Chapter 99: Sorry

Facing Li Hua's slander and the class's mockery, Jiang Nian looked utterly unfazed.

So what?

The class laughed for a bit, but was quickly shut down by Old Liu.

His original intent wasn't to target Li Hua or Jiang Nian anyway; the Yan Kingdom map had been fully revealed. Old Liu no longer wasted words and took Wu Jun Gu away directly.

After Wu Jun Gu left, Li Hua muttered.

"Jun Ge is in danger."

Jiang Nian lifted his head from his sea of problems and turned to say.

"When the old man loses his horse, how do you know it's not a blessing? Maybe this time, Old Liu picks him, and he finally sees the light. Not only does he grasp the big truths, but his grades skyrocket."

Li Hua gasped, "Then I'll be so jealous I'll cry."

Zhang Ningzhi was puzzled—Jiang Nian was actually giving Li Hua a proper lecture. But to guard against any hidden moves, she decided to keep watching.

If he turned around now and got caught, he'd think I'm paying too much attention to him. (Angry)

"Hey Hua, you're a single dog," Jiang Nian said, his Yan Kingdom map now fully exposed—he leaned back in tactical retreat—"you're worried about a couple who actually have something to say to each other?"

"Where were you when they were kissing under the moonlight? Watching Piggy Hero?"

Jiang Nian's sudden strike—ninety-nine thousand damage—landed straight on Li Hua's heart. "Fuck!" slipped out, and Li Hua was instantly crushed into silence.

To be fair, Li Hua was truly broken.

Thinking of how Wu Jun Gu usually kissed and groped his girlfriend at the bubble tea shop, maybe even slipping his hand inside her clothes, he suddenly felt a pang of discomfort.

Why is everyone else's youth so successful?

Fuck!

"Stop talking, bro—I'm just a virgin who's never been chased," Li Hua covered his head and whispered bitterly, "you just stabbed me right in the lung."

"Hahaha." Jiang Nian laughed.

He was about to say something when the discipline committee shouted "Quiet!" and he swallowed his words. Li Qingrong's top enforcer—he was scared, scared.

Halfway through the second evening self-study.

Sun Zhicheng leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and exhaled a long breath.

He'd spent the entire evening self-study watching Chen Yunyun, tense every break. It felt like fearing his wife would cheat with a yellow-haired guy, yet he couldn't stop it.

He wasn't anything to Chen Yunyun—thinking of this, Sun Zhicheng's heart ached. If only he were her boyfriend, he could stop it openly and legitimately.

Lin Dong turned, glanced at Sun Zhicheng, and asked with concern.

"Ah Cheng, are you desperate to pee?"

Sun Zhicheng: "."

Ding ding ding—the second evening self-study ended.

During the break, the classroom was brightly lit and noisy. Some slept, others shouted about problems, some went out to the restroom.

Chen Yunyun stood up, looking dazed, called out Wang Yuhe but got no response—so she went herself, stepping out the classroom door.

The moment she stood, Sun Zhicheng was alert. Hearing she was just going to the restroom, he relaxed—but still instinctively glanced forward.

What he saw made his heart drop: Jiang Nian's seat was empty.

He instinctively wanted to go out and check—but reason held him back.

Sun Zhicheng, don't lose face.

Is it even reasonable to be this anxious all day? You two aren't even a couple. Face reality—stop thinking about Chen Yunyun.

Thinking this, his eyes cleared again—true strength comes from having no desires.

Yet, eight minutes later.

He saw with his own eyes Jiang Nian and Chen Yunyun walking in together, laughing and chatting—Jiang Nian even placed his hand on her head, gesturing something.

He didn't know what Jiang Nian said, but Chen Yunyun immediately dodged and lightly slapped him.

In that instant, Sun Zhicheng broke again—his heart ached bitterly. Why can't she just stay away from Jiang Nian! He's not a good person at all!

Sun Zhicheng took a deep breath and closed his eyes again. His mind couldn't help imagining what they'd talked about outside, what they'd done.

The staircase corner by the restroom was pitch black—even if they were pinching faces or holding hands inside, no one would notice. Judging by their behavior, they must've done something like that.

Lin Dong stared at his desk-mate Sun Zhicheng, seeing him slumped over the desk, face twisted in pain—he blurted "Fuck!" and pushed him.

"Cheng, are you sick? Don't tough it out!"

Sun Zhicheng only shook his head, his fingernails digging into his flesh. He decided to confess—no matter the outcome, at least it would end the pain.

He liked Chen Yunyun, but he'd never felt this intensely before. Since Jiang Nian came, everything felt off—more precisely, since the sports meet.

Do girls admire strength?

If it's two gold medals, I could get them too—if only I had time to prepare. Comparing myself to Jiang Nian isn't fair to begin with!

Back at his seat.

Li Hua leaned in, eyes suspicious.

"You've been hanging out a lot with Chen Yunyun lately?"

Zhang Ningzhi, who'd been solving problems, couldn't help pursing her lips. She even felt touched—Li Hua was actually quite good, at least he cared about the group's personal life.

Best mouthpiece—highly recommended.

"What? You're imagining things," Jiang Nian dismissed it, opening his review book. "Baby, we're just friends—you're overstepping, you know?"

Li Hua: "Player!" (Zhang Ningzhi silently thought: Player!)

"Baby, if you keep acting like this, I'll go play with the math rep," Jiang Nian flipped idly through the thin answer booklet, spotting another wrong answer.

He paused, then sighed deeply, putting down his pen.

"Fine, satisfied your jealousy? We bumped into each other by the classroom door. She asked how high my English score was—I showed her with my hand—it was about this much higher."

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi quietly exhaled.

Li Hua was a bit annoyed. "Bro, teach me how to talk to girls, I'll do anything."

Jiang Nian thought for a moment then refused. "No, you're too Nan Tong, I'm afraid you'll use me."

"Holy shit! You f*cking—"

During the third evening self-study period, Wu Jun Gu finally returned from the office. His expression wasn't great. After muttering with Li Hua for a while, they swapped seats.

Jiang Nian was a bit curious and turned to look at Wu Jun Gu.

"What's wrong?"

"Nian-ge, do you have time after school?" Wu Jun Gu hesitated. "There's something I want to ask you about. I can't make up my mind, I want your input."

Jiang Nian didn't expect that one casual chat consultation would actually have a repeat customer.

While Wu Jun Gu waited for Jiang Nian's answer, the other four members of the group also pricked up their ears. Gao San was just too damn miserable, too damn fond of gossip.

Li Hua almost shouted out, pretending to do problems, but inwardly urging silently, Agree to it! Agree to it! f*cking agree to it already!

It was obvious Huazi really wanted to hear the romance gossip between Wu Jun Gu and Monday Fengman.

"No, I have a buddy to go home with after school, can't stand him up." Jiang Nian refused without much thought. Xu Qianqian's value was just too high.

Gao Dao-ye running to the countryside to set off fireworks for her—ridiculous or what?

Although he had no expectations for the future, could accept any surprise the future brought, and didn't confine himself to rules and frameworks, setting a frame for his own life.

But he would still do something, try to grasp at a few things.

Wu Jun Gu sighed, but still accepted, nodding.

"Then I'll add you, we'll talk on the phone?"

"Sure, but I won't stay up late, ha." Although Jiang Nian was kind, he was no longer like before—"I get sleepy on time, basically dead asleep before twelve."

The neighboring Zhang Ningzhi was stunned by this, thinking about how last time during the sports meet he took leave to go back to his hometown, yet chatted with her in the middle of the night, so she wasn't in that category?

The category of ordinary friends?

Suddenly, Zhang Ningzhi really wanted to know her ranking in his heart.

On the surface she was still calmly doing problems, but in reality all kinds of details were already connecting in her mind. The faint sourness accumulated over a day was smoothed away at this moment.

He's very popular, and capable too, it's normal to have many friends. He'd only been in the class half a month, yet so many people already called him Nian-ge and came to him for help.

She really envied the person who could go home with him, they must be able to chat about lots of interesting topics.

"Scored 116 in math? What a noob?"

Xu Qianqian delivered a taunt fitting her character, tightening her bag strap. Walking the road home after evening self-study, the crowd surged, and she was amused the whole way.

"Actually, with my score I could go flex in the regular class." Jiang Nian sneered. "What did you get, 130 or 140?"

Xu Qianqian stopped upon hearing that, then tilted her head.

"150."

Jiang Nian was silent for a while. Is this even a score a human can get?

Seeing him fall silent, Xu Qianqian said with slight smugness.

"Why aren't you laughing anymore? Feeling inferior?"

Contrary to her expectations, Jiang Nian, who always had a sharp tongue, didn't retort. Instead he let out a light laugh, and under the streetlight, scratched his neck a little sheepishly.

"Sorry, even though you explained similar problems to me, I still can't do them, can't score high."

In that instant, Xu Qianqian froze, suddenly guilty enough to want to die.

"N-no, it's fine, it's already very high. I-I was just joking with you, actually 116 is also impressive, take it slow, you've only been studying for half a month."

She said it dryly, her voice getting smaller and smaller.

"Haha, you don't need to comfort me, I still know my own level." Jiang Nian didn't mind, talking as he walked along the road.

"Learning isn't that easy. I estimate that in a year, raising my total score by about fifty points would be pretty good. At least I can hold steady at a 211, might even shoot for a 985."

"You work hard, raising your score won't be hard." She said, head lowered, still feeling a bit guilty inside. "If you don't understand something you can ask me, I'll teach you."

"Of course I will, I won't be polite with you." Jiang Nian didn't feel there was anything wrong with his words. "You should be able to get into a top-tier university steadily, shooting for Tsinghua or Peking isn't hopeless either."

The system hadn't leaked much info, and he didn't know what university Xu Qianqian would end up at. Blind guess: high education, graduate and directly become an OL, or study medicine?

Studying medicine probably wasn't likely, Xu Qianqian had no interest in medicine.

"Mm." She didn't know what to say.

"After the college entrance exam, I'll see if I can be near your school. If it's the capital, I won't go." Jiang Nian rubbed his chin, considering seriously.

"My score... only has an advantage in a few provinces like Jiang Nan F4. Staying in the province might be just right, or might overflow, we'll see how it goes when the time comes."

"Don't really want to go up north, going up north to travel is fine though. If you really have the ability to get into Tsinghua or Peking, still go for it. Although I know you're drooling over this bro's looks—"

Hearing him talk more and more outrageously, Xu Qianqian couldn't hold back anymore, turning her head.

"Go to hell! Jiang Nian!"

She punched Jiang Nian in the stomach, but clearly felt the thin layer of abs.

Jiang Nian sneered, spitting out one line.

"Baby, haven't even gotten home yet and you're already this eager?"

Xu Qianqian instantly went berserk!

"Get lost!"

As expected, don't feel compassion for a scumbag! Peel open his heart, inside is still layer upon layer of absurdity! No! Jiang Nian this person simply has no heart!

Got home.

Xu Qianqian washed up alone and returned to her bedroom, setting the alarm for the next day. Before turning off the screen, seeing the fireworks picture as her screensaver, she still felt a moment of absent-mindedness.

Click, lights off.

The bedroom was pitch dark, she stared at the black ceiling and closed her eyes. Strangely, the fireworks kept lingering in her mind, impossible to shake off.

"Give it a rest!"

The room contained only her voice. Xu Qianqian tried to cover her eyes with the blanket. But after a while, the image of him saying sorry on the road came back to her.

"Aaaah!" She suddenly sat up in bed, covered her face with both hands, and kept rubbing in the darkness. "Why did I have to say that line? Why!"

Then she collapsed onto the bed, rolling and rolling nonstop.

Thinking of the way Jiang Nian had looked when he said sorry, Xu Qianqian's heart ached as if pricked by a needle. She really wanted to knock on Jiang Nian's door and tell him that the poor grades weren't his fault.

He had already done very well. A pat on the head.

The minute hand on the wall clock had moved a quarter of its circle, and Xu Qianqian still couldn't fall asleep. After muttering "I really deserve to die" for a while, she curled up into a ball on the bed again.

After she stopped squirming, she realized that after October comes November. The time they had together was growing shorter and shorter; perhaps next summer they really would part ways.

Should she be a little nicer to him?

Xu Qianqian didn't remember how she fell asleep. She had a very long dream. In the dream, she returned to that midsummer of that year, standing at the mouth of the old alley, looking at the street sign.

Jiang Nian held an ice pop, ran over excitedly from afar, and then split it in two.

Fine ice crumbs splashed onto her face, cold and cool, carrying the scent of mung beans. The stream of passersby flowed on without end, and fragments of sunlight wove through the street.

The air had been baked scorching hot, cicadas droning without pause.

【Xu Qianqian, your scores are so high, I can't be in the same class as you anymore.】

【Who's to blame for you not studying.】

【I just can't get it in, I was never that smart. It's fine, as long as your placement scores are good, just let me copy from you in the college entrance exam later.】

【Do you want to go to prison?】

【Does it come with room and board?】

Upon waking, Jiang Nian figured out what gift to give Xu Qianqian. Something that wouldn't waste money, would complete the task, and that he himself could enjoy.

Buy her a JK uniform set.

Not to mention anything else, this one really can't be refused — if it's the twin-tails style, that is.

Open the door.

He froze. Xu Qianqian had, for the first time ever, stepped out at the exact same time as him. Seeing her reddened eye rims, Jiang Nian couldn't help but ask.

"Did your period come?"

"No." Xu Qianqian sniffed. "Last night I dreamed that you chased me calling me 'Mom.' Knocking your head on the ground and shouting the whole way — it moved me to tears."

Jiang Nian: "."