Ning Xiao also finished packing up his things, waiting for Tang Ming’s call.
When he turned his head, he saw Bai Lian’s cold, pale face with an icy expression. Her eyes were dangerously narrowed without saying a word, making Ning Xiao feel the chill.
The usual laziness was gone.
Ning Xiao grabbed Tang Ming’s backpack strap with a gloomy look, revealing some light through his bangs. He spoke calmly: “I’ll give you a spot. Whatever you’re shouting about, go out first.”
Very serious, voice also loud.
Tang Ming responded with an “Oh” and lowered his voice.
Bai Lian picked up her slender backpack properly, then retracted her gaze and walked out, with a slightly casual posture.
The two followed.
Everyone in the lecture hall sent them off with their eyes until they couldn’t see them anymore before looking at each other.
“What did Tang Ming say just now?”
Someone asked mysteriously.
“I think…I think he said Bai Lian was going to give her spot to him.”
Even someone worldly like Chen Zhuo was shocked.
Everyone in Xiangcheng, even the four major cities, strived for Jiangjing University. Even Beicheng No. 1 Middle School only had ten spots, each spot was controlled by Jiangjing University.
This app spot had no auction house yet its price was astronomical.
The Ren and Chen families treated it like a treasure, not to mention others.
Was Bai Lian really going to give this spot to Tang Ming?
“It’s not hard to understand,” someone in the lecture hall suddenly spoke, “Ning Xiao and Tang Ming wouldn’t have scored so high if Bai Lian didn’t share all the answers with them, after all Ning Xiao is first place.”
Ning Xiao often competed with Chen Zhuo for the top two grades in the school. For Chen Zhuo to score lower than Ning Xiao even with a Jiangjing University PhD’s help, it could only mean there was someone even better behind the scenes.
Who was the variable if not Bai Lian?
No one else came to mind.
“Weren’t they competitors?”
Previously, they had envied Ren Wanxuan for having those two as teammates.
But now, compared to Tang Ming and Ning Xiao, those two teammates didn’t seem enviable at all.
“What competitors? Didn’t you see, Bai Lian is even giving the app to Tang Ming. The new classmate really treats her teammates too well. If only I was randomly assigned to her group back then…”
Speaking of this, most looked towards Zhu Jiaren who had sat behind Ren Wanxuan earlier.
They remembered Zhu Jiaren was also in Bai Lian’s group.
Ever since hearing Ning Xiao and Tang Ming’s scores, Zhu Jiaren hadn’t lifted her head.
She finally realized…
Ning Xiao didn’t go to Bai Lian’s for tutoring every night.
Bai Lian had the answers, even clearer than Ren Wanxuan’s!
Why didn’t she say so earlier?
If she had said it earlier, she wouldn’t have made excuses to go back to the dorm…
The exercises, the exercises too!
Zhu Jiaren took out Tang Ming’s WeChat that she had added earlier—she had only added Tang Ming—
?What exactly were the exercises Bai Lian gave us before??
Tang Ming didn’t reply but sent two pictures.
The pictures showed Bai Lian’s handwritten exercises and explanations. Zhu Jiaren hadn’t cared about the exercises Bai Lian sent before, she didn’t even look at them and just threw them away. Today was the first time she seriously looked at the exercises and explanations.
After reading them, she was at a loss for words for a long time.
Only now did she finally know what she had missed.
Outside.
When Tang Ming asked Bai Lian for the tenth time, she finally spoke, “If you say one more word, I’ll transfer it directly to Zhang Shize.”
Tang Ming: “…”
He swiftly downloaded the app and registered an account.
Then he searched for Ning Xiao’s account and followed him, but didn’t find anything when searching for Bai Lian. He was about to ask Bai Lian but saw that she had already entered the milk tea shop.
He silently held it in.
**
Ren Household.
Dinner time.
Ren Qian returned from outside and had a servant take a gift box. With a quick glance, he didn’t see Ren Wanxuan, “Where’s Wanxuan?”
The servants looked at each other.
Ever since returning this afternoon, Ren Wanxuan had kept herself upstairs with a gloomy face and didn’t come down for dinner either.
No one dared call her.
Ren Qian was surprised. He knew today was when the spots would be given out and had specially brought a gift back for Ren Wanxuan.
He went upstairs and knocked on Ren Wanxuan’s door.
No response. He directly had someone fetch the key from the storeroom to unlock the door.
Ren Wanxuan hadn’t turned on the lights with the curtains tightly shut. Ren Qian was surprised and had a servant give her the gift box while he turned on the room light himself.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing Ren Wanxuan still in her school uniform lying on the bed, Ren Qian picked up the gift box and gently asked, “Grandpa bought you a gift, open it and see, it’s what you’ve always liked.”
“I don’t want it.”
Ren Qian looked at Ren Wanxuan worriedly and waved the servants away, “Wanxuan, tell Grandpa who bullied you?”
Ren Wanxuan didn’t speak.
Ren Qian stood in place watching her for a while before taking out his phone with an icy expression, preparing to call the principal.
Hearing the keypad sounds, Ren Wanxuan suddenly sat up and snatched Ren Qian’s phone, hanging up the call.
Ren Qian didn’t take his phone back but just stood there watching her.
The principal called back soon but neither looked.
After a five-minute standoff between grandfather and granddaughter, Ren Wanxuan finally spoke, “Neither me nor Chen Zhuo got a spot.”
Ren Qian was just as shocked as Ren Wanxuan. The Ren family had spent so much effort on this one spot, he and the Chen family were determined to get those two spots.
Now Ren Wanxuan said neither of them got a spot?
Just as he wanted to ask more, Ren Wanxuan shoved the phone back to Ren Qian and chased him out again before locking the room door.
Ren Qian called the principal with his phone.
“Bai Lian?”
Learning that one of the two spots went to Bai Lian, Ren Qian’s surprise was evident.
In Ren Wanxuan’s description, Bai Lian was switching from liberal arts to science but her science scores were consistently low. Ren Qian couldn’t fathom how it would be Bai Lian.
“You go and apologize to Teacher Li on Monday,” Ren Qian knocked twice on Ren Wanxuan’s door and said solemnly, “You should know to use your brain—who in Xiangcheng would dare make things difficult for our Ren family?”
No response from inside.
Ren Qian took out his phone to call Ji Shaorong but no one picked up, so he turned and told the servants: “Pick out a gift a girl would like.”
Meaning it would be for Bai Lian.
Ren Wanxuan suddenly opened the door to look at Ren Qian, “Grandpa, find me the best teacher in Beicheng.”
She couldn’t lose to Bai Lian.
**
After 9pm.
112 Qingshui Street hadn’t closed yet.
Bai Lian had something come up earlier so she went to the small shop to buy milk. The shop owner sat on a small stool outside sharpening a kitchen knife.
She wore a blue-white school uniform with her hair neatly pinned up, still holding a notebook in hand.
As she neared the shop.
The owner stood up holding the knife, “Lian’er, you’re back pretty early today.”
“Mm,” Bai Lian languidly picked up a bottle of milk and familiarly scanned the QR code to pay, “something came up.”
Not far away, two undercover officers dressed as passersby saw the owner stand up with knife in hand. They quickly walked over, “Student, it’s so late, why haven’t you gone home yet?”
Subtly separating Bai Lian from the owner.
“Going back soon.” Bai Lian sized up the two who were clearly different from ordinary people.
She recalled Ji Shaorong saying the police were watching the owner.
She pierced the straw in and bit down on it while going to the alley in front to wait for Mao Kun.
Five minutes after Bai Lian left, Mao Kun slowly dragged his heavy footsteps over from the end of Qingshui Street.
The owner was still sharpening his knife. Mao Kun squatted in front of him for a minute and commented: “Uncle, your knife isn’t sharp enough, won’t cut through bone fast enough. I’ll bring you a sharper one in a couple days.”
“It’s fine.” The owner revealed a chilling, glinting knife.
The two undercover officers who were about to swap shifts sucked in a breath of cold air.
Bai Lian leaned against the wall in their usual spot waiting for Mao Kun, her fair and slender fingers fiddling with the straw while her other hand pressed on her phone reviewing vocabulary words.
Seeing her, Mao Kun quickened his pace, “Sis.”
He had something come up these two days so Bai Lian asked him to come a day earlier.
Bai Lian tucked her phone back into her pocket with an indolent tilt of her head, completely relaxed, her brows and eyes obscured in the dark night: “Added more weights?”
She could tell Mao Kun had bound more than one jin1 weights on his limbs.
“Oh right,” Mao Kun raised his right hand to show Bai Lian the egg-sized silvery white metal cuffs around his wrists and ankles, “I was using iron before but my godfather said two jin of iron takes up too much space so he changed them to these.”
Saying so, he took out a cloth bag to show Bai Lian four more same-sized metals, “I prepared these for you.”
Bai Lian found it surprising.
She picked up an egg-sized metal piece and weighed it in her hand.
Despite only being egg-sized, it weighed two jin.
Much denser than iron.
Bai Lian had school so binding sandbags to her hands and feet would be inconvenient, but these small metals worked.
She picked up the four metal pieces and casually tossed them about, posture indolent with a faint smile playing on her lips, completely nonchalant as she lazily praised: “Very nice.”
Mao Kun watched her casually tossing around eight jin: “……”
He had just swapped the two jin metals onto each hand today and already ate two less mouthfuls at dinner.
“I’ll teach you strength training today along with the boxing method I taught before,” Bai Lian casually swung the four metal pieces, teaching him bodywork, “Three training poses. First pose: left foot in front, right foot behind.”
Saying so, she put her four metal pieces atop his hand, “Treat it as a staff, right hand pushes downward and forward, right heel steps out, right hand pulls back, left hand pushes forward…”
Suddenly burdened by the eight jin weight, Mao Kun’s right hand shook.
Bai Lian slowly bent down with her left hand holding the milk carton, lightly using the cold corner of the carton to prop his right hand up a little.
Mao Kun looked at her lazy countenance, the pitch black eyes clearly lacking aggression yet somehow bringing great pressure.
“Steady.” Seeing he had stabilized, Bai Lian retracted the milk carton, breezy as usual.
It took half an hour for him to memorize the three strength training moves today.
“Sis, am I very stupid?” On their way back, Mao Kun suddenly carefully asked.
Bai Lian tapped out a vocabulary word. Hearing this, she didn’t even lift her head, “Bad memory, very talented in martial arts.”
Mao Kun was stunned.
First time someone had praised him.
After quite a while, he rubbed his head and asked, “Then can I teach Little Five and Little Seven too?”
His two lackeys.
“Sure.” The entrance was just ahead so Bai Lian gave him a look meaning for him to head back.
She stood at the entrance without taking out her keys to unlock the gate.
Two seconds later.
Ji Heng, who had come to receive her, opened the door and first saw someone standing calmly outside.
Ji Heng silently let her in with a slight shift, “What are you holding in your hand?”
Seeing her fingers hooked around a small bag, he reached to take it.
As he took it, his hand sank down and he nearly stumbled. Bai Lian swiftly supported him, raising her head sincerely, “Grandpa, let me take that.”
Then she languidly used a finger to hook the bag back.
Very effortless, as if there weren’t eight jin inside but just a feather.
Ji Heng: “……?”
“What is this?” Locking the door, he looked at the four eggsized objects in the bag as he asked her.
So heavy?
“Tools to train my body,” Bai Lian took a small metal sphere from the bag and tilted her head, “Grandpa, do you have some thicker soft bands I can string them through?”
Five minutes later.
Ji Heng watched his seemingly weak and delicate granddaughter tie the four metal spheres onto her hands and feet.
Then breezily bid him “Good night.”
**
Early next morning.
Bai Lian had agreed to meet Jiang He at the Xiangcheng Library.
Bus 12 on Qingshui Street was very convenient, going from town entrance to Qingshui Street to school to library, almost traversing the entire Xiangcheng.
The library was the next stop after school.
On the bus, Bai Lian could see Jiang He squatting under a streetlamp pole opposite the library entrance from afar.
He wore a light blue casual shirt paired with a white vest, facing the pole while squatting down ignoring everyone around him.
Jiang Puli stood beside him with a cold face, helping Jiang He restore a messed up Rubik’s Cube to having the same color per side on three faces.
He wore a black T-shirt, his fair hands seeming to hold bits of frost and snow. Long black lashes downcast as he coldly sized up Jiang He while slowly working on the Rubik’s Cube, “Were you planning to restore it with your feet after squatting here all night?”
Jiang He didn’t want to be near him so he shuffled to another spot facing the trash can and squatted down.
“Think it’s about time you can fit in there now?” Jiang Puli sneered coldly.
Jiang He covered both ears with his hands.
Across from them.
Ming Dongheng and Chen Ju were standing far away next to the black business car, not daring to go near those two.
The nervous Ming Dongheng saw Bus 12 arrive. He perked up upon seeing a cyan figure alight—he finally relaxed.
Chen Ju had been frowning while smoking.
Seeing Bai Lian, he promptly extinguished his cigarette. Finally understanding who Ming Dongheng had been waiting for, he immediately greeted Bai Lian: “Miss Bai.”
“Miss Bai,” Ming Dongheng also went up to her. He respectfully held out the small book bag in his hands, “This is little master’s school bag. Please pass it on to him after.”
When Jiang Puli was lecturing Jiang He, not just Ming Dongheng, even the entire Jiang family didn’t dare to go near them.
Even Jiang Xizuo would be implicated if he passed by them.
Jiang Puli had been in the lab last night without returning.
Home alone, Jiang He didn’t sleep either and ran over to squat under the library at midnight waiting for Bai Lian before messing up his Rubik’s cube and motionless squatting by the pillar.
Ming Dongheng didn’t dare disturb Jiang Puli and didn’t call Bai Lian either.
Jiang Puli’s lab involved transfer of detectors, Ming Dongheng knew the severity so he kept accompanying Jiang He here.
Jiang Puli only found out when he returned this morning.
“Jiang He’s?” Bai Lian reached to take the little school bag imprinted with a giant cabbage from Ming Dongheng.
Today she wore an oversized cyan crossover-collared top. The wide sleeves revealed a hint of red at her wrists along with an egg-sized silvery white metal cuff.
“Yes,” Ming Dongheng glanced over at Jiang Puli. “If possible, please tell the young master that Chen Ju is looking for him.”
Bai Lian walked over.
Chen Ju still held an extinguished cigarette with his eyes fixed on the silvery white metal on Bai Lian’s hand.
Ming Dongheng frowned and harshly reminded: “Chen Ju, watch where you look.”
“Oh,” Chen Ju came to his senses and looked at Ming Dongheng profoundly, “Mr. Ming, don’t you think the silver ornament on Miss Bai’s hand looks very familiar?”
“What’s it got to do with you?” Ming Dongheng glared at him ominously.
“Ah, no no,” Chen Ju quickly explained, “That’s such a huge chunk of iridium! That huge chunk! Must be at least two jin! And it’s pure natural, not secondary recycling! That’s enough to make a rocket engine’s nozzle! Didn’t you see it??!”
- ? Jin, a traditional Chinese unit of weight equal to 0.5 kg. ↩︎
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