Chapter 75

*Campus IF Line — “Class”*
“I believe you.”
—
Qin Sang and Xie Yuncheng now shared a small secret. It was as if, invisibly, it had pulled the distance between them closer.
Xie Yuncheng gave her a QQ number and told her to add it. When she saw the friend verification approved, she hugged her phone and couldn’t help secretly curling her lips upward.
“Knock-knock.”
The QQ avatar in the lower right corner of her phone bounced, reminding her she’d received a new message.
x: 【Still not asleep?】
Qin Sang immediately sat up straight, holding her phone and typing. Her phone was a pink sliding phone, a nine-key keypad for pinyin input.
San You: 【Not yet. Waiting for lights-out.】
Seeing her phone, Tang Minmin—who had just come out after washing her hair—snorted with contempt. “What a bumpkin.”
For boarders, having a phone wasn’t unusual. The school didn’t manage it very strictly either. After all, sometimes they needed to contact home.
Most students at No. 1 were locals from the city. Tang Minmin was also a Jingcheng local. Her family circumstances were pretty good; her parents ran a neighborhood grocery store.
That year, the economy began to trend upward. Living standards gradually stabilized, and many people had already switched to the newly released touchscreen phones.
Tang Minmin held a newly released iPhone 5. The moment she took it out, the other girls all looked envious.
“Minmin, is that the iPhone 5? It just came out, didn’t it? You switched so fast?”
“Yeah. I remember your last phone was only a year old too, wasn’t it?”
Tang Minmin raised a brow. “Is a year not enough? I only use a phone for one year at most. My dad bought it for me—to celebrate me getting into No. 1.”
“Wow, your dad is so nice to you. My parents won’t let me change my phone. They only let me use an old one.”
“I want an iPhone 5 too. Minmin, can I borrow your phone to look at it?”
“Take it and look.” Tang Minmin deliberately spoke loudly. “Foreign phones are just stronger than those domestically made, outdated sliding phones.”
Qin Sang felt a little gloomy.
San You: 【Is the moon abroad rounder than the one at home?】
x: 【Why do you ask that?】
x: 【The moon only appears different because of distance and perspective, creating a visual illusion. In reality, the moon itself doesn’t change, and there’s no such thing as the moon being farther away and bigger abroad.】
Qin Sang thought for a moment, then asked again.
San You: 【Then is our country’s current tech level really worse than foreign countries’?】
She could see the “typing…” indicator, but she waited and waited—almost until lights-out—before Xie Yuncheng finally replied.
x: 【Sorry. I stepped away briefly.】
x: 【That question depends on what exactly you mean. Broadly, scientific productive capacity includes but isn’t limited to light industry, heavy industry, agriculture, finance, and so on. Overall, our country’s current tech level is indeed weaker than the West’s, but the domestic economy is developing rapidly now, and the tech level is also improving quickly.】
x: 【For example, this February, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense released a 7-meter-resolution global image map obtained by the “Chang’e-2” lunar probe. This is a major scientific research achievement for our lunar exploration program. In March, our country launched the world’s first “Beidou + GPS” dual-system in-vehicle navigation product. In June, “Shenzhou-9” successfully docked with “Tiangong-1.”】
Qin Sang understood only half of it. She couldn’t really understand the details, but she could understand: domestic tech had been developing upward.
She felt it was impolite not to reply, but it also seemed like… she didn’t know what to say, because she didn’t understand any of it.
San You: 【So amazing.】
Fresh from a shower, the boy sat by his desk. His hair wasn’t dry yet, slightly damp, and the water droplets that fell down soaked the collar.
It was as if, through the avatar, he could see her pursing her lips, nodding along even though she only half understood.
He laughed softly, his brows and eyes loose and lazy, yet unusually bright.
x: 【The moon abroad isn’t rounder or brighter. Maybe China still can’t compare with Western countries right now.】
x: 【Ten years.】
x: 【Just ten years. I guarantee the gap will be rapidly narrowed.】
Qin Sang answered seriously.
San You: 【I believe you.】
He was that kind of smart person. He saw more than she did, and farther than she did. If he said it would happen, then it would.
She probably didn’t know that her casual sentence would become a force that supported him for many years.
Under the lamp, the boy’s brows and eyes were like jade, but in his eyes a gentle light rippled open.
x: 【Good night.】
x: 【Have a good dream.】
When she received that message, the dorm had already turned off the lights.
She hugged her phone and secretly curved her lips, pressing it against her chest. Somehow, a boiling emotion surged and swelled rapidly.
San You: 【Good night / hehe /】
Her bed happened to face the window. There were no curtains blocking it. Above the night, the stars were scattered, yet only that crescent moon was round and bright, making the starry sky look much dimmer by comparison.
It really was beautiful. The moon at home wasn’t worse than the moon abroad. The moon in Ningjiang was just as beautiful and bright as the moon in Jingcheng.
She secretly took a photo to record it and posted it to her QQ Zone.
【The moon is so beautiful tonight too.】
“Knock-knock.” A message vibration.
She opened her Zone. The notification said that “x” had liked the post she’d just made.
She pressed her lips together, but she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from lifting.
Among those who liked it were also Liu Chengcheng and the class monitor, as well as a few night-owl classmates.
After staying at school longer, she realized the classmates weren’t actually unfriendly. They just valued grades more. Aside from caring about how to improve learning ability, they didn’t pay that much attention to other things.
Everyone in Experimental Class One was the same: excellent and hardworking, striving upward.
Qin Sang thought: she had to work hard too.
Only by working hard to catch up with his steps could she understand what he was saying. She wanted to be like him—becoming that excellent and independent.
Dreams were full; reality was bony.
She already had weak subjects. Her science grades weren’t very good. After the first monthly exam at No. 1, Qin Sang was hit hard. She looked like a wilted flower, limp as she sprawled on her desk.
How could it be like this? She had clearly studied very hard, but her grades were still not ideal.
Liu Chengcheng leaned over to look at her report card. “Sang-sang, how did you do?”
Qin Sang looked like a mourner at a funeral. “Terrible. I might get called in by the homeroom teacher for a ‘chat.’”
Liu Chengcheng glanced at her report card. Sure enough, her math and physics were a disaster. Chemistry was barely passable.
Liu Chengcheng patted her shoulder to comfort her. “It’s fine. One failure doesn’t mean anything. Just fight again next time.”
“Then what if I fail every time?”
She had crammed before the exam and prepared seriously, and it still didn’t help. The grade she held in her hand now was too damaging to her confidence.
“How could that be?” Liu Chengcheng’s math and science were pretty good, and her overall grades were balanced. She couldn’t understand this kind of failed mindset. “This kind of thing—if you just work a bit harder, you’ll definitely be able to digest it.”
“…Refusing to communicate with top students.”
“Classmate Qin.”
Qin Sang lay there wilted, and only heard someone call her name. She replied reflexively, “I’m dead. If you need something, burn paper money.”
“Pff.” Jiang Mingyi couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing. “Alright. Me and God Xie will prepare three sticks of thick incense for you.”
God Xie? Xie Yuncheng?
Qin Sang jolted, instantly sitting upright. But before she could put away her report card, she saw the boy pick it up and read it.
He raised a brow, looking a bit surprised.
Qin Sang’s face flushed bright red, and her head slowly lowered.
Jiang Mingyi liked fooling around, but at heart he was a top student too. He leaned in to join the fun and glanced at it. “Whoa, good lord. I haven’t seen such an eye-catching score in years. Classmate Qin, this talent of yours is something else.”
He gave her a thumbs-up.
Qin Sang wanted to bury her head into the ground.
Xie Yuncheng glanced at him coldly. “You did very well?”
Jiang Mingyi grinned. “Of course. This time I totally overperformed. I’ll definitely make the top ten before the new year.”
“Oh?” Xie Yuncheng curled his lips coolly. “I thought you were already first in the grade, with that big mouth of yours.”
“…”
Jiang Mingyi fell silent.
How to put it? With Xie Yuncheng’s freak brain, who could beat him?
Wasn’t there also that perpetual runner-up who wanted to dethrone him every day, going insane over it?
Who could defeat him? Having such an unrealistic thought was itself a mistake.
Jiang Mingyi glanced at Tong Junjie, who looked pained. The moment Tong Junjie got his report card, his heart had gone to ashes. He murmured, “How could it be? How could it be like this? How is it still not enough!”
Three deep soul-searching questions in a row were enough to prove that those trying to challenge Xie Yuncheng’s authority were either already deranged, or on the road to becoming deranged.
Jiang Mingyi smiled ingratiatingly. “How could I compare with you? With my little three tricks, it’s not enough to show off in front of you, ancestor. Fine, I’m wrong, okay? I shouldn’t have flaunted my pitiful little talent.”
“Why apologize to me?”
Xie Yuncheng scoffed. “Mocking classmates—does that give you a sense of achievement?”
Jiang Mingyi understood immediately and apologized at once. “Sorry, Classmate Qin. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have laughed at your grades.”
Qin Sang panicked. She waved her hands. “N-no… it’s fine. My grades aren’t very good.”
She felt embarrassed herself. How could she blame others for laughing?
Qin Sang was dejected, unable to muster any energy. And he had seen it.
Would he think she was very stupid—doing so badly on such an “easy” monthly exam?
This was only the first monthly exam since school started. Future exams would be harder than now. Would she keep falling like this? Would she be kicked out of Experimental Class One?
Before entering, the homeroom teacher had said: Experimental Class One didn’t keep slackers. They shouldn’t relax too much. They shouldn’t become complacent because they used to have good grades.
Class One had an elimination system from the bottom. Those always ranked at the bottom would be kicked out of Class One until graduating in senior year.
Qin Sang suddenly felt immense pressure. Her psychological burden grew invisibly heavier.
The class monitor came in holding homework and called out, “Classmate Qin, the homeroom teacher asked you to bring your report card to the office.”
Sure enough. What should come had come.
Qin Sang’s shoulders drooped. She didn’t even dare look at Xie Yuncheng, afraid she’d see disappointment in his eyes. She only lowered her head and said dully, “Can you give my report card back to me?”
Xie Yuncheng frowned and handed it back.
She took it and left. When she entered the office, her mood was extremely heavy.
Sure enough, the homeroom teacher called her in because her monthly-exam score had slipped. He said, “Classmate Qin, I roughly looked into it. Back at Ningjiang Middle School, your grades were always good—you were just a bit uneven by subject.”
Qin Sang said nothing, not daring to speak.
The homeroom teacher took a sip of tea and spoke slowly. “The subjects you lost the most points in this time are also math and physics. That old problem of uneven strengths—now it’s become your most fatal weakness. If this continues, I’m afraid the situation won’t look good. You also know Class One’s competition is fierce. Most classmates’ grades are fairly balanced. And there are also quite a few who came from competition classes—for example, Classmate Xie. He started in competitions from childhood.”
“Your math score… it really is…”
The homeroom teacher didn’t know how to put it. After all, he had taught key classes for many years. There were students with uneven strengths, but someone as extreme as Qin Sang was rare.
Because key classes were all seedlings aiming for Tsinghua and Peking University. Even if they occasionally slipped, they wouldn’t drop this hard.
“Your math teacher also wanted to talk with you. I stopped it—I was afraid it would increase your psychological burden. I didn’t call you over to scold you. But you have to understand: these grades really won’t do. If you can’t improve before the next monthly exam, you may have to be reassigned to a regular class.”
She understood. The homeroom teacher was giving her an advance notice: if her grades were still like this next time, she really would be eliminated.
“Knock, knock.” The office door was tapped twice. From behind came a clean, clear boy’s voice.
“Teacher.”
The homeroom teacher had been earnestly advising Qin Sang. When he looked up and saw Xie Yuncheng, a smile immediately appeared. “Classmate Xie, come in. What brings you to the teacher?”
The instant she heard Xie Yuncheng’s voice, Qin Sang’s body stiffened. She didn’t dare turn around to look.
Xie Yuncheng’s gaze swept over without meaning to. The girl kept her head lowered and looked meek, as if she had completely lost confidence. Her thin body looked like it could topple at any time—pitiful.
Xie Yuncheng stepped in and proposed, “I was thinking—could our class implement a one-on-one support program?”
The homeroom teacher was surprised. “One-on-one support?”
Xie Yuncheng explained, “In past years, No. 1’s overall level has been balanced. But this year, No. 1 expanded enrollment and recruited many top students from different districts and counties. You also know educational resources vary greatly by region. Differences in teaching inevitably appear. So one-on-one support would help homogenize resources. It can help students who are behind improve their grades, and it can also give students who are ahead more time after class to consolidate and review.”
Hearing that, the homeroom teacher became interested. “That’s a good idea, but if we implement it in our class, it might be difficult.”
Would the top students in their class accept being taught? And asking them to devote time to helping others—probably they wouldn’t want to either.
Hearing that, Xie Yuncheng laughed lightly. “Teacher, you don’t need to worry. We can start with a small-scale trial. I’m willing to be the first test case and help the lagging classmate improve.”
“Ah? You?” The homeroom teacher was still a bit surprised. After all, Xie Yuncheng’s grades were excellent, but his temperament was cold. Even as he was surprised, he was also pleased. “That’s good. It’s rare you have the enthusiasm to help classmates. In that case, you can help…”
“I’ll help Classmate Qin,” Xie Yuncheng cut him off.
“I guarantee that in the next monthly exam, Classmate Qin will enter the grade’s top ten.”
The homeroom teacher was about to say there was also a classmate ranked dead last who would be more worth supporting. Qin Sang’s grades were bad due to uneven strengths, but she hadn’t dropped to last place.
But with Xie Yuncheng making such a guarantee, the homeroom teacher immediately made the decision. “Alright. Then the teacher agrees.”
“Classmate Qin, are you willing?”
Xie Yuncheng looked at her, asking with his eyes.
Qin Sang was so dazzled by him that her mind went hazy. She nodded, dazed. “Willing.”
Only after they left the office did she react: what a huge promise Xie Yuncheng had made in front of the teacher.
Top ten in the grade? With her current grades, she wasn’t even good enough within the class, let alone top ten.
“Classmate Xie, did you exaggerate a bit too much in front of the teacher? I’m afraid I…”
“Afraid of what?” Xie Yuncheng looked at her, gaze wild and unrestrained. “Aren’t I here?”
“But my grades really are terrible. I’m afraid you’ll lose face in front of the teacher.”
“Will you make me lose?”
The color in Xie Yuncheng’s eyes was deep, like a whirlpool, pulling her in.
Qin Sang suddenly steadied her heart. She shook her head solemnly. “No.”
She would work hard. She absolutely wouldn’t admit defeat. Even more, she didn’t want him to lose credibility because he’d been dragged down by her.
“Then what are you still afraid of?”
The boy’s brows and eyes were bright and bold. The light in his eyes seemed able to infect her quiet thoughts, stirring up faint ripples.
Qin Sang said seriously, “I will work hard.”
“Mm.” Xie Yuncheng responded lazily. His gaze dropped. When he looked at her, there was a teasing smile in his eyes. “Then we’ll start the first lesson now. From now on, don’t call me ‘Classmate Xie.’”
“Huh?”
Qin Sang was stunned for a moment. Unconsciously, she was pulled along by his rhythm. “Then… then what should I call you?”
“A-Yun.”
He curled his lips, eyes deep. “Sang-sang, call me ‘A-Yun’ for me to hear?”