Chapter 7 Potential Rival

If I had borrowed the Advanced English vocabulary book from Xu Qianqian back then, perhaps the effect would have been even better.

Jiang Nian thought about it and decided there was no need.

Skills are about quality, not quantity. Currently, the main obstacle is the college entrance exam. Three thousand five hundred words are enough; it’s better to allocate precious memorization time to other subjects.

At this moment, Jiang Nian, with his subject memory, was doing well on the practice problems.

Oh my Dao, even after memorizing the formulas, I still couldn’t solve the math problems.

English could be aced, and with subject memory, biology and chemistry were easier than before. I wouldn’t do Chinese, it would be a waste of time, and physics…en.

With a year left until the college entrance exam, Jiang Nian figured he could probably get into a decent university if he worked hard.

In the classroom, there were three evening self-study sessions.

Almost every break, he could hear the boisterous laughter and roughhousing from Zhou Yuting’s small group. Jiang Nian rarely used such a word to describe a group of people.

But that was the fact; they were both boisterous and wild.

During breaks from his practice, Jiang Nian would occasionally look up in that direction. In the past, he would have probably put down his pen and run over to join in the laughter.

It wasn’t that he wanted to be a sycophant; he just wanted to fit in.

Even without Zhou Yuting, he would still want to join this “socialite” small group. To put it plainly, Jiang Nian was good-looking and wanted to use his looks to join the group.

He couldn’t study, and he wasn’t very rich, so under his inferiority complex, it was inevitable that he had a bit of vanity.

The socialite small group was very attractive to adolescents, with beautiful girls, rich classmates, and popular boys who did well in class.

Joining them, chatting and laughing together, not only satisfied vanity but also gave a false “Advanced feeling” that didn’t belong to goblins.

Now, Jiang Nian no longer had such childish thoughts.

Perhaps he had seen through it all, or perhaps he was impacted by the System’s worldview. In any case, he was a bit tired and didn’t want to get involved with this group of wild and vulgar people.

The three evening self-study sessions remained calm and uneventful. The form teacher came once in the middle, talked about the timetable and next week’s monthly exam, and then left.

It wasn’t until 9:40 PM that the last self-study session ended.

Jiang Nian walked out with the crowd, and as he passed the doorway, he made eye contact with Zhou Yuting. In reality, he was thinking about a math problem, and his gaze was completely blank.

He walked past in a flash, without the slightest pause.

The classroom doorway was crowded and noisy. It was late September, and Zhou Yuting was still wearing a pink short-sleeved top that accentuated her figure. Her lower body was clad in tight jeans that hugged her hips.

Zhennan County High School did not require a uniform dress code; only on specific occasions, such as sports days or Monday flag-raising ceremonies, were all students required to wear summer or autumn school uniforms.

A girl of eighteen or nineteen looked youthful in anything, let alone a beauty like Zhou Yuting. Her chest was like the soft ridge of a spring mountain, and her legs were slender and long.

She found it hard to believe that she was about to greet him, and he clearly saw her, didn’t he? He just walked past in a flash?

They used to be quite familiar with each other.

She didn’t care much about Jiang Nian anyway; she only hung out with him because he was good-looking and good at basketball, meaning he had a good physique.

Even when he inexplicably left her circle, Zhou Yuting didn’t feel anything. After all, besides his physique, Jiang Nian had nothing else to attract her.

Seven or eight minutes later, Zhou Yuting walked out of the classroom with two of her best friends.

Suddenly, one of her best friends, He Cai, let out a surprised “Eh?”

“Isn’t that Jiang Nian?”

Hearing this, Zhou Yuting and another girl, Luo Wanzhen, subconsciously turned their heads to look. They saw Jiang Nian standing at the doorway of the next class, walking with a short girl.

They had physical contact from time to time, looking very close.

“Is he dating? Why didn’t he tell us? No wonder he hasn’t been hanging out with us lately.” Luo Wanzhen clicked her tongue, half-jokingly. She had no ill will towards Jiang Nian.

“Isn’t that girl from the next class’s Olympiad team? How did he—”

“Who knows? She looks pretty ordinary.” Zhou Yuting, like a proud swan, glanced at the girl walking with Jiang Nian. She was dressed in ordinary, girl-next-door attire.

Xu Qianqian was very pretty and had nice clothes at home, but she dressed quite simply at school.

In the eyes of girls like Zhou Yuting, she was very ordinary.

“Didn’t Jiang Nian like you before?” He Cai had a bit of an instigating tone. Although the three were best friends, she and Luo Wanzhen had a small group without Zhou Yuting.

Of course, Zhou Yuting and Luo Wanzhen also had a small group without He Cai.

“What does it have to do with me who he likes?” Zhou Yuting tossed her head and walked towards the school gate. “I don’t like him anyway.”

“Teach you math?” Xu Qianqian walked with Jiang Nian, her knuckles on the backpack strap slightly white. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

The long streets of the county town were still lit, flickering bright and dim, stretching towards the horizon.

She felt as if she was meeting Jiang Nian for the first time, constantly scrutinizing him.

“This afternoon, you even threw away the vocabulary book.”

“That’s because I’ve memorized them all. Otherwise, why don’t you test me?” Jiang Nian knew this couldn’t be hidden. “Just say any word within the 3500 words for the college entrance exam.”

Xu Qianqian thought for a moment and said a simple one.

“Connect?”

“connect (liánjiē), c-o-n—” Jiang Nian blurted it out without thinking.

Xu Qianqian was slightly surprised and then said a less common one.

“Stimulate?”

“Stimulate (cìjī), s-t-i—” Jiang Nian said fluently.

This time, Xu Qianqian was completely stunned. She stood at the intersection, scrutinizing Jiang Nian. The expression on her face was as if she had seen a ghost, and she opened her mouth several times but couldn’t make a sound.

“You… are you Jiang Nian?”

“That’s nonsense. If you don’t believe me, you can check.” He pouted and explained, “Before, I just wanted to fit into their circle, so I pretended to be—”

He shouldn’t say too much; the more he said, the less credible it would be.

This explanation, however, sounded reasonable to Xu Qianqian. Because she thought that a person who cooked well couldn’t be too stupid.

Moreover, Jiang Nian, that fool, really would do something like that.

“I don’t know what to say about you. Are you being fair to Uncle Jiang and Aunt Li?” Xu Qianqian could sometimes be very stubborn, and when she got a bee in her bonnet, she was truly unyielding.

Seeing her little face stern, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but smile.

“I know, aren’t I turning over a new leaf now? Don’t worry, I won’t let you teach me for free. How about I cook you something delicious this weekend?”

Gulp, Xu Qianqian swallowed, the sound a bit loud.

“I can teach you math, for Aunt Li’s sake. As for food, forget it, I’m on a diet recently.”

Hearing Xu Qianqian’s contradictory words, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but smile.

Suddenly, he heard her ask, “Do you still like Zhou Yuting?”

The night wind blew, and under the dim streetlights, Jiang Nian was silent for two seconds.

“No, I don’t.”

In that moment of hesitation, he actually wanted to say he hated her, but he didn’t want to say such a thing in front of Xu Qianqian.

“Ding!”

“【The 38-year-old you has discovered a potential love rival. Besides you, someone has been silently watching over Xu Qianqian. Due to his poor family background, he never spoke to Xu Qianqian from high school to university. Now, he is successful in his career.

Mission: Defeat the strong love rival Zhou Haifei and make him give up on Xu Qianqian.

Reward: 5000 RMB.】”