ATLAS TRANSLATES

In the pitch darkness, Jiang Wen’s lips were tightly pressed together, his mind still frozen in shock.

Feng Ning pointed at him and scolded, “You never truly know someone.”

“I really—” The words got stuck in his throat. He paused awkwardly and turned away, “It was really an accident…”

“An explanation is just a cover-up, and a cover-up reveals the truth.” Feng Ning persisted, “If I hadn’t caught you, you would have pretended nothing happened, right?”

“……”

Feng Ning spoke harshly, “I never thought you were this type of person, such a hypocrite!”

After this barrage of accusations, Jiang Wen was at a loss for words. “Fine, I apologize.”

“An apology isn’t enough.”

“Then what do you want?”

Feng Ning threatened fiercely, “I don’t care, you need to think of a solution right now, or I’ll tell everyone about you looking at my shower photo and ruin your reputation.”

“?”

She stared at him expressionlessly, “How about this—you send me your shower photo too, then we’ll be even.”

Jiang Wen was stunned and struggled to speak, “I don’t have such photos.”

“Then take one right now,” Feng Ning commanded, “Take off your clothes! Right now, hurry up.”

“…..”

“Won’t do it? Fine.” Feng Ning reached for her phone, “Then I’ll post about this on the forum right now.”

Jiang Wen quickly grabbed her hand, exclaiming that she was crazy. When he looked up, he met her mischievous expression.

After holding it in for so long, Feng Ning finally burst out laughing, holding her stomach and shaking with laughter, almost rolling on the ground. “Hahahahaha, Jiang Wen, why is your face so red? Have you never even watched adult videos?”

Her gloomy mood from earlier completely vanished as she gleefully looked at her post-shower photo again.

Her back had been hurting last night, so after showering, she had asked Meng Taoyu to take a photo. It wasn’t anything inappropriate—nothing that shouldn’t be shown was visible. What was he being shy about?

Feng Ning couldn’t stop laughing, feeling no guilt about teasing him.

Seeing her like this, Jiang Wen felt dizzy and his face turned pale. He turned and walked away.

He had never met a woman more insane than Feng Ning in his entire life.

The New Year came early this year, and as soon as it passed, Qide School began their final exams. The exam seating was arranged according to the previous grade rankings. Because several teaching buildings were being renovated, the top hundred students were concentrated in a small auditorium on the west side.

Feng Ning was 001, seated in the first row, leftmost column. The morning exam was Chinese, which she found very boring, so she only brought one pen.

After sitting down and daydreaming while staring out the window for a while, she realized her pen was almost out of ink.

Looking around, her classmate Wan Yang hadn’t arrived at the exam venue yet.

As for others…

The first ray of morning sunlight came through the window corner, falling on the floor tiles. Jiang Wen sat properly in the first row, second column.

She approached him sweetly, “Classmate Jiang, could you lend me a pen?”

Still angry, he ignored her words and continued reciting ancient poems on his scratch paper, unmoved.

Feng Ning had thick skin and showed no awareness of being ignored, deliberately forgetting how she had just pranked him. She peered over, watched him finish writing a poem, and even commented, “Your handwriting is quite nice!”

Jiang Wen maintained a stone-cold face, treating her like air as he continued writing the next poem.

“Classmate Jiang, lend me a pen?” Feng Ning shamelessly asked again, “That pen in your hand looks like it writes well.”

“No,” Jiang Wen said expressionlessly, eyes fixed on his paper as he steadily wrote Qu Yuan’s “Li Sao.”

Clearly, he was still holding a grudge.

After half a minute of standoff, Feng Ning stared at Jiang Wen’s hand holding the pen. He wore a black watch on his wrist, and his fingers were slim with subtle knuckles, perfectly proportioned.

She studied them carefully before praising, “Classmate Jiang, your hands are so beautiful!”

“……”

“Much more beautiful than my back.”

Sure enough, the character “xi” on his scratch paper suddenly trembled. He couldn’t take it anymore: “What exactly do you want?”

Feng Ning said innocently, “To borrow a pen.”

Jiang Wen darkly slammed the pen in front of her with some force.

Having achieved her goal, she was satisfied. Before leaving, Feng Ning added thoughtfully, “Good thing we’re sitting side by side.”

She tilted her head to look at him, full of concern: “If you were sitting behind me, you’d see my back every time you looked up. How could you concentrate on the exam then?”

The properly seated Jiang Wen’s facial expression immediately twisted upon hearing these words.

Seeing him almost unable to stay seated from anger, Feng Ning switched to a normal expression, “Oh right, friendly reminder, you wrote one character wrong in ‘jian zhao ze er xi ti’. Better check your textbook quick before the teacher comes.”

At eight o’clock, four invigilators walked in carrying exam packets. A female teacher stood at the podium and called out, “Students, prepare yourselves. The exam is about to begin. Put away all reference materials and books.”

Jiang Wen held his head in his hands, trying to calm down. Having believed her trick, he pulled out his Chinese textbook from his bag and turned to the “Li Sao” section.

His eyes scanned over [yu sui hao xiu hua yi ji ji xi, jian zhao ze er xi ti], then compared it with his scratch paper—he hadn’t written it wrong.

Still doubtful, he suddenly heard laughter. Glancing over, Feng Ning was eating bread. She showed her neat, snow-white teeth adorably and said something that could make people die of anger, “You didn’t write it wrong, I was just joking.”

Her methods of teasing him were always so basic, yet he fell for them every time.

Jiang Wen suddenly felt like a complete idiot.

If anger could be made visible, his head would surely have three zhang of flames shooting from it.

Chest tight and short of breath, he wanted to throw his Chinese textbook at her face like a shot put. But being tricked wasn’t what angered him most—what really infuriated him was that this exact line actually appeared in the poetry section of the exam.

Jiang Wen, harboring anger at who-knows-what, defiantly left that question blank.

After the exam, Feng Ning came to return the pen.

Jiang Wen didn’t give her a pleasant face, just zipped up his backpack and said, “Throw it away.”

“Why?”

He slightly lowered his head and said affectedly, “I don’t want anything others have used.”

“Okay.” Feng Ning compliantly kept the pen and praised him, “What a pure and noble Classmate Jiang.”

Long ago, Feng Ning’s phrase “eternal second place” had stuck like a thorn in Jiang Wen’s fragile heart.

During these final exams, he put in maximum effort, studying even harder than during the middle school entrance exams. His sleep quality had been poor these past two nights. While solving problems, Jiang Wen felt drowsy. He checked the time, set a half-hour alarm on his phone, and laid his head on the desk.

In his hazy state, a yellowish glow appeared before his eyes, and within it, someone’s bare back. Half-asleep, an image flashed through his mind—a snow-white back, narrow waist, overlapping with what was before him.

Jiang Wen instantly woke up.

His heart still pounding, he realized it was Zhao Binlin and threw something at him, cursing, “Are you sick?”

Hit by the book, Zhao Binlin turned around confused, he was in the middle of taking off his pants, completely baffled, “What did I do now?”

“Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”

“I’m going to take a shower, damn it.” Zhao Binlin was bewildered and wronged.

Jiang Wen’s brow twitched as he realized his overreaction. He sat up, rubbing his forehead in frustration, “Never mind, it’s nothing.”

Completely confused about what had set him off, Zhao Binlin asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

Jiang Wen’s lips moved, and after a while he muttered: “Just woke up.”

Meanwhile, Feng Ning was enjoying cartoons in her dorm room.

When one episode finished and the ending credits were playing, Shuang Yao suddenly messaged her on WeChat: Big sis, what’s going on with you?

Feng Ning: What about me?

Shuang Yao sent a link, adding: Now your pursuit of Jiang Wen is public knowledge!

Clicking the link, it was a forum post. The post contained a series of photos: Feng Ning leaning close to Jiang Wen in the exam room, saying something.

It was taken from behind, with incredibly clear pixels, so clear it looked like it was taken with a professional camera.

Her face showed a fawning, sycophantic expression while Jiang Wen remained unmoved. The poster described the whole process from borrowing to returning the pen: Is this what you’d expect from the top student? Really? Throwing yourself at him like this?

The comments piled up quickly.

1L: HAHAHA, wow, this girl is so pretty~ Does anyone know who she is?

2L: Jiang Wen!!! Is that guy Jiang Wen!!!

3L: Is Jiang Wen a misogynist? I really feel like he’s especially cold to girls….

4L: To the person above, this girl is Feng Ning, our famous academic genius from first year.

5L: Although this guy only showed a bit of his profile, I can still feel his earth-shattering handsomeness. Does anyone have his contact info???[excited]

6L posted a link to a featured thread: Let me inform 5L, Qide currently has three handsome guys with dedicated high-rise threads in the featured section, and Jiang Wen is one of them. Those who don’t know him can check it out.

The initial responses were still normal, as Jiang Wen being pursued was too common. Passersby were saying things like they matched well in terms of looks. Some also lamented about Jiang Wen’s aloofness, wondering why he showed no interest even in a female academic genius like Feng Ning who had both looks and brains!!!

As the discussion continued, the original poster appeared again with more revelations, their words full of malice: This girl comes from a poor background, probably after Jiang Wen’s money (PS: by poor I mean she works as a bar girl~) By the way, when Jiang Wen was dating the first-year beauty Cheng Jiajia before, Feng Ning seemed to have interfered with their relationship~~~ She’s a professional homewrecker.

The terms “bar girl” and “homewrecker” were especially explosive. Some people in the thread began questioning and asking the original poster for evidence, while others were just there for the drama, making the discussion even more heated.

Around eleven at night, Jiang Wen finished reading the post. He went to the balcony and used Zhao Binlin’s phone to call Yi Qiao, Jiang Yuyun’s best friend.

“Sister Qiao, this is Jiang Wen. Can I ask for your help?”

It was noisy on the other end, and after a while it quieted down. Yi Qiao asked in surprise, “Hm? What help? Tell me.”

“I dropped my phone in the exam room.”

Yi Qiao was confused, “Then buy a new one?”

“This phone has important exam materials,” Jiang Wen said calmly. “Could you help me arrange to check the surveillance video at the security office to see who picked it up?”

Yi Qiao agreed readily.

As the post’s comments continued to pile up, Shuang Yao worriedly messaged Feng Ning: I’ve already applied to have it deleted. Do you want me to create an alt account to help clear things up? Or to curse out the original poster?

Feng Ning closed the forum page and typed back quickly: “I can handle these small grievances.”

Shuang Yao: ……

Feng Ning: But there’s a small problem

Shuang Yao: ?

As they were chatting, Qi Lan suddenly called. Feng Ning answered and talked with her mom for a while.

After hanging up, she casually opened WeChat, staring at the bed board while grumbling in a voice message to Shuang Yao: “I really don’t get it, it’s so annoying you know? When did they choose the first-year beauty??? How come it wasn’t me??? I, Feng Ning, officially declare that I’m very dissatisfied! I suggest those forum people clean their eyes and make a new voting post.”

After a long while, Shuang Yao hadn’t replied.

Feng Ning continued watching her cartoon. After a while, she opened WeChat and found dozens of new messages in the class group.

She scrolled up to check, her eyes widened, and she sat up cursing “Holy crap!”

—She had accidentally sent the voice message meant for Shuang Yao to the class group!!!!