Chapter 340: Lick Lick Yours

Late at night, on the way home.

Xu Qianqian kicked a small pebble along the road, silent for a while before suddenly speaking.

"Do you feel like people who score below six hundred basically just rely on rote memorization when doing problems, with no deeper thinking?"

Jiang Nian immediately had a hard time keeping a straight face — that remark was far too pointed.

Anyone scoring lower than you is just rote-memorizing?

An English-specialty student hovering near six hundred is a treasure in any teacher's class, a solid core top student.

Stepping back, a seed candidate for a first-tier university; stepping forward, hard to say.

Can he surpass Xu Qianqian?

Well, that one — believe first, doubt later. What if one day Xu Qianqian runs a fever during the exam and he just sails past her?

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Xu Qianqian glanced at him, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. "Are you born aloof?"

Jiang Nian neither agreed nor disagreed, spreading his hands as he spoke.

"Yeah, you're the smarter one."

"Just wondering — does a smarter person taste smarter when licked? Slurp slurp."

That one line instantly froze Xu Qianqian stiff.

After a few seconds, she quickened her pace a couple of steps to put some distance between them. Her silver teeth nearly ground to dust, a look of disgust spreading across her face.

"Ew, you absolute creep."

Jiang Nian paid it no mind and opened his mouth with a bombshell.

"Just gonna lick yours."

Finally he could say it out in the open — not only say it, but once he came back victorious from the joint exam, he'd go slurp slurp right then and there.

"Pfft, pass the exam first, then we'll talk." Xu Qianqian brushed it off, thinking to herself that this round's test papers had gotten noticeably harder.

With Jiang Nian's shaky foundation, he might not even brush the edge of six hundred.

"Besides, is 610 really that much? Heh, even if I don't write the essay, you still might not beat me."

That one stung a bit.

But Jiang Nian didn't really care — as long as Xu Qianqian kept being amazing, that was fine.

He'd only been putting in real effort for a few months; he couldn't be expected to overtake years of her hard work overnight. For now, not falling too far behind was enough.

Got home.

Jiang Nian went through his nightly routine as usual. After blow-drying his hair, he pulled out a test paper. He worked through a few big problems, treating it as a pre-sleep workout for his brain.

With a buzz, the phone on the desk vibrated.

Normally he'd definitely finish a problem before checking messages, but today was an exception — the problems were just for resting.

So Jiang Nian very naturally picked up the phone.

Chen Yunyun: "Just finished showering."

He glanced at it and couldn't help feeling a bit speechless.

What does he take his bro for, a daily check-in machine? He really needed to set the ground rules with her in advance — you can't just casually mention showering like that.

Jiang Nian didn't even think, and replied.

"Where's the pic?"

Don't just say it — send the pic directly.

Chen Yunyun skillfully played dumb, having predicted Jiang Nian's reaction. After a burst of typing, she first tapped out a little question mark.

"? What are you even talking about."

Jiang Nian predicted Chen Yunyun's prediction. "No pic and I'm going to sleep (sleepy)."

North District, Girls' Dormitory Building 2.

Chen Yunyun had washed herself squeaky clean; winter made her skin dry. She went ahead and slathered on some body lotion, and a light, not-too-strong cold fragrance filled the quilt.

She was wearing a thick pink pajama set, sitting propped up against the headboard. Staring at the glowing phone screen, she unconsciously lifted her chin.

She hesitated a moment, thinking about how to reply to Jiang Nian.

Suddenly, a whiff of Dabao scent invaded her nose.

"Yunyun, what are you doing?" Wang Yuhe squirmed closer, leaning in. "Who are you chatting with?"

"A, um, middle school classmate. What's up?" Chen Yunyun tilted her phone slightly, very naturally covering the screen.

In reality, that gesture of hers was a bit unnecessary.

Because Wang Yuhe hadn't thought anything of it at all — she just wanted to show off her newly bought latest-model Dabao.

"Yunyun, sniff me — do I smell nice?"

"Nice," Chen Yunyun said, a bit absent-minded, still wondering how to reply to Jiang Nian — that guy was full of dirty tricks.

"Hmph hmph, he doesn't have this scent on him — I'm the one who smells better, right!" Wang Yuhe was especially smug, humming to herself.

"No way, I have to brag about it a few times!"

After saying that, Wang Yuhe pulled out her phone and sent Jiang Nian a few messages — along with several memes, going in for the kill.

In his room.

Jiang Nian was completely baffled — he hadn't gotten a reply from Chen Yunyun, but instead Wang Yuhe had messaged him. What were these two up to?

Whatever — whoever sends a pic gets a reply.

After a few seconds, Wang Yuhe urged again.

"Why aren't you talking? Fist"

Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then replied, "I'm born aloof. Sunglasses"

After a while, Chen Yunyun suddenly sent a photo. Her pajamas were wrapped up tightly, even the top button fastened.

"Made a fortune. Sweating."

He sent back a husky-pointing meme. "Alright, alright, deceiving the Son of Heaven, are we? You clearly know what I mean."

Chen Yunyun: "What's there to be confused about?"

Fine, playing dumb.

Jiang Nian tore off that pretense and said quite directly.

"I asked you to take a picture of the bed, why did you send your own picture?"

Chen Yunyun: "."

Before bed, he tapped open the class monitor's chat page and looked at it for a while. Li Qingrong really wasn't good at chatting, so she didn't send messages when there was nothing to say.

The class monitor's definition of "nothing to say" could be called quite vague.

Free to decide as one wishes — this is the Holy Son of Heaven.

The next day.

Jiang Nian as usual got up very early, but didn't laze about in bed. Instead, he got up on time, washed up, changed clothes, and headed out the door.

He didn't run into Zhou Haifei on the way either. After going upstairs, he found Zhou Haifei hiding in Class Four, quietly reciting books, not even daring to leave the classroom.

Heh, coward.

The front door of the Class Three classroom was locked, but the back door happened to be open.

Jiang Nian walked in and found only Huang Fang and Ceng You in the classroom. Adding him, the entire classroom was filled with people from Group Six.

Ceng You was reading a novel on his phone, his whole body hunched over his seat. The phone was tucked inside a book, and the screen brightness was turned to the lowest.

He usually read very intently, paying no attention to the people around him. But the moment there was the slightest stir, he would immediately become alert.

Once, Huang Fang needed to reapply for poverty subsidy materials, and also had to go to the county bus station to pick up a proof stamped by the village committee.

When she was conflicted, it was Ceng You — who couldn't hear what was happening outside the window — who stepped forward. He took the initiative to go get the proof for her, and said one sentence.

Riding the bus and walking won't delay my novel-reading.

"Ceng You, why are you up so early?" Jiang Nian set down his bag and skillfully fished out a thermos from Baby Zhizhi's desk drawer.

"Wrong, I didn't sleep at all." Ceng You turned his head and said with a grin, "Got woken up by hunger a little past five in the morning, climbed out the window to go buy steamed buns."

"Beast!" Jiang Nian gave a thumbs-up.

It wasn't politeness, but genuine admiration. After all, going a whole day and night without sleep, and still being able to climb down the water pipe in the early hours of a freezing winter morning.

That excess of yang fire — it'd be a waste not to be a soldier.

Time ticked by second by second, and the classroom gradually filled with more people. Because the exam room had been arranged, the classroom looked especially spacious.

Deskmate Li Hua and Ma Guojun's desks were next to each other, the two of them whispering in low voices over there.

Jiang Nian, as always, sat at the same desk as Baby Zhizhi. Both of them were looking over test papers and working on questions, the atmosphere somewhat grim.

Before a major exam, apart from dogs like Deskmate Li Hua, very few people could truly relax.

Even though the first exam subject was Chinese, only starting at nine o'clock. Right now it was barely seven, and it still made people nervous.

After a while, Deskmate Li Hua came over in his usual cheeky way. After forcibly taking half of Jiang Nian's stool, he finally opened his mouth to ask.

"Nian, let me ask you something."

"What?"

"If you plan to get married in the future, what setup do you bring when meeting the girl's parents for the first time?" Deskmate Li Hua said with an expectant look.

"What do you guys think?" Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow.

"Ma Guojun says just bring a fruit basket and call it a day — it's not like we're discussing bride price." Deskmate Li Hua shook his head. "On this, I can't agree."

"At the very least you have to pick two out of cigarettes, alcohol, and tea, otherwise it'd be so awkward going over."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian couldn't help but hum. He put down his pen, brows tightly furrowed, seeming to quite agree with Deskmate Li Hua's words.

Meeting the father-in-law, ah.

He immediately thought of Baby Zhizhi's biological father, that man of extraordinary taste. He figured that when meeting him in the future, he really would have a headache over gifts.

For this, he pondered for a full half minute before raising his head to speak.

"Still go with cigarettes, alcohol, and tea."

Hearing this, Deskmate Li Hua immediately beamed.

"Right?"

Before Deskmate Li Hua could finish speaking, he heard Jiang Nian add a few more lines.

"First give the old fart a pack of Liqun, let him warm up his throat. Then get some top-grade China Jinjiu, convenient for beating up relatives and friends."

"Bro's gotta have a little noodles, and tea is a must too."

"If funds are tight, get some iced black tea. If the budget's generous — then you gotta bring out the premium stuff, Oriental Leaf jasmine tea."

After saying all that, Jiang Nian silently calculated the total price.

"That's about it, give the old fart a little face. Let him see bro's sincerity — he'll definitely cry after seeing it."

Deskmate Li Hua was dumbfounded, unable to speak for a long time.

"Don't you also have to ride a ghost fire scooter to deliver all these gifts?"

"Idiot, this is Zhennan." Jiang Nian glanced at him with contempt. "Got enough bride price fragments saved up? Still dreaming about meeting the parents."

Chatting and laughing, the tension of the exam eased a bit too.

Approaching 8:20 in the morning.

The people in the classroom could no longer sit still, thinking about heading to the exam room to prepare. Outside the corridor stood quite a few people from other classes.

Jiang Nian figured it was time to head to the exam room, and was about to take a sip of hot water.

He reached for the thermos and found it was empty. So he turned to look at Baby Zhizhi, and while she wasn't paying attention, he swapped his thermos over to hers.

Gurgle gurgle.

He used Baby Zhizhi's thermos to pour himself a glass of water, then quietly put Zhang Ningzhi's thermos back in her drawer.

Some easily-embarrassed classmates might ask if they saw it.

"Teacher Jiang, why aren't you drinking from your own?"

"I'd say hold on—the thermos is just a storage space for hot water. We drink from small glass cups. There's no 'you' or 'me' about it."

"So just drink from yours."

Besides, his hot water had long been finished, and he was too lazy to go refill it.

Young people should devote their limited time to limitless study—review more, look at past papers, and get ready to head to the exam hall.

In truth, Zhang Ningzhi had long since noticed someone's little maneuver.

But with the exam about to start, she couldn't be bothered to argue with him. Compared to all that, she'd much rather keep her mind on the test.

Language arts was Zhang Ningzhi's weak subject.

When the minute hand of the classroom clock reached the twenty, Cai Xiaoqing stood up and said.

"Let's head to the exam hall."

The crowd instantly scattered like birds and beasts, and the classroom fell into chaos.

"I'm off to the exam hall, bye-bye." Zhang Ningzhi waved at Jiang Nian—their exam halls weren't in the same building.

"Mm, bye-bye." Jiang Nian waved back.

The seating arrangement for this exam wasn't great luck. Not in the same building as the class monitor either, but they could share part of the route.

Chen Yunyun was in the same building as him, but on a different floor.

Wang Yuhe and Chen Yunyun were on the same floor for the exam, so the two of them naturally paired up and wouldn't choose to go with Jiang Nian.

And so, Jiang Nian became a lone soul.

His exam hall was on the fifth floor of Building B for Gao Er, classroom B504. He entered the hall and waited about twenty minutes before the exam began.

The instant he caught the scent of ink on the test papers, Jiang Nian's heart settled down as well.