Chapter 442: The Armor-Stacking Master

"How do I feel like they're all auspicious hexagrams?"

Jiang Nian wanted to back out and shake a second time.

"You person...:" Qingbao reached out, took her phone back, and said, "Who shakes a fortune stick twice,

are you double-checking your work?"

"Is that not allowed?"

"Of course it's not allowed. Knowing it's auspicious is enough." Qingbao was a bit speechless, squinting at this scumbag in front of her.

"I've never seen you nervous before either. What shady scheme are you plotting?"

"Not at all." Jiang Nian hurriedly waved his hand. "No... no such thing. By the way... the championship match isn't really worth watching."

"I'll go watch it." Qingbao stared at him, her gaze as if trying to see right through him. "Let's see what tricks you're pulling."

Jiang Nian immediately broke out in a cold sweat. A man can die, but he can't die of social embarrassment.

"Teacher, aren't you busy this afternoon?"

Qingbao unhurriedly took a sip of tea and said leisurely, "Today I only have one class with the class next door to yours. The afternoon is free."

"Teacher, life lies in being busy."

"Cut the nonsense."

After leaving the office.

Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then turned and went into the English teachers' office. After chatting casually for a bit, Qian Bao immediately said she'd go watch the match that afternoon.

Having achieved his goal, he withdrew.

During the third period in the morning, the math teacher glanced at his watch.

"There are five minutes left. Let me go over this problem first. Your next class is PE, right? I'll borrow a few minutes from the break."

The math teacher was genuinely strict, not the fake-strict type like Qingbao.

After a whole class, no one dared to kick up a fuss at the very end. They could only mutter a few words and behave, listening attentively.

"That old bastard, would he ever give the time back?" Li Hua wore a pained expression.

If you don't claim a court before PE class, you'll end up like a stray dog with no court. You'll have to walk up to someone meekly and beg them, hat in hand.

Oh, playing soccer? Then never mind.

"Your math is almost a perfect score, and you're putting up with this?" Jiang Nian was also a bloodthirsty spectator. "Hua, don't lose face."

Ma Guojun sat up straight, squeezing the words out through gritted teeth.

"Li Hua, it's all on you."

"Eat shit."

Three minutes before PE class started, the math teacher coughed once. Said "class dismissed," grabbed his teaching materials, and left the classroom.

"Sigh!"

"Kept dragging and dragging, my bladder's about to explode."

Complaints rose continuously in the classroom, everyone cursing out the math teacher behind his back.

"Um.

Jiang Nian felt a poke at his waist, turned his head, and looked at his deskmate.

"What's up?"

Zhang Ningzhi glanced at him, seeming a little shy, and asked in a soft voice.

(continuation of the soft voice)

"Want to play badminton during PE later?"

"Sure, after we break formation..." He paused mid-sentence, as if remembering something. "Oh, actually, that won't work."

"Huh?" Zhang Ningzhi stared at him.

"Come to think of it, it's all Li Hua's fault. Isn't the championship match this afternoon? Pure trash, making us practice with him."

Both are rejections, but Jiang Nian's move—

not only avoided the dilemma of choosing between playing with Zhang Ningzhi or the class monitor, but also showed that he actually preferred to play badminton.

"Oh, group leader, you're so mean." Zhang Ningzhi wasn't as roundabout as Jiang Nian. She pouted, her face clearly unhappy.

"Indeed, pure trash."

"I'm going to play soccer, they're all waiting for me over there." Jiang Nian waved at Li Qingrong, then changed his wording.

The class monitor was very reasonable—except when she was angry.

"Mm." Li Qingrong nodded.

"You go ahead, I'll take over the class monitor." Nie Qiqi grinned, holding a badminton racket in her hand and striking a few poses.

She even found herself a reason: "You stinky men playing badminton, you'll be drenched in sweat, the more you play the stinkier you get—" Jiang Nian shook his head. "Your form's pretty good, but you look like the type who only takes photos for show, can barely manage to pick up the shuttlecock."

Nie Qiqi was instantly choked into silence. Her badminton skills really weren't great; when the class monitor wanted to play, she toyed with her like a dog.

But she just liked being toyed with like that.

A straight guy like Jiang Nian would never understand the playful chemistry between her and the class monitor. Stinky simp Jiang Nian, hurry up and get lost.

The sports field.

He had just gone down the stairs when he bumped into Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe at the foot of the wall. The two girls were arm in arm, about to take a stroll on the track.

"Such nice weather, why aren't you going to play badminton?"

"Don't want to work up a sweat. We'll just watch you guys play soccer." Chen Yunyun was dressed in a full tracksuit, the tips of her hair falling onto her fair, slender neck.

Jiang Nian sized her up. "Then why are you dressed like that?"

"It looks good."

One sentence from the girl killed the conversation. Jiang Nian was instantly at a loss for words.

"That's right, that's right!" Wang Yuhe lifted her chin and looked down at him. "Jiang Nian, do you believe I can kick a ball?"

"Really?" Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow. "Then how about this: I'll kick the ball out of bounds, and you kick it back in?"

"Great! Great!" Wang Yuhe instantly perked up.

Behind the sports field was the Gao Er teaching building; apparently, a teacher had said something, and a classroom erupted in noise and laughter.

The three were drawn by the sound and turned their heads toward it.

After a moment, Jiang Nian coughed.

"Uh, I'll head over first."

"Okay," Chen Yunyun nodded, smiling with her lips pressed together. "Go all out this afternoon—we're definitely going to win."

"Not 'we'—I'm the one who'll win."

"Hmph, half of that team this afternoon are sports students," Wang Yuhe said. "If you actually win, we'll treat you to a big meal."

"Really?" Jiang Nian looked at Chen Yunyun.

"Mm," Chen Yunyun nodded.

After a moment, she watched Jiang Nian sprint toward the last patch of grass. The wind, sluggish with winter's chill, brushed past his ears.

Sunlight cast a long line of shadow and light across the field; the boy passed through that wall of mingled brightness and darkness, and instantly became radiant.

"Let's go."

"Oh... Yunyun," Wang Yuhe asked, walking slowly and turning her head. "Do you really think Jiang Nian will win this afternoon?"

Chen Yunyun thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Mm."

In the center of the field, Sun Zhicheng also entered as a substitute. Since it was just practice, having more players didn't matter—opposing them were eight or nine boys from the parallel class.

They had also entered the soccer tournament but were eliminated in the round of sixteen by the sports students, unable to win despite their full effort.

They lost in bitterness, becoming nothing but stepping stones.

"What the hell? You guys made it to the finals?" The opposing boys couldn't hold back anymore. "Guys, did you bribe the ref?"

"Who's your captain?"

"Shut up, I hadn't even warmed up yet!" Li Hua shouted back. "I'm the captain—come at me, one-on-one!"

"Bro, you just kicked the ball into your own goal."

The others burst into laughter; the atmosphere was surprisingly harmonious. After kicking back and forth for two minutes, someone suddenly ran over, and someone called out.

"Another one?"

Sun Zhicheng, hearing the voice, turned to look—and saw Jiang Nian running over, with Chen Yunyun not far behind.

His heart ached, and he felt miserable again.

The photo Yang Qiming had shown him had torn through his mind like a tornado destroying a parking lot, crushing the fragile hope he'd been holding.

Blurring it out was worse than not blurring it at all!

"You're done—our team's weakest player just showed up!" Li Hua grew arrogant again. "You know the 'Inspiration Star,' right?"

"He's our class bookworm—always got his nose stuck in a book, never looks up. He can't even kick a ball one ten-thousandth as well as me."

Hearing this, Tao Ran stiffly turned his head toward Li Hua.

"Who?"

He suspected this bastard was subtly mocking him—but couldn't find proof. Who the hell was talking about someone reading books mindlessly?!

Is a beast-ear girl encyclopedia a book?

Your mom!

"Why are you all staring at me?" Jiang Nian shrugged off his jacket.

He tossed it to the goalkeeper, Ma Guojun. "Let's play."

9

Five minutes later, Class Three scored two goals.

"What the fuck?"

"Wait, he broke past three guys on a breakaway?"

"No wonder they made it to the finals—this whole thing's thanks to the striker. If we had this guy on our team, we'd be in the finals too."

"Stop talking—focus on guarding that midfield trash."

Li Hua, mid-attack, froze. His eyes widened, staring in disbelief at the opponent.

"Chi Shi! Who's trash?!"

After scoring two goals, Jiang Nian began deliberately holding back. If he crushed them completely, they'd get upset.

Just then, he caught sight out of the corner of his eye of Wang Yuhe and the other girl "passing by" on the track, so he pretended to mis-kick his shot.

The ball arced through the air and landed precisely in front of the excited Wang Yuhe.

"Kick it back!" he shouted across half the field.

"Oh."

With a thump, the ball flew back, crooked and wobbly.

Not nearly as high as Jiang Nian's kick.

After school at noon.

The parallel class team left—they had no chance to compete in the afternoon finals and no obligation to practice with Class Three.

Jiang Nian led his team to keep practicing and announced the lineup for the afternoon: Tao Ran would replace Sun Zhicheng as starting defender.

Hearing this, Yang Qiming felt nothing.

He'd only joined the team as a substitute to add prestige—something to mention when chasing girls next time.

Even though his confession to Lü Xuan had failed, he felt it hadn't been a complete failure.

She just didn't plan to date during high school, which didn't mean she wouldn't want to date him after the college entrance exam — getting there first meant he'd at least had his name on the list.

Not a bad deal.

Compared to that, the moment he thought of Sun Zhicheng's rock-stone expression yesterday, his mood over the failed confession immediately lifted again.

Lü Xuan was only horsing around with Jiang Nian — at the very least, there was no lap-pillow massage.

Before the lunch break.

After eating in the cafeteria, Jiang Nian wandered around the school and found Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun at the pavilion in the little grove.

The two girls sat there, a few books spread across the stone table.

"What brings you here?" Xu Qianqian said, surprised, sizing him up for a moment before her gaze settled on his hand. "What's that in your hand?"

"Picked it up outside the west gate on the way — milk tea for you two." Jiang Nian set the bag on the stone table and sat down beside them.

"Have you two been taking your lunch break here all along?"

"Occasionally," Song Xiyun said. "Sometimes we can't snag a table. There are too many little couples — we'd feel bad about sharing a table with them."

"Hugging and gnawing away," Xu Qianqian added.

", that nice?" Jiang Nian's fingers touched the cool stone table — he had come to give Xu Qianqian and the other girl a heads-up.

The afternoon's ball game was bound to draw a crowd, not fewer; once they really started kicking, no one would be paying attention, and anything could happen.

So he had to throw up some armor first.