Chapter 644: Tutoring

"Don't know her, she's from the class next door."

Zhang Ningzhi spoke while glancing up at the chemistry teacher on the podium from time to time, only then carefully continuing.

"She seems a little pitiful."

Jiang Nian thought to himself that Baby Zhizhi was truly kind, so he asked.

"Did you comfort her?"

"No." Zhang Ningzhi shook her head and said softly, "I'm afraid the more I comfort her, the harder she'll cry."

Jiang Nian: "

True, Quan Li Zhi already had one foot in a double-first-class university. If she played it safe, getting into a 985 wouldn't be a problem.

Comforting people—bringing up grades would just make it awkward.

Old master....

"But I gave her a little bread." Zhang Ningzhi said, "Really tasty, the kind I like most."

"That's already very good." Jiang Nian nodded.

He didn't really feel much about the hundred-day sprint. A hundred days could accomplish a lot of things, but the hundred days before the college entrance exam were hard to say.

Besides homework, there were also tons of exams. The principal's dog barking twice could serve as a reason to organize an exam.

Just kidding—they'd have exams even without the barking.

So the strong stay strong, the weak grow weaker. There were dark horses who staged comebacks, but they were rare; most were failures.

Three periods ended, self-study.

"Quiet."

Discipline committee member Cai Xiaoqing gave the usual shout to maintain order in the class—that alone was worthy of Old Liu.

Soy Milk had done her best.

Amid the noisy atmosphere, Zhou Yuting's face looked a little grim. Sorting through the wrong answers on her test paper, the more she looked, the more lost she felt.

But things had already come to this; being lost didn't help much.

She picked up the test paper and patted Tao Ran on the shoulder.

"Group leader, this question....."

Tao Ran was flipping through a beast-ear girl manga and didn't really want to answer. But out of respect for being called group leader, which outweighed being study committee member.

"Hmm?"

He took a look, hesitated slightly, and said, "This question....... didn't the teacher go over it in class?"

Zhou Yuting couldn't speak, and after a long while squeezed out one sentence.

"Didn't understand."

"Oh, then listen again." Tao Ran just asked casually, "The given conditions of this question are....

"Sigh." Yang Qiming stared in the direction of Tao Ran's group, watching the two huddled together discussing the problem and sighed.

"Betting on books dispels the tea's fragrance—at the time it seemed nothing out of the ordinary."

Huang Cailang scooted over and asked with a goofy grin.

"Bro, what are you reciting?"

"Nothing much, where are we eating this afternoon?" Yang Qiming was just feeling sentimental for a moment; he had a new goal now.

Tingzi had already become the past.

The new deskmate was far more enthusiastic than the old one—Zhou Yuting's personality was like a block of ice,

only occasionally striking up conversation.

Sun Zhicheng shot Yang Qiming a glance, followed his gaze, and immediately guessed what this big black boar was up to.

"Heh."

He patted Lin Dong on the shoulder, Yang Qiming said.

"Look, this guy's in heat again."

Lin Dong wasn't interested in the grudge between the two; he was browsing Tianya threads, gave an "oh" and couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

"Dong-ge, what are you looking at that's so captivating?"

Hearing this, Lin Dong put down his phone and said.

"Some spooky posts online, about foxes, pythons, and stuff—got sucked in before I knew it."

Sun Zhicheng thought of Sadako he'd seen when he opened a video that one night, couldn't help but shudder, and shook his head saying.

"Anything else?"

"Some principles about how to conduct oneself in the world, that sort of thing—you can take a look." Lin Dong handed his phone over to him.

Sun Zhicheng took one look, then handed it back.

"Useless."

"Why?" Lin Dong asked.

Coincidentally, Chen Yunyun turned her head at that moment to hand in the math homework to Lin Dong. Hearing the two talking, she shot him a glance.

Sun Zhicheng had a sudden flash of inspiration and said wistfully.

"I've heard a lot of wisdom, but I still can't live this life well."

Hearing this, Wang Yuhe turned her head and said.

"Is it possible that the problem isn't with the wisdom?"

Sun Zhicheng: "???"

In the afternoon, Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong became meal buddies.

It also happened that Cai Xiaoqing and the others had been called away for something. Li Qingrong couldn't be bothered to follow, so she entrusted it to him.

He was walking along the road, turned his head, and called out.

"Embracing Qingqing."

"Mm."

"Guess what I'm going to eat later?" Jiang Nian said mysteriously, smiling. "If you guess right, there's a prize."

"Three-freshness noodles," she said.

"How did you know?"

Jiang Nian's face was full of surprise. This woman had figured him out completely, yet he hadn't figured her out — clearly unfair.

"I smelled the fragrance drifting over," she said.

"Fine."

After a while, Li Qingrong saw Jiang Nian's expression was as usual. The two were almost at the shop door, and still neither mentioned the prize.

She gave Jiang Nian a glance, saw the other's face full of anticipation. Though a bit helpless, she still compromised.

"What's the prize?"

"The prize is, after we eat I'll calculate your marriage line for you."

"Boring."

"Fine, then I'll show you how many dips are in my palm," Jiang Nian said. "This one I know how to count."

"No need."

"Too cold, Embracing Qingqing." Jiang Nian complained while quickly ordering, getting her a bowl of plain noodles.

The class president didn't like overly greasy soup noodles, but she could eat them.

"Forget it, I'll go mix the condiments." He turned his head and said viciously, "I'll scoop you five spoonfuls of chili, spice you to death!"

Li Qingrong sat across from him, head lowered, playing with her phone. Once he turned and left, she pressed her lips together and smiled.

After a while, Jiang Nian came back carrying two small boxes of condiments.

No chili.

"I'm in a good mood today, I'll let you off easy." Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow. "But remember, I'm not in the business of letting horses off."

Li Qingrong took the condiments, no reaction.

"Oh."

The three-freshness noodle shop was full of people, occasionally drawing some glances. The soup noodles hadn't arrived yet, and the shop was a bit stuffy.

Jiang Nian pulled an orange from his pocket and handed it to the class president.

"Help me peel it."

Li Qingrong didn't refuse, carefully peeling off the white threads.

"Doesn't physics count for points?"

"Huh?" Jiang Nian's face was full of confusion. He glanced at Director Qing. "Don't know, waiting for news from Old Liu's side."

He asked boldly, "You going to tutor me?"

Li Qingrong shook her head, directly refusing. "You're not well-behaved, your mind isn't on studying, you always get handsy."

Jiang Nian's face was full of disbelief, as if he'd been terribly slandered.

"Embracing Qingqing, you don't trust me?"

Hearing this, Li Qingrong looked up and stared at him quietly, asking.

"Then will you behave?"

Jiang Nian thought for a moment. "No."

Whether studying or feeling her up was more important, Jiang Nian had his own judgment. With legs right there and not feeling them, studying would be for nothing.

Besides, feeling her legs felt damn good.

Even though he had no leg to stand on, Jiang Nian still complained tentatively, "Logically speaking, you should give me a chance."

Li Qingrong's orange-peeling technique was excellent, her fingers pretty too. Once peeled, it looked like a clean little amber.

Jiang Nian stared for a while, sighing at his own inadequacy.

"Really impressive."

Li Qingrong didn't understand his train of thought — what was impressive about peeling an orange.

"Mm."

Jiang Nian took it, split it in half, then stuffed a segment into her mouth, his fingers touching her soft lips.

Warm, soft.

At this moment, Li Qingrong looked up at him. "Find a time yourself, the weekend or noon."

Just then the noodles arrived, the table steaming hot.

Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment — was he going to have to learn a foreign language?

"Then, how about tomorrow's lunch break?" he suggested. He'd promised Baby Zhizhi to go out and play together on the weekend.

Li Qingrong had no objections, nodded.

"Mm."

She got up to pay the bill, while the latter shamelessly

said the fortune-telling would cover the meal, no need for change on the extra money.

After feeling her hand for ages, he only reached one conclusion.

"Embracing Qingqing, you'll be very pretty in the future too."

Li Qingrong: "..

4

With fortune-telling skills like these, back in the day he'd probably have starved to death under a bridge. Now they barely earn a meal.

"What about you?" she asked.

It was already dark. The two of them merged into the stream of students heading back to school for evening self-study. In the night breeze, Jiang Nian's voice was faint.

"Same as you."

Before evening self-study.

Not everyone had arrived yet. Jiang Nian was sitting with another group, chatting with Chen Yunyun and the others, when he learned a secret.

"You can't ride an e-bike?"

"Nope."

"What about a bicycle?"

Wang Yuhe looked unconvinced, puffed out her chest, and said.

"That I can do!"

"Then why can't you ride an e-bike?"

"I never learned!"

"That needs learning too?" Jiang Nian choked back a laugh. "If you can ride a bicycle, you can ride an e-bike."

"Honestly, even my dog can ride one!"

"Liar!" Wang Yuhe felt her pride had been insulted and was about to charge at him like an angry bull.

"Why would I lie to you?" Jiang Nian grabbed a passing guy. "Li Hua, can you ride an e-bike?"

Li Hua, baffled, turned his head and said.

"Yeah, so what?"

Wang Yuhe beat him to it. "He said even his dog can ride one."

"Holy shit!" Li Hua instantly flushed red. "Jiang Nian, you bastard, you're full of dirty tricks!"

"Right, right!" the elementary schooler nodded frantically.

Jiang Nian looked up at Li Hua and said earnestly.

"Do you believe me or believe her?"

Li Hua: "Believe her."

"Huh?"

Jiang Nian hadn't expected his reputation to already be in tatters. To salvage his image, he decided to offer free lessons.

"When I have time, I'll teach you how to ride."

Chen Yunyun heard this and asked, looking worried.

"Is it safe?"

"I know a patch of open ground," Jiang Nian said. "Behind the school, there's an abandoned vegetable market."

Hearing this, Wang Yuhe remembered too.

"I know that place!"

She had once seen Jiang Nian over there with a small trowel, sneakily digging around, and had even dug alongside him.

The venue problem was solved. All that remained was timing.

Just then, the bell for evening self-study rang.

Jiang Nian thought for a moment and realized he had things to do the next two days. Not wanting to overpack his schedule, he stood up and waved his hand.

"When the time comes,

I'll let you know in advance."

"Oh."

First period of evening self-study.

Ceng You was slumped over the desk sleeping, looking half-dead. This drew the group's attention.

"What'd you do this afternoon?" Li Hua glanced at him. "Kidney-deficiency bro, sneaking off to fly solo again?"

"Get lost." Ceng You was speechless.

"Take it easy, it's bad for your health," Jiang Nian said. "I heard this stuff is irreversible."

"You two are seriously something else." Ceng You sat up, unable to take these two jerks anymore. "I already told you..."

Jiang Nian said, "My family has an old folk remedy that actually works."

Ceng You froze at the words.

"Dad!"

"I have no other wish, I only beg..."

Yu Zhiyi went up to the platform to copy today's biology homework. She trotted over, and glanced at a certain someone along the way.

"Hmph!"

Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand, watching Yu Zhiyi the whole way to the platform. He thought to himself: this person is a little chubby, yet somehow all the points went into the right stats.

Just then, Li Hua poked him.

"What are you looking at?"

*byd*, she's pretty protective of her food.

"Just looking around. You don't have a crush on the group..." Jiang Nian immediately pulled out the immoral-threat card, and Li Hua shrieked.

"You f—cking—!!" His face went pale — he feared cheesy rumors most of all. "Shut your damn mouth!"

Damn, should've never agreed to be group leader.

But... his ex-girlfriend from the same group — if word like that got out, he'd definitely get roasted. After all, it'd been several years.

However, Jiang Nian was an exception.

Because he had been promoted mid-way, moved up from a lower class. By the rules of human nature, he was instead completely uninhibited.

Chinese-style campus relationships were just like this. It was actually somewhat similar to a transfer student whose relationships had been reset.

After the second period ended, Jiang Nian received a WeChat message from Lan Lan.

"(Cleaver) (Cleaver) Where are you?"

"I was halfway through talking when I glanced at the sign-in sheet. Why didn't anyone from Class Three sign? Did you forget?"

"Holy shit!!" He froze for a moment, then immediately jumped up from his seat, "Holy shit, I'm done for!"

The psychology lecture they'd agreed on—he'd completely forgotten about it.

He pulled out the grade sheet and glanced at the students whose scores had dropped. Noticing he hadn't marked any of them at all, he immediately laughed.

Whatever, Li Hua's up.

Anyway, in a bit, out in the hallway, he'd have to kneel before him anyway to ask about that kidney-tonifying recipe.

After all, the classroom was too crowded—not convenient for kneeling.

When it came to this sort of thing, a man's main play was being able to bend and stretch as needed.

Thinking this, he set off to go find Li Hua.

In the aisle, he was tripped by Zhou Yuting's foot.

"Sorry." Tingzi looked up.

She was busy correcting test papers—a completely unconscious act. Realizing it was Jiang Nian, she froze on the spot.

However, Jiang Nian didn't look at her.

The instant he stumbled, he steadied himself against a desk. His hand happened to land on the stack of test papers, and a whole bunch of entries popped up.

【An 86-point math test paper】, 【A.... English......】—the total score was only a little over five hundred.

【Anxious and restless study state.】

byd can even detect this?

After snapping back to himself, Jiang Nian couldn't help falling into thought.

If he said it outright, it would be easier to hurt her pride. But if it was Tingzi, well, she wasn't that fragile.

He'd try it first; even if it hurt her, it didn't matter.

"Are you going or not." He held out his phone, "There's a psychological counseling thing, free."

Zhou Yuting glanced at it, her first instinct was to refuse. She was very busy—going to a place like that would be a complete waste of time.

"I'm not...."

"

But the next second, Jiang Nian spoke again.

"I heard there's a list over there. After you go, the school will organize study groups, scheduled tutoring, stuff like that."

Hearing this, Zhou Yuting stopped the words right at her lips.

Now wasn't like usual—after the hundred-day oath, whether it was troubling classmates or finding teachers, she was more hesitant.

Everyone was sprinting forward, yet her state was actually slipping backward.

Tingzi thought it over, then still nodded in agreement.

"Okay."

The second evening self-study bell rang.

Students from below Gao San's building hurried back to their classrooms one after another.

Jiang Nian went downstairs against the flow of people, with Zhou Yuting following behind. The lecture had already started—Lan Lan was a bit terrifying.

If he didn't get over there, he was probably going to get strung up.

"Keep up."

"Oh, oh." Zhou Yuting looked up, glanced at Jiang Nian's back, her emotions complicated, "Jiang Nian."

"What?" He turned his head.

The two of them walked to the front of the administration building; the plaza was empty. The night wind blew past, and Zhou Yuting's voice was a little tight.

"Was this test paper hard?"

"Average."