“Academic god, don’t you think Sister Lian…” Zhang Shize, sitting behind Bailian, felt it the most.
For a second, he seemed to sense a murderous aura pouring out of Bailian.
However, Zhang Shize, not being very knowledgeable, couldn’t describe it. He just stared at Ning Xiao blankly, finally managing to squeeze out a sentence, “Has she…changed a bit?”
Ning Xiao glanced at him but didn’t answer.
He stared at Bailian in front of him, who was diligently doing practice problems. He solemnly reflected on why he had wasted a minute just now, then quickly pulled out a math workbook and started doing problems.
Zhang Shize, the slacker king, reflected for a second: “…”
Forget it, with them around, he could rest easy.
He continued to secretly take out his phone and made plans with Wen Qi and the others to play games.
Why was he sneakily using his phone?
Because when Lu’s mom saw Bailian and Ning Xiao’s phones, she pretended not to see. Even if he told others, Zhang Shize wouldn’t believe it. These two, Bailian and Ning Xiao, used their phones not to play games but to do practice problems.
But if she caught Zhang Shize and the others using their phones at school, then it was over. A 1000-word reflection was the least of it.
Bailian’s phone lit up again. It was a message from Jiang Fuli.
He probably guessed she was studying biology–
[For biology, memorize the textbook thoroughly. Don’t refer to the book when doing practice problems.]
[Be widely read and knowledgeable.]
He was likely very busy but made time to send a brief message.
Bai Student: [1]1
Bailian slowly replied with a number.
Actually, in this month, she had come to understand.
Among these few subjects, biology probably had the highest return on investment. She had already memorized the biology textbook by heart, but had done few practice problems.
Biology wasn’t as difficult as physics, but some questions picked at wording.
The tested knowledge wasn’t as broad as physics, but it was detailed down to the wording, and could even extend from the fine print footnotes to extracurricular knowledge.
Young Master Jiang only had this brief comment – be widely read.
Beside her, Yang Lin glanced at Bailian out of the corner of her eye. After thinking for about a minute, she quietly told Bailian, “Make your own mind map summary for each chapter, making a framework. This way you can remember every little knowledge point. After finishing the practice problems, we ultimately still need to return to the textbook.”
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me.”
Yang Lin was ranked first in the school for biology.
She had almost represented the school in the provincial competition before. But on the day of departure, she didn’t show up.
Bailian held her pen and turned her head to look at Yang Lin. Yang Lin’s entire being was bathed in sunlight.
Bailian slightly narrowed her eyes and smiled faintly at Yang Lin: “Mm, I will.”
There were still 200 days until the college entrance exam. There was still time for everything.
** Because Shen Qing had already woken up and recovered well, Bailian didn’t go to the hospital to see them today. She just called Ji Shaojun.
In the evening, she first went to the milk tea shop to find Jiang He and ordered a cup of milk tea for him and herself.
Chi Yundai had long noticed Bailian and Jiang He from the back kitchen. After finishing today’s cakes, he took off his chef’s hat.
He then tossed the leftover cakes to Yang Lin.
Then he took the two cups of milk tea Bailian ordered and went to find her.
“Miss Bai, Young Master Jiang He.” Chi Yundai sat down beside Jiang He.
“Thank you,” Bailian spread out her biology practice problems on the table, a pen held between her middle and index fingers. She looked at Chi Yundai and suddenly remembered something. “You’re a litigator, right?”
Chi Yundai pulled out a piece of paper to wipe his sweat. “…Ah, yes.”
Litigator?
No one had addressed him like that before.
“You said for this kind of case,” Bailian put down her pen and took out her phone to show him a screenshot, “could you file a lawsuit?”
Chi Yundai put down the paper and took a distant glance.
Seeing a few keywords, his brows furrowed: “Domestic violence? That’s not easy to define.”
He pondered briefly and explained the matter to Bailian. The law wasn’t well equipped to convict, because it was considered a family dispute. Chi Yundai had never taken on such a small case.
But he was willing to work hard for Miss Bai: “I’ll try my best…”
“Is that so,” Bailian slapped her phone down with a “pa” sound. She slowly said to Chi Yundai, “Then no need for you to handle this matter.”
Chi Yundai could even see Bailian slightly narrowing her eyes, with a hint of nonchalance and arrogance.
It went without saying, Chi Yundai more or less understood Bailian’s meaning. “But…”
“Who invented the term ‘domestic violence’?” Bailian frowned.
It seemed if she knew who it was, she would grab a gun and go shoot them.
Chi Yundai: “…”
No, that’s not…
He started to sweat.
How come Young Master Jiang and all these people around him, every single one of them, liked to challenge the law so much?
Jiang Fuli was busy today. Bailian took Jiang He back. Before leaving, she handed the packaged milk tea to Ming Dongxing.
“This is?” Ming Dongxing held the brown bag of milk tea with both hands.
He was very tall and stood outside the milk tea shop with an extremely cold demeanor. The cute milk tea bag looked very mismatched with him.
At a glance, one could see the note on the order receipt–
[Note: Add ice, double sugar]
Jiang He’s?
Bailian leisurely got in the car. “It’s for your family’s young master.”
Ming Dongxing was greatly surprised but his face remained expressionless.
After Bailian arrived at Qingshui Street, he didn’t drive off. Instead, he took out his phone and frantically typed in the group chat with a blank face–
Ming Dongxing: [Young Master Jiang actually drinks double sugar!]
Ming Dongxing: [[Image]]
He sent out a photo of the fruit tea.
The design was very cute, with “double sugar” written very clearly on it.
Xu Nanjing: […?]
Jiang Xijue: [Screenshot taken]
Ming Dongxing withdrew a message
Ming Dongxing withdrew a message
Xu Nanjing: [@Jiang Xijue You have such a cruel heart]
Xu Nanjing: [@Ming Dongxing Little Ming, now you see clearly which brother loves you the most, right?]
Chen Beiquan: [@Xu Nanjing You just didn’t think of taking a screenshot to blackmail Little Ming]
** “Ah Lian,” the owner of shop No. 112 had booming business recently. Seeing Bailian and Jiang He, he greeted Bailian from afar, “Get a bottle of Want Want for Little He.”
Bailian took the time to get a Want Want for Jiang He.
She also told Mao Kun to come help the owner move goods when he was free.
“Ah Lian seems to be in a good mood today,” the owner moved down a case of beer, picked up the towel hanging around his neck, and casually wiped the sweat on his face. A smile appeared on his bronze face. “Young people should be lively, where do all those worries come from.”
The first time he saw Bailian, she was standing here looking at that thousand-year-old tree. The owner felt she was full of worries.
She must have been heartbroken.
Of course, the owner couldn’t figure out how anyone could reject this girl.
But it was fine.
Young people, in the prime of their lives, she could afford to lose at this age. It wasn’t too late for anything.
The owner chuckled and continued moving goods, sincerely happy for her.
Ten minutes later, Mao Kun respectfully brought a few underlings to help the owner move goods.
The newly arrived police officer in the shadows gaped.
Of course, Bailian didn’t know that the owner who watched TV in the store every day was secretly imagining many love and hate entanglements about her.
She took Jiang He, who was drinking Want Want, back.
Ji Heng’s courtyard.
He sat in front of an embroidery frame. The dark blue satin had already been stretched by him, with a paper on top. It was the long robe pattern he had drawn for Lansi. “Dr. Lansi, what do you think of this?”
Lansi was curiously observing the well and banyan tree in the courtyard.
He never stopped exploring this ancient-style alley for a moment.
Hearing this, he pushed up his glasses and went to look at the picture Ji Heng drew. Upon seeing it, his eyes instantly lit up: “Fine! Beautiful! What is this?”
He pointed to one of the patterns.
“Dragon.” Ji Heng narrowed his eyes and answered.
“Dragon?” Lansi had obviously heard of it before. His eyes brightened. “I would like this!”
Ji Heng nodded and took out a bunch of embroidery floss from the storeroom and started splitting the threads.
Lansi’s eyesight wasn’t very good, but he could still see. Ji Heng split a thread that was already very fine into twelve strands or so?
Seeing embroidery for the first time, he marveled for a long time.
With a creak, Bailian pushed open the door and entered.
Lansi retracted his jaw and turned to look at Bailian: “Today, treatment?”
Bailian greeted Ji Heng and Lansi, and answered, “Yes.”
She took off her school uniform, revealing the white inner garment underneath. The clothing also had green branches and entwining flower vines embroidered on it. She then took out silver needles from the room.
“How long will it take?” Lansi sat on a stone stool and started inquiring about the treatment course.
After being needled by Bailian for two days, he felt no changes.
Bailian leisurely raised the silver needle and conservatively estimated: “About a month or so.”
“Really?” Lansi switched to English, impatiently urging Bailian to needle him, “Hurry up.”
Lansi is nearsighted.
It’s not that he hasn’t considered laser surgery, but there can be regression afterward, faster aging, thinning of the cornea, glare, and worsened night vision, so he’s never done it.
Jiang He pulled over a stool and sat in front of Ji Heng, twisting a 4x4x5 Rubik’s cube while watching Ji Heng do embroidery.
Ji Heng took out the embroidery needles wrapped in oiled paper. Looking up, he saw Bailian holding a needle and measuring it against Lansi’s head again.
He: “…”
“I asked other Chinese medicine practitioners why they can’t do it,” Lansi voiced his confusion as Bailian was inserting needles for him.
“It’s been too long,” Bailian lowered her head, carefully finishing inserting a needle before pondering slightly and explaining to Lansi, “Many things have been lost. There are surely still quite a few elderly gentlemen who know this needling technique now, you just haven’t found them.”
Perhaps they were like her, without even a license.
In the past, scholars would study by lamplight late into the night. The candlelight was extremely damaging to the eyes, and there were no glasses back then.
The royal physicians developed this set of acupuncture techniques.
It saved the majority of scholars across the land who had poor eyesight.
“I see.” Lansi nodded, not asking further.
Just thinking that he could openly stay here for a month made him very excited.
Lansi really liked the local customs here.
After the needles were inserted, Lansi, with a head full of silver needles, replied to his assistant-
[For upcoming work, in Xiangcheng, I will be here for now]
Whoever wants to find him can come to Xiangcheng.
On the other end of the phone, the assistant looked at the screen full of Chinese and silently went to find a translator.
He began to wonder if he should also learn some Chinese on the side.
The small city of Xiangcheng was already starting to gather big shots from all over.
**
The next day.
Wednesday.
The major joint exam in Beicheng.
This wasn’t a monthly exam but a large-scale joint exam, so the timing system fully followed that of the college entrance exam.
The exam started at nine o’clock.
Except for Zhang Shize and a few others, Class 15 still arrived in the classroom by just after seven.
When Lu Xiaohuan arrived, she saw both Bailian and Ning Xiao sitting in their seats doing practice problems. She quietly took out her phone to show Bailian, “He sent another message.”
Jian Zhongyou: [What about today? What did she say?]
Bailian slightly raised her eyes, her dark pupils calm and composed, showing a kind of “determination to study hard.”
Lu Xiaohuan immediately understood and solemnly replied to Jian Zhongyou-
[Hello, she declined.]
Jian Zhongyou wasn’t too surprised either and replied very directly: [Then I’ll come again tomorrow.]
Someday, he would move this classmate…
Right?
Lu Lingxi came to the class once before the exam, “This exam will have a certain level of difficulty. Everyone relax a bit. If you encounter questions you don’t know, just skip them. Definitely don’t get stuck on one question…”
The test papers from Beicheng have always been abnormal. To avoid students’ mentality collapsing after the exam, teachers from each class would give advance notice.
“Is it that hard?” As soon as Lu Lingxi finished speaking, the whole class began to wail.
“Mama Lu, I might not be able to pass this time…”
“…”
Lu Lingxi looked at this group with amusement, “Alright, after the exam, I’ll treat everyone to hot pot to relax a bit. This is probably also your last time participating in a joint exam…”
She said the last sentence a bit softly.
Of course, most of the class didn’t hear it, only hearing Lu Lingxi say “treat everyone to hot pot.”
“Mama Lu, I love you!”
“Ahhh, Mama Lu, I’ll do my best on the exam…”
“…”
Behind Bailian, Zhang Shize cheered the loudest.
Only Bailian quietly looked up at Lu Lingxi and started calculating for her, treating the whole class to hot pot…
How much money would Lu Lingxi need to spend?
**
This exam was strict. The school had already posted the exam numbers last night.
Eight forty.
Everyone entered their respective exam rooms. Bailian took her pen and found her exam room.
The first session was Chinese.
Bailian took her seat. As the bell rang, the teacher finished the opening remarks and began handing out the Chinese test papers.
Bailian took the paper in hand and lowered her head to look at the test name-
[Beicheng Ten-School Joint Exam Paper]
She glanced at the names of these ten schools.
Unsurprisingly, the one at the top of the list was Beicheng First High School, the second was Beicheng Fourth High School, and there was also Beicheng Seventh High School…
As for schools similar to Xiangcheng First High School, naturally they did not have the qualifications to appear after the Beicheng ten schools. Allowing schools from Xiangcheng and the like to participate in the joint exam was already the greatest courtesy these ten schools extended.
Bailian scanned over the names of the Beicheng ten schools one by one.
She simply raised an eyebrow.
- ‘1’, in Chinese text messaging, can mean ‘yes/ok’. A bit brusque but it works to acknowledge the message as received. ↩︎
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