He bent down and picked up the bun that Lu Jingcheng had deliberately dropped. Because it was tied inside a plastic bag, the bun was still inside and hadn’t rolled out—let alone touched the ground.
“Let’s go,” Ye Qingyang said. “If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late.”
Lu Jingcheng slung an arm over his shoulder. “What did you promise me yesterday?”
“Study hard and improve my grades?”
“Before that.”
“No dating in high school.”
“And what else?”
It couldn’t possibly be about marriage fraud, right? Ye Qingyang firmly refused to admit he’d ever had such thoughts. He was a proud successor of socialism, an outstanding member of the Communist Youth League!
Something as immoral as marriage fraud? Absolutely impossible for him!
“What is it?”
“Stay away from Yu Wan.” Lu Jingcheng pinched the back of his neck. “And what happened? Not even a full day later, and you’re already trying to play the attentive gentleman.”
Ye Qingyang: …
Do you really have to make your love life this difficult, bro? Wouldn’t it be better to just fall in love smoothly and be happily together?
Ye Qingyang sighed helplessly. “Fine. From now on, even if her breakfast falls on the ground, I won’t say a word. Even if she falls into a pit herself, I won’t lift a finger. Happy now?”
Lu Jingcheng nodded reluctantly. “That’s more like it.”
Ye Qingyang glanced at him, exhausted. Just wait until you regret this someday—don’t come crying to me then, saying, ‘Ye Qingyang, why didn’t you help me back then!’
Hah!
The two of them rushed into the classroom just as the morning reading bell rang, only eating breakfast after finishing their exercises.
First period was math. As soon as their homeroom teacher, Cheng Yan, walked in, she announced, “Monthly exams start this Friday. The schedule will follow the college entrance exam format. Prepare well—I want to see your current level.”
The class immediately erupted in groans.
“Does that mean we have exams on Saturday too?”
“Yes.”
“Then we lose a day of rest!”
Cheng Yan shot them a look of disappointment. “You’re already in your second year of high school, and you still want rest? If you keep this up, are you even planning to take the college entrance exam?”
The students sighed gloomily. “With our grades, what’s the point of even taking it?”
“That’s exactly why you need to work harder! Students in Class One are doing practice papers even during breaks. On weekends, they’re either in tutoring classes or with private tutors. And you? You’re still talking about rest.”
“But top students and struggling students aren’t the same,” someone argued.
“Top students are still working hard—what excuse do you have? It’s not just about others being smarter than you, it’s about them being smarter and working harder too.”
Everyone: …
“How about this,” Cheng Yan said encouragingly. “Whoever improves the most in this exam, I’ll treat them to a meal. If you don’t want a meal, I’ll give you the equivalent as a personal scholarship. Come on, put in some effort, alright?”
The class nodded awkwardly, thinking that studying wasn’t something effort alone could guarantee success in.
Wasn’t it precisely because they had tried and still failed that they’d given up and gone with the flow?
Lying on his desk, Ye Qingyang looked around at his classmates. This was his first time experiencing such an academic atmosphere—it felt novel, yet also a little helpless.
He had thought that in a so-called “bottom-tier class” like Class Ten, students would at least feel nervous and take things seriously when hearing about the monthly exams. Instead, they had already given up completely.
Like Cheng Yan, Ye Qingyang hoped they would try harder, so that when they looked back on these youthful years, they wouldn’t feel regret or disappointment. But seeing their indifferent expressions, he felt they had truly given up. No matter how anxious others were for them, no matter how much encouragement they received, they simply didn’t want to move.
This was probably a case of the emperor not being anxious while the eunuchs and parents worried themselves sick.
Once someone grows used to a certain environment and mindset, changing it becomes extremely difficult—especially when effort itself is already hard.
Ye Qingyang sighed, feeling a trace of melancholy.
Lu Jingcheng, of course, felt none of that. He calmly accepted the upcoming exam, calmly played on his phone, completely unfazed.
If anything crossed his mind, it was only this: how had Ye Qingyang been studying these past few days? Could he at least improve a little?
At the very least, maybe climb up to second-to-last place. That would still be better than dead last!
So that afternoon, the moment school ended, he dragged Ye Qingyang back to the dorm and made him study.
Ye Qingyang suffered miserably. He could only shove Lu Jingcheng into studying as well, nervously watching him through the mirror’s reflection and sneaking in some phone time whenever he wasn’t paying attention.
This was too hard. Life was just too hard.
At 8:50 a.m. on Friday, Lu Jingcheng and Ye Qingyang arrived at their exam rooms just in time.
One ranked last in their class, the other tenth from the bottom—but they were forty ranks apart in the overall grade, so they ended up in different exam rooms.
The moment Ye Qingyang walked in, he saw Yu Wan. Lu Jingcheng saw her too and immediately thought, Why is this girl everywhere like a ghost that won’t go away?
Ye Qingyang, on the other hand, was confused. Wasn’t Yu Wan in Class One? Why was she in the last exam room?
Seeing him looking at Yu Wan, Lu Jingcheng grabbed his head and turned it toward himself. “Don’t look at her.”
“Got it,” Ye Qingyang said helplessly. “Go to your exam room already.”
“You’re not allowed to talk to her.”
Ye Qingyang: …
“You hear me?” Lu Jingcheng pressed.
Ye Qingyang nodded. “I hear you. Now go, or you’ll be late.”
Only then did Lu Jingcheng reluctantly head to the next classroom, still turning back to glare at him. “Remember!”
Ye Qingyang: …
He smiled and mimed zipping his lips shut, feeling that Lu Jingcheng would probably cry very loudly in the future.
He walked into the exam room. Yu Wan was surprised to see him sitting in front of her.
“Hello,” she greeted politely.
“Hello,” Ye Qingyang replied.
Well, if she hadn’t spoken to him, he could have ignored her. But since she had initiated conversation, he couldn’t just pretend not to notice.
That would be both impolite and potentially provoke the female lead—what if she thought he was looking down on her? Then he’d probably end up as cannon fodder again.
Sigh. Being stuck between the male and female leads was tough.
He was actually curious why Yu Wan was in this exam room—it didn’t make sense given her grades. But since he had promised Lu Jingcheng not to talk to her, there was no need to ask.
Yu Wan, however, seemed to read his thoughts and explained gently, “This exam’s seating is based on the placement test at the start of the semester. I was sick back then, so I didn’t take it. No ranking means I got assigned to the last seat in the last exam room.”
“I see,” Ye Qingyang nodded.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me before or after the exam. I can explain it to you—just not during the test, of course.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. You helped me before—I remember. If you ever need help, just let me know,” she said with a smile.
Ye Qingyang thought she really did have a nice personality—gentle, graceful, and generous. She and Lu Jingcheng actually seemed quite compatible.
As they were talking, the proctor entered.
Soon, the bell rang. The exam papers and answer sheets were distributed, and the test began.
Ye Qingyang glanced over the questions—they all seemed fairly easy.
He didn’t aim too high this time. If he could rank around tenth from the bottom—about the same as Lu Jingcheng—that would be enough. So he answered at a measured pace, not even putting much effort into his essay.
By 10:40, he had already finished.
He raised his hand. “Can I turn in my paper?”
The proctor walked over, looked at his paper, and pointed at the blank sections. “You haven’t finished.”
“I don’t know how to do them,” Ye Qingyang said confidently.
The proctor: …
The proctor tapped his forehead in irritation. “This is Chinese, not math! It’s not like you need a specific solution path to write anything at all. It’s such a flexible subject—what do you mean you don’t know how? Just write whatever you’re thinking. No early submission unless it’s complete.”
Ye Qingyang: …
He slumped onto his desk, spacing out.
The proctor was so annoyed she practically wanted to grab his ear and make him recite “Encouraging Learning.”
Behind him, Yu Wan also felt like telling him, “If you don’t work hard when young, you’ll regret it when you’re old.”
Only at 11:30, when the bell rang again, did the proctor begin collecting answer sheets.
When she got to Ye Qingyang, she checked his paper—he had only written one more question since earlier.
“I really don’t have any ideas,” he said. “I’m not the author—how would I know what they were thinking when they wrote this?”
The proctor: …
She shot him an exasperated glare and moved on to collect Yu Wan’s paper.
Lu Jingcheng was already waiting at the door. Seeing that Ye Qingyang stayed until the last second, he assumed he had been working seriously.
As soon as the papers were collected, he was about to go in when he saw Yu Wan poke Ye Qingyang. Ye Qingyang turned back, and the two started talking.
Lu Jingcheng’s mood instantly soured—and when he saw Ye Qingyang actually responding, it got even worse.
What was wrong with him?
Had he forgotten what he promised?!
Talking to girls again?!
Furious, Lu Jingcheng strode in.
Yu Wan was still advising Ye Qingyang. “Even if you just write something random, it’s fine. For Chinese questions, as long as you write something—even if it’s wrong—the teacher might still give you a point for effort. In the college entrance exam, one point could mean the difference of an entire stadium of people.”
“I know,” Ye Qingyang replied.
“And for math formulas, physics, and chemistry—it’s the same idea. Even if you don’t know how to solve the problem, just write down any formulas that might apply. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and hit one or two correct ones, and the teacher will give you points.”
“Okay.”
“So you really can’t leave anything blank,” Yu Wan said earnestly. “If it’s blank, the teacher can’t give you any points even if they want to.”
Just then, Lu Jingcheng walked up and caught that last sentence. “What do you mean ‘blank’?”
Startled, Yu Wan glanced at Ye Qingyang.
Lu Jingcheng turned to him. “You left questions blank on your Chinese paper?”
Ye Qingyang: …Well, this is awkward.
“I didn’t know how to answer them.”
“You didn’t know how to answer Chinese?!” Lu Jingcheng, a Chinese top scorer, was genuinely shocked. “You just write something! They’re subjective questions—what’s there not to write? It’s not like solving for x!”
Yu Wan nodded slightly in agreement.
Ye Qingyang sighed. Great—these two weren’t even together yet, and they were already in perfect sync. Meanwhile, he, the outsider, was being attacked from both sides.
“What didn’t you write?” Lu Jingcheng asked.
“The reading comprehension.”
Lu Jingcheng: ????
“What’s so hard about reading comprehension? Just wait—when we get back today, I’ll make you do ten sets of reading exercises.”
Ye Qingyang: !!!! Absolutely not!
“No need,” he pleaded.
Lu Jingcheng snorted. “Everything else aside, you actually don’t know Chinese? That’s basically slapping me in the face. Do you know what I usually score? 120! You think I can’t teach you?”
Ye Qingyang: …Exhausted. Just completely exhausted.
Yu Wan raised her hand timidly. “Um, I think there’s no need to do ten sets today. Tomorrow’s exams are science and English—wouldn’t it be better to focus on those instead?”
Very practical advice.
Lu Jingcheng glanced at her. “Why are you in this exam room?”