Chapter 338: It

The pot bubbled vigorously, steaming hot.

Green garlic shoots were tossed into the pot; thin, golden rice cakes clustered tightly together, the broth a golden hue.

"Is it ready?" Xu Qianqian peeked in from outside the kitchen.

Her voice was soft, nothing like her usual self.

Xu Qianqian's appearance interrupted Jiang Nian's motion of reaching for his phone. He tossed it into his pocket and glanced at the simmering rice cakes.

"It's done."

Emerald green leaves churned in the pot.

The aroma, carried by the steaming heat, seized the back kitchen in an instant.

The broth, due to the rice cakes themselves, gradually thickened into a syrupy consistency. A pinch of chili powder was sprinkled in, the flavor adjusted, then it was ladled out.

After serving, the two sat facing each other at the dining table.

The living room TV played in silence; the apartment's soundproofing was excellent. Even if there was noise at night, neighbors would likely hear nothing.

"Thank you," Xu Qianqian took the chopsticks, sweet and obedient.

When hungry, even one's temper can change.

Jiang Nian had no appetite; the smell of cooking in the kitchen had already satisfied him. He held a small bowl, ate a little, and was full.

"That's all you're going to say? Thank you?"

"What else do you want?" Xu Qianqian took two bites, her taste buds thoroughly satisfied—it was time to forget her roots.

"Say 'big brother' again. Let me hear it," Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand.

"Dream on, old man," Xu Qianqian forgot her roots at lightning speed.

In the living room, the light was soft and warm.

Lü Xuan stared at her phone, frowning.

The other party hadn't replied for a long time—not for the first or second time. Of course, they had no obligation, but she had given something.

No way, how could he be this cruel!

A person shouldn't be—least of all this shameless! He's already seen everything about her, and now won't even reply to a message.

She furrowed her brow and paced the living room.

Until her phone pinged—Lü Xuan spun around sharply, strode to the table, and unlocked her phone to check the message.

She really wanted to see someone else's progress bar.

The last time she'd felt this restless was when she'd scoured Xiaohongshu for gossip about a dating show couple and stayed up all night.

Whether true or false, if it boosted dopamine, she'd believe it first.

But the message came from Sheng Zeyang.

"Did you ask him?"

Lü Xuan glanced at it, thinking: a guy, and still this nosy. She was about to turn off the screen when another message popped up.

"I've got first-hand info. Want it?"

Her finger froze mid-air.

"What info?"

"I ran into him at the KTV last night. He seems to have a girlfriend," Sheng Zeyang said. "His family's strict—probably Li."

"Impossible, I've seen them," Lü Xuan rejected immediately. "They don't seem close at all."

"What if they're secretly dating?" Sheng Zeyang's message popped up. "Besides, that Jiang Nian is pretty strange too."

Lü Xuan didn't reply. She didn't care about Sheng Zeyang's words.

Believe first, question later.

Just before bed, she finally received Jiang Nian's reply.

"?"

A single question mark shattered her composure.

The next day.

Jiang Nian woke up, feeling refreshed and clear-headed.

He hadn't written any test papers last night; today was entirely for adjusting his state. A few problems only, just to keep his touch sharp.

Since the joint exam was tomorrow, the whole day was basically self-study.

Six subjects, fifteen test papers total—not a single one distributed. All held by the class representative, to be handed out after the weekend exam.

Suddenly having nothing to do left some without a study plan feeling lost.

Sun Zhicheng, stuck on a problem, happily flipped through the "Science World" section at the bottom of his Physics 5-3.

Lin Dong wrote problems while chatting on his phone.

His persona was the delicate, refined high school boy—with a gambling father and mother, and a sick sister. Since he had no sister, he boldly exaggerated.

And his broken self.

"I'm in class, can't take calls."

"Just try answering—I want my boyfriend to see what you look like, delicate and refined. 😭"

Lin Dong: "Smile at your fucking ass."

He deleted the person on a whim, took a deep breath, and moved on to the next.

The morning passed.

Near dismissal, Jiang Nian finally lifted his head. He glanced around: Li Hua was picking at a pimple, Ceng You was reading a novel.

He turned again and saw Zhang Ningzhi putting in eye drops.

He found it novel, and stared. The pressure made her fail several attempts.

Zhang Ningzhi: "Why are you looking at me?"

Jiang Nian thought for a moment. "I can help you put in eye drops. I saw you keep missing earlier — I'm not exactly talented, but I've got one skill."

The precision of the groove is still catching up.

Have to say, this skill is pretty practical.

He figured he should have become a doctor, but then... forget it. The risk is too high — precision alone without talent won't cut it either.

Zhang Ningzhi thought it over. Giving him one chance wasn't out of the question.

Mainly her eyes really were a bit dry and scratchy. If he kept fussing around like this, after school she wouldn't even need to put drops in.

She deliberated for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay, but... hurry up, alright? I-I'm a little ticklish, and this position is really weird."

Girl, the way you talk is weird too.

There are this many people in the classroom.

Jiang Nian coughed, took the eye drops from her hand.

The procedure itself didn't require much skill — find the right spot, squeeze, one drop, done. A few people need their eyelids pried open.

After all, eyes have a self-protection mechanism — they close on reflex.

Zhang Ningzhi was already getting ready to manually hold her eyelids open, but Jiang Nian stopped her. He gestured for her to just tilt her head back and not worry about anything else.

"Are you sure that'll work?"

"Trust first, question later. Tilt your head back." Jiang Nian finished speaking, moved quickly, and cleanly dropped the medicine into her bright, clear eyes.

When it was over, Zhang Ningzhi was stunned — she'd suddenly discovered another one of Jiang Nian's functions.

"So impressive."

Noon.

Jiang Nian had just come back from the cafeteria, holding a test paper as he stood outside the corridor letting the breeze hit him.

Overcast. A thin mist shrouded Qingmu Ridge.

"What are you looking at?" Chen Yunyun walked over from a distance, asking curiously. "I saw you standing here from downstairs."

Jiang Nian turned his head and answered quite frankly, "Seventy percent thinking about problems, forty percent thinking about sexy stuff."

"Huh? Doesn't that add up to a hundred and ten percent?" Chen Yunyun was baffled.

He nodded. "Right. So why don't you ask what the remaining eight hundred and ninety percent is?"

"... What is it?"

"Sexy stuff." Jiang Nian answered honestly.

Chen Yunyun: "..."

She didn't argue with Jiang Nian being so horny — she even rather agreed, since he was occasionally... pretty perverted in daily life.

For instance, if she were right now to pretend leaning against the railing feeling a bit hot, then pull open her collar, a certain someone would keep staring.

But doing something so dry counted as entrapment and wasn't really a fair reference.

"Where's the other person?" Jiang Nian asked.

Chen Yunyun knew the "other person" he meant was Wang Yuhe, so she began to explain.

"She heard there's some gossip and went off to ask around."

"Why didn't you go?" Jiang Nian asked.

"I don't like listening to gossip, and I'm not interested in it either." Chen Yunyun said this without even blinking.

In the past, gossip was her absolute favorite thing to hear.

But tastes have their hierarchy — naturally her mind wasn't on gossip. She didn't need gossip to kill time either, which was why she'd come upstairs.

The two chatted for a while, waiting for Wang Yuhe to appear at the stairwell.

After about several minutes, Wang Yuhe came clattering up the stairs. Panting heavily, she crossed the corridor and stopped in front of them.

"Bi-big news!"

"What is it?" Jiang Nian had already anticipated it long ago — he was just waiting for the answer to surface.

Wang Yuhe took a deep breath and said, "I heard that during the last joint exam of the eighteen counties, someone organized cheating, and students sold answers."

"Really?" Chen Yunyun was slightly surprised.

But that was all — just surprise. After all, Jiang Nian's placement exam was two months ago, and the three of them present had nothing to do with that last joint exam.

"Yeah, a lot of people got punished." Wang Yuhe chattered on at length, animated and lively, her tone light and cheerful.

The news spread before lunch break; the disciplinary documents were posted on the wall outside the Academic Affairs Office right after lunch break.

Jiang Nian took the chance while going to the bathroom to take a look. On the surface, only a few ringleaders who'd sold answers were punished with probation at school.

He scanned the list and, at the very bottom, saw Liu Feipeng's name. In addition to probation, he got a bonus of two months at home for reflection.

Logically speaking, Liu Feipeng wasn't short on money. But he really did sell answers — you could only say people really are complicated and contradictory.

Afternoon.

The joint-exam cheating incident had spread like wildfire through the class.

As it spread, baseless speculation about Zhou Yuting quietly crept in. But because her weekly test scores were fairly stable, gradually people stopped talking about it.

"Help me put some in, won't you? Everyone says you're pretty professional." Yao Bei Bei said.

Jiang Nian was a bit speechless — he completely couldn't hold it together anymore.

"Who started the rumor?"

Because of that morning, his incomparably precise eye-drop technique had piqued the curiosity of Li Hua and the others, who all wanted to try it out.

Originally, Jiang Nian had only been doing it on the principle that he was free anyway.

But somehow, more people came drawn by his reputation. Huang Beibei was just one of them — besides her, it was mostly boys.

On a normal day, they wouldn't be this idle. But today was the day before the big exam, one of those rare leisure days.

"How hard is it?" Jiang Nian was a bit speechless. "Can't you do it yourselves? Open your eyes and stick the eye drops in."

"Holy crap, don't even say it." Yao Bei Bei imagined the scene and immediately felt her teeth ache. "Jiang Nian, you're seriously disgusting."

"Ugh, get lost, get lost." Jiang Nian was hardly the gentleman.

"Tch, forget it then." Yao Bei Bei muttered, "It's just that you drip them in accurately. I'll figure it out myself."

Faced with Yao Bei Bei turning the tables on him, Jiang Nian was long since used to it.

With anyone else, this person definitely wouldn't say it like that. But against good buddies, he'd just keep squeezing out the last bit of value.

Also a pro at internal warfare.

"Ugh, this is really annoying." Li Hua complained, "The morning is so boring. The afternoon won't still be self-study, right?"

The entire morning was basically self-study.

One could even say, since the review round began, today was almost the most leisurely day. The teachers didn't lecture and didn't hand out papers.

Walking circles around the classroom, answering students' questions.

Slacking off was impossible — the pressure of the review round's end was right there. One could only say the teachers really did take this joint exam of six cities seriously.

The afternoon's three classes were, respectively, Chinese, Chemistry, Chemistry.

Old Liu stepped into the classroom, and with a slap, said one thing.

"Ah, this class you review on your own. If you don't understand, you can ask. Also, a few things to mention. The first thing is the exam room arrangement."

Old Liu babbled on about a whole bunch. After talking about the exam room arrangements, he also mentioned the academic affairs office's bulletin on cheating.

"Ah, I'm reiterating the issue of exam room discipline. Once caught cheating in the joint exam, first go home and reflect for a month. Ah, nothing more to say, first sent home."

When it came to the second Chemistry class.

The Chemistry teacher was older, and also chatted a bit about the exam room cheating gossip, mentioning a few things the students didn't know.

"I heard — just heard — that this time the paper was changed. The difficulty of the paper is relatively high, so all students must read the questions carefully during the exam."

"Huh?!!!"

The classroom erupted in wails. Only Li Hua alone wore a cold smirk. The corners of his mouth slowly rose, gradually forming the shape of a hook.

"Not good, he's about to show off." Jiang Nian sucked in a cold breath and called out to Ma Guojun across the aisle, "Quick, tear his mouth apart!"

Li Hua laughed heartily and said arrogantly.

"Three hundred points is only the paper's limit, not mine."