As for those two people stirring up trouble, Xue Jiao didn’t want to confront them right now.

She guessed they might be the two seniors from the mathematics department who had wanted to join their project—Ge Donglin and Zeng Bin.

But she was busy with revision and had no time to deal with them.

“Let’s go study,” Xue Jiao linked arms with Mai Jiajia, appearing unconcerned.

“Are you sure you don’t need to worry about it?” Mai Jiajia was still concerned.

Xue Jiao firmly shook her head: “Not now.”

How could she not be angry about being baselessly slandered?

But matters had different priorities and urgency. With exams approaching, arguing about something that had already happened would be a waste of time and counterproductive.

It wasn’t about swallowing her anger, but rather not sacrificing more important things for the sake of momentary indignation.

Lin Zhihua had told Xue Jiao before that nothing was more important than strengthening herself.

Final exams were a process of becoming stronger and benefiting herself, which was what mattered most right now.

She had to understand that there would be plenty of time in the future.

——

In the evening, Lin Zhihua packed up all his things, stood up, and walked out of the company with his coat.

Chen Yan and Tan Qi followed him, occasionally discussing business matters.

When they reached the parking lot, Tan Qi asked: “Boss, shall I call the driver to open the door?”

As soon as he finished speaking, both Chen Yan and the boss looked at him.

Tan Qi was stunned—had he said something wrong?

Lin Zhihua looked at him and said meaningfully: “No need. I’m going to pick someone up, so I don’t need a driver.”

“Huh?” Tan Qi was even more surprised and couldn’t help exclaiming, “Boss, it’s so late. Why not have the driver pick them up!”

Having been an assistant for so long, he knew that Lin Zhihua had previously been in a car accident that nearly cost him his life.

As a result, he now disliked driving, and most of the time when he went out, a driver took him.

This… letting the boss go home alone at night seemed a bit…

Tan Qi looked excited and began to show his loyalty: “Boss! Or I can pick them up for you!”

Beside him, Chen Yan covered his mouth and coughed.

Hearing the cough, Tan Qi instinctively shrank his neck—had he said something wrong?

Lin Zhihua finally responded: “I’m going to pick up my girlfriend. Why would I call a driver? You want to go instead of me?”

Tan Qi: “…”

Lin Zhihua walked forward a step, stopped, turned his head with an aloof expression, and replied in a dignified manner without any hint of showing off—

“Forget it, you’ve never been in love, so, normally, you don’t understand.”

After speaking, he walked to his car, opened the door, sat down, started the engine, and in the blink of an eye, the car disappeared.

Tan Qi: “???”

After a good while, Tan Qi finally turned around and looked at Chen Yan with a horrified expression: “Was the Boss showing off???”

Chen Yan gave him a cold look, opened his mouth, and uttered a single word: “Fool.”

After speaking, he walked over to another car.

Tan Qi stared at Chen Yan with his eyes wide open, watching him intently.

Chen Yan turned back: “Drive me.”

“Why?!” Tan Qi protested.

“You won’t?” Chen Yan narrowed his eyes, looking fifty percent like their boss.

Tan Qi cowered: “I will…”

He thought to himself, this fox borrowing the tiger’s power!

The two got into the car, and Tan Qi smiled flatteringly: “Um… how did the boss’s wife bewitch him like this? Is our boss like an old tree blossoming?”

Chen Yan had a laptop on his knees and was looking at it. Hearing this, he looked up: “I’ve noted that down. I’ll report it to the boss tomorrow.”

The car was quiet for two minutes, then someone wailed—

“Secretary Chen!! You can’t do this to me!!!”

“Just drive properly!”

“Anyway, I won’t survive tomorrow, dying sooner or later is all the same!”

Chen Yan: “…I want Huguosi snacks tomorrow morning.”

“…Fine, I’ll buy them for you!” Tan Qi said through gritted teeth.

Chen Yan turned back to his laptop with satisfaction.

——

When Lin Zhihua arrived outside Tsinghua, Xue Jiao was already waiting, reading a book under the streetlight.

His car stopped in front of Xue Jiao, whose eyes brightened as she opened the door and got in.

As Lin Zhihua drove away, he frowned: “The light is so dim, why are you still reading?”

Xue Jiao continued reading while mumbling: “Um… I have an exam the day after tomorrow.”

As she spoke, her eyes didn’t leave the book.

When they stopped at a traffic light, Lin Zhihua reached out and put the book in front.

“Hey—” Xue Jiao exclaimed.

Lin Zhihua said flatly: “Do you want to become nearsighted? It’s too easy for you all to become nearsighted now. Don’t read in the car; you won’t miss these few minutes.”

Xue Jiao glanced at him and looked away: “Sigh, fine.”

“Why are you even busier than me now? Is the pressure too much?” Lin Zhihua raised an eyebrow.

“No, it’s just that finals are here, the revision pace is tight, and everyone is working hard. It’s not easy to get a satisfactory score.” Xue Jiao sighed. Back at No. 7 Middle School, the most competitive student in their grade was just Chu Sheng.

They had taken turns sitting in the first and second positions, distancing themselves from the third place.

But now it was different. Tsinghua gathered outstanding students from various schools, and it was quite challenging to stand out among these people in exams.

Lin Zhihua smiled and shook his head, giving her a sideways glance: “You need to be first?”

“Not necessarily. I just want to do my best. Whatever score I get is what I get. If I perform to my full ability, I can’t force a certain result, though I still hope for a satisfying outcome.” Xue Jiao could only shrug.

Everyone cares about their grades, but she constantly reminded herself—

Everyone wants to be the special one, everyone wants to be the best one, but there’s always someone better out there.

She needed to maintain the right mindset. After truly doing her best, the score she achieved would reflect her level.

But she must give her all; with fifty percent effort, it’s hard to achieve one hundred percent results.

If the outcome wasn’t satisfactory, it was likely because she hadn’t put in enough effort in the right direction.

Lin Zhihua nodded and said helplessly: “Although I wish you would do nothing but date me every day, there’s no way around it—you have more important things to do. That’s good though. You haven’t slacked off in university. These four years aren’t for playing; they’re a time to work hard and make the most of your time.”

Xue Jiao nodded heavily, then turned to look at him, her eyes shining like stars: “You want me to accompany you?”

Her lips curled up as she made a “playboy” expression she’d learned from somewhere.

Lin Zhihua smoothly parked the car at the entrance of the community, unbuckled his seat belt, and turned around.

“Mmm—” Xue Jiao had just raised her lips when they were sealed by his.

Lin Zhihua had made rapid progress, and Xue Jiao… felt it deeply.

A moment later, the two separated, breathing heavily. Xue Jiao’s eyes were hazy, half-closed: “You’re… shameless…”

“I don’t need a face.” Lin Zhihua lowered his head and gently kissed her again. “I just need you.”

His eyes showed restraint, and Xue Jiao met his gaze.

For some reason… whenever they were together, even when kissing, he always seemed very controlled…

As if suppressing something.

Xue Jiao blinked in slight confusion, looking at him obediently.

Lin Zhihua lowered his head and kissed her again: “Girl, I’ll wait a few more years for you.”

Xue Jiao suddenly felt a bit embarrassed and said to him: “Move away, I’m getting out.”

Lin Zhihua’s lips curled up as he sat back and fastened his seat belt: “Let’s go.”

“Oh, you can enter the community now?”

“I moved in today.”

“Ah, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Surprised? After your exams, I’ll show you around and cook for you.”

“Great!”

——

Some people would rather stay up all night during finals review. According to Mai Jiajia, there were people in their dormitory who pulled all-nighters and many who slept only four or five hours.

Xue Jiao was surprised. She used to study very hard too, but under the guidance of her family and Lin Zhihua, she now believed in “sharpening the knife before cutting wood,” so she rarely stayed up late to study.

But these people’s efforts still worried her somewhat. It was said that since they started taking major courses this semester, the exams were particularly difficult, and the professors seemed eager to set unsolvable problems.

Fortunately, Xue Jiao breathed a sigh of relief when she received her exam paper.

The major courses were indeed difficult, but ultimately they were variations of textbook material. Mathematics had always been like this—same essence with different approaches. After breaking down all the problems, the remaining framework was the same.

Senior Zhang Han had previously mentioned establishing a framework. During revision, Xue Jiao focused on building the framework for the entire book, which helped avoid wasting time on similar content.

Looking at these questions now, most were topics she had paid special attention to when building her framework, and many were similar to what she had encountered when helping Professor Tan with projects.

Xue Jiao didn’t find it too difficult. She quickly finished, checked twice to ensure there were no issues, and handed in her paper early.

The same happened with the three subsequent exams. Xue Jiao felt she had performed to her ability and didn’t worry further.

After the final exam ended on Saturday afternoon, the summer vacation of the second semester of freshman year officially began, meaning Xue Jiao had already spent a full year in university.

University time truly passed without notice.

At least in high school, being in that environment felt arduous, but university passed in a busy rush.

After finishing the exam, she hurried outside the campus, and sure enough, a familiar car was parked not far away.

Before she could wave, the car had already driven over, and Xue Jiao got in.

“How was the exam?” Lin Zhihua asked her with a smile.

“Not bad, I tried my best.”

Lin Zhihua nodded and asked with a smile: “Are you hungry?”

“A little. Are you cooking tonight?” Xue Jiao smiled at Lin Zhihua. She had been looking forward to it since lunchtime. Lin Zhihua’s cooking skills were now almost as good as Wu Liu Xiang’s.

Sometimes she wondered if there was anything Lin Zhihua couldn’t learn.

“Of course. You’re on vacation now, so feel free to come over for meals during the summer break.” Lin Zhihua’s expression was relaxed and smiling. When he was with Xue Jiao, he couldn’t help but have the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.

But Xue Jiao shook her head, looking a bit embarrassed: “Um… I might be very busy this summer. I’m starting the project tomorrow, and in my free time, I want to do some mathematics work. After all, I am in the mathematics department…”

She had won the Chern Mathematics Award and had been receiving a lot of attention. Professor Tan also had high expectations for her. She couldn’t dedicate all her remaining three years to physics, so she wanted to use this vacation to do some mathematics-related work.

It was just… she felt a bit sorry for her boyfriend, Lin Zhihua.

Sure enough, Lin Zhihua’s mood visibly dampened.