“Ring, ring…”
At that moment, the teacher’s phone rang.
“Students, I’ll step outside to take this call. After you take out your test papers, pass them to the front row, and the class representative will collect them.”
With that, the teacher walked out of the classroom, phone in hand.
“Good opportunity.”
Bu Yu began to move. Holding his test paper, he turned to look at Xu Ang, who had his head lowered so deeply it was practically buried inside his desk drawer. For a moment, Bu Yu could not even tell what he was doing.
“Hey, Brother Xu.”
“Huh? What does Brother Yu need?”
Xu Ang turned his head. His face was smeared with bits of food, one hand tightly gripping a spicy snack stick, his mouth chewing nonstop.
Bu Yu fell silent.
“Never mind. Keep your head down and enjoy your food.”
There was no hope of borrowing answers from Xu Ang. He probably had not done it either.
Then, for reasons he could not explain, Bu Yu’s gaze suddenly landed on Lang Man.
There was no time to think. He quickly pulled out a sheet of scratch paper, scribbled a sentence on it, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it toward Lang Man’s desk.
The paper ball landed precisely on her desk with a soft sound.
Lang Man froze for a second when she saw the unexpected paper ball.
She turned to look at Bu Yu, who was gesturing for her to open it.
She did not ignore him. She unfolded the paper.
[Let me copy your test.]
The words were written in large, crooked characters.
Lang Man glanced back at Bu Yu. There was something slightly strange in her gaze.
Bu Yu noticed her look.
Is she going to refuse? That makes sense. Why would a top student casually let a poor student copy her work?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Lang Man suddenly stretched out her hand toward him.
“Huh?”
Bu Yu did not understand what she meant.
“The test.”
She spoke only two words.
“Oh.”
The next second, Bu Yu handed over his crumpled test paper.
Lang Man took it and immediately lowered her head, writing rapidly.
As for Bu Yu, he found himself staring at her, momentarily lost in the way she worked through the problems.
At that moment, another paper ball landed on his desk.
Bu Yu frowned and looked around, only to find Su Muwan glaring at him with an angry expression.
“Oh. It’s Su Muwan’s.”
Without hesitation, he flicked the paper ball off his desk with his middle finger and muttered, “Where did this trash come from?”
His decisiveness left Su Muwan stunned. She had never expected him to act so firmly.
…
About a minute later, Bu Yu suddenly noticed something white waving in front of his eyes.
He snapped back to his senses.
“?”
“You’re done already?”
Lang Man nodded.
“??”
“A test paper with four full pages, and you finished it in seconds?”
Bu Yu was still completely bewildered.
“Are you turning it in or not?”
Lang Man did not answer his question. After saying that, she lowered her head again and began writing rapidly.
“I’ll turn it in… I will…”
Bu Yu’s hands trembled slightly. He was clearly shaken by her speed.
He did not even check what she had written on the test paper. Lang Man’s ability was beyond doubt.
No sooner had Bu Yu handed in his test paper than the teacher stepped back into the classroom.
“Alright. Anyone who hasn’t handed in their test paper, stand up. I’ve been outside for over a minute. If you still haven’t submitted it, that means you didn’t do it last night!”
Bu Yu remained calm upon hearing this. He had already handed in his paper. Whatever punishment followed had nothing to do with him.
“Creak.”
Suddenly, Lang Man, who was sitting beside him, stood up.
Then his eyes widened.
“You didn’t do it?” he whispered to her.
Lang Man shook her head. “Did it. Didn’t submit.”
Bu Yu was confused again.
When the teacher saw Lang Man standing, he was stunned.
He would rather believe his eyesight had failed than accept that a top student like Lang Man had not done her homework.
“Lang Man, are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
The teacher suspected a misunderstanding. Perhaps she had not heard clearly or misunderstood what he said.
But Lang Man simply shook her head. “Teacher, I truly didn’t submit it.”
The entire class erupted.
“Oh my god. The top student in the grade didn’t do her homework!”
“Isn’t that normal? Maybe Lang Man thought the homework was too easy and didn’t bother.”
“That’s possible, but not doing the assigned homework still feels a bit disrespectful to the teacher.”
“Maybe she got first place in the mock exam and feels proud.”
“Hmm…”
The students’ chatter filled the room.
Lang Man lowered her head silently.
Only Bu Yu noticed the subtle movement. He knew that Lang Man was not as cold and unyielding as she appeared. On the contrary, she was just a young girl, sensitive and fragile inside. That outer coldness was merely a shield she used to protect herself.
“Then why didn’t you submit it?”
The teacher continued gently, his tone much softer than when speaking to struggling students.
“I did it. Didn’t submit.”
Lang Man picked up the test paper on her desk.
When Bu Yu saw the paper in her hand, he suddenly understood. After finishing his test and handing it back to him, she had immediately started writing on her own test paper.
Thinking back to the strange look she had given him earlier, everything now made sense.
He realized that she had not even completed her own test yet. How could she have let him copy it?
Last night had been such a major incident. Lang Man’s thoughts had been entirely focused on her mother. How could she have had the energy to finish the homework?
And until today, she had not slept all night before arriving at school early…