Chapter 6: Even Good Students Experience Sexual Tension.
Today was a whole day of intensive preliminary exams. As usual, the Chinese class after the long break was Lao Qin's Chinese exam. The exam couldn't be postponed just because of her, so Lao Qin specially asked Qiao Bolin to come down and find her a few minutes before class.
Ning Jiu quickly understood the situation and didn't offer much explanation.
"I just ran into a little trouble, could you please come over?"
Just as the two were about to go upstairs, Li Mingyuan happened to run over from another direction, too tired to even reply.
Seeing that the person had been found, he didn't even bother to catch his breath and looked at Qiao Bolin with curiosity.
"No way, Berlin, I just ran half a lap and didn't see a single person, and you found them as soon as you came down."
To be precise, it wasn't found.
The quiet stairwell was filled with the sound of Li Mingyuan's still-unsteady breathing; he started panting again after only a few steps up the stairs.
Ning Jiu thought for a moment and then asked him.
Are you alright?
The girl's delicate eyelashes trembled slightly, and her beautiful eyes revealed a hint of worry. Her neck was slender, her skin was fair, and her ankles were as white as porcelain. Anyone who saw her would find her to be an obedient girl who could easily evoke a protective instinct.
This is the scene that Li Mingyuan saw when he turned his head.
For a moment, he didn't complain about the trouble he had caused; he only regretted that his physical fitness wasn't good enough and that he must train hard in the future.
"It's nothing, it's nothing," he said, straightening up immediately and patting his chest as if to show off. "I'm in great shape, it must be just that I'm not feeling well today. I usually can run a lap around the school without even getting out of breath..."
He had already said it, and even patted his chest to guarantee it. Ning Jiu looked at the boy waving his arms in front of her, and subconsciously took a step back. She didn't step on the edge of the step properly, and her whole body swayed unexpectedly.
Her lumbar spine was pressed against something, and the boy's protruding finger bones clearly pressed against her skin. The scalding heat seeped into her skin through the fabric, just enough to stabilize her body.
A thin current surged through her spine, her breath was gently caught, and Ning Jiu's mind felt as if something was stirring within her.
Once both feet were on the steps to the side, Qiao Bolin had already withdrawn his hands.
Li Mingyuan was completely unaware of the commotion that had just occurred and was still talking non-stop when Qiao Bolin's voice came from behind him.
“You almost hit her,” he said. “She already has a leg injury, so be careful.”
Only after Qiao Bolin reminded him did Li Mingyuan notice the bruises on Ning Jiu's knees and the ointment on her hands.
"No way, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she said, immediately sliding to her knees in apology, "I really didn't notice..."
The chatter started again in her ear, and Ning Jiu sighed softly without saying anything.
Li Mingyuan paused, looking at her cautiously. He had thought she would complain about leg pain and being unable to walk, or even yell at him like other girls would. That would have been fine, at least it would have made him feel better.
But the result was that the girl's voice remained soft and gentle.
"Are you done talking?"
"Hmm...?" He realized what he meant, "Hmm."
"Okay, now that you've finished talking, go upstairs."
Ning Jiu patted his shoulder, withdrew her hand, and went upstairs decisively.
"I'm off to take an exam."
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There were exams on Monday and Tuesday in a row. After the exams, the answers were posted next to the blackboard at the back, and the whole classroom instantly became gloomy.
Li Mingyuan said he checked the answers right after the exam, and even the dog couldn't get them right, while he eagerly ran to the back of the classroom to act as the dog.
Gao Hexin couldn't stand the boys behind her discussing the answers any longer, so after a while she yelled at them.
"Can you guys please keep your voices down!"
The classroom fell silent for a moment, then returned to normal. Gao Hexin rolled her eyes in exasperation as two earplugs were handed to her.
Chen Poyao: "Try this, it's for noise reduction."
"Thank you, baby, sob sob sob."
Gao Hexin put on earplugs, which reduced the noise in the back considerably, but his mood became increasingly irritable.
"I copy all my Chinese homework, how could I possibly know what Unit 8 is about this semester...?"
“Actually, I think the hardest part is math,” Chen Poyao’s voice wasn’t much better. “What the hell was that last question? I feel like I wasted my whole year of high school math.”
"What about you, Sweet Wine?" Chen Poyao poked the girl's thin back and asked curiously, "You seem pretty calm. How did you find the difficulty?"
Ning Jiu had just finished the exam. She didn't check the answers or complain about the questions. Just over ten minutes later, she was already working on more practice questions.
“Oh, it’s not that I’m calm,” she turned her head, still chewing something in her mouth, her cheeks bulging, reminding Chen Po of the Ragdoll cat at home eating cat treats. “I’ve never taken the Jiangcheng exam before, so I can’t tell whether it’s easy or difficult, and I don’t have much of a feeling about it.”
So that's how it is. Chen Poyao felt a little relieved.
Judging from Ning Jiu's reaction, she really suspected that she hadn't studied hard during the summer vacation, which led to her not even having a clue how to solve the last problem on the math test.
The moment the school bell rang, before the whole class could even cheer, they were drenched by a downpour outside in the corridor.
"Excuse me, God, are you serious?" Li Mingyuan asked the heavens with tears in his eyes, "The basketball game I promised to play with Class 3..."
“It’s okay, let’s go sit at Yinbinglou for a while,” another boy said, clinging to his arm. “I’ve already asked my mom to make a reservation.”
"Really? You're a true bro!"
Hearing what Li Mingyuan and Qiu Xu said, Gao Hexin felt a little itchy, glanced at Ning Jiu who was packing her schoolbag, and poked her waist.
“Sweet wine,” Gao Hexin winked mysteriously at her, “Want to go to Yinbinglou for some fun?”
Ning Jiu couldn't help but blink in sync with her movement: "Yinbinglou?"
Yes!!!
The downpour came suddenly, and most students didn't have umbrellas, so they had to run wildly in the rain wearing only their school uniform jackets.
As Ning Jiu stepped out of the building with her bulging schoolbag, she saw Gao Hexin take off his school uniform jacket and hand her half of it.
"I'll count to three, then we'll run out together." She took a deep breath, her eyes shining brightly as she looked towards a certain spot.
"1, 2, 3, Charge!!!"
Large raindrops pattered against their school uniforms. Ning Jiu and Gao Hexin each clutched a schoolbag, quickly wading through the puddles that splashed up like tiny crowns, and dashed towards a milk tea shop across the street from the school.
Calling it a milk tea shop isn't quite accurate. The first floor houses both a milk tea and dessert shop, while the second floor is a board game and video game room. On weekends, students from the neighborhood often come to Yinbinglou to eat desserts and play games.
When Ning Jiu and Gao Hexin arrived, the dessert shop on the first floor was already full of people, and the proprietress was making milk tea behind the window, looking extremely happy.
Gao Hexin's eyes swept around and quickly found Li Mingyuan playing games with his classmates. Next to him sat Qi Ruiheng doing his homework, with liquid earplugs in his ears, occasionally responding to a word or two from Li Mingyuan.
Once he identified his target, Gao Hexin immediately stepped forward and kicked Li Mingyuan's chair leg without hesitation.
"Hey, I told you to save seats for me and Sweet Wine, where are the seats?"
"I asked Chen Poyao to save some for you."
Li Mingyuan was busy fighting the dragon at the moment and didn't have time to respond to Gao Hexin's words. He roughly pointed in a direction and continued playing.
"We're all guys here, you girls have more in common to talk about. Hey Qiu Xu, charge! Use your skills instead of just dodging! Are you even a guy?!"
Gao Hexin rolled his eyes inwardly and turned to walk towards Chen Poyao when he suddenly heard a soft voice behind him.
Ning Jiu: "If you want to start the next round, call me in."
Li Mingyuan glanced at Ning Jiu briefly, then, remembering what happened yesterday, swallowed back the words, "You probably can't handle this."
He asked, "Ning Jiu, what kind of character do you want to play? Mage or support?"
"assassin."
When the enemy attacked their crystal, Li Mingyuan's expression turned incredibly sour. He almost threw his phone at Qiu Xu: "Hey, Qiu Xu, do you even know how to play? You're an assassin, why are you playing support instead of taking down the dragon?"
Qiu Xu's face darkened after being spoken to, so he simply put his phone on the table, slumped back, and gave up completely.
"Ning Jiu said she knows how, so let her play."
Although he said that, his tone was full of disdain, almost as if he was implying that the girl didn't know how to play the assassin.
The situation was beyond saving. After Li Mingyuan initiated the surrender, he glanced at Ning Jiu and softened his voice.
"Shall we try it out in the next round?"
"Okay, I'll download the game first."
Chen Poyao was not far from Li Mingyuan. Ning Jiu sat next to Chen Poyao and saw two unfamiliar girls sitting next to her.
The two girls were standing close together, looking very intimate; they were probably in the same class. The girl on the left wore glasses and had her hair down, revealing faint marks from where she had tied her hair in a ponytail. She seemed rather shy. The other girl was very talkative, with a soft voice, and her laughter sounded like a lark's.
"Sister Yaoyao, let me tell you, I've heard so much gossip this week," the girl on the right said with shining eyes. "A really handsome boy came into Xiaoshu's class. He looks like he could be a star. I reasonably suspect he's a spy sent from the neighboring arts school."
Wu Yueshu was eating a pastry when she almost choked: "Your statement is too exaggerated."
"Is that an exaggeration?" Tao Qingqing laughed maliciously. "If I were to say those things you said praising Senior Qiao Bolin right now, it would be like flying to the heavens..."
Wu Yueshu's face turned red instantly, and she stuffed a piece of mung bean cake into Tao Qingqing's mouth: "Eat more and talk less gossip!"
Tao Qingqing chewed on a mung bean cake, but still managed to say, "By the way, Sister Yaoyao, the photo you posted on your WeChat Moments with Senior Qiao last time got raved about by Wu Yueshu. She said you two are a perfect match, a handsome man and a beautiful woman!"
Upon hearing this, both Gao Hexin and Qi Ruiheng at the next table looked at Chen Poyao.
Just as the game started with enough players, Ning Jiu picked a suitable assassin and began clearing the jungle. After clearing half of the jungle, he targeted the mage clearing minions in the mid lane.
Gao Hexin couldn't contain his curiosity and asked Chen Poyao, "What photos do you have with Qiao Bolin? How come I don't know about them?"
Chen Poyao was silent for a while, then opened her phone with a helpless expression: "Don't listen to her nonsense. It was last year's marathon. Ruiheng participated in it too, and everyone who participated took a group photo."
She found a post from last autumn on her WeChat Moments and showed it to Gao Hexin in a grand manner: "Look, this one, remember now?"
After successfully securing First Blood, Ning Jiu cleared the other half of the jungle and then went to clear the enemy jungle, taking a quick glance at the photo.
The group photo was probably taken shortly after the run, when most people were exhausted and barely alive, let alone looking presentable.
There was only one exception.
Even if he wasn't standing in the very center, people's first glance would always unconsciously drift towards Qiao Bailin.
The boy's sideburns were damp with sweat, and his broad shoulders and narrow waist were faintly visible through his half-wet T-shirt.
His thick eyebrows showed no signs of fatigue, only the refreshment of someone who had just finished exercising.
Perhaps it was because of the black headband that his already striking features became even more aggressive. His usually calm gaze suddenly revealed an undisguised sense of aggression. He held a medal in one hand and made a peace sign with the other, staring intently at the camera.
"Wow," Gao Hexin took a sip of her bubble tea, clearly finding this side of Qiao Bolin unfamiliar, "Scholar Qiao has this side to him too."
"What was that word again?" Chen Poyao turned off her phone, thought for a long time, "I can't remember for a moment..."
Tao Qingqing promptly added: "Sexual tension!"
"Yes, sexual tension."
Chen Poyao snapped his fingers and concluded.
"Good students also have sexual tension."
"Holy crap, Ning Jiu, I never knew you were this good!!!"
As they were talking, Li Mingyuan, who had been silent all along, suddenly let out his first earth-shattering exclamation.
Everyone turned to look at him, but Ning Jiu calmly continued operating.
"A quadra kill, and you even gave me a free kill," Li Mingyuan's tone was no longer perfunctory, but full of genuine admiration. "Awesome, seriously, with that one-shot kill move, you're my Sister Jiu from now on!"
A note from the author:
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Mingyuan: Our Sister Jiu also has sexual tension!
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P.S.: I updated over 10,000 words today, and added 6,000 words to Chapter 5. You can read it again!
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