With a half-basin of rice in his hands, Ji Yang left under the gaze of the other three.
Yet, was he really full?
As he walked away, he kept using his spoon to shovel rice into his mouth.
It looked utterly comical.
Su Ning almost burst out laughing.
No wonder the class monitor never realized he had a crush on her.
Usually, he probably didn’t even dare say a single word to her.
Who on earth could ever tell?
Watching Ji Yang’s retreating back, Chen Lanxin adjusted her glasses and fell into self-doubt. “Am I really that fierce?”
She had indeed been quite strict when serving as class monitor.
Especially toward students who liked to fool around and cause trouble.
However, Ji Yang didn’t belong to that category; he simply liked trailing behind Su Nanye.
He hadn’t pulled any out-of-line stunts in class either.
So, in her memory, she hadn’t treated Ji Yang particularly harshly.
Su Ning smiled. “It is not your problem. It is entirely Ji Yang’s own issue.”
Su Nanye’s brow twitched. “Maybe he was in a rush to go…”
“Shut up!”
Su Ning and Chen Lanxin glared at Su Nanye simultaneously.
Su Nanye rubbed his nose. “Alright, I will not say another word.”
Seeing how Su Nanye cowered in a single second, Su Ning and Chen Lanxin exchanged a glance.
Su Ning’s eyes curved into smiling crescents, resembling the bright moon in the evening sky.
Yet, Chen Lanxin’s burst of vitality lasted for only a fleeting second.
She quickly lowered her head and resumed eating slowly.
She looked like a flower that should have been thriving, yet its stems were drooping, not far from withering away.
Someone who could serve as class monitor shouldn’t be this taciturn.
Su Ning was certain that Chen Lanxin must be going through something.
Huizhong’s lunch break was relatively long.
After finishing her meal, Chen Lanxin returned to the classroom by herself.
Since today was Su Ning’s first day at school, Su Nanye planned to show her around.
Ji Yang materialized out of nowhere once again, the redness on his face not yet completely faded. “Did the class monitor leave?”
Su Ning glanced at him sideways. “If the class monitor hadn’t left, would you have dared to come out?”
Her words hit the mark, causing Ji Yang’s ears to flush red once more as his right eye darted frantically. “No way, no way! What are you talking about? I do not understand!”
Su Ning asked him point-blank, “Do you like the class monitor?”
Ji Yang’s entire face turned as red as if it were about to explode. His body twitched uncontrollably, nearly breaking out into a tango. “No… I do not… I really do not… How could I ever be worthy of her…”
Su Nanye narrowed his left eye. “What the hell! You actually have a secret crush on the class monitor!”
Su Ning also guessed that with Ji Yang’s timid nature, he must have only confessed his secret crush to Su Nanye many years later, long after graduation.
It was completely normal for Su Nanye to be clueless right now.
With the spring semester of senior year just beginning, the winter chill still lingered in the air.
Ji Yang felt as hot as the middle of summer, sweating profusely all over. Covering his face, he kept repeating, “I really do not! I do, I do not!”
“Hey! Class monitor, you are here,” Su Ning suddenly announced.
Hearing that, Ji Yang bolted like a mouse spotting a cat.
Following that, peals of merciless laughter rang out from behind him.
“Hahaha, hahaha, hahaha!”
Su Ning and Su Nanye laughed uncontrollably.
Only then did Ji Yang realize he had been tricked. Running back, he stomped his feet in exasperation. “You two are way too much! We are breaking up our friendship for two seconds!”
Ceasing her teasing, Su Ning turned her attention to serious matters. “Has the class monitor always been this quiet?”
Ji Yang shook his head. “No way. She used to be super lively and fiery. At the start of our freshman year, she saw a student purposely trip another student during the break, and she gave the culprit a slap that nearly sent them flying into the wall.”
“She was drop-dead cool!” Stars practically glittered in Ji Yang’s right eye. “After that, we all voted for her to be class monitor.”
Su Ning understood.
That single slap from the class monitor had landed straight into Ji Yang’s heart.
Su Nanye flicked his bangs and curled his lip. “When I beat up a whole bunch of people by myself outside, nobody ever said I was drop-dead cool.”
Grinning to show his teeth, Ji Yang replied, “Boss, that wasn’t the coolest moment.”
Su Nanye was eager to show off in front of his sister, so he lifted his chin. “Then when was it?”
Ji Yang: “When you got sent flying by a car that one time, hopped right back up, shook your hair, put your hands in your pockets, and just walked away.”
Su Nanye: “…”
He only walked away because it was too embarrassing!
With her eyes widened in shock, Su Ning turned to look at Su Nanye. “Did you go to the hospital afterward? Are you alright?”
It was a story meant as a joke, but his little sister was genuinely concerned about him.
Su Nanye was deeply moved. “I am fine. Your older brother is tough as nails.”
Reassured by that, Su Ning turned back to Ji Yang. “Then why has the class monitor become so quiet now? Have you ever thought about it?”
She didn’t want him to wait until someone died to feel regret.
Ji Yang blinked his right eye. “I certainly thought about it, but I never dared to ask her. Every time I see her, I lose the ability to speak.”
Su Ning lowered her gaze. “She must be facing some trouble. From now on, the three of us should keep an eye on her, just in case she does something rash.”
“Something rash?” Su Nanye chimed in, his expression turning serious as well. “How could that happen?”
Ji Yang had no idea, but Su Nanye knew that Su Ning was a time-traveler.
Her saying this meant she definitely had grounds for concern.
Ji Yang was equally astonished. “How is that even possible? The class monitor is the most energetic person I have ever met!”
Su Ning couldn’t explain too much. “Anyway, let us just pay more attention to her.”
Though Ji Yang had always been terrified of getting close to the class monitor, with Su Ning making the request, his courage inexplicably surged. “Alright!”
With that issue settled, Su Ning’s mind wandered back to something else. “Why didn’t we see Shen Yanli in the cafeteria just now?”
When she had scanned the entire cafeteria with her food tray looking for a seat, she hadn’t caught sight of him at all.
Standing tall and handsome with such an outstanding presence, he was usually easy to spot.
Su Nanye narrowed his left eye. “Why are you looking for him?”
Su Ning offered an awkward, apologetic smile. “I was just asking.”
Ji Yang chimed in, “He probably went out to work a part-time job.”
Su Ning leaned in closer to Ji Yang, asking with curiosity, “Is his family really that poor?”
Questions like this could only be asked of others; it wouldn’t do to ask Shen Yanli directly.
Last Wednesday during evening self-study hours, he had been working part-time at Hongyan Tower.
Now, during the lunch break, he had gone off to work another shift.
With that kind of relentless drive for making money, he must have been desperately short of cash.
Ji Yang shook his head. “I do not know the details. I just heard people say that the school hunk of Huizhong spends his lunch breaks racking balls at a billiard hall outside, which even drew a bunch of female customers from nearby.”
Su Ning looked surprised. “Shen Yanli is the school hunk of our school?”
Ji Yang’s lips twitched as he realized he had slipped up. “He sort of is.”
“Hah! The title of school hunk is something I handed over to him. I was already sick of being Huizhong’s school hunk for two years!” Su Nanye blew on his bangs.
Having met countless men in her past life, Su Ning took a careful look at her brother.
To be honest, even if her brother changed his hairstyle, he still couldn’t hold a candle to Shen Yanli.
“That is right, my brother is the most handsome guy in the entire world!”
Su Ning chose to flatter Su Nanye anyway.
What other choice did she have? After all, he was her real brother.
The corners of Su Nanye’s mouth hooked into a Nike swoosh. “Stay humble, stay humble!”
Seeing him in a good mood, Su Ning pressed on, “How much do you know about Shen Yanli? What is his family background like?”
Knowing Shen Yanli’s circumstances was necessary to execute a targeted plan.
Su Nanye shrugged. “I do not have the spare time to look into him. Wouldn’t it be better to play a couple more video games with that time?”
Su Ning severely criticized him. “You are doing a terrible job as his sworn enemy!”
Su Nanye: “…”
Su Nanye frowned. “Why on earth would I need to understand him? As far as I know, being sworn enemies means hating each other, not liking each other, right?”
That actually sounded somewhat reasonable.
Su Ning blinked and said no more.
Fine, she would just have to figure him out slowly on her own.
The lunch break ended quickly.
Afternoon classes were about to begin.
Five minutes before class started, Shen Yanli took his seat at his desk.
The first class of the afternoon was mathematics, so he pulled out his math test paper and spread it out on the desktop.
Since it was already the second semester of senior year, new curriculum content was long gone; the time was spent entirely on testing and review.
The math teacher hadn’t gone over this particular test paper last week.
Almost instantly, Su Ning spotted a large bruised patch on the back of Shen Yanli’s left hand.
The boy’s skin was cool and fair, making the sizable bruise stand out starkly, looking painful just to glance at.
“How did you get this?”
Su Ning leaned in closer to ask him.
The moment the young girl got close, Shen Yanli’s body stiffened slightly.
His sharp, prominent Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Without looking at her, he simply answered, “It is nothing.”
Su Ning didn’t buy it. Reaching out, she grabbed his hand. “How can this be nothing? It is going to swell up in no time.”
When she used to practice dancing, she frequently ended up with bruises, and if left unattended, they would swell right up.
The moment she grabbed Shen Yanli’s hand, he gave a visible start.
“It hurts quite a bit, right?”
Su Ning’s warm breath brushed gently across the back of his hand, chasing away the chill he had carried in from outside.
A dense, tingling wave of numbness crawled up Shen Yanli’s arm, and he hurriedly pulled his hand back. “It is fine.”
Seeing his standoffish, keep-others-at-a-distance demeanor, Su Ning didn’t push further.
The warning bell for class rang shortly after.
The math teacher was a middle-aged woman who liked to coil her long hair into a bun at the top of her head.
Walking into the room, she announced, “Everyone, take out last week’s math test papers. I do not even want to mention the scores you got. There was only a single perfect score in the entire class, and more than half of you failed.”
“You guys are honestly the worst batch of students I have ever taught!”
“Su Nanye, what are you laughing at? You got an eight, are you proud of yourself?”
All eyes turned toward Su Nanye.
Su Nanye had been laughing because Ji Yang looked like he needed to rush to the bathroom right as class started.
At that moment, he wiped the smile off his face.
Then, he noticed his sister’s astonished gaze directed at him.
For the first time, he felt a flicker of embarrassment.
Su Nanye, who usually never cared about being chewed out by teachers, hung his head down for once in his life.
He reached into his desk, pulled out a crumpled ball of paper, and unfolded it on his desktop.
The math teacher looked somewhat surprised and stopped chewing him out. “Alright, everyone take out your test papers, let us go over them.”
Seeing Su Nanye actually produce a test paper, Ji Yang asked in shock, “Boss, why did you pull out your English test paper?”
Su Nanye: “…”
Su Ning was indeed amazed that her brother had only scored an eight in math.
Even purely guessing would have netted him a higher score; could he have actually answered those questions seriously?
The thought was truly terrifying!
In his past life, Su Nanye hadn’t made it to university.
This resulted in massive internal pushback from company executives when he had to take over their parents’ business after their deaths.
Merging his parents’ assets had been full of twists and turns, proving to be an uphill battle.
To prevent future retaliation and bankruptcy, eliminating the hostility with his sworn enemy was one aspect.
Strengthening oneself was equally crucial.
Su Ning still hoped her brother could go to university and systematically learn business management.
Doing so would also help him better weather any other risks he might encounter in the future.
She had previously heard from her eldest uncle that her brother’s grades in his freshman and sophomore years were decent, only going off the rails during his senior year.
As long as the foundation was there, even with just over a hundred days left until the college entrance exams, there was still hope.
“This student, why haven’t you taken out your test paper?”
Just as the math teacher was about to begin explaining the problems, she noticed that Su Ning’s desk in the front row only held a brand-new math textbook.
Recovering her wits, Su Ning replied, “Teacher, I am a transfer student. I do not have a test paper.”
Realizing how unfamiliar the girl looked, the math teacher instructed, “In that case, share a test paper with Shen Yanli.”