CHAPTER 556: CHAPTER 453: IS THIS THE GOOD NEWS?

Evening self-study dismissal.

Jiang Nian saw Xu Qianqian on the third floor, along with..... Song Xiyun awkwardly greeting him.

Hmm?

If he’s not mistaken, yesterday he had invited Xiao Song over for a small gathering at home. But the hallway was crowded and noisy, so he didn’t ask much.

Once again, the three of them walked towards the school gate under the dim lights.

"Xiyun’s mom isn’t back yet, it’ll be delayed by a day," Xu Qianqian casually said, "Why the face, is it any of your business?"

"No, I’m quite happy," Jiang Nian replied.

That was the truth; his "ex-girlfriend" had a pretty good personality. She was just awkward in front of him, but she wasn’t like that around Xu Shao.

Damn, double standards.

"Really?" Xu Qianqian glanced at him, her glasses narrowing slightly, "I can’t tell, are you holding back some evil plan in your heart?"

"No." Jiang Nian shook his head.

If he really said it, you’d be unhappy again.

Song Xiyun lowered her head, and couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Jiang Nian. Coincidentally, she met someone’s slightly teasing gaze.

She turned her head sharply as if she had been shocked.

Her mind went blank, and her heart beat like a pounding drum.

Clearly, there was no relationship, perhaps even plainer than ordinary friends. They didn’t interact much usually, but every meeting always felt awkward.

An inexplicable sense of stealing glances.

However, Jiang Nian initially gave her the impression of not being a good person, though that impression had changed a little later on, whatever he did wasn’t surprising anymore.

After returning home.

Jiang Nian, after washing up, sat at the desk writing on test papers, but couldn’t calm his mind, so he threw down the pen, his heart filled with restless anger.

At eighteen, there’s really not much about romances full of moonlight and flowers.

This is the age of strength and vigor, the age where you could practically make a dent in the ground just by sprawling out to sleep. Dealing with girls every day, occasionally you’d also think of smeltfish.

What is smeltfish?

It’s just.....

He took a moment to calm himself, but the blood was still unnervingly hot, so he opened the window, letting the cold wind blow him calm.

Jiang Nian gazed into the boundless darkness, a few sparse lights in the distance captivating his thoughts.

"My life is like walking on thin ice..."

A buzzing sound, the phone rang.

He had calmed down quite a bit by then, so he picked up the phone to see. It was a message from Xu Qianqian next door, a picture of her cool-looking arm.

"See if I’ve gotten lighter recently?"

Jiang Nian glanced at it; he originally just wanted to reply with a sip emoji. But an idea popped into his head, and he quickly typed back.

"No comparison, you have Song Xiyun take a picture with you."

A while later, Xu Qianqian sent another picture. This time there were two arms, all fair, side by side.

Jiang Nian typed back, "Which one’s yours? You two aren’t showing your faces, how can I tell?"

Xu Qianqian: "?"

"Go to hell!"

Several fist emojis were sent over, and the chat ended just like that.

Jiang Nian didn’t mind. He opened the saved picture, zooming in to admire the two girls’ arms for a while.

A little perverted, huh.

After looking, he put down the phone and continued writing questions.

The next day.

Jiang Nian got up in the dark to wash up. The dark living room was quiet. The bathroom’s soft lighting illuminated a corner of the living room.

Click, he pushed the door open from the bathroom. Just as he was about to leave, he glanced at the rather shabby-looking living room and suddenly froze.

When did home become this old?

....

Li Hua, unusually early, entered the classroom to a shocking scene.

"Huh?"

His good buddy was buried in work at his seat, and upon approaching, saw two freshly written test papers on the table, the ink still wet.

"Damn, you’re a freaking overachiever!"

It wasn’t fully daylight, and a mist hung over the corridor. The chilly classroom became exceptionally noisy with Li Hua’s arrival.

"What did you do! You’re going to raise the class average by one whole point. Damn! You’re going to take all the slots at good universities!"

"Snow Leopard, shut up!" Jiang Nian pointed at him, "How can a sparrow understand the ambition of a swan? Do you know that the strong never complain about their environment?"

Hearing this, Huang Fang couldn’t help but look back at him.

After automatically filtering out a certain term, she agreed with Jiang Nian’s latter half of the sentence: the strong become stronger anywhere.

"Chi Shi! It’s you overachievers who ruin the environment!" Li Hua pointed back at him, "Stop it! You’re committing a crime!"

The back rows immediately erupted in chaos, the noise rising.

Huang Fang: "...."

Li Hua arrived early because he got caught submitting a blank test paper. Old Liu ordered him to complete several test papers by the morning.

The prodigy, fallen.

After some tussling, the two quietly went about their tasks.

The day slowly brightened.

More people filled the classroom, and soon it became noisy again.

"Yo, Li Hua came early today?"

"How does a sparrow understand the ambition of a swan, come autumn..." Li Hua started, "A whole village around Nantong looks down on me because they think I’m old and weak..."

"What a bunch of nonsense!" Ma Guojun said speechlessly, "A whole village, you’re even bringing up Nantong?"

Jiang Nian, amidst busyness, looked up and spoke.

"Clumsy Li Hua."

Zhang Ningzhi, quite stable, arrived practically on the dot.

"Hello, hello!"

"Is the big star here?"

"Oh my, why are you so annoying!" Zhang Ningzhi angrily puffed up and punched him, "Say it again!"

"Big star!... Ahh~!" Jiang Nian winced as his waist hurt, "Didn’t you ask me to say it again, why are you hitting me?"

"Winter makes hands cold." Zhang Ningzhi looked at him with her chin up.

Ugh, corny pun.

Jiang Nian stopped laughing; the boomerang hit him in the face. But next time, he hoped what hit his face was something else.

The morning reading started with recitation.

After fifteen minutes, the voices began to fade, and after twenty minutes, it turned into a low, buzzing murmur.

"Speaking of that day, Li Hua saw Granny Liu. Seeing how lively she was, he figured she must be good at other things, decided to test her when he got the chance."