Chapter 16 Since the thing he was afraid of was a secret, then of course he could...

"Actually, there is." Jiang Ci said calmly, "It's just hard to see on the surface."

"What do you mean?" Yu Xiang's curiosity was indeed aroused.

"I'm just pretending not to be afraid." Jiang Ci raised his eyebrows slightly, his clear eyes reflecting Yu Xiang's curious face. "Actually, I'm afraid of a lot of things."

"for example?"

"I won't tell you."

Yu Xiang: “…”

But Yu Xiang finally got angry and said, "What's the difference between you saying it and not saying it?"

"Of course there is a difference. I told you that I am afraid of things too." Although there was no expression on Jiang Ci's face when he said this, there was clearly a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"You!" Yu Xiang wanted to refute but didn't know how to refute, because there was really no loophole in this statement.

After all, the fact that he faints when it comes to needles and blood is a secret to Yu Xiang, so the thing that Jiang Ci is afraid of can also be a secret to Jiang Ci.

Since it's a secret, he can certainly choose not to tell it.

After arriving at the station, Jiang Ci took Yu Xiang directly back to his home.

Luo Fang had been waiting for them at the door. As soon as she saw them come back, she immediately went to the kitchen to heat up the food: "You guys play for a while, you can eat in a few minutes."

"Okay." Jiang Ci responded simply, then turned to Yu Xiang and said, "You sit on the sofa and wait for me. I'll go get the thermometer."

"Can I go upstairs and get my phone first?"

"random."

Yu Xiang rushed upstairs, opened the door of Jiang Ci's room and took out his cell phone.

The first thing I did was to call Ms. Chen Xiaomei.

After a few beeps, the call was connected.

"Hello? Mom? Are you home?"

"No, I'm working overtime at the company. Your Aunt Fang said you have a fever? She also said you didn't go to her house yesterday. Where did you sleep last night?"

"…the sofa downstairs."

"You idiot! I told you to spend another night with Xiao Ci, but you refused. You slept on the sofa without saying a word, and there was no blanket downstairs to cover you..." Chen Xiaomei complained and felt distressed. "You didn't even tell me you were going! If it weren't for..."

Yu Xiang silently listened to his mother's mumbling. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of Jiang Ci who had come up to him without him noticing. He was startled. "Why are you here? No, when did you come in? How come I didn't notice you?"

"While you were talking on the phone and spinning my pen furiously."

Following his words, Yu Xiang shifted his gaze to his hands, a hint of embarrassment flashing across his expression.

This is probably a common problem among people - they always have to do something with their hands when they are on the phone, and they will find something to do even if they have nothing to do.

He just picked up a pen from Jiang Ci's desk and unconsciously turned it while talking on the phone.

He silently put the pen back in its place, not caring about what his mother was saying on the phone. He hurriedly said, "Let's talk later--" and hung up the phone.

"So you slept on the sofa last night? Without even covering yourself with a blanket?" Jiang Ci asked calmly.

Yu Xiang was silent for a moment, then replied, "Did you hear everything?"

"Because you turned on the hands-free mode." Jiang Ci handed him the thermometer in his hand and said, "Take your temperature first to see if the fever has subsided."

"It should be retired. I feel much better." Yu Xiang replied, but still obediently reached out to take it and put it under his armpit.

While waiting for their temperature to be taken, they both sat down by the bed.

Yu Xiang still didn't dare to sit down hard, so when he sat down, he had to put his center of gravity on the half that had not been injected, so his sitting posture looked a little tilted. Jiang Ci happened to be sitting next to him, and at first glance it seemed like he was deliberately leaning towards Jiang Ci.

"Why don't you want to live in my house?" Jiang Ci asked.

"I..." Yu Xiang couldn't say that the flag he set couldn't be easily broken, so he changed the subject and said, "I think it's too late and it's really disturbing you."

"I don't go to bed that early, so it's not a bother." Jiang Ci said calmly, "If nothing unexpected happens, your other symptoms will erupt soon. It would be best if you take the afternoon off to rest."

"What are the symptoms?" Yu Xiang carefully felt his current condition. Apart from the dull pain at the injection site, he seemed to have no other discomfort - even the dizziness and headache were much better.

He personally believed that a large part of the reason was that he was angered by Jiang Ci.

"Cough, runny nose, stuffy nose, and dizziness." Jiang Ci answered without hesitation, "After you finish taking the medicine, you will still feel sleepy due to the effects."

"Is it true? But I feel fine now." Yu Xiang hasn't had a cold for a long time and almost forgot what the process of a cold is.

"You'll know whether it's true or not after you verify it."

That afternoon.

"...I now believe it's true." Yu Xiang lay on the bed, covered with a quilt, staring at the ceiling with his eyes open, sighing to the air with a look of despair.

Considering that there were so many previous examples of "not listening to Jiang Ciyan and suffering the consequences", Yu Xiang listened to the advice this time and took leave.

But he didn't take leave to rest at home, but occupied Jiang Ci's room to rest.

Ever since Jiang Ci said that at noon, his cold symptoms began to appear little by little. In particular, he felt very sleepy after taking the medicine, but was tortured by various symptoms and found it difficult to fall asleep.

As for why Jiang Ci's room was occupied, the owner of the room said this at the time:

"I've already discussed it with your mother. To prevent you from doing stupid things again, you'll be staying at my place for the next few days."

Yu Xiang said with a dull expression: "Aren't you afraid that I'll infect you with my cold?"

"You have a cold caused by wind and cold, not a viral or bacterial infection, so it's not that easily contagious."

"What if?"

"Nothing's wrong, shut up."

“…”

Since Ms. Chen Xiaomie firmly stood on Jiang Ci's side this time, all his protests were ruthlessly rejected.

So we have this scene now.

However, facts proved that what Jiang Ci said was right. Colds and flu are indeed not easily contagious - this was mainly due to the fact that Jiang Ci had been in close contact with him for two days without any signs of infection and was in impeccable health.

In the past two days, Yu's father has regained his spirits. First, he apologized to Yu Xiang, and then, accompanied by Chen Xiaomie, he started sending out resumes everywhere to find a new job.

Everything seems to be going in the right direction.

Until the midterm exam results came out one after another.

High school teachers are extremely efficient in grading papers. After the evening self-study session on the first night of the exam, the results of all the subjects taken on the first day are already out. As soon as they come out, a group of people gather around the teachers who come to the class to inquire about the results. Lei Wanquan will have to wait until all the results are out before making a unified report card, but now you can use the electronic version on other teachers' phones.

When it comes to results, there are always some who are happy and some who are sad. However, judging from the frequency of sighs coming from the onlookers, there are more people who are sad.

"Oh shit, I only got 50 points in math..."

"Don't say it. I'm even more screwed. I'm 46."

"Brother, I haven't even said anything yet, why are you two crying already?"

"Lu Ziyang, help me check my score—" Those who didn't squeeze into the front row had to stretch their necks to ask their companions who were closer to the center.

"You got 91 points! What the hell, you traitor, you actually sneaked ashore without telling us?!"

"Can those who have finished watching please leave first?"

"Who got the highest scores in Chinese, math and English? I can't see them."

"Don't ask, it's all Jiang Ci, the eternally undefeated god."

"Okay, okay, go back first! I'll put it on the computer and you can watch it slowly after class!" The teacher who was surrounded in the center was almost out of breath, and finally began to drive those students away when he couldn't bear it anymore.

Although they were forced to return to their seats, many people still saw the results and discussed them quietly with people nearby as soon as they returned.

Only a few people are doing their own work seriously without fail.

Jiang Ci lowered his eyes, put down the pen after finishing the last step, and turned to look at Yu Xiang beside him.

Yu Xiang's face hasn't been very good since those people went up to the podium to check the results. He has been drawing circles on the same place on the draft paper with a black pen from the beginning until now. Because he has drawn so many times, the surface of the draft paper has been torn.

But he himself seemed unaware of it and continued to draw circles with his pen.

Jiang Ci's gaze lingered on the poor draft paper for a while, then turned to the test paper on Yu Xiang's desk.

That is the math paper for this exam.

Out of habit, they will write the answers to the multiple-choice questions on the test paper first and then fill in the answer sheet, so that they can check the answers directly when the reference answers are distributed at the end of the test.

On Yu Xiang's test paper, he only got one multiple-choice question correct on the first page.

It can be said to be quite heroic.

He felt he should say something, but he didn't know how to start.

After class, Zhang Miao and the others came to Yu Xiang as usual to show their presence. When they saw Yu Xiang torturing himself with draft paper, they knew the situation was not good and planned to slip away quietly.

"Stop." Yu Xiang threw down his pen and looked up at them. "Have you seen the results?"

Zhang Miao was sweating profusely: "I took a look."

Yu Xiang: "Help me take a look at mine."

"I...I didn't remember. His name was Lao Fang. He looked at it very carefully!" Zhang Miao shifted the blame without thinking, and nudged Fang Chengyu beside him with his elbow while speaking.

Yu Xiang: "...Just say it directly. I know I did poorly on the test."

"Brother Yu, don't be sad. Even though you only got 19 points in math... you got 103.5 in Chinese!" Zhang Miao racked his brains for a long time. "That's already better than 85% of the class!"

Even though he had been mentally prepared, Yu Xiang still felt a strong sense of loss when he heard that number: "Last one?"

"No." Fang Chengyu said immediately.

"Could there be anyone lower than me?" Yu Xiang expressed his doubt.

"Brother Yu, I'll always have your back," Zhang Miao said with a sad face. "I'm firmly in last place with 18 points, so you're second to last."

Yu Xiang's face was paralyzed: "...You'd better stop comforting me. I think you need comfort more."

"I think you should first think about how you're going to face Teacher Fan later," Fang Chengyu reminded him, "next period is his evening study session."

"It's over. I'm going to get criticized again." Zhang Miao's face was full of worry. "Last time, I got 26 points and he scolded me for almost ten minutes. If it's even lower this time, I'm doomed. By the way, Lao Fang, how did you get over 50 points? Can you teach me some tips?"

"The rule of thumb is to guess as many multiple-choice questions as possible. If you guess half of the eight single-choice questions correctly, you'll get 16 points. And if you choose the same answer for all the multiple-choice questions, you'll definitely get 20 points or more."

"That's what I did, but I never guessed right. I always managed to avoid the correct answer perfectly."

"How many of the single choices did you get right?" Yu Xiang suddenly asked.

"Three," Zhang Miao answered without hesitation. "My score was all based on the multiple-choice questions. I almost failed the big questions later. Brother Yu, how many did you get right?"

"one."

As soon as Yu Xiang finished speaking, the air fell into silence.

"So... what about multiple choice?"

“0.”

The air was completely frozen now.

After listening to these conversations, Jiang Ci probably understood why Yu Xiang was so depressed just now.

"Students whose names are called, please come to the office." A male voice came from the classroom door.

"What was supposed to happen has finally happened." Zhang Miao wore a tragic expression, ready to face death. "Wish me good luck, brothers."

"Zhang Miao, Yu Xiang, Huang Xingqiang..."

"Let's go, Brother Yu, let's go to trial together." Zhang Miao said with tears in his eyes.

"……Um."