Chapter 329: Star of Inspiration

After eating a bowl of three-delicious rice noodles, he missed the afternoon rest curfew entirely.

Hey! Jiang Nian had an idea.

The north gate!

He didn't mind dragging Li Qingrong along to climb the wall, but the problem was... the kids, yes, this isn't right, let's just go directly, anyway he brought his ID.

Spend a little, spend a little, as the saying goes, money should be spent where it counts. A milk tea shop could do in a pinch, but the problem was the rest wouldn't be good.

Cack! Sleeping face-down on the desk for afternoon rest—how could that possibly be good for studying?

"Shall we go sit at Moon Island?" Jiang Nian suggested, choosing a coffee shop with a quiet atmosphere and a cover charge.

What's the cover charge? Minimum spend of thirty or forty per person.

But this coffee shop, located near the school and the supermarket, focuses on dim lighting and isn't too expensive.

Quite suitable for resting, and for dates.

"Mm." Li Qingrong had no objections. The moment she stepped inside, her vision went dark—the indoor lighting was dim, the music soft.

Jiang Nian ordered two cups of coffee and sat down to rest right away.

At one-thirty, a certain someone lay down and was out like a light.

His biological clock was terrifyingly precise.

At one-fifty in the afternoon, the two walked out of the coffee shop.

The sunlight was just right, and a crowd of students streamed into the school in noisy waves.

Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong were sandwiched in the flow of people, walking forward, half a meter apart. The two were silent the whole way, going upstairs side by side.

Before entering the classroom, Jiang Nian was called over by someone.

The end-of-rest bell hadn't stopped ringing yet when Tao Ran walked up to him. One hand covering his ear, which was being blasted by the broadcast, he said loudly,

"Old Liu wants you, told you to go to the office."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian was startled.

What?

No way, he was just feeding cats with the Son of Heaven at noon. How did Old Liu find out the moment he got back? Did the Imperial Guards snitch?

With class about to start, Jiang Nian made a trip to the office.

The first period in the afternoon was Chinese, so he didn't need to worry about being late. Besides, he was going to find Old Liu—he wasn't worried about the leadership checking attendance.

The preparatory bell rang twice, but Old Liu was still sitting leisurely in his seat, sipping tea.

The office was empty, only the two of them left.

"Ahem, you're here?" Old Liu took a sip of tea and got straight to the point. "Do you still remember roughly what your score was before you moved up a class?"

"A bit over four hundred, why?" Jiang Nian found a chair and sat down.

"Four-sixty?" Old Liu asked.

"Four-oh-one."

"Ahem ahem ahem!!" Old Liu nearly choked on his tea, then said meaningfully, "Well, that really isn't much."

"Teacher, you called me here just to ask this?"

Jiang Nian had thought Old Liu had found out he was walking together with the class monitor, and had come to give him a hard time.

Fast-forward to you two could never be together!

"Actually, that's not it. Ahem, the grade group has a 'Star of Inspiration' publicity campaign." Old Liu's gaze swept over him.

"I looked around the whole class, and you're the most inspirational one."

Jiang Nian was dumbfounded. "Ah? No... Teacher, why are you suddenly insulting me out of nowhere?"

"That's not what I meant. It's just that each class has to put forward one person. The grade group reviews them, and in the end picks a Star of Inspiration.

"So?"

"You're the most suitable candidate—from four-oh-one to six-oh-one." Old Liu's face was solemn. "Two hundred points of improvement, who else but you?"

"Huh? I only got five-ninety-something on the last mock exam, right?" Jiang Nian was starting to catch on. Old Liu really was damn serious about improvement.

"Don't worry about that—the review and selection will be next week." Old Liu looked at Jiang Nian, no confusion in his eyes, only the firm resolve of progress.

"What if I score six-oh-one?" Jiang Nian played around a bit.

"You've accumulated over ten missed Chinese homework submissions..."

"I said, hold on, hold on."

Afternoon.

After the first period ended, Li Hua asked curiously,

"What did Old Liu want you for?"

"Nothing much, just said there's a Star of Inspiration evaluation activity." Jiang Nian said it lightly. "Old Liu begged me to go, said Class 3 couldn't do it without me."

"I'm dizzy, you really can talk any kind of nonsense!" Li Hua laughed till he was numb. "Drank too much at noon? Must be dreaming."

Ma Guojun took off his glasses, ready to lie down and rest, and said with a grin,

"I lost some money on my way here this afternoon, but hearing that line made me feel like I got my money's worth."

"Can you really win an award with just over five hundred points?" Zhang Ningzhi asked curiously, then immediately felt she'd misspoken, and hurriedly corrected herself.

"No, I'm just curious about the judging criteria for this award. It's not that, I mean, you truly deserve it—" By the end, Zhang Ningzhi's face was red, stammering. She simply let out an "aiya," lay down on the desk, and played dead.

Attempting to get by on cuteness.

But Jiang Nian was petty—he firmly jotted this debt down in his little notebook. Another day he'd pull it out and interrogate her ruthlessly.

"A bunch of haters, pure forced hate."

"On the day I return to the world, all you treacherous ministers—"

He only got halfway through before the group around him burst into unrestrained laughter again.

"Got lucky on the land route, talking this big?"

"Still half asleep, Long Pi went qi-deviation, diagnosed as watching Long San too much."

"Don't bother with him, people who go crazy bite."

Jiang Nian flew into a rage at the words, looking around at those who didn't think well of him. In the end he just let out a dry laugh, too lazy to explain.

Who understands the value of a historical battle record of 410!

The Inspiration Star award isn't about total score, it's about improvement points!

Li Hua and his byd crew would never have imagined that their 410 on last term's final made them bug-level existences in the Olympiad class.

Who dares claim invincibility?

Oh my, I'm really awesome.

After school in the afternoon.

Jiang Nian sneakily passed the kitten photo to Zhang Ningzhi to see, immediately earning the girl's gasp of surprise, along with a pleading "send it to me, please."

"Not sending, not sending."

He refused outright.

"Why?" Zhang Ningzhi was a little annoyed.

She was wearing black jeans today, her calves beautifully curved. Tracing upward outlined the full curve of her hips, exceptionally pretty.

Ordinary people couldn't see the full curves hidden under her jacket, but Jiang Nian was her deskmate, so... he could trick her into lifting her jacket.

There's a bug crawling on your waist!

Where where? (panicked)

Hehe, silver bug.

"No reason, just material I worked hard to photograph." Jiang Nian didn't care, "Anyway, you can only look, you can't forward it to yourself, ha."

"I will!" Zhang Ningzhi insisted on forwarding.

Jiang Nian teased her for a while, then took the chance to forward it. The girl immediately burst into joy, chirping away as she asked about cat-feeding matters.

"You go tomorrow during the day, it should be full today.

"Then I'll look during PE class, Beibei said last time she wanted to go too." Zhang Ningzhi chatted for a while, then went to eat.

Jiang Nian was about to slip away too, but received a message from Le Zhi.

After reading it, even though time was tight, he still headed to a certain restaurant outside school. The moment he walked in, he met Le Zhi as arranged.

The little shop was brightly lit, with eight or nine tables set up.

Business was decent, three tables already full of customers. Their words puffed out white breath, and on the table an alcohol lamp was heating tea water. "Sit down, what do you want to eat?" Le Zhi's every gesture was utterly composed, "I ordered a stir-fried fatty intestine,

pigeon soup."

"Sounds good, Le Shao." Jiang Nian roughly guessed the purpose of Le Zhi looking for him, sat down and ordered one meat dish and one vegetable.

"Since you've guessed, I won't beat around the bush." Le Zhi said excitedly, "Less than a month, gained sixty points!"

His grades were a bit better than Jiang Nian's previous ones, usually scoring around four hundred forty-five. Gaining sixty points meant breaking the five hundred mark.

And Le Zhi had cheated last time, accidentally scoring five hundred twenty. That meant in this joint exam, being a bit careful wouldn't be a problem.

Even if he couldn't score five hundred twenty, as long as he scored five hundred or four-ninety-something, it would count as covering up the score naturally, and no one would suspect him of cheating last time.

"That's pretty good then, no big problem later on." Jiang Nian smiled, he had no particular feeling about five hundred points, but knew well that raising scores wasn't easy.

"Since that's the case, think of a way to take down that group as soon as possible."

"I've talked to my dad, don't worry." Le Zhi took a deep breath, "Probably in the next couple of days, there'll be some action."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian couldn't help being a little stunned.

"You told him? Your dad didn't..."

"Didn't hit me, after all the current grades are real." Le Zhi scratched his head, looking a bit awkward, "Besides, the results are real too."

"Alright, as long as you have it figured out." Jiang Nian held a glass cup, the amber tea water curling with white smoke, "I'm fine on my end, do whatever's convenient for you."

He put it rather tactfully, he just wanted to mess with these people a bit. But could mess with them, could not, frankly it was just a side matter.

"I understand, this benefits me too." Le Zhi smiled, then lowered his head and said, "What's real can't be fake, what's fake can't be real."

"Doing wrong things, you always have to pay some price. But it won't reach me, at most my dad will know."

"Mm." Jiang Nian nodded, "Things have come to this, let's eat first."

After the meal, night hung heavy.

On the way back to school, the two chatted on and off.

Most of the time, it was Le Zhi talking.

", knew I should've worked hard back during summer break." He sighed, lamenting, "Three months,

would've been enough to raise my score past five hundred.

Saying this, Le Zhi glanced at Jiang Nian.

"But even if I could've scored over five hundred back then, I still couldn't beat you, but I should be able to compete with Zhou Yuting for the end-of-October class promotion spot."

"Too late to say anything now, by the way... Zhou Yuting is in your class, how are her grades now?"

Jiang Nian hesitated a moment, "Alright, middle-lower."

Third floor, after parting with Le Zhi.

Jiang Nian switched to his alt account, checked Zhou Yuting's alt account status. Tried once, found the other party had already deleted him.

He didn't care, figured he'd check again in a couple days.

Every little bit helps.

After the first evening self-study ended.

Sports committee member Liu Yang suddenly called away two boys, saying they were going to move something. Ten minutes later, they brought back props for the pitch-pot game.

The whole class was instantly dumbfounded, exchanging glances.

"What's this for?"

"Probably a pot-throwing game, I've seen it at the mall before."

"You uncultured clod, you don't even know this?"

"I'll curse your whole family!"

Before long, Old Liu walked into the classroom full of vigor.

"Ahem, this is a between-class entertainment activity organized for you by the grade-level group. Every class has one, to keep you from roughhousing between periods."

"Of course, it's also part of the 'Learning Through Play' research group's project. Teachers will be taking photos and running the activities."

The moment they heard the words "research group," the class immediately knew what this thing was about.

Still, since there was a game to play, the students didn't really resist. One by one their spirits rose, and they started chattering away in discussion.

Someone asked, "Teacher, what activity are you organizing?"

"A pot-throwing competition, of course—one boy and one girl from each class." Old Liu finished, then added a reminder, "The pots will be collected back after a while, don't break them."

The students of Class Three:

"What research group? Aren't they just plainly treating us like lab rats?" Li Hua was a bit disgruntled. "These leaders are really out of their minds."

Hearing that, Jiang Nian asked curiously.

"So are you playing or not?"

"Of course I'm playing—wouldn't pass it up for anything!" Li Hua's tune changed instantly. "Oh right, does anyone in our group want to sign up for that activity?"

Zhang Ningzhi wanted to play, but didn't want to step into the spotlight and compete.

"Not going."

Ceng You shook his head even more firmly, not a shred of interest.

"Whoever wants to go, let them go."

Wu Jungu also shook her head. "There's probably practice involved, and it won't be our turn anyway—we couldn't grab a spot even if we wanted to."

Huang Fang, needless to say—from the moment the pot-throwing set was carried in until the homeroom teacher finished that speech, she had been doing problems the entire time, never once lifting her head.

Seeing this, Li Hua let out a long sigh and turned to pat Jiang Nian on the shoulder.

"Nian, let's team up."

Jiang Nian gave him a puzzled, wary glance and shook his head.

"I'm not playing, but I'll guarantee the win."