Jing Jing was brought back by Lin Shilan from Tan Jin’s place.

She held the dog with one hand and slapped the class score ranking sheet printed by the teacher onto the table with the other.

The door at home wasn’t closed. Next door, Tan Jin was secretly observing her heroic bearing at this moment from by the window. Lin Shilan unconsciously straightened her back.

Lu Xiaorong picked up the ranking sheet and examined it carefully.

Lin Shilan’s total score satisfied her greatly, and the corners of her mouth tugged upward slightly. However, her gaze quickly swept to the right, seeing that line “school-wide ranking.”

The paper was taken away from her mother’s view, revealing a pair of tightly furrowed brows behind it: “Why didn’t you get first place this time, but third instead?”

Lin Shilan’s back remained straight: “I’m not that amazing, I can’t possibly get first place every time. Besides, the score gap between me and first and second place is very small.”

“You don’t know how to take exams, but you’re very good at finding excuses.” Lu Xiaorong sneered, treating her daughter as her own student and starting lecture mode.

“Do you know that our place is just a small area? Outstanding students in high schools outside are as numerous as cow hairs. You only got third place in the whole school here and think you’re so great. Put you outside, and compared to high school students from other big cities, your scores can’t even compare. The college entrance exam is very cruel—you’re competing with senior high school students from across the entire country. You can’t even outscore others in exams at your own school, and you still want to get into a good university in the college entrance exam? Dream on.”

Lin Shilan felt no pressure from what she was saying. She knew in her heart that her level was good enough to get into the best university in the entire country—she had already done it before.

“Okay, okay, I know,” she dealt with it briefly with a couple of sentences and brought up the main topic: “Mom. You said if I reached the score you required, you would agree to let me keep a dog. I’ve already done it. When will you bring back Jing Jing’s dog bed from your colleague’s place?”

“No! No keeping dogs.” Her mother said decisively: “The ranking also needs to be first before you can keep one.”

The dog was frightened again by her mother’s volume and became restless in her arms. Lin Shilan stroked its head, not understanding how her mother could be so unreasonable: “You clearly said before that reaching the score standard was enough, you didn’t mention ranking. Now you won’t let me keep it—this is going back on your word.”

“Ranking and score are the same thing. Just because I didn’t say it doesn’t mean it’s not important. You didn’t test well enough, and you still want to keep a dog? Let me tell you, no way.”

Lin Shilan could see now that her mother was the maker of the rules.

Whether she could keep the dog depended on her mood; how to interpret what she had promised also depended on her mood.

Even if it was unfair, even if she had broken her word, her mother would do whatever she wanted without being constrained by it at all. She herself had no place to reason.

Gritting her teeth, Lin Shilan forcibly pushed back the tears that were about to overflow from her eyes.

“I did it… I did what you asked and you still won’t let me keep it… Then why didn’t you just say you disagreed from the beginning? Why give me hope…”

Lu Xiaorong drank her tea, not buying this act: “What’s this, Lin Shilan? You want to anger me again? Think my health is too good? I did agree with you, but you didn’t do it yourself, so you missed the opportunity to keep the dog.”

“Auntie!!”

A head popped out at the doorway, startling her mother so much that several drops of water spilled from her hand.

Tan Jin came uninvited.

He squeezed his eyes at Lin Shilan, then seriously reasoned with Lu Xiaorong.

“Auntie, why are you scolding the child again? People who work get workdays and rest days, but you scold children truly year-round without rest. I said it last time, didn’t I? Occasionally, you also need to consider the neighbors. I just found out about the mock exam results and was at home wrapped in a blanket feeling sad, and you’re loudly bringing up my sad matters again. To put it mildly, this affects the mood of me, a senior high school exam student. To put it seriously, what if you give me PTSB and I can’t take the college entrance exam?”

Lin Shilan laughed inwardly: PTSD, this fool said it wrong again!

Lu Xiaorong didn’t have her leisurely mood to laugh: “I know you and Lin Shilan know each other. You’re just here to back her up.”

Tan Jin’s facial muscles trembled, as if he had suffered a tremendous humiliation.

“Auntie, what kind of words are you saying! Backing her up? Are you slandering me and your daughter for puppy love? I’m a senior high school student, my heart only has room for studying! These words absolutely cannot be said!”

“…”

Lin Shilan was won over by his acting—he was like a theater actor.

“Auntie, you just scolded her for not testing well. Let me see what rank she got.” Tan Jin had somehow taken off his slippers and taken two steps to the table.

Taking the ranking sheet on his own initiative, after his gaze locked onto Lin Shilan’s name, he let out a “wow,” disbelief written from head to toe.

“My goodness! Third place!”

His tone rose incredibly high, matching a crowing rooster.

“Auntie, you absolutely cannot let Lin Shilan work any harder. If she works harder, she’ll be heading to Harvard.”

Lu Xiaorong supported the table with one hand, rubbed her twitching temples, and was truly very speechless at him.

“Stop acting. Go home. I won’t scold Lin Shilan, so you have nothing to say now, right?”

“Mm, Auntie, there’s one more thing.”

Tan Jin didn’t quit while ahead, choosing instead to go further with a grinning face: “My whole family are animal welfare advocates who can’t stand seeing small animals abused. In case your family’s little dog isn’t properly cared for and gets thrown out by someone—I’m just saying in case. Then my family will definitely bring me to your door to find you. I’m telling you in advance so we don’t have this kind of unpleasantness between neighbors.”

“Got it,” Lu Xiaorong coldly extended her hand, pointing at the door: “Please return to your own home.”

Tan Jin didn’t look at all like someone being kicked out.

His expression was spirited as he swaggered out of her home.

Even after he returned to his own home, both Lu Xiaorong and Lin Shilan knew he would be observing their side.

Until dinner time, her mother hadn’t paid her any attention.

Using her own old clothes to make a nest for Jing Jing and feeding it dog food, Lin Shilan thought the matter of not being allowed to keep the dog had come to an end just like that.

At dinner time, Lu Xiaorong finally spoke to her.

“After correcting all the wrong problems on the test papers, copy them into the error correction notebook, then copy them as punishment 30 more times. Go finish this first, then come eat.”

The senior high school coursework was already heavy enough, and Lin Shilan hadn’t finished the test papers she was supposed to do. What her mother meant was she was assigning her additional homework and forcing her to complete it.

Whether for her studies or her own mood, Lin Shilan didn’t want to agree.

Mechanical punishment copying was thankless work and didn’t help improve her grades much. Moreover, copying all the wrong problems 30 times would take a very long time. Starting now and writing non-stop, she would still be writing until late at night. She had just finished major exams and needed rest.

So Lin Shilan replied to her mother with four words: “I don’t want to write.”

She went to get chopsticks and a bowl herself, preparing to sit down and eat.

“Go write!”

Lu Xiaorong’s face turned iron-blue as she took away her bowl and chopsticks: “I made this meal. If you want to eat, you have to write. If you don’t write, there’s no food.”

By this time, Lin Shilan was already ravenously hungry.

She looked at the steaming hot rice, clearly perceiving that in her home, keeping dogs, eating meals, doing test papers… everything here could all possibly be used by her mother as tools to establish authority.

She refused to submit.

However, she didn’t quarrel or make a fuss.

Standing up, Lin Shilan calmly informed her mother.

“I won’t write. Even if you don’t let me eat, I still won’t write.”

Having said this, she returned to the inner room.

Lu Xiaorong knew her own daughter couldn’t endure hunger well—she had a bad stomach, and not eating would cause stomach pain.

She finished dinner and dumped all the leftover food.

She expected that Lin Shilan would definitely beg her for mercy.

But Lin Shilan didn’t.

Lu Xiaorong kept watch. The entire evening, she didn’t even come out to rummage through the refrigerator.

Just like that, she went hungry until the next morning.

At breakfast, Lu Xiaorong prepared to use the same old trick, making her agree to copy the wrong problems if she wanted to eat breakfast.

Before she could say those words, Lin Shilan passed by the dining table, eyes straight ahead, and walked out.

She directly didn’t eat breakfast either.