Timid Xue Tao and the Confused Shanghai Gentleman

"Wow, Wan Xinyan, you guys are so diligent, not forgetting to study even in the cafeteria!"

One of the girls walked up and dropped this line immediately, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Su Bai instantly retorted, "Being diligent is the right thing to do. Isn't studying a student's main job?"

"...Uh, hey, yeah, that's true, I suppose."

The girl's expression stiffened visibly as she forced an awkward smile.

She hadn't expected Su Bai to be so protective of the Wan sisters. She had assumed they were just... well, never mind.

The girl didn't seem to think it mattered; she was there to hit on Su Bai anyway. Just as she was preparing to say something to him, Su Bai cut her off. "Sorry, we're discussing our group project for an elective. Unrelated personnel should clear out. Don't embarrass yourself. Do you read me?"

The two girls fled in a panic.

They couldn't help but mutter inwardly: *Strange, how is this handsome Su Bai so different from the legends?*

Some classmates said Su Bai was very gentle and didn't put on airs despite being super rich. When playing ball with the guys in his class, he was full of internet slang and trash talk... Does he hate girls?

Oh no, that can't be it; look at how many ambiguous beauties are always around him.

In any case, the two girls had completely failed in their attempt to flirt.

Watching their retreating figures, Wan Xinyan couldn't help covering her mouth and chuckling softly. "I feel like some of my classmates always speak in such a weird, passive-aggressive way."

"They neither understand basic manners nor know how to cater to someone's preferences. Of course, the main issue is that the quality just isn't there."

"That's true, Brother Su Bai has very picky tastes. Brother, come eat..."

Su Bai didn't care much about such minor interruptions and quickly turned his attention back to the delicious food in front of him.

In Su Bai's view, the essence of seafood in seasoned sauce lay in balancing the various flavor profiles within the marinade.

The foundation, which was the freshness of the ingredients, naturally couldn't be lacking either.

This serving of seafood was relatively strong in flavor—fragrant, spicy, sweet, and slightly acidic without being too salty. It was incredibly satisfying to scarf down.

Wan Xinyue had ordered several hundred yuan worth of food... Yes, even in a student cafeteria, it was possible to rack up a bill of several hundred on expensive items if you really tried. For the seafood in sauce alone, adding a few extra pencil squids would drive the price up.

There was also raw marinated roe crab and salmon; it was currently the perfect season for crab.

The salmon was also the right choice. Judging by Su Bai's discerning palate, the quality was actually better than many mid-to-low-end Japanese restaurants.

It just went to show that while this small cafeteria was in a remote location and had high prices, there was a reason no student ever trashed its taste or ingredients.

There were a lot of rich kids among the art students, so quite a few could afford these prices.

In the afternoon, Su Bai had to take his first midterm exam: Linear Algebra. It was a very classic, formula-heavy foundational course for engineering. According to a senior in the Computer Science department, this course would be very useful in future work... especially for algorithm-related jobs.

This claim was also confirmed by Chen Yusheng. Her math foundation was excellent, and she had taught herself a heap of material early on.

The course instructor was quite lenient and never took attendance, so apart from the very first class of the semester... Su Bai had never gone.

Not going was the right move; going to class wasn't as effective as letting "Bro System" work his magic.

Two days ago, Su Bai had asked a senior for past exam papers. He brushed through them once, confirmed there were no issues, and stopped worrying about the exam.

However, the atmosphere in the dormitory was completely different. Most classmates were nowhere near as calm as Su Bai.

After all, it was their first exam since entering university. How should one put it... it was quite nerve-wracking. Some people had played a bit too wildly over the past two months and hadn't studied much at all. They thought cramming at the last minute would be enough, only to discover when push came to shove that their talent for learning wasn't quite as strong as they had imagined.

Xue Tao's math grades weren't ideal.

He hadn't been good at it since high school; both math and physics were his weak points. His performance in the college entrance exam had been a stroke of pure luck—an outlier performance—combined with the fact that math and physics were relatively easy that year, with the difficulty concentrated in other subjects.

Over the past week, classmates had successively started reviewing. Xue Tao was naturally no exception; not only did he have to review, but he also insisted on doing it at the library.

Consequently, Su Bai and Wang Haoran saw Xue Tao's social media updates from the library every night.

His style was all about "hard work and struggle." Honestly, if someone didn't know Xue Tao well, they'd really think he was studying hard.

In reality, every time he went to the library, he spent more time playing on his phone than reading books.

How to describe it... he just seemed very restless and couldn't settle down.

Besides studying, he also persisted in working out. After all, Xue Tao was still dreaming of losing his V-card as soon as possible.

This was killing Xue Tao. This week could be considered his most disciplined since entering Jiangcheng University, but it was hard to say how effective it actually was.

As for "Master Shanghai"...

Chu Mingzhe was quite a character. Recently, he had been reviewing at a niche boutique café that had just opened near the school.

He rarely posted updates, and when he did, it was late at night—a meaningless shot with a film negative filter, accompanied by some profound-looking Spanish... or the cover of some obscure music album.

Xue Tao, lacking confidence himself, asked him how his review was going. Chu Mingzhe simply smiled faintly.

"I am ready to let the professor recognize my mathematical genius."

"...That confident, huh? Hiss... I feel like there are a lot of tricky things in this question bank. Will they really test this? It feels like obscure trivia."

Su Bai teased, "The obscure trivia is exactly what they test. Brother Tao, didn't your high school teachers ever tell you? When you're reviewing, the things you think definitely won't be on the test are exactly what will appear on the exam paper."

"..."

Xue Tao naturally knew Su Bai was joking; this god-tier guy rarely spoke a serious word.

But hearing those words really made him panic. To be honest, he couldn't even understand the answers to many items in the question bank.

And he couldn't swallow his pride to ask anyone for help.

Leaving others aside, just look at the three in his dorm.

From Xue Tao's perspective, Su Bai hardly ever went to class, so he probably wasn't that good. He didn't need to study seriously anyway; he probably just aimed to pass.

Wang Haoran was just a guy who played anime gacha games; what would he know about math?

And "Master Shanghai" was out of the question—that was his nemesis. How could he possibly ask his nemesis for advice?

Xue Tao had his own pride.

Ever since he got the question bank from a senior who had attended his high school, he had been studying it on his own, barely communicating with anyone else.

The question bank was unofficial. It was something summarized by students themselves, passed down from generation to generation—a tacitly understood exam perk.

Without the question bank, relying solely on listening in class to take the exam would likely end in disaster.

As for how to get the question bank, basically everyone had some connection they could use. For instance, Su Bai got his from the old otaku seniors in the Anime Club. Us otakus might not be good at much else, but collecting resources is a piece of cake.

However, in Chu Mingzhe's hands...

There was no question bank.

Listening to Su Bai and Xue Tao discuss it, a trace of confusion floated into his eyes.

Question bank? Question what? What bank?