Chapter 206

When Li Luo got home that night, Ying Chanxi had just finished showering.

She wore a panda pajama set, a towel on her head, wiping her hair, and turned at the sound of the door opening to see Li Luo come in from outside.

"Huh? When did you go out?" Ying Chanxi walked up to Li Luo, wiping her hair, puzzled, then glanced at the plastic bag in his hand, "What's this?"

"Fried rice." Li Luo lifted the plastic bag; a faint scent of shampoo filled the air. He pointed to the dining table, "Want some? I'll blow-dry your hair."

"Oh." Ying Chanxi nodded, followed Li Luo's instruction and sat at the table, then suddenly realized, "You haven't explained yet—why did you suddenly go out to buy fried rice? Can't we make it at home?"

"Yan Zhusheng called me."

"Zhusheng?" Ying Chanxi narrowed her eyes, "She lives in the dorm, right? Why would she ask you to go out?"

"Can you let me finish?" Li Luo patted her head, placed the fried rice on the table, took out one container, and pulled out chopsticks for her.

Then Li Luo walked to the study door, knocked, and called Xu Youyu out to eat fried rice, before returning behind Ying Chanxi, pulling out a hairdryer, blowing her hair as he continued:

"She called to say someone's selling fried rice by the fire door in the dorm."

"Guess who?"

Ying Chanxi took a bite of fried rice, paused, "Who?"

"My uncle." Li Luo said helplessly, "And Zhao Rongjun."

"What what what?" Xu Youyu, called out from the study, sniffed the aroma in the living room, and ran over, "What Zhao Rongjun?"

"He and my uncle hid it from me—they're selling fried rice by the dorm." Li Luo repeated, "So I went to check—and sure enough, they are."

"Smells amazing." Xu Youyu didn't care who sold it, happily opened the lid, and took a big bite, "Nice! Your uncle's cooking is great—almost as good as yours."

"You're eating what I fried." Li Luo rolled his eyes, "Senior, there's orange juice in the fridge—pour us a few glasses."

"OK."

Still blowing Ying Chanxi's hair, Li Luo continued, "I thought Zhao Rongjun had finally settled down, but turns out he's hooked on selling fried rice—even sneaking off to help my uncle."

"But winter break's coming soon, so I'll just let it slide."

"Let them earn a little extra cash."

After hearing this, Ying Chanxi couldn't help but smile, "Without you splitting the profits, wouldn't they make even more?"

"They make about five hundred a night." Li Luo said, "My uncle pays Zhao Rongjun a hundred yuan per shift—he's thrilled, and in just half a month, he's already earned nearly a thousand."

"That's a lot!" Xu Youyu returned with orange juice, and upon hearing this, exclaimed in surprise.

With Li Luo's help on his chapter promotion, Xu Youyu had recently surpassed the 3,000-average-subscription mark and reached premium status.

At a daily update of 4,000 characters, her monthly royalty was barely over ten thousand yuan.

That meant she earned less than Li Luo's uncle did from his stall.

But Ying Chanxi didn't care about that—after hearing Li Luo's story, she asked, "Li Luo, do you want to travel abroad?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I'm going abroad with my dad in February," Ying Chanxi said. "Even if he's not busy, he'll still have work to handle sometimes."

"If you came too, you'd be someone to hang out with."

"There's still over ten days—plenty of time to get a passport. What do you think?"

This put Li Luo in a bind.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go—he'd already promised his editor he'd attend a symposium in February.

So he shook his head, "It'd be too much trouble for Uncle Ying, and you two are traveling as father and daughter—why would I tag along?"

"It's no big deal," Ying Chanxi pouted, poking her fried rice with chopsticks. Seeing Li Luo's reluctance, she grew disappointed.

"Alright." Li Luo finished drying her hair, ruffled her messy locks, "It's just a short half-month—don't act like we'll never see each other again."

After speaking, Li Luo also sat down beside him and began eating his box of fried rice.

The three of them chatted while finishing the fried rice; Xu Youyu patted her belly and let out a burp, "It's all your fault—I have to brush my teeth now."

"Why didn't you say that while eating?"

"I can say it and still eat," Xu Youyu chuckled, "but since Xixi is going abroad, we can only meet again after New Year's Eve? We could invite Zhusheng over."

"Yan Zhusheng is going abroad too," Li Luo said. "Her mom needs to get a medical checkup overseas, so she has to go with her."

"Huh?" Xu Youyu froze.

Beside her, Ying Chanxi's expression changed, and she quickly asked, "When is she leaving?"

"After the break, I think?" Li Luo said. "She won't be back until right before New Year's Eve."

"Really?" Ying Chanxi blinked, her mood suddenly brightening, "Then you really won't come with me?"

"We'll talk about it later—skip this time."

"Alright." Ying Chanxi nodded, stopped pressing him, and changed her attitude quickly.

…

After the final exams ended on January 23, the First Affiliated High School entered its final week of classes.

Life became much more relaxed this week.

The competition classes stopped entirely, all competition clubs paused their activities, and daily leisure time was fully handed over to interest-based clubs.

Teachers only reviewed final exam papers, assigned winter break homework, and left the rest of the time for students to study on their own.

By Wednesday, it was the day results were posted.

Early in the morning, student council members were already pasting new announcements on the bulletin board on the first floor of the teaching building.

Before morning self-study began, the area was already packed—everywhere you looked, heads crowded together, impossible to squeeze into.

Of course, some clever students—or those with good relationships with teachers—had already gone up to the fifth-floor office and directly asked teachers for their exact rankings and scores.

Li Luo obviously wouldn't squeeze into the crowd at the bulletin board; after dropping his bag in Class 8, he went to the office and found Teacher Kong, who handed him the school-wide and Class 8 score sheets.

"Again first place—ranked 17th overall," Kong Jun smiled warmly. "Keep this up, and I'll rest easy."

Li Luo looked at his scores—this ranking was entirely reasonable.

As for Ying Chanxi, she naturally remained at the top of the entire school, pulling more than ten points ahead of second-place Jian Zhenyuan, likely leaving the latter utterly despondent.

Of course, after enough time passed, Jian Zhenyuan would probably get used to it.

"Teacher Kong, may I head back to the classroom?" Li Luo said. "I'll put this score sheet on the blackboard."

"Mm." Kong Junxiang nodded, then suddenly remembered something and said to Li Luo, "Gao Er will be split into liberal arts and science classes. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do."

"But this year's cohort might be a bit different," Kong Junxiang cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "If you're interested, pay a little attention to announcements from the Ministry of Education in your spare time."

"Do you have any inside information, Teacher Kong?" Li Luo's interest stirred—he recalled the college entrance exam reforms targeting Gao Zhongsheng of the 2014 cohort in Qianjiang Province, and guessed what was coming.

"The specifics haven't been finalized yet, but I can tell you a little," Kong Junxiang said. "Your cohort might see a new reform, mainly regarding liberal arts and science course selection."

"Previously, students simply chose either liberal arts or science—either politics, history, geography, or physics, chemistry, biology. The college entrance exam forced a binary choice."

"But now, there's talk of cultivating students more diversely, so targeted reforms in this area are likely."

"What I've heard is that elective subjects might be opened up—for example, if you like physics but dislike chemistry and biology, yet are genuinely interested in history and geography."

"Then, when you're assigned to a class in Gao Er, you could choose physics, history, and geography together."

After hearing Kong Junxiang's words, Li Luo nodded in sudden understanding: "That would make students' choices much more flexible."

"Exactly," Kong Junxiang said with a helpless smile. "But the school's workload will skyrocket, and since you're the first cohort, many things are still uncertain. Even the teachers can't say exactly how it'll turn out—I'm just giving you a heads-up."

"Got it. Thanks for the warning, Teacher Kong."

"Keep this to yourself for now—don't go spreading it around," Kong Junxiang added. "It hasn't been finalized yet. It might even be delayed until next year."

"Understood."

After leaving the office, Li Luo paused in thought, recalling the college entrance exam reforms from his previous life.

Come to think of it.

In his previous life, he'd drifted through high school without ever seriously studying the post-reform details—he'd simply followed the school's plan.

But if he could prepare in advance now… Li Luo thought of this, and a flood of new ideas arose in his mind.

Back in the classroom, Li Luo posted the score sheet on the blackboard, immediately drawing a crowd of classmates.

Pushing through the crowd back to his seat, Li Luo turned to Yan Zhusheng: "Aren't you going to look?"

"I can just ask you," Yan Zhusheng blinked at him. "Besides, I know you're number one."

"You have too much faith in me," Li Luo smiled. "Lu Jiahao did really well too—he made it into the top 40 of the whole school."

"And what about you?"

"17th place—worse than last month's exam," Li Luo sighed, then chuckled bitterly, suddenly realizing he'd started acting like the kind of top student he used to despise. "Aren't you going to ask about your own score?"

"Then what's my score?"

"I won't tell you," Li Luo propped his chin on his hand and teased Yan Zhusheng. "Ask me nicely, then I'll tell you."

"Please, I beg you," Yan Zhusheng blinked, without hesitation, gazing at Li Luo with pure, innocent eyes—so much so that Li Luo felt embarrassed, even a twinge of guilt.

Li Luo: "... You're way too easy to tease."

"But you're the only one who ever teases me."

"Don't make it sound like I'm such a bad person."