"What did you hear?" Shen Qian had a rough idea.
"There have been a lot of articles about you in Jingcheng's newspapers and forums lately, saying that you... failed your exams, and some are even comparing you to Wang Shuo, and they've even insulted the city lord!"
Huo Ling'er spoke slowly, observing Shen Qian's expression as if worried that something she said might upset him.
That's it?
Shen Qian, however, took a sip of wine without a care in the world.
After so many days of seeing so much abuse and attacks at RT-Mart... I mean, on the smart bracelet, I'm not exactly heartless, but at least I'm calm and collected!
"No, what they said was awful, much awful than what I said!"
Huo Ling'er became a little anxious and said very seriously, "In short, you must not listen to those people's nonsense. Anyway, no matter what, you are very amazing in my heart!"
Looking at Huo Ling'er's face, which was pretending to be serious, Shen Qian couldn't help but pinch her smooth cheek.
"Haha, let's not talk about that anymore, let's drink!"
Shen Qian handed Huo Ling'er a jar of wine and used it to shut her up.
"See that clothesline? It's not an ordinary clothesline, it's an alloy clothesline. I bought it for five hundred silver dollars later when I had money, since I was the one who broke it back then, hey, back in those days..."
Men generally can't shake their talkativeness after drinking too much. Although Shen Qian was a teenager, some of his natural traits came out, and he started rambling about the past.
As the night sky over Jingcheng changed, countless stars appeared, and a full moon hung high in the sky.
That night, the young man carried a bottle of liquor and talked for a long time until late into the night.
The girl sat beside him, her chin in her hands, head tilted back, her face full of intoxication, though it was unclear whether it was from the alcohol, the starry sky, or something else...
...
When consumed in large quantities, wheat beer has an extraordinary potency, far surpassing that of regular beer.
As expected, Shen Qian got drunk again without using any energy to sober up.
Shen Qian opened his eyes, his head still throbbing a little. He only felt refreshed after circulating the "Primordial Spirit Refining Chapter" once.
Beside the bed were the hangover medicine left by his mother and a bowl of cold soup. Although he no longer needed it, Chen Qian still picked up the bowl and drank it all in one gulp.
Last night, I sat on the rooftop with Huo Ling'er until after 3 a.m., until Huo Ling'er's driver came to pick her up. Only then did I leisurely return home.
While excessive drinking is undesirable, it can feel quite enjoyable to occasionally experience a hangover.
Looking out of the bedroom, it was already noon. Shen Liang had gone to work, and Wang Xiaojuan had gone to her dance class. The house was empty.
After taking a shower and finishing his satiety pills, Chen Qian ordered a takeout for twenty people before sitting down on the sofa and taking out his bracelet, which had been charging for a while.
The pinned chat box is still grayed out, and "It's Xiao Ding" is offline.
Since the day Ding Yi left from Jingcheng to attend the training camp, he hasn't been online again, so it seems the training camp is still not over.
Shen Qian has now roughly guessed that the training camp Ding Yi is attending is likely in preparation for the grand event in the fall and winter.
To broaden our thinking further, the increased intensity of early admissions at domestic universities this year compared to previous years may also be partly due to this factor.
I'm really curious, what kind of competition was it?
He closed Ding Yi's chat window and continued scrolling down.
Many people had sent him messages, and even Chai Haotian had called him. Shen Qian glanced through them and found nothing particularly important. Almost everyone's concern was tinged with inquiry.
Even when Chai Haotian contacted him, Shen Qian guessed it was still related to the college entrance examination.
Feeling utterly annoyed, Chen Qian ignored everyone and didn't return Chai Haotian's call.
After thinking for a while, Chen Qian finally opened the Jingcheng local forum that he had neglected for a long time.
To Shen Qian's surprise, the most popular post was not related to him as he had imagined, but rather another news item.
"Comprehensive prediction of Jingcheng's annual city ranking (including valuable information and insider tips)."
The so-called annual ranking seems to be an evaluation that the Executive Yuan of China conducts every year. I had seen it in the newspaper before. It seems that this ranking is not just a paper honor, but has real interests involved.
With some curiosity, Chen Qian also clicked on the post to take a look.
The post was quite long and included various detailed data charts, showing that it was indeed carefully written and the analysis was quite reasonable and well-founded.
After reading it, Shen Qian's expression was somewhat complicated.
The importance of an annual city ranking to a city is far greater than imagined. For example, each city has a basic value of living and production resources that can be allocated each year, but this basic value can only maintain the basic operation of a city.
To obtain more resources, one needs to compete based on city rankings.
The higher the ranking, the more resources are available.
These resources cover almost everything: minerals, fruits and vegetables, human resources, transportation, military, and so on.
This leads to good cities getting better and better, while weak cities can only stay in the same place.
It's the classic 80/20 rule again.
Jingcheng's decline began ten years ago, and it started to plummet seven years ago. Among more than a thousand cities in the country, Jingcheng has fallen from its peak ranking of over one hundred to its current ranking of over six hundred.
According to the speculation in the post, if it weren't for the factor of the Marquis of Jingcheng, Jingcheng would actually only rank around 900th.
This year, Jingcheng is likely to fall out of the top 1,000.
If you do the math, the decline of Jingcheng coincides with the decline of education. Although education is not the only reason, it is very much like the seed of the butterfly effect.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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