Chapter 292: Careless Ink Blots

Jiang Nian was sleeping in a daze, his brain temporarily offline.

What was currently in control of his brain was

Habit.

Boys who always let their lower half take over their brain aren't good boys. Who knows, late at night they might lose control and always love making some deoxyribonucleic acid.

For example, Li Hua.

When that sentence entered his brain through his eyes, Jiang Nian only did some simple logical processing.

"Okay."

After replying, he turned over and went back to sleep.

The next day, he woke up.

While washing up, he glanced at his phone and instantly looked blank.

Didn't he reply to something yesterday?

Luckily he didn't just call her baby, otherwise waking up in the morning would've been mortifying. But more than that, why did Li Qingrong tell him not to call her class monitor?

He brushed his teeth while staring at himself in the mirror.

After he got familiar with Cai Xiaoqing, they called each other by name, or just skipped the name entirely. Only when he thought of it would he call her Discipline Inspector a couple of times.

Logically speaking, he was clearly more familiar with Li Qingrong than with Cai Xiaoqing. So, always calling her class monitor did seem a bit distant.

Then what should he call her?

Calling her by name felt weird, a bit awkward. After all, she was the class monitor, different from the Discipline Inspector. Calling her Qingrong? That would be too frivolous.

By the time Jiang Nian grabbed his bag and headed out the door, this question still had no answer.

Sigh, let's see how it goes.

Jiang Nian ate breakfast while walking to school, and after going upstairs to get hot water. He leaned back in the back row of the classroom; winter mornings were freezing.

After leaning for a while, he suddenly bounced up.

"Damn, why is the back row so drafty?"

Outside it was just getting light, and there weren't many people in the classroom either.

Suddenly, someone came in through the classroom door.

Huang Fang came in carrying a thermos, set the cup on the desk, and complained.

"The hot water heater on the fourth floor is broken, why hasn't anyone come to fix it yet?"

"Don't wait, it won't be fixed in half a month." Jiang Nian pulled out the unfinished math test from his bag and began his sharp critique.

"These bastards are pretty eager when it comes to topping up water cards."

Huang Fang was stunned, thinking what kind of grudge is that.

She was just venting a couple of words, her anger wasn't real, it'd pass in a while. But Jiang Nian didn't seem to be faking it, he really did look like he had some history.

"Did you used to have a conflict with the water card guy?"

"No, I just kicked him once."

"Impressive."

"Fangfang, does your water card still have money? Next time I'll top it up for you for free, haven't seen that bastard card-topping guy in a long time, gotta go curse him out one of these days."

"Huh?" Huang Fang immediately broke into a nervous sweat, "N-no need, thanks."

If anyone else said this, she'd at most think they were joking. But when Jiang Nian said it, she instinctively felt it was real, and might even be holding back a bit.

After a while, the earliest batch of class members arrived at the classroom.

No one from the sixth group, and Jiang Nian wasn't that familiar with them either. The people he knew, once winter came, were all lazy bums, either arriving right on time or late.

Until half an hour later, the classroom gradually filled up with more people.

Zhang Ningzhi arrived first, greeting him with a crisp voice. After putting down her bag, she started pulling out test papers, then sneakily turned her head to look at Jiang Nian.

"Are the test papers all done?"

Jiang Nian heard this and said, "Guarding against me, not letting me copy, huh?"

"No, test papers are supposed to be done by yourself." Zhang Ningzhi tried to reason with him, looking serious, "If you copy now, what will you do during the exam?"

Jiang Nian grinned, pulling a test paper out from his desk.

"Done."

Zhang Ningzhi was immediately furious, thinking this guy was shameless beyond measure. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and finally she gave Jiang Nian a light punch.

"Don't talk to me!"

Jiang Nian whistled and went off to play with the big fatty Ma Guojun.

Morning reading.

Sun Zhicheng recited a few classical poems and was already panting, unable to continue.

Not in good shape today, next time then.

In his pants, that hard thing had just vibrated. Yes, it was the phone, a message from an internet friend he'd been chatting hotly with these past two days.

He didn't know where the other person was from, he'd never asked.

She seemed to have just started college, as for which college. Out of politeness, Sun Zhicheng didn't lift this veil of mystery that wasn't conducive to his own, ahem.

Beside him, Lin Dong finished reciting the classic lines of the Red Cliff Rhapsody, scratched his face, and turned his head to look sideways.

"A-Cheng, why are you being such a simp in your chats again?"

A while back, Lin Dong had personally taught Sun Zhicheng the great method of online chatting. How to cram emotional intelligence during chats, how to push and pull with online chat partners.

He also corrected his simp habits along the way, to prevent him from being led around by the nose.

But a master only leads you through the door, cultivation depends on the individual.

"I'm not simping, Brother Dong." Sun Zhicheng looked left and right, lowering his voice, "Bro, she's different, really, chatting with her makes me really happy."

Lin Dong's face was blank with confusion, thinking *who are you chatting with that you're unhappy*, so he asked.

"How is it different?"

"She's a really nice person," Sun Zhicheng said, a bit awkward and bashful.

Lin Dong understood, thinking *you son of a bitch really deserve to die*.

"Let me see."

That girl said she wasn't feeling well, and Sun Zhicheng immediately followed up asking if she wanted to go to the hospital. After that, bits and pieces — all warm little tips.

Lin Dong barely glanced at it; the chat record's timestamp was frozen at just now.

"Damn, you've never cared about me this much."

"How could that be the same?" Sun Zhicheng snatched the phone back, puffed up with pride, and said, "Brother Dong, no need to envy me, just keep memorizing your book."

Lin Dong was speechless, but too lazy to ask more. He raised his language textbook.

"Jijizi heart, youyou my heart."

Sun Zhicheng curled his lip, glanced at the noisy classroom. Then he turned back, grinning happily as he lowered his head to look at his phone, continuing to chat with his online companion.

"Drink more hot water."

"Can't drink it, my throat hurts."

Seeing this, Sun Zhicheng's heart suddenly started thumping.

Last time he chatted with a girl, she also said her throat hurt. Back then he had even considerately listed several kinds of medicine, telling her how to ease it.

The other party said no need, it'd be fine in a few days.

Sun Zhicheng, asking for death, asked whether it was from staying up late and catching a cold. The other party replied with a crying sticker: "Got lectured by someone."

Although they'd already deleted each other, the old shadow hadn't faded. Sun Zhicheng couldn't help feeling a little wary.

"Is it from staying up late, sleeping late and catching a cold?"

Just as he was anxious in every possible way, she replied with a whoosh.

"Yeah, my head hurts."

Hearing this, Sun Zhicheng couldn't help but let out a breath of relief.

He thought *I'm the same — once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of a well rope. Where on the internet are there so many messy things? How could my luck keep being bad? *

Tap-tap-tap, he lowered his head and typed a reply.

"Next time you stay up late, you must cover yourself with the blanket properly. (playful)"

With a whoosh, she replied.

"It's not like that. (awkward)"

"I want to too, but there's no blanket to cover with. (laugh-cry)"

"Last night I pulled an all-nighter with my boyfriend and had a blast."

Seeing the other party's reply, Sun Zhicheng instantly went blank and dazed.

Thursday morning, two consecutive language periods. Ceng You slept his fill straight through.

He groggily woke up, and the morning exercise bell rang.

He looked back and saw only Jiang Nian and Zhang Nianzhi doing problems. Li Hua was also slumped over the desk sleeping. He immediately felt completely at ease.

The group leader did it too — that way the law can't punish everyone.

But even if Old Liu remembered him, it didn't matter; he'd long since already been targeted.

Yao Beibei walked to the back row, about to invite Zhang Nianzhi to go down for morning exercise together. She turned her head and saw Li Hua sleeping, and couldn't help stretching out her hand to smack him hard.

"Get up!"

Li Hua sprang up abruptly, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth.

"Morning exercise?"

"Yeah, let's go." Jiang Nian took off his hoodie, casually stuffing it into the bag where Zhang Nianzhi kept her school uniform. "So slow — no one's waiting for you."

"What's the rush, I'm coming right—" Li Hua stood up, but was suddenly yanked back down.

He was dumbfounded. Looking down, he saw both his shoelaces untied and tied to the desk leg. No need to guess who did it — he instantly flushed red-hot with anger.

"F**k!"

But looking up, there was no trace of Jiang Nian.

Third period, Qian Bao wore her little microphone, lecturing while wandering around the classroom.

She happened to wander to the very back row and glanced at Jiang Nian's seat. Seeing him brushing through a science comprehensive exam paper, she couldn't be bothered to manage him, and simply leaned against Li Hua's desk to lecture.

Li Hua couldn't understand what he was hearing anyway, and had nothing to do, so he turned to carefully examine the little microphone at Qian Bao's waist.

He saw a button with an English word on it he didn't recognize.

On a whim, he reached out and tried pressing it.

Qian Bao's little microphone instantly went silent.

In an instant, Qian Bao turned her head and glanced at Li Hua, who was nearly petrified. The class turned to look one after another, gazes almost all gathering on Li Hua.

"Are your hands itchy?"

"Teacher, Jiang Nian told me to do it."

Jiang Nian, who was doing the exam paper, raised his head, face blank with confusion.

"???"

Qian Bao couldn't be bothered to deal with Li Hua, and hauled him up to stand for the rest of class.

After lunch break.

Jiang Nian was still thinking about how last night he'd been half-asleep and had habitually replied to the class monitor's message — the chat had broken off after that "okay."

Okay what? And then what?

In the morning, when he saw the class monitor come in, there didn't seem to be anything unusual, and she hadn't come to the back row to look for him either.

He had originally planned to chat with the class monitor, but the front-row seat was too conspicuous; he'd have to lie on the podium to be able to talk with Li Qingrong.

More importantly, he had no idea how to bring it up.

This dragged on until noon dismissal. Jiang Nian deliberately didn't rush out the door right away. Instead, he kept up the act of working on his test paper, waiting until most of the class had left.

At 12:15, Jiang Nian figured the timing was about right.

He stood up directly, ready to go chat with Li Qingrong.

He'd probe from the side to test what he should call her. Or just skip calling her anything and leave the name out—convenient enough either way.

He had just walked from the back row to the edge of the podium, not yet opening his mouth.

Suddenly, a Nie Qiqi bounced out from beside him.

"Class monitor, want to head downstairs together?"

As she spoke, Cai Xiaoqing also walked over from the middle of the second group. Those two, plus another girl, immediately surrounded Li Qingrong.

Jiang Nian was dumbfounded, a mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat.

Damn, he forgot the class monitor had her little clique.

But they really were heading home for lunch—so what was all the time he'd just wasted?

All those lost meals!

Sunlight poured in through the window, bathing Li Qingrong, who sat with perfect posture.

The fresh draft paper held only a few scrawled ink blots.