Chapter 266: Don't Bully an Honest Man—I'll Hold It In This Time

The seating arrangement in Class Three was three people per row—Li Hua, Jiang Nian, and Zhang Ningzhi.

This time the seats were shifted to the back door of the classroom. Zhang Ningzhi's spot was already against the wall, so she ended up sitting closest to the back door in the whole class.

No one was watching, and she could even sneak out during class.

Jiang Nian figured Li Hua must like this spot—truly a win-win.

However, Zhang Ningzhi refused.

"Not switching. The group leader likes to pick at the wall. During the quiz two times ago, I saw him use a pen refill to dig a huge hole in the wall."

Hearing this, Li Hua, who was in the middle of moving his desk, instantly spat blood.

"What kind of talk is that! What kind of talk is that!"

Zhang Ningzhi glanced at him and said softly.

"Fact."

"Holy shit!!" Li Hua couldn't hold it in.

He didn't have any particular requirement for his seat—switching or not was fine. On his left, across the narrow aisle, was Ma Guojun, and sitting next to him was pretty pleasant too.

But hearing Zhang Ningzhi's reason for refusing, he still couldn't help but speak up to rebut.

"That's pure slander. I was just bored and opened a tiny hole. Besides, after I got caught, didn't I patch it back up?"

Zhang Ningzhi pressed her lips together, and after a few seconds squeezed out a killing blow.

"I took a photo."

Hearing this, Li Hua immediately covered his face and let out a piercing shriek.

This is rebellion! Rebellion!!

It's all because of that super-duper bastard Jiang Nian, who's led all the group members astray! Every single one of them is attacking him now—the group leader has completely lost face!

Li Hua's mental state collapsed, but no one cared.

Before his little personal drama could end, Jiang Nian had already casually pulled his own desk and chair, along with Zhang Ningzhi's, toward the back.

"Well, if we're not switching then we're not switching. It's fine."

"Mm-hmm." Zhang Ningzhi squatted down to organize her book basket, instinctively sensing this person was about to leave, so she looked up and asked, "What are you planning to do this afternoon?"

Jiang Nian had already been about to grab his bag and go, but he paused.

"Play games, then hang out with a pretty girl."

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi instantly felt a pang of frustration, thinking she shouldn't have asked. This guy was always like that—nothing good ever came out of his mouth.

"Oh!"

"Bye-bye, I'm going home to sleep." Jiang Nian was an honest man, and what he said was basically the truth. "I'm a bit sleepy, might sleep straight through till evening."

He really had no plans to go out that afternoon. The driving school was giving him VIP treatment, so he didn't need to worry about it—whether he went out mainly depended on whether anyone invited him.

"Oh."

Jiang Nian went down to the third floor and didn't head toward the Olympiad Class Three direction at all. Xu Qianqian had long since left with Song Xiyun, most likely to grab a meal together.

It was noon, not evening—no need to walk home together.

He arrived downstairs at his home. Inside the first floor there was a small walled courtyard. It wasn't very big, but it looked clean, with old men and women often tidying it up as they passed by.

In winter, on a bright sunny day—if he suddenly skipped class and came home from school—he could see a group of elderly people gathered there sunbathing.

The weather wasn't cold, so right now no one was sunbathing in the courtyard. Instead, a child with a baby face had spawned—Grandma Wen from the second floor's granddaughter, Zhao Ningning.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Nian's path was blocked by her.

Zhao Ningning had somehow gotten hold of a small flatbed cart and was diligently moving bricks. She was digging stones from the courtyard wall and transporting them from point A to point B.

"Ah! It's the Sunday big brother!"

Damn, what the hell?

Jiang Nian nearly passed out hearing that—why did it sound so Japanese? He figured this kid had zero culture, so he immediately put on a stern face and said.

"Zhao Ningning, don't just yell whatever."

"I'm not yelling whatever. Doesn't big brother only show up on Sundays?" Zhao Ningning said matter-of-factly.

Jiang Nian was speechless. "That's because you're too lazy. When I leave for school, you haven't even woken up yet. When I come back at night, you've long since fallen asleep."

"Impossible!" Zhao Ningning didn't believe it.

"Holy shit." For the first time, Jiang Nian felt Li Hua's skill was so useful.

He took his long strides and stepped over Zhao Ningning's make-believe flatbed cart. Not long after going upstairs, he heard Grandma Wen downstairs calling Zhao Ningning to eat.

He turned the key to open the front door, right on time for the meal.

The kitchen exhaust fan was humming away at work. Li Hongmei, while carrying dishes out, glanced past Jiang Nian, paused for a moment, then asked.

"Qianqian's not coming back to eat again?"

Seeing Li Hongmei's expression like some lonely old widow, Jiang Nian found it a bit hard to keep a straight face.

"Am I not a person?"

"Sigh, too lazy to talk to you. Go get chopsticks from the kitchen yourself." Li Hongmei directly went "too lazy to listen," as if saying the dog-child is here, let him sit at the table and eat.

After a while, Old Jiang also came out of the study.

"Back from school?"

"Yeah, afternoon's off." Jiang Nian sat down at the dining table and suddenly tossed a line at Old Jiang. "Gao Er's exams are harder, and there's more homework."

"Yeah, Gao Er is harder." Old Jiang sat down, scrolling through his phone.

Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then tossed out another line.

"We have to split into tracks next semester of Gao Yi. I don't know whether to pick liberal arts or sciences."

"Huh?" Old Jiang froze, looked up at Jiang Nian, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "Why would you even think about liberal arts? Definitely pick sciences."

Jiang Nian completely couldn't hold it in anymore. Damn it, this old man is running off to live with his precious daughter today—I'm leaving this house!!

This tiny little home can't fit this tiny little boss anymore!

"Is there any chance I'm already in Gao San now. Next year is the college entrance exam, and Gao San only has a six-hour break on Sunday afternoon!"

Hearing this, Old Jiang was stunned for a moment, then got a little annoyed.

"Of course I know that!"

Know my ass.

Didn't even dare to ask you to drive me to the exam hall for the college entrance exam — you turn on the navigation and ship me straight to the internet cafe.

Jiang Nian lowered his head and ate, thinking to himself, what's the difference between this home having him or not?

Time flew by and it was half past two in the afternoon. Jiang Nian groggily woke up at home. Because he was used to taking naps at school, he'd unknowingly slept through.

Rolling over, he found a few new messages on his phone.

The driving school had found someone and already handled the paperwork. They told Jiang Nian to download an app and practice the questions, and once he felt confident enough, book Subject One.

They also casually let slip that the clocking in for Subject Two didn't necessarily require being there in person. Practice first when the time comes, and if there's really no time, there's still some black magic workaround.

One-stop service — truly thoughtful to the max.

The more it was like this, the more guilty he felt. Without realizing it, he seemed to already owe the class monitor a huge favor — how would he ever repay it?

If it were a guy, it'd be fine — worst case, just— bro, go ahead.

Too bad it wasn't, and luckily the class monitor was a girl. But the problem came — he couldn't just give money, and he had no idea what gift to send.

There's no way to help without reciprocating, but right now there was no suitable opening. He couldn't find a proper reason, so he'd have to wait until the driver's license came through to give something.

He opened his WeChat message list and scrolled through — the class monitor hadn't sent a single message.

After thinking about it, he didn't send one either.

Let's talk about it tonight.

Xu Qianqian had actually sent him a WeChat message, a photo of a table full of dishes. She was eating at Song Xiyun's place, and it looked like she didn't plan to come back in the afternoon.

In response, Jiang Nian's attitude was. timi!!!

Playing games.

If it weren't for the fact that in the old days, work units strictly enforced family planning, by rights he should still have a younger brother or sister.

He had originally thought that being an only child meant he could monopolize the love, but who knew he was no longer the Crown Prince!

Boom— and suddenly the weather was changing again.

Jiang Nian was sprawled in his room playing games when suddenly the door was knocked.

"Mom, I'm not in my room."

Hearing that, the door was pushed open directly.

Li Hongmei stood at the doorway with a speechless expression and glanced at Jiang Nian.

She thought to herself, don't be angry, don't be angry — you gave birth to him yourself.

After calming herself down, she spoke.

"It's about to rain. I noticed Qianqian's clothes haven't been brought in yet. Stop playing games for a bit, go across the way and bring in all the clothes she hung out to dry."

Jiang Nian looked up, his face full of confusion.

"Bring them in where?"

Li Hongmei was speechless. "Bring them to our house."

Hearing that, Jiang Nian was immediately a bit surprised.

"Mom, isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"If you know it's inappropriate, why are you even asking? Of course bring them in from where they're hanging at their place." Li Hongmei turned and left — her son was getting more and more unreliable.

Jiang Nian nodded, then seriously finished his game.

Only then did he slowly get up. He listened carefully and there was no rain outside. As everyone knows, rain has sound, as well as smell and shape.

Mm, the shape of the curtain billowing.

Jiang Nian showed off for a bit, but the moment he stepped out into the hallway, the wind-driven rain splashed his face, and his expression immediately changed drastically!

He let out a cry — f***!!!

He hurriedly fished out the key to the opposite apartment and dashed straight to the balcony. In one swoop, he gathered up Xu Qianqian's clothes, pants, and small miscellaneous items all together.

Just as he tossed the clothes onto the sofa, Xu Qianqian's video call came in.

Ding ding ding — like a death warrant.

With a beep as it connected, Jiang Nian anticipated her anticipation. Quite smugly, he switched to the front camera and excitedly claimed credit.

"Stop rushing me, I already brought your clothes in for you."

"Oh."

The video call hung up, making Jiang Nian so angry he started cursing.

"Shameless girl!"

No good — gotta take them out, let them get rained on a bit more, then bring them back in.

F***.

What a modern version of Mr. Dong and the Snake, Mr. Dong Guo and the Wolf!

Actually.

Xu Qianqian had taken one look and seen her undergarments along with the hangers all stacked on top, exposed like that in the open air, and under the camera.

She was a bit embarrassed and didn't want Song Xiyun to notice anything off, so she hurriedly hung up.

Switching to typing, she was much more at ease.

"Why do they look a bit wet?"

After a while, Jiang Nian sent two long-tu (dragon) meme stickers, along with a message.

"Can you stay dry when it's raining?"

For some reason, she always felt that when those words came out of Jiang Nian's mouth, they carried an extra layer of cheekiness, and she couldn't help wanting to fire back.

"Can't you just bring them in earlier?"

Five seconds later, a message popped up.

Jiang Nian: "??? Might as well just hang your clothes in my room from now on."

"Get a job." Li Qingrong turned her head and looked calmly at Li Lanying, who had been stalking her, "Or go home."

Her gaze was still cool and detached, her brows faintly drawn together, her pink lips slightly parted.

"So annoying."

"Boo hoo hoo, you're being mean to me." Li Lanying was utterly shameless, watching the pretty girl like some creature lurking in the shadows, "Youth, how beautiful it is."

"Sure enough, a person cannot possess both youth and the feeling of youth at the same time."

Hearing that, Li Qingrong lowered her eyes and said after a moment.

"Old woman."

"What!!! Who's old!" Li Lanying instantly bristled like a big orange cat about to pounce on someone, "Don't bully an honest person, I'll let it slide this time."