The physics competition tutoring began that very evening during self-study.

Classes 1 and 2 at No. 1 High School consisted of students who had been directly admitted to the school. Their average test scores in each subject were overwhelmingly superior compared to regular classes.

More than half of the competition class consisted of students from these two classes.

The homeroom teachers of these two classes were also notorious at No. 1 High School for being demonic. They had extremely high expectations for academic performance and didn’t allow their students to mingle with those from regular classes.

They had practically become two isolated islands in the entire grade.

The physics competition tutoring class was held in the Science Building, across from the teaching building. In the evening, there weren’t many people around, making it very quiet.

Only three people from Class 3 qualified to attend this competition tutoring class: besides Shi Niannian and Jiang Wang, there was also the study representative Huang Yao, who had already gone over right after dinner.

Jiang Wang tapped on her desk: “Ready to go?”

“Mm, just… a moment.” Shi Niannian took out a blank notebook and calculation paper and held them in her arms.

Because of the incident at noon, their relationship seemed to have improved a bit.

Shi Niannian wasn’t as resistant to him as before.

Regular class students ranking in the top two of the grade have already attracted plenty of attention. Add to that the storm Jiang Wang and Shi Niannian had stirred up on the school forum, and everyone turned to look when the two walked into the competition class.

Jiang Wang was long accustomed to such looks. He scanned around the classroom.

Only two seats remained in the far corner.

He looked back at Shi Niannian: “Come on.”

Shi Niannian made a sound of acknowledgment, clutched her books tighter, and quickly followed.

—

This was Jiang Wang’s first time attending a competition class.

He had been smart since childhood, always ranking at the top of his class. Later, during middle and high school, he spent a long time focused on swimming training. The team specially hired teachers for him, so his studies didn’t fall behind. However, since he didn’t return to school for exams, people generally didn’t know about this.

He absorbed knowledge very quickly. For science problems, he usually only needed to see them once to understand all the variations.

But this was limited to science subjects.

He wasn’t good at liberal arts.

During the half-year he spent in prison, because he was still in high school at the time, the prison had relaxed policies, allowing him to study and read during rest periods.

The people in prison… were beyond what ordinary people could imagine—utterly hopeless.

Many were already serving their second, third, or even fourth sentences. There were robbers, murderers, and rapists—all the facets of human society, concentrated with various sins and evils.

A year ago, when Jiang Wang plunged that knife into that person’s abdomen, he felt youthful impulsiveness, anger, disgust—all kinds of emotions.

He was quite naive then, thinking, “What’s the big deal about going to prison? I’ll just do the time.”

After actually encountering the people there, he realized how disgusting it felt, like falling into a pile of maggots—unbelievable and unimaginable.

He hadn’t known that such a group of people existed in the world.

When he first entered, everyone picked on him.

The peace he later obtained was fought for with a disregard for his own life. An 18-year-old who had stabbed someone and ended up in prison, with a flamboyant and rebellious personality, showing complete fearlessness and ruthlessness, naturally, people were wary of him.

Jiang Wang found it hard to believe that he had studied in such an environment.

And came out to score second place.

Amazing.

The competition class teacher was lecturing at the blackboard. Class had barely started, yet the blackboard was already covered with various diagrams and formulas.

Shi Niannian was taking notes diligently, writing even more detailed information than what was on the blackboard, using different colored pens to highlight points and adding various annotations and examples.

The little girl’s handwriting was beautiful and quite free-flowing, a bit like a boy’s handwriting.

The saying “handwriting reflects the person” didn’t quite apply to Shi Niannian.

“Alright, everyone, digest this knowledge point, and then do question three from the handout.”

Competition problems were indeed much harder than the monthly exam questions. Shi Niannian stared at the problem for a good while before figuring out a method using the knowledge the teacher had just taught.

The classroom was quiet, with only the sound of people working on problems and writing.

When Shi Niannian calculated the final answer, she glanced to the side. Jiang Wang had just put down his pen as well.

He moved his hand away, propping his head with one hand, and shifted the test paper to the middle of the desk.

Both their answers were 42.

Jiang Wang’s steps were very simple, with many mentally calculated parts omitted, making it look like just a few lines of solution.

Shi Niannian looked up at the physics teacher.

Besides listening to the lecture, she had another task today—to write Jiang Wang’s self-criticism.

Shi Niannian placed the blank paper on the desk, first writing “Self-Criticism” at the top, and on the second line to the right, “Jiang Wang.”

Jiang Wang looked at her and laughed.

Shi Niannian turned her head. She had never written one before and didn’t know how: “I don’t know how…”

“Think about it,” he said with a laugh, gloating.

She quietly complained: “It’s… your self-criticism, after all.”

“Who said they’d write it for me this afternoon?”

Shi Niannian couldn’t argue with him and turned her head back.

This self-criticism would be read in front of the whole school at next week’s flag-raising ceremony. She stared at the blank paper, racking her brains, and finally squeezed out a few words: “Respected teachers, dear classmates, hello, I am Jiang Wang from Class 3, Grade 2. It’s my honor…”

She stopped writing.

Honor my ass…

Jiang Wang, watching her write, naturally noticed her mistake and smirked: “You must be used to writing speeches as a student representative.”

“I don’t… give those speeches,” she said.

“Hmm? Aren’t you the top student?” Jiang Wang asked casually.

“I can’t speak… clearly,” Shi Niannian said. “The teachers ask another… girl to speak.”

Jiang Wang frowned and made a sound of acknowledgment.

He took out his phone, opened a search app, typed a few words, and placed the phone next to Shi Niannian.

—Self-criticism format templates.

Shi Niannian widened her eyes slightly, never having thought that there would be templates for this sort of thing.

Jiang Wang tapped the desk twice with the end of his pen: “Start writing.”

Everyone around was still working on the problems, with only a few having finished.

Shi Niannian was copying diligently, and Jiang Wang was watching her intently, so much so that they didn’t notice when the physics teacher walked down to them.

“What are you writing so seriously?”

The physics teacher directly reached over and snatched the paper, giving Shi Niannian no time to hide it.

She hurriedly stood up, lowering her head, in a posture of admitting her mistake.

The physics teacher shook the paper, making a rustling sound, and adjusting his glasses, read: “Self-Criticism, Jiang Wang. After this mistake, I feel deep remorse and guilt. I also realize that the consequences of my actions are very serious…”

One second, two seconds.

Shi Niannian’s ears reddened, and she bit her lip, looking as if she wanted to disappear.

Meanwhile, Jiang Wang sat lazily beside her, wearing a mischievous smile, not showing the slightest bit of embarrassment.

“Teacher, I’m sorry,” Shi Niannian said, lowering her head.

The physics teacher sighed and lightly patted her shoulder: “Sit down.”

Then he turned to Jiang Wang, pointing his index finger at him, “Jiang Wang, you come to the competition class and still bully the girl? Forcing her to write your self-criticism? And ‘feeling deep remorse and guilt’—where have you shown any remorse or guilt for this? Have you solved the problem yet?!”

Jiang Wang: “I have.”

“…”

The physics teacher changed his tone quickly, “Then go up to the blackboard and write down your process! Stop bullying your female classmate!”

“…”

“…”

Jiang Wang’s solution didn’t have many steps to begin with, and when further simplified for the blackboard, it became a problem-solving process that probably only he could understand.

He dusted the chalk off his hands and returned to his seat.

“You’re quite bad, Shi Niannian,” he said. “You didn’t even say a word to help me.”

Shi Niannian had wanted to speak up at the time. It truly wasn’t Jiang Wang forcing her to write, and the matter of Jiang Wang writing a self-criticism was indeed inseparably related to her. But at that moment, she didn’t know what to say.

Her stutter became even worse.

She lay on the desk somewhat dejectedly, her chin bumping against the desk.

Jiang Wang laughed: “Little white-eyed wolf.”

—

The next day.

No. 1 High School’s notice board displayed the disciplinary decision regarding Jiang Wang.

“Why haven’t Cheng Qi, Lu Ming, and that idiot from Class 9 been disciplined?” Jiang Ling, now relying on being the close friend of the school bully’s love interest, spoke more and more arrogantly.

A boy nearby responded: “Li Lu packed up all his things yesterday. He’s probably transferring schools.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Isn’t Jiang Wang’s father on the school board? It’s just a matter of one word—whoever he wants gone, goes.”

Jiang Ling rolled her eyes: “What’s with the sarcasm? It was Li Lu’s fault to begin with. Jiang Wang was just avenging for love. Don’t you get it?”

A girl with round glasses said mysteriously: “Yesterday at noon, someone saw Jiang Wang making a phone call to summon people. It seems he didn’t handle it himself. They must have been so scared that they don’t dare come to school anymore. The people Jiang Wang called must be super cool and badass!”

“…”

One matter hadn’t been settled before another arose.

Posts about Jiang Wang once again rose rapidly on the school forum, building high threads.

Grade 2 academic genius Shi Niannian is truly a life winner!! A real-life version of ‘the boss’s woman,’ following Jiang Wang as he cuts his way from Causeway Bay to Tsim Sha Tsui!!!!”

At the age of 16 or 17, full of fantasies, both chuunibyou and cute.

Jiang Ling had opened the forum last night and seen this post. Doing a good deed without leaving her name, like a person walking through a flower garden without leaving a trace, she replied: “You’ve got it wrong, classmate. I’m from Class 3 and personally heard Boss Jiang affectionately tell Niannian, ‘you’re my big brother.'”

Immediately followed by:

So, Boss Jiang is the underling of Niannian!!

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

So when Shi Niannian came to school today, people around her cast admiring glances.

However, she didn’t notice these looks. This morning, as soon as she woke up, she felt dizzy and heavy-headed, and couldn’t quite open her eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was due to poor sleep or something else.

The physics competition class had assigned a lot of homework.

The physics lesson content in the morning had already been covered in yesterday’s competition class, so Shi Niannian didn’t pay attention and focused on doing the problems assigned by the competition class.

A pen tapped on her desk twice.

Shi Niannian turned her head to look to the side.

Jiang Wang said: “Choose A.”

Her gaze returned to the problem, and only then did she realize that she had been zoning out, staring at the problem for a long time without taking it in.

Her chin rested on the desk as she underlined the key terms of the problem, wrote down some formulas on the calculation paper, looked at it for a while longer, then said quietly: “I can’t solve it.”

Jiang Wang took her calculation paper, wrote down two simple steps, and pushed it back.

This was his first time teaching someone a problem.

Before, in most people’s eyes, he was just an uneducated, rich, spoiled second-generation. The people he hung out with were also those who didn’t study, so naturally, he had never encountered such a situation.

But… it felt quite good.

Shi Niannian looked at the two steps, simplified to the extreme, but still had no clue.

Her head was spinning.

Her eye sockets were inexplicably hot, not like she wanted to cry, just dry and sore and uncomfortable.

The voice beside her asked: “Still don’t understand?”

She nodded dejectedly, her chin bumping against the edge of the desk.

Jiang Wang seemed to laugh very softly, then moved closer, their shoulders touching.

The weather today looked good. Although it was still cold, the closed windows created an illusion of bright sunshine and spring’s return.

Shi Niannian’s ponytail hung loosely, with a strand of hair that hadn’t been tied up curling around her fair neck, black and white very distinctly contrasting.

The young man held his pen, saying nothing, and broke down the two steps bit by bit.

His fingers were beautiful, long and bony, with very white skin through which blue veins could be seen. His nails were neatly trimmed, though there was a dark red blood mark on the tiger’s mouth of his hand.

Shi Niannian secretly lowered her gaze to look at her own palm, much smaller than his, with a thin palm and nails with a faint pink hue.

She suddenly thought of how those hands had lifted her from the water yesterday.

Their shoulders pressed together, amplifying body heat and every subtle touch, and she smelled a very faint tobacco scent. The body warmth had diminished the sharp, pungent smoke smell, like a web entangling between them.

A strange feeling.

Shi Niannian nervously moved her finger.

Her gaze returned to the calculation paper.

Jiang Wang had already derived the final answer: “Do you understand now?”

She quickly scanned it and said softly, “I understand, thank you.”

Jiang Wang’s desk was completely clean with nothing on it, while the corners of Shi Niannian’s desk had two very neatly arranged stacks of books—textbooks on one side, and various exercise books and test papers on the other.

He took out his phone, opened a half-watched sports game live stream, and placed his phone in front of the stack of books on the right side of Shi Niannian’s desk, creating a phone stand.

Shi Niannian looked up, glanced at his phone for two seconds, but ultimately said nothing and lowered her head to continue working on her test paper.

Jiang Wang leaned back lazily in his chair, his gaze falling on the stack of books, his slender fingers twirling a pen.

After watching for about five minutes, he realized something was wrong with Shi Niannian’s capability to rank first at No. 1 High School; that physics problem shouldn’t have been too difficult for her.

After all, she had solved those problems quite easily during last night’s competition training.

He turned his head to look at Shi Niannian.

The little girl did indeed seem a bit listless today, doing problems while lying on the desk.

Not like her usual self.

The previously distanced tobacco scent approached again, followed by a hand that lifted her bangs and pressed against her forehead. Shi Niannian shuddered slightly and moved away a bit.

“Are you running a fever?” Jiang Wang asked with a frown.

Shi Niannian blinked and made a sound of surprise: “I don’t know.”

Her health was quite good, and she hadn’t had a fever for a long time. So when she woke up feeling unwell this morning, she thought it was just due to poor sleep, combined with possibly catching a cold after being pushed into the pool yesterday. She had even made herself a cup of cold medicine before leaving home this morning.

Now with Jiang Wang’s question, she realized it might indeed be a fever.

With the flu rampant during this period, several cases of type A influenza had already been confirmed in the city. Schools, shopping malls, and subways—places with concentrated crowds—had become disaster zones for virus transmission.

Shi Niannian’s first reaction was to take out the mask Xu Ningqing had given her at the hospital and put it on.

She couldn’t infect others.

“Are you feeling uncomfortable?” Jiang Wang asked.

She made an affirmative sound, her voice muffled by the mask and unclear, so she nodded as well.

“Let’s go take your temperature first,” Jiang Wang stood up.

Cai Yucai, who was teaching, looked over and asked: “What’s going on?”

“Teacher, she seems to have a fever. I’m taking her to the infirmary.”

Fever conditions were currently under strict scrutiny at the school. Cai Yucai quickly came down from the podium, saw Shi Niannian’s discomfort, and hurriedly said: “Alright, alright, you take her quickly. Class monitor, go call the vice homeroom teacher. I’ll come over after class.”

Jiang Wang put his arm around her shoulders and walked out.

The wind in the corridor was cold. He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

The distance was too close.

Shi Niannian inexplicably felt more feverish.

She pushed him a little, without much strength: “Don’t get… this close to me.”

Jiang Wang said: “Push me again and I’ll carry you there.”