Chapter 361 - 193: Is This the Same Thing?
"I know my stuff!" Ah Jie raised his eyebrows, waving his perfect-score test paper. "Tsk, if the joint exam's math is this difficult, you're really in for it."
The words had barely left his lips before Shen Yuan had him in a chokehold.
Shen Yuan whispered in Ah Jie's ear, "You little shit, don't think I won't tell Zhuo Peipei."
"Bro, my bad, my bad."
Ah Jie surrendered immediately, admitting he was wrong.
"Hmph!"
Just as Shen Yuan released Ah Jie, Old Zhou happened to walk into the classroom.
"The tests from last time have been handed back. Take a look at your scores. Consider this a wake-up call, and a way to gauge where you stand."
Old Zhou's voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet classroom. "The difficulty of this test... I'm sure you all felt it. For the joint exam, the questions won't be quite this hard, but the overall difficulty will be about the same."
Old Zhou didn't waste time on pleasantries. He picked up his chalk and the test paper and started going over the questions.
"Time is tight and the task is heavy. Alright, class starts now."
"Let's look at the last two free-response questions. These are from actual college entrance exams. You lost the most points on these two questions in the last weekly test. Think about it—if these actually appeared on the college entrance exam, what would you do?!"
Old Zhou's voice was steady and powerful as he began to break down the essence of the problems.
Shen Yuan had already spread his own, less-than-stellar test paper flat on his desk.
The young man's back was straight, his body leaning slightly forward, all his attention locked on the teacher's podium and the blackboard.
Every time Old Zhou pointed out a key point or a common mistake, Shen Yuan's gaze would immediately sweep to the corresponding spot on his own test paper.
Following Old Zhou's rhythm, Shen Yuan quickly and neatly copied down every formula from the board.
After listening to Old Zhou's explanation of the two problems, Shen Yuan couldn't help but think back to what the teacher had said before he started.
'If the major questions on the college entrance exam are really this difficult, my math score is probably a lost cause.'
But at this thought, Shen Yuan turned his head to look at Ah Jie and said softly, "Jie, if the math on the college entrance exam is this hard, you'll be loving it."
Ah Jie nodded. "I'd instantly pull way ahead of the pack."
The morning classes flew by amidst the teachers' lectures.
Time flew by, and soon it was noon.
The seniors got to eat ten minutes earlier than the freshmen and sophomores, so while the younger students were still in class, they could already hear cheers erupting from the senior building.
To be honest, to the freshmen and sophomores, these cheers were actually quite grating.
But these cheers didn't come without a price. On Fridays, when the freshmen and sophomores were let out for the weekend, the seniors had to endure the same painful payback.
On the tree-lined path in front of the school building, students flooded toward the cafeteria like a tide.
Shen Yuan and Li Zhi walked along with the crowd, while Ah Jie and a few other boys laughed and joked beside them, discussing the weekly test.
Zhuo Peipei didn't join them today; someone from the Kissing Association had asked her to eat with them.
Li Zhi walked quietly by Shen Yuan's side, her gaze sweeping idly over the spots of light filtering through the leaves of the trees lining the path.
He Zhiyu, meanwhile, stood by Li Zhi, quietly waiting for some sweet moments to unfold.
Just then, Shen Yuan suddenly turned to Ah Jie and asked in a low voice, "Jie, that Sugar Text you sent... did Zhuo Peipei reply?"
Hearing Shen Yuan's words, Li Zhi also subconsciously turned her head to look at Ah Jie curiously.
Everyone loves a bit of gossip, especially when it's about Zhuo Peipei, the head of the Kissing Association.
After shipping her and Shen Yuan every day, Li Zhi was looking forward to the day she could ship them back.
But He Zhiyu, standing to the side, froze.
'Wait? What did I just hear?'
Ah Jie, who had been grinning, suddenly looked as if he were being strangled, his face flushing bright red.
He glanced back furtively at the crowd behind them, and only after confirming Zhuo Peipei was nowhere in sight did he force out through gritted teeth, his face a mask of misery, "...No! Don't fucking mention it!"
"Hey, hey, hey, what did Zhuo Peipei say?" Yang Ze asked curiously.
"She, she said..." Ah Jie pressed his lips together. "She said it had no feeling at all, and then she pointed out a ton of flaws."
"PFFT—"
Yang Ze quickly started mocking him. "Trash!"
"The hell are you laughing at! You're the one who gave me the outline!" Ah Jie's defenses crumbled.
"But Lao Yuan looked at it too!"
Seeing the blame being passed to him, Shen Yuan immediately denied it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not taking the fall for this. I told Ah Jie to send it to me first when he was done, but who knew this son of a [BEEP] didn't send it to me at all—he sent it directly to Zhuo Peipei!"
Hearing Shen Yuan's words, everyone present nodded in agreement.
"If anyone's to blame, it's Ah Jie himself. Too hasty."
"Right, right. He has no idea that you can't rush things."
"You got worked up, Ah Jie! You got worked up!"
Listening to their conversation, He Zhiyu's brain was having trouble keeping up.
'Wait, I understand every word they're saying, but why can't I understand it when they put them all together?'
He Zhiyu subconsciously looked toward Li Zhi.
Just as He Zhiyu shot Li Zhi a confused glance, Li Zhi suddenly reached out affectionately and gently linked her arm with He Zhiyu's. He Zhiyu then saw a smile spread across the beautiful girl's face.
"Zhiyu~" Li Zhi's voice was filled with obvious amusement. "Now... you're an accomplice too."
She paused, her speech slowing, taking on an instructive tone that brooked no argument. "This whole thing about Zhou Shaojie liking Peipei... just pretend you never heard it. You're not allowed to tell Peipei, got it?"
The moment Li Zhi's words landed, He Zhiyu froze in place, her lips slightly parted like a stuck old radio, her mind buzzing.
Huh?
'Wait, weren't they just talking about writing a Sugar Text?'
'How did it suddenly jump to Zhou Shaojie liking Zhuo Peipei?'
'Are they the same thing?'
He Zhiyu looked at Li Zhi in disbelief, her expression like she'd just learned the sky was falling and she was the only one it had landed on.
The little author's eyes were instantly filled with a bewildered 'how did I fall into this pit?' expression, and they even began to glisten.
"...Zhizhi! You..."
He Zhiyu protested in a low, miserable voice, feeling as though she, an innocent bystander who just wanted to peacefully enjoy the drama, had been dragged into a massive pit.
"Zhizhi, how could you trap me like this?"
Seeing He Zhiyu's miserable, on-the-verge-of-tears expression, the smile on Li Zhi's face deepened.
The beautiful girl, with a touch of triumphant slyness, patted her shoulder gently and then whispered in He Zhiyu's ear in a voice only they could hear.
"Keep the secret well, little author."
Hearing this seemingly casual yet incredibly precise title from Li Zhi, He Zhiyu's brain buzzed and then shut down completely.
Blood rushed to her cheeks with a WHOOSH.
'It's over! Li Zhi... she knows?! How could she know?!'
Countless scenes of her secretly recording the class's sweet moments flashed through her mind.
'The way I furiously typed on my phone's notepad in the corner of the classroom, the overly excited look in my eyes when discussing the plot with Zhuo Peipei, and maybe... a certain sentence I accidentally let slip?'
A huge panic seized He Zhiyu.
'Li Zhi knows I'm the author of *Defend and Steal*?'
'This is a million times more socially mortifying than just being roped into keeping a secret crush!'
She subconsciously wanted to deny it outright, to make excuses, to bluff her way through.
"I... Zhizhi, what... what are you talking about? What... what little author..."
He Zhiyu's voice was faint, her panicked gaze darting everywhere but at Li Zhi's knowing, smiling eyes.
"I... I don't know any little author..."
He Zhiyu unconsciously clenched the hem of her clothes, as if by doing so she could hold on to that author's identity and hide it even deeper.
Seeing He Zhiyu's flustered state, Li Zhi didn't expose her further. Instead, she whispered to her best friend, "Mhm, that's right. I didn't say anything just now."
Even though Li Zhi said that, in He Zhiyu's eyes, she was now like a little hamster with nowhere to hide, trapped under the paws of a cunningly beautiful cat, with no escape.