Chapter 26

Two days passed in a flash; it was the last day of September, just before the National Day holiday.

At ten o'clock, Jiang's couple sat on the living room sofa watching TV. Li Hongmei watched a soap opera, while Old Jiang scrolled on his phone—rarely had the Jiang household been so quiet and composed.

Click—Jiang Nian stepped out of the bathroom after evening self-study, walking forward while rubbing his hair, water droplets flying like raindrops ahead of him.

Seeing this, Li Hongmei's anger surged—You damn brat! Three days without a beating and you're tearing up the roof!

"Wait!" Jiang Nian instinctively jumped back, away from his furious mother, interrupting her with a spell, "Comrade Li Hongmei, you can't hit me now."

Li Hongmei sneered, "Explain in three seconds."

Old Jiang turned his head curiously, put down his phone, stood up from the sofa, and followed the principle of a true spectator—ready to watch the show up close.

"Oh no, you're done. Beating's coming soon."

No sooner had he spoken than Old Jiang stumbled, lost his balance, and lurched forward sharply—CRACK! The glass water pitcher on the coffee table was smashed to the floor.

BOOM! Shattered into pieces everywhere!

Seeing this, Jiang Nian's face lit up with wild joy—he raised his hand and cast Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger.

"Now I'm far enough."

Indeed, within seven steps lies the antidote—best to die by one's own folly and just get scolded; why should Old Jiang risk his life to save him?

Oh no, next month's cigarette money's in jeopardy.

Li Hongmei whirled to glare at Old Jiang, frozen in shock—he looked embarrassed, cleared his throat, activated his hidden backup energy, and calmly diverted the blame.

"By the way, did Xiao Nian's monthly exam results come out this week?"

Sure enough, her attention shifted again—she frowned and fixed her eyes on Jiang Nian.

"Lately, your dad and I have been busy and almost forgot to ask—what did you score on last week's monthly exam? If you dropped too much, don't blame me for banning your games."

"Oh, just check yourself, Mom."

Jiang Nian pulled out his phone from his pocket, opened his album, found the photo of his class ranking, and calmly handed it to Li Hongmei, gesturing for her to look at the first line.

"573? That high?" Li Hongmei gasped.

"What?" Old Jiang forgot to clean up the broken glass pitcher, stepped closer, glanced—"Really first place? Is this fake?"

"Fake what? I've been promoted—I'm in Olympiad Class Four now. Next parent-teacher meeting, don't go to the wrong classroom." Jiang Nian took his phone back.

He finished his deed, brushed off his clothes, and deeply concealed achievements.

"Hey, send me the picture!" Li Hongmei suddenly snapped back to reality, rushed to her son's door, and pounded on it—"Hear me, Nian!"

"Oh."

SWISH—the photo was sent, and instantly Li Hongmei forwarded it to her work group chat.

"That little rascal!" Li Hongmei muttered, then switched expressions instantly, beaming as she held up her phone—"Let's show this to the office folks."

In this county-level small unit, the group was full of aunts and uncles. All day at work they gossiped about family matters; after hours, the chat was still just old ladies' trivialities.

Even bosses dared not show their faces—appear and you'd be instantly buried. Perfectly illustrated the series: "My boss's boss isn't my boss, but he's my husband..." In short, never offend them.

ZOOM!

In Jinxiu Tianfu Community, loudmouth Zhang Chunlan pulled out her phone with giant font and checked the group chat. She saw Li Hongmei had posted a photo with a message.

【(grin)(smile) Guys, check if this score sheet is faked by my son.】

This instantly amused Zhang Chunlan—someone faking score sheets? Though she didn't know exactly what "p" meant, she knew it implied fraud.

She tapped open the image—the boy's name was Jiang Nian, right?

No one outside top thirty. Outside top twenty? Also none. This kid's got guts—dared to fake his way into top ten? Top ten... hmm?

It's first place!

Zhang Chunlan's eyes widened. She glanced at the top score—and burst out laughing. How dare Li Hongmei's son do this? How dare he?

He just changed it to first? That's obviously... wait, better check again—don't fall for these old ladies' tricks, always showing off in different ways.

Like that shameless woman in the office who "accidentally" dropped her gold bracelet into the mirror, just waiting for someone to ask if it got damaged.

First place: Jiang Nian, 573 points. Second place: Zhou Yuting, only 527.

Does that make sense? A fifty-point gap? Totally fake! Clearly a forged score sheet—Li Hongmei's son really dares to think and act.

My own precious son is much more honest—he was promoted just yesterday.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chunlan called out to her room, "Lao Yu, come see something funny."

"It's late night—what nonsense?" A bald middle-aged man shuffled out of the room, holding a cadre thermos.

"Li Hongmei's son faked his score sheet—hilarious."

"Let me see." The bald man adjusted his glasses, leaned forward—the group messages kept flashing—"There's 'promoted class' after the scores."

"Even funnier—our Xiao Jie was promoted just yesterday!" Zhang Chunlan laughed, then sent a voice message to the group: "Hongmei, did your son get promoted?"

In the group, voice messages flew—three seconds, ten seconds, twenty to thirty seconds—office ladies home for the holiday, all suddenly awakened.

"Hongmei, your son's score is way too high—he used to barely scrape 400, right?"

Young intern at the office: "Auntie Li, your son's score doesn't look faked—it looks like a reprinted list."

"By the way, didn't Chunlan's son also score over five hundred? Heard he got into Olympiad class—ask her son, then."

Behind the screen, Zhang Chunlan grinned and replied with a voice message.

"How would we know? There are multiple Olympiad classes."

The actual party, Li Hongmei, sent a short voice message—tone calm, not angry, even slightly pleased.

"He said Olympiad Class Four."

Class Four?

Zhang Chunlan turned to her husband on the sofa—"Lao Yu, didn't Xiao Jie get promoted to Olympiad Class Four?"

CLICK—the bedroom door opened, a boy stepped out holding clothes, heading for the bathroom.

"Hey, Xiao Jie, perfect timing," Zhang Chunlan asked anxiously, "Is there a student named Jiang Nian in your class?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Tongjie stopped in his tracks and frowned.

"There is one, but his score is higher than mine."

"Higher than yours? Are you sure?" Zhang Chunlan blurted out in shock, "Isn't it possible he cheated his way up? Look at what his mom posted in the group chat..."

Yu Tongjie took the phone, listened to each voice message from start to finish, and handed it back when he was done.

"It's not fake, but cheating can't be ruled out."

Saying this, Yu Tongjie paid no heed to his own mother's stunned expression and turned straight around to head into the bathroom.

Setting down his clothes, he opened QQ with a frown. From the group chat list he selected 【Lemon Branch】, chose to add her, feeling it necessary to give Zhang Ningzhi a heads-up.