Chapter 351: Qingbao's Prize

Currently, aside from Chinese, all the scores for the joint exam have already come out.

Hearing that, Jiang Nian glanced at Li Hua and asked back.

"How much did you get?"

In reality, Jiang Nian knew Li Hua's total score inside out.

Before Li Hua could answer, he jumped in first.

"Math 145, English 82, Science 281, total 508. Right? Bro, I've been keeping track for you."

Li Hua's breathing grew heavier. "How much did you get?"

"514." Jiang Nian's mouth gradually twisted into a smirk as he tossed out the number that nearly gave him a heart attack. "Hua, you'd better pray my essay goes off-topic."

Hearing that, Li Hua suddenly realized both sides had run out of ammunition. Jiang Nian was still leading him by 6 points, with only Chinese left.

The two were evenly matched in Chinese—a perfectly balanced showdown.

This meant this joint exam's "Li Hua Line" might stall at 610, while Jiang Nian was charging toward the "Li Hua Line."

In Class Three, only crossing 600 points got you out of being a stray dog. Consistently crossing the "Li Hua Line" was what made you a top student.

"Will it go off-topic?" Li Hua asked in one last desperate struggle.

"Heh." Jiang Nian flashed a mysterious smile. "Next period is Chinese. Just listen to Old Liu go over the test paper and we'll know."

Second period in the afternoon, Chinese.

Old Liu started class by going straight to the essay, and after finishing his breakdown of the prompt, some in the class were delighted, others worried—groans filled the room.

Off-topic: extreme score, 38 points.

On-topic: 42 points or above.

Jiang Nian flicked his answer sheet and let out a whistle.

"Didn't go off-topic."

"Then I'm done for—no—" Li Hua's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Did your Science take some kind of drug? How did you get 250?"

"Tsk, just a tiny little breakthrough." Jiang Nian said, "Sometimes, luck is part of strength."

"Chishi chishi!!!" Li Hua bit his sleeve, on the verge of breaking down. "How does our group produce so many freaks?"

Not to mention Baby Zhizhi the fairy—promotion is like a demon from the lower realm ascending. One ascension, and the October joint exam directly cut down Li Hua the old dog.

Add Empress Fangfang, and she's already infinitely close to the Li Hua Line.

Now Jiang Nian has directly crossed the Li Hua Line. Even though his Chinese score isn't out yet, the result was already a foregone conclusion.

Second period break.

"What's Baby Zhizhi's total?" Jiang Nian leaned over to peek at her answer sheet. "Added up it's... 514?"

Math was slightly off at 126, English held steady at 138, Science was also 250—the two had identical scores for the first time.

"Hey, why are you peeking?" Zhang Nianzhi quickly covered her scores, a bit embarrassed, since their scores were the same.

Too much of a coincidence, almost flirtatiously so.

It's like when a married couple lives together long enough, their habits and face shapes tend to align—could the same happen with desk-mates?

"Copycat?" Jiang Nian said, surprised.

"Ugh! You're so annoying!" Zhang Nianzhi exploded, the pink bubbles vanishing instantly. "Don't talk to me today!"

Jiang Nian hadn't expected her to bristle like a cat, so he immediately raised both hands in surrender.

"Fine."

Zhang Nianzhi huffed and flopped down to catch up on sleep, glaring at Jiang Nian before dozing off.

"Hmph!"

Jiang Nian didn't react much. Just as he was about to do a couple of problems, Nie Qiqi darted out from the aisle.

"Class monitor, hehe—"

She hadn't finished her hehe-ing before Cai Xiaoqing dragged her away.

After third period, Biology.

Qingbao called Jiang Nian outside and brought up the "Star of Inspiration" evaluation.

Jiang Nian's Biology scores over the past two months had grown at a speed visible to the naked eye, so Qingbao had also gotten her share of his dividends.

"The Star of Inspiration evaluation isn't just for students. Teachers have one too—basically competing on which student made the most progress."

Qingbao stood in the hallway, one hand pinching the test paper, the other tucking the hair by her temple behind her ear, and said calmly.

"I just got selected. Take a look at the prizes and see if there's anything you want."

Oh, perks.

Jiang Nian secretly sighed at how thoughtful Qingbao was. Figuring they were already this close, there was no need to be coy, so he readily agreed.

The two went downstairs and arrived at the office.

The Science office was empty. At Qingbao's workstation, Jiang Nian saw the prizes the school had given the "Inspirational Teacher."

A classic of classics: a box of navel oranges.

This big box of golden navel oranges, ten jin-weight, was too much for Jiang Nian to handle. He turned and stared blankly at Qingbao.

"Teacher, these things aren't sour, are they?"

"I don't know. Why don't you eat one and find out." Qingbao sat down at her workstation. "Take the whole box, I don't eat them."

"I don't even know if it's harvest season yet. I won't." Jiang Nian looked at the other prizes. "That Mao Jin is pretty unique, huh?"

Qingbao explained, "Safeguard soap, Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste, and this Mao Jin—pick one of three. I picked the Mao Jin."

The Mao Jin was entirely blue—probably one Qingbao had specifically picked out.

"A bag of rice, cooking oil?" Jiang Nian was stunned. How do you choose between these? "Wait, is the school really this practical?"

"You could actually pick a live chicken too." Qingbao dropped a rather explosive line. "I couldn't find anyone to handle it, so I didn't pick it."

"What else is there to pick? I'll grab a towel." Jiang Nian chose the blue towel and tucked two navel oranges into his pocket on the way.

He was about to leave when he stopped.

He looked at Qingbao, hesitated a moment, then asked.

"Teacher, do you have a shopping card?"

Qingbao was baffled for a beat. "Yeah, why?"

"I want to exchange it." Jiang Nian pulled out his phone. "I just remembered I have some use for it, I'll just transfer the money to you directly."

Qingbao glanced at him. "Transfer it if you want me out of a job."

Jiang Nian carried a box of towels and headed straight to the cafeteria to eat. Xiao Kuang had a self-study period in one hand, perfectly reasonable.

Meanwhile, in the classroom.

The class was in self-study, and Xie Zhihao had gotten ahold of Class Three's October joint-exam grade sheet from the girl sitting next to him.

The names on it were densely packed; he could only recognize a few people.

That included a few pretty girls in the class, the "groupmates" around him, and that Jiang Nian.

English 140, alright, about the same as his own.

Since he didn't know the people, after a few minutes of looking at the grade sheet he gave up entirely.

Studying, for him, didn't require too much effort.

Xie Zhihao felt that letting the Olympiad-class people see him working hard just to score high wasn't enough to show off his "genius" persona.

Unfortunately, after school let out, everyone around him had scattered.

His gaze searched the remaining people in the classroom, first avoiding Jiang Nian's area — that guy's face didn't look decent.

Him going over to break the ice himself wouldn't mean much.

He picked and chose, until finally his eyes settled on a certain Ting who was buried in her work. No other reason — diligent, studious girls were the most easygoing.

It's decided — it's you!

Classmate!

Jiang Nian came back from the cafeteria and went upstairs against the flow of people.

After entering the classroom, he saw that only Zhang Ningzhi was still there in that circle of seats. So he pulled out the navel oranges and shared them with Baby Zhizhi.

"Huh? Where'd you get navel oranges?" Zhang Ningzhi's eyes went wide — she'd again forgotten the afternoon's treaty of not talking to a certain someone.

But Jiang Nian wasn't that shameless either, going out of his way to remind her.

"Swiped them from the biology teacher. She said they can't be given to people who are always angry. So Zhizhi, are you the angry type?"

What answered him was a small pink fist.

"No, I love freezing my hands."

"Really? Then let me warm them up for you." Jiang Nian made as if to grab her hand, but Zhang Ningzhi dodged quickly.

Smack — she slapped his arm again.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

Not far away, Xie Zhihao heard the playful scuffle coming from Jiang Nian's side. He froze instantly, forgetting what he was about to say.

Zhou Yuting: "."

She looked up, casting a slightly helpless glance at Xie Zhihao.

This guy had just walked over out of nowhere, said hi, and then started rattling off a whole bunch of stuff — she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

On the other side.

"Let's discuss something — you peel the orange." Jiang Nian said.

"I won't." Zhang Ningzhi was still a bit annoyed. "Why can't you peel the orange?"

"My hands are dirty."

Hearing that, Zhang Ningzhi obediently got up to wash her hands.

Jiang Nian had a moment of free time and glanced at Zhou Yuting, who was being pestered by Xie Zhihao. No reaction — he squeezed in a problem to solve.

Before long, Zhang Ningzhi came back.

Jiang Nian worked on his problem while admiring a beautiful girl peeling an orange. Her pale hands were smooth and delicate, a flush of pink surfacing when she pressed hard.

Just as the two of them finished splitting one orange, Yao Bei Bei came back from outside.

She stared fixedly at the last orange, then looked at Jiang Nian and Zhang Ningzhi who had been sneaking bites, and asked in a pinched voice.

"Could Beibei have a bite too?"

"Huang Beibei, you eat literally everything." Jiang Nian was speechless. "Why don't you ask whose orange this is first?"

"Won't ask — it's Zhizhi's now." Yao Bei Bei chirped once, and whisked Zhang Ningzhi and the orange away together.

"Bye-bye, we're going to eat."

Jiang Nian worked on one problem at his seat, then got up and walked out of the classroom.

In the classroom.

Zhou Yuting was unusually glum — she'd bombed the exam and didn't even have the confidence to sit in the Olympiad class.

She never forgot that she was here the second time through a make-up slot.

Even though there were no demotions now, she still wanted to pull her grades up, otherwise sitting here didn't feel secure at all.

But of all things, Xie Zhihao, who'd been sent down from the Zero Class, kept bothering her.

Xie Zhihao always loved bringing up the Zero Class when he talked — every other sentence was "our old teacher" this and that, which made Zhou Yuting even more uncomfortable.

A person's about to starve to death, and you're telling them your family's cook's ancestors once cooked for Emperor Taizu of Ming?

Xie Zhihao's showing off might work on some other girl.

But Zhou Yuting had friends in the Zero Class too, and only found him a tiny bit laughable.

"If you need anything, I know a few people," Xie Zhihao continued, his smile perfectly measured.

"Thank you," Zhou Yuting forced out a smile.

Suddenly, Jiang Nian reappeared at the back door of the classroom.

Both Zhou Yuting and Xie Zhihao noticed and turned their heads toward the back door.

Jiang Nian stood at the doorway, saying nothing. He gestured with a finger toward Zhou Yuting, then turned and walked to the railing to wait.

With a rustle, Zhou Yuting stood up.

In Xie Zhihao's stunned gaze, she slowly walked toward the back door. Soon, the two stood side by side at the railing, talking.

He froze—someone had just taken her away.

Wait, is this right?

What surprised him even more was that Jiang Nian had just been fooling around with his female desk mate in the classroom, with zero subtlety.

So what kind of relationship do they have?

In the corridor.

"Thank you," Zhou Yuting glanced at Jiang Nian with complex eyes. "I didn't expect you to come to my aid. I thought—"

"Aid?" Jiang Nian blinked. He waved his hand. "I just wanted to ask you something. Do you have a relative who's a doctor at the Second Hospital?"

Zhou Yuting: "."

She fell silent for a moment, then asked.

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"Are you sick?"

"You're hoping for it every day?" Jiang Nian turned to ask.

"No," Zhou Yuting's emotions grew complicated; her earlier spark vanished. "Just say what you need."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian clearly stated his request.

He wanted Song Xiyun to undergo a full medical checkup, but didn't want Xu Qianqian to know—or Old Xu.

So he chose the Second Hospital.

It required a doctor's cooperation, with the checkup declared free—a lucky welfare benefit. All that mattered was convincing Song Xiyun.

This kind of thing moves fastest through personal connections, and it's an easy three-way win.

If secrecy's needed, Zhou Yuting and he aren't on good terms, so no one would believe her if she spoke up. It's just a small expense, and it saves trouble.

After all, you can't ask for help empty-handed. But Town South doesn't openly accept gifts; strangers' offerings are refused.

Zhou Yuting listened, then froze.

"Huh?"

"First, find out if it's possible. Here are several shopping cards for the city center," Jiang Nian handed them to her. "Keep one for yourself."