Chapter 315: How Did You Know? Not Telling

Loving one person can't be hidden, but loving two people must be hidden well.

Jiang Nian felt he didn't need to hide anything.

A clear conscience.

Besides, even if he tried, he couldn't hide it.

He let out a long sigh and went back to burying his head in the problems. Time slipped away quickly through the sea of questions, slipping past the tip of his pen and the pages of his book.

Damn, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond.

During the first evening self-study period, Old Liu suddenly walked in, glancing back at the self-study schedule.

"It's the Chinese evening self-study, right?"

"Yes." Someone answered.

Hearing this, Old Liu walked up to the podium and tapped the multimedia desk.

"Ahem, everyone hold on a moment, I want to emphasize something here. The first round of review is about to wrap up, everyone needs to pay attention..."

Over the next ten minutes, Old Liu mentioned the end date for the first round of review.

He also hinted that the joint exam for the six cities at the end of the month would be set according to gaokao standards. The difficulty of the paper would be relatively high, roughly on par with the first mock exam.

After that, he brought up some minor class matters.

Finally, he suddenly brought up the topic of preventing puppy love, subtly calling out the couples from this morning's coming-of-age ceremony, his tone heavy with warning.

Jiang Nian rubbed his chin, thinking to himself that the four of them had nothing to do with anything Old Liu had mentioned.

Case solved, he's a model student.

The classroom was brightly lit. Old Liu stood at the podium, scanning the class with his eyes as he spoke. Wherever his gaze swept, anyone with something to hide lowered their head.

Until his eyes met Jiang Nian's, and he immediately felt his composure crack a little.

If it were an ordinary student, he could still use declining joint exam scores as an excuse. If the other party's grades dropped, he could just swiftly reassign them to another group.

But this trick couldn't be used on him. What a headache.

Forget it, wait until his grades drop, then talk to him.

Old Liu sighed and beckoned to Tao Ran.

"Study committee member, come up and put on the news program."

Hearing this, the class instantly went quiet. Then, a burst of cheers erupted.

"Holy shit!! The TV's on!"

"Hooray!!"

"Old Liu actually seems human today!"

The sudden "news program" let the whole class breathe a small sigh of relief. The lights were turned off, the curtains drawn, the classroom door closed.

The sudden blackout displeased a small portion of those who had planned to do problems.

"Why turn off the lights? I don't want to watch it."

"Why not just turn off the lights in front? Is there a need to turn them all off?"

"What's all the fuss about? If you want to do problems, get out!"

"What the hell did you just say?"

Old Liu had already left, probably back in the office drinking tea. After all, he was no longer a Gao Zhongsheng, and wasn't interested in the news program.

The responsibility of resolving the conflict naturally fell on the class cadres.

The Son of Heaven sat in the front row without a word, alone in the bright hall.

The Prime Minister Cai Xiaoqing rubbed her temples, unable to bear it any longer, and stood up. She first called for a stop to the argument, then offered a solution.

"Turn off the lights in the front of the classroom, leave the back lights on. Anyone doing problems, grab a stool and move to the back; anyone wanting to watch the news program, grab a stool and move to the front."

Once the words fell, no one had any objections.

So with a click, the lights in the front four rows went out. On the podium, the Minister of Rites Tao Ran calmly opened the multimedia system and searched for catgirl.

He had typed halfway when he realized this wasn't his own computer, so he started deleting it back.

Luckily, what he'd typed was just letter abbreviations, and the class was busy arguing. No one noticed what was happening on the multimedia screen,

By the time anyone looked up, it was already the news program.

Clatter, clatter — those who had been arguing fiercely, for the sake of saving face, stuck their necks out and swaggered to the front with their stools to mooch a seat, watching the video intently.

Similarly, some people in the front also wanted to do problems.

So they clattered toward the back, but the aisles in the class were narrow. Only ten people in the back row moved, so the very last row became the prime choice.

Then, Chen Yunyun came over.

She didn't bring a stool, just sat down directly in Li Hua's seat.

As for Li Hua, that guy... he'd run to the front to watch the news program, the bastard complaining the back was too bright, saying watching videos in the back row didn't feel right.

Jiang Nian glanced at Chen Yunyun, saw she had a test paper in hand, and couldn't help being curious.

"When is the math test paper due?"

Chen Yunyun thought for a moment. "Next Monday, I guess."

"Playing cute, are you?" Jiang Nian pointed a finger.

"Huh?" She looked blank, but was still quite pleased, and said with a smile, "No need to act, I'm already pretty..."

"Alright, no self-praise allowed." Jiang Nian cut her off.

The atmosphere was as usual, but Jiang Nian felt a chill on his back. He always had a bad premonition, but when he turned his head, he didn't notice anything.

Zhang Ningzhi was doing homework with undivided attention, writing each stroke with extra care.

Seeing this, Jiang Nian couldn't help but feel relieved.

"Where were we just now?"

The two of them chatted about ordinary topics, as normal as could be.

"Pimples," Chen Yunyun answered.

Hearing this, Jiang Nian stared at her fair, delicate skin and couldn't help but be stunned.

"You get pimples?"

He was the type who was completely immune to pimples, and didn't need to deliberately watch what he ate.

Perhaps it was because his dietary structure had never changed since childhood. Add to that his love of exercise, and his body's qi and blood were in great shape.

Most people who get pimples do so because during puberty their hormones spike here, then surge there. On top of that, diets heavy in oil and salt, staying up all night cultivating immortality.

So the skin gets oily, anxiety causes hair loss, grades slip, and youth just muddles past like that.

Like... Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun have good grades and are pretty, and they don't get pimples either. Half of that is thanks to being born beautiful.

The other half is from good habits since childhood.

For example, Xu Qianqian's feet are fair and tender, and don't have any odor.

On one hand, it's because her feet don't sweat much; on the other hand, when she was still a little loli, she would wash her feet with shower gel every day when she bathed.

Plus she soaked her feet in hot water every day, then carefully dried them with a towel.

What? How does Jiang Nian know this?

Not telling.

"It's not me, it's the girl who does my makeup," Chen Yunyun said. "Because I don't know how to thank her,

I plan to give her an anti-acne face mask."

"That's not great, isn't that just reminding her?" Jiang Nian said.

"Oh, then I'll switch to something else."

Evening self-study passed in the blink of an eye.

Before school let out, Jiang Nian tried to pinch Zhang Nianzhi's hand, but failed.

He didn't take it to heart either, and left whistling.

Failure is success's mother—if he can't pinch it today, he can tomorrow. Generation after generation... no, water wears through stone; Baby Zhizhi won't stay firm for many days.

Passing by the front of the classroom, Jiang Nian habitually turned his head to glance inside.

He happened to meet Li Qingrong's gaze as she packed her bag, and it passed in a flash. He walked toward the corridor, thinking that tomorrow seemed to be the weekend.

Weekend seat change... front and back desk with the Son of Heaven.

On the third floor, Jiang Nian and Xu Qianqian exchanged a glance on the staircase. Then they went down together with the crowded flow of people, only meeting up again once they reached the ground floor.

"Phew, today's finally over." After going downstairs, Xu Qianqian looked at the gray, hazy sky and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"What is it?" Jiang Nian asked.

"Nothing, just thinking about what to do tomorrow afternoon when we have the day off," Xu Qianqian said.