After washing his face, Lin Zimo made his way toward Class 5, but the further he walked, the more irritated he felt. *No, I can't stand this for another second.*
When he reached the back door of Class 6, he suddenly paused. (Don't ask why Class 6 came right after Class 4; nobody knows which blockhead arranged the room numbers that way.)
I’ve heard that looking at beautiful girls is good for your physical and mental health. So, just to help me calm down and study tonight, it’s totally reasonable for me to look at a pretty girl, right?
Rest assured, I am no Cao Cao; I wouldn't covet another man's girl. I'm purely just appreciating the view.
Thinking this, Lin Zimo turned his head slightly and looked over...
Ah, a classic, pure, and pretty melon-seed face. Her delicate face had fair, clean skin without a single flaw. (Well, actually, she had a tiny mole at the corner of her left eye.) A pair of deep black eyes blinked twice. How cute...
Wait, no. Sister, why did you raise your head?
You’re supposed to be studying properly; why are you lifting your head up for no reason?
If you lift your head, won't my peeping be discovered?
Lin Zimo curled his toes inside his shoes...
Hey, why are you even more panicked than I am?
Lin Zimo was a bit puzzled. How come I, the peeper, am not nervous, yet you, the one being peeped at, are all nervous (+_+)?
Whatever, I'm slipping away first while the getting is good. Lin Zimo practically greased the soles of his feet and bolted into his classroom.
Damn it! How mortifying!
At that moment, Su Qing's cheeks were burning slightly. She had just gotten tired of reading and wanted to look into the distance to relax, never expecting she would happen to catch him looking over.
Why did he even take off his glasses? She ran right into that gaze of his, which was so affectionate it looked as though he were gazing at a puppy.
Unlike Wang Meimei and the others, she knew he was good-looking because she—she had been watching him for three years.
Su Qing took a breath and pulled a physics reference book out from her stack of books.
Just a moment ago while solving problems, a certain concept had felt a bit hazy, and she wanted to look it up. But the moment she opened the reference book, she suddenly slammed it shut again.
Then she pulled out a piece of paper from inside—a piece of paper where she had imitated someone's handwriting to write someone's name, except that this paper was practically covered edge to edge with that person's name.
*Good grief, how did this paper end up here (*゜ー゜*), if anyone finds this I'll die of embarrassment.* Su Qing's earlobes turned bright red, and she hurriedly crumpled the paper into a ball, planning to dispose of it after evening self-study.
"Qing-ge, why is your face so red? Are you hot?" asked Zhou Jingmin, Su Qing's desk mate and best friend, looking puzzled. Ever since just now, Su Qing had been acting a bit scatterbrained.
"No, I was just bored and held my breath for a bit," Su Qing said calmly, slipping the paper ball into her jacket pocket.
"Oh, your man has been sitting there grinning like an idiot at you all evening. Aren't you going to respond?" Zhou Jingmin teased.
Hearing what her best friend said, Su Qing turned her head to look at the desk of her boyfriend, Yang Zhendong, right behind her, and sure enough, she saw him sitting there acting like a fool.
Su Qing gave a light laugh. Wasn't it just that she had brought him some snacks? Was there any need to be like this?
Then she pointed at her desk and made a writing gesture telling him to study properly, before turning back around to resume her problems.
*I can't let my mind wander to that nonsense anymore.* Su Qing calmed her mind.
Yang Zhendong now seemed to be standing at the peak of his life. His academic performance was leaping forward by bounds, and he had already squeezed into the front ranks competing for coveted key university seats. His romantic life was even smoother—he had fallen head over heels with the grade's recognized beauty.
Today, she had returned from going out, carrying snacks she had carefully chosen for him. As he gently sipped the Pepsi his girlfriend had bought him, the envious gazes cast from all around gave his self-esteem immense satisfaction. He took another sip of the Pepsi and thought: *Why buy Pepsi?*
*Actually, I prefer Coca-Cola. I'll tell her next time.*
.......
"Which of you two drank my Pepsi?" Lin Zimo glanced at the bottle of Pepsi on his desk, which was now half empty, and stared expressionlessly at the two unfilial sons and roommates sitting in front of him.
Lin Zimo's seat was the single desk right by the back door.
The two in front of him were Fang Chao and Wang Wei, two of his unfilial sons from Room 104.
Fang Chao was skinny, around 170 centimeters tall, quite handsome, but with a frame too small, making him look like a child. Wang Wei was slightly chubbier, around 175 centimeters tall, with an oval face, though his eyes looked a bit too wretched.
Lin Zimo was very angry right now. He had only taken a single sip of his favorite Pepsi, and when he came back, half of it was gone.
Actually, drinking it was one thing, but the crucial point was that these two unfilial sons hadn't shaken the gas back up, so now drinking it tasted just like sugar water with zero kick.
"Hey, Old Mo, what did the teacher call you over for?" Fang Chao turned his head and asked in a low voice.
"We'll talk back in the room."
Lin Zimo originally wanted to look over his incorrect problems, but unfortunately, although the grades had come out, the answer sheets hadn't been handed back yet. So he decided to work on a math test paper.
Right after he finished solving a climax problem, Zhou Jingmin, the math class representative from Class 6, tapped him on the shoulder from the back door and said, "Old Yang wants you to come over." With that, she turned around and walked back to her own class.
Wait, are the stars misaligned for me today, bro? How come one after another keeps looking for me? My rank of eighth in the grade isn't that bad, is it (⊙o⊙)?
"Xiaomin, what did Old Yang want you for?" Su Qing asked her desk mate who had just sat down, and then, seeing a certain someone walk out of their classroom, she hurriedly lowered her head.
Wait, why isn't he wearing his glasses again (?°?°?)..
Lin Zimo walked into the math faculty office with a long face. Back in the classroom, in a fit of anger, he had slammed his glasses onto the desk and knocked out the lenses.
"Do you know which questions you got wrong this time?" Old Yang, Yang Zhengming, sat in his chair and looked up to ask his class representative.
"I only know I calculated the second fill-in-the-blank question wrong. I don't know about the rest." Actually, Lin Zimo was quite curious where else he had lost those five points.
Yang Zhengming rolled his eyes at him and pushed the answer sheet in front of him. "Good lad, you managed to get the very first multiple-choice question wrong?"
"Huh? No way, I checked the answers and they were right." Lin Zimo was a bit puzzled, but looking at the answers marked on the answer sheet, weren't they indeed wrong (˙-˙=????)？？？
Wait, what's going on? I clearly chose B on my test paper, how did it get filled in as C on the answer sheet? Lin Zimo scratched his head as something suddenly occurred to him.
Two days ago during the math exam, after he finished the test paper early, he started filling in the answers for the preceding multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Right then, he sharply sensed that someone nearby seemed to be peeking at him—it was that Su Qing.
She wanted to see his answers!
Upholding the principle of not letting her continue making mistakes, he even glared at her. *Damn it, puppy love is ill-advised; you can't ruin your studies just because you're dating, sister, and a love-brained mindset is even more unacceptable.* Lin Zimo had thought at the time, and then he saw her make an OK hand gesture. *Hmm, this student is teachable.* Lin Zimo had nodded...
……
"It's simply because she didn't test well this time. Ah, I'm so annoyed, I don't want to be the class representative anymore, wailing... can't we swap teachers?
Let Old Xu from Class 4 teach us, and have Old Yang go teach them. That freak Lin Zimo can score 140 even on such difficult problems, I'm under a lot of pressure, okay?" Zhou Jingmin complained to Su Qing.
"Old Xu is the head teacher of Class 4, how could he possibly swap with Old Yang?" Su Qing smiled, though inwardly she felt deep empathy. The past was too painful to recall ≡(▔﹏▔)≡. This test paper was indeed quite difficult; she hadn't expected that someone could still score so high. How did he manage to be so consistently steady?
Yet thinking of his somewhat appalling Chinese score, she smiled again. He looked like such a quiet, well-mannered boy with good breeding, so why did his Chinese score always hover around the passing line? A partial-subject god of war?
"What, you're making fun of me too, Qing-ge?" Zhou Jingmin was quite angry.
"No, I just thought of something funny."
"I'm just speaking the truth! Every exam has me on tenterhooks. It's fine when the test paper is slightly easier and the gap between us isn't obvious.
The moment the difficulty goes up, that freak leaves me behind by twenty or thirty points. I have my pride too, you know?" Zhou Jingmin felt somewhat despairing. At their age, people feared comparison the most, especially regarding grades—not to mention that the two of them were class representatives for the same teacher.
Freaks should just play with other freaks. Lin Zimo and Yang Zhao from Class 4 always hogged the top two spots in math, and the crucial thing was that these two were the best of best friends, driving a bunch of fujoshi wild with shipping delusions.
"Uh, Qing-ge, do you happen to know which question that Lin Zimo got wrong?" Zhou Jingmin suddenly smiled mysteriously.Mainly because Old Yang's expression at the time had been too hilarious; his face had been scrunched up into the shape of the character for "embarrassed".
Su Qing was a bit surprised. What did which question he got wrong have to do with her?
"Could it be the very first multiple-choice question?" Su Qing thought of something, but that shouldn't be right—when she watched him fill it in earlier, it seemed to be B, so on an impulse, she had gestured for him to choose C, and he had even nodded (????)シ.
"Aigoo, not bad, Qing-ge, you guessed right on the dot. You have no idea how funny Old Yang's expression was back then."
"All right, read your book. Self-study is almost over."
"The exam just ended, I can't quite get into studying. Eh, okay, okay, I'll study, Qing-ge, don't hit me." Zhou Jingmin rubbed her arm and hurriedly begged for mercy.
……
"So you're saying this test paper could have gotten a full score?" Old Yang raised an eyebrow, truly having no way to deal with this beloved disciple of his who always managed to lose points in baffling places.
"Teacher, I'll definitely pay attention next time," Lin Zimo promised. From now on, he absolutely wouldn't let these trivial matters distract him.
"Alright, go back."
"Okay, teacher." Right before leaving, Lin Zimo glanced at Teacher Xu's desk: math score 138. Hahaha, little brother, those ten duck legs are not escaping your grasp (??｀)σ.
Today he finally got to experience the thrill of victory.
Just as he walked out, he saw Old Xu followed by a clean-looking, slightly roguish boy—wasn't that unfilial son Yang Zhao? Lin Zimo stealthily flashed a pinky finger at him.
*Damn, did I lose to that turtle's son again this time?* Yang Zhao felt a pang in his heart; he was going to have to buy ten duck legs.
"Old Mo, what did Old Yang want you for?" That jerk Fang Chao had no intention of resting; the moment Lin Zimo came back, he pounced on him with questions.
"I think you guys might get called in for a chat before long," Lin Zimo guessed vaguely, saying this to Fang Chao and Wang Wei.
Soon ten o'clock arrived. Evening self-study ended, and the students lined up one after another to head toward the dormitories.
Right as he walked out, seeing Su Qing emerge from the math faculty office further confirmed a vague thought in his mind, except that his pensive expression was caught precisely by Su Qing...
*Why is he looking at me like that again?* Su Qing's face flushed slightly. Looking at people like that was very impolite, you know!
Su Qing felt a little petty inside, but thinking about it, her romantic relationship was only known within a small circle in class; after all, this sort of matter really couldn't let too many people find out. Yuying's punishments for puppy love were notoriously severe.
Dormitory 104—at Yuying, both boys' and girls' dormitories housed eight people per room. "Old Mo, what did the teachers want you for today? Quick, tell your fathers," Fang Chao started badgering relentlessly the moment he stepped into the dorm.
There was no help for it; at Yuying, mobile phones weren't allowed, extracurricular books weren't permitted, and every day they had to rely solely on gossip to pass the time.
"Yeah, Zimo, tell us about it," spoke up Chen Xiaomo, whose face was round and looked quite cheerful.
"It probably wasn't because of the exams, right? Old Mo is eighth in the grade this time, after all," Chen Yu said while doing deep squats. It was all because of this jerk Lin Zimo, who worked out in the dorm every day and dragged all of his fathers into exercising along with him.
"My guess is that Little Chaoge, Brother Wei, Brother Lei, and Brother Yu are probably all going to be called in," Lin Zimo said while grabbing his washbasin.
"What's going on?" Xu Lei asked as he walked out of the restroom upon hearing this.
"I think the school is probably picking out the top tier, specifically targeting the weaker subjects of some top students to prescribe the right medicine for the illness," Lin Zimo wiped his face.
"Sigh, I'm so envious that you guys can get called in for a talk. Unfortunately, I don't reach the standard," Chen Xiaomo sat on his bed with a depressed face.
Usually, if people were called in for a talk, everyone would certainly be unwilling, but when grades were involved, most students still hoped to be valued by the teachers.
Yet although his grades had broken into the top one hundred, he was completely dragging down the average in the dorm.
"Don't be depressed, there's still time. Aside from Chinese, feel free to come to your Mo-ge for anything else you don't know," Lin Zimo cheered him up.
"Old Mo, why don't you cross-dress for me to see? I guarantee I'll test higher next time." Who would have thought that this piece of work, Chen Xiaomo, would put on a wretched expression and look at Lin Zimo.
"Get lost, your grandfather." Lin Zimo threw the bolster from his bed right onto Chen Xiaomo's head, laughing and scolding him.
"Yeah, Old Mo, just show it to your fathers. There's nobody else here." Fang Chao and Wang Wei also joined in the teasing.
"Look at your grandfather, you damned perverts. Why can't you learn from Fugao and Old Tian over there?" Lin Zimo retrieved the bolster from Chen Xiaomo's bed and muttered a complaint.
"Actually, the two of us want to see it too." Tian Chenggong and Sun Zifu were upper and lower bunks on the right side near the balcony. Their personalities were very similar—both quite introverted and honest.
"。。." *No, bros, how come you two are turning bad too? This dorm is unlivable, everyone's a pervert.*
After doing thirty push-ups and twenty deep squats, Lin Zimo climbed onto his bed to get ready for sleep. *Study my ass, I'm in no mood for burning the midnight oil tonight.*
……
Girls' Dormitory 216: Because of the low number of female students, many girls' dorms were mixed arrangements housing students from two different classes. 216 consisted of four girls from Class 5 and four from Class 6.
"Hey, Qing-ge, I saw you come out of the math faculty office tonight. What did Old Yang want you for?" Liu Wenying was soaking her feet and applying lotion on her bed.
"Nothing much, just talking about the problems that popped up in this exam." Zhou Jingmin helped Su Qing answer the question, while Su Qing at that moment was rummaging through something.
"Right, I'm guessing you guys will probably be called in tomorrow too. It feels like they're going to specially tutor the top students," Su Qing replied while rummaging through the box on her bedside table.
*Eh, I remember putting it right here, how come I can't find it?* Su Qing felt a bit melancholic. Tonight's slip of paper had reminded her that she hadn't just written this single piece of paper in the past; she had written many, and some of them even had rather shameful things written on them.After a while, the other five girls in the dorm—Wang Qinglan, Liu Qianwen, Yang Siqi, Chen Shasha, and Zhou Yu—also returned from washing up in the public restroom. The first three were from Class 5, and the latter two from Class 6.
"How come they all have private restrooms, while ours is public? (?｀-′)/" Zhou Yu put her washbasin under her bed and complained.
"Yeah, why is it always us using the public restroom?" Liu Qianwen also expressed dissatisfaction.
"Lights out, lights out." The dormitory supervisor's voice came from outside.
"Sigh, every day we have to line up to wash up, and the lights go out right after we finish. There's no time to chat at all." Zhou Jingmin unhappily got up from her bed to turn off the lights. She was a chatterbox; forbidding her from talking was practically harder for her to bear than being killed.
At Yuying School, talking was not allowed after the lights went out. Getting caught meant being hauled out to the hallway to stand as punishment.
Because the exams had just ended, most students' study states were slightly more relaxed, and they wouldn't sneakily use small flashlights to study; they went to sleep early.
Yet in the quiet campus night, there were two people suffering from insomnia...
*Why did she (he) lift her (his) head like that (look at me like that)...*