Chapter 7 Bribery

Chapter Summary: Haven't you noticed how kind-hearted I am?

Gu Linzhao ignored her, and Fu Xianyin didn't mind either. They quickly finished their dry noodles with a cup of mango pomelo sago.

The homework for evening self-study was written on the blackboard. Fu Xianyin had been writing her homework without even looking up during the first two evening self-study sessions. As soon as the bell rang for the end of the second evening self-study session, Fu Xianyin neatly closed her book and stretched comfortably.

The books she had asked Lin Anxu to buy for her at noon were still in her desk drawer; Fu Xianyin planned to work on them during the next evening self-study session. She took out the plastic bag and took out the books one by one, but as she counted them, she suddenly realized something was wrong.

Why does it seem like there are several more books than the book list she wrote down?

Fu Xianyin picked out the few extra books, and as her gaze moved, she caught sight of several identical books on Gu Linzhao's desk.

She had a vague answer in her mind.

When Gu Linzhao and Lin Anxu returned, Fu Xianyin looked at them with a smile and pointed to the two stacks of exercises on the table: "Thanks."

Lin Anxu chuckled: "No, beautiful sister, it's nothing, don't mention it."

Gu Linzhao glanced at them indifferently and said, "These books are quite useful."

The bell rang, and Lin Anxu jogged back to his seat in the front. Fu Xianyin took out several exercise books and a notebook, and started flipping through them while writing.

She had already gone through the senior year of high school once. The school was just beginning its first round of review. Fu Xianyin flipped through the exercise book she had just bought and wrote down her daily after-school tasks in her notebook.

Fu Xianyin knew herself well; the most effective way for her to study science was through practice problems. Biology was her weak point, so she focused on the biology section when buying the practice books. After listing how many math and physics problems she should do each day, Fu Xianyin flipped through the biology practice books and set her goal at 3/2 times that of math.

English has always been her strong suit, and she doesn't plan to spend too much time on it. Improving her Chinese is a slow and meticulous process, and Fu Xianyin plans to continue following last year's routine: accumulating one classical poem or prose passage daily outside of class, and in addition, spending 20 minutes each day accumulating writing material.

She sorted through the exercises one by one in the order they were stacked, with math and physics on top, then biology, and finally Chinese reading comprehension.

After removing the thick book of selected reading comprehension exercises, Fu Xianyin stared blankly at the chemistry workbook lying at the bottom.

Because of the class change, there was no chemistry today, to the point that Fu Xianyin even forgot that Class 15 was actually a pure science class.

In the former Linlan, the college entrance examination there was a system of choosing three out of six subjects. In addition to the three compulsory subjects of Chinese, mathematics, and English, students could choose three out of the six minor subjects of physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history, and geography to study and take the college entrance examination.

Fu Xianyin chose physics, geology, and biology, not chemistry.

Beichuan also uses a system where students choose three out of six, but Chen Huimei forcibly changed Fu Xianyin's geography to chemistry, arguing that pure science had a better future.

They did not take Fu Xianyin's wishes into account at all.

Fu Xianyin flipped through the chemistry exercises, the book filled with dense formulas and calculations. She despairingly realized that she couldn't even understand the first unit.

From the time we were divided into classes in the first year of high school until now.

She hasn't studied chemistry for two whole years.

Looking at chemistry, which was listed first on tomorrow's schedule, Fu Xianyin felt a headache coming on.

She flipped through the table of contents of the chemistry workbook and, following the daily tasks for math and physics, made a list of daily tasks for chemistry as well.

By the time all this was done, half of the evening self-study session had already passed.

This won't do, Fu Xianyin thought.

From June until now, a full three and a half months, Fu Xianyin hasn't studied at all. The rate at which she forgets knowledge is terrifying, and her problem-solving skills have largely disappeared.

Take the math test this morning as an example. Even though Sister Gao said it was difficult, Fu Xianyin knew in her heart that the difficulty of this test was nothing to her in the past. She could easily finish a test in one morning reading session.

However, the difficulty she encountered while solving the problems made Fu Xianyin realize clearly that she had regressed, very obviously.

If math is already this bad, not to mention her truly weak subjects, Fu Xianyin can't even imagine what she'd be like in biology and chemistry, her really weak subjects.

With only two weeks until the monthly exam, she needs to get her other subjects back to their previous level as quickly as possible so that she can have more time for chemistry.

Her notes and collection of wrong answers are all in Linlan; she needs to go back and get them as soon as possible.

Thinking of this, she instinctively reached into her desk drawer to pull out her phone to check flight tickets. The moment her fingers touched the cold screen, Fu Xianyin suddenly realized that she had planted a time bomb next to her.

call

She breathed a sigh of relief.

What a close call! I was using my phone in class and almost got caught and had points deducted.

The blank chemistry worksheets seemed to beckon to her. Fu Xianyin took a deep breath, took out her pen, and began to learn the first compulsory course from scratch with great difficulty.

Ring ring

When the school bell rang, Fu Xianyin threw down her pen, got up, and went to the bathroom to wash her face with cold water.

She casually slung the first chapter of the Chemistry textbook and its exercises onto the table.

Lin Anxu stayed up for three evening self-study sessions, but he couldn't hold on any longer. As soon as the school bell rang, he quickly packed his things as if he were on fast-forward and went to the last row.

Seeing that Fu Xianyin's seat was empty, he didn't stand on ceremony, threw his backpack down, and plopped down on the seat.

Sitting there, I inevitably got to see the "results" of Fu Xianyin's first half of evening self-study.

"Chemistry... required course 1?"

Lin Anxu looked at the textbooks spread out on the table, somewhat surprised: "Beautiful sister, you've been reviewing so much..." He thought for a long time before finally managing to stammer out...

"So detailed?"

The first chapter was almost glossed over in the first round of review, but Fu Xianyin studied it seriously as if it were the first time she was learning it.

She had few stationery items; she only had three pens—red, blue, and black—plus a pen refill, a pencil, and an eraser.

The exercises laid out at this moment are covered with key points marked in blue and black.

When Fu Xianyin returned after washing her face, she saw Lin Anxu sitting at the table. She tapped Lin Anxu's shoulder, and water droplets from her fingertips dripped onto the table: "Come on, give me a seat. I'm packing up to go back to the dorm."

Lin Anxu smiled and pointed to the chemistry book on the table, asking, "Beautiful lady, you... can't be one of those who only excels in one subject, can you?"

Fu Xianyin didn't shy away from this and readily admitted it:

"Yeah, that's right, it's about being good at some subjects but not others."

As she stuffed the books into her bag, she laughed and said, "To be honest, I've never passed chemistry in my entire life."

That's the truth.

Lin Anxu was straightforward; he asked directly what he wanted to ask. Upon hearing this, he said, "Then why did you choose chemistry?"

After he finished speaking, he felt himself being glanced at by the person next to him.

He tensed up instantly, thinking he had touched a nerve with Fu Xianyin.

Fu Xianyin remained calm and said, "There was nothing I could do; my family made me do it."

Lin Anxu looked at the culprit who was glaring at him, his face clearly saying: Isn't this a perfectly normal reason? Why are you glaring at me?

Gu Linzhao didn't say anything and continued packing his bag.

As I was packing up, a shout suddenly came from ahead: "Yinyin, wait for me, let's go back together."

It was Cheng Zhaozhao's voice.

Fu Xianyin glanced at the time, replied "okay," and then sat down to check flight tickets back to the city.

There is a bus going tomorrow morning and a return bus in the afternoon, so it's a day trip. However, Fu Xianyin has a chemistry class tomorrow morning and doesn't want to skip it.

That means there's only the Friday night bus.

Fu Xianyin quickly booked round-trip tickets. Just as she successfully paid, she looked up and saw Lin Anxu making a face at Cheng Zhaozhao who was walking towards her.

"You dawdler, nyah nyah nyah."

Cheng Zhaozhao grabbed a book and was about to throw it at Lin Anxu's head: "Lin Anxu! How old are you? How childish are you!"

The book made a crisp tapping sound on his head, and Lin Anxu grimaced in pain. Seeing this, Cheng Zhaozhao pouted with a hint of victory and naturally took Fu Xianyin's arm: "Yinyin, let's go, ignore him."

Fu Xianyin found it amusing. She obediently let Cheng Zhaozhao pull her out of the classroom, not forgetting to look back at Lin Anxu, who was covering his head.

The campus at night was full of students who had just finished their evening self-study sessions, and the streetlights stretched the shadows of the two people long.

Amid the rustling of leaves, a faint "gurgling" sound suddenly came from behind.

Fu Xianyin turned to look at Cheng Zhaozhao, who was covering her stomach embarrassedly: "Oh dear, I'm hungry because I expended too much energy during evening self-study."

Fu Xianyin: "Is the cafeteria closed? What about the convenience store?"

Cheng Zhaozhao: "The cafeteria is closed, and the convenience store closes at 10:30. It's just past 10 o'clock now. Yinyin, are you hungry? Do you want to go buy something to eat together?"

It's easy to get hungry after evening self-study. Since they don't check for snacks in the dorm anyway, I might as well buy some bread, biscuits, or something to stock up on.

So Fu Xianyin thought for a moment and said, "I'm hungry too, let's go buy some together."

"Yay!"

Cheng Zhaozhao jumped up excitedly, quickening her pace: "Hurry up, hurry up, there will be a lot of people if we go late, and the queue will take a long time."

The two bought two large bags full of food from the convenience store. Cheng Zhaozhao kept talking the whole way, telling Fu Xianyin which bread was better and which yogurt tasted better.

Fu Xianyin bought a bunch of things based on her recommendation, intending to stock up in her dorm room.

"Yinyin, who do you live with?"

Cheng Zhaozhao opened a bag of bread, broke off half for Fu Xianyin, and then asked while eating it.

Fu Xianyin took the bread and said, "I don't have a roommate, I live alone."

"Wow!" Cheng Zhaozhao exclaimed enviously, "That's so great, I want to live alone too."

Cheng Zhaozhao is a chatterbox; once she starts talking, she can't stop: "But I'll be there soon too. I'm currently in a four-person room with Song Yaoge and two dance students from other classes. Song Yaoge is also a dance student, and they'll be starting intensive training soon. Soon, I'll have the dorm all to myself!"

"Well, I'm a little timid. I'm afraid I'll be scared if I sleep alone."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Lin Anxu's smug voice came from behind her: "Ah, I didn't expect that, Cheng Zhaozhao, you're actually afraid?"

As she spoke, a hand swiftly reached out and snatched the last bite of bread from Cheng Zhaozhao's hand.

"Lin Anxu!"

Cheng Zhaozhao grabbed his ear and shouted, "Give me back my bread!"

Lin Anxu's mouth was stuffed full: "Once it's in my mouth, it's mine."

The two ran off playfully, and Cheng Zhaozhao didn't forget to tell Fu Xianyin, "Yinyin, you go up first, don't wait for me. I'll beat him to a pulp!"

Fu Xianyin smiled and was about to leave with a bag of snacks when she suddenly saw Gu Linzhao not far away.

Fu Xianyin took out two boxes of cookies and two pieces of bread from the bag and ran over.

"You just hurt your leg, be careful."

Gu Linzhao looked at her helplessly and reached out to stop her.

Fu Xianyin just happened to hand him the biscuits and bread.

"Thank you, class monitor, for buying me study materials and bringing me food. I'll treat you to a meal when my leg heals."

Fu Xianyin smiled and said, "I hope the class monitor will deduct fewer points from my score before my leg heals."

Gu Linzhao chuckled: "Is this considered a bribe?"

Fu Xianyin said seriously, "Of course not, it's because I'm kind-hearted."

"The class monitor and I have been sitting next to each other for a whole day. Didn't you realize that I'm a kind-hearted person?"