Chapter 12: You Think This is Poker?

Su Tian had come up with a clever plan.

Today, Jiang Chiyu only wore a baseball cap without a face mask, revealing his devastatingly handsome face. His eyes in particular, with their upturned corners, resembled both peach blossoms and phoenix eyes, radiating a brilliant charm that was incredibly striking.

But he was far too eye-catching – she didn’t dare walk to school alongside him.

Conveniently, her backpack had a fairly neutral style that wouldn’t immediately be recognized as a girl’s bag if a boy carried it. Since Jiang Chiyu wanted to carry it, she might as well let him!

Su Tian’s mood brightened as she congratulated herself on such a brilliant idea. How clever of her to think of this solution.

Unfortunately, fearing that Jiang Chiyu might catch up, she could only run quickly ahead without daring to look back to see his frustrated expression.

Serves you right for having such a terrible personality!

Someone like her needed to teach you a lesson! You weirdo transfer student!

Su Tian jogged all the way to the teaching building where she ran into Sun Muchu. They were both startled, but Sun Muchu quickly composed herself, letting out a light snort before her eyes lit up with an idea. She said in a sarcastic tone, “Su Tian, you did quite well this time, ranking 35th.”

Weren’t these good students always obsessed with grades and rankings? She probably cried all night after seeing the ranking sheet yesterday, hmph!

Sun Muchu specifically observed her eyes but didn’t see any redness, swelling, or dark circles, so she rationalized it by assuming Su Tian just had good skin around her eyes.

She had no idea that Su Tian hadn’t actually seen the rankings last night, only checking them this morning.

Even if she had seen them last night, Su Tian wouldn’t have cried all night.

She was far stronger than she appeared on the surface.

Now that her grades were being brought up again, Su Tian realized that the disappointment she felt this morning upon learning her ranking had mysteriously disappeared.

She had clearly still been upset about it in her father’s car.

Right now she just wanted to cheerfully sing “Flowers Smile at Me~”

So what had happened between getting out of the car and now that suddenly made her happy?

Su Tian paused in thought.

Seeing her zone out without responding, Sun Muchu rolled her eyes dramatically. “Do you understand basic courtesy, Su Tian? I’m talking to you!”

Su Tian snapped back to reality, nodding with a smile, “Not bad, though not as good as you.”

She actually hadn’t paid attention to Sun Muchu’s score, though she vaguely remembered Zhou Ying mentioning that Sun Muchu’s ranking usually hovered around the bottom twenty or so.

Not getting the reaction she wanted, Sun Muchu thought her words weren’t biting enough. “You dropped twenty-six places! Didn’t your dad scold you when you got home?”

Her family happened to have a tiger mom and cat dad dynamic. Su Tian smiled shyly, “Actually, no.”

“…” Having failed twice, Sun Muchu continued proudly, “I improved by three places this time!”

Su Tian smiled.

How could Sun Muchu be so confident coming to brag about improving by three places…

Thinking this, she smiled again and turned to head upstairs.

Sun Muchu belatedly realized that Su Tian had just laughed at her – twice. She stamped her foot in anger.

They entered the classroom one after another to find a crowd gathered around the multimedia screen. As they got closer, they could hear people discussing the grade reports. Su Tian specifically squeezed through to take a look, finding Sun Muchu’s name on the second page.

Fifty-second place.

Their class had sixty-five students in total.

This time, Su Tian’s laugh was genuine and heartfelt.

She shook her head and walked toward her seat. Sun Muchu followed, still not giving up, “Su Tian, what are you laughing at! Haven’t I improved? Aren’t you the one who’s falling behind?”

Su Tian: “Yes, so what?”

“So at this rate, my ranking will soon surpass yours. How about that? Feeling nervous?”

Su Tian: “…”

“No.”

Someone nearby chimed in, “You think this is poker, winning one round and losing another?”

Zhou Ying walked over and placed a box of yogurt on Su Tian’s desk, completely ignoring Sun Muchu as she smiled sweetly, “Here you go, Su Su. I’m here to feed you!”

“Thanks, Zhou Zhou~” Su Tian picked it up and looked – it was a certain brand that was always the hardest to sell in their supermarket.

This girl – could it be she improved her ranking this time?

Being so generous.

Only then did Zhou Ying turn to Sun Muchu, deliberately speaking in an affected tone: “Oh, it’s Sun Sun! Would you like some? I have another bottle with walnut flavor – it’s good for the brain!”

“What Sun Sun…” Sun Muchu shot them a fierce glare and stormed off angrily.

Watching Sun Muchu’s retreating figure, Su Tian finally couldn’t help but ask, “Was she always like this? She’s actually quite cute.”

This was basically her first interaction with Sun Muchu.

It was completely different from what she had imagined.

“You mean she’s stupid, right? She’s incredibly stupid. If you told me she won my crush’s heart by playing dumb, I could accept that. But she’s not just stupid, she’s also super annoying,” Zhou Ying said.

Su Tian shrugged – she didn’t want to experience that at all.

However—

“Why did Sun Muchu suddenly become so hostile toward me? I haven’t had a chance to ask you what you did with my water bottle yesterday!”

“Uh.” Zhou Ying stammered, then gave her a placating smile, “Tian Tian, look, I already bought you yogurt as an apology.”

“So this yogurt was meant as an apology?” Su Tian said irritably.

“No! I just saw the grade report…” Zhou Ying quickly changed the subject. Being taller, she reached out to play with Su Tian’s little braid, speaking rapidly in a whisper, “I just wanted to annoy her so I gave your water bottle to Jiang Chiyu and said ‘Your deskmate asked you to get her some water’… and I left before giving him the water card so Jiang ended up using Sun Muchu’s card to get your water.”

Su Tian: “…”

Su Tian felt both touched and a bit annoyed: “Zhou Ying!”

Zhou Ying ran away before she could explode.

Su Tian wanted to chase after her, but caught sight of a dark figure entering the classroom. Her feet suddenly felt rooted to the ground. After hesitating, she sat back down.

After entering the classroom, Jiang Chiyu didn’t immediately return to his seat, but stopped at the multimedia area to take a few glances.

Jiang Chiyu seemed to naturally exude an unapproachable aura – several students automatically made way so he could see more clearly.

Xiao Hu Cong, one of only three students who had ever spoken to Jiang Chiyu, was there. Seeing him come to look at the grade report, he felt the need to explain to this overseas returnee: “Classmate Jiang, don’t think our class’s scores are generally low – it’s just that the test was too difficult, everyone scored low. But even with such low scores, we can see a group of rising stars still holding their ground. Like our class monitor, Han Guangyuan here. And our math representative Song Mingxing, who scored an impressive 102. And…”

Jiang Chiyu listened half-heartedly, occasionally humming in response. But his gaze didn’t follow the various places Xiao Hu was pointing to – instead, it remained fixed on one spot.