Chapter 247: What Cybertron Liu Bei

Zhang Nianzhi immediately pressed the note with her elbow and sat up straight.

She glanced around with the corner of her eye, confirmed it was safe, then quietly unfolded the note.

"I'm going to take a nap; wake me if anything happens."

After reading it, Zhang Nianzhi immediately frowned. She angrily scribbled a "no" on the paper and quietly slipped the note back to Jiang Nian.

Not long after, the note rolled back to her with a soft rumble.

The "no" she had written had been followed by three red characters added by someone else, turning it into:

"No need to worry."

Below it was a reply: "Thanks orz."

What does orz mean?

At first, Zhang Nianzhi guessed it was an abbreviation of her own name. But then she reconsidered—her initials should be ZNZ, and even if she used the nickname Baby Zhizhi, it should be 3Z.

So what does or mean?

Or z?

It made no sense at all.

Unconsciously, Zhang Nianzhi's mind was entirely focused on decoding it. After pondering for a long time with no breakthrough, she had no choice but to ask the original owner.

She tapped Jiang Nian and wrote "orz" on his notebook, whispering:

"What does this mean?"

Seeing this, Jiang Nian glanced at the podium before answering.

"It means kneeling in thanks."

Hearing this, Zhang Nianzhi froze for a moment, then looked closely.

Indeed, orz resembled a tiny baby bowing low in a full prostration.

At first glance, it looked surprisingly like Jiang Nian.

Zhang Nianzhi clenched her fist, forcibly suppressing the rise of her cheek muscles. She fixed him with a cold stare and said:

"Boring."

Jiang Nian paid no mind.

He thought: If you really thought it was boring, you wouldn't have spent half the class guessing. Wait till I draw you a few utterly inappropriate letter symbols—you'll shut up.

He'd seen it in a book—the author used letter figures to depict erotic scenes to bypass censorship, incredibly vivid.

Who knows how many people had stared at those letters, then quietly huffed.

Li Hua, sitting beside him, was wide awake during Chinese class and deeply troubled. He felt he'd wasted the most crucial forty-five minutes of his life and would never love anything again.

He turned his head, glanced left and right, and spotted the orz on Jiang Nian's notebook.

"Who are you kneeling to?"

Hearing this, Jiang Nian glanced at him and replied:

"Just scribbled it."

"Tsk tsk, you can't just use letters like that," Li Hua shook his head, murmuring, "According to unofficial histories, Hua Tuo was scraping bone poison off Guan Yu and asked him:"

"General, do you know who killed my son Hua Xiong? Guan Yu broke into a cold sweat and had to admit the truth: it was killed by Win9."

Li Hua wrote "win9" on Jiang Nian's notebook and raised his eyebrows.

"Cut down Hua Xiong while wine was still warm—impressive, right?"

Jiang Nian was speechless and replied: "Idiot."

At the front, Old Liu was passionately lecturing when he noticed someone sleeping. So he continued teaching while walking around the classroom with his book in hand.

Now Jiang Nian couldn't sleep—he had to wait until Old Liu finished patrolling the third row.

Bored out, he pulled Li Hua aside and told him a wilder history.

"Supposedly, after Sun Ce died, Sun Quan had an affair with Da Qiao. During their intimacy, Da Qiao kept misnaming him—sometimes Boyu, sometimes Zhongmou—thus giving rise to the phrase 'indistinguishable.'"

Li Hua was stunned, then muttered: "Shit."

"Where the hell did you get this?"

"Story Magazine," Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand. "I've also read about Dong Zhuo testing his loyalists with Diaochan, and Optimus Prime selling hooks on Cybertron before becoming leader."

"Selling hooks?" Li Hua muttered, then suddenly realized: "Holy shit, actual hooks? What the hell is Cybertron Liu Bei? You wanna restore Cybertron, right?"

Just then, Old Liu had already walked over from the back rows.

The two fell silent immediately.

A few minutes later, Jiang Nian fell asleep, roughly ten minutes.

Feeling the bliss of sleep, he activated his "alertness" minor cheat.

Li Hua suddenly sensed Jiang Nian stirring beside him and turned his head—stunned.

"Aren't you sleeping?"

"Oh, woke up," Jiang Nian said calmly, pulling out his comprehensive science test paper, folding it, and preparing to work slowly. "Don't overreact. Just listen to your class."

After one class, the entire class was sprawled out.

The next two comprehensive science classes were even more unbearable—over ten students stood at the back listening.

Suddenly, the classroom seats looked empty. By the last class, Li Hua and Ma Guojun were also standing at the back. Ma Guojun was genuinely exhausted and stood to pay attention; Li Hua stood purely to chat.

Jiang Nian worked on his problems, ignoring him entirely, leaving Li Hua stifled and squirming—others only saw him fidgeting, none saw his peerless talent.

Perhaps only by becoming OP

The afternoon passed. After school, Jiang Nian was about to head for the cafeteria.

So far, he still maintained his habit of eating alone. Unless he felt like it or had made plans, he almost always ate by himself.

Had anyone invited him? Yes—but the timing didn't match, and he was too lazy to go.

Jiang Nian was about to head to the cafeteria to scrounge for food, mulling over which one to grace with his presence.

A sidelong glance revealed Zhang Ningzhi still sitting at her seat doing homework, so he asked.

"Why aren't you going to eat?"

"I'll go in a bit."

"Mm, who's 'a bit'?"

Hearing that, Zhang Ningzhi lifted her head with a touch of helplessness and said, a bit speechless.

"In another five minutes, I'll go eat."

"Oh oh, alright." Jiang Nian decided to eat outside the school. After a few steps, he turned back to look at her. "What do you want to drink tonight? My treat."

"A fruit milk drink," she said.

"Mm."

Jiang Nian turned and walked out of the classroom. He liked people who spoke plainly.

If Zhang Ningzhi had tossed out some "whatever," he really would have blown up—where would he even find a "whatever"?

Evening, outside the West Gate of the school.

The dim street was full of honking; there seemed to be a jam up ahead.

The streets in this area were fairly narrow, and right beside them was a short pedestrian street. Because of that, lots of people set up stalls selling snacks here, and traffic often got clogged in the evening.

Tail lights glowed crimson red; the crowd was dense.

Zhang Ningzhi stopped, panting, and glanced down at her watch.

There were still fifteen minutes before evening self-study, and the West Gate was right before her eyes. She finally let out a breath of relief.

She'd grabbed a meal nearby and nearly didn't make it back for evening self-study.

Just as Zhang Ningzhi was about to walk forward, someone suddenly called her name.

She turned her head and saw it was a boy from her old class.

Actually, Zhang Ningzhi wasn't really acquainted with him—she only remembered a name.

She vaguely knew his grades were decent, but only decent by the standards of the regular track class.

Because of the class-promotion competition, she had a slightly stronger impression of him. Back then they barely interacted in class and had basically never spoken.

Being suddenly stopped by him now left Zhang Ningzhi a bit dumbfounded, unsure what he wanted.

Watching the boy approach, Zhang Ningzhi worried she'd be late, but out of basic courtesy she still waited for him to come over.

"Oh, it's you. What's up?"

The boy was fairly clean-cut in looks, and his build was about average among his peers.

He smiled at Zhang Ningzhi, though he didn't dare meet her eyes, and said half-jokingly.

"You still remember me?"

"What's up?" Zhang Ningzhi didn't really want to make small talk—mainly because they had no real connection. She said evenly, "Evening self-study is about to start, I'm going to be late."

"Nothing, just saw you. Long time no see." The boy clearly didn't mind either; his floodgates opened. "Let's walk as we talk. I saw your score on the last joint exam."

"Over 630 is way too high—how did you pull that off?"

"Find time to teach me, will you? We're old classmates, no need to keep it under wraps, right? Honestly, I really do admire you—after getting promoted to the honors track, you just kept scoring higher and higher."

"I can't compare. I only scored over 530 on the last joint exam—a hundred points behind you."

"I actually had a shot at the honors track too, but back then I just couldn't beat you. Purely outclassed. Lost the first placement test to you, and the second joint exam had too few slots—I couldn't snag one."

"Right, you're in Honors Class 3, aren't you?"

Faced with the boy's torrent of words, Zhang Ningzhi came across as a bit wooden. She wasn't good at talking to strangers, let alone a classmate from her old class.

"Yeah, yeah." Zhang Ningzhi only wanted to get to the teaching building quickly so she could use a bathroom break as an excuse to shake him off. "I'm going to be late."

"Oh oh, then let's walk faster." The boy said, "Oh right, can you accept my friend request?"

Zhang Ningzhi froze, unsure how to respond.

Suddenly, a good-looking hand reached out from the crowd. With a light slap, it landed on her wrist and gave a gentle tug.

Also.

(End of chapter)