Chapter 30
Nanyang High School, Chemistry Exam Room.
The homeroom teacher was so angry that he laughed when he saw Chen Yan, who hadn't shown up by the end of the day.
He took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, then collected the students' test papers and headed to his office.
When he went to proctor the next physics exam and saw Chen Yan sitting there nonchalantly, he was so angry he laughed again.
He handed out the test papers, and as he passed Chen Yan, he said with a forced smile, "We'll settle the score after you finish the test."
"..."
Physics was the last subject. After the exam bell rang, Chen Yan looked at his homeroom teacher, said nothing, and obediently went downstairs to run ten laps.
After finishing their final exams, students at Nanyang High School don't get a holiday. They have to attend a week of preparatory classes for Grade 11 before the holiday ends. So, after the exams, everyone just goes back to their own classes.
It wasn't until someone noticed that the top student in the grade was being punished by running laps that the news spread like wildfire, and everyone looked down from the connecting corridor.
Even after Chen Yan finished running, many people were still discussing why he was punished with a running penalty.
After Chen Yan finished running, Ni Zhen and a few of his roommates were waiting for him on the playground. One of his roommates handed him water and said, "Chen Yan, you're really something, daring to skip the final exam."
Ni Zhen stared at him, but that wasn't what she was curious about: "So where did you go by climbing over the wall?"
However, Chen Yan just smiled, took the water and drank a few sips, then put his arm around the other person's shoulder: "Let's go, let's go eat."
"..."
Seeing that he avoided answering, Ni Zhen could roughly guess that it was probably related to Chen Yan's older sister.
Ultimately, he always climbed over the wall because of that older sister.
Unlike the laissez-faire teaching style of Bei Yi High School, Nanyang High School is a well-known high school in Bei Yi that is strictly managed and places great emphasis on student performance.
The final exam results came out two days later.
The scoreboard had only been posted for a short time when it was surrounded by people.
Everyone was looking for their rankings when someone blurted out, "Holy crap, the top spot in the grade has changed!"
Since Chen Yan skipped a grade to attend Nanyang High School, he has consistently been ranked first in the grade.
In addition, Chen Yan's outstanding appearance made him known to everyone. Some liked him, while others were jealous of him.
Without exception, everyone's eyes were now focused on searching for Chen Yan's name on the list.
A finger pointed to the ninth position in the grade, and everyone's eyes were focused on it.
Ninth in the grade – Chen Yan.
Some of the boys couldn't help but gloat: "Looks like the top student in the grade failed this time."
One girl was indignant. She slowly traced Chen Yan's scores in each subject with her index finger until she landed on the chemistry section. She exclaimed in surprise, "Chen Yan got 0 in chemistry!"
The crowd erupted in cheers.
A chubby boy with glasses casually bumped into the guy who had been making sarcastic remarks earlier: "My brother Yan is still awesome."
"To be able to be in the top ten of the grade even after missing one exam is terrifying."
"And he got close to full marks in physics and math."
"Help! He only lost 18 points in Chinese! Is he even human?"
The boy who was bumped didn't say a word, but his face looked as ugly as shit.
In the grade office, the homeroom teacher looked at Chen Yan's report card, which showed obvious improvement in the other subjects except chemistry. His face turned pale and he didn't know what to do with him.
He returned to the class with a stern face and began to summarize the class's report card.
"In this exam, apart from a few students who were disobedient and skipped class, our class average score was one point higher than usual."
His expression softened a little as he said this: "And the highest scores in all subjects are in our class."
His expression darkened further as he spoke, and Ni Zhen, who was always a troublemaker, chimed in, "Teacher, who are these people?"
The homeroom teacher sighed inwardly, her expression somewhat helpless, but she accepted reality.
After all, students make mistakes, but rewards and punishments should go hand in hand.
"The highest scores in the grade for Chinese, Math, English, Physics, and Biology are all from our class, Chen Yan." Seeing the jeers from below, he stopped keeping a straight face. "However, the lowest score in the grade for Chemistry is also from our class."
Another commotion erupted, with Ni Zhen's voice being the loudest: "Chen Yan, huh~"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter, and even the homeroom teacher couldn't help but laugh.
Chen Yan wasn't angry when his roommate teased him; he just stared out the window in a daze.
A week later, Nanyang High School was on holiday, but Chen Yan did not go home with his suitcase. Instead, he went to Beiyi High School.
Today is the graduation ceremony for Xiangguan High School. Chen Yan left his suitcase at the supermarket across the street and went in alone.
When he arrived, the graduation ceremony had already ended, and many people were taking graduation photos on the playground. He didn't even need to look for them; the one surrounded by the crowd in the center was Xiang Wan.
He didn't disturb her, but stood outside the crowd, quietly watching her.
Perhaps it was because he was so noticeable, but he had only been standing there for a short while when quite a few people had already noticed him.
Then Xiang Wan saw her too. She walked through the crowd to his side and said to the people around her, "Take a picture of me and my friend."
Jiang Zhuochun and a few good buddies went to the river to take pictures. Apart from Che Nanbei and Shen Feiyang, there were only a few classmates around.
Upon seeing the handsome stranger, they all looked at the two of them with curiosity.
Xiang Wan, holding a bouquet of flowers, stood next to Chen Yan. When she saw that she wanted to take a picture with her, Chen Yan's shoulders unconsciously stiffened a little, but she still cooperated by leaning her body slightly in her direction.
Che Nanbei pointed his camera at the two of them and pressed the shutter.
After the photo was taken, the two looked at the camera again. Although Chen Yan was wearing a baseball cap, you could tell from the lower half of his face that he was a handsome guy.
Che Nanbei and Shen Feiyang glanced at Chen Yan, then looked at Xiang Wan, their tone filled with curiosity: "Wanwan, who is he?"
Xiang Wan has very few friends outside of school. Even if she does, they are all people in the entertainment industry. Even if they are not very familiar with each other, they can definitely call each other by name.
But the person in front of them was clearly someone they had never seen before, and he was a very handsome man. If they had seen him before, they would definitely remember him.
Their voices weren't low, and Chen Yan could hear them. Hearing this, he felt a little nervous and subconsciously pulled his hat brim down further.
Xiang Wan didn't explain anything, only saying, "He's a friend of mine from outside of school."
Friendships seem to be full of possibilities, even a bit ambiguous.
Chen Yan looked at her with some surprise, his eyes filled with disbelief. She always introduced him to others as her younger brother.
This was the first time she introduced him as her friend. Chen Yan quickly looked away, but a certain indescribable flutter was growing in his heart.
After taking photos with the camera, Che Nanbei took a group photo of them with a Polaroid camera.
Five years have passed, and Chen Yan has changed a lot. Neither Che Nanbei nor Shen Feiyang recognized the handsome man in front of them as Xiang Wan's 'sister' back then.
Xiang Wan handed him the photos. Chen Yan took the photos and looked at the picture of the two of them. The corners of his lips unconsciously turned up.
The image quality was a bit blurry, but it didn't affect the good looks of the two people at all. Chen Yan looked at it for a while and then put the photo into the breast pocket of his shirt.
Since all four of them were expected to get into Bei Yi University after their estimated scores, none of them felt particularly sad. After agreeing to go surfing on an island during the summer vacation, the three of them spent some time together before heading home.
While Chen Yan went to get his suitcase, Che Nanbei gently nudged Xiang Wan's shoulder and teased, "I didn't expect you to have a hidden gem of a handsome guy, Wanwan."
Even Shen Feiyang, beaming, bumped his fist against her chest: "That's not fair."
"..."
Xiang Wan was speechless for a moment. Before she could explain, Chen Yan arrived, and she could only get into the car amidst their teasing gazes.
In the car, she watched the two men's animated expressions, pursed her lips, and finally rolled up the car window.
There's no way to communicate with these two guys.
Chen Yan handed her the Polaroid camera he had just taken: "Sister, can I keep this?"
It was just a photo. Xiang Wan glanced at it and nodded casually, "Okay."
Thinking of her two friends' teasing earlier, she looked into Chen Yan's clear eyes and suddenly felt a sense of guilt. She shook her head to dispel the thought.
Seeing that she was staring at him without saying anything, Chen Yan thought there was a grain of rice on his face and subconsciously touched his face: "What's wrong, sister?"
The sin suddenly deepened.
Xiang Wan rolled down the car window, trying to calm herself down with the cold air: "It's nothing."
Chen Yan looked at Xiang Wan, who wasn't looking at him, and didn't think too much about it. He just kept rubbing the edge of the photographic paper with his fingertips.
Driver Lao Zhang drove very steadily, and we arrived home quickly.
After returning home, I slept soundly without any dreams.
A month later, the college entrance examination results were released. Xiang Wan had just checked her scores when she received a video call from Shen Feiyang and the others.
In the group video call, Xiang Wan heard Che Nanbei's excited exclamation as soon as the call connected.
"Wanwan, guess how many points I got?"
Before Xiang Wan could even guess, Jiang Zhuochun revealed the answer: "She scored 532, but with the extra points for art, she can barely get into Bei Yi."
"..." Che Nanbei rolled his eyes speechlessly, "Jiang Zhuochun, you're so shameless."
"Hehehe."
"Ignore those two childish brats, Wanwan, what's your score?" Shen Feiyang asked eagerly.
Xiang Wan didn't beat around the bush: "635."
"Then all four of us can go to Beiyi University, that's great!" Shen Feiyang said excitedly.
"After entering university, I can finally play games properly." Among the four, Jiang Zhuochun had the worst grades, and he quit playing games for half a year during the sprint to prepare for the college entrance examination.
Upon hearing this, Che Nanbei was the first to contradict him: "Young Master Jiang played a lot of games during the summer vacation, and even stayed up all night several times."
"..."
The video call continued until Xiang's parents called back: "My parents are video calling me, I'll hang up now."
Xiang's parents rarely call Xiang Wan, so the four of them said they would see each other again when school started.
"Wanwan, please take good care of Uncle Xiang and Aunt Xiang for me." Jiang Zhuochun was teased by Che Nanbei after he finished speaking, "Uncle and Aunt are people who do important things, they don't have time to remember you."
Shen Feiyang added, "Wanwan, please take good care of Uncle Xiang and Aunt Xiang for me."
Seeing this, Che Nanbei was afraid that the elders of the Xiang family would not have a good impression of him as much as the two of them: "Wanwan, you also need to take good care of me, Uncle Xiang, and Aunt Xiang."
Xiang Wan: "..."
After hanging up the phone, Xiang Wan looked at her parents' faces in the video and said, "Why are you both so tanned?"
He told his parents, "I went surfing and forgot to put on sunscreen."
"..." Xiang Wan was speechless. In her memory, the two of them were so busy that they didn't even have time to see her, but they still managed to go out and have fun without any problems.
It turns out this couple simply wanted some time alone together.
After telling the two of them her college entrance exam scores, she added a reminder that the market prospects in Europe were very good in the past two years, and that they should not relax while they were resting.
Looking at the video of their daughter, whose workaholic tendencies were already beginning to emerge, Xiang's parents were speechless.
*
Two months after filling out the application, Beiyi University finally started its semester.
Just then, Chen Yan started his second year of high school at Nanyang High School, so only Wang Yidong accompanied Xiang Guan to university for registration.
However, someone still went that day.
He went there with a bruised and swollen face...
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