Chapter 111

The weather grew hotter and hotter, and there was only one month left until the college entrance exam.

The senior students faced their third city-wide quality examination. With tests every week, they were no longer as nervous about the city-wide examination and the upcoming city rankings as they had been at the start. After the exam, everyone stayed in the classroom to work on practice papers, not wasting a single moment of study time.

B University had approved Yan Mu’s special admission, so he no longer needed to take any exams. Recently, he had been kept at school by the teachers to act as a temporary tutor and usually stayed in the office.

Thanks to this connection, Jiang Zhihuo loved to find Yan Mu and ask him a pile of questions whenever he had a free moment. It wasn’t that he genuinely didn’t know the answers, but rather because the office had air conditioning. He was simply finding an excuse to freeload off the AC. It was comfortable.

In the air-conditioned room, Ding Jianhui took a sip of his goji berry tea, enjoyably blowing away the steam from the cup’s rim.

He was flipping through the essays on the topic of ‘dreams’ that he had assigned to the students of Class 1 at the beginning of the school year. Back then, Jiang Zhihuo hadn’t turned one in at all, brushing it off with a random excuse. He had even boasted in the office that he could get into either Q University or B University. Many teachers were present and had all treated it as a joke.

Who would have thought that now, the school bully Jiang, whom everyone had assumed was bragging, was actually aiming for B University? His scores were heaven-defying time after time, and he had been running to the office every day recently. The sight of him earnestly discussing problems with the God of Learning Yan was something Ding Jianhui could never get used to, no matter how many times he saw it.

Ding Jianhui flipped through the pages one by one, shaking his head with a smile.

Two days later, the results of the city-wide quality examination were announced. First place was still Jiang Zhihuo, with a score so high it made one doubt one’s own intelligence. The eternal second-place student held steady in his spot, but his score was higher with each exam. The time he spent seeking out Jiang Zhihuo and Yan Mu to discuss problems was finally paying off. With his mind constantly irrigated with new ways of thinking, he was slowly starting to grasp some of the extremely difficult problems, allowing him to pull far ahead of the others.

Ever since Long Hui had caused a huge ruckus on the forums of No. 3 High School and No. 1 High School, students from both schools had been paying extra attention to his situation. As soon as the rankings were released, after checking their own and the first-place score, they would exclaim, “Holy shit, how can there be a hundred-point difference?” before immediately searching for Long Hui’s name on the list.

—Although that guy’s character was questionable and he had no self-awareness, his grades were genuinely good. In every city-wide examination, he was either second or third.

However, they couldn’t find Long Hui’s name in the top ten. Surprised, they continued to search further down and were shocked to discover that Long Hui had dropped to 76th place.

[Holy shit? 76th? How did he drop to 76th?]

[His total score is 16 points lower than last time?!]

[The scores at the top are already super close. A difference of 0.5 points can separate you from three to five people, and he dropped by 16 points?!]

[I heard he never went back to school after that whole mess and has been studying on his own at home. His mentality must have collapsed, right?]

[If I were that humiliated, I wouldn’t be able to continue studying at school either… He brought it upon himself…]

[Tsk, being too ordinary yet too confident. Your mentality is bound to collapse.]

[When you study, you can’t let your ego get inflated. The moment it does, you’re done for.]

…

“Huo-ge, I got your leave form for you.” Zong Bei returned from a trip to the office, knocked on the window of Class 1, and handed a form in. “You’re taking leave from evening self-study. What are you up to?”

“Thanks,” Jiang Zhihuo said distractedly, taking the form. “Something came up.”

Zong Bei asked, “Huo-ge, are you okay?”

“Mhm. I’m fine.”

Although he said that, everyone else could see that Jiang Zhihuo hadn’t been present all day. He was either spacing out or giving irrelevant answers. He was like someone with a bad internet connection, moving for a bit, then freezing for a bit. This continued until the school bell rang in the afternoon, and he showed no signs of improvement as he packed his things to leave.

When the bell rang, Chang Luo and a few other boys didn’t immediately go to dinner. They ganged up to ask Jiang Zhihuo a few questions before he left. After Jiang Zhihuo finished explaining, Chang Luo waved a pen in front of his face and asked, “Huo-ge, what’s wrong with you? You’re not acting right. Your hand has been shaking all day.”

Jiang Zhihuo lifted his face, his jaw tight. In a complete reversal of his usual boisterous self, it took him a long while to utter two words. “I’m nervous.”

“Nervous about what?” Chang Luo asked again. “Where are you going later?”

Jiang Zhihuo: “To eat.”

Chang Luo was puzzled. “What’s there to be nervous about eating? Is someone trying to harm you?”

Jiang Zhihuo rolled up a test paper and tapped it on Chang Luo’s head. “Stop guessing. I’m with my…” He paused midway, the last few words clearly lacking energy. He wilted, flopping onto his desk like a coward. “With my parents.”

Chang Luo blinked.

Come to think of it, Huo-ge had never mentioned his parents to them. They had never come to a parent-teacher conference; Li Muhe had attended in their stead most of the time. They hadn’t thought much about it before, but now that he brought it up, they recalled something very important.

Huo-ge‘s parents must be extraordinary!!

Parents who would let their own son pretend to be a bad student and indulge his skipping class and fighting—they had to be incredible!!

They must have hidden identities too!!

The boys surrounded Jiang Zhihuo, glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby, and asked in a low voice, “Huo-ge, what do your parents do?”

“Are they part of a special agent team?”

“The intelligence bureau?”

“A secret organization? The Men in Black?”

“Are they on a secret mission? Now that you’ve resumed your identity as a top student, does that mean the mission is over?”

Jiang Zhihuo: “…You guys could stand to be a little more imaginative.”

After the boys’ interruptions, Jiang Zhihuo’s mood calmed down considerably. He checked the time. No matter how nervous he was, he had to leave now, or he would be late. He went back to his place to change his clothes before heading to the location he had arranged with Professor Yun.

They had agreed to meet at a hot pot restaurant in a small private room for four. Yun Xiaoxu had just debuted, and the buzz from his variety show was still going strong, so they could only meet in places with good privacy.

When Jiang Zhihuo arrived at the private room, Yun Xiaoxu wasn’t there yet.

Upon seeing Father and Mother Yun, Jiang Zhihuo didn’t know what to say.

Father and Mother Yun felt the same way.

It had been too long.

Their six eyes met. Jiang Zhihuo opened his mouth but said nothing, lowering his head and sitting down opposite them.

After a moment of silence, it was Mother Yun who pushed the menu in front of Jiang Zhihuo and asked him, “Xiao Zhou, what do you want to eat?”

Jiang Zhihuo ticked off a few dishes he remembered the two professors liked, then pushed it back.

When Mother Yun saw his choices, she smiled gently. She had aged a lot in the past years, with a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes when she smiled, but her entire being was even gentler and calmer than before.

Her voice was as soft as water. “You still remember, Xiao Zhou.”

Not long after, Yun Xiaoxu pushed open the door to the private room. It was nearly thirty degrees Celsius outside, yet this guy was wearing a hat, glasses, and a mask, completely covering himself up.

He stripped off his full gear, plopped down next to Jiang Zhihuo, and let out a long sigh. “I was suffocating!”

The meal was not as heavy or sorrowful as he had imagined. Yun Xiaoxu sat between Jiang Zhihuo and the two professors, chattering away nonstop. With him around, the atmosphere couldn’t help but liven up.

Gradually, Jiang Zhihuo became less nervous.

He had overthought things before coming, worrying that the professors wouldn’t accept the person he was now, worrying about awkwardness, about having nothing to say, worrying about this and that. He had pitifully stuffed himself into a small box. That wasn’t him; it wasn’t real at all.

Father and Mother Yun didn’t ask him how he had lived for the past decade, nor did they ask why he had become ‘Jiang Zhihuo’ or why his personality had changed. None of that was important to them.

They asked about the future.

Which city did he want to go to in the future? Which university did he want to apply to? Did he have a major he was interested in?

In the future, can we still be your mom and dad?

Jiang Zhihuo was using the serving chopsticks to pick up some food. Father Yun liked broccoli. Hearing this, Jiang Zhihuo’s head shot up, his eyes instantly turning red. The food wasn’t held steady; it trembled and fell outside the serving plate.

He was like a child who had finally received a coveted reward, or perhaps found something he had lost. He was so happy that he could only stare blankly, without any reaction. He didn’t know how he was supposed to react.

He subconsciously wanted to raise his hand, but found he was still holding the chopsticks, looking completely dazed.

Yun Xiaoxu called out to him, “Ge.“

Father and Mother Yun’s eyes curved into smiles, looking at him as gently as they had in the past.

They looked at that little Yun Zhou, who would always sit quietly in the study, so well-behaved. He was different from the person he was now, but they were both equally outstanding, both their children.

After dinner, Father and Mother Yun hugged Jiang Zhihuo and said to him, “Good luck on your college entrance exam.”

Yun Xiaoxu pushed them aside and squeezed in himself. The three of them hugged together, a scene of extreme warmth.

Yun Xiaoxu said, “What’s this ‘good luck on your college entrance exam’ stuff? He’s first in the city, okay? If you ask me, Ge, you should go for the provincial top scorer!”

Jiang Zhihuo punched him lightly. “That’s a must.”

As they spoke, a minivan pulled over to the side of the road. Yun Xiaoxu had an event that night. He put on all his gear, jogged to the car door, pulled down his mask, and gave his parents and his brother a big wave.

Not long after, the car Father and Mother Yun had called arrived. Jiang Zhihuo closed the door for them and watched the vehicle merge into the lane.

“This is wonderful…” In the car, Mother Yun held her husband’s hand and smiled with her head lowered.

“Mhm,” Father Yun said, placing his hand over hers.

The traffic light at the intersection ahead was red. The car slowly came to a stop, and they turned their heads.

Through the rear window, they could still see Jiang Zhihuo’s figure. He was standing by the roadside, looking around as if searching for someone. A moment later, he waved in a certain direction, then ran towards a boy and jumped onto his back.。

The wind blew, rustling the leaves. Under the neon lights, the boy’s eyes were filled with a smile, sparkling with fragmented light.

…

After another city-wide and provincial quality inspection exam, in the sweltering summer, the college entrance exam arrived.

Three years of high school finally came to a grand, colorful conclusion over two days of scorching sun and chirping cicadas.

On the day the college entrance exam results were released, everyone had a computer, a phone, or a TV on hand.

The computer was for checking scores, the phone was for chatting, and the TV was broadcasting experts’ predictions for this year’s college entrance exam cutoff scores.

The screen displayed the cutoff scores from previous years. An expert analyzed, “Our province used National Paper I this year. The difficulty is similar to previous years. Based on a comprehensive analysis of past scores, I believe the cutoff for top-tier universities will rise…”

-The expert says it’s going to rise, holy shit, for real? My estimated score is about the same as last year’s cutoff. Am I screwed? The one who crashes and burns is me…

-No, no, the experts are never accurate! (Brainwashing myself) The year my cousin took it, they predicted the cutoff for first-tier universities would be over 500, but when the results came out, it was 465. Damn, you didn’t even need a passing grade to get into a first-tier university. That year was so good, a score just over 600 could get you into a prestigious school…

-That’s different, your cousin didn’t take the exam in our province! Each province’s situation is different! And that was years ago!

-Ahhh, no, no, I’m so nervous, my hands are shaking right now.

-Afraid of shaking from the cold.

They typed while keeping an eye on the time. The moment the website opened, they immediately entered their exam admission numbers.

-Holy shit, it’s so laggy, I can’t get in at all.

-I’m in! But I entered my admission number wrong three times, and now it’s frozen!!

-Crap, where’s my admission ticket? Where’s my admission ticket?! I can’t find it!

-It’s in your hand, it’s in your hand! Get a grip!

-Everyone, don’t be nervous! We can all get in! Stay calm!!

-Has anyone gotten their score yet? I’m so anxious!!

The screen was filled with exclamation marks, the tension palpable enough to leak through.

While everyone was anxiously checking their scores, Jiang Zhihuo was…

Running a dungeon.

The game was updated last night. He had originally planned to do a round of update quests before bed, but who knew his estrus would decide to show up just then. Since the exams were over anyway, Jiang Zhihuo casually grabbed an item from a box under his bed.

He didn’t look, just grabbed one like he was opening a blind box. It was only after he unwrapped it that he realized he had taken out something the doctor had sent him a picture of before—a long, thin rod, meant for the front.

This thing was even more advanced than the one in the picture. How the hell could something so thin also be electric?

Under normal circumstances, he would have died before using it. But the torment of his estrus made him lose all reason and shed all shame. Without a word, he immediately tried it. Only when he actually started using it did he regain a sliver of clarity.

—Holy hell, the sensation was absolutely incredible!

It was indescribable, more thrilling than jumping off the fourth floor.

It was fucking amazing!!