Yun Buran entered the exam hall and walked to her seat.
She closed her eyes and kept taking deep breaths until the test paper and answer sheet reached her hands.
The first subject was Chinese, which was fine—she was already quite good at it. But this time her determination was different from usual, so she wrote every character with extra effort, pressing down hard.
She only finished the essay a few minutes before handing in the paper, leaving her hand terribly sore.
During the midday break, using the excuse of being nervous, she managed to stay on a voice call with Su Nian while reviewing her error notebook. Although they didn’t chat, just hearing Su Nian’s breathing made Yun Buran feel very relaxed.
Following Su Nian’s arrangement, right after waking from her nap, she quickly ran through some basic math oneshot problems and calculation drills to maintain her test-taking feel.
The moment she got the math test paper, she started skimming at high speed.
When she officially began answering, even though she had already solved the first few multiple-choice questions, she still methodically wrote down the question numbers on the scratch paper and jotted the key steps for the first problems to make checking easier.
This time she strictly followed Su Nian’s test-taking habits: leave the last single-choice and multiple-choice questions, jump to the fill-in-the-blanks, and when she reached the last fill-in-the-blank, go back and complete the multiple-choice finale.
Then she jumped to the long-answer questions. When only the last two remained, she paused to think a little about the fill-in-the-blank finale.
She originally had no clue, but based on the rough diagram on her scratch paper, she suddenly recalled a conclusion Su Nian had taught her.
Because she still wasn’t proficient enough, Su Nian had advised her not to use any secondary conclusions this time, to avoid wasting time by falling into traps due to insufficient understanding. But since she couldn’t solve it now, applying the conclusion was obviously fine.
She quickly aced that fill-in-the-blank finale. At this point, Yun Buran’s confidence was at its peak.
She used the remaining time to wrestle with the last two long-answer questions.
The final math finale was a problem combining probability, functions, and sequences. She quickly made a decision: finish the first sub-question, then make up steps for the rest, and save time for checking.
The bell rang just as Yun Buran finished reviewing each question on her scratch paper, following the clear train of thought she’d written down.
This was a test-taking rhythm she had never experienced before, and for the first time, she felt that maybe she was actually pretty good.
Yun Buran cheerfully packed up her things, planning to go home and wait for Su Nian to arrive during evening self-study. She also bought quite a bit of snacks.
That night, she excitedly shared her feelings with Su Nian. He patted her head and praised her silently to himself.
“Isn’t this really like raising a daughter?”
Xiali teased the strange senior-senpai and junior.
The next day was physics, followed by English in the afternoon.
Yun Buran finished the physics test paper very efficiently, but she didn’t fully solve the experiment section. She only realized how to do it after leaving the exam hall, which made her feel deeply depressed.
“Reflection isn’t about wallowing in the taste of failure. It’s about building the confidence for your next success.”
Su Nian scolded her over the phone. He was currently shopping at a snack shop, while Xiali was quickly tossing snacks into the shopping cart.
Su Nian had never really liked snacks. He was buying these to take to school. He’d been getting too much food from others lately—though he was used to it, it still bothered him, and he wanted to give something back to An Hexi.
In the afternoon, Yun Buran steeled herself for English. She solved the A and B reading sections at lightning speed.
Using Su Nian’s technique, she guessed the author’s intent based solely on the title and the first and last sentences of each paragraph. Only when confused did she go back to find the first or last sentence of each paragraph, or look for cue words like “but.”
She didn’t completely read a single passage, but she finished the reading comprehension in the fastest time possible.
Finally came the writing section, where she was confident. It was still a very common topic, but this time her mind was full of ideas from model essays. She picked up her pen with confidence.
The other students in her exam hall felt a lot of pressure because she always turned the pages of her test paper far ahead of everyone else.
That evening, Yun Buran kept flipping through her chemistry and biology textbooks and reviewing her error notebook, but she kept getting distracted.
Because after the morning exam tomorrow, there would be half a day off. She was thinking about how to trick Su Nian into coming over for “tutoring.” After all, during their joint exam, Su Nian’s school was on break.
Without even lifting his eyes from his competition problems, Su Nian rolled up some scratch paper and gave her a tap on the head.
“Why do you keep spacing out?”
“Bleh.”
Yun Buran stuck out her tongue and made a face.
Su Nian sighed, thinking he might as well see it through to the end.
“Come on, I’ll ask you the high-probability error-prone points that might show up on the test. You answer.”
Chemistry and biology, hooray! Such a small thing was enough to make the girl love those two subjects again.
Rather, ever since Su Nian came along, Yun Buran had always loved studying.
The next day, Yun Buran not only finished early but also nearly checked her test paper twice. She had already started daydreaming.
Daydreaming about her classmates’ and teachers’ reactions, her mother’s praise, and most importantly, Su Nian’s reward.
After the test papers were collected, Yun Buran put away her glasses and stationery and rushed out of the school gate without waiting a moment.
“What’s the study plan for today’s holiday?”
It was exactly noon, which reminded Yun Buran of that midday at the snack shop. She never imagined that in less than two weeks, so much could happen.
Because it was a short holiday, the boarding students had also asked for leave and all poured out to eat and drink. There were many stalls outside the school gate, and the crowd was bustling and lively.
This time, she didn’t feel uncomfortable with the bustle, because that little junior who liked to put on a disguise had brought a lively chaos to her heart as well.
“Rest for half a day. I have something to do, so I won’t come find you.”
Yun Buran silently turned off her phone screen and continued walking, her mood sinking.
She suddenly felt nauseous, because only now did she realize how many people were around her, and there were so many of the opposite sex, which suddenly made her feel sick.
All their bustle was theirs; I only felt the noise.