Chapter 38

“Why are you looking at me?” Ji Wenchen ate a glutinous rice cake in two bites, his delicate phoenix eyes lifting slightly. “Have you realized you’ve fallen for me again?”

What nonsense… Qin Xiaoxiao looked away. “I’m afraid you’ll finish all the rice cakes.”

Ji Wenchen tugged the corner of his lips into a faint smile. “I won’t eat anymore.”

“Oh.”

Qin Xiaoxiao closed the lid of the box and put it back into her desk cubby.

She picked up her pen and continued working on the cloze test that was just missing a little to finish.

“Qin… Xiaoxiao.”

Her shoulder was lightly tapped, and Qin Xiaoxiao turned her head to the right.

Tao Lei asked softly, “Do we need to hand in the 2017 physics test paper that was given out yesterday?”

“Yes, it needs to be handed in.” Qin Xiaoxiao wondered how she could have forgotten about this. She got up and went to the blackboard at the front of the classroom, writing in the lower right corner: Hand in the physics test paper before the end of evening self-study.

By this time, more than half of the students were already seated in the classroom.

Qin Xiaoxiao put down the chalk and happened to meet Ji Wenchen’s gaze.

He was resting his chin on his hand, his upper body leaning lazily against the desk in his usual laid-back posture, his beautiful eyes gleaming brightly.

Honestly… no sense of proper sitting posture. Qin Xiaoxiao lowered her eyes slightly and walked off the podium.

She had just sat down for a short while.

“Qin… Xiao—”

“I can’t figure out this question.” A physics test paper was slapped over from the side. Qin Xiaoxiao chose to turn and look at the back-row classmate who had spoken first. “What’s the matter?”

“N-nothing…” Tao Lei shrank back, hurriedly covering his physics workbook, not daring to glance toward the left front corner at all.

How could Qin Xiaoxiao not know why the class monitor was acting like this? Feeling somewhat helpless, she turned back and picked up Ji Wenchen’s test paper. “Which question can’t you solve?”

She noticed that not a single question was left blank.

“This one.” His long finger pointed to the second-to-last major question.

“But didn’t you already write something?”

“Isn’t it unfinished?” he replied with an air of righteous confidence.

Qin Xiaoxiao glanced at the answer section below the question.

The handwriting was clean and strong, with a sharp elegance, exuding a sense of effortless grace.

His handwriting didn’t seem like it had been practiced, yet it had a natural and distinctive beauty.

It really wasn’t fair—he probably didn’t write much on a daily basis. Over the past month, he’d only occasionally done some homework, yet he still managed to have such excellent handwriting.

She looked again at what he had written.

“…I think you’ve already figured it out.” Qin Xiaoxiao put down her pen.

In fact, his brief two lines had already written out the key formulas, but he hadn’t substituted the numbers or reached the final answer.

Ji Wenchen paused for a moment, then moved his finger to the last question. “I pointed at the wrong one—it’s this question I don’t understand.”

Lu Yitao, who had been planning to bring a drink over to Brother Chen, was stunned when he saw the scene—Brother Chen sitting so close to Qin Xiaoxiao, looking at a test paper? Discussing a question?

Lu Yitao, not the sharpest tool in the shed, thought for a few seconds and understood. This had to be Brother Chen’s method of pursuing Qin Xiaoxiao. He definitely couldn’t interrupt.

While carrying a bag of snacks, Lu Yitao quietly retreated.

The question Ji Wenchen pointed at also had the steps written down but wasn’t finished.

“Your approach is correct,” Qin Xiaoxiao said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “From here, using the v-t graph, you can calculate the accelerations of A and B. Then you can also solve the third sub-question.”

Not hearing a response, Qin Xiaoxiao turned her head and was suddenly startled to find his face less than 15 centimeters away, causing her breath to catch.

She leaned back slightly, putting some distance between them, and looked back at the test paper. “Did you understand?”

“Not really.”

“…What didn’t you understand?”

Ji Wenchen’s gaze moved from her delicate ear, loosely framed by stray strands of hair, to her fair cheek, and then to her slightly pursed, full red lips. “The second and third sub-questions—I don’t understand.”

“…Do you want me to write it all out for you?”

“Mm.”

Qin Xiaoxiao bit her upper lip—a subconscious habit she’d developed since the start of autumn whenever she felt helpless.

Ji Wenchen grabbed the bottle of mineral water on the desk, twisted it open with one hand, and tilted his head back to take a drink.

The motion caused his Adam’s apple to move up and down along his outstretched neck.

Qin Xiaoxiao sighed softly in her heart, pulled over a scrap notebook, and began writing out the detailed steps.

When her pen touched down on the final number, Qin Xiaoxiao asked, “Got it now?” She didn’t dare turn her head directly this time.

Ji Wenchen finally shifted his gaze to the scrap paper, scanning the neat and graceful handwriting in just a few moments.

“Mm.”

“If you’ve got it, write the process down.” Qin Xiaoxiao placed the test paper back on his desk.

Ji Wenchen pulled a pen from the pen holder and quickly completed the final major question in a few strokes.

The formulas, numbers, and results were all perfectly accurate.

However, the written explanations were much more simplified compared to what Qin Xiaoxiao had written.

Ji Wenchen placed the test paper back on Qin Xiaoxiao’s desk. “Submitting my homework.”

“These,” Qin Xiaoxiao pointed to each of the major questions on the paper, one by one. “Add the full detailed process for all of them.”

Except for the last question, all the answers only contained extremely simplified problem-solving steps.

Ji Wenchen paused for a moment and said, “As long as the teacher understands, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not,” Qin Xiaoxiao said seriously. “This way, you’ll only get about one-third of the points for each question at most.”

“It’s just regular homework. The score doesn’t matter,” Ji Wenchen said casually.

Qin Xiaoxiao looked into his amber eyes. “Habits are formed over time. Every piece of homework should be taken seriously.”

“…Alright, I’ll listen to you.” A faint trace of amusement flashed in Ji Wenchen’s eyes as he obediently picked up his pen and added the missing steps.

…

Before the evening break, Qin Xiaoxiao grabbed the trash bag from the dormitory bathroom to throw it out.

The dormitory’s garbage disposal area was set at the corner between floors.

After disposing of the trash, Qin Xiaoxiao dusted off her hands and noticed Bi Chun walking up the stairs.

“Xiaoxiao,” Bi Chun called softly, her almond-shaped eyes sparkling.

Qin Xiaoxiao responded with a soft “Mm” and casually asked, “Just got back?”

“Yeah, I took a walk around the lake.”

Qin Xiaoxiao nodded. “I’m heading back to the dorm now.”

“Xiaoxiao!”

“Mm?”

Bi Chun held onto the railing and jogged up. “Wait, wait for me.”

The two of them walked upstairs together.

Just two steps away from reaching the dormitory floor, Bi Chun hesitated and stood in front of Qin Xiaoxiao, looking a bit awkward. “Xiaoxiao, I…”

“What is it?” Qin Xiaoxiao stopped and looked at her.

“I-I just wanted to ask… do you know why junior Feng Maoxing didn’t come to school today?”

“He accidentally fractured a bone this afternoon, so he didn’t come.”

“Ah?” Bi Chun looked surprised and worried. “How did it happen? Where did he fracture it? Is it serious?”

Qin Xiaoxiao briefly explained what she knew. “He fractured his left hand. It’s not too serious.”

“Is he at the hospital now?” Bi Chun’s worry didn’t lessen in the slightest.

“Mm.”

“When will he be able to come back to school?”

Qin Xiaoxiao shook her head. “I’m not sure, maybe in about a week.”

“A week, huh…”

The lighting in the dormitory hallway was slightly cold and dim, casting a faintly pale, dejected look on Bi Chun’s simple and delicate face.

Qin Xiaoxiao’s gaze lowered, noticing her hands nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, and she seemed to be lost in thought.

It appeared that Bi Chun truly had some special feelings for her little cousin…

The female lead’s romantic plotline seems to be veering off track.

“I hope he recovers quickly…”

Qin Xiaoxiao felt that Bi Chun was muttering to herself. She stood with her for another half a minute before saying, “The lights are about to go out; I should head back—”

“Xiaoxiao, can you help me return this?” Bi Chun, a little flustered, hurriedly took a card out of her bag and handed it forward. “Give this back to Feng Maoxing for me, would you?”

It was a library card for the school’s library.

Qin Xiaoxiao looked puzzled. “If he’s not coming to school, I can’t give it to him either.”

“I thought… I thought you might visit him in the next couple of days.” Bi Chun realized she had overthought it. A fracture wasn’t a big deal, and Qin Xiaoxiao, a final-year student, wouldn’t need to take time off just to visit a junior.

“Then you hold onto it for now and give it to him when you see him,” Qin Xiaoxiao said, raising her brow slightly. “Is it that urgent? You can just wait until he comes back to school to return it.”

“I promised him I’d only borrow it for two weeks, and it’s due back by November 5,” Bi Chun replied in a soft, delicate voice. “But… you’re more likely to run into him, so I’m counting on you to return it for me.”

“Oh.” Qin Xiaoxiao took the card.

When she returned to the dormitory, Wu Li, who was near the door, was climbing into bed. “Xiaoxiao, can you lock the door for me?”

“Sure.”

After washing up, Qin Xiaoxiao lay down on her bed just before lights-out.

After the teacher finished the nightly inspection, the dormitory fell into complete silence.

Qin Xiaoxiao lay awake, staring at the blank ceiling, not reviewing the day’s lessons in her mind as she usually did before falling asleep.

Instead, Bi Chun’s slightly delicate face kept appearing before her eyes, followed by fleeting images of Ji Wenchen’s handsome, carefree demeanor…

The female lead didn’t seem to have fallen for the male lead, and the male lead didn’t seem to like the female lead either, but rather…

Qin Xiaoxiao closed her eyes, the sound of her slightly accelerated heartbeat audible in the stillness of the night.

…

After every monthly exam, there were always students eager to know their scores, rushing to the homeroom teacher’s office to ask about them.

However, by late Monday morning, no one had yet succeeded in bringing back the score sheet.

The fourth period that morning was physics class with their homeroom teacher, Guo Hairuo.

She walked in, carrying a document folder.

Most of the students perked up their attention.

“We’ll go over the second monthly exam since entering the final year,” Guo Hairuo said as she opened the document folder.

Sure enough, as the students had expected, it contained a stack of test papers.

And a small pile of… densely packed forms?

Guo Hairuo glanced around at the students below, then looked at the form. “This time, Class 8 ranked sixth…”

“Wow!”

“We’re finally not at the bottom!”

“Did I hear that right?”

“Quiet,” Guo Hairuo cleared her throat. “It’s true we’ve made progress compared to before, but we shouldn’t be content with just this improvement. We should aim for an even higher rank.”

“In subjects like math, our class is still ranked second to last. You need to work harder, everyone…”

Guo Hairuo went on to list the class rankings for each subject before moving on to the part the students cared about the most. “In this monthly exam, our class has 9 students in the top 200 of the grade, and 2 students in the top 100.”

“Yan Yangcan, 2nd in the class, 27th in the grade.”

He really is a consistent top student! The classmates quickly turned their gazes to the refined and handsome transfer student, Yan Yangcan.

“Qin Xiaoxiao, 1st in the class, 9th in the grade.”

“Wow!” The surprised classmates immediately shifted their attention to Qin Xiaoxiao, the native talent of Class 8, and burst into enthusiastic applause.

This is amazing! She keeps improving with every exam and now even took the top spot in the class! Beautiful, hardworking, and excelling academically—she’s undoubtedly the goddess of Class 8!

Look at her, that serene and composed expression on the goddess’s beautiful face, so calm and unshaken by praise or setbacks!

Qin Xiaoxiao’s face remained calm, but in truth, she was a little surprised herself. She had performed slightly better than she had expected this time.

What surprised her even more was—

“In this monthly exam, we also have a student who made significant progress: Ji Wenchen,” Guo Hairuo announced in a steady voice. “Ji Wenchen ranked 19th in the class and 231st in the grade.”

He had jumped from the lower-middle ranks of the class straight into the top 20, with his grade ranking soaring by more than 150 places.

This improvement—no, leap—was truly remarkable!

The classmates were dumbfounded, not daring to look directly at the school bully.

In just a month of studying, his ranking had skyrocketed! When the school bully decided to get serious about academics, his results were both enviable and intimidating.