Chapter 96

Buzzzz, in the dim room, the alarm clock rang.

Jiang Nian opened his eyes, exhausted—he'd spent last night doing Jin Taiyang's math test multiple-choice questions, collapsing at question nine and barely managing the rest.

In the morning, during a break in his bathroom routine, Jiang Nian opened his task panel again.

Last night he was too tired to look closely at the rewards; seeing nothing valuable, he went to sleep. Now was the perfect time to examine the task carefully.

【At the crossroads of age thirty-eight, your fitness efforts are showing results—your weight has returned to 70 kilograms. Small gifts are lubricants for deepening relationships; please continue maintaining a good relationship with Xu Qianqian.】

Task: Gift Xu Qianqian a small present she'll truly appreciate. Reward: Remove one instance of fatigue negative effect (refreshes daily at midnight, non-stackable).

This time no extra info was given, and the task was plain and unremarkable. After a pleasant date, you're supposed to give a small gift to sustain the relationship, right?

It's reasonable enough, but what the hell is "remove fatigue negative effect"?

Jiang Nian gulped down mouthwash, brushed his teeth, and his mind was still foggy. At this moment, a question popped into his head: Does a man's cooldown count as fatigue?

After excessive exhaustion, skip the cooldown and negative effects entirely.

Isn't this just a garbage-skill version of Izanagi?

Suppose a friend started studying at 10:30 p. m., then at 11:20 p. m. gained immunity to one fatigue side effect and kept studying deeply.

Then, precisely at midnight, the cooldown refreshed again—fatigue and side effects wiped clean. That's equivalent to three consecutive study sessions.

Damn, invincible, the Lu Bu among men.

Jiang Nian suddenly grew excited, flailing his arms and legs, suddenly energized even for school.

One autumn rain brings one chill.

Last night's storm, this morning's heavy rain—perfectly reasonable.

Zhennan experienced a sudden, overnight temperature drop. Li Hongmei told him to wear more before going out, not to go outside like a monkey in just a short-sleeve shirt.

After washing up, Jiang Nian stepped out alone, backpack on his back, umbrella in hand.

Xu Qianqian wouldn't wait for him deliberately; if they happened to meet, they'd walk together, otherwise each went their own way. Morning time was tight, their biological clocks differed—walking together made no sense.

Except after evening self-study, when returning home was an unspoken, non-negotiable time. They might not chat on the way, sometimes walking in complete silence.

Because they were so familiar, neither felt awkward.

Entering the classroom, he emptied his bladder, then returned to his seat.

Zhang Nenzhi arrived very early, writing homework at her desk. Today she wore a purple windbreaker; her school jacket hung on the chair—too strict.

Afraid Zhou Yi's flag-raising speech is coming, huh, baby?

"Changed clothes?" Jiang Nian, still standing, casually complimented, "This windbreaker suits you well—purple makes your skin look even whiter."

Xu Song didn't lie—I told my sister purple has elegance.

"Huh? Really?" Zhang Nenzhi put down her pen, pulled out a small mirror from her desk drawer, "My mom said the same thing this morning."

"Yeah, looks like you've gotten several shades lighter." Jiang Nian tossed out a casual compliment, bent down, and pulled out his glass thermos, "Did you fill your water? Want me to get some for you too?"

"Okay, then let's go together." Zhang Nenzhi stood up nervously.

Jiang Nian's mouth opened slightly, then swallowed the rest of his words.

"Let's go."

Originally, Jiang Nian planned to zone out for half a minute at his seat, slowly adjusting to being a corpse, before going to fill water.

He didn't even like hot water—he just wanted to go to the water dispenser at the back of the classroom to fill a bottle of cold water. But why not drink something warm? Especially today, with the rain.

Screw it, treat yourself better, man.

Wind and rain blew down the corridor as Zhang Nenzhi and Jiang Nian walked side by side.

They kept a distance between them—somewhere between stranger and couple, slightly more than friends, faintly ambiguous.

No one was watching them this early in the morning.

Zhang Nenzhi held her breath for a long time, then forced out a topic.

"Um… your cup is glass? Aren't you afraid it'll break?"

"Thanks, I've already broken two."

"What? Then why keep buying glass ones?" Zhang Nenzhi couldn't stay calm.

Every time she turned her head, she saw Jiang Nian watching her—his presence was overwhelming. His gaze felt like it could pierce into her heart, and her face warmed again.

So she dared not walk too fast or too slow, carefully measuring each step. Her mind was a mess, occasionally flashing a thought:

Am I really that white now?

Yes, baby, very white—extremely textured white.

"Because… it's pretty. I'm shallow," Jiang Nian said bluntly. "When you put tea leaves in a glass thermos, the color looks gorgeous."

One sentence ended the topic—and the awkward small talk had begun.

Zhang Nenzhi was nervous; Jiang Nian was a little nervous too. To be fair, the young lady's charm was undeniably hard to ignore—even her slightly pursed lips looked alluring.

Look one more time and you'd explode.

Throughout the entire water-filling process, both were distracted, pretending to be calm.

Jiang Nian was slightly better—he snapped back to reality when the hot water burned his fingers. Slowly, he relaxed, no longer so tense, and dared to look openly.

Zhang Nenzhi glanced at him, then quickly looked away.

She wanted to hurry away, yet unconsciously slowed down. The corridor was full of students doing morning English reading—no one noticed the storm inside her heart.

Morning English reading: the whole class stood up to recite vocabulary.

Jiang Nian was tired—he pulled out his chair and sat down. He sat stiffly for half a minute, then pulled out his glass thermos and took a small sip.

Three seconds later, he exhaled a satisfied, heavy breath.

Zhang Nenzhi watched, wanting to laugh, and secretly curled her lips while reciting vocabulary.

Li Hua couldn't take it anymore—he stopped humming his "Pig Pig Hero" theme song and scolded quietly.

"Nian, if you're this lazy, how will you ever improve?"

"You scored over 140 in English—where's even room for me to improve?" Jiang Nian tossed out a jab at random. "Hua, you can't even crack ninety. Watch me from the bottom of your well."

"Ha, weakling, and you're mocking me?" Li Hua laughed wildly and brazenly. "Nian, add up your math and science scores, and I'm a full hundred points ahead of you!"

"Ha, your mom!" Jiang Nian also lost his composure and suggested, "Let's brothers stop hurting each other—I'll do math, you memorize words. Deal?"

"Fine." Li Hua picked up the screaming chicken on Jiang Nian's desk and let one off on himself—this was the stake he'd lost in last night's bet, and he'd suffered all night.

Jiang Nian pulled out his math review book and began targeted practice. Before long he heard Li Hua, mid-memorizing, suddenly start singing "I chase the light of my dream."

Oh wow wow wow, so you're Nangong Wentian now too, are you!

Working through math problems, Jiang Nian couldn't help humming along too. While doing problems he looked up at the seat in front—Wu Jun Gu seemed to have taken the day off.

The English morning reading session ended.

Wu Jun Gu arrived late, looking not too well.

Jiang Nian was too drowsy to pay much attention, dropped his head on the desk and fell asleep. A whole swath of the classroom was down, and they only got up when the bell for the first and second period English class rang.

Qian Bao wore a cute-style outfit today—heh, old women just love pretending to be young.

Then Jiang Nian got called on.

His face was full of shock—one second loudly mocking in his heart, the next second he was being put on the spot. What background does Qian Bao have, awakened some extraordinary superpower?

"Jiang Nian, 143—fairly steady."

Oh oh, handing out test papers.

Jiang Nian went up to the podium to grab his answer sheet and came back looking guilty. He couldn't possibly be glib in front of the whole class—that would seem too frivolous.

Everyone's papers were handed out, but only Wu Jun Gu's score fluctuated noticeably.

Sun Zhicheng was nervous the whole morning, his attention almost entirely on Chen Yunyun. So much so that he couldn't rest easy during breaks—whenever Chen Yunyun stood up, he'd definitely panic.

Even he didn't know what he was panicking about, just subconsciously praying Chen Yunyun wouldn't have any more contact with Jiang Nian.

Probably his prayer worked—the whole morning. Chen Yunyun stayed only at her own group's area, or else dragged Wang Yuhe along to the bathroom.

Because of the rain, the long break normally used for running exercises was freed up too.

Sun Zhicheng specifically glanced over—Jiang Nian's whole row was face-down sleeping, not a single one up.

Chen Yunyun was sleeping too, got up to use the bathroom in the middle then came back. School uniform draped over her head, lying there doing problems the whole time.

After his deskmate Lin Dong cut off the online chat, his whole schedule was absurdly free. Noticing Sun Zhicheng's state was off, he patted his shoulder and asked one more question.

"A-Cheng, what's wrong with you?"

"N-nothing, got caught in some rain on the way this morning, a little dizzy." Sun Zhicheng was completely improvising, yet still glanced toward Chen Yunyun's direction.

However, the miracle didn't appear—not a single stir.

"Holy crap, you didn't catch a fever, did you?" Lin Dong reached out to feel Sun Zhicheng's forehead.

Sun Zhicheng wasn't sick at all, but now he really was a bit dizzy. His body felt weak and limp, somewhat uncomfortable.

He instinctively dodged and explained.

"I'm fine, small issue."

Coincidentally the class monitor passed by and overheard their conversation. Li Qingrong glanced at Sun Zhicheng, stopped on her own initiative, and asked.

"Do you need to ask for leave? I have leave slips here—the homeroom teacher should be in the office."

"No need, no need." Sun Zhicheng hurriedly waved his hands, feeling a little warm inside, but he didn't feel at ease just leaving like this, afraid that if he wasn't there, Chen Yunyun and Jiang Nian would get together again.

"Thanks, class monitor, I can hold on, no problem."

Li Qingrong hummed an acknowledgment, turned, and continued walking along the narrow aisle toward the front rows.