「The next morning, Friday.」
The moment Li Zhi opened her door, she saw Shen Yuan standing in the hallway, scaring the morning grogginess right out of her.
"In broad daylight, too. I thought I was seeing a ghost."
Hearing this, Shen Yuan lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "We don't talk about that on this floor."
Li Zhi suddenly caught his meaning. She flinched, then gave Shen Yuan an annoyed punch on the arm.
"Don't scare me!"
"Hehe, I'll treat you to breakfast."
But Li Zhi didn't agree right away, looking at Shen Yuan with suspicion instead.
"Since when are you so loaded?"
From what Li Zhi knew of Shen Yuan, the guy didn't have much of an allowance.
He was the type to have just enough to last the week.
Shen Yuan couldn't exactly tell her he had a system, so he just shared the note that came with the system's money transfer.
"I bought some investment funds. They're doing pretty well."
Hearing this, Li Zhi's first reaction was that Shen Yuan had been scammed.
Seeing the look on her face, Shen Yuan quickly clarified, "Hey! It was all legit, I bought it through Alipay."
"What did you buy?"
In response to her question, Shen Yuan's lips curled. "Not telling."
"Hmph! Fine, don't tell me. Go ahead and cry about it when you get scammed!"
Li Zhi walked out of the elevator, still annoyed.
...
"A perfect buzzer-beater!"
The bell for morning reading rang the exact moment Zhou Shaojie plopped into his seat.
"Ah Jie, I swear you must hide in some dark corner of the school building every day, just waiting for the bell."
"What are you talking about? Am I some kind of sewer goblin?"
Zhou Shaojie furrowed his brow. "When have you ever seen me *not* make it to class at the last second?"
Shen Yuan paused.
'Now that he mentions it, it's true.'
Whenever Zhou Shaojie left his seat, he would almost always return the moment the bell rang.
"Damn, that's actually impressive!"
Zhou Shaojie gestured with his hands as if pressing down. "All part of the basics. Stay calm."
Shen Yuan was about to say more when he saw Sister Lan enter the classroom. He immediately picked up his book and started reading aloud.
Today's morning reading was for Chinese class.
While Sister Lan was also easygoing, she was no Eldest Female Cousin.
Shen Yuan had no choice but to take out his book and diligently recite the lesson.
After the morning reading session, the classroom quickly grew lively.
Shen Yuan grinned and asked, "Ah Jie, you're always outside for so long. You got a girlfriend or something?"
Zhou Shaojie felt like a stray dog that had just taken a rock to the head, courtesy of Shen Yuan.
"We're seniors! The most important thing for seniors is studying! Who has time for dating?!"
Shen Yuan smirked. "You seem a little defensive."
"You little brat! You—!"
Just as Zhou Shaojie was about to retort, Yang Ze, who sat in front of him, turned around and teased, "Ah Jie, still can't get over her?"
"Yeah, I can't get over *you*!"
Zhou Shaojie lunged at Yang Ze. "Quick! Let me see! A whole summer has passed, let me see how you've changed!"
"No! Brother Jie! No, Brother Jie!"
Yang Ze's feigned protests echoed from the front row.
'You could tell he was loving it.'
'Fuck.'
'What's with all this intense bromance?'
Shen Yuan turned to Li Zhi. "How long have they been showing… these symptoms?"
Li Zhi blinked, thought for a moment, and said, "It started back in freshman year."
"It must be true love, then."
As he spoke, Shen Yuan gave Li Zhi a flirtatious wink. "And babe, my love for you is true love, too."
"Go die, you cringelord!"
Shen Yuan just grinned cheekily in response.
But his grin didn't last long.
Before the class bell rang, Old Zhou entered the classroom carrying a stack of test papers.
"Weekly quiz for the first two periods. Take it seriously, no talking or whispering," he announced.
Watching the papers rustle their way down the rows toward him, Shen Yuan's heart sank.
'When it comes to math, if you don't know it, you *really* don't know it.'
'Of course, the most crucial factor was the two people sitting next to him.'
'The pressure was immense.'
"Is anyone missing a paper?"
"Over here! We're short two!"
The weekly quiz wasn't particularly difficult.
After all, the questions were set by their own teacher, not for a school-wide standardized test.
But that didn't help Shen Yuan, whose math foundation was weak and who didn't have enough time.
Two class periods, even including the break in between, was only 110 minutes.
Less than two hours—it was impossible for Shen Yuan to finish it all.
First multiple-choice question, no problem.
It was just a simple conceptual question; a quick glance was all it took to find the answer.
Second multiple-choice question, also not a big deal.
With a little calculation, the answer was clear.
Shen Yuan tackled the questions on the test with full concentration.
Last multiple-choice question: a blind guess.
'It wasn't like calculating it would guarantee the right answer anyway.'
After the multiple-choice section came the fill-in-the-blanks. The logic wasn't too different.
'If I can't even understand the question, just skip it.'
'I wouldn't be able to figure out the calculation and would just end up with some random number.'
'Might as well just randomly write in the square root of 2. Who knows, it might even be right.'
Even though the quiz wasn't that hard, by the time Shen Yuan finished the fill-in-the-blank section, the second period had already started.
Clearly, he wouldn't be able to finish the long-answer problems that followed.
'My math fundamentals are just too weak.'
The first long-answer question was a gimme; as long as he was careful, it shouldn't be a problem.
But the further he went, the less Shen Yuan could even understand the questions themselves.
'Don't even get me started on the solid geometry.'
'Auxiliary lines?'
'Huh?'
Soon, Shen Yuan felt a pressurizing gaze coming from his left.
After just one glance at his paper, Zhou Shaojie was already shaking his head.
Evidently, the god of lopsided grades could no longer stand to watch Shen Yuan's problem-solving process.
"Tsk."
Just as Zhou Shaojie was about to speak, Shen Yuan heard a soft cough from his right.
Zhou Shaojie immediately snapped his mouth shut.
It wasn't that the pressure from the all-star student was too intense; it was mainly because of the special relationship between Shen Yuan and Li Zhi.
'His childhood friend obviously wants him to solve it on his own, so I'd better stay out of it.'
After shooting Shen Yuan a "you're on your own" look, Zhou Shaojie went back to watching him work.
As the gazes of the academic gods on his left and right converged, Shen Yuan felt the pressure mount.
'Can't laugh anymore, fam. I'm about to cry, for real. This is school bullying.'
From the podium, Old Zhou naturally noticed the trio below.
But after a single glance, he looked back down and paid them no mind.
He was the one who had specially arranged for Shen Yuan to sit between Li Zhi and Zhou Shaojie.
Old Zhou had seen Shen Yuan's final exam scores from the previous semester.
It was safe to say that Shen Yuan's biggest weaknesses were math and physics.
Chinese, English, Chemistry, and Biology all relied on memorization to some extent. As long as one memorized the key concepts, the fundamentals were not an issue.
And memorization happened to be Shen Yuan's strong suit.
The rest could be reinforced during the three upcoming review cycles.
As for math and physics, however, Shen Yuan was hovering right around the passing line—a salvageable case.
If Shen Yuan could just pull up his math and physics scores, his total score could absolutely remain above 620.
The two best math students in all of Class 15 were sitting right beside him.
This was Old Zhou's way of offering him deliberate support.
As for whether he was worried about the two childhood sweethearts, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi, starting a relationship…
Old Zhou was confident that a girl who could say things like, "A 550 makes you a stray dog," "A 600 barely counts you as a person," and "Getting a 650 is a piece of cake," would never fall for someone like Shen Yuan.
Oh, but she wasn't targeting Shen Yuan specifically.
Li Zhi's attacks had a wide area of effect.
This was one of the reasons Li Zhi had so few friends in Class 15.
At eighteen, the prime of their youth, pretty girls were a dime a dozen in high school.
Who in their right mind would want to get close to a girl who basically classified them as "sub-human"?
By placing Shen Yuan next to Li Zhi, Old Zhou also hoped to improve her interpersonal relationships.
And from the looks of it, the plan was having some effect.
Li Zhi now reserved all her sharp-tongued remarks for Shen Yuan.