Youth Has Been Wasted Away by Xia Yanchun

Saturday.

Usually, Saturdays were mostly for self-study. The whole day was dedicated to self-study sessions. The school would hold weekly tests on Saturdays, giving students the entire day to complete them before collecting the papers after school in the afternoon.

But with the grand unified exam approaching, these weekly tests and monthly exams had lost their meaning. There hadn't been a single monthly exam since the beginning of this semester.

The second mock exam and the grand unified exam were already close enough. If they squeezed in another monthly exam in between, it would be no different from hell, leaving no time for independent review.

The weekly test papers were still handed out as usual, but the difficulty was relatively low. Even the teachers couldn't be bothered to go over them, let alone the students. Whether you did them or not depended entirely on your own discipline.

Shen Nian even folded his weekly test paper into a paper airplane and threw it at Xia Yanchun.

Xia Yanchun was reading a youth digest magazine. Only when she got annoyed by Shen Nian's harassment did she angrily give him the middle finger.

Then she got headshot by a small eraser.

Furious, Xia Yanchun rummaged for her own eraser, tore off a few pieces, and threw them back at Shen Nian.

Everyone liked using pencils for scratch work, circling and marking things on their test papers, making erasers an indispensable item.

Erasers were the kind of thing that could erase pencil marks and also act as a weapon—a super cost-effective item for just two bucks.

If you sold erasers in high school, you could fiercely afford a Maybach in two years.

Su Kexi came walking in through the back door with a click-clack of her steps. This gave Shen Nian, who was just about to tear off another piece of eraser to throw at Xia Yanchun, a jolt. He immediately sat up straight, his posture as proper as an elementary school student's.

Seeing him act like this, Xia Yanchun also realized what was happening.

Su Kexi stood at the podium and swept her gaze across the classroom. More than half the people were sleeping, and of the remaining half, few were actually studying.

Teachers rarely came to supervise on Saturdays, so there was nothing that could be done about the students acting this way. When she did dorm inspections, some students really would squat in the bathroom reading books under the bathroom light.

Especially student Chen Qiuyu, who sometimes still squatted in the bathroom reading at midnight.

Although this kind of behavior wasn't worth promoting, she looked favorably upon self-motivated people like Chen Qiuyu. They just wanted to improve; what was wrong with that?

"Ahem, everyone, please stop what you're doing," Su Kexi said in a light tone. She waited until everyone perked up and looked at her before continuing, "During the last period, everyone will gather in front of the administration building. We're getting ready to take our graduation photos."

"If possible, try your best to wear your school uniforms. It looks more pleasing to the eye when everyone is wearing the same clothes. All the subject teachers are free today, but they might not be next weekend."

As soon as Su Kexi finished speaking, the classroom filled with the chirping sounds of people talking and whispering to each other.

Some classes had actually taken theirs a few days ago; their class could probably be considered late.

Shen Nian looked around the classroom. On such a hot day, everyone was indeed in school uniforms, but some only wore the blue-and-white short-sleeved tops, swapping the bottoms out for shorts. Even the little loli girl was wearing a pair of loose black shorts that just covered her knees.

Aside from the graduation photos, Su Kexi also mentioned a few things about the grand unified exam.

Students who usually only scored 550 points might be able to touch the 600-point threshold in the grand unified exam. The difficulty of the grand unified exam would be significantly lower, intended to give students enough confidence to step into the actual college entrance examination.

Even if she didn't say it, the students would know this.

"Everyone, get ready. We'll head down to gather once class is over. Class monitor, please organize everyone."

After saying that, Su Kexi left the classroom.

Some girls were already debating whether to change their hairstyles. Even Xia Yanchun used a mirror to check herself.

"Shiyan, are you going to tie your hair into twin tails?"

Seeing Li Shiyan take off her hair tie, Xia Yanchun teased.

"No, I'm just loosening my hair. Do you want to tie yours?"

"Nope."

Li Shiyan looked Xia Yanchun up and down. In her impression, her bestie had always sported this small ponytail hairstyle, a little bunch tied at the back of her head. Although it was quite cute, having the same hairstyle all the time easily led to aesthetic fatigue.

Although her hair wasn't too long, she didn't have to stick to just this one style. Letting it drape over her shoulders, braiding a strand on each side, and tying it at the back of her head would look so nice.

"How about I tie twin tails for you, Xiaochun?" she said with a chuckle.

"No way, my hair is so short."

"That's okay, we can do low twin tails. Want to try?"

"Then go for it! If it doesn't look good, you're dead meat!"

"How could it not look good?" Li Shiyan hid a sly gleam in her eyes, leaning in to whisper in Xia Yanchun's ear, "I guarantee it'll leave Shen Nian utterly mesmerized."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Xia Yanchun rolled her pretty eyes. Why bring up Shen Nian out of nowhere?

Tying her hair was for herself to see, not for Shen Nian.

Ever since Li Shiyan guessed that Shen Nian liked her, Li Shiyan had become increasingly bold, daring to say anything.

Earlier, she had even asked if she liked Shen Nian back. How could she possibly say that out loud?

"Hehe, Xiaochun, turn around a bit..."

Li Shiyan gently removed Xia Yanchun's hair tie and found a black hair tie from her own desk drawer.

Carefully parting the hair into two sides, Li Shiyan pinched a bundle and tied it up, giving Xia Yanchun cute low ponytails on both sides.

Xia Yanchun checked herself in the mirror. It actually wasn't bad... Sure enough, being pretty meant you could pull off any hairstyle.

She totally had the beautiful girl vibe down.

Xia Yanchun hummed proudly, having a little moment of vanity.

Shen Nian had noticed what was going on over there a long time ago, staring at Xia Yanchun as she finished changing her hairstyle.

From a little ponytail transformed into twin tails, not bad at all. The little loli girl performed quite well; he could consider buying her some beef jerky when he went to the snack store later.

Class dismissed.

Xia Yanchun quickly organized everyone to head downstairs together.

In front of the administration building, Su Kexi and the other subject teachers had come down even earlier than they did.

Usually, they couldn't dress up for teaching, but today was for graduation photos. Yan Yuzhu specifically wore an embroidered dress, looking exceptionally pretty standing there.

"Everyone line up like we do in PE class first."

"You, swap places with the student behind you. Anyone who feels they are taller than the others, consciously step to the back row..."

Once the students' positions were adjusted, the teachers' positions were much easier to sort out; they just had to stand to the side.

Shen Nian stood on the steps of the very last row. He could see Xia Yanchun in the second row and Li Shiyan in the first row.

Things like graduation photos were only taken out of a drawer years after graduation to look at and reminisce about one's past self by people who actually had high school memories.

Shen Nian stared blankly and pondered for a moment.

Throughout his entire high school life, there were no sports meets, no New Year's Eve parties, no miscellaneous events worth recalling. When he tried to remember something, he could only recall the little bits and pieces that were entirely occupied by Xia Yanchun.

Damn, is this the consequence of not participating in any activities? He didn't even have memories to look back on. His entire youth had been consumed by Xia Yanchun.

Shen Nian had spent his entire teenage youth keeping Xia Yanchun company. Thank goodness he had managed to win her over.