched his head. "Never been there. Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Ceng You's face changed abruptly, and he thought to himself: it's over.

"Nothing."

After saying that, he drifted away in a daze.

Sun Zhicheng, wearing a hood, brushed past Ceng You, and couldn't help being startled by Ceng You's ashen face.

Did this guy just crawl out of a grave?

Or is he waiting to be cremated?

"Ah-Cheng, it's so hot at noon, why are you still wearing a hat?" Lin Dong came in through the back door of the classroom, the water on his face not yet wiped dry, and called out from afar.

Sun Zhicheng didn't know what to say.

Damn, his own hair was all cut off and went up to heaven along with that b*tch apprentice's horse — what's there to be hot about?

So he muttered.

"I'm not hot."

When Jiang Nian was about to return to his seat, he found Zhang Ningzhi had arrived earlier than him, currently lying on the desk catching up on sleep, so he lightened his steps and slid into his seat.

After a while, Li Hua arrived.

This guy also came in full of energy, and the moment he sat down he started bouncing his leg.

"Nian, let me tell you something wild."

"What?"

Li Hua raised an eyebrow. "When I was coming from the school gate, I ran into a young couple arguing."

"And then?"

"That girl pointed at me and said, any random person is better than her boyfriend." Li Hua wiggled his eyebrows. "Made me feel great, but that girl wasn't much."

"Not good-looking?" Jiang Nian asked. He was a little sleepy now.

"Not really, it's just that once you've seen the towering Gaoshan, how could you settle for flat plains?" Li Hua shook his head, his voice low. "I told that girl to stop dreaming."

Zhang Ningzhi was woken up by the noise in the classroom and groggily sat up.

Just rubbing her eyes, she looked toward Jiang Nian at the sound.

"When did you get here?"

"Not long ago. Why are you here so early today? Pretty rare." Jiang Nian took out the Chinese review booklet from his desk — he'd need it for napping later.

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi was a little indignant.

"Nonsense, sometimes I come really early too."

She refused to admit that since last month's joint exam, she had "let up." Coming to school from so far away too early was tiring — better to follow the crowd; arriving right on time was much more relaxed.

Because from falling asleep at noon to waking up, a buffer time was needed.

If you arrive early, the buffer time also lengthens accordingly, and the most direct effect is — less sleep time.

After the bell rang, Old Liu walked into the classroom with supplementary teaching books tucked under his arm, swept his gaze around, and said with full vigor.

"Alright, now begin — class!"

Ceng You glanced up at the head teacher on the podium, his face neither red nor skipping a beat. Even the clothes weren't the same set he'd seen at noon — his heart instantly died.

The moment he sat down, he turned to Wu Jun Gu and said.

"Are you really not planning to inherit my two power banks?"

Wu Jun Gu: "."

Zhang Ningzhi mouthed a "thank you, teacher," and was about to sit down when a paper note rolled over with a rustle.

(End of chapter)