Old Zhou arrived before the evening self-study session started. The moment he walked in, he smelled beef over rice.

Old Zhou didn’t have much to say about students eating in the classroom.

Only schools that couldn’t get results would crack down on things like that.

Schools that could get results naturally prioritized academics.

Old Zhou walked over to Shen Yuan’s desk, glanced at his math test, and handed him a sheet of paper. "Post this on the back wall later."

Shen Yuan took the paper and immediately grabbed Old Zhou.

’Perfect timing.’

’Ah Jie isn’t around, and Li Zhi is listless. You’re the only one who can teach me math now, Old Zhou!’

"Old Zhou, how do you do this problem? I’m stuck here."

To be honest, Old Zhou didn’t really feel like teaching right now. It was break time.

Besides, he hadn’t had dinner yet.

But, upholding his duty as a teacher, Old Zhou still leaned over to look at the problem Shen Yuan was working on. It was a function problem.

After a quick scan of Shen Yuan’s work, Old Zhou knew exactly where the problem was.

"Here, look."

Old Zhou pointed to one of Shen Yuan’s steps. "You’re not stuck. You just did it wrong."

Shen Yuan blinked. His eyes held not a single spark of mathematical brilliance.

Old Zhou shook his head.

’This dumbass kid.’

"Come, come, let me ask you something."

As Old Zhou explained, Shen Yuan’s line of thinking slowly began to open up.

Old Zhou also discovered that while this kid Shen Yuan’s comprehension was average, his fundamentals were actually quite solid.

During the first round of review, if he reinforced his basics and did a lot of practice problems, scoring above 120 shouldn’t be an issue.

’A 30-point improvement!’

Old Zhou gently patted Shen Yuan’s head. "Not bad, that brain of yours works pretty well. Pay close attention in my class during the review round after the monthly exam."

Shen Yuan nodded. "Old Zhou, if you had been my teacher from the start, I’d be scoring at least 120 in math by now."

Old Zhou laughed. "I’m going to tell Old Yang you said that."

"Go ahead. It’s not like I ever understood his classes anyway," Shen Yuan said, looking completely unconcerned.

He’d never gotten along with his math teacher from tenth and eleventh grade.

That guy wasted two years of his precious time; Shen Yuan couldn’t be bothered with him.

Old Zhou shook his head and pointed to the paper on the desk. "Right, remember to post the exam room assignments."

"Mission guaranteed."

After speaking, Shen Yuan’s gaze fell upon the exam room list on his desk.

As the saying goes, a significant portion of your exam performance depends on your testing environment.

A good seat can make a person feel very comfortable, especially one by the wall or a window.

No one on one side, giving a great sense of security.

Plus, when you got tired from the test, you could lean against the wall for a quick break.

You couldn’t ask for more comfort.

And it couldn’t be the front or back row.

In the front row, the proctor is hovering right over you. In the back row, there’s nothing to lean back on, and the proctor will often grab a seat there too.

If your luck was really bad, the proctor might even sit down right next to you.

Shen Yuan quickly found his assigned exam room.

Building 3, Room 211. It wasn’t far, just in the building across from theirs.

But for a third-year student, this was basically "exile to the frontier."

Seat number 15.

Compared to being exiled to the frontier, this seat number was even more unsettling.

Seat 15 was either in the very front or the very back, and it was definitely not a window or wall seat.

Shen Yuan was already starting to feel uncomfortable.

Then, Shen Yuan looked for Li Zhi’s assignment.

Building 4, Room 314. Left turn out the door.

Seat number 5. A nice, stable spot on the side.

’This is a divinely chosen exam room and seat!’

Shen Yuan reasonably suspected that this was definitely the school showing favoritism to Emperor Li of Heaven.

’Let the top student walk a shorter distance, right? What if something happened during that extra one-minute walk!’

’Damn it!’

Shen Yuan tore off a sticky note, copied down the exam room and seat number, and stuck it on Li Zhi’s desk.

Then he went to the teacher’s podium to fish out some tape.

He still had to post the list, after all.

The individual seat numbers would probably be posted during the evening self-study session, or maybe even after it ended.

Anyway, there were plenty of boarding students to serve as beasts of burden.

...

"What the fuck? Where the hell are they sending me? Is this even still the school?"

When Zhou Shaojie saw his assigned exam room, he was completely dumbfounded.

Even worse than Shen Yuan, Zhou Shaojie’s exam room was in Building 3, Room 203.

His was the type where after getting to Building 3, he’d have to go down two floors. Plus, his seat was near the front.

"Woohoo! I’m just downstairs. Things are lookin’ comfy, Ah Jie."

Yang Ze, who had gotten a good exam room this time, patted Ah Jie on the back, his face a mask of schadenfreude.

Ah Jie immediately lunged forward, flailing his arms. "So what if you have a good room? You think those of us with bad rooms can’t take the test? Brothers! Get him!"

A few of the bigger guys immediately grabbed Yang Ze and headed for the back door of the classroom.

"The rooms make no difference! They’re all the same! I was wrong! Bros! It’s already splitting!"

No one sympathized with Yang Ze’s splitting predicament. The group held him up against the back door and began to rub him against it vigorously.

"AHHH!!!"

Afterward, Yang Ze lay on the floor in agony, while Ah Jie ran back to Shen Yuan’s side.

"This sucks, Yuan!"

Shen Yuan shifted a bit to make room for him. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Seeing Shen Yuan ignore him, Ah Jie pouted.

"Wow, you’re really addicted to studying now, huh?"

"What else?"

Shen Yuan said without looking up, his gaze still fixed on his test paper.

Although Ah Jie was rambunctious, he knew not to bother someone when they were focused on studying.

"Whatever, you focus on your work. I’m gonna go mess around."

Ah Jie then sauntered off to the back of the classroom.

When Li Zhi woke up, she saw the sticky note on her desk. The moment she saw the handwriting, Li Zhi knew who had written it.

The beautiful girl turned her head to look at Shen Yuan across the hallway, watching the boy’s focused expression as he worked on problems. Her heart was calm, and she wasn’t thinking about anything in particular.

But when this scene fell into He Zhiyu’s eyes, it became something else entirely.

’A girl is secretly watching her childhood friend!’

’Wow!’

’Who said there aren’t sweet moments between childhood friends?’

’Isn’t this super sweet?!’

This was a sweetness completely different from the artificial kind manufactured by industrial saccharin, nor was it the sweetness of taking care of each other in daily interactions.

This sweetness was very subtle, but because of that, it tasted just right.

He Zhiyu then remembered what Shen Yuan had done today when he found out Li Zhi was on her period.

Even though it was just bringing her food, Shen Yuan acted like he had done it many times, as if treating it like a commonplace event.

The Kissing Association’s greatest talent was overthinking things.

He Zhiyu’s mind raced with possibilities.

In fact, it was indeed Shen Yuan’s first time bringing food for Li Zhi.

After all, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi hadn’t been in the same class before, so how could he possibly have done something like that for her?

Shen Yuan, who was in the middle of a problem, felt a gaze from the side. When he saw Li Zhi looking at him, he grinned mischievously.

"Woman, have you been captivated by my charm?"

He Zhiyu immediately rolled her eyes.

’Dumbass Shen Yuan!’