Chapter 330 Inspirational Star

After eating a bowl of Sanxian noodles, I missed the dormitory’s lunch break curfew.

Alas! Jiang Nian had an idea.

North Gate!

He wouldn’t mind pulling Rong Bao along to climb the wall, but the problem was…

Kids, yes, it’s not right to just go, anyway, I brought my ID card.

Spending a little is fine. As the saying goes, money should be spent where it matters most. A milk tea shop could work, but it’s not good for resting.

Clack clack! How can one study well by napping on the desk?

“How about we go to Moon Island for a bit?” Jiang Nian suggested, choosing a quiet, exclusive coffee shop.

What was the exclusivity? A minimum consumption of thirty to forty per person.

However, this coffee shop, located near the school and supermarket, mainly featured dim lighting and reasonable prices.

It was quite suitable for resting and dating.

“Mmm.” Li Qingrong had no objection. As soon as she entered, her vision went dark; the interior lighting was dim, and the music was soft.

Jiang Nian ordered two coffees and sat down to rest.

At 1:30, someone immediately lay down and fell asleep.

His biological clock was terrifying.

At 1:50 PM, the two walked out of the coffee shop.

The sun was just right, and a throng of students streamed into the school.

Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong walked amidst the crowd, half a meter apart. They remained silent all the way, ascending the stairs together.

Before entering the classroom, Jiang Nian was called out by someone.

The bell for the end of lunch break hadn’t stopped ringing when Tao Ran walked up to him. Covering his ear, which was being rattled by the broadcast, he spoke loudly.

“Old Liu is looking for you. He wants you to go to the office.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nian’s heart skipped a beat.

What?

No, he fed cats with the class president at noon. How did Old Liu find out so soon after he returned? Was it an Imperial Guard informant?

As class was about to start, Jiang Nian went to the office.

The first class in the afternoon was Chinese, so he didn’t have to worry about being late. Since he was going to see Old Liu, he wasn’t even concerned about leaders checking on classes.

The warning bell rang twice, but Old Liu still leisurely sat in his seat, sipping tea.

The office was empty, with only the two of them remaining.

“Ahem, you’re here?” Old Liu took a sip of tea and got straight to the point, “Do you still remember your approximate score before you moved up a class?”

“Over four hundred, I guess. What’s up?” Jiang Nian found a chair and sat down.

“Four hundred sixty?” Old Liu asked.

“Four hundred ten.”

“Cough, cough, cough!!!” Old Liu almost choked on his tea and said faintly, “Well, that’s certainly not a lot.”

“Teacher, did you call me just to ask about this?”

Jiang Nian had thought Old Liu found out he was walking with the class president and was going to confront him.

Fast forward to ‘You two can’t be together!’

“Actually, no, ahem, the grade group has an ‘Inspirational Star’ promotional event.” Old Liu’s gaze swept over him.

“I looked around, and you’re the most inspirational in our class.”

Jiang Nian was stunned, “Ah? No… Teacher, why are you suddenly insulting people?”

“I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that every class must put forward one person. The grade group will review them, and finally, the Inspirational Star will be selected.”

“So?”

“You’re the most suitable one, from four hundred ten to six hundred ten.” Old Liu said with a serious expression, “Two hundred points of improvement, who else but you?”

“Ah? Didn’t I only score five hundred ninety in the last joint exam?” Jiang Nian somewhat caught on. Old Liu really wanted him to improve.

“Don’t worry about that, the selection and review will be next week.” Old Liu looked at Jiang Nian, his eyes not showing confusion, only the firm resolve to improve.

“What if I score six hundred one?” Jiang Nian joked.

“You’ve accumulated over ten instances of not submitting your Chinese homework…”

“I said stop, stop.”

Afternoon.

After the first class, Li Hua asked curiously.

“What did Old Liu want with you?”

“Nothing much, just mentioned an ‘Inspirational Star’ competition.” Jiang Nian said lightly, “Old Liu begged me to go, saying Class Three couldn’t do without me.”

“I’m dizzy, you can really say anything!” Li Hua laughed, “Did you drink too much at noon? Or were you dreaming?”

Ma Guojun took off his glasses, preparing to lie down and rest, and said with a chuckle,

“I dropped money when I came in this afternoon, hearing that sentence made it worth it.”

“Can you win an award with over five hundred points?” Zhang Ningzhi asked with a curious expression, then felt she had spoken out of turn and quickly corrected herself.

“No, I’m just curious about the judging criteria for this award. No, I mean, you deserve it.” By the end, Zhang Ningzhi’s face was red, and she stammered. She simply exclaimed ‘Oh dear!’ and lay on her desk, pretending to be dead.

She tried to muddle through.

However, Jiang Nian was quite petty, and he firmly wrote this down in his little notebook. He would pull it out another day and fiercely question her.

“A bunch of haters, purely awkward hating.”

“The day I return to the world, all rebellious officials…”

He was halfway through his sentence when the people around him burst into unrestrained laughter again.

“Lu Yun, such a big tone?”

“Not fully awake, the Dragon fanatic has gone into Qi Deviation, identified as reading too much Dragon Three.”

“Don’t mind him, people bite when they go mad.”

Jiang Nian was furious upon hearing this, looking at all those around him who didn’t think highly of him. In the end, he just scoffed, too lazy to explain.

Who understands the value of a historical record of 410!

The Inspirational Star competition isn’t about total score, but about improvement!

Li Hua and his gang of bastards would never guess that he scored 410 on the last final exam, an existence like a bug in the Olympiad class.

Who dares to claim invincibility?

My goodness, I’m really awesome.

After school in the afternoon.

Jiang Nian secretly showed Zhang Ningzhi pictures of the kitten, immediately eliciting a gasp of surprise from the girl, and a request of ‘Oh, send them to me!’

“No, I won’t send them.”

He directly refused.

“Why not?” Zhang Ningzhi was a little angry.

She wore black jeans today, her calves elegantly curved. Above, they outlined the full curve of her hips, which looked especially good.

Most people couldn’t see the full curve hidden by her jacket, but Jiang Nian was her deskmate, so… he could trick her into lifting her jacket.

There’s a bug crawling on your waist!

Where, where? (Panicked)

Hehe, a silver bug.

“No reason, really. It’s hard-earned material.” Jiang Nian said indifferently, “Anyway, you can only look, not forward it to yourself, okay?”

“I won’t!” Zhang Ningzhi insisted on forwarding it.

Jiang Nian teased her for a while, then forwarded it. The girl immediately became overjoyed, chattering excitedly and asking about feeding the cat.

“You should go tomorrow during the day; it should be full today.”

“Then I’ll look for it after PE class. Beibei also said she wanted to go last time.” Zhang Ningzhi chatted for a while, then went to eat.

Jiang Nian was also about to leave, but he received a message from Le Zhi.

After reading it, despite the tight schedule, he still went to a certain restaurant outside school. As soon as he entered, he met Le Zhi as promised.

The small restaurant was brightly lit, with eight or nine tables.

It was quite popular; three tables of guests were already full. They spoke, their breath visible in the air, and hot tea was being brewed on the tables with alcohol lamps. “Sit down, what would you like to eat?” Le Zhi moved with ease, “I ordered stir-fried Ma Guojun intestines and pigeon soup.”

“Sounds good, Young Master Le.” Jiang Nian roughly realized the purpose of Le Zhi’s visit. He sat down and ordered one meat and one vegetable dish.

“Since you’ve guessed, I won’t beat around the bush.” Le Zhi said excitedly, “In less than a month, I’ve improved by sixty points!”

His grades were better than Jiang Nian’s used to be, usually scoring around four hundred forty or forty-five. An improvement of sixty points meant he had broken the five hundred mark.

And Le Zhi had accidentally scored five hundred twenty during his last cheating incident. This meant that in this major joint exam, being cautious, there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Even if he didn’t score five hundred twenty, as long as he scored five hundred or just over four hundred ninety, it would count as successfully concealing his previous score naturally, and no one would suspect him of cheating last time.

“That’s great, then there won’t be much of a problem later.” Jiang Nian smiled. He didn’t feel much about five hundred points, but he knew that improving scores was not easy.

“Since that’s the case, let’s find a way to take down that group as soon as possible.”

“I’ve talked to my dad, don’t worry.” Le Zhi took a deep breath, “There might be some action in these next two days.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

“You talked about it? Your dad didn’t…” “He didn’t hit me, after all, my current grades are real.” Le Zhi scratched his head, looking a bit awkward, “Besides, the performance is also real.”

“Alright, as long as you have a plan.” Jiang Nian held a glass cup, yellow tea water steaming gently, “I don’t care about my side; you do whatever is convenient for you.”

His words were rather subtle; he just wanted to mess with these people. But he could or could not mess with them; frankly, it was just a side matter.

“I understand, this benefits me too.” Le Zhi smiled, then lowered his head and said, “The real can’t be fake, and the fake can’t be real.”

“Doing something wrong always comes with a price. But it won’t affect me; at most, my dad will find out.”

“Mmm.” Jiang Nian nodded, “Since things have come to this, let’s eat first.”

After dinner, night fell heavily.

On the way back to school, the two chatted intermittently.

Most of the time, it was Le Zhi talking.

“If only I had known, I should have worked hard during the summer vacation.” He sighed, lamenting, “Three months, enough for me to improve my score to over five hundred.”

At this point, Le Zhi glanced at Jiang Nian warily.

“But even if I could have scored over five hundred points then, I still wouldn’t have surpassed you, but I should have been able to compete with Zhou Yuting for the chance to move up a class at the end of October.”

“It’s too late to say anything now. By the way… Zhou Yuting is in your class; how are her grades now?”

Jiang Nian hesitated for a moment, “Still okay, mid-to-lower.”

On the third floor, after parting ways with Le Zhi.

Jiang Nian switched to his alt account and checked Zhou Yuting’s alt account status. He tried, and found that she had already deleted him.

He didn’t care, thinking he would check again in a couple of days.

He’d kick her while she was down if he could.

After the first evening self-study session.

Liu Yang, the sports committee member, suddenly called two boys away, saying they were going to move something. Ten minutes later, they brought in a pitch-pot game set.

The class immediately looked bewildered, exchanging glances.

“What’s this for?”

“A pitch-pot game, I’ve seen it in shopping malls before.”

“Bumpkin, you don’t even know this.”

“I’ll test your code!”

Soon, Old Liu walked into the classroom, full of vigor.

“Ahem, this is an inter-class entertainment game organized by the grade group for you. Every class has it, to prevent you from fooling around during breaks.”

“Of course, this is also part of the ‘Education through Play’ project group. There will be teachers taking photos and organizing activities.”

As soon as they heard the words “project group,” the class immediately knew what this thing was for.

However, since there was a game to play, the students in the class didn’t show much resistance. They were all in high spirits, starting to discuss it animatedly.

Someone asked, “Teacher, what activities are being organized?”

“A pitch-pot competition, of course. Each class will have one boy and one girl participating.” Old Liu finished, then reminded them, “The pitch-pot will be collected after a while, so don’t damage it.”

Class Three’s reaction:

“What project group? Aren’t they just treating us like guinea pigs?” Li Hua said with some dissatisfaction, “These leaders are truly red stone.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nian asked curiously.

“Then are you playing?”

“Of course, why not play if it’s free!” Li Hua’s tone suddenly changed, “By the way, does anyone in our group want to participate in that activity?”

Zhang Ningzhi wanted to play, but she didn’t want to be in the spotlight and compete.

“No.”

Zeng You shook his head even more, showing no interest at all.

“Whoever wants to go, let them go.”

Wu Jun Gu also shook his head, “There should be practice and such, and it usually won’t be our turn to play; we won’t even get a chance.”

Not to mention Huang Fang, from the moment the pitch-pot was brought in until the homeroom teacher finished speaking. She was always doing problems, without even lifting her head once.

Seeing this, Li Hua sighed faintly, then turned and patted Jiang Nian’s shoulder.

“Nian, let’s be a group.”

Jiang Nian looked at him with a puzzled expression and shook his head.

“I’m not playing, but it’s a guaranteed win.”