Chapter 623: Shielding Everyone Behind Him

Xu Qianqian swayed past under the streetlight, arms folded across her chest, and said,

"Hmph, what a busybody."

"Then forget it." he said.

"Never mind, going back on your word." Xu Qianqian shot him a look, "When you come over, bring some duck wings."

"Bring some raw ones, for you to gnaw on."

"Take that!" Xu Qianqian shoved him, her steps unconsciously growing lighter under the dim streetlight.

The two girls chatted away nonstop, and he could barely get a word in. He checked his phone along the way, chiming in once or twice,

The house wasn't far from school—just a few glances up and they were there.

Jiang Nian didn't go into Xu Qianqian's house; today he planned to find time to do a physics test paper, so he headed home early to wash up.

Everything was ready, and his phone lit up.

A WeChat message from Xu Qianqian: "Let me show you something, 【Image】, isn't this little skirt pretty?"

Generally speaking, before Jiang Nian bathed, changed, and did his test paper, he basically put his phone aside and didn't reply to messages.

But he still picked it up and replied with one line.

"Pair it with black stockings?"

Xu Qianqian: "Go to hell!! (Husky pointing finger)"

"I suggest you forget what happened last time, and keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, I'll personally crack open your skull."

"Slurp slurp." Jiang Nian sent a side-eye smiling meme.

"I'll beat you to death!" Xu Qianqian sent a throat-slitting meme, and after a barrage of attacks she still couldn't quite let it go.

"I feel like your reaction last time was a bit much (peeping)."

Jiang Nian: "???"

"Like someone just released from prison, who hasn't seen a pretty girl in a few hundred years—should you go to the hospital?"

At this point, he finally understood.

Xu Qianqian was using last time's incident to advance by retreating. Trying to mock herself to regain the upper hand.

Stupid, but exactly the kind of thing she'd do.

When they were little, the two would split a twin popsicle. One red bean, one mung bean, and Xu Qianqian would hem and haw.

"I just feel like yours tastes better."

"Let me have a bite of each."

One had to admit, in the art of being shameless, Xu Qianqian had quite the mastery.

"Heh." Jiang Nian couldn't be bothered to play along, "Actually I secretly took a photo last time, and now I'm going to enjoy it."

Xu Qianqian: "??? (confused)?"

"What do you mean enjoy, (angry) you better explain yourself! You super bastard, pick up the phone!"

【Phone off】.

At that moment, the whole world went quiet.

Jiang Nian put his phone in the drawer and focused wholeheartedly on doing his problems.

How could a pretty girl in black stockings be more fun than doing problems?

He kept at the problems until late at night, then finally turned his phone on. The instant it connected to the internet, over a dozen WeChat messages popped up.

Apart from Xu Qianqian's wild threats along the lines of "I'll take your dog life," the class monitor had also sent a message.

"Going to sleep, 【Image】, good night."

The image was Li Qingrong's selfie, wearing pajamas and leaning against the bed. Her dark hair loose, her expression cool and aloof.

The caption and the photo were a serious mismatch.

Jiang Nian glanced at the send time—half past eleven. Right after he'd turned off his phone, about five minutes later.

He thought for a moment, then replied with one line.

"Good night."

After sending it he felt something was missing, so he posed a peace sign next to the test paper under the desk lamp, took a photo, and sent it to Li Qingrong.

He casually opened QQ and replied to a round of messages.

As he scrolled down his message list, he saw one particular message, sent by Little Lark.

Dong Que: "I just heard from Xiao Qing that she's taking tomorrow off, and she wants you and me to put up the blackboard newspaper together? (cute)"

Jiang Nian glanced at it, and from that single sentence, picked out at least a few deliberately placed little schemes.

Still, it wasn't off-putting.

Just politely choosing her words with someone she wasn't that close to. Neither making the person feel distant, nor losing a touch of reserve.

As for how Jiang Nian knew that—well, one had to mention a certain war god.

Ting.:

At her hands, Jiang Nian had passively learned a lot. Like how to chat, or the tricks for handling people.

He just didn't feel like chatting, found it pointless.

"Yeah, tomorrow afternoon?"

Ding ding!!

"Yep."

"After the evening self-study tomorrow. (emm)"

The QQ message notification sounded, and Jiang Nian froze on the spot. He glanced at the time, thinking he'd misheard.

"It's two in the morning, and you're still not asleep?"

Dong Que: "Insomnia (a little troubled)."

"Go to bed early." Jiang Nian casually sent a message, then got up and closed the window by his desk.

"Alright, I'll sleep in a bit." Dong Que asked again, "Speaking of which, why are you still up? (chin in hand)"

Jiang Nian noticed that every time Little Skylark sent a message, she liked to add a little yellow-face emoji.

"Doing test papers. 【Image】"

He sent that picture, which was of his test-paper desk. Besides stationery, there was also a biology test paper with a score of 100.

Dong Que didn't notice that test paper, but was instead interested in his test-paper desk.

"You've done so many test papers, that's way too much, no wonder you've improved so much! (acting cute)"

"It's alright." Jiang Nian thought to himself, how come she didn't notice my hundred.

After chatting for a while, he suddenly found it boring.

"I'm going to sleep."

"Oh oh, alright." Dong Que started by replying with a smiley face, then sent a goodnight sticker.

Jiang Nian glanced at it and thought, if it were him, he wouldn't reply goodnight—he'd reply with a moon emoji.

Thinking of that, he shook his head again.

"Going to sleep."

The next day.

After Jiang Nian got up and washed up, he prepared to grab his bag and head out. Then he remembered something and pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk.

He took out a jar from inside, which contained a piece of gold.

Not quite ten thousand yuan, but not a small sum either. He'd gotten it back then through 【Good News】, digging for treasure.

He definitely had to cash it in—no way was he going to make jewelry out of it.

Convert it to money and let it flow heavily into the market.

He'd been busy preparing for exams and doing problems back then, and too busy during New Year's. Somehow, he hadn't gotten around to cashing it in for the longest time.

Just right, he was heading to the city this week—find a reliable gold shop to sell it back.

He put the jar back in the drawer, grabbed his bag, and went downstairs. In a flash he arrived at school, buying breakfast on the way.

Just as he entered the school gate, someone stopped him.

"Wait."

Zhou Haifei figured the dorm would open as soon as the door did, so she came out, bought a steamed bun, and waited for him by the little grove at the school gate.

"Something up?" Jiang Nian swallowed a bite of bun.

"Nothing, just letting you know." Zhou Haifei said, "Teacher Lan Lan had me fill out a form and put me on the list."

"Oh, how are the perks?" Jiang Nian asked casually, though he had actually looked into the perks long ago.

It was something he and Lan Lan had discussed together—using the counseling room's budget to set up a little afternoon tea.

Hearing this, Zhou Haifei got a little excited. "In the morning there are sandwiches and yogurt, in the afternoon there's braised food and fruit. Oh right, I heard there's also dessert and cookies."

Apart from not having meals brought right to the table, it's actually no different from meals.

To put it plainly... sneak two steamed buns upstairs, eat for the whole day, and it's basically three meals in disguise.

As they say, Lan Lan is no simple character.

Jiang Nian glanced at Zhou Haifei's face, slightly flushed from excitement. He took a bite of his bun and said calmly,

"That sounds pretty nice."

"Mm." Zhou Haifei realized she'd lost her composure, lowered her head a little sheepishly, and said, "Thank you."

"Thank Lan Lan."

Hearing that, Zhou Haifei couldn't help but break into a smile. That smile held many things—relief, release.

"Thank you both."

Jiang Nian waved his hand and prepared to head upstairs. For him, it was just a casual favor—ran into it, so he lent a hand.

Morning self-study. Everyone in the classroom had arrived.

When Yu Zhiyi passed the sixth group, she did give Jiang Nian a look. She tossed him a sour face and clomped off.

In truth, no one cared.

Jiang Nian only used his peripheral vision to glance at a certain Yu's prominent area. He couldn't even be bothered to lift his eyelids—just closed his eyes.

His thing was only looking at the chest, and occasionally he had to check out the fun with Big Yu.

"Where did an earthquake happen?"

"What earthquake?" Li Hua was looking at a magic card under the desk, looked up confused, "Where? Where?"

Yu Zhiyi, who had just passed by, flew into a rage on hearing that.

You're the earthquake!

She's not that fat—that person really has no conscience!

"Oh, it's passed." Jiang Nian rubbed his face with an indifferent expression, "Must have been a false alarm."

In fact, he and Yu Zhiyi were on decent terms.

During the winter break, they'd occasionally chat online. As they chatted, she'd start talking about her family.

Jiang Nian didn't chime in, just echoed a few words.

Back then, Yu Zhiyi had even said with real feeling that her friends, upon hearing these things, only knew to tell her to communicate with her parents.

Because their own families were happy and harmonious, so when problems came up, the first thing they thought of was to solve it through communication.

Problems arise because of a lack of communication.

As if she'd been mute for the past ten years, never once talking to her parents—in reality, she'd long run out of options.

Yu Zhiyi: "You're different. Even if your family life is happy. You can't empathize, but you'll choose to stay silent."

At the time, Jiang Nian was also a bit speechless.

Looking at what she sent, silence is indeed a virtue. He couldn't help but wonder, but actually he was just too lazy to reply.

Baby, we're just ordinary friends.

The morning slipped by in a flash, and it was break time.

Liu Yang stepped onto the podium, looking listless all over. He called for everyone to head to the sports field, but no running drills.

"Let's do the end-of-term awards ceremony. Everyone go down."

"We'll take attendance."

Hearing this, the class was a hundred percent unwilling. But compared to running drills, standing and watching the awards was acceptable, I guess.

"Let's go, grab some food at the cafeteria first." Yang Qiming waved his hand grandly and left with his little brother.

"Okay, bro."

Watching the two of them leave, Sun Zhicheng couldn't help but sigh.

"Hmm."

"Ah-Cheng, why the sigh?" Lin Dong shook his brows and asked with a grin, "Something unhappy?"

Hearing this, Sun Zhicheng couldn't help but sigh again. Recently he'd seen Yang Qiming chatting back and forth with Ding Qiulan, who had just switched into their group, and the situation felt off.

Ding Qiulan wasn't bad-looking, and her taste wasn't bad either. After all, she bought the same model of earphones as him—clearly fated to be with him.

But....

This made Sun Zhicheng a little anxious, afraid that this orchid Ding Qiulan would really be, damn it, rooted by Yang Qiming.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard Lin Dong chime in again. "Spit it out, let the bros have some fun."

Sun Zhicheng: "

"Joy and sorrow, parting and reunion—who would know?"

On the other side, Jiang Nian went downstairs with Chen Yunyun, the two girls.

When Wang Yuhe learned he might receive a first-tier award, she was stunned, her jaw nearly hitting the floor.

"You're getting an award?"

"Mm."

"How could you....... how much is the prize money?" Wang Yuhe's eyes were blank. "It can't be eight hundred, or a thousand, right?"

"Fifteen hundred."

"Ah!" The grade-schooler was dumbfounded on the spot.

She wasn't short on money, but she'd never gotten such a large prize. Her grades were middling, occasionally picking up small awards of a hundred or two.

"No worries, this time it's quite a lot." Jiang Nian turned his head and said, "I'll treat you all to a meal later, it's all the same anyway."

"Fine." Wang Yuhe's mouth opened and closed, unable to say another word. "I'll have to call you master."

"Call me daddy."

"I'll punch you to death." Wang Yuhe said indignantly.

Chen Yunyun smiled. She wasn't very interested in what to eat, but she was interested in being treated, so she asked,

"This week?"

"Next time for sure, then." Jiang Nian nodded. "I've got some things this week, or I'll send you guys a red envelope."

"You go find your own food, I'll reimburse you."

Hearing this, Chen Yunyun rolled her eyes.

"Then forget it."

Wang Yuhe didn't know why it was forgotten, but she felt Jiang Nian was being mean. Since Yunyun said so, there must be a reason.

"Exactly, exactly."

Walking along the road, she had a sudden idea. She wanted to throw a punch at Jiang Nian's arm, to let him know her methods.

But the motion was too obvious. The moment she struck, Jiang Nian grabbed her. He reached out and pinched Wang Yuhe's cheek.

"Ah!! Let go!"

"Heh."

After a struggle, Wang Yuhe regained her freedom.

The price was a swollen cheek—that tender, dewy face had been pinched swollen by this person, with no tenderness for the fairer sex at all.

Once Jiang Nian walked off, Chen Yunyun said helplessly,

"Stop provoking him, you can't beat him."

"I don't believe it." Wang Yuhe's face was full of anger, and she stormed off ahead. "I'll remember every grievance I've suffered."

Chen Yunyun was sweating little soybeans, thinking to herself, what's the use of remembering.

It's a defeat diary at this point.

But she couldn't be bothered to care—Wang Yuhe was stubborn after all. As long as Jiang Nian didn't casually bully her along with the rest, that was fine.

After the Gao San year group had assembled, the leaders on stage began reading from their scripts.

Before anyone knew how long it had been, names started being read up above. Tao Ran and a few others were called up to receive their awards.

"Holy crap, handing out red envelopes on the spot." Li Hua envied from below. "If only my English were better, I could get money too."

Hearing this, Ma Guojun burst out laughing.

"Li Hua, dreaming in broad daylight?"

"Eat shit!" Li Hua flushed red. After listening for a long time, he realized Jiang Nian's name hadn't been called. "You didn't get one?"

"I did." Jiang Nian said.

"Fuck, didn't you go up to collect your prize?" Li Hua turned to Liu Yang. "Did you hear his name?"

Liu Yang looked confused. "I think... maybe I did."

"You can tell your homeroom teacher," Li Hua said. "It's fine if you didn't go up—the prize can still be made up."

Jiang Nian's lips curled slightly, a smile on his face.

"Mm."

The big fat man Ma Guojun frowned, sensing something was off. He stepped back a few paces and shielded Liu Yang with his body.

"Fuck you, Li Hua—why don't you just bite the hook?"

"Huh?"

At that moment, the voice of the grade coordinator, Ji Ming, came from the stage.

"First prize, Science Zero Class—Xu Shuang! Science Olympiad... Class Three... Jiang Nian!"

"Ah... please, both students, come up to collect your prizes."