Chapter 365

Oh, that thing.

Mentioning "that thing," Jiang Nian also seemed a bit awkward.

He looked up at the ceiling, then coughed once. After fidgeting for a while, he feigned indifference.

"Just give me what you're supposed to give, then record it a little."

The atmosphere froze awkwardly.

Yu Zhiyi also felt a bit embarrassed, covering her face and blushing for a while. She thought of various possibilities and asked nervously.

"You won't show it to anyone, right?"

"How could I? No way." Jiang Nian also felt embarrassed by her words. "Purely for collection. Just for collecting."

"You're kind of perverted," Yu Zhiyi said.

Ding-ding-ding, the class bell rang.

Time to go back to class.

Jiang Nian instinctively didn't want to talk more, stepped forward to end the topic. Meaning: do as you wish, but if you're not satisfied, we'll talk again.

It really is a bit perverted.

"You won't upload it online, like to some weird place, right?" Yu Zhiyi confirmed again.

Her face suddenly flushed like a bubble tea pot.

"Are you recording or not? I'm leaving." Jiang Nian wasn't really looking forward to it anyway—he turned to walk away.

"Hey, don't rush." Yu Zhiyi grabbed his sleeve. "I'll do it, alright? We already agreed."

"Alright, set a delivery time." Jiang Nian thought for a moment. "Saturday afternoon—I'll give you extra time to prepare."

"Okay." Yu Zhiyi agreed immediately.

Jiang Nian grunted and left. Once spoken, it wasn't so embarrassing anymore; instead, he felt the calm detachment of an artist.

Yu Zhiyi entered the classroom a few steps later, her mood still fairly good.

Although she had to make a small sacrifice, Jiang Nian's request wasn't unreasonable, and she enjoyed taking photos herself.

But organizing the physics score-improvement booklet would be hard—she'd have to stay up late to sort it out after returning home.

Maybe… this is the cost of becoming stronger.

She returned to her seat, and suddenly an immature thought popped into her mind: Could it be possible to fall in love and then steal points?

Hmm:

(Thinking)?

Has modern science ever proven that knowledge can be transmitted?

High school seems unlikely.

Jiang Nian returned to his seat and saw Li Hua sleeping on his desk, still clutching that plastic toy gun—it looked hilarious.

He could only climb in from Baby Zhizhi's side, then sat up straight in his seat.

Suddenly, Zhang Ningzhi asked.

"Where did you go?"

"To the bathroom." Jiang Nian replied casually.

He was telling the truth—sort of. He'd gone to the bathroom, and while there, he'd also chatted a bit with Yu Zhiyi.

"Oh." Zhang Ningzhi had only asked out of curiosity.

Jiang Nian focused on Li Hua's plastic gun. Seeing no one was paying attention, he reached out to steal it.

The moment his fingers gripped the gun, Li Hua jolted awake.

"Who!"

That bastard shot up, pulled out some kind of lighter-style electric spark device from nowhere, and zapped Jiang Nian's hand with a snap.

"Touching my stuff, huh? May Thunder God aid me!"

"Holy shit, you fucking—"

Jiang Nian was electrocuted and jerked back violently. "You're really perverted!"

"Of course I am. I just fell asleep," Li Hua shook his head and sighed. "I dreamed we won the championship, bro."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian shot Li Hua a sideways glance.

"You've got some humor."

"No problem, we'll train again tomorrow," Li Hua wasn't discouraged. "Tomorrow, I won't even go home for lunch."

Jiang Nian thought: Dude's summoning spirits all night. He'll sing Xiao Renteng's "Wang Fei" ten times straight and summon rain for two days.

So, bro, how will you respond?

"Pass it along—to that guy."

"The one in back, right? Alright, pass it to Jiang Nian."

Zhou Yuting was annoyed—the note reached her. And it was Jiang Nian's note—but she could only obediently pass it forward.

"Please pass this to Jiang Nian, thank you."

She added "thank you," making it more polite—actually hoping to distort the sender's identity.

The note reached Jiang Nian's hands. He opened it and saw only one sentence.

"Dare you compete with me in soccer?"

Jiang Nian: "????"

He thought: Who's this idiot? But as soon as the thought arose, the idiot's name naturally surfaced in his mind.

But which ball? Soccer?

He now found it hard to look at elementary schoolers. He'd once thought Chen Yunyun was mature—but now realized he'd been wildly wrong.

Perhaps it was precisely this kind of heartless, soulless person who could redirect all the nutrition the brain didn't need to where it ought to go.

In any case, there was no way he could play close-contact sports with her.

Jiang Nian crumpled the paper ball into a wad and tossed it straight into the trash bag hanging from the desk, clicking his tongue with an indifferent look.

"Who gave it to you?" Li Hua asked curiously.

"No one." Jiang Nian had no intention of satisfying his son's curiosity and prepared to do homework. "Let me see that lighter of yours."

One moment of playing, and another small half-period of self-study was gone.

Toying with things sapped his ambition; he simply couldn't focus on studying.

Evening self-study was drawing to a close.

Jiang Nian made a rough estimate. An entire evening had passed. He had only done about half his usual amount of homework.

After evening self-study let out, students poured out of every classroom into the corridor.

"Heading off." Jiang Nian said goodbye to Baby Zhizhi and the class monitor, didn't need to tidy up much, and left calmly with his bag in hand.

Zhang Ningzhi gave an "oh" and continued packing up her books with her head lowered.

Li Qingrong, on the other hand, glanced at Jiang Nian's desk and the test paper he hadn't taken, a thoughtful expression crossing her face.

This time, Xu Qianqian didn't sneak off early.

She had simply turned her face away, refusing to look at Jiang Nian the whole time. Walking ahead alone, she was clearly still bothered by yesterday's incident.

After all, it was the neck—if it had been the mouth, her reaction would have been even greater.

But precisely because it was the neck he'd kissed, Xu Qianqian couldn't afford to act too petty about it, and could only sulk a little.

Jiang Nian didn't know how a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ran, but he knew how this twenty-percent-experience teenage girl ran.

"The Xu Qianqian User Manual."

After all, she was a maiden who had never been intimate with anyone; having her neck kissed was a normal reaction—so much so that the atmosphere had grown strange.

A friend with high emotional intelligence might have already been diffusing the awkwardness.

But Jiang Nian didn't do that.

Because this kind of awkward atmosphere could easily assault Xu Qianqian's nerves, constantly reminding her—

He kissed her.

However long the awkwardness lasted, that piece of information would keep popping up for that long.

In a situation like this, if a third person who knew about it suddenly jumped out and started mindlessly egging them on like an NPC—

Then, half-pushed and half-consenting, the two of them might end up sleeping together tonight... no, I mean, getting together.

Just like that, neither of them spoke. They walked toward home, one ahead of the other, and the atmosphere suddenly went unnervingly quiet.

Day students heading home in groups chatted and laughed along the way.

One couple was even chasing and roughhousing outright.

They ran from behind to ahead, passing right by the two of them. The boy let out a "wa!" and grabbed the giggling girl in a hug.

Xu Qianqian saw this and her eyelid twitched involuntarily.

She thought, where did this couple come from?

After a quiet walk, that strange feeling between the two of them only grew stronger. Usually they were always laughing and joking around—

Now they had suddenly gone awkward.

The stark contrast kept reminding her nonstop.

Yesterday....

"Ahem, um...:" Xu Qianqian couldn't stand it any longer and broke the silence. "Did someone drug you and make you mute in the classroom?"

"I'm transferring schools," Jiang Nian suddenly said.

Xu Qianqian: "??"

"Just kidding, to liven things up." Jiang Nian scratched his cheek. "I saw no one was talking and couldn't help it for a moment."

Xu Qianqian:

5

. Too bad, I actually thought it was real."

"Which part?" Jiang Nian asked curiously.

"Both." Xu Qianqian held up two fingers, though she was actually a bit guilty—she really had been startled by that line.

After all, she'd known Jiang Nian since childhood, and their relationship had been up and down.

Starting this autumn of senior year of Gao San... they'd been in especially frequent contact, and the relationship had only gotten better. If it were suddenly pulled away—

She didn't dare think about it; a dark thought sprouted in her heart.

"Jiang Nian, it'd be great if you were a girl."

"Holy shit, you're truly vicious." Jiang Nian saw through her thought in a second. "You like Nan Liang, huh? Poisonous woman!"

"Pfft.

Xu Qianqian returned to her bouncing, skipping state, deliberately skipping over yesterday's incident, but in the end she remembered it deeply.

And she etched this thought into her mind—

He cares about it just as much as I do....

Xu Qianqian stopped walking and turned her head.

"Oh right, for the next provincial joint exam, I'm going to try to break 680."

Jiang Nian looked up, curious.

"Haven't you already scored 680 long ago? Why are you still trying to break that score after all this time?"

"Pfft, can the big joint exam and the small joint exam be the same?" Xu Qianqian lifted her chin. "Can the provincial joint exam and the big joint exam be the same?"

Speaking of this, she remembered next summer's college entrance exam. The exam, once so distant, now had less than half a year left.

Going to university means separation.

Even the most vigorous cicada calls of summer will fade away.

The best summer is always only one.

Thinking of this, Xu Qianqian fell silent. She had never felt the best summer.

Only after entering high school did her relationship with Jiang Nian improve.

It wasn't until late September that Jiang Nian suddenly woke up—he began studying hard, and their relationship grew better.

But it wasn't in summer.

After next summer's college entrance exam, no matter how wild the fun, it will be a summer of parting—the chance of getting into the same school is too low.

Huh?

Why did she suddenly stop talking?

Jiang Nian glanced at Xu Qianqian—once, twice, three times—she still looked like she had her mind completely blanked out.

Usually, he only looked like this after... you know...

Now that he's free, what is the meaning of life?

"What are you thinking about?"

"Thinking..."

Xu Qianqian snapped back, "I was wondering—if I score seven hundred points on the college entrance exam, will it affect my internet speed?"

Jiang Nian:

Better not have asked.

Suddenly, he realized this was his chance.

"Ahem, Xu Qianqian," Jiang Nian cleared his throat. "How about we bet again on the provincial mock exam scores?"

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian immediately shrank her neck.

"Gambling is illegal."

He had assumed she was a capable girl who would raise the stakes and reclaim her dignity.

Not this... prison cell you...

"This is a private study bet—no money involved," Jiang Nian didn't want to give up. "Why not try again?"

Xu Qianqian pursed her lips and stayed silent.

Her neck had already been kissed.

This guy keeps betting after winning—he must be hiding something. What if his bet is to sleep with me? Do I have to give up my body?

Clearly, the answer is no.

This isn't Japan.

"I'm a bit sleepy. I'm going home to shower," Xu Qianqian dashed upstairs, triggering a cascade of orange motion-sensor lights.

Jiang Nian didn't press her—he climbed the stairs slowly.

After tossing his bag aside, he went into the bathroom to wash up. Amid the steamy air, he felt a little lost.

After the Six-City Joint Exam, he'd become much lazier.

Today, he spent half of evening self-study on cuddle time. Play has truly worn me down.

Starting today...

Kill Li Hua!

It's all Li Hua's fault!

He himself was definitely fine—pure, innocent heart.

After drying his hair in the bathroom, Jiang Nian faced another choice: read a book, or scroll through pornographic livestreamers.

Reading a book a hundred times is worse than watching a福利姬.

"I'm already a 616-point scholar. I deserve a little rest," he muttered to himself. "After all, I just finished the exam."

His hand barely touched his phone—it buzzed sharply.

He automatically assumed it was Chen Yunyun's share, but when he picked it up, it was the class monitor's message—he froze for a moment.

Rare visitor.

The class monitor never messaged unless necessary, maintaining her cold, aloof persona.

Yet, as desk mates, even someone as mischievous as Jiang Nian couldn't easily find a reason to message at night.

So they often replied to each other's online messages only every two or three days.

Li Qingrong: "Do you have a goal for the provincial mock exam?"

Jiang Nian stared at the message and instinctively made a lesbian hand gesture. He rubbed his chin, pondering the hidden meaning.

Such an official tone? So it's serious business?

He answered honestly: "No."

After a while, Li Qingrong was typing.

After another while, still typing.

Still typing...

Jiang Nian lay on his side, shifting positions countless times. He thought: the class monitor's message must be long—she's not going to lecture me, is she?

Two minutes later.

Li Qingrong: "Hmm."

Jiang Nian: "?????"

Is it hard to beat?

He couldn't quite figure out the Holy Son of Heaven — he'd been typing here for ages, and after all that fuss, all that popped up was a single "Mm." What was that supposed to mean?

"Embracing Qingqing."

This time, though, the reply came instantly.

"You were just typing — what did you want to ask?" Jiang Nian went straight for it.

The other side was "typing" again, and after three whole minutes a single line finally appeared.

Li Qingrong: "I'll set a goal for you."

Seeing that, Jiang Nian once again pulled the lesbian-hand gesture. He thought for a few seconds, then cautiously typed a few words to the class monitor.

"So if I complete it, is there any reward?"

This time he didn't have to agonize — the other side tossed out a line right away.

"Ten thousand?"

Hm? Is that right?

For a moment Jiang Nian suspected he'd opened the wrong app — his master was ordering him to get into Tsinghua.

Wait — she's just throwing money at it? Baby.

Once again he got a direct, concrete sense of Li Qingrong's wealth; people always get struck dumb by a tangible sum of money.

Luckily he wasn't exactly short on cash himself, so he planned to refuse.

*ding*.

Li Qingrong: "Twenty thousand?"

Wait — they haven't even decided how much the goal is yet?

Jiang Nian quickly replied, "Between us, let's not talk about money, haha. First let's set the goal, then we can slowly discuss the reward."