Chapter 17 Fang Minzhou returns...

When Fang Minzhou returned home, perhaps because her emotions had been too volatile that day, she should have been worried about her parents' reaction after learning about her grades, but she calmly told them.

They were silent for a while, then her mother got up and brought out a bowl of wontons from the kitchen. "The test is over, and there's nothing we can do if you did poorly. Just be careful next time."

It wasn't exactly a reprimand, but as the warm food slid down her esophagus, Fang Minzhou silently chewed it down along with her father's earnest admonitions.

My parents were relatively calm, probably because they had previously experienced a crisis of trust that had been repaired.

That happened in the first semester of my first year of high school.

Her middle school entrance exam scores were among the best in her class, but after entering school, her scores in several tests were only average or even below average. She was anxious, and her parents were worried; she was frustrated, and her parents were disappointed, but they accepted the fact and comforted her instead.

Fang Minzhou always remembered that humiliation. Her parents' concessions were like a soft knife, forcing her to admit that she was not good enough. But she was unwilling to accept it. She just felt that it was not her level. She just felt that she could have done well in the exam.

Then her father said to her, "You said we don't believe you, but you always say you'll do better next time, but you don't actually do it. Trust isn't something you can just say. It's not that we don't believe you, we just hope you don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Fang Minzhou also always remembered the chill that followed when she came to her senses after hearing those words.

Dad just said nicer things than Mom. His claim that he "didn't want to put pressure on her" was a lie, but Fang Minzhou didn't realize that she was making a promise that had no basis or result and was just empty talk.

Fortunately, in the final exams that followed, she jumped to fifth place in her class and never fell out of the top fifty again.

Until this time.

Fortunately, they learned from experience, and from then on, she only made promises to herself.

As a child, Fang Minzhou was ignorant and obedient to her parents, and was guided by them. Now, horns have grown on the top of her head.

This corner might hurt someone. Fang Minzhou didn't want to argue with her parents, and she also sensed that her parents didn't want to hurt her or be hurt by her. Just like a cow being stimulated by a red cloth, the results were the gong and drum for their subtle power struggle, and both sides tried to keep quiet.

Therefore, Fang Minzhou felt that she probably looked down on Wang Kan's declaration, but belittling him was like belittling her past self.

On the surface, Wang Kan seemed to have really started studying hard. He still couldn't arrive early for morning self-study, but he was noticeably more attentive in class, and he stopped sleeping or reading during self-study. The questions he asked Fang Minzhou were also much more difficult.

She still loses points on basic questions.

She deliberately spoke coldly to avoid being misunderstood as concerned, expecting Wang Kan to feel embarrassed and annoyed. However, he simply said he understood with a normal expression. But during class, he kept glancing at her, which ignited a nameless anger within Fang Minzhou. She glared at him, and he seized the opportunity, quietly handing her a note that read: "So you also want me to do well on the exam, don't you?"

Wang Kan shrugged and pretended to listen to the lesson by looking at the blackboard.

Fang Minzhou waited with a cold eye to see how long Wang Kan's enthusiasm would last—a week or two? It wasn't that she looked down on him, but anyone who could persist in studying seriously wouldn't be so carefree in the first place.

Wang Kan persevered until the second monthly exam, and did quite well, improving by several dozen places to break into the top 150 in his grade. This result was about what he had expected, and while he breathed a sigh of relief, he was also very clear that he had "reached his limit." This was the best he had ever achieved in his first year of high school.

To everyone's surprise, Jin Baihao ranked third in the class, even higher than Fang Minzhou, who ranked fourth. He was overjoyed when he received his report card.

Seeing Fang Minzhou staring silently at her report card, Wang Kan couldn't help but tell Jin Baihao to watch his image: "It's just a monthly exam, is it really that big of a deal? Is it like Fan Jin passing the imperial examination?"

His half-joking remark, neither praising nor criticizing, was still a bucket of water poured over his head, calming Jin Baihao down a bit from his feverish fervor. His excited expression froze on his face like the leftover oil in a cold dish.

He took off his glasses, wiped them with his clothes, put them back on, and stood there with his mouth agape, looking awkwardly unsure of what to say.

Wang Kan said those words for Fang Minzhou, but now he couldn't help but wonder why Jin Baihao could get third place.

"Why did you say that?" Fang Minzhou suddenly asked.

"What..." Wang Kan raised his eyebrows, never expecting Fang Minzhou to speak up for Jin Baihao.

"Wouldn't you be happy if it were the top three in your class?"

"I……"

Jin Baihao's face, which had turned red with excitement, turned even redder. He adjusted his glasses and smiled gratefully at Fang Minzhou, "...I also performed exceptionally well this time. I was lucky. Many of the questions were ones that you and I had discussed before. It might not be the same next time."

“You did very well on the test, don’t listen to what others are saying,” Fang Minzhou said. “You also taught me the questions, so once you’ve learned them, they’re yours. Some people might not understand even after being told a hundred times.”

Jin Baihao whispered "thank you".

Wang Kan almost vomited blood. He interrupted their endless chatter, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

However, he also realized that he had been harsh just now. Since Fang Minzhou didn't care, there was no need for him to stand up for her anymore.

Jin Baihao: "Oh...it's okay, I know."

Wang Kan: "Although I didn't do as well as you guys on the test, I made great progress this time, thanks to your help all the time."

Jin Baihao waved his hand: "It's nothing, it's nothing..."

Fang Minzhou ignored him.

Wang Kan didn't understand why Fang Minzhou spoke so softly to others. Did they have to have good grades to catch her eye? Jin Baihao, Lin Sinian... damn it, there were just too many good-looking boys in this class.

Previously, Wang Kan felt that Fang Minzhou didn't dislike him as much as when school started, but more often than not, she would make him realize the reality that she still "couldn't stand him".

Wang Kan looked at the road, then at Fang Minzhou.

Standing at the bus stop, amidst the bustling night traffic, only the two of them remained motionless, as if frozen in place, with a distance between them greater than when they sat at the same table.

Another bus, packed with people, swayed past, but the No. 126 bus that Fang Minzhou wanted to take still hadn't arrived.

During this period, Wang Kan accompanied Fang Minzhou to wait for the bus several times, but they barely spoke. It was unclear whether she had timed it perfectly or not, but each time the bus arrived just as they reached the station.

Today is an exception.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then tentatively took a step closer to Fang Minzhou. Although she was wearing headphones and looking straight ahead, she was able to precisely take a step back to the side.

Wang Kan lost patience with Fang Minzhou's maneuvering and went straight up to her, grabbing one of her earphones and trying to put it on himself. "What are you listening to? Ah, hearing tests? Wow..."

"Hey!" Fang Minzhou snatched the earphone cord back, wrapped it up, and stuffed the MP3 player into his coat pocket.

"You spend all this time studying?"

"What's it to you?"

"You really do keep your word. Aside from studying, you don't say a single unnecessary word to me. I've been standing next to you for so long, and you haven't even glanced at me."

Fang Minzhou took a deep breath of the cold air. "...Is something the matter?"

Fang Minzhou was taken aback when he said this, and panicked for a moment, but she kept her lips tightly pursed.

Wang Kan guessed that Fang Minzhou wouldn't congratulate him, and feeling somewhat down, he asked her in a low voice, "Does what you said before still stand?"

Fang Minzhou's silence silenced Wang Kan as well.

Suddenly, a car honked its horn, its sharp, piercing sound shattering Wang Kan's feelings of being ignored—shattering them into a pile of broken glass. But he remained strong, forcibly changing the subject and saying with a smile, "Actually, I also wanted to thank you. Like Jin Baihao, if it weren't for you explaining the questions to me, I wouldn't have gotten this score."

She looked at him.

“Last time in the cafeteria, were you angry because I told you not to be too hard on yourself? And did you think I had no right to comfort you? I was trying to say that, regardless of whether you think I have the right or not…” Wang Kan felt that she was not expressing herself well, but she had no other choice. “I really think you… can relax a bit. Didn’t you do quite well on the exam this time? The midterm exam was an accident. You will definitely do better than Jin Baihao next time.”

Fang Minzhou finally agreed to speak to him again, but what she said was: "Wang Kan, you are so childish."

The forced smile on the person being addressed faded.

“You’re so naive. If you don’t know what the word ‘naive’ means, I suggest you find a dictionary and copy the word and its definition fifty times.” Fang Minzhou looked at him and said, word by word. “You only see that we study hard and get good grades. You’ve never thought about why we care so much about grades. You just think that everyone can relax and be happy. Who doesn’t want to be happy? But have you ever tried to work hard for anything? Haven’t you realized that everything you have is so easy?”

Fang Minzhou saw the confusion and stunned look on Wang Kan's face. Her voice trembled slightly at the end of her sentence, perhaps because the weather was too cold, or perhaps because she didn't expect to say such a thing. It was hard to say whether it was to defend stupid students like herself, or to express her contempt for arrogant and spoiled brats like Wang Kan, or... disappointment.

Bus 126 arrived at its stop, and Fang Minzhou boarded. She sat by the window as usual, the glass fogged up, but this time she didn't look out. Fang Minzhou put her headphones back on, letting Wang Kan's nonsense go to hell.

When she got home, her mother had prepared a late-night snack as usual. Fang Minzhou didn't have much of an appetite, but then she heard her father cough lightly and say, "It's okay. It's normal for exams to get harder in the second year of high school. As long as we do our best, that's enough."

What?

Fang Minzhou then noticed the worry hidden in her parents' smiles. She put aside her bad mood and took out her report card from her schoolbag, handing it to her mother.

The mother hesitated before taking the report card, and after looking at it, she let out a long sigh of relief.

Fang Minzhou smiled too. Her mother asked her what she wanted to eat if she didn't want soup, and offered to make it for her. Fang Minzhou said it was okay, she would just have soup.

She sat down at the table, sipped the delicious yam and pork rib soup, and listened to her father grumble, "Just like I said last time, see how your physics improved a little this time, and your ranking immediately went up. You did well on the biology test this time too..."

Fang Minzhou couldn't help but recall the question he had asked Wang Kan half an hour earlier. If he had reacted quickly enough and asked her why she cared, how would she have answered?

She suddenly realized that she had been a bit too harsh on him. Everyone has different living environments and ideas. She didn't like being told what to do by him, and conversely, she shouldn't criticize him either.

"What's wrong? Does it taste bad?" Mom asked.

"Huh?" Fang Minzhou snapped out of her daze and quickly took a bite of the rib. "No, it's delicious."

But Fang Minzhou's apology to Wang Kan didn't last long. He "degenerated" very quickly, becoming less attentive in class and starting to daydream during evening self-study. So she put aside her previous worries and thought that if that was indeed the case, then she hadn't really said anything wrong.

Fortunately, I didn't agree to his casual, nonsensical bet.

To be precise, it hadn't reached the point of being a formal relationship yet; it was just an ambiguous relationship between students sitting in front of and behind each other. But this already made Yuan Yue very guilty. "If my brother finds out, I'm doomed..."

Fang Minzhou neither understood nor comprehended it, after all, he wasn't Yuan Yue's biological brother, but considering Yuan Yue's situation, it was understandable.

Fang Minzhou and Yuan Yue had planned to have dinner together and then pick up the package her brother had sent from the mailroom. However, the dormitory building suddenly announced that the water would be cut off that night, so Yuan Yue had to wash her hair, take a shower, and store water in advance. Fang Minzhou went to pick up the package for her first, and they would have dinner together if Yuan Yue was ready.

Fang Minzhou signed the form on behalf of someone else and carried the package, which looked like it contained clothes, out of the reception room. At that moment, she saw Wang Kan and his mother.

Wang Kan was taking the insulated lunchbox from his mother when he saw her. He looked surprised, clearly not expecting to meet her here. Fang Minzhou was in a similar mood.

After that day at the train station, the temperature in her relationship with Wang Kan dropped again, but now she was stuck because her parents were present.

This was a very brief moment of hesitation. Fang Minzhou didn't intend to greet them after she came to her senses, but Wang Kan's mother greeted her warmly and excitedly first: "Hey, hello, Minzhou, right? Wang Kan's deskmate!"

A note from the author:

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The next chapter will be available for purchase. Thank you all for your support! [glasses emoji]