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Bonus chapter! Thank you to alyanna for the donation! ^^
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At that moment, he was standing in front of the sink, with the window behind him.
As he raised his hands to tie the tie in the back light, the school uniform shirt pulled up, and the vertical creases outlined his slender waist under the light.
Ning Su looked up to see that the tie bearing his name was already tied around Ling Xiao’s neck.
It seemed to have some special meaning.
But his eyes remained calm and composed.
“What are you thinking about?”
Two long fingers tapping on the desk interrupted his gaze.
Ning Su snapped out of it and looked up to see Ling Xiao standing by the desk, back from somewhere, though he didn’t know when.
Zhong Huiling said, “I was just asking Ning Su where you had gone.”
Ling Xiao let out an “ah,” glanced at Ning Su, and said, “Tell her.”
Ning Su scratched his ear.
“Huh? Desk mate, something seems a bit different about you,” Zhong Huiling said.
Ning Su’s heart tightened, and he quickly looked up at him.
“What’s different?” Zhong Huiling stared at the boy who many girls in the class were looking at and suddenly widened his eyes. “It’s your tie!”
“Desk mate, you used to wear your tie very casually, even during the morning reading session. Why is it so neatly tied now?”
Ning Su’s heart skipped a beat.
Ling Xiao glanced at him again, quickly looked away, and tugged at the corner of his tie. “I don’t know, subconsciously I felt like I should be more serious.”
Zhong Huiling half-understood, “Not bad.”
Ning Su: “...”
Ning Su quietly turned away.
Ling Xiao returned to his seat.
Zhong Huiling asked him, “Deskmate, where did you go during the last class?”
Ling Xiao: “I went to write a self-reflection letter, but it’s nothing.”
Ning Su was relieved.
“Oh, oh, oh,” Zhong Huiling asked, “Did you get in trouble?”
Ling Xiao: “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ning Su nodded while writing.
He heard a familiar laugh and, as he was about to turn his head, he saw his desk mate Tang Yichen’s cold face.
Tang Yichen glanced at him, then lowered his head and looked at the Chinese exam answer sheet in his hand.
The bell for the next class rang soon, and it was time for Chinese.
This was the first Chinese class after the grades had come out. As soon as the Chinese teacher entered the classroom, he called Tang Yichen to stand up.
Standing on the podium, the teacher looked at Tang Yichen with a face full of vicious hatred, “Tang Yichen, what exactly have I done to wrong you? How could you do this to me?”
“Come, come, everyone, look at the Chinese test paper of our former grade top student, and see how he took this Chinese exam.”
A light screen appeared on the right side of the podium, showing Tang Yichen’s Chinese answer sheet.
This world was more technologically advanced than theirs, as evidenced by the tablet Ning Su obtained, which could automatically project screens.
Even in the bright daylight, a light screen with clarity comparable to a movie theater could be projected next to the podium at any time.
Tang Yichen’s answer sheet was displayed before the entire class, leaving no details unseen.
It’s no wonder the Chinese teacher was so angry. Many of the objective questions at the beginning were wrong, including some very simple ones, which completely did not match his previous level as the top student in the grade.
He might have made those mistakes on purpose.
Ning Su suddenly thought of what Tang Yichen had said about the Reflection Hall. Not only would underperforming students go there to reflect, but students with excellent grades would also go there to receive commendation from the principal.
Could this be the reason?
“Talk to me! Why exactly did you do this? You ungrateful bastard with the heart of a wolf and the lungs of a dog!”
The Chinese teacher’s eyes were so black with anger that the whites could hardly be seen. He descended from the podium with a chilling aura, using the lesson plan to slap Tang Yichen’s face repeatedly. The loud “smack” sound that echoed through the classroom indicated the force of the blows.
He was becoming less and less human, cursing with his mouth wide open like a bloodthirsty beast, “The top student in the grade scored like this, regressing so much, and you still have the nerve to sit here? Why don’t you just go die?”
All the students in the class kept their heads down, not daring to make a sound, nor did they dare to even glance at the teacher.
“Gulp—”
Ning Su was startled and looked up.
The sound rang out just once, and it was impossible to tell where it came from.
No matter how the teacher cursed, Tang Yichen remained silent.
His face had turned red from the slaps, yet he still wore a look of indifference.
“Get to the back of the classroom and stand while you listen to the lesson!”
Tang Yichen quietly took his textbook and test paper and walked to the back.
The teacher adjusted his expression and smiled at Ning Su, saying, “I hope I didn’t disturb you, Ning Su. You did very well in the diagnostic exam. Scoring over 140 in Chinese is not easy.”
Ning Su only found his smile terrifying.
Nothing else happened in their class for the rest of the morning.
Since there was a break during lunch, it was longer than breakfast time, lasting two hours.
Very few players took a nap at noon; they were all racing against time to study, even more intensely than they did during their senior year of high school.
Could they afford not to work hard?
Back then, failing the college entrance exam meant not getting into a university. Here, failing the entrance exam means losing your life!
After Ning Su finished his meal, he didn’t idle either; he was tutoring Shi Tianzhu in math.
Shi Tianzhu was different from Ling Xiao. She had lived abroad for a long time and was particularly good at English, but her weak point was high school math, which she hadn’t studied.
Ning Su had experience as a tutor, so teaching her was a breeze.
Shi Tianzhu was intelligent and serious, learning very quickly.
Seeing that he couldn’t join in, Ning Changfeng said to Ling Xiao, “Then I’ll help you with English. Have you finished memorizing your primary school vocabulary?”
Ling Xiao: “...”
Because they were in different classes, they weren’t in the classroom but were at the long table in the dining hall.
There was no need to worry about disturbing others’ rest; it was convenient for them to tutor each other in pairs.
At the nearby table, Lu Yue noticed this and said to Zhou Xiang, “Your math isn’t great either. How about I help you with it?”
Ning Su paused, subtly glancing over in that direction.
A flash of panic appeared in Zhou Xiang’s eyes, but he quickly masked it with a smile. Gripping the edge of the blue dining chair tightly, he said, “No need, you should take a nap. I’ll just review my Chinese.”
Seeing Lu Yue’s smile fade slightly, Zhou Xiang looked at him deeply and said, “Although you weren’t in the bottom 100 in the last mock exam, you were only 6 points away from it. So you really must, you really must study hard, or else, or else...”
His words trailed off.
Ning Su caught sight of the look in Zhou Xiang’s eyes, deep and glistening.
Lu Yue smiled and asked him, “Or else what?”
Zhou Xiang opened his mouth, a flicker of confusion and fear in his eyes.
“Or else, I won’t feel at ease.” He finally said.
Lu Yue smiled and replied, “Got it. I only slept for four hours last night. I’ll rest my head for a while and then get back to studying.”
Ning Su tightened his grip on his pen and continued writing.
Zhou Xiang glanced at Ning Su several times.
Ning Su handed a summary of a certain type of problem to Shi Tianzhu and said, “I’m going to the restroom.”
Ning Su waited only a minute outside the restroom by the restaurant before Zhou Xiang came out.
“After breakfast this morning, did you forget about the dungeon we went through?” Ning Su asked as they walked toward the lake nearby.
“This morning, the details of that dungeon were already blurry, but I still remember Lu Yue from it.”
Zhou Xiang caught up with Ning Su, but he was walking unsteadily, possibly due to the blurry, fragmented memories affecting his brain.
He mentioned the morning, but it was clear that things were different now.
He leaned against a tree trunk, his face filled with a mix of terror and sorrow, and occasionally a look of bewilderment as he recalled the past. “Just now, there was a moment when I even forgot the rules of this dungeon.”
Ning Su knew.
Zhou Xiang likely wanted to say something like, “Otherwise, the next placement test might end with you being one of the bottom 100 and sent to the small dark room.”
But he got stuck. He only vaguely told Lu Yue that he felt uneasy otherwise.
What a pain, she really hoped that she doesn't forget it and even worse that they don't have to separate 😣
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update 😩😩