Chapter 651: Qian Bao, the Big Dummy

Late spring, the day broke earlier.

Jiang Nian walked down the street, unlike at the start of the term—pitch-black, visible only through thin mist and dim lamps.

Steam rolled thick from the bun stall.

The owner had always been wary of him; seeing Jiang Nian cause no trouble and finally leave, he let out a sigh of relief.

Fuck, why is this money so hard to earn?

These buns are disgusting!

Jiang Nian didn't notice much else—his attention was entirely on the figure ahead; Sister Feifei was up this early again.

He suspected Zhou Haifei was starting her early-reading plan again.

Every time there was a major exam, this person would prepare.

Sure enough, after Jiang Nian caught up, he saw Zhou Haifei holding a vegetable bun in her left hand and a biology textbook in her right, muttering to herself.

"No way, is it this intense?"

Zhou Haifei was fully absorbed in memorizing, walking on autopilot; she suddenly jumped in fright.

"Huh?"

The bun slipped from her hand, but she clutched it back tightly; squinting at Jiang Nian, she said:

"It's you."

"Yeah." Jiang Nian blinked, startled.

Being able to afford a full meal really did boost one's confidence. Zhou Haifei was dressed the same, but no longer so tense.

Lan Lan had given her plenty of support; Zhou Haifei had no choice but to interact with visiting students, and she'd changed considerably.

"Preparing for the mock exam?"

"Yes." Zhou Haifei nodded, then hesitated a moment before adding, "Because lately, many students have been going to the counseling room."

"Many?"

"Mm. After the exam, the numbers went up." She explained, "Before, in free time, I could still memorize."

"Now I'm barely keeping up—the appointments are almost fully booked."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian was somewhat surprised. He'd known Lan Lan was popular, but not this popular—she'd practically worn out the threshold.

Was the diagnostic test really that hard?

Actually, the difficulty level was quite high.

The school had increased the difficulty of basic questions, adding extra twists; as a result, many students couldn't even finish.

For students like Jiang Nian, the impact was minimal.

A twist or two—wasn't it still a basic question?

As she spoke, Zhou Haifei stopped at the red pavilion, turned to look at him, clearly intending to resume memorizing.

"I see. Then you're really working hard." He had nothing more to say, "Keep going—I'll head up first."

"Okay." She nodded.

Jiang Nian still remembered Lan Lan's advice, distracted; only after walking farther did he unconsciously glance back.

Zhou Haifei was still standing there, probably waiting for him to leave before entering the pavilion.

On the Gao San building, Huang Fang had just filled her thermos with hot water,

and entered the classroom, passing the metal locker cabinet.

She saw Jiang Nian holding a piece of paper, fiddling with a combination lock.

"Whose locker?"

"Wang Yuhe."

"Oh." Huang Fang nodded—it made sense; they hung out with Jiang Nian all day, "Forgot the password?"

"Something like that."

Jiang Nian spoke, and with a click, the lock opened; he glanced at the number combination and couldn't help but feel exasperated with Wang Yuhe.

What was he thinking, using his student ID?

The metal locker was small—barely larger than a textbook—but deep enough to hold twenty books.

Wang Yuhe's locker was mostly empty: a few scattered books, some odds and ends, and a huge pile of duck feet.

Jiang Nian took them all without hesitation.

After placing a note inside, he slammed the locker shut with a clang—and even meticulously reset the combination to its original state.

As morning self-study neared, people gradually filled the room.

Even without the bell, low murmurs of morning reading echoed through the class; the countdown clock on the wall was glaringly obvious.

Jiang Nian had felt nothing until Li Hua arrived. The slacker had barely sat down before pulling out his vocabulary book and reading aloud.

"Habit, habit—habit!"

Li Hua's loud reading drew glances from within and outside the group; he grew even more proud, puffing out his chest and continuing.

"Ugh… cough, cough, cough!!!"

He'd shouted too loudly and choked on his saliva.

"What's he doing?" Ceng You asked, suspecting Li Hua had lost his mind, "Who provoked him?"

"No one," Jiang Nian was equally baffled.

"It's a deathbed revival," Ma Guojun offered the answer, "I heard the Village Guardians go mad their whole lives."

"But in their final few days, they suddenly have a deathbed revival—become normal again, chopping wood, carrying water."

"Hmm…::::" The group stared at Li Hua and nodded in unison, "Actually, that explanation makes way more sense."

"True."

"Eat shit!!" Li Hua sneered, then said, contrary to his usual self, "Stop disturbing my studying."

"A pack of rascals!"

Saying so, he continued to read aloud from his vocabulary book.

The few "rascals" who had crowded around looked at each other, faces full of disbelief.

"Did he change his nature?"

"Got dumped."

"The website got reported, can't open it. Searched all night and couldn't find one, had to settle for the wall calendar."

"That's pretty pathetic."

Li Hua turned a deaf ear to his so-called friends' "harsh words" and forced himself to memorize vocabulary the entire morning self-study period.

He felt the harvest was huge, his mind considerably fuller.

It was as if he were standing on a London street, communing with English gentlemen—

In conversation were priests, in his circle no common folk.

The next second, he felt a bit empty again.

A balance of work and rest, perhaps?

He was just about to reach for his phone when he noticed two pairs of damp, sinister gazes fixed on him, and couldn't help but shiver.

He turned his head and saw Jiang Nian and Ceng You grinning.

Ceng You immediately pulled the Great Desolation Prisoner-of-Heaven Finger, delighted.

"I told you, he's a waste."

"Intermittent bouts of high ambition, Hua." Jiang Nian shook his head, face full of pity. "So disappointing."

Li Hua was furious—these two actually looked down on him like that.

How can a small bird know the ambition of a swan!

Just you wait!

"Who said I was going to play? Can't I just scratch an itch?" Li Hua defended himself. "Ugh, honestly!"

He gave Ceng You and Jiang Nian a round of cold mockery and ridicule.

"Some people are born with a talent for learning, they just aren't good at memorization—you wouldn't understand."

"With my golden willpower, I'll soon hit a hundred and thirty in English!"

After doing all that, Li Hua immediately regretted it.

Just as the first period began and he let out a yawn, Jiang Nian suddenly slapped his shoulder and shouted.

"Li Hua, stop sleeping!"

"Eat shit!"

In the second period, his pen accidentally rolled onto the floor. As he bent down to pick it up, Ceng You immediately shouted.

"Teacher! Li Hua went under the desk to sleep!"

"Your mother!!"

The long break between classes.

Cai Xiaoqing walked up to the podium, carrying a bag of phones. She told the class to bring their textbooks and go to a demonstration class.

The English demonstration class was mainly to cooperate with Qian Bao in recording two periods' worth of material.

The class immediately erupted in cheers—this was practically no different from playing, and once it was over, the weekend holiday began.

On top of that, they got their phones back early.

"Hey."

Zhang Ningzhi poked Jiang Nian, her face full of anticipation as she asked, "Later, shall we still sit together?"

"Aren't you going to be with that Huang girl?"

"Pfft, don't go making up nicknames for people!" Zhang Ningzhi scolded him lightly. "The three of us can sit together."

Good lord, Baby Zhizhi wants to embrace both sides again.

So greedy.

"I want to sit with Li Hua and the others." Jiang Nian said. It wasn't a refusal, just his habitual back-and-forth.

If he wanted to hang out with Li Hua and the others, then Jiang Nian would say he wanted to sit with the class monitor or Chen Yunyun and them.

And vice versa.

"Hmph! Then go ahead." Zhang Ningzhi's big grape-like eyes stared straight at him.

"Ah, forget it, forget it." Jiang Nian waved his hand and went along with it. "I won't go then."

Later, in class, he could still feel her leg up. Baby Zhizhi probably wouldn't be angry—after all, he'd already made a "sacrifice."

Zhang Ningzhi, unaware of his lecherous thoughts, remained very happy.

"Yay!"

She pulled snacks out of her schoolbag and stuffed a bag into his hands.

"This is for you."

Damn it, the dog-training reward is still coming.

Jiang Nian accepted it, his heart itching again. He blamed the class monitor and decided that after school, he'd feel her leg up good and proper.

Meanwhile, Wang Yuhe was about to open a locker. She planned to grab a pack of duck feet to eat on the way to the administration building.

She glanced at it—the lock hadn't been touched.

Sure enough, Jiang Nian was useless.

She deftly dialed in the combination, and with a click the lock sprang open. Humming a tune, she reached her hand inside—only to find it empty.

"Mm?"

Wang Yuhe reached in again, and still felt nothing.

"Where's my duck foot?"

She pulled her hand out and took a look — the cabinet was completely empty. Only a few scattered books remained; the duck foot had long vanished without a trace.

"Jiang Nian!!!"

On the road, Jiang Nian didn't pick up the phone. He glanced and saw it was Wang Yuhe calling, so he casually hung up.

An elementary schooler — still a bit too green.

He'd gotten a sense from Chen Yunyun's side of just how rattled the elementary schooler was, and felt even more at ease.

Unlike Jiang Nian's leisurely ease—

Zhou Yuting had just come back from the psychological counseling room, her expression somewhat solemn. Seeing the classroom empty, she couldn't help but be startled.

Fortunately, Dong Que had left a note on her desk.

"Administration Building..."

Her heart settled. She gathered her things. After hurrying out of the classroom, walking along the road she began to space out again.

She'd looked up her weak points based on the material and made herself a study schedule. But putting it into practice didn't go smoothly.

The steps and answers often skipped steps; she couldn't understand a lot of it.

Asking the teacher meant standing in long lines. Asking the classmates who studied well in class — some were only willing to teach you twice.

The eager ones often had queues even more outrageous than the teacher's.

She'd been busy for days, with nothing to show for it. So anxious she couldn't catch her breath, she had no choice but to book a psychological counseling session.

"Sigh." She let out a breath.

In front of the Administration Building, Zhou Yuting found Dong Que and the others. As usual she sat down with them and chatted for a bit.

Dong Que saw her brows tightly knit, so she offered her some advice.

"Can't you just find Qi Ge's teacher?"

"Find a teacher?" Zhou Yuting heard this and thought she meant a tutoring teacher — the school did indeed have teachers who took on students one-on-one.

Tutoring for an entire big course would cost about twelve thousand.

"Is there still time?" she asked. "There's only a hundred days left, and there's the first mock exam, and—"

"I still need to patch up the basics."

Hearing this, Dong Que's face went blank.

"Patch up the basics?"

"Huh?"

After listening for a bit, Dong Que realized Zhou Yuting had misunderstood. She couldn't help but feel a bit speechless, and hurriedly waved her hands.

"What I meant was, go find Qi Ge's math teacher and ask."

"Ask who?" Zhou Yuting was baffled.

"Any teacher in the math office will do! Last time I went to the office, I couldn't find the math teacher."

"So I asked a pretty female teacher — she explained things well, and she's a nice person, just a little strict."

"Holy crap, this multimedia classroom!" Lin Dong exclaimed. "byd, how is the principal this rich?"

"Compared to yours, our dorm is beyond trash."

Hearing this, Ceng You looked up from his phone.

"Be grateful."

"Last time I went to my honors class classmate's dorm — they got assigned to the basement. Went in at high noon and was stunned."

"Like a damn water prison — not a shred of light. Drop a pen, you gotta use a flashlight to find it."

Ma Guojun had never lived in a dorm, so hearing this he also found it hard to keep a straight face.

"For real?"

"If my words are fake, may my parents drop dead." Ceng You thumped his chest. "My classmate put an apple on his desk, and the result was..."

"Damn!" Ma Guojun got goosebumps all over hearing that, and hurriedly glanced around at the bright multimedia classroom.

Though it was called a classroom, it was really no different from a recording studio.

The walls were all soundproofing material, divided into an inner and outer section. Just inside the door was the observation area, fitted with several rows of seats.

Separated from the classroom by a big glass window, with a large screen hanging from the ceiling for live broadcast.

When Class Three's people went in, there were still student council members fiddling with the equipment.

"Where's Jiang Nian?" Li Hua asked.

Ma Guojun pointed in a direction. "Sitting with the girls."

"Eat shit!"

Li Hua was cursing with his mouth, but in his heart he let out a sigh of relief. He casually reached into his pocket, took out his phone and fiddled with it for a moment.

It was still early, so after playing for a while he put it away.

"Yo!"

A piercing sound rang out, making Li Hua jump. He jerked his head up, only to find Jiang Nian leering at him from a shady spot.

byd, when did he sneak over?!

"Hopeless, hopeless." Jiang Nian shook his head. "Hua, why don't you just find a teacher and get some tutoring."

"Eat shit!" Li Hua instinctively refused.

The word "tutoring" made him instinctively feel a bit of shame. He'd grown up this big and never once had a tutor.

"Time's running short." Jiang Nian patted his shoulder, then turned and left to find Baby Zhizhi and the others.

Li Hua's brows were tightly furrowed, and somehow Qian Bao had actually listened.

"Tutoring.....

,

In the science class, a top student tutoring English could actually show off.

Class had started, and Qian Bao arrived late.

She only needed to record one class, so she didn't take the bell ringing seriously, and communicated briefly with the students being recorded.

After nodding, she found a few students who were good at English. To give them a quick tip-off, just in case no one raised their hand she'd step in.

As for Jiang Nian, Qian Bao didn't look for him.

This dog of a thing was unreliable, who knows what outrageous thing he'd say. Although the leaders didn't understand English, but.....

"Zhang Ningzhi, you will..." Qian Bao was busy making arrangements, acting as if she didn't see Jiang Nian's gaze.

Suddenly, she felt her sleeve being tugged.

"Teacher, what about me?"

"You stay put and don't cause trouble." Qian Bao pointed at him, then prepared to continue speaking with Zhang Ningzhi.

"Days of sincere dedication, only to be repaid with such betrayal." Jiang Nian was still blabbering, which made Zhang Ningzhi laugh.

She covered her mouth, and smacked the troublemaking Jiang Nian once. Then she said solemnly, "Sorry, teacher."

Qian Bao waved her hand, indicating it was nothing.

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Jiang Nian, who was lying on the desk like a dead dog, and at Li Hua, who was equally restless.

Can't ignore the unstable factors.

"Teacher, me me me!!!" Li Hua, the big fool, raised his hand, "Look at me, I want to be on TV too."

Qian Bao: "

What misfortune for the sect, how did she end up with students like these.

But the demonstration class still had to be recorded. She thought for a moment. Finally she had a good idea, and called Jiang Nian and Li Hua over.

"I've got a task for you two."

Hearing this, the two silly dogs instantly perked up.

"Really?"