Chapter 86

In the afternoon, Jiang Nian rode with Old Xu and returned to the county town with Xu Qianqian.

They got home at four o'clock; he dropped off a bag of dirty clothes and ignored his mother's complaints. Immediately, he turned around, grabbed his school bag, and rushed off to school.

Xu Qianqian had already finished her homework and didn't need to arrive at school early.

Technically, there were still three evening self-study sessions left to copy homework, but Old Liu had announced that starting after the sports meet, Sunday evening self-study would be changed to a Chinese test.

The school scheduled English and math for Monday morning, and science comprehensive for the afternoon.

It meant setting aside one day each week for exams and another day for reviewing the papers.

Unlike Gao Er, every exam in Gao San wasn't just about testing and reinforcing learning—it was for real combat, honing students' mental state in preparation for the Gaokao.

In Old Liu's words, "No matter how many tests you take, they're all just for the one Gaokao. Doing problems is for the test, and the test is for sprinting toward the Gaokao!"

By the time he reached the classroom, it was already half past four; the sun had sunk low outside the window, and the light wasn't very good.

Zhang Zhizhi wasn't there—she went home right after the sports meet ended at noon.

The school swapped the entire Sunday afternoon holiday with Saturday, meaning tomorrow would be a full day of classes; the administration elders knew how to schedule holidays.

When Jiang Nian entered, he found only a few boarding students in the classroom.

The boy didn't ring a bell—he seemed to be called Luo Zhongping. Tall and thin, he never dropped any banger, so Jiang Nian, who'd just been promoted to the class a few weeks ago, had no impression of him.

What was a banger?

A banger meant saying something outrageous that sank deep into people's minds.

For example, Jiang Nian's line, "I caught a cold from jerking off last night," went viral instantly around his seat. Such outrageous, shameless remarks made him rise quickly in popularity.

Nobody took it seriously, and even if they did, it didn't matter.

Who doesn't jerk off?

Jiang Nian's grades were decent, hovering around the middle, and his small group was the top one in class. Combined with his good relationships with several teachers, he easily became the class focal point.

Not to mention he won two first-place medals in one day at the sports meet—both by overwhelming margins.

Often, the more outrageous a person's remarks, the more popular they became.

"Jiang Nian!" A girl looked up from her seat, smiled at him, and waved, "I haven't seen you in two days—were you on leave?"

"Yeah, I took a day off for something." Jiang Nian recognized her.

Chen Yunyun was outgoing and had a nice face; at seventeen or eighteen, all a girl needed was a clean complexion—no makeup required, her collagen naturally glowed.

Next to her was Wang Yuhe; the two girls seemed like bonded sisters, always appearing together. Both were boarding students in Building 2 of the North Gate, hometown unknown.

The two girls were in the same study group as Lin Dong and Sun Zhicheng; Jiang Nian remembered them. He'd greet them when they met, but rarely chatted much.

"Where'd you go?"

"Back to my hometown. I told my family group chat I had terminal laziness." Jiang Nian spoke casually as he walked past the front-row seats. "My uncle said he picked out a plot of land for me back home—I should go take a look."

"Hahaha, you're hilarious." Chen Yunyun's eyes crinkled into crescents.

That's all it took to make her laugh? Too weak. Pathetic.

Jiang Nian stepped past Zhang Zhizhi's empty seat, pulled open the half-drawn curtain, and the light brightened. He pulled out his own test paper, then took out Zhang Zhizhi's.

Baby Zhizhi was thoughtful—she'd left all her homework on top. The papers due for submission were clipped together with pink clips, six sheets in total.

Copy English directly. Chinese had too many characters—just summarize and copy.

Copy biology. Copy chemistry. Copy the multiple-choice questions in math and physics. Focus on the last two optional questions and the major problems—copy the first sub-question.

Just as he finished copying biology, Chen Yunyun walked over and sat down in Wu Jungu's seat in the third row, first column, boldly turning to face Jiang Nian.

Brother Jungu was probably at a milk tea shop with his girlfriend—standard county-town couple activity.

Sipping milk tea, chatting about feelings, hugging, cuddling, sitting on laps, touching.

At quieter corner milk tea shops, student couples didn't just drink milk tea—they secretly made their own honey-flavored milk tea.

Most milk tea shops didn't have surveillance—if the owner checked the footage even once, he'd probably find clips uploaded to some blogger's site full of "prospective third-place laureates."

What? A loser's fantasy?

Ah.

The county never conducted sex education, and guiding early romance was purely nominal.

As a result, mature students fell into two extremes: introverted ones who did everything, and extroverted ones who did nothing but claimed to know everything.

Jiang Nian wouldn't dare guess about Brother Jungu, but Chen Yunyun was definitely the latter.

She had plenty of bad romantic entanglements, yet she was always with Wang Yuhe, inseparable. No boyfriend was ever seen, but she got along well with boys both in and out of class.

"Hey, Jiang Nian." She was enthusiastic.

Jiang Nian looked up at Chen Yunyun.

"What?"

"You're really good at sports—you ran laps around the PE students by almost a full circle." Chen Yunyun leaned in close; in the dim classroom, only a desk separated them.

Luo Zhongping, who'd been working on homework, looked up and saw this scene.

Dust motes floated in the air; the afterglow streamed through the curtain. The white wall behind the blackboard glowed with golden beams, and Chen Yunyun's hair strands turned pale gold.

He couldn't help staring a little longer, a pang of bitterness rising in his chest.

"Oh, thanks—if you help me copy the Chinese test." Jiang Nian kept his head down, copying biology, speaking casually. "I'll tell you one of my secrets."

"What secret?" Chen Yunyun blinked.

"The secret of which pig feed makes your body stronger—you'll run faster than me."

"Ew, you're the pig." Chen Yunyun giggled. After a moment, she added, "Hey, if I help you copy the Chinese test, how will you thank me?"

"Hmm, I'll buy you some crispy pork sausage." Jiang Nian was copying the test, and talking didn't tire him.

Besides, who didn't enjoy chatting with a normal girl?

Baby Zhizhi wasn't here.

He copied the test without thinking—his mind was sharp enough to handle Chen Yunyun easily. Copying tests was boring, so it was perfect for killing time.

"Ah, only one crispy intestine?" Chen Yunyun complained.

"It's not about what you want, but what I have." Jiang Nian had just finished copying the long questions on his biology test, flipped it over to check, his head buzzing.

One person couldn't possibly finish copying everything—there was the test paper, plus review materials.

Fuck, I got a system, and still have to go to school.

It's been days since the system refreshed a task; I don't even know who the next one is supposed to reconnect with. Childhood sweetheart? Ex-girlfriend? What's left but ex-wife.

In that instant, Jiang Nian drifted off—exactly who the hell was his ex-wife?

When the system issued the task, it gave plenty of useful little details. He'd lived with Zhang Ningzhi in Guangzhou, so that was his ex-girlfriend—then what about Xu Qianqian?

Did they lose contact after the Gaokao, or after university graduation?

Though these didn't determine the future's path, they at least revealed the direction he'd blindly trudged before advancing his class—still enough to uncover fragments of what lay ahead.

For example, if he didn't advance his class, he'd never meet Zhang Ningzhi.

Then how did he ever meet Zhang Ningzhi? Why did he go to Guangzhou? Fuck, that's so far—was Town Nan the only place he could go after studying? Did it mean he'd only end up heading south to work?

This damn fate!

As for Xu Qianqian, Jiang Nian understood—she really was that way. If he didn't strive, she wouldn't even spare him a glance.

Ex-wife—spending this much money? Who was the matchmaker?

In Town Nan, weddings usually don't cost this much; in the countryside, it's roughly 400,000. In the county town, it's a bit lower—under 300,000 and the whole process is done.

Has inflation exploded in twenty years? Your mom's salary didn't rise, but the bride price did—where the hell is all the money going?!

Wait, did the men of Town Nan commit a sin against heaven?

High bride prices and southward labor—why the fuck must a carefree teenager learn in advance about the hellish fate awaiting him?!

Shithole place! Blow up!

Chen Yunyun noticed he suddenly froze, eyes vacant, and waved her hand in front of his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, uh, where were we?" Jiang Nian looked up.

Chen Yunyun fell silent—she'd been talking to him, and he'd spaced out. She frowned, dissatisfied.

"Is talking to me that boring?"

"Hard to say—unless you help me copy my Chinese and chemistry homework." Jiang Nian muttered, "Then I'll tell you a secret. How about it?"

"What secret?"

"I run fast because I work out—I have a gym membership card." He kept his head down, diligently copying homework, never expecting Chen Yunyun to help.

"Really?" Chen Yunyun's eyes lit up, excited. "What's the gym like? I've passed by a few times—looked super professional."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian suddenly stopped writing, thinking of something.

"I know someone. If you help me copy my homework, I'll give you a free trial voucher. How's that?"

Three-hour trial vouchers—Song Xiuyun's mom got about ten or so every month. She'd asked Jiang Nian if he wanted one, but he never had time to pick it up.

"Okay," Chen Yunyun was about to agree, then remembered something and lowered her head. "Never mind—I'll go play, but Yuhe'll be alone."

Huh? Are you two some kind of twin souls in one body?

"If you can convince her, I actually have two sets of homework—and I haven't finished the review materials either." Jiang Nian rubbed his chin. "And I've got two trial vouchers."

"Really?" Chen Yunyun finally perked up.

Jiang Nian nodded eagerly, pulling out all his homework. Excluding physics and math, he split it evenly into two piles and handed them to Chen Yunyun.

Chen Yunyun happily grabbed the two stacks of homework and left—she had nothing better to do. Exchanging labor for trial vouchers wasn't taking advantage of a classmate—it meant she could go to the gym and have fun.

Jiang Nian was pleased too. With over two hours left until the evening self-study quiz, he could now focus on his weak subjects.

Wang Yuhe, who had been hunched over her desk solving problems, lifted her head.

She blinked, confused to see her desk partner Chen Yunyun approaching with a stack of books and test papers—she'd been immersed in practice problems and hadn't paid much attention to what Chen Yunyun and Jiang Nian had been saying.

"What's this?"

"Jiang Nian's homework—we're copying it for him." Chen Yunyun enthusiastically explained the whole story, without even asking Wang Yuhe if she wanted to help.

She was going to the gym anyway, and Wang Yuhe would surely come with her.

"Is this okay?" Wang Yuhe bit her lip, stealing a glance toward the front-corner seat where Jiang Nian sat—his clean nape bathed in sunset.

"What's wrong with it? Jiang Nian said the trial vouchers are free." Chen Yunyun had already assigned the tasks. "He's a member—he doesn't pay for the vouchers."

"It's just a promotion—no one's being taken advantage of."

Hearing this, Wang Yuhe relaxed and nodded.

"Alright."

She opened Jiang Nian's chemistry review book and saw that the small questions had only one answer each—extremely high accuracy. The long questions, however, were densely marked.

Clearly, his chemistry foundation was solid—but the long questions seemed…

She glanced again, noticing an organic chemistry problem with even denser annotations—scrawled with rough drafts, growing messier and messier, ending with a single phrase:

(Fuck you!!)

Huh???

Do boys get this angry while solving problems? Wang Yuhe suddenly lowered her head, stealing another glance at Jiang Nian, remembering how he'd run three kilometers the afternoon before.

She considered her own physical fitness decent—she'd even signed up for the sports meet. But after running one lap, she realized those who won first place had truly monstrous physiques.