Cma 15

When Lin Tiao returned to the classroom, Old Yu was still there. Upon seeing the bandage on her forehead, he looked surprised. “Did Jiang Yan really hurt you?”

The classmates in the room, all in the know, burst into laughter at Old Yu's words.

Lin Tiao stood at the door, her tone a bit helpless. “Teacher Yu, this injury isn’t from Jiang Yan; I accidentally fell during gym class. It has nothing to do with him.”

Old Yu still looked doubtful, his eyes crinkling in skepticism. “Are you sure Jiang Yan didn’t hit you? Lin Tiao, you don’t need to be afraid. The students I teach won’t submit to tyranny. If Jiang Yan really did it, I won’t favor him.”

Just then, Jiang Yan returned from the restroom. Hearing Old Yu’s comment, he stood next to Lin Tiao and asked, confused, “What did I hit?”

Lin Tiao glanced at him. “Me.”

“What?”

“Me,” she repeated with a strange smile. “Old Yu said that this injury on my head was caused by you.”

“…”

The two stood at the door and chatted for a moment. Old Yu knocked on the podium with his fingers, a smile plastered on his face. “Do you want me to get you both some chairs to sit at the door and chat?”

“…”

“Hahaha!”

“Old Yu, what kind of divine homeroom teacher are you?”

The classroom erupted into a noisy chatter. Lin Tiao, feeling embarrassed, quickly lowered her head and hurried back to her seat, with Jiang Yan following suit.

To be fair, Old Yu was indeed a rare good homeroom teacher. He treated all his students equally without distinction.

However, his way of doing things was not very conventional; he often acted outside typical reasoning. Still, his good nature earned him the respect and affection of the group of students in Class 18.

“Is Old Yu’s way of thinking different from others?” Once back in her seat, Lin Tiao discussed Yu Bingshan with Jiang Yan. “Does he have some misunderstanding about you?”

Jiang Yan rubbed his eyes, which were slightly red. “What do you mean?”

“Why else would he choose you as class monitor and let Du Wenbo be the academic representative?”

Lin Tiao hadn’t sat next to Du Wenbo for long, but during that time, she hadn’t seen him take his eyes off his phone.

Then there was her desk mate, Jiang Yan, who seemed to spend twenty-five hours a day absorbed in TV dramas and video games.

Jiang Yan leaned against the wall, propping his head on his arm, and looked down at her. “I don’t think Old Yu has any misunderstandings about me. It’s you; your understanding of me seems a bit skewed.”

“Where?” Lin Tiao replied earnestly. “From the rumor that you can take on all the boys in another class single-handedly, I don’t think Old Yu understands you well at all.”

In her junior high school, there had been a bully who claimed to be unbeatable throughout the attached school, commanding a posse wherever he went.

His grades were, of course, at the bottom of the barrel, and teachers generally didn’t care for him.

Though Lin Tiao didn’t pay much attention to this, a typical teacher wouldn’t choose someone who could challenge an entire class anytime and never listened in class, instead immersed in games, to be class monitor.

However, there were exceptions, like those whose wealthy families donated a building or a playground to the school, allowing them to strut around campus as they pleased, even making the principal step aside.

Thinking of this, Lin Tiao suddenly looked at Jiang Yan in surprise. “Your dad didn’t donate a building to the school, did he?”

Jiang Yan didn’t expect her mind to wander so far. Upon hearing her words, he suddenly fell silent, lost in thought.

Lin Tiao was puzzled by his sudden quietness.

Did she hit upon a little-known secret of his? Had she touched his pride as a nearly adult man?

But that didn’t seem right.

Reflecting on her earlier words, your dad… Wait!

Lin Tiao suddenly recalled the revelations about wealthy families that Xu Yichuan and the others inadvertently let slip during the fight.

His dad hit him.

His uncle made things difficult for him.

“…”

Lin Tiao realized she had indeed stumbled upon a secret Jiang Yan didn’t want others to know. For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond.

As she hesitated about whether to try to comfort him indirectly, Jiang Yan suddenly spoke again. “Have you heard of the Wulin Cup?”

The Wulin Cup was a national physics competition held every April at Lake City University, lasting three months, divided into preliminaries, finals, and the last round of free team competition, second only in prestige to the National Middle School Physics Competition.

Lin Tiao didn’t expect him to change the subject so quickly and was taken aback for a few seconds before nodding. “I know it. What about it?”

A few years ago, Lin Tiao had watched the live broadcast of the competition, but due to the torment of physics, she hadn’t followed it much since.

“You should check the official website; you should still be able to find the results from two years ago.”

Lin Tiao raised an eyebrow, pulled out her phone, and opened Baidu to search for the Wulin Cup's official website, where she found the historical competition results.

The internet speed was slow, and it took more than ten seconds to load.

As Lin Tiao scrolled back two years, her hand paused, and she looked up at Jiang Yan in surprise. “Isn’t this second place, Du Wenbo, our class Du Wenbo?”

“What do you think?” Jiang Yan lowered his arms and looked down at his phone.

After a few minutes of processing this news, Lin Tiao suddenly realized, “Wait? How do you know about Du Wenbo’s award?”

“You can scroll back one more year.”

“You’re not going to tell me you were second place that year, are you?”

Jiang Yan came out of his thoughts, lowered his head, and chuckled. “No.”

“I knew it.”

He spoke again, “I was first.”

“?”

Lin Tiao was speechless, quickly scrolling back a year. When she saw the results displayed on the webpage, she almost wished she could blind herself.

What is this?

First place, Class 1, Year 2, Xicheng Middle School, Jiang Yan.

She inexplicably felt a bit parched, swallowing hard. “I can’t help but think that the possibility of you sharing the same name as him seems higher than the possibility of you being that first place.”

Jiang Yan paused for a second, suddenly wanting to laugh, and then he really did, his voice rising at the end. “Are you stupid?”

His voice was intentionally lowered, gravelly and crackling, ringing in Lin Tiao's ears like a jolt of electricity, sending tingles down her spine.

Lin Tiao's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn’t help but rub her ears. “Even the academic overachiever can’t curse! Speaking of academic overachievers, I’m one too.”

Jiang Yan clearly didn’t believe her, responding dismissively, “Mm, academic overachiever.”

“…”

The three evening self-study periods quickly ended amidst Lin Tiao’s shock and chatter, and the classroom emptied quickly, leaving only a small group of students.

Lin Tiao slowly packed her things, and as she stood up with her bag, Jiang Yan also pulled his backpack from under the desk and walked out.

As he passed by her side, he suddenly stopped.

Lin Tiao looked up, her breath catching.

The young man had fair skin, and his features were strikingly handsome, every contour finely chiseled. He stood under the bright overhead light, glowing with an inviting brightness.

He just stood there, right in that light.

Suddenly, he raised his hand, ruffled her hair, and said softly, “See you Monday, little academic overachiever.”

Lin Tiao’s breathing completely faltered, and no one knew how fast her heart was racing at that moment.

This person was truly good-looking.

She thought.

The next day was the weekend. Lin Tiao was awakened early by her mother, who took her to the hospital for an examination.

Last night, when Lin Tiao got home from school, her mother was frightened by the bandage on her forehead and immediately prepared to take Lin Tiao to the hospital.

Had Lin Tiao not repeatedly insisted she was fine, they might have spent the night at the hospital.

The hospital was crowded on weekends, but fortunately, Lin’s mother had acquaintances, so they didn’t have to wait in line, and the results came out quickly—everything was normal, and there were no major issues.

Lin’s mother looked over the examination results several times before sighing in relief. “Thankfully, there’s nothing wrong with your head, and your arm isn’t affected either.”

Lin Tiao had gotten up early and was now yawning repeatedly. “Mom, I told you I’m fine. I just scraped a little skin; I didn’t even need stitches.”

“You really don’t let us worry at all.” Lin’s mother said this, but her eyes were filled with doting affection for her daughter. “As long as you’re okay, let’s go home. I asked your dad to get some ginseng from someone and will make you some nourishing soup when we get back.”

“Wow.” Lin Tiao exclaimed in surprise, wrapping her arms around her mother and whining. “Why is my mom so wonderful?”

“You.” Lin’s mother poked Lin Tiao’s forehead, her eyes filled with laughter, but her heart was flooded with a sense of guilt toward her daughter.

She and her husband, Lin Yongcheng, were self-made; they were usually too busy with work, often traveling for business, sometimes away from home for ten days or half a month.

Naturally, they had little time to take care of Lin Tiao, but fortunately, Lin Tiao was obedient and sensible, so they didn’t have to worry too much about her life and studies.

It wasn’t until the past few years, when the company gradually started to run smoothly, that she found some time to stay at home and accompany Lin Tiao.

Although both she and her husband felt very regretful for missing out on her childhood, they thought that now they had the opportunity to make up for it, and that was what mattered.

---

On the way back from the hospital, Lin Tiao chatted casually with Meng Xing on QQ.

Meng Xing still remembered what Jiang Yan had said yesterday about taking revenge for her. “Has Jiang Yan mentioned how he’s going to get revenge on you?”

“He didn’t mention it. I think he’s just trying to scare Tang Yushi.”

Lin Tiao really didn’t take this matter seriously. After all, Jiang Yan was a boy; he couldn’t actually hit a girl, right?

“That’s true.” Meng Xing replied quickly. “But scaring Tang Yushi is still a good thing. She didn’t even come to self-study class last night.”

“I had the disciplinary committee mark her as absent.”

“Her friend wasn’t there either, so I marked her too. Hahaha.”

Lin Tiao: “You’re abusing your power.”

“I’m just settling scores. After all, she deliberately threw a ball at you.”

Yesterday during PE class, Lin Tiao had been standing next to the court watching her play volleyball, when suddenly a basketball flew in from the adjacent court and knocked her down, hitting her head against the edge of the bench.

If it had been someone else, Meng Xing might have believed it was an accident, but with Tang Yushi, even if she claimed it was an accident, no one would believe it.

Everyone knew how good Tang Yushi was at basketball.

An accident? Unintentional?

No way!

“Don’t worry, if Jiang Yan doesn’t get revenge for you, I will.” Meng Xing sent a voice message. “I’m very skilled at dealing with girls.”

Lin Tiao accidentally hit the speaker button, and suddenly the entire car was filled with her bold voice.

“…”

Lin’s mother glanced at Lin Tiao. “That sounds like Meng Xing, right?”

“No, no, you heard wrong.” Lin Tiao quickly denied it. “She’s just a classmate of mine chatting in the group since there’s nothing to do during the holiday.”

“Is that so? But it sounds like someone is about to fight.”

Lin Tiao played dumb. “I don’t know; I’ll ask later what’s going on.”

“Ask what? Just don’t go and get involved.” Lin’s mother closed the car window. “That’s the easiest way for campus violence to happen.”

“…”

Lin Tiao couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. She assured her mother repeatedly that she wouldn’t get involved before her mother finally let it go.

After dinner, the chat group for Class 28 of the second year became quite lively. By the time Lin Tiao saw the messages, there were already over 99 unread.

When she opened it, a boy named Wu Wang in the class had sent a message: “No way, Jiang Yan really hit Tang Yushi?”

?

Lin Tiao’s mind buzzed for a second; she hadn’t reacted yet when several other students quickly chimed in below.

“I think he slapped her?”

“Didn’t he kick her?”

“No, no! I heard from a classmate in my liberal arts class that he threw a ball at her?”

“No, no, no! He punched her.”

Lin Tiao: “…”

Can’t we get a unified story here?

However, she wasn’t in the mood to joke around. She exited the chat and sent Jiang Yan a message: “Did you hit Tang Yushi?”

Guessing that Jiang Yan was also in the group, she received a reply in just a few seconds.

“I didn’t hit her.”

Lin Tiao hadn’t fully relaxed yet when she saw him send another message.

“She came at me first. I was just defending myself and pushed her.”

“…”

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