Chapter 344: You Didn't Get Together With Her?

"What are you doing?" Zhang Ningzhi's face was flushed red.

Her palms were already sweating from being covered.

Still, she didn't struggle too much. Rather than blame, it was more like a complaint, with a tiny hint of guilt mixed in.

After all, even if it was unintentional, she really had attacked Jiang Nian.

Her math scores were so terrible that she already had to share a desk with Jiang Nian. If she got overtaken by him later, there'd be no way to keep him in check.

Baby Zhizhi wanted to be on top.

"Nothing, my hand just suddenly got cold." Jiang Nian wasn't some kind of lecher; on the contrary, he was very well-behaved.

He only held her hand, nothing else.

So you wanted to touch something else?

Obviously, I'm not a eunuch.

If their relationship had really reached that point, he would have made a move long ago. He'd been craving it for a while, but didn't want to muddle into a relationship.

Gao San romances stem from a false sense of sentimentality born under high pressure.

It's a bit like the suspension bridge effect. The college entrance exam is like millions of people chasing the path to immortality. The immortal road is bitter and cold, so we huddle together for warmth.

Jiang Nian neither judged Gao San romances nor opposed them.

He just felt that getting emotional value didn't necessarily require romance—good friends could do plenty of things too.

For instance, right now he'd bombed the exam, but squeezing Baby Zhizhi's hand made him feel good again.

Confess?

Baby Zhizhi is so great—how could he repay her kindness with ingratitude?

Trying to mess with her studies, right?

First period of evening self-study.

The person at the door was Qian Bao, wearing a wine-red coat. Underneath was a black cotton skirt, a refreshing sight for sore eyes.

The class instantly let out a "wow," followed by a wave of brainless praise.

"Didn't the Three Kingdoms already end? How is there still a Diaochan?"

"I'm reporting her—why isn't she wearing the school uniform?"

"Must've woken up too hard, I'm seeing a fairy."

"No, aren't you guys disgusted saying all that? So shameless, a bunch of grown men bullying a young miss, what for?"

Listening to the awkward praise around her, Qian Bao covered her mouth and laughed for a long time. She walked a circle around the classroom, then reminded everyone a few times to do their best on the exam.

"Qian Bao is really pretty, feels like she has a very young mindset."

"Yeah, how does she do it?"

"Who knows, maybe it's because she's good-looking."

"Damn, my friend is feeling a bit unwell."

"Ah, is that so. Then your friend probably doesn't have many days left. Better find a crematorium furnace and warm up."

The classroom was bustling. Jiang Nian was propping his head up, thinking about things.

If the joint exam was a trial, then his performance in the first half was clearly unsatisfactory, and the odds of a comeback were slim.

Chinese had felt like nothing, and math was basically a failure.

Exams change in an instant—some rejoice while others worry.

Tomorrow's first exam was the science comprehensive, which he wasn't good at. At this point, the pressure visibly multiplied.

Reviewing for a few hours couldn't guarantee results, so now he had to make a choice: shore up his weak spots or protect his base.

Jiang Nian lowered his head and looked at the science comprehensive paper, hesitating for a while.

In the end, he still chose the biology paper, spending two full periods of evening self-study reading through it carefully.

The moment the class bell rang, he lifted his head.

His face calm, he let out a long breath of stale air. All the pent-up frustration and confusion in his chest vanished, replaced by tranquility.

For the remaining time, he unhurriedly skimmed through chemistry and physics.

Even when school was about to end, he was still reading.

Seeing this, Zhang Ningzhi didn't dare disturb him at all.

She sneakily glanced at Jiang Nian several times that evening. Seeing his focused expression, constantly reviewing, she couldn't help but steal a few more looks.

The bell was about to ring, so she finally poked Jiang Nian's arm.

"Hmm?" Jiang Nian snapped out of it, turned his head toward his good desk-mate in the bright classroom, and asked, "What's up?"

Zhang Ningzhi shook her head and slowly leaned toward him. The girl cupped her hand over her mouth and lowered her voice to share a secret.

"When you were looking at the test paper just now, your eyes seemed to have a light in them."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian was briefly stunned.

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm." Zhang Ningzhi pressed her lips together, seemingly in a good mood. "You're so serious—tomorrow you'll definitely do well."

Jiang Nian deliberated for a moment, then asked.

"Will it be better than yours?"

"No!"

"Alright, alright, you petty thing." Jiang Nian pointed at her, slightly speechless. "People can't always be thinking about themselves—"

"I want to, I want to!" Zhang Ningzhi started packing up. The bell happened to ring, and she stuck out her tongue. "Bleh bleh! See you tomorrow."

"My name isn't Bleh, it's—"

Zhang Ningzhi laughed, already shouldering her bag. She shot Jiang Nian an exasperated eye-roll, then left in a carefree flourish.

After spending too long together, Baby Zhizhi has gone bad too.

Jiang Nian slung his bag over his shoulder and left the classroom, took the left-side staircase up to the third floor, and met up with Xu Qianqian, who was playing on her phone in the crowd.

After going downstairs, Xu Qianqian asked, gloating with someone else's misfortune.

"How did you do on the exam?"

"Not bad, the language arts paper was really smooth." Jiang Nian spouted nonsense off the cuff, "I just took off, I could go to Rainbow Sea now."

"Who asked you about language arts? I meant the math paper." Xu Qianqian was speechless, thinking to herself that this guy just liked playing dumb to change the subject.

Jiang Nian patted Xu Qianqian and pointed at his own eyes.

"What do you see in my eyes?"

"A gentle, virtuous, beautiful, generous, world-unbeatable in looks and figure, super-unbeatable cute beautiful girl."

"That confidence of yours is getting a bit greasy, bro."

"Tch, you asked for it yourself." Xu Qianqian walked past the school gate, glanced back at Jiang Nian, "Pick up the pace."

The two of them wove through the night wind, their voices growing fragmented.

"Jiang Nian, can you score six hundred points?"

"It's six hundred and one."

"Sigh, you guy… why are you so impervious to coaxing or scolding."

"Xu Qianqian, you could try seducing me—maybe then I'd let you in."

"Go to hell!"

The living room chandelier was bright.

With a ding, the swaying red wine glass refracted hazy rays of light.

Li Lanying's supple figure pressed against the small bar counter, her neck fair and pale. Dark locks cascaded down, the pajama top at her chest fully open.

She gazed at another figure on the living room sofa, smiled in a daze. Her movements seemed languid, yet carried a touch of girlish innocence.

"What are you thinking about?"

Li Qingrong didn't respond, didn't even lift an eyelid—she probably felt that engaging with her own sister was purely a waste of time.

After a while, Li Lanying grew a little awkward.

"Ahem, I've been home for quite a while. Something came up at the company, I might have to leave Zhennan in a couple of days."

"Oh." Li Qingrong got up, looking at her phone as she walked into her room, "When you leave, put the keys on the table."

Li Lanying: "…I'm not a tenant."

What answered her was the sound of a door closing.

In her room, Li Qingrong, who had finished washing up, stared blankly at the bed. Not knowing how to reply to the message, she covered her eyes with the back of her hand.

She recalled that noon at Bei—