After being assigned to the liberal arts class in sophomore year, teachers refused to give her this special seat because Fang Yue’s long-term malnutrition kept her short, and the back rows were dominated by tall boys.
Fengtan didn’t allow mixed-gender deskmates, and even if they made an exception, no boy wanted to sit motionless next to her in that lonely corner for two years.
After all, in the dull and boring school life, occasionally shifting seats might land someone next to a crush, making them get up earlier that week.
If a boy really wanted to stay still next to her, it would be even worse—teachers would start questioning the motive.
Luckily, there was still Li Yingqiao in the class, who was tall and outgoing.
Mi Na brought up Fang Yue’s situation, prepared for rejection but was surprised when Li Yingqiao agreed enthusiastically, moving Mi Na deeply.
People expected Li Yingqiao’s personality would help Fang Yue integrate, but it turned out Fang Yue made Li Yingqiao more introverted too.
In senior year, the two almost never participated in any class events, spending all their time grinding through exercises and reading.
What Mi Na didn’t know was that Li Yingqiao brought Fang Yue into their own study group, enduring Zhu Xiaoliang’s relentless math drills, Yu Jinyang’s patient English grammar explanations, Miaojia’s vivid drawing tutorials, plus the stimulation of Li Yingqiao’s insect specimens, all under Gao Dian’s enthusiastic seal-clap support—Fang Yue’s grades soared from around one hundredth in the school to the top ten.
Fang Yue’s weakest subject was English, the Achilles’ heel of all her weaknesses.
Once she overcame this, her grades improved significantly.
On the day of the last mock exam’s score release, Fang Yue’s total surpassed 700 points.
Li Yingqiao was the first to see the results.
When she arrived at Liang Mei’s house, she couldn’t wait to show off the paper to Yu Jinyang and the others, “Look, look! It’s the first time I’ve seen such a high score. Fang Yue, if you get this in the college entrance exam, you can at least get into S University in our province.”
Before Yu Jinyang and the others could react, Li Yingqiao immediately spotted some careless mistakes and circled them with a pen:
“How did you still get these wrong? You shouldn’t lose points in these cloze test places. You’re so careless! Be sure to double-check during the exam; you might break into the province’s top ten.”
Li Yingqiao’s obsession with studying peaked in the last few months of senior year.
She was completely immersed in Fang Yue’s beautiful scores, eagerly marking the English test’s wrong points and analyzing mistakes:
“Here, ‘while’ indicates concession, not a temporal adverb. You shouldn’t get this wrong. Miao has explained it many times, and Gao Dian even got it right.”
Gao Dian looked down at his paper, covered with so many crosses he could use it to fish in a river.
Scratching his head, he said, “I didn’t even know I got it right, I was just guessing.”
Li Yingqiao kept her head down, pointing out errors and patiently explaining, “You guessed it right last time too. English is about intuition—you can guess right once, then twice, and after a while, you can guess with feeling and instinct. This question is no different from knowing the answer.”
She pointed at Fang Yue again, “But you can’t guess. Usually, we top students know too many distractors and pick the wrong ones easily.”
Eventually, they found Fang Yue in an internet cafe.
Since the exam ended, she’d been working there for nearly half a month, watching machines during the day and sleeping on a camp bed under the counter for two hours at night.
The camp bed was covered with multiple college prospectuses.
Seeing this, Li Yingqiao knew Fang Yue must’ve checked her scores herself.
Her anxiety finally settled, but having been exhausted from searching for days and barely sleeping, her temper flared, and she spoke harshly: “You should know your scores by now, right? Admissions officers from University A have been to your house several times. The teachers are going crazy trying to reach you. What are you doing? Fang Yue, everyone’s worried sick, and you’re hiding here! I’m reminding you again: the deadline is 5:30 PM tomorrow. Miss it, and you’ll regret it! Okay, I’m done with my part.”
The group burst into the internet cafe, scolding Fang Yue.
The manager thought Fang Yue had made a billing mistake and was about to speak when Zhu Xiaoliang and Liang Mei pulled him aside.
The kids stood frozen by the counter around Fang Yue, while Li Yingqiao gave her a sharp look, demanding an explanation: “What are you thinking? Did you feel you didn’t do well and just hide? At least tell me something. Don’t just let me check your score. With a score like that, you disappearing almost made us call the police!”
Fang Yue remained silent, her fingers turning white from gripping the counter.
Her throat felt blocked with burning charcoal.
She glanced at Yu Jinyang and then Li Yingqiao; her ears flushed red, and the heat spread to her neck.
The more anxious she got, the less she knew how to explain.
Yu Jinyang pulled Li Yingqiao behind him and whispered, “Calm down.”
Then he turned back, handing Fang Yue the red plastic bag from her mother.
The calmer his expression, the redder Fang Yue’s face became.
He said, “We went to your place earlier. Your mom threw this to us. I counted the money in front of them—exactly 800 yuan. I’ve kept it safe for now and haven’t touched it. You can check it yourself. If there’s anything, just tell us. We’ll figure it out together. Li Yingqiao was just worried you’d miss the deadline. She hasn’t seriously worked on her own preferences these days because she’s been looking for you. Sorry if she sounded harsh—don’t mind her. Fang Yue, have you filled out your college preferences?”
With Yu Jinyang’s calm prompting, Fang Yue finally found a way to answer quickly: “Yes, I have.”
Li Yingqiao visibly relaxed and turned to leave, “Then I’m not bothering you anymore. But next time, don’t just leave things with someone and disappear without a word.”
“Li Yingqiao!”
Fang Yue called after her.
“I just wanted you to be happy when you saw my score, so I asked you to check it.”
“Happy my foot—”
Li Yingqiao walked two steps, then turned back and glared at her.
She strode back quickly and said, “You scared me to death these past couple of days. I had no idea what you were thinking, Fang Yue. Do you have some problem? Is your family trying to sell you off or something?”
Fang Yue shook her head quickly and said, “No, no. I just wanted to work to earn some living expenses for college. I thought my score was really good and wanted you to be happy when you saw it. That’s why I left you the exam number—I don’t have a phone… I didn’t know you’d be this worried. Sorry, Li Yingqiao.”
Gao Dian said, “Huh? We went to your house, and your mom was super fierce, swinging a broom wildly at me.”
Fang Yue said, “My mom’s mental state isn’t very good. She probably thought you came to collect a debt. Yu Jinyang went before, so she might’ve mistaken him for my dad’s debt collector’s son.”
Ah—
Li Yingqiao threw her head back and howled at the internet cafe ceiling, then stepped over the counter, grabbing Fang Yue’s neck with both hands and shaking her hard, grinding her teeth and forcing out each word: “Fang, Yue! I’m really speechless. I seriously want to strangle you.”
Fang Yue got even redder, like a fully cooked shrimp, her flesh almost turning tough.
After a while, Li Yingqiao finally loosened her grip and said, “Why didn’t you say anything earlier? I would’ve given you my number! At worst, you could’ve gone to Liang Mei’s place to find me! Besides, with that score, even if I didn’t want to know, I’d know immediately.”
“Well… I didn’t expect to do this well—”
Li Yingqiao exhaled and hugged her, “Forget it, forget it. It’s best you’re okay. You scared me. I thought you were kidnapped like when Miao and I had our middle school exams. I’m just glad you’re okay. Are you making good money here?”
Liang Mei, Zhu Xiaoliang, and Yu Jinyang exchanged glances and saw a mutual sympathy in each other’s eyes—for the stubborn Li Yingqiao, it seemed she was surprisingly easy to coax in front of the provincial top scorer.
“Not bad, about a hundred a day,” Fang Yue said.
“If you want to make money, come find me. I’ll take you along.”
“Yeah, find Qiaoqiao. She’s got connections!”
Zheng Miaojia finally spoke up.
“She sold my Chinese textbooks at the flea market for a high price.”
“All muscle Li Bai, muscle Du Fu—stuff no one’s even seen before, how could they not fetch a good price?”
Li Yingqiao said, “Still sold it cheap though. Miaojia, you’ll definitely be a great artist one day. She even drew bald Gao Dian and bald Yu Jinyang. Hahaha!”
After a lively and noisy discussion, upon hearing the two girls’ scores, Fang Yue suddenly remembered, “Yu Jinyang, Gao Dian, what about you two?”
Zheng Miaojia raised her hand, enthusiastically introducing, “One’s the ‘crotch-stuck guy,’ the other’s the ‘eternal third place.’”
Fengtan High had a solid batch of students passing the exam every year—at least four hundred—though very few ranked in the province’s top hundred.
Typically, fewer than five from Fengtan made it into the top hundred, but in 2016, an unprecedented ten students broke into the top hundred.
Fengtan’s liberal arts side shone even brighter, securing two spots in the top ten, with the rest outside the top fifty.
Yu Jinyang ranked eighty-fourth in science across the province, still third in the county, the same as his middle school entrance exam ranking.
Gao Dian barely passed the key score line, the same as in the middle school exam.
By then, they had already gone home. Gao Dian was at his place using the air conditioner and laughing at Yu Jinyang’s “eternal third place” nickname, even mockingly warning him never to settle for third again.
Yu Jinyang had just finished dancing and sat cross-legged on the dance studio floor, sweating.
Hearing Gao Dian fiddling with his vinyl records, he suddenly snatched one back with a chop from behind and coldly said, “Crotch-stuck guy, you got something to say?”
Li Yingqiao was right, you’re being a bit too picky now, Miaozi.”
Gao Dian turned back, shamelessly slinging his arm over Yu Jinyang’s shoulder.
“Go away,” Yu Jinyang shrugged him off, putting all the records back with his head down.
“She even said my farts smell like perfume. How come you didn’t remember that?”
“Really? That’s what she said? But she also said,” Gao Dian replied, “You’re too short, not her type at all.”