Chapter 269: A Seed of Hope Was Sown

To be fair, Old Liu's secret could feed him for a whole year.

Small requests like playing on his phone or chatting a bit—Old Liu basically wouldn't bother him over those.

But he couldn't quite say it that way, so he thought for a moment and said,

"During evening study hall, the head teacher just did a phone check. The class meeting later will definitely come in through the front door, so the very last row is super safe."

"Oh." Zhang Ningzhi half-understood.

She just felt the boy had some nerve—clearly the head teacher had checked phones not long ago, yet he wasn't scared at all and was back to walking the blade's edge.

Since her seat was in the very last row, she got to experience the perks of sitting in the back. Honestly, it was pretty free.

She could boldly sneak in little moves. For instance, right now, with nothing to do and no worry of being spotted,

she could simply lean over without a care and look at Jiang Nian's phone.

After watching for a while, Zhang Ningzhi realized he didn't seem to be playing around—he was actually doing something serious, looking like driving-test questions.

"What are you doing?"

Jiang Nian turned his head and met Zhang Ningzhi's lively eyes. Watching her blink, a thought suddenly struck him: cuteness is a feeling.

"This? Just grinding through the Subject 1 questions for the driving test."

The perk of a corner seat was that chatting in lowered voices went unnoticed. Walls on both sides, classmates in front—no one paid any attention.

"You're getting a driver's license?" Zhang Ningzhi was a little surprised.

"Yep, why?"

"Nothing, but isn't getting a license a hassle?" Zhang Ningzhi asked curiously. "It takes at least a month or two—where would you find the time?"

Jiang Nian didn't know how to explain. After all, this was a VIP service he'd gotten through the class monitor's connections. Going into detail wasn't appropriate, so he brushed it off vaguely.

"It's not that extreme. Basically doesn't affect class."

"Alright." Zhang Ningzhi felt he was hiding something.

Li Hua leaned over, asking curiously,

"What are you guys doing?"

He said, "Plotting how to isolate you."

"Eat shit!"

Not long after, Old Liu entered the classroom and sat down at the podium.

"Ah, that—everyone hold on a sec."

No one listened.

The first three evening self-study periods had been spent on the Chinese weekly test, so all the homework had been pushed to this last evening self-study period.

Old Liu didn't mind and kept going with his weekly routine class meeting.

"Ah, the topic of waterproofing and fireproofing—it's always been a tired old refrain. Ahem, but today I still have to pull it out and say a few words about it."

Jiang Nian in the last row was sleepy listening. He wasn't tired from grinding questions, but Old Liu's talking made him drowsy.

Suddenly, Old Liu shifted the topic.

"Today we're mainly going to talk about the issue of puppy love. The leadership mentioned it in today's meeting too. They said, hey, at our Zhennan Middle School, there are especially many student couples."

"Right after evening self-study ends, in the dark corners of the basketball court downstairs. And over by the sports field, tons of couples strolling around—they even greet the school leaders when they see them."

"Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"

Because Old Liu's tone was quite humorous, the whole class burst out laughing.

"Teacher, isn't the saying that the school is our home? Then aren't the leaders relatives? Isn't it perfectly normal for a young couple to greet relatives when they bump into them?"

After Li Hua finished speaking, the class erupted in laughter again.

Old Liu laughed too, pointing at Li Hua jokingly.

"Li Hua, don't let me catch you holding hands over by the sports field, or don't blame me for meting out impartial justice."

Yang Qiming suddenly got an idea and asked loudly,

"Teacher, is holding a guy's hand okay?"

Tao Ran wanted to hold a beast-eared girl's hand, but sadly there were no beast-eared girls in the three-dimensional world. He could only sigh and give up—this world was not at all friendly to him.

There really were two couples in the class, currently keeping their heads low.

Originally there were three, but Li Hua had ruthlessly broken one pair apart—truly too cruel. The other two pairs kept a low profile, basically in underground relationships.

To put it plainly, their dating didn't bother anyone else, so no one stirred things up.

Old Liu scanned the class, deliberately trying to trick them into revealing themselves.

"I see signs of puppy love in several couples in our class. Don't think you're hiding it well and no one noticed—I just don't want to bother with it."

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi got nervous.

The easily-fooled type.

She started projecting onto herself and suddenly felt inexplicably guilty. Terrified the head teacher might suddenly call her name, she wondered whether she herself showed signs of puppy love.

Probably... probably not, right?

She sneakily glanced at Jiang Nian beside her and found he was still grinding questions.

She secretly thought boys really had some nerve.

Jiang Nian hadn't been listening to Old Liu's babble at all, busy looking at practice questions. After finishing a set, he basically just ran through it in his head and remembered most of it.

This wasn't any superpower—it was just Gao San's daily memorization making him skilled through practice.

As class neared its end, Jiang Nian had only chewed through less than a tenth of the question bank.

He wasn't anxious, figuring he should be able to finish by Tuesday. Tomorrow he'd contact the driving school side and arrange to schedule the Subject 1 exam.

After the bell rang, he packed his bag early and went downstairs.

Third floor.

After Xu Qianqian met up with him, she couldn't help glancing at his bag and asked.

"You usually carry an empty bag back and forth?"

"What about it?" Jiang Nian shot her a glance in the crowd. "Got a problem?"

Xu Qianqian scoffed and swayed off down the stairwell.

"This young master just thinks you're pretty dumb."

"How smart are you?" Jiang Nian asked.

"I can tell at a glance that you had your weekly language test tonight. How about that? Accurate or not?" Xu Qianqian looked every bit the blind fortune-teller.

Jiang Nian: "."

After a while, she noticed Jiang Nian was playing it cool, so she leaned over to peek at his phone.

"Practicing questions while walking?"

"You know what a driver's license is, right?" Jiang Nian suddenly said with a perfectly serious face. "Xu Qianqian, once I get my license I'll buy a car and take you traveling. How about it?"

Any other girl would probably be touched hearing that.

But Xu Qianqian had known this jerk for ten years and knew exactly what kind of trash personality he had. She raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Go where?"

Jiang Nian said with deep feeling, "Take a spin around the Zhennan milk tea shop. You settle the bill and we'll head back."

"Get lost." Xu Qianqian was speechless.

"Don't you have a travel fund? Take it out and use it. Pool the money to buy a car, how about it? You'd basically be a shareholder." Jiang Nian didn't give a damn about face.

"Have you no shame?" Xu Qianqian was utterly speechless.

Jiang Nian rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.

"It's fine."

When Xu Qianqian got home and was about to shower, she faced the bright mirror.

For some reason, she inexplicably thought again of what he'd said on the way home. The idea of traveling bubbled up, impossible to suppress.

If they drove, it really would be more convenient.

She'd been saving up all through high school, planning to travel with Song Xiyun after the college entrance exam. She'd even prepared to cover the costs alone.

Two months ago, Song Xiyun suddenly said her mom might lose her job. At the time there was nothing to do but comfort her, and later things got better again.

Xu Qianqian felt that if she brought up the post-exam travel plan, Song Xiyun would probably join in, as long as it wasn't a waste of time.

Because she remembered Song Xiyun mentioning the idea of working a summer job after the exam. Considering her family's situation, it wouldn't be surprising if she bailed at the last minute.

This problem had been troubling her for a long time, and she'd never let herself dwell on it.

Today, hearing Jiang Nian mention it offhand, and seeing he was really going for a driver's license, an even more absurd thought popped into her head.

If she could do a road trip, it wouldn't matter even if her companion was Jiang Nian.

Worst case she'd just put up with it; a road trip would still be fun.

But just thinking of the mountains and rivers of the motherland, all those vast landscapes she hadn't seen, Xu Qianqian's parched heart suddenly sprang back to life.

She didn't hurry to shower, but instead involuntarily started searching for road trip videos.

Oh~ you can't drive on the highway alone for a year after getting your license. There's a couple of college-entrance-exam bloggers who took the provincial road. The road winds along, and the scenery along the way isn't bad either.

Watching and watching, Xu Qianqian's breathing unconsciously grew heavier.

After a long while, she finally came back to herself. She covered her face and breathed several times, then shook her head hard, thinking she really had lost her mind.

Even if Jiang Nian got his license, there was no way he'd get a car and go on a road trip with her.

That was Jiang Nian!

A shameless, brazen little man!

"Achoo!!!" Jiang Nian sneezed, got up and closed the window, muttering to himself, "Looks like the temperature's dropping again tomorrow."