Chapter 361: Scores Too High Aren't Conducive to Studying Hard

Back at school, PE class was nearly over.

Jiang Nian didn't insist Song Xiyun stay for lunch, to avoid leaving Xu Qianqian isolated, and generously let her head back to the classroom.

He was a slacker with nothing to do, so he figured he'd just go to the cafeteria to eat.

While waiting in line, his phone buzzed.

A message popped up, the sender shown as low-score..: ·high-score kid Lin Yuxi.

"Senior, are you eating at the cafeteria?"

Jiang Nian instinctively looked back; the cafeteria line was packed tight. He swept his gaze over it roughly but didn't spot her.

He was well aware that Lin Yuxi's pestering him was nothing but looks-worship. She only cared about his face, not his inner substance.

What if he turned out to be some kind of silver-tongued playboy?

Would she get even more excited?

Little girls nowadays are like that — their tastes are awfully reckless, no wonder they get swindled half to death by male celebrities.

He thought for a moment, then typed back.

"I'm going home to eat."

Buzz!

"Liar!" Lin Yuxi's message was aggressively worded; it was only text, yet it felt like the person was about to leap out of the phone.

Jiang Nian felt Lin Yuxi was the type of girl who'd play Truth or Dare and get tricked into buying a pack of Durex at the convenience store.

He thought it over and simply didn't reply.

Suddenly, the next second.

"What a coincidence, Lu Yifeng, you're here too?" A girl's voice rang out beside him, though it was directed at someone else.

Lin Yuxi put on a cute act in front of the slightly green-looking boy behind Jiang Nian, then promptly revealed her true aim,

and pleaded in a small voice.

"We're all classmates, please, let me cut in line."

, really pathetic.

Jiang Nian couldn't help but snort inwardly; he'd assumed Lin Yuxi was some high-level green tea bitch, but turned out she was just a face-saver.

"Please, just give me some face?"

That boy surnamed Lu was blushing a little under all those eyes — probably unable to withstand Lin Yuxi's cute act.

Jiang Nian figured the more likely reason was...::. making the call to let someone cut in line in front of everyone was more than his conscience could bear.

Still, he did it anyway.

The little minx Lin Yuxi smoothly slotted in right behind Jiang Nian, then cheerfully patted Jiang Nian's shoulder.

"Senior."

"Hello, first-time meeting line-cutter." Jiang Nian distanced himself at the speed of light. "Next time I'll just report your student ID."

Lin Yuxi instantly turned into a bitter-gourd face and stamped her foot.

"You're at it again!"

Jiang Nian got goosebumps and lowered his voice.

"Cut that crap out."

"Oh." Lin Yuxi returned to normal, then remembered something, turned to the boy and said, "Thanks, haha."

Lu Yifeng was dumbfounded — he'd received a "thank you" card.

Logically speaking, shouldn't she have spoken to him first? Why was even the thank-you card handed out in between chatting with someone else?

But since the spot had been given up by him passively, he didn't feel like a total clown — just a bit wronged.

He gave a faint nod and asked one more thing.

"You two know each other?"

"A senior from back home, I'm used to calling him that." Lin Yuxi suddenly wrapped her arms around Jiang Nian's arm with her chest and pressed him forward.

Jiang Nian, inexplicably taken advantage of by a pervy girl, looked quite displeased. He pulled free and cut ties on the spot.

"Not close."

"Hehe, senior, you really love joking." Lin Yuxi had quite the thick skin. "Senior, what was your joint entrance exam score?"

"616."

"So high — wouldn't that get you into a 985 university?" Lin Yuxi's eyes went starry.

Who could refuse a little fangirl?

"It's alright, with money you can get into 985 anytime." Jiang Nian waved a hand. "Clubbing, dancing — do those restrict by grades?"

Lin Yuxi:

The line kept shrinking, and soon it was their turn.

Cafeteria corner.

"Senior, are you coming in?"

"Forget it, so many people are watching."

"It's not that embarrassing, it's just unavoidable. No one's watching you right now either, just come in."

"I'm not being vain, I just feel..

"It's fine, I can hold it in pretty well."

"Alright then, bear with it a little, it's a bit....

Jiang Nian went in and sat with Lin Yuxi in a fairly cramped spot against the wall; Lin Yuxi got squeezed to one side.

Too many people — they could only squeeze together to sit and eat.

Have to admit, once inside it was pretty comfortable. At the very least, sitting down to eat versus standing up to eat — the sense of satisfaction went up by more than a notch.

Eating standing up always feels like being a laborer.

It brought back some bad memories. One year, to lay low, he had transferred for a while to some countryside middle school.

There was no cafeteria, no tables or benches either.

After the communal big rice tub steamed the rice, they hauled it straight to the open ground beside the dormitory to eat, six or seven people forming a circle and squatting down to eat.

The reason they couldn't afford to build a cafeteria — let's not get into it.

The countryside middle school had plenty of weird things too. After all, it was a school built on a graveyard, even the net on the ping-pong table was sourced on the spot.

"Folks, mind if I borrow your tomb bricks?"

"No need to get up, no need to get up, you sleep yours, I'll grab them myself."

"That ridiculous?" Lin Yuxi's eyes went wide as she listened to Jiang Nian recount his countryside middle school experience, her understanding of the world refreshed.

"Just eat, will you? So mouthy." Jiang Nian didn't keep going, instead pulling a classic stop-right-there move,

"Then..."

"..." Lin Yuxi fidgeted, asked in a small voice, "Senior, did you have a girlfriend back then?"

Jiang Nian: "??? Is that all you have on your mind?"

He and Lin Yuxi chatted about some pointless topics, and the meal was just about finished.

"Heading off."

Lin Yuxi watched the other's back as it left in the sunlight. She couldn't help pressing her lips together, a few parts of unwillingness rising in her heart.

She'd gotten a high score, yet still couldn't close the distance with her senior. Looks like what that certain do-gooder said was right.

Scores too high, not conducive to effort.

Since this path was a dead end, she ought to think of another way.

Walking the road back to the classroom, Jiang Nian had one hand stuffed in his pocket.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy hanging out with Lin Yuxi, but Gao Yi and Gao San were separated by two grades after all, and their daily lives differed far too much.

One had just entered Zhennan Middle School, the weekly mental newspaper in her heart filled every day with 【How to Adapt to High School Life and Interpersonal Relationships】.

The other was about to graduate, with only half a year left. Every day was exams, going over problems, reviews, exams.

The weekly mental newspaper in his heart was filled with 【Correctly Face Exam Anxiety, Positive Mindset for Tests, Adjust Mood to Prepare for the College Entrance Exam】.

For Lin Yuxi, what she needed was the experience. Not chasing a result, so she felt she could do anything.

Jiang Nian's time and energy were limited; he wouldn't spend time on something with no result, so he would only chat with her occasionally.

Purely killing time, investing zero effort.

Lunch break.

"Nian, you're really a rotten cabbage, huh." Li Hua, unprecedentedly appearing in the classroom at high noon, with a Ma Guojun standing beside him.

"Why aren't you guys home?" Jiang Nian was stunned.

Sunlight pierced through most of the classroom, the overflowing amount looking just like anime light. The fat-and-thin immortal boys stood right there,

Making faces and winking.

"We played soccer too late, too lazy to head back." Ma Guojun's chubby face grinned, "Then went to the shop to eat instant noodles."

"On the way we saw you sitting and eating with some underclass girl. Damn, you're playing it pretty wild, huh!"

Jiang Nian was awkward for a second, didn't explain.

"Sigh, got found out by you guys. Indeed a new little junior I'm seeing, she shamelessly insisted on clinging to me."

Hearing this, Li Hua, who was just tilting his head back to drink water, instantly lost his composure.

Pfft!!

Like a broken watering can, all the water in his mouth sprayed into the aisle.

"Hahaha, you must be tripping hard, bro. What kind of hallucination is that, a junior shamelessly clinging to you?"

Ma Guojun was also amused, laughed.

"Playing the scumbag act is pretty busy work, no wonder you've kept it hidden without slipping up till now."

Jiang Nian didn't care at all, only latched onto the "playing soccer" they mentioned. He remembered Li Hua had always played basketball.

"You guys played soccer in PE class?"

"Yeah, too bad you weren't there." Li Hua pulled a few sheets of paper from Jiang Nian's drawer, "The school's putting on a soccer match, you didn't know?"

"I knew, Old Liu didn't officially announce it." Jiang Nian sat back in his seat, "Last time didn't they also do some pitch-pot competition thing."

"Went through so much effort, the prizes are already set. But up to now they still haven't said when the finals are, or where it'll be held."

"How could those be the same?" Ma Guojun also came over and pulled a sheet of paper, paused a moment then said, "I heard the pitch-pot competition was the academic director's responsibility."

"An old teacher, two years ago proposed some 233 Education Plan. Kept applying to set up an experimental class, only got approved this year."

"This pitch-pot competition was tailor-made for those two experimental classes. You know how many people one class has to send?"

"How many?" Jiang Nian asked.

Ma Guojun used his chubby finger to gesture a number.

"Fifteen."

"They definitely have to take first place, whether in number of winners or results." Li Hua walked over,

Grinning.

"Probably they haven't mastered their divine skill yet over there, stalling for time to let them practice. What, rush it so you can show off?"

Hearing this, Jiang Nian's interest flagged.

'Always pulling this nonsense. Students don't study properly, every day gathered around pitching pots competing — what about their college entrance exams?'

"Flunked, that's what." Li Hua said.

Ma Guojun pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Repeating a year."

"Good lord." Jiang Nian's mouth twitched, and he tossed the pitch-pot competition to the back of his mind. "Then what's the deal with the soccer tournament?"

"School-organized. Make the top four out of thirty-two and you get an award." Li Hua flashed a roguish grin. "There's an individual award and a team award."

"That's it?" Jiang Nian was stunned.

"You'll find out when the time comes. I heard they hand out medals." Li Hua hiked up his shirt, revealing his ribcage. "Pretty damn showy."

Ma Guojun turned his head back and added another line.

"Holy shit, you absolutely have to come when we sign up!"

Hearing this, Jiang Nian realized Fatty had also signed up, and asked curiously.

"What position are you playing?"

"Goalkeeper." Ma Guojun grinned. "Lucky for us, our class has very few people who can play soccer, and even fewer who can keep goal."

"What about Li Hua? What position is he playing?" Jiang Nian asked.

"Super!" Li Hua struck an Ultraman pose, raised his hand, and shouted loudly, "Center!"

"Forward!"

"Is he any good?" Jiang Nian turned to ask Ma Guojun.

"Absolute trash."