The exam schedule was packed tightly. Huo Ni and I were on opposite tracks—one science, one humanities—and our testing rooms were far apart. She had no way to look after me, so I had to rely entirely on myself.
I answered the test papers with single-minded focus, feeling quite satisfied inside. In just over a dozen days, I felt like I had improved immensely.
In my past life, because I failed to get into M University and ended up at an arts school, my basic academic subjects were essentially neglected.
Now, picking up the high-school-senior mindset again proved to be somewhat difficult for me.
Fortunately, Huo Feng was a good teacher. Of course, Lin Ran was too.
During the lunch break, Huo Ni ran over to see me, told me she felt she was doing all right, and then hurried back.
I closed my eyes in the corner of the classroom to rest and gather my strength for a bit.
"Nan Xing, the teacher wants you to go to the copy room to pick up some materials!" someone shouted loudly from the door.
By the time I focused my eyes to look, the person had already walked far away.
I looked down at the cast on my foot and couldn't help letting out a sigh.
Our head teacher was a textbook example of a "grades-above-all" fanatic. As long as your grades were good, she practically wanted to enplace you on an altar and burn three sticks of incense morning and night.
If your grades weren't good, well, there was nothing more to say; any trivial chore in the class would be assigned to you, and don't even think about resisting. If you dared to have any opinions, she would subject you to a three-hour ideological lecture, reforming you until you willingly allowed yourself to be reduced to a "slave" making willing contributions to the class.
Just like now, the cast on my foot couldn't hinder the head teacher's freedom to enslave me.
I grabbed my crutch. Fortunately, knowing that Lin Ran had been somewhat deliberate in "packaging" my foot like this, I knew there was actually no major harm done.
The supply room was located in a secluded corner behind the teaching building, right next to the campus wall. Many students who skipped or played truant used it to enter and leave the school, and even some petty hoodlums from society would sneak into the school through here.
Therefore, this was a place that the good kids never went to. But as an underachieving student, I often had to play the role of the teacher's delivery girl, so I had no choice but to come here. I was extremely familiar with it.
So much so that as soon as I approached, I noticed something was wrong.
Pushing open the door of the supply room, I left one crutch at the entrance and limped with a single crutch toward our class's section.
The door closed behind me.
I looked toward the corner of the supply room, where three petty hoodlums slowly emerged.
Sporting three heads of messy-colored hair, wearing tacky clothes they thought made them look cool, they swaggered over with a cocky, swaying gait.
They looked me up and down and said with a grin, "Well, well, I didn't expect it to actually be such a stunning beauty! That girl was pretty loyal this time; if we tribute a piece of goods like this to the boss up top, the three of us brothers will have made a huge contribution."
Talking amongst themselves, they walked over. I calmly retreated to our class's supply area and felt around with my right hand until I touched a triangular metal ruler—the heavy, practical kind we usually used here to weigh down stacks of test papers.
"Little sister, come with us brothers. We'll treat you well!" The dyed blonde leader walked toward me.
I looked at his feet and silently calculated the distance.
They let out weird laughs. "Don't be scared, little sister. Obediently come along with big brother."
I swung the triangular ruler in my hand hard toward the leader.
The blonde crashed to the ground with a thud.
While the other two were startled and took a step back, I had already knocked out the red-haired man.
The last remaining grey-blue-haired hoodlum was dumbfounded. He instinctively backed away, pointing at you—no, pointing at me: "You, you, you, don't come over, don't come over."
I smiled and stepped over the two men lying on the ground.
My smile made the grey-blue-haired punk's hair stand on end as he retreated: "Don't, don't, that, you, I—"
Holding the triangular ruler in one hand and my crutch in the other, I walked two steps, thought better of it, and backhanded the triangular ruler against the iron shelving of another class nearby, creating a deafening crash.
"Ah—" The blue-grey-haired guy clutched his head and squatted down.
"Do you want me to call the police, or will you carry them out yourselves?" I asked calmly.
Clutching his head, the blue-grey-haired guy replied, "I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll take care of it myself."
"Good, then clean this place up and leave no trace behind," I said, looking at the two men on the ground and the pile of exam papers.
"Yes, yes, yes, alright, alright," the blue-grey-haired guy quickly agreed.
I turned around, walked to the door, bent down to pick up the crutch I had left there, and tucked it under my arm.
I glanced back at the punks: "Didn't the person who sent you here tell you I have violent tendencies? I'm letting you off today because I'm in a good mood, but I don't want you to let her off. Use your own judgment."
I propped myself on my double crutches and walked back toward the teaching building.
This was a trap. No teacher had asked me to go pick up test papers; someone had set this up to wait for me, abduct me, and take me out of the school.
They were truly ruthless!
They didn't take me seriously at all, otherwise they wouldn't have sent such incompetent losers.
When I returned to the classroom, the exam had been underway for ten minutes. I had almost been late and unable to take this session.
I sat in my seat and let out a breath, forcing myself to calm down.
Take the exam first, then think about everything else.
When the final subject ended, I stretched lazily to loosen my stiff shoulders and back.
"Nan Xing!" Huo Ni's voice came from the doorway.
As I packed my things, Huo Ni walked in to help me with my backpack and crutches.
When most of the people had cleared out, Huo Ni lowered her voice and said, "Nan Xing, I heard that this afternoon Li Tian and Tian Ting were beaten by three people from outside the school. They were slapped a few times and even fell down the stairs."
So it was them?
Huo Ni continued, "The school leaders even stepped in, but Li Tian and Tian Ting firmly refused to call the police, insisting on claiming that the two of them got into a fight themselves and refusing to let the police get involved. Strange, don't you think?"
A cold smirk formed in my heart. They were smart enough to know that pursuing the matter further would inevitably drag my business into it.
Huo Ni muttered softly, "In a school like ours, for something like this to happen, it's just unbelievable. Don't you think so, Nan Xing?"
I nodded in agreement.
Inwardly, however, I understood why I had been bullied so miserably in my past life: because I had no money, no connections, and no brains, leaving me trapped in a position where anyone could slaughter me at will.
"Nan Xing, how did you do on the exam? The results come out tonight at eight, and I'm so nervous!" Whenever Huo Ni got nervous, she just kept talking.
I stopped and patted her shoulder. "You'll be fine, relax. As long as your grades improve nicely, our chances of staying at your uncle's place go up."
"When you put it that way, I'm even more nervous." Huo Ni wore a worried frown.
I wasn't worried. Anyway, if one method didn't work, I'd just find another. My goal was crystal clear—to stay by Huo Jingchuan's side.
Furthermore, I needed to make myself strong.
One day, I would stand shoulder to shoulder with Huo Jingchuan as his comrade-in-arms or his assistant, rather than remaining a burden dependent on him!
Lin Ran came over early to wait for the scores, and he seemed even more nervous than I was.
By the time the scores were posted in the group chat, I hadn't even looked yet before my phone was snatched away from me.
Then, he stormed straight up to my face: "Nan Xing! You owe me an explanation!"
I watched his meltdown with complete composure.
Huo Ni was happily showing her results to Huo Jingchuan when she was startled by Lin Ran's roar.
She hurried over to smooth things over: "Dr. Lin, please don't be angry."
Lin Ran roared at Huo Ni, "How could I not be angry? She only managed to score this miserable handful of points! I feel like all my burning passion was fed to the dogs!"
Huo Ni glanced quickly at the score sheet and muttered, "Nan Xing, you cheated!"
"Tsk! With a score like this, and you still call it cheating? Ni-ni, do you even know how to comfort someone?"
I let out a sigh.
Lin Ran glared at me.
I pulled one paper out of the stack on my desk and handed it to Lin Ran: "This is today's test. I retook it after I got home."
Lin Ran took it, looked it over, and wore a look of shock and suspicion.
Then he picked up a pen and started grading my paper. Once he finished, he tallied the score twice before looking up at me.
I asked, "How much?"
Lin Ran asked me directly, "Why? Is this what Ni-ni called cheating?"
Huo Ni reached out and took the test paper back, a smile breaking across her face: "I knew it! Nan Xing definitely wouldn't score just this little. She must have cheated on purpose, intentionally answering wrong so she wouldn't get a high score."
"W—why? Every single exam you take right now is crucial to you. Every ranking affects which university you apply to and determines your upcoming study goals and plans. How could you mess around like this?" Lin Ran demanded, bewildered.
I shrugged. "You could call it biding my time in obscurity."
Huo Jingchuan, who had remained silent the entire time, walked over, took the test paper from Huo Ni's hand, and asked Lin Ran, "Are you satisfied now?"
Lin Ran nodded. "Satisfied."
Huo Jingchuan said, "That's settled then. From now on, whenever there's an important exam, have her give you two copies of the test, and just take her through it using your own plan. She has her difficulties; you don't need to ask so many questions—just follow her lead and trust her!"
A wave of emotion stirred in my heart. Whether in my past life or this one, Huo Jingchuan always chose to trust me unconditionally, giving me his utmost support.
I would not let him down.