Chapter 326: The Sealed Box

"Why are you suddenly cursing at me?" Song Xiuyun looked slightly aggrieved.

But being stupid isn't a hereditary disease, is it?

They say don't hit someone on the face—how come you're dragging their family into the scolding?

"Who cursed you? I just asked if you have a hereditary disease," Jiang Nian said, exasperated. "I'm showing concern—do you get that?"

She thought it might be true, paused to consider, then shook her head.

"No."

As soon as the words fell, an answer surfaced in Jiang Nian's mind.

Calculation correct.

Jiang Nian's heart stirred—he silently wondered, Can this skill really be used this way? Everything can be calculated, huh? Good, good, good.

Going for the civil service exam, bro.

Starting from the village chief, striving toward retirement.

But I asked the system.

The calculation process is essentially a logical program. So the result must be objective, not merely Song Xiuyun's subjective belief.

That means she truly has no hereditary disease.

Since the calculation skill had entered its three-day cooldown, Jiang Nian didn't dwell on it further. As long as it wasn't a congenital illness, he'd see later.

Maybe it's related to diet or past injuries or accidents.

Avoid it if possible; if not, at the very least, it won't be because of money that history repeats itself.

"Did you bring food?" Jiang Nian asked.

"No."

"How can you hold a meeting without bringing food? Then why hold a meeting?"

Song Xiuyun:

She fell silent, pretending to be dead.

Soon after, she felt something extra in her pocket. After a moment of surprise, she reached in and pulled out a small bag of nuts.

"Thank you."

A while later, she felt her pocket sink slightly. She reached in again and found a small pack of seaweed.

Song Xiuyun was defeated. "Why are you bringing so many snacks to a meeting?"

"What else? Just listen and not eat?"

"Fine," Song Xiuyun said, embarrassed.

She stared at the small bag of snacks in her hand, thinking: When Jiang Nian isn't being harsh, he's actually pretty nice—though she still felt a bit afraid…

As for why she feared Jiang Nian, she didn't know exactly—it was just the accumulated impression from limited interactions: rich but brain-dead, and a bit intimidating.

"Why aren't you eating?"

She hesitated a moment, then spoke.

"I'll split it with Qianqian back in the classroom."

"Holy shit, you two really—"

Jiang Nian gave up, too lazy to argue further with Song Xiuyun, who was as wooden as a log.

He could sense Song Xiuyun's stereotype seal about him, but he didn't care much.

A "father" must bear more.

The meeting didn't last long—barely more than one class period.

As Jiang Nian left the conference room, he felt a chill on his back. He turned and saw Yu Zhiyi gazing at him with a haunting, resentful look.

A few breaths later, Yu Zhiyi caught up with Jiang Nian amid the crowd.

She glanced at the little girl beside Jiang Nian, then at Jiang Nian himself, and spoke as if from an air vent.

"You're putting romance before friendship, aren't you?"

"Nay! Don't say that," Jiang Nian pointed at her, correcting her. "Talk nonsense—where's this 'friend' you're talking about?"

"You!" Yu Zhiyi snapped.

She'd lent him a physics score-boosting guide just at lunch, and now he was denying it by night.

Looking at Jiang Nian's shameless face, a four-character idiom flashed in her mind.

As the meeting ended, passing students cast curious glances at the trio of two girls and one boy—including Zhang Xiaofan.

But before he could get a clear look, Jiang Nian and the others vanished into the crowd descending the stairs.

Back in the classroom.

Under the fluorescent tubes, the blackboard was filled with answers from the weekly test.

The chemistry representative was in a hurry, asking twice within five minutes if they'd copied the answers yet. He prepared to erase the math answers and replace them with chemistry ones.

"Fuck, why the rush? You not staying anymore?" Lin Dong launched the assault, immediately targeting the chemistry representative with full force.

"I'm not rushing—doesn't chemistry need answer-checking too?" Yin Qidong's voice lacked conviction—he'd already checked his answers.

He'd scored full marks on the weekly science test's chemistry section and was eager to show off.

The surname Yin was extremely rare in Town South.

His family had come from Holland (homophone) generations ago and proudly claimed their ancestors were half-overseas returnees.

One of their famous incidents was when, in Gao Er, he caused thick smoke in the chemistry lab, making the whole class scramble to escape.

Historically known as the Emperor of Shandu, Central Route Smoke.

Yin Qidong had, by sheer accident, become the chemistry representative for Gao San's Olympiad Class Three, though he remained low-key in daily life.

"Check your damn answers—the ones who just got back from the meeting haven't even done it yet," Lin Dong dragged Jiang Nian and Yu Zhiyi into his argument. "Why so impatient? Can't you wait till they finish checking?"

Jiang Nian pulled out his math test from his desk.

Looking down, he saw that the once-blank paper had small red checks beside the correct answers, and dense steps written everywhere for the wrong ones.

He stared blankly for a moment—this handwriting was too recognizable. When he snapped back to reality, he glanced over at Zhang Nenzhi.

"You corrected this for me?"

"Mm." Zhang Nenzhi's face flushed; she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I was bored, so I did it on a whim."

To be fair, Baby Zhizhi is kinda tsundere.

Jiang Nian blinked, holding up the test and pointing to one corrected answer.

"How is one-half not 0.5?"

Zhang Nenzhi glanced at it and fell silent.

"You clearly wrote square root of two."

"The factory head, black middleman taking three-quarters as commission—it's totally reasonable, so square root of two ends up being 0.5."

Zhang Nenzhi:

Yin Qidong spotted Jiang Nian's corrected test from afar and loudly countered Lin Dong.

"Jiang Nian already fixed it! Stop using this crap as an excuse!"

He shouted so loudly the whole class heard.

Zhang Nenzhi pretended to focus on her homework, her earlobes slightly red.

During the break of the second evening self-study.

Li Hua somehow got a box of matches and returned to class, proudly showing off to Jiang Nian.

"Fire control technique—cool or not?"

Jiang Nian lifted his eyelids slightly, put down his pen, and asked:

"Aren't you afraid Old Liu will catch you?"

"Pfft, who cares?" Ma Guojun sidled over, immediately stoking the fire. "Li Hua's never been afraid of teachers since he was a kid."

"Exactly." Li Hua's grin widened into a wide, eager smile.

"Whoa, that's the fire control technique?" Liu Yang walked over from the podium. "Awesome, awesome—let me see it!"

"Piece of cake. Come on, follow me to the bathroom—we'll have some fun!" Li Hua, surrounded by a crowd, led everyone out of the classroom.

Jiang Nian was done.

The entire night's painstaking effort of some idiot writing a dumb joke couldn't match the effortless improvisation of a naturally gifted performer.

Jiang Nian didn't go join the chaos—the Six-City Joint Exam was coming soon.

To be honest, he had a solid base of 540 points. With a bit more focus, scoring 580 or 590 wouldn't be hard.

But if he slacked off now, the exam would be completely ruined.

So as long as he kept his focus tight...

Fate is mine!

Suddenly, a light tap pressed against his back.

Hmm... come to think of it.

He turned around and saw Li Qingrong, her expression cool and detached, her lips barely holding back a smile—my darling wife.

Of course, that was just his own male-gaze fantasy.

In reality, this was a private, and not recommended, mental study method: first find a good-looking top student, then hypnotize yourself.

Then motivate yourself... okay, I'm a pervert.

"Mm? What's up?"

Li Qingrong made Jiang Nian turn around, but said nothing—she simply stared at him, her eyes clear and bright as snow.

The atmosphere froze.

Jiang Nian looked up and down, unsure what the monitor wanted to say. After all that awkwardness—she liked him, right?

Yes!

Tonight! Prison cell!

Suddenly, Li Qingrong spoke seriously.

"Tomorrow's Tuesday."

"Huh?" Jiang Nian was stunned; the prison cell plan was put on hold. "Tomorrow's Tuesday... so?"

Li Qingrong's cherry-red lips pressed together; she lowered her gaze.

"Play ball."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian immediately broke into a cold sweat.

"PE isn't until Wednesday! You planned this way too early—what if... what if it rains on Wednesday?"

Li Qingrong froze as if struck by lightning, silently pulling out her phone to check the weather.

After a while, she frowned.

"Overcast."

"Hahaha, I told you—maybe it'll even rain..." Jiang Nian gloated, then abruptly switched tone.

"Even if it rains, we can do something else."

"What?" Li Qingrong asked.

"Ever played stone tossing?" Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow, suddenly feeling playful—he'd just thought of a perfect way to prank Li Hua.

But he could also play with the monitor now.

"I've... seen others play." Li Qingrong remembered from middle school, where many students played that stone-tossing game.

The rules are simple: find five stones of suitable size and shape. Play layer by layer, increasing in difficulty.

First level: while tossing one stone into the air, use one hand to pick up another stone from the ground, until all four stones on the ground are collected.

If you fail, it's the next person's turn.

After clearing the first level, difficulty increases: toss two stones, and pick up the remaining three during their descent.

None of the tossed stones may touch the ground, or you lose.

Proceed similarly with three, four, then five stones. The key to this game is catching all tossed stones.

This heavily tests the player's speed and reflexes.

Of course, if you say you're always practicing hand speed, then you're a beast, you're amazing.

"Playing by watching others counts too, right? When?" Jiang Nian asked further. "Freshman year? Or..."

"Middle school."

"Oh... middle school. That stupid place, No. 2 High, sure had a lot of people playing this." Jiang Nian's expression turned odd as he muttered.

In fact, he remembered No. 2 High was full of all kinds of people, with plenty of rowdy kids.

He shook his head, refusing to think about that unlucky place. Back then, he'd fought with a bunch of jerks—well, except Le Zhi.

That idiot got tricked, took a beating for nothing, and lost one shoe.

But the scene was too chaotic, and that incident was just the spark that ignited later events—too much time had passed since then...

Jiang Nian didn't want to think about it. He felt he'd been a fool back then, and eventually stopped caring about doing good deeds.

Erasing the 80s? Only the state could handle that.

Without powerful backing, how would a few kids dare act like that? They just copied others, thinking this and that.

If only he'd known that once those neighborhood toughs graduated middle school, they'd be lured by black middlemen to the suburbs for "wages," only to be slapped in rotation.

Even the big brothers were beaten into dogs, with zero dignity left. Naturally, the middle school brats on their faces couldn't hold their heads up either.

Still tough?

The answer was obvious.

Over the past two years, the state cracked down at the source, wiping out the neighborhood toughs, and the campus atmosphere at No. 2 High improved.

To truly purify the root, one must cleanse the source—it makes sense.

"Tomorrow I'll find some stones... never mind, I'll look for Li Hua's eraser. Cut two pieces, make my own."

Li Qingrong didn't understand, but nodded.

"Mm."

Third period evening self-study. The bell rang.

Seven or eight minutes into self-study.

Li Hua finally arrived late, his face beaming. He strutted in like a victorious rooster, chin high.

As soon as he sat down, he blurted out excitedly:

"Nian, you wouldn't believe how fun matches are. In the dim bathroom, my flick just felt like Prometheus..."

Mid-sentence, Li Hua froze.

Jiang Nian and Zhang Ningzhi were playing stone-tossing on the desk—but the "stones" were made of something unusual, and oddly familiar.

He stared for several seconds, then frantically rummaged under his desk.

Panic!

"Fuck! Where's my eraser!" Li Hua grabbed Jiang Nian's collar, shouting, "Where's my eraser?!"

"Da da di da da!"

"Shit!" Li Hua exploded, gritting his teeth. "You're still using that Knife Brother meme?! I'm not done with you!"

"It's just one eraser," Jiang Nian shrugged off his hand calmly. "You're so stingy. Are you even a man?"

"Fuck you!" Li Hua was about to retaliate, when Jiang Nian added, "If I win, I'll pay you three."

Instantly, his anger vanished. Competitive spirit flared up.

"Hey, I'm a top-tier expert at this game." Li Hua flicked his hair, snatching the five small eraser stones.

He tossed and caught—barely missed the first level.

Li Hua looked slightly embarrassed, but still had the first move. He could proceed to level two, so he forced a show of confidence.

"Cough, cough. A bit rusty."

Level two—pata! He dropped it.

Jiang Nian and Zhang Ningzhi instantly turned into smirking meme faces, both staring at Li Hua and whispering.

"Group leader can't even beat me. I might make it to level three."

"Nah, you can't say that," Jiang Nian spoke loudly, unashamed. "What if Hua has some hidden illness?"

"Oh... yeah."

Hearing this, Li Hua finally snapped.

"Red stone! Red stone! Red stone!!"

After school that night.

Lü Xuan got into her family's pickup car at the school gate, slammed the door shut, and tossed her backpack onto the back seat.

The taillights glowed as the black Audi slowly pulled away from the school entrance.

She scrolled through her phone, then suddenly remembered the fleeting glimpse she'd seen on her way to the evening meeting.

For some reason, it felt increasingly familiar.

The memory was distant, but not entirely without traces.

Back home, she didn't wash up as usual. Instead, she dragged a chair in front of the cabinet, stepped barefoot onto it.

He opened the topmost compartment of the wardrobe and took out a box from inside.