Chapter 97

At nine o'clock in the morning.

Zhao Rongjun packed his schoolbag at his grandfather's house, confirmed he hadn't forgotten anything, then told his grandfather in the living room.

"Grandpa, I'm going to a classmate's house to study together—I won't be eating at home today."

"Oh!" Zhao Rongjun's grandfather immediately stood up and called into the house, "Old lady! Didn't you bring back a lot of stuff from the countryside a couple days ago? Get some over here."

In no time, Zhao Rongjun was handed two plastic bags, each filled to the brim with fruit and vegetables.

"Grandpa… you don't need to give me so much—I've known Li Luo since we were kids."

"Take it all. Want some more?"

"Enough, enough!" Zhao Rongjun quickly slung his schoolbag over his shoulders, grabbed both heavy bags, and hurried out the door, "I'm off then!"

Zhao Rongjun's grandfather lived not far from the First Affiliated High School; it was only a few minutes' walk to Bihai Lanting.

When he arrived at the apartment complex, Li Luo had already been waiting; seeing Zhao Rongjun burdened with two full bags, he immediately stepped forward to take them.

"Come on, you just come over—why bring so much stuff?"

"My grandfather insisted I bring them," Zhao Rongjun said helplessly. "Just keep them. Eat them whenever you want."

"Then I won't be polite," Li Luo said, taking one bag and adding, "Today you're here to study hard—if you don't, you'll get surpassed by me in the midterm."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Zhao Rongjun said. "Then we can still go to the same university."

"No wonder you're a good brother," Li Luo said, patting his shoulder with satisfaction. "Come on, let me properly host you."

Li Luo spoke nicely, but when he followed Li Luo upstairs and stepped into apartment 1502, seeing four girls sitting in the living room, he froze in shock.

"Come on, come on—sit over there, we saved you a spot," Li Luo, standing beside Zhao Rongjun, saw his expression and immediately shut the door, then warmly pulled Zhao Rongjun, who had taken a half-step back, to the desk.

"You didn't say there'd be this many people!"

Zhao Rongjun leaned close to Li Luo's ear and hissed, "And why are they all girls?"

"Aren't I a guy?" Li Luo shot back.

Zhao Rongjun's face darkened: "... You're not even human—why bother with gender?"

"You're here now, just sit down," Li Luo shoved him onto the edge of the desk.

Zhao Rongjun reluctantly sat, sighed, and cautiously glanced at the people around the desk with the corner of his eye.

The person sitting next to him—he had a vague memory—was Yan Zhusheng, Li Luo's desk partner in Class Eight.

Yan Zhusheng sat in the middle of the window-side desk; on the other side was Qiao Xinyan, Ying Chanxi's desk partner.

Across from them all sat Ying Chanxi, Li Luo, and Xu Youyu.

When Zhao Rongjun had agreed last night to come here to study, his thoughts were simple.

After all, they hadn't seen each other during National Day—visiting Li Luo's place wasn't bad.

He had met Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu before; they'd even eaten together here, so at least he knew them a little.

But who could have expected that today, besides Li Luo, there would be four girls!

This was going to kill him!

Facing the four girls at the table, Zhao Rongjun fell utterly silent, unable to utter a single word.

After sitting down, he quietly pulled out his workbook and buried himself in problems, pretending not to see anyone.

Li Luo said nothing more, only chuckled and patted his shoulder, then went to the kitchen fridge and took out several small pudding cups, handing one to each person except Ying Chanxi.

"I thought you were using studying as an excuse to hang out," whispered Qiao Xinyan from the other side. "But you really just came to study?"

"Study seriously during the day," Li Luo said solemnly. "Of course, if you don't study, that's fine too—just do poorly on the midterm, and I'll move up one rank."

"Xixi," Qiao Xinyan blinked. "Why is he so arrogant?"

Ying Chanxi glanced at Li Luo, then kindly reminded him, "Xinyan scored 348 on the entrance exam."

"Huh?" Li Luo froze.

Lu Jiahao, the top scorer in Class Eight, had only gotten 345.

So this was the strength of Class One?

By the way, Zhao Rongjun had scored 330 on the entrance exam too.

Yan Zhusheng had scored higher than him as well.

So now, of the six people at the table, he was the one with the lowest obvious score?

"Mainly because Qiao Xinyan always looks clueless," Li Luo shook his head and sighed. "I never sensed any genius aura—I just misjudged her."

"Judging by appearances," Qiao Xinyan bit into her pudding. "In middle school, I was consistently top three in grade, you know."

"My bad for being ignorant."

After some casual chatter, the six fell quiet and slipped into study mode.

Li Luo had the Memory Palace—he could memorize any concept instantly, with zero lag; once he saw it, he remembered it.

So he could devote all his study energy to learning how to correctly and flexibly apply these concepts.

Whenever he couldn't figure something out, he simply asked Ying Chanxi or Xu Youyu.

Yan Zhusheng, across from them, acted as if no one else was there—just quietly put on headphones, listened to music, and worked on problems.

Around ten, Li Luo stretched and decided to cut up some fruit.

Before standing, he idly observed the others and noticed something interesting.

Zhao Rongjun still had his old habit—whenever there were too many girls around, he got nervous.

When nervous, he either bit his fingernails or tore tissues; if he was doing homework, he went even worse.

Yan Zhusheng was more ordinary—just genuinely liked listening to music, sometimes humming a few notes unconsciously.

But the moment he realized others were nearby, he immediately stopped.

Li Luo suspected that when Yan Zhusheng studied alone at home, he probably started singing halfway through.

Qiao Xinyan liked spinning her pen; Xu Youyu liked tucking one leg under her butt, then switching legs every so often.

Ying Chanxi was the most normal one—no weird habits, her posture perfectly upright. She just had a touch of OCD, always arranging her textbooks and exercise books perfectly square, adjusting them every little while.

Li Luo smiled, got up and walked into the kitchen, took out some of the fruit Zhao Rongjun had brought earlier, washed it clean in the sink, then cut it up and put it into a few plates, and carried them to the desk in the living room.

"Help yourselves, these were all brought by Zhao Rongjun." Li Luo said, sitting back down in his seat.

But Yan Zhusheng across from him, wearing earphones and buried in homework, apparently hadn't heard what he said.

So Li Luo reached out and tapped his fingers on the desk in front of her.

Yan Zhusheng saw Li Luo's gesture, looked up at him in confusion, then blinked, as if she'd caught his meaning, and took off one of her earphones and held it out toward him.

Li Luo: "……I was telling you to eat fruit, not asking to listen to music."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng caught on then, put the earphone back, picked up a piece of watermelon and started tasting it.

But Ying Chanxi beside Li Luo glanced over and asked curiously, "Do you usually ask Yan Zhusheng for her earphones to listen to music?"

"Once in a while." Li Luo coughed twice. "Wasn't it that I asked her to record a song before? That one 'Waiting for You After Class,' so I used her phone to listen to it before."

Ying Chanxi withdrew her gaze: "No need to explain it so clearly. Get me a piece of cantaloupe."

"Here." Li Luo picked up a toothpick, speared a piece for Ying Chanxi and handed it over.

Ying Chanxi didn't take it with her hand, just opened her mouth and bit it off in one go, then looked at Zhao Rongjun as if nothing were out of the ordinary: "It's very sweet. Zhao Rongjun, where did you buy this?"

"My grandma brought it back from the countryside, relatives grew it themselves." Zhao Rongjun replied in a muffled voice.

"Oh, no wonder." Ying Chanxi nodded, then picked up a grape from the plate in front of her, stuffed it into Li Luo's mouth, then handed one to Xu Youyu at the other end. "Senior, you try some too."

"Thanks." Xu Youyu hadn't noticed what was going on at the table at all, just took the grape from Ying Chanxi and popped it into her mouth, then scribbled and doodled in her draft notebook, immersed in the world of her novel outline, and casually switched the leg tucked under her butt.

But the motion was too big, and her snow-white little foot kicked Li Luo right on the thigh.

"Uh… sorry sorry hahaha~" Xu Youyu pulled her foot back, and considerately patted Li Luo's thigh, "You okay?"

"You don't sit like this at school too, do you?" Li Luo glanced at Xu Youyu's sitting posture and couldn't help asking.

"Of course not." Xu Youyu said, "At school I have to keep up appearances, but at home of course I have to relax."

Saying that, Xu Youyu simply crossed her other leg up too, sitting cross-legged right on the chair, hands bracing her ankles, swaying happily.

The few of them kept studying while eating fruit.

By eleven o'clock at noon, Ying Chanxi called out to Xu Youyu and Qiao Xinyan, ready to head downstairs to buy groceries, and casually asked Yan Zhusheng, "Zhusheng, want to come buy groceries?"

Yan Zhusheng shook her head, pointed at the piano room beside her: "I want to play piano for a bit."

"OK." Ying Chanxi nodded, "Then what do you want to eat? We'll go buy groceries."

Yan Zhusheng blinked, then looked at Li Luo.

"Remember to buy a yellow eel, and some chicken leg meat, that's all." Li Luo said while clearing the plates off the desk.

"Oh." Ying Chanxi looked at Yan Zhusheng, then at Li Luo, "Then we're off."

Watching Ying Chanxi and the others leave, Yan Zhusheng walked back into the piano room, and Zhao Rongjun's tense body finally relaxed.

The next second, he irritably shoved Li Luo down onto the sofa: "Is this how you treat a good buddy?"

"Isn't this good enough?" Li Luo laughed and pushed him away, "Four beautiful girls keeping you company while you do homework—go ask the guys at school, if word of this got out, they'd be lining up to pay for the chance."

"So I should be thanking you?" Zhao Rongjun rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright." Li Luo waved his hand, pushing Zhao Rongjun toward his bedroom, "Go play on the computer for a bit, password 0314, I'll call you when lunch is ready."

Once Zhao Rongjun was settled in, Li Luo stretched lazily, then walked into the piano room.