Chapter 46 "Does it hurt?"...
Peng Chengyi's face flushed, and she covered up her anger by scolding him: "Who was thinking about that? I just... have a bit of a sore neck."
As she spoke, she pretended to rub the back of her neck, then quickly snatched the Coke from his hand: "Sit down quickly, don't disturb my movie."
Chen Yubai's deep gaze lingered on her evasive eyes for a moment before he looked away with a faint smile, then lazily sank into the beanbag chair at her feet.
Peng Chengyi lightly squeezed the cola in her hand, forcing herself to stare at the screen and stop her mind from wandering.
As the film reached its climax, gunshots and chase scenes followed one after another, and the indescribable emotions from before gradually faded away in the flickering light and shadow.
By the time the movie ended, it was almost 1 p.m.
Immersed in the story, Peng Chengyi was immediately pulled back to reality by her rumbling stomach: "Oh no! I forgot to order takeout first!"
"Oh, I forgot too! Quick, check your phone!" Zheng Xinyue hurriedly pulled her phone out of her pocket.
"It's okay, I've ordered. I'll be there in two minutes." Chen Yubai stood up lazily and tossed the beanbag chair back into the corner.
"Brother Yu, you are my god!" Zhang Yang gave him a thumbs up without hesitation.
"What did you order?" Peng Chengyi asked, still not entirely at ease.
"McDonald's," Chen Yubai said casually.
Peng Chengyi's eyes lit up, and he patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction: "Well done, my little brother."
Chen Yubai narrowed his long, narrow eyes and glanced at her sideways.
Peng Chengyi paused, then immediately chuckled awkwardly to make amends: "...My brother."
Chen Yubai gave a soft snort, and with the sound of the doorbell ringing, he resumed his long strides.
After filling their stomachs, Peng Chengyi suggested that everyone play "WarioWarrior Maker".
"But this game only supports a maximum of four players on screen at the same time, right?" Zhang Yang asked uncertainly.
"I'm terrible at games, but I can cheer you on," Zheng Xinyue said, raising her hand with self-awareness.
"This game doesn't require much skill; it focuses on motion-sensing, humorous interaction, testing your imagination and physical reaction speed," Peng Chengyi explained to her.
“Okay, then I can give it a try too.” Zheng Xinyue immediately became interested. “I’ll watch the four of you play a game first, so I can get a feel for it.”
“Okay!” Peng Chengyi happily opened the game and handed the controllers to the other three. “Let’s start with ‘Guess who’s controlling it’! This is super fun.”
"What does 'Guess who's controlling the controller' mean?" Chen Wei, who had never played this type of game before, asked, somewhat confused.
"It's a two-person team that shares the same game character," Peng Chengyi explained while gesturing. "Super short tasks will pop up on the screen that you have to complete within a few seconds. But only one person is actually controlling the controller, and the other team has to observe and guess who is doing the work."
Chen Wei: "Oh, I see. It means the two of you need to synchronize your movements as much as possible to fool your opponent, right?"
“Yes!” Peng Chengyi nodded affirmatively.
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yang immediately jumped out and put his arm around Chen Yubai's shoulder: "Then you have to be in my group, Yu-ge! Otherwise, if I put you in Peng Chengyi's group, what's the point of Chen Wei and me playing together after all these years of tacit understanding between you two? We might as well just surrender!"
Chen Yubai glanced at Peng Chengyi without responding.
Peng Chengyi waved his hand casually: "You two can start as a team. Weiwei and I will win just as easily."
Chen Yubai chuckled and picked up the controller.
At the start of the first round, a bottle of soda pops up on the screen along with the instruction: [Shake your body!]
Zhang Yang immediately began to twist and turn wildly like an electric spring doll, while Chen Yubai simply raised his hand and quickly shook his wrist.
Five seconds later, with a "poof" sound, the soda on the screen successfully burst open the bottle cap and sprayed high into the air.
"This...it looks like Zhang Yang is manipulating things, doesn't it?" Zheng Xinyue commented, resting her chin on her hand.
“Not necessarily,” Peng Chengyi said, narrowing his eyes and staring intently at Chen Yubai’s wrist. “His lazy wrist-shaking motion is also recognized by the body’s perception system.”
Chen Yubai raised the corners of his mouth very slightly, but didn't say anything.
The next mini-game has popped up on the screen: [Squat Stamp!]
This means you need to keep squatting down and stamping the papers that are being handed to you, following the rhythm of the assembly line.
This time, Chen Yubai cooperated with Zhang Yang and did a deep squat together. The two moved in unison, making it difficult to tell who was the real "manipulator".
Peng Chengyi gently touched Chen Wei's arm and lowered her voice: "Who do you think it is?"
"I think it's better to be flamboyant..." Chen Wei and Zheng Xinyue agreed, turning to ask, "What about you?"
Peng Chengyi did not answer, her gaze still fixed on Chen Yubai.
Then the third mini-game popped up: 【Pull up the toilet plunger with all your might!】
Both of them simultaneously made a pulling upward motion.
But Chen Yubai seemed to be a fraction of a second faster than Zhang Yang, and the plunger successfully came off the toilet with a "pop".
Based on her years of experience watching him play games, she knew his reaction speed was always one step ahead.
Since he successfully pulled it out within the allotted time, he was probably the one who actually exerted force and triggered the judgment.
Peng Chengyi's lips curled up slightly, and as the round ended and the two turned around, he said with certainty, "It's Chen Yubai who's controlling things."
Chen Yubai raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly and shrugged his shoulders casually, which was taken as tacit agreement.
Zhang Yang then wailed, "Ahhh, no way, Peng Chengyi! You could even tell? I thought I was acting super convincingly!"
Peng Chengyi smiled, her eyes crinkling: "Because you were a second slower than him when you were pulling out the plunger."
Zhang Yang retorted, unconvinced: "Am I slow? I think my reactions are pretty quick!"
Peng Chengyi calmly added, "That might just be your imagination."
Zhang Yang: "..."
In the next round, it was Peng Chengyi and Chen Wei's turn to play a game, with Zhang Yang and Chen Yubai guessing.
Peng Chengyi and Chen Wei, who did not feel the vibration of the controller, exchanged a glance and decided that instead of staring at the screen to make commands, they would just use their peripheral vision to watch her movements and imitate them.
This will make it easier to confuse the public.
Sure enough, as soon as the first mini-game ended, Zhang Yang's hesitant voice came from behind: "Their movements are almost exactly the same... How can we guess who is controlling the controller?"
Chen Yubai remained silent, but Peng Chengyi could feel his gaze fixed intently on her every move.
So she didn't dare to relax at all, keeping a straight face the whole time as she continued with the next game.
After completing all the mini-games, she turned around, feigning composure, and said to the two people behind her, "Please make your choice."
Zhang Yang stroked his chin thoughtfully: "I think it's Peng Chengyi. She's quite good at these kinds of games, and she finishes them quickly."
Peng Chengyi tried hard to suppress the urge to smile and secretly glanced at Chen Yubai.
"It wasn't her." Chen Yubai leaned back on the sofa, his tone calm yet firm.
Peng Chengyi's heart skipped a beat, but he remained outwardly calm, though his fingers secretly tightened around the game controller.
Zhang Yang pressed further: "What's the reason?"
“No reason, just pure intuition.” Chen Yubai smiled lazily. “If you believe it, choose Chen Wei.”
“…Fine, I’ll trust you this once and give it a try.” Zhang Yang stared at him speechlessly for a few seconds, then finally moved the selection cursor over Chen Wei’s character and pressed the confirmation button.
A flower-sprinkling animation immediately popped up on the screen, congratulating the correct answer.
Peng Chengyi pouted unhappily, a sense of resentment at being so easily seen through rising in her heart: "What kind of intuition is this? It's just a guess."
However, in the following rounds, Chen Yubai still accurately hit the answer every time, as if he could see through all the disguises and directly read who the real manipulator was.
However, Peng Chengyi also correctly predicted his pairing with Zhang Yang. The two were like two mirrors, accurately reflecting each other's cards. The game thus fell into a strange stalemate, with round after round of overtime, and the outcome remained uncertain.
Zhang Yang's lips twitched slightly: "...I thought that if we didn't pair you two up, the rest of us would have a better chance of winning. But even as opponents, you two are still so ridiculous! This game is going to be a vicious cycle. How did you guys figure out if the other person was using a controller? Mind reading?"
Chen Yubai shrugged noncommittally and handed the controller to Zheng Xinyue: "Then let's find someone else to team up with. I'm going to take a break."
"Okay!" Zheng Xinyue, who had been eagerly anticipating her turn, immediately took the controller and jumped up from the sofa.
The battle finally took a turn for the better. Peng Chengyi could easily see through the awkwardness and hesitation in Zhang Yang and Zheng Xinyue's cooperation, but her movements with Chen Wei were synchronized as if mirror images, with almost no deviation.
Zhang Yang and his team looked left and right, scratching their heads in frustration, and in the end, they could only rely on probability to guess.
In the end, Peng Chengyi successfully achieved the highest individual score.
The rankings on the screen froze, and the setting sun outside the window cast a warm, soft glow over the room.
The last enjoyable part of summer vacation has quietly come to an end with this final score.
-
At the start of her second year of high school, the division between arts and sciences did not bring much change to Peng Chengyi's daily life.
She's still surrounded by her friends, and she doesn't really care who comes and who goes.
The only difference is that biology has been added to the curriculum, and competitions in various subjects are gradually being put on the agenda.
Because of her outstanding physics grades, Chen Peifu specially gave her an application form for the physics competition class and told her that if she was interested, she could participate in the selection exam on Friday afternoon.
Chen Yubai received invitations to participate in competitions in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
"Which subject do you plan to choose for the competition?" Peng Chengyi asked him hesitantly, holding her physics registration form.
Chen Yubai looked up at her, but didn't answer. Instead, he asked, "What are your plans?"
"I haven't decided yet..." she said honestly.
Although achieving a good ranking in national competitions can not only boost college entrance exam scores, but may even lead to guaranteed admission to university.
However, participating in competitions means investing a lot of energy, which inevitably affects the study of other subjects.
If the competition ends in nothing and the overall results are negatively impacted, then it's a net loss.
More importantly, she was secretly afraid of participating in the selection process.
She feared that once she stepped into the competition class, she would be forced to face a reality—
Perhaps she wasn't as smart as she thought; she only managed to stand on the same stage as other truly talented people through relentless effort.
"What about you? Are you sure?" Peng Chengyi threw the question back at him.
"I haven't decided yet," Chen Yubai said, casually stuffing the three blank application forms into the desk drawer.
Peng Chengyi paused for a moment, feeling that with his intelligence, his chances of winning the competition should be much higher than hers, and couldn't help but ask, "Then what are you hesitating about?"
Chen Yubai leaned back in his chair casually and said with a lazy smile, "I'm afraid if I accidentally get admitted early, someone will start nagging me about how unfair fate is. I'll probably be crushed by your resentment before I even get to college."
Peng Chengyi's lips twitched, and she glared at him speechlessly: "Who would nag you every day? I don't have that much resentment!"
"Oh? Who was it that secretly went on the forum to anonymously slander me because I got the top score in the city's high school entrance exam?" Chen Yubai shrugged innocently, his tone lazy and teasing.
Peng Chengyi choked, then awkwardly pursed her lips: "That, that's all old news... I'm more mature now, okay! I haven't done that kind of thing in a long time. If you want to sign up, go ahead, I promise I won't say a word more."
She paused, then added, "Besides, getting a guaranteed admission isn't that easy. Don't be so arrogant."
Chen Yubai smiled noncommittally: "Then what are you hesitating about?"
“I…” Peng Chengyi opened her mouth, but suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Chen Yubai stared at her quietly for a moment, then suppressed the teasing in his eyes: "Are you afraid that you won't get good results in the competition and that it will interfere with your regular studies?"
"More or less..." Peng Chengyi nodded vaguely.
"You haven't really encountered competition questions yet. Why don't you take the selection exam first to get a feel for the difficulty, and then decide whether you want to continue?" Chen Yubai suggested, unusually earnestly.
Peng Chengyi was silent for a while, then said softly, "Actually... I'm even a little afraid of the selection exam."
"It's just an exam, what's there to be afraid of?" He raised an eyebrow slightly.
Her eyes darted around, and after hesitating for a moment, she finally confessed her true feelings: "I'm afraid of discovering... that I'm not actually that smart."
"You're already in the top 30 of your grade at a top high school, and you still doubt your own intelligence?" Chen Yubai chuckled.
Peng Chengyi pouted: "That's because I worked hard, not because I'm smart."
"Then no matter what you rely on, won't the result be the same?"
“It’s different.” Peng Chengyi paused slightly before explaining, “Because everyone likes to praise someone for being smart, while talking about hard work seems to be synonymous with mediocrity. Right now, I can barely maintain a ‘smart’ persona through hard work. What if I go to the competition class and find out I’m just an ordinary person?”
“How could someone who can persevere and work hard be an ordinary person?” Chen Yubai frowned slightly.
"...What do you mean?" Peng Chengyi asked, slightly taken aback.
"Effort seems simple, and it seems like anyone can do it, but in reality, only a very few people can maintain self-discipline like you. To give you the simplest example, so many people in the class worked hard for two months, just like you, to keep Class 7 in the classroom. Now that school has started, the classroom is back to normal, isn't it?"
"So, isn't your perseverance and self-discipline a kind of talent? Why do you have to compare it with intelligence?"
Chen Yubai's words were like a wake-up call, instantly brightening Peng Chengyi's depressed mood.
It turns out that the mediocrity she feared she would face did not exist.
It's just that for a long time, her parents and teachers always talked about "smartness" but rarely affirmed the value of "effort," so she gradually overlooked that perseverance and self-discipline are a rare and precious talent.
But... Chen Yubai actually praised her?
Could it be an auditory hallucination?
Peng Chengyi thought to herself, and unconsciously reached out and pinched his arm lightly.
Chen Yubai hissed softly and frowned: "Why did you suddenly pinch me?"
Peng Chengyi said with a serious expression, "You can actually spit out ivory from that mouth of yours? I need to verify if I'm dreaming."
"...Then shouldn't you pinch yourself?" Chen Yubai raised his eyes, both amused and annoyed.
"I'm afraid of pain, so I'll have to trouble you for a bit," she blinked innocently. "Does it hurt?"
Chen Yubai stared at her speechlessly for a moment, then finally squeezed out a single word through gritted teeth: "...It hurts."
Peng Chengyi immediately beamed with joy: "That's wonderful, it wasn't a dream after all!"
Chen Yubai: "..."
“Then I’ll give it a try in the physics competition selection.” Peng Chengyi waved the registration form in her hand lightly, flicked her ponytail, and walked briskly back to her seat.
Chen Yubai watched her cheerful figure, a slight smile unconsciously appearing on his lips, before pulling out the physics competition registration form he had previously slipped into his desk and beginning to fill it out.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Someone is just a little puppy that will always follow behind my little sister [rookie dog]
Thanks to Leventseleve for the bomb, and thanks to SaltyFishDoesntWantToTurnOver, AhRun, and uoow for the nutrient solution!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
