Chapter 51 He really is a giraffe reincarnated.
The National Day holiday is like a distinct temperature watershed.
One autumn rain brings one chill.
After several heavy rains, the temperature in Xunning suddenly dropped.
Sunlight is gradually becoming precious.
The warm afternoon sunlight was just right.
Sunlight streamed in at an angle through the windows, casting patches of light across the classroom, while tiny dust particles floated slowly in the air.
Jiang Sui casually turned the math textbook she had only read halfway through upside down and placed it aside.
She was drawn to a small dot of light on the table and slowly traced its outline with a mechanical pencil.
Clear light pierced through her raven-feather-like eyelashes, casting a faint shadow on her eyelids. The slight tilt of her head caused her slender, porcelain-white neck to curve into a beautiful arc.
In a world filled with exams and rankings, even this boring and childish game becomes fun.
Ji Jingyu actually noticed Jiang Sui was daydreaming immediately, but seeing how much fun she was having, she suddenly didn't want to stop her.
Learning requires a balance between work and rest, and Jiang Sui is not a conventional person, so being too tense is not a good thing.
Across the aisle, Jiang Deyu glanced at Jiang Sui, then at Ji Jingyu, looking restless.
The events that happened in the exam hall that morning were still replaying in his mind.
Jiang Deyu couldn't help but sigh. Brother Ji said he would talk about it later, but when exactly is "later"?
"You have hemorrhoids?"
When Tong Xia returned from the restroom, she saw her deskmate scratching his head in his seat, looking like he had thorns in his butt.
Jiang Deyu was startled by the sudden slap and rolled his eyes at Tong Xia, annoyed. "You're the one with hemorrhoids!"
Tong Xia shook her hands vigorously a few times, then casually wiped them at the hem of her school uniform. "So what's wrong with you?"
"Don't ask me, I'm so annoyed!"
Tong Xia's eyes widened dramatically, looking utterly incredulous. "This is unbelievable! You're starting to get all worked up over a Chinese exam? You're having some worries now."
Jiang Deyu: "...Get lost!"
After saying that, he continued to stare intently at Ji Jingyu, trying to convey his urgency through his eyes.
Tong Xia was very busy, sometimes flipping through books with a rustling sound, sometimes writing something on draft paper. The swishing sound of the pen tip hitting the paper made Jiang Deyu feel sleepy.
Before he could finish yawning, a heavy hand landed on his head.
The palm was a little cool, and when I pressed it firmly against Jiang Deyu's shaved head, a sudden discomfort arose.
"Tong Xia!"
Jiang Deyu swallowed half a yawn, annoyed, and wanted to go and settle the score with him.
Tong Xia held a pen in one hand and pressed the draft paper with the other, looking at him with an innocent expression.
With both hands busy, whose hand was pressing on his head?
Who else could it be?
Qin Lin sneered, his spittle flying as he began to scold, "You still have the nerve to call someone by their name? I think you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin, you won't be satisfied until you get a zero!"
"I didn't..."
"Is Ji Jingyu's profile really that good-looking?"
Jiang Deyu remained silent.
Just then, a few people passed by in the corridor outside Class 2. Hearing Qin Lin's question, they immediately responded in a strange tone, "How could the school heartthrob's face not be handsome?"
A low, suppressed laugh immediately rang out in the classroom.
By the time Qin Lin stormed off to the door to arrest the person, they had already run far away.
Considering that Jiang Deyu had a math exam that afternoon, Qin Lin didn't scold him much this time, probably planning to settle the score with him later after the results came out.
—
After the National Day holiday, the school stipulated that classrooms could no longer turn on the air conditioning.
Jiang Sui then changed to a thicker fleece blanket, which was soft and fragrant when she held it in her arms.
She fell asleep in no time.
After listening to the other person's light breathing for a while, Ji Jingyu couldn't help but turn her head to look at her.
This time, Jiang Sui didn't cover her head while sleeping, nor did she turn her back to Ji Jingyu. Her pretty little face was flushed and pink, with her slightly parted rosy lips revealing her snow-white teeth and a hint of her tender red tongue.
"Why are you breathing through your mouth?" Ji Jingyu's expression was a little strange. He wanted to correct her sleeping posture but didn't know where to start.
After thinking for a moment, he gently nudged Jiang Sui a few times with his foot.
Disturbed, Jiang Sui muttered unhappily and unconsciously rubbed against the blanket, but obediently closed her mouth as Ji Jingyu wished.
Ji Jingyu was satisfied.
He stood up from his seat and turned to meet Jiang Deyu's pitiful gaze.
Tsk.
I almost forgot about him.
—
It's lunch break time, and the entire teaching building is very quiet.
At the corner of the corridor.
As soon as Jiang Deyu stood still, he lowered his voice impatiently and asked, "Brother Ji, why is Lu Shuhe accusing Luo Qi?"
He checked the meaning of "accusation" four or five times to make sure that the word really shouldn't be used casually.
Jiang Deyu also didn't believe that a top student like Lu Shuhe would misuse vocabulary.
Ji Jingyu leaned against the wall, lifted her eyelids, and her usually nonchalant eyes became more serious. "I can't tell you anything without Lu Shuhe's permission."
After waiting for so long, all they got was a response that was practically nonexistent. It was impossible not to be disappointed, but Jiang Deyu understood Ji Jingyu's actions.
He just has bad grades, not that he's really brainless.
Something terrible must have happened between Lu Shuhe and Luo Qi.
Thinking of this, he nodded to Ji Jingyu, "Brother Ji, don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this, I will keep it a secret."
"I know."
In matters like this, Ji Jingyu always trusted Jiang Deyu completely.
Kind, upright, and very empathetic.
—
When those bad kids mocked Ji Jingyu for being a fatherless bastard of unknown origin, Ji Jingyu herself didn't react much, but Jiang Deyu charged at them like an angry calf.
Jiang Deyu was still young at that time and was far from the tall and strong man he looks now, but even when he was being beaten by a group of bad kids, he kept shouting for them to apologize.
Later, by the time Xia Fan brought in reinforcements, Gu Ci, Jiang Deyu and Ji Jingyu had already turned the tide and won.
The two had a clear division of labor: one pressed down on the head, and the other pressed down on the feet, giving the kid who led the bullying of Ji Jingyu a good beating.
Afterwards, the other parent brought their bruised and battered child over. Jiang Deyu immediately stepped in front of Ji Jingyu and took all the blame, saying, "I was the one who beat him up. If you have any complaints, come at me."
The other parent seemed to have suddenly seized the moral high ground, their shrill voices echoing throughout the entire neighborhood.
Ji Jingyu pulled Jiang Deyu back behind her, her deep black eyes staring straight at the noisy adults.
Even though he was just a child, everyone involuntarily fell silent under his gaze.
Ji Jingyu glanced at the child and said, "You've already knelt down and begged for mercy, and we still beat you up. It was wrong of us, and I apologize to you."
"Brother Ji!" Jiang Deyu was furious.
But Ji Jingyu acted as if she hadn't heard her and continued unhurriedly, "But why did you call me a bastard? Auntie, what does bastard mean?"
Upon hearing this word, the expressions of all the adults present changed.
Although Ji Jingyu's background is questionable, people only murmur about it in their hearts and never thought of discussing it openly, let alone saying such a vicious thing as "bastard" to a child.
Ms. Sun glared at the other party coldly, "I said my little one was perfectly fine, how could he possibly get into a fight? Turns out some people are just being mean with their mouths."
Immediately, others chimed in.
"Exactly, they talk nonsense in front of their children and still have the nerve to come to our door and cause trouble."
"If you ask me, Xiaoyu and Xiaojing were too lenient. They should have torn his mouth apart. He dares to say anything."
"Luckily, Grandma Ji isn't here right now, otherwise she would be so heartbroken to hear that."
...
She bent down to look at Ji Jingyu, her expression gentle, "Little Jing, don't listen to what others say. If anyone talks nonsense to you without thinking, come and tell Auntie, and Auntie will teach them a lesson for you."
"Xiaoyu, take Xiaojing upstairs to eat popsicles."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, it's alright now. You did the right thing, you're such a good son!" Ms. Sun smiled and patted Jiang Deyu's spiky head. "You must protect Xiaojing in the future, okay?"
"Hmm." Jiang Deyu nodded heavily, glared at the child fiercely, and raised his chubby little fist. "If you say bad things about Brother Ji again, I'll hit you again."
Ji Jingyu walked over to the child and said, "Apologize to us."
The child pouted defiantly.
The next second, his mother kicked him hard in the butt. "Apologize right now! Where did you hear such things? You can't just say things like that!"
"I'm sorry."
Having received the apology he deserved, Ji Jingyu didn't leave. He looked up at the other parent and said, "Auntie, 'If a child is not taught, it is the father's fault,' so you should also apologize to me."
—
Let's put Luo Qi's matter aside for now; Jiang Deyu has other things to ask Ji Jingyu.
Jiang Deyu glanced around warily. Even though no one was around, he lowered his voice and said with an unusually serious expression, "I have another question. If you're not comfortable answering, just nod or shake your head to indicate that. I promise I won't go out and talk about it."
"you say."
"Is Jiang Sui's family involved in organized crime?"
The more Jiang Deyu thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was the truth.
Unless there are special circumstances, how could an average person transfer schools in their senior year of high school, especially from a big city to a small town? No matter how good Xunning No. 2 High School is, it can't compare to the teaching staff of Ligao High School.
Having to adapt to everything from scratch—isn't that playing with my future?
He was puzzled at the time. Jiang Sui was clearly a child who was pampered by her family. Why were her parents so indifferent to her affairs, letting her come to Xunning alone and go to school to register by herself?
It turns out that the parents couldn't show up.
Jiang Deyu had always believed that Li Lin avoided conflict with Jiang Sui because he was afraid of Jiang Sui and Ji Jingyu.
After all, someone like Li Lin, who is all show and no substance, could be knocked down with a single punch.
Without any external influence, what Li Lin fears most is Jiang Sui.
"When Jiang Sui stepped on Li Lin's cane, I was ready to fight." Jiang Deyu gestured wildly to Ji Jingyu, his face full of disbelief. "But guess what? That bastard didn't even take his cane and just tumbled away."
As he spoke, he seemed to realize something and suddenly widened his eyes. "Could it be that Jiang Sui had someone break Li Lin's leg? That's why he's like a cat seeing a mouse whenever he sees Jiang Sui."
In Jiang Deyu's mind, Jiang Sui may have disliked Li Lin for a long time, but it was inconvenient for her to take action at school, so she deliberately chose to have someone break Li Lin's leg off-campus.
No wonder I haven't seen Li Lin since that conflict in the cafeteria.
It turned out that his leg had been broken.
Jiang Deyu's expression grew increasingly terrified. "It was probably one of our school's new security guards who did it."
Those security guards were tall and burly; they were clearly not good people.
Moreover, they appeared at No. 2 Middle School with Jiang Sui, so perhaps they were sent by Jiang Sui's father to protect her.
“They're security guards during the day and thugs at night.” He paused. “And Teacher Su, why is Jiang Sui staying at Teacher Su's house? Did they threaten Teacher Su?”
Upon hearing this, Ji Jingyu glanced at him expressionlessly.
"What does this mean?" Jiang Deyu asked anxiously. "Brother Ji, just tell me the truth."
"Tong Xia is right."
"How come Tong Xia is involved here? Tong Xia knows about this too? And I'm the only one who doesn't know?" Jiang Deyu was even more confused. "What did Tong Xia say? I don't remember anything about it."
"You do have a brain, but not much."
Jiang Deyu said aggrievedly, "...Brother Ji, why did you scold me?"
Ji Jingyu was almost laughing in anger. "Do you think what you're saying is reasonable?"
Jiang Deyu was taken aback. "Isn't that unreasonable?"
—
As soon as the bell rang to end the lunch break, Jiang Deyu walked awkwardly to Jiang Sui's side and said, "I'm sorry, Jiang Sui."
The abrupt and nonsensical apology left Jiang Sui completely bewildered.
She hugged her small blanket, blinked hard twice, and because she had just woken up, her voice was still soft and sweet, almost like she was pleading, "What is he doing?"
Ji Jingyu leaned back in his chair, his long, fair skin twirling a pen.
"I feel guilty."
Making wild guesses about Jiang Sui's background.
"Feeling guilty?" Jiang Sui had a guess in her mind. "Did Jiang Deyu copy my answers again? Is he really a reincarnation of a giraffe?"
Hearing her say that, Ji Jingyu's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile.
Really...
So incredibly cute.
—
While I can't speak for everything else at Xunning No. 2 Middle School, their grading speed is absolutely impeccable.
Before the students could even recover from the tension of the monthly exam, their results were already out.
As usual, Sun Hao did not read out the specific rankings in class.
Apart from Ji Jingyu.
Unsurprisingly, he once again ranked first in the grade in this exam, and his total score was more than 20 points higher than that of the second-place student.
"Wow, that's amazing." Jiang Sui winked at Ji Jingyu, her joy overflowing like moonlight. "I'll treat you to supper tonight, let's celebrate properly."
She's so happy; anyone who didn't know better would think she won first place.
"Same as always, if you want to know your ranking, come to my office after class."
Sun Hao glanced at the eager students below and concluded with the same old words, "Don't be discouraged if you didn't do well; you still have time to catch up. And don't be arrogant if you did well. To put it bluntly, this exam was just for our school's own amusement and didn't have much real value. The upcoming seven-school joint exam will be the real test of ability! Also, the school will be holding a parent-teacher conference after this exam."
These words immediately caused another stir.
But Jiang Sui was very quiet.
"What are you thinking about?" Ji Jingyu asked her.
"I'm thinking about who will attend my parent-teacher conference."
Back when we were at Lizhong High School, Jiang Yunzhao was the one who attended the parent-teacher meetings.
But now, Jiang Sui is in a dilemma.
If we don't let Dad participate, he'll definitely be sad.
Let him participate, what if he runs into his mother?
"Forget it, things will work themselves out. We'll see when the time comes."
After class, Sun Hao called Jiang Sui and Ji Jingyu to his office.
Jiang Sui's ranking in this exam was below average, mainly due to her high score in English.
Her English grades were even slightly better than Ji Jingyu's.
However, apart from English, she still hadn't finished writing the questions for the other subjects.
However, her attitude towards learning is quite different from that during the initial assessment.
Anyone with eyes could see that she was genuinely taking the questions seriously.
There's still some time before the college entrance exam. If Jiang Sui can maintain this level of performance, she might actually be able to deliver a satisfactory result.
When he initially asked Ji Jingyu to tutor Jiang Sui, there was an element of "gambling" involved. Unexpectedly, Ji Jingyu actually managed to win over this young lady, Jiang Sui.
Therefore, Sun Hao felt he had to spare no effort in praising this "master and apprentice" pair.
Jiang Sui guessed what Sun Hao was going to do. She glanced subtly at a certain seat, and then spoke before Sun Hao could say anything, "Teacher Sun, I'm a little excited right now and would like to calm down first. Could you praise me later?"
As a quick-witted Chinese language teacher, Sun Hao almost left Jiang Sui speechless.
If he had a mirror, he would definitely let Jiang Sui look in it.
The kid practically had "I know this is boring, pointless, and not cool at all, but Mr. Sun is my homeroom teacher, so I have to give him face and reluctantly cooperate" written all over his face.
Sun Haocai didn't believe that Jiang Sui would get so agitated about something like this that she would need to calm down.
"Then now..."
It's not like the three of us can just sit in the office staring at each other.
Jiang Sui suggested to him, "Why don't you praise Ji Jingyu first?"
Ji Jingyu stood aside, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Sun Hao: "..."
Suddenly at a loss for words.
"Then you should take a moment to think it over. I'll tell you when to start, and then you can begin. That way, we can both be mentally prepared."
They've even started bossing the teacher around.
Sun Hao's temple throbbed uncontrollably; he was already beginning to regret calling Jiang Sui over.
And there's Ji Jingyu.
Sun Hao looked up at Ji Jingyu again, his dark eyes slightly lowered, his expression indifferent, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking at that moment.
To Sun Hao's surprise, as soon as he looked away, Ji Jingyu sighed silently and mouthed to Jiang Sui, "Be good."
Jiang Sui puffed out her cheeks, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Ji Jingyu's lips curled up slightly, a very faint smile, yet it instantly brought a gentle smile to his originally cold and deep eyes, making him appear refined and outstanding.
Sun Hao might think Jiang Sui's suggestion was outrageous, but Ji Jingyu knew very well why Jiang Sui did it.
She was waiting for Su Yinian to return to his office.
She just wanted her mother to know that she had really made progress recently.
"Why don't you go back to the classroom first, and come find me again when you've calmed down?"
"Teacher Sun, you can praise me now."
Sun Hao and Jiang Sui spoke at almost the same time.
What was he going to praise Jiang Sui for again?
After many twists and turns, Sun Hao unsurprisingly got stuck.
Su Yinian sat down in his seat, his gaze naturally falling in the direction of Jiang Sui.
"I think Jiang Sui has made great progress recently..." A cool and reserved voice echoed in the office, "Teacher Sun, what do you think?"
Thanks to Ji Jingyu, Sun Hao used the time he was talking to adjust his state of mind. "Yes, that's what the teacher thinks too... There's a time lag between effort and results. Not making obvious progress doesn't mean you haven't tried. You'll accumulate knowledge and skills, and the teacher believes you will definitely make greater progress next time."
Watching Jiang Sui leave the office with satisfaction, Sun Hao suddenly had the illusion that he had completed a task.
Shouldn't he be in charge of this?
—
Zhao Jia stood next to Jiang Sui, tapped on Jiang Sui's desk, and said in a not-so-friendly tone, "Hey, Teacher Wen wants you to go to her office."
Before Jiang Sui could react, she ran back to her seat and lay down.
Wen Xin didn't have anything else to ask Jiang Sui; she just wanted to know if she would be willing to be the English class representative.
"I don't want to."
Jiang Sui rejected Wen Xin's suggestion without even thinking about it.
Being the English class representative means constantly reminding people to submit their homework, having to go to the teacher's office before and after class to be at the teacher's beck and call, and having to set an example by answering questions in class...
Just thinking about it made Jiang Sui feel incredibly troubled.
It's no exaggeration to say that she's never been one to be waited on in her entire life; she's just not cut out for this kind of thing.
"The teacher was just asking; the main thing is that Zhao Jia thinks you want to be the class representative." Wen Xin was amused by Jiang Sui's straightforwardness. "If you don't want to, that's fine too."
"Zhao Jia?"
"Well, Zhao Jia didn't perform well on her English exam this time, so she feels she can no longer be competent for this position..."
"Teacher Wen, is it possible that Zhao Jia just wants you to comfort her, and doesn't really want to quit?"
No wonder Zhao Jia looked so aggrieved, as if she had been robbed of something.
She even wants to be the English class representative—where did this person get such an absurd conclusion?
When Jiang Sui returned to the classroom, she sensed that the atmosphere in the class was a bit strange, and she also received several inexplicable stares.
Author's note: This is just Xiao Jiang rambling nonsense.
Xiao Ji: You've developed a brain, but not much.
He talks nonsense every year.
Xiao Ji: Absolutely adorable!
Thank you so much for the nutrient solution, my darlings! Mwah!
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