Chapter 36

“Sit with me, okay?”

The boy in front of her, his once oppressive aura dissipated, spoke in a low, magnetic voice. His long, thick eyelashes cast faint shadows beneath his eyes. Looking at him like this, there was actually a hint of… sincerity.

Qin Xiaoxiao even thought he seemed a little aggrieved. She must have something wrong with her eyes.

“I…”

“By your side, I’ll study hard.”

Why did that sound a bit ambiguous? What did he mean by “by your side”? Qin Xiaoxiao tried to say, “No—”

“What will it take for me to stay your deskmate?”

Hmm? Qin Xiaoxiao’s fingers unconsciously rubbed the edge of the note. Actually, being his deskmate wasn’t so bad—it wouldn’t affect her studies.

Besides, he wouldn’t let Yang Min sit with her anyway…

“Follow school rules, pay attention in class, complete your homework diligently,” Qin Xiaoxiao listed one item after another, “sleep less during class, and… smoke less in general.”

Ji Wenchen waited for a few seconds. “Anything else?”

“For now, that’s it.”

“I can do that.” Ji Wenchen’s eyes resembled the sea, calm and reflecting sunlight leisurely. “So, you will continue to be my deskmate.”

…

After the last evening self-study session ended, Qin Xiaoxiao purposely went to find Yang Min to walk back to the dormitory together.

She said apologetically, “I won’t be able to sit with you next month, sorry about that.”

“Ah…” Yang Min shook her head after a brief pause. “It’s fine.”

Qin Xiaoxiao frowned slightly, looking at Yang Min, who exuded a gloomy aura from head to toe.

For some reason, Yang Min seemed to be in a bad mood for most of the day and had spoken much less than usual.

Qin Xiaoxiao had asked her privately, but she refused to say anything.

“Xiaoxiao!” Feng Maoxing, whose classroom was on the second floor, spotted his cousin and strode over.

“I’m telling you, I had the worst luck today,” Feng Maoxing complained to his cousin. “This morning, I was washing my hair, got a head full of shampoo foam, and then the hot water ran out. During the last period in the morning, which was self-study, I tried to sneak out early but ran into the homeroom teacher at the staircase. In the afternoon, I spilled soda all over my desk. And tonight, when I went to grab a late-night snack, my meal card…”

Feng Maoxing abruptly shut his mouth.

The ever-qualified listener, Qin Xiaoxiao, asked at the right moment, “What happened to your meal card?”

“Demagnetized,” Feng Maoxing brushed it off briefly.

Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t notice her cousin’s complicated expression and sympathized, “That’s pretty unfortunate.”

“It’s really unfortunate!”

Qin Xiaoxiao comforted him, “Maybe good luck will come your way next.”

“I hope so. I don’t ask for much—just hope this good luck buff kicks in during the monthly exam and gets me into the top 30 of the class.” During the summer vacation, Feng Maoxing had Qin Xiaoxiao tutoring him, and his grades had slightly improved. His parents’ expectations had also risen from the top 40 to the top 30 in the class.

“…You should just work harder on a regular basis.” Qin Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but blurt out.

“I know, I’ll aim to follow your example, Xiaoxiao.”

Qin Xiaoxiao shook her head with a smile, then noticed that the usually quiet Yang Min beside her seemed to have her head slightly lowered.

“You head back to the dorm first; my classmate and I are going to take a walk around the track,” Qin Xiaoxiao casually made up an excuse to send Feng Maoxing off. She felt it wasn’t appropriate to joke around with someone else while walking beside someone in a low mood.

Feng Maoxing responded with a vague “Hmm” before leaving, casting a glance at the senior standing beside his cousin.

She usually seemed quite lively—what was wrong with her today?

“Want to take a walk?” Qin Xiaoxiao asked Yang Min softly.

Yang Min shook her head. “I just want to go straight back to the dorm.”

“Alright then.”

A hundred meters of silence.

The two entered the dormitory building.

“Xiaoxiao…”

“Hmm?” Qin Xiaoxiao turned her head slightly.

Yang Min’s usually bright and lively eyes appeared dim. “Is the junior about to get together with Bi Chun?”

“Junior?” Could she be referring to her cousin? Qin Xiaoxiao raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Feng Maoxing…”

“Him?” Qin Xiaoxiao was a little surprised. Her cousin and Bi Chun? “I’m not sure.”

Yang Min said dispiritedly, “I saw them chatting, and the junior was smiling so happily…”

Qin Xiaoxiao thought she was referring to the scene in the hallway earlier. “Was Feng Maoxing really smiling that happily?”

“Yeah… I also saw Bi Chun handing him something, and they were walking together on the road.”

“…I see.” That must have been another scene at a different time.

Qin Xiaoxiao blinked slowly, finally realizing something was off: Yang Min’s sadness and gloominess all day—was it because she saw Feng Maoxing getting close to another girl?

So, Yang Min was interested in her cousin?

Qin Xiaoxiao hesitated and said, “How about I ask Feng Maoxing what’s going on?”

“No!” Yang Min suddenly lifted her head. “Don’t ask, I-I-I don’t want him to know that I-I-I…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t say it’s because you’re curious,” Qin Xiaoxiao reassured her gently. “I’ll just say it’s me, as his cousin, wanting to know about his relationship status.”

Yang Min hugged Qin Xiaoxiao’s arm tightly. “Okay!”

***

The October monthly exam arrived as scheduled.

Qin Xiaoxiao was assigned to exam room 05 this time. At a glance, most of the students were from the advanced classes, with a few top-performing students from the regular classes.

There were only two or three familiar faces, one of whom was Yan Yangcan.

After finishing the second session, the math exam, Qin Xiaoxiao was tidying up her stationery when her vision suddenly darkened.

“Xiaoxiao.” The person who had come to her desk was Yan Yangcan.

He smiled warmly, like a gentle spring breeze. “How did the exam feel?”

“Not bad.” Qin Xiaoxiao’s response was always this neutral.

“The second-to-last multiple-choice question was a bit tricky,” Yan Yangcan adjusted his glasses. “What did you choose?”

Qin Xiaoxiao’s memory was pretty good. “C.”

“One-half?”

“Yes.”

“You chose that?” Yan Yangcan looked slightly puzzled. “Can you explain why?”

Qin Xiaoxiao picked up her pencil case. “Take the derivative of the function f(x), substitute x=1, and you get 0. This indicates that x=1 is a critical point of the function f(x) , …” She went through the key steps.

“Ah, hearing you explain it makes it much clearer. Thank you, Xiaoxiao.”

“You’re welcome,” Qin Xiaoxiao said as she walked out.

Yan Yangcan smiled gently and followed her. “There are a few more questions I don’t quite understand—like the third fill-in-the-blank question, the last one, and the proof…”

“Xiaoxiao!”

At the staircase, Bi Chun called out softly in surprise.

Her exam room was in classroom 10 upstairs. The classmates from her same class who shared the exam room were somewhat distant toward her, so she walked alone.

Qin Xiaoxiao returned her a smile.

“Are you heading back to the classroom?” Bi Chun asked softly.

“Straight to the cafeteria.”

“I…” Bi Chun glanced at the stairs somewhat shyly. “Can I go with you?”

During the monthly exams, Qin Xiaoxiao usually didn’t eat with Yang Min or Feng Maoxing. Since their exam rooms were scattered and their classrooms were far apart, waiting for each other would just waste time.

Qin Xiaoxiao casually agreed to Bi Chun’s invitation, not thinking much of it.

Beside her, Yan Yangcan discreetly glanced at Bi Chun, the smile in his eyes behind his glasses fading slightly.

He had originally planned to use the questions as an excuse to invite Xiaoxiao to have lunch together alone.

But… why was this girl with the surname Bi always so annoying?

Ten minutes later, Qin Xiaoxiao, Bi Chun, and Yan Yangcan were seated at the same table in the cafeteria.

Yan Yangcan: “Xiaoxiao, how did you solve the last fill-in-the-blank question?”

Bi Chun: “Xiaoxiao, did you know how to do the last multiple-choice question?”

After answering Yan Yangcan, Qin Xiaoxiao turned to address Bi Chun’s question. Then Yan Yangcan came up with a new problem, and Bi Chun had another doubt…

Qin Xiaoxiao, whose eating pace was being slowed down: “…” She was feeling a bit tired.

Moreover, during the breaks in her explanations, she noticed something peculiar—these two, the original novel’s female lead and the male second lead, didn’t interact at all, behaving like complete strangers.

The storyline, which was supposed to revolve around the female lead… had it gone off track?

…

The schedule for this monthly exam was less than ideal. After finishing the final subject, students still had to attend classes the next morning before being dismissed for the weekend.

The last class before the break was Chinese.

The Chinese teacher’s surname was Wu. At sixty-three years old, he had returned to teaching after finding retirement too idle for his liking. His hair was streaked with white, but his posture was still straight, and his voice remained full of vigor.

In Qin Xiaoxiao’s view, Teacher Wu was a traditional Chinese-style teacher.

He had excellent handwriting and never used multimedia in his classes. For important points, he would write them on the blackboard and emphasize that students take notes. He was well-versed in literature, often expanding from a single point to multiple perspectives, pacing back and forth along the aisles between the students’ desks as he eloquently spoke…

The students of Class 8 generally liked this veteran teacher, except for one thing: Old Wu was too dedicated. Overtime teaching was routine, and taking up time from other classes happened frequently.

Starting from ten minutes before the class—and the break—some students began silently counting down in their hearts, hoping time would pass faster.

“How should we punctuate the section with the wavy underlined part in the text?”

“Have I already talked about the answering techniques for this type of question?” Old Wu ignored the several students impatiently shouting, “Choose D,” “DDD,” and walked off the podium with his hands behind his back. “This type of question requires you to understand and grasp the content of the passage, making pauses based on the semantics and tone. It primarily tests your ability to judge function words, content words, and analyze the tone.”

“So, how should you approach it?”

The students, who just wanted Old Wu to finish quickly and not drag on, shouted: “Choose D!” “We know how to do this question!” “DDD!”

“What do you mean by ‘know how to do it’? The correct rate for this question is less than 50%, and you have the nerve to say ‘know how to do it’?” Old Wu glared at the loudest student. “Sit up straight and listen carefully!”

“Now, for the technique of punctuating, let’s have a student answer. Who still remembers?”

The classroom fell silent in an instant.

Old Wu scanned the room and said, “Qin Xiaoxiao, you answer.”

This female student had performed fairly well in the Chinese exam this time, scoring particularly high in the classical Chinese reading section.

Qin Xiaoxiao gently pushed her chair back and stood up to answer, “In summary, it involves reading the entire text to grasp the main idea, identifying markers, and using them to assist with punctuation.”

“Not bad.” Old Wu nodded approvingly and pressed his hand down, signaling her to sit.

“Reading the entire text is what you should do before answering. So, how do you find markers? It’s straightforward. I’ve explained before: start by identifying content words…”

The students, seeing Old Wu’s stance, grew restless again: only four minutes until class ended—hopefully, Old Wu wouldn’t enthusiastically drag the lesson overtime!

“…Nouns and pronouns are generally used as the subject and object of a sentence…”

Ding, ding, ding, ding—

Old Wu waited for the loud bell to finish ringing and then, as if nothing had happened, continued, “Once you identify the nouns and pronouns, you can basically start punctuating.”

“Teacher, class is over!” “Got it!” “I need to catch the bus!”

A few students’ shouts sparked a chain reaction among the rest of the class, triggering a wave of excited “screaming ghosts” eager to leave the classroom.

Old Wu turned back to the front of the classroom and swung his teaching pointer, slapping it hard against the desk twice. “What’s all this noise? Wait for me to finish these two small questions, then class will be dismissed! Just two minutes!”

The noise level dropped slightly, going from a bustling marketplace to a buzzing beehive—but it was still noisy.

Qin Xiaoxiao, waiting to hear the Chinese teacher’s analysis, frowned slightly.

Ji Wenchen noticed it.

Bang—

The sudden sound from the middle of the classroom instantly drew everyone’s surprised gaze to its source. They saw the school bully lounging lazily against his chair, his expression indifferent as he said, “Shut up.”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an inexplicable menace that made people instinctively want to back off.

The startled students quickly turned back around, falling silent. Within two seconds, the classroom was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

“Teacher, please continue.”

The clear and magnetic voice stood out starkly in the silent classroom.

The silent students were once again shocked: after showing up to class on time, the school bully had now become so focused on lessons and respectful toward teachers!

Old Wu was momentarily stunned, not expecting this turn of events.

But as a teacher with many years of experience, he merely glanced at Ji Wenchen a bit longer before quickly regaining his composure and continuing the lesson. “In this sentence, the content words are located at…”