Chapter 53

Tan Wenbin bent down and hoisted Zheng Haiyang onto his back in just a few swift motions.

This was enough to show that, in addition to his efforts at solving problems, he hadn't neglected learning the professional basics from Runsheng.

This standard sequence of movements was specifically for carrying a corpse.

Running quickly downstairs, they arrived at the infirmary, but the door was locked; the infirmary teacher had gone to eat.

In fact, even if the door had been open and the teacher present, they wouldn't have been able to help much. The role of this infirmary was to measure temperatures, sign leave slips, or dispense basic medicine like Qingkailing or Banlan Gen; even for IV drips, students were sent to the health center outside the school.

Li Zhuiyuan reminded him, "Runsheng's tricycle is outside."

Tan Wenbin immediately ran toward the school gate with Zheng Haiyang on his back. The health center and the school were on the same straight line and very close; at a time like this, calling a teacher to find a car was truly not as efficient as using Runsheng's tricycle.

A Li got off the tricycle and walked over to Li Zhuiyuan, taking his hand.

On the other side, after Tan Wenbin placed the person into the tricycle, Runsheng immediately pedaled toward the health center.

Li Zhuiyuan and A Li walked slowly, avoiding the crowds. By the time they reached the entrance of the health center, Runsheng had already come out.

"A Li, you and Runsheng go back first. I have something to take care of tonight."

A Li nodded.

"Runsheng, after you take A Li back, bring our gear."

"Got it!"

"Did you see that in a TV show?"

"I think it has more presence."

"A Li, there are books and test papers in the schoolbag. You can look through them first."

A Li sat on the tricycle and held the boy's schoolbag in her arms.

After they left, Li Zhuiyuan walked into the health center. Just as he was inquiring about the specific ward, he heard a series of running footsteps behind him; it was Class Teacher Sun Qing leading two other teachers.

Tan Wenbin carrying someone out of the school gate had been seen by a classmate and reported to the teachers.

By now, Zheng Haiyang, who had looked terrifying in the classroom, had clearly improved. He was on an IV drip, and Tan Wenbin was holding a large porcelain jar, feeding him water with "glug, glug" sounds.

Sun Qing first went to briefly ask the doctor about the situation, and upon learning there was no life-threatening danger, she let out a sigh of relief. She walked in, took one look at the porcelain jar, and asked:

"Is this tap water?"

Tan Wenbin nodded: "He's extremely thirsty."

It was possible to get hot water in the hospital, but warm water was hard to come by. Zheng Haiyang kept crying out that he wanted to drink water, so Tan Wenbin had no choice but to go to the faucet to fetch it for him.

"More, I want more."

"Shouldn't you slow down?" Tan Wenbin asked, "You've already drunk so much."

"Bin, I'm really so thirsty."

"Fine, I'll go get you some."

After drinking two more porcelain jars, Zheng Haiyang's complexion finally recovered; it was no longer that deathly pale, though he looked a bit bloated.

Sun Qing asked: "Have you notified Zheng Haiyang's parents?"

Upon hearing this, a look of resistance and worry appeared on Zheng Haiyang's face.

Tan Wenbin: "I haven't..."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I notified them. His grandparents should be on their way now."

"That's good." Sun Qing looked at Tan Wenbin again: "I've asked the doctor; Zheng Haiyang is fine. You go back to school now; there's an exam tonight."

Tan Wenbin muttered: "Exams aren't as important as friends."

"Tan Wenbin, you, right now, return to school immediately!"

A young class teacher has to keep a stern face at all times; if she isn't strict, the students won't be afraid.

Tan Wenbin stood up reluctantly, looking very unwilling to leave.

"Tan Wenbin, no matter what, you cannot give up on yourself. Your parents still have high expectations for you."

"Yes, teacher."

It wasn't that Tan Wenbin didn't want to go back to school for the exam, but he remembered the terrifying things Zheng Haiyang had shouted while unconscious and his initial reaction.

He knew that if he went back, he would definitely miss something.

"Bin, you go back to school for the exam. Come visit again after you're done."

"I..."

Hearing this, Tan Wenbin was almost certain that by the time he finished the exam and came back, the opportunity would have long passed.

"Sun Teacher, you go back to school to work too. My elders will be here soon. I'll stay here to keep Zheng Haiyang company, and I'll leave once his grandparents arrive."

"Zhuiyuan, will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine. My elders will be here soon. If anything happens, I'll call the school."

Li Zhuiyuan recited the phone numbers for the principal's office, the teachers' office where Sun Qing worked, and the school gatehouse.

Sun Qing nodded. She had proctoring duties and test papers to grade that night, so since the student was out of danger, she had no reason to stay.

"Tan Wenbin, come back to school with me."

"Yes, teacher." Tan Wenbin slumped his shoulders and followed the class teacher out.

As he closed the door, he looked at Li Zhuiyuan with a pleading gaze, but Li Zhuiyuan turned his back.

In the ward, only two people remained.

Zheng Haiyang smiled and said: "Zhuiyuan, I'm fine now. You can go home too."

He knew that Li Zhuiyuan never attended evening self-study.

"I didn't notify your grandparents."

"Ah, really? That's good. Their health isn't great, and I'm afraid they'll worry if they see me like this."

"Were you unconscious? I mean, when you were in the classroom."

"This... I suddenly felt very sleepy, and then I lowered my head. When I woke up, I found myself being carried by Bin on the way to the health center. I was so thirsty, I really wanted to drink water.

After drinking water, I felt like there was nothing wrong with me."

"Did you see anything or have any dreams in between?"

Zheng Haiyang shook his head: "No."

"Think carefully again, see if you can recall anything."

Zheng Haiyang tried hard to think, but still shook his head: "It's like a blank spot, I really don't remember."

"Hmm, then get some good rest."

Li Zhuiyuan moved a chair over and sat down by the hospital bed.

Judging by the current situation, Zheng Haiyang had indeed recovered, so "walking the underworld" now probably wouldn't reveal anything.

Mainly, Runsheng hadn't arrived yet, and Li Zhuiyuan had become more cautious about "walking the underworld."

"Zhuiyuan, did I have any strange reactions or say anything while I was unconscious?"

*There's a turtle, buried under the sea; whoever dares to dig it up, their whole family will die! *

Li Zhuiyuan replied: "It's normal to talk in your sleep or ramble when you're delirious."

"Zhuiyuan, I still don't feel at ease. I'm always worried about my parents..."

Nowadays, being a seaman meant high wages and extra income, but high returns also meant high risks.

"What's the point of thinking about that now? After all, they are so far away. Taking good care of yourself is what your parents want to see most."

"You're right. I've discovered that you're really different from us; you have a feeling of... an elder."

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes. He didn't like that assessment.

"Don't say things like that in front of me again."

"Oh, okay, I know, I'll remember."

Runsheng arrived, carrying a set of tools on his back.

"Zhuiyuan, how is he?"

"As far as I can tell, he's fine."

Li Zhuiyuan pulled out the black canvas, unfolded it, walked to the head of the hospital bed, and covered Zheng Haiyang's face with the cloth.

Although Zheng Haiyang was very puzzled, he didn't refuse, and didn't even ask what this was for.

The black canvas showed no reaction.

This proved that there was nothing unclean on Zheng Haiyang.

Li Zhuiyuan pulled out a talisman he had drawn and stuck it on Zheng Haiyang's forehead.

Hmm, it didn't change color.

It seems there really was no problem.

"Zhuiyuan, this is..."

When the cloth was covered, he didn't feel much, but any normal person would feel inexplicably afraid to see someone sticking a talisman on their forehead.

"A local custom. It has the same effect as pricking with a needle."

"Oh, I see." Zheng Haiyang let out a sigh of relief.

Li Zhuiyuan sat back in the chair. He tried to deduce the situation in the worst-case scenario.

Zheng Haiyang's parents had met with an accident. As a relative, he felt it in his heart, but if the feeling in his heart was such a violent expression, it was truly too terrifying.

What kind of thing could curse you to have your whole family die, and actually be able to cross the ocean and affect relatives who shared your blood?

Tan Wenbin arrived after finishing his exam. As soon as he entered the room, he asked anxiously: "Did I miss anything?"

Runsheng shook his head: "No."

Tan Wenbin didn't believe him and looked at Li Zhuiyuan: "Zhuiyuan?"

Li Zhuiyuan also shook his head.

Finally, Tan Wenbin confirmed it with Zheng Haiyang, and only then did he let out a sigh of relief, saying with lingering fear: "Good, nothing happened."

Zheng Haiyang said very touchingly: "Bin, sorry to make you worry."

"Uh..." Tan Wenbin averted his gaze guiltily and patted his arm: "We're buddies, it's only right."

At night, Sun Qing came by again to confirm he was fine.

When she asked about Zheng Haiyang's grandparents, Li Zhuiyuan replied that they had gone home to cook and would bring food over.

Seeing so many people in the ward, Sun Qing didn't suspect anything and left.

Zheng Haiyang wanted to be discharged. To prove he was really fine, he even got out of bed to walk and jump around.

Tan Wenbin went to handle the discharge. He hadn't been out for long before he called Li Zhuiyuan out.

"What's wrong, Bin?"

"I just saw Zheng Haiyang's grandparents outside. They were also handling the discharge, refusing the doctor's suggestion to stay for observation, saying they were afraid their grandson would be anxious if he didn't see them when he got home.

Zhuiyuan, this is too eerie. If the whole family met with an accident, then wouldn't his parents..."

"That's not something we should be saying."

"Oh, right. Then should I continue handling the discharge?"

"Yes, let Runsheng take him home."

That night, Li Zhuiyuan sat on the back of Tan Wenbin's bicycle to go home. After Runsheng returned, he briefly described that Zheng Haiyang and his grandparents didn't know each other had been to the hospital.

The next day, Zheng Haiyang returned to class as if nothing had happened.

The results of the monthly exam were also being announced gradually. Since yesterday afternoon, teachers from various groups had been grading papers while proctoring. The more troublesome part was actually calculating the scores, but they could send them to the lower-grade students to help with the tallying.

In Class Teacher Sun Qing's Chinese class, she began handing out the Chinese test papers, calling out names and scores, and the students would come up to collect them.

Chinese is a very magical subject, magical in that even if you haven't attended class for two months, you might not necessarily score worse than the last time.

But at the same time, it is a subject that is very difficult to improve quickly through intuitive effort. Excluding occasional special circumstances, the Chinese scores of students in a class tend to fluctuate very stably within their respective score ranges.

Tan Wenbin was very happy after getting his paper because he had broken the curse; his score had jumped a bracket.

Originally, his Chinese score belonged to the lower end of the class, but now it had become average. He had gotten all the classical Chinese questions correct this time.

This was entirely thanks to *The Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu*.

He was reading *The Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu*, but he was reading it very slowly.

When Li Zhuiyuan first read this book, he enjoyed it very much because the calligraphy was beautiful, and he could easily read several volumes a day.

Tan Wenbin had to chew through it page by page because there were too many obscure characters and words he didn't know the meaning of, so he could only keep flipping through the dictionary to make notes on the annotations.

Finally, Li Zhuiyuan's score was announced. When the score came out, the whole class gasped because this score was only a few points away from a perfect score.

This wasn't elementary school Chinese; there were questions in high school Chinese that were bound to have points deducted, such as the essay. Deducting few points meant an excellent essay.

Being able to get this score basically proved that the objective questions were all correct.

Sun Qing smiled and said: "Actually, we teachers grading the papers were also troubled for quite a while. Giving a perfect score didn't seem quite right, but it was very difficult to find other places to deduct points. Li Zhuiyuan's paper, although it didn't get a perfect score, was answered perfectly, and his handwriting is also very beautiful."

"Alright, come, let's start going over the questions on the paper."

Sun Qing didn't hand the paper to Li Zhuiyuan, but directly used his paper to start the lecture.

Tan Wenbin pushed his own Chinese test paper toward the middle, meaning they should look at it together.

After doing this, Tan Wenbin felt it was a bit redundant.

Moreover, letting Zhuiyuan look at his paper gave him a sense of extreme shame.

"Zhuiyuan, how did you take the test?"

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the reading comprehension questions: "Just apply the formulas."

"You don't need to care about the original author's views; you only need to try to figure out the examiner's intent."

After all, even if the original author came to write the reading comprehension for their own article, they would most likely not get a perfect score.

Tan Wenbin scratched his head: "I seem to understand a little bit now. It feels... different from what I thought before."

"You have to learn how to take tests."

On this side, Li Zhuiyuan was whispering to Tan Wenbin, while Sun Qing was standing in front, but she didn't criticize or stop them.

However, soon, Tan Wenbin noticed that Zhuiyuan's face had darkened.

Because the teacher was reciting Li Zhuiyuan's essay to the whole class as a model essay.

After listening to it, if it weren't for noticing that Zhuiyuan's face was looking bad, Tan Wenbin would have wanted to sincerely exclaim: Your mother is truly wonderful.

But he still asked: "Zhuiyuan, how do you write an essay?"

"The format should be neat, the beginning and ending should be written more flamboyantly, the middle paragraphs should be rigorous, and the handwriting should be good."

"Just like that? What about the expression of emotion?"

"It counts as conscientious if the examiner can spend ten seconds reading your essay."

"F***!"

Sun Qing frowned and glared over.

Tan Wenbin immediately waved his hand and lowered his head to apologize, then continued to lean toward Li Zhuiyuan, excitedly saying: "Zhuiyuan, I feel like I've attained enlightenment."

After class, the students in the class began to gather here.

Before, they had only heard the rumors about the child prodigy, but this time they saw him with their own eyes.

Tan Wenbin spread his hands, signaling everyone to move aside: "All of you, scatter! Don't affect my Zhuiyuan's breathing of fresh air!"

His persona as the class bully who didn't care about anything truly succeeded in dispersing the crowd.

The next class was math. The math teacher, Yan, also walked in, announced the scores, and handed out the papers. Li Zhuiyuan got a perfect score.

The whole class once again cast their gaze toward him.

This math test was actually a bit difficult, and it had only been a month since the start of the third year of high school; the old knowledge points hadn't been reviewed yet, and many students had forgotten them.

Teacher Yan: "Tan Wenbin, you did well this time, keep working hard."

Tan Wenbin's face blossomed with joy; he had actually scored in the upper-middle range this time.

For a normal average student, this wouldn't be anything special, just a good performance, but for a lower-tier student, it was no less than tearing down the Berlin Wall.

Because for lower-tier students, science problems often aren't a matter of whether they are difficult or whether they know how to do them, but that they don't even understand the questions. If you try to write something, you don't even know where to start.

"I knew it, these questions looked familiar. Tsk tsk, they really were 'familiar' to me, but at least they showed some mercy."

The next classes continued with handing out papers.

When it was time for English class, the originally numb gazes of everyone revealed surprise when the English scores were announced.

Teacher Su smiled and explained: "Due to special reasons, Li Zhuiyuan didn't do the listening comprehension questions, but got perfect scores on all other questions. In addition, the grade rankings are out; Li Zhuiyuan is the top student in the whole school by a wide margin this monthly exam.

Alright, next we will go over the questions on the paper."

Li Zhuiyuan silently took out *The Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu*.

In an English environment, this kind of "classical work" seemed even more fragrant, as if it were playing a suitable background music.

However, having sat there for a month, he really didn't like this position in the first row by the door.

Because every time the students in the class passed by here, they would deliberately slow down their pace to look at him, even though he had already been very careful not to make friends with the students.

Students from other classes seemed to treat passing by here as a landmark for a stroll during the break, even though Class 13 of the third year was in the middle and not on the necessary path to the restroom.

The teachers were even more exaggerated; they would rather take a detour to walk past here before and after class, and then stop by the window or door to cast loving, caring smiles, as if they had to come several times a day to water the orchid grass they had planted.

Because of him, the frequency of the dean of students and principals coming here had increased linearly. They didn't need to distinguish between breaks, so the students in the class now didn't dare to read martial arts novels or whisper during class.

The horror of occasionally looking up and seeing someone outside the window had now turned into facing the bleak reality of life.

Li Zhuiyuan sincerely liked the last row of this column, leaning against the door, with plenty of space, and the trash can wasn't here, but behind the inner row.

From a feng shui perspective, sitting here to observe the world was the standard position of a "hidden dragon in the abyss."

The next best were the positions on either side of the teacher's desk, the "left and right guardians."

Previously, Tan Wenbin was the right guardian.

But the right guardian had his back to the classroom door, which wasn't good; it was easy to be startled, leading to a state of shock.

The best was the left guardian, whose front was shielded by the lecture desk, bearing the emperor's will above and connecting with the people's hearts below, hiding in plain sight.

It was also because there were too many people, over seventy students in one class. When he was in school before, there weren't so many people, and they would be readjusted every semester; some students couldn't keep up, and some students got sick.

The morning self-study bell rang, and the English class ended.

Here, high school had four classes in the morning and four classes in the afternoon.

But morning self-study could be divided into two half-hour sessions, lunch self-study was one hour, and evening self-study was four one-hour sessions.

On the schedule, self-study classes were marked with subjects, and the school required teachers to be present and treat them as regular classes.

Such an intensive curriculum shocked even Li Zhuiyuan. If they had taken classes according to this schedule before, not to mention whether he and his classmates could handle it, the professors would definitely have been exhausted first.

During the break, the students began to quickly pack up their stationery.

Li Zhuiyuan asked curiously: "Bin, what's wrong?"

"There's a monthly exam today, you didn't know?" Tan Wenbin was also packing his stationery, but he glanced at the book in Li Zhuiyuan's hand and paused, "It's normal that you don't know."

One month after the start of school, the baseline monthly exam began.

To prevent cheating, the third and second years were mixed for the exam, and they were seated in other classes according to their exam numbers.

Actually, it was meaningless to cheat in the third year of high school; it was purely deceiving oneself, but reality often went against human nature, because there were really many third-year students willing to cheat until the third mock exam.

At this time, Class Teacher Sun Qing walked in and asked: "Zhuiyuan, do you want to participate in the monthly exam, or do you want to go to my office to sit for a while?"

"Let's take it. However, can you give me all the test papers for all subjects during the first exam?"

"Alright, no problem, I'll go get them for you."

Li Zhuiyuan knew what the school wanted him to do. It was convenient for others and convenient for himself. He still had to participate in such a large-scale exam.

One was to ensure that he could continue not listening to lectures or doing homework while the teachers remained as gentle as the wind, and the other was to help Bin feel out the context so he could create problems for him.

He really wasn't very good at teaching people how to learn, so he was learning.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up and went to the front wall to look at his exam number.

"Zhuiyuan, come back, your exam number is in the original seat."

"Oh."

Li Zhuiyuan sat back down.

Tan Wenbin went to the first seat of the left column.

Previously, Tan Wenbin had only seen one sentence in a magazine: Unless you are handsome enough, you will never experience how proactive girls can be.

Now he really wanted to add one more: It turns out that as long as your grades are good enough, the school can also be completely shameless.

The first exam was math, and the proctor was the class's math teacher, Yan.

After the papers were handed out, Teacher Yan also placed the papers for the other subjects on Li Zhuiyuan's desk, patted Li Zhuiyuan's shoulder lightly, and smiled:

"You can do the math, but you can pick and choose for the other subjects."

"Hmm."

Then, Teacher Yan placed his teacup on the boy's desk: "New cup, freshly brewed tea."

"Thank you, teacher."

The second-year male student assigned to this exam room looked at this scene with horror.

During the exam, watching the little boy next to him start writing answers "swish, swish, swish," his mentality began to collapse.

No, even if the answers were placed in front of you, you wouldn't be able to copy them that fast, right?

Li Zhuiyuan finished the math paper quickly and picked up the physics paper to write.

Teacher Yan walked down, picked up the math paper, took out a red pen, and started grading directly.

He was very satisfied. He felt that the boy hadn't become arrogant because of his good grades and still humbly pursued progress.

Look, he didn't use any advanced methods for the big problems this time, and he wrote a big "Solution" before every answer.

When he reached the end of the Chinese test, Li Zhuiyuan paused for a moment.

Because the theme of the essay question was: Mother's Love.

But he only paused for a moment, and Li Zhuiyuan wrote a formulaic essay with beautiful words and a rigorous structure in standard script again, in which Li Lan was simply so kind and great that it was unbelievable, and was a good role model for himself.

The only thing he couldn't do was the English listening comprehension questions, so he just didn't do them.

Li Zhuiyuan checked the name on the test paper and stood up to hand all the papers to Teacher Yan.

"Is your hand sore?" "A little."

"I told you not to write so much." Teacher Yan blamed him, "Go to my office to rest, take a nap?"

"I'll go to the principal's office."

"That's right, it's quiet there. Remember to come to the small classroom during lunch self-study to explain the problems."

"Alright, Teacher Yan."

Li Zhuiyuan stood on the podium and looked down at Tan Wenbin, who was sitting below. He had already reached the answer questions and had been writing the whole time, with relatively few pauses and no nail-biting.

Returning to the desk and picking up a book, Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the exam room and headed straight for the principal's office.

Just as he reached the door, he heard a not-so-small sound from inside. He originally wanted to leave and find another office.

But in the sound, he heard Li Sanjiang, Li Weihan, and Cui Guiying.

He knew why his great-grandfather and grandparents had come, because he had said he was in the third year of high school, and Tan Wenbin had testified to it, and even Lei, Pan, and Ying had testified to it.

But for the elderly, it was still too difficult to understand, so they had formed a team and come to the school today to see for themselves.

It must have been that after they entered, they were invited into the office by Principal Wu.

No wonder his great-grandfather was so quiet during breakfast today.

An instinct made Li Zhuiyuan want to turn and leave, because he knew what would happen after he pushed the door open: the joy and relief of the elderly, the praise and encouragement of Principal Wu.

He longed to avoid this predetermined process.

But at this moment, the sound of Li Lan's footsteps on the other end of the phone appeared in his mind. He and she were, after all, different.

This kind of illness instinct was not difficult to overcome.

Li Zhuiyuan pushed open the door of the principal's office. The great-grandfather and grandparents sitting inside all stood up to look at the child. Li Zhuiyuan walked over, showing a smile, and was hugged by them.

Principal Wu said many words of encouragement, and Li Zhuiyuan kept his head half-lowered, showing just the right amount of shyness.

After confirming this, his great-grandfather and grandparents left quickly. Li Zhuiyuan came to the corridor and watched the three elderly people walking toward the school gate below.

His great-grandfather stood with his hands on his hips, walking with the pace of an imperial envoy from a stage play.

Li Weihan held his water pipe behind his back; he, who was always steady and honest, had his shoulders swaying.

Cui Guiying was holding a handkerchief, constantly smiling and wiping away tears.

Li Zhuiyuan was very glad that he hadn't chosen to turn and leave just now.

Linking it to the essay he had just written, he realized that his imitation of Li Lan before might have been a mistake, and he should have taken her as a negative example to avoid earlier.

If he could have realized this earlier, his illness wouldn't have developed so severely at such a young age.

"Zhuiyuan, your grandparents actually still didn't believe you were in the third year of high school, haha."

Wu Xinhui pulled the boy into the office again. He gave up his office desk for the boy to read, and took out drinks and chocolate from the drawer.

He knew the boy had participated in the monthly exam, which was good, regularly giving everyone a reassurance pill.

At the same time, he also knew the boy was a teaching assistant in the math competition class.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up *The Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu* and started reading.

The principal sat opposite, looking at documents, going out to light a cigarette when he wanted to smoke, and coming back after smoking.

The bell for the end of the second exam of the morning rang, and Li Zhuiyuan declined the principal's invitation to eat a special meal in the cafeteria.

Walking to the school gate, he waited for Tan Wenbin, who still brought Zheng Haiyang.

The three of them usually ate more outside, but they didn't eat small stir-fry every meal, basically sticking to noodles and egg-fried rice. Of course, this was something that only the children of dual-income families could afford at the time.

Most of the school was composed of children from rural families, and many didn't even go to the cafeteria, returning to the dormitory to eat dry rations brought from home.

Pickles and salty sauces were also brought from home, and many times they would share the craftsmanship of each other's mothers.

Tan Wenbin had money. Since following Li Zhuiyuan, his parents had given him a lot more pocket money, and Zheng Haiyang had even more money, otherwise those thugs wouldn't have extorted him.

In this day and age, the salary of a seaman was high, and there was a lot of extra income. Just counting pocket money, Tan Wenbin could only be considered a poor person in front of Zheng Haiyang.

Tan Wenbin ordered five bowls of noodles; he ate one bowl, and the brain ate two.

Zheng Haiyang went to buy three sodas first, and then ordered three poached eggs, three lion's head meatballs, and three chicken legs.

He was happy to hang out with them. Last time, Runsheng had beaten that gang so miserably that no one dared to come and find trouble with him during this period, especially with Li Zhuiyuan's current status in the school; no one in the school dared to provoke him.

"Zhuiyuan, Bin, I had a dream yesterday."

Zheng Haiyang also learned from Tan Wenbin to call Zhuiyuan "brother."

"What dream?" Tan Wenbin asked, biting into a chicken leg.

"I dreamed that my dad took me to look for treasure. This dream was very real."

"Isn't your dad at sea?"

"Hmm, diving to look for treasure. There were several sunken ships at the bottom of the sea, and there was a lot of gold and silver jewelry inside."

"Heh, then how much did you fish out?"

"Didn't fish out much, just as I was about to take it, the dream woke me up."

"What kind of dream is this? At least get the gold and silver jewelry, and after going ashore, find the me in the dream to have a good time."

"Hehehe." Zheng Haiyang scratched his head.

Tan Wenbin looked at Li Zhuiyuan again: "Zhuiyuan, can this dream be interpreted?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head and took a sip of noodle soup: "I don't know how to interpret dreams."

"Oh, right, this dream is too flashy. You kid, you're crazy about wanting to get rich. Your family conditions are so good, why do you still want money so much?"

"Maybe it's because I was scared by them extorting me before, and I would be beaten if I couldn't take out money."

Li Zhuiyuan continued to lower his head and eat noodles. In fact, he knew how to interpret dreams. Compared to physiognomy and fortune-telling, dream interpretation could only be considered a basic, low-end job.

Because most "thoughts during the day lead to dreams at night" could be interpreted accordingly.

Except for a very small part, that was truly a feeling in the heart.

The most typical one was a pregnancy dream, which might not be dreamed by the pregnant woman herself, but by her relatives.

Another one was when a relative passed away, someone would indeed dream of them on the same night without knowing the situation.

Sunken ships, seabed, gold and silver, father taking you to look for treasure and then ending up with nothing... all these elements were there.

In ancient times, communication and roads were not developed, and people were separated by long distances. If children suddenly had such dreams, they would find someone to interpret them, and they would either have to return home immediately or prepare to wear mourning clothes while looking from afar.

In the stories recorded by many literati, there were similar bridges. They attached great importance to this because it involved the mourning period for officials.

However, this kind of thing was not accurate, and Li Zhuiyuan had always restrained himself from randomly telling people's fortunes, so naturally, he wouldn't expand on this topic.

Zheng Haiyang suddenly said gloomily: "Zhuiyuan, is it really okay?"

He was introverted, but introverted people often had delicate minds. His previous words were actually a kind of foreshadowing.

Li Zhuiyuan asked curiously: "What?"

"I asked the grandfathers and grandmothers in my neighborhood, and they meant that this dream is not very auspicious, and I should dream of something good."

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head and said very firmly: "Feudal superstition, it's all deceptive stuff."

"Pfft..."

The noodles in Tan Wenbin's mouth sprayed out directly, and even two strands shot out from his nostrils.

He immediately lowered his head and took paper to start wiping. If I hadn't seen you arrange feng shui to kill that pair of dwarf father and son with my own eyes, I would have really believed it.

"Hehe." Zheng Haiyang's face revealed a smile again, and he asked, "Zhuiyuan, how did you do on the morning exam?"

Tan Wenbin took over: "Except for English, the others should have been done quite well."

"Ah, was there an English exam in the morning?"

"He finished all of them when we were taking math. By the way, why don't you ask how I did?"

"Then how did you do, Bin?"

"I don't know. Many questions recognized me before, but I didn't recognize them. Now, it feels quite familiar, like an old friend coming to visit."

"Then is it specifically good or bad?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid it's killing me with familiarity."

"Ah?"

"Wait for the specific scores to come out. I don't know if I did it right, but I did do all of them, and I also wrote the final big problems for math and physics."

"Bin, this isn't Chinese; you won't get points even if you fill it up."

"Go, go, go, do you still need to teach me this?"

After lunch, the three of them returned to school. There were three more exams in the afternoon, and the lunch self-study was regular class.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't return to the classroom but went to the small classroom that didn't have classes at ordinary times.

There were already more than a dozen people sitting inside, both third and second-year students, who had been selected by the math group teachers to deal with the municipal Olympic competition.

Nowadays, the math competition trend is very strong in the mainland. If you can get a good ranking in this kind of competition layer by layer, it has a huge advantage for entering a higher school.

Li Zhuiyuan was originally invited by Teacher Yan to join the competition, but after a few days, he was invited by several math teachers to create problems.

Because competition problems are difficult and more flexible, when Li Zhuiyuan first joined the group, he often saw teachers and students burying their heads in deep thought together.

He soon realized that he was a full man who didn't know the hunger of a hungry man. His learning conditions were actually very generous, but that was limited to big cities. Looking at the whole country, the marketization of competition materials had just started, and many schools were still begging to copy mock papers from big high schools outside for their students to do.

Half of the problems written by Li Zhuiyuan on the blackboard yesterday had been checked off, and Li Zhuiyuan picked up the chalk and wrote down the solution process under the unchecked problems.

Then, the students and teachers below revealed expressions of sudden realization one after another, constantly making sounds of:

"Oh~ so that's how it is."

Li Zhuiyuan also felt very relaxed. Teaching them was simpler than teaching Bin; he didn't need to make the steps look very detailed, nor did he need to consider the combination of difficulty to protect their learning enthusiasm.

Even if there were those who didn't understand after seeing the process, they would ask the people around them. If they still didn't understand, it didn't matter; they would be eliminated and sent back to the classroom to study properly.

After erasing the problems, Li Zhuiyuan continued to create problems.

The teachers and students below began to copy them. Unless it was before the competition, otherwise, everyone had teaching tasks or learning tasks at other times, and it was impossible to soak here all day.

Outside, Principal Wu specially brought several vice principals and directors to explore the class at the door of the small classroom quietly.

Watching the small figure still having to stand on a stool to write problems on the blackboard, everyone revealed the joy of digging up oil in their own fields.

"I think, in this municipal competition, our school should be able to pass a few."

"I think, at least one will pass steadily..."

"Do you also think that this steady one will probably be able to take the first place in the city?"

Nantong is a major city for education, and all six counties and one city under its jurisdiction have famous high schools that can be brought out.

And this high school, even in this county, doesn't belong to the first tier, which is equivalent to starting in hell mode.

Wu Xinhui touched his chin, feeling very gratified. It wasn't in vain that he had specially acted as a driver to invite people to enroll.

Every time they had a meeting before, they would watch them pretending to be humble and sarcastic there. He, Wu Xinhui, had prepared I don't know how many drafts of sarcastic remarks. It seems that this time it's his turn to perform.

At this time, a director next to him seemed to be too happy and said dizzyingly: "Does this count as college entrance examination immigration?"

Several colleagues next to him looked at him with unbelievable eyes.

Wu Xinhui was amused and directly previewed the sarcasm: "Whose family specially immigrates from Beijing to Jiangsu to take the college entrance examination?"

After a pause, he continued: "You big smart guy, why don't you transport coal from the Northeast to Shanxi to sell?"

The director hurriedly raised his hand and explained: "I'm referring to this kind of happiness."

After finishing the math competition class, Li Zhuiyuan returned to the principal's office.

He saw the principal bringing two physical education teachers to hang curtains, and behind the curtains was a spring bed.

"Zhuiyuan, you can rest here from now on. The desks in the classroom are too hard."

After the afternoon exam was over, there was still a period of time before school ended, and Li Zhuiyuan returned to the classroom.

In the class, everyone looked lifeless after a whole day of exams.

Even Tan Wenbin was drooping his head now.

However, there were exams at night. In order to compress time, all exams would be finished today.

This meant that Tan Wenbin wouldn't be able to go home with him tonight.

"Bin, are you going back to your own home tonight?"

"No, I'm going to Zhuang's house after the exam is over tonight."

"Oh."

"I'll wait until the monthly exam results come out before going back." Tan Wenbin propped up his neck, opened the book, and began to memorize the conceptual points.

After reading for a while, he slumped down again, rubbing his stomach; he should be hungry, and his brain had stopped working.

Li Zhuiyuan took out chocolate from his pocket and handed it to him.

"Eh?" Tan Wenbin immediately took it, peeled it, and put it in his mouth, "Where did this come from?"

"From the principal's office, hehe."

"Don't say, it really is delicious, it's worthy of being blessed by the principal."

Saying that, Tan Wenbin raised his arm to make a basketball shot, throwing the chocolate toward Zheng Haiyang, hitting Zheng Haiyang's head precisely, which startled Zheng Haiyang, but he laughed when he saw it was chocolate.

The class monitor heard the movement and glared at him.

Tan Wenbin didn't flinch at all and glared back.

Joke, if he were even afraid of the class monitor, he wouldn't have the face to be any kind of right guardian.

However, after glaring back, Tan Wenbin made another parabola.

With a "ding-dong" sound, the chocolate landed precisely on the class monitor's desk this time.

The class monitor's face turned red instantly.

The students around the class monitor all let out a "Yo oh~" together.

But the person involved, Tan Wenbin, didn't notice it at all. After throwing it, he lowered his head and asked Li Zhuiyuan: "Zhuiyuan, you haven't been catching any dead bodies lately, aren't you anxious?"

"No."

"Aren't you the one who likes catching dead bodies the most?"

"Hmm, what can I do if I don't encounter any."

"Don't go out and look for them? You go to school and come back every day, and dead bodies can't come to school to inspect work and see you; they are dead bodies, not leaders."

"My eyes had problems last time."

"Uh, isn't it better now?"

"Made my great-grandfather worry."

"Oh, I see." Tan Wenbin nodded, "Indeed, then let's just talk about fate."

"Ding-a-ling!!!"

The bell for the end of school rang.

The students forced themselves to stand up and walked out of the classroom slowly to find food everywhere, because they knew there were several exams waiting for them at night, so everyone looked lifeless, like a group of dead bodies.

"Bin, borrow a few of your books and papers, I'll take them back."

"Are you going to set up an altar to pray for my monthly exam results?"

"A Li needs them."

"Alright, I'll give them to you. I'll help you carry them; anyway, Ocean and I still have to go to the school gate to eat, so it's just right to carry them to Runsheng. Ocean, Ocean, why are you still sitting there, let's go eat!"

Everyone in the class had left, leaving only Zheng Haiyang slumped over the desk.

Tan Wenbin walked over, patted his back, and asked: "What's wrong, are you feeling unwell? You were fine just now."

Who would have thought that with this pat, a "squelch, squelch" sound of water would be patted out.

Zheng Haiyang also sat up straight as if he had been stimulated, and water kept seeping out from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.

Under his feet, there was already a puddle of wetness, which was still expanding rapidly.

His face was deathly pale, his expression was dull, and the next moment, he tilted his neck like a drowning person,

and began to shout:

"There's a turtle, buried under the sea; whoever dares to dig it up, their whole family will die!"

(End of chapter)

Zhang Ying'ai was wearing a very tight-fitting dress, which meant her arms had to be close to her body, which meant she now had extremely strong aggressiveness.

But now, when communicating, she looked very normal.

Until Auntie Xu placed photos one by one in front of her, Zhang Ying'ai's expression began to clearly show something wrong; she started to become nervous, her eyes gradually turned red, and her body was also trembling.

The man beside Auntie Xu was shaking Auntie Xu's arm, which should be wanting to remind her to stop, but Auntie Xu seemed to have asked the most critical question, and the answer could be obtained soon, so she continued to ask.

Then, Zhang Ying'ai started screaming; her voice was incomparably sharp and harsh, simply not like what a normal human could make, which made Li Zhuiyuan and others outside the door hear it clearly.

"When it wakes up, we will all die, all die, hahaha!"

(End of chapter)