Chapter 239 Yu Yu needs psychological counseling.

“Luo Yong, six votes!”

Looking at the five capital ‘Zheng’ characters on the blackboard, the young man’s face was expressionless, a hint of self-mockery on his lips.

He clenched his fist, and due to the force, his slightly sharp nails dug into his flesh, causing a piercing pain.

Luo Yong, Six Dou Qi. No.

No, buddy.

Six votes?

Luo Yong himself was a bit stunned. There were over sixty ‘living fathers’ in the class. He had bribed four people to canvass for him in the afternoon, but he only got six votes?

Unfortunately, he wasn’t Xiao Yan; no one in the class discussed him, let alone mocked him.

Without even a moment to mourn Luo Yong’s defeat, Yu Zhiyi, with 28 votes, immediately rushed to the battlefield!

Since everyone in the class had ‘favor cards,’ after excluding all ‘favor cards,’ and then subtracting the girls’ votes, what remained was ‘lust.’

Pfft, what remained was public opinion.

The result was no surprise: Yu Zhiyi was elected to the position of Psychological Counselor with a high number of votes.

“Alas, I tried my best, but I didn’t expect this outcome,” Jiang Nian murmured to himself, his expression melancholic.

He seemed to turn his back on all living beings, standing alone through eternity, pained by his brother’s failure. He didn’t understand why this happened, though of course, he hadn’t voted either.

“Luo Yong got so few votes,” Zhang Ningzhi remarked, then turned to Jiang Nian and comforted him, “Don’t be unhappy. It’s okay as long as you tried your best.”

Jiang Nian glanced at Zhang Ningzhi, nodded, then turned to Li Hua.

“Hua, do you have any thoughts?”

Li Hua propped his head with one hand, constantly rubbing his face with the other, afraid he might accidentally blurt out a complaint.

“Ah, well. I’m not too sure either.”

Ding-dong!

“Classmates, class is dismissed!”

The first evening self-study session ended, and Yu Zhiyi felt a faint excitement in her daze.

The election results were pretty much as that scoundrel had said; at least she was successfully elected. Just then, Zhou Yuting and a few others came over to talk to her, and she took the opportunity to stand up.

Her peripheral vision caught the doorway, noticing that group of people all running out.

Yao Beibei happened to be free, so she and Zhang Ningzhi linked arms and went downstairs together.

Ma Guojun wondered, ‘You four all went, why didn’t you take me?’

And so, Li Hua tearfully paid the bill.

But as soon as he thought of Yu Zhiyi being elected Psychological Counselor, he couldn’t help but puff out his chest. Putting everything else aside, Jiang Nian was making him feel a bit depressed right now.

Heh, he’d ask the Psychological Counselor tonight.

In the flow of people going down the stairs.

Lin Dong didn’t want to buy snacks alone after self-study, so he coaxed Sun Zhicheng out with much effort.

He patted Sun Zhicheng’s shoulder and comforted him.

“Ah Cheng, cheer up. It’s so dark outside, who’s going to see you?”

“I want to die.”

Sun Zhicheng sighed, looking at the bustling night playground. He couldn’t help but think of someone who only dared to go out on Halloween, and now he too understood their sorrow.

Could only the darkness grant him dignity?

At the entrance of the convenience store.

Lin Dong walked a few steps, but found no one following him.

He looked bewildered, turned to look for Sun Zhicheng, but found that he hadn’t even approached the convenience store. He was just standing further away, at the edge of the basketball hoop covered in shadow.

“What are you doing?” Lin Dong walked over and asked.

In the darkness, Sun Zhicheng shook his head.

“Too bright, it’s too bright.”

“What?”

“Brother Dong,” Sun Zhicheng’s voice was pained and melancholic, “I am someone who cannot see the light, destined to merely survive in dark environments.”

Lin Dong was dumbfounded, “Isn’t that a sewer rat?”

“Rat, well said!” Sun Zhicheng hugged the cold basketball hoop, lamenting tragically, “This is amazing, bro, this is exactly me, a sewer rat!”

“With this haircut, what’s the difference between me and an idiot?”

“Uh…” Lin Dong hesitated.

He actually wanted to say, ‘Even without this damn haircut, you are…’

Never mind, he was afraid Sun Zhicheng might actually jump when going upstairs later.

“Ah Cheng!” He clapped a hand on Sun Zhicheng’s shoulder, saying earnestly, “Actually, you just need to wear a hoodie with a hood tomorrow.”

They weren’t allowed to wear baseball caps in class, but if it was a hood attached to clothing, no one would care.

After all, it was already November, and the chill was setting in. If asked, just say it’s cold; if asked again, just start shivering, and no one would dare stop you.

Hearing this, Sun Zhicheng’s eyes lit up.

“That’s a great idea!”

Then, he hesitated again, frowning.

“Will that work?”

“Of course it will. That gloomy shut-in in our class,” Lin Dong said vaguely, “Do you see the teacher ever caring? They still don’t bother him.”

“You’re right, that makes sense.” Sun Zhicheng was relieved.

He looked at the brightly lit convenience store, filled with students, and a peaceful smile appeared on his face. Compared to darkness, light was more suitable for him.

The two walked into the convenience store together, and when checking out, the proprietress pressed a number for the charge.

“Six kuai.”

She looked up, and burst out laughing.

“Haha.”

Sun Zhicheng wished he could find a hole to crawl into. He swiped his meal card and ran off. Lin Dong hadn’t come out yet, so he could only return to wait under the dark basketball hoop.

Looking at the bustling convenience store, he felt like a rat that couldn’t see the light, its disguise torn off by the proprietress, exposed to the sun. A tear slid down the corner of his eye; he really wanted to kill the apprentice’s horse.

Suddenly, Sun Zhicheng heard a familiar voice. Following the sound, he found it was Jiang Nian and his five friends, which made him even more dejected.

Once upon a time, he, Lin Dong, and Chen Yunyun were also like this.

A small group. Not the kind of small group that internally isolated the entire class and did as they pleased, but rather a loose small collective.

Like Jiang Nian and his friends, because they were close, they would occasionally gather to go to the cafeteria or convenience store.

But ever since he had the idea of confessing, everything was ruined.

Although he used a classic ‘cousin misunderstanding’ as an excuse, their relationship returned to its initial state. The small collective became more scattered, almost splitting in two.

Fortunately, Lin Dong had good interpersonal skills within the group and could serve as a link to Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe.

Not long after, Lin Dong came out.

“Ah Cheng, why are you hiding here again?”

“Life is meaningless,” Sun Zhicheng sighed, “Brother Dong, I don’t want to go to school anymore. I want to find a temple to live in seclusion and no longer care about worldly affairs.”

Lin Dong was dumbfounded, thinking it would only take a month or two for his hair to grow back, so why was he talking about living in seclusion in a temple?

After thinking for a moment, an idea struck him.

“Hey, why don’t you ask the Psychological Counselor!”

Hearing this, Sun Zhicheng froze. That’s right! The Psychological Counselor was Yu Zhiyi.

As soon as he thought of her patiently comforting him, he immediately straightened his back. That was the Psychological Counselor he had voted for!

During evening self-study, back in the classroom.

Jiang Nian turned to look at Zhang Ningzhi. The young girl was holding a water cup and taking small sips.

“You can’t even eat a few fish balls.”

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi turned her head and puffed out her cheeks.

“I’m on a diet.”

“Tsk, my opinion is that Yao Beibei is better,” Jiang Nian said with a nonchalant raised eyebrow, “She ate four skewers, Li Hua almost knelt before her.”

“Blasphemy!” Li Hua, who was listening the whole time, pointed his finger, “Defamation! What else can you do besides slander me?”

Jiang Nian: “I love to tell little lies.”

Zhang Ningzhi pursed her lips, wanting to laugh, but afraid of being seen by her unscrupulous deskmate. So she picked up a pen, hunched over her desk to do problems, the tall stack of books acting like a trench for the young girl’s battle line.

Before, there wasn’t much fun to be had. Before the class promotion, if you just buried yourself in studying, you’d be isolated. Actively or passively, you had to deal with the interpersonal relationships around you.

Now, although the people in the class were a bit neurotic, it was indeed very amusing.

After thinking for a moment, she unconsciously wrote the character ‘Jiang’ on her scratch paper. Then she suddenly startled, hurriedly blacked out the character, and then glanced at him.

Fortunately, Jiang Nian was also looking down, doing problems, not peeking.

Zhang Ningzhi breathed a sigh of relief, then wondered if he could recognize a pictograph she wrote. How was the pictograph for ‘Jiang’ written again?

The pen fell, and three dots of water appeared on the scratch paper.

It didn’t seem to be that.

She bent down and pulled out a copy of’Shuowen Jiezi’ she had bought from her book box. She had bought it because the cover was pretty, and it had many illustrations, which piqued her interest.

The last few pages of the small booklet seemed to have a comparison chart of Chinese character evolution.

Zhang Ningzhi furtively flipped through it like a thief, found the character ‘Jiang’ along the pinyin order. After scanning it, she found that the ‘Jiang’ in small seal script was the most beautiful.

So she carefully traced it, and then went to look for the pictograph of the character ‘Nian’.

In oracle bone script, ‘Nian’ was a combination of a person carrying grain, above and below. Because grain ripens once a year, it was used to represent time.

She was tracing intently when suddenly a voice came from beside her ear.

“Studying Chinese during physics self-study, huh? I’m reporting you.”

Zhang Ningzhi’s body stiffened. She maintained her posture, forcing herself to calm down.

“I’m just looking casually.”

“Still arrested. I’ll tell the physics teacher later.” Jiang Nian had just finished a problem and saw that his deskmate wasn’t doing anything productive either. “What are you writing? Let me see.”

He took a look, his face showing confusion.

“What is this?”

“Nothing.” Zhang Ningzhi breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing her deskmate was uncultured.

She had preemptively covered the character ‘Jiang’, which would have been easiest to recognize, so Jiang Nian only saw an oracle bone character for ‘Nian’, completely unable to recognize it.

“Are you drawing talismans?” Jiang Nian asked curiously.

Zhang Ningzhi immediately turned her head, ignoring him.

“You’re the one drawing talismans.”

She didn’t want to say more, afraid he might guess the true meaning of the character’s form.

After the second self-study session, he was the only one left in the sixth group’s seats.

Li Hua went to Yu Zhiyi’s side to watch the excitement; the Psychological Counselor was newly appointed. Several people were gathered there talking, mostly joking around and pretending to be depressed.

Zhang Ningzhi and Yao Beibei went out together, the class monitor in the back row wasn’t there either, leaving Jiang Nian all alone.

He took out his phone and logged into Le Zhi’s alt account to check messages.

Ever since he added Zhou Yuting and Yu Tongjie’s alt accounts last week, he hadn’t been online for almost a week. This account’s purpose was only for before the next Six Cities Joint Exam.

About half a month remained.

Even so, Jiang Nian still chose to fish unhurriedly.

On the QQ chat page, the latest messages were from three or four days ago. Zhou Yuting and Yu Tongjie had each sent more than ten messages to this alt account, one after another.

He first clicked on Yu Tongjie’s chat page, scrolling the chat history back to last week.