Ye Zhen had recently suffered a devastating blow.
After bringing the pregnant Jiang Xiaoyi back to the parallel timeline, Ye Zhen, drawing on his extensive experience, had adapted to everything extremely well — his career and personal life were both going smoothly.
Here, he’d planned an unconventional proposal ceremony for Jiang Xiaoyi, inviting Jiang Xiaoyi’s parents, making up for the regret Jiang Xiaoyi had felt in the other timeline where her parents were no longer alive. With her future in-laws’ blessing and approval, he finally watched Jiang Xiaoyi put on the engagement ring and nod at him.
Ruiyi, too, was now on the right track. With Ye Zhen’s help, Jiang Xiaoyi continued pushing forward with the institutional reforms she’d started before, and now, Ruiyi’s performance had nearly doubled.
The only thing not going well…
was Ye Zhen’s exam.
He’d originally been brimming with confidence, always bringing up his status as a future honor graduate of the Male Virtue EMBA program no matter the occasion, using it to needle Dan Hui and Jiang Lin countless times. Coming back to this timeline again, he’d immediately signed up for this year’s exam, fully intending to pass it in one go and get his certificate, so he could show it off with even more legitimate pride going forward.
Except Ye Zhen never expected his exam to go so badly wrong.
Today the results were posted, and he stared, unable to believe his eyes, at the three red characters on his computer screen indicating a failing grade.
He hadn’t passed?
How was this possible?!
Why did this happen?!
“Honey, I’ve already booked the party to celebrate you passing the exam — I’ve already invited our friends. Since you take this EMBA exam so seriously, I figured we should celebrate properly, and from now on, you’ll be officially certified.”
Looking at Jiang Xiaoyi standing before him, her eyes shining with blissful ignorance, Ye Zhen felt quite bitter inside, but kept his expression calm on the surface: “Honey, sometimes a certificate doesn’t mean everything. A person who’s truly skilled doesn’t need to be confined to a certificate, don’t you think? If we treat learning knowledge like some kind of certification task, doesn’t that make the learning itself less pure? So I think we’d better not hold this party after all — I’m worried that with your influence and standing at Ruiyi, it might set the wrong example and give the wrong impression to a lot of the male employees.”
Jiang Xiaoyi, however, didn’t catch the deeper meaning behind Ye Zhen’s words at all, and said obliviously: “I don’t care whether you have the certificate or not, but you clearly do, since you went through so much hardship for it, doing all those practice questions — and besides, in this timeline, this certificate really does carry a lot of weight, so why not celebrate?”
“Actually…” Ye Zhen said, somewhat difficult to voice, “my results this year were kind of average. I don’t think it’s quite worth celebrating. I’ve decided to retake it next year.”
Jiang Xiaoyi wasn’t unaware that some people with high self-esteem weren’t satisfied with just passing — they needed to pass with high marks too. She patted Ye Zhen’s shoulder, comforting him: “It’s okay, don’t be too obsessed with the score — sixty points is already a triumph, anything more is wasted effort. As long as you passed, that’s already so much better than those who failed!”
“……”
Jiang Xiaoyi, not realizing anything was off, kept piling on the flattery: “My husband is really so amazing — you must be the number one in male virtue of this generation, a true master of male virtue, and rightfully so!”
“And even though men face a lot of employment discrimination in this timeline, I truly believe that with your ability, even running a male virtue training class of your own, you could make a fortune! I mean, think about it — you’re so adaptable, and with just a short, intensive review period, you managed to pass this exam that only has a 10% pass rate every year in one go!”
“Honestly, this exam is quite tough for first-time test-takers…”
“Exactly, exactly, that’s why you’re so amazing!”
“Honey, I might not be as amazing as you think I am…”
“No, in my eyes, you’re the most amazing!”
……
Jiang Xiaoyi was about to keep gushing blindly, when she heard Ye Zhen say, his voice pained —
“I didn’t pass.”???!!!
Jiang Xiaoyi thought she’d misheard: “What?”
“……” A look of humiliation and pain crossed Ye Zhen’s face, and he repeated, word by painful word, “I didn’t pass.”
Wait, what? How could he not have passed? Wasn’t it Ye Zhen himself who’d constantly bragged in the other timeline about how easy it was for the number-one male virtue exemplar in the world to pass the EMBA exam?
How could this happen…
“Slip on my own turf.” Ye Zhen cleared his throat, explaining with an awkward expression, “Mainly, I was away from here for a while, and it seems this round of the Male Virtue EMBA exam changed its question format, and I didn’t keep up with the practice questions, so I fell behind a bit. Plus, according to the forgetting curve, even knowledge you’ve memorized diligently before tends to slip away if you don’t keep reviewing it periodically. Without a private tutor’s guidance and no time to review during this stretch, I ended up not passing, unexpectedly.”
“Mainly, this just goes to show how difficult this Male Virtue EMBA exam really is — it doesn’t go easy on anyone. Generally, without one or two years of full-time dedicated preparation, it’s very hard to pass.” Ye Zhen glanced at Jiang Xiaoyi, his tone recovering some composure. “So it’s not that I’m not capable — it’s mainly that this exam is just abnormally difficult.”
“But honey, don’t worry, I’ll work even harder and pass it next time. Plenty of people take this exam two, three, even ten times before passing…”
Though she knew this was just Ye Zhen giving himself an easy way out, Jiang Xiaoyi largely agreed with his reasoning too — after all, this Male Virtue EMBA really was quite difficult, and expecting to pass after just a few months of intensive review did seem unrealistic to Jiang Xiaoyi as well.
But this line of thinking got completely upended for Jiang Xiaoyi half a month later —
“Through my own hard work, after a period of intensive isolated study, I passed the Male Virtue EMBA exam in one go, after just two months of high-intensity studying!”
Watching the news on TV, Jiang Xiaoyi’s first reaction was disbelief when she saw Jiang Lin — especially seeing how Jiang Lin, who’d once been so full of grievance and dissatisfaction about being stuck in this timeline, was now practically glowing with pride in front of the camera —
“I want to use myself as an example, to tell all the men watching at home right now: we can do it too! In this society, what we’ve always been missing to make a change is just our own determination to move forward!”
……
Jiang Xiaoyi knew that in this timeline, Jiang Lin, because of his colorful romantic history, kept popping up on trending topics and tabloid news, becoming quite the talk of the town in a world with these particular values — much criticized. Yet now…
Now it was practically surreal — Jiang Lin was holding up his gleaming Male Virtue EMBA certificate, grinning with confidence and apparent purity.
Ye Zhen sat right beside Jiang Xiaoyi watching this together, his expression unpleasant, lips pressed tight: “I don’t believe it.”
He glared at the beaming Jiang Lin on the TV screen: “He passed? He doesn’t even have decent moral character or integrity. He’s far worse than me — neither his body nor his soul has ever been pure…”
Ye Zhen turned to look at Jiang Xiaoyi, saying with a completely straight face: “Honey, this is definitely a paid promotional segment. Jiang Lin definitely got paid for this — there’s no way he actually passed this exam. After all, even I didn’t pass. Anyway, let’s not watch this kind of thing.”
Ye Zhen gently touched Jiang Xiaoyi’s now slightly rounded belly: “It’ll affect the baby’s prenatal education.”
……
Though Jiang Xiaoyi felt a bit puzzled, in the end she didn’t dwell on this little episode too much, since her early pregnancy morning sickness was practically the death of her these days.
Except, unexpectedly, a week later, she saw a lively, energetic Jiang Lin —
He was walking arm in arm with Xu Mengting, looking the very picture of a virtuous, dutiful man, coming to visit Jiang Xiaoyi and Ye Zhen.
Xu Mengting had just returned from filming abroad, and brought gifts, then brought Jiang Lin over to meet Jiang Xiaoyi and Ye Zhen.
“Brother Ye Zhen, this is my boyfriend, Jiang Lin.”
Ye Zhen’s expression could only be described as looking like he’d swallowed an entire elephant: “You’re dating him? Do you have any idea how many girlfriends he’s had before?”
“Brother Ye Zhen, that’s all in the past now.” Jiang Lin cut in before Xu Mengting could respond, smiling with a rather delicate, wounded air, practically on the verge of tears, this man putting on quite the aggrieved, meek-wife performance, “Back then I was young and didn’t know any better — you understand how this world works — a young, handsome man is the easiest target, just like a fish laid out on a chopping board, at everyone’s mercy. It was my own fault for not protecting my purity back then.”
Saying this, Jiang Lin gave Xu Mengting a look full of affection: “Fortunately my girlfriend is so progressive and open-minded, she’s never once looked down on me for this — she encourages me, cherishes me, unlike some people, who, even being the same gender, still want to discriminate against and suppress me… It’s thanks to her, not looking down on me for being poor or for my past, that I found the motivation to pass the Male Virtue EMBA exam in one shot. Now I count myself among the men who’ve distinguished themselves — that’s what finally gave me the courage to pursue her, and I managed to win her over with my persistence.”
Not knowing when to stop, Jiang Lin, at exactly the wrong moment, looked at Ye Zhen with particular annoyance and said, feigning casualness: “But Brother Ye Zhen, Mengting told me you were also preparing for the Male Virtue EMBA exam — so did you pass this time? I heard you used to bring up your status as an outstanding graduate of the male virtue program all the time…”
“……”
Was there no justice left in this world?
Xu Mengting must have been blind — how could she have let this damned social-climbing Jiang Lin pass the EMBA exam too?!
After seeing Xu Mengting and Jiang Lin off, Ye Zhen felt utterly defeated, and that night, he resolutely studied in his study until one in the morning.
People need to hold their heads high — and with the Male Virtue EMBA exam recently changed to twice a year, if Ye Zhen worked hard enough, he could still barely make it in time for the second exam this year.
Even just to be able to hold his head up and walk with dignity in the future, he had to pass this exam!
……
Ye Zhen felt too embarrassed to face Jiang Xiaoyi, but Jiang Xiaoyi actually found him rather endearingly silly.
“Stop studying.”
Ye Zhen’s pregnant wife leaned against the doorframe, looking at him gently, with a smile: “It’s not like I’m with you because of whether you have this certificate or not.”
“Are you being silly, Ye Zhen? I love you simply because you’re you.”
“The moonlight’s so lovely tonight — do you really think it’s worth wasting an evening like this studying?” Jiang Xiaoyi’s gaze was tender and lingering. “Come keep me company instead. Read a prenatal picture book to our future baby with me.”
Outside the window, the night was gentle, and Ye Zhen suddenly felt that this whole business of saving face just didn’t matter anymore.
Because the happiness right in front of him was the real thing.
He set down his textbook, and turned to smile at Jiang Xiaoyi too —
“Okay. Whatever my wife says.”