Chapter 228: Chapter 151: Yuan, Do You Have a System? (Part 2)
Shen Yuan’s improvement had been too rapid; Old Zhou probably wanted to ask about it.
Shen Yuan pushed open the wooden door to the office. The afternoon sun slanted across desks piled high with exam papers.
He glanced at his Eldest Female Cousin’s empty seat before heading straight for Old Zhou, who was in the corner.
"Old Zhou."
Shen Yuan casually dragged his Eldest Female Cousin’s chair over and plopped down next to Old Zhou.
Old Zhou took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Looking at Shen Yuan beside him, he nodded and got straight to the point. "You’ve made a lot of progress lately."
He tapped a finger on the monthly exam report card at the corner of his desk, where Shen Yuan’s name now sat near the top of the list.
Shen Yuan grinned. "It’s all thanks to your great teaching, Old Zhou! Otherwise, my math wouldn’t have improved this quickly!"
"Cut the flattery."
Old Zhou cut him off, but the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
"Progress is a good thing. I’ve seen that your recent weekly test scores have been steadily improving, too. It’s clear you’ve been putting in a lot of effort."
Shen Yuan nodded eagerly. "Of course! After all, I came up from the parallel track to study!"
Hearing this, Old Zhou chuckled, his smile tinged with amusement.
’Shen Yuan figured Old Zhou was probably mocking him in his head right now.’
’Are you here to study, or are you here for Li Zhi?’
’Damn it, can’t I study *for* Li Zhi?’
After a few more words of encouragement, Old Zhou was ready to let Shen Yuan go.
Nothing like what Shen Yuan had imagined happened at all.
’But then again, it made sense.’ Old Zhou wasn’t blind to Shen Yuan’s academic situation.
Shen Yuan’s diligence and his weekly test scores were clear evidence of his progress.
So Old Zhou hadn’t suspected him of cheating in the slightest.
"Oh, right. Go get Sun Xiansheng for me."
Shen Yuan took a deep breath at the mention of Sun Xiansheng’s name.
’Teacher Hou, you’re on your own now.’
Sure enough, when Shen Yuan got back to the classroom and found Sun Xiansheng, the guy was wearing a pained smile.
Shen Yuan clapped him on the shoulder. "Teacher Hou, just focus on your studies. You can’t save Ah Shuai’s love life, but you can still save your own grades."
Sun Xiansheng nodded dejectedly. "I get it."
In his quest to help Ah Shuai with his love life, Teacher Hou had let his own studies slip recently.
Watching Sun Xiansheng’s retreating figure head toward the office, Shen Yuan offered up a silent prayer for him.
When Shen Yuan got back to his seat, Li Zhi immediately looked over.
"What did Old Zhou want with you?"
Hearing her question, Shen Yuan immediately put on an indignant expression.
"Old Zhou questioned my scores! He suspected I cheated! So in a fit of anger, I made a bet with him that I’d score 650 again on the next joint exam to prove my strength!"
Li Zhi rolled her eyes at him.
Meanwhile, Ah Jie chimed in cheerfully, "So, did you give him the whole ’thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river’ speech?"
Shen Yuan shook his head. "I’m from Henan, y’know."
"I’m from the village."
"Even the village folk gotta learn English! Now go on and study!"
"I cain’t do it!" Ah Jie flopped onto his desk, but shot back up a moment later.
Ah Jie sidled up to Shen Yuan and asked furtively, "Yuan, be honest with me."
"What’s up?"
Shen Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. He slowly turned his head to stare at Ah Jie’s solemn face.
There was an unsettling, probing look in Ah Jie’s eyes, as if he had already seen into the deepest secrets of Shen Yuan’s heart.
Shen Yuan’s eyes went wide, his astonished gaze fixed on Ah Jie. After a moment of silence, Shen Yuan suddenly grabbed Ah Jie by the collar and yanked him close.
"How did you know I have a system?" Shen Yuan’s voice was low and laced with tension. His lips were almost at Ah Jie’s ear, terrified of being overheard.
Ah Jie flinched but didn’t back away. He looked Shen Yuan straight in the eye and said firmly, "Your grades improved way too fast! I don’t think this is your true skill at all!"
Shen Yuan’s face went a little pale. He let go of Ah Jie’s collar and slowly nodded.
"Yes, I do have a system. It’s called the Grade Plundering System. I can choose a person and plunder their grades. The one I chose... was you. For math! I’ve already plundered fifty percent of your math fortune."
Ah Jie’s eyes grew even wider. He muttered to himself, "No wonder, no wonder! No wonder your math improved so quickly!"
However, his astonishment didn’t last long. He quickly came to his senses and asked doubtfully, "Hey, wait a minute. Then how come your math is improving so slowly? Even with only fifty percent of my fortune, it shouldn’t be this bad!"
Shen Yuan threw his hands up. "Because I don’t have a damn system! I’m relying on my own hard work and talent!"
At this, Ah Jie rolled his eyes at him.
Shen Yuan spent the evening self-study session doing practice problems, as usual.
This monthly exam made Shen Yuan keenly aware of his weakness in chemistry.
First physics, now chemistry.
’Damn it, I should have made a bet with Tong Churou before the scores were released to get a drop of chemistry materials!’
’I wonder if it’s too late now.’
Shen Yuan turned to Li Zhi. "Young Master Li, you have any good chemistry practice tests?"
"I’ll give you two options. First, my error correction notebook. Second, buy some online. I suggest the second one."
"Why?" Shen Yuan asked, confused.
"Because I don’t have a chemistry error correction notebook."
Shen Yuan pressed his lips together at her words, momentarily at a loss.
Just then, Ah Jie nudged Shen Yuan and whispered in his ear, "Your Li Bao competed in the chemistry olympiad."
The corner of Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched.
’Damn it. An oversight.’
Shen Yuan turned back to Li Zhi, a dark look in his eyes. "Now I believe you could actually poison someone."
Li Zhi smiled sweetly. "So, are you still going to eat my cooking?"
"I will."
Shen Yuan leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I won’t just eat it. I want to eat it forever."
The tips of Li Zhi’s ears flushed pink. Her fingers, resting on an exam paper, unconsciously tightened their grip on the page.
She whipped her head away, her soft hair tracing a faint arc in the warm sunset light. The words on her workbook suddenly blurred.
"Hmph! Finish your homework first, then we’ll talk!"
"I know, I know."
Shen Yuan then bent over his desk and started on his homework.
The evening self-study period flew by as he focused on the problems.
When the bell signaling the end of self-study rang, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi headed home as usual.
Perhaps because of the bet, Li Zhi wasn’t in the mood to talk to Shen Yuan on the way home.
She was afraid that if she said anything, he would seize the opportunity and steer the conversation back to the bet.
That was the last thing Li Zhi wanted to hear about right now.
Shen Yuan seemed to understand what she was thinking, so he didn’t press the issue.
’Some things lose their charm if you talk about them too much.’
Shen Yuan wanted to preserve the sense of anticipation.
...
But as for his anticipation for the sports meet, Shen Yuan had suddenly lost all of it.
The roster for the sports meet had been submitted on Tuesday, since the event was set to begin that Thursday.
The schedule was actually quite tight.
However, the resident pranksters of Class 1-5 had long since figured out what stunt they were going to pull for the opening ceremony.
They were planning to make two posters: one covered in formulas, the other with English vocabulary and Chinese poetry.
At the very front would be five signs, which would read: "Have you memorized these yet?"
It would be quite a statement.
But that was as far as the statement could go.
While Jiyang Middle School allowed students to pull stunts during the sports meet, it didn’t permit any major ones.
Things like eccentric costumes were forbidden.
So for the part of the ceremony where each class showed off its spirit, this was about the most they could get away with.
The reason Shen Yuan had lost his sense of anticipation was probably that he was one of the sign holders.
And to make matters worse, he was the one holding the sign with the question mark.
"Yuan, it’ll actually be fun,"
Ah Jie said to Shen Yuan, gesticulating wildly backstage before the opening ceremony. "When the time comes, just hold up that question mark and show it to the people in the stands. I guarantee you, the looks on their faces will be priceless!"
Shen Yuan looked at Ah Jie and gave a dry laugh.
"How about I give this opportunity to you?"
Hearing this, Ah Jie waved his hands frantically. "No, that’s okay. I’m a nice person."
"Oh, screw you!"
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