Li Zheng and Lin Yujing left the chemistry research office, both letting out a sigh of relief.
Then, without prior arrangent, they headed toward class one of the senior year.
No matter how eagerly they discussed rankings like provincial first or second, their greatest worry at the mont was Xu ngxi.
In fact, scoring 9 points on a competition paper was nothing to be ashad of.
It’s comparing with others that really infuriates people.
Li Zheng and Lin Yujing, both from the second year, ended up scoring higher than the seniors, and not by just a little bit.
Especially Li Zheng, who just last week was a chemistry junior, calling out for Teacher ngxi, but managed to score over 20 points more, truly driving one to despair.
Li Zheng found it hard to explain that he had actually already invested over a hundred hours into chemistry.
As for Lin Yujing.
Her presence was like that of a flying fat orange cat.
You could clearly see her soft, fluffy belly.
But no matter how much you jumped, you couldn’t touch it.
It was purely infuriating!
It was now break ti, and standing at the entrance to the classroom, they could see Xu ngxi lying on a cushion, her body occasionally jerking as if she had been crying for a long ti.
"Um..." Lin Yujing hesitated at the door, wanting to call out to her but not knowing what else to say besides um.
Similarly, Li Zheng also wasn’t sure if he should disturb Xu ngxi.
What should he say?
How should he comfort her?
Was there even any point to it?
Just as Sun Leyang said.
Being average was an objective fact.
And if fate hadn’t favored , Li Zheng,
wouldn’t I also be licking my wounds right now?
Li Zheng turned to look at Lin Yujing, growing increasingly annoyed.
"Which subject do you actually like?" Li Zheng said with indignation.
"Huh." Lin Yujing turned her head away, ignoring him.
"If it wasn’t for... the fact that you gave Wang Cai to , I couldn’t care less about you," Li Zheng turned his head away too, knowing he shouldn’t interfere with soone else’s choices, but still couldn’t help saying, "You know, ngxi and I, people like us, need to put in ten to a hundred tis more effort just to glimpse your shadow... and yet, you always stand there with ease.
Do you know how much resentnt we, who strive so hard, feel?"
"..." Lin Yujing was startled, not expecting Li Zheng to suddenly say sothing so heavy.
"You think ngxi is crying about what." Li Zheng looked at Xu ngxi’s convulsing body, his fists gradually clenching. "Ordinary people like us, of course, we feel terrible when our dreams are crushed..."
"But what’s even more painful," he glared fiercely at Lin Yujing, "is seeing the dreams we’ll never reach being discarded by you like throwing away trash."
Lin Yujing took two steps back in fright at the sight of Li Zheng’s red eyes.
"So, I guess she doesn’t want to see you right now." Li Zheng also lowered his head, no longer looking at Lin Yujing, "Go on, live your effortlessly successful life as a genius. Leave the life that challenges excellence and suffers setbacks to ."
Lin Yujing slowly covered her mouth, followed by a feeling of grievance, her voice quivering with tears: "But... I really... hate chemistry..."
"Your so-called hatred cos only because everything has been too easy for you, and you can’t handle even the slightest setback," Li Zheng leaned against the wall, tilting his head back and sighing, "While we’ve been enduring setbacks since childhood, and still foolishly face them head-on ti and again. Frankly, both ngxi and I bring hardship on ourselves, you’ve done nothing wrong."
"Setbacks..." Lin Yujing looked at Li Zheng, her jaw clenching tighter, "I have them too."
"Alright, sorry, I lost control of my emotions and said a lot of unreasonable things." Li Zheng wiped his eyes and turned away, "You didn’t an to hurt anyone; it’s just the natural aura you have that pains us."
Lin Yujing took a step back instinctively.
She had never thought that getting too close could hurt soone.
After all, from a young age, most people just instinctively avoided her.
Only a few would ever approach her on their own.
And yet, those were the ones she hurt the deepest.
Without realizing it, she had retreated to the entrance of the stairwell.
She hung her head, slowly clenched her fists, and squeezed out a trembling voice through her teeth.
"I have setbacks too."
"What?"
"You!"
Lin Yujing covered her mouth and turned around.
Disappearing around the corner.
Li Zheng gave a sheepish smile, standing still.
It seed that during this ti, he had indeed caused her so trouble.
But Ye Gucheng, aren’t you also the bane of my existence as Xin Chui Xue?
Moreover, enduring the loneliness that cos with facing a true master was your choice, Master Ye.
So no matter how much you deny it with your words, I take it as encouragent to try even harder.
After all.
I’m lonely too.
Just as Li Zheng was identifying with Xin Chui Xue, soone yanked up the collar of his shirt from behind.
He was bombarded with fierce questions one after another.
"You, what exactly did you say to our ngxi?"
Li Zheng swallowed nervously, very hesitant to face this person: "We were just doing chemistry problems just now."
"I don’t care." Qiao Bixia dragged Li Zheng into the classroom. "Consoling her doesn’t work, you try."
"It’s not... this is your class..." Li Zheng struggled.
"Stop talking nonsense."
As she spoke, Qiao Bixia had already reached ngxi’s desk mate.
The desk mate was a mushroom-haired Little Glasses, imrsed in intense studying.
"Cough!" Qiao Bixia coughed loudly.
Little Glasses looked up and imdiately grabbed his books and ran off.
Qiao Bixia then pushed Li Zheng down into the seat: "There are 5 minutes before class starts. If you can’t persuade her, you might as well stay and preview for the college entrance exam with us."
Xu ngxi seed to know what was happening, but didn’t want to lift her head and let others see her face, so she just pushed Li Zheng, urging him to leave.
The whole class was also watching Li Zheng, their expressions complex.
Mainly because Li Zheng’s identity was quite complicated.
ngxi’s boyfriend.
Lake Ying’s Sanjing.
Qiao Sheng’s brother.
Tank’s child…
This one, forget it.
Li Zheng had just started sitting in the unfamiliar classroom, feeling a bit dizzy, but it didn’t take long for him to acclimatize since he had quite thick skin after all.
"I’m fine... You go...," Xu ngxi buried her head in the pillow, waving her arms as she spoke, "I’m not being overly sensitive...".
"It’s not about being sensitive; it’s all Lin Yujing’s fault."
"Ah?"
"She’s recklessly wasteful, squandering resources, narrow-minded, and short-sighted."
"Is there... Is that so?"
"If I say there is, then there is." Li Zheng leaned in closer and whispered, "I’ve already taught Lin Yujing a lesson and almost made her cry as well."
"..."
Li Zheng rolled up his sleeves and said, "Let’s ignore her together for three days, make her be the one to co forward and admit her mistake. Isn’t my plan brilliant?"
"Don’t do that..." Xu ngxi suddenly lifted her head, clutching Li Zheng, "I’m the one who’s clumsy; what does she have to do with it?"
Only then did Li Zheng see that Xu ngxi’s eyes were bloodshot and she had been crying quite a bit.
"You’re not stupid; you’re Li Zheng’s teacher, the one who enlightened in chemistry," Li Zheng took a deep breath, looking directly at Xu ngxi, "You just focus on preparing for the college entrance exam. Leave all the competition matters to . I’ll have your na engraved on the award certificate as well."
"Wow!" the girl in the front row shouted out.
"Ah!"
"Does it need to be this sweet?"
"The lapdog has turned into a Doberman."
Xu ngxi was also stunned amidst the screams for a mont, only coming back to her senses after a while, then desperately flopped back onto the pillow and started pushing Li Zheng vigorously, "I got it, now go, just go."
"Are you okay now?" Li Zheng asked.
However, he was once again lifted by Qiao Bixia without any warning and thrown out of the classroom.
"Heh, it’s okay now," Qiao Bixia brushed off her hands and chuckled, "Not bad, Li Zheng. You’ve got so moves."
"How many tis have I said it, my eloquence and emotional intelligence are very high," Li Zheng, daring not to show his anger towards Qiao Bixia, then picked up his crutches, "The plaster is good. You too, focus on your college entrance exam."
"Ouch!" Qiao Bixia glared fiercely, "What do you an by that? Don’t leave, let’s make this clear."
Yet Li Zheng was unusually agile, hopping away on his crutches and quickly disappeared around the corner.
"Hey, it wasn’t wasted effort caring about you," Qiao Bixia chuckled to herself and headed back to the classroom.
...
Senior Year, Class Four.
Physics class.
Teacher Tao of Physics deliberately slowed down the pace, and most students were trying hard to keep up.
But both Li Zheng and Lin Yujing were unusually not paying attention to the lesson.
Jiang Qinghua pretended to listen,
while occasionally observing the two of them.
Interesting, very interesting.
These two, one was leaning towards the window, the other against the wall, neither acknowledging the other.
Apparently, before this they had been doing test papers at Yu Hong’s place.
These two, always so stylish.
Using test papers as a pretext for their quarrels.
Jiang Qinghua smiled naively to himself.
Show off the love, die fast!
But just as he was getting excited, he fell into a quandary.
This secret delight gave him a feeling of guilt.
After all, he and Li Zheng were also brothers.
Laughing at him like this didn’t feel quite right.
At that mont, Lin Yujing and Li Zheng, in the sa posture, both grew tired and switched to another direction to lean on.
Then they fell into a peculiar mutual gaze that lasted for three seconds.
"Hmph."
"Hmm."
Both of them turned away again huffily.
Creak.
Jiang Qinghua shivered and grasped his chest tightly.
Damn, it still hurts.
...
In the Chinese Language Research Office, Yu Hong persuaded Tang Zhifei for a full ten minutes.
"That’s the situation, Teacher Tang," Yu Hong held onto Tang Zhifei’s hand, patting it over and over, "Letting Lin Yujing compete will 100% achieve a breakthrough in our school’s dal count, and we might even get Jinghua Jida to offer her bonus points. An opportunity like this is rare; it benefits Lin Yujing, the school, and you personally."
"Ah... really..." Tang Zhifei forced a smile.
Actually, she had cursed a thousand tis in her heart.
Teachers certainly hope their students can achieve good results.
But that doesn’t an students should be used as a tool for performance trics.
Lin Yujing clearly likes physics for goodness’ sake.
Teacher Tao and I have already been scheming about this, we would appropriately test her attitude towards the physics competition when the ti is right.
Now, letting her join the chemistry competition is fine, too, but since she’s so resistant, why not invest her energy in physics?
Preparing for two competitions would be too much even for Lin Yujing.
Even though Tang Zhifei thought so, she didn’t want to confront Yu Hong head-on.
"Alright, Teacher Yu, I’ll talk to her after school."
"It’s crucial to discuss this with her parents, they need a good talk," Yu Hong advised, "If it doesn’t work, give their contact information, I’ll speak with them."
"That won’t be necessary, thank you for your concern," Tang Zhifei smiled even more reluctantly.
Use your head, Teacher Yu!
The parents of Lin Yujing.
The kind of parents who would send Lin Yujing to a school like ours.
How could they possibly care?
How could they possibly manage?
After talking about Lin Yujing for a while longer, Yu Hong finally brought up Li Zheng, "Oh, by the way, Li Zheng insists on participating in this year’s chemistry competition, so I simply signed him and Lin Yujing up for it together, whether they go or not is another matter."
"Li Zheng?" Tang Zhifei said in surprise, "Chemistry?"
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