Chapter 97

All morning, Jiang Nian was listless.

In Gao San, besides love-struck couples, hardly anyone wanted to attend class. Rainy-day classes were especially miserable—the classroom was stuffy and filled with all sorts of strange odors.

The only thing that felt halfway decent was going out for air with Zhang Nengzhi in the morning and fetching hot water.

The rest was just exhaustion, then collapsing onto the desk and falling asleep in a second. Once energy returned slightly, class would start again, draining him once more, repeating the cycle endlessly.

Jiang Nian had just woken up when he noticed the monitor walking past the aisle. As if sensing his gaze, Li Qingrong even turned her head and met his eyes.

Let's be honest, the monitor's looks were absolutely stunning.

He just kept staring—Li Qingrong wasn't even wearing the school uniform; her gray-white coat looked especially youthful. Her hairstyle was nice too—a soft, low ponytail.

The monitor really loved those bear hair ties—her cold expression made her look adorable.

I really want to just give up.

Half a month after being promoted, Jiang Nian noticed something interesting.

Other classes' monitors were either tough enough to control the whole class or skilled at social maneuvering.

But their monitor was weird—she rarely managed anything and hardly spoke.

Logically, the Discipline Committee and Academic Committee should've complained. After all, if the monitor was incompetent, their burdens increased, effectively consuming their study time.

But strangely—nothing. The Discipline and Academic Committee members had alarmingly high loyalty (aluminum-copper) levels.

When the class got rowdy, the Discipline Committee would freak out, but the monitor would just glance over curiously. Yet the girl still managed to keep her position—impressive.

In other classes, the Discipline Committee would already be yelling, "XXX, speak up—aren't you going to do anything?"

Jiang Nian strongly suspected Li Qingrong became monitor purely because her personal charm was too strong.

For example, last week at the sports meet, three people didn't get mineral spring water. Li Qingrong gave up her own, and immediately seven or eight others followed suit. Another seven or eight were too slow and had to silently put theirs back.

At the time, Jiang Nian was stunned—solving the problem at its root, huh? How do you divide three bowls of water among four leaders? Answer: three leaders will automatically kill the fourth.

Still, he kept looking. After all, the monitor would always look away first—extra glances were pure profit.

The proof was clear: two seconds later, Li Qingrong broke eye contact. She showed no strong reaction, simply turned her head and walked off.

Jiang Nian propped his chin and smiled—looking at the girl lifted his spirits.

Yeah.

He turned his head and noticed Zhang Nengzhi, who had been sleeping on her desk, had somehow woken up.

The girl held her thermos, sipping hot water, casting him a sidelong glance. She said nothing—but somehow said everything—then pulled out her physics worksheet and started copying wrong answers.

Jiang Nian felt awkward and coughed.

"The blackboard's reflecting too much light."

Zhang Nengzhi: "You weren't looking at the blackboard just now."

"Haha… really?"

All three morning classes were spent going over worksheets, making everyone drowsy.

Outside, the rain poured endlessly, making Li Hua's face look gloomy. There was a risk of soaking his shoes on the way home—he thought for a moment, then decided to make a decision betraying his ancestors.

"Nian, I'm not going home for lunch—I'll eat with you in the cafeteria."

Jiang Nian glanced at Li Hua's shoes and shook his head.

"It's raining, the roads are flooded, and you're telling me you're wearing mesh sneakers and still plan to fight for food in the cafeteria?"

"What's wrong with it? Anta—brand name."

"Anta? You're wearing mesh sneakers—you don't even deserve to fight for food." Jiang Nian was speechless. "There are puddles everywhere—do you plan to ballet-hop all the way there?"

"Gao San's Effeminate Senior, Who Doesn't Dream of the Cafeteria's Full-Plate Auntie."

"Save your energy, trash." Jiang Nian pointed to the trash bin in the corner of the classroom. "Go rummage through it at lunch—just scrape together a couple bites."

"Your mom!" Li Hua snapped.

Zhang Nengzhi, pretending to study while lying on her desk, had been eavesdropping since the second-class break. Her face had been stiff since then, but at "ballet-hop," she couldn't hold back.

She involuntarily pictured the scene and burst out laughing. When Jiang Nian looked over, she immediately clamped her lips shut.

But because it was so funny, her cheeks puffed up like a hamster's—now it was Jiang Nian's turn to laugh.

"Stop laughing," Zhang Nengzhi covered her face. Seeing he still wouldn't stop, she collapsed onto the desk.

Li Hua, curious, asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I just saw a hamster run past along the wall."

Zhang Nengzhi, still lying on the desk, blushed furiously—her chest felt like it had been flooded with scalding syrup. She decided she'd speak less to Jiang Nian—no, not two days.

Ding ding ding.

After school, Jiang Nian dragged Li Hua along, sprinting and violently opening his umbrella before charging into the rain.

As expected, Li Hua was indeed doing ballet on the puddle-filled playground.

He tapped his toes, shouting, "I'm wearing Anta, damn it!"—making Jiang Nian's prostate nearly ignite.

"Anta on your feet? Its stock price would crash!"

Freshmen and sophomores poured out in droves; the rainy playground was covered in colorful umbrellas. From above, they looked like patches of tarpaulin spinning endlessly.

The sky was gray and hazy.

Li Hua and Jiang Nian walked out of the cafeteria. After frowning for half a minute, he couldn't help asking.

"We got our meals one after the other—why does your portion have half a ladle more than mine?"

He'd watched the cafeteria aunt give him a half-ladle shake, then turn and fill Jiang Nian's bowl completely—even adding an extra half-ladle. He'd later reclaimed that extra half-ladle from Jiang Nian.

But

There's something fishy! He never thought Jiang Nian would sell his dignity for half a ladle of food.

Jiang Nian gave him a sidelong glance and asked.

"What did you call me?"

Li Hua rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.

"Grandma, braised eggplant."

"Hahaha, you're such a loser," Jiang Nian laughed. "She's only fifty—her grandson hasn't even been born yet, and you're calling her grandma?"

"Wait, how do you know so much?"

"Downstairs neighbors."

These four short words shattered Li Hua's heart, breaking him completely. Damn it, nepotism was everywhere—could this human-connection society just die already!

At that moment, Li Hua completely forgot he had a father working at the Procuratorate.

On their way back to Gao San.

Jiang Nian ran into Zhou Haifei again; coincidentally, their umbrellas met in the rain, their eyes locking for a moment.

Her umbrella looked worn-out, just like her ugly black-rimmed glasses. She never spoke a word, yet they'd crossed paths many times—last time was probably on the stairs.

Jiang Nian didn't think much of it, glanced over, and walked away.

In the classroom, few people were napping.

He and Li Hua returned early, chatting while doing problems. After ten minutes, Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe entered through the front door, arms linked.

"Hey, you guys ate fast." Chen Yunyun said.

"Not bad. You two were quick too," Jiang Nian replied offhandedly. "Mainly because Li Hua's wearing Anta—he stomped every junior in front of him flat."

"Let injustice bow before him—we were the first to eat."

Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe both laughed, but Li Hua got flustered.

"Can we stop talking about Anta? Did you get paid to say that?"

"Hahaha, Li Hua's really something," Wang Yuhe joked.

She'd heard boys loved fighting over meals—eating alone was boring. Two together? Even the worst food wouldn't be left for a brother.

"Don't believe him—he's just making stuff up."

Chen Yunyun had wanted to chat with Jiang Nian, but girls are shy.

With Li Hua sitting beside her, approaching him would've seemed forced. After thinking, she returned to her group to do homework.

Wang Yuhe was introverted, but she'd interacted with Jiang Nian a few times these past days. As she passed through the aisle, out of politeness, she asked one question.

"Have you finished your homework?"

Jiang Nian didn't look up. "Not yet. Waiting for Li Hua to do it."

Li Hua said, "Not done either. Jiang Nian didn't do it—why should I rush?"

Hearing this, Wang Yuhe smiled and walked away.

She thought these two were amusing—if they switched seats next time, maybe their groups could sit next to each other. Daily class routines would never lack entertainment.

Girls felt too embarrassed not to hand in homework, so they took it seriously. Homework assigned in the morning was usually done by noon.

Jiang Nian didn't care—he copied answers if he knew how, conserving energy.

If he really couldn't, he just didn't turn it in. No one could kill him for it.

Since Chen Yunyun didn't come chat, he was happy for the quiet. He even spent half an hour correcting all his physics, chemistry, and biology mistakes for the afternoon lecture.

He circled the problems he didn't understand in blue and added notes, then napped for half an hour in between.

Jiang Nian had perfectly integrated into the Olympiad tier, becoming one of the natives.

Afternoon was still test review. After three classes, during self-study, the whole class totaled scores. The class monitor handed out a sheet, passing it back from Group One, Row One.

In a regular class, filling in scores felt humiliating for low performers.

But this was the Olympiad class.

Any bottom-ranked student here could rank middle-tier in a regular class. No one felt ashamed—just everyone glanced at others' scores when they got the sheet.

First, they'd check the score of the person they liked, then the class top scorer, then the lowest. The conversation would always start with: "Holy shit, XXX almost got full marks."

The sheet passed in a single-file line backward—by the time it reached Jiang Nian, it was nearly over.

Li Hua filled in his score while muttering "Holy shit," first glancing at the monitor's score, then at Yu Tongjie's—and burst into laughter.

"Nian, check this out," Li Hua tapped the list, wiggling his eyebrows and whispering. "This little Sword Tomb only scored this much? All day he yells like a useless waste."

Jiang Nian noticed Li Hua's mouth had gotten increasingly sharp—his manners were deplorable.

He glanced at Yu Tongjie's score: 527. He immediately grew serious.

"Why stare at someone else's score? Boring."

Li Hua froze. "Before you say that, can you at least stop grinning?"

After everyone in the group filled in their scores, Jiang Nian glanced over briefly.

The highest in the group was Zhang Ningzhi at 632—Baby Zhizhi was the extraterrestrial demon of Class Three. She ascended from a regular class and crushed elite students even in the Olympiad class.

Next was Li Hua at 614—he lost points mostly in English and Chinese, a withered bone beneath Zhizhi's immortal throne. A relic of Class Three, group leader of Group Six.

No longer the top in the group, his authority gone—just a withered bone now.

Huang Fang at 586—Empress Fangfang climbed purely through sheer grind. A mortal emperor. Can't imagine what she'd do if she had a proficiency panel—she'd probably grind straight to Tsinghua or Peking University.

Jiang Nian scored 563—not high, not low. Like Xiao Yan from a regular class: don't underestimate the boy. He concluded his scores weren't rising mainly because he was always sleepy.

Once he completed the system's task, he'd eliminate fatigue once daily.

Wait, bro, are you seriously using this for studying?

Ceng You scored 524—a master of slacking. A great emperor wandering between two worlds: one, gaming; the other, the real-world college entrance exam—handling both effortlessly.

"Comrade, how come you only scored this? That's not your level," Jiang Nian poked his back, curious.

"Comrade" was Ceng You's nickname, earned from his immortal-style lifestyle. He sat atop the throne of human potential, mocking Death's incompetence.

Ceng You turned around, unable to keep up his composure, pouting.

"I think it's the exam order. The science comprehensive should've been on Sunday night. Instead, Chinese was at night—I got bored and just went back to the dorm."

"Hm?" Li Hua asked, "Then what?"

"The moment I thought about the English exam the next morning, I figured my English was bad anyway. Why bother sleeping that night? Might as well just read, and one read turned into an all-nighter."

"The next morning during the English exam, I fell asleep during the listening section as expected. But I couldn't understand it to begin with, so it didn't really matter. Math went normally."

"When I got back to the dorm at noon for a nap, I originally planned to read just one chapter and then sleep properly. But I accidentally read too far ahead, and during the afternoon comprehensive science exam I was in a daze, completely out of it."

"I looked up and saw Old Liu invigilating, and in my haze mistook him for my mom. Almost asked when the food would be ready."

"Hahaha!!" The whole group burst out laughing at the remark.

"What a character!" Huang Fang laughed.

"It's fine, do better next time." The comfort came from Baby Zhizhi.

"Awesome." Jiang Nian, blunt and to the point.

"Killing me, mistaking Old Liu for your mom, hahaha." Li Hua couldn't stop laughing, cackling wildly like a monkey.

He was immediately reprimanded by the discipline committee, "Group Six, quiet!"

Logically speaking, Ceng You should have been at the bottom, but below him was another one — Wu Jun Gu at 509. When they saw the score, all five members of the group froze.

Several of them turned their gazes toward Wu Jun Gu. From the very start he hadn't joined in the group's fun just now. He had been lying on the desk the whole time, no one knew what he was thinking.

Seeing this, the others didn't feel right saying anything — maybe something had happened to him. Still, with his grades dropping this much, a talk with the head teacher was definitely unavoidable.

Before evening self-study.

The classroom was brightly lit. Apart from Wu Jun Gu, who hadn't come, everyone else in Group Six was there. Self-study hadn't started yet, and the classroom was bustling and unusually noisy.

Huang Fang turned her head, looked at Li Hua and Jiang Nian roughhousing in the back row, and couldn't help asking.

"Group leader, what do you think is actually going on with Wu Jun Gu?"

The rascal Li Hua stroked his chin, the corners of his mouth splitting into a grin.

"Obviously love, Empress Fangfang."

"Don't call me Fangfang, it's disgusting." Huang Fang fake-gagged, then turned to ask Jiang Nian, "His girlfriend seems to be from the class next door, right? I think I saw her once."

Jiang Nian looked puzzled and pointed at himself.

"You're asking me?"