“I thought you’d lost interest in him.” The two of them walked out of the teaching area after finishing their exams. Jing Ximing asked, “Last time I called you upstairs to watch, you were so absorbed in studying. I thought you had turned over a new leaf and weren’t going to provoke Xiao Yan anymore.”
Who would have thought that this guy had only been acting strangely that one day? At all other times, he was still the same old person, relentlessly testing the limits of how much he could provoke Xiao Yan.
“I was just saying hello to him.” Luo Zhiyu rubbed his wrist, which had gotten a little sore from doing questions these past two days. There was still a hint of regret on his face. “Too bad I didn’t succeed just now.”
“…Have you ever seen anyone greet someone like that? Would a normal person greet someone like that?” Jing Ximing really couldn’t understand his special way of saying hello. “Don’t look at me with those innocent eyes. You’re actually pretty regretful, aren’t you?”
“Of course I have.” Luo Zhiyu said matter-of-factly.
“Who?” Could there really be another troublemaker just like Luo Zhiyu?
“Xiao Yan himself.” Luo Zhiyu said, “You don’t know what he used to be like with me. Back in elementary school, I was a day student, and he went to the school next to mine. Our families lived in the same neighborhood, and we had to walk the same road after school. Every time he saw me, he’d throw something at me. He was awful.”
Jing Ximing: “…”
It was really impossible to tell which of these two was more deserving of a beating.
In the Grade One marking office, Director Wu looked astonished as he accepted the test paper Xiao Yan handed him.
Xiao Yan’s face seemed to have the words “fair and impartial” written plainly across it. There wasn’t the slightest sign of anything unusual.
Director Wu: “…”
It could be seen that the owner of this test paper had gone through a psychological process while answering the subjective questions, from “I want to write neatly” to “As long as what I write counts as words.”
The densely packed answer area slanted out with the momentum of “a line of egrets ascending into the blue sky.” At first glance, it looked rather messy, but on a second look, there was something strangely orderly about it.
It was barely readable. Surely this wouldn’t prevent them from marking it fairly and impartially?
Still, Director Wu was willing to accommodate such a small request.
“Sure, you can switch to another one.” Xiao Yan’s original test paper was passed to the teachers in the marking group, while Fan Yue divided half of his own stack of test papers and handed them to Xiao Yan.
“Everyone, thank you for your hard work now,” Director Wu said. “It’ll be better once we get to the joint examination. Then we can directly scan the answer sheets, and we won’t have to do this manually.”
Xiao Yan took a new test paper, his red pen moving rapidly as he marked it. The little ball of paper he had snatched from Luo Zhiyu just now had been unfolded and placed to one side.
Luo Zhiyu hadn’t written much related to the test on his scratch paper. Instead, he had taken a pencil and drawn most of the ginkgo tree outside the examination-room window.
Who knew what Luo Zhiyu had been thinking about during the exam? The things he had drawn on the branches weren’t ginkgo leaves, but individual oranges.
Several teachers chatted while marking the papers. Somehow, the topic eventually turned to several students.
“Tang Yuan’s pheromone makes me so jealous. If I had pheromones like his, I’d never have to worry about not being able to attract cats.”
“His family has inherited catnip-scented pheromones.” Fan Yue often appeared around the student council and was quite familiar with the teachers, so he could easily join their conversation. “Who knew they’d be passed down to him? He’s afraid of cats.”
“We often have cats visiting our dorm.” Xiao Yan entered the calculated score onto the test paper in front of him. “Tang Yuan bought quite a lot of cat food to coax all the big and small orange cats at school.”
“Speaking of which.” Director Wu turned his gaze toward Xiao Yan. “Xiao Yan, are you getting along all right with Luo Zhiyu lately?”
The conversation in the Grade One marking office stopped, and everyone looked at Xiao Yan.
“Pretty well, I guess,” Xiao Yan said.
“Good. Then I’m relieved.” Director Wu was very pleased. “I’ve noticed that you two haven’t been fighting lately. Luo Zhiyu is a little mischievous, but he isn’t bad at heart. If the two of you can get along properly, he should be someone worth getting to know.”
Fan Yue: “…”
That was definitely an understatement.
“Understood.” Fan Yue heard his deskmate give an especially official-sounding answer. “As one of No. 1 High School’s students receiving special attention, I guarantee that I’ll get along well with Luo Zhiyu and not cause trouble for the school.”
After finishing the monthly exams, Luo Zhiyu didn’t return to the dorm. He sat beside the sports field, watching Jing Ximing play badminton with a beta girl from Class 3.
No one monitored phones in the residential area, and there was no one else in the stands. Luo Zhiyu comfortably leaned back in his seat and played a song on his phone.
The omega Yan Zihan from Class 6 of Grade One had been watching him for a long time. Finally, he couldn’t hold back anymore and walked over.
“Why aren’t you playing ball? Did you come here to sunbathe?”
“I’m not sunbathing, and I’m not playing ball. I’m just sitting here for a while.” Luo Zhiyu shifted a little closer to Yan Zihan and hooked an arm around his shoulder. “Why are you blocking your pheromones so tightly? Let me smell them.”
Luo Zhiyu was especially fond of Latiao-scented pheromones.
Yan Zihan was startled by him. “Holy crap, good thing you’re an omega.”
“What are you doing, little hooligan?”
A hand reached over, grabbed Luo Zhiyu by the collar, and pulled him back to where he had been sitting.
“What?” Luo Zhiyu didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was.
Xiao Yan let go and sat down beside Luo Zhiyu. He unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle in his hand and took several gulps.
“You two are both here, so it’s convenient. Starting next week, let’s discuss this year’s fall sports meet posters and bulletin boards.”
“Sure. Lulu will be coming too. If the few of us work together, it’ll be more efficient.” Jing Ximing’s friends were calling Yan Zihan. He stood up. “I’m going to play for a while. You two talk.”
Yan Zihan walked down from the small stands, leaving only Luo Zhiyu and Xiao Yan in this area.
“I have nothing to talk to you about.” Luo Zhiyu was still holding a grudge over having his collar pulled just now.
“I have nothing to talk to you about either. I just happened to come over to tell you something.” Xiao Yan said, “You can leave now.”
“? Why?” Luo Zhiyu refused to accept that. “I got here first. There has to be such a thing as first come, first served.”
“Then don’t leave. No one’s forcing you to.” Xiao Yan took a vocabulary book out of his schoolbag. “I don’t want to leave right now anyway. The feng shui here is pretty good.”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
He was even talking about feng shui. Clearly, he had come here specifically to settle the score over Luo Zhiyu’s failed attempt to hit someone with a paper ball just now.
Luo Zhiyu received a new message.
[Wall Grass]: Wow, you two can actually sit together and chat peacefully.
[Wall Grass]: You really are different after getting your premarital checkup.
Not Zhizhi: Are you blind? We’re competing with each other. Can’t you tell?
[Wall Grass]: I really am both deaf and blind.
[Wall Grass]: I even specially called Little Latiao down so you two could chat slowly.
Not Zhizhi: Thank you so much.
[Wall Grass]: We’re roommates. No need to be so polite.
Not Zhizhi: What kind of nicknames do you guys give everyone all day long?
Not Zhizhi: What am I? Little Peach? That’s pretty cute.
[Wall Grass]: Little Bomb.
“Wall Grass” withdrew a message.
After September passed, the days gradually became shorter and the nights longer. The sunlight slowly sank toward the west, and the silhouettes of the badminton shuttlecocks drifting through the sky gradually grew dim.
The streetlights beside the stands came on, casting a soft glow.
Xiao Yan folded down a small corner of the vocabulary book’s page, then put the book into his schoolbag.
Luo Zhiyu drew the empty basketball court and the teaching buildings in the distance in his sketchbook. He only sketched simple outlines. There was no one on the basketball court, and what had fallen through the basketball hoop wasn’t a basketball, but a huge orange.
“…What are you thinking about whenever you draw?” Xiao Yan watched him for a long time before finally unable to resist asking.
The two of them had silently competed against each other on the small stands for so long that the sun had already set. Both of them were obviously tired, and the atmosphere had eased slightly.
“Xiao Yan.” Luo Zhiyu couldn’t hold it in anymore and spoke first.
“Call me Brother Yan. I’m older than you.”
“So pretentious.” Luo Zhiyu reluctantly called him Brother Yan. “Isn’t the second month after the monthly exam the midterms?”
“What are you thinking?” Xiao Yan said. “There’s a second monthly exam before the midterms. That’s just how No. 1 High School is. When you’re in your second year, there’ll even be a beginning-of-semester exam and weekly exams.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked Luo Zhiyu. “Although nobody likes exams, exams don’t seem that difficult for you. I noticed your accuracy on the multiple-choice questions is pretty high.”
“How do you know that?” Luo Zhiyu caught the key point in his words.
Xiao Yan hadn’t figured out how to come up with an explanation yet when Luo Zhiyu’s phone rang first with the notification for a video call.
“Hello, Zhiyu.” Luo Sixue’s voice came through. “We haven’t seen each other for more than a month. Have you missed your big sister and big brother?”
“No, thank you.” Luo Zhiyu answered very decisively.
“All right.” Luo Sixue wasn’t surprised at all. “How’s high school life? I see you’ve even learned to wash your own clothes.”
“Pretty good. Other than the food in the cafeteria being a little difficult to eat, everything else is good.” Luo Zhiyu moved the hand holding his phone slightly toward himself to avoid accidentally getting Xiao Yan into the frame.
“I figured you were doing pretty well too.” Luo Sixue said, “You’re not coming home next week? Some alpha student who refuses to leave his name? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Which family’s little brat is trying to run off with our Xiaoyu?”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
He wasn’t wearing earphones. The speakerphone was on.
Xiao Yan threw him a disgusted look. Luo Zhiyu returned the disgusted look and kicked him in the calf.
“Whatever. If you don’t want to come home, then don’t. You can go out and have fun, but be careful. There are a lot of scummy Alphas nowadays, specifically looking to trick pure and innocent little high-school omegas like you.” Luo Sixue casually gave several examples. “Like last time, there was a scummy Alpha at our university. It’s been so long, and we’re still cursing him.”
“Okay, okay.” Luo Zhiyu ended the video call. “Sis, don’t worry. He’s not a scummy Alpha, and I’m not innocent either.”
“I was just asking you to help with some student council work…” Xiao Yan’s resentment was quite obvious.
“It’s fine.” Luo Zhiyu put an arm around Xiao Yan’s shoulders. “Although you’re pretty damn deserving of a beating, you’re not scummy. I still have enough judgment to tell the difference.”
Luo Zhiyu: “Believe in science. We’re perfectly safe.”
Monday morning, the monthly exam results for Grade One were released.
Luo Zhiyu went to the bathroom, and when he came back, he found several test papers on his desk.
“That fast?” He had only taken the exams yesterday.
“Upper-year students help the teachers mark the papers, so the efficiency is pretty high.” Jing Ximing was checking his own score. “You don’t need to calculate your score, do you? You’re so far ahead of second place.”
The score still had to be calculated. It had nothing to do with rankings; it was simply one of the pleasures of finishing an exam.
There was nothing much to fuss over with the multiple-choice questions. After looking through them, Luo Zhiyu opened the short-answer and essay questions.
Essay Question: Content — 1 point deducted, Presentation — 5 points deducted.
Luo Zhiyu: “They took off that many points for my handwriting?!”
“Who marked yours? The homeroom teacher of Class 4 places special importance on presentation. For someone like you, who crossed out an entire row and scribbled and drew all over the test paper, he’ll deduct a lot of presentation points. Uh, don’t tell me he marked yours.” Jing Ximing turned Luo Zhiyu’s test paper over. “If he marked yours, you can only accept your bad luck. If it was someone else, you might still be able to argue your case?”
“Let me see who did this.” Luo Zhiyu was furious.
Marker’s Signature: Xiao Yan (Assistant Marker)
Luo Zhiyu walked out carrying a broom over his shoulder.