Chapter 58 and other progress bars

“Is that all?” Facing Li Hua’s accusation, Jiang Nian started playing dirty. “So you’re that innocent, Pure Love Bro? Did you cry all night?”

A ‘Pure Love Bro’ label was slapped on him, and Li Hua’s composure crumbled.

He subconsciously retorted, “H-how could that be? I just casually flipped through it. What you’re saying is really chilling.”

“My bad, my bad, I apologize,” Jiang Nian sincerely apologized, dodging a wave of questioning. “You should catch up on some sleep at your desk. The first class is math.”

Hearing this, Li Hua finally forgave Jiang Nian.

He also snatched a bottle of stubby Sprite from Jiang Nian’s drawer and ran to switch to a window seat to secretly catch up on sleep.

In high school, ‘pure love’ was a taboo. Of course, it wasn’t discrimination against pure love, it was just similar to the Japanese high school favorite, “You’re not a virgin, are you?”

Although Chinese campuses don’t have such fragmented values, when a ‘Pure Love Bro’ hat is placed on someone, that feeling of having your pants pulled down and being exposed—who wouldn’t panic?

You might think you’re the one who only takes a single scoop from three thousand weak waters, showing exclusive preference. But in some people’s eyes, it’s, “Oh, the pathetic old dog no one wants is just waiting for me to give him a mouthful of tan to extend his life, huh?”

Exaggerated, exaggerated, okay? Let me put on some armor first.

Newbie on Tieba, positive energy soldier (omitting three hundred words of buff essay).

Ring, ring, ring! Morning self-study began.

The small commotion in the morning didn’t attract the attention of the classmates. Li Hua slept through the entire morning self-study. The child must have been exhausted, snoring loudly in the corner by the wall.

Even after math class started, Jiang Nian still didn’t know what book Li Hua had read last night.

During the break, Zhang Ningzhi, who was in the front seat, turned around.

Thanks to Jiang Nian’s care a few days ago when she was inconvenienced, Zhang Ningzhi’s favorability towards him had greatly increased.

It was subtly approaching the title of ‘good friend’ from ‘reliable friend’; the status bar was about to turn red.

The girl was a little nervous and quietly asked, “Can I borrow your English test paper to check the answers?”

The English test paper was distributed on Saturday night before the holiday. Jiang Nian had spent most of the evening self-study completing the entire paper the moment he received it; he hadn’t taken it home at all.

“Oh, wait for me to find it.”

With that, Jiang Nian pulled open his desk and started rummaging through the drawer.

During the wait, Zhang Ningzhi maintained her turned posture. Her gaze had nowhere to settle, and when it met his lowered eyes, she immediately shifted it away as if burned.

Time became incredibly long at this moment.

“Here.”

“Thank you.” Zhang Ningzhi’s earlobes were red, hidden in the golden-white sunlight.

She lowered her head and glanced at the paper, finding that besides the answers, Jiang Nian’s test paper was completely blank. There was nothing but the chosen options, which made her let out a soft “Huh.”

“Did you just choose directly?”

Hearing this, Jiang Nian was stunned. “Otherwise?”

Zhang Ningzhi was deeply struck. Even she would hesitate for a moment when encountering an unfamiliar word. When faced with long reading comprehension, not making marks would make it easy to forget the meaning of the previous paragraph.

“Do you understand… everything?”

Jiang Nian: “Mostly, I guess. Why?”

Her sharp eyes spotted an answer different from her own. She pointed to a paragraph and asked for its general meaning. Jiang Nian merely glanced at it and immediately translated it.

“You’re really amazing.” Zhang Ningzhi’s eyes were full of little stars, and her sense of defeat instantly flew away.

Jiang Nian bore the admiring gaze of the Young Miss of Nanjiang Bay, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curve upwards slightly.

Showing off makes people happy. Which cadre can withstand such a test?

At this moment, the class bell rang, and Zhang Ningzhi had to put away the test paper. She carefully placed it in her drawer, glanced at the small timetable on her desk, and took out her Chinese textbook.

Li Hua yawned and pulled out Dragon Clan III, placing it under his Chinese textbook.

Jiang Nian turned to look, and this guy was truly reading word by word.

If Jiang Nan had a reader like him, he’d probably sit up in the middle of the night and stab him again.

During Chinese class, Jiang Nian took out his physics paper and placed it under his Chinese textbook, starting to ponder. He half-listened to the lecture and half-did problems, occasionally even interacting with the homeroom teacher, Old Liu.

After class, he glanced at Li Hua again.

His good brother had only read a few pages in one class. Twenty to thirty thousand characters took him a whole class to read. “The Old Friend from the North Pole”—that progress bar was just too slow.

System, the next reward should be the ability to fast-forward a designated project.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Fast-forward to the pure love part!

During the second class’s long break, Li Hua reluctantly got up just before the exercise drill. He carefully placed Dragon Clan III into the deepest part of his drawer, then turned to Jiang Nian.

“Hey, Jiang Nan writes so well!”

“If I were a girl, I’d totally want to marry him!”

“Eriyi is too perfect, her eyes are full of that loser. Damn, you don’t even know how sweet those chapters I just read were; I almost laughed out loud during Old Liu’s class.”

Jiang Nian followed the flow of people towards the sports field, the sunlight falling across his slender shoulders. Listening to Li Hua’s excitedly chattering beside him, the corners of his mouth could barely stay down.

He pondered whether to recommend “The Two Thousand Years of the Poor Ghost” to him in a few days, or something else like “A Small Shop on the Cloud’s Edge.” He hadn’t sent those two yesterday.

He wasn’t afraid he wouldn’t take the bait; no one could resist the temptation of curiosity.

Forget it, I’ll spare his life and recommend “My Wife Is From a Thousand Years Ago” to him.

“Marry him, marry him,” Jiang Nian said dismissively, hands in his pockets. “You and Jiang Nan hold a wedding, embracing and kissing passionately, kissing every corner of his body.”

“What the hell! What you’re saying is so disgusting!” Li Hua instantly jumped away, keeping his distance. “Brother Nian, don’t be like that, I’m really scared.”

Jiang Nian shook his head. It’s fine, I’m waiting for Eriyi’s progress bar.

On the red plastic track of the sports field.

Taking advantage of the gap during the formation of the exercise drill, Liu Yang, the sports committee member, walked to the front of the line. He shouted for quiet and then began to talk about signing up for the autumn sports meet.

“Our class is a science class, so there are fewer girls. I hope all the male students can show some spirit, be proactive, and bring glory to the class. There are prizes for winning.”

Below, the big Ma Guojun, Ma Guojun, scoffed.

“It’s always thermos cups, ping-pong paddles, badminton rackets. Can’t they buy more expensive prizes?”

Li Hua patted Ma Guojun’s shoulder with a mischievous grin.

“What do you want? Want the principal to buy you a small Fei cup?”

“Get lost!” Ma Guojun’s chubby face turned red, and he started roughhousing with Li Hua.

Jiang Nian, distracted, scuffed his shoe sole nearby, thinking, ‘Can this damn exercise drill be canceled?’ In summer, he’d run until his underwear was soaked; in winter, he’d run until he was hot and sweaty.

Soon, the sports committee member came to Jiang Nian with the sign-up sheet.

The two exchanged glances, connecting with a secret signal.

“Brother Nian, the time for’settling’ is almost up, sign up for something!” Liu Yang pointed to the event list. “One hundred meters, eight hundred meters, which one do you want?”

“This shot put also—”

Jiang Nian’s eyelids twitched, and he quickly said,

“No shot put!”

The old referee for shot put this year probably hasn’t been replaced. If he saw him do a somersault and break the record again, wouldn’t he have a heart attack?