June 29, Monday, sunny, temperature 35°C, light breeze.

Today is the last day for high school graduates in Chongqing to fill out their college applications, and it's also the day of Lin Xiaoman's sister-in-law's first-grade second-semester final exam.

Xia Shanshan left home early to proctor exams at other schools, while Jiang Xia arrived at his wife's house ahead of time, following orders from his mother-in-law and mother to take his sister-in-law to the exam.

Now, Ji Wanqiu trusts Jiang Xia to take care of Xiaoman even more than she trusts her own daughter.

The three of them walked happily to Nanshan Elementary School, and along the way they could see parents taking their children to take the exam.

Primary school final exams are not as strict as the college entrance exam. Students are shuffled and randomly assigned to different exam rooms, and then proctored by teachers from other schools. In general, it is still in their own familiar territory.

"Xiaoman, good luck! We're waiting for you outside."

Jiang Xia patted his sister-in-law's head. He was full of confidence, after all, he had spent the last two days helping his sister-in-law review in various interesting ways.

With two top students admitted to Tsinghua University, plus a naturally gifted student, it would be difficult for Xiaoman not to get first place.

"Okay, sister, brother-in-law, I'm going in now. Wait for my good news! Bye-bye~"

Lin Xiaoman smiled and handed her two hands, which she had been holding, to the other person. Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan exchanged a smile. Sometimes, you really can't treat Xiaoman like a child.

This little girl really went to great lengths to get them together.

Watching her younger sister skip and hop into the school with her little backpack, Lin Yanwan gently shook his hand: "Mr. Jiang, where are we going now?"

"Xiaoman only had two exams, each lasting an hour, and she was out around 11 o'clock."

"Are we just going to wait outside like this?" Lin Yanwan took out her phone to check the time. It was only a little past eight o'clock, and there were still almost three hours to go.

"Let's just browse around. How about we go online or sit in a bookstore?"

"Let's go to an internet cafe," Lin Yanwan said after thinking for a moment. "But I didn't bring my ID card. Do I need to go back to get it?"

The two are still students, and they don't really need to buy anything while shopping, so they might as well go to an internet cafe to kill time, play games, watch movies, and listen to music. Three hours is neither a long nor a short time.

"No need. This era isn't that strict, and there's no system requiring real-name registration for internet access. You just need to pay," Jiang Xia said.

"OK."

The two held hands and leisurely bought two cups of milk tea, one lemon tea, and one grapefruit juice from a street vendor, perfect for cooling off in the summer.

Poor sister-in-law, I even forgot to buy her bottled water.

Lin Yanwan snapped the straw in and took a small sip of the grapefruit juice. It was sweet with a 50% sugar content and had a slightly sour grapefruit pulp flavor, as if she were embracing the whole summer in the middle of summer.

She chewed on the fruit pieces, turned her head to look at Jiang Xia, and inexplicably thought that his name also contained the character "Xia". Did this mean that Xia Tian had always been by her side?

"Why are you suddenly staring at me?" Jiang Xia touched her face.

Lin Yanwan hugged him for no reason, then nuzzled him with her elbow: "Let me have a sip, and taste your flavor."

"Don't you have some?"

"What if yours tastes better?"

"...This is tea, you know? And I only added three-tenths of an ounce of sugar."

"I don't care, I want to drink it!"

"Okay, okay, I'll feed you."

Jiang Xia unzipped his pants—no, I mean, inserted a straw and brought it to her soft, plump lips.

Lin Yanwan opened her small mouth and took a shallow sip, her delicate face immediately scrunching up.

"Ugh~ The lemon is so sour, and it has a bitter taste like tea. It's not sweet enough either." She looked up at Jiang Xia, then took another big gulp and swallowed it with difficulty.

"Why do you like drinking this stuff?"

Jiang Xia chuckled and said, "I like kumquat lemonade, but they didn't have any here, so I just picked something that was about right."

"Why don't you try a sip?"

Jiang Xia tasted it and his expression remained normal: "It tastes alright, acceptable, not that bad."

"Then you drink yours, and I'll drink mine." Lin Yanwan held her grapefruit juice tightly, as if afraid he would take it away.

"No, you've already tasted my flavor, so I want to drink a sip of your water too."

"Hahaha, no way, no way~"

The two laughed and joked their way to an internet cafe near Nanshan Elementary School. Perhaps because the middle school and college entrance exams were over, the internet cafe was almost full.

Jiang Xia went to the front desk, intending to ask the network administrator if there were any available computers, but upon closer inspection, wow, the network administrator turned out to be an acquaintance of his.

"What are you doing here?" he asked Chen Yao.

Chen Yao was also slightly surprised, not expecting to run into her deskmate here. It seemed that the two hadn't been in contact much since the college entrance examination.

"You see, summer job, to earn some tuition fees." She shrugged.

Lin Yanwan looked at Jiang Xia with a smile. This guy deliberately invited her to the internet cafe and even brought her here. Could it be that he already knew his old classmate was working as an internet cafe manager here?

Jiang Xia felt uneasy under her gaze. As the saying goes, a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea; who knows what she's thinking right now?

He quickly explained, "Baby, don't misunderstand. I've never been online here. It's just that it's close to Xiaoman's school so I can pick her up later. Besides, this is the first time I've met her since after the college entrance exam."

"Yes, yes, I know, you don't need to explain." She smiled at Chen Yao. To be honest, if it weren't for Jiang Xia, she would have almost forgotten about this person.

Chen Yao was not as tall or as pretty as her, and had faint freckles on her cheeks. She had a baby face and a petite figure, which made her chest appear larger.

In the words of those perverts in later generations, this is the kind of legal loli that can arouse their primal urges.

She didn't know why she subconsciously felt hostile towards Chen Yao. Was it simply because she was Jiang Xia's deskmate?

Chen Yao raised her head slightly, looked at Lin Yanwan calmly, and said in a light tone, "Are you two going to go online?"

"Yes, that's right. Could you check if there are two adjacent machines?" Jiang Xia said.

She glanced down at the system and shook her head, saying, "I'm sorry, there's only one computer available right now. The two adjacent computers will be available in half an hour at the earliest, and we don't even know if they'll charge extra."

"Then forget it, let's go somewhere else."

Jiang Xia grabbed his wife and left without hesitation. He didn't know why he felt a little flustered. He and Chen Yao had no relationship other than being classmates.

"No need, this place is fine. I'll use that other machine. You two old classmates haven't seen each other for a long time, have you? Have a good chat."

Lin Yanwan took out ten yuan and placed it on the bar, smiling as she said, "Give me two hours first."

...

(Note: This is a single-female-lead story, not a stock market novel. Chen Yao has other uses.)