Chapter 161: Wanting to be a Little Reserved

“Pretty good. That word itself carries a sense of comparison.”

Lin Dong, who was flipping through the answer sheets, let that word slip out while abusing his power. Given their relationship, it was clearly not just a casual remark.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nian immediately had an idea.

At least 120.

Plus, the word Lin Dong used wasn’t “you,” but “you all.” The “all” obviously referred to Zhang Ningzhi, so it was reasonable to guess that Zhang Ningzhi had at least 130. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“Found them!” Lin Dong took out two answer sheets, handed them to Jiang Nian, and took a glance.

“124 and 138—you guys are fierce.”

Jiang Nian didn’t even look; he handed the 138 answer sheet to Zhang Ningzhi. Then, he kept his own 124 math paper, admiring it repeatedly as if it were white jade.

If you’re not in a parallel class, it’s hard to understand the feeling of getting a 120 in math.

He had been burying his head in practice problems for a month, but his efficiency wasn’t actually that high. For this exam, half of his math score relied on the accumulation from that period of drilling.

The other half relied on some luck—after all, he had run into the original questions—as well as the bonus from Zhang Ningzhi’s dream, which had cram-trained his problem-solving thought process.

Jiang Nian really wasn’t that interested in math, and talent is hard to define. Regardless, after the College Entrance Exam, he definitely wouldn’t be stubborn enough to choose a STEM major.

Thinking too far ahead, he snapped back to reality and suddenly noticed it was a bit quiet around him.

Something wasn’t right. Did he enter some strange horror dungeon?

He quietly turned his head and found Zhang Ningzhi looking at him with a worried expression. He was dumbfounded—what was going on? He wasn’t dead yet.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhang Ningzhi pursed her lips and said seriously,

“124 is also very good.”

Jiang Nian couldn’t hold it together anymore. What the hell was this? “Small but cute,” is that it?!

Could you please hide your 138 answer sheet before saying that!

No, wait, he didn’t care about his math score at all.

His dream wasn’t to get into Harbin Institute of Technology to play with welding. Although that dream was quite good, it was the dream of that super gloomy guy, Li Hua.

He also never thought about being a Jelly Boy astronaut and getting a slap from his grandma.

As long as his math score was neither too good nor too bad, it was fine, though higher was naturally better.

But! Everyone knows it’s just for the College Entrance Exam.

In short, Jiang Nian was just a person who took exams for the sake of taking exams, with no dreams. A pragmatist, a foot soldier of test-oriented education.

Naturally, he wouldn’t be discouraged by his score; 120 had indeed met his expectations.

“I’m not, I was just… admiring it.” Jiang Nian had no choice but to tell the truth to avoid a bigger misunderstanding.

“Oh, oh.” Zhang Ningzhi covered her face.

She thought Jiang Nian’s Dao Heart was about to shatter because he saw his score was too low. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. It seemed Jiang Nian was quite satisfied with this score; taking it step by step was indeed a good mindset.

Jiang Nian didn’t forget to sneak a peek at the class monitor’s score, and seeing it started with a 14, he silently backed off.

Truly impressive, a science Prodigy.

He didn’t know what Xu Qianqian got; if she bombed it, maybe it started with a 13. But it was more likely to start with a 14—a number that made people unable to look directly at it.

The early self-study session ended, and only a portion of the class was slumped over.

Some were happy, some were sad, and those who were slumped over weren’t necessarily asleep. They might be laughing and joking, but once they lay on their desks, they started to go crazy with emo.

A gloomy guy like Li Hua was already loudly cursing the graders before the early self-study even ended.

“They’re purely looking for trouble on purpose, insisting on deducting a few points from me.”

As soon as the session ended, Li Hua called his friends and headed to the Cafeteria.

“Let’s go, let’s go, buy some food. I just don’t understand, was it necessary to deduct those four points from me?”

Jiang Nian slumped down too, but his head was turned toward Zhang Ningzhi. He snuck a peek—how was she not tired at all? Was she correcting her English paper?

Good students are so boring, just like in anime.

His eyelids slowly drooped; he had been nervous all morning and was really quite sleepy. The last second before his eyes fully closed, he seemed to catch Zhizhi baby turning her head.

Forget it, he was dead tired.

Zhang Ningzhi snuck a glance at him, feeling a bit guilty. She wanted to pull out his math answer sheet to take a look, to see if she could analyze anything.

But he treasured that answer sheet too much, sleeping on top of it.

His face was practically pressed against it, not giving her any chance at all.

In the end, she fished a carton of milk from her bag and silently placed it in Jiang Nian’s drawer. She hadn’t originally intended to bring it for him; the exam was over, and their agreement had expired.

It was just that she suddenly didn’t want to drink it anymore, so she would show mercy and bestow it upon him.

The first and second periods were both English classes, and Jiang Nian listened until he was drowsy.

Afterward was math class; because he had done well, he was surprisingly energetic and listened to every single word.

At noon, he returned from the Cafeteria.

Jiang Nian went back to the classroom, slumped over the railing, and drank the milk Zhang Ningzhi had given him. Looking at the overcast sky, he narrowed his eyes slightly, beginning to look forward to the answer sheets in the afternoon.

The teachers of each subject marked the scores on the answer sheets, and once all six subjects’ answer sheets were collected, they would begin recording the scores.

Chen Yunyun appeared from the end of the hallway and walked toward Jiang Nian.

“How did you do?”

Although the two had a good relationship, Chen Yunyun seemed to have become much more reserved recently. If it were back when they first met, she would have been in the honeymoon phase and could have walked across half the class to see his grades.

Then she would have taken Li Hua’s seat, chatted on and on for a long time, and gone back when class started.

Now it seemed they had entered a cold phase—could the relationship not hold up?

Chen Yunyun was being a bit of a heartbreaker.

“It’s alright, English—” He reported his two subject scores one by one, then naturally asked back, “I mean—no, what about you?”

Chen Yunyun had actually wanted to go check Jiang Nian’s test papers during the noon running exercise, but she had held back. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly wanted to be a little reserved.

Occasionally, she would let her imagination run wild, wondering if he wouldn’t say anything if she didn’t ask.

She said: “Both subjects were over 130.”

After she finished speaking, the atmosphere suddenly fell into silence.

Chen Yunyun’s heart gave a sudden jolt; perhaps he didn’t care at all about what she scored. He wouldn’t care too much whether she asked or not; it was all just her own wishful thinking.

“And the rest?” Jiang Nian asked.

“What?” She turned her head, stunned.

“No, why are you being so gloomy?” Jiang Nian stared at her. “I told you my specific scores, and you just come at me with ‘both subjects were over 130’.”

“Ah, are you a pervert? You fished out my real scores, and now you’re going to go back to your seat, add up your scores to see if they’re higher than mine, and then secretly gloat during your lunch break, right?”

Chen Yunyun: “…No.”

“If not, then what is it? Are you in a bad mood?” Jiang Nian glanced at her. “I saw you coming from the hallway, looking completely absent-minded.”

“Math 134, English 138, I did just so-so.” The smile on Jiang Nian’s face vanished; he would never smile again.

“Holy shit.”

A smile appeared on Chen Yunyun’s face again, just like usual.

“Did you correct your answer sheet? Can I see it?”

“I corrected it with a black pen.” Chen Yunyun: “…That’s you, alright.”

She turned her head to look at the low buildings of the county town in the distance; it seemed what she was thinking was a bit… too far-fetched.