The fried rice cakes were indeed delicious. When it came to finding inconspicuous but delightful food, Jiang Cheng felt that Gu Fei’s skills had been maxed out.

Having cried to his heart’s content, done perverted things – although that matter shouldn’t be recalled in detail – had his stomach fed to the fullest, and bought all the things he needed, Jiang Cheng hiccupped as they made their way out of the small rice cake shop, feeling a lot more at ease.

“Go back?ba.” Gu Fei checked out the time on his phone. “Don’t you still have to study?”

“I don’t need to study, but I do need to sleep,” Jiang Cheng said with an insouciant shrug. “I never study during the last two days before an exam. I mainly sleep, regardless of how big or small the exam is.”

“Oh,” Gu Fei merely sounded in response. “Me too. Regardless of how big or small the exam, I’ve pretty much slept through them all the year before.”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help laughing, and the two ended up laughing their heads off together. He almost laughed the mucus out of his nose and quickly took out a tissue to press against his nose. “Shit.”

“Go back and quickly get some sleep. Don’t fall asleep halfway through the exam because of the cold,” Gu Fei said.

“I won’t.” Jiang Cheng waved his hand, “I can finish writing it even with my eyes closed.”

“Don’t,” Gu Fei said. “It’s hard enough to understand those words of yours when you write them with your eyes open, with your eyes closed..”

“Shut the hell up for?laozi.[1]” Jiang Cheng burst into another round of laughter.

The two of them rode their bicycles back to the rented apartment very slowly. Gu Fei didn’t go upstairs this time. He only retrieved the goods on the bicycle and handed them to him, “If you ever get lost again, just call me, and I’ll tell you how to get there.”

“.. I already know my way now,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Goodnight.” Gu Fei gave a gentle smile.

“Goodnight.” Jiang Cheng pushed the bicycle toward the stairwell, locked it up on the railing, and carried the supplies upstairs.

Although the room he opened the door to was just as desolate as that of Li Baoguo’s place, the feeling, however, was already completely different. He no longer had to concern himself over Li Baoguo’s irritating problems, no longer had to help him pay his debts again and again, and no longer had to listen to his coughs and shouts from the top of his lungs. Most of all, he no longer had to worry about his bedroom door swinging open out of the blue.

Jiang Cheng adjusted the temperature of the boiler until it was just slightly scalding and rinsed himself from top to bottom. There was even hot water here for him to shower in; he no longer had to fill up a bucket of hot water every single day like at Li Baoguo’s.. actually, he had never even seen Li Baoguo take a bath before. Perhaps, he had always gone to the public bathhouse instead.

The slightly scalding hot water flowed down his face, neck, and across his entire body. He closed his eyes and propped himself against the wall, letting his whole body slowly relax.

But after rinsing for just a short while, he turned off the water, quickly wiped himself down, and walked out of the bathroom.

Although it wasn’t strange at all to think of Gu Fei and the things that he and Gu Fei had done in this situation, it was still somewhat awkward.

He had often let his imagination run wild about a certain celebrity, a certain little pornographic image that he didn’t know where he had seen, a certain part of a porn.. it was the first time that Gu Fei had a target that was not only unequivocal, but also by his side. No matter how he could justify it, he would still feel a sense of guilt.

After he returned to the bedroom, he closed the door and arranged the comforter and pillows that they had bought earlier that day. He had initially felt that the newly purchased duvet cover, sheets, and whatnot should be washed before he put them on.. but as he stood by the bed and mulled over it, he decided to give up the thought altogether – men didn’t need to pay particular attention to these sorts of things.

He got in bed. After he turned off the light, his eyes remained wide open for the longest time, but even then, he still didn’t feel sleepy.

However, this time it was no longer because of Gu Fei, but about the exam tomorrow instead.

He had spent the past half a semester in a daze – although there wasn’t anything in class that he couldn’t understand or any assignments that he couldn’t do, he was starting to worry a little.

In the past, every time he relaxed at school, it would directly affect his grades. Now, in an environment like that of Si Zhong, even a person who listened carefully to the lesson in class was almost impossible to find. Even though the exam was undoubtedly less complicated than before, he was still a bit worried about his grades.

He was ordinarily disinclined to study the day before the exam, but this time, he sat up, took out the notes from his school bag, and flipped them open.

The exam times at Si Zhong were quite different from those of his previous school; he had to take exams for two subjects, Chinese language and politics, early tomorrow morning. He sighed. The schedule they arranged was so tight that it was nothing like Si Zhong’s sluggish style of pushing the play-offs of a basketball game to after the exams.

He couldn’t recall when he had even fallen asleep, but when he woke up in the morning, his books had already been thrown to the floor, and the comforter was wrapped snugly around his body.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the time. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but it was almost time to get up – his biological clock was fairly reliable at critical moments.

The breakfast stalls on this side were about the same as those at Li Baoguo’s. He bought a bowl of sweet tofu and two deep-fried dough cakes from the roadside stall to eat, and then rode his bike to school.

He stopped when he reached the intersection, wondering if he still needed to call Gu Fei so that they could head out together. After hesitating for some time, he took out his phone and prepared to dial the number.

But just as he found Gu Fei’s name, he heard someone whistle him from the side. He swung his head over and was incredulous to see that Gu Fei was right next to him, straddling his bicycle with one foot on the ground.

“Morning?ah~ xueba.” Gu Fei waved his hand at him.

“Damn.” Jiang Cheng looked at the time in astonishment, “What time did you get here?”

“Just five minutes ago,” Gu Fei said. “I’ve never been late for an exam before.”

“That’s amazing.” Jiang Cheng started to chuckle, his mood suddenly improving and became exceedingly exultant. He didn’t know the exact reason, but when he saw Gu Fei smile, he felt very.. intimate. Perhaps, it was because the two of them had done a bit of something – although neither of them had touched upon it – they were, after all, deskmates who had some impure relations..

“Have you eaten?” Gu Fei asked.

“I just randomly ate something,” Jiang Cheng said. “If you had told me that you were coming, I would’ve waited for you to eat together.”

“It’s fine,” Gu Fei said with a smile. “I also ate already. I figured that if you hadn’t eaten yet, I would’ve waited for you to finish.”

It was pretty peaceful on the way to school; they didn’t run into those two zoo animals,[2]?probably because they had already made an arrangement to fight.. no, arranged a ball game; thus, they had to maintain the last bit of poise.

When they entered the classroom, Jiang Cheng realized that these students, who were usually lazing around, would actually also display a bit of nervousness for a midterm exam.

The desks had already been separated, and although it wasn’t by a considerable distance, it still made the desks appear to be single-person desks.

The second he sat down, Zhou Jing wound his head around: “Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng..”

“If you want to look at the answers, then just look by yourself. But if you dare to call out my name like that during exams, I’ll call you out for cheating right away.” Jiang Cheng pointed at him.

“Ay! Okay, okay, okay, okay..” Zhou Jing was stunned but then smiled so brightly that his face practically bloomed flowers, “You’re a true friend.”

“Jiang Cheng.” Someone called out to him from the left.

Jiang Cheng turned his head and found that Wang Xu was actually sitting on the seat to his left: “You’re sitting here?”

“I’ll be sitting here during the exam.” Wang Xu said in earnest, “Don’t block the answer sheet with your hands, okay?”

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng sounded in response.

“When you’re done, don’t flip it over either, okay?” Wang Xu stated once more.

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng continued with an insouciant answer.

“You don’t have to worry about Da Fei. He never cheats on exams. Just worry about me.” Wang Xu still wore a solemn expression, “I’m also responsible for spreading these to the others.”

“.. understood.” Jiang Cheng nodded, then turned his head to look at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei, who was playing on his phone, turned to look at him, smiled, and didn’t say a word.

The person serving as the proctor was a teacher that taught the Third Years, a very dignified middle-aged woman with glasses. The first thing she did after she entered the classroom and put down the exam papers was to stare at the students in the classroom, her gaze sweeping from left to right, then from right to left, and finally from front to back. Once she scoured through the entire room, she cleared her throat and read through the rules in the exam room.

All the students were quieter than ever before, so utterly quiet that Jiang Cheng wasn’t quite accustomed to it.

After the exam papers were passed out, Jiang Cheng first held the papers and roughly scanned through them only to discover that the difficulty of the exams in Si Zhong was, as expected, reasonably consistent with the overall style of Si Zhong. These exam papers were very simple – to him, at least.

He flipped to the composition page and looked at it.

Mr. Ji Xianlin[3]?once said: “Everyone strives for a perfect life, however, whether it is in ancient times or now, within the country or overseas, there is no such thing as a life that is one hundred percent perfect. So I say, life is imperfect.”

According to his understanding, his task was to connect it to reality, formulate his own ideas, choose a literary form, and then write his own topic.

Jiang Cheng lightly sighed. This composition topic was simply too?simple, especially for his current self. Not to mention 800 characters, even 8000 characters would be a piece of cake.

He turned the paper back to the front and started to solve the problems with peace of mind.

The surroundings were still as quiet as before.

Being able to hear the rustling sound of pens scratching against paper in a classroom where usually only the buzz of conversations could be heard felt strangely disturbing.

He caught a fleeting glimpse of Gu Fei and noticed that he had yet to start on the questions. Instead, his gaze was buried in a modern light novel, reading the page with gusto.

He had no intention of glancing to the left to find out what kind of situation Wang Xu was in; this was naturally because he didn’t even need to turn his head to sense Wang Xu’s hot gaze. He had already caught Wang Xu facing this way out of the corner of his eye.

The two proctoring teachers were very stringent and frequently switched positions one after the other.

Judging from how frequently Zhou Jing, who was seated in front of him, twisted his body.. Jiang Cheng could safely deduce that his stomach was probably in tight knots.

In comparison, Pan Zhi was much calmer. He maintained an unhurried pace as he haphazardly answered the questions, and once he had finished them all, he would correct them all together..

Gu Fei had finished reading the short article of modern literature. Unfortunately, it was not a simple story at all and instead emphasized the rational spirit of architecture.. it didn’t look interesting at all.

He flipped the paper back, intending to fill in the questions that he found familiar and could basically guess the answers to first, then start to draw straws. Then after drawing straws, he would fill in the empty spaces at random and write up a composition.

Taking into consideration that the composition was not limited to a certain literary form, and if the poem itself wasn’t restricted to 800 characters either, he intended to take advantage of this loophole and write as little as possible.

He thought that his arrangement was perfect. When he took out the answer sheet and started to write, he felt that his condition was similar to that of the xueba next to him.

Jiang Xueba’s pen never stopped moving. He had essentially answered the questions as he read through them, and if the question was a bit longer, he didn’t pause for too long either. If Jiang Cheng’s image as a xueba wasn’t typically very pronounced in class, it was remarkably prominent now as he worked through the exams.

After Gu Fei finished filling in what he was familiar with and started to draw straws for the multiple-choice questions, Jiang Cheng had already turned the page.

And when he started the fill in the blanks, Jiang Cheng had begun writing the composition.

Shit.

He looked at Jiang Cheng’s profile, and for a moment.. he felt that this sort of Jiang Cheng was so handsome that both humans and gods alike would be indignant.

But compared to a xueba who was hell-bent on writing a composition that consisted of 800 characters long, Gu Fei’s poem that took advantage of the loophole would be much quicker to finish. He only pulled a few specious[4]?sentences and considered the composition completed. This type of exam paper that wouldn’t necessarily be checked, and even if it were, it would be done through drawing straws – he would only have a two-third chance of being chosen.

Usually, he would turn in his exam papers around this time, but he didn’t move that day. Jiang Cheng, who sat to the side of him, was still writing, and he wanted to take a look at it.

Although Jiang Cheng’s characters were hideous beyond comparison, they were written relatively quickly, just like when he read the unscripted self-reflection paper – rows of words and paragraphs would appear only from him unconsciously scribbling.

Jiang Cheng placed the answer sheet and the exam papers at the corner of the desk. To his immediate left, Wang Xu frantically copied those answers, but for some of the fill-in-the-blank questions, he had to crane his neck just to see him – honestly, it looked rather arduous. Zhou Jing, in the front, was also facing some difficulties. With Jiang Cheng’s handwriting, it was already hard enough to make sense of what he wrote, so to read it upside-down was simply the same as reading an ancient imperial edict.

However, it was still much better than before. If those that have better grades in the class were arranged to the front, then the gang of them in the back wouldn’t even know who to copy.

With half an hour remaining until the end, Jiang Xueba, who had written like a god, had finished the composition. It seemed like he hadn’t bothered to check it either. He looked around, wanting to turn the papers in.

Wang Xu immediately became anxious when he saw that and kept his voice down: “Don’t rush it!”

Jiang Cheng sighed and started to stare at the papers in a daze.

After being out of it for a while, he turned his head and was met with Gu Fei’s eyes. He mouthed to him: “Did you finish?”

Gu Fei nodded.

He then held up the composition for him to see.

Jiang Cheng was dumbfounded at first, but then turned to face his own papers and started to laugh.

This laugh was a struggle; he really wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t make any sounds, and he even had to press a tissue to his nose so he wouldn’t laugh his snot out. Gu Fei hadn’t wanted to laugh at first, but his appearance alone made it hard for him to hold back.

In the end, Jiang Cheng laughed until he started coughing, and only then did he finally stop.

Gu Fei stood up and turned in the exam papers, then walked out of the classroom and went down the stairs. They were going to have another exam a while later, so he had to move around a bit – he even found sitting still for forty minutes in class to be irritating, so sitting still for so long in an exam was pure torture.

Less than a few minutes later, Jiang Cheng also came down the stairs. This left Gu Fei in momentary shock: “You also turned in your exam papers?”

“En.” Jiang Cheng nodded, “The proctor was standing right next to Wang Xu, and I figured that he should’ve finished copying just about everything by then, so I just handed them in.. was what you wrote just now lyrics or a poem?”

“A poem?ah~,” Gu Fei replied and sauntered toward the staff’s bathroom.

“Shit, you really are shameless.” Jiang Cheng followed him, whispering, “Is it because there’s no limit for a certain literary form that you wrote a poem?”

“En.” Gu Fei laughed. “I’ve written a poem three times now. The first time I had done that, Lao Xu and the others had even ended up debating on how many points should be given when they correct the paper.”

“You’re too brilliant.” Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue twice, “What did you write? Let me hear a few words.”

“It’s so beautiful that I’m too embarrassed to say it out loud,” Gu Fei said.

Once they got to the place by the bathroom where nobody passes by, he took out a cigarette and shot a questioning glance at Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng shook his head, so he just lit a cigarette up for himself and dangled it in his mouth.

“The lyrics you wrote were really good,” Jiang Cheng said. “Are you really not going to say a few words for me to hear?”

“That lousy poem is barely passable,” Gu Fei said. “When I have time again and have written some new lyrics, I’ll let you take a look.”

“Alright, then.” Jiang Cheng sat on the stairs, “Young man, are you growing?shy~?”

Probably because there was no one else to copy from, Wang Xu and the rest of the gang had also handed in their papers early and came down the stairs. They surveyed their surroundings, and when they caught sight of Gu Fei and Jiang Cheng, they all made their way over to them.

“Bin ah~.” Wang Xu took out 50 RMB and handed it over to Lu Xiaobin. “Go buy something to eat and drink for our xueba to replenish his mind.”

“Alright.” Lu Xiaobin took the money and immediately ran off to the small shop attached to the school.

“You guys are sick.” Jiang Cheng said.

“You’re so wonderful, so generous!” Wang Xu rushed over and gave him a palm hold fist salute,[5]?“This time, I’ll pass the exam this time with no problems! Maybe I’ll even move up in the ranks a bit.”

“Shit, I’ve never done so well on an exam before!” Zhou Jing lamented, “I’m not complaining, but Jiang Cheng?ah, your handwriting is.. honestly a god-level anti-copying device. Thank goodness my eyes are well-trained at copying. Tell me, have your points ever been deducted because the teachers couldn’t understand what the hell it is you wrote when they’re marking your papers?”

“Each time my points were deducted, it was all because the characters I wrote were too hideous,” Jiang Cheng said.

The gang immediately turned into a laughing mass.

The exams were still taking place in the nearby classroom. Thus the stoney-faced proctor rushed hotfoot to scold the lot of them when they heard their ruckus. They had no choice but to relocate, so they explored the area around the bathroom before finally choosing to sit at the stone table beside the bathroom entrance.

“You know, I never understood why..” Wang Xu said. “.. they had to set up tables and chairs outside the bathroom entrance?”

“What is there to wonder about that?” Jiang Cheng reasoned, catching sight of Lu Xiaobin, who was running back with a bag full of snacks and drinks. “Believe it or not, there are people who are willing to eat here.”

The gang started guffawing like idiots again that very second, causing the proctor to charge over once more and force them to stand at the sports field.

The next exam was on politics. Ten minutes before they were to enter the examination room, Lao Xu jogged over: “Jiang Cheng!”

“En?” Jiang Cheng looked at him.

“How are you feeling?” Lao Xu asked.

“Pretty good, the questions weren’t very hard.” Jiang Cheng said.

“And the composition?” Lao Xu further questioned.

“It was pretty easy since the literary form wasn’t limited,” Jiang Cheng frankly replied.

“I just knew it wouldn’t be a problem for you.” Lao Xu’s eyes lit up, “This time, we can definitely take down Class 2. It has always been that young lady in their class and Yi Jing competing for first place every time. There shouldn’t be a problem for you this time around!”

“Most likely..” Jiang Cheng originally wanted to mention how they had only taken one exam so far, but in Si Zhong.. he could afford to show off for once.

The politics exam was quite annoying. Although it was relatively easy to make wild guesses on the multiple-choice questions, the short-answer questions were designed to come for their throats. Gu Fei couldn’t write anything and only fill out the empty spaces out of habit. He had to bullshit three to four lines in the short-answer questions, though.. this was more challenging, as the technical requirements for his bullshitting skills were very high.

Especially on this one question that was worth 14 points, which asked them to explain the significance of integrating the various cultural activities at Si Zhong as well as discuss the importance of strengthening the campus’ cultural development.. Gu Fei glanced over at Jiang Cheng only to find that the xueba was in the same state as when they had taken the language exam – his pen seemingly flew across the paper as those unsightly characters scratched the surface, creating one row after another.

A xueba was really an intriguing creature..

Copying on an exam for politics wasn’t easy. Once Wang Xu and Zhou Jing had copied the answers for the multiple-choice questions, they gave up on continuing to copy the short answers questions; compared to attempting to recognize Jiang Cheng’s characters, it was probably easier to rummage for answers in drawers, sleeves, waistbands, or any other method really.

Just as before, Jiang Cheng turned in his papers in advance.

Looking at his demeanor, Gu Fei considered it right that putting up a frontwas probably an everyday occurrence for this guy. When he was bored and observed him for a bit, he noticed that although both Jiang Cheng and Yi Jing had finished their exams at around the same time, Yi Jing would check and revise her answers when Jiang Cheng had already handed in his papers.

As soon as he handed in the papers, the rest of the gang who couldn’t write anything on their own and had to copy but now had nothing to copy from and those like Gu Fei who had already finished randomly making things up, all handed their papers in together.

At noon, nobody in the gang returned home. Who knew if it was because Wang Xu was feeling invigorated from copying so smoothly earlier that morning, but he was in a constant state of excitement and insistent on dragging them all to go eat stuffed flatbreads.

“We have mathematics in the afternoon,” Wang Xu said while chewing on a flatbread. “We’re counting on you, xueba!”

“En.” Jiang Cheng lit a cigarette and pushed open the window to the side – every time he finished an exam, he would never have much of an appetite.

“Da Fei, you’re really not going to copy anything at all?” Wang Xu asked Gu Fei again, “That would be such a waste.[6]?I’ve never met such a wonderful xueba before!”

“If you shout any louder, your mom will come over and make?you?into a stuffed flatbread.” Gu Fei said.

“You’re really not copying?” Wang Xu whispered.

“No thanks,” Gu Fei said. “It’ll make it easier for you guys to report back if you guys copied and managed to pass, but it’s not like I have to report back to anyone.”

No one thought that anything was off about Gu Fei’s words, but Jiang Cheng suddenly felt the food in his mouth grow tasteless after hearing it.

While everyone was excitedly eating and chatting, he leaned toward Gu Fei and whispered: “Can you pass the final exam?”

Gu Fei glanced at him and laughed: “Good enough. Even if I fail, I can take the makeup exam. The questions in our makeup exams are pretty simple. You can probably do one without using a single one of your brain cells.”

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng responded and didn’t say anything else.

Gu Fei’s attitude had always made him feel a little put off. He wasn’t sure if it was because his previous environment was different, but even someone as unreliable as Pan Zhi would grit his teeth and set up a few days to review before finals. For some unfathomable reason, the image of Gu Fei completely giving up filled him with a sense of agitation.

But what are you so agitated for?? There were no parents in Gu Fei’s family waiting to see his grades, and it seemed like there was also no reason to make it necessary for him to have the good grades needed to get into an excellent university..

“Don’t worry about me.” Gu Fei’s leg gently touched his leg under the table, “I only need to muddle my way to a diploma.”

“It’s not that.” Jiang Cheng twisted his eyebrows, “You might as well go to a technical school if all you’re aiming for is a diploma. Wouldn’t a certificate from there be better than one from a shoddy and average school like Si Zhong?”

“It’s a long story.” Gu Fei smiled, “I’ll tell you one day when there’s time.”

The two-day midterm exam was finally completed under a tight schedule. According to Gu Fei’s observation and Jiang Cheng’s undisguised complacentness, he could pretty much guess Jiang Cheng’s grade. Yi Jing now had another competitor contending for first place in this grade.

“The exam questions you have here are too simple,” Jiang Cheng had said those exact words at least three times in the past two days.

However, when Lao Xu rushed into the classroom early in the morning with a face full of excitement, he was still taken a little aback. Gu Fei looked at Lao Xu; if his grades were only about the same as Yi Jing, then Lao Xu wouldn’t be that ecstatic – honestly.

“Students! Students!” Lao Xu stood on the podium, “I have good news to tell you all!”

All the students in the class lazily clapped their hands together.

“The teachers from your other subjects will definitely say it in class, but I’m going to say it a step ahead of them.” Lao Xu waved his arm, “This time, our class has a student that has received full marks on three subjects!”

This news was indeed rather shocking. Everybody in the class suddenly fell into a discussion, with many of them focusing their eyes on Jiang Cheng.

“Ay.” Jiang Cheng was probably not used to being stared at like this. He lay on his desk and sighed.

“Who do you guys think it is? Which three subjects?” Lao Xu excitedly kept them in suspense, but this suspense didn’t last long enough to give them a chance to guess. He immediately announced the answer, “Student Jiang Cheng! Mathematics! English! Geography! All full marks!!”

“Fuck—” This time, the entire class blew their lids and burst into an uproar.

“Fuck!” Zhou Jing turned around and slammed into the table, “Jiang Cheng! You’re so awesome! You’re really too awesome!”

“Ah.” Jiang Cheng sounded in response.

“Sit properly,” Gu Fei shot a look at Zhou Jing.

“Awesome!” Zhou Jing cried again, turned around, and sat down, then thought about it and turned back around, “Just awesome!”

Lao Xu was still excited on the podium. Gu Fei also lied down on the table, he looked at Jiang Cheng: “The rankings should be out by now. Wanna go and ask in a bit?”

“Not asking.” Jiang Cheng said. “What’s there to ask? Seriously, it’s just a midterm exam, and the questions you have here really are too elementary. I’ve never gotten full marks in geography before.”

“Then I’ll go ask,” Gu Fei said.

“What the hell are you all excited for?ah?” Jiang Cheng said.

“I’m going to ask.. very calmly.” Gu Fei stuffed a piece of candy in his mouth.

After class ended, Gu Fei stood up, turned to leave the classroom, and directly followed Lao Xu to his office.

“Xu Zong,” he called out to Lao Xu.

“Why are you here?” Lao Xu looked at him, then took out a Red Bull and gave it to him in passing. “You can have it, Lao Lu just gave one out to everyone. I find it too sweet.”

“Has the grade ranking come out yet?” Gu Fei accepted the Red Bull and asked that one question.

“You’re also concerned about this? You aren’t even in t-->>

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