Chapter 594: Teacher Yan Is Going to Punish You

When he got home in the evening, the piano music was still playing in the practice room.

Ying Chanxi crept through the front door, slipped on slippers, feigned as if she'd never left, winked at Li Luo, then slipped into the bathroom to shower.

Li Luo found her sneaky behavior amusing; seeing her head to the bathroom, he glanced toward the piano room, thought for a moment, then turned and walked into the kitchen.

He took some fruit from the fridge, washed it clean, arranged it on a plate, poured a glass of milk, and walked straight to the piano room door, gently knocking.

The piano music paused inside; Li Luo opened the door and stepped in, and Yan Zhusheng, seated at the piano, lifted her head to look at him.

"Eat some fruit," Li Luo said, placing the plate on the nearby side table. "And here's milk."

Yan Zhusheng glanced at the fruit and milk but didn't reach for them; instead, she turned her gaze back to Li Luo and opened her mouth—

"Ah~"

Li Luo: "... Are you a child?"

He said it, but still pinched a grape and slipped it into Yan Zhusheng's small mouth.

Then he picked up an orange, peeled it, stood beside her, and fed her one segment at a time.

When she'd eaten most of the fruit, Yan Zhusheng stood up from the piano stool, gestured for Li Luo to sit, then plopped herself onto his lap.

"Teacher Yan, what are we learning today?" Li Luo smiled, his hands resting on her slender waist.

"Before class, I need to punish you," Yan Zhusheng said, her face stern.

"Why punish me? What did I do wrong?"

"Think about where you went wrong," Yan Zhusheng asked, turning her head.

"I can't think of anything."

"While I was practicing piano here, where were you?"

"I... I was writing."

"Liar," Yan Zhusheng narrowed her eyes. "Lying adds another layer of punishment."

"How do you know I'm lying?"

"I saw you leave with Chanxi right from the balcony."

"Didn't you say you were playing piano?"

"When you asked me what I was doing tonight, I knew you had ulterior motives," Yan Zhusheng spun around in front of Li Luo, straddling him face-to-face. "Today is Chanxi's birthday—you definitely wanted to do something with her."

"We didn't really do anything," Li Luo coughed, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Just walked along the riverbank."

"The place where you two first kissed?" Yan Zhusheng's mind moved quickly on this point—she instantly recalled their MV kiss.

"Why ask so much? Are we having class or not? If not, go to sleep."

"We're having class," Yan Zhusheng wrapped her arms around Li Luo's neck, pressing her body against him. "But next time it's my birthday, you're taking me alone to KTV."

"You're really jealous."

"No older sister would be."

"Try saying that to Chanxi to her face?"

"Don't talk. I'm punishing you now," Yan Zhusheng sat on Li Luo's lap, lowered her head, and began punishing him.

More than ten minutes later, after Yan Zhusheng finished drinking the milk and walked out of the piano room with Li Luo, Ying Chanxi had just finished her shower—now it was Yan Zhusheng's turn.

Today was Tuesday; Xu Youyu was staying in the school dormitory and hadn't returned.

Li Luo hugged the two sisters and lay in bed, peacefully passing another night.

On Wednesday, the Gao San students of Fuyi High School faced their second mock exam before the college entrance exam.

Since dozens of key high schools were jointly administering the test, this exam would include not only the school-wide ranking but also the provincial ranking.

Although many other provincial high schools hadn't joined, this overall ranking still held considerable reference value for predicting actual college entrance exam rankings.

Especially for students near the top—their ranking would closely mirror the real college entrance exam results.

After all, the province's top students were mostly concentrated in these dozens of key high schools.

Fuyi High School, as a provincial key school, ranked at the top of the second tier within the province.

The first tier consisted of only three or four elite schools, like Yuhang No. 2 High School and Zhenhai High School.

In past years, students ranked in the top five of Fuyi's entire grade would likely land around the top 50 in those elite schools.

But this year was slightly different.

At least with Ying Chanxi present, Fuyi High School could still compete with those schools in the realm of top academic geniuses.

As for Li Luo.

Although he always scored just a few points behind Ying Chanxi, those few points could easily mean dozens of ranking positions apart.

If Li Luo truly applied himself, poured all his energy into it, and leveraged his Memory Palace, he could at least match these provincial academic geniuses.

But there was no need.

On one hand, he wasn't applying to Tsinghua or Peking University—his score just needed to be sufficient.

On the other hand, he didn't care about securing a top major at Qianjiang University—he simply wanted to experience life at a top-tier university.

Fighting tooth and nail with these academic geniuses would be too exhausting.

Right now, he had to maintain updates for I Am Really Not a Star and lay groundwork for the novel's real-world crossover.

He also had to launch a new book in April, coordinating with the Ben Zhang Shuo feature test.

He still needed to take his driver's license exam.

In May, Yuan Wanqing's concert would take place, where Yan Zhusheng would perform a new song from Xiao Huanxi.

At that time, Yin Zhicheng would officially launch related promotional activities.

With one official matter following another, he had no time to fight over a few points in the college entrance exam.

So while all other Fuyi High School students took the mock exam with serious focus, Li Luo remained relaxed, paying it little mind.

After all, with the Memory Palace at hand, reviewing or not makes little difference.

In comparison, Xu Yinghuan was far more nervous.

Before the Chinese exam began, she clutched her study materials, flipping through passages she needed to memorize, glancing at long, complex sentences the teacher had emphasized, muttering to herself.

As top students who had ranked within the top forty of the entire grade, Li Luo, Ying Chanxi, Qiao Xinyan, and Zhao Rongjun all took the exam in Class One's classroom.

Xu Yinghuan had ranked 91st last time and was assigned to Class Three's classroom.

At this moment, she trailed behind Zhao Rongjun and Qiao Xinyan, nervously reciting passages, and only after the time was nearly up did she reluctantly part from the four of them, heading alone to Class Three's battlefield.

"Can you bring back first place this time?"

Li Luo walked into Class One's classroom, sat down, and poked Ying Chanxi's back, smiling as he asked.

Ying Chanxi turned her head and shot him a glance, whispering, "It's not as simple as you make it sound."

Fu Yi High School was unquestionably the top high school in Yinjiang District.

But compared to the two elite schools in Yuhang City's urban area, it wasn't nearly as strong.

Although Ying Chanxi had consistently held the top rank in the grade, she had no real confidence in securing first place in the joint exam.

After all, during previous math competitions, she had encountered many peers at her level—or even more extreme ones.

In the past, if Fu Yi's top student could rank within the top fifty in such a joint exam, it was already considered quite impressive.

"Cough… no more whispering. Keep quiet." The proctor, Teacher Sun, coughed to remind them, his gaze fixed on Li Luo and Ying Chanxi—his meaning was clear.

Back in first year, Teacher Sun had been Ying Chanxi's homeroom teacher, but unfortunately, Ying Chanxi had no interest in Tsinghua or Peking University, leaving Teacher Sun genuinely exasperated for a while.

Now, seeing this kid Li Luo gradually climb to second place in the grade—and even securing first place once during last year's final exam—Teacher Sun couldn't help but feel a deep sense of awe.

He first met Li Luo back during the summer before their first year.

He and several other teachers were playing basketball on campus when they ran into Li Luo and the others.

When he learned how close Ying Chanxi and Li Luo were, Teacher Sun had panicked for a while, fearing this troublemaker would ruin his top-ranked student's grades.

Now, nearly three years later, when Teacher Sun looked at Li Luo, all he felt was awe.

Any teacher at the school who knew Ying Chanxi and Li Luo well understood their complicated relationship.

But since one was top of the grade and the other second, teachers mostly turned a blind eye.

It was rumored that one teacher, while smoking and strolling down a narrow alley on campus, had even seen the two of them sneaking a kiss.

In the end, nothing happened.

"First place in the joint exam is tough, but top ten should be possible, right?" Li Luo glanced at Teacher Sun, then checked the time.

There were still more than ten minutes before the exam started.

So he merely gave a token nod of compliance, straightening his posture, but continued whispering to Ying Chanxi.

"How would I know? I'll only know my approximate rank after I've taken it," Ying Chanxi whispered back.

"Then how about this," Li Luo smiled, "if you make it into the top ten of the joint exam, I'll buy you a car once you get your driver's license?"

"No way," Ying Chanxi immediately frowned, "I already told you—cars are too expensive. Don't waste your money."

"Oh, come on, why worry so much?" Li Luo gave up and switched tactics, "Actually, I want to buy Mom a new car, but she's stingy with money too."

"If I give you a car, you can't drive it to school anyway, so wouldn't it just end up being used by my mom?"

"Then my mom could drive it under the pretense of keeping it safe for you—wouldn't that be a win-win?"

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi felt a slight tug of interest.

Li Luo spotted her hesitation and immediately sealed the deal: "It's settled then. Old Sun's looking again—no more talking."

As the exam time neared, Teacher Sun began organizing the test papers, and when there were about five minutes left, he started distributing them.

The exam hall instantly fell silent except for the rustling of papers being passed.

After receiving his paper, Li Luo quickly scanned the entire page with his eyes, then closed them and reconstructed the test content inside his Memory Palace.

Once the exam began, he wouldn't need to look at the paper again—he could simply read it in his mind, convenient and fast, without flipping pages.

He could even open his textbook and past exam papers right beside the mental test paper and cross-reference them one by one.

But this trick wasn't very useful for Chinese—only slightly helpful for memorization and classical Chinese sections.

…

The three-day joint exam passed quickly.

As a post-exam relaxation, Li Luo announced that this week's study group would be paused for one week—everyone should rest well.

After school on Saturday noon, Li Luo brought Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng home, dropped their bags, changed out of their uniforms, and Yan Zhusheng prepared to head to her private tutoring session.

Li Luo, meanwhile, took Ying Chanxi with him and was picked up by Xu Youyu, who drove them to the driving school to register and collect the required documents for the driver's license exam.

"The instructor I found is the father of one of my dad's students," Xu Youyu said on the way home, "He also trained me for my test."

"He has connections at the driving school—you said you wanted to sign up for later subjects ahead of schedule, right?"

"Just tell him directly when the time comes."

Xu Youyu drove, smiling at Li Luo: "I'd like to see how long it takes you to get your license."

"How long did it take you?" Li Luo glanced sideways at her.

"About two and a half months," Xu Youyu sniffed. "You probably won't finish before the college entrance exam."

"Strictly speaking…" Li Luo searched his Memory Palace, then replied, "From June 10 to August 21—that's about two and a half months."

"That's two months and ten days! Be precise!" Xu Youyu immediately corrected him loudly.

"Huh? I didn't expect your math skills haven't deteriorated even after nearly a year of college?"

"Do you have some misconception about college students?" Xu Youyu narrowed her eyes at him.

The two bickered in the car, while Ying Chanxi flipped through the study materials they'd received from the driving school, getting a general sense of what was covered in Subject One.

By the time they got home, she had already formed a basic study plan.

"How long will it take you to finish this?" Ying Chanxi asked Li Luo after they got home. "Should we sign up for Subject One next weekend?"

"Sure." Li Luo nodded. "You can go straight tomorrow."

"What big talk," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes. "Last summer vacation, I spent three or four solid days grinding through the question bank to pass."

Before Li Luo could rebut, Ying Chanxi spoke up: "Sister, you forgot? This guy memorized every first-year freshman's name and class on opening day."

Xu Youyu: "…Tsk."

"So, Youyu-sis, want to make a bet?" Li Luo grinned. "If I pass faster than you did, you lose. If I'm slower, you win."

"I notice you're really into betting," Xu Youyu refused to take the bait. "If you're faster, you're faster—big deal. I passed before either of you anyway."

"True enough." Li Luo pulled out the token Xu Youyu had given him from his backpack. "I haven't even used this yet. Let's not rush into a new bet."

"You still carry it with you?" Xu Youyu raised an eyebrow and laughed.

"I figured it might come in handy someday—best to keep it on me," Li Luo weighed the token in his hand, studying Xu Youyu with a cheerful smile.

"So what do you want me to do?" Xu Youyu blinked, smiling at him with a flirtatious glance.

"I'll hold onto it for now," Li Luo tucked the token away again. "I feel it'll be extremely useful later."

"You're definitely planning something shady," Ying Chanxi muttered from beside him, though inside she thought, I should've made something similar for Li Luo myself back then.

(End of Chapter)