Xue Jiao frowned slightly, feeling this person was too noisy.

Seeing that she didn’t respond, Cheng Ming Jiao thought she had struck a nerve and laughed even more ostentatiously.

“Gu Xue Jiao, cheaters like you are exposed after just one time! First place? Try getting it again! Haha!”

Cheng Ming Jiao was extremely pleased with herself now. She truly hated Gu Xue Jiao, and any embarrassment suffered by her opponent made her happy. Especially exposing Gu Xue Jiao’s true face—her current emotional state was comparable to winning the lottery.

No! For Cheng Ming Jiao, Gu Xue Jiao’s misfortune made her even happier than winning the lottery!

Yu Wei Wei sat on the other side of the classroom. In the past, whenever Cheng Ming Jiao confronted Gu Xue Jiao, she would always stand up, united in hostility.

But today she shrank her neck, wanting to speak out but feeling too embarrassed.

In the end, she opened and closed her mouth, ultimately shrinking in her seat without saying anything else.

“Cheng Ming Jiao, are you an idiot?” Yi Tian Yu threw a book at her, hitting her directly in the face, and blocking her mouth.

“Yi Tian Yu!!” Cheng Ming Jiao’s angry face became somewhat distorted.

Someone dared to hit her?!

“I never hit women, but you psycho are an exception. Chu Sheng is first, but Xue Jiao is also first—729, and she even scored 0.5 more than Chu Sheng.”

Yi Tian Yu looked at her with an expression no different from how one would look at an idiot, extremely disdainful.

“Impossible!! You’re lying!” Cheng Ming Jiao exploded, unable to believe it.

Gu Xue Jiao was still first? How could that be?!

That female con artist must have cheated on the last test and then pretended to study hard every day, but it was all fake!

She firmly believed Xue Jiao would be exposed in this monthly exam!

But now someone was telling her Gu Xue Jiao was first?

“No! You’re lying!”

Yi Tian Yu gave her a sidelong glance, looking at her mockingly.

Behind her, the girl sitting in front of Cheng Ming Jiao tugged at her and said softly: “Um… Classmate Gu Xue Jiao is indeed first… tied with Chu Sheng…”

She was first?!

“No… no… you must have cheated!” Cheng Ming Jiao still didn’t believe it.

To be precise, she didn’t dare to believe it.

Since Xue Jiao had “changed,” the image Cheng Ming Jiao had cultivated in class had completely vanished. If Cheng Ming Jiao believed that Gu Xue Jiao had legitimately placed first, wouldn’t her behavior just now be extremely embarrassing?

“Cheating! Gu Xue Jiao, you cheated!” Cheng Ming Jiao stated firmly again, trying to convince others and… herself.

“She didn’t cheat!” A voice came from the classroom door.

The older female voice sounded very authoritative. Combined with the strict impression Yin Fang usually left on students, almost instantly, the entire class fell silent, looking at her.

Yin Fang, carrying a stack of English test papers, walked in with clicking high heels.

Her expression was very serious, and she was holding the students’ test papers—perfectly matching the nickname students had given her: “Priestess.”

“Gu Xue Jiao’s score is not from cheating, but from genuine knowledge and skill!” As she said this, her brows loosened slightly.

But soon, her brows furrowed again: “Cheng Ming Jiao! If you have time to suspect others’ scores, why don’t you think of ways to improve your own? Huh?!”

Cheng Ming Jiao opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

Yin Fang didn’t give her time to explain and continued her attack: “Do you know how you scored this time? Eleventh in the class! Cheng Ming Jiao, you used to be in the top three in class, and now you’re outside the top ten! What have you been doing this semester?”

Cheng Ming Jiao was shocked, her eyes widening. She was only eleventh in the class?!

That bitch Gu Xue Jiao had scored first, while she was only eleventh?!

“You don’t study properly all day, just focus on Gu Xue Jiao, reporting on her, making things difficult for her, and even mocking her! I just want to know, where does your confidence come from? Will focusing on Gu Xue Jiao improve your grades? Huh?! She’s first in the grade now, while you’ve fallen to 39th!”

Yin Fang’s anger wasn’t fake. Cheng Ming Jiao used to be someone she valued, but how had she become like this now?

She took a deep breath to calm her emotions: “Cheng Ming Jiao, you should calm down and focus. After next semester, you’ll be in your senior year! In such fierce competition, if you don’t improve, you’ll fall behind! From now on, focus and put your heart into studying, don’t always fixate on others! Sit down.”

Cheng Ming Jiao sat down, lowering her head. She appeared to be self-reproaching, but no one saw the hatred hidden in her eyes.

Gu. Xue. Jiao!

Yin Fang withdrew her attention from Cheng Ming Jiao and directed her criticism at others, lecturing them in turn.

Xue Jiao never focused on any of this, keeping her gaze on the English materials on her desk.

After a moment, a slip of paper was pushed toward her—

[Hey, dummy, why did you ask me to walk with you just now?]

Xue Jiao frowned slightly and turned her head to see the boy beside her making faces.

Xue Jiao was speechless but still replied—

[Hmm?]

Yi Tian Yu looked and widened his eyes, somewhat anxious, scratching his head, and finally wrote—

[Just now outside the bulletin board, after you chatted with that guy when returning to the classroom, you called me to go together!]

After pushing the paper over, Yi Tian Yu’s ears turned slightly red, his gaze wandering, but his peripheral vision fixed firmly on the girl beside him.

This girl… did she like him too?

Wait? Why did I use the word “too”?

Yi Tian Yu shook his head, continuing to watch the girl beside him from the corner of his eye.

Xue Jiao didn’t want to bother with him and continued reading comprehension. Yi Tian Yu became anxious, made a sound with his mouth, then bumped her—

Silently mouthing: Look quickly!

Xue Jiao: “…”

Reluctantly, she picked up the note.

Why?

Why did there need to be so many whys?

Xue Jiao was completely speechless. They had gone out together, and with the class about to start, shouldn’t they return together?

This deskmate was a nice person, but… his brain didn’t work well.

Thinking this, she wrote a few words swiftly and pushed it back—

[Stop bothering, read your book.]

Yi Tian Yu widened his eyes in disbelief.

Then he stared intently at those four words, his head swaying, scratching nervously, almost wanting to grab Gu Xue Jiao’s shoulders and shake her vigorously—

But why?!

“Bang—” A piece of chalk hit Yi Tian Yu directly on the forehead. He looked up in confusion.

“Yi Tian Yu! What are you doing?! Sitting in the classroom but where’s your mind wandered off to?! Look at your test paper. I haven’t even started scolding you yet, don’t think you can be complacent because of a little progress. I’m telling you, you’re far from being happy!”

Yi Tian Yu: “…”

——

That evening, at the Yi household.

“Son! You’re back! How did these few days go?” Yi’s mother smiled as she walked out, quickly going to Yi Tian Yu’s side to take his schoolbag.

“Here, see for yourself.” Yi Tian Yu tossed the overall score sheet to her, sat at the dining table, and took a sip of water from his cup.

“Rank 278?! Passed everything except Chinese? And even scored 101 in math?! Aah—”

Yi’s mother let out a scream of delight.

“Puff—” Yi Tian Yu spat out a mouthful of water. “Mom! What are you doing? I never knew you cared so much about grades before?”

Yi’s mother grinned broadly, holding the score sheet tightly with a pleased smile.

“Son, of course, I didn’t care when your grades were poor, but now that your grades are so good, how can I not care?”

“…”

“What happened? What happened?” Yi Da Fa, who had just finished showering and heard the screaming, rushed out with a worried face.

Yi’s mother handed the score sheet to Yi Da Fa: “Look! Our son ranked 278! Total score 501! With this score, a little more effort and he can get into a first-tier university!”

“Really?!” Yi Da Fa’s face lit up with joy.

He reached out to take the score sheet, but Yi’s mother slapped his hand away: “You just showered, your hands are still wet, don’t ruin our son’s score sheet!”

Yi Da Fa wasn’t angry, just grinned happily, rubbing his hands vigorously on his clothes until they were dry before carefully taking the paper.

“Wow! It’s true! My son scored so well, even higher than last time! This trend is great!” He smiled so happily that Yi Tian Yu felt a bit uncomfortable.

He shifted awkwardly and said: “If you’re this happy now, won’t you go crazy with joy if I do even better next time?”

Yi Da Fa’s eyes widened—

Even better?

“My son! You’re amazing!”

Yi Tian Yu scratched his head, somewhat irritated.

What had he just said? Do better?

Damn!

“Huh?” Yi Da Fa’s voice changed as if he had discovered something incredible.

Yi’s mother and Yi Tian Yu both looked over.

“Gu Xue Jiao, 729?!”

“What? Gu Xue Jiao? Our son’s early-love girlfriend scored 729?!” Yi’s mother also widened her eyes in disbelief.

“What early-love girlfriend? Mom, don’t talk nonsense!” Yi Tian Yu instinctively refuted.

Yi’s mother sighed: “Fine, fine, fine, not an early-love girlfriend, but the girl you have a secret crush on!”

Yi Tian Yu reacted as if someone had stepped on his tail, embarrassed and angry—

“What secret crush?! Who has a crush?! Don’t talk nonsense!”

After saying this, as if he was burning, he added: “Alright, alright, I’m going upstairs to sleep!”

Yi Tian Yu turned and left. When he reached the second floor, he could still hear the conversation downstairs—

“Our son is shy, he must like that little girl! Old Yi, you’ve met her, what’s that little girl like?”

“First-rate! Our son has good taste like me, damn good! That girl is particularly pretty, both beautiful and quiet! And very obedient and sensible. Her studies are even more top-notch!”

“That good? I just feel that since our son sits next to her, his grades have risen sharply. She must be pretty good!”

“Very good indeed! Just that her family situation is complicated!”

Yi’s mother’s voice was surprised: “How complicated?”

Then Yi Da Fa launched into a lengthy, rapid explanation.

——

The Cheng household was also not peaceful.

As soon as Xue Jiao arrived home, Li Si Tong similarly asked with a smile: “Ming Ze, Jiao Jiao, how did the exams go?”

Cheng Shuo walked out carrying water and said helplessly when he heard this: “Why ask about grades as soon as they get home?”

Li Si Tong glared at him: “If we don’t ask students about grades, what should we ask about?”

“Not bad, first place.” Cheng Ming Ze said casually. His grades had consistently been first; if someday he wasn’t first, that would be worth being surprised about.

“What about Jiao Jiao?”

Before Xue Jiao could respond, Li Si Tong’s phone rang.

“Who’s calling so late?” She was somewhat surprised, picked up her phone, and was even more surprised, “Liu Ya Zhen?!”

She and Cheng Shuo exchanged a glance, their faces knotted with complexity.

“Answer it, on speaker.” Cheng Shuo said.

They were both curious about why this sister-in-law, who had barely been in contact since the last incident, was calling now.

“Hello.”

“Li Si Tong! Ask Gu Xue Jiao for me! What grievances did my daughter suffer at school today?! She came home and has been crying in her room!” The questioning voice came from the other end of the phone.

Liu Ya Zhen hadn’t finished—Cheng Ming Jiao had been crying while cursing Gu Xue Jiao.

Li Si Tong had been emotionally neutral at first, but upon hearing this, her emotions immediately rose. Whenever she thought of Cheng Ming Jiao, she remembered those words.

“Ask your daughter yourself. Why ask my daughter? What? Do you suspect my daughter bullied her?”

“How is that not possible!”

“You—”

Xue Jiao stepped forward and took the phone: “I’ll handle this.”

Her face was cold. Li Si Tong woodenly handed the phone to her.

The person on the other end of the line had heard her voice and raised her tone: “Gu Xue Jiao! What grievances did my daughter suffer?!”