Xia Yanchun felt a pang of guilt in her heart. Why was Shi Yan looking over here for no reason, and so intently at that?
She absolutely, definitely saw it!
It was all Shen Nian's fault, daring to act like that in the classroom!
Xia Yanchun immediately gathered her things, ignoring Shen Nian, and quietly returned to her own seat.
Shen Nian scratched his cheek, puzzled, his gaze following her. But Xia Yanchun paid him no mind at all, instead leaning close to Li Shiyan and whispering, who knows what they were discussing.
There wasn't much he could do in the classroom anyway, so he didn't mind much that she went back. He took a sip of the brown sugar water and lowered his head to review his own materials.
Xia Yanchun pinched Li Shiyan's soft cheek lightly, frowning slightly. "What were you looking at just now?"
Li Shiyan blinked, looking somewhat innocent as she pulled Xia Yanchun's cool hand away, her voice soft. "I saw Shen Nian bothering you... he touched your finger..."
"Whew..." Xia Yanchun let out a sigh of relief, the flicker of panic in her heart settling down.
It was all Shen Nian's fault, being so bold in public. She didn't even dare imagine what he might do during the lunch break, if they were the only two left in the classroom.
Xia Yanchun was glad she had pulled her hand back quickly. If she had been bold enough to interact with Shen Nian, or just let him tease her without stopping, and Li Shiyan had seen that, it would have been impossible to explain.
"Hehe, you and Shen Nian get along so well," Li Shiyan laughed again, hooking her finger with Xia Yanchun's. "You don't even get mad when he bothers you."
"Who says I'm not mad!"
"Were you really mad?" Li Shiyan tilted her head. Honestly, she hadn't sensed it.
Come to think of it, since she'd known Xia Yanchun, she'd never really seen her get truly angry when hanging out with Shen Nian. Occasionally, if he annoyed her too much, she'd just curse at him a bit.
If she were really angry, shouldn't she stop talking and ignore him? Even if they argued today, Shen Nian would start a conversation with Xia Yanchun again after a while, and she would still reply, just with a less friendly tone.
"I can't get too angry with so many people around, right? It's not even good to yell..." Xia Yanchun explained.
"Hmm..."
That did make sense. If they made a scene, everyone would definitely look over.
Fine, she'd consider Xia Yanchun as having been angry.
"But I still think you two have a really good relationship."
"It's not good at all. It's just the way we interact, we're used to it..."
"Childhood friends, huh."
"......"
Xia Yanchun bit her lower lip, not refuting it. Li Shiyan knew she and Shen Nian were from the same hometown and had gone from elementary school all the way to high school together, so there was no need to explain.
Besides, it was the truth.
Before becoming rivals, she and Shen Nian were first and foremost childhood friends.
Inseparable since childhood, two little... well, two little schemers with eight hundred tricks up their sleeves each.
At nine in the morning, the bell rang, shattering the review atmosphere, and the classroom instantly became lively.
"I pray to the God of Mathematics, may I know all the answers, guess all correctly." Ma Mingfan clasped his hands together, having already become a devout follower of the Math God.
Shen Nian broke out in a cold sweat. "Isn't the morning exam Chinese?"
"What do you know? I pray once in the morning and once in the afternoon, so the Math God will spare me an extra glance."
"Wow, praying twice? You're the real Prayer King."
"I sacrifice ten years of Shen Nian's life in exchange for all my guesses being correct!"
"Damn you, trying to kill your own father?"
Shen Nian chased Ma Mingfan, kicking and shoving him all the way out of the classroom.
Well, what could you do? Eighteen was just the rebellious age. Ma Mingfan clearly had hit his rebellious phase. As a father, of course, he chose to forgive him.
As the only person in Cinan No.2 High School who had ever been a father, Shen Nian's face always wore a kindness his peers lacked... the middle part is forgotten, the latter part is forgotten.
Both Shen Nian and Xia Yanchun were assigned to their own class for the exam, their seats separated by an aisle. Shen Nian sat in front, Xia Yanchun sat behind.
The first mock exam was quite formal, following the scale of the college entrance exam completely. The test papers even had sealed envelopes, which the invigilator opened in front of everyone.
When the papers were handed out, Shen Nian scanned through them directly, looking completely at ease. While others were still working on the multiple-choice questions, he had already started on the fill-in-the-blanks section.
He wrote quickly and neatly, an effect of his Micro-light training. Although the Micro-light training didn't seem very remarkable, it was essentially quite overpowered.
It's just that high school was too formulaic and rigid, making it hard to fully showcase the effects of Micro-light training during this period.
For the two-and-a-half-hour Chinese exam, Shen Nian only spent a little over an hour and a half. He left two blank lines at the end of his essay, his format standard and proper.
Xia Yanchun, sitting behind him, was still writing her essay, her slightly frozen hands making her characters a bit crooked and prone to mistakes.
Looking up, she saw Shen Nian already sprawled on the desk, his outstretched legs twitching slightly.
This guy...
Xia Yanchun narrowed her eyes. How long had it been? Could he have finished already?
The Chinese exam included an essay. For some of the more obscure essay prompts, she needed ten minutes or so just to figure out what to write.
Yet Shen Nian was already done... Someone who could score 688 points couldn't possibly have stopped writing without finishing the mock exam paper, right?
A sense of crisis exploded in Xia Yanchun's heart. She focused seriously on the exam, rereading questionable questions twice, and wrote until the last ten minutes.
Being surpassed by Shen Nian in grades? That must not happen!
The bell rang, and the invigilator collected the papers.
Shen Nian went to the restroom. It was crowded, and by the time he returned, most of his classmates were back in their seats.
"How'd it go?" Shen Nian stood next to Xia Yanchun's desk, smiling lightly.
"Moderate difficulty," Xia Yanchun cleared her throat. "Let me see your paper."
"You're starting to check answers too now?"
"Is that not allowed? I want to see how many you got right."
"Well, it's just that usually people ask you for answers. It's rare for you to ask someone else." Shen Nian handed her his paper. "Afraid you didn't do as well as me, huh?"
"Not at all. I just want to take a look."
Xia Yanchun compared Shen Nian's Chinese multiple-choice answers.
Their answers were exactly the same...
"Let's go, stop checking. Time for lunch."
"Not hungry," Xia Yanchun muttered.
"If you're not hungry at school, let's eat outside then."
"Fine."
"Why so glum? You really are afraid you won't score higher than me, aren't you?"
"How could that be!"
"Those who want to win don't wear smiles on their faces, and you're not smiling."
Xia Yanchun was speechless. She bared her teeth in a completely unprofessional fake smile.
"You're such an idiot. Let's go."
"You're the idiot!"
Xia Yanchun huffily packed her bag, stuffing her water bottle inside.
When Li Shiyan returned to the classroom, Xia Yanchun told her, then left the school gate with Shen Nian.
It was still quite cold outside. The wind had picked up today, and before long Xia Yanchun's nose started running. Sniffling, her nose turned red.
She shoved her backpack at Shen Nian, tucking both hands into her pockets. "You're treating."
"Got it, got it. It's not like I'm broke." Shen Nian smoothed her wind-tousled hair. "How about we make a bet on our total scores this time? That should be fair."
"To go easy on you, I'd better not bet with you. I don't want you saying I bullied you."
"Come on, we're not that far apart now."
"Just say you don't want to bet!"
Xia Yanchun was very confident in her grades. As a top student, she had her own little pride. Not betting with Shen Nian on grades was purely because she didn't want to.
Back when her grades completely crushed Shen Nian's, she never bet with him. Now that the gap between them was so small, she was even less likely to.
Always going on about betting, betting, betting... is Shen Nian really that confident he can win?
Xia Yanchun felt frustrated, thinking Shen Nian never even considered losing. If he lost, he'd have to call her 'big sister'!
He never liked calling her that before.
It seems the attraction of getting a kiss now completely outweighs the resistance to calling her 'big sister'...
That awful Shen Nian!
Xia Yanchun snorted two hot puffs of air from her nose, stuffed her hands in her pockets, and butted her forehead against Shen Nian's arm like a little calf pushing someone, bumping him back a couple of unsteady steps.
"Hey, hey, why are you bumping into me?"
"To bump some sense into you, you pervert!"
"Huh?? How am I a pervert?"
Yanxi reminds you: Due to Tomato requesting over 3 million daily visits causing excessive server pressure, it is now recommended you use sources from other big platforms.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
ress Kneels to Admit Wrong] [Dealing with Love-Struck Fools] [Forced to the Throne] Ren Tianye transmigrated into a female-oriented novel world, only to find everyone in it was utterly insane. He risked his life to save a young girl from barbarians, but was accused of arriving too late and branded the real murderer. He held a knife to a military officer's neck, demanding the troop tally, but the officer only cared about questioning his wife: "Do you not love me anymore? All these years of affection and time together, they were all a mistake, a mistake!" After seizing Yunji City, the original defending general, to save face with the Empress, knelt on the ground: "You must give Yunji City back to me, or I'll hang myself at the city gate and let everyone know you're a villain!" The young lord of the Duke's mansion, to please a woman, directly ordered a merchant: "The menstrual pads you buy for her must be studded with diamonds. Loving her means giving her the best." Having become a great general, he was about to marry a merchant's daughter, who set a pre-nuptial rule: "I can divorce you anytime. When that happens, you must give me half of your troops and soldiers!" Even the Empress was a severe love-struck fool, who ordered the execution of 70,000 elite troops simply because they stood in the way of her romance. Ren Tianye was speechless. He was done. Let it all burn! This deranged female-oriented novel world! ...
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
