Chapter 348: What? Afraid of Getting Licked?

On the hallway during evening self-study.

Jiang Nian and Old Liu were heading to another office to check scores when they suddenly ran into a young couple holding hands dashing past them.

Old Liu felt completely ignored, and couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. He turned his head and said to Jiang Nian, who was following behind, with a solemn expression.

"Gao San doesn't encourage early dating. Don't follow their example."

A flicker of realization flashed through Jiang Nian's eyes. He nodded and said.

"Teacher, set your mind at ease. If I ever date early, I absolutely won't hold hands in front of you — I'll definitely give you face."

Old Liu:???

Is that right?

He had originally wanted to lecture Jiang Nian a couple more times, but on second thought decided to let it go. Teenagers are all rebellious — the more you say, the more they rebel.

Teacher: Don't play with the water.

Student: I am the River God.

Old Liu was afraid that if he talked too much, Jiang Nian would figure out a path to early dating — and even more afraid this guy would run off with his class president.

"Let's go, let's go. You're talking a bit too much."

Jiang Nian looked completely baffled, but still followed Old Liu into a large office where a group of people sat in front of computers grading papers.

The scene was rather noisy. The desks were covered with all sorts of little gadgets: thermos cups, fruit, hand warmers, waist-supporting miracle devices.

"Come with me." Old Liu beckoned him over and led Jiang Nian to an empty computer to sit down.

"Teacher, you grade papers that fast?" Jiang Nian sat down, somewhat startled. "There are so many schools across the six cities — you've finished grading all the papers?"

"Ahem, actually there aren't that many schools in total." Old Liu coughed lightly, a touch embarrassed, and glanced around.

Confirming no teachers were looking this way, he lowered his voice and shared a few "insider" details.

"Honestly, our school is too trashy — nobody wants to play with us. A few noobs teamed up and put together this six-city joint exam."

Jiang Nian let out an "ah" and grew even more confused.

"Teacher, is our school really that lame?"

"Hey, it doesn't matter. Studying is a personal thing." Old Liu consoled him. "Simple is the humble room, yet I alone find virtue fragrant."

Jiang Nian instantly broke out in little sweat beads, thinking to himself: Damn, even the humble room quote came out. Old Liu, if you talk like this, does the principal know?

"Then this ranking—"

"A bit of inflation is normal — there's always a higher mountain." Old Liu thought for a moment, then couldn't help adding, "Our school is... alright."

Jiang Nian: "."

While waiting for the computer to boot up, Old Liu brought up the paper-grading progress again.

"Nobody's Chinese score is out yet — probably have to wait until Tuesday. How do you feel you did overall on this exam?"

"Alright, I guess. Bombed math." Jiang Nian said.

"Oh ho, you really did bomb it." Old Liu clicked open a score and read, "Math, 113. You need to watch out for this."

"Four wrong on multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank, and quite a few wrong on the big questions. You didn't get the points you should've — otherwise you'd be above 120."

At that point, Old Liu stopped talking. He'd forgotten high school math himself; if he kept going, he'd run out of words.

"Biology you already know — 97. Physics... your physics score isn't out yet. Chemistry came out first — 78."

"What about English?" Jiang Nian asked.

"Let me check. Teacher Zhuang said this afternoon that your paper seemed to already have a score out. Hiss! 146 — that's a solid score."

A burst of delight crossed Old Liu's face. English 145 is the watershed score for C9 universities. Even if this is only a joint exam, it's still a result.

Jiang Nian silently added it up in his head — only Chinese and Physics scores were left.

Even though math hadn't gone well, English and Biology had picked up the slack. His total had reached 434 — still 176 points short of 610.

If he assumed Chinese would end up at 100, then Physics would need 76 to hit the target.

And his once-every-three-days verification chance had been placed on Physics — through analogical problem-solving, he'd cracked three questions.

Physics 76 — should be safe enough to lock in.

After going round and round, it all came back to opening a blind box on Chinese.

Old Liu refreshed a few times, still couldn't pull up the results.

He checked Jiang Nian's last joint-exam scores on his phone, saw that his Chinese and Physics were both mid-tier, and asked with concern.

"Jiang Nian, how do you feel you did on Chinese and Physics?"

"Alright." Jiang Nian said.

"Then there shouldn't be a problem — only a hundred and seventy-something left." Old Liu muttered to himself. "Pretty much time to start preparing."

"What?"

"Star of Inspiration — from four hundred points to—"

Jiang Nian nodded and told Old Liu he wanted to head back to the classroom.

From the other side of the aisle came a middle-aged, balding teacher, followed by two students — one boy, one girl — walking toward them.

Old Liu volunteered, "That one over there is the homeroom teacher of Science Zero-Class One. The two beside him are Zero-Class students."

"Oh." Jiang Nian nodded, brushed past those few people, and walked out of the office.

Those people were probably also here to check scores. The balding teacher even exchanged a greeting with Old Liu.

"Bringing students to check scores?"

"Yeah." Old Liu nodded and glanced at the two students behind the balding teacher. "How did your students do this time?"

"Alright, I guess — let's check first." The balding man was clearly on good terms with Old Liu. "Just don't know if they can break 680."

"How did your student do? Looks a bit unfamiliar — what about that Li Qingrong from your class? Done checking?"

"Don't know yet, probably." Old Liu didn't hide it either.

"Six hundred?" The bald teacher froze, surprised. "You're spoiling the students too much — checking scores all the way up to six hundred."

"Oh, that one, no." Old Liu stood up, wanting to share his troubles with the bald teacher before leaving.

He patted the bald teacher's shoulder and spoke with deep concern.

"His final exam score last semester was 410. Teacher Zhao, you're the most senior. Tell me — a student who improved by two hundred points, can he be selected as the Inspiration Star?"

The bald teacher's mouth twitched. "Haha, definitely, definitely no problem."

Old Liu laughed too. "Thanks for the auspicious words, Teacher Zhao. I'll be going then."

Only after Old Liu's figure vanished outside the office door did the bald Zhao Dechang frown and curse a few times in his heart.

Acting like an earthworm — so good at worming his way in.

Cramming his mother's ass!

Zhao Dechang checked scores while speaking to a male and a female student behind him.

"The Inspiration Star is useless, a garbage award. Don't take it to heart. Just work hard and surpass Li Qingrong from their class first."

"Improving by over two hundred points is pretty impressive — it's only been three months, right?" the girl remarked with feeling.

"Six hundred is a bit low." The boy adjusted his rimless glasses. "Looking at the total score alone it's fine — going from four hundred to two hundred."

"But someone with a weak foundation basically hits their ceiling at six hundred. By the law of diminishing returns, the higher you want to climb, the harder it gets."

"Unless you put in several times the effort, but the gains are still limited."

"Mm." The bald Zhao Dechang nodded. "Still, getting into a decent 211, or even a 985, would be worthy of his effort."

The other girl said nothing, but clearly agreed with this assessment.

"Did you say it or not?"

Jiang Nian was cornered against the wall, hands raised to prove his innocence — showing he had nowhere to retreat, and warning the other person that their body was about to touch his.

"Say what?"

"The biology class representative!" Yu Zhiyi was a little anxious.

She had taken advantage of the chaos in the class to run out, and happened to catch Jiang Nian on his way back to the classroom. Seeing he wouldn't own up, she immediately lost her patience.

You promised! You promised!

"Oh, that. I haven't said it yet." Jiang Nian lowered his eyes and brushed her off. "Haven't been in the mood these past two days. Wait until the scores come out."

"How can you be like this!" Yu Zhiyi gritted her teeth. "In two days the daylily buds will be cold — the teacher needs a class rep tomorrow."

"Look at you getting worked up again. Who was the psychology committee member? You forgot?" Jiang Nian was speechless. "I'll cover it for these two days, won't that do?"

Hearing this, Yu Zhiyi instantly went quiet.

She thought it over — fair enough. If there were a fair vote, she already had a position, so she'd probably be eliminated outright.

The safest method was still to pull strings.

"Fine, but you have to remember." Yu Zhiyi said nervously, then ran off again.

Jiang Nian watched her go, and after a while headed straight back to the classroom himself. The classroom was a noisy mess — chatting, sleeping, doing problems, everything.

Group Six.

Zhang Ningzhi was sprawled on the desk working through wrong problems, a quick-dry pen flicking rapidly.

Hearing the noise around her, she couldn't help looking up. Reluctantly making room for him, she asked curiously.

"What did the teacher want with you?"

"Nothing much. Said he'd find me a study buddy." Jiang Nian leaned back in his chair. "I said preferably a beautiful girl."

Study buddy?

Zhang Ningzhi was stunned for a moment, then realized he was joking again and turned back around.

"Hmph, you sure dream pretty."

Jiang Nian was a bit sleepy and in no mood to keep correcting the test paper. Success or failure, he'd deal with it later — he simply lay down and slept.

Nobody woke him in between either; he slept straight through until evening self-study was about to end.

"Wake up, class is almost over." Zhang Ningzhi's voice swirled by his ear. She poked him. "Big lazy worm, wake up."

Jiang Nian groggily woke up and rubbed his fluffy hair.

"I want water."

Zhang Ningzhi: "???"

After a while, Jiang Nian saw the Miss hadn't reacted. Only then did he turn his head and repeat his request to Zhang Ningzhi.

"My water's finished. Spill some of yours for me."

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi reluctantly and slowly took out her pink thermos, grumbling unwillingly.

"This is my cup — how does it seem like it's become yours?"

"What are you mumbling about?" Jiang Nian took the cup from her hand and poured a little water into a small glass.

"You weren't going to drink it anyway, might as well give it to me."

"No, I will drink it." Zhang Ningzhi snatched the thermos back. "Your hands are dirty — if you get used to using it, it'll turn black."

Jiang Nian was taken aback and glanced down at his own hands.

"Nonsense. I've barely used it a few times total."

Li Hua's seat was empty — he spent all three evening self-study sessions shooting the breeze in the back row, only returning two minutes before evening self-study ended.

Ding dong! Dear students.

After school, Jiang Nian had no mind to linger. The moment the bell rang, Zhang Ningzhi grabbed her bag and went to find Yao Beibei.

He slung his bag over his shoulder, said hi to the class monitor, and headed out of the classroom.

As he squeezed into the crowded hallway, his back was lightly punched by someone.

"WTF?"

He turned his head, only to see a face that was both unfamiliar and puzzled. His gaze shifted, and he suddenly caught sight of two girls slipping away from the side.

Chen Yunyun turned back and gave him an apologetic smile.

Wang Yuhe, amid the crowd, raised her small fist and waved it as if to show off.

"Jiang Nian, don't get cocky!"

Jiang Nian: "Damn, where did this moron come from."

He went down three floors along the staircase and met up with Xu Qianqian. The two were separated by several body-widths on the stairs, so they couldn't really talk.

It wasn't until they reached the flat ground in front of the Gao San building that the two finally drew close together.

"Did you check the results?" Xu Qianqian asked, feigning composure and pressing her lips together.

Jiang Nian laughed. "What? Afraid of getting simped?"

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