Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Cat and Mouse Episode 2 Confirmed
The two of them ambled toward school. When they passed a China Mobile store, Lin Yanwan suddenly stopped.
"Isn’t your monthly phone bill due soon?"
Jiang Xia paused. "I think so."
"How much is your plan? I’ll pay it for you."
"I don’t know either. Let me make a call and check."
He pulled out his phone and dialed customer service at 10086. He learned that his 49-yuan monthly plan only came with 150 minutes of free call time and a whopping 30 MB of data.
"What a rip-off..."
Jiang Xia complained. As someone who had been reborn, he was used to the 10 GB 5G data packages for 39 yuan from his past life. Switching back to the expensive 3G plans with so little data was a difficult adjustment.
But this was a limitation of the era. Even if he was unhappy about it, he had to keep using it.
"It’s not like you’re the one paying for it, anyway."
Lin Yanwan rolled her eyes lightly, turned, and walked into the store. She took out 50 yuan and paid Jiang Xia’s phone bill for the month.
"Hehehe, thanks, darling."
"Hmph. You save your own money for drawing paper, you hear?"
"I was just about to say, why don’t you buy the drawing paper for me too?"
"Dream on. We agreed from the start that I’d only cover your phone bill."
Back at school, before they even reached their classroom, they saw a crowd of people packed in the hallway outside the teachers’ office.
"What’s going on over there?" Jiang Xia asked, stopping a male classmate who was walking back from that direction.
The boy glanced at Lin Yanwan next to Jiang Xia, his eyes filled with envy.
"The results from the last monthly exam are out. Everyone’s checking their scores."
"Thanks."
Jiang Xia nodded and led his girlfriend toward the Class One classroom, having no intention of checking the results.
"Aren’t you going to take a look?" Lin Yanwan asked with a smile.
He shrugged. "No need. I estimated my score right after the exam. Based on the grade distribution, my rank should be in the top 50 of our year."
"That confident?" Lin Yanwan was a little surprised. She knew very well just how terrible Jiang Xia’s grades were at this point in time.
’Improving his grades so much in such a short time seems impossible. Plus, he’s been reborn; he’s probably forgotten everything he learned back then and given it all back to the teachers.’
He smiled. "It’s the same way I can guess you’re still first in our year without even looking at the results."
"That’s not a given. Your deskmate, she’s always nipping at my heels in every exam." A smile slowly bloomed on Lin Yanwan’s face. "You still haven’t told me her name."
Jiang Xia’s eye twitched. ’There’s no way my darling doesn’t know Chen Yao’s name. Their ranks are always so close, and they’ve clashed countless times, openly and secretly, throughout their entire high school careers.’
"Chen Yao. She’s a freak who spends all her time studying. I’ve never seen her interested in anything else. Compared to her, my baby is way more amazing. You can still easily beat a character like that."
"Hmph, before I met you, I also spent all my time studying, okay? Or did you think the world was full of geniuses?"
Watching Lin Yanwan walk into the Class One classroom, Jiang Xia let out a long breath. ’Good thing I reacted quickly. Otherwise, this girl—who gets jealous of even my little sister—would have found all sorts of ways to grill me, wouldn’t she?’
But just as he returned to his own classroom, he saw Wang Ming bound over to him.
"HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT! Old Jiang, you fucking killed it this time!"
It only took Jiang Xia a moment to guess that Wang Ming was talking about the exam results.
"So, what did I get?"
"You don’t know?"
"Didn’t look. Couldn’t be bothered."
’Just as a true badass never looks back at an explosion, as long as the score was within his estimate, it was acceptable.’
"48th in our year! God damn, you actually guessed it," Wang Ming said, finding it incredible.
After all, he had rocketed from the middle of the pack to the top tier of the year in one go, leaping over several brackets and leaving even the teachers stunned.
"Not bad. What about you? What’s your rank?"
"I did poorly. 35th in our year. I was careless and lost points on a few gimme questions, otherwise I could’ve climbed a few more spots."
Jiang Xia’s face twitched slightly. ’Is this guy intentionally flexing on me? Even if he was careless and lost points, his final rank is still higher than mine.’
"I just don’t get it. You’re drawing every day, and I’ve never even seen you do homework during the ten-minute breaks between classes. How did your grades shoot up so fast? Is this the so-called power of love?"
"That’s where you’re wrong. Every night, in the dead of night, a pretty older sister who’s first in our year tutors me. It’d be weird if my grades didn’t go up."
Wang Ming was dumbfounded. He quickly realized this bastard was showing off again. ’One-on-one tutoring in the dead of night... who knows if it’s even proper.’
It was just like how he sometimes watched those teachers from Japan to help vent his pent-up frustrations.
"Who’s first in our year?"
"Who else could it be but your girl? But..." Wang Ming secretly glanced toward the seat by the window in the back row and continued, "...your deskmate got second in our year. The gap between them is only five points."
Jiang Xia nodded. ’Heaven is fair. Anyone who works hard enough will be rewarded at some point.’
Wang Ming suddenly realized that both the first and second-ranked students in the year had a good relationship with this guy. If this trend continued, wouldn’t it mean that he’d be mercilessly surpassed by Jiang Xia in the next exam?
"FUCK! I’m going to go study hard too! From this moment on, I’m officially cutting ties with the internet! Any form of entertainment will only slow down my test-taking speed!"
Jiang Xia couldn’t help but chuckle.
’If this guy can stick with it for more than three days, I’ll call it his win.’
Returning to his seat, Chen Yao was still in her own world, oblivious to her surroundings, quietly memorizing English vocabulary.
"You’ve improved a lot. Congratulations," Chen Yao said softly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.
"You too. You were so close to taking the number one spot."
She shook her head, fine strands of hair brushing against the freckles on her cheeks.
"This was indeed my best performance, but your girlfriend’s total score was about ten points lower than last time. And unlike me, who focuses wholeheartedly on studying, she has to split her attention with her relationship. Simply put, I’m not as good as her."
Jiang Xia felt helpless. ’Isn’t this girl a little *too* rational? At the very least, she should be happy about finally getting second place.’
"Why do you always have to compare yourself to others? As long as you improve with every exam, that’s enough."
"You’re right," she murmured to herself. "I only compete with myself."
Then she ignored Jiang Xia and went back to memorizing her English vocabulary.
He smiled silently, then turned and took out a new pad of animation paper from his bag. After a moment of thought, he took out a pencil and solemnly wrote—
Episode 2: "Invisible Ink"
...
(Hope I don’t get a fever and start sweating in my sleep tonight, wuwuwu)
