Chapter 284

"Cough! Let go of your rationality!" Jiang Nian had his throat gripped by Li Hua.

"Rationality? How am I supposed to be rational!" Li Hua let out a bitter laugh, squeezing tighter. "Jiang Nian, you make me sick."

"It's a misunderstanding—I already said it was a misunderstanding." He pried Li Hua's hand off his neck, coughed once, then fell into thought.

Li Hua stared at him, waiting to hear what he'd say.

But after a moment, he suddenly saw—holy shit—Jiang Nian scrambling all over the floor, and he frowned in confusion.

"What are you looking for?"

Jiang Nian looked up, blank-faced, and after a long "uh…" he spoke.

"I'm looking for an excuse to brush you off."

"You fiend! I'll kill you today!" Li Hua exploded.

But this time, Jiang Nian moved fast, gripping both his shoulders. With the strength of sixty-five Wang Yuhe, he forcibly shoved him back into his chair.

"Hua, calm down—it was just a joke."

Li Hua chuckled. Now he found Jiang Nian's words increasingly unreliable.

"No need to say more."

Jiang Nian was speechless. "Look at you, always so impatient."

Li Hua thought: What's the point of being impatient? Would it help? No girls greeted him this morning—and even if one had, it wouldn't have been that kind of greeting.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiang Nian.

"How so?"

"Hmm, first, I really haven't dated anyone, right?" Jiang Nian coughed. "Second, I have fewer friends than you do."

Hearing this, Li Hua nearly spat out his blood.

Fuck, fewer friends?

Okay, compared to himself, Jiang Nian did have fewer friends.

After all, Jiang Nian had transferred in—he'd been kneeling to make friends in the Olympiad class, lacking the deep roots Li Hua had. Li Hua, after all, had spread his influence across Gao San, touching everyone.

"True, you only have those few friends." Li Hua accepted this explanation reluctantly, then added guiltily, "Bro, I misjudged you."

"It's fine—as long as the misunderstanding's cleared up."

Soon after.

Yu Zhiyi entered the classroom through the front door, humming a tune. Since her seat had been moved to the corner by the classroom's water dispenser, she chose to walk through the back rows.

"Morning, Li Hua."

Li Hua instantly grew flustered. Not that he still had feelings—his former group member's ex-girlfriend. His heart was pure as ice in a urinal; he had no other thoughts.

"M-morning."

Jiang Nian glanced at Li Hua and thought: What a weakling.

Every creature has its master.

Hua, weren't you into little girls back in junior high?

How the hell did your taste change in high school? Are you a purebred lustful demon chosen by the gods?

Yu Zhiyi didn't say "good morning" to Jiang Nian. Instead, she made a finger-gun gesture, pointed it at him, parted her lips slightly, and let out a soft "biu."

"Hmph." Jiang Nian didn't even look at her face—he immediately looked away.

Yu Zhiyi wore a coat over a form-fitting sweater. Just by her outfit, you could tell she wouldn't take off the coat during break.

"Pfft."

Li Hua shifted his gaze slightly, frowning at Jiang Nian.

"Why did she 'biu' you?"

"Who knows? Probably nuts." Jiang Nian didn't care.

Li Hua was speechless. Something felt off, but he couldn't say exactly what. "Bro, I hope everything you said is true."

Twenty minutes passed. The classroom filled up.

Li Qingrong walked from the front row, along the aisle of the first major group, and reached past Li Hua's desk to hand Jiang Nian his physics workbook.

"Here."

"Thanks, monitor. Morning." Jiang Nian took it, grinning.

Li Qingrong glanced at him and nodded.

"Mm. Morning."

Then she turned and left.

Jiang Nian opened the clean workbook, thinking: The monitor's notebook is so neat.

"Perfect. No need to write it myself."

They always said not to force idiots to study—he was barely scraping 70 in physics. The moment he saw a physics problem, his first instinct was still nausea.

If he couldn't solve it, he'd just copy.

He reached for his pen—then suddenly felt a prickling sensation on his back.

Who? Who's spying on me!

He turned—and saw Li Hua, like some sewer-dwelling creature, hunched over his desk, one goblin eye peering out, dark and lecherous.

【I'll keep watching you forever—】

"What the hell are you doing?" Jiang Nian was exasperated.

Li Hua was acting insane first thing in the morning—and yesterday too, he'd been out of his mind, asking if Jiang Nian would start dating in high school. Wasn't that just stupid?

He hadn't dated in the first two years—was he really going to surrender now, in Gao San?

"Nothing," Li Hua gave a hollow laugh, sitting up. "Keep pretending. Who the hell could outlast you?"

"Stop talking nonsense, come over and look at how this force analysis is derived?" Jiang Nian said helplessly, pointing at a sketch on the homework book.

Zhang Ningzhi arrived ten minutes before morning self-study, which counted as cutting it close.

When she came in through the classroom's back door, she was still panting.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"Pretty early, morning reading hasn't even started yet." Jiang Nian turned around in his seat, propped his head on his hand and looked at her. "Overslept? Why are you so late today?"

Zhang Ningzhi had just put her schoolbag down, her breathing steadied as she said.

"No, my bike broke down on the way."

"Oh, oh." Jiang Nian turned back around.

Wednesday, so it was English morning reading, and the first and second periods were also back-to-back English classes.

Ding-dong!

The morning reading bell rang, and everyone in the class stood up to recite English vocabulary.

Zhang Ningzhi leaned against the wall, reciting essential English sentences. After fluently reciting them twice, she suddenly spoke to Jiang Nian, who was less than fifty centimeters away from her.

"The fog is really thick today, it should be a clear day."

"Yeah, we have PE class today, right?" Jiang Nian answered casually.

"Yeah, are you going to play ball?" Zhang Ningzhi actually wanted to play badminton with Jiang Nian, her tone somewhat expectant. "Or play badminton?"

"Oh~ I took the morning off today, I'll leave right after English class." Jiang Nian suddenly said.

"Huh?" She was stunned. "Taking leave, are you sick?"

"No, it's because—" Jiang Nian said halfway, leaning toward Zhang Ningzhi's side because the morning reading was too loud. "Because I have a driving lesson booked."

Outside, the sky had already brightened, a couple of hazy beams of sunlight streaming in through the window. They formed two pillars of light in the front row, where floating dust could be seen.

When Jiang Nian suddenly leaned toward her, Zhang Ningzhi was holding her morning reading materials. For some reason, her pounding heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Only after he finished speaking and straightened back up did she come back to her senses.

"Oh, I see."

Zhang Ningzhi was aware of his matter of getting a driver's license.

Occasionally during breaks between classes, Jiang Nian would joke with her, saying things like he'd drive her out for a spin. Actually she knew it was a joke, but he'd mentioned it so many times.

She couldn't help but have a little bit of fantasy about it. Getting a car wasn't actually that hard, and honestly any car would do.

If he really got his driver's license, maybe—

But one thing was certain—the badminton during the fourth period PE class at noon was definitely off the table. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but purse her lips, her eyes rather regretful.

However, Zhang Ningzhi quickly adjusted her mindset and asked curiously.

"So are you still running the morning exercises?"

"How could I?" Jiang Nian turned his head back and raised his brows. "I'll run right after the second period."

Friendly book recommendation: *The Reincarnator Just Retired, Yet Joined Another Chat Group*

A multiverse chat group novel, a major masterpiece by the same author who wrote Dragon Race and Naruto fanfiction. New book.